Virgil found himself rather reluctant to leave this world. After the complete terror of the last one, this world seemed almost like a safe-haven. He could talk tech with a genius on par with Brains, and Alan even had a kid his age that could keep up with him. They were safe (despite being warned about aliens and monsters and supervillains) and they were getting the help they needed.

Virgil wanted more than anything to get back home, but he wasn't exactly excited about the prospect of having to jump through more worlds to do it. They didn't have a choice though, and HEMERA only had two more lights to go before they would be ready to go. They were already fully packed, with Tony having gone a little overboard with the first aid kit. The man was a total dad, and Alan had pushed all his buttons on that front, so Tony had wanted to make sure they'd be safe.

The bowie knives, along with the calf holsters, had been not only absolutely beautiful but deadly. The fact that the holsters would slide snugly inside their IR boots was a plus too. And, on top of that, Tony had made them new clothes, armored clothes out of a type of Kevlar that he was prototyping for the army. Fully bulletproof but breathable. Space worthy, like their own IR suits had been (and Virgil was pretty sure he knew where Tony had gotten the idea for the fabric, since their IR suits were made of a fabric that Brains had invented), but lightweight. He hadn't made them in IR blue, but a rather close approximation of the color, only slightly more gray. It was a work in progress, apparently.

As it was, Tony had been fascinated by the idea of a search and rescue team like the Thunderbirds. He'd begged Virgil for information on their ships and the logistics behind the program. That only eight people were really involved in the whole thing was the most astounding to him. (The brothers, Kayo, Brains and Grandma were a wonder team and Tony said that they deserved all the medals and accolades he'd ever gotten far more than he did.)

Virgil had given him the information, because he'd realized just what kind of man Tony Stark was. And he was a hero. One who was looking to save the world. International Rescue would help with that, and it would be, ironically, safer than doing so as Iron Man. So, Virgil had drawn up the plans for the five 'Birds and their pods and rescue equipment. He didn't bother going into too much detail with the first four ships, because he knew that Tony could build off what he gave and improve them as seen fit for this world. He did, however, go into great detail with Thunderbird Five, because space stations of this kind had not been seen on this Earth, and Five really was the centerpiece of International Rescue.

Tony had gotten curious and had gone looking for the Tracy family in this world. And he'd found them. All five brothers.

Only they weren't brothers in this world. Not all of them.

Jefferson Tracy had had two brothers, Jack and Jacob. Jeff had gotten married to a lovely lady named Lucy. Jack had married Mary-May and Jacob had a beautiful woman by the same of Sophia. Jeff had three children, Scott, Gordon and Alan. Jack had a son named John. And Jacob a son named Virgil. One winter, during a family reunion, all three wives lost their lives during an avalanche. The three brothers came together to raise their families in their grief.

Scott was a crack Air Force Captain. He'd left active duty to raise his youngest brother, only sixteen at this time, when their father had been killed in a car accident. Gordon, the middle son of that family, was a trained Navy Seal and specialist aquanaut, still currently in the military.

Virgil Tracy was a mechanic, owning his own shop in the small Kansas town that all the Tracy boys had grown up in. He was known for his paintings, having quite a few in museums and galleries around the world, but was quite happy just owning his own shop. His millions made from his paintings only helped to keep the shop open since he had a tendency to charge very little for his services, if anything at all.

John Tracy was currently in the NASA program to become an astronaut. One of the smartest and youngest ever seen in the program to date.

The similarities, as well as the differences, had been amazing and nerve wracking at the same time. Tony had gotten a gleam in his eye that spoke of ideas. Far too many ideas. Virgil had left him to it.

As for Alan and Peter…well. They were currently on a hologram call with two other teenagers, Princess Shuri of Wakanda, and Harley Keener of Tennessee. Both were apparently geniuses on par with the two present teens, and all four were currently cackling in a way that sent shivers down both Virgil and Tony's spines.

At another burst of laughter from that corner of the workshop had the two looking over nervously. "I feel like they need adult supervision," Tony muttered.

"We are the adults," Virgil pointed out, frowning a little.

"Pepper keeps saying I need more adult supervision," Tony countered.

Virgil hummed. "We need adultier adults," he said. Tony snorted and got to his feet, wandering over to that corner. Virgil just sat up, watching in curiosity.

