Ten minutes later, on the sixtieth floor of Vought Tower, in a secret laboratory with the highest security clearance.
As the heavy airtight doors slid apart, cold white light spilled out.
Precision instruments of all kinds hummed quietly. Bolivar Trask stood before a console, his curly hair disheveled and his eyes bloodshot, yet brimming with excitement.
"Boss! You're here!"
At the sight of Solomon, Trask hurried over, holding out a black collar with a cold metallic sheen as though presenting a treasure.
"Look, this is the First-Generation Suppression Collar! It follows your concept exactly, dispensing with all those fancy restraint functions to impose a physical block directly at the genetic level!"
Solomon took the collar. It was somewhat heavier than he had expected, its inner surface densely covered with minuscule metal contacts that glimmered faintly blue.
"Let's see it in action. Is the test subject ready?"
Solomon tossed the collar back to Trask, his tone calm.
"Of course! Everything is ready!"
Trask turned excitedly and pointed at the huge, fully enclosed chamber of one-way blast-resistant glass in the center of the laboratory.
Inside the glass chamber was a burly white man with a brutish face.
An identical black suppression collar was already locked tightly around his neck.
"Test subject codename: Mad Rhino. He possesses a beast-type mutation gene. His skin can form a hardened keratin layer capable of withstanding armor-piercing rounds, and he has enough strength to overturn a heavy armored vehicle. He has an extremely volatile temper."
Trask rattled off the introduction, then pressed the communications button in front of him and coldly ordered the man inside the glass chamber:
"Mad Rhino, show us your ability! Do everything you can to destroy that test wall!"
Inside the glass chamber, the mutant called Mad Rhino spat viciously at the surveillance