torchwoodinstitute | (no subject)

Jim didn't have anything in particular against kids so long as they were quiet and didn't get in his way. He glanced at the pair, one looking sheepish and the other still shoving food into his face. That wasn't the problem.

Having been on lockdown for the last few days, it was impossible to think that they were another set of victims from the Rift when it was closed to everything except transdimensional data streams. Here was no room for people sized objects or even transporter beams to make it through.

So did they show up before lockdown? Nah. Someone would have run into them, theoretically, before now. And the kids might even look upset.

They didn't. That was strange.

"You're trespassing," Jim said, arms folded over his chest. "How'd you get in?"

That wasn't bad. This guy wasn't as much of a suit as Noah was, at the very least. Sylar licked his lips and thought about the best approach.

"I- well...you're not gonna believe me if I tell you," he promised, looking around. "We can get out of your hair right away. We were both really hungry." As if that explained why they were in this area, or maybe why they were in the building, or any number of things.

Jim was unimpressed. There was literally no way for humans to enter lockdown which meant only one thing: these boys, including the dour looking one on his third package of scones, weren't human. Or not entirely human. Could they not have a break even on lockdown?

Jim actually groaned and rocked back on his heels. "You'd be surprised what I might believe. Fine. You're hungry? We have a kitchen. Try not to melt the place down?" Jim turned and Luke shot daggers at Sylar with a rather amusing, but sort of freaked out 'what the fuck?!' look to his face.

Sylar bit his lip. This guy might be pretty laid back, but not that laid back. He wasn't just going to let them roam. This was clearly a place that wasn't meant to be accessed by common people, what with the lack of windows and the strange spaces. And this guy talking about not 'melting'...maybe he just meant when using the microwave, but Sylar couldn't know.

"I can teleport!" he blurted out, sounding a lot less calculated and more spontaneous than it actually was. "I mean, I think that's what it was. I didn't mean to come here- I didn't even know I could do that." Even the truth needed to be 'sold' somewhat, because otherwise they weren't going to be believed. All they needed was for this guy to trust them enough to show them the exit...and maybe not even that, after Sylar had a little time to rest. "But sure. Yeah, kitchen," he repeated rather awkwardly. "Thanks."

Jim wasn't surprised. He didn't act surprised. Or look surprised. He shrugged. SHRUGGED! "Figured it had to be something like that," was all he said before he paused at the top of the stairwell. It was only then that he had turned, glancing at the boys. He noted the one the mute one was suddenly holding the speaker's shirt as if to yell at him or denote some sort of wariness.

He addressed the other instead.

"I'm Jim. Just about everyone here has something weird about them so don't sweat it. C'mon with me." He'd just come from the kitchen and he really hoped Jack and Sasan were still sitting down there, being as flirty as they had been when Jim left to 'go for a walk.'

If these boys were alien, he was going to need some help.

This was why Sylar was the one to talk. He didn't mind Luke grabbing him, because the close proximity would just make it quicker to get out of there, if they had to. It was a little annoying that their new friend didn't even look impressed with Sylar's confession. Even in Primatech, that'd usually get some reaction. Oh well. It meant they probably weren't going to get experimented on, at least.

He smiled a little at Luke- yes, despite how freaked out the other looked. He was sort of hoping he could help calm Luke down a little. They were so close to being free. He moved to follow Jim up the stairs, but he'd stop if Luke stopped him.

Luke wasn't going to hold Sylar back but he had to wonder if this dude was like them. He didn't seen afraid, just tired. And maybe stupid. But he didn't have the ability to discern the things his friend could.

So, shaking his head, he let go of Sylar and followed him as he followed this Jim guy.

"So do you two have names? I gave you mine."

All right. They'd get something to eat, head out of here, then decide what they want to do from there. Sylar wasn't too concerned about Jim- there wasn't anyone who could take them down when they were together, other than Noah and that power-sapping dude. And he's pretty sure Jim here hasn't been secretly trailing them for days.

Things were looking up here. As much as Sylar had been integrating into the Company, he still had hated not having control over his life. Not that Mohinder would've said that. But when other people made your daily schedule, it was hard to argue.

