When Ray Toro opened his eyes, he immediately recognized his surroundings. It all added up: the big, fancy house, the loud noises, the cars parked out front with New Jersey license plates. He never thought he would come back here, especially not after he'd moved to LA, but here he was. He was home again.

As Ray walked toward the house, he pressed a button on the side of his watch, turning it back into a giant robot keychain. As he attached the keychain to his key ring, he looked around, trying to figure out where Mike Pedicone could have possibly run off to. He was smarter than Ray had given him credit for, coming somewhere like this. Mike would have no problem slipping into the crowd, but for Ray, it was a minefield. Everyone he knew was here, and he couldn't let any of his friends see him: not Mikey, not Frank, and definitely not Gerard.

According to the Watch's computer system, there were two copies of Machine #41089042 in this time. One of them belonged to 2019 Gerard, and the other was the one that Mike Pedicone had reprogrammed. Ray had chased Mike through space and time, through wild forests and towering cities, through every wonder of the world, through the past, the present, and the future, and it had all led to this: a release party for an obscure album by a little-known band. Sure, My Chemical Romance would become famous in the future, but that didn't explain why Mike had come to this era. As Ray opened the door, he suspected that he was about to find out.

There were tons of people inside, and thankfully, Ray didn't spot his past self or any of his bandmates right away. He put his sunglasses on, hoping that it might make him a little harder to recognize, and he pushed his way through the sea of people at the party. He couldn't find Mike right away, but that didn't mean that he wasn't here. He'd just learned to blend in with the crowd.

Ray searched the whole first floor, but Mike was nowhere to be found. He paused for a moment as he thought about what to do next. He could check upstairs, or he could look outside and see if Mike had left the premises. He considered checking in with the Watch again, but doing that in this era would be a waste of time. In 2002, the Watch had just finished digitizing the machine tracker and the license database, and it was still glitchy. Ray would probably end up spending more time trying to get the tracker to work than actually searching for Mike and his stolen time machine.

He couldn't give up though. He had to stop Mike, and he had to get Gerard's time machine back. To be fair, he wasn't sure that Gerard wasn't a chrono-criminal too, but Ray had known him for years. He trusted him, even if all of his instincts as a Watch agent told him that he shouldn't. More than that, he had told Gerard that he would get his time machine back, and he wasn't the type to go back on his word. He had to finish the job, no matter what.

As he walked past the bar, he heard a familiar voice shout, "Hey Ray! Nice jacket!" He turned toward the bar, and he spotted Gerard. With his dyed black hair and leather jacket, he wasn't quite the Gerard he knew, but Ray almost stopped to talk to him anyways. However, he thought better of it, and he walked away just as Gerard took another drink from the bartender.

Ray kept on looking around the house, searching for nearly an hour, but he couldn't find Mike Pedicone anywhere. He got distracted for a few minutes when Eyeball decided to screen some of MCR's then-recent music videos, but he quickly went back to work. He kept a close eye on his bandmates, and he kept a low profile until both Frank and Gerard were gone. For a moment, he wondered where they were and what they were doing, and then he decided that he was better off not worrying about them. He had to find Mike Pedicone.

Eventually, Ray decided that he would need to get some help if he was going to find Mike. His past self had just joined the Watch - he was a new recruit, but he did know about time travel, so Ray could talk to him without violating Watch restrictions.

Ray wandered around for a little while longer, and he found his past self chatting with an Eyeball executive. Ray waited patiently until he was done, and then he tapped him on the shoulder.

"What is it?" the Ray from 2002 said. He turned toward 2010 Ray and then asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm you from the future," 2010 Ray said.

"Cool," 2002 Ray said. "What's the future like?"

"That's not important right now," 2010 Ray said.

"Also, that's an awesome jacket."

"Thank you."

"I kind of like the longer hair too. Maybe I should try it."

"Could you please focus?"

"Sorry. What do you need to talk to me about?"

"Could you please let me know if you see anyone with brown hair and a mustache?"

"Oh yeah, I saw a guy like that a few minutes ago."

"Really?" 2010 Ray said, excited.

"Yeah," 2002 Ray said. "He was in his forties, maybe, and he was wearing this plaid jacket..."

"That's Gerard," 2010 Ray said. "You're talking about Gerard."

2002 Ray laughed. "Do you really think I can't recognize my own bandmate?" he asked. "I saw Gerard earlier, and he has black hair, not brown..."

