It was a travesty, a mockery of justice. Expected, but a mockery all the same: I was under house arrest.

I mean, no one called it that, but I was here, in Central, and not allowed to leave headquarters.

To add insult to injury, Dustin was here, and he was talking.

"The damage in the city doesn't look too extensive."

"She wasn't trying to do more than test us." That was the official line, the one Gloom told me to say. Knowing Cat had attacked hunter HQ just to get my attention and talk to me would likely start a panic... and then a hunt for the wrong witch. But I was sure the entire thing was about me somehow, and I hadn't heard Gloom deny it.

I do wish I knew what Cat said to Gloom during their fight; whatever it was, he was still furious.

"Some test. We beat her back, at least. Gloom is as strong as he ever was."

I wondered. Gloom was impossibly strong, that was fact, but he clearly hadn't been winning. Cat left because she chose to.

"Yeah, I wouldn't call this a win, but it'd be hard to call it a loss."

Dustin nodded along with my words. "Exactly, and almost no collateral at all! A serious blow to her reputation, for sure."

Only Dustin would think about something like that. Cat had gotten whatever it was she wanted out of the attack; but just to talk to me? there had to be something more to all this than that, right? I mean I was pretty amazing and I knew it, but this was a bit much, even for me.

Gray didn't agree; he thought I was the goal, but he wouldn't even guess on why.

"Okay, one gyro from Gespatcho's, with everything, and a side order of chips." My order of a gyro that was bigger than my head and a full bag of freshly fried potato chips was plunked on my lap; the heat already soaking into my legs. Stupid skirt couldn't cover everything."

"Thanks Alicia. Where's Ivan?"

"Still on the beer run, if he's not back." She answered, inhaling some sort of roll or pastry; it was gone too fast to get a good look at what kind of food it was.

My team had decided since I was being kept close for my own protection, they would stay just as close. It wasn't like they didn't have the vacation time banked up. I wonder if I'd ever get to use mine.

Who was I kidding, I was probably getting charged for it now, even though I was still on the clock. Still, the display of teamwork or whatever it was, was touching. I was even touched by Alicia allowing the more responsible one of us to get the booze.

She better not have spit in my food.

A quick scan with my visor revealed she hadn't, and that the meat was pork. Not beef, but it beat rat or dog.

"What was that...?" Dustin asked, looking at me.

I made my visor vanish into my hair; really back into the hairpin that my hat had become. "What was what?"

"That...!"

"Don't worry about it," Alicia interrupted. "She was just making sure I didn't get her something bad out of spite. A prefectly reasonable precaution."

"Really it was making sure you didn't spit in it, but that works too." I took a bite as she shrugged my concern off.

Dustin looked at his own order, a salad. Alicia looked at him and wiggled her eyebrows. Dustin slowly set it down; I knew there was a reason why I liked her.

Ivan came through the door, pulling a full cart behind him. I waited for him to struggle close enough, "About time."

"I know. You'd think the bars around here would be used to us, but somehow it always seems to take them hours to get our orders ready."

We swapped; I handed him his gyro, he handed me a cold beer, and he joined us on the bench.

Dustin made a move for the beer; I hissed at him.

"What the..! are you a snake now?"

"You're going to find out if I bite if you touch that beer. We three kicked in for it, where is your money?"

Dustin tried on a confused look; he didn't quite manage it. "It's just a beer. Surely you three have enough to spot a fellow hunter a beer? Or have you been blowing things up again, Sasha?"

I took the high road. "Get bent, wuss."

"Fine." Dustin said, and thrust a few coins in Ivan's hand - when Ivan felt he had enough he tossed a bottle at the midget.

"So, what's the plan?"

As if I knew. "I get to help Emil recharge generators," I wasn't sure why but there were a lot of Hunters who were coming back low; it wasn't as if there was a witch shortage or anything. "Hopefully Emil will keep his paws to himself."

I really didn't want to be cut open for science.

"Well, we can come along if you like," Ivan offered, taking a long pull. "It's not like we got anything else to do, and Emil can't get us all without one of us nailing him."

Alicia opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. Then she opened it again to stuff her face; midway through that she spoke:

"Can we at least finish lunch first?"

"I plan to," I told her. I at least chewed; perhaps I could lead by example or something.

Gray snagged a beer too, but he wasn't opening it. Ivan pointedly ignored what to him was probably a floating beer bottle. Dustin on the other hand did not.

"What the hell!?!"

"It's just Gray, shut up and eat your food."

Dustin did not shut up. "What's he doing?"