What ended up happening was that the calls were disconnected, and Peter and Alan were sent out into the city to get some fresh air.

("Fresh air?" Peter had laughed. "It's New York City, Mr. Stark!"

"You know what I mean," Tony had countered, rolling his eyes. "Get some sunlight. Vitamin D. All that good stuff."

"You're just afraid we'll blow up the Tower," Alan had laughed.

"Terrified." Tony had waved his hand, shooing them towards the elevator. "Go. Get lost.")

"They made an army of tiny robot spiders," Tony grumbled, coming back over to join Virgil over the schematics for Thunderbird Five. "Tiny robot spiders with their own AI…"

Virgil frowned, raising an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Why not?" Tony countered with an exasperated sigh. "They're teenagers."

Virgil laughed. "Old enough to know how, young enough to not care," he said. He shook his head wryly, turning back to the blueprints. "Why spiders?" he asked curiously.

Tony glanced at him, frowning. "Peter's a mutate," he said after a moment, figuring why the heck not. Since the two boys would soon be leaving this world, Peter's secret would remain safe anyway. "Superhero by the name of Spiderman. I'm doing my best to keep him safe."

"Doing a pretty good job, all told," Virgil said, giving a nod and marking something on the holographic plans.

Tony frowned at him some more. "You're not upset that I'm enabling a fifteen-year-old to do dangerous work?" he asked, a little incredulously, because Pepper and Rhodey and Happy hadn't been all that pleased with it, despite his explanations in the beginning.

Virgil shot him a very bland look. "My littlest brother flies a rocket," he said. And that pretty much explained it.

Tony hummed. "Right." He paused for a moment and then shook his head. "Actually, I had a question about Alan. He's Head of Marketing, right? How? And how are you not being strung up for nepotism?"

Virgil sat back, stretching a little. "First, our company is still private. Second, we all—every single one of us—started as interns in the company. When Dad disappeared, Scott was sort of forced into the CEO position, and Johnny took up the CFO about two months later when it turned out our previous one was completely incompetent. Gordon and I worked our way up. None of us had a head position until after we'd hit twenty, at least, except for Alan." He shrugged a little, running a hand through his hair. "Alan was interning with Dr. Shultz, the previous Head of Marketing, and was doing a pretty good job. He was floating for a bit, learning more about the company and all. But then, during the middle of a critical point for marketing, Shultz had a bad heart attack and was out for a while. Alan took over and everything went incredibly smooth. When Shultz decided to retire instead of coming back, he recommended Alan take his spot and after a trial period, the kid proved he could take over quite well. So he did."

"While still doing school and International Rescue?" Tony asked, looking impressed. Virgil merely shrugged and the man shook his head. He wondered if all the people from the boys' world were this impressive, or if it was just this family.

Whatever the case, they were a bit of an inspiration.

It was about two hours later, when Virgil was napping on the couch, and Tony was deep in a phone conversation with someone he'd called "Nat" and FRIDAY had called "Black Widow", that Virgil's watched started beeping. He startled awake, nearly falling off the couch and causing Tony to snort in amusement. Glaring sleepily at the man, he fumbled with the device on his wrist. He'd forgotten that the watches could be used as communicators, since he and Alan hadn't really been out of each other's sight since they'd been in that first world.

"T2 here," Virgil grumbled, falling back into callsigns by force of habit.

"Hey," Alan's voice came over the com. "So…aliens are attacking and Pete's a superhero."

Virgil grunted, looking up to see Tony call a suit to him. He watched as the man briskly ended his call with whoever and let the Iron Man suit from around him. Apparently, the Bleeding Edge suit, as he called it, wasn't quite ready for use yet. "Aliens?" Virgil asked.

"Yeah. Creepy blue things Peter called Chitauri? He literally picked me up and jumped onto a roof. Told me to stay here." There was a pause. "I think I'll stay here."

"Please do," Virgil said, getting to his feet and stretching. He winced as his ribs throbbed and his stitches in his leg pulled. He'd be taking those out later tonight—Cho didn't see any need to oversee the removal, fully trusting Virgil to be able to handle it himself. Alan's arm had already been declared well enough healed to lose the stitches, and HEMERA was enough protection for the healing injury. (HEMERA had proven that she could activate the claw defense herself, having taken control of the nanobots they'd installed to be able to do so. She was fiercely protective of her Creator and Medic, apparently. They couldn't exactly ask, though, since even when she'd been paired into FRIDAY's voice systems, she hadn't actually talked.)

