Quintet: Part Nine

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. Grand High Idol had the idea of cavemen, and Addis had the idea of Clifford not fitting and Sagwa needing to answer a riddle. Someone who e-mailed me had the idea of the bear who has to be stumped. Also, a big surprise: Thanks to the advice of someone who e-mailed me, whose name I will not reveal for privacy reasons because it probably isn't an alias, I am adding another female PBS Kids character! You won't believe who it is. I'll give you a hint: she isn't from the shows the other heroes of this story are from. She will not, however, join our heroes, for this fic is labelled Quintet, after all, not Hextet. She will have a different role. Now, let's get it on!

***
Dave, the spirit who had sent our heroes on this quest in the first place, had decided to stop by where Ashura had taken temporary residence.

It was easy for him. He used teleportation.

Once there, Dave smirked.

"You're losing so far, as usual," Dave pointed out. "So far the PBS Kids characters have gotten past everything you threw at them."

"If I was allowed to make unstoppable traps I would!" Ashura snapped bitterly.

"But you aren't," Dave answered smugly. "That would be cheating. Care to surrender?"

"Get out of my face, hole between the lower cheeks," Ashura shot back. "I've figured out something else to throw you off."

Dave brightened. This might prove interesting.

"What would that be?" Dave asked.

"You have your PBS Kids champions, so I will select a champion of my own," Ashura responded. "She, too, will be from PBS Kids, just for revenge."

Dave laughed uproariously.

"You must be out of your skull, if you had one!" Dave exclaimed, pointing and laughing. "PBS Kids characters are kind-hearted for the most part! No one would ever join your cause!"

Ashura laughed right back.

"If I brainwashed one, one would," Ashura pointed out.

That shut Dave up.

"Clever," Dave admitted. "Who do you plan to brainwash to join your cause?"

Ashura was impuslive as usual, deciding too quickly.

"Sister Bear, from the Berenstein Bears," Ashura responded. "I'll brainwash her, and then use her to try to throw your champions off."

Dave thought about it for a minute. Then, he thought that Ashura was being dumb as usual. He should have selected a stronger character, such as maybe Ord from Dragon Tales, or Plato from Adventures from the Book of Virtues.

"Done," Dave agreed. "Brainwash your champion, and let's continue the game..."
Meanwhile, our heroes had finally reached the Cave section. There was only one problem.

"I can't fit in the cave!" Clifford whined.

Yes, it was true. Clifford the big red dog was so big that he was completely unable to squeeze through the entrance.

"We have to push!" Matt shouted.

Immediately, our heroes tried pushing Clifford through the entrance of the cave.

It was, however, to no avail, try as our heroes might.

"I'll help you out, if you answer a riddle," said a voice to our heroes' left.

Our heroes spun around, startled.

There before them, sitting quietly, was a very thin old human male.

"What riddle might that be?" Cassie asked politely.

"The riddle is this..." the old man replied.

He cleared his throat and continued, "There are two sisters, each with a husband, living in the same house. The younger woman had a baby that still lived, while the older woman had a baby that died. The older woman stole the living baby out of jealously. An argument erupted over whose baby it was (it was the younger woman's, of course), and the case was brought to the magistrate."

Sagwa grinned. The village she lived in was also ruled by a magistrate. She decided to solve this one herself.

"The magistrate decided that ownership of the baby would be decided by a contest," the old man continued. "Each woman would have a tug of war, with the baby as the rope. The one who could pull the baby away from the other would win. The women agreed, and pulled on the baby. The baby cried out...and suddenly found himself on the floor with the older woman. The magistrate, however, judged the younger woman the victor. Why?"

Hearing a baby in the story reminded Sagwa of Sheegwa, her little sister. Sagwa began to miss her...and then, when Sagwa imagined what would have happened if Sheegwa had been in the baby's place, Sagwa discovered the answer.

"Because the magistrate lied to the women," Sagwa answered proudly. "The contest wasn't of strength. It was of love. The real test was the fact that the real mother would rather let her baby be raised by another woman than see the baby hurt."

