Outside the formidable gates of the Irkutsk Military Aerospace Administration, Piotr and Nikolai were unceremoniously escorted out by soldiers.
"Sir, this matter concerns military secrets and national security," one of the soldiers stated flatly. "Please leave and do not return."
Piotr was seething with rage. He and his father had arrived the previous day, only to be stonewalled with endless excuses and bureaucratic delays, all under the pretense that approval was needed from higher-ups. After waiting for more than a day, a fat officer finally appeared, only to parrot the same tired excuse about military secrets and national security before dismissing them outright.
"How can you do this?" Piotr's furious voice boomed through the street, attracting the attention of curious onlookers. "We arrived yesterday, and you've been giving us the runaround this whole time! Now you're telling us nothing and just trying to kick us out! My brother is an excellent cosmonaut, a hero of this country, and this is how you treat his family? I will sue you!"
"Piotr, stop talking!" Nikolai grabbed his son's arm, holding him back. If he hadn't, Piotr would have surely lunged at the officer who stood smugly behind the line of soldiers.
"Sir, I suggest you mind your language," the stout officer said, his voice devoid of any emotion. He then turned and walked back into the Administration building without a second glance.
The officer's dismissive attitude, combined with the profound uncertainty of his brother's fate, sent a surge of uncontrollable fury through Piotr. Involuntarily, his metal skin began to surface, and in the blink of an eye, Piotr once again transformed into a towering figure of organic steel.
Seeing this, Nikolai quickly took off his own jacket, attempting to cover Piotr's exposed metal skin. However, Piotr's body had also grown significantly larger after the transformation, making the flimsy piece of clothing completely inadequate.
"It's a mutant!" someone in the growing crowd shouted.
The gathered citizens gasped and recoiled. Some turned and fled in terror, while a greater number pulled out their phones, their morbid curiosity overriding their fear as they began to take pictures and record videos. To these ordinary citizens, mutants were synonymous with disaster and chaos. They detested mutants, their fear often curdling into a mob mentality that craved violence.
The soldiers guarding the Administration building also witnessed Piotr's startling transformation. They immediately raised their rifles, their fingers hovering over the triggers, ready to open fire at a moment's notice.
Nikolai quickly positioned himself between Piotr and the soldiers, his hands raised in a placating gesture. "It's a misunderstanding, just a misunderstanding! We'll leave right away!"
The soldiers did not lower their weapons at Nikolai's plea. The portly officer emerged from the building again, and after quickly assessing the situation, he gestured curtly to the soldiers accompanying him. The guards outside immediately closed in, and more soldiers poured out from the Military Aerospace Administration, surrounding Piotr and Nikolai in layers.
"Father, what should we do?" Piotr stammered, completely overwhelmed. He had never experienced anything like this before, the cold muzzles of several guns aimed directly at him.
"Calm down," Nikolai said, his own voice strained as he forced himself to remain composed. "Don't speak. Leave this to me."
From a window in a nearby building, the gray pigeon-Amon sighed.
"Alas! Just as I expected, something went wrong," the clone mused. "It seems I have to handle this myself. The main body really should have come personally and brought Mikhail back quickly."
The monocle on the gray pigeon-Amon's right eye began to glow. In an instant, all the memories of everyone in the immediate vicinity, with the exception of Piotr and Nikolai, were stolen. The photos captured on phones and the videos being uploaded to the internet were all deftly pilfered by the pigeon-Amon.
Another flash of light pulsed from the monocle. The gray pigeon-Amon then stole Piotr's mutant ability. For the next forty-eight hours, Piotr would be completely unable to access his steel transformation.
A flicker of starlight enveloped them, and Piotr and Nikolai found themselves back inside their pickup truck. The father and son were flustered and disoriented, with no memory of how they had gotten back into the vehicle.
Everyone outside the Administration building stood dazed for a moment, then fell into a state of profound confusion. They had no idea why they were there or what they had been doing just moments before.
