The Untold Story of the Tubbies [AU]

Prologue: Where Things Began

The year was 1961, and the Cold War had taken a dark turn for the worst, especially with one unfortunate mistake regarding the Tsar Bomb. The Soviet scientists behind it only lowered the bomb to 60 megatons of TNT instead of 100 but they didn't quite understand the ramifications then, nor did they quite realize what they had unleashed upon the world when they exploded it near an iceberg. The iceberg in question had been containing a virus that had been away from humanity for many millennia, but was now back thanks to the blast radius having melted the iceberg containing the fossil of a creature that had been infected with it.

       Halfway through 1962, the world's population had been reduced by 15%, even with formidable efforts to prevent infection. It was then that there was a meeting that would change the course of history. The US President John Kennedy made a consideration to bomb back at the Soviets for what they had done but knew that would only create more problems. Two scientists said that a cure was potentially possible, but by the time would be created, the damage would've been done. However, when things looked bad, they heard one pitch from the back of the room, which would change the course of history.

       "Listen up, if we're going extinct, we need something to carry on in this world. A new version of humanity, a species that could be instrumental in rebuilding this world. It may take a lot of testing, but I am sure this could make a difference."

       Some of the men in that room almost laughed at him, but the President and the two scientists seemed to consider this proposition and worked to create a cure and make a backup plan in case the human race wouldn't survive. Soon enough, a large team of scientists was assembled to study, test, create whatever they could that would suit. Of course, they had to make new trials and test their behavior before incorporating them into society of any kind. That would all change when 1965 finally rolled around.

       Underground and in a secret laboratory, two men and a women in suits had finally come back after helping in setting up the living spaces/testing grounds for the new creations. One of the men, Samuel, came over to the scientists where there was a humanoid creature incubating in a large tube. It was covered in grey fur, mostly save for its face which was more or less pale skin, but most perplexing were what looked like a TV screen in its abdomen and an antenna shaped like a hexagon shaped on top of its head.

       "So, gentlemen and gentlewomen, I see you've finally created the first prototype, but what's with the odd screen and antenna?" asked Sam. "We don't know, ask the higher-ups, but there's three more of them we'll test the functionality of, hopefully this works, and if not we'll modify them and test them again," said one of the scientists. "Very well then Rich, they should be done within the week?" asked Sam. "Correct, sir, we'll have preparations set up just in case," said Richard. Sam nodded in approval.

       The following several years passed by, and while the creatures, which were referred to as Teletubbies for their screens, were a success, mostly. They were still vulnerable to disease and had limited ways of reproducing. Soon enough, a second batch would be created in the coming months, along with another 20 or so, for the purposes of being tested in terms of functioning within society. Despite some initial setbacks, things worked out well over some more years. They could feel emotion and grow as smart as regular people, they were even more similar to humans than apes. The higher-ups, however, wanted more out of them.

       The year was now 1976, and a third batch was well underway for testing. In the underground facility, four workers in hazmat suits returned after setting up a giant area that would serve as the living grounds where the Teletubbies would live and be tested in terms of behavior.

"I don't get why they have those things in their belly?" asked one of them. "Don't you know, they show pictures and feed though such things, I've heard from the others that it's like telepathy or psychic stuff," said another. "Yeah, I don't really care-Woah, hey," said a third as they all stumbled into a room where there was a tall white tubbie being briefed by scientists. The tubbie in question was testing out the potential of what was called the "Guardian." Such a role was to keep track of the tubbies in their environment and make sure they were kept after and never went too far from the area, and all from a secluded lair. Each teletubby also had their DNA created from them and humans to save time creating them by hand.

Now it was 1987, and the current testing plan worked the best, in addition to that, however, a cure for the virus was finally created, but the damage was already done. More than 3/4 of the planet's population was gone from the virus constantly evolving and changing before it stopped and could be properly countered. Teletubbies were created on mass via the machines to fit into various cities to fill the void, while the private testing of new generations continued, this new one designing them to be able to match Olympic level physiques with just a few weeks worth of training.

It soon came to 2000, and things unfortunately weren't much better for humanity's survival. Their population was stooping low enough for Teletubbies to cover more of the cities now than ever before. Meanwhile, the fifth one was well underway, with a new drone being created to provide and collect additional data and information which was referred to as Noo Noo for simplicity, but this time, the four tubbies created for the new test had to be taken out due to a sudden accident that left their Guardian out of commission. Except no one knew they were taken to a new facility as a new one was created and assigned in the meantime, though nobody knew what went down there. Within the next two years, however, they all vanished seemingly without a trace, even their new Guardian. It all remained a mystery under investigation by the scientists who had created nearly the whole operation by themselves.

However, this brings us to 2010, where several people amongst the team were to be chosen for having their DNA samples be used to create the genetic coding of the new test generation in addition to the Guardian, which also could fit with orders for an experiment to be handled with a test group that had a slight but notable age gap between one another.

The first one created from this test generation was a small purple tubby with green eyes. He did well in playing and interaction with other kids his age, and they soon went by rather silly code names, of which the tubby earned Tinky Winky, which the scientists eventually began calling him by outside of TW-6-001.

A few days later, out came a slightly younger tubby who was a light shade of green and a slightly darker face with brown eyes. He'd be introduced to the playgroup and meet his brother, who playfully named him Dipsy.

It wasn't too long before a third one, a yellow female with similar green eyes to her purple brother came out. She was a sky but kind girl in the group who'd often dream and think on her own, referring to the other kids thinking of her always being in Laa Laa land, which got her her name.

However, there was complications with the fourth tubby, as one of the women on the team, Penny Osbourne had gotten cancer and hadn't had much time left to live. She lay in her bed, and one day the Guardian of the group came by and decided to chat with her, but she had already fallen asleep and would wake up soon, but had left him a note that told him to administer the vial in as her final wish, as she'd always wanted to mother one of the creations she'd helped make, and had also wished for a son to keep her own daughter company while she had to grow up without her. The Guardian obliged and snuck the sample into the machine.

After a few hours when the fourth tubby was created, out popped a tiny tubby with beautiful bright blue eyes and coated in red, the same color as it's "mom's" hair. However, the red tubby had been born a girl, likely due to a miss input, but the Guardian figured she'd be ok with it. Regardless, she'd be introduced to the playgroup and they all found themselves happy, and the Guardian named the red tubby Po, as a nod to her "mother."

Within the next year, however, the scientists had all of the kids placed into the mainland before having much of their memories wiped, leaving them there to live with together in what was called Teletubby Land.

Some years later, this is where our story begins.