It was the calm before the storm, but only if the calm last 0.02 seconds and the storm was a whole lot of screaming and panic. Most of the screaming was, embarrassingly, from Jeremy.

But how the hell was he supposed to react?! He had just found out his dad, the one he had just started to get close to, was actually the person who invented the main thing that got him into this mess in the first place.

How was he supposed to react...

"Everyone shut up!" the Detective finally yelled. Jeremy was grateful, at least it was a distraction from the complete chaos in his mind. Though he was not sure he wanted to hear the rest of it.

The Detective turned back to Jeremy's father, or Joe Trancer, or whoever he was. Jeremy tried to ignore the sting of betrayal he felt in all of this. He never had an inkling of who his father masqueraded as. His father never hinted at it at all.

"I thought so," the Detective said. She straightened up, seeming far less scary then before. She seemed more relaxed, and for the first time, Jeremy wondered if she was out of her depth. She had certainly seemed frazzled earlier.

"Just... let me explain," Jeremy's dad asked. "Please."

"Oh, don't worry," the Detective assured him without a hint of kindness. "You'll have to."

Jeremy's dad (Jeremy decided he would continue calling this guy his dad, he didn't think he was lying about that) sighed, but he didn't start right away. He seemed to be gathering his thoughts.

But the Detective had no patience for that. "Hurry up," she sneered. "Or we'll leave."

Jeremy wondered if 'we' included him, but, deep down, he didn't really care. No matter what explanation came out of his father's mouth, Jeremy wasn't going to spend the night here. Or even the week. He'd just stay with Michael and his moms. Far as he knew, Micheal's moms weren't secretly developing sketchy drugs.

"Just a minute," Jeremy's dad mumbled. Then he sighed. He finally seemed ready to talk. "Alright. so, I don't know how much you all know, but I assume you all know about Techbehind, and how it started the development of the SQUIP."

"We've heard a bit about it," Jared huffed. Martha shushed him while Jenna lightly slapped him on the shoulder.

"Well, the SQUIP's origin started with me," Jeremy's dad continued. "The Super Quantum Unit Intel Processor. It was built so people who felt... disconnected-"

Jeremy cringed. No matter who his dad was, he still had that special ability to make Jeremy embarrassed in front of his friends.

"-Could fit in better," Jeremy's dad looked around, shrugging. "It was just supposed to make kids feel a little more comfortable with other people around, so they could stop worrying so much."

"You really weren't fooling around with that 'just be yourself' crap, were you?" Jared laughed. Jenna and Martha seemed to be trying not to laugh. Jeremy could feel the corner's of his mouth twitch up and he swallowed his laughter. What? It was weirdly funny in this odd environment he found himself in.

"It wasn't meant to completely change the user," Jeremy's dad sounded annoyed. "It was just meant to make them more comfortable, and stop them from worrying about every little thing while they were out. Jeremy here was the inspiration."

"Oh," Jeremy's face twisted in disgust, from the realization that he was why the SQUIP was made and how much that sounded like a bad pun. "Great."

"It wasn't meant to change anyone," Jeremy's dad insisted. He was looking right at Jeremy now, and he seemed to have forgotten the other people in the room. "Just to felt people fit in a little better. Make them more-."

"You keep saying that but that's not what happened!" Jeremy cried, cutting off his dad. "It tried to take over the world, in case you've forgotten! It didn't try to 'not change me', because it tried to change everything about me! So what happened?"

Jeremy's dad swallowed. "Well, uh..." he seemed nervous. "Techbehind mass produced it."

"...And?"

"And they changed it," Jeremy's dad finally looked away from Jeremy. Not because he wanted to look at someone else, Jeremy realized, so that he didn't have to look at Jeremy.

"So this is all their fault," Martha guessed. She sounded disappointed. Jeremy knew why. He hoped his dad wouldn't pin this all on Techbehind either. No matter what, Joe Trancer wasn't innocent.

Luckily, he didn't pretend to be. "No," he admitted. "I was the one who made popularity the SQUIPs main goal."

Jeremy's dad didn't elaborate, and Jeremy frowned. Then he understood. "It was because mom left, wasn't it?"

Jeremy's dad looked uncomfortable. "Most of it, yes..."

"Wha- oh, don't tell me I was the rest of this inspiration."

"You were."

"Fantastic."

"The thing is," Jeremy's dad sighed. "I was a loser. We both were. And I know how much it sucks, and, just like that, it got too much into my head. Next thing I knew, I was tweaking the SQUIPs code. There were other things, too, I guess, I had some misgivings about the basic programming, Techbehind didn't think it'd sell... But most of it were my own insecurities."

"And then you mass produced it, and then it tried to take over the world," Jared said.

"That's about right," Jeremy's dad sighed.

"Why'd you change your name, though?" Martha asked. "Why Joe Trancer?"

"The name was random," Jeremy's dad replied. "But the reason I had it was because I didn't want me or Jeremy or even my ex wife to be involved in any of this."

"But..." Michael said.

"But he got involved anyway," Jeremy's dad finished with a groan.

"That was all you, dude," Michael whispered to Jeremy. Jeremy rolled his eyes, elbowing Michael playfully.

"Yeah, well, shut up."

"Well, now that that's over with," the Detective said. Jeremy was surprised she had been quiet for so long. "We can finally get to the main reason we're here."

"Oh, we're not done," Jeremy's dad looked disappointed.

"There's a murderer on the loose, which I'm sure you've heard about," the Detective explained. "And we found a link to SQUIPs. Any reason a SQUIP user would be driven to murder?"

"My SQUIP never made me murder anyone," Jeremy said

Jeremy's dad hummed. "Well, I've been thinking about this a little bit... The only reason I can think of is the rise of True Crime documentaries."

Jeremy wasn't expecting that. "What?!" he asked.

"The SQUIP looks for what's popular right now, and tries to make the user fit in with whatever that is," Jeremy's dad explained. "Obviously, there are boundaries, but if there was a defective one..."

"...Are you doing that thing where you trail off so we can be scared about what you're implying?" Jared asked dryly. "Because it's not working. We have no clue about what you're on about."

Jeremy would never admit it, but he agreed with Jared. His dad looked slightly annoyed.

"The SQUIP keeps up with what's popular and what's not," he explained. "And I do too. Right now, the most popular topic is True Crime, especially with young people. A normally working SQUIP might bring it up as a topic piece. A defective one might look to follow the course of these murderers."

"Oh, that makes sense," Jenna said. "You see it a lot, most terrorists and serial killers and all that do it because others have done it already."

"Right," Jeremy's dad agreed. "These people become unfortunately popular, bring in a lot of copycats who want a taste of that popularity."

"Interesting," the Detective finally spoke up. "Very interesting. Though I take it you know nothing about this new murderer."

Jeremy's dad raised his hands. "I don't deal with that stuff anymore," he said. "But I still don't understand how you knew it was a SQUIP that did this."

"We found Mountain Dew in the hoodie of the murderer," Michael said. Jeremy's dad frowned.

"That doesn't mean... That doesn't mean it was a SQUIP," he spluttered. He turned to the Detective, who barely spared him a glance. "You told me you had a link!"

"Is, Mr Heere, 'that doesn't mean it IS a SQUIP'," the Detective corrected. "The murderer has not be stopped. And I told you we had a link, but I didn't say if it was a direct link or not."

"It seems you're on a wild goose chase," Jeremy's dad accused.

"My hunches have yet to be wrong," the Detective told him. "Now if you'll excuse me..."

The Detective didn't give him a chance to reply before she was out the door, leaving behind complete chaos and confusion.