'Hmm, Piotr's mutant ability is very special,' the pigeon-Amon noted. 'It's not just a simple transformation into metal; it's also related to an alternate dimension. It can only be said that they are indeed siblings!'
After stealing Piotr's mutant ability, the gray pigeon-Amon briefly analyzed it and discovered something highly unusual. Amon had always assumed that Colossus's ability was simply to steelize his body. However, his analysis revealed that the essence of the power was to summon special metal atoms from an alternate dimension and exchange them with his own atoms, thereby achieving the metallization effect.
'Is there something unique in the genes of the Rasputin family, something that allows them all to be linked to an alternate dimension?'
Inside the pickup, Piotr slumped in his seat, dejected. "Dad, what should we do now? Should we keep trying to ask them?"
Nikolai took a deep breath and started the engine. "No, we must have been rescued. I've learned from the television that some mutants have abilities that allow for spatial transfer. The one who saved us is likely a mutant with such powers. Let's go back home. We won't get any answers here."
Piotr's fist clenched and then relaxed in his lap. He mumbled, "Okay."
On the Moon, a man wearing a pointed soft hat and a classical, flowing robe was walking across the lunar surface. His steps were slow and deliberate, but each one covered a vast distance. This man was an Amon avatar. For a Sequence 3 demigod of his pathways, changing one's appearance and size, from an animal to a human, was a very simple matter. This particular outfit, reminiscent of the God of Deceit from the Mysteries series, perfectly suited Amon's aesthetic, so he had transformed into it.
Walking on the barren, silent lunar surface, the Amon avatar suddenly adjusted the monocle on his right eye. He had sensed something beneath his feet.
He cast a simple wind spell, and the lunar soil beneath his feet was immediately blown away by a powerful gust, revealing a giant metal robot, several meters high, lying dormant on the lunar surface.
"It actually has a 'spiritual thread'. This is a sentient life form! Could it be the legendary silicon-based life form?"
As Amon muttered to himself, his right hand reached forward and deftly snatched a glowing energy block from the robot's chest.
"Interesting. This is a Decepticon," he observed. "So, besides being the Marvel universe, this world also has transformers."
Pressing his right hand down, a fierce wind swept across the Moon's surface. Under the powerful gale, countless more metal robots were exposed, scattered across the lunar landscape.
"They're all Decepticons. In that case, if I get the chance, I can find an Autobot to drive around in!"
He didn't pay too much attention to the Decepticons scattered everywhere. These Cybertronians posed no threat to him. He already had a strong premonition that whatever had caused Mikhail's disappearance was just ahead.
By continuously stealing and compressing the space before him, the Amon avatar quickly arrived in front of a spaceship. It was a huge metal vessel, but it was so badly damaged that it was barely recognizable.
The Amon avatar walked into the giant spaceship. The interior was severely damaged. He came to a place covered by a thick layer of lunar soil, and with a sweep of his hand, he cleared away the dust, revealing an equally huge metal head.
"Sentinel Prime?"
Continuing to explore, the Amon avatar found a large number of energy pillars near the spaceship. These pillars were products of Cybertronian technology, powerful spatial devices that could be used to open Space Bridges.
The Amon avatar's eyes became vacant, and scene after scene appeared before his eyes. He was watching the past events of this very area. He replayed the history from the present to the past. It was all an unchanging, barren landscape until, finally, a month ago, a change occurred.
Four cosmonauts arrived on this patch of lunar land. From the flags on their spacesuits, he could identify them as cosmonauts from Russia. He recognized the leader as his nominal elder brother, Mikhail.
They first explored the dilapidated giant spaceship, then began to explore the area around it. They came to the edge of the area where the Amon avatar was now located, and they also discovered the energy pillars. During their research, for some unknown reason, they triggered the pillars. A brilliant blue light flashed, and the four cosmonauts, including Amon's nominal elder brother, all vanished without a trace.