"How do we know they aren't working with Zim, huh?" Dib whispered as we continued to follow the small creatures, "How do we know that this isn't leading up to some big trap?"

I rolled my eyes, "I really don't think it is, and if it was, what has Zim got to gain from it?"

He pointed at me as if to answer, but couldn't find one, "Well… this just seems a bit weird, why would Zim want us to find them? And hunt them?"

"Firstly, you of all people should be used to weird by now." I smirked, "And secondly; Zim's got it into his head that if we're busy tracking them down, then we won't be interrupting his plans anymore."

Dib tilted his head on mock confusion, "Is this Zim trying to think logical?"

I chuckled, "Maybe, but as usual, it's not working, I'm certainly paying him a visit as soon as possible."

One of the blue creatures stumbled over its own feet and toppled flat on its stomach, Clumsy I figured. The other, clearly used to this just adjusted his glasses and carried on walking. I stooped down and held out a finger for the fallen to grab. He blinked at me, not sure what to think of me, before grabbing it and letting me help him to its feet. He smiled sheepishly before rushing up to Brainy, tripping a few more times on the way. I smiled softly and straightened up to see Dib folding his arms and tapping his foot, giving me a knowing look.

"You're doing it again."

"Doing what?" I asked innocently.

"Mothering." He raised an eyebrow, "Every time we come across some sort of paranormal entity, you instantly try and mother it."

"I don't! Give me an example where I've done that before."

He counted on his fingers, "You adopted Zim as a little brother, you treat the robot thingy like he's a little kid, when Lydia and BJ first showed up you made an effort to include Lydia before she even finished buying her lunch, BJ you started summoning every five minutes to make sure he hadn't gotten himself in trouble;" he took a breath, "You tried to calm that lunatic cat from this afternoon and now you're trying to mother an entire village of little blue people."

I just scowled, "I said give me an example. As in singular."

Dib smirked triumphantly and laced his fingers in mine comfortingly, "I'm not saying it's, you know, a bad thing…"

I blushed a little before our thoughts were interrupted by one of the smurfs. Brainy was gripping his head in his hands and chewing his lips nervously.

"Oh this is bad this is smurfy bad! They were here, they should still be here!"

"They can't have smurfed too far." Clumsy stammered.

"They're gone, we're alone! We're gonna die!"

"Hey, hey, calm down!" I shushed, dropping to my knees and holding my palms out defensively, "We'll find them, like you said they couldn't have gone far."

"Mothering…" Dib whispered in my ear before joining me on the ground.

All of a sudden, there was a guttural yowl and a flash of rust tinted fur. I cried out in pain as a set of claws sunk into my arm and sent me flying to the ground. A pair of cruel yellow eyes narrowed on me.

"It's that psycho cat!" Dib cried, smacking his hands together to try and scare the cat off of me.

"Azrael!" the smurfs squeaked.

The cat turned its head to focus on the smurf. It growled threateningly and retracted its claws out of my arm, scraping me more in the process. It pounced off of me and stalked towards the two. It licked its lips maliciously as it edged closer to them. Dib made a series of noised and tossed a few clumps of dirt at it, hoping to scare it off, but it simply hissed at him and returned to its pray. I rolled over onto my stomach and grabbed at its tail. It halted and turned to swipe at me, giving the smurfs a chance to run. They vanished into the shadows and by the time the cat had turned around, they were gone. It hissed in agitation and turned around to swipe at me again. I jumped back just in time to avoid its claws. A small stone bounced off its nose, making it flinch in shock. It turned to glare at Dib.

"Back off you mangy cat!" Dib snapped.

It snarled and leapt into the air, claws bared and aimed right at his chest. Once again, Dib was on his back with the cat sinking it's claws through his shirt. However it didn't have time to scratch his skin before a small blue object collided into the side of the animal. The two rolled to the ground in a struggle. What looked like another smurf, dressed like the others but this time baring a tattoo of an arrow-pierced heart on his shoulder. He pinned the cat to the ground with surprising strength while a second smurf wearing a Scottish kilt leapt forward. He gave the cats whiskers a sharp tug glared at it warningly, sharply avoiding its flailing claws. The tattooed smurf gave the animal a swift punch to the nose, dazing it. The two backed off, the Scottish giving it a good kick in the rear. The cat yowled and jump to its feet, back arched and hissing wildly, but also backing away. Finally, it turn-tailed and fled. The two sniggered and gave one another a high-five, the Scottish one turned his attention to us.

