Carver cackled maniacally. "See why I didn't think there'd be an issue telling him she'd be watching him? The only way she could be more obvious was if she was wearing a dwarf corpse flower on her outfit!"

She continued laughing for a minute before something occurred to her. She turned to Shock. "Actually, speaking of corpse flowers, how are you feeling? That took a bit longer than I was expecting, and they don't affect me so I forget sometimes..."

That got her to laugh again, but she stopped when Carver asked how she was feeling.

"Uh...okay? Why?"

Shock sat up and glanced at her. She realized she forgot to ask how those flowers distracted the doctor and his companion.

Carver leaned away from Shock slightly in preparation to dodge a hit. "Corpse flowers are an aphrodisiac... That's how I distracted Jewel and the Doctor..."

She quickly added, "I closed the bedroom door and opened the window, so it shouldn't be too strong in here! I just... expected we'd be gone altogether a little bit sooner..."

"They're WHAT?!" Shock cried.

Carver's instinct to move had been wise. Shock reached for her throat, but had to settle for a vine. She squeezed it as tightly as she could. She lowered her voice and hissed through gritted teeth.

"Damn it, Carver!"

Shock threw the vine away from her, then stood up.

"Let's just get what we came for and go," she said.

She could always kick the pumpkin creature around later.

Carver didn't really have a throat to grab or strangle, but her vines could still be bruised. She flinched at the shout, jerking her head to the door. A second, more muffled, cry came from somewhere else in the lab.

The pumpkin creature quickly shoved Shock toward the hiding spot behind the bookshelf before reaching for the remote. She flipped through the channels as rapidly as she could. She landed on a shot of the tree house, where Barrel was flipping through some books and working his way through bowl of fried spiders, right as Doctor Finkelstein burst through the door.

He had a blanket haphazardly draped over himself and his whole chair.

"ARE THOSE HOOLIGANS IN MY LAB AGAIN?!"

Shock started to push back, but quickly realized what Carver was doing. She slid behind the shelf and even moved to pull down the brim of her hat to further keep hidden. She stood as still as a mummified corpse as the doctor entered Carver's room. While she didn't see him, Shock heard the soft hum of the wheelchair's gears and battery from the doorway as Dr. Finkelstein entered the bedroom to yell at Carver.

She really hoped the corpse flower had nothing to do with it, and it was just her usual inclination for getting into trouble, but she found the potential of getting caught pretty thrilling.

Shock kept a careful eye on Carver from her hiding place. It was her only warning if the doctor got too close.

"No, of course not," Carver said surprisingly calmly. "I was watching a recording of a time Lock and Barrel helped me pull a prank on Shock. I didn't realize the volume was so loud. Sorry about that."

Dr. Finklestein wheeled a little closer to take a look on the screen. Shock quietly made herself smaller. This was a bit close for comfort, but the doctor's back was to her.

Barrel on-screen happily crunched on the spiders as he turned the page, looking pretty satisfied with himself. It was just enough to convince Dr. Finklestein of Carver's story.

"I don't understand why you hang around them when there are plenty of other children your age around town," he said curtly. "They're bad influences and nuisances all around. A few good deeds here and there hardly makes up for all the headaches that Boogie's bunch cause."

Carver paused the video before shrugging. "Because they keep things interesting. Corpse Kid and Bat Boy do the same thing every day, with only minor variations. The vampire twins are fine, but stuffy, and Agatha is always working. You're always doing SCIENCE," she said with an exaggerated accent that sounded nothing like Finkelstein, "Sally's always either sewing stuff or mooning over Jack... There's nothing for me to do. The Boys shake things up."

She gave the Doctor a sly grin and tilted her head to the side. "Would you rather I entertain myself in the lab? I'm sure I could go a whole week without blowing it off the hill..."

Shock shifted a bit uncomfortably in her spot. No, that time was definitely a residual effect of the corpse flower. Still, she could resist the urge. Thoughts of trouble often helped curb it.

Just go already, you old codger! she thought.

Dr. Finkelstein glowered. His upper lip furled in agitation.

"Perhaps you should spend more time studying so you don't risk doing that," he said. "Make some use of that pumpkin brain."

From down the hall, Jewel's voice rang.

"Darling? Is everything all right?"

Dr. Finkelstein called over his shoulder.

"Yes, dearest! Just a false alarm!" He glanced back to Carver. "Behave yourself, and keep it down."

With that, he turned to go. As soon as the door shut, Shock let go of her hat and stepped forward. Her legs shook a little, but it was nothing she couldn't handle.

"Bad influence, nothing," she said. "We're the reason you have any fun!"

Carver resisted the urge to retort, "You didn't give me a brain, remember? You wanted me to be empty-headed. Too bad you failed on that." It was an argument she knew she couldn't win, and the longer it went on, the longer he'd be sitting there with the door wide open, making Shock more uncomfortable and setting the pumpkin creature up for more punishment later from both of them.

He finally left. She quickly got to hiding the screen again, nodding to Shock. "Stand by the window, that should help. I'll get the batteries switched out. I don't have a way down from the window that wouldn't probably hurt you, so you'll still have to take the ramp out. Best to wait a few minutes for them to get started up again, though."

"I'm going to fucking murder you," Shock muttered.

