Author's Note: My apologies for not getting anything released over the last few days. Between everything going on, ranging from wrapping up the school semester, to taking care of my cat who is very sick, and working on a project with a friend outside of Fan Fiction, time has in a lot of ways, gotten away from me. However, a few weeks back when TCKing12 gave me some information about Erebus, it inspired me to come up with a story where the Rugrats characters discover it, and, well I present to you all, that one-shot story! I hope you enjoy!
The Rugrats Discover Erebus
Summary: While playing pirates in Peter's castle, the Rugrats, who are one year older than their ages on the original series, find some treasure, which turns out to be Peter's famous sword, Erebus.
Disclaimer: I do not own the original Rugrats characters, they're the property of their original creaters. I only own any OC's you don't recognize, like Zack, while Peter, and the sword of Erebus are owned by TCKing12, while Jesse is owned by JJJB.
It was a typical day at Peter's castle, as he was watching the Rugrats gang for the afternoon. Peter was off filing some papers in his office, while the toddlers had the run of the rest of the castle, playing pirates at the time, and Angelica was off in the living room, watching TV.
"I think the treasure is this way." Two-year-old Tommy said, holding a treasure map in his hands, which in actuality, was a single piece of construction paper with several crayon scribbles drawn on it.
The toddlers, all dressed up to look like pirates, consisting of Tommy, Zack, Kimi, Jesse, Phil, Lil, Dil, and Chuckie at the end of the line, were following winding paths through endless forests of trees in their imagination, which were in reality, the halls of Peter's castle, until Zack spotted it up ahead, an opening on the side of a mountain.
"Is that where the treasure is Captain Tommy?" Zack asked, pointing to a large opening up ahead.
Tommy turned to look in the direction where Zack was pointing.
"Yes! Yes! I think it is! And I'm not Tommy, I'm Long John Silver and you guys are my squirly crew, member?" Tommy said, reminding the crew of toddlers who he was pretending to be from his pirate book that his paternal grandpa had read to him a while back.
Chuckie, Phil and Lil didn't exactly need a reminder, as they were that that fateful day eons ago when they spent the afternoon playing pirates in the backyard, keeping their treasure away from Admiral Angelica, fearful enemy of all babies, I mean pirates, but this was back before Dil was born, and way before Kimi was Chuckie's sister, or Jesse and Zack were a part of their group, so it didn't hurt for Tommy to remind the group of who he was in this little adventure from time to time. Upon seeing the opening to the cave, the toddler pirates made a run for it, stopping upon entering the cave, when they saw several shiny treasures surrounding them.
"Wow!" All of the toddlers exclaimed at the sight that lay before them.
"That's the longest treasure I ever sawed." Chuckie added, pointing to something very long off to his left.
Tommy and Zack turned their heads in the direction where Chuckie was pointing, and were blown away by what he was pointing to.
"Come on you guys, let's go check it out." Tommy said boldly, inching ever so closely to the long piece of treasure, which stood the height of the cave.
In actuality, they were in Peter's deserted throne room, and their treasure was in actuality, Erebus, a sword owned by Peter, but at this time, the curious toddlers had no idea what it was quite yet. Tommy slowly approached Erebus, which sat in a dark gold shethe. It had a dark red and gold hilt's handle, and the blade of the sword was black with golden trails etched into it, while the tip of the sword flaired slightly, producing a dagger like point on the end. Upon seeing this monstrocity of a weapon, Chuckie grew scared.
"I don't know about this treasure Tommy, I don't think this is such a good idea." Chuckie said.
"Awe come on Chuckie, how bad could it be?" Tommy said, trying to lift the sword out of its shiethe with one hand, only to find the handle was way too big for his tiny toddler sized hand.
Realizing he'd need two hands to pick up the sword, he stashed the treasure map away in one of his shorts pockets in real life, which in his imagination, was a pocket of his pirates uniform, and using both hands, he picked the sword up out of its shiethe, and held it high in the air.
"Wow! This is neat!" Tommy exclaimed, swinging the sword around.
"Tommy be careful with that." Chuckie screamed, but it was too late.
At that moment, Tommy brought the sword down, luckily, because he was only a two-year-old toddler, he didn't do more than prick his three-year-old best friend's finger, but he cut it by accident all right, as blood was dripping out of Chuckie's right pointer finger, and the redhead started to cry.