"I'm Sylar," he said. He'd let Luke introduce himself this time. "Can you tell us where we are, now? Or is it a secret? I want to know how far I went."

Jim paused at the name. He knew it. He'd read it. Where did he know it from? It was a Codename for something. From one of his missions. He did not equate Sylar with Gabriel right away. He'd seen the name written in his file but like anyone reading a new hire file, he glosses over most of it. He knew Gabriel had a past. He knew Gabriel had killed people. But he did not remember the name he killed people under.

"That sounds so familiar," Jim said. He'd been on hundreds of missions though. That could mean anything, though the name wasn't one he'd consider anything less than unique. Maybe it was a brand of electronics? Well whatever. It didn't matter. Luke didn't answer and so Jim continued on, down three levels and around the curve of the now missing Rift from the center of the silo. "Friend doesn't talk much, huh? Well doesn't matter. And yes. This place is secret. Sorry, kid. I'll let me boss know you're here and he'll help you get back to where you accidentally came here from."

He pushed open the door to the kitchen, set up more like the kitchen in a school cafeteria than anything else with a lot of industrial microwaves and a fryer. There were some tables too, but the kitchen wasn't usually used. It was a good thing they did keep it stocked though.

Oh, that was not good. Sylar was able to school his features and merely look curious and a little confused as they continued. "Really? Weird." But no one should know that name, not unless they were watch enthusiast. This guy was not a timepiece fanatic.

And of course, Jim wasn't going to tell them where they were. That would be way too easy. "Okay. Thanks."

He stepped into the kitchen and waited to see if Jim was going to stay with them or not. Either way, as soon as that door closed he'd be trying to teleport (or whatever it was he did- that power was supposed to be gravitational manipulation) him and Luke out of there. This had become very much not worth the risk.

The kitchen wasn't exactly empty. Jack wasn't currently flirting with Sasan (it was only funny when Jim was there) but he was playing cards, some sort of weird version of solitaire that he had this far been able to properly convey the rules to anyone on how to play.

The swish of the door did cause him to look up, one strangely shaped card in hand, and his eyes drifted from Jim to the two shorter boys.

He knew one of them. He'd followed Gabriel for years (well, a week or so for himself but years for Gabriel) since the boy was ten while he was vetting him for Torchwold. He kept that to himself. This might not be Gabriel after all, but any one of his doppelgängers.

"What did I say about guests?"

"Don't look at me, Captain," Jim muttered.

Well, damn. This was not ideal. Apparently, this was where people were hanging out. Sasan had looked up from a magazine he'd read once already and frowned slightly when he saw Sylar. This was sort of freaky- why did everyone here seem to recognize him?

He glanced at Luke, hoping the warning got across. "Yeah, sorry about that. It was an accident. We'll leave you alone."

He held his hand out, fingers spread, and a small vortex appeared. Sylar's fingers twitched as he worked to manipulate it correctly, tweaking the same thing he did last time. But it felt unstable, like the little tunnel he was making kept getting pulled in another direction and twisted around into a knot. He kept trying to straighten it out, but his head was killing him. He wasn't going to manage it before he passed out, so he reluctantly shut it down.

"....or not." He sighed heavily. Time to see if they pulled weapons on him now. At least telekinesis he could manage.

Jack only sat back, hands crossed over trouser button, and watched the boy attempt to summon his vortex. That was certainly an ability that Gabriel didn’t have. In fact, Jack knew that Gabriel didn’t develop his ability until he was in adulthood, or at least had not been tempted by it to sneak out and find others like him to use their abilities for himself. And he didn’t recognize the boy with him at all, the one with eyes that could only be remarked upon as soulless. Jack might not believe nor disbelieve in souls (it didn’t matter to a man who couldn’t die), but he didn’t like the feeling the somewhat stockier kid gave off.

“That might be our fault,” Jack mused, which immediately made that dead-eyed kid step in front of the other boy. Protective. Interesting. He waited for any particular sign that he was going to attack, and when he didn’t, Jack simply stayed where he was and glanced up at Jim to stop him from freaking out. The man at the table next to him was someone Jim would very likely do the same thing for, after all.