That was a good question. "Pouring the beer into his ship, for some reason."

Gray heard me. "I'm analyzing it. I have an analyzer and I'm interested to see what the attraction is."

"He wants to know what beer is made of." I relayed to Ivan.

He shrugged; "That's coming out of your share."

Damn it.

We ate in silence after that, and Ivan's cart got a bit lighter. Gray came over, and I handed him a little gyro; he ate a bite, then took the rest back to his ship to melt it or whatever.

"Alright, quit dragging your feet," Ivan told me. So what if he had finished five minutes ago, and Alicia had finished before him, I wasn't done!

"Fine, fine! bring the cart though," our fellow hunters were eying it, and if we ever got out of Emil's lab, the cart would be long gone.

Who knows? It might even distract the creepy guy, if I threw it at him. But could I do such a thing to poor innocent booze?

I let Ivan lead the way past the giant door and down, where the light struggled to reach. Luckily our goal was the generator room, where the spares and devices not in use were stored. A hunter did not usually give up his generator for any length of time - while it had a charge at least. But down here, mainly because of me, were some special cases.

I just didn't realize how many there were.

Gloom had wanted me to charge 'all the generators down there'. Turns out he packed the racks completely full, floor to ceiling. Right, Gloom wasn't happy with me. Gloom wasn't happy with anyone, really.

Alicia whistled, long and loud.

"Shh, are you crazy?"

Alicia paled. "Right, sorry."

"So, gloom told you to do all these, right? Do you think you can?"

"Yeah... in a year or so. Shouldn't take much longer than that."

"If you exhaust all your energy, it will take two days to fill these." Gray told me; no one else heard it, at least.

I grabbed the first as Ivan closed the door. The clack as he shot the bolt home was loud in the silence.

"Well that will hold Emil for at least five minutes."

"If the sound doesn't draw him."

"What am I, a horror movie killer?" Emil asked, rising up from a large box labeled 'computer parts' like a demented jack in the box.

"Well clearly, yes. What the hell are you even doing there?"

"Sleeping, of course."

Sleeping, under a box. Sure, it made perfect sense, if he was me and didn't want to pay for an inn room somewhere.

Emil brushed the thick dusty out of his hair, sneezed, and kept going. "A little bird informed me you were assigned to help your fellow hunters down here, Sasha. I thought to my self 'self, I don't want to miss this opportunity' and so I decided to wait for you."

Don't ask, don't ask... "How long were you waiting?" Damn it.

"Since last night."

I was afraid of that. Alicia and Ivan finally stopped gaping and closed ranks in front of me. Gray was already there, not that anyone else knew it; his quick reaction was the only reason I hadn't drawn at the first hint of movement. I was sure Emil knew something was up, but he didn't say anything.

Well, about that. he had more important things in mind: "So... anyone got some coffee? Or some water?"

He was out of luck there . "Nope."

He spotted the beer and sighed. "Fine, I guess I'll just use my emergency supply."

Emil opened a dusty old cabinet and removed a glass jar that I was sure held a specimen of some sort earlier in it;s life, chugging down the slightly green tinged liquid without a care. I couldn't stop the shudder, but luckily no one was looking at me.

"What the hell did you just drink?" Alicia asked.

"Hm? Oh that was water," Emil admitted. then he thought better of it. "At least, I think it was. It did have a bit of an aftertaste to it...."

Nasty.

Emile turned to me, wiping his mouth and staining his lab coat in the process. "So - go ahead, don't let me stop you. Do your thing."

"Yeah, right." I started with the first generator in reach; I could already tell that this wouldn't be like last time; I could fill more generators than the last time I tried. Just how many more was the question.

Power poured in until it couldn't take any more and the needle in the gauge was past the F. I was pretty sure that was the first time this particular generator had ever seen that, since I knew who it belonged to and he just wasn't that good, but he wouldn't die because he ran out of juice at least.

I looked up to grab a beer, and found out that a good five minutes had passed.

"Can't you do that sort of thing faster?" Alicia asked me, butt on a desk and feet kicking around. Somehow she made that work, tall as she was.

"Maybe, but I'm trying to pace myself." Not only had I not timed how long it took me to do this the first time, but I was dragging my feet a little - since Emil was just waiting for me to finish for the day. Even pushing power as slowly as this, it wouldn't be long, but there was no reason to rush the running and screaming portion of my day.

Some of the generators were old, older designs with more than a few scars from past battles. most of them were new and untouched. Were some hunters getting a leg up for their first hunt here? That wasn't a good idea; it was important to learn how to track and subdue a witch without the power crutch a generator provided. If you didn't, you'd only learn it later, when it was more likely you'd be facing a Maze or a Cat instead of some new blood.