"Uh oh." Phil and Lil said in unison.
"What's wrong Chuckie?" Kimi asked, running up to her brother, who was now clutching on to his wounded finger.
"Tommy cutted me Kimi." Chuckie said in between sobs of pain.
"I'm sorry Chuckie, I didn't mean to." Tommy said apologetically, laying the sword on the ground and running up to give his best friend a hug, but afraid Tommy might hurt him, he jerked away in fear, just as Angelica walked into the room, or in their imaginations, Evil Admiral Angelica, looking very much like she did in their ancient backyard adventure, appeared before them in the cave.
"So, we meet again Long John Silver." Admiral Angelica said, giving the pirate toddlers an evil glair.
"If you think you're getting my treasure this time, you're not getting nothing." Long John Silver Tommy protested.
"Oh yeah? We'll just see about that." Admiral Angelica said, touching the sword that lay on the ground at Tommy's feet.
No sooner had she touched Erebus, when her hand felt a horrible burning sensation.
"Ow! Ow!" Angelica cried.
"What's wrong Angelica?" Lil asked.
"Did you get a booboo too?" Phil added.
"No you dumb babies, the treasure burned me!" Angelica cried in between her tears of pain, showing her hands to the other toddlers, now covered in red firy blisters.
"Burned?" All of the toddlers asked, exchanging glances at one another, as Peter entered the cave, which turned back into his throne room, returning the crew back to reality.
"What's going on in here kids?" Peter asked, looking down at the floor to see what had happened.
"We were playing pirates, when we founded some treasure in the secret cave." Tommy began.
"But the treasure cutted Chuckie's finger." Kimi added.
"And burned my hands!" Angelica cried, showing her red blisters on her palms and fingers to Peter.
Noticing what was on the floor surrounding the Rugrats, Peter slowly came up behind Phil and Lil, and picked the sword up off of the floor.
"Kids, this is no pirates treasure, this is Erebus." Peter said, placing the sword back into its sheathe, and reaching up to a shelf above his throne, where he kept a First Aid kit.
He sat down on the throne and opened the First Aid kit, pulling out some cotton balls, bandages, and anticeptic to treat Chuckie's finger, as well as a tube of Alavera to rub on Angelica's hands.
"Here Angelica, rub this Alvera on your hands, this will help treat the burn." Peter said, pouring some of the bottle's contents on Angelica's hands, and no sooner were they covered, when the four-year-old blond started rubbing them together like she were washing her hands with soap and water, hoping to cure the pain of the burns.
"Chuckie, let me see your finger." Peter said, approaching Chuckie with the cotton balls, bandages, and anticeptic.
Chuckie never liked getting wounds treated, because the anticeptic stung, but it was better than dripping blood everywhere, so he slowly showed his finger to Peter, and he saw to cleaning up his cut, wrapping his finger in a Reptar bandage, just like the bandage Tommy got a while back when he got his first cut ever on a thorn bush at the park, after rescuing a baby bird.
"What's Erebus, and why did it hurt Chuckie and burn Angelica?" Tommy asked Peter.
"As soon as I'm finished bandaging up Chuckie's finger, we'll go out back and I'll explain." Peter replied.
A few minutes later, Peter had the sword strapped to the side of his gray Confederate uniform, and in one hand, he was carrying a bucket of some plain wooden blocks, as he led Angelica and the toddlers out to the backyard. Once outside, he pulled a white chair out from his patio table to the grass, and sat down, laying the bucket of blocks on the ground at his feet. Once he was settled, motioning with his hands, Peter had Angelica and the other toddlers sit on the ground in front of him in a cemmi circle, before getting the sword out and explaining it to the kids, along with giving a demonstration of how it worked. Once he saw everybody had their full attention focused on him, he pulled out the sword from its sheathe on the right-hand side of his gray Confederate uniform, and began his story.
"This, is Erebus. It is a very powerful sword that I've had in my possession longer than I've known any of you. In fact, I received this sword as a gift from the all powerful TCKing12, way before I fought for the Confederacy's independence, and gained my rightful place as king. I named the sword Erebus, which means chaos, darkness, and destruction, even though I, personally, are none of those things, this sword is a very powerful weapon that protects me in times of danger. In fact, this sword is so powerful, that it can literally, cut through any material imaginable." Peter explained, getting together a few different pieces of materials to demonstrate on the sword.
