Notes (Important!):

Hello out there! I'm so excited to be posting my first fan fiction! And hoo boy - This one has been a doozy.

You see, growing up, I watched a lot of PBS Kids. Three shows in particular stuck with me, so much so that I still watch them to this day, even at the age of 20: Arthur, Cyberchase, and WordGirl. I still count them among my favorite shows. And I always thought: "Wouldn't it be cool to have all their different worlds combined? That would be awesome!" The idea was in my head for the longest time, and no one else seems to have done it, so I decided that I'm just gonna have to be the first.

It's been a bit of a daunting task trying to take this idea and plan it out so it made some sort of sense. But that's what I've enjoyed with this little project - taking such a seemingly convoluted idea and applying some sort of logic to this new AU of mine.

A few things I should make note of here, so there won't be any confusion:

Mixing these universes was made especially tricky because of the fact that the Arthur universe has no humans to speak of. This is really where you'll have to suspend your disbelief the most here. I decided it was easier to simply combine Elwood City and Fair City, so it's a mixture of humans and humanoid-animal hybrids, sort of a Bojack Horseman-type situation where no one questions it. To give the notion a bit more credence though, I've made a few Arthur characters humans as well, specifically ones like Muffy and Francine. Since they're already monkeys, it wasn't hard to picture them as human. I decided to make Elwood City the name for the combined version, mainly because cyber site R-Fair City's name was, of course, too similar to Fair City.

Of the couples shipped in this story, one of them is quite unusual to say the least. (You'll know it when it happens.) I've done my darndest to give it a logical basis and make it believable though. I came up with it a long time ago, and I liked it a lot. It just clicked with me. I'll be interested to hear feedback once it eventually begins revealing itself!

Alright, I think that's more than enough of a preface, don't you? Thanks for reading this far. Now that that's out of the way, I hope you enjoy it, and I welcome constructive criticism!

Chapter 1: Six Years Later

Aboard the Grim Wreaker, The Hacker - the most dastardly borg in all of Cyberspace - sat in his recharging chair as a frustrated, exhausted silence hung thick in the air. He had been defeated once again by those Earth brats and that stupid cyber turkey, the source of his constant heartache. They always wrecked his brilliant schemes, always managed to outsmart him, or at least defeat him by some dumb luck. He never seemed to catch a break.

This had been going on for years now, and he was truly beginning to get sick of it. He could feel it. He was reaching his breaking point. A cyborg could only put up with this for so long. He had done his best to remain patient and be persistent, always keeping in mind his ultimate end goal of ruling all of Cyberspace. If those incessant children didn't always step in his path, he could have taken over long ago. He could have permanently destroyed Motherboard and disposed of Dr. Marbles several times over. Yet here he was, right back where he always ended up - aboard his old, worn-out spaceship, trying to concoct a new plan to attempt to outwit his goody-goody adversaries, despite the high likelihood that his efforts were futile.

Could it be that I've been going about this problem all wrong this entire time? , he wondered to himself, leaning back in his chair and gazing at the large screen in front of him. How I would love to have those little pests off my back for good . He smiled and stroked his large chin, relishing the idea. Yes, that would be absolutely splendid… but how would I go about it? How could I accomplish it? What could be done so that they could finally be out of my way?

Hacker stood up from his seat and began moving absentmindedly around the cockpit of his ship, thoughts beginning to flow through his head as he deliberated the budding idea. They always arrive here by way of portals… Perhaps I could seal them off so that they would be stuck in their own world… No, no, no, that would be too complicated, and I'd likely have to have Buzz and Delete break into Control Central to mess with Motherboard's circuits, and by no means do I trust them with such an important task, those blundering fools…

He then stopped dead in his tracks, a new, better idea taking shape in his head. Oh yes… Yes, that just might work , he thought with wicked delight, a sinister grin spreading across his green face. If I can accomplish this, I just might be able to dispose of those Earth brats once and for all… But before I can do anything else… I need to find myself some portal dust…

…

"Ah… Home sweet home," the oldest member of the Cybersquad said with a sigh of relief as he stepped out of the portal and into his bedroom. He gazed out his window and across the property of his family's farm as he stretched, letting out a yawn and scratching his head full of bright red hair. Judging by the moon hanging high up in the dark blue sky, he could tell it was quite late. "I should take a quick shower and jump into bed," he remarked to himself. "Don't want to oversleep and get to school late tomorrow…" He then went off to do just that, hopping in and out of the shower in a flash and hopping into bed, glad to be safe and sound at home. As much as he loved Cyberspace, coming back home never got old.

