Author's Note: Back in March as a repeat, while I'm not normally one to watch the programming on The Food Network, I ran across this while looking up the Rugrats episodes that would be airing that night on Nick Splat, and decided to check it out. And what was the it I decided to check out? A show called, Cake Wars, and on this particular episode, it was a Rugrats themed episode, where the bakers participating, had to compete in two rounds, where they made cakes that were Rugrats themed, and the winning cake, would go on to be eaten at a party to celebrate the Rugrats twenty-fifth anniversary. E.G. Daily, the voice of Tommy Pickles was there to judge the cakes along with the other judges who usually appear on the show, and in the first round, they had to make a cake that was their favorite scene from an actual Rugrats episode, while in the second round, they had to get creative, and make cakes that reflected their own ideas for the characters. While watching it, I'm like, to say thank you for this special, the Rugrats need to do something in return. However, they're too little to be in the kitchen, unsupervised, making cakes, so, what's the next best thing? Well, my story here, will help us find that out! Also, while by the time I'm getting this released, they're now twenty-six, on the date I'm releasing this story, that being, August 23, 2017, exactly twenty years ago at 8:00 PM Eastern, Rugrats made their premier in SNICK, and premiered the first new episode to kick off the official start of my favorite season of the series, that being, season 4! Yes, that particular Saturday in 1997 was quite a day for me, as the hour of 8:00 PM Eastern, couldn't arrive quick enough. Anyway, enough trips down Memory Lane, let's move on, to the story.

Mud Pie Battles

Summary: A spoof on the popular Food Network show, Cake Wars, when on the day of Jake's birthday party, Susie, Angelica, and the rest of the Rugrats gang, Zack and Jesse included, decide to have their own take on the popular show, by seeing who makes the best mud pie that's Reptar themed, to be served at Reptar's birthday party.

Disclaimer: I do not own the original Rugrats characters, they're the property of their original creators. I only own any OC's you don't recognize, like Zack, while Kai and Kya are owned by Vinzgirl, Jake and his family are owned by Boris Yeltsin, Jesse is owned by Silvergunner, Peter is owned by TCKing12, Nell O'Mally is owned by theblindwriter95, and Savanna and Samaya Green, along with their family, are owned by DemonAloisTrancy.

It was March 29, and the weather was starting to feel much more like spring time. It had also been a good month since Tommy and Dil had been babysat for a week by King Peter Albany of the Confederacy and Princess Nell O'Mally of Enchancia. On this particular Saturday however, a friend of the gang's was celebrating his birthday, his eighth birthday to be exact. Yep, that friend, was the blond blind boy, Jake.

Because it was his birthday, his mother Karan said he could wear anything he wanted. Feeling around in his closet, he found his Reptar costume from last Halloween.

"I wonder if this still fits me?" Jake thought to himself, as he stripped out of his pajamas and put on the costume.

To his pleasant surprise, it fit, as he ran downstairs to sit down on the couch, where Susie Carmichael happily greeted him, as she had been dropped off by her mother just several minutes ago. Jake also heard the TV was on too.

"Hi Susie, what are you watching?" Jake asked, taking a seat on the couch next to her.

"Cake Wars. Today is the Dummi Bears special, and my daddy, is one of the judges!" Susie cried, as the two of them turned their attention back to the television.

On the show, round one had finished, and it was Randy's turn to take a bite of a cake that had been made to look like a theme from one of the episodes to feature Jelly Bear, who's arms and legs had been made out of Twinkies to help the character stay together better. Randy took a bite, and after he finished chewing, he had this to say.

"I love the concept of the theme you chose, taste and texture wise however, I find it's a bit, too chewy." Randy commented.

"So did your daddy go away to be on the show because he works on the Dummi Bears?" Jake asked.

"Yep, plus, the Dummi Bears man was spose to go, but had a apportant meeting to go to, so he asked my daddy, to take his place." Susie replied, as the two of them went on to watch the rest of the show.

"Who is, The Dummi Bears man?" Jake asked.

"Oh, he's my daddy's boss, and the man who created the show. He's also the reason why we got to move here and I metted all of you guys. He tried to make us move again a while back, but thanks to Angelica throwing food everywhere, well, we ended up staying." Susie explained.

"Oh." Jake replied.

He was curious how Angelica got the creator of a TV show to stop her family from moving away, but he also knew Susie wanted to watch the show, so decided to not ask anymore questions for now.

