A Battle of Watts

Chapter 4: New Answers, New Secrets

Chapter 4: New Answers, New Secrets

"Hello-oh!" the red light greeted cheerfully. "I'm sorry if I woke you, but it's nice to finally meet your acquaintance, Wattson."

Wattson didn't budge. He continued to stare at her with his mouth open, completely shocked the red light was an actual lamp the whole time.

And a very pretty one to boot.

After the awkwardness of staring at each other for three minutes straight, the red light laughed and resumed speaking.

"Haha! Come now!" she giggled. "Your face will be stuck if you keep it that way."

She flicked her plug, flashed her light, and zapped Wattson with her plug like a wand. This returned his face back to normal, but didn't fix his staring problem.

"My goodness!" She hopped next to Wattson. "You keep staring at me like I'm from another dimension!" The lamp smirked a little. "Or is it because you find me adorable?"

Even though the lamp was just messing with him, Wattson turned a bright shade of red. He didn't believe in love at first sight and preferred personality over appearances, but this lamp might be an exception...

"Uh! Well! Um..." He was at a loss of words. Not knowing what else to do, Wattson just chuckled sheepishly.

The red light laughed a little and threw up her plug with satisfaction.

"Yes!" she shouted happily. "At last! He speaks!" She glanced behind him and smiled. "Yay! More guests! Those two must be Poppi and Sketch, right?"

Wattson looked behind him and noticed Poppi and Sketch were smirking at him. He glared at them to knock it off, but they began giggling. His secret was out of the bag with these two...

"Oh! You are so cute!" the lamp said with a hop.

Wattson blushed again and looked away, thinking she meant him, but was a little disappointed that she was referring to Poppi and Sketch. Some of the tiny lights giggled above Wattson. They seemed to find it amusing that Wattson liked their leader and laughed louder as he blushed again. Poor Wattson had to hide under a bucket until he could contain himself. He was safe from no one down in the storm cellar.

"Who are you, miss?" Sketch asked.

"Ah!" She did a face plug. "I forgot to introduce myself! Wow. I hate it when that happens..." The lamp cleared her throat. "I am the evah impressive, the uncontained, but never duplicate... Genie of the La- Wait! Wrong character!" She rubbed her lightbulb-like head with her plug sheepishly. "I'm Loumine." she said. "I have traveled near and far just to find this very basement."

"A basement?" Poppi's eyes grew large. "You only came here for a dingy storm cellar?"

"Yes!" She smiled for a second, shortly frowning afterwards. "And no... I can't tell you everything, but I will tell you I love these kinds of basements! The finished ones are not as appealing to me. They lack character."

"Wait... A basement has character?!" Sketch raised part of his unibrow. This lamp was as wacky as Phil!

"Yup! You can always tell if a basement has 'good traits' or 'bad traits.' The good ones have a positive and welcoming atmosphere while the others are negative and depressing. This one reeks positive energy!"

A giant spider lowered itself near Poppi and she screamed. Loumine zapped the arachnid with her plug, making it land on the floor with smoke lines coming from it. Poppi and Sketch looked at Loumine with huge eyes.

"Whoops." Loumine shook her head. "I didn't mean to char the poor thing. I'm just not a big fan of black widow spiders. They're deadly."

"Vinyl would really like to meet you then." Poppi said as Sketch poked the barbecued spider with his pencil. "He hates spiders!"

"Yeah!" added Sketch. "You could be like a bug zapper!"

"Like the guy in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film?" Loumine asked. Poppi and Sketch looked at her confused. "What? You've never heard of the movie 'Exterminator?' 'They won't be back.' It's a classic!"

While Loumine was chatting with Sketch and Poppi, some of the tiny lights were trying to pick up the bucket Wattson was under. One landed on his 'nose' making a tiny peeping sound.

"Shoo! Shoo!" Wattson whispered desperately as the lights giggled again.

Loumine spotted the lights pestering Wattson and narrowed her eyes.

"Hey! Leave 'em alone, you ninnies!" she shouted loudly. They dropped the bucket on Wattson's head with a loud clang. "You okay, Mister Afro Lamp?"

"Ow..." Wattson muttered painfully under the bucket. The lights started laughing again with amusement.

"Oh... Sorry, Wattson." Loumine picked the bucket off of Wattson and helped him up. "Pardon these little Sparklings... They like to toy with others. When I'm not looking, they flee into others homes and cause mischief. I can't believe they changed that poor boy into an electric fly swatter..." She sighed. "What a bunch of 'dimwatts.' I have to correct what they do all the time, whether they change humans to appliances or grant wishes on their own."

"What?!" Wattson squawked. "You were the reason Ellie became a telephone?"

"Yes!"

"You changed Didi into a radio again?"

"Yes!"

"You were the one talking to me when I was operated on?!"

"Yes!"

"So then you-"

"Yes!"

"And that means-"

"Yes!" cried Loumine with triumph. "Yes! He was my boyfriend!"

Wattson, Poppi, and Sketch looked at Loumine bewildered.

"Ahahahah... Sorry." she chuckled. "I'm a huge fan of 'Young Sparkenstein.' I couldn't resist the temptation."

"So... if you are responsible for the red light..." Poppi questioned curiously. "Then who is responsible for the blue light?"

"Pardon me for asking," Loumine suddenly changed the subject. "But I'd like to visit your other buddies. It will be morning shortly and I'd really like it if you would introduce me." Loumine looked at Wattson in particular, pretending not to notice him turning red. "Is that okay with you, my dear?"

Wattson didn't say anything. He just smiled bashfully and laughed a little. Loumine instantly took this as a 'yes,' and bounced with joy.

"Wonderful! C'mon you little Sparklings! Let's blow this popsicle stand!"

Loumine hopped out of the room with a trail of Sparklings following her.

Poppi continued to ponder about the blue light while Sketch was teasing a flustered Wattson.

"She's kinda cute, isn't she Wattson?" Sketch said with smirk.

Wattson was trying to keep his temper, still blushing at the same time. He refused to admit he liked Loumine. The two just met anyway!

"Don't... say... anything!"