8. This Means War!

8 This Means War! After Droney kidnapped Mr. Klutz, we all ran inside. We closed the door of the Fab Lab behind us. "Quick, lock the door!" said Miss Aker. "Droney could come back any minute!" I was all out of breath and panting, which means I was wearing pants.

"We've got to do something!" shouted Emily. "What are we gonna do?" asked Ryan. "We have to rescue Mr. Klutz," said Neil. "To do that," said Miss Aker, "we're going to have to take drastic measures." "Like what?" we all asked. "The only thing we can do," said Miss Aker. "We're going to have to... destroy Droney." "GASP!" we all gasped. We had worked so hard to make Droney, it would be a shame to destroy it. But Miss Aker was right. There was no choice. Suddenly, we heard a knock at the door of the Fab Lab. "Don't open that door!" I shouted. "Why not?" asked Andrea. "In scary movies," I explained,

"whenever there's a knock on a door and they open it, some maniac comes in. Droney might be hovering right outside the door!" "That's ridiculous, Arlo," said Andrea. "There's no maniac on the other side of the door. Right, Miss Aker?" Miss Aker went over and opened the door slowly. And you'll never believe in a million hundred years who was standing there. I'm not going to tell you. Okay, okay, I'll tell you. It was Officer Spence, our school security guard! "Officer Spence!" we all shouted.

"We're so glad you're here," said Miss Aker. "Duty calls!" said Officer Spence. Me and the guys started giggling because Officer Spence said "duty," which sounds just like "doody" even though they're spelled differently.* "Officer Spence will know what to do," said Andrea. "He's a trained policeman." "What's the problem?" asked Officer

Spence. "We made a robot drone that shoots marshmallows," explained Miss Aker. "It kidnapped Mr. Klutz and took him away. The drone says it is principal for life, and it wants to take over the world." "Hmmmm," said Officer Spence, as if this sort of thing happened all the time. "That's the problem with robot drones. They always want to take over the world." I guess that's the first rule of robot drones. "What should we do?" asked Alexia. "Well," said Officer Spence, "the only way to stop a bad guy shooting marshmallows is with a good guy shooting marshmallows." "We're makers, right?" said Miss Aker. "We can make marshmallow shooters! It's easy! We need to make as many as we can, and as quickly as we can

before Droney comes back." "Yeah!" we all shouted. Miss Aker had a big box filled with PVC pipe, those plastic tubes that plumbers use on sinks. She showed us how to cut the PVC pipe and tape the pieces together to make a cool-looking marshmallow shooter. Everybody pitched in, and we rushed to make a marshmallow shooter for each of us. "This means war!" I said as I put my PVC pipe together. "I don't approve of violence," Andrea said, "but desperate times call for desperate measures."