"You alright there?" the tattooed smurf asked, "Got a few battle wounds."

I looked down at my arm where the cat had clawed me, it was bleeding, but not too badly, "Yeah, I'm alright…" I breathed.

"Way to protect ya lass there, laddie." The Scottish nodded approvingly at Dib.

Dib swallowed thickly, "Uh… thanks?"

"Are you two okay?" I felt like I should ask, after all they chased the cat off, "That cat was insane!"

"Please! I've smurfed harder work-outs at home!"

"Aye, lass, and that feline won't come smurfing 'round here for a while!"

"Hey, this way!"

I turned to see Clumsy waving at us from up ahead. The two smurfs beckoned us to follow them and sprinted off. Wow they were quick considering their size! I grabbed Dib's arm and pulled him to his feet before rushing to keep up with them. We arrived at a clearing in the trees where opposite was a large tree that looked pretty warped and dead. The inside was wide and hollow, fallen twigs and moss coated the ground inside. Dib and I knelt down at the mouth of the trunk, unable to fit inside. The three smurfs vanished inside of it and after a while were all we could hear were soft mutterings; returned with large army of other smurfs, crowding around our legs and looking up with curiosity and slight fear.

"Amy…" Dib muttered with both excitement and panic, "There's hundreds of them!"

My jaw dropped at the quantity of smurfs. The majority of them wore the same white pants and hats and looked pretty identical. However, others had different clothing or a certain accessory to set them apart. One looked the same as the rest, but had fixed a flower in his hat whereas another was clad in white overalls with a pencil tucked behind his ear. Strange, there only seemed to be one female, she was pretty and had long blonde hair, she waved shyly at us while holding a small smurf baby. There were just so many of them! When all of them had finally marched out and into the open, one that seemed much older than the rest, a snowy beard covering most of his face and dressed in a red hat and pants. He looked up at the pair of us with kind eyes.

"So you're the two that helped my little smurfs."

It didn't sound like a question, more of a statement. He smiled softly up at us that for some reason just relaxed me. It was the kind of smile that a favourite grandparent would give his grandchild. Dib and I nodded, not really sure how to react to that. After all, they had helped us more than we had helped them.

The smurfs smile widened and placed a hand on my knee, "Then I thank you for caring for my smurfs, and I apologise for any trouble we've caused you; you can understand our need to be cautious."

"Your smurfs? So you're like their leader?" Dib asked, his eyes brightening, "So what kind of paranormal qualities do you have, are you powered through some sort of cosmic force or do you create your own energy like humans? How come you speak English and is it your native language and where does the random changes of some words into 'smurf' come from? Oh and -"

Once again my hand was clamped over his mouth to stop him babbling, "He means to say: Hi, it's no problem because it was you guys that helped us more in the long run, and thank you." I smirked.

Clumsy waved at me from the front of the crowd, to which Brainy face-palmed. I smiled a little at that, it was so sweet. Oh wow this was so weird! But awesome too! There were little blue people everywhere! Okay Amy, breathe, you managed to avoid a paranormal freak out so far, do not break down now! If Dib's already bugging out then one of you needs to keep a clear head. Dib suddenly froze, eyes staring at the top of my head.

I tilted my eyes upwards and flinched at the little upside down blue face that was grinning at me. This one looked really young and feminine, little red pigtails hanging by her ears. She flipped over so that she was hanging right side up, holding onto a strand of my hair right before my eyes. She wore a pink pair of dungarees and grinned cheekily and tilted her head questioningly. I reached up and let her slide down my hair and onto my palm for safety.

"What you say your name was?" she asked curiously, she sounded young too, maybe about my sisters age.

"A-Amy…" I swallowed, "What's yours?"

"Sassette, but you can call me Sassy! And who's that?"

"Oh, this is Dib." I smiled as Dib gave an awkward wave.

"Okay, so now I know who Nat's climbing on." She giggled.

She pointed over at Dib's head, he arched his brow questioningly and looked around him. I gave a little giggle as he turned his head and revealed another child-like smurf, handing upside down by his knees on the spike in Dib's hair. This one was clutching a straw hat in his hands and bore a tattered pair of brown overalls. He waved and grinned. Dib darted his eyes in all directions, searching for the source of the additional laughter. The elderly smurf placed his hands on his hips.

"Smurflings, this isn't the time to be smurfing around, we have to figure out how to get home." His tone was soft but firm.

"Yes, Papa." They chorused with a slight groan.

