A Battle of Watts

Chapter 1: Oh Rats!

A Battle of Watts

By Lampi01

Notice: The Brave Little Toaster and its characters belong to Mr Jerry Rees. Because of the huge success of the last story, I decided to write the sequel to 'B Gone, Intruders!' Everything in this story takes place after the main story, 'B Gone, Intruders!', the short stories, and the recent special story 'The Radio, The Magnet, and The Ceiling Lamp.' If you haven't read them be sure to check them out. Feel free to draw, include these characters in your own spin off, and spread the word about these stories in whatever way possible. All I ask is for credit in return. Thank you all so much and enjoy the story in good health... While you still can! Heheheh! Sincerely, Lampi01

Chapter 1: Oh Rats!

It was a calm, quiet night at Ellie's house. The skies were free of storms at last and a beautiful blanket of stars shone over the marsh. Bullfrogs and crickets sung in the background, a cool gentle breeze filled with musky swamp smells wafted through the drooping willow trees, and countless mosquitoes buzzed around the muddy sinkholes in large swarms.

Ellie's basement was another story. Fannie, Mish-Mash, and Helga were having pillow fights; Vinyl was playing one of Phil's favorite songs, 'The Great Pretender' by the Platters; Poppi and Sketch were having a game of mini golf with a white marble and a horseshoe with their plugs; Rover and Potter were playing with Blenny; Waffles was chatting with his friend Loudmouth about Didi, Elizabeth, Executor, and Sweetie, they wanted to see them again someday; Wattson was reading his favorite book, 'Animated Musicals of the 1980's'; Cassettro and Jaws were showing each other their cassette and video collections; all while Ellie was changing into her pajamas in her bedroom.

Suddenly, when Jaws was talking to Cassettro, his antenna straightened and a news flash appeared on his monitor! This only happened once in a blue moon, for Jaws rarely received signals unless they were dire emergencies... or the annual super bowl. It never bothered him however. While other appliances like Loudmouth or certain radios found their loud, random noises to be a nuisance, Jaws could care less if a commercial or cheesy soap opera interrupted him. His favorite commercial was Tarzan: The Tar Company. Potter would ask Jaws to mute it so he could imitate the salesman, Tarzan, and the woman just for laughs.

"This is an Emergency Broadcast Alert for the local area. Residents have sighted mysterious red and blue lights around Lamplight Park. One individual reported the blue light made her cellphone start chasing her while a second claimed a red light changed his son into an electric fly swatter. Both have been taken into solitary confinement for mental examinations. No other absurd reports have been submitted. If you have any concerns, please contact medical officials or a psychiatrist for therapy. This is Whitney Rodchester from Hound News signing off."

Jaws shut off his monitor and rotated his dial like eye towards an outlet. There wasn't a blue light in this one, but it didn't hurt to check.

"Uh... Wattson? Didn't you see a blue light last week?" Jaws asked in a slow, deep voice.

Wattson had put down his book the minute the reporter mentioned the blue light. He instantly began searching for the outlet that 'bugged' him during the power outage. One night there was a huge storm at Ellie's house. The power shut off, trapping everyone in the dark. Since Phil was attached to house's circuitry, he was out cold as well. Wattson, being the only other lamp, tried to take Phil's place. However, he grew dizzy the moment his bulb was about to burn out, so Wattson tried to find a working outlet. Unfortunately for Wattson, he plugged himself into an outlet emitting a blue light, which knocked him unconscious and gave him a flu-like virus. The last thing Wattson wanted was someone else to suffer the same way he did after plugging himself in that infected socket.

"I did," he said. "But it wasn't last week, Jaws. It was four days ago. You were somewhat close."

"What about that red light?" Cassettro asked. He was picking up his cassettes on the floor so no one would trip. "We saw it when Didi was here, remember?"

Wattson became puzzled. The day after he caught the virus, a radio by the name of Didi showed up. Wattson was still ill and grew worse because of a bad wire, which had to be replaced in order for him to survive. But something bizarre happened early the next morning. It turned out Didi was a human all along and Ellie had been turned into a black candlestick telephone! Didi decided to replace Wattson's bad wire with Ellie and her friend Elizabeth assisting. The operation was a success, but a mysterious red light began speaking when Didi wished to be a radio again. The light transformed Didi and Ellie back to normal, but still raised a ton of questions from the appliances. Wattson was the most intrigued out of everyone. He claimed the red light spoke to him when he was under, but Wattson had forgotten a few things since his wire was replaced, which was common for appliances with bad wires and circuits. He could keep his light on longer and not pass out as fast, but Wattson was still moody, so the others thought this was just his personality.

"Yeeeeeeek!"

There was a loud scream from Ellie in her room. She flew out the door and tripped over a cushion. Before she impacted into the concrete, Phil caught her with his cables.

"You never told us you were taking a trip, Ellie." Phil snickered as he lifted her to her feet. "Was it another rat?"

Ellie shuddered. She hated rats! When Didi and Elizabeth had left, rats had been popping up all over the basement. Nobody knew where they came from, but hated them as much as Ellie did.

That's when a loud shout was heard from Sketch.

"Augh!" Sketch shrieked. Two rats were carrying him. "I'm not cheese! Stop!"

Ellie shrieked again and hid behind Rover. As much as she wanted to help Sketch, Ellie couldn't get over her phobia. Ever since she was bit by one as a child, Ellie refused to ever go near a rat within five feet.

Phil didn't have a problem with the rats. He sparked his cables and zapped the two rodents and Sketch. They fled into the washroom like they all did when Phil shocked them.

Sketch was gray from being barbecued... Again. This was the third time the rats tried to steal him that day.

"Why..." he wheezed as he fell over on his side. Sketch coughed and a puff of smoke came from his mouth.

Helga and Poppi rushed over to the fried pencil sharpener immediately. Helga frowned at Phil on the ceiling.

"Well done, Phil." Helga sarcastically jabbed.

"Oops!" Phil laughed sheepishly. "Haha! I meant to do medium rare!"

"Are you okay, Sketch?" Poppi whimpered. She was playing with Sketch when the rats stole him.

Sketch passed out from exhaustion and Poppi started wailing, instantly waking up Sketch. Sketch was like a big brother to her, even though the two were different name-brands, which served like last names to appliances.

"Snork! I'm awake! I'm awake!" Sketch panicked. "Poppi! Relax!"

The others were covering their heads with their plugs and hid under pillows. Blenny's crying was white noise compared to Poppi's!

Ellie covered her own ears as she walked closer to Poppi. She wailed like a fire engine despite her tiny size. Even Phil was cringing from the shrill pitch of her screaming.

"Poppi! I wish you'd stop crying!" Phil squeaked.

That's when a red light appeared in the basement, the same one that changed Ellie and Didi back to normal. It enveloped Poppi and disappeared with a pink flash, calming her down to just sob out of breath.

Phil had the most surprised look on his face. He had never been a big fan of magical mumbo-jumbo since Ellie had become a 't-Ellie-phone.'

"H-how... Who?" He was shaking on the ceiling.

There was a familiar female voice heard from somewhere in the room. She laughed happily and responded to the unnerved ceiling lamp.

"You're welcome, Phil!" the voice called back.