The four silently left the top-floor conference room, filled with extreme awe and heavy hearts.
Solomon's lies and his final warning, like a pronouncement from the Grim Reaper, were enough to keep them from stepping out of line for a long time to come.
As the heavy door slowly closed, Solomon was left alone in the empty office.
He turned and walked back to the large conference table. With a turn of his hand, the first-generation X-Gene Inhibitor Collar he had taken from Trask's laboratory appeared in his palm.
Solomon gently rubbed the cold metal contacts with his fingertips. The image of Apocalypse sleeping in the golden Reincarnation Pod beneath Egypt rose irresistibly in his mind.
"No matter how ancient or invincible Apocalypse is, at the end of the day, he's still a mutant of this world."
An extremely dangerous light flickered in Solomon's narrow eyes.
"Since he's a mutant, all his power must be founded on the X-Gene."
An utterly insane and tempting idea swiftly took root in his mind. If... I could find a chance to fasten this Inhibitor Collar around Apocalypse's neck and forcibly sever the connection between his brain and his X-Gene, could I temporarily strip him of his abilities?
Without his X-Gene abilities, Apocalypse would be nothing more than a slightly sturdier blue slab of meat.
Then defeating him would be child's play!
Trask's successful test on that piece of trash called Mad Rhino only proved that the first-generation collar could suppress mutants with level 2 attributes.
But Apocalypse's energy attribute was as high as level 7.
Solomon looked at the collar glowing blue in his hand. It was like an iron chain originally meant to leash a dog. If you insisted on using it to tether an adult Tyrannosaurus rex, the most likely outcome