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Act I: Chapter XII

"Okay Handy," said Chernov, "You hold the electrode in a 45 degree angle and you drag the molten puddle as you weld along the two sheets of metal. Take it slow, remember that you have all day."

"Right Chernov." said Handy.

It was probably a good idea to bring Handy in a green smurf workshop rather than on the actual construction site. The workshops of the Green Smurf Colony are built mostly in the manufacturing GSVs, its also built in other parts of the colony as well but they often go unused by the green smurfs. So Chernov picked one workshop in GSV 1, the green smurfette who owned it didn't mind them using it for today's training as she was busy trying to get a date. Two small cast iron sheets of metal were placed right next to each other until they're touching on top of a copper table, Handy will be welding these sheets of metal together using the Arc Welding Method. Commonly used in the green smurf village for construction of large buildings, they use mostly iron for building since its easier to work with than most metals, and because of the obvious fact that wood burns.

"Remember to wear a protective welding mask with the level 10 shades," instructed Chernov, "Anything lower than that will give you a bad case of Welder's Flash and may cause you to go blind, you should also wear some gloves since the metal may get hot. If anything does catch fire, there's a fire extinguisher on hand for that problem."

"You sound almost like Brainy a little bit."

"Except I don't have the glasses and I don't love my own voice. Just relax, strike the metal to get an arc going, and proceed to weld at the desired area. If you're getting annoyed, so am I... So I'm going to shut up now and, let you get on with it now."

Handy got comfortable as he positioned the welding rod at a 45 degree angle. He and Chernov pulled down their welding masks over their faces as Handy made a spark on the metal a flash of light followed by a buzzing sound indicated he just got an arc going. Handy moved the sparkling welding rod over the joints of the welding pad, slowly he began to make his weld awhile using a circular pattern he saw Chernov used during the quick demo earlier. The green smurf watched as Handy stitched the cast iron pieces together in little more than a minute, when Handy was done he took the electrode away and flipped up the mask.

"How is it?" he asked.

Chernov took out a small hammer and chipped away the slag, which builds over the weld when doing arch welding, off of Handy's weld, revealing a silvery finish with a neat pattern, "You did good," said Chernov, "But notice that your weld has a V pattern to it."

"I see it."

"You did the weld too fast, there wasn't enough time for the two metals to fuze completely, which is dangerous on actual construction. Turn the metal around and do it again, as I hold your hand to tune you to the correct speed."

"Okay Chernov."

In the back of Chernov's mind, he knew Handy might not liked that. So he takes it easy as the smurf turns the metal around and Chernov held his hand as he performed the weld again. Surely enough, the weld began to take shape and within a couple of minutes Handy finished the weld. The two smurfs flipped up their welding masks and examined the weld, "There we go," said Chernov, "That's how you do it."

"I'm just wondering Chernov," said Handy as he turned off the welding machine, "Can you take me to a construction site so I can see how the green smurfs build their buildings?"

"Yeah," said Chernov, "Let's clean up and I'll take you to a construction site, I know one not far from here actually."

"Oh good, this is going to be smurfy."

. . .

Sally figured the weld would hold, after hammering off all the slag from the weld, it appeared to be the best she could do at the moment. Being tied to a safety harness awhile high some steel girder in the middle of the construction site was dangerous enough, might as well work on the ground and have debris land on your head than falling to your death. She had more work to be done, more steel girders that must be attached to each other, so Sally flipped up the welding mask, remove her electrode from the steel girder, and climbed down from her post to head to the next one.

She wasn't just a welder, Sally was also the pilot of one of three stealth bombers in the Green Smurf Air Force. In peace time, Sally works on construction projects at home and only trains her piloting skills on the weekends. So in the meantime, she gets out the backpack ark welder and gets to work welding girders together that were impossible to bolt together. When welding, it often gets hot. Since green smurfettes don't have upper body private parts, there was nothing wrong about them wearing only camouflaged pants.

Green smurfs are tough, they even have skin twice the thickness of that of a human. Many green smurfs who weld sometimes don't have much protection and often have scars on the front of their torsos and arms from the sparks flying off during the welding process and landing on their skins, causing spotty burns. They usually don't notice the burns, even when they smell cooked flesh, most had to actually glance at the burns to realize what happened and that can be hours after welding. Due to the sweat, grease, dust, and rust that covers the green smurfs after a hard day's work in the construction yard, the burns can get infected and cause blood poisoning. So it was important for the green smurfs to be only healthy when on the job or construction accidents will be the least of their problems.