Matt had been returning to Cyberspace for over half a decade now with Jackie and Inez. The day they had first become acquainted, been called upon by Motherboard, and introduced to Cyberspace for their first mission was still as clear as day in his mind. How could one ever forget the day they had met their best friends? Matt could hardly comprehend the idea.

Sure, it had its downsides. Fighting Hacker certainly grew tiresome at times. Even after all this time, he had never given up on his conquest to take over Motherboard's domain and defeat them. Matt had to give him credit for that, at least - he was persistent, and wasn't one to throw in the towel. But then again, neither were they. And that was not about to change by any means. In fact, now, at the ripe old age of 17, he felt even more strongly about that than ever. They had defeated Hacker so many times now. Perhaps they were wearing him down, chipping away at the cyborg's resolve. Maybe, just maybe, they would even ultimately defeat him one day, and completely discount him as any sort of threat to Cyberspace.

It would certainly be nice. If it happened, Matt could then focus more of his attention on his normal life. College would soon be around the corner for him, and he would need to begin making some big life decisions.

Thankfully he had few worries about high school, at least. After all, he and his friends all received impressive marks in math.

…

Matt slept quite well that night, and he made his way to school feeling refreshed and ready to learn. Meanwhile, however, in town there was a girl who had not slept so well, and that girl was Becky Botsford, a.k.a. WordGirl.

The young crime fighter had been up half the night, battling a handful of her own adversaries who hadn't had the decency to let her have her time to recharge. Now, in the morning, she stumbled into the kitchen, doing her best to force her eyes open as she poured herself a bowl of cereal.

Her monkey sidekick Bob, a.k.a. Captain Huggyface, noticed this, and let out a squeak of curiosity.

"Huh? Wha?... Oh, sorry, Bob… I just didn't sleep too well last night," Becky answered tiredly. She had been halfway through pouring milk, when she realized her aim was off and she was pouring it into the sink, which she quickly corrected.

Bob squeaked once more, clearly concerned for his friend.

"Oh I'm fine, Bob. Don't worry," Becky assured, placing the milk back in the fridge and sitting down. "It was just a few bad guys causing trouble. Nothing I couldn't handle." Bob squeaked yet again, to which Becky replied, "It's okay, Bob, really. I didn't want to wake you up. It was nothing so important I couldn't handle it myself. I just hope I'll be able to keep my eyes open today is all…"

Things had been like this for a long time now for the young heroine. She had been fighting these villains for several years now. It amazed her how persistent so many of them had remained over the years. Here she was, now a 16 year-old girl, much older than she had been when she first became a crime fighter, and most of the people she fought now had been enemies since the beginning. Over time, she thought less and less about it, and her fights became increasingly automatic for her. She felt as if she was on autopilot half the time, and as if she was simply trying to stay awake the other half. But her city and its citizens needed her, and she wasn't going to let something as silly as exhaustion stop her from doing her duty.

After finishing her breakfast, Becky got her stuff together and made the commute to school. She had to snuggle up in her jacket while she was outside, as there was a brisk autumn chill in the air. Summer was definitely on its way out, it seemed.

Finally, she made it into the school building. She stopped at her locker and chatted with her best friend Violet for a little bit before finally settling down into her desk in her first class of the day, algebra. It was taught by someone named Mr. Ratburn. Becky knew very little about him, other than that he was a generally friendly soul aside from being a bit on the strict side. She had also heard that he used to be an elementary school teacher at one point. It was a frustrating class for Becky, as math wasn't her strong suit, but Mr. Ratburn helped her along so that she wouldn't fall so far behind. She just wished it wasn't such a struggle for her, and that she could breeze through it like she could with English. Oh well , she sometimes thought. I guess you can't have everything .

The girl was in the middle of working on her assignment for the day when a sudden yell rang out from outside. "HEEEEEELP!" The source of the yelling was a man, who approached the classroom window. "The Butcher is robbing the bank!... Wait… Is this the police station?"

"No, I'm afraid not," Mr. Ratburn replied calmly, making his way to the window. "This is the high school. The police station is only four blocks that way," he advised, pointing north.

