Chapter 246 — Proof
Parangosky did not look surprised by Gaius' earlier answer.
"Yes."
She only looked thoughtful.
Her hologram stood over the table with the same calm, steady posture, as if she had already started putting the pieces together in her mind.
The simplest explanation was that these strangers came from some hidden human colony far outside UNSC reach.
From her perspective, it fit.
Their technology was too advanced to dismiss as tricks or empty claims.
Their armor was unfamiliar.
Their arrival through a portal directly into a secured military station should not have been possible at all.
If they were an isolated human faction from somewhere beyond known space, that would explain many things.
It would also explain why they matched no existing UNSC records.
That was the conclusion forming in Parangosky's mind as she watched them carefully, waiting for Gaius to answer her question.
But Tony Stark was already getting tired of being questioned.
He rolled his eyes, not in anger, but in the way someone does when a conversation is going in circles and he already knows it is going to get worse before it gets better.
He looked toward Tanya for a moment.
Tanya looked back at him.
They had spent enough time together to understand each other's mood without speaking much.
Tony gave a small cough, then stepped in before Gaius could respond to Margaret Parangosky's question.
"We are not here to be interrogated."
The room went still for a second.
Parangosky did not react sharply.
She only shifted her attention to him.
Her expression remained calm, but now there was a sharper edge under it.
"Then what are you here for?" she asked.
That question landed heavily.
It was a fair one.
The group was silent for a moment because the answer was not simple.
Some of them were here for adventure.
Some wanted to see new worlds beyond their own.
Tony wanted new technology and ideas to study.
And Diana,
Diana wanted to fight.
Tony glanced toward Gaius again, then back to Parangosky.
He understood what she was really asking.
Not just why they had appeared.
She was asking what they wanted.
What their purpose was.
Tony answered.
"We are from other worlds."
Parangosky's eyes narrowed slightly.
She clearly took that to mean something different from what Tony intended.
To her, "other worlds" sounded like other planets.
Maybe colonies.
Maybe hidden human worlds.
She did not reject the idea, because it was also the same conclusion she had reached herself.
The others noticed the misunderstanding almost immediately.
Tony noticed it too.
That was not what he meant.
He exhaled once and corrected himself.
"Not other planets," he said. "Other universes. Each of us comes from a different universe. We are not from this one."
The room changed at once.
Marcus, who had been standing near the side of the table, visibly froze.
For a second he looked like he was trying to decide whether he had heard Tony correctly.
Other universes.
Multiple universes.
It sounded impossible.
Like something from a bad joke.
Like something no soldier should ever hear in a real military station.
His mouth opened slightly, then closed again.
He looked toward the others, then back to Tony, then finally to Parangosky as if silently hoping someone would tell him this was all nonsense.
But Parangosky did not laugh.
She did not dismiss him.
Instead, she studied Tony with the same calm focus she had used since the conversation began.
"How could you prove that?" she asked.
The question was direct.
It was not hostile.
It was practical.
If someone claimed to come from another universe, proof would be needed.
Tony looked at her for a moment, then turned his head slightly.
Naruto noticed the shift immediately.
He stepped forward before anyone else could.
"I can prove it," he said.
Parangosky's eyes moved to him.
Naruto did not look nervous.
He looked serious in the simple, honest way he often did when he wanted to help.
He raised one hand.
Then formed a shadow clone.
The clone appeared beside him in a cloud of smoke.
The two Narutos looked at each other.
Then both said the same thing at the same time, with the clone repeating the same calm confidence.
"This is my clone."
The original Naruto nodded once as if to confirm it.
Then he released the technique.
The clone disappeared into smoke right there in the middle of the room.
Marcus stared.
He had no idea how to react at first.
He had seen advanced technology before.
He had seen Spartans.
He had seen Covenant technology.
But he had never seen someone create a duplicate of himself out of nowhere, only for it to disappear again like smoke.
To him, that was a clear proof that Naruto was not ordinary.
It was not something that could be explained by standard science.
Parangosky, however, remained quiet.
She did not accept the proof fully yet.
But she also did not reject it.
Tony understood that look.
He had expected it.
Naruto's shadow clone was impressive, but it still might not be enough for someone like her.
So Tony sighed again, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small USB drive.
"This is proof," he said.
He looked toward Parangosky.
"Gaius' universe."
Parangosky watched carefully.
There was a small opening in the table in front of her now, almost as if the room itself had been made to accept data devices.
Tony did not comment on it.
He only stepped forward and inserted the USB.
It fit snugly.
A moment later, a projection appeared beside Parangosky.
The display lit up the room with new light.
Marcus looked toward it quickly.
Everyone else did too.
What appeared on the screen was Gaius.
But not the Gaius standing here in the station.
This was Gaius in another place.
A battlefield.
His golden auramite armor was visible, though it looked less imposing than it had in person.
Around him, large armies moved and clashed.
The enemies were alien.
Massive.
Strange.
They looked familiar in some ways, but not enough to be mistaken for anything in this universe.