He pulled out a block of sheetrock, a block of metal, and a block of wood from his pockets, and placed them on the ground in front of him, pushing the bucket of wooden blocks closer to the toddlers.
"As you'll see in a minute kids, Erebus is capable of cutting through any solid surface, from walls, to wood, and even metal." Peter explained, raising Erebus high above his head, and striking at each block that lay on the ground before him.
The toddlers gasp as they watched Peter make clean cuts in each of the squares of materials, cutting the sheetrock square, the wooden square, and the metal square in half, with very little effort on Peter's part.
"Wow!" Lil exclaimed.
"That's amazing!" Kimi added.
"What else can Erebus cut through?" Dil asked.
"Anything. In fact, you kids are lucky you're not very strong. It is so powerful, that it could have sliced Chuckie's finger right off of his hand." Peter said, making Chuckie gasp and trimble in fear, clutching on to his wounded finger, thankful he only got a tiny cut.
"Now, another thing I must explain about Erebus, is besides its powerful ability to cut through any solid surface, as I previously demonstrated, it can also slay dragons and other mythical creatures, like those we'd find in the World of Disney, or in Fairy Tale Land, and only a few people can wield Erebus." Peter explained.
"Wield?" Zack asked.
"Yes Zack, wield, that means, the ability to lift the sword and be able to use it successfully. By accident, it has been proven that Tommy can wield Erebus. Even though it was too big for his hands, which it's due to his small toddler size, when you kids get to be my age, the handle won't seem quite so big anymore, Tommy, even at the young age of two, was able to pick up the sword easily, and cutting Chuckie's finger, while it was an accident, meant the blade was sharp, also proving his wielding abilities." Peter explained.
"Wow! Does that mean I get to keep the sword as my pirates treasure?" Tommy asked.
"No Tommy, again, this sword is a very powerful weapon, and you are much too young to be carrying such a powerful weapon around with you, unsupervised. However, if someday, you must use Erebus to get yourself out of a dangerous situation, or perhaps save my life, you have proven yourself worthy of being able to use it, once you're old enough and have had proper training in handling powerful weapons. But until you're much older, none of you are to be touching Erebus without my supervision, do you understand?" Peter replied.
All of the toddlers nodded yes. Even Angelica, who usually couldn't stand being forbidden to play with forbidden things, agreed with the toddlers, staring down at her hands, covered in Alavera, as her red blisters were starting to fade, not hurting nearly as much anymore.
"Peter, why did the sword burn me when I touched it?" Angelica asked.
"Well Angelica, being mean to your cousins and their friends does have its prices to pay, and anybody who possesses an evil demeanor, will be burned when they touch Erebus, not being able to lift it. Remember kids, this sword is to be used to protect the good from danger, not by the evil to cause harm. Perhaps Angelica, should you work on being nice to the babies, and grow up a little bit, perhaps a day will come, when touching Erebus will no longer burn your hands, keeping in mind though that it won't necessarily mean you'll be able to wield it, of course." Peter said.
"But how do we know who can wield it, and who can't?" Jesse asked.
"Good question Jesse. That's where this bucket of small blocks comes into play. We already know that Tommy can wield it, based upon the accidental wound he gave Chuckie earlier, and Angelica will only burn her hand if she touches it again, so I'd like for Tommy and Angelica to go sit up on the patio, and the rest of you, to line up single file behind the bucket of blocks." Peter instructed, as Tommy and Angelica went up to the patio where they sat down in two white chairs, gazing out at the yard to watch the other toddlers test their wielding abilities.
Meanwhile, down in the yard, Zack, followed by Kimi, then Jesse, then Dil, then Phil, then Lil, and finally, Chuckie, lined up single file in front of the bucket of wooden blocks. Once everybody was where Peter wanted them, he took a wooden block out of the bucket and lay it in the grass, a few feet away from the line of toddlers, so the toddler performing sawing the block in half, wouldn't accidentally injure any of the other toddlers. After that, he led each toddler one by one over to the wooden block, and lay Erebus on the ground in front of them. Then, he had each toddler try to pick up the sword, and slice at the block, keeping in mind they weren't extremely coordinated, and might not do as smooth of a cut as Peter did on his materials, but even giving the block the smallest of a sliver would prove that toddler's ability to wield Erebus.
