Carver made her way up to the tree house to retrieve something, then came down to the lair via the slide. She payed the siblings no mind as she stepped over them and headed over to her xylophone to do her usual pre-practice ready work.

A pair of bats flew in shortly thereafter. The younger twin likewise calmly and silently went to take her place by the instruments after transforming. Carmilla leaned over to have a short, quiet conversation with Carver, but otherwise did nothing to bring attention away from the brawl to herself.

Lillith was slightly unkempt in her appearance, with a few stray hairs sticking out in odd directions and a wrinkle in her dress that one would expect to have been better ironed out before she left the mansion. Carmilla had remained completely and utterly pleasant the entire week. More so than usual. She had shown absolutely no signs of being angry, which only left Lillith more paranoid about whatever her sister was planning to do to her. She couldn't afford to let her guard down, and as such... She may not have been sleeping very well for the last couple of days.

The older vampiress debated breaking up the tricksters. Fighting was a form of affection for them, and she didn't want to attract either of their ire again. But, she had abandoned Lock last week, to no avail; he'd probably be more angry if she didn't at least try to defend him now.

"Excuse me, Shock, but could you please let your brother go, so we can start?"

Lock managed to pin his sister and grab her throat. Shock retaliated by grabbing his face and shoving his head back. With her longer arm, she actually had the advantage to keeping her brother from completely enclosing his hands around her throat. She grabbed one of his wrists with her other hand and tried to curl one leg up to kick him off.

"Kind of...busy..." she managed.

Lock used his tail to pry her hand from his face, then used it to hold her hand away from him so he could more tightly grip her throat.

"Not when...I'm...winning!"

Shock dug her heel into Lock's chest and kicked him. He let go of her throat, but kept his tail tightly ensnared around her wrist. With a growl, he grabbed one of her legs and bit down, which earned him a kick to the face. Shock rolled away from him, then braced herself as Lock got back to his feet. He dove for her again. Shock caught him, then tossed him near Lillith.

"There," she said as she dusted off her hands. "And if he's done, we can get started."

Lock pulled himself to his feet again.

"Not until you give me my guitar strings!"

"I told you, I didn't touch them!"

Lock glowered at her.

"But you know who did!"

"That's what you think!" Shock grinned, then took an opposing stance. "But if you want me to kick your ass again, I'm happy to oblige!"

The slide rattled as Barrel finally showed up. His clothes held a particularly rank odor from the sewers. He caught the last bit of Shock's taunt as he wandered over to the drums.

"Whoa. What'd I miss?"

Carver waved to Barrel. "The usual. Speaking of, do you have any popcorn? Mine's gone stale."

Lillith quickly stepped between Lock and Shock. "That's enough, you two. What are you fighting about this time, anyway?"

Carmilla leaned back in the air as if she were resting against an invisible wall; her vampiric grace kept her from falling backward. "I think he mentioned something about guitar strings," she piped up casually. She still had that aggravatingly sweet smile on her face.

Barrel shook his head.

"Sorry," he said. "I really should just start having it on hand before practice."

Lock started to charge for his sister again, but was stopped by Lillith. He glared at Shock, who simply crossed her arms and stuck out her tongue. When Carmilla spoke up, Lock set his sights on her.

"You!" he cried. "You took them, didn't you?"

Lock ran for her, but found himself crashing to the floor as Carmilla used her vampiric speed to sidestep at the last possible second. He rolled forward and stopped only when his back hit the wall, much to his siblings' amusement.

"You done?" Shock asked.

Lock growled as he tried to get up again. He painfully stood up again and dusted himself off.

"Not until I find my guitar strings!"

"Then maybe you should stop fighting and start looking," Shock suggested.

"Or you can just tell me!"

Shock scoffed.

"Can't tell you what I don't know," she said.

Carmilla blinked prettily down at the short boy, who for the moment had his feet above his head up against the wall. "Why would I do such a thing?" She waited as he stood up and allowed him a moment to clean himself off. She raised her eyebrows ever so slightly. "As I understand, you received your punishment last week. Whatever happened to your things afterward is your business, not ours."

Carver snickered. "Kinda sad you managed to convince Agatha to help you get the lipstick off so soon. You're gonna have to tell me what you did for it, later."

Lillith pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Enough. What happened last week is over with. Lock, I'll help you find your guitar strings, and then we can get started. You three," she looked pointedly at Shock, Barrel, and Carver, "can get started on warm ups if you don't want to help. Carmilla..."

The older twin stared at her sister silently for a moment. Something niggled at the back of her mind, but she couldn't quite grasp it... She sighed again. "Carmilla, you can do whatever you want. Just please... Save it for after practice."

