Pete was awakened by his Messenger buzzing at his wrist. He stretched and rubbed his eyes, then made eye contact with the device once he felt comfortable enough. It was work calling. It was his day off, wasn't it? At least it was only an audio call, so he didn't have to put on a shirt or anything. He clicked the green 'answer' button.
"Peter?" The voice on the other line asked. It wasn't his boss or anyone he recognized, but they knew his name, so it was definitely the right person.
"Uh, yeah?" He replied, furrowing his eyebrows. "Speaking, I mean," he corrected, mentally kicking himself for forgetting the formalities. Also physically kicking himself, though he only did that to make himself laugh later.
"There's been a mishap of sorts. You're partners with Miachel Way, correct?" They asked. Pete's eyebrows furrowed even more and his dazed expression fell. This was serious now. What had happened to Mikey?
"Correct," he confirmed, feeling completely awakened by his concern. "Partners as in we work together often, we're just friends outside of work," he clarified after a moment of silence, just in case the person he was talking to meant something else.
"Ah, I see. Miachel's Communicator is offline, do you have any idea as to why that would be?" The voice questioned him. Pete didn't understand.
"I-uh, no, I don't know. What does being offline mean?" He asked cluelessly. The person on the other side sighed.
"Can you come in to the office? This isn't something that can happen over a call like this." Pete rarely went to the office, he could easily Travel from his apartment. The only time he ever went there was for important business meetings and whatnot, which wasn't very common considering his role in the company. This must be important.
"Yeah, sure, I'll be there in 45 minutes or so," he said, getting out of bed.
"Great. We'll see you then," the voice on the other side told him before hanging up, leaving him time to get ready. Pete exhaled heavily, buzzing his lips near the end. It was always Pete getting into trouble and Mikey getting him out, not the other way around. What was it like being a responsible, useful adult? Pete had never even thought about that. He'd been careless about anything serious his entire life.
He pulled on some clothes, grabbed his wallet and headed out with a sigh. Was Mikey's mishap, whatever it was, a mistake or on purpose? Mikey wasn't the type to mess with something on purpose, but he rarely made mistakes either. It was always well thought-out with him, no matter if it was work or just plans to meet up. He was a logical, analytical type of guy, sticking to the rules.
As he rode the monorail, he remembered their conversation last night. Mikey was worried he was living too boring of a life. Maybe that was what drove him to do whatever it was he did. Pete couldn't tell until he knew what the company knew.
He was off the monorail after a few minutes of standing and holding on to the railing. It was rush hour and there were no available seats. He was the least bit thankful for that, though, because he was sure that if he were sitting he'd fall asleep and potentially miss his stop. He walked the two blocks to the Flasch office.
He rarely ever went to the office, as most of his work could be done with his own house as the starting point. The only time he was ever needed was for important meetings that couldn't happen through their Messengers. Those were rare, considering Pete's important but certainly not unique position. While the company relied on people like him to keep time's continuum in check, there was nothing significant about Pete especially, and he was known to be quite chaotic anyways. If they needed a Traveller, they were much more likely to call on Mikey or any of the others.
He pushed open the front doors to the office once he got there, and was immediately greeted by a secretary. His name tag read Joe. Pete realized he had never actually met somebody in real life called Joe. He was glad this guy was his first. He seemed like a trustworthy fellow.
"Mr. Wentz? Let me lead you to your meeting hall," he spoke. Pete nodded and followed him as he turned down one of the hallways. He was glad he was being pointed in the right direction, he had no idea where exactly he was supposed to meet the people who would be briefing him on the situation.
When they reached a door with a plate that named the room 'meeting hall 2', Joe opened it for him and Pete stepped inside. There were already several people around the table, some of which Pete recognized. There was the Correction Branch's boss, Patrick; Gabe, surprisingly; and perhaps even more surprisingly, Gerard, Mikey's brother, in addition to two others.
"Why don't you take a seat, Pete," Patrick gestured towards an empty chair. Pete complied, waving with a flick of his wrist at Gerard, who waved similarly back.
"So we're all gathered here today because there has been somewhat of a confusion pertaining when and where Miachel Way is and we are all integral parts of resolving this conflict," said a man with dark hair and big lips. Pete had seen him around the office, supervising meetings. "I'll start by introducing myself, and then we will go around and all say who we are and how we fit in to the story. I'm Brendon Urie, coordinator of the Technology Branch."
"I'm Patrick Stump, coordinator of the Correction Branch."
"I'm Gerard Way, Mikey's brother."
