Quintet: Part Eleven
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 the Arab men on camels, and JesusFreak9 had the idea of Ashura facing our heroes himself and blocking Dave's access. I am really, really sorry ACME-Rian, but I can't use your idea because it would interfere with what I had in mind with the story. Speaking of the story, here we go!
***
Our heroes were now in the Desert section...and it was hot!
This time, Cassie had it better than any of the others, since dragons like heat.
And also this time, Clifford and Sagwa had it worse than any of the others, since they had fur, and fur isn't really good for heat.
"It's hot out here!" Sagwa complained.
"Relax," Matt told Sagwa. "This is the last section. Then, we'll each be home free."
"I hope so..." Clifford moaned.
Then, Arab men on camels rode up to our heroes.
"Hey, aren't you the guys that attacked the World Trade Center and the Pengaton on September 11, 2001?" Arthur asked them.
Matt quickly clamped a hand over Arthur's mouth.
"That's a stereotype!" Matt snapped at him. "Some Arabs like the US. Some Arabs don't like the US, but they don't support war. It's not fair for you to judge all Arabs as if they were Osama bin Laden. Our world was made great by the amalgam of different cultures."
The Arabs clapped.
"Finally, someone who has some sense!" the leader of the Arabs said. "Do you have any idea how many people discriminate against Arabs now because of that---?"
The leader uttered a curse word in Arabic and then mentioned the name Osama bin Laden.
"But still, you all will have to solve a riddle to get past," one of the others said.
The leader cleared his throat.
"If a tree falls in the forest, and no one was around to hear it, does it make a sound?" the leader asked. "Now because this riddle has no answer to it, there are no right or wrong answers. Instead, the test is that one of you must create an answer that makes sense. If you cannot come up with an answer, you do not pass. But no answer is right or wrong."
Our heroes were in deep thought.
Matt came up with an answer eventually.
"It does," Matt answered, "because sound is actually vibrations. Sometimes when things happen, they cause vibrations. Our ears perceive the vibrations as sound, but they are still vibrations. Since the tree falling would cause vibrations whether or not there are any ears around to hear it, the answer is yes, the tree does make a sound."
The Arabs discussed the answer among themselves.
Finally, the leader said, "That is a creative answer. And it uses actual science, too! I'm impressed, I thought kids were ignorant. You may pass."
The Arabs on camels all disappeared, and our heroes passed triumphantly.
Their triumph was short-lived, however, when a giant sand-worm came up in front of them.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Sagwa screamed. "Giant sand-worm! Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiide!"
Sagwa buried herself beneath the sand.
The others started to do so too, until they realized that the sand-worm was making no move towards them.
"Why aren't you attacking us?" Cassie asked.
"Because I'm not as bad as everyone thinks," the sand-worm replied.
Then, it began to cry.
"Everyone thinks I'm bad because of how I look!" it shouted. "No one ever stops to talk. No one ever asks me whether or not I like being in the desert. No one ever plays with me. No one ever gives me anything, or asks me for anything. No one ever wants to be my friend. Instead, everyone just screams and runs or hides."
The sand-worm continued crying, and our heroes noticed another problem.
The sand-worm was so big, that the tears, in order to be the same size relative to him that our heroes' tears were relative to them, the tears were humongous!
Our heroes had to dodge about, and they didn't know what to do.
Finally, Cassie said to the sand-worm, "We're sorry! We didn't mean to judge you by your looks! We'll never do it again!"
The sand-worm stopped crying.
In a sudden mood change, the sand-worm said brightly, "Oh that's okay. I just wanted an apology. You've passed the test of kindness."
The sand-worm disappeared.
"Whew...maybe now we can look for that golden goblet!" Clifford said brightly.
Our heroes began their trek across the desert.
They had a rough time, because there were many more challenges to face.
They had to make it past quicksand, scorpions, the scorching heat of the desert itself, and even the lack of water (they found an oasis by following the scent eventually).
But eventually, they perservered, and made it to a pyramid.
"Do you think the golden goblet's in there?" Arthur asked.
"Well, there's only one way to find out!" Matt told everyone...
***
Once our heroes went inside, they noticed how dark it was inside the pyramid.
They had to stumble around in the darkness.
Eventually, though, they made it to a bright room, and went inside.
There, after all of their troubles, was the golden goblet, sitting on a pedestal.
"We made it!" Cassie shouted joyfully.
But as our heroes rushed to grab the goblet, they stumbled across a tripwire set by Sister Bear earlier.