But it wasn't my place to question Gloom's decisions.

Nothing to do but think while charging generators, and nothing good to think. I was almost starting to think I needed to bring that horror of horrors, a book. I blamed Emil and his constant staring.

Then I had no more juice to give, after just two hours. That left far too much day; at least I managed to top off seven of the things, and I was tired. I wasn't too tired to run though, or to give my team the signal.

I pretended to power another generator while my team plotted our escape. At least, I hoped they were; the only outward sign of anything was Gray dropping his scans and coming over.

"You should not have run yourself completely out of energy; now we are at the mercy of that man." Gray whispered. Right, or to knock me for my actions, that worked too. I couldn't even tell him that the fewer days we did this the better, or Emil would know about him, and the little sneak knew it.

Emil was reading some sort of handwritten note on a scrap of paper he had found somewhere; he looked up from it to meet my eyes. "Oh? You're looking up, does that mean you're done?"

Shit! "Um, no?"

Alicia and Ivan both shrugged as if to say the jig was up, and dove for more beer, the traitors.

Emil hadn't been convinced either. "A sizable number of generators filled - but if you are finished it's time for the examination. As you know the examination of a live, active witch could greatly help our efforts in rehabilitation - or in more final measures. Gloom has informed me personally of your desire to co-operate. It won't even hurt!"

Everybody heard the muttered "much" he tacked onto the end of that.

"Where's Irene? As my doctor, she's required to be present for any and all examinations."

The manic light went out of Emil's eyes... for a moment. Then he opened the cabinet again.

"I knew she was here somewhere!" he exclaimed as Irene fell out.

How had she even managed to get wedged in there? Emil gave her an experimental kick and she groaned. A look up and she unfolded herself like a one of those plants finding the sun, a gleam I didn't like shining in her eyes. Huh - normally Irene is the sane one.

I must have been tired because she was on me faster than I could draw. "There you are, Sasha! time to see if anything's changed!"

She grabbed my hand; the thrown bolt of the door not impeding her in the slightest. I idly wondered who was going to replace that and then we were in her office.

"Honestly Doc, nothing's changed since... well you know."

Irene straightened up her glasses, brushed off her coat, and that was all it took to make her look professional again; it was a nice trick.

"Sasha, I know you mean well, but you're not a doctor. Don't worry, Emil won't be getting in here."

Well it wasn't like the man hadn't seen me before, even as is; I just wanted to avoid any cutting.

Irene threw the bolt on her office door... and then threw the heavy plank across and slid the floor bolt in for good measure. A rather forlorn "but Irene...." sounded from outside over the last loud click.

"But nothing Emil, you heard her! She's mine!"

Irene turned back as if she hadn't just shouted that: "Up on the bed, Sasha."

I hopped up. With nothing to hide there was no reason not to.

Irene started poking and prodding, and I noticed that Gray wasn't here. Dread slithered in me; where had he gone? Had he gotten locked out? Was he okay, or had Emil found him somehow?

No, I had to keep calm. Gray could take care of himself, he was a big boy.

Actually, how old was Gray anyway? Something to ask him later.

"So, hearing any voices yet?" Irene asked idly.

I don't think Irene is cleared. I really should have asked. "I have a familiar, if that's what you're asking."

Not sure why I blurted that right out, but doctor patient priviledge was a thing, right? I mean I couldn't just ask Emil about Dustin's super secret wart problem, not out in the open anyway.

Irene was staring at me, and sliding a foot toward her desk. "I'm fine Doc, and Gloom knows. No need for the panic button or gun or whatever it is."

Irene shrugged and sped up a bit. Reaching her desk, she slowly went for a drawer, an eye on me, and brought out a small plastic box with a handle and a lens... a video camera?

"Does that even work?"

"It does, has batteries and everything. I was saving it for a special occasion; may I?"

"Just understand Doc, I'm not taking my clothes off for that thing." How would she even play the tape back? Didn't you need a television for that? there wasn't one here I could see.

"Oh no, I wouldn't expect you to. Besides, what I want to capture on film is how your clothes changed since your transformation. It may be invaluable."

I looked down at my skirt and shirt. I wasn't in my uniform, since I wasn't actually on duty, so instead I was wearing my comfy clothes. The clothes that were actually a different kind of uniform, if one knew what to look for.

"Right. They just changed."

Irene nodded. "It could lead to valuable insights into yours, and other witch's mental state. I've long theorized that mental stability affects witches."

