The minute they hit the water, Alan went into rescue mode. Because Fermat never resurfaced like the rest of them and it was clear from the moment that Alan managed to grab hold of him that he couldn't swim. Which just added a bit to the stress of the situation.
Water rescues weren't really his thing. Gordon had trained them all specifically for it, of course, but that didn't mean that Alan enjoyed swimming for two people, even if one was a tiny kid. Kid was struggling a bit, though, which made things harder. But land was close, and once they were there, then Alan could figure out what to do. So, he headed for the beach, dragging Fermat along and watching to make sure that Tin-Tin and Other-Alan were still doing fine on their own.
"Okay," he said, once he had finished listening to Fermat complain to Other-Alan how he couldn't swim. Which, considering they all lived here, shouldn't Other-Alan know that? "What's the plan?" he asked.
"First," Other-Alan said, wringing out his shirt and running a hand through his wet hair to get it out of his face. "Who the heck are you? And how did you get here?"
Alan sighed, glancing at his wrist, where the ring of lights still pulsed. He was incredibly glad that Brains had made all their gear waterproof. His suit was already drying in the sun, so he didn't even have to worry about that. The other kids might want to try and dry off, though. If they had time for that. "I'm apparently you from a different world. As for how I got here…" he shrugged a bit. "Virgil and I were evacuating a science compound that had collapsed. A portal thing opened up and sucked us in. We ended up here."
The three kids blinked at him. "I'm Alan," Other-Alan said needlessly. "This is Tin-Tin and Fermat."
"Tin-Tin I kind of know," Alan replied, glancing at his wrist again. "Tanusha, right?" Because Tin-Tin had been a nickname a long time ago, one that his Kayo had dropped when she'd turned sixteen. "Although in my world, you're a lot older and go by Kayo. You're the head of our security." He looked at Fermat. "You, however…I don't think you exist in our world."
Other-Alan frowned. "Fermat is Brains' son," he explained. He assumed that Alan had a Brains in their world, because International Rescue without Brains just didn't seem feasible.
Alan blinked, his jaw dropping a little. "Yeah, okay. Sure. You don't exist in our world. Brains is, like, Scott's age." He'd had to have had a kid at, like, ten for the kid to be Other-Alan's age. Which…no.
There was a pause as all four of them took that in. "Weird," both Fermat and Other-Alan said.
Alan sighed, already so very done with being here at all. "So? Plan?"
"One more question," Other-Alan said, holding up a hand. "Are you part of International Rescue?"
Alan nodded slowly, raising one hand to point at the IR badge on his shoulder. "Pilot of Thunderbird Three," he said.
"How o-old are you?" Fermat asked.
"Sixteen," Alan answered slowly, peering around the jungle. He could see, up on the cliff, a house that didn't quite resemble his own.
Other-Alan gave him a bit of a shocked look. "I'm only fourteen."
Alan shrugged. "I kind of figured. You're not a pilot yet?"
"Dad won't let me," Other-Alan scowled. That right there was the face of a petulant teenager. Alan had used that face before, he was sure, but being on the receiving end of it made him want to apologize to all his brothers for the grief he'd put them through.
Other-Alan nodded, wincing just a bit. "Yeah, makes sense." He urged them off the beach and into the trees, where they wouldn't be seen. The Hood had just tried to have them fried by One's engines; he didn't doubt the man would be angry if they were found alive.
"Yeah? And how old were you when your dad finally let you pilot?" Other-Alan snapped, taking the lead and heading in a very specific direction. Ah, unresolved father issues with that one then. Alan kind of wish he'd been old enough to have had tension with his father before the man had disappeared. As it was…well, Scott was more of his dad now, and they had a pretty good relationship all told.
"Dad never made that call," Alan responded, a little distantly. "Dad hasn't been around in a very long time." At the shocked looks he got, he just shrugged again, letting his face go a bit blank. "What? You think your evil Hood is the only evil Hood?" He gave a sardonic grin, pointing up ahead. "Just a guess, but telecommunications outpost?"
"Yeah," Other-Alan said slowly, giving a nod. "We should be able to hack into it and reach Thunderbird Five."
"And Five is headed for re-entry?" Alan asked, trying to remember what he'd been quickly told earlier. The green computer on his wrist suddenly flared, the ring of color blinking erratically. "EOS?" he said aloud.
"Alan," EOS answered, her voice crackling just a bit with the odd connection. "Virgil's biometrics are indicating he is in trouble." The other teens in front of him had all startled at the sound of the female voice, slightly robotic as it was. They were now just staring in shock, having frozen in the middle of the jungle.
Alan swore violently, pinching the bridge of his nose as he took a deep breath. "Okay. Okay." He took another breath, dropping his hand and looking around, eyes settling on the somewhat out-of-place palm tree in the distance. It looked…wrong. Like a tower. He couldn't do anything for Virgil now; he could only hope that The Hood would see more use in keeping his brother alive for now. "EOS, if we can reach Thunderbird Five, would you be able to take control and get her stable again?"
"These systems are unfamiliar to me," EOS replied. "They are…primitive."
"So the answer is…?" Alan drawled, waving a hand to urge the others forward again. There was no need to just stand around, after all. They had family to save.
"I should be able to do so," EOS replied. "But Alan, your brothers back home are worried for you."