That put Jack in a bad position.

“This facility is called the Torchwood Institute.” He was going to leave off the Time Agency bit. “We’re currently experiencing a lockdown. There’s a dampening field in the facility preventing comings and goings by vortex. I’m not really sure how you got here, but hey, it helps up with our troubleshooting later. So you’re hung—“

The other boy suddenly spoke up, interrupting. “What the fuck, man?! We didn’t ask to be here!” Sorry Sylar. Luke didn’t take threats well, even when there weren’t threats at all.

Hey, interrupting was way better for diplomacy than attempting to melt people. Since Sylar knew Luke was readily capable of that- although three people was a bit much at once, especially with two in opposite directions- he was actually rather glad that Luke was only complaining.

And hey, it was pretty unfortunate that they ended up in a place under lockdown after all the crap they'd just been through. "It was an accident," Sylar said, backing up Luke's statement. "I was just trying something and I guess it was a bigger deal than I thought."

His awkward kid demeanor had dropped entirely- there wasn't much point in keeping that up anymore if people knew him. Luke's outburst was likely to smooth over the change, anyway. But he hoped that by staying calm it would help keep the situation more manageable. Not that these guys seemed to spook. Geez, he just opened a freakin' black hole in their kitchen, why was the dark-haired guy the only one to look kind of freaked? "Did we cause the lockdown?" That seemed reasonable, although everything seemed pretty dead when they got there.

"Fraid not. Sasan's the lucky one for that." Jack thumbed towards Sasan with a grin and stood up, putting his cards on the desk and heading over to the refrigerator. Hm. Okay. So what did teenagers like? Chocolate milk?

He knew Sasan was going to scoff or protest. It amused him to do that. He really enjoyed the soft squeaks. He was pretty sure Jim would too if he lightened up a little to flirt with their PR director.

Luke had at least calmed down. Or backed off. His shoulders dropped a little and he watched Jack like a hawk as he poured their glasses.

And he got one for Jim too. Just because.

"Me?" Jack was right that Sasan was going to protest that, complete with little I-can't-believe-you-just-said-that squeaks. It was a good thing all around, really, because it kicked Sasan out of the scared little rabbit mode he'd gone into. That tended to happen when someone ripped a hole in the universe in front of him. "I didn't cause it, I just found it. You're welcome, by the way."

All the drama made Sylar raise an eyebrow at it. There was something weird about these two guys. One he just plain couldn't parse, and the other looked like a cousin of his or something. This was always so much easier when they had abilities.

Sylar was equally wary and eager for the chocolate milk. He didn't know about other teenagers, but he loved the stuff. He ultimately decided to go ahead and have some, taking the glass and gulping it down quickly. "Thanks. You guys seem pretty relaxed for being on lockdown, you know," he observed. It wasn't like a military, and it wasn't like Primatech, either.

"Some of us take to it better than others," Jsck laughed.

He took the other glasses he had poured and handed one to Luke, who looked wary, but took it anyway and openly gawked at Sylar. This guy! He was too trusting! Luke was going to have to really talk to him about this.

The other glass, Jack handed to Jim. The blond smirked, took the offered chocolate milk, and made a wide birth around the teenagers to sit in Jack's spot. He slid the glass to Sasan with a little half smile.

"I promise I didn't poison it. You watched me pour it," Jack told Luke, who still just stared at him. "Okay. Suit yourself. I'm Captain Jack Harkness. I run the place. And you two can stay with us until we get the issue here taken care of or we can figure out a way to get you home before you decide to black hole us to death."

The chocolate milk tasted like it was supposed to, thankfully. Sylar would've hated to have Luke melt their faces off. -well, he would've hated to miss it, anyway.

Sasan looked from the milk to Jim, slowly smiling. "Well, I might indulge a bit. You have to promise to drink half, though," he told Jim. He didn't want to half half the glass staring at him and tempting him further. Now that this had been at least partially settled and it was clear they weren't in immediate danger, Sasan was pleased to pay more attention to Jim.

