Quintet: Part One
by Martial Arts Master
All PBS Kids characters copyright of PBS, PBS Kids, and the shows' respective creators. This fanfiction idea came to me in a dream. In my dream, five PBS Kids characters were on a quest of some sort, though I don't know exactly what, so I made up the story from there in this fic. In my dream, they were known as the Heavenly Quintet. (This was a weird dream. So weird, in fact, that the word the dream actually used was "quantet", which isn't even a word.) However, I had to make a couple of changes. First of all, the Dragon Tales character that appeared in my dream was Ord, but I put Cassie in this fic instead because otherwise, Sagwa, the main character from Sagwa: The Chinese-Siamese Cat, would've been the only female in the entire quintet, which might cause female readers to accuse me of being a sexist pig, and they would have a right to do so. Therefore, Cassie will appear in this fic instead. Second of all, I changed the name of the quintet to the PBS Kids Quintet, because using the word "heavenly" would've been a blatant religious reference, and with the exception of The Adventures from the Book of Virtues, which had an episode centered around "Faith", and the Cyberchase episode that involved the Greek deity Zeus, PBS Kids is completely non-religious. I can't always say the same for the regular PBS, but PBS Kids is for the most part immune to religion. Therefore, to keep the spirit of PBS Kids, the name change stands. Now, on with the fanfic!
***
It was dark and cold inside the room.
However, the room's inhabitants didn't care. They weren't even alive, strictly speaking.
The room's inhabitants consisted of two spirits. These spirits were shadowy spirits with only a hint of lint shining from within them.
They were, of all things, playing chess.
"Your move," said the spirit playing black.
The spirit playing white smirked.
"Checkmate!" he shouted, moving his white queen to a stop two spaces in front of the black king. He was careful not to move to one space in front of the king, for then the king could take the queen.
The black king was boxed in by his own soldiers, and therefore could not escape the queen.
"How?!" the other spirit screamed. "You beat me at every single game we play! Every single game! You beat me at badminton, you beat me at basketball, you beat me at solving logic puzzles, you beat me at boxing, you beat me at jacks, and now you beat me at chess! Why, why, why, why, why, why, why can't I ever win?!"
"Because, Ashura, you're too impatient and predictable," the first spirit replied. "You always try to win every game we play too quickly, without considering your actions first. I therefore beat you because I am patient enough to consider my actions carefully. Also, you always use predictable strategies because you aren't creative enough to come up with new ones."
"You're such a braggart, Dave," Ashura answered. "But we're spirits. We're immortal. And we have lots of cool powers. How about I make up a whole new game? I'm sure to beat you in something like that!"
"Sounds like it might be fun," Dave said, after thinking about it. "What do you suggest?"
"First, let's pick out a planet in the real world, like...say...Earth," Ashura responded, dancing about gleefully. "And I get to destroy it if you lose! Blowing up stuff is always so much fun..."
"And if I win, I get to have your CD collection," Dave said, smirking.
"Deal!" Ashura declared immediately, shaking Dave's hand. "Now, here's how the game works. I'm going to set up a fake world, but it'll be real enough for our purposes. It's gonna be loaded with monsters and traps. What you have to do is pick out characters from Earth TV shows, inform them that the Earth will be destroyed unless they cooperate, and tell them to try and retrieve something I'll put at the end of the world."
"Let me guess: I lose if they come back without it or if they don't make it past the traps and monsters," Dave guessed.
"Right," Ashura said, nodding.
"Go ahead then. Make your move!" Dave dared Ashura.
In response, a brilliant flash of power emanated from Ashura.
Outside the window of the room, in the cold void of the spirit world, a world began to appear. It was a varied world, to be sure, but that will be covered later.
Lots of traps and monsters began to appear. This would be challenging.
"Oh, by the way, I'll be waiting for them at the end, to give them the prize...if they make it..." Ashura chuckled ominously.
Then, Ashura disappeared into the world.