Alan paused for a split second. "You're able to reach home?"
"The connection is…tenuous," EOS responded. "But it is viable."
Alan swallowed heavily, looking up long enough to catch Other-Alan's eye. He frowned. "Okay. Sure. Let's focus on the here and now, though. We'll hack Five. You get her stable. We'll stop The Hood." EOS didn't respond, but the ring of lights blinked green. He gave a nod and continued on the trek.
"Who was that?" Tin-Tin asked, sounding far more timid than she had earlier.
"EOS," Alan responded. "She's…she's an AI. Helps us with International Rescue."
"Artificial Intelligence are n-not feasible at this p-point," Fermat said with a frown.
Alan nodded a bit. "Yeah…they're not really common in my world either. What year is it?" he asked, looking around with a frown of his own.
"Two-thousand and four," Tin-Tin answered.
That caused Alan to stumble, just a bit. "Two thousand four?" he asked weakly. At their nods, he gave a nod of his own. "Yeah. Alright. Two-thousand four."
"What year is it where you're from?" Other-Alan asked, stepping over a tree root.
"Two-thousand-sixty-five," Alan responded. He blinked a bit. "You have a scorpion on your shoulder," he said, not terribly bothered. The scorpions on the island back home were big and scary looking, and their stings hurt a lot, but they weren't exactly dangerous. This one looked a lot like those.
Other-Alan froze, eyes widening. Tin-Tin grasped her necklace, her eyes glowing gold, and the scorpion lifted into the air and was flung away. "So…are psychic powers like normal here?" Alan asked in the ensuing silence.
"Uh, no," Other-Alan answered. "Um…not seen them before today, honestly."
Tin-Tin bit her lip, shuddered, and turned away. "How am I related to that monster?" she muttered, heading for the outpost again.
Alan sighed again. He'd been doing that a lot. Why did he have to be the oldest in this group? He didn't really like being the adult in this situation, to be honest. "You didn't know that?" he asked. "That the Hood was your uncle?"
"You know?" Tin-Tin asked, spinning in surprise.
Alan shrugged. He definitely felt like he'd been doing that a lot in the past half-hour, also. Sighing and shrugging; it was going to become a routine at this point. "Yeah? Kayo's also his niece. I mean…parallel worlds. Not too much can be different, right?" Except, apparently, everything.
His head was hurting, and he kind of felt like crying. He didn't know if Virgil was okay, he didn't know how to stop The Hood. He didn't know how they were going to get back home. He wanted to curl up in a little ball and scream hysterically.
He wanted to go home.
There wasn't much to do on the trek up to the tower except talk, apparently, so the kids figured it was a good time to try and find out just how much was different between their worlds. Other-Alan seemed most intrigued by this alternate version of his family, and Fermat was completely enthralled with the science of it all.
"So…four brothers right?" Other-Alan asked, watching his step. "Your Virgil doesn't really look like my Virgil."
"How so?" Alan mumbled.
"He's so big," Other-Alan responded. "My Virgil is, like, the shortest of us."
Alan laughed, a little hysterically. "Virgil isn't the tallest," he said. Although, to be fair, Virgil was a good six feet himself. "Scott is." He shook his head, trying to let the questions distract him from the reality of the situation. "Scott's tallest, John's next, then Virge, then me, and then Gordon."
Other-Alan grunted. "Scott, John, Gordon, me, Virgil," he said. He looked over at Tin-Tin, who shrugged at him. "Scott's still the oldest, though, right?"
"Yeah," Alan said. "Scott, either John or Virgil, Gordon, me," he said.
"Either John or Virgil?" Tin-Tin frowned. "What does that mean?"
Alan blinked at her, frowning as well. "They're twins? C-section. Born at the exact same time. They kind of waffle on who's older depending on the day."
Other-Alan's face scrunched up a bit. "Weird. John's two years older than Virgil." They all took a moment to digest this weird set of differences, and then decided to shrug it off. "Is Gordon also five years older than you?" Other-Alan asked. At Alan's nod, he gave a nod of his own and then stopped his questions so that Fermat could pepper Alan with scientific ones. Alan answered to the best of his ability, but there wasn't much he could say about the portal that had brought them here; he'd been in the middle of a rescue. The portal hadn't been active when they'd arrived. He hadn't paid it much attention until he was literally in it.
And then they were at the tower, trying to hack the remote Thunderbird. Alan had winced when Other-Alan's retainer had needed to be pulled out, but they had connection. It was enough that EOS could slip across, but it also managed to alert The Hood to their position. The connection was terminated, but the glowing ring of lights on Alan's wrist were still green.
He could see the moment that Other-Alan started to panic and grabbed the boy's shoulder. "Stop," he said, breathing deep. "Stop. EOS has them. She'll get them stable. They'll be fine."
"They're all I have," Other-Alan gasped, looking incredibly close to tears. Alan could admit that seeing that alternate version of his family trapped on a dying station had been completely terrifying, but EOS had them now.
"I get that," Alan said, still projecting calm. "I do. The Hood likely has my brother too, and he's all I've got in this world. I understand. But EOS has it under control."
Notes: I found myself wanting to play with the idea of John and Virgil being twins. It's not my personal headcannon, as I will always see John as being older, but something fun to play with regardless. Mostly to make the worlds a bit more different.