After the show finished and they saw who won the Cake Wars competition, Jake's face lit up.

"By the way Jake, Happy Birthday!" Susie said.

"Thank you Susie." Jake said.

Susie stood up and looked him up and down, noticing something different about him.

"Why are you dressed as Reptar?" Susie asked.

"My mommy said I could wear whatever I wanted, and I felt like wearing my costume from Halloween, since it still fit. Though after watching the Cake show with you, I just got an interesting idea! Later this morning, we're all going over to Tommy's house to play with all of our friends, what if we did our own version of Cake Wars, and I could play the part of the celebraty guest, that being, Reptar!" Jake suggested, standing up from the couch.

"That's a great idea Jake, only, we're too young to be working in the kitchen unsupervised to be making cakes, and while you may look the part of Reptar, afraid your voice sounds too young for the part." Susie commented.

"Well, maybe our friends have another idea we could use to substitute for cake that wouldn't be too hard to make, and, where my part is concerned, I'll be like those characters at Disney Land. You know, how Mickey Mouse etc. walk around and give everybody hugs, but they never talk? I'll just, be very quiet, judging our competition by feel, since my hands stick out from beneath the hands of the costume, and the winner of our competition, will get a special hug from me." Jake explained.

Susie thought about it for a minute, before finally agreeing to his idea.

"You know, that just might work!" Susie cried.

"Jake, Susie, are you two ready to go?" Karan called from the kitchen.

Susie and Jake went to meet up with his mother, and the three of them piled into the car and headed over to Tommy's house, where they would spend the later part of the morning and into the afternoon, until it was time for everybody to head to Jake's birthday party. Once they arrived and went out into the backyard, where they found Tommy and Dil, along with Angelica, Chuckie, Kimi, Phil, Lil, Zack, Jesse, and another set of twins who had recently joined the kids preschool class, who were good friends with Phil and Lil, they had darker skin and their names were Kai and Kya. While out in the backyard, Jake told all of his friends about what he and Susie had watched on TV before coming over to play, and his idea for them to do their own cake wars show for fun.

"But we don't know how to make a cake." Lil commented.

"Maybe we can't make cake, but we can make, mud pies." Phil added, holding up a mud pie to show everybody.

"Then that's what we'll do then. Everybody, let's get ready for the first, ever, Mud Pie Battles!" Susie exclaimed.

"Hmmm, we've played Mud Pie Factory before, but never Mud Pie Battles, this could be fun!" Tommy cried.

And with those final words, everybody got ready, and the first, Mud Pie Battles, took place that day in Tommy's backyard. Kai and Kya weren't for getting dirty, so they decided to be judges along with Reptar, who was the celebraty guest judge, while Susie and Angelica would be hosts and explain the rules of each round, and the contestants participating, were Phil and Lil DeVille, Jesse Barrow, Zack Wehrenberg, Chuckie and Kimi Finster, and Tommy and Dil Pickles.

"Are you sure about this, Carmichael?" Angelica asked.

"Come on Angelica, we helped Phil and Tommy run for mayor that one time, being their campaign managers, I bet we can host Mud Pie Battles too." Susie said with a smile.

"All right, so, since you dummies wanted Reptar as the theme, how does it work?" Angelica asked.

"Well, for round one, each of you has to make an individual mud pie. The theme, using mud, and anything in the backyard that was here to begin with, in other words, you can't use toys that came from inside, except for these frisbies as your shells to lay down the mud into for your foundation, and using stuff you find outside, like rocks, branches, mud, leaves, and so on, you have to construct your favorite Reptar character, or a character from the Reptar movies and so on." Susie instructed.

"The winners of this round will go on to round two and our final round, where you'll be put into teams to make an even harder mud pie." Angelica added.

"Each toddler has thirty minutes to make their pie, that's equal to the length of one Dummi Bears episode." Susie said, as Angelica got out her little TV she used in the Runaway Angelica episode, and put on an episode of Dummi Bears on Netflix.

As soon as Susie handed each toddler a frisby, and the opening theme to Dummi Bears came on Angelica's portable television, everybody went off to different corners of the yard, and got to work.

Everybody was doing good, except for Jesse, who got so caught up playing fetch with his frisby with Spike and Spiffi, that when Susie got up midway through the Dummi Bears to check on the contestants, Jesse was eliminated before the round was finished.

"But why? I haven't gotted started yet." Jesse cried.