She shook her head and headed for the back of the room, reflexively stepping over her audio equipment. If she did a strategic sweep pattern, it might be slower, but it would also be less chaotic than checking every possible spot in random order and hoping they didn't miss any-- She stopped.

Lillith spun and stared at the spot she had stepped over. There wasn't anything there. An immediate examination of her theremin also revealed one of the antennae and the power supply were also missing. She screeched and swiped her fingernails at Carmilla. "You! All this week I've been waiting for you to get your revenge, and you had already done this!"

Carmilla dodged the scratch, but only just barely. She quickly glided backward in a zigzag pattern in case any more attacks were forthcoming. "Now, now, dear sister," she chided. "That's not very lady like. Aren't vampires supposed to be above such behavior? You wouldn't want to stoop to their level--" she motioned toward the tricksters "--now, would you?"

Before Lillith could respond, the younger sister transformed into a bat. Lillith reached out to grab her with her vampiric speed, but Carmilla matched it, and it was rather like a blurrier version of a regular mortal trying to snatch a regular bat out of midair.

Lock glowered as Carmilla made an admittedly good point. He looked between Carver and Barrel, and decided getting any assistance from either of them would be as helpful as trying to wipe off writing on a tombstone. He crossed his arms and glared at Carver.

"Like hell," he said, before a smirk crossed his lips. "But it was good."

After last week, he wasn't too keen on sharing their usual amusement regarding Barrel's obliviousness.

Shock glanced to Carver with an amused smirk. She had no intent of listening to Lillith, as she was waiting for the other boot to drop. And when it did, it warmed her wicked little heart to see Lillith lose it at Carmilla, which in and of itself sent her into a fit of laughter. Barrel joined her, and even Lock couldn't resist a few snickers at his girlfriend's expense. She abandoned him last week. This was payback.

When Carmilla motioned to them, all three of them swelled up with pride.

"You mean the fun level!" Barrel said with a grin.

"Far better than being--" Lock started.

"--A stuffy old corpse," Shock finished.

She mockingly raised her nose in the air.

"Darkness forbid a little dirt get on our robes; we might faint!"

Lock and Barrel both lost it. Lock recovered first as his momentarily-forgotten anger came back. Shock motioned for Carmilla to come over to the group, where she and Carver could provide some temporary sanctuary from her sister.

"Come on, guys," Shock said deviously. "Let's leave the love-bats to retrace their steps, since they obviously can't keep track of their things."

"I'm sure they'll appreciate the quality time together," Barrel said cheerfully, before he followed his sister up the rope ladder.

Lock glared at them, but since he didn't win the fight, he wasn't going to get anything from Shock, and if he tried to take on Barrel or Carver, it'd easily become three-on-one. He already hurt from his earlier tussle with Shock, and he didn't like his odds when Barrel and Carver were at full strength. He therefore flipped them all off, then started to search the lair for his guitar strings and Lillith's theremin pieces.

Carmilla didn't even wait for Shock to invite her to escape with them; as soon as she was sure the "stoop to their level" comment hadn't pissed the tricksters off, she dove straight for the group and into Shock's hat.

Carver cackled wickedly along with her friends. She didn't join in the shared-sentence-speaking, though she often could if she wanted to. She'd be hanging out with them long enough. Generally she let them have it stay "their thing".

Lillith glared daggers at them all, but like Lock, recognized she couldn't take them on all at once in any kind of fight. And besides, Carmilla -- damn her -- was right; it would be beneath her to start a physical confrontation. She huffed ever so quietly, raised her head to ensure her posture was even more straight than usual, then turned and glided away from them to begin her own search.

As the rest of the tricksters started to leave, Carver paused about halfway up the ladder. Two of her vines unraveled from her arm frames and pulled a slingshot from her chest cage. She silently debated with herself for a moment, but quickly decided against it and put them away. It wouldn't be entertaining enough.

Shock and Barrel laughed as they quickly scampered back up the rope, through the window, and up onto the bridge.

"Teach them to ditch practice," Shock said, once she was certain she was out of Lock and Lillith's earshot.

"Bet they won't think to look in the lining of the guitar case," Barrel said with a grin.

"Or in the salt shaker," Shock added.

That got both siblings to laugh again. Shock stopped quickly as her devious mind turned another notch.

"Although...we are out of the lair now. And they've been...what was it you said, Carmilla? 'Properly reprimanded'?"

Shock reached up and grabbed her hat, then quickly closed a fist around the rim to trap Carmilla inside.

"That means our truce is over," she said, "and since we have time, I'm going to have even more fun!"