This dropped a huge boulder towards our heroes, but luckily, they were able to dodge the boulder.
Soon, our heroes heard someone yell, "Drat!"
Immediately our heroes turned around and saw Sister Bear standing behind them, cursing.
Ashura then appeared.
"It seems you're quite useless, stupid girl," Ashura chided her.
"I'm sorry..." replied the brainwashed Sister Bear.
"Sorry's not good enough!" Ashura screamed.
With that, Ashura de-brainwashed Sister Bear, and sent her back to her tree home, with no memory of what had happened.
"Now, the rules say I am supposed to give you the goblet now," Ashura told our heroes, "but I'm not going to. And why should I? I worked so hard to create this world, and you made it past all my traps! It's not fair! I lose every game! Well I'm not going to lose this one! I'll destroy you all! But first..."
Ashura raised a hand, and the world dissolved into a purple haze to which Dave could not enter or see.
"Now Dave will never know that I cheated! And I'll get to blow up Earth!" Ashura gloated.
"But why do you want to resort to cheating?" Cassie wanted to know.
"Because in every single game I ever compete with Dave in, he always beats me!" Ashura screamed. "Boxing...basketball...everything! He always beats me! It isn't fair! I never ever get to win anything! That lousy loser...well now, if I cheat, I'll win this game, and finally give him what for!"
"Why don't you just stop competing with him and do something else with your time?" Cassie suggested. "You're a spirit. You could do that."
Ashura mulled this suggestion.
Then, he made himself solid and slapped himself in the forehead.
"Why didn't I think of that before?!" he asked himself. "I'm so stupid!"
With that, Ashura disappeared.
Our heroes grabbed the goblet, and they were immediately sent out of the game world and directly to Dave.
Dave gratefully took the goblet.
"And now to send you back," Dave said simply.
Our heroes gasped.
"Wait! We haven't even had time to say good-bye to each other!" Sagwa shouted.
"Frankly, I was getting bored with this game anyway," Dave told Sagwa. "Besides, you won't have any memory of this adventure anyway."
With that, Dave sent our heroes back where they belonged, with no memory of the incredible adventure they faced together...
***
The End
***
I finally finished this fanfic! I've been wanting to finish this for a long time, so I apologize if the last few chapters were a little rushed. E-mail all other 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. Grand High Idol had the idea of the Arab men on camels, and JesusFreak9 had the idea of Ashura facing our heroes himself and blocking Dave's access. I am really, really sorry ACME-Rian, but I can't use your idea because it would interfere with what I had in mind with the story. Speaking of the story, here we go!
***
Our heroes were now in the Desert section...and it was hot!
This time, Cassie had it better than any of the others, since dragons like heat.
And also this time, Clifford and Sagwa had it worse than any of the others, since they had fur, and fur isn't really good for heat.
"It's hot out here!" Sagwa complained.
"Relax," Matt told Sagwa. "This is the last section. Then, we'll each be home free."
"I hope so..." Clifford moaned.
Then, Arab men on camels rode up to our heroes.
"Hey, aren't you the guys that attacked the World Trade Center and the Pengaton on September 11, 2001?" Arthur asked them.
Matt quickly clamped a hand over Arthur's mouth.
"That's a stereotype!" Matt snapped at him. "Some Arabs like the US. Some Arabs don't like the US, but they don't support war. It's not fair for you to judge all Arabs as if they were Osama bin Laden. Our world was made great by the amalgam of different cultures."
The Arabs clapped.
"Finally, someone who has some sense!" the leader of the Arabs said. "Do you have any idea how many people discriminate against Arabs now because of that---?"
The leader uttered a curse word in Arabic and then mentioned the name Osama bin Laden.
"But still, you all will have to solve a riddle to get past," one of the others said.
The leader cleared his throat.
"If a tree falls in the forest, and no one was around to hear it, does it make a sound?" the leader asked. "Now because this riddle has no answer to it, there are no right or wrong answers. Instead, the test is that one of you must create an answer that makes sense. If you cannot come up with an answer, you do not pass. But no answer is right or wrong."
Our heroes were in deep thought.
Matt came up with an answer eventually.
"It does," Matt answered, "because sound is actually vibrations. Sometimes when things happen, they cause vibrations. Our ears perceive the vibrations as sound, but they are still vibrations. Since the tree falling would cause vibrations whether or not there are any ears around to hear it, the answer is yes, the tree does make a sound."
The Arabs discussed the answer among themselves.
Finally, the leader said, "That is a creative answer. And it uses actual science, too! I'm impressed, I thought kids were ignorant. You may pass."
