Imagination's last hope: The quest to save the unseen world

Chapter 21

"Why is this thing not working?" The robot behind the laser asked. He was pushing the button repeatedly, but nothing was happening.
Rachel slowly opened her eyes. She didn't know if she was feeling relieved, or devastated that they didn't get this over and done with quickly.
"It isn't plugged in." One of the robots spotted the problem. He plugged the laser in and returned to his place against the wall.
Everything was ready now. Rachel shut her eyes as tight as she could.
This is it, Rachel thought.

The sound of glass shattering made Rachel open her eyes. The glass fell from the ceiling. Rachel looked up. Finnigan, Paws, and Mira jumped through a hole in the roof.
Paws was holding a broomstick. He ran to the closest robot and hit him over the head as hard as he could. The robot collapsed and fell onto the floor. But the hit wasn't hard enough. The robot jumped back up as if nothing happened. Paws tried again, with more force this time. The robot collapsed and didn't get back up again.
Finnigan had a toy sword. It wasn't the best weapon to take down a bunch of high-tech robots. Finnigan tried hitting one of the robots and realised it was a mistake. He threw the sword away and jumped on the robot's back. He grabbed its head and pulled as hard as he could. The robot fell and had only wires sticking out of its neck.
The other robots were heading towards Finnigan and Paws. Finnigan got a hold of the laser and shot one of the robots. The robot disappeared into thin air. Chills went down Rachel's spine when she realised that would've happened to her.
Mira rushed over to Rachel when she saw that Finnigan and Paws were handling it quite well.
"You didn't think we'd leave you here?" Mira said. She looked like her old self and not like one of the robots.
She untied the straps around Rachel's legs and arms. Rachel was too stunned to speak. Less than five minutes ago, she thought she was going to die. She wasn't expecting this at all.
Finnigan and Paws finished off with the last robot. A rope was dropped through the hole in the ceiling.
"Come on! Rachel, you go first. We have to be fast. More robots will be on their way." Paws said.
Rachel held onto the rope. Hootwiggle pulled her up onto the roof. She let the rope down again, pulling the guardians up one by one.
"Rachel darling, I'm so relieved to see you," Hootwiggle said. There wasn't much time to talk; they had to move quickly.
Hootwiggle tied the rope around her waist. She instructed Finnigan to get onto her back and for Paws, Mira, and Rachel to hold onto the rope. Hootwiggle took off right on time; a bunch of robots started climbing out of the hole in the roof.
"Ow!" Paws shouted. "One of them zapped me." Smoke was coming from his tail.
Rachel looked back. The robots were zapping them with small lasers.
"We have to go faster!" Mira shouted.
Hootwiggle flapped her wings faster. They didn't fly much more quickly, but luckily, they were far enough from the building, and the robots missed them.

