Feeling Blue: A Smurfs Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty-Four

The five smurfs appeared in an all too familiar place. Belvedere Castle: the place Gargamel used as a hideout before. It was dimly lit and tied to chair was Papa. They scarcely had time to process their surroundings when Asriel lunged at them. Gutsy quickly pulled Brainy out the way before the claws could collide with him. Brainy shot him a thankful look then in turn pulled Gutsy out the way before a blast of magic could slam into him. It was significantly less potent than earlier. He must not have refilled his wand yet and he used a lot of it for the portal... He aimed the wand directly at Gargamel with every intention of blasting him to save Papa...when Gargamel held a box cutter to Papa's throat.
"Put the wand down," he ordered. Brainy swallowed, icy dread prickling at him, then did so. In a burst of smoke Gargamel was gone...along with Papa.

"Brainy, before you blame yourself, you didn't have a choice," Gutsy said, very successfully reading to forming guilt on Brainy's face.
"I should have blasted him before he had a chance to threaten Papa," Brainy muttered, picking up the wand and scowling it. His constant failure was not helping his ideas on whether or not he was evil.
"What do we do now? How do we find him?" Star asked.
"We've told you about Patrick and Grace, right?" Clumsy said. "We could go ask them for help!"
"Wouldn't they mind?" Brainy asked, doubtfully. "We can't expect them to keep dropping everything to help us."
"Well we can at least ask, right?" Gutsy said. "Even if they aren't willing to face Gargamel again, they may let us stay until we know what to do..." Great, more time with those who probably hate me...
"Kay," Brainy agreed.
"One question...How do we get there?" muttered Grouchy, crossing his arms. "I don't remember and I doubt the pigeons do."

Brainy considered for a long moment, trying to recall the different elements from the prior trip to New York.
"He worked at that place...That may be easier to find?" he suggested. "If he still works there..."
"It is worth a shot," Gutsy agreed. "We may wanna go quickly before Gargamel has a chance to refill the wand." Brainy nodded and the five headed out.

Anjelou, the cosmetics company. They weren't entirely sure what 'cosmetics' where but it was at least a chance. It looked the same as a lot of other streets in Patrick's kingdom, which didn't help, but he did remember the magic box contained information. Maybe if they found access to one, they could use it. Although humans did seem pretty attached to them...
"You look like you have an idea," Star commented. Brainy explained the theory. "Hmm ...We could just ask someone if we can borrow it?"
"No!" the other four all exclaimed. Star noticeably jumped, looking confused at their response.
"Magic isn't the norm here," Clumsy exclaimed. "They would freak out."
"That could get them to do it though," Brainy mused. He knew first hand fear was a potent motivator: it was one of the elements that had crushed his prior personality and had gotten him to isolate himself so much. "Although that may be a tad harsh..."

They balanced along a railing to get to the main street, hiding in a bush on the edge of a pavement to try and see their next move.
"Go on one of the vehicles? Patrick always pays them to take him places so maybe it will eventually go past where he works?" Clumsy suggested. Everyone shot him surprised looks: it may not work but they may at least go past something familiar that they had encountered before so they would know how to reach Patrick's.

Hours passed. Nothing.
"Ugh...I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. I hate this," Grouchy complained for the hundredth time. "I'm sure we've gone past this shop before."
"There could be multiple of the same..." Brainy replied. He kept scanning for something when finally they saw something familiar...or someone. "Is that his boss?"
"I think so..." Gutsy replied. They waited until they were at a red light then got off the taxi, running to the limousine and getting on the roof. "Hopefully she is going to work and not home..."
"Hopefully not the latter," Briny murmured. They were all behind a night's sleep, not to mention it was a strenuous day and it was getting very hot. It came to a stop in front of a familiar building. "We made it...now to find his area..."

They snuck inside, keeping to corners, trying to avoid attention. All the corridors were busy and several times they had to duck into a slightly ajar rooms. Each door had names on it and eventually, at the end of a long corridor, they found 'Winslow-Doyle'. They peeked inside, finding the office empty.
"He isn't here," Clumsy said, stating the obvious, disappointment apparent in his tone. "What do we do now?"
"Wait, I suppose," Brainy said with a loose shrug. "There isn't much else we can do."
"The longer we wait the more Gargamel could hurt Papa!" Clumsy protested.
"Rushing round blindly wouldn't do anything different," Briny stated. Clumsy sighed but nodded in understanding.

Tick. Tock. The clock went on: the hour hand painfully making one whole rotation, then another. Star was folding a yellow post-it-note into a star, Clumsy was pacing and tripping, Grouchy was muttering very unsmurfy words under his breath, Brainy was tapping his fingers on the desk and Gutsy was thinking about rescuing Papa (and how cute his crush was).
"This is just smurfy!" Grouchy complained for the dozenth time. "This is taking forever!"
"Quiet down," Brainy cautioned. "What if someone who isn't Patrick hears you?"
"Stop being right!" Grouchy huffed, crossing his arms. He meant it jokingly but Brainy instantly fell silent, adjusting his glasses and staring at the ground. Grouchy's usual frown dissipated. "Hey...I was joking..." Surprise flickered across the brainiac's expression and he felt a deep relief that he hadn't messed up things more.

Another rotation of the clock.

The door finally opened and a familiar man stepped in. He seemed stressed and didn't even notice the figures until Clumsy piped up.
"Hi Patrick!" Patrick froze, gaze landing on the desk.
"Wh-How?!" he exclaimed. "Hi? What are you guys doing here?"
"Gargamel smurfnapped Papa!" Gutsy said. "We came to rescue 'im and we got pretty close but..."
"But you need help?" Patrick finished. The smurfs nodded. "Sure. I only came to the office to pick some stuff now so we can head straight to the apartment." He listed who was there: he had met Grouchy, Gutsy, Clumsy and Brainy before but Star was unfamiliar. "Hi, who are you?"
"Star...it's a pleasure to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too." He opened his briefcase so they could hide inside. "I'll keep it slightly ajar so you can breathe."
"I hate this..." Grouchy complained as he climbed in, followed by the others. Patrick chuckled, having gotten used to this, but it didn't quite reach his eyes: at least this was something different than the growing pressure.

Before long they reached the apartment.
"Grace! Blue!" he called. The now eight year old glanced up from his book and waved half-heartedly. Grace came into the room just as he opened the briefcase.
"Smurfs again!" Blue exclaimed, eagerly.
"Wow he got even bigger," Grouchy stated. "That must be confusing." Blue giggled.
"Hi," Grace said, giving a small finger wave. "We missed you guys."
"We missed you too Grace," Clumsy said: the two hugged.
"So what are you guys doing here?"

They filled her in, including how close Brainy got to beating him.
"Well Gargamel was famous, his reappearance will probably be on the news," Grace pointed out. "Then it would be easy to find Papa."
"Plus it's Blue's summer's holiday so we can drop things if necessary," Patrick added. The smurfs felt staggering relief: they had help again.
"You don't mind?" Gutsy asked. He didn't believe they did but he knew checking would decrease Brainy's doubts.
"Of course not," Grace said. "You guys are our friends."

The smurf's exchanged smiles. They were one step closer to saving Papa.