“Hmm?” Jewel looked at Jack. “That’s… actually not a very bad idea. I don’t think I’ll tolerate any more damage, but… Knowing Shock, I imagine simply breathing down his neck and bothering him by the nature of her very presence… would be at least fairly satisfying, in it’s own way.”

Carver twisted the left side of his front mouth upward and tightened the spiral eye toward its center. “Oh, you [i]know[/i] it!”

Both adults chuckled at that. They hammered out a few more details, and then Jewel left to begin drawing up blueprints while the other two retrieved Carver’s belongings.

The pumpkin creature asked Jack to pack up the collection of wooden heads from the shelf, then took advantage of the town leader’s distraction to sneakily disconnect and hide the signal box connected to all of his bugs across town. Wouldn’t do for Jack to learn of their existence and have them all removed, after all. He’d break in with his friends later and retrieve all the secret and sensitive tapes and tools hidden around his room. Since the Finkelsteins already knew that Carver liked to record pranks he managed to pull on his friends, he did grab a few of the least suspicious tapes and a hand-held recorder/player, just in case they asked.

There wasn’t much to pack up, after that. An oil can for lubricating his mechanical joints, a stack of dried fertilizer planks, and a small box of various novelty items he had found and/or stolen over the decades. Carver didn’t bother bringing any of his clothes. His old pair of cargo pants had never been retrieved from the treehouse after The Prank, and the recently bought clothes wouldn’t fit on his endoskeleton, anyway. With Jack’s long arms and the pumpkin creature’s many vines, they were able to transport everything in one trip.

The Doctor complained about being forced to help design and build a new body after his previous design had been so dramatically rejected. Then he tried pitching a fit when his wife informed him that Shock had been invited to ensure that the process went as smoothly as possible. Fortunately, all Jewel had to do was threaten to make him cook his own food until the frame was complete; he quickly resigned to helping.

Shock vehemently enjoyed hovering at Finkelstein’s shoulder and watching his every move. Occasionally she even [i]literally[/i] breathed down his neck, just for kicks. It only took a few swats to his skull with a hand crank before he stopped trying to surreptitiously “improve” the designs outside of the parameters Carver and Jewel had set.

The eldest trickster also surprised both the scientists by not only understanding all the technical jargon and symbols in the blueprints, but catching a few minor flaws before either of them, and offering insightful suggestions for efficient modifications. White her input, the design process went by exceedingly quickly, and by the end of the day the first prototype base frame was built and ready to install.

Shock continued “helping” while the new limbs and their attachment mechanisms got fitted onto Carver’s cage, much to the Doctor’s chagrin and his creations’ amusement. Once that was done, the two teenagers were ushered out of the tower as quickly as he could manage.

-------

Aggie was manning the counter when Barrel walked in. She smiled politely, rang a small bell behind the counter, and then proceeded to make small talk with him to keep him fully distracted from any potential mischief while he waited. 

The witches had recently made a minor upgrade of their own. Rather than having to shout across the premises when there were more customers than witches -- or risk Agatha forgetting to shout at all, and leaving the shop unattended again -- they had spelled a small network of bells to ring in harmony with each. There were three simple patterns of tones the bells could make, depending on the situation, and the one Aggie had just sounded was the most specific one.

Agatha was lying across her bed on her stomach, flipping through Mortician Weekly and contemplating whether to switch to the latest makeup brand endorsed therein, when the bell in her room went off. 

The teen witch squealed and scrambled off the bed. She quickly patted down her hair and dress and adjusted her hat, taking a short moment to check her appearance in the mirror before dashing down to the shop area. 

Agatha rushed through the door, almost sliding across the floor on her heels. She skidded to a stop, put her hands on the counter to steady herself, and struck a pose of relaxed calm as if she had been there all along. She bit her lips before putting on a smile of polite interest. 

“Hi, Barrel.”