A Battle of Watts

Chapter 2: Red Light, Blue Light

Chapter 2: Red Light, Blue Light

Phil was slack jawed with disbelief. Normally the only things that bothered him were Fruit Loops sticking to cables and others messing up his name. At least the light didn't call him Peter.

"Who keeps doing that?!" he squawked terrified. Nothing ever scared Phil this badly, not even Elmo Saint Peters. "I thought I was free of 'The Little Shop of Horrors...'"

The others started to look for the red light. While everyone was searching for the voice, Cassettro was looking under a pillow when Helga hobbled over. The instant she started speaking to him, Cassettro blushed and had a large grin on his face.

"Cassettro?" she asked. "Do you know where I put Poppi's pillow?"

Cassettro, not wanting to disappoint Helga, nudged the pillow he was looking under near her.

"Uh! Is this it?" He giggled a little.

This wasn't Poppi's pillow, but Helga didn't want to Cassettro to feel bad... And a pillow was a pillow. Poppi would squish her face into it anyway. She loved pillows!

"Oh yes! Thank you, Cassettro!" Helga said through a white lie. "Poor Poppi wore herself out. You're a great guy!"

As Helga carried the pillow to a sleepy Poppi, Cassettro fell on his back and sighed. He liked Helga a ton, but thanks to his bashful personality, Cassettro was too shy to tell her his feelings. Even if they were just friends, Cassettro was happy to be with Helga. She was always looking out for him ever since they met at the Parts Shop. Cassettro once lost one of his cassettes. Helga, who acted like a nurse to the appliances if any of them needed care, happily reattached it. Despite how much Cassettro loved her, he didn't know how to tell Helga... For thirty years and counting.

Wattson was sitting on a tiny foot stool, pondering about who the voice could be. It drove him crazy that he couldn't thank the light in person nor meet them face to face. Wattson never obsessed over anything like this.

"I've heard her before..." he mumbled. "I know I have someplace... If only she could just pop up right beside me for one-"

"Hello Wattson!"

Suddenly, Potter spontaneously popped up and startled Wattson, making him shout. Potter loved to mess with Wattson, but only if the timing was right. He would never bother Wattson if he was in a bad mood. Wattson tolerated Potter on a regular basis, sometimes getting him back when he least expected it.

"So Potter is the red light." Wattson teased. "Is there a reason you sound like a girl?" He started laughing.

"About that..." said Potter. "I have a confession to make."

Potter cracked up while Wattson shuddered at the thought of his friend being a lady all these years.

"Woof." He shook away his jitters. "Anyway, is there something you wanted to share with me?" Wattson thought twice about his question. "Which isn't a secret that will scar me for eternity?"

"Oh yeah!" Potter hopped once in the air. "I thought you might want to see something I found. It's really neat!"

Wattson lowered his eyes. Usually when Potter discovered something, it was either a prank, a random object like a tissue box, or the Legendary Accursed Rectangle.

"Let me guess..." Wattson said in a low voice. "Is it another shoelace?"

"Pfft! No!" Potter laughed. "It's even better!"

Potter pointed to an outlet emitting a weird blue glow. It was the exact same one during the power outage. Wattson eyes were like large saucers. Just seeing the outlet for a second time scared him silly.

"I found a funny looking outlet!" Potter said while hopping towards it. "I want to stick my fork in the socket and see what happens!"

Wattson yelled a loud "No!" and Potter froze. If this was a regular outlet like at the Parts Shop, he would tell Potter to 'knock himself out.' It literally left him unconscious though...

"Don't... Touch... That outlet." He was shaking petrified, making the tiny footstool underneath him wobble back and forth. "It's that thing that gave me a virus!"

Ellie walked over and looked into the odd outlet. It was giving off a brighter blue light than before and crackled loudly at her, making Ellie jump back from the flying sparks.

"What is wrong with that thing?" she said. "It wasn't doing that earlier..."

Fannie hovered near Ellie and landed on her head. She looked at the outlet and shook her head perplexed.

"That's the blue light they said on Jaws' monitor." said Fannie. "Weird. We've got red lights and now blue lights! Next we'll have moody yellow lights!"

Wattson did a "Eh-hem!" and frowned at Fannie. She just smiled and started humming innocently while looking towards the ceiling. Unlike Potter, Fannie liked to tease Wattson regardless of what mood he was in, making them squabble frequently. They were friends, but hostile towards each other if rubbed the wrong way. As opposed to Wattson, who only snapped at Fannie verbally when standing up for someone or himself, Fannie would physically snap her teeth at him for petty things. The only one who could bring their fighting or whomever to a complete stop was Phil. Nobody liked seeing him angry or hearing him lecture them.

Blenny was hopping towards Ellie when he accidentally bumped into the footstool, knocking both him and Wattson to the floor.

"Owie!" squeaked Blenny. He began crying while toppled over. "Mama!"

Ellie picked up Blenny and set him upright, to which he giggled joyfully. He bounced playfully and hugged Ellie with his cord.

"Mama?" Wattson said in a daze. His impact on the hard floor made him incredibly dizzy.

Ellie laughed and picked Wattson up too. He fell back over when she set him down, making him feel much worse.

"Ohhh..." Wattson had stars circling above his lightbulb-like head as he was teetering back and forth.

The red light came back again, this time picking Wattson back up. It lingered in the basement longer than before and laughed happily.

"Wait!" Wattson called out. He wasn't dizzy anymore, but really wanted to meet this light. "Who are you?"

As soon as Wattson said this, the light disappeared again in a pink flash. Wattson sunk to the floor with disappointment. At least this light's intentions were benevolent.