The Arabs on camels all disappeared, and our heroes passed triumphantly.
Their triumph was short-lived, however, when a giant sand-worm came up in front of them.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Sagwa screamed. "Giant sand-worm! Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiide!"
Sagwa buried herself beneath the sand.
The others started to do so too, until they realized that the sand-worm was making no move towards them.
"Why aren't you attacking us?" Cassie asked.
"Because I'm not as bad as everyone thinks," the sand-worm replied.
Then, it began to cry.
"Everyone thinks I'm bad because of how I look!" it shouted. "No one ever stops to talk. No one ever asks me whether or not I like being in the desert. No one ever plays with me. No one ever gives me anything, or asks me for anything. No one ever wants to be my friend. Instead, everyone just screams and runs or hides."
The sand-worm continued crying, and our heroes noticed another problem.
The sand-worm was so big, that the tears, in order to be the same size relative to him that our heroes' tears were relative to them, the tears were humongous!
Our heroes had to dodge about, and they didn't know what to do.
Finally, Cassie said to the sand-worm, "We're sorry! We didn't mean to judge you by your looks! We'll never do it again!"
The sand-worm stopped crying.
In a sudden mood change, the sand-worm said brightly, "Oh that's okay. I just wanted an apology. You've passed the test of kindness."
The sand-worm disappeared.
"Whew...maybe now we can look for that golden goblet!" Clifford said brightly.
Our heroes began their trek across the desert.
They had a rough time, because there were many more challenges to face.
They had to make it past quicksand, scorpions, the scorching heat of the desert itself, and even the lack of water (they found an oasis by following the scent eventually).
But eventually, they perservered, and made it to a pyramid.
"Do you think the golden goblet's in there?" Arthur asked.
"Well, there's only one way to find out!" Matt told everyone...
***
Once our heroes went inside, they noticed how dark it was inside the pyramid.
They had to stumble around in the darkness.
Eventually, though, they made it to a bright room, and went inside.
There, after all of their troubles, was the golden goblet, sitting on a pedestal.
"We made it!" Cassie shouted joyfully.
But as our heroes rushed to grab the goblet, they stumbled across a tripwire set by Sister Bear earlier.
This dropped a huge boulder towards our heroes, but luckily, they were able to dodge the boulder.
Soon, our heroes heard someone yell, "Drat!"
Immediately our heroes turned around and saw Sister Bear standing behind them, cursing.
Ashura then appeared.
"It seems you're quite useless, stupid girl," Ashura chided her.
"I'm sorry..." replied the brainwashed Sister Bear.
"Sorry's not good enough!" Ashura screamed.
With that, Ashura de-brainwashed Sister Bear, and sent her back to her tree home, with no memory of what had happened.
"Now, the rules say I am supposed to give you the goblet now," Ashura told our heroes, "but I'm not going to. And why should I? I worked so hard to create this world, and you made it past all my traps! It's not fair! I lose every game! Well I'm not going to lose this one! I'll destroy you all! But first..."
Ashura raised a hand, and the world dissolved into a purple haze to which Dave could not enter or see.
"Now Dave will never know that I cheated! And I'll get to blow up Earth!" Ashura gloated.
"But why do you want to resort to cheating?" Cassie wanted to know.
"Because in every single game I ever compete with Dave in, he always beats me!" Ashura screamed. "Boxing...basketball...everything! He always beats me! It isn't fair! I never ever get to win anything! That lousy loser...well now, if I cheat, I'll win this game, and finally give him what for!"
"Why don't you just stop competing with him and do something else with your time?" Cassie suggested. "You're a spirit. You could do that."
Ashura mulled this suggestion.
Then, he made himself solid and slapped himself in the forehead.
"Why didn't I think of that before?!" he asked himself. "I'm so stupid!"
With that, Ashura disappeared.
Our heroes grabbed the goblet, and they were immediately sent out of the game world and directly to Dave.
Dave gratefully took the goblet.
"And now to send you back," Dave said simply.
Our heroes gasped.
"Wait! We haven't even had time to say good-bye to each other!" Sagwa shouted.
"Frankly, I was getting bored with this game anyway," Dave told Sagwa. "Besides, you won't have any memory of this adventure anyway."
With that, Dave sent our heroes back where they belonged, with no memory of the incredible adventure they faced together...
***
The End
***
I finally finished this fanfic! I've been wanting to finish this for a long time, so I apologize if the last few chapters were a little rushed. E-mail all other questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net