"How many aliens?" Virgil asked.

"Eh," Alan sounded a little blasé about aliens. Clearly the two of them were a little worn out by everything they'd already been through. "Not too many."

"How many is not too many?" Virgil asked, absently watching as Tony blasted away, presumably towards the aliens and Peter.

"Like fifty?" Alan answered. "Dude. Pete's awesome. I wish we had a way to keep in touch after we leave."

Virgil sighed, because Alan sounded genuinely sad. The youngest Tracy didn't have a lot of friends back home. This was mostly due to isolation but also because very few kids his age could keep up with him. Not to mention that quite a few that could seemed to be intimidated by their wealth and occupations.

Peter wasn't, though. He and Alan got along fabulously, and with Peter came Harley and Shuri. Virgil didn't know what to say, though, other than, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Alan mumbled.

"It's really not," Virgil replied. He sighed again, running his fingers through his hair. He lowered his hand to absently tap at the cast on his other arm. "A version of us exists in this world. Stands to reason that a version of Peter exists in our world. Maybe we can find him when we go back."

"Wouldn't that be weird though?" Alan asked. "Oh! That was cool!" He didn't elaborate on what was cool, and Virgil didn't ask.

"Maybe," Virgil said, shrugging even though Alan couldn't see it. "But you've got eight or so more worlds to figure it out."

"I wonder if Tony would fly me back to the Tower," Alan mused. Something in the background exploded, the sound a little muffled over the com. "Then again, that would probably draw attention we don't' want."

"True," Virgil said, glancing at the clock. It was getting near to evening. "Everything good where you're at?" That was the rescuer in him talking, more so than the big brother. He fully expected Alan to keep himself out of harms way until the action died down. If anything, the dinosaurs had made them all the more cautious.

Not to mention the Replicators.

And geez, they were going to need therapy when all of this was said and done.

"Civilians here seem to know what to do," Alan answered, sounding rather impressed. "They all evacuated the area almost immediately and are letting the heroes take care of it" He gave a little grunt. "There's a hero I don't know, though. Has a bow and arrows that are surprisingly effective against aliens."

Virgil hummed. "I'm not going to pretend to know what's up with the heroes here."

"Mind control," Alan grumbled. "Is every world we encountered going to have mind control elements?"

"The last one didn't."

"V, dude," Alan sighed. "The last world could have had all humankind enslaved by mind-controlling grasshoppers and we wouldn't have known because we were stuck on that stupid island."

Virgil shuddered a bit. He wouldn't be surprised if he and Alan both had a form of PTSD from Isla Nublar. He highly doubted he'd look at lizards the same way again. "How's HEMERA?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Last light is charged. We're ready to go," Alan answered. "She's charging faster now than she was before."

"Good. We can get home faster," Virgil said, quirking a small smile. He didn't really want to leave this world, but he desperately wanted to go home. "Especially since we've been here so long."

"I hope Scooter's not panicking," Alan mumbled.

Virgil sat himself back down on the couch, carefully stretching out his leg. This stitches would come out before they jumped, but the brace would likely stay for a while longer. "It's Scott, Allie," he said, as though it needed no more explanation than that.

It didn't.

"Oh, hey," Alan said, and there was a bit of a scrambling noise. "Peter's back. Aliens are gone. Tony seems busy with that other hero. I'll be back soon."

"Kay. Keep safe."

"FAB. T3 out."

Virgil let the watch disconnect, sighing heavily. He was still tired. It seemed he was always tired. Cho had actually commented on that, and then come up with a theory about it, because Alan had been reading with that same exhaustion no matter how much rest they got. The going theory was that every world had its own energy (which they knew, because HEMERA was using that energy to jump) and that the people from that world would feel its loss if it wasn't there. So Virgil and Alan would not be completely energized until they could go back to their world and 'recharge', so to speak. They were healthy and in no danger of being otherwise from lack of this energy alone, but they wouldn't feel completely rested either.

He scrubbed at his face. They needed to jump tonight. So there was plenty that needed to be done beforehand. He might as well get to it.