Carmilla squeaked in surprise and thrashed around for a moment before suddenly going completely still. Thick mist came pouring through the seams, and a second later, the hat burst with a loud RRRRRRRRIP as the cloud expanded and solidified into Carmilla's regular form. She hovered where she was, about a foot off the ground, to loom menacingly over Shock.

"Did you really think you were capable of trapping me in a hat?"

That wasn't the plan, at least not indefinitely. But that wasn't the first thing to come to Shock's mind. She gritted her teeth and glared, too furious to be intimidated by Carmilla. Shock tossed the tattered hat aside. Barrel grabbed it and pitifully hid behind Carver in fear of his sister's incoming wrath.

"That. Was. An. Antique!" Shock screamed.

She grabbed Carmilla's skirt to yank her to the ground, with the intent to slam her right into it.

Lillith might have been right that she'd been looking for an excuse to fight. And Carmilla picked the worst possible catalyst. There were very few personal possessions Shock put any value in, given her and her brothers' destructive lifestyle. But that was the one thing that had grown up with her since childhood, the one thing that lasted through years of pranks, brawls, and mischief.

And now she was going to make Carmilla wish she'd waited the two minutes it would have taken for the prank to lose its humor before Shock let her out for other trouble.

Carver swung around to duck behind Barrel, intending to use his extra height and girth as a shield.

Carmilla yelped quietly as Shock yanked her down. She was not prepared for that strong of a reaction. Nothing she'd ever said or done had gotten Shock to straight up attack her. Still, if that was how the trickster bitch wanted to play with it, Carmilla had an advantage.

The vampire used a burst of her supernatural speed and grace to roll to her feet and come up behind Shock to kick her in the back.

Barrel grabbed Carver and pushed her in front of him. He'd spent far longer as the monster shield in the group. Carver could pay some dues!

Shock stumbled forward when she took the kick. All it did was enrage her further. She grabbed the ends of Carmilla's skirt as the vampiress moved away from her and yanked as hard as she could. She had no intent to trip Carmilla - only to pull her close enough to land a hard kick to the stomach. Shock kept her hold on Carmilla's skirt afterward. She yanked the vampiress forward, then moved to grab her throat.

Carver hissed at him -- she had just made a new head, and she was not going to endanger it by being his meat wall -- and moved back behind him. After several moments of sideways leap-frog, they ended up far enough away from the ensuing fight that they realized, perhaps simultaneously (if Carver was being generous) that if they just ran for it, Shock might not even notice. Or if she did, she'd probably be too focused on Carmilla to chase after them.

They both turned and booked it for town.

Once they got through the main gate, Carver yanked the fabric scraps from Barrel's grip and made a bee-line for Jack and Sally's house.

~~~

Meanwhile, Carmilla was learning that her extra speed and strength did not completely make up for Shock's surplus of experience. The vampire managed to knock the trickster's hands to the side before they reached her throat and slip behind Shock, but wasn't able to dodge an elbow to the ribs as soon as she got there. The bitch knew what she was doing, curse it all! Carmilla got in two more shots of her own before being knocked to the ground, and had only a moment to notice that Shock's skirt had gotten flipped upwards, before she had to roll out of the way of another kick.

Once Carver started running, Barrel ran after her, initially more to try to throw her behind him when he realized that they had managed to get far enough away that neither Shock nor Carmilla acknowledged them. He trailed behind her, up the hill and into Halloween Town proper. He followed her to Jack's house and quickly realized what she was up to.

It would be to both of their relief that Sally was the one to open the door.

"Carver!" she said, and quickly picked up on the pumpkin creature's distress. "What's wro--?"

Sally saw who had accompanied her, and who looked just as much, if not more frantic.

"Barrel?"

It was unusual for any of the tricksters to be at Jack's doorstep, which meant this was likely gravely serious.

~~~

Barrel was bigger and stronger than Shock, yet it said enough that the youngest trickster rarely started a fight with her. Shock was only too happy to teach Carmilla why. She didn't fight with brute strength alone. She strategized, and looked for any opening her opponent left her.

And decades of two-on-one fights gave her plenty of practice.

Shock took the hits and threw Carmilla to the ground. She might have missed the kick, but that hardly deterred her.

"I should thank Lock," she sneered, "for giving me a warm-up!"

She pounced at Carmilla, aiming to get the vampiress before she could completely get back to her feet. She grabbed for her arms to twist them behind her back.

