The sound of a trumpet bellowed. I shrieked with shock and jumped bolt upright. Dib snapped his eyes open and let out a cry of surprise and rolled right out of bed, tangling in the sheets and pulling me down with him. He threw his arms in the air and blinked rapidly.

"Alien's in the yard, I swear!" he cried, he gasped for breath and squinted down at me, "Sorry!"

I chuckled, "Morning; and the alien's next door, not the yard."

I pushed myself up and tossed his glasses to him. Once again, the sound of a trumpet sliced through the air, making us jump again. Where the heck was it coming from? It wasn't from my alarm clock, and my phone was on silent, and didn't even have that sound effect.

"Smurf and shine everybody!" called another voice from the other room.

A chorus of voices moaned in protest, "Smurf it, Harmony! … It's too early!... I'll smurf that trumpet where the smurf don't shine, laddie!... Please be quiet, Harmony!"

Dib rolled his eyes and face-palmed, "For smurfs sake…"

I giggled and gave him a playful shove and went to grab my dressing gown from my door, but found that it wasn't there. Oh that's right I used it as a bed for some of the little guys. So instead I pulled one of my hoddies over me and walked out into the corridor, instantly freezing in place. The door to my mothers' bedroom was wide open and the smurfs were scattered everywhere. Some were out on the landing, others still curled up in bed and a few were making their way down the stairs. There was one smurf balancing on the banister at the top of the stairs holding a bright yellow trumpet. He sighed and looked a little deflated, passing the instrument between his hands. He smiled a little at the sight of us.

"How on earth did you climb up there?" I asked, fighting the urge to place him back on the ground for safety.

Harmony shrugged, "I smurfed up, it's easy!"

"He smurfed up…" Dib repeated, nodding in pretence understanding.

I smirked, "Do you guys want some breakfast before we go to Zim's? I, uh, what do you eat?"

Dib's eyes brightened, "Yeah! Is there some sort of concoction that you need to make? Or is there -"

"Actually Chef is already in the kitchen smurfing breakfast." Harmony cut in, smiling nervously, "As a thank you for letting us smurf here for the night."

I blinked, "Oh… okay then. Thank you."

"Yeah…" Dib muttered, clearly wondering what smurfs made for food, "Thanks…"

Harmony gave a wave and clambered backwards so that he gracefully slide down the banister and shimmied to the floor at the bottom of the stairs. Dib tilted his head.

"Agile little things, aren't they?"

"And they're in the kitchen where there are hot things!" I gasped, starting to rush downstairs, "Go check on the others, okay?"

Dib opened his mouth to argue, but slumped his shoulders in defeat. As I rushed down the steps two at a time, I noticed Vanity standing on the table by the front door where a mirror was placed. He looked in pure awe at the size of it compared to his hand mirror, admiring himself from multiple angles. He didn't notice me as I made my way into the kitchen. To my surprise, a smurf with a puffy white hat, presumably Chef, was manoeuvring a spatula over a frying-pan. I was about to go and help, but then he swiftly swivelled the spatula and flipped the content of the pan with ease. Okay, clearly he could handle himself. Wait… how did he even get into the fridge?

"Good morning, Miss Amy."

I jumped at the new voice coming from the table. It was Papa, smiling at me while helping Smurfette onto the surface with him. She smiled sweetly.

"Did you sleep well?" she asked.

I breathed and took a seat, "Yeah thanks, you?"

"Smurfy." She nodded.

She was smiling so I presumed that this was a good thing. It wasn't as easy as it looked understanding them. Papa thanked me again for letting them stay, which I insisted was no problem. However, before I could ask them when they wanted to head to Zim's house for the portal, a plate started hobbling its way over to me. I blinked in surprise before I noticed that it was just Hefty carrying it over to me. A large pancake sprinkled in sugar awaited me. I blushed a little as I thanked them. I felt a bit guilty with them doing all of this for me, considering their size, it really worried me that they would hurt themselves. But then again, after what I'd seen so far, fighting off cats and such, they were pretty good at handling themselves. Damn it Dib, you've got that mothering thing in my head!

Wow, I had to say, this was one of the best pancakes I'd had. My compliments to the Chef, literally. He went about making another batch of large dishes, each one able to satisfy the hunger of at least fifteen smurfs. Well, fourteen each, Greedy just kept coming back for more.

"So, if you like I can head over to Zim's house and get him to start up the portal once everyone's finished eating?" I offered, "He'll take some persuading, but… it's worth a try, right?"

Papa nodded and clasped his hands together, "We really appreciate this."

"It's awful smurfy to help us, M-miss Amy." Clumsy muttered, smiling sheepishly.

