All eyes were on Kiko.
“I… am supposed to do this?”, he asked uncertainly.
The owl nodded.
“The color core reacts to diversity.”
“And you are… different.”
Kiko looked at the empty spot in the machine.
His heart beat faster.
“Okay,” he said quietly.
Slowly he hopped closer.
Very carefully he stretched out his hand…
…and touched the color core.
For a moment nothing happened.
Then…
…a small light flickered on.
Very faintly.
“It works!”, shouted the robot penguin.
But the light flickered.
Trembled.
And went out again.
Silence.
Kiko pulled back his hand.
“I broke it…”, he murmured.
“No,” said the owl calmly.
“You awakened it.”
The screen blinked.
REACTION DETECTED NOT SUFFICIENT
Kiko looked up.
“Not sufficient?”
The robot penguin beeped.
“One diversity is not enough.”
“System requires multiple differences.”
Mila stepped forward.
“So it’s not enough if only Kiko is different.”
The raccoon nodded.
“We all have to be… different.”
Silence.
The animals looked at each other.
“But… we all became the same,” said the chameleon quietly.
“We wanted to be like the others.”
Kiko swallowed.
Then he said:
“Maybe… we just have to be ourselves again.”
The owl smiled slightly.
“Exactly.”
The screen flickered again.
ACTIVATION POSSIBLE WHEN DIVERSITY RETURNS
The whole city suddenly became very quiet.
As if it were thinking.