Think. Think. This new batch, people take it and instantly turn into hive-mind peppy zombies. But before the upgrade, before the squip ever took hold of him, what happened? What triggered the squip to activate, so many hours after he swallowed it?

Oh.

Right.

"Adam!" Chase yells, running around the stage to find Adam in his George Washington costume, chatting with Jake Chambers. Chase sidles between Adam and Jake without a second thought. "Adam, I need you to throw me."

"Throw you?" Adam says. He's got a dim expression on his face just like always. Except there's something… different about it.

"Yes, yes, just do it," Chase says. "Come on, bionic brother toss. Just throw me across the room."

Slowly, Adam smiles down at him. "Why would I do that?" he says dopily. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"I don't have time for this, Adam," Chase says. "Just throw me!"

"No," Adam says. "I'm not going to do that, Chase." His voice suddenly sounds sinister, and he gives Chase that same dopey grin and turns back to continue his discussion with Jake, who looks… just as dopey.

"Oh my God," Chase mumbles. "He's got a squip, too."

And now he's so much nicer to you, the squip says. He'll never throw you around again.

"Then he's not really my brother," Chase says forcefully. But he doesn't have time to continue his discussion with the squip or with Adam, because the play's about to start. Ms. Andrews gleefully calls everyone to places and, robotically, all the cast members file to their spots on stage.

The squip directs Chase toward the front of the stage and makes him start singing. "How does a bastard, orphan, son of a…"

Meanwhile, he's trapped in his head trying to figure out what to do. He can't shut off the squip, but maybe he can damage it. Alcohol messed it up once, it can do that again. Chase could run home, get some of Douglas's Schnapps…

And I'll just reactivate once you're sober, the squip says. Unless you want to stay wasted forever. Goodbye Harvard. Goodbye bionic missions. Have fun being a drunk, Chase.

So alcohol isn't the solution. What can he do? What can he do to destroy the squip? It's a computer. Like Marcus, like Eddy, like every computer… what messes up computers? How can he get rid of this thing?

You can't destroy me, the squip threatens. And you shouldn't try. You don't want to end up like poor Owen, do you?

Owen. The party. The couch. The fire. The… the electromagnet.

"The magnet!" Chase yells aloud, momentarily breaking through the squip's control of his vocal cords. "Uh, I mean. What's your name, man?"

"Alexander Hamilton…" Jake sings, stepping forward, happily, mindlessly squipped. "My name is Alexander Hamilton."

Owen freaked out trying to stop the squip from controlling him. And he must've messed it up when he accidentally triggered the big magnet above the couch. Magnets scramble computers and leave them irreversibly damaged all the time. So all Chase needs is a really big magnet… and a best friend with a talent for breaking everything.

Ooh, too bad you don't have one of those anymore, the squip gloats.

He's right. Chase ruined his friendship with Leo, maybe forever. All because of this stupid pill that he didn't even want to take. He stands there on the stage, feeling lost and alone as the cast sings, In New York, you can be a new man. In New York, you can be a new man. In New York, you can be a new man. In New York…

You really are a new man, Chase, the squip says, voice pounding into his brain. And it only gets better from here.

Just you wait…

And then Leo bursts through the doors to the gym.

"Leo!" Chase shouts as the squipped cast keeps singing. In the audience, Tasha and Mr. Davenport whip around to see Leo running toward the stage. They look mad, but Leo ignores them and hops up on stage to stand next to Chase.

"I could hear them in the hall!" Leo says, out of breath, gesturing to the students still singing. "They sound awesome! Which is terrible. They've all been squipped, right?"

"Yes!" Chase yells, not caring that the whole audience is watching their own drama unfold in addition to the first song of the musical still going on. "Leo, I need your help. Can you bring me one of Davenport's magnets?"

"No," Leo says, and for a second Chase's heart sinks. Did Leo somehow get a squip too? But then Leo grins and reveals the machine he's been hiding behind his back. "But will this work?"

"The LEMP!" Chase cheers. "A localized electromagnetic pulse. That should be able to shut down everyone's squip at the same time! Give it to me."

"Just one thing," Leo says, holding up the LEMP. "I think I deserve an apology." Chase was right- Leo never asks for what he wants, just accepts what happens and rolls with the punches. But he's asking for something now.

"Of course you do," Chase says. "Leo, I'm so-" But the words sticks in his throat. "Wha…?"

Vocal cords blocked, the squip says.

Chase shakes his head and tries to fight it. "Leo, I'm sah… I'm so srrr…"

"Is it really that hard to say it?" Leo says, looking hurt.

"Yes!" Chase yells, lunging for the LEMP before the squip can make him hurt Leo, or worse. "Please, turn that thing on!"