"And how did you figure that out?" the old man asked, looking impressed.

"Because I thought of what would happen if Sheegwa, my little sister, had been in the baby's place," Sagwa answered. "I would rather see Sheegwa raised by someone else other than my parents than let anyone hurt Sheegwa."

The old man started clapping.

"Well done, kitty cat," the old man exclaimed. "Now I will fit Clifford into the cave...or rather, fit the cave to Clifford."

With that, the old man raised his hands, and the cave started to grow bigger and bigger.

Eventually, the cave was big enough to fit Clifford.

"Yes! Now I can fit!" Clifford shouted in glee.

With that, our heroes went inside...
They looked around the cave with some misgivings.

"It's dark in here..." Arthur muttered, trembling.

"I wish I could fly...not much space..." Cassie moaned.

"You think you don't have a lot of space?" Clifford complained. "Even with that old man's trick I can barely raise my head."

"We can't give up, gang!" Matt exclaimed. "This Cave section can't be that hard."

Reluctantly, our heroes continued on.
Meanwhile, Sister Bear had entered the Cave section.

Her eyes were glowing red. Apparently Ashura had brainwashed her as planned.

"Destroy champions...destroy champions...destroy champions...destroy champions..." Sister Bear droned on and on.

She had dynamite in her hands, given to her by Ashura.

She set the dynamite down in a particularly weak section of the cave and set the timer to 1 minutes.

She then ran like heck out of the cave...
Meanwhile, our heroes were walking on, encountering no challenges.

"This is pretty easy!" Cassie said with relief. "Nothing in our way."

That's when there was the sound of a huge explosion. Then, the cave began collapsing.

"You were saying?!" Arthur screamed.

Rocks began to rain down. Soon, our heroes were buried in rubble...
Ten minutes passed...
Sagwa eventually was able to push the rubble off of her. She was lucky; she just happened to have been the only one not hit in the head and knocked unconscious with rocks.

She looked around in the rubble, though, and couldn't see her friends.

"Guys?! Where are you?!" she shouted.

She got no answer, however.

To her luck, however, a bunch of cavemen appeared.

They were funny-looking creatures, with hair all over their bodies, and clubs in their arms.

In fact, they only vaguely looked human.

"Need help?" one asked.

Sagwa jumped up and down with glee.

"Oh yes, please!" she exclaimed.

"First, you help us," another caveman said.

Sagwa groaned.

"What do you need help with?" she asked reluctantly.

She heard a roar from behind the cavemen.

Then, she screamed when she saw a gigantic bear appear.

"I am the bear that cannot be stumped! But I shall turn all of you to stumps!" the bear shouted.

The cavemen screamed and started running around like lunatics.

Sagwa tried to calm down, and thought for a minute.

"What do you mean you cannot be stumped?" Sagwa asked curiously.

"Ask me a riddle, and I can answer it, guaranteed!" the bear replied, thumping his chest proudly.

Sagwa thought for a minute.

"What is always coming, but never arrives?" Sagwa asked.

The bear pondered this.

"Hmm..." it muttered.

Then it swore under its breath.

"I can't believe it! I'm stumped!" it screamed.

"The answer is tomorrow," Sagwa said smugly.

The bear disappeared.

The cavemen cheered. (Hey, that rhymed!)

"That bear has been terrorizing us for days. Thank you, kitten!" the cavemen chorused.

With that, they started clearing away the rubble.

Eventually, our heroes were uncovered.

Soon, they woke up.

"Uhhh...what happened?" Clifford asked, groaning.

"I'll explain later," Sagwa replied, grinning from ear to ear, glad that her friends were okay.

They soon spotted an exit from the cave.

"Let's get outta here!" they cheered in unison after thanking the cavemen.

They soon exited the cave, not knowing that the brainwashed Sister Bear was outside, crouching behind a rock, growling at her failure to eliminate our heroes...
To be continued...
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