"Jesse, you were spose to be making your mud pie with this, not playing with the dogs." Susie said, holding up the frisby Jesse had been previously playing with, after Spike had brought it back to him and dropped it at his feet.

And so, a crying Jesse headed inside the house, where he went to the living room to watch some TV. Soon, Dummi Bears ended, and it was time for round one to finish, and for Kai, Kya, and Reptar to judge the mud pies for that round. However, Angelica was stuck in a transe.

"Angelica, it's time to end round one and judge the pies." Susie said.

"Time for more bears, time for more bears." Angelica said quietly, waiting for Netflix to start playing the next episode on her little TV.

Susie turned off the TV at the start of the next episode, while Kai and Kya came up behind her, and pulled hard on Angelica's pigtails.

"Ow!" Angelica cried, standing up and spinning around to stare at Kai and Kya, who were laughing.

"You're funny!" Kai commented.

"Well I didn't think it was very funny, and so, let's get to work." Angelica said, as all of the toddlers lined up with their masterpieces.

Phil and Lil had used a combination of mud and dirt clots to construct figures of Reptar on their frisbies, while Tommy used mud, blades of grass, and leaves to also construct a figure of Reptar.

"We must report that Jesse was lemaded during the first round, cuz he was more interested in playing fetch with Spike and Spiffi, rather than making his mud pie creation." Susie announced.

Reptar, Kai, and Kya all went around and checked out Phil, Lil, and Tommy's pies that resembled Reptar first.

"Well, great job here with making Reptar look like himself. Phil, Lil, and Tommy, you all pass on to the nextest round." Kai said.

"I don't know, there's nothing from Frozen here." Kya commented.

Angelica angrily stomped up to Kya, put her face in her hands, and made her look her straight in the eye.

"Kya, we're not doing a Frozen themed Mud Pie Battles, we're doing Reptar. So if you don't want the firstest judge lemitation, I suggest you play along." Angelica snapped, making Kya nearly start crying, as she didn't particularly care much for Angelica's bossy attitude.

Reptar went around, and so far, approved of Tommy, Phil, and Lil's Reptar creations, with a nod of his head. Now, they moved on to Dil, Chuckie, Zack, and Kimi, who were all at the opposite end of the line. Dil had constructed the alien from Reptar vs. The Aliens using rocks and some of Spike and Spiffi's old dog poop, forgetting the key ingredient, while Chuckie used some mud, sticks, leaves, and a rock to construct Dectar. He used tree branches and mud for the body, a rock for his head, and two leaves for Dectar's wings. Zack and Kimi used a combination of mud and sand to construct a mole person in Kimi's case, and a giant cockroach in Zack's case. Kai, Kya, and Reptar all approved of Zack and Kimi's creations, while Reptar picked up pieces of the dog poop from Dil's creation, and threw them across the yard in disgust. Curious, Kai examined what remained of Dil's statue of Dil's creation, and noticed his hands came out clean, not being covered in dirt at all.

"Hey! Where's the mud?" Kai asked.

"I didn't use mud to construct the alium." Dil replied.

"Dil, head inside with Jesse, you're lemaded!" Angelica snapped, nearly pushing Dil to the ground.

Before he could fall over and get a booboo on the patio where they were doing the judging, he hurried inside to the playpen in the living room, not interested in being tormented by his cousin any further.

As the judges moved on down the line to Chuckie however, a gust of wind came, blowing the leaves off of his creation of Dectar.

"What's this?" Kya asked, holding up the frisby containing mud, some sticks, and a rock.

"That's spose to be Dectar." Chuckie replied.

Kai and Kya looked closer at his creation, and noticed a crucial element to make Dectar was missing.

"Where are his wings?" Kai asked.

"I made them out of leaves, they're right…" Chuckie said, staring down at his creation to notice the leaves were gone.

"Uh oh." Chuckie muttered.

"You're right it's a uh oh Finster. You're, limonaded." Angelica announced.

However, Tommy had seen the leaves blow off Chuckie's statue, but the wind blew them too far away for him to catch them quickly.

"That's not fair Angelica, Chuckie did too have leaves making up Dectar's wings, and a gust of wind came as he was being judged, blowing them away." Tommy protested.

Angelica marched up to her cousin angrily.

"Well, if you want to be limonated so badly, then here, go join your friend with the dumb goofy hair inside." Angelica snapped.

"But Angelica!" Tommy cried.

"Sorry Pickles, but no participant is spose to stick up for the other participants. It's written in the big book of rules." Angelica said.