Zack was the first one to give this task a try. He picked up the sword with both hands, and had no trouble with this task. Then, remembering what he saw Peter do, he held the sword high above his head, and brought it down on the wooden block, slicing it in half. Everybody applauded Zack, as he lay Erebus down on the ground for the next toddler, and went up to the patio to join Tommy and Angelica, while the rest of the gang took their turn. The next person to give it a try was Kimi.
"Wow! Watch this you guys!" Kimi cried, picking up Erebus off of the ground with both hands, and finding she could pick it up easily.
Then, she did manage to cut through the block on the ground, but it was at a diagonal, causing two triangular shaped pieces to lie before her in the grass. Regardless, everybody applauded her, as she went and joined Zack, Tommy and Angelica on the patio, while Peter got a new block ready, and Jesse went up to take his turn.
However, while everybody up to this point had no trouble lifting the sword, Jesse found the sword to be very heavy when trying to lift it.
"Oooh! This sword is heavy!" Jesse cried, barely being able to lift it from the ground.
Peter walked up to the tip of the sword, and touched it with the tip of his right index finger.
"Peter be careful!" Chuckie cried.
"Don't worry Chuckie, Erebus can't hurt me." Peter said.
"How come?" Phil asked.
"Because the point is dull." Peter replied.
"Huh?" Chuckie asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, the disappointing news, Jesse is unable to wield Erebus. That's why he found it too difficult to pick up, and why when I touch its blade while he's attempting to hold it, Erebus can't hurt me. If somebody cannot wield Erebus, the blade will be dull, and the sword will feel heavy to the person trying to use it." Peter explained, as Jesse lay the sword down on the ground, a sad expression on his face, as the two-year-old toddler trudged up to the patio and joined his other friends.
"Don't feel bad Jesse, member, Peter said not everybody would be able to wield it." Tommy said.
"And I guess you just, weren't meant to wield it." Zack added.
"I know, but I was hoping to be able to." Jesse said, sniffling back some tears as he took a seat and watched the remainder of his friends take a crack at trying to wield Erebus.
Dil was next in line to try his hand at Erebus, and sadly, he had the same luck as Jesse, which made him feel a little bit better that he wasn't alone in the unwielding department, and Dil wasn't too disappointed that he couldn't wield it, since chances are he'd always be by his big brother's side, and Tommy could always protect them from danger with Erebus if he had to, being glad his brother could wield it.
Phil was the next one to give it a try after Dil, and he was really excited.
"Wow, it's my turn? Neat! Now I can try to be like one of those guys in the metal clothing!" Phil exclaimed excitedly, lifting Erebus from the ground, thankful he could lift it without any problem.
"Those are called knites, and yes Phil, they do use swords like Erebus. Remember? We saw knites in Fairy Tale Land when you kissed that magic frog and wished us into Fairy Tale Land, and we tried to get a knite to slay the dragon that had eaten Tommy's dad?" Peter reminded him.
"Oh yeah! If I remember, Reptar saved Tommy's daddy." Phil said.
"Reptar saved Tommy's dad from a dragon's belly in Fairy Tale Land? I've gotta see this adventure." Zack hallered from the patio.
"Maybe sometime, I'll take you on a trip back in time with my time machine to the events of what I like to call, Faire Play, but that's for another day. Right now, let's see if you can slice that block in half." Peter said, as Phil raised the sword high in the air, and brought it down on top of the block, breaking it in two.
"You did it Phillip!" Lil cried.
"I sure did Lillian." Phil replied, laying the sword on the ground and doing a victory dance, heading up to the patio to watch his twin sister and Chuckie take their chances at trying to wield Erebus.
"I bet I can wield it better than you did Phillip." Lil argued, stepping up in front of a new wooden block with Erebus at her feet.
"No you can't, Lillion." Phil argued.
"Yes I can, Phillip." Lil argued back.
Peter whistled to get the twins attention.
"Hey! Hey! Let's not argue, and see if Lil can really wield it, okay?" Peter shouted.
"Sorry." Phil and Lil said in unison.
However, while Phil had no trouble wielding Erebus, sadly, Lil got results similar to that of Dil and Jesse.
