“More catastrophic in the long run,” Jewel said dryly. “And the process of scraping millions of tiny melted metal flecks off of various surfaces to avoid potential significant danger later on would have been [i]quite[/i] a fun task, which I would most certainly have included you in.”

The female Finkelstein’s eyes flashed behind her goggles as she heard Shock put the slightest emphasis on the word, [i]blast[/i]. She quickly stepped over to the mechanism the oldest trickster has last been working on to give it a quick inspection, just in case.

The Doctor growled and tried to slap Barrel’s arm away, but his tiny gloved hands did little more than bounce uselessly off the boy’s girth. The thick rubber gloves also prevented him from making any progress when he switched to scraping away at the edge of the tape.

Jewel ignored them both. At a cursory glance, the materials Shock had used would make an annoyingly sticky mess, but wouldn’t create enough of a shockwave to create any significant damage. The triggering mechanism wasn’t particularly incendiary, either. She couldn’t make out right away how it was supposed to be activated, but as the tricksters were all meandering in the general direction of the door and weren’t close enough to activate it, it likely didn’t matter. 

She started making rounds of her own, making note of what needed to be cleaned or fixed as soon as possible versus what could reasonably be put aside for a few hours or days.

Carver responded in time with his friends when Jack said the pumpkin creature would be staying with him. He flailed about, half of his movements being utter nonsense while others were fairly obvious mimery, such as forming a shape roughly like the twisted tree above the trio’s lair and its accompanying treehouse.

The extra flailing also helped to disguise the movement of vines which were being used to open his cage and tuck the nitro vial inside.

He paused slightly in confusion when Jack said ‘get you [i]four[/i] to the pumpkin patch,’ but decided not to draw attention to it. If the Pumpkin King had forgotten about taking Carver home with him, Carver was definitely not going to remind him.

He curled a bunch of vines together into a ball with two thick ends twisted together and sticking upward from one side, giving Barrel an obvious thumbs-up regarding the lightning switch. However, quiet tapping carried a message: [i]Nice timing, genius. Should have pulled it one of the times he was screaming.[/i]

As the group left the main lab and headed down the ramp to exit the tower completely, Jewel shook her head, rang for Igor to come assist, and got started on cleaning up the ridiculous mess left behind. The dissolving body parts would likely have to be disposed of first, as the pile was exuding toxic fumes from both the flesh and what was left of the tape. 

Before that however, she wanted to set Shock’s little project to the side. Better to avoid tripping over it and accidentally setting off the trigger.

She crouched down and carefully scooped it up. She had just enough time to feel the weight shift of liquid rushing prematurely from one chamber into another and figure out the [i]exact[/i] timing method Shock had used, before the timer jumped from thirty to zero, and the bomb went off in her face.

Two kinds of viscous liquid flew outward from the device, pushed in opposite directions by the sudden small explosion between them. Jewel’s hair was blasted upward and formed into a halo of goopy spikes. Her face was blackened by ash from the initial detonation, and likewise covered in splatters of goop. Luckily, her goggles had protected her eyes from both the blast and the projectiles.

Not that Jewel could see at the moment, but the puddles on the walls, floor, and machinery on one side of the room were already hardening into a chemical cement. The other side would be easier to cleanup in the short run, but would leave a residue which would appear completely transparent from some angles -- but quite sparkly from others.