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

Chapter 23

"Have they already left?" Rachel asked Hootwiggle.
Rachel just got into the office. Hootwiggle was standing in front of the big screen. It looked like Paws had a camera attached to his collar. Rachel recognised where they were now; they were on their way to the headquarters with about 1 km left to walk.  "They left about half an hour ago."  Rachel could tell that Hootwiggle was nervous. She didn't blame her; she was just as worried. With most of the guardians being away and only Rachel, Hootwiggle and two of the Glimmerwisps left, they wouldn't have a team to go and save them if something happened to the others. 
"I'm sure they'll be fine," Rachel said.
Rachel wanted to believe that they would be okay. However, she still had that horrible feeling of butterflies in her stomach, and today, it felt like all the butterflies had an energy drink for breakfast. 
"If all goes well, they'll return in about two hours. Have you had something to eat or drink? The wait can get long. I recommend that you get something to eat or drink.
"Thanks, Hootwiggle, but I just had dinner. I really am fine." She lied. She wouldn't mind having some ice cream but thought it might be better to wait until the others returned, and they could have celebration ice cream.   
Rachel could see Hootwiggle was focused; she didn't want to bother her. She sat at the table and got a pencil and paper. Drawing normally helps her relax. Rachel was drawing a picture of her and all the guardians taking down the robot when Hootwiggle started to shout. Rachel knew something was wrong; she jumped from the table and hurried to the screen. It was pitch black.
"No! Paws? Anyone? Can you hear me?" She pressed a lot of buttons, but nothing was working. 
"What happened? Are they okay?" Rachel was just as worried now. She stood closer to try and see what was going on and if she couldn't find a solution, but she didn't know what was going on there. 
"The camera is off." Hootwiggle placed her wings over her head and fell into a chair, "They were at the robot, paws, and Finnigan jumped on him. It looked so easy to take down the robot, but something must have gone wrong. I hope they are okay. Let me rewind the video for you." Hootwiggle got up and pressed a few buttons. She went a few minutes back. Rachel didn't recognise where they were. She was caught before they got to this part of the factory.
Mira looked exactly like a robot. In this part of the factory, there were no robots. It was a small room with a massive metal door, which means there must be something important in this room. A conveyor belt was going through the middle of the room to where the robot was standing. The conveyor belt had lots of boxes on it. There were phones, tablets, PlayStations, and any technology you could imagine. The robot didn't notice them. He was busy taking the boxes and throwing them through a portal.
"That portal must lead to the normal world, and he's just throwing everything without even looking." They heard Mira say in the video.
All the guardians went around the room, hiding behind the boxes and other stuff so the robot wouldn't notice them. They went behind the robot. Mira counted to three, and on three, Paws and Finnigan jumped on the bot. Glimmerwisp Three also tried to help. Suddenly, the screen went black, and the video stopped. 
"Doesn't the bot look strange to you, or am I just seeing things?" Rachel asked.
"What do you mean by strange?" 
"It just looks a little different than all the other bots."
Hootwiggle shook her head. "I think it's just your imagination." 
"I'm sure they're going to be okay. It's only one bot against all of them." Rachel tried to make Hootwiggle feel better. 
"Taking the bot down was the easy part; getting out of there unseen with the bot is the hard part." Hootwiggle started walking towards the door, "I'm going for a walk to clear my head. I'll be back if anything happens." 
Hootwiggle wasn't away for very long. Rachel got the idea that she's a workaholic. She's always in the office, busy with work. She seemed to know about everything going on in the world of technology; nothing would get past her. That's probably why she's basically the president in the world of technology, Rachel thought to herself. 
"Any news?" Hootwiggle asked. 
Rachel shook her head. She and Hootwiggle went and sat down at the table. There wasn't much that they could do now. 
"If you don't mind me asking, how did you end up here?" Rachel asked Hootwiggle.  "I don't mind at all. I had a good life before I came here. I was in my fifties and living in America. It's not my favourite place in the world, but I made it work. I just found out that my oldest daughter was getting married. I was so excited for the wedding. A few weeks after that, I was diagnosed with cancer. And the rest is history."
"I'm so sorry." 
"Don't be. I was happy. I enjoyed my life, and all of my children were doing well. I really like hiking. I can't hike now, but when I was in the normal world, I used to go on a hike each weekend. And I loved writing and reading. I think having such a big imagination made me end up here."
Rachel smiled. Hootwiggle had a really fantastic story, and she hoped to also have such a fantastic story. 
"I still don't know how I ended up being a pink owl named Hootwiggle, but it's not too bad." Hootwiggle giggled. 
"It's probably because of how wise you are." Hootwiggle giggled again. You could tell that she was feeling a lot better.