"I'm Ray Toro, Mikey's neighbor and a tour guide."
"I'm Gabe Saporta, an ex-employee and an old friend of Mikey's."
"I'm Pete Wentz, Mikey's friend and coworker," Pete smiled.
"Great. So, I'm sure those of you who don't know are wondering exactly what happened to Miachel. Well, obviously we don't know yet, that's why we're here, but here's what we do know: Miachel's Communicator was active at 1 P.M. last night for a brief few seconds before it went offline. He hasn't been seen since."
"Sorry to interrupt, but what does being offline mean for us?" Pete asked. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to know this or just didn't ever learn it.
Brendon smiled at him. "It means that the device wasn't picked up by any kind of signals. Even when turned off, these things still can be traced, because they give out impulses without the screen being on. His Communicator is likely not functioning at all or has been destroyed. There's no way to turn it offline by pressing a button or anything like that, as long as it's functional the Communicator is online. Does that answer your question?"
"Yes," Pete answered, nodding. "Very well."
"Alright. He was still in his apartment when his device went offline, and considering he hasn't been seen since, we hypothesize that he may have Travelled. Alone."
Pete's eyes went wide. Mikey Travelled without anyone else there? Even Pete was smart enough to know not to do that, to always have somebody else there with you when you Travelled. Sure, maybe Mikey was responsible enough to be able to do that without any incidents, but it was just common knowledge that it was dangerous and reckless.
"Were any of you," Brendon gestured to Pete, Gabe and Gerard "with Mikey within twenty-four hours of his disappearing? I know Gerard moved in with him temporarily, was he acting different when you spoke to him?"
Gerard spoke up first. "Yeah, he was in some kind of a mid-life crisis last time I spoke to him."
"Which was..?" Patrick asked for clarification. He was taking notes on his Messenger, hiding what he was writing from everybody else. Mikey supposed it was as to not distract them from what they were saying.
"I don't know, a couple of hours before he disappeared?" Gerard answered him.
"And can you elaborate on the existential crisis?" Patrick asked again.
Pete spoke up. "We were having a conversation - this was yesterday morning, we went out for drinks the night before and I stayed at his place - and I think I mentioned him being boring or having a boring life or something and he seemed really hung up about it. We had a sort-of argument about it but we didn't get mad at each other or anything."
"He asked me after you left if I thought he was boring, too," Gerard clarified.
"And what did you tell him?" Brendon asked as Patrick's typing became more frantic as he tried to keep up.
"Shit," Gerard muttered as he realized something. What he said yesterday was probably a big influence on Mikey's departure. "I'm sorry, gentlemen, I just- what I told him probably wasn't the best thing to say, I'm sorry, if I had known I wouldn't have-"
"What'd you say?" Gabe interrupted harshly. Pete could tell he hadn't ever met Gerard and was already done with his hesitant aura. Patrick looked up from his Messenger.
"I-I told him that if he wanted to, you know, spice things up in his life or whatever, that he totally could just do something impulsive. But I was thinking something more along the lines of dying your hair, not Travelling back in time without supervision!" Patrick smiled as he typed, clearly satisfied with the response. Pete knew that feeling, when something you've been stressing about finally goes somewhere in the direction of being taken care of.
"That's fine, Gerard. We're not here to blame you, or anyone, for his disappearance, we're here to find him and bring him back," Patrick reassured him. The corner of Gerard's mouth twitched upwards in appreciation.
"Okay, so so far we know that Mikey Travelled back in time because he thought his life was too mundane. Now, we ask the question: where would he have gone?" Brendon stated.
"Oh, there's one more thing, I think," Gerard interrupted. Brendon raised an eyebrow at him but let him continue. He cleared his throat. "Mikey and I... I haven't talked to our mom in a while, she's not a very good mother. She kind of just pays attention to Mikey, which doesn't bother me much anymore but Mikey... he thought it was really unfair, and he blamed himself for it a little. Like, in her eyes, he was the success and I was the failure, 'cause he had this really nice, well-paying, respectable job, and I was a self-employed artist. So he kind of blamed himself for having a life where she could easily be proud of him, you know? So I think maybe he wanted to show her that he was more than this job, in a way. That sometimes, he fu- messed up."
Pete nodded as Patrick went back to typing as quickly as he could. Pete definitely agreed with what Gerard was saying, he felt that it was true to who Mikey was even if he never expressed these feelings to Pete.
"Okay, so back to my question: when and where would he have gone?" Brendon asked, eyebrows raised. Silence answered him. "Since he's offline, we have no way to track him. We can't even communicate with him."