And Sylar was finding he liked this Captain Jack. This boss didn't seem to take things too seriously. "I'm not going to black hole you to death," he said with a smirk. No, he'd always give that to Luke first. Opening up a black hole on someone seemed awfully impersonal. "So what do you guys do here, when you're not on lockdown? This place looks huge."

Jack might not answer him, but he couldn't help but ask. It was such an intriguing mystery.

"How much time do you have?" Jack asked, as cheeky as ever and Jim, who had just agreed to have half the glass, rolled his eyes.

"While," he replied for the other Captain, letting Sasan drink from the straw as he took a sip from the edge of the glass. Seeing that, Luke finally had a sip as well and then downed the whole thing.

He was starving.

"Funny. Haha. Pretty much we take care of weird things and make sure that they don't end up destroying things we think should stay intact. It can be anything, places or people but mostly they're objects. One of those objects is probably what has us on lockdown down."

Lie.

Jim and Sasan would know it. The boys would not.

"So you've met me and Sasan and Jim. You're Sylar. And you--"

Luke sighed and put the empty glass down. Fuck if he was giving his full name. "Campbell."

Well, that sounded interesting. Sylar figured that if he didn't make them bat an eye, their definition of 'weird things' had to be pretty broad.

Sylar figured Luke wouldn't give his name. That was probably smart. So Sylar moved straight on to what he'd really been wanting to know since they entered the room. "How do you know me? Jim didn't have a chance to tell you." He wanted to ask if Jack had contact with Noah Bennet, but he hardly wanted to give away any extra information. It's not like Jack would reply honestly if he had.

"Jim doesn't have to." Jack tapped the small device in his ear, which left the blond making the indignant noise. "What? Listening in on you while you're muttering to yourself is amusing. Back me up on this, Sas."

Blue eyes, two sets of them, drifted towards the man drinking the chocolate milk, one with a grinning mouth beneath and the other looking none too happy.

"But I didn't have to be listening in. I would have known you anyway, though not by "Sylar." You work here. Well, a slightly older version of you does at least."

Sasan's reaction to being 'called in', so to speak, was to shift his eyes to the side. "I'm pleading the Fifth on that," he said, despite the fact that they were in an entirely different country and one of them might not have ever heard the term. And all throughout, he continued sipping at the chocolate milk.

Sylar found this whole thing very curious, but not quite as interesting as the answer to his question. Jack didn't even try to dodge it, from what Sylar could tell. Confusion crossed his face for the first time, and he tried to work it through. "So did I time travel, as well as teleport? We're from 2015."

He wouldn't bother asking further about the name. They couldn't know about the whole killer part of it, or else they'd be way more concerned. He'd at least still sense some tension from Sasan.

Luke wasn't buying any of this shit. This was Sylar getting in over his head again. He was so easily seduced by just about everything and Luke was starting to feel left out again. He and Sylar was a match. A team.

To hear he was working here in a few years? Even in theory, that hurt.

"You came from a different reality. I don't expect you to believe me but it does help that you can create black holes...and what? Do you have telekinesis yet? Clairesence?" Jack tilted his head to the side and completely ignored Luke.

Jesus. What the fuck was wrong with these people?

The Captain certainly did know how to grab Sylar's interest. The teenager's eyes lit up at the mention of a new ability, and- yeah, perhaps he was now not being quite so careful as he should. "What's that second one? I don't have that."

Nothing had changed for Sylar, at least. Even with it right in front of him, he didn't think the future was written in stone. And hey, this was a different reality? He had the ability to hop realities? They could go somewhere, hunt down all sorts of specials and then move 'out of bounds' as soon as it became a problem. He glanced over at Luke and was rather disappointed that the other kid wasn't so excited. He guessed he'd have to explain the idea later.

"Touch an object, see it's history," Jack explained easily enough and gestured for Sylar to have a seat if he wanted to. Luke was going to be that guy and stay standing and watchful. Hearing about this other Sylar was...strange.

"If there's really Sy from the future here, where is he?" Luke asked, almost accusatory. He was a liar. He had a feeling Jack was too, even if he was being forthcoming.

Jack shrugged. "Sas, seen Gabe around?"