"There's no rule saying that Angelica. Heck I don't even think there's a rule saying that on the real show involving cake." Susie stated.

"So what are you saying, Carmichael?" Angelica asked.

"I'm saying, that Tommy and Chuckie both, go on to the nextest and final round, along with Zack and Kimi, and Phil and Lil." Susie announced.

Kai, Kya, and Reptar all nodded their heads in agreement, and because all of the judges agreed with Susie, it was now time, to start the second and final round, and thankfully, there were enough people to make three teams of two people, to do it correctly.

"All right, this round is the most apportant one, so listen up! In this round, you've gots to work with your partner, that being, Phil work with Lil, Zack work with Kimi, and Tommy work with Chuckie, to make another creation, using mud and stuff you only find outside, to create a scene from one of the Reptar movies." Angelica instructed.

"And you've gots the entire length of the movie, Reptar 2010, to finish your project." Susie added, holding up a DVD copy of the movie.

"Yeah, thanks Wehrenberg for bringing a working copy of the movie over today, since Tommy's copy broke a long time ago. Oh yeah, and one more thing. It's gots to be scenes that really happened. My vision of Reptar lying around a swimming pool, when the movie gotted broked, won't count." Angelica reminded them in a harsh tone of voice.

"I don't member that." Kimi whispered in Zack's ear.

"Me neither. And, I only brought over the movie to watch, I had no idea it was going to work as a clock for us, since we don't all knows how to tell time yet." Zack whispered back.

"On your mark, get set, go!" Susie cried, as the three teams went off to different parts of the yard to start on creating their scenes, now in new frisbies that Angelica had handed to them before the round officially began, while the judges went inside to watch the movie, and Reptar had agreed to come out when the movie was over, to signal the end of the round. While Zack and Kimi and Tommy and Chuckie got busy working on their masterpieces, Phil and Lil stood over near some bushes at the side of the yard, trying to decide what scene to make their next mud pie be.

"I think we should make it a scene from Reptar versus the Giant Cockroaches." Phil suggested.

"Well I think we should make it a scene from Reptar Versus the Mole People." Lil suggested.

"No, roaches." Phil argued.

"Mole people!" Lil argued back.

"Roaches, Lillian!" Phil argued.

"Mole people, Phillip!" Lil argued.

"Roach!" Phil screamed.

"Mole!" Lil screamed.

This arguing got Angelica's attention, as she ran over to the arguing twins, who hadn't even started on any masterpiece because they were too busy verbally arguing the entire time.

"What are you two doing?" Angelica asked angrily.

"We can't decide what scene to make. Something from, Reptar versus the Mole People?" Lil asked.

"No, Reptar Versus the Giant Cockroaches, it's betterer." Phil protested.

"I don't care what's betterer, because you two are limonated." Angelica said, taking their frisbies away from them and bringing them over to Susie.

"I hope you didn't just make Phil and Lil lose unfairly Angelica." Susie said.

"Of course not. They wanna fight all afternoon? They can fight, and not have a chance at winning, for all I care." Angelica snapped.

Sometime later, they heard the glass doors in the kitchen open up to find Reptar standing before them when they turned around to see who was standing there.

"Times up! Everybody, to the patio for the final judging!" Susie called.

Kai and Kya showed up next to Reptar in the doorway, while Tommy and Chuckie, and Zack and Kimi came over to the patio, with their masterpieces. Phil and Lil had long since gone inside to join Jesse and Dil in watching the Reptar 2010 movie, but at that moment, the three judges decided to check out Zack and Kimi's creation first.

"We decided to use sticks, mud, sand, and leaves, to create the scene from Runaway Reptar, where Dectar is helping Reptar at the beginning of the movie." Kimi said.

And while neither Zack nor Kimi saw Runaway Reptar at the drive in with the rest of the gang, they had since seen it on DVD while spending the day at Zack's place, so knew what the scene should look like. Just as Reptar, Kai, and Kya were observing their masterpiece, the leaves they had used blew away along with some of the sand, ruining the scene, as it no longer looked quite like it was suppose to look.

"Uh, afraid the wind might have cost you this completion, not in a good way, but let's see what Tommy and Chuckie had to do." Kai said.

"Yeah." Kya added.

After Reptar had felt what remained of Zack and Kimi's masterpiece, they moved on over to Tommy and Chuckie's.

"We used grass, mud, tree sticks and dandelions, to make the scene from Reptar versus the Aliums, where Reptar is defeating the evil Alium, right Tommy?" Chuckie said.