They went through the portal in the library and appeared back in Starfall Grove. Mira got a big bubble for them to fly back to the office.
Nobody said a word on the way back. Everyone was filled with adrenaline.
Once they got back to the office, everyone grabbed Rachel and gave her a big hug.  She felt highly relieved to be back safely. She thought this was going to be the end of her life. Rachel didn't want to think about what happened in the world of technology. If it weren't for the guardians, she would've been dead now. She hugged them even tighter.
"Thank you guys. I don't know what I would have done without you." Rachel said.
"I'm so sorry for letting them get you. One moment, you were with us. The next, you were gone."  Mira said.
"That's okay. You came back for me. That's what matters the most."
"Rachel, we got a bed for you. You should try and get some sleep; then we'll tell you what Glimmerwisp two and Mira found out." Hootwiggle said.
"Shouldn't I get back home? I've been away for days. My parents must be so worried about me." Rachel asked.
"Rachel, you've only been away for over three hours. It's 11 pm. Go and get some sleep." Finnigan said and led her to a huge king-sized bed in the corner of the room.
Rachel fell down right in the middle of it. It felt like she was floating on a cloud.
"I thought guardians don't need sleep." She said with her eyes closed. 
"We don't." Mira said, "I got this one just for you."
Mira waited for a response but realised that Rachel was already asleep. She went back to where all of the other guardians were standing. They were busy with work, and some discussed what happened to Rachel.
"Poor kid, she's exhausted," Mira said. 
"I would be too if that happened to me." Paws said, busy looking at the statistics that Mira brought back. "I just hope that she'll still agree to help us. These statistics are starting to look worse and worse every hour." 
More than an hour passed. Rachel was still sleeping in the same position that she fell asleep in and with the same dirty clothes. Mira and Finnigan stood next to the bed, trying to decide if they should wake her up or let her sleep.
"Do you think we should wake her?" Finnigan asked. 
Mira nodded. "It's important."
She shook Rachel lightly to wake her up. "Good morning, sleeping beauty." She said when Rachel finally opened her eyes.
"Come on, we have things to do," Finnigan told her.
She got out of bed without being fully aware of what was happening and without saying a word. Just as she got up, the bed disappeared. She was too tired to notice this and continued walking to where the rest of the guardians were standing. She got a chair and sat down in front of the screen. Finnigan and Mira followed her.  "Rachel, what happened? Can you remember anything that happened to you?" Hootwiggle asked.
Rachel wasn't in the mood to answer any questions, but she knew they would want to know at some point.
"I remember most of what happened was behind Mira and Glimmerwisp two, and then I just felt a sharp, stinging pain in my back, and everything went completely black. I woke up in a little room with really bright lights. All it had was a metal door and now windows. I couldn't get my eyes open. I kept falling back asleep. My head hurt really badly each time I tried to wake up. When I eventually opened my eyes, a bot gave me an energy bar and water. I was really thirsty. My clothes were so dirty, I don't know from what, well they are still dirty." She looked down at her shirt. "I couldn't move any body parts when I woke up. It felt like I was paralysed. And then they blindfolded me and took me to that room where you found me. That's it."
"They must have injected you with something. Just like..." Paws didn't finish his sentence. He just looked down. 
"Just like Michael." Mira completed the sentence. She looked so sad. Her eyes filled with tears, and she walked to the window. She just stood there and stared out of it.  "Who's Michael?" Rachel asked.
She didn't get an answer. Everyone was silent.
"Finnigan?" Finnigan didn't know what to say. This has always been a really sensitive topic for all of them.
"Mike was also a guardian. Mirror-Michael was his name."  Rachel gasped. It was Mira's brother.
"He, Mira, and another guardian were on a mission in the world of technology. The bots saw him, and the same thing happened to him. The only difference was that we were too late. We couldn't save him." 
Mira came back. She was still wiping the tears off of her face.
"Let's just go on with what's important now," Mira said.
Rachel wanted to tell her that she was sorry, but she could tell Mira didn't want to discuss it. 
"Is that how you knew exactly where to find me?" Rachel asked.
Finnigan just nodded. She knew that it wasn't the time to ask any further questions. 
"Mira and Glimmerwisp two made it to the part in the factory where all of the devices get sent out to the normal world. Our suspicions have been confirmed: a bot is malfunctioning and sending out technology before it should. Humans aren't capable of handling this type of technology, especially not children. We still don't know why he's malfunctioning or if he even is malfunctioning. We must get him, switch him off, and bring him here to see what is happening." Hootwiggle explained.  This sounded like another recipe for disaster, Rachel thought.
"When are we going? Do you have a plan?" Rachel asked.
Another awkward silence.
"Hello?" Rachel asked again. 
"Rachel, I'm sorry, but there's no 'we' on this mission. You can't go with us. It's too dangerous for you."  Hootwiggle said.
Rachel wasn't impressed at all.
"What do you mean I can't go with you? That's why I'm here. To help you guys." She stood up from her chair. This didn't make any sense to her; she understood that something terrible happened and that she could have died, but the whole reason she was here was to help them. 
"Rachel, I'm sorry, but you can't go with us. You and I will stay here and wait for the others to return. Please try to understand."
Rachel did understand. She knew why Hootwiggle didn't want her to go with them, but it wasn't right. She came to help, and she knew there was a risk. She didn't care about any of that. She wanted to help. She didn't answer Hootwiggle. She just nodded. 
"We'll have to figure out how to get the robot here, but you should go home, Rachel, and get a good night's rest. You have been through a lot; I'm sure you're tired. Plus, you have school tomorrow."
Rachel didn't try to argue with Hootwiggle. She wanted to go home and catch up on some sleep. She got up from her chair, said goodbye to everyone and asked Finnigan to take her home. 

"How are you feeling?" Finnigan asked. They were in their flying car on their way to the portal. 
"Honestly, I don't know. I'm super tired and overwhelmed. And I can't believe I'm not allowed to go with you guys to Techtopia."
"Rachel, we just want to protect you. You can't imagine how scary it was when we discovered the bots had taken you."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               "I understand, but still. I want to help you guys."
Finnigan didn't say anything. He didn't really know what to say. It has been a terrible day for everyone. 
"Finnigan, what exactly happened to Michael? I wanted to ask Mira about him, but I got the idea that she wouldn't want to talk about it." Rachel asked Finnigan. 
"It's a long story." He sounded like he didn't want to talk about it either.
"We have time now." 
"Fine. Mike and Mira were twins. They both came to us at the same time. They were also in a car accident, just like me; that's probably why I got along so well with them. I became really good friends with both of them, especially with Mike. He was also a guardian, and he was amazing with the children, but one day he and Mira had an argument. None of them would tell me what it was about. They were really mad at each other, and we had to go to the world of technology to see what was happening there. Mira and Mike didn't really work together well that day. They were constantly arguing about the most stupid things. They got into a big fight right before we went into the factory. I still don't know what it was, but they spotted Mike just as we got in. We didn't notice that he wasn't there anymore, and Mira didn't think about him. When we noticed that he was gone, it was too late. We rushed back to the world of imagination, but when we returned to Techtopia and tried to save him, he was already gone." 
"I'm so sorry, Fin. That's awful." It looked like Finnigan was going to burst into tears at any moment. Rachel could tell that all of them missed Mirror-Mike.
"It is, but it's over now. There's nothing we can do." He wiped the tears from his eyes and didn't say a word for the rest of the way.