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All the smurfs turned around to find Chernov crying with both hands over his eyes. "You guys continue watching those videos," he sobbed, "I, I..."
After a short pause, Chernov jumps off the counter and ran out of the room crying. Instead of the bedroom, he ran into the room he was born in and shut the automatic door behind him, Smurfette got up to chase Chernov but Papa Smurf grabbed her arm. "Leave him be Smurfette," said the village leader, "He'll be fine."
Smurfette sat back down on the floor without saying a word as Hefty hands Baby Smurf back to her, Brainy then exits out of the first folder and goes to the next one. He clicked the first video clip and it showed Dimitri giving a baby Chernov yellowish milk from a large bottle whose size is only appropriate for human babies. The baby Chernov was wearing the same outfit as Baby Smurf, the only difference is that it's camouflage instead of white.
The baby Chernov suddenly stopped sucking on the bottle and Dimitri takes it away, the infant then regurgitated and began coughing profusely. "He just doesn't want to eat," said Dimitri to himself, "He must have a small stomach, this is going to be difficult when he's given the growth hormone."
"Growth hormone?" asked Papa Smurf.
"Chernov talks about it in one of his wilderness survival journals," said Brainy, "It's some sort of powder smurfed in with milk, and Chernov loves milk."
The next clip soon shows a Chernov smurfling, now wearing camoflaged smurf hat and pants. He looked slightly larger than the smurfligns back then, it's probably because of the growth hormone that Dimitri gives him. The clip showed Dimitri homeschooling Chernov with information that sounds so foreign to the smurfs, only Brainy could understand.
The next clip shows an even more slightly older Chernov, probably his short adolesence years, his body is starting to receive more of his human definitions andhis legs became more straight. The smurfs watched Chernov as Dimitri have him test out a prototype jet pack which he would be flying around in the near future. On Chernov's first try, he shot across the room midair and awhile screaming and slammed into the wall like a fly on a car's windshield. "Ohhh," winced the smurfs as they watch him hit the floor in a splat, "Ohhh!"
Finally, the next clip shows a young adult Chernov, who seemed to be bursting with energy. The smurfs watched as Chernov take on a particularly large rat with a knife, they seemed to be used to this because they watch Chernov butcher his kills in front of his house once a week. It was still disgusting as he ate the meat raw, as there is no way to cook it.
"I can't believe this is the Chernov back then," said Smurfette, "He seems so full of pride, so happy, so what happened?"
"There's a time in life where you just gotta smurf down," said Papa Smurf, "For Chernov, it smurfed early."
When the next clip showed, it shows the Chernov that the smurfs all know and love. Instead of a smile, it's a frown. Instead of being energetic, he's bored. The two appeared to be in a forest environment that looks vaguely familiar, Chernov flew through the air via jet pack as Dimitri walks by his side. Suddenly, the camera broke through a clearing, revealing the smurf village. The smurfs were shocked that Chernov knew who they are before they met, this video could explain why Chernov knows his way around the village when he moved in.
"This is the smurf village Chernov," said Dimitri.
"The one in the satellite photos?" he asked.
"Definitely."
"Now would you look at that, smurfs, just like in the story books. So why are we here? Are we going to meet them?"
"We'll meet them in person, but not in their village. For some reason, smurfs always win and they are xenophobic about humans these days. But they might trust you more, though they'll keep their distance at first."
"Is there any smurfs I should know of?"
"See that smurf in red there? Just walking on the dirt path."
"Yes."
The camera zoomed in to reveal Papa Smurf just walking along, the village leader felt the hairs behind his neck stand up when he saw himself in that clip.
"That's the Papa Smurf, the village leader, he will always wear red in all occasions."
"Is he tolerable?"
"Pretty much, however he would make things difficult for our plans with the smurfs. Every smurf you see here are young adults and are susceptible to ideologies. Papa Smurf does not want new ideologies and will try to prevent them as much as possible, the older generation of any species almost always refused to accept new things. It's probably because they have trouble learning new things, once they reach that point in their life then talking to them in order to change their mind about something is next to impossible."
"This is what Chernov said in one of his books," said Papa Smurf, "Now I know where he got it from."
"What is he going to think about me if I try to influence the smurfs?" asked Chernov in the video.
"He can sense your personality," said Chernov, "Regardless on how much good you do, he's going to be afraid of you. He would not try to scold you in enforcing rules, because you and Papa Smurf are exactly around the same stage of life. In other words, you and he are fully mature adults which in turn makes you and Papa Smurf resistant to each others beliefs and common sense. If I did the math correctly, Papa Smurf wouldn't see you as an insubordinate smurf thanks to your human blood."
"So that means I can do whatever you want?"
"Not exactly, if you are caught of any wrong doing then punishment will be swift and painful. So if you ever do something wrong, you best think outside the box."
Suddenly they heard Briany blabbering in the video, "The dam's ready to smurf!" they heard him scream, "Were in danger, the dam's ready to be smurfed!"