He was so cute! "It's no big deal, honestly, both me and Dib have been in your shoes at some point so we're not just gonna leave you out there alone, are we?"

Smurfette looked around, "Where is Dib anyway?"

That's a thought, he'd been gone upstairs for a while now. I was about to answer when a loud cry echoed from up the stairs.

"Amy! HELP!"

Before anyone could say anything, I was on my feet and sprinting back up the steps and burst into my mum's room. Instantly, my jaw hit the floor. Dib was hanging upside down, his foot caught in the curtain rail and arms handing above his head, or below considering his position. He squinted at me, unable to get a clear picture without his glasses. Four smurflings were giggling mischievously. Nat was hanging upside down from the spike in Dib's hair, Slouchy was sitting on the ground, peering through Dib's glasses and chuckling at the magnifying effect they had while Snappy was atop the curtain rail, finishing a knot that was tying Dib in place. Sassy poked her head out from one of Dib's pockets and waved cheekily at me. I took in the scene and threw my arms to the side in confusion.

"How?" I asked, "Just… how?"

Sassy giggled, "Dibby's good at this game!"

"No, he's not." Snappy… well, snapped.

"Never thought I'd say this but…" Dib sighed and looked at me pleadingly, "Can we go to Zim's now?"

I let out a laugh, "Awe, but you're so good with the kids!"

He scowled at me, "Zim's. Now."

After finally getting Dib down from the curtain rail, honestly I still had no clue how they'd managed that and by the sounds of it, neither did Dib. He just described it as a cleverly awaited ambush. I rolled my eyes, I was starting to worry less and less about the smurfs, clearly they could in fact handle themselves. All had gathered downstairs and were awaiting instructions. Thankfully, the streets outside was clear of life. Dib and I led the group across the yard and around to the inside fence of Zim's garden. I couldn't help but notice the series of worried expressions and occasional flashes of fear of their faces.

It reminded me of how annoyed at Zim I was with what he'd done. He'd uprooted all of these little creatures from their home, their lives and dumped them in the middle of an unfamiliar place where there was a demon cat and a crazy guy running around and… Okay, now I was past annoyed, my blood was boiling. I marched down the pathway and hammered my fist against the door. It seemed that simple shouting for Zim was too short. You know when your parents call you by using your full name, you know you're in trouble. I wanted to create that impression, and considering I didn't know if Zim had a full name; I improvised.

"Invader Zim of the Irken Elite, you get your backside out here right now!"

Dib smirked at my tone, "Don't think I've seen you this miffed…"

"Pray you never see anyone pulling my hair." I retorted, giving the door another knock.

"Why? What do you do?"

Out of curiosity, he reached out a hand towards my head. Now, I knew that he would never actually pull my hair out of spite or just to see a reaction, but I couldn't stop myself. My hand lashed out and gripped his wrist harshly, centimetres away from a strand of my hair. He froze and his eyebrows shot upwards in shock. I relaxed my grip and smiled mischievously, hoping to change the atmosphere from threatening to playful.

"You don't want to know." I winked.

The door opened and revealed Zim, dressed in his disguise and glaring at us. He examined the door and arched his brow at me.

"Do you wish to break the door of Zim? If so, Zim shall make you provide a replacement!" he snapped, but then folded his arms smugly, "Zim presumes you worm-children had an eventful night."

Dib clenched his fists, "See! I told you he was behind this!"

"Dib, he'd already amited it yesterday." I muttered.

He deflated, "Oh… well… I knew long before that!" he tried to recover.

"LIES!" Zim cried.

"Awe! They come back!" GIR cried, rushing out into the yard, dressed in his dog disguise.

The little android waved excitably at the large gang of smurfs that clustered on the far side of the yard. A few waved back, clearly nervous from past experience. GIR giggled and lay on his stomach, patting, I think it was Nat on the head. The smurfling jumped up and started scratching behind the fabric ear. The robot chuckled and started rolling around on the grass, allowing the other smurlfins to clamber up for a game. I'd learnt that Nat was short for Nature and the he had a good way with animals. But, GIR wasn't an animal… Hmmm, apparently he was good with things in animal costumes too. Awe, but it was so adorable!

However, as I turned around Zim had turned his expression from a smug smirk to a threatening glare. He shot his arms out and grabbed Dib around his throat this one hand and gripped the collar of my shirt with the other. He gritted his teeth and snarled at us.

"You brought them back here? You interfering – grrrr – you were meant to be tracking them down instead of Zim, not bring them back too Zim! Can you do nothing right you troublesome humans?"

"We brought them back so that you could send them home." I explained, "You know they nearly got attacked by a cat!"

Zim noticed the mark on my arm and leftover marks on Dib's neck, he smirked, "Not just them it seems."