Dave considered his options. Which Earth TV characters should he use to make it past the monsters and traps?
His first choice would be Dragonball Z characters. They were obscenely powerful. They could just obliterate everything that stood in their way.
However, Dave was patient, not going with that choice right away, thinking about it. Then he realized that although Ashura was dumb compared to him, Ashura wasn't so much of an idiot that he wouldn't have thought of that option. Both Dave and Ashura's knowledge of Earth TV characters was extensive.
Therefore, Ashura would have thought of a way to counter Dragonball Z characters.
Dave inserted his presence into the fake world. At first, he saw the exact nature of the prize: a goblet made out of solid gold. Then, he saw that the monsters and traps had anti-violence spells on them. If violence was used to stop them, the spells would cause the fake world to blow up, taking the violent characters with it.
No wonder Ashura was so sure he could win. He didn't tell Dave about this, which could probably be considered as cheating.
However, Dave decided not to call Ashura on it. If Dave used non-violent characters, the spells wouldn't be of any use, and Ashura would have to modify the traps and monsters so that there would be non-violent ways to get past them. Otherwise, the cheating would be too blatant. Every game has to have a way for either player to win.
Dave thought, and thought, and thought...and then suddenly had the answer. PBS Kids characters! Of course! They'd never use violence, with the exception of some Liberty's Kids characters.
Dave decided not to use more than five characters. Too many would make the game too easily winable for Dave, which would frustrate the impatient Ashura enough to cheat again.
But which characters to use?
Dave decided, just to make the game interesting, to pick from five different shows: one from each show.
He decided, arbitrarily, to exclude the Adventures from the Book of Virtues show. Nothing personal.
Then, he decided not to use Barney, Between the Lions, Caillou, Jay Jay, Liberty's Kids, Mister Rogers, Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Teletubbies, Zoboomafoo, or ZOOM characters. Nothing personal, but he had to exclude some shows.
That left Arthur, Clifford, Cyberchase, Dragon Tales, and Sagwa characters.
Dave decided that, from the Arthur show, he'd use Arthur. That kid needed this quest to give him some backbone, in Dave's opinion.
Then, he looked at the Clifford show. He decided to use Clifford, because of his humongous size. That should potentially help with some of the traps and monsters.
After that, he looked at Cyberchase.
This was a tough decision, but in the end he stuck with Matt, whom Dave felt had a good head on his shoulders.
Then came Dragon Tales.
Another tough choice, actually. Emmy had a good head on her shoulders, Max was small enough to potentiall be of as much help as Clifford' huge size, Cassie was very bright for a preschooler, Ord was a good athlete, and Zak and Wheezie had all the advantages of being a two-headed dragon.
After eliminating some possibilities, Dave decided to choose between Ord and Cassie.
He originally went with Ord, because of his athletic abilities...and then he realized something. He was being impatient like Ashura, not taking something else into account.
Ord was a good athlete, but he was afraid of too many things. Bugs, thunder, the dark, Beebee the butterfrog, and nightmares. This would hinder his progress.
Therefore, Dave decided to go with Cassie instead. Her fear was basically making a mistake, but as long as the others were nice to her, as Dave was sure they would be, that shouldn't be a problem.
Finally, for Sagwa, Dave decided to use Sagwa herself. Her inquisitive nature might allow her to see things others couldn't.
"Done!" Dave said to himself. "And now to bring them to this room, so I can explain everything...except the part about me getting Ashura's CD collection if I win. They may not help me if I tell them that."
Dave set to work...
To be continued...