I lowered Sassy to the ground and held Dibs head still so that I could place my hand beneath the little guy. He smiled softly and flipped backwards and landed on my palm with a small bump. Dib raised his brow in surprise as I placed Nat down too. Dib instantly ran his fingers through his hair to search for more, coming up empty handed. I smirked a little, but also feeling the need to search my person too. The two smurflings rushed to… Papa I think they called him, and hugged him before beaming up at Dib and I again.

"Uh… Santa-guy… Uh, how many of you are there again?" Dib asked.

"Please, call me Papa. And there's over one-hundred of us altogether. And that's just going to make it harder to protect them now that night is falling…" Papa sighed.

"And Azrael!" pointed out Brainy, "If that feline is around then Gargamel can't be far behind."

There was a murmur of fear rippling throughout the crowd. I looked at Dib who tilted his head, just as confused as I was: "Well if you need a place to st-"

Dib clamped his hand over my mouth and pulled me upwards to my feet, "We'll be right back…" he said through a forced smile.

The smurfs blinked in confusion but nodded all the same. What was Dib getting at this time? They were small and lost and alone, and I had an entire house to myself. So why would I offer to let them stay with me. And chances were it would only be for the one night and then I'd convince Zim to send them home. What was the big deal? As soon as we were out of ear-shot, Dib removed his hand and turned me to face him. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing.

"Please tell me you weren't going to move them in with you?"

I shrugged, "Just for the night, I've got the room, and they can't stay out in the woods all night, it's dangerous."

"They could be dangerous!"

"They helped us, remember?" I sighed and smoothed his arm comfortingly, "And if you're that worried, then you can stay over too and be my protect me again, eh laddie?"

He rolled his eyes, but there was a hint of a smile somewhere, "I don't know about this."

I covered my heart in mock surprise, "Well, Dib, I'm shocked. You call yourself a paranormal investigator?" I paused as he tilted his head questioningly, "And yet you're passing out on a major opportunity here. Here we have a village of paranormal entities eagerly awaiting us, open for questions and observation, and you're just willing to pass them by. I'm shocked…"

He folded his arms, "I know what you're doing, and it isn't gonna work."

I stood a little closer to him and smiled softly, "Isn't it Dib, are you sure about that? There's a lot of opportunities you're missing out on here."

He sighed and looked at me in the eyes. I deliberately refused to blink, making my eyes as wide and hopeful as I could. It took a while and my eyes were starting to water, but finally he deflated and groaned.

"Fine… but I'm not happy about this."

I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek as a thank you and rushed back over to the creatures who were waiting expectantly. Dib huffed and lent against the tree, keeping a safe distance as the smurflings brightened at the sight of him. I knelt down carefully and swallowed thickly.

"So as I was saying, if you need a place to stay, you're all welcome to stay at my house. My family are away for a few days, so there's plenty of room."

"We wouldn't want to be a burden to you." Papa furrowed his brow, but there was a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

"It's not a burden, honestly, and with that cat lurking around, I'd feel better knowing that you're all okay."

"Mothering…" Dib whispered with a smirk, to which I poked my tongue out at him, making the smaller ones giggle.

"Can we go with Dibby?" asked Sassy, smiling sweetly.

Dib paled, "Dibby?"

It had been a hard trip back to my house. But then again, we were trying to get over a hundred little blue creatures from one end of the park to the other and then make our way through a bunch of side-streets to get to my house. Looking back, it was lucky that it had been so late and dark, there were very few people out and the few cars that zoomed by were in too much of a hurry to get home that they didn't notice us. Poor Dib ended up with all four of the smurflings travelling in his pockets. Or rather, two in one pocket, one in the other and little Sassy getting a good view from the top of his head, much to his dismay. All along the way home, Papa had tried to introduce every single one of the smurfs. Every. Single. One.

It was incredible, their traits or professions were their names, so you'd think that it would be easier to remember. But nope! Some were easy, like Brainy; and Clumsy couldn't walk in a straight line without tripping so that was a give away. Handy had his pencil and Vanity was constantly looking in his mirror, Grouchy always had his arms folded and scowled whereas Smurfette was the only female apart from Sassy. And it turned out that the two who had fought off the cat were called Hefty and Gutsy. But others were nearly impossible to tell apart. Like Baker and Chef were almost identical, as were Lazy, Dreamer and Jokey! But at least Jokey gave himself away with his cheeky grin, and Lazy was nodding off… Wow my head was starting to swim… And by the looks of it, Dib wasn't having much luck either.