"Who's that?" asked Chernov as he points to what appears to be a panicking Brainy. Suddenly a smurf shot across the village from behind Brainy and kicked his rear, he literally took off into the air like a rocket.
"Oh my smurf," said Brainy as he watched himself in the video fly off into infinity, "Does anyone remember this?"
"We all remembered this Brainy." said Papa Smurf, "We all did."
Brainy gulped and the smurfs continued watching the video, "I guess your right about swift punishment dad," said Chernov, "Looks like that smurf flew about 60 metres into the air."
"He probably flew about 6 kilometres in distance," said Dimitri, "I think you'll get along with this smurf, lets head to this dam he was yelling about."
The next clip shows Handy and Papa Smurf examining the dam, doing his daily inspections. When Handy saw himself in there, he began to feel warm as the smurfs watched him inspect the dam. Papa Smurf too shares this feeling, he felt his heart race when he hears the conversation between him and Handy.
"No problems to be noted Papa Smurf," said Handy, "I wonder what got Brainy so smurfed?"
"We'll wait until Brainy comes back so he could tell us," said Papa Smurf, "Whatever got him smurfed, it's not going to be the end of it. Something's going on and I'm determine to find out what it is, we'll make an investigation team to smurf out any clues for a possible disaster."
Papa Smurf watched himself and Handy walk away from the dam, right until they're out of sight. "What did we missed that caused this?" he asked himself.
Dimitri and Chernov rushed out of the bushes and examined the dam, an up close shot revealed several problems. "This dam is poorly built dad," said Chernov.
"Yeah," said Dimitri as he reached his hand and pulled a stick out of the wooden dam, "Packed in with loose mud and sticks, they give little to no resistance when I shift them. Let's see what's behind the dam."
The dam is slightly taller than Dimitri, so Dimitri grabs a nearby rock and placed it at the foot of the dam. He then stepped on it and held up his camera over the dam. The camera revealed a ton of debris building up behind the dam, the sight of it scared Handy to the core. "The average person won't see anything wrong with this dam," said Dimitri as he lowers the camera, "This dam is so going to collapse, and to top it off there's a massive storm coming in the next few days. The most powerful one in this region to date."
"What should we do?" asked Chernov.
"You go home," said Dimitri, "I'm going to try to locate that smurf who seemed to be quite useful, I'll be back in three days. If I'm not back when that storm hits then you know I have a problem, got it."
"Yes dad."
"Okay, now go home and stay there. You need time by yourself anyway so take advantage of it, and use your common sense."
"Okay dad, bye."
"Bye, son."
The clip ends with Chernov flying off to the horizon, everybody turned and looked at Handy whose cheeks were turning red. Then they all looked at Brainy who is quite shy, "Brainy," said Hefty, "Seems that you nearly saved the day at that time."
"I knew there was debris smurfing up behind the dam at the time," cried Handy, "I didn't know that was a problem, how come I didn't realized that."
"We all make mistakes Handy," said Papa Smurf.
"But I nearly got you all killed," said Handy, "How did I miss it?"
"You were probably too lazy to test your own design," said Brainy, "You just build the dam on the assumption that it would never fail out of mud that can be washed away and out of sticks which doesn't take much to smurf, the math at the time said otherwise."
Handy remained silent as Brainy clicks the next video, it showed Dimitri moving through a spruce forest with the camera in his hands. He looks down and spots what appears to be small fecal matter, Dimitri grabbed a stick and stabbed the feces with it. It soon revealed what appeared to be smurfberry seeds, "What do you know," he said, "Smurf feces, the smurfberry seeds don't lie. It looks fresh, could be because I'm getting close."
Brainy felt embarrassed for the smurfs to see that as Dimitri resumes moving through the forest, the smurfs watched him find Brainy in the video who is drinking water from a dirty puddle. Brainy felt his privacy has been invaded as he watched himself get back up onto his feet, and limps away. "Oh my smurf Brainy," said Smurfette, "I didn't knew you were that hurt."
"Me neither," mumbled Brainy.
Dimitri videotaped Brainy as he limps towards the supposed direction towards the smurf village, keeping his distance from him. Then Dimitri got a little to close and stepped on a twig, alerting Brainy. "Oh crap," whispered Dimitri as he dropped to his belly, "Please don't see me."
He watched as Brainy turned around to see who's there, but somehow Brainy didn't see Dimitri. "My smurf, I guess my mind is playing tricks on me," said the smurf, "You know what, I'm going to head home tomorrow, I need to take some smurf for the night."
When the clip ends, Brainy pound his fist on the countertop, "I knew there was someone watching me," he said, "How come I didn't see Dimitri?"
"He's wearing camouflage," said Jokey, "That way, you can't see him."
"The camouflage he's wearing doesn't help him blend into the background," said Brainy.
The next clip showed Brainy in a worse condition than before, his limping became more chronic and he looks more miserable than one could imagine. Just as he turns the corner, something snagged him. It was a trap, Brainy happened to have caught his foot in a small noose tied to a tree sapling that was horribly bent. The sapling flung Brainy straight up into the air like lighting and slammed his head against a mature spruce tree as hard as it can, the smurfs gasped as his glasses flew off.