Okay, first chapter's done. I apologize if my exclusion of certain shows bothered any of you, but only five characters appeared in my dream, and since this fic's based off of my dream...I apologize. You don't have to read further if you don't want to, once I make more chapters. Also, I need more information on the Arthur character in the Arthur show, since that's the only show out of the five I included that I haven't seen at least a few episodes of. If anyone has more information on Arthur's personality, likes and dislikes, fears, etc., please e-mail me. Also, e-mail all questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net
by Martial Arts Master
All PBS Kids characters copyright of PBS, PBS Kids, and the shows' respective creators. This fanfiction idea came to me in a dream. In my dream, five PBS Kids characters were on a quest of some sort, though I don't know exactly what, so I made up the story from there in this fic. In my dream, they were known as the Heavenly Quintet. (This was a weird dream. So weird, in fact, that the word the dream actually used was "quantet", which isn't even a word.) However, I had to make a couple of changes. First of all, the Dragon Tales character that appeared in my dream was Ord, but I put Cassie in this fic instead because otherwise, Sagwa, the main character from Sagwa: The Chinese-Siamese Cat, would've been the only female in the entire quintet, which might cause female readers to accuse me of being a sexist pig, and they would have a right to do so. Therefore, Cassie will appear in this fic instead. Second of all, I changed the name of the quintet to the PBS Kids Quintet, because using the word "heavenly" would've been a blatant religious reference, and with the exception of The Adventures from the Book of Virtues, which had an episode centered around "Faith", and the Cyberchase episode that involved the Greek deity Zeus, PBS Kids is completely non-religious. I can't always say the same for the regular PBS, but PBS Kids is for the most part immune to religion. Therefore, to keep the spirit of PBS Kids, the name change stands. Now, on with the fanfic!
***
It was dark and cold inside the room.
However, the room's inhabitants didn't care. They weren't even alive, strictly speaking.
The room's inhabitants consisted of two spirits. These spirits were shadowy spirits with only a hint of lint shining from within them.
They were, of all things, playing chess.
"Your move," said the spirit playing black.
The spirit playing white smirked.
"Checkmate!" he shouted, moving his white queen to a stop two spaces in front of the black king. He was careful not to move to one space in front of the king, for then the king could take the queen.
The black king was boxed in by his own soldiers, and therefore could not escape the queen.
"How?!" the other spirit screamed. "You beat me at every single game we play! Every single game! You beat me at badminton, you beat me at basketball, you beat me at solving logic puzzles, you beat me at boxing, you beat me at jacks, and now you beat me at chess! Why, why, why, why, why, why, why can't I ever win?!"
"Because, Ashura, you're too impatient and predictable," the first spirit replied. "You always try to win every game we play too quickly, without considering your actions first. I therefore beat you because I am patient enough to consider my actions carefully. Also, you always use predictable strategies because you aren't creative enough to come up with new ones."
"You're such a braggart, Dave," Ashura answered. "But we're spirits. We're immortal. And we have lots of cool powers. How about I make up a whole new game? I'm sure to beat you in something like that!"
"Sounds like it might be fun," Dave said, after thinking about it. "What do you suggest?"
"First, let's pick out a planet in the real world, like...say...Earth," Ashura responded, dancing about gleefully. "And I get to destroy it if you lose! Blowing up stuff is always so much fun..."
"And if I win, I get to have your CD collection," Dave said, smirking.
"Deal!" Ashura declared immediately, shaking Dave's hand. "Now, here's how the game works. I'm going to set up a fake world, but it'll be real enough for our purposes. It's gonna be loaded with monsters and traps. What you have to do is pick out characters from Earth TV shows, inform them that the Earth will be destroyed unless they cooperate, and tell them to try and retrieve something I'll put at the end of the world."
"Let me guess: I lose if they come back without it or if they don't make it past the traps and monsters," Dave guessed.
"Right," Ashura said, nodding.
"Go ahead then. Make your move!" Dave dared Ashura.
In response, a brilliant flash of power emanated from Ashura.
Outside the window of the room, in the cold void of the spirit world, a world began to appear. It was a varied world, to be sure, but that will be covered later.
Lots of traps and monsters began to appear. This would be challenging.
"Oh, by the way, I'll be waiting for them at the end, to give them the prize...if they make it..." Ashura chuckled ominously.
Then, Ashura disappeared into the world.