Then the projection shifted.
Gaius turned toward the battlefield and shouted.
His voice came through the recording with a deep metallic tone under the helm.
"ULTRAMARINES!"
The room seemed to tighten around that voice.
Even through a recording, the words carried weight.
Then Gaius spoke again.
The speech rolled across the battlefield like thunder.
"We are the Emperor's fury made manifest! We are His wrath given form! We are the shield that guards Humanity… and the sword that rends its enemies! No fear. No mercy. No retreat. Bring death to the enemies of Mankind!"
Marcus felt something in him shift as he listened.
The words were hard, but not cruel.
Strong, but not empty.
He looked toward Gaius in the room, then back at the projection, and for the first time his suspicion began to give way to something else.
Respect.
This was a soldier speaking to soldiers.
Not a liar.
Not a showman.
Someone who truly believed in the duty he carried.
Parangosky did not show any reaction on her face.
But inside, the image confirmed more than Tony's explanation had.
This was not a normal human group.
They were from somewhere else entirely.
And Gaius clearly belonged to a force that took humanity's survival seriously.
The projection continued.
Then something even more striking happened.
Gaius' aura seemed to burst outward from his body.
The ground around him fractured under the force of it.
No punch.
No strike.
No visible attack.
Just raw pressure.
Across the battlefield, alien soldiers stiffened.
Then collapsed.
Rows of them dropped all at once.
Some passed out.
Some fell to the ground without even being touched.
The effect was so sudden that for a moment nobody in the room spoke.
Parangosky's calm expression finally changed.
Not much.
Just enough to show shock.
Then she got control of herself again almost immediately.
Marcus did not hide his reaction at all.
His mouth tightened slightly as he stared at the screen.
That kind of pressure had not looked like a weapon.
It had looked like force itself becoming real.
The projection moved again.
The battlefield became more chaotic.
Gaius looked over the fight and noticed Titus and the Ultramarines starting to be surrounded.
He turned his head and gave an order to a massive war machine nearby.
"Brother Valerius, you are needed there."
Marcus and Parangosky both noticed the dreadnought clearly now.
The machine was huge.
It looked like something between a walking tank and a sealed coffin for a warrior.
The footage kept moving.
A massive alien brute charged straight at Gaius with a heavy chain hammer.
Gaius moved aside with almost no effort at all.
The attack missed.
Then Gaius grabbed the brute by the neck with one massive power fist and lifted him into the air.
He slammed him into the dirt with brutal force.
The impact shattered the ground.
Blood flew from the alien's mouth.
Then Gaius stepped on him.
His foot was coated in black Armament Haki, making the strike even more severe.
He stomped down again and again.
No pause.
No hesitation.
No mercy.
The brute's arms broke.
His defenses collapsed.
Gaius finished him like someone crushing something that had no chance of surviving from the start.
Marcus stared at the screen, then at Gaius in the room.
His earlier suspicion was almost gone now.
Not because he was less cautious.
Because the footage had made the answer obvious.
Whatever Gaius was, he was far beyond a Spartan in raw strength.
The projection ended.
The room returned to its normal lighting.
For a few seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Naruto turned to Tony with a confused look.
"Tony… how did you even have a video of Gaius? He didn't live broadcast that, right?"
Tony gave a small smirk.
"My future self seems to know what I wanted," he said. "He sent a recording of what he saw."
Naruto blinked once.
"...Oh."
That was all he said.
He accepted it quickly enough.
At this point, he had already seen enough strange things that a future Tony Stark sending a video did not feel like the weirdest thing in the room.
Parangosky looked at them again.
Her focus returned to Gaius, because Gaius was still the one who mattered most in the room.
Then she asked the question that sat at the center of everything.
"What is it that you are after in this world?"
Tony answered before Gaius could.
His tone was sharp enough to make his point, but not openly hostile.
"Calm down, old lady."
A small pause followed that line.
Marcus looked surprised he had said it like that.
Tony did not care.
He went on.
"We are from other worlds. We cannot control where we go. We do not even know what kind of world this is yet."
Parangosky heard the phrase "old lady" and clearly took note of it.
Her eyes shifted slightly toward Tony.
She did not react with anger.
But she remembered it.
Then the room became quiet again.
Because Tony's answer had left the real question hanging in the air.
What were they after?
The answer, honestly, was different for each of them.
Adventure.
Fights.
Technology.
Curiosity.
Something new.
Something worth seeing.
Gaius stood at the center of that silence, calm and unreadable.
He understood now why this world had drawn attention so quickly.
It was a human world in danger.
One fighting for survival against an enemy stronger than itself.
That was enough to make things important.
Parangosky finally spoke again.
This time her tone had shifted.
She no longer treated them like random intruders.
Not fully.
"Then I will have Marcus introduce you to our humanity."
She paused briefly.
"Humanity that is endangered by extinction."
The words settled heavily across the room.
Marcus straightened slightly.
Even he understood the weight behind that statement.
Not just a nation. Not just a world.
Humanity itself was in danger.
~~~
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