"This is important to me," Leo says. Standing up to bullies is easy but standing up to your best friend, your brother, is even harder. He needs to follow this through. "Just say you're sorry for treating me like crap."

"I am," Chase insists. "I'm really skkk… I'm skkk…" It's like he's glitching. "Leo, I…"

Molecular kinesis activated.

Without wanting to, Chase throws Leo across the stage where he slams into the side of the stairs. A few audience members stand, looking concerned, but all the cast members keep going on with the play.

"What was that for?" Leo asks, still clutching the LEMP.

"I'm not doing this!" Chase says, sailing toward Leo and punching him in the chest. "Stop it! Stop it!" He hits Leo again. "It's not me, it's the squip!" Finally, he manages to pull his own body off of Leo, but he's struggling and squirming as he hangs onto the stairs, afraid to let go in case the squip sends him after Leo again. "It's like with the Triton App, it's taking over my body. Leo, please. I'm sorry!" He finally manages to get the words out.

Leo tries to hold him down, still clutching the LEMP in one hand. At that moment, Jake strides over to the two of them, completely ignoring Leo. "Pardon me, are you Aaron Burr, sir?"

"Not now," Leo says, trying to hold Chase down. But then Adam walks over, picks him up and throws him off the stage. He thumps against the wall and falls to the floor.

"Leo!" Chase yells.

You don't need to be concerned about him, the squip says. Chase pushes himself away from Jake and Adam, only to find himself face to face with two of the Schuyler sisters: Sabrina and Danielle.

"Hi, Chase," Sabrina says, sounding distant and not like herself. "I wanted you to know that I'm not mad that you made out with Danielle at the party."

"And I'm not mad you walked away from me at the party and didn't explain yourself," Danielle says. "You're sooo smart. And you know… I'm looking for a mind at work."

"I'm looking for a mind at work," Sabrina sings.

Chase shakes his head. "Leo! Plug in the LEMP!"

Leo stands up on shaky legs, clutching the LEMP and looking across the stage at the masses of squip zombies, all singing disconnected pieces of the Hamilton soundtrack as the squips grow more and more chaotic. "But the outlet's all the way over there!" he says. "How am I supposed to get past everyone?"

Chase sidesteps Sabrina and Danielle. "Just think of it like a game of chess," he says. "Focus!"

Leo takes a moment, focuses, and then he runs and dodges and evades, moving across the stage the way a knight might move across a chessboard. He almost gets all the way to the electrical outlet in the wall on the other side of the gym… when Janelle stops him.

"Hi, Leo," Janelle says, not sounding like herself at all. "What is that? Another one of your stepdad's inventions, here to ruin everything?"

The cast sings, "Ooh, who are you, who are you, who are you? Ooh, who is this kid, what's he gonna do?"

Janelle laughs cruelly and shoves him backward, and for the second time Leo slams into the wall.

Chase jumps off the stages and slides across the floor to Leo and the LEMP. He grabs the plug and moves it toward the outlet.

You need to stop this, Chase, the squip says. You need to stop this… or you'll never be with Christina.

"Christina?" Chase says, looking up. And there she is, stepping down from the stage to approach him. She looks radiant, practically glowing.

And she's singing her part from later in the musical.

"Look around, look around, at how lucky we are to be alive right now." The way she smiles, Chase knows she's got a squip, and it's not really her talking. But still… to have Christina finally paying attention to him… The squip may have been a disaster, but it did what it promised, right? Got Christina interested in him. "Chase, I don't know why I couldn't tell you this before… but I love you. We should go out sometime."

Beside him, Leo whimpers in pain, hunched against the wall. The whole audience doesn't know what to think, but they know they're watching with bated breath. Adam and Jake, Sabrina, Danielle and Janelle… they all watch on, trapped in their own heads.

"That's not Christina," Chase says.

But it is, the squip says. Just like you are yourself. You're just better. You could both be better together.

It would be so much easier this way. No more arguments, no more getting thrown around by Adam, no more difficult decisions… and Christina would be his girlfriend.

"So, what do you say?" Christina asks, extending a hand to help him up. "Chase?"

Chase, the squip says. Do not throw away your shot.

Chase tears his gaze away from Christina and moves the LEMP plug back toward the outlet.

Chase, think about what you're doing, the squip urges him. You're nothing without me. And you'll be alone forever. Who knows the next time a pretty girl will even do so much as look at you?

Chase smiles. "I'm willing to wait for it," he says.

And he plugs in the LEMP.

Chase! the squip yells as the pulse goes out. Ch-Chase, you don't want to do this. Chaaaaassssseeeeeeee.

The voice in his head fizzles out, and a second later, Chase's world fades to black.