And after a million years I finally update. Sorry its been so long. Uni has been intense and then there was some personal stuff but I have offically finished for the year! If all goes well there should be updates every few days for a while.

"Oh no..." Grace murmured, quickly heading the side to pretend to rummage through her bag in order to talk to the smurfs. "Bag checks. Magic as a distraction again?"
"Gargamel is here...too recognisable," Brainy murmured, gnawing on his lip.
"Yes but you are pretty amazing," Gutsy pointed out, gently nudging Brainy's shoulder. "I bet there is a clever way around it you can think of." He gently took the brainiac's hand, giving it a comforting squeeze.
"I could blast the light," Brainy mused. "If the blue went away fast enough then it would be dark enough for us to sneak through and then hide until you've had your bag checked..."
"Okay, good plan," Grace agreed. "You guys be careful though?"
"We'll try Grace," Clumsy agreed, tripping as he clambered out of the bag. Gutsy offered him a hand up. Brainy concentrated and sent the blast right into the centre of the light. At once everything was plunged into darkness. 

The smurfs quickly made their way through to the main area.
"Grace was Row 5, right?" Brainy whispered as they ducked under the chairs.
"Yes," Gutsy confirmed. "Don't know which seat though."
"Doesn't matter," Brainy replied with a half smile as a small plan began to formulate. "We just need to hide at the end of the row then either get her attention or follow her to her seat."
"Resident genius, hm?" Gutsy complimented, smirking slightly when the brainiac looked slightly embarrassed. "Oh come on: you had better get used to this if we're going to be together. You need a confidence boost so compliments will be the norm. Okay?" That didn't help with Brainy's embarrassment but it was clear he was trying to suppress a smile.
"Okay, you two, there's a time and a place for flirting," Star said with a grin. "Although admittedly it is nice to see you two finally together." Brainy buried his face in his hands, receiving a quiet chuckle from Gutsy.

Grace came along and they followed her to her seat.
"Grace," Gutsy quietly said. She 'accidently' dropped her bag, allowing the smurfs to get in without detection. She took her seat just as the lights dimmed except for the ones on the stage that immediately brightened. Gargamel took to the stage in a cloud of fog, his wand emitting even more of a blue glow than before.
"He is even more powerful now..." Clumsy muttered, dread written plainly across his features.
"I hate him being more powerful..." Grouchy complained, crossing his arms. "It makes things much harder." Brainy remained silent, trying to scan around to see if maybe he had a dressing room – but noticed Asriel was absent. Wherever Papa was he would be getting guarded and their arrival would be expected. As painful as it was to wait it was certainly the logical thing to do: the only option was to follow Grace's plan. 

For one trick he exploded the lights into blue ash. For another he transfigured a group of school children into fish, At least he transfigured them back quickly. Brainy noted though that they were all out of breath so if he had left them much longer...he shuddered slightly at the thought and gnawed on his lip, taking note of everything that showed amplified power. Brainy now had no idea how he would be expected to win. It was impossible enough prior to Gargamel's power boost. Brainy though could admit they had two slight edges. One: – if he hadn't made more Naughties – he was outnumbered. Two: Gargamel wasn't really smart. He was prideful and more than once his pride had been his downfall. Brainy slightly tightened his grip on his wand instinctively. Gutsy, noticing the smaller smurf's panic, gently took his other hand giving it a comforting squeeze. 

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After several hours the show finally ended. Grace lingered at the entrance until she saw Gargamel enter a limo: she then entered her rental car, following it as closely as she could. Before long they pulled up at a fancy hotel with white marble steps.
"He's gone up in the world again, huh?" she asked, tapping on the steering wheel. "Okay, if I head in-"
"It may not work," Brainy pointed out, frowning slightly. "He only recently got back. Papa said you pretended to be his manager last time, they'll know he doesn't have one yet..."
"That's true," Grace said. She frowned in thought then got her phone out, typing in the name of the hotel. "Okay. He'll probably be in the best room so the Diamond Suite."
"Which floor?" Gutsy asked.
"It doesn't say..."she murmurs. "We should see it either on a lift or I'll make small talk at the bar though...Okay, back in the bag!" The smurfs groaned but did so.

Grace headed in, glancing around, noticing Gargamel enter a lift. After it closed she went over to see which floor he went to: there was no symbol showing which floor it went to but the little plaque did imply the lift was only for his suite.
"Let's go find a key card then..." she murmured, brows narrowing in thought. "I think it's time for the staff area to get a visit from Madame Doolittle." 

                                              ------------------------------------------------

"Well that was a disaster," Grace muttered, slumping into a seat in front of the hotel.
"Well that's an understatement," Grouchy complained, rolling his eyes. "How did that work last time?" Safe to say as soon as she had tried to enter the staff area she had been caught and escorted out almost immediately.
"I thought I was a good actress," Grace mumbled, crossing her arms. "Now what?"
"It looks like we'll have to go in alone," Gutsy replied, getting concerned looks from the other smurfs and a doubtful one from Brainy. "Look, we don't have another choice, right?"
"Right..." Brainy agreed, albeit reluctantly. "Although we can't just walk in. They know what we are now..."
"Any ideas then, genius?" Grouchy asked. Yet again the pressure began getting to the bookworm and he tried to not squirm under the weight of it. Then he remembered the several trolleys he remembered going into the lift.
"Gargamel's fan mail and gifts." The smurfs stared at him, confused, for a long moment. Then realisation settled in and they nodded in understanding. 

Sneaking into the hotel without Grace was hard but thankfully the trolley was reasonably close to the entrance they managed to get on without incident. Then they froze as they heard voices, barely daring to breathe in case it echoed around their hiding spots.
"This trolley is too full: we'll have to disconnect the two parts to make it light enough." Icy dread washed over them: all of them were on the left section except for Brainy. And it wasn't like any of them could move otherwise their hiding places would be exposed.
"I'll take the right one up first then," the other voice replied. Now Brainy couldn't breathe even if he wanted to. All he could hope for was that Gargamel would not come up whilst he was alone. The lift pinged and from his hiding place he could see Gutsy's immensely concerned expression. Everything had to be fine, if not for his sake then for Gutsy's.