Meanwhile, Wesley had entered the science laboratory, and set the grenade down on the table in front of Fred.
"Was Angel mad?" The female asked gently.
"Shouldn't he be? We sent him out there with a defective piece of weaponry," Wes countered much to Fred's annoyance.
"Which 'we' are we talking about?" she asked, the annoyance clear in her voice.
"Fred, these techno-mystical hybrids are a complicated affair," Wesley said softly and gently.
At this, Knox bounded up to join in the conversation, "Oh, I don't know. It seemed kind of simple to me. It's just a little hand-held, spell-casting robot, right? So it's either the robot or the spell that we have a problem with."
"Well, the grenade's core enchantment looks operational, so I think we're talking about a faulty trigger mechanism," Wes replied.
"No, wait a minute," Fred started, "I designed that mechanism myself."
Knox nodded, "Yeah, that's right, and I machined it. It was beautiful work, on both counts, if I may say," he smiled proudly, looking at Fred who grinned back. "You may."
At this both scientists started to chuckle.
"I agree, as a sculptural piece, but the device's trigger may not have been fine enough to actually trigger the effect," Wes said irritated.
"Happy Halloween, kids!" Lorne said cheerfully as he walked up to the group who utterly ignored him.
"And how do you know your spell-casters didn't screw up the payload?" Knox asked glancing at Wes who quickly countered.
"Because I went over the work, and I got that knowing feeling you get when you know something."
"Trick or treat?" Lorne asked clapping his hands together.
"Hi, Lorne," Fred said unenthusiastically.
"Hi. What do you say we put away your little sci-fi toys for a little bit, huh? And maybe we could talk about something a little more important, like my monster mash?" Lorne asked rubbing his hands together.
"Oh, yeah, your party," She said offhandedly.
"Our party, tweety bird. Which, by the way, is dying on the vine. I could really, really, really use some help from you guys -- some backup?" He said smiling at them.
"I wasn't really planning on going," Fred confessed gently to the empath.
"Wes, do you hear this crazy talk?" Lorne frowned looking at Englishman.
"Uh, well, I really hadn't given much thought to going myself."
"Et tu, Brutuses? Why is it so hard to get anyone to have any fun around here?" Lorne said sadly.
"You should go. It's the Halloween blowout to end all blowouts. Last year, uh," Knox started speaking primarily to Fred, laughing some, "They took a bunch of cows and put them in a giant wicker effigy of Krishna, uh, doused it with sambuca, and it--"
Lorne shook him off, "Uh, well, anyway, it--it's a hell of a good time," Knox finished fast.
"I really wanna get this operational, before Angel goes out again," Fred said gently,
"Yes. I'll stay, too. I'm sure we can work it out together," Wesley agreed.
"No. No-no-no, no, no, no, no!" Lorne snapped, "Wes, Fred, you're coming. Look at yourselves. You're wound tighter than Martha Stewart's swatch. Isn't there anyone else who'd, uh, fix the little boo-boos on this thing?"
At this Knox's hand shot up into the air, "I can do that. It's probably the trigger mechanism anyway."
"Great," Lorne said, "Problem solved. I'll see you two in Angel's office, 15 minutes." He said as he walked off.