Quintet: Part Four
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!
***
Our heroes made it to the volcano and went inside.
However, they soon realized why this section was going to be difficult.
"It's hot in here!" Sagwa complained.
"Even I'm hot, and dragons normally love heat!" Cassie commented.
"Don't worry everyone," Matt said reassuringly. "All we have to do is make it through this section, and we'll be cool in no time."
Clifford, meanwhile, was panting like any dog does when it's hot.
"This is hopeless..." Arthur muttered to himself.
Then, our heroes heard someone talking.
Quickly, they dashed ahead, and saw two strange looking creatures.
They looked like statues of lava that had cooled.
"I'm sorry, but even if you can't see well, you'll just have to stay that way," one was saying.
"Fat chance! You have to lend me the money for that operation!" the other snapped.
"What's going on?" Clifford asked.
Both creatures spun around.
"My friend needs an eye operation, but he actually expects me to give up my money," the first creature said.
"That's because I don't have any money," the second creature snapped.
Cassie narrowed her eyes.
To the first creature, she said, "I don't think it's very nice not to help someone in trouble."
"Who asked you, you stupid little lizard?!" the first creature shouted at her.
Cassie's face fell, and she shrank, which always happened when she felt depressed.
Then Arthur had an idea.
To the second creature, Arthur said, "You can have my glasses. They'll help you see better."
Arthur gave the second creature his glasses, and the second creature jumped for joy.
Then, both creatures disappeared into thin air, causing everyone to gasp.
"I guess that must've been a challenge," Matt commented. Then, to Arthur, he said with a smile, "Way to go, Arthur!"
Arthur shrugged modestly, Cassie grew back to normal size, and our heroes continued on.
Soon, they found another pair of glasses on the ground.
"Hey, cool! Now I can make up for having given my glasses away before!" Arthur shouted, running towards the glasses.
"No, wait, Arthur, it could be a trap!" Sagwa shouted, but too late.
As soon as Arthur picked up the glasses and put them on, a circle of lava formed around him and sprung up into a column, cutting Arthur off from the rest of the group.
"I knew it was a trap!" Sagwa lamented.
"What are we supposed to do now?" Clifford cried out.
"Calm down," Matt ordered. To Cassie, he asked, "Can you fly over the column?"
Cassie examined the column.
She replied, "I can't. It reaches all the way up to the ceiling."
"Get me out of here!!!" Arthur shouted.
"Calm down!" Matt shot back.
Then, he noticed that there was some sort of written code in the lava column.
He quickly pulled out his Skwak and started pressing some buttons on it.
The Skwak started translating the code.
Translation: "To bring down the lava column, say 'lower sesame.'"
Spotting the obvious pun on "open sesame", Matt groaned but followed instructions.
"Lower sesame!" Matt shouted.
To everyone's shock, the lava column actually lowered, freeing Arthur.
Arthur sighed in relief.
"Thanks, Matt!" he said to Matt.
Matt merely grinned.
The grin soon left his face when the ground inside the volcano shook with footsteps.
"What's that?" Sagwa asked, trembling.
She soon got her answer when a huge monster made out of fire appeared.
"I am Blaargh, the monster of fire!" the monster roared. "And you will never leave this volcano alive!"
"Everybody run!" Clifford shouted.
Everyone turned and started running away from Blaargh except Cassie, who opted for the flying option.
Everyone screamed when Blaargh suddenly shot out a fireball from his hands, nearly burning our heroes.
"And I can do a heck of a lot more than that!" Blaargh boasted.
Blaargh concentrated, and suddenly, columns of fire blasted upwards from the ground.
Our heroes were able to dodge, but just barely.
"We have to do something!" Clifford shouted, stomping his foot down.
Due to his frustration, however, Clifford accidentally stomped a little too hard, shaking the ground even worse than Blaargh's footsteps did.
This caused the ceiling to rain down rocks.
"What the---" Blaargh said, looking up.
That was the last thing he ever did. The rocks buried him alive. And since fire needs oxygen to burn, Blaargh's life was snuffed out.
Clifford tensed, waiting to see if the game world would count that as violence.
And...nothing happened.
Then, a door opened up in the volcano, leading outside.
"Hooraaaaaaaaaaaaay!" Cassie shouted, jumping for joy. "We've passed this section! Come on, everybody!"
Cassie led our heroes outside, where they would soon run into the next section...
To be continued...