Everyone remained silent as they watch Brainy hang helpless on the branch, bleeding badly from his head. "Oh crap," said Dimitri as he ran to Brainy, "Oh he's bleeding."
Dimitri puts down the camera as he cuts the noose off of Brainy's foot, the unconscious smurf fell and Dimitri caught him with his hand. "Are you okay blue buddy?" asked Dimitri, "Hello?"
Brainy didn't respond, he's definitely in a coma. Dimitri got out a rag and tries his best to stop the bleeding, "Don't worry blue buddy, I'll help you." said Dimitri, right before the clip ends with him reaching for the camera to turn it off.
"Oh smurf," said Brainy, "I never knew it was that bad."
"Bad?" asked Smurfette, "You could have died!"
"I could have, I wonder if he set that trap up in the first place."
The next clip shows Dimitri running into the lab with a bloody rag in his hands as Chernov flies to lend his assistance, "Oh god," gasped Chernov, "What happened?"
"He hit his head" said Dimitri, "We gotta stop the bleeding."
"How did he hit his head?"
"He stumbled into a trap, get the surgical tools Chernov."
Chernov flew away as Dimitri places Brainy on the counter awhile fixing the camera on a tripod. When Chernov came back with a bag of tools, he sat them nearby and Dimitri takes them to have them sterilized. The smurfs watched for 10 minutes of Dimitri performing surgery on Brainy's head as Chernov does his best to help, Brainy was horrified to literally see what his brain really looks like on film.
Brainy's blood soaked the table as Dimitri manages to seal up the wound, he then sat side the surgical tools and took a deep breath. "Chernov," he asked, "Would you clean this all up and look after Brainy?"
"With pleasure," responded Chernov.
"I''m going out to deal with the Smurf Village." said Dimitri, "I want you to watch over the smurf awhile I'm out, be careful with him Chernov."
"Yes dad." said Chernov.
When Dimitri left the lab, Chernov got to work in cleaning up Brainy's blood. Once he put the surgical tools away, Chernov stripped Brainy from his clothes and washed them. The video made Brainy teared up as Chernov managed to provide new fresh clothing for him. After getting Brainy in a smurf hat and pants, he picks him up and went off camera – and then the clip ends.
"See," said Brainy as he tried to hold back his tears, "We are that close."
The final clip they saw was when Dimitri came home with a large sack, Chernov carries the camera awhile airborne as Dimitri heaves the bag to the back room. At the corner of the room lies an unconscious Brainy, which was at the least of everyone's concerns in the moment. "What you got there dad?" asked Chernov.
"You tell me," said Dimitri as he approached the large glass container.
He opened up the bag and carefully dumped the contents onto the floor, it was the smurfs. When the smurfs saw themselves in the video all at once, their jaws dropped. They watched Dimitri placed them on small beds in the glass container, it took about 10 minutes, but time flies when your committed into saving someones life. "What happened to them dad?" asked Chernov as Dimitri placed the last of the smurfs inside the glass container.
"The dam broke and they were swept away," said Dimitri, "I managed to save them all..."
His voice trailed off as he closes the glass container and pressed a transparent button on the glass, starting up the life support systems in the smurf's enclosed environment. "It just seems wrong Chernov," said Dimitri.
"What's wrong?" asked Chernov.
"It's wrong to cage them like this, its going to make them feel helpless. Just imagine what it would be like to be encased in a small space for the rest of your life."
"Dad, I understand. I spent most of my life in this lab and at times I feel claustrophobic."
Dimitri rest his forehead in the palm of his hands, he hadn't said a word until Chernov lands on the glass tank a few minutes later. He looked up at Chernov with droopy eyes and said, "Would you keep an eye on the smurfs Chernov, I'm tired and I need to get some sleep."
"Sure thing dad," said Chernov, "How long will the smurfs be out?"
"Until morning," said Dimitri, "Night Chernov."
"Night dad," said Chernov.
"Night son."
Dimitri left the room and the automatic doors shut behind him, Chernov kept the camera trained at all the unconscious smurfs. They all looked tired, helpless, exhausted. Chernov soon sat the camera and sighed, "Why do you guys have to be inferior?" he asked, "One of these days, I'll help you claim your place in the world. My dad saved you all from a catastrophic disaster, and maybe I'll do the same one day... one day."
The camera remains fixated on the smurfs for about 5 minutes, there was nothing more from Chernov. The smurfs who were watching the footage can't bear in mind that this really happened. When the clip ended, Brainy stood up and turned off the projector. "We gotta talk to Chernov guys," he said, "He's the only one who knows how to save us, we just gotta cheer him up."
"How?" asked Hefty.
"He understands us smurfs," said Papa Smurf, "All we have to do..."
"Is to understand him," added Brainy, "He understands us so we have to understand him, that's all there is to it."
"His shell is cracked open guys," said Grandpa Smurf, "We should take a look inside that shell before it is sealed up forever, we best hurry smurfs."
TO BE CONTINUED...