But she did as Carver said and stood by the window. Huh. She was rarely here long enough to take advantage of it, but Carver had a pretty good view from here, particularly Jack's house. Shock just focused on the view of Halloween Town to keep her mind off the corpse flower's affects. It helped a little.

"Yeah, yeah," she said. "Just hurry."

Carver grabbed the batteries, poked her head out the door to be sure Finkelstein had gone back into the bedroom, and then quickly ducked into the laboratory to replace them with freshly charged ones. She ran a few excuses through her mind in case the Doctor came back out to see what she was up to, but she didn't want to wait.

It took her a few minutes to get everything switched out and make sure she hadn't left any traces of disturbance. As soon as she was done, she retrieved Shock and left a lot more quickly -- but no less quietly -- than they had come in. Once they were a good few blocks away, she stopped and looked at her friend expectantly. There was no way the trickster was going to let her get away with any of that, and she'd rather get it over with.

It took a few tries to walk without shaking, but Shock managed. Once more, she took extra care to pass the doctor's bedroom, but the second she was home free, she picked up her pace and all but ran down the ramp. She needed to get out of here, and fast.

She didn't even realize they'd forgotten the glue remover and the frog, but those could wait another day. Right now, they needed to get back to the tree house.

And as soon as they were in the clear, Shock noticed Carver's resigned posture.

Good, she knew her place.

The oldest trickster grabbed several of the pumpkin creature's vines in fury and tied them into tight knots. She was frustrated. Carver could be frustrated for a while too. Shock made sure to yank tightly and tie knots upon knots. Once satisfied, she started back for the tree house in a huff. She was going to need some time alone.

The sound of drums could be heard as they got closer. It sounded like her brothers had decided to put off collecting forget-me-lots. Whatever. So long as they did it. Shock headed up to the tree house proper. She needed a bath and to clear her head, along with other things.

She heard the drums stop as Lock berated Barrel for the latest set.

"Damn it!" he cried. "You were doing so well! Why do you do this?"

"Because it's fun!" came Barrel's reply.

"If you'd just do the damn set the first time..."

Shock rolled her eyes as she climbed into the tree house proper.

Carver waddled awkwardly along until they got to the treehouse. She looked at the rope bridge and ladder for several long moments before sighing deeply. She leaned over the ledge very carefully and called out, "Hey, BARREL! I need your arms!" She then dropped to sit in a disgruntled heap next to the ravine to wait for him to -- hopefully -- come get her.

It only took a moment, as Lock was fed up with the drum lesson and went to the living areas to smoke. Barrel scurried out of the lair and up the rope ladder. He snorted as he tried to hold back his laughter.

"What'd you do to piss her off?"

Of the three of them, Carver took the least abuse from Shock, so whenever she crossed a line with the tricksters' leader, it was almost always spectacular. Barrel also doubted the doctor tied her vines into knots...and particularly of the kind she couldn't easily pull herself free from.

But he obliged and pulled her over his shoulder so he could bring her down into the lair. While he couldn't make out exactly what she was saying, he briefly heard Shock cursing from the tree house before the water from the bathtub drowned it out. It was probably best to stay down in the lair for a few hours. Maybe he'd warn Lock.

Maybe.

"Something Lock would have enjoyed and you probably wouldn't have noticed," she grunted. Her pumpkin head somehow managed to look properly annoyed as he slung her over his shoulder and carried down. "Can you please put on the couch? This is going to take a while to undo..."

Barrel tried to think of what could fit those specifications.

"...Proper drum work?"

He may or may not have been joking. Barrel scurried through the window and down the second rope ladder.

"Sure thing," he said, as he headed for the living area. "Oh, did you get the frog?"

Lock was already in the main room and halfway through a cigarette when Barrel brought Carver in. He glanced at the pumpkin creature when his little brother set her down on the couch.

"Guessing things didn't quite go as planned?" he asked with a smirk.

Carver wished he had made a face that was capable of glaring. She turned her head toward Lock and growled at him. "She'll do worse to you if you ask her about it, but since I know you're both far too interested in trouble to keep your mouths shut, I'm just going to say she got caught up in a prank I pulled on my parents."

She shook her head at Barrel as she got to work untangling the vines that held her arms together. "No, we didn't. First stop of the day derailed pretty much everything else. I'll get it later. Or you can, since you want it so bad."

That got both boys to laugh. Barrel recalled the sound of pipes running, and wondered what sort of sciencey goop Shock might have gotten caught up in. It only made him laugh harder.

"Sprung a trap too early, then?" he asked.

"In other words, you fucked up big time," Lock said with a grin. "Go big or go home, right, Carver?"

He flicked some ash and took another drag as he got a hold of himself. Barrel shrugged.

"Hey, I'm up for a field trip," he said. "Just got to buy a box of bone biscuits to get past Igor, and the frogs are basically free for the picking!"

"Later," Lock said as he blew out some smoke. He snuffed the now-dead cigarette in an ashtray on the coffee table, then lit up another one. "If Shock's pissed at Carver, we should probably get on her good side. We've still got forget-me-lots to collect."

"But that's no fun!" Barrel whined.

"We either do that, or we study potions," Lock said.

"...Where do we find them, again?" Barrel asked.

Lock smirked.

"We don't have to do it right this moment," he said, "but we should probably head out soon."