Lock casually tossed something particularly corrosive onto a nearby machine and grinned at the hissing and sputtering of melting metal and wires. Barrel had since finished the jar of leeches, and was now chugging the preserving liquid from the jar. Shock was just putting the finishing touches on her device as Finklestein thrust Carver's cage into Jack's arms. Jack shifted Carver to hold him comfortably.

"All right, you three," he said. "Playtime's over."

"Aww!" Barrel whined. "We didn't even find the metal shavings yet!"

"Bet [i]those[/i] would have been catastrophic," Lock said with a grin.

Shock made one last tweak to her device as Jewel called their mayhem to a close.

"Pity," she said. "We were about to have a [i]blast[/i]."

She and her brothers all snickered in unison. Shock reached up to pet Loki before she stood up.

"But we had fun, didn't we, precious?"

Loki chittered and gently pinched her ear. Mom was happy, they caused trouble together, and he had a fat, juicy beetle in his future. Shock ran the tip of her finger over his shell.

The trio all burst out laughing at Finklestein's screeching through his nose.

"All that brain power--" Lock started.

"--And you can't figure out [i]tape[/i]!" Barrel grinned.

He loudly knocked on Finklestein's skull plate, then tossed the empty leech jar over his shoulder.

"Thanks for the snack, anyway."

Shock got Lock's attention and gave a small nod to Jewel's desk. She crossed her arms and subtly pointed towards the bottom where she hid the nitroglycerin. Lock nodded, and caught her warning to be careful as she subtly tapped a message with her fingers. Shock then strolled up to Jack and Carver to keep their attention while Jewel dealt with her husband.

"Well, that was fun," she said brightly. "We should really--"

"--Do this--" Lock continued.

"--Again sometime," Barrel said with a grin.

Jack glanced down at Shock.

"There won't [i]be[/i] a next time," he said, "because from now on, Carver will stay with me."

Lock - pretending to be on one last round of admiring their handiwork - had carefully slipped towards Jewel's desk and used his tail to feel for what Shock hid. He'd barely gripped it, when he cried out in unison with his siblings:

"[i]What?[/i]"

"But what about--" Shock protested.

She didn't need to work to keep Jack's attention now, not when he'd just started an argument."

"--Him staying with us?" Barrel asked.

Lock kept his tail carefully positioned as he passed Jewel and joined his siblings so she wouldn't see what he'd pilfered.

"He practically lives at the lair anyway!" Lock added.

"Come [i]on[/i], Jack!" Shock said.

"Please?" Barrel begged.

"You didn't let me finish," Jack said, gently. "It's not permanent. I want to [i]personally[/i] ensure anything else I need to sort out with the doctor gets taken care of, and it's easier if I know where he is so I don't miss anything. Right now--" he gave a quick glance around the lab, with the smoking pile of corpses, wrecked machinery, and still-dripping paint, "--his prior guardians need time to decompress and sort a few things out themselves."

While Jack spoke, Lock subtly shifted the nitroglycerin to one of Carver's vines for the pumpkin creature to put inside his cage.

The trio frowned, but nodded.

"Okay, Jack," they said.

Jack smiled.

"Come on," he said. "It's been a long day, and I believe you four need to get to the pumpkin patch."

Lock, Shock, and Barrel nodded, then started to leave with Jack, when Barrel remembered something.

"I was gonna pull the switch!" he cried.

Barrel turned and dashed across the lab. He dove over the lab table, knocked off whatever Loki didn't get to, and grabbed the switch. Barrel yanked it down with a grin as the room filled with lightning, much to his older siblings' amusement. Satisfied, Barrel rejoined the group.

They would be almost halfway down the ramp when a loud bang accompanied by a softer swoosh came from the lab. Shock grinned.

"Told him I could time my explosions."

That got another round of laughter from the trio. The silicate powder getting all over the lab was the [i]perfect[/i] cap-off to their mayhem.