"I'm not talking about that Gerard," 2010 Ray said. "There's another Gerard here, from the year 2019. I still don't really know what he's doing, but I'm not worried about that right now. I'm looking for Mike Pedicone."

"Who's that?" 2002 Ray asked.

2010 Ray sighed in exasperation. "It's a long story," he said. "Can you just let me know if you see any guys with brown hair and a mustache who aren't Gerard?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Thank you," 2010 Ray said as he walked off. "Enjoy the rest of the party."

Ray took another look around, and that was when he found him. Mike was standing next to the table where an Eyeball employee was handing out copies of the album. "Oh my God, I'm so excited for this album!" Mike said to her. "Do you mind if I take a few copies?"

"Go for it," she said. "Honestly, I don't get the hype around these guys. I seriously think it's going to be a struggle just to break even on this album. I mean, what's it called? I Brought You My Love, You Brought Me Your Bullets? What kind of a pretentious title is that?"

As she ranted, Mike snatched several dozen copies of MCR's debut and then wandered off. Ray had to admit that his plan wasn't a bad one. Those CDs were nearly worthless in 2002, but Mike could make some money off of them in 2010, and he might be able to fetch a small fortune if he sold them even farther in the future.

Ray had to act fast. Already, Mike was starting to type something into his stolen watch. Ray sprinted across the room, and just as Mike was about to finish typing, he grabbed his wrist and dragged him outside. Mike tried to fight back, but it was useless: Ray was far stronger than he was.

Once they were out of sight, Ray took Mike's time machine and his stack of CDs, and he snapped a pair of handcuffs on. "What are you doing, Ray?" Mike shouted. "I didn't do anything!"

"Really?" Ray said. "Then what were you going to with all of those copies of I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love?"

"Listen to them?" Mike said.

"Do you really need 42 copies to do that?" Ray asked. Mike stayed silent as Ray checked the serial number on the time machine. "Besides, this is Machine #41089042, which according to the Watch database, will be issued to Gerard Way in 2017. What are you doing with Gerard's time machine, Mike?"

"He lent it to me," Mike said.

"I don't believe you, but even if that was true, it's against Watch regulations for anyone other than the person to whom the machine was issued to operate a time machine. I'm going to have to send you to my boss." Ray put his earpiece in and said, "Director Armstrong, this is Senior Special Agent Toro..."

Billie Joe laughed hysterically. "Senior Special Agent?" he said. "Ray, don't you think you're getting a bit ahead of yourself? Your rank is New Agent Trainee, not Senior Special Agent. Those are agents who have been in the Watch for a while. Y'know, like Mark Hoppus."

"I time traveled here from 2010," Ray explained. "In my time, my rank is Senior Special Agent. I apologize for the confusion."

"Oh, it's okay," Billie said. "It's cool that you're here. Anyways, what am I up to in 2010?"

"You're thirty-eight, even though you don't look like it at all, and you're busy making a musical out of your album American Idiot and touring for your other album 21st Century Breakdown," Ray said.

"Yeah, that sounds like me," Billie said. "So anyways, what's going on?"

"I've captured a time traveler with a stolen time machine," Ray explained. "His name is Mike Pedicone, and I have reason to believe that he traveled back in time to engage in illegal activity. I'll return his time machine to its rightful owner, but I presume that you'd like me to send him to you for questioning?"

"Nice work, Ray," Billie said. "Yes, send him to my office in LA."

"I'll do that," Ray said. "Thank you, Billie." He turned off his earpiece, and he pressed a button on the side of his keychain to turn it back into a watch. Then, he put the watch on his wrist and pushed a few buttons to send Mike Pedicone to Billie's office. All of a sudden, Mike was gone, and Ray was holding Gerard's time machine. Finally, he had won.

Before he left 2002, Ray went back inside and put the copies of I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love that Mike had stolen back on the table. "Seriously? You're giving me more of these?" the Eyeball employee said. "I just gave away a whole bunch!"

"Sorry," Ray said. "The owner said we had to give away more. Something about generating positive word of mouth."

Before the woman at the table could question him any more, Ray ran outside and typed "California 2010" into his watch. If everything went according to plan, he'd be back in his own time, and he would have Gerard's watch ready for him. However, he worried about whatever 2019 Gerard was up to. What would he do once he had his time machine back?

As Ray finished typing into his watch and disappeared, he only hoped that he had done the right thing.