"He's losing it!" Leo shouted and took a step back.
The screen with Robo-Meyer's face now vibrated so strongly that the mount on the wall creaked threateningly. The voice from the speakers no longer sounded like the principal, but more like a broken blender: "If true, then false... if false, then true... pizza promotion in the cafeteria... homework loop initiated... system overload!"
Suddenly, fuse boxes flew open at several places in the hallway. Sparks flew, and the ceiling lights began to flicker to the beat of a wild disco light show. The heavy fire doors made a loud *clack-clack*, opened a gap of ten centimeters, slammed shut again, and opened once more. The entire electronic system of the school twitched in rhythm with the logical short circuit.
"Leo! The Q-Fluctuator!" Zoe shouted over the noise. She pointed to the device in his hand. "The energy is flowing from the Wi-Fi back into the machine! You have to press the main switch to ground the entire quantum charge at once, or the physics collection will blow up in our faces!"
Leo looked at the toaster-Gameboy. The casing was now glowing so hot that he could barely hold it. The digital display no longer showed letters, but only one huge, blinking coffee symbol.
"If I press the switch, I'll send the beam directly into the main distributor!" Leo shouted back. "That could disable the entire school network forever!"
Zoe looked at him with a gaze that was half horrified and half absolutely thrilled. "No Wi-Fi at school anymore? Leo, that wouldn't be an accident, that would be a holiday for all the students! Just do it!"
Leo nodded determinedly. He ran to the main Wi-Fi distribution box, which was mounted directly under the flickering screen on the wall. A suspicious smell of melted plastic and freshly brewed espresso was already coming from the box.
He raised the Q-Fluctuator 3000 like a futuristic hero in the finale of an action movie, aimed at the blinking antenna of the distributor, and shouted: "Time to clock out, Mr. Principal!"
With full force, he slammed his thumb on the big red button.