Dib tried to shove Zim away but the alien held firm, "Are you gonna send them back or not, space-boy?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Because… Because you have to!" Dib faltered, not really able to find a reason why the alien would help.

"Zim takes no orders from you, Dib-filth! And besides, even if Zim wanted to, he can't." he deflated slightly.

"Can't or won't?" I challenged, prising his fingers away from me.

"Can't. It seemed the genius of the machine was too strong and brought something else through with the mini-beasts. The force of the extra phenomena had rendered the machine damaged." He waved his hand passively, "Nothing that Zim can handle."

"Sure it isn't." I muttered, smoothing my clothes out.

"Oh please, knowing him it's just a ploy to keep them here to torment us!" Dib cried, "I bet it's working fine!"

"You dare call Zim a liar?"

"Yeah, I dare!"

"Why you -!"

Zim lunged at Dib, sending the two rolling around into the living room, throwing near-miss punches and trying to get a good grip on the other. I sighed and let them to it, there was very little I could do at that point. I turned, ignoring the insults they threw at one another, and smirked at the sight before me. GIR was still laying on the ground, chuckling at the few smurfs that were tickling his stomach and behind his fabric ears. All of a sudden, GIR sat upright and threw his hands in the air.

"Race you inside!"

The smurflings shrieked in glee and sprinted behind the android, vanishing into the house. A few of the other smurfs looked at me for guidance. I nodded and swept a hand to the side as in indicator for them to follow. It seemed their curiosity was almost enough to match mine as they instantly scattered off to explore their new surroundings. A crowd had gathered around the fighting pair in the middle of the room. I couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed at the sight of them. However, it was soon to be interrupted.

Hefty grabbed the tail of Dib's coat and hoisted him backwards onto his rear, taking him by surprise. Gutsy sprang out from nowhere and collided head on into Zim's chest, knocking him onto his back. The smurf pressed his foot onto Zim's chin, forcing his head backwards and pinned to the floor. During the fight, the wig and one of his lenses had been knocked aside. One pink and one blue eye narrowed in shock at the smurf.

"Awe, he likes you!" GIR giggled.

I couldn't help but giggle too. Not just from GIR's comment but also from the looks of distain given from both Zim and Gutsy. Dib pushed himself to his feet and glared down at the alien smugly as Hefty cracked his knuckles.

"So you smurfing us home, the easy way or the hard way?"

Zim blinked, "Zim takes orders from – OW!"

"Sorry!"

Clumsy had tried to edge closer but ended up tripping and tugging one of Zim's antenna for balance.

"Think about it Zim," Dib sneered, "you can either show us the machine and fix it, or they're stuck here, everyday…"

Zim flushed in anger, pinching the sash of Gutsy's kilt and lifted him up to eye level to deliver a glare before getting to his feet himself. The smurf swung his fists and a lump of panic rose in my throat at what Zim was going to do to him. However, Zim hunched his shoulders in defeat and forced him into Dib's hand. Zim pointed at us accusingly.

"Zim shall send them back, but only because he grows tired with this irritating infestation. Nothing more!"

I nodded while Dib rolled his eyes, "If you say so Zimmers."

Another smurf with a cheeky and knowing grin on his face tapped at Zim's boot. Zim glared down at him in shock, clearly wondering how such a small and, in his mind, inferior creature would dare approach him. The smurf brought a small yellow gift box tied in a red ribbon out from behind his back and held it up to Zim with a smile that looked like a peace offering.

"I smurfed up a present for ya!" he chuckled.

"Heh?" Zim blinked and snatched it from him, "Well it is about time Zim's superiority was noticed -"

BOOM! An explosion erupted from the small parcel along with a blast of black smoke. I ducked out of reflex and when I looked back, I couldn't help but snort with laughter. Zim's face was totally covered in soot, his one remaining lens long gone and his antenna standing fully upright. He was frozen in shock. Dib pointed in triumph.

"Serves you right, lizard!"

Jokey, I should have known… He clutched his sides in laughter and wiped a tear away. He looked up at Dib and grinned.

"I got one for you too." He winked.

Dib arched hiss brow, "Oh… really? It's not like that one is it?"

Jokey shook his head, "Nah! It's a real surprise this time!"

"Oh, well, okay then, thanks!"

He took the gift and started to pull at the ribbon.

"Uh, Dib, I'm not sure that's a -"

BOOM! Of course… Dib was now also frozen in shock, soot coating his face and over his glasses. The spike in his hair was blown upwards and was smoking slightly. Jokey fell on the floor, splitting his sides with laughter. Dib's glasses tilted down his nose, leaving large clean circles around his eyes. Gutsy who was still in Dib's hand sighed and brushed off some excess soot.