Sally's body had seen its fair share of burns, so much so that it ruined her beauty, she even had a scar on the side of her face after taking a nasty fall. It didn't really matter to her, to her it just proves she can take on serious punishment and get back up into the fight. If her blond hair had caught fire, then she would be worried. To make sure that it won't be incinerated so easily, she kept the front trimmed to her eyebrows and the back to her ears, similar to Rachael's hairstyle but more shorter. She didn't plan to get into a relationship and have kids, Sally plans to rule the skies and be like a god, sending down thunder from a press of a button.

Of course, that was only a dream. For it to come true, they would have to be in a middle of a war. It was not a total disaster though, those vertibirds and Aurora stealth fighter jets are fun to use. Sally can only hope and wait, for now she can only enjoy life as it is.

Just as she was about to climb the next girder, something caught her eye. Down the road, two figures approach. One of them was Chernov, no doubt from the height. But the other smurf was blue, was that Brainy? No, he should have glasses. The blue smurf was wearing a pair of white overalls, when she realized it was Handy, the sight of him hit her hard.

It felt as if someone had shoved their hand into her chest and pulled her heart out, because that's what the feeling was like. Sally felt butterflies flutter in her stomach as her pulse and blood pressure skyrockets. She wasn't used to the feeling, never had it before. Sally knew it was love, and Handy had took her heart away by just showing up. She never had much feelings about him before, actually never even saw him in person, until now. He was getting closer, well into range of facial recognition. Sally sucked it up and tried to act natural, only to realize that was impossible. With the dead weight on her back not helping, Sally walked over to the modular office of the construction sight and sat her welding pack with the unused ones. After wrapping up the cords, she was about to leave when Chernov and Handy were just a meter away.

Somehow, she managed to take control, Chernov's presence always brought control, "Sally," he said, "This is Handy Smurf, you know, the Founder of Smurf Industry?"

"I never actually founded any industry." said Handy.

Chernov nudged him hard in the side, "Don't say the truth Handy, you'll never convince them otherwise."

"Oh yes," said Sally, gaining more success on self-control now, "Made the first smurfmobile as I heard, I always wondered why most of your inventions in the Smurf Village never caught on though."

"I would like to answer that question," said Chernov, "But I can't do it without offending anybody, we'll leave that for Papa Smurf some time in the future."

"What are you too here for?" asked Sally.

"I'm training Handy on some construction methods, show him around the construction yard here so he could get a better understanding with our use of metal."

"I have two questions for you Sally." said Handy.

"Is the first one is the fact that I'm not wearing upper body clothing since I'm a girl, and the second one is about all these swiss cheese looking scars all over my body?"

Handy looked like he was speechless, "Yes."

"Think about it, why would anyone in their bright mind to wear a dress in a construction yard. It's very inappropriate due to the fire hazards and loose machinery. And all of these burns came from past skirmishes against the red smurfs, accidents from the construction sites, and once my vertibird crash because my brothers forgot to refuel it. What do you know, all questions are answered, amazing!"

"You seemed a bit nervous half-sis." said Chernov.

"Nervous! How can I be nervous! I'm perfectly fine!"

Without warning, she felt something poke her in the back and she jumped. She spun around to see some of her green smurf brothers running away, laughing hysterically. "Are you done?" asked Chernov.

Sally took a deep breath and exhales before returning her attention to Chernov and Handy, "Yes, I'm done. Right this way please."

. . .

Chernov and Handy followed Sally around as she showed them the many methods and materials used in construction, Handy seemed to be amazed, which was good enough for Chernov. Knowing that Handy brings in all the new innovations into the village, he hoped that he would pull the village out of its primitive ways and into an era of information. It seemed to be a long shot, but he knew the smurfs wouldn't survive if they don't evolve and adapt. For as much as he was concerned, humans may be on the prowl in hunting them for gold and treatment for various diseases. It was obvious that the smurf's luck will run out, he felt it was near.

He walked along as Sally's constant chattering rang madly inside his head, other than that, Chernov can sensed the emotion she was feeling: Love. He saw it in Rachael when he met her, and Sally was no different. Chernov noticed she was mostly looking at Handy when turning her attention at them, he dare not assume Sally was in love with Handy, he did not want to cause that kind of problem.

Sally excused herself to use the bathroom for a moment, as she headed off to the nearby portable latrine Chernov saw she was walking a little to fast. When she got inside the lime green portable toilet, she shut and locked the door behind her.

"Chernov?" asked Handy.

"Yeah?" asked Chernov.

"She seemed a bit off, I know that may be usual for green smurfettes but Sally seemed to be... you know, anxious."