"This, sword, is, stuck!" Lil cried, trying to lift Erebus from the ground with all of her might, but not having much luck.
"I bet it's safe for me to touch." Chuckie thought to himself, walking over to the blade of Erebus with the handle still in Lil's tiny hands, very close to the ground, as she continued struggling to lift it.
Sure enough, Chuckie touched the blade, and was pleased to see no blood dripping from his finger this time around.
"Nope, no booboo." Chuckie said with a sigh of relief.
"Nope, Erebus's blade is dull. Sorry Lil, looks like in this case, your twin can do something you can't." Peter said.
Without saying a word, Lil dropped the handle on the ground and ran up to the patio to watch Chuckie take his turn, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Don't feel bad Lil, I couldn't lift it, even though my big brother Tommy could." Dil said.
"But I'm olderer than Phillip, I should have been able to lift it." Lil said in between her tears.
"Just so you kids are aware, oldest to youngest sibling doesn't matter in terms of who can wield Erebus and who can't. Now, Chuckie, let's see you give it a try." Peter said, helping Chuckie get set up where Lil was previously standing.
He picked up the sword hesitantly, relieved that he could pick it up with both hands, and didn't find it heavy at all. Realizing this, he started to shake nervously.
"Okay, I can lift it, better put it down before I hurt anything." Chuckie stammered.
"Chuckie, it's just a wooden block. You won't hurt me or any of your friends, we're too far out of range for you to harm any of us. Come on Chuckie, at least give it a try." Peter encouraged.
The three-year-old redhead trimbled nervously, as he brought Erebus high above his head, and brought it down on the wooden block in the grass, slicing it in half. Upon completeing this task, everybody cheered Chuckie on excitedly.
"You did it Chuckie, you wielded Erebus." Tommy said from the patio.
Chuckie looked down at the two halves of wooden block in the grass and up at his friends cheering him on and smiled.
"Hey! I did it!" Chuckie cried excitedly.
"You sure did, which also proves you can be brave when you need to be. Good job Chuckie." Peter said, giving Chuckie a pat on the head and taking Erebus from him, placing it back in the shiethe on the side of his gray Confederate uniform.
Peter then picked up the halves of block in the grass, gathered up the rest of his materials he used to demonstrate his sword, and everybody headed back inside his castle. Once inside though, Peter approached one of his servants, and had them make a special glass case in his throne room, the length and size of Erebus, which was built by the end of the day, and Peter placed Erebus in for safe keeping.
"Now the toddlers can't mess with my sword until they're old enough and ready, without my supervision." Peter said to himself, locking Erebus away in its glass safe, with a tiny gold key, which he stashed away in a pocket that button closed on his uniform, so nobody could accidentally open the case.
That night at dinner, as the toddlers stayed for dinner, seeing their parents and Zack's aunt weren't picking them up until afterwards, Tommy asked Peter an interesting question.
"Peter, can anybody in your family, the Disney characters, or any of your servants wield Erebus?" Tommy asked in between fork fulls of hotdog and seedless watermelon.
"Nope, however, there's always the possibility that my future offspring will be able to wield it, but we won't know that, for several years. And as for characters we know from other lands, currently, besides those of you who proved yourselves worthy of wielding it today, the only other character who's able to wield it at this time, is Lucina, who's from the World of Nintendo, in particular, the game, Fire Emblem Awakening." Peter explained, taking another bite of watermelon on his plate.
Everybody went on to eat their dinner in silence, though after Dil had only two bites of watermelon, the other babies dug into Dil's bowl, making sure he didn't eat too much watermelon, fearing he might turn into a watermelon again.
"Kids, let Dil eat his own watermelon, I can assure you, he won't turn into one." Peter said.
"I don't know, and after what we went through today with Erebus, I don't wanna find out. Member, like I always say, watermelon is trouble." Chuckie said.
And that's the story, of the Rugrats characters discovery of Peter's famous weapon, Erebus.
The End
Author's Note: Well, I hope you all enjoyed that story. And in the event you didn't figure it out, I did reference a few Rugrats episodes in that story. They were, Sand Ho from season 2, Faire Play from season 4, The First Cut from season 5, and Dil We Meet Again from season 6. Hope you all enjoyed the story, and be looking for more stories, coming soon!
