Chapter 3: The Check Up
"What is this place?" Toughette asked as they entered a strange room with unexplainable deices that were everywhere. Box-like things hanging on the walls seem to have bizarre images blinking on the front of them. Along the side of the room there sat a row of four weird looking beds. Beside the beds were unusual looking metal trays with wheels on the bottom of them. On the top of the trays are a bunch of gausses, bandages, and other weird stuff.
"This is our Medial lab." Elder Brainette announced in a proud tone.
"M-m-medical lab...? You mean a place where you just might carry," Toughette paused from her nervous stutter swallow a huge lump in her throat, "needles?" She finished, taking a step closer to Hefty.
"Toughette please," Nat Smurf begged. "We need to check you two over to make sure you're doing ok. The trip must have been very stressful. We promise that we won't do anything that will make you uncomfortable, ok." He promised.
"No! You are going to stick a needle in me. I can tell!" Toughette cried, attempting to back out of the room.
"Look Toughette, everything we use these days are not as bad as it was back in the days of the Old Village." Slouchy Smurf explained calmly.
"I-I-I don't think…" The tough smurfette never felt so unsure about her surroundings. She would feel safer being in Nursette's Medical Lab back home.
"It'll be alright, Toughette. I'm here." Hefty said smoothly into her ear as he places his hands tenderly around her arms. She looks up at him and lets out a sigh.
"Take a seat on this bed here, Toughette. Hefty, you can sit on this bed beside her." Snappy Smurf instructed as he tapped on the two mattresses.
The golden blond smurfette and strong smurf cautiously did as suggested. Toughette watched nervously as Elder Brainette pulled an object from the wall behind the bed, and places a black cone shape thing on it. Brainette then points this odd object towards the tough smurfette's eyes. Within the black cone is a bright light. The cone itself was narrow and pointy. Almost like a needle. Toughette slowly slides down the bed, trying to get away from it.
"Ah, Toughette, this would work a lot better if you could just sit still." Brainette frowned at her young strong sister.
"What is that thing?" Toughette eyes grew wide as she continued to push herself against the mattress. She mentally wished she would be able to phase right through the solid object to escape this place.
"This is a scope. It will show me if your eyes might have troubles reacting to light." The smart elder explained.
"They react just fine, trust me." Toughette grumbled at her.
"What are you doing? What are these things?" Hefty asked frantically as Nat Smurf and Snappy Smurf stuck suction pads with wires attached to them on his chest and arms. It really got weird when Nat wraps his right upper arms in a strange material that magically sticks together. The material had a rubber tube connected with it all the way up to one of the strange boxes with colorful moving images on the front.
"These are going to help give us the vital readings of your heart beats, blood pressure, and breathing." Nat explained.
"What?" Hefty's voice cracked a little when saying that. He became startled when the band around his arm grew, putting on pressure against his skin. A few seconds later, the pressure deflated gradually.
Nat focused on the strange moving images on the box beside him. Crazy lines seem to bounce up and down in an extraordinary speed. Beeping noises cried out from the box. Nat's brow began to wrinkle when he saw the high numbers.
"Hmm, your blood pressure seems a little high right now." He said while reaching up to push a button on the box that immediately silenced the beeping noise.
"Oh that's just smurfy! What does that mean?" Hefty signed in frustrated.
"It means that you should try and relax a little." Nat told him.
"Try and relax?" Is this really happening? Hefty thought. "Do you have any idea what I just been through?" He began to shout. "I first wake up in an unsmurfy cave, travelled over the ocean in a giant metal bird, and brought here to have some crazy gadget strapped to my arm!"
Heft took a deep breath in before continuing. "There is only so much a smurf can take, you know. And now you expect me to try and relax?"
"He does have a point there." Sassette said calmly.
"Ah, Hefty, maybe you should take a few deep breaths. Your heart rate is getting very high." Nat suggested looking back at the monitor nervously.
"That's it! Get these things off of me!" Hefty demanded, tugging at the wires suction cups made popping noises as they were being ripped off his body.
"Hefty stop that!" Elder Brainy commanded.
"Yeah, Hefty, you might hurt something. Worse yet, you might hurt yourself." Snappy added, trying to hold down the strong smurf.
"Don't touch me." Hefty warned through his teeth.
Snappy removed his hands from him with a sheepish grin.
"Dude chill, ok." Sorcerer pleaded.
"Hey, get a way from him!" Toughette crowed as she leapt off her bed. She rushed over and stood between the adult smurfs and Hefty.
"Oh, what have they done to you?" The tough smurfette asked him softly.