"That's right Chuckie." Tommy happily replied.

And to everybody's happy surprise, the structure of Reptar and the evil alien stayed together, which Reptar, Kai, and Kya, all happily approved of.

"Well everybody, it looks like the winners of the first ever, Mud Pie Battles, and the mnud pie to be presented at Reptar's birthday party are, Mister Tommy Pickles, and Chuckie Finster!" Susie happily announced.

Reptar went up to Tommy and Chuckie, and gave him a huge hug, just as Phil, Lil, Jesse, and Dil all returned to the yard, and clapped for their friends, along with Zack and Kimi, and Kai and Kya, who were all very proud of Tommy and Chuckie for winning.

"I knew we could do it!" Tommy cried.

"Yeah, I guess we did." Chuckie quietly added.

At that moment, all of the parents returned to the kitchen to get the kids to take them to Jake's birthday party, when they noticed everybody covered in mud.

"Oh my goodness! What happened out here?" Didi asked.

"We're sorry Misses Pickles, we got a bit, carried away with our mud pie battles." Susie apologized.

Everybody went off to their respective homes to change clothes, including poor Jake, having to take off his Reptar costume, which was now covered in mud. While Jake was getting dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a white t-shirt with an embroidered picture of Reptar sewn on to it by his grandmother so he could feel the picture, his mother Karan received a very heartbreaking phone call. On their way to Jake's party, she gave him the sad news in the car.

"Well Jake sweetie, I'm afraid your friends, Savanna and Samaya Green, won't be making it to the party." Karan said.

"How come?" Jake asked.

"Remember last month, when their father had to have his leg amputated? Well, he had a heart attack earlier in the week, and didn't make it. Too bad too, as he was about ready to return home from the hospital. The funeral is today, and they have family from out of town visiting, thus, being unable to attend. I told Ebany that we were very sorry for their loss, and that we'd schedule a special playdate for you guys some other time." Karan said, as they got close to where Jake's party was taking place, that being, Piggy's Pizza Palace.

They arrived to find his entire third grade class there, along with his other little friends and their families, and sure enough, he had a cake that was Reptar themed.

"What happened to your Reptar costume?" Tommy asked.

"I got too much mud on it to wear it to my party, so I'm wearing my favorite Reptar shirt instead. My grandmother made it for me, and it's really cool, because it's made in such a way, that I can feel Reptar on the front." Jake explained, touching the green yarn that made up Reptar's body on the front of the shirt.

Tommy, Phil, Lil, Kimi, and Zack were all curious to see what it felt like, so they all took turns coming up to Jake, and touching his shirt.

"That's really cool!" Zack commented.

"Thanks Zack, I thought so too.

Just then, Tommy spotted the ball pit that he and his friends played in the last time they were at the restaurant, and had this to say to Jake.

"Hey Jake, wanna go swim in the pool with us?" Tommy asked.

"Huh? What pool? I don't recall there being a pool here before." Jake commented.

"I think he means this Jake!" Kimi cried, taking Jake's hand and dragging him over to the ball pit, where she stuck his hand through the netting on the side, where he felt one of the balls.

"Tommy, you are so silly, this isn't a pool, it's a ball pit, but I'd love to play in it with you guys." Jake said with a smile.

And with that, Jake along with the preschoolers, climbed inside the ball pit, and had lots of fun together, laughing and celebrating his birthday.

The End

Author's Note: Rugrats episodes referenced in that story were, Tommy for Mayor from season 6, Dummie Bear Dinner Disaster and Reptar 2010 from season 3, and Piggy's Pizza Palace from season 5. At one time, I was also going to make a reference to The Art Fair when Tommy and Chuckie were originally eliminated from the competition at the end of the first round, where Chuckie was going to state that he didn't really want to play with icky mud, as it was just about as much fun as that time Angelica made him play paintsin his daddy's living room, but decided to not have that be included, since I felt it would be better for Susie to stick up for them against Angelica's wishes, and let them go on to the final round, which, is a good thing they did, since they ended up winning! And while I don't recall anybody being eliminated during the first round on Cake Wars, before the round finished, in the episodes themed around Rugrats at least, I do recall one of the bakers being eliminated before the final round ended, bringing it down to only two contestants to be judged come the very end. I do hope everybody enjoyed this story, and if you made it this far, I thank you for reading, and, be looking for more stories and updates to ongoing stories, coming soon!