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Chapter 31 – It's about Gaius
🕑 Added 2025-09-08 00:02:00 +0000 UTCChapter 31 – It's about Gaius
The morning in Malibu was quiet. The ocean stretched endlessly outside the glass walls of Stark’s home, the surface glittering in the sun. Inside, Tony Stark sat at his dining table with a coffee mug in hand. He wasn’t dressed for anything serious, just a worn T-shirt and loose pants. A half-finished blueprint was open on the tablet beside him, but he wasn’t really looking at it.
For the past week, Agent Coulson had been making his usual trips, checking in on Stark. Always the same questions, what do you know about the armored giant, about Gaius, about this strange connection you’ve stumbled into? And every time, Tony had sent him away with a sarcastic comment or a half-truth. But today, he decided to play a little differently.
The familiar sound of tires crunching on gravel reached him, followed by the faint beep of security confirming the guest. Tony didn’t even look up when Coulson walked into the room, calm as always in his neat suit.
“Mr. Stark,” Coulson began in his polite, steady tone.
But before he could continue, Tony casually reached over to the table, picked up a small USB drive, and tossed it across the surface. It skidded to a stop just in front of Coulson.
“There’s your scoop,” Tony said, leaning back in his chair with a smirk. “Information on Gaius. Footage. Stuff you’ve been bothering me for.”
Coulson blinked, caught off guard. Usually, Stark made him work for scraps of info. He picked up the drive carefully. “What exactly is on this?”
“Home movies,” Tony replied dryly, sipping his coffee. “Except instead of birthday parties, it’s blue giants running like sports cars and breaking everything in their way. Civilians, soldiers, the works. Future humanity at its finest.”
Coulson’s expression stayed unreadable, but his grip on the drive tightened. “You’re serious?”
“As a heart attack,” Tony said smoothly, tapping his chest with mock offense. “Well, used to be, anyway. Point is, you wanted something on Gaius. Now you’ve got it. Don’t say I never give back.”
(Ps. The English idiom “as serious as a heart attack” simply means:
Extremely serious; not joking at all.)
For a moment, Coulson simply studied him. Something in Stark’s eyes suggested more was going on, but he wasn’t in a position to question it. So instead, he nodded. “Thank you. This… could be important.”
Tony waved him off like it was nothing. “Yeah, yeah. Don’t mention it. Literally, don’t mention it. I don’t want Fury breathing down my neck any more than usual.”
Coulson allowed the faintest smile before turning to leave. He tucked the USB carefully into his jacket. Tony watched him go, swirling the coffee in his mug.
The front door closed. For a long moment, Stark sat in silence, then chuckled softly to himself. “Let’s see what story you spin out of that one, Fury.”
At SHIELD headquarters, the mood was anything but calm.
The building was buzzing with activity, agents moving in and out of offices, carrying reports, files, and cases. In a high-ceilinged room, Director Nick Fury sat at his desk, a stack of documents spread before him. His one eye was fixed on the pages, but his thoughts were elsewhere.
For weeks, he had been investigating whispers of traitors within SHIELD itself. Leaks, missing intel, operations compromised before they began. He didn’t trust anyone fully, not even those closest to him. The strain showed in the lines around his eye.
The door opened. Fury looked up sharply. Agent Coulson entered, his expression calm but his pace quick.
“What is it, Agent Coulson?” Fury asked, setting the papers aside.
Coulson stepped forward and held out the USB. “Sir, it’s about Gaius.”
The moment the name left his lips, Fury’s hand froze halfway to the desk. Then, without a word, he took the drive and plugged it into his secured computer.
The screen flickered to life.
At first, only static. Then the picture cleared.
A vast metal corridor filled the frame, flames flickering along the walls. Giants in blue and gold armor thundered forward, their footfalls like rolling drums. Bolter fire spat explosive shells that tore through twisted steel and armored foes alike. The Ultramarines moved with terrifying speed, faster than cars racing down a highway, but every step precise.
Fury leaned closer, his jaw tightening. “What the hell…”
The footage shifted. A manufactorum came into view, filled with the clamor of machines. Rows of servitors, half-human, half-machine, labored endlessly, their faces blank, stripped of will. Sparks lit the air as they worked.
Coulson’s brow furrowed. “Are those… people?”
The next scene cut to a grim view: civilians huddled under the harsh command of a Overseer, a brutal parody of soldiers. Children stood among them, some carrying weapons too large for their arms, others marked with crude augmentations. When Gaius and his squad entered, the civilians dropped to their knees, eyes wide with desperate hope.
The blue giants stood silent, unmoving, as if the weight of their presence alone offered protection.
Fury said nothing, but his grip on the desk grew tighter.
The footage jumped again, close combat this time. Gaius and his warriors clashed with Iron Warriors in brutal, echoing strikes. Chainswords screamed, power fists shattered steel, and the clash of armor on armor shook the air. The Ultramarines pressed forward without pause, unstoppable, burning everything in their path with cold precision.
Then the screen went black.
For a long moment, the only sound in the office was the faint hum of the computer.
Coulson was the first to speak, his voice low. “They’re not just soldiers. They’re something beyond that. Stronger, faster, more disciplined than Anyone on Earth.”
Fury leaned back slowly in his chair, his one eye still fixed on the dark screen. He let out a long breath, rubbing his temple. “Super-soldiers. That’s what we’re looking at. A whole breed of them. Bigger than Rogers, and there’s more than one. A lot more.”
The weight of it settled between them. Neither man moved.
Finally, Fury spoke again, his tone quieter, but no less firm. “If this is humanity’s future… then the game has changed. Everything we’re building now, it won’t be enough. We’ll need to be ready for more than we ever imagined.”
Coulson nodded once, his face tight. He could still see the image of the Civilians kneeling to Gaius and other Giants in Blue Armor, of civilians being forced into chains.
The USB drive clicked softly as Fury pulled it out and set it on the desk. He stared at it like it was a piece of the future sitting in his hand.
“Gaius isn’t just a Super Soldier,” Fury said finally. “He’s a glimpse of what’s coming.” He thought this was truly the Future of Humanity, he doesn't know that Gaius was from another Universe.
Neither of them knew how true, or how false, that really was.
Comments
Robehn
Very good! I send prayers for good health so we can get more chapters
Rachid Dzjalilov
ty for the chapter
