That got Lock and Shock to snicker. Barrel scoffed and pushed himself forward so he could get to the tree house first.

"Eager to get started already?" Lock called.

"Shut [i]UP[/i]!"

His older siblings only laughed harder. Shock stopped laughing only when she heard Loki chirp. She held out her hand as Loki followed Carver's makeshift path to her. Shock cradled her pet in her hand and ran a finger along his shell.

"Who's my [i]real[/i] favorite?" she asked.

Loki gave a contented hiss.

"Hey!" Lock cried.

Shock smirked at him as she lifted Loki up to her ear. Loki curled back into place and contentedly nipped her ear with his claws and pinchers. She then turned to Carver.

"Definitely a sleepover night," she said. "We wouldn't want you grounded for phase two."

~~~

Back in town, the swamp smoke finally cleared enough for the witches to go back in and investigate. Only the one bottle was broken from their stock,along with the remains of Carver's daphnius potion. So far, nothing else seemed out of place. Aggie checked the shelf with the swamp smoke for anything that could have knocked the bottle over, Agatha checked the shelf Lock was near, while Agnes went to the counter to make sure Shock hadn't palmed anything on her way out. Nothing had been stolen, there were none of the trickster's gadgets on the shelf, and the only thing out of place was the shrunken skull Lock must have hastily shoved back on the shelf before fleeing, so how...?

Agnes noticed first that the brooms weren't behind the counter. Agatha spotted the first one hastily tacked on the wall not far from where Lock had been standing. And Aggie quickly looked for the other two.

One on the opposite wall, and the last took a few minutes, but it was way up on the ceiling. Aggie was almost impressed. How'd they do [i]that[/i] that quickly?

It didn't matter as all three of them realized how well they'd been played by the trickster trio.