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

Chapter 24

"Rachel! Hootwiggle!" Mira burst through the office door. The rest of the guardians were right behind her.
"I'm so glad to see you guys." Hootwiggle gave Mira a big hug. "Mira, I was so worried about all of you. What happened? Are you okay? You're all so out of breath." All of them were breathing really heavily. It looked as if they had just run 5km.  "We're all fine. I'll tell you what happened now. Can we please sit down first?" Finnigan said and flew over to the table. He fell down on the chair, followed by Mira and Paws.
Rachel and Hootwiggle also went and sat down next to them. 
"I was so worried when the camera went off. I wasn't sure if you would make it back here." Hootwiggle said.
Hootwiggle's been so stressed the whole time the rest of the guardians were in the world of technology. Hopefully, now that they're back, Hootwiggle could relax more, Rachel thought. 
"I'm so sorry that I didn't figure out a plan to let you know we were okay. Everything was just so hectic." Paws apologised. "Everything was going really well, just like you saw on the camera. We made it to the factory without being seen, and then we reached the part where everything got sent out to the real world. There's only one robot working in there. He's all alone, which I don't think is part of the rules; they're supposed to be two. We sneaked in and hid behind anything we could find; he didn't see us coming. We tried to watch and observe a bit first to see what he was doing. He was sending everything and anything to the world of reality without even looking if it's supposed to be sent out."
"It was as if he didn't care at all or as if he's just not doing his work right. We went behind him; we just had to press the power off switch, but there was no power off switch." Mira said.
"He put up a great fight. We didn't think we would make it. We ran as fast as we could to not get caught. It was a miracle that we made it out alive. The place was swarming with bots. That's why we're so tired of all the running."  Finnigan explained.
"What do you mean he didn't have a power-off button? Every bot has one." Hootwiggle asked.
"I have no idea. It was so strange." Mira said.
"Give me five minutes to think." Hootwiggle got up from her chair and started pacing up and down around the room. 
"I'm so glad that all of you are back safely." Rachel said, "But why would this robot not have a power-off button and go against the rules? Aren't they all supposed to be the same and follow the rules?" 
"That's exactly what they are supposed to do. I have no idea why this one is an exception. Hopefully, Hootwiggle will be able to figure something out." Paws said.  They sat in silence for a few minutes. The guardians were too tired to do anything other than sit and wait for Hootwiggle to think of a plan. Everyone was exhausted, physically and mentally. They didn't know why everything in the world of technology wasn't happening as it should, and they didn't want to think anymore. This wasn't a silence where everyone was relieved and glad about the outcome. This was the type of silence where no one knew what to do or to say. Everyone was thinking about what they could have done differently or better. They were searching for answers. 
"We'll have to do some research about this." Hootwiggle returned back to the table and sat down next to Finnigan. "I have never seen or heard of something like this happening. I have no idea where to start. Mira and Rachel, you should go to The Oracle Repository and see what you can find out. See if you can find out if anything like this has happened before. Paws and Finnigan, you can search the web and see if you can find anything. That's all we can do for now."  "Hootwiggle said.
"You know what we have to do. She'll be able to help us." Finnigan said, looking at Hootwiggle very seriously. 
She just shook her head. "No, Finnigan. There's no way I'm asking her for help." 
The others didn't have any clue what was going on. Finnigan and Hootwiggle were now having their own conversation. 
"Hootwiggle. You have to let it go. You know she can help us; we need her now more than ever." 
"Wait, hold on a bit. What are you all talking about?" Mira broke into the conversation. 
"It's nothing." Hootwiggle tried to stop where this conversation was going, but Finnigan wouldn't let that happen.
"Hootwiggle knows someone from whom she can get all of the answers, but they had an argument, and now she's too stubborn to go and ask for help." Finnigan spilled the beans.
Hootwiggle didn't stay a word; she wasn't in the mood for this.
"Who is this person?" Rachel asked. 
"Not a person. She's another guardian. Her name is Glitterpaws. She's a cat. She knows about everything happening in the different worlds, but we don't need her. We can figure this out on our own." Hootwiggle shook her head. 
"You know we have to. You don't have to see her; I'll go with Rachel. Please Hootwiggle. It's our only hope." 
Hootwiggle thought about it for a while. The other guardians didn't say a word. "Hootwiggle, if this can help us, please let us go. We don't have much time left to try and save the world." Paws asked.
Hootwiggle remained silent. You could tell that she was thinking long and hard about all of this. She eventually broke the silence: "Fine, but only because it will help us to save the world. I don't want to see her. Rachel and Finnigan can go and see her." 
"Thank you, Hootwiggle. Rachel, let's go now and get this over and done with as soon as possible." Finnigan got up and started flying over to the door. Rachel was right behind him.
"We had to leave as soon as possible. I was scared that if Hootwiggle thought about it for more than five minutes, she would change her mind." Finnigan said.
He was with Rachel in their red flying car on their way to wherever Glitterpaws lived. It was almost in the same direction as Starfall Grove. Even though the scenery was beautiful on the way there, Rachel didn't focus much on it. She was much more interested in whatever happened between Hootwiggle and Glitterpaws. 
"What exactly happened between the two that caused them to hold such a grudge against each other?" Rachel wanted to know. 
"It's quite a long story. Hootwiggle and Glitterpaws got here at almost the same time. They were really good friends. They did almost everything together. Everything went well until the child Hootwiggle protected got into a bad situation. Hootwiggle and Glitterpaws each had a different way of handling the situation. They got into this huge argument about who was right and who handled the situation correctly. When the decision had to be made between which one of them should be in charge in the world of imagination, Hootwiggle got chosen. They just decided that Hootwiggle would be a better fit. They ended up never making peace again, and now they have this huge grudge against one another." 
Rachel didn't have anything to say. She was excited to meet Glitterpaws. Her name sounded really cool, and Rachel was really excited to see what all of it was about. Everyone in the world of imagination seemed to be unique. She remained silent for the rest of the ride. She had too many things going on in her head.