"I think she has some feelings for you, did you notice she was looking at you most of the time?"

"You mean, she's in love with me?"

"I'm already taken, so Sally had to be interested in you."

"Oh, I'm not sure how it's going to wo-"

"Handy, don't be picky at women. Never come to women, let them come to you. When the time comes, she would reveal her affections to you."

"Okay Chernov."

Seems that the blue smurfs are seeing him as a leader, Chernov finds it so easy to work with the blue smurfs as they never gave him much stress as the green smurfs do. How about that, they make great followers but he wasn't sure about great soldiers. Chernov wasn't sure if they had the will to take lives, they're just to sweet and kind for that kind of act. Hefty and Handy would might, but the rest of the smurfs were another story. He hoped it would come down into that situation, fear of corruption weighs heavily on his head from the green smurfs' human-like lifestyle, and it appeared worse than he could ever imagine.

The door to the nearby portable toilet flied open and Sally stepped out, after adjusting her trousers she returned to the smurfs all ready to go, "So what do you think about our methods so far Handy?"

"I'm just amaze that there's a lot of professionals here," said Handy, "Back in the village, I was the only one there, but here, they looked like they'd been doing this for centuries!"

"Like a cavemen amazed at a rocket ship," said Chernov, "You'll get used to it Handy, at least you'll have some insurance if you have a problem."

"Thanks Sally for everything," said Handy as he shook her hand, "I need to smurf back to the Smurf Village to get some projects done, I'll smurf you back when I need something, okay?"

"Right Handy," said Sally, "Just stop by sometime and visit, all smurfs get lonely too easily."

"Let's go Handy," said Chernov, "Bye Sally, just don't get hurt when I'm gone, you half-siblings worth too much trouble as it is."

"Bye bro, take care."

As Chernov and Handy walked away, the blue smurf sighed, "Ah I'm never going to get used to this."

"You will," said Chernov, "I'll beat all the doubt out of you, I'll promise you that."

"Thanks." said Handy, sounding unsure what Chernov meant.

. . .

Sally found herself running down one of the main roads of the colony, she ran as fast as her feet could take her and managed to reach her spiderhole. She ran up to the door and opened it then ran inside before shutting it, Sally pressed her back against the door as she slid down to the floor, panting hardly. Her house had the usual concrete walls and floor, along with the footlocker and metal framed bed. The stove however was a wood burner and not a gas one, since there wasn't any pipelines of natural gas nearby. This was home, she hadn't lived in it much since she was so busy working. She only used the place to sleep, and that's about it.

She recovered from her exhaustion and started a small fire in her cast iron stove, once she got the fire burning Sally laid down on the plush bed and wait for the cold air to be taken away by warmness. Her heart still felt sore from being love-stricken, and it felt worse when being away from Handy. Like a key fitting into a lock, Sally had found love just like that. They say a crush hurts, Sally thought they were right. She buried her head into her pillow and rubbed one of many scars on her that were getting irritated. Anytime she's stressed, the scars seemed to show it by wanting to be scratched, it was probably a leftover from the healing process. To treat the scars, Sally rubbed them with some sunflower oil when they get irritated, she didn't really need it since the itching was tolerable, Sally just used sunflower oil as a placebo.

Now it was one of those times she needed that sunflower oil, so Sally grabbed one of the bottles of the stuff from underneath her bed, dab some on her hand, then smear it all over the front of her pop-marked torso. The oil calmed her nerves almost instantly and the scars on her body eases their irritation. She got onto her back and stared up at the ceiling as she sat the sunflower oil bottle aside. Under the dim LED Bulb that lit up the room, she thought about Handy being with her.

She tried to convince herself that Handy was way older than her, he was her uncle-in-law, and he was unavailable. It didn't work, her love for him was strong. When Sally realized she couldn't walk away from him, she just had to find a way to get his attention and confess her love to him. Sally just hoped she doesn't have any competition, or else it would all be over before it even began.

There was a knock on the door, Sally groaned as she got off the bed and answered it, "Chad," said Sally, "Nice to see you."

"Hey Sal," said Chad, "Are you up to flying today?"

"Yes."

"Good, I knew I can count on one of my elite pilots like you."

"So what are we doing?"

"Testing out some new bombs we had developed, they're tipped with proximity charges. I'll explain more on the way."

"Okay."

Her thoughts about Handy would have to be left at home for the time being, Sally was glad Chad's random visit pulled her head out of the gutter. Flying is her only love, or is it?

TO BE CONTINUED...