Calibrations

Colorado 2007

When Youngblood opened his eyes, he was surprised to find that the world hadn't ended yet. It was late at night, and thankfully, Revenge and Pepper were still by his side, taking it all in with him. They were at a music venue of some sort, but judging by the thousands of people filing out of the amphitheater, the show was already over. He tried to eavesdrop on a few of their conversations, and he heard a lot about Linkin Park, but there were also some people talking about My Chemical Romance.

"I guess we're still touring, even in the apocalypse," Pepper said.

"Maybe this isn't the apocalypse," Youngblood said.

"That would be lame," Revenge said. "Wasn't that the whole reason we came here?"

All of a sudden, a fan walked up to them. "You guys dressed up as Gerard Way?" she said. "That's so cool! Like, where did you get that Black Parade jacket? It looks so real!"

All three of them ignored her and walked away. Once they were far enough away from the fans not to attract any attention, they started talking again. "We've got to figure out what's going on," Pepper said to his younger selves. "It doesn't seem like the Watch stopped us from coming here, and there doesn't seem to be anything obviously wrong with this time. Maybe we got the year wrong or something."

"Yeah, maybe," Revenge said. "It's cool that MCR is playing Projekt Revolution though."

Youngblood hadn't thought about Projekt Revolution, but it made a lot of sense. It seemed like whenever he time traveled, he found his band getting bigger and bigger. He had never set out to be famous - in fact, he was always surprised that people wanted to listen to My Chemical Romance at all - and he wasn't sure how he felt about where his band was going in the future. He loved making art, but he didn't think that he ever wanted to be a star.

"Maybe we could find the version of me from this era," Pepper suggested. "He'll know what to do."

"Or we could do something that's actually fun," Revenge said. "Like setting this stage on fire or killing all our friends."

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Pepper asked. When Revenge didn't respond, he said, "Come on, guys. Let's see if we can get some answers."

Revenge and Youngblood followed Pepper as he headed toward the stage. By that point, most of the fans had left, so it wasn't too hard for them to get backstage. Even the security guards were gone, so all Pepper had to do was open the door and make sure that nobody saw them.

There were maybe thirty or forty people gathered backstage, and thankfully, none of them seemed to notice Youngblood, Revenge, or Pepper as they walked in. Youngblood quickly spotted Ray, Bob, and Mikey, all sitting together in the same row, but Frank was mysteriously absent.

Pepper smiled and whispered, "At least Mikey's doing better. It's weird seeing him without his glasses though. I wonder what happened to them."

"Yeah, but where's Frank?" Revenge asked.

"I don't know," Pepper said fearfully. The world may not have ended yet, but Frank's absence was definitely a bad sign. All three of them stayed back as they assessed the situation, hoping that nobody would notice them in the meantime.

It didn't take them long to figure out what was going on. One of the touring staff members said, "Dearly beloved and honored guests, we are here to celebrate the marriage of Gerard Way and..."

"Did we accidentally crash our own wedding?" Pepper whispered.

"I think so," Youngblood responded.

"Weddings are the worst," Revenge complained. "We should crash our own funeral instead."

"That would be fun," Youngblood said.