"Could we Message him?" Gabe asked.
"You could try, but you probably won't reach him if he's in another time," Pete answered him. Gabe turned on his Messenger anyways, typing out a 'where are u???' to Mikey. "It didn't work," he sighed disappointedly when it gave him a 'Message not sent'.
"Could we please get back to discussing where he could be?" Brendon butted in, annoyance in his tone. "It's kind of important to know where he is in order to find him."
"I don't think any of us have any ideas," Pete explained.
"Then think of some!" Brendon raised his voice. "God damn it, I have a whole crew of techies ready to search for him as long as we give them a direction to look in. Just give me something, anything. We cannot have a worker missing without having anybody looking for him, if the media heard about this, it would make us look even worse."
"My brother is missing and you're concerned about the media?" Gerard burst out viciously. He was never a fan of the reputation-centered mentality that so many corporations had these days.
"You're not even making any effort to help us find him! Don't come to me saying that I'm doing this for the wrong motivations, because at least I'm doing something!" Brendon retaliated, gesturing wildly as he spoke and standing up, his chair making a noise as it was sent towards the wall with his movement.
"Brendon, Brendon, calm down. There's no time for this." Patrick spoke, leaving his hand on Brendon's back and leading him back into his chair.
"The Second American Revolution," Gerard suggested calmly. "He might be there."
"Perfect. I'll send a team to look for him there. You got a location?" Brendon asked, his tone still suggestive of anger but no longer outwardly aggravated.
"Nope. Well, I mean, in the States, but nothing more specific. He's always been pretty fascinated by that time period and as far as I know he's never been," Gerard shrugged back. Brendon nodded and typed something out on his Messenger, probably to the search party he was sending out.
"So how are you looking for him if you can't trace him?" Gabe asked, shifting his position to make himself more accessible to the conversation.
"We basically drop subliminal messages in advertisements., something he's bound to see if he sees the messages but to anyone else seem odd at most. So like, we have this plan of a car sales ad for a fake place called "Mikey's Lost Cars". So people, who will have no clue what they mean by lost cars, won't call, and if they do, we just give them an automated voicemail, but if it's Mikey, we get him to tell us where he is," Patrick explained, since Brendon was preoccupied. Brendon nodded every once in a while, either at Patrick or just at whatever was happening on his Messenger.
"And if he doesn't see them?" Gerard said worriedly. "He might be somewhere with no way of seeing it," he said in response to Gabe's confused face.
"If he's anywhere near where you told us he'd be, he'll see it," Brendon said with a confidence Gerard wasn't sure was reasonable.
"And what if he doesn't want to come back?" Pete asked the question he had been thinking of since Gerard explained what Mikey had told him. If Mikey thought his life was too mundane, he might not want to go back to that life, especially since he probably knew that he would be punished for pulling this. Pete hadn't even thought to ask what would happen once Mikey was back. Would he lose his job? Would he have to move? And what about Gerard? Would he still be their mother's pride and joy after she knew what he had gotten himself into?
The silence that filled the room only helped to deepen Pete's concern. His eyes met Gerard's. They were the two people who knew Mikey the best, who cared the most about him. Pete could tell that Gerard was thinking the same thing as him, and they were both scared shitless of the consequences.
It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that one mistake of Mikey's could potentially have such massive reprehensions. Pete's heart ached, not only for Mikey, but for Gerard too. He was probably already lonely as it is, and now he had to live in the apartment, constantly reminded that his brother wasn't there anymore. Jesus Christ, it was only the first day and Pete was already mourning Mikey's loss.
"We'll find him," was all that Brendon said. If Pete wasn't afraid of letting out a sob if he opened his mouth, he'd point out that he didn't answer the question and demand that he do.
Luckily, Gabe did it for him. "Answer the question, Forehead," he said through gritted teeth.
"Mikey will eventually realize that he doesn't want to stay in the past. He has people he loves here, his brother needs him," Brendon said, trying to keep himself calm despite Gabe's aggression. "And he's not accustomed to being in the past for long amounts of time. People will find him weird and he'll be ostracized. It'll become miserable to stay there eventually, and until then, we have to work on figuring out where the fuck he is. We find him now, and he finds us when he's ready. That's how this works."
hi im so sorry this is so late it's been a really busy few weeks but i'm here i'm also 15 now hallelujah
i promise i'll get back to posting near-weekly i just gotta do some other shit sometimes also shoutout to wattpad for being unable to know that i've typed another 500 words and just deleting what i wrote i need to switch to google docs