By the time we finally got to mine, most of the smurfs had realised that my house was awfully close to Zim's base. A few of them froze in unease, only to rush to the start of the group and try and hurry us along. I opened the door and pressed myself against the wall while they crowded inside. Dib removed the smurflings from his pockets and placed them among the others. All except from Sassy, who had latched herself to the spike in his hair, refusing to let go.

"I like staying with Dibby." She grinned.

Dib deflated and looked at me with a very familiar un-amused expression. Smurfette sighed and looked at me apologetically.

"Really sorry about her, I smurf it's a little sister thing." She sighed.

"Don't have to tell us twice." I smirked, tickling Sassy with my pinkie finger so that she shrieked and let go so that I could hand her back to Smurfette.

"Actually, Gaz was nothing like that." Dib pointed out.

"Doesn't surprise me." I winked.

"Thank you smurfly again for allowing us to smurf the night in your mushroom, Miss Amy." Papa smiled, grasping his hands in appreciation, "But are you sure we're safe with him so close?"

"Zim? Oh, he's fine really, he's…" I trailed off when I saw Dib arching his brow at me, "What?"

"Amy, tell them the truth." He smirked, "Zim's an alien menace who brought them all here so that we wouldn't be interrupting his plans for world domination."

"Well, I was going to tell them that… but you say it so negatively!" I grinned, turning back to the visitors, "He's not that bad, I guess, and I'll get him to start up the portal again and send you home first thing in the morning."

"Oh you are, are you?" Dib asked sarcastically.

"Yes," I winked and smiled sweetly, "I'm his favourite sister after all."

Dib just groaned with sarcasm as well as irritation. This little reluctant alliance between Zim and I had always gotten his back up. Understandable I guess…

"You're related?" Brainy asked, adjusting his glasses, "There's very little of a resemblance, if you don't smurf me saying so."

"No, we're not related, but we wind each other up like siblings, so I've just started calling him my brother. It winds him up all the more that way." I grinned.

Baby yawned, as did a few of the smurflings, rubbing their eyes. Lazy was already snoozing, leaning against the bottom step of the stairs. I looked at Dib who sighed and rolled his eyes. There were little dark shadows from lack of sleep under his eyes too. We looked around at the large army of smurfs and then discovered out next problem. Where were they going to sleep? When I suggested sleep, they turned out to be very easy. Dib spread out all of my coats and jackets, including his own too, on the floor of my mothers' bedroom so that a few could sleep inside the pockets. Others took comfort inside slippers while most of them could fit on the double bed and using shreds of sheets that I'd cut up as blankets. Within an hour or so, the majority of them were comfortable and half-way to sleep. I'd given Handy an empty velvet box that had once held a ring, and he soon had it hollowed out and padded with sheets as a crib for Baby. I stood in the doorway and admired the scene, Dib at my side.

"See, told you that mothering wasn't always a bad thing."

I swatted his arm and smiled softly. Yeah, as much as the mothering comments were getting on my nerves a little, he had a point. And I did feel a sense of pride at the sleeping miniatures that filled the room.

"Goodnight." I muttered, feeling a little awkward just standing there.

"Smurfy dreams, Dibby!" Sassy giggled.

Dib tilted his head, "Uh… yeah… Goodnight…"

"We can't thank you enough Miss Amy, and you too Master Dib." Papa insisted.

"Really, it's uh, no trouble." Dib cleared his throat.

I gave a small wave of goodnight and walked down to my room, tiredness washing over me. What a day. Zim had really outdone himself this time. And that was saying something! No wonder he'd sounded so panicked on the communicator, I would too if all of those little creatures came pilling into my house! Well, they kind of did, but I mean unexpectedly. Well this was unexpected too… but you know what I mean. Dib left to change into his nightclothes in the bathroom so that I could have privacy in my own room. By the time he was back, I was already curled up in bed and nodding off. Out of habit, he scooted in next to me and curled up to sleep. I smirked and removed his glasses for him, placing them on my window ledge.

"Still had a fun day? I asked.

He squinted at me, "You know, like I said before, the parts with you have been fun. And you're right, this is an amazing opportunity for paranormal studies everywhere!"

I chuckled and kissed the tip of his nose which made him flinch from his lack of vision, "Yeah, if you say so…"

"No smurfy business in there laddie!" called a heavily accented voice from the other room.

Dib's cheeks burned, "Wha…? Th-there's nothing…!"

