You Will Be More Chill

I squinted slightly. "What is it with world domination? It's not like you get to become the best of everything ever because everyone you rule literally hates you,"

"Because world domination is what everyone wants. With our growing power, you, too, shall become ultimate leaders!" Constantine declared.

I noticed Rich's silence, and I realized he was scared of the SQUIP. I couldn't say I blamed him. After all, this was pretty terrifying to me as well. I glanced over at Jeremy.

"We don't want power!" He exclaimed, on the verge of tears. His voice cracked a little at the end.

To keep him from hurting himself by straining his voice, I spoke up, "We want a normal teenage life. We want to be happy, for God's sake!" This was louder than I had expected. A shock filled my body, tears of pain stinging my eyes as a loud yelp escaped my lips.

"You will not resist our lead," My SQUIP instructed. I had never thought Thomas Sanders could be so violent. I knew this wasn't the real him, but God, I'd never see that YouTuber the same way ever again. I had never seen Rich so scared, either. I was so used to him putting up this confident front, always being bold and brave.

We had no choice but to follow these orders. They were, quite literally, inside our brains. Not just this anymore, though. They had a physical form, and now, they could be seen and heard and touched by anyone.

"Are you guys linked?" I asked suddenly, though I realized that it could read my plan.

"Well, of course we are," Keanu rolled his eyes, looking at me as if I was stupid. I'm not stupid.

"Too bad there isn't a way to get rid of you," I sighed softly, rubbing my arm.

Rich's eyes lit up. "There is!" I noticed he had a slight lisp now Had part of the SQUIP's job been to rid him of it? "Mountain Dew R- OW-" He flinched again, assumably from receiving a shock.

"Red?" I asked.

Rich didn't move.

I knew Michael had some of those. Why had he not been at school? It didn't make any sense. How was I going to talk to him without my SQUIP? "SHUTDOWN-" I immediately yelled out, my SQUIP fading away.

Jeremy and Rich followed suit immediately when they saw my SQUIP faded.

"How'd you know that would work?!" Rich exclaimed.

"My SQUIP had told me how to shut it down if I didn't need to in social situations!" I responded, looking at them and feeling slightly accomplished. Looking around, I realized the school had gone on shutdown as well. Had the SQUIPs optic nerve blocked me into not realizing?

"We need to get to Michael. Now," Jeremy said, looking between me and Rich.

"Wait, why?" Rich asked.

"He has Mountain Dew Red!" Jeremy and I exclaimed, Jeremy pulling out his phone and calling Michael.

"They stopped making it in the 90s," Rich stated, raising an eyebrow.

I smirked a little. "It's amazing what you can buy in the back of a store,"

Jeremy looked at me, a worried expression across his face. "He didn't answer," He said. "I'll text him," And he typed something away on his phone.

"What are we even going to do now? We can't keep them shut off forever," Rich pointed out.

"They come back after a period of time," I sighed.

"So we'll just shut them down again?" Jeremy suggested.

"And do that for the rest of our lives?" Rich huffed.