But nothing happened. Tauno, John and Ivan tried to turn the ring device in the way Blob had described it, but it was stuck. No matter how much they pushed and pulled it, the hourglass didn’t move a single millimeter.

“Tss, is this some cheap imported stuff? What are we supposed to do now?” Ivan stared angrily at Blob, but he just shrugged his non-existent shoulders. 

“Didn’t you read the instructions?”

Tauno rolled his eyes. “Blob, no one, really no one reads the privacy policy or any other user manuals!”

There was a loud bang. A torrent of paper rained down from the sky like confetti, burying the group beneath it.

Blob was flattened like a flounder.

John rolled to the side like a pro and crawled out from under a pile of misprints. “Isn’t it a little awkward that we can only fight as a five-man group? Doesn’t that mean we can never get far away from each other?”

Tauno squirmed out from under a pile of papers and gasped. “Right. It’s almost like an electronic anklet. And don’t you think it’s a little suspicious when the five of us are almost always hanging out together now? How is this going to end? Am I supposed to go to the bathroom with Ivan all the time and hold hands with him from now on?”

“Ugh, stop it, it’s disgusting!” For a change, he and Tauno agreed with each other.

Blob conflated again and took the floor in a huff. “Why do you guys have to bitch all the time? Please be grateful to me for at least disabling the electroshock ping. Otherwise Anders and Taro wouldn’t have been able to go to town today and enjoy their lovely date!”

Again, the paper volcano erupted from the printer tank and covered them with a layer of misprints.

“And where are those two? I hope you’ve told them we’re slightly in trouble here!” Groaned Tauno from under the ever-growing mountain.

John heaved up the pile and helped the other two free themselves. His cheeks had turned red from exertion. Sweat trickled down his temples. “I can’t take it much longer!” He panted through clenched teeth.

Blob inflated his body and created a mirror through which they could see Taro and Anders. 

Immediately, a deafening scream rang out. The landscape flew by. Again and again something whirred and rustled through the picture. Taro didn’t stop screaming as he clutched the handlebars of his e-scooter in panic. Every now and then, the transmission seemed to flicker. A few reddish-brown strands of hair appeared in front of the lens.

“That’s the Anders cam, right?” Tauno concluded.

Blob nodded and the image was streaked with bubbles for a moment. From the looks of it, Taro and Anders had already reached the school island by ferry and were making their way back to the school from the harbor on two e-scooters. While Anders stood calmly on his vehicle, Taro seemed to have problems with control, lurching dangerously from left to right. It was a wonder he hadn’t crashed to the ground yet, losing his shopping bags and hurting himself in the aftermath.

“Nice dashcam”, Ivan added, but was hit by another paper fountain the next moment.

“All crap! Nobody can use such ugly flyers! I’m filing a complaint about them! I want my money back!” Roared the little elf, who was dressed entirely in titanium-white spotted camouflage and wore a soldier’s helmet, before hitting the gas again. The printer tank rattled over the piles of paper, firing volleys in all four directions.

John again had to use all his strength to free the other two. “Guys, please hurry!” Through Anders’ eyes in Blob’s lens, he recognized the gravel path through the log cabin forest. He was at the end of his rope.

Taro, too, was at the end of his rope. With his nerves. “Help!” He kept shouting. “Help! Who could have thought up such dangerous devices!” A tree suddenly appeared in front of him and the path forked. “I want to go back home!” He jerked the handlebars around. His e-scooter lurched and skidded, came to a menacing lean, and howled loudly like an electric shaver who wanted to be a lawnmower before rearing up and shooting into the thicket. Bare branches and fir twigs smacked Taro in the face, but his glasses saved him from the worst. It crunched and cracked, but his vehicle was unstoppable. The next moment, he whizzed past one of the two tennis courts, which was also slowly mutating into a waste paper collection point. Finally, the soccer field appeared in front of them.

Anders, who had driven the normal road in the forest like a decent human being, was almost relaxed as he buzzed towards the large snowy mountain that the photocopier elf with the number E 171 had created out of paper.

While John fought with the last of his strength against sinking, Taro’s e-scooter got stuck on a particularly large pile and reared up. The engine sputtered pathetically before dying. Taro was catapulted into the air along with all of his bags. Screaming in panic, he performed several somersaults. In the process, his new clothes scattered around like colorful confetti.

“Now!” Blob shouted excitedly, returning to his teardrop shape.

The five boys nodded, turned the color essence of their watches upside down, and shouted: “Time to relax!”