As a little more swamp smoke filled the shop, Shock set her backpack down, then reached across the counter to grab Agnes and usher her towards the door. With the smaller witch out of the way, Shock ran back to the counter and dove behind it. It didn't take long to find the brooms. Shock grabbed them, quickly stood them upright, and felt for the smallest one.

Perfect.

Visibility shifted in and out as some of the smoke continued to spew from the bottle, but the open shop door let it out as Barrel got Aggie and Agatha out, then Agnes found her way not long after them. Shock grabbed her backpack again and ran to the curved orange blob she recognized as Carver's head before it completely disappeared into fog. Time was of the essence now. Shock sidestepped Carver to where she knew Lock waited and handed him one of the two taller brooms. Lock took it and pulled another bottle of Godzilla glue from his own bag and placed it as Shock quickly hid Agnes' broom in Carver's cargo pants.

Carver yelped, which left her free to glue the final broom. Shock had to feel her way back to the other side of the shop, but as Lock "helped" Carver outside, Shock pulled her own bottle of glue from a side pocket on the backpack and secured the final broom.

Outside, Barrel awkwardly patted Agatha's back when she hugged him.

"No--" he coughed a bit himself, "--p-problem!"

Agnes came out next, and was more concerned with clearing her lungs for the moment. All of them heard loud cursing and soon after, Lock emerged, with Carver using him as a brace. Shock was right behind them.

Aggie patted her niece's arm.

"Thank you, Agatha," she said.

The taller witch glanced around at the group that escaped the shop. A small crowd had started to gather, having seen the swamp smoke spewing from the shop. Aggie put the crowd on the back burner for a moment.

"Is everyone all right?" she asked.

Clown with the Tear-Away Face wheeled up on his unicycle.

"What happened?" he asked, before spotting the trickster trio. "Did they--?"

Shock coughed, then glared at him.

"No!" she exclaimed. "We weren't--"

Barrel picked it up next.

"--Anywhere--"

Lock cleared his lungs, then finished.

"--[i]Near[/i] it!"

A few of the vampires walked over, as well as the Cyclops and the Melting Man. All of them were decidedly skeptical of this claim.

"Th-they're right," Agnes said, now that the fumes had cleared. "Shock was--" she let out a long, forceful cough, but it seemed to clear the rest of it right out, "--d-doing an exchange, Carver was with her, Lock wasn't..."

She took a breath. The smallest of the vampire brothers came to assist her.

"Barrel was with me," Aggie confirmed. "I don't know how it happened, but a bottle of swamp smoke fell over."

With the witches confirming Lock, Shock, and Barrel's innocence, the crowd immediately looked more at ease. They'd go easy on them. [i]This[/i] time.