"Oh! Thanks," the man replied calmly, before breaking into a run once more. "HEEEEEELP!" he yelled once more, growing quieter as he ran off.

Becky grunted in frustration from her seat. "Not this again… God, I can't catch a break," she muttered under her breath before raising her hand and asking, "Um, Mr. Ratburn, may I go to the restroom?"

"Yes you may, Becky," Mr. Ratburn replied. "Do hurry back though."

"Got it," Becky replied, dashing into the hallway and into the empty bathroom. "Word up!" she cried once she was alone, transforming into WordGirl and flying like a bullet out of the building and towards downtown.

…

Meanwhile, back in the classroom, another girl was busy working on her own assignment. Fern Walters had always been a rather quiet girl. Sure, she wasn't necessarily a complete recluse, as she had a few friends, but she was a bit unsociable compared to many of her peers.

She had never been all that popular with anyone. People knew of her and felt she was nice enough, but that was about it. She didn't particularly enjoy hanging out with many people in her school, instead choosing to keep to herself and write her stories and poetry.

Except, even she herself had to admit that she had become more withdrawn since her grade school days. She recalled the times she and her friend George would play on the school playground as detectives. Those were good times. For whatever reason, she found it difficult now to feel as happy as she did back then. She wasn't entirely sure of why. If anything, she supposed it was likely because she had become increasingly aware of the fact that so few people seemed to actually like her and wish to be her friend, so she didn't feel the need to be as outspoken anymore. Hardly anyone cared what she had to say anyway, so why should it matter? It wasn't that bad. She had George and Sue Ellen, and she talked to Muffy once in awhile, and wasn't that good enough?

Maybe so, but Fern couldn't deny that she definitely carried a general unhappy feeling inside of her wherever she went, even if she couldn't pinpoint one main reason for why this was. But since she couldn't do this, she felt she couldn't actually justify complaining about anything. So she simply went through the motions of each day, doing her schoolwork as any good student would, and spending most of the rest of her time sealed in her room at home. Sometimes she wished she was more sociable. George and Sue Ellen worried about her sometimes, and they told her so. But she saw no point in trying - After all, no one seemed to take any interest in her, so the point was moot, at least in her mind.

Fern glanced up from her paper and looked out the window, only to be greeted with the sight of a red streak flying through the sky. No doubt it was WordGirl going to save the day downtown. She chuckled a bit, remembering the day she had first shown up and explained who she was and why she was here in Elwood City. Buster Baxter still had never stopped bragging about how he was right about aliens existing all along, even if this particular alien wasn't what he had expected. Fern had to admit, she wouldn't have guessed the first alien to visit their planet would become their town's number-one crime fighter and hero. She was a great role model. And in all honesty, she was a rather big fan of the red-and-yellow-clad girl herself.

See? , she thought to herself, returning her gaze back to her schoolwork, which she quickly finished up before pulling out her writing notebook. There's one more reason to feel good. WordGirl is protecting our city and keeping us safe. With her around, there's no need to worry. Everything will be just fine.

…

Becky soon returned to her class. The Butcher had quickly been taken care of, and she went back about her business as if she'd been in the bathroom the entire time. Maybe now she could finally get some work done.

Thankfully she managed to do so, and had her assignment close to finished by the end of class, with a little help from Mr. Ratburn. She stood up eagerly when the bell rang, thankful to be done with math for the day. She managed to knock her pencils off the desk when she did this though, and she huffed and rolled her eyes at her own negligence before bending down to pick them up. She gathered her things together and into her backpack before slinging it over her shoulders. It appeared as if she was the last one left in the classroom - or so she thought before glancing to the back of the room and seeing one other student remaining seated in the corner, seemingly engrossed in something she was writing down.

Becky tilted her head a bit as she looked at the quiet dog girl. She had seen her before, but had never paid her much mind. She couldn't quite remember her name. Faith? Fiona? Something with an F, she thought. Not wanting the girl to miss her next class, Becky stepped over to her and lightly tapped her shoulder. "Hey, um, class is over," she pointed out.

The girl looked up at Becky, slightly startled at first before glancing at the clock and having her cheeks flush red as a result. "Oh! Wow, this is embarrassing. I can't believe I missed the bell," she said indignantly, standing up and hastily getting her supplies together.