Dave considered his options. Which Earth TV characters should he use to make it past the monsters and traps?
His first choice would be Dragonball Z characters. They were obscenely powerful. They could just obliterate everything that stood in their way.
However, Dave was patient, not going with that choice right away, thinking about it. Then he realized that although Ashura was dumb compared to him, Ashura wasn't so much of an idiot that he wouldn't have thought of that option. Both Dave and Ashura's knowledge of Earth TV characters was extensive.
Therefore, Ashura would have thought of a way to counter Dragonball Z characters.
Dave inserted his presence into the fake world. At first, he saw the exact nature of the prize: a goblet made out of solid gold. Then, he saw that the monsters and traps had anti-violence spells on them. If violence was used to stop them, the spells would cause the fake world to blow up, taking the violent characters with it.
No wonder Ashura was so sure he could win. He didn't tell Dave about this, which could probably be considered as cheating.
However, Dave decided not to call Ashura on it. If Dave used non-violent characters, the spells wouldn't be of any use, and Ashura would have to modify the traps and monsters so that there would be non-violent ways to get past them. Otherwise, the cheating would be too blatant. Every game has to have a way for either player to win.
Dave thought, and thought, and thought...and then suddenly had the answer. PBS Kids characters! Of course! They'd never use violence, with the exception of some Liberty's Kids characters.
Dave decided not to use more than five characters. Too many would make the game too easily winable for Dave, which would frustrate the impatient Ashura enough to cheat again.
But which characters to use?
Dave decided, just to make the game interesting, to pick from five different shows: one from each show.
He decided, arbitrarily, to exclude the Adventures from the Book of Virtues show. Nothing personal.
Then, he decided not to use Barney, Between the Lions, Caillou, Jay Jay, Liberty's Kids, Mister Rogers, Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Teletubbies, Zoboomafoo, or ZOOM characters. Nothing personal, but he had to exclude some shows.
That left Arthur, Clifford, Cyberchase, Dragon Tales, and Sagwa characters.
Dave decided that, from the Arthur show, he'd use Arthur. That kid needed this quest to give him some backbone, in Dave's opinion.
Then, he looked at the Clifford show. He decided to use Clifford, because of his humongous size. That should potentially help with some of the traps and monsters.
After that, he looked at Cyberchase.
This was a tough decision, but in the end he stuck with Matt, whom Dave felt had a good head on his shoulders.
Then came Dragon Tales.
Another tough choice, actually. Emmy had a good head on her shoulders, Max was small enough to potentiall be of as much help as Clifford' huge size, Cassie was very bright for a preschooler, Ord was a good athlete, and Zak and Wheezie had all the advantages of being a two-headed dragon.
After eliminating some possibilities, Dave decided to choose between Ord and Cassie.
He originally went with Ord, because of his athletic abilities...and then he realized something. He was being impatient like Ashura, not taking something else into account.
Ord was a good athlete, but he was afraid of too many things. Bugs, thunder, the dark, Beebee the butterfrog, and nightmares. This would hinder his progress.
Therefore, Dave decided to go with Cassie instead. Her fear was basically making a mistake, but as long as the others were nice to her, as Dave was sure they would be, that shouldn't be a problem.
Finally, for Sagwa, Dave decided to use Sagwa herself. Her inquisitive nature might allow her to see things others couldn't.
"Done!" Dave said to himself. "And now to bring them to this room, so I can explain everything...except the part about me getting Ashura's CD collection if I win. They may not help me if I tell them that."
Dave set to work...
To be continued...
Okay, first chapter's done. I apologize if my exclusion of certain shows bothered any of you, but only five characters appeared in my dream, and since this fic's based off of my dream...I apologize. You don't have to read further if you don't want to, once I make more chapters. Also, I need more information on the Arthur character in the Arthur show, since that's the only show out of the five I included that I haven't seen at least a few episodes of. If anyone has more information on Arthur's personality, likes and dislikes, fears, etc., please e-mail me. Also, e-mail all questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net