"I don't know…" Hefty said looking confused.
Carefully Toughette yanked at the last little suction cup, and it popped off Hefty's chest.
"Ow…" The strong smurf winced, not realizing that tiny thing could have such a mean little sting to it.
Suddenly another strange loud beeping noise came from the peculiar box. One of the bouncing lines turned into a flat line going across the screen. The noise made everyone in the room a little uneasy. Nat quickly reached over and turned it off, image stayed on.
"Hefty, Toughette we are so sorry. We are just so excited in having you back that we keep forgetting that you are not use to all of this new technology." Slouchy Smurf said sheepishly.
"Tech-nol-gy?" Toughette said, trying to imitate the strange new word.
"Yes. Everything has changed so much over the past five hundred years, especially the past hundred years. Even Brainette and I have troubles keeping up with it all." Elder Brainy explained with a chuckle.
The two strong smurfs turned to each other in a very confused manner. Both are not too sure how to respond to any of this.
"You wouldn't believe some of the interesting things we discovered over the centuries. For example, did you know that each smurf and smurfette have different blood types?" Elder Brainette said in an almost giddy tone.
"Oh really? And how would you go about to find such a fascinating discovery?" Toughette replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes skyward.
"Well, we start by extracting a sample with this." Not even thinking, Elder Brainette picked up a small butterfly needle with a small plastic tube attached to it.
Seeing the sharp pointed object shocked Toughette so much that she actually fainted. She hit the floor with a hard thud. Everysmurf in the room immediately lunged forward to attempt to catch her.
"Whoa, girl!" Sorcerette gasped when she nearly caught her, but failed.
"Toughette?" Elder Brainette cried as she bends down to examine her.
"Toughette!" Hefty cried.
He leapt off the bed, and realized that the material wrapped around his arm still had a hold on him. With one strong thrust of his whole body, he freed himself from his prison by ripping the mysterious band off his arm and throwing it on the floor with his left hand. At the same time, Hefty caused the bizarre box to fly off its stand, and it crashed loudly on the floor. The sudden movement of Hefty shocked the other smurfs – making them all jump.
"Get away from her!" He spat angrily at Elder Brainette. Hefty collapses down to his knees, and hovered protectively over his girlfriend. He gave the other smurfs a mean glare before bringing his attention down to Toughette.
"Toughette…?" Hefty quietly whispered as he tenderly stroked her long golden hair.
Slowly Toughette fluttered her eyes open. She smiled weakly at Hefty.
"Hefty…?" She slowly answers him. "Oh Hefty, I had the weirdest dream. First, there were these strange smurfs dressed in odd-looking clothes. Then we were trapped inside a large metal beast that made horrible noises, and shook us in a violent rage. After we made it home, but it wasn't our home. Some of the smurfs we know looked different, and…"
"Uh, Toughette…" Hefty interrupted.
"What?"
"It wasn't a dream." He told her bluntly.
Toughette scanned the room with her eyes. It pained her to see that her mate was correct. Standing behind Hefty were the older faces of the smurfs she once knew. The strong smurfette let out a deep regrettable sigh.
"Maybe we should postpone giving Hefty and Toughette their physical until they are more use to their new surroundings." Brainy suggested. The other smurfs nodded in agreement.
Elder Brainette kneeled down beside the two strong smurfs.
"Again, we are sorry about all of this. You have to believe that we mean you no harm. If it is possible, may we start over?" She calmly told them. Brainette held out her hand for them to understand she is waiting for them to take it as a sign of peace.
Hefty and Toughette look at each other. Toughette slowly nodded to him before she reaches for Brainette's hand. She allowed her elderly sister to pull her up off the floor with Hefty's help.
"There, is that better? How are you feeling now?" Brainette asked.
"Like I could throw up." Toughette answered, holding her upset tummy with one hand.
"Oh, please don't do that. We just had this floor moped this morning." Sassette jokingly said.
"Well, you better get something then, because I'm not joking here." Toughette explained with a serious look on her face.
Sorcerette reacts quickly by using her magic to slide a small garbage pail towards the golden blond smurfette.
The pail made it to Toughette seconds before she leaned forward – letting out the uneasy feeling in her stomach.
"Is she going to be alright?" Hefty asks in a worried tone.
"It's probably from the stress of your travels, and eating those awful peanuts. I bet they were the salted kind too." Elder Brainy said, glaring at Sorcerer and Sorcerette. The two young magic smurfs sheepishly grin with the weight of guilt hanging on their shoulders.
Brainy turned back to Hefty with a softer expression. "How do you feel?"