"Ya should have seen that one coming, laddie…"

"Told you it was a surprise!" Jokey cackled.

Zim snapped out of his frozen state of shock to return the harsh laughter. GIR clapped his hands together and looked pleadingly at Jokey.

"Oooooh! Can I get one too? I like the KABLAM part!"

"Smurf-ilutly!" He went to pull another gift from his hat but was stopped by a mass pile of smurfs jumping on him.

"NO!"

I face-palmed, "So… you wanna take a peek at the machine then?"

Zim hadn't been joking. The machine looked completely fried, worse than the first time I'd seen it. It wasn't smoking like before, because there was no where for smoke to come out of. You couldn't even tell that it had once been a machine. It was all in pieces and there were bits of debris were scattered throughout the labs. My jaw practically hit the floor when we first arrived. Handy instantly started examining the pieces and slotted a few smaller ones together like a puzzle.

"Zim needs no help from mini-beasts!"

Handy shrugged, "If you say so, but would it be more secure to use these bolts instead of -"

"Zim knew that!" he huffed.

"Man, Zim, what else came through to cause this mess?" Dib whistled, nudging the debris with his foot.

"A hurricane maybe?" I muttered, "Or an earthquake?"

Zim glared at me, "None of your business, human!"

I held my palms up defensively, "Okay, I won't ask again."

"Oh my, this is terrible…" sighed Papa, "Can it be smurfed?"

Zim tilted his head in confusion, "Heh? What on earth is smurfed?"

"I think he means, can it be fixed." I whispered.

Zim glared at the elderly creature, "Naturally! I am Zim, and Zim can fix, or smurf, anything!"

"Sure, he can fix anything." Dib agreed, "Like the amazing way he fixes a good day into a disaster!"

"Watch you're tongue human!"

"What's you're step, laddie!" Gutsy growled, glaring at Zim from the worktop.

I rubbed my temple, "So how long exactly until it's fixed?"

"According to my calculations," Brainy muttered, looking at the machinery, "at least three days, if we smurf around the clock."

"Zim was about to say that!" he snapped, "The blue infestations are worse than the yowl-beast and its worm-human master!"

The smurfs froze and looked at Zim in horror. Smurfette, also on the work table, reached up to tap Zim's arm nervously and twirled her hair nervously.

"You don't mean a cat and an old wizard, do you? Azrael and G-Gargamel?"

Zim eyed her sceptically, "Zim took no notice of names, they were intruders and not part of Zim's plan, so I kicked them out."

Gargamel! That's the name I forgot. Wait, that's not a good thing! And did they just say wizard? Dib's eyes were alight with intrigue. He'd already shown me some of his spell drives, as well as a few examples of magical practice that had been used as tools to gain my belief in the magical. Not that I needed it. Aliens, robots, trips to space, ghosts, shrinkage, Neitherworlds and now smurfs… A wizard was not going to be much of a shocker… much.

"So, this Gargamel, he's… bad?" Dib asked.

"He's been smurfing after us for years! He's evil!" cried Clumsy, throwing his hands outwards for effect and accidently slapping Brainy's glasses off.

"Why is he after you?" I wondered aloud.

"Smurf essence gives his magic more power." Explained Papa, "I have all the magic I need back home to keeps my smurfs safe, but here… there's no telling what he could do if he got his smurfs on us."

"Yes, yes, that's all very sad and interesting, but for now will you let me work in peace!" Zim snapped.

"So where's this… wizard guy now?" Dib asked, "If that was him in Bloaty's then…"

"He could still be in the area." I finished, nodding, "We're gonna have to be extra careful for the next few days."

"Hey! You're not staying in the amazing base of Zim! Work needs to be done!"

"And who's gonna make sure you do it, space-monster?"

"Silence, Dib-beast!"

"Make me!"

"Gladly!"

I face-palmed as they started scrapping on the floor again. Smurfs ducked out of the way and scrambled onto work surfaces to avoid being caught up in the fight. Seriously, they couldn't cut it out for one minute?

"You need us to smurf them apart again, lass?" Gutsy asked, Hefty flexing his fists at the ready.

I shook my head and opened a closet door. Within seconds, the brawling pair threw one another across the room. Zim avoided a punch from Dib, who from the force went toppling into the closet. Not knowing where he was going, Zim grinned at the advantage and dived in after. Swiftly, I slammed the door shut and twisted the lock. There, that ought to calm them down for a bit, or at least keep them busy until they knocked each other out, either way… I brushed myself off and forced a calm composure to the crowd before me.

"So…" I smiled sheepishly, "Who's good with machinery?"

A/N:

Another rambling chapter, sorry! It will pick up in the next chapter or so, I'm just still setting the stage XD please let me know what you think XD thanks for reading!