E-mail all other questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net
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!
***
Our heroes made it to the volcano and went inside.
However, they soon realized why this section was going to be difficult.
"It's hot in here!" Sagwa complained.
"Even I'm hot, and dragons normally love heat!" Cassie commented.
"Don't worry everyone," Matt said reassuringly. "All we have to do is make it through this section, and we'll be cool in no time."
Clifford, meanwhile, was panting like any dog does when it's hot.
"This is hopeless..." Arthur muttered to himself.
Then, our heroes heard someone talking.
Quickly, they dashed ahead, and saw two strange looking creatures.
They looked like statues of lava that had cooled.
"I'm sorry, but even if you can't see well, you'll just have to stay that way," one was saying.
"Fat chance! You have to lend me the money for that operation!" the other snapped.
"What's going on?" Clifford asked.
Both creatures spun around.
"My friend needs an eye operation, but he actually expects me to give up my money," the first creature said.
"That's because I don't have any money," the second creature snapped.
Cassie narrowed her eyes.
To the first creature, she said, "I don't think it's very nice not to help someone in trouble."
"Who asked you, you stupid little lizard?!" the first creature shouted at her.
Cassie's face fell, and she shrank, which always happened when she felt depressed.
Then Arthur had an idea.
To the second creature, Arthur said, "You can have my glasses. They'll help you see better."
Arthur gave the second creature his glasses, and the second creature jumped for joy.
Then, both creatures disappeared into thin air, causing everyone to gasp.
"I guess that must've been a challenge," Matt commented. Then, to Arthur, he said with a smile, "Way to go, Arthur!"
Arthur shrugged modestly, Cassie grew back to normal size, and our heroes continued on.
Soon, they found another pair of glasses on the ground.
"Hey, cool! Now I can make up for having given my glasses away before!" Arthur shouted, running towards the glasses.
"No, wait, Arthur, it could be a trap!" Sagwa shouted, but too late.
As soon as Arthur picked up the glasses and put them on, a circle of lava formed around him and sprung up into a column, cutting Arthur off from the rest of the group.
"I knew it was a trap!" Sagwa lamented.
"What are we supposed to do now?" Clifford cried out.
"Calm down," Matt ordered. To Cassie, he asked, "Can you fly over the column?"
Cassie examined the column.
She replied, "I can't. It reaches all the way up to the ceiling."
"Get me out of here!!!" Arthur shouted.
"Calm down!" Matt shot back.
Then, he noticed that there was some sort of written code in the lava column.
He quickly pulled out his Skwak and started pressing some buttons on it.
The Skwak started translating the code.
Translation: "To bring down the lava column, say 'lower sesame.'"
Spotting the obvious pun on "open sesame", Matt groaned but followed instructions.
"Lower sesame!" Matt shouted.
To everyone's shock, the lava column actually lowered, freeing Arthur.
Arthur sighed in relief.
"Thanks, Matt!" he said to Matt.
Matt merely grinned.
The grin soon left his face when the ground inside the volcano shook with footsteps.
"What's that?" Sagwa asked, trembling.
She soon got her answer when a huge monster made out of fire appeared.
"I am Blaargh, the monster of fire!" the monster roared. "And you will never leave this volcano alive!"
"Everybody run!" Clifford shouted.
Everyone turned and started running away from Blaargh except Cassie, who opted for the flying option.
Everyone screamed when Blaargh suddenly shot out a fireball from his hands, nearly burning our heroes.
"And I can do a heck of a lot more than that!" Blaargh boasted.
Blaargh concentrated, and suddenly, columns of fire blasted upwards from the ground.
Our heroes were able to dodge, but just barely.
"We have to do something!" Clifford shouted, stomping his foot down.
Due to his frustration, however, Clifford accidentally stomped a little too hard, shaking the ground even worse than Blaargh's footsteps did.
This caused the ceiling to rain down rocks.
"What the---" Blaargh said, looking up.
That was the last thing he ever did. The rocks buried him alive. And since fire needs oxygen to burn, Blaargh's life was snuffed out.
Clifford tensed, waiting to see if the game world would count that as violence.
And...nothing happened.
Then, a door opened up in the volcano, leading outside.
"Hooraaaaaaaaaaaaay!" Cassie shouted, jumping for joy. "We've passed this section! Come on, everybody!"
Cassie led our heroes outside, where they would soon run into the next section...
To be continued...
E-mail all other questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net
