Become What You Know

Mikey doesn't think he's a criminal, not really. When he was younger he may have robbed ATM machines, but who doesn't do what they have to live, right? And yeah, he totally hacked his school's network to change Gerard into his legal guardian, had his records sent to his new school without the aid of his old one.
And maybe he hasn't paid his taxes in, well, ever because he hacks the government mainframe and moves numbers around to make it seem as if he has.

But he's not a criminal. Not really. He just does what he has to keep his brother's cafe above water and out of red tape. He's totally selfless, really. This of course doesn't explain why he's now so far into the NSA's database that he doesn't realize he's tripped their firewall until it's too late.
He pulls out sharply, covering his tracks as he goes, but in the back of his head the name McCracken is still echoing.

Mikey wonders how many other people the government has a file on.
__________
Ray Toro is making banana nut bread when Celeste pushes through the door to the kitchen. The air around her is pulled tight, more red than the normal haze of gold that he's come to associate with her. His stomach drops a little when she looks at him with these big sad hazel eyes. He keeps stirring, smiling at her as he goes.

"Wanna hand me those nuts?" he asks with a grin. She picks up the bowl of freshly cracked nuts and steps closer to him to hand them over. He lets his hand brush over hers when he takes the bowl and can see a clear blue slip from his fingers to hers. She shines blue for a moment before the golden hue settles again and he can see the tension run out of her body.

She smiles at him, and he tries really hard not to blush. Some days he forgets that she's only seventeen and younger than even Mikey. He has no idea what's led her to this place, but when she has nothing to do she'll stop and go completely still. Its then that she'll shine a murky brown/grey color that just looks unhealthy.
This is usually when he'll toss a little calm her way. A little comfort or a little content. No one should look that old at such a young age. When Ray was seventeen he was worried about sleeping with Sheila Collins, the trumpet player from the school band. (He never made it that far, but she was quite practiced with things involving her lips and her mouth.)

She pulls the brownies that are baking in the oven out and sets them to cool. Taking the ready made lemon bars with her she takes a deep breath and pushes out the swinging door of the kitchen. Ray shakes his head and moves on to decorating cupcakes.

"Look at you, Lil Miss Homemaker," Mikey teases as he strides through the door. The air around him is bristling. Nervous.

Ray shoots him a look, because he's known Mikey and Gerard for years. "What's wrong Mikey?" Ray asks and Mikey shoots him a look.

"Do you think that the government knows about us?"

"What do you mean?" Ray goes still all the way to his toes. Even his breathing stops.

"People like us," Mikey says, "That we exist?"

"If they do we should be thankful that its not a witch hunt," Ray says carefully, wary.

"I. They have files on this guy, McCracken," Mikey says, "I mean, I didn't see much of it, but from what I could see, he's not norm."

"Do you think they know what he is, or that he's just a bad guy genuinely?" Ray doesn't question what Mikey was doing in the government's files. Its better that way. Plausible deniability.

"That's the real question isn't it?" Mikey asks. Mikey shades violet and Ray sighs because the skinny fuck is about to do something reckless.
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Frank and Tarra wander Philadelphia for two days before they find Jimmy. When they do find him it’s definitely not where they expect. They're walking past a church and Frank pauses before turning silently to Tarra. His eyes are wide and hopeful and Tarra kinda remembers him saying that he'd gone to a Catholic school. So they go in and sit through evening Mass. (Tarra listens to her Ipod to drive out the service. She stopped believing long ago.) Afterwards Frank squeezes himself, his trench coat and his straining to get free wings into a confessional and hopes for the best. He spends twenty minutes confessing his sins and when he steps out he looks around for Tarra.

She standing in the center of the aisle staring straight up at the large crucified Jesus. Its complete with blood. "Church always scared the shit out of me."

She pauses as if she's going to say something else, but a man dressed in a leather jacket and jeans hurries through the room and through a door. Tarra gasps and points, "Frank, that's him. It has to be."

Frank doesn't second guess her, just takes off running after the guy, Tarra chasing closely behind him.

"Hey hey!" Frank shouts, and the guy stops so suddenly and turns, pushing Frank into the wall. He's got an elbow to his throat, and the trench coat is caught on something. It tears as Frank struggles, and then Tarra is barreling into the guy's side. They all go sprawling, Frank's wings shredding what's left of the coat.

Jimmy stops suddenly, looks Frank over and sighs, "I miss the days when Angels were anatomically inept."

Frank stills too as the Priest walks out a door and into the hallway. He expects some sort of reaction, but is unprepared for the slight nod and "son" before he continues down the corridor. Things just keep getting weirder.
_____________________
When Mikey was eleven he discovered that he could change the stations on the radio without touching the machine. Experimentation allows him to change the channels on the TV while Gerard isn't paying attention. Gerard never notices. When he's twelve he changes the direction of all the escalators in the mall. Two bloody noses and a broken arm results from the incident.
Mikey passes his driving test with flying colors. The whole test takes fifteen minutes because Mikey catches every green light from and back to the DMV. Two weeks later Gerard disappears. Mikey sulks in his room for a week before he decides to do something about it. He hacks the street cameras and rewinds through the last few days. It only takes one picture of Gerard and then he's cross referencing every picture, every surveillance video searching for his brother's face.
He finally finds Gerard in an alley in New York. Mikey goes to save the day; even back then he wished that his brother were just a little less dependant on his solitude.
*
Mikey knows that what he's doing is incredibly stupid, but he's feline in the way that he needs to know what they have on this guy. This McCracken. So he goes to an internet cafe a few blocks away from their cafe. He's left Celeste in charge of the register and he knows he's going to get shit from Ray when he gets back to the shop. But he pushes his way through until he's finally shuffling through the right files.

There's nothing in the file that indicates that he's anything less than extraordinary. The government has a huge file on Bert McCracken, who is wanted for treason, terrorism, drug trafficking, and six counts of theft. Four of the six things stolen were too large to be lifted in the normal way. The only extraordinary thing about McCracken is that there is no evidence to tie him to any of the crimes.
Three agents and one prosecuting attorney working to arrest McCracken have died scientifically unexplained deaths. The attorney drown in his bed, two of the government officials spontaneously combusted and the third was found mauled to death by a large dog of unknown breed.
Its takes them less time to find him within their systems this time, and he draws out just as quickly, erasing as much of his virtual footprints as he can.

He's back at the cafe in time for lunch rush.

Two days later Mikey is getting ready to close the shop after every one has left for the day. He's just waiting for Gerard to come out of the back so they can head to their apartment together. The SWAT team kicks the door open (which wasn't necessary, it wasn't locked yet) sending the frame splintering into pieces. Mikey blinks hollowly and thinks, "well, shit". He thinks, briefly about knocking the lights out and running, but Gerard steps out of the employees’ only door right then.

"Umm..." he blinks owlishly, his eyes impossibly wide and then a brunette woman with her hair up in a bun walks through the front door. It feels impossibly empty in his mind after that. The constant buzzing of the machines around him are suddenly silent. There's no noise other than the people in the room and Mikey looks around, confused for a moment. He can see Gerard's brow wrinkled in confusion as well.

"Nicole Anderson," the woman flashes a badge, "NSA. Michael James Way, you're under arrest."

"Wait, wait," Gerard is shouting as they cuff and press him into the back of a squad car. Gerard is at the station bright and early. No one has even heard of Michael Way at the precinct.