All six of Carver's eyes were wide and pleading as she held up the purple remains of a very distinctive hat. "She's gonna light us all on fire!" she whimpered, staring up at Sally. "Please tell me you can fix it!"

~~~

Carmilla growled as Shock got hold of her wrists, but didn't give way to being pinned. She let her arms be moved downward just long enough for her opponent to get a momentum up that would prevent her from dodging a head butt. Shock surprisingly didn't let go, probably from having been hit like that enough times not to be stunned by it, but it gave the vampire just enough time and leverage to roll over on top of her and press a knee down on her stomach.

She noticed that at some point she had stopped relying on her supernatural abilities, and was just plain fighting now. She'd never admit it, but just straight up punching someone without having to worry about what a person of her station should do was actually kind of stress relieving.

Of course, if Shock happened to notice she'd slowed down at all, she'd just say she was holding back to make it "fair".

Carver had barely finished speaking before Barrel burst out:

"Before she murders us all!"

Sally glanced down to what Carver shoved in her hands. She recognized the color before she recognized the shape...and the extent of the damage.

"...Oh, Death," she said quietly.

She didn't even bother to ask what happened, only ushered them inside. Sally lead them to the living room as she looked over the torn seams and examined the remnants of thread. A quick glance showed she could probably mend it without too much trouble, but she would need to take a closer look to determine the extent of the damage, and how she might tackle the repairs.

Sally set the hat down and gestured for Carver and Barrel to take a seat on the couch. She then went to the kitchen to get some pumpkin juice and a moldy muffin for Barrel and a bowl of a nutrient mix for Carver to soak her vines in to help them both calm down. Sally picked up Shock's hat again and took a seat in Jack's armchair to better examine it.

Parts of the cloth frayed at the ends, but it was nothing a little fabric glue couldn't take care of. She was more worried about how much she would have to tighten it to get back to its normal shape. It might fit a bit more snugly than Shock was used to, but it would still at least be wearable.

"It's going to take a day or two," Sally said after a few moments. "I'm surprised it's lasted this long, though, given the original craftsmanship."

~~~

Huh. So the prissy little bloodsucker had some skill after all. Shock grinned, actually a bit excited at this discovery. It made the fight a lot more satisfying than just having the vampiress take a beating and be done with it. She pulled Carmilla closer, mostly to make it easier to curl her legs underneath her without her opponent noticing so she could kick her off. She reached for her slingshot once she had thrown Carmilla far enough, then scooped up a large stone nearby for ammunition.

This was another skill her brothers both excelled at: reload speed. But her accuracy had always been superior over both of theirs.

They didn't need to know a slight adjustment from her magic helped at times, particularly when against a moving target. The first stone would barely be launched before she had another at the ready, but it took a few seconds to position the next.

Carmilla screeched as the rock pelted her in the cheek, despite using her speed to attempt to dodge. When she saw Shock nock the next stone, she sneered. Fine. If the fake witch wasn't going to fight fair, neither would she.

The vampire waited for the rock to fly, then shifted into a bat. The sudden change in target size pretty much guaranteed a miss. Before Shock could let loose another projectile, Carmilla darted above her head and then transformed back to do a falling kick to her head.

She missed. She wouldn't miss again. Shock readied another stone, but didn't load it this time, mostly so the vampiress had no obvious tell for where she would aim and therefore be able to dodge again. She trailed Carmilla, shifted her stance, then took aim the second she saw the mist that always came with a transformation.

Cute trick. But Shock had been pulling tricks since she learned to walk. This time, she aimed straight at Carmilla's heart for a particularly painful blow.

Carmilla yelped as the rock hit her and covered the welt with one arm, but didn't stop her attack. She her foot made solid contact with Shock's head, sending them both to the ground. Vampiric grace allowed her to swiftly regain her balance and glide away from the trickster.

"That was my boob, you little tramp!" she screeched, still holding her arm to her chest.

Shock slid across the ground from the kick, but the screech she got from Carmilla was more than worth it.

"Correction," she said as she stood up.

She made sure to let her legs shake and moved a hand to her head as if the kick had taken more out of her. In actuality, she'd palmed another stone and was waiting for Carmilla to shift a little more...yes, just like that. Shock quickly reloaded and fired.

"Boob-s!"

~~~

Down in the lair, Lock managed to find one of his guitar strings in the guitar case, because of course they'd put it where it was supposed to be, sort of. He had been near the window to check behind one of Oogie's old (and now deactivated, to avoid an unfortunate mishap) trap switches when he heard Carmilla screech:

"That was my boob, you little tramp!"

He'd heard Shock scream something indecipherable a moment ago, and now it sounded like something was going down. Sensing trouble, Lock scurried up the rope ladder. If Shock made a retort, he didn't hear it.

"Maybe they're finally fighting it out," he said as he reached the window. "Hey, Lillith, wanna come see?"