"Irritated, worried, confused, where would you like me to begin, Brainy?" Hefty snapped back.
"You'll be fine. Just give your memory time to come back." Brainy said.
He attempt to put a reassuring hand on Hefty's shoulder, but he was surprised when the strong smurf quickly jerks away. It was at that moment when Brainy notices that Hefty was shivering. Over the past years the smart smurf knew Hefty, this would be the first time he saw his strong brother scared. This should have been something he could have added to the preparation list for his brother's arrival. Brainy lets out a small sigh as he tried to think of a way to help his long lost brother.
"Is that better now, Toughette?" Sassette asked as the golden blond smurfette as she lifted up her pounding head up from the bucket.
"I-I'm not sure yet." Toughette slowly rubbed each side of her head with her fingers.
"Perhaps all you need is a chance to get some real food in you Toughette. Why don't we take you to our living room?" Elder Brainette suggested. "There you can sit down comfortably, while we get something from our kitchen. Does that sound ok with you?"
"Sure." Toughette responds softly. She leaned over to Hefty's chest, and allowed him to wrap his strong arms around her. The strong smurfette was able to feel his heartbeat and the shakiness of his breath. She could tell he was as scared as she was.
"Uh, why don't you just follow us then?" Snappy raised his index finger, and curled it inward to indicate the lost smurfs to follow him.
The strong smurfs slowly followed him into the weirdest tunnel they have ever seen. It almost reminded them of the castles of their royal human friends back home, but instead of torches hanging from the walls there was fire in the ceiling that kept the hall lit.
It was not until they entered another room that Hefty and Toughette had to admire the beauty.
The room was like something Painter Smurf, Craftette, and Floraette would design. Most of the walls had green vines laid vertical in with potted flowers hung from the ceiling. In between the vines were flat columns that held up framed paintings that did not seem like it was smurf art, but something foreign to Hefty and Toughette. Two interesting statues, half the size of a smurf, sat in a few corners of the room.
One wall had no vines on it at all. Something, however, did sit in front of it. A flat black object covered most of the space. In the middle of the room was a long flat table and opposite of the black thing on the wall was a few white cushiony chairs and one long one that perhaps would be a cross from a bed and a chair with matching cushions. Under the furniture sat a colorful throw rug. That simple item seemed to add to the comfort this room offered.
"Ok, this is called a living room." Sorcerer announced in a slow tone as if the strong smurfs did not speak the same language.
"Don't talk to them like that you idiot!" Sorcerette snapped. "They may be confused, but I highly doubt they are stupid."
"Heh, sorry," Sorcerer shrugged. "Anyway, the best part in this room is the TV." The young magic smurf added as he picked up a flat object from the short long table. The strong smurfs noticed that it had a tone of buttons on it.
"Sorcerer, wait!" Elder Brainy cried, but it is too late. Sorcerer pushed down on one of the buttons from the flat object just before the black wall suddenly had moving pictures and sound.
Hefty and Toughette are instantly stunned. A creepy image appeared suddenly. Fire surrounded a group of humanoid creatures that were making a horrible noise by screeching, and banging on objects. One of the demons in the flat rectangular wall jumped forward. He lifted an object in his hand. As he drew it in front of his face, the creature began to wail into it, exposing his teeth and tongue with a shinny metal thing pierced in it.
This scared both Hefty and Toughette right out of their smurfs. Like lightning, they bolted right back out the same way they just entered.
"Oops, wrong channel." Sorcerer chuckled in embarrassment. "Hey, where did they go?" He said, noticing that Hefty and Toughette left the room.
Sorcerer's cheeks blushed as Brainy and a few of the other elders slapped their hands onto their foreheads. The rest of them shook their heads with a disapproving stare.
"D'oh, that's the second time they've run off on us." Sorcerette sighed.
"Whoa… I forgot how fast Hefty and Toughette could run." Snappy said in awe. He rushed up to the door to see if they were still in sight – but the strong smurfs had already disappeared around the corner, and down the hall.
"Well, that's just Smurfy," Brainy spat in anger. He quickly turned and pointed to TV screen. "Turn that thing off! We have to find them before they get themselves into trouble!"
"Easy Casanova," Brainette purred. She lifted a gadget from her lab jacket, and right away, it showed that it was picking up a signal of its target. "Finding them won't be as difficult as you may think. I managed to place a tracer on Toughette when she passed out in the Med Lab."
Elder Brainy smiled at his smart mate. "Always thinking ahead, aren't you?"
"Of course," Brainette nodded smugly. "Someone has to around here."