"It's alright, I've missed it myself in the past," Becky said reassuringly, helping the other girl get her things together, picking up the notebook she had been writing in. "You must have been really absorbed in whatever you were writing."

"Um, y-yeah, kind of…" the girl replied with a nervous nod, hastily grabbing the journal from Becky's hand and stuffing it in her backpack. "I write poetry and stories, but I don't really like when people read them..."

"You do?" Becky asked, a smile breaking across her face. "That's pretty cool! I like that too! But I'm not very good. I'm not good with anything artistic. You're probably better than me."

The girl let out a small chuckle, returning Becky's smile. "Well thank you... My name is Fern. You're Becky, right?"

Becky raised her eyebrows, surprised Fern knew her name. "Yeah! How did you know?"

"I'm in journalism class, and this kid named Scoops mentions you sometimes. And I've heard Mr. Ratburn call your name for attendance, so I put the pieces together."

"Oh," Becky replied, glancing down and blushing. She shouldn't have been surprised Scoops had mentioned her to people. He was one of her best friends, after all, second only to Violet. And he knew of her secret identity and that she was WordGirl. And on top of everything else, she still harbored remnants of a crush on him. She had mostly gotten over it though, as he and Violet had eventually started dating, and she didn't want to get in the middle of their relationship. She would have been lying, however, if she'd said she didn't have lingering feelings for him, at least a little. "Well he IS a good friend of mine… So you're in journalism, too? Sounds like you do a lot of writing."

"Reading too," Fern added, picking up her fully packed backpack and momentarily pulling out the book she had brought with her that day. "I love Persimmony Glitchet's books. They're some of my favorites."

Becky's smile grew even wider. "I love reading too! English is my favorite class… Say, if you're not doing anything after school, you wanna come over to my house? I can show you my book collection! I have to study math too, but I don't have much of that."

Fern stood deep in thought for a moment, considering Becky's offer, before finally meeting her eyes again as they began walking out of the classroom. "S-sure! I'd like that."

"Cool! I'll meet you at the front doors at the end of the day," Becky agreed excitedly, giving Fern a wave as she stepped quickly down the hall towards her next class. "See you then!"

"Y-yeah, okay! See you!" Fern called back, remaining rooted in place for a moment in disbelief before coming to her senses and heading towards her own class. Had she really just made a new friend?

…

As the next period drew closer, a new batch of students shuffled into Mr. Ratburn's class, one of which being Matt, taking his seat near the front of the room. Not long after, his friend and fellow Cybersquad member Inez came stepping into the room. Matt smiled upon seeing her and waved. "Heya, Nezzie!" he greeted teasingly with a coy smile.

"For the billionth time, quit calling me Nezzie," Inez scolded, though her smile quickly returned as she sat down at her own desk next to him.

"I'm so glad we share the same class," Matt remarked, pulling out his textbook and homework. "Just too bad that Jacks doesn't."

"Yeah, I know, it would be nice," Inez agreed, opening her own textbook to today's lesson. "But I have physical education with her later, so it's not so bad."

"True, but math is, like, our THING, you know?..." Suddenly Matt found himself breaking into a chuckle upon digesting Inez's statement. "Geez, Inez, you're the only person I know who actually says 'physical education' instead of 'PE' or 'gym.'"

"Oh hush," Inez chided once more, turning her head to the whiteboard and away from Matt, but not ditching her smile either.

Matt finished his fit of giggles and turned his own attention to the board as well. He loved teasing the youngest member of the cyber squad. It probably had much to do with the fact that he'd had a crush on her for the longest time. He had always felt funny around her, even if just a little bit, as if one or two butterflies were always floating around in his stomach when she was with him, sometimes more. And one day when they were older, he finally realized it. Though to this day he still hadn't found the courage to tell her how he felt. Jackie, Digit, and even Motherboard saw right through him, and had encouraged him to tell her a number of times now, but he had never managed to get up the nerve to go through with it. He knew he had to one of these days though. He couldn't wait forever. If he did, surely someone else would come along and scoop her up.

That day wasn't today though, apparently. Math class went by for him in a blur, and soon the two of them walked out the door and went their separate ways. Matt knew it would happen eventually though. He figured he didn't need to worry too much, and that he would know the right time to tell her when it came along. He had all the time in the world to mentally prepare himself. He'd waited this long already. A little while longer would hardly hurt anything.