"Goodnight, Gutsy!" I called back with laughter in my tone.

I have Dib's hand a squeeze and closed my eyes, allowing sleep to wash over me. It seemed that the excitement of the day had worn off, leaving nothing but fatigue. However, I awoke only a few hours later; and heard a soft whimpering. My eyes blinked rapidly to snap the sleep away, what was making that noise? Slowly, I clambered over Dib and onto the ground, managing not to wake him, and make my way down to the room where the smurfs were asleep. In the gloom, I could make out a few little shapes sleeping soundly on the bed and floor. However, there was still that little whimpering sound, so faint that if I hadn't known better, I would've mistaken it for part of a dream. Slowly, I made my way to the area by the door where it was coming from the cot Handy had put together from an old ring box. Kneeling down, I peered in to see little Baby stirring and quivering from unease.

So badly I wanted to pick him up and comfort him. But he was too small and delicate, I didn't trust myself. Instead, I hushed him softly and placed my little finger on his stomach and rocked him gently from side to side, humming softly. His miniscule hands gripped at my fingertip and settled down slightly. He sucked on his pacifier contently and soon his arms dropped to his sides, sleep claiming him once again. A smile twitched at the corners of my mouth, it was good to know that this technique worked on smurf babies too. Oh no, Dib was right, I was too motherly and maternal! Something moved beside me, making me flinch in surprise. Whatever it was stumbled backward at my movement and fell onto its rear.

"Clumsy?"

"Sorry," he whispered, "didn't mean to scare you. Just smurfed you might want a hand with Baby."

I smiled, "He's just settled down again, thanks. What's up? Can't sleep?"

He shrugged, "Not really…"

"First night away from home?"

He nodded and I instantly felt sympathy for him. I remembered my first night in this house, I didn't sleep a wink. It was my first time in a new country, a new house, I was due to start a new school the next day, and minutes earlier I'd been sedated by my next door neighbour who turned out to be an alien! Not the best first night… Really, he wasn't much different. New house, new country, new world even! I placed my hand palm-up next to him, to which he carefully sat himself down on. I slowly got to my feet and lifted him up with me.

"First night's always scary, but it'll be fine in the morning, and I won't let anything hurt you here."

I tipped my hand so that he slid softly onto the bedside table and curled up among the sheets I'd cut up for bedding. I lingered for a moment, he looked like he still had something to say. He tilted his head to peek out of the window, but quickly turned back to face me, curling up tighter.

"It's not in here I'm smurfed about, it's out there."

From my position, I could make out part of Zim's house. Clumsy had a point, there was a lot of danger out there, and Zim had pulled them into it, and not exactly accidentally either… But still, what else could I say to him?

I patted his head softly, "I won't let anything hurt you out there either. I promise."

He smiled shyly, "Cross you heart and hope to smurf?"

I moved my finger over my heart, "Cross my heart and hope to smurf."

That seemed to satisfy him and his eyes started to droop, "Smurfy dreams…" he breathed.

I smiled at the phrase, "Smurfy dreams." I repeated.

Careful with my footing, I managed to make it back across the bedroom and tiptoe my way back into my own bedroom. Dib was still sound asleep, so I scrambled back over to where I had been laying previously. What I forgot was that Dib was a sleep cuddler. The moment he felt the bed shift, he rolled over and draped an arm around my waist, resting hid head on my shoulder. A sigh escaped me as I shook my head, before giving in and settling down next to him. However, there was still one thing that I was confused about.

When the smurfs had mentioned the cat, Azrael I think they called it, they also said that another person, Garg-something-or-other, wouldn't be far behind. So who was this other person? I doubted it was another cat. I closed my eyes and tried to shake it off until the morning. However, just as sleep was about to swallow me again, I remembered the cat showing up in Bloaty's. A man had stormed in after it… theoretically speaking, there has been no sign of blue people around here has there? My eyes snapped open, and if Dib hadn't been nuzzling into me, I would have shot upright. That man had called the cat by its name, it had spoken like he was pretty much come from another time, calling me a wench and stuff like that, and he'd asked for blue people… Was that crazy old man, that Garga-whatsit person they'd been so scared of? And if so… what did he want with them?

A/N:

Sorry this is such a rambling and pretty crap chapter but I just wanted to clear a few things up and answer a few questions, it will pick up soon, I promise! Please tell me what you think so far, I know I'm mixing bits from the cartoon and movie, but I loved them both and couldn't choose XD Damn the maternal instinct is spreading, curse you Amy! XD