Colonel O'Neill stepped out of the room with Major Carter right behind him. He shut the door firmly and with a frown that had Carter giving him an odd look. "Sir?" she asked.
"I know those names, Carter," he said, turning to look through the window in the wall. It would appear as a mirror on the other side, which hadn't bothered the two boys in the room much. They'd seemed a little too calm, all told. Although rather tired, if Jack was being honest.
Carter shrugged. "Mercury Seven," she said, a little baffled. "I know them too."
"No," Jack replied with a sigh. "It's an old television show from the sixties. The Thunderbirds. They're from that."
Carter's eyebrows rose. "So, they stole the names from an old show," she said.
"No," Jack nearly groaned. These boys were a little too different from the ones from the show, but they were similar enough that it was more than just an act. "I think they're telling the truth." He motioned to the two boys at the table. "Watch. Listen."
Inside the room, Virgil was frowning. His forehead was crunched up as he stared at the closed door. "He recognized our names," he said after a moment.
Alan shrugged. "So? Everyone recognizes our names."
"Everyone in our world, yes," Virgil replied. He ignored the fact that the last world also had a rather famous Tracy family. "That doesn't mean this world is the same." He frowned some more, tilting his head to look at Alan. "You know the theory of the multi-verse? The one where television shows and books and video games could also be other worlds?" Alan nodded. "Stands to reason that it would go both ways."
Alan blinked at him, mouth dropping a bit. And then he thought it over for a moment. "So…we might be characters from a game or something here?" At Virgil's nod he gave a huff. "This is so weird," he muttered.
Virgil groaned, running a hand down his face. His arm was aching and he wished he had access to his painkillers. "Tell me about it," he grumbled.
Alan frowned at him, blue eyes going a bit stormy as he watched his big brother. "Tired?" he asked. Virgil grunted at him, and he gave a small smile. "Sorry. How's your head?"
"Fine," Virgil said, slumping back in the chair. He eyed Alan for a moment, heaving another sigh. "How's yours?"
"Kinda sucky," Alan answered honestly, which shocked Virgil a little. The blond gave a bit of a wry grin, noticing the disbelief in Virgil's brown eyes. "What can I say, The Hood was a menace and I'm not sad that EOS made it so our counterparts in that world don't have to deal with him."
"You're right," Virgil said with a fierce frown. "It is kinda sucky." He leaned back, eyeing the mirrored wall with a raised eyebrow. "Think they're going to let us out of here anytime soon?"
Alan shrugged, glancing down at his arm. "I mean, they gotta eventually. Or we'll just warp or jump or whatever from here whenever HEMERA finishes charging." He gave a shrug. "No idea how long that's gonna take, though."
"I'd rather not leave without our stuff," Virgil grumbled, slumping in the chair and letting his head fall back. He was good at falling asleep anywhere, his insomnia meaning that catnaps were usually the best way to go to get some sleep. Even in situations like this, where he didn't know exactly what was going to come of it.
"Would be helpful," Alan grumbled back, shifting in his chair. He was watching his big brother, a little envious. He had a harder time just dropping off to sleep anywhere. Virgil's problems usually came at night, when he had time to dwell on issues and his head wouldn't stop thinking. Alan's problems were just that his body couldn't seem to relax.
"Go to sleep big brother," Alan murmured, giving a bit of a sad smile. "I'll keep an eye out." Virgil frowned, glancing at him, but slumped a bit more, propping one knee up on the edge of the table. He let his chin drop to his chest and started breathing deep and heavy. Alan sighed and wiggled in his chair a bit, tapping his fingers against his uniform top.
He hadn't incorporated the chest armor when he'd reworked their uniforms. He honestly hadn't seen the point. What with the missing sleeves, his armor wouldn't have been very comfortable anyway. He'd wanted to keep the gloves, but Virgil was already wearing a cast on one arm, and his own gloves had been shredded during the whole Hood fiasco in the last world (something he hadn't realized until later and honestly didn't know when it had happened. Or how.) so they'd left those out as well. He had, however, carefully removed the International Rescue patches and resewn them onto their chests, right over their hearts. The patches were usually covered by their baldrics, but Alan hadn't wanted to leave them behind.
Alan folded himself over to cross his arms on the table and set his chin firmly on them. He wouldn't sleep, not when he'd told Virgil that he would keep watch, but he could get comfortable at least.
Outside the room, Jack motioned to Carter to get her to follow him. They stalked through the halls silently, and made their way into the General's office was they were called through at their knocking. General Hammond was frowning at the screen in front of him, obviously having been watching the 'interrogation' of the two trespassers. "Colonel O'Neill?" the man asked.
"I think they're telling the truth, sir," Jack said with a shrug. "I think they're just two kids trying to get home."
"They landed in the middle of the most secure base on the planet, Colonel," Hammond said with a fierce frown.
"Apparently they don't choose their landing spots," Carter said, also frowning. She had no idea how that machine worked, but they'd had a quantum mirror issue themselves, so she couldn't discount the idea that it did.
"The most secure base on the planet," Hammond repeated. "Do you really believe that?" he asked.
Jack shrugged again, pointing at the live feed playing on the screen. "I do. They're tired, sir," he said. "They're just trying to get home."
"And how do you propose they need to do that?" Hammond asked, because he couldn't hide this from his higher ups forever, and the longer these kids stuck around the more likely the NID would get word of them. And if they were from a different world, one where they could build tech advanced enough to go to alternate dimensions, then the NID would likely be very interested in them. Not to mention any of their other enemies in this universe.
"I don't think we need to help them with it," Carter said with a frown, her eyes focused on that weird metal armband on the younger kid. "They said something about HEMERA needing to recharge before warping or whatever, but it kind of sounded like it would happen on its own."
The General watched them for a long moment, eyes flicking back to the screen often. The boys on the other side of the camera had settled into silence, the larger one dropping off into a doze while the younger just waited it out. "Get them set up in the VIP rooms. Give them back their stuff. Let them wander, but make sure they always have an escort. And see if they're willing to talk tech."
"Sure that's a good idea sir?" Jack asked, giving an impish grin.
Hammond glared at his 2IC. "Just do it." The two gave a salute and left. He sighed. Now he just had to figure out how to keep all this quiet until the two boys left again. The NID couldn't get to them if they weren't even in the same world, right?