Was she serious? "That's not exactly the most groundbreaking theory, Doc."

The red light on the camera came on as she huffed out: "I didn't mean it like that. I meant that how stable they are has an effect on how stable their power is."

I thought about that, watching Irene carefully pan her camera over my form. She dictated who she was, who I was, and all the standard stupid info one would expect into the microphone as she did it, so I stayed quiet.

Granted it was hard when she included my measurements; I wanted to ask why future doctors needed those, but I stayed out of it. Then she started asking questions again.

"So, any urge to smash the camera?"

No more than usual; I wasn't a big fan of anything that could be used against me later. "Not really."

"Any urge to commit violence against me for using it?"

"Not really."

She raised an eyebrow, asking a silent question.

"I'm trying to be serious here," I told her.

"I appreciate that, but you sound like you're not telling me everything."

"I am," I told her. "I'm just trying to keep things professional."

She smirked at me. "Don't explode from the pressure."

"Ha. Ha." Why did everyone go for the low comedy around here? Well everyone except me of course.

"Well, that's all I needed," Irene admitted. "Just need you to stand up and summon your hat for me, if you would."

"Fine, I can do that." I stood up and brought my visor out of my hair with a thought. It started giving me Irene's vitals as I looked at her; a sort of turn about. She was fine, all in the green. Just the act of looking out of it was tiring me somehow.

Irene walked around me, camera in hand, silently. I stood still for the minute she took, then she flipped the camera off.

"Alright, that's it. Now I did think ahead; I have a way of sneaking you past Emil."

Oh this I had to see. "How?"

Irene smirked, and moved to the door that was probably a bathroom. Before I could follow she came back with a me.

Or a crude, stuffed doll copy of me. Unless I missed my guess, it even had a copy of the first robe-dress thing I was wearing when Irene last saw me. The big floppy hat was a cheap prop too. She threw it in my arms... was it actually made of straw? The face was a mask, wrapped around something.

Irene looked to me, then the doll. She pinched the waist of the doll in a bit, then nodded to herself. Wait, that was what she needed my measurements for?

I was pretty sure I looked nothing like that. "That's not going to fool him."

Irene smirked. "I bet you it does."

There was no way. "You're on. A booze of choice to the winner."

:"Nah, a steak dinner to the winner."

Oh but she was confident. "Sure."

We shook on it, and I stepped back while Irene pulled out a gurney; one of the foldable types with wheels. She plucked the crude thing from my hands and slammed it down on the gurney, covering the whole thing with a sheet and only allowing the bad wig to show. The wig which wasn't even close to my actual hair color.

"Okay, just wait here. Behind the bed, preferably."

No way, I wasn't about to miss this. I stepped back in the shadow of the door. "I'll get the door."

Irene ever so slowly took the board off - then messed up her hair artfully. "You can do better than that," she whispered. "Tell Ivan to pull Emil off my door."

Emil was up against the door?

I had a better way than violence. Well maybe, violence was still a great way of doing things, but Emil was tough. "Ivan! Beer for Emil!"

Ivan heard me, the bastard. "Emil, some of Sasha's private stash?"

Irene took advantage and flung open the door; pushing the gurney out into the hall so hard it rebounded off the far wall and shrieking like a banshee. "THE DATA IS MINE! FOR SCIENCE!"

I peeked around the corner; the tell-tale smash of a broken bottle made me wince. But it was a worthy sacrifice, because Emil took off after that stupid doll without a second glance at anything else.

"No, don't you dare, Irene! You promised to share!"

Gray was right there, a small camera snapping steadily away.

"Come on, let's go before he figures it out."

I said that loudly enough that anyone in range must have heard it, but Emil just kept going, yelling no at the top of his lungs at the shrinking figure of Irene, who was running flat out for the basement.

Damn, guess I owed Irene that steak after all. "Let's go before he figures it out."

Alicia snorted. "It could be next week, with how clueless he is."

"Yeah but I don't want to chance it." I pounded pavement, and Ivan kept pace.

......

"Well?" Emil asked the light of his life, his partner in crime, as he danced with the doll she had made around the cramped spaces of the dingy poorly lit lab he called his own.

"She didn't react at all to the camera, other than to assure me she wouldn't be undressing for it." Irene answered, looking away as she buffed her nails.

"And the rest?"

"The full battery of tests, X-ray, MRI, and all the rest, all went through. We have some lovely data. She never felt the tech on her."

"Beautiful. From the top, then."

"Grinning, Irene handed off the first of the printouts.