----
Inside Oscorp's private research wing, Aleksei Sytsevich, better known as the Rhino, lay sprawled across two reinforced lab tables.
His hulking mass simply wouldn't fit on one.
Nolan moved methodically, slicing a thick patch of the Rhino's armored hide with a scalpel forged from pure Vibranium.
Under the microscope, the sample revealed itself.
A marvel of brutal biology.
The epidermis resembled an insect's exoskeleton:
Intricately ordered.
Hyper-dense.
Bound together by a polymer matrix of polypeptide chains, forming something harder than steel.
Nolan leaned closer.
"Fascinating," he murmured. "Organic metal armor. Grown, not forged."
It wasn't natural.
It was a product of forced genetic manipulation, layering living tissue over an engineered, metallic polymer.
And yet...
When Nolan examined the wound he had made—
Blood still trickled out.
Which meant—
No regeneration.
The Rhino's skin was strong, nearly indestructible but non-renewable.
Without external intervention, once damaged, it stayed damaged.
Nolan sprayed a burst of regenerative mist over the wound.
New skin grew back quickly but normal human skin, not reinforced rhino hide.
Nolan clicked his tongue in disgust.
"So it's just a shell. Once broken, it's useless."
Like the Electro experiments he'd dismissed before, Rhino was another half-success.
An impressive exterior.
A hollow foundation.
Still, all wasn't lost.
Rhino's sheer muscle mass and brute strength were undeniable.
Those traits could be harvested and replicated.
It was genetic.
It could be reproduced.
"For now," Nolan muttered, "let's keep it simple."
A soldier didn't have to be perfect.
He just had to be useful.
He placed his hands on Aleksei's massive skull.
Dragonforce and Psychic energy pulsed into the Russian's brain.
It wasn't even a challenge.
Aleksei's mind was blunt and sluggish—barely offering any resistance at all.
When the procedure finished, the giant's eyes fluttered open.
He blinked.
Then, grinning like a loyal dog, he rumbled:
"Boss?"
Nolan smiled faintly.
"Good."
"Now," Nolan said, voice low and commanding, "I need to perform some more tests. It may hurt."
Aleksei pounded his chest proudly.
"Boss can do anything! I'm ready!"
The brute's loyalty was absolute now, thanks to the implanted suggestions.
It helped that Aleksei's criminal background had conditioned him to respect authority figures absolutely.
The simpler the mind, the easier the loyalty.
And the less dangerous the betrayal.
After harvesting a few more tissue samples from Aleksei's body, nothing critical, Nolan watched as the newly minted Rhino climbed off the lab table.
The ground shuddered under his weight.
Nolan raised an eyebrow.
"Careful," he said flatly.
"Sorry, Boss!" Aleksei barked.
"Your midsection—" Nolan pointed. "—is your weakest spot right now."
The skin around the wound site was normal human flesh, not reinforced hide.
"But don't worry. We'll fix that."
He tapped a file on the table.
"You're going to be injected with Phoenix Serum v2."
Aleksei scratched his bald head.
"Phoenix what?"
"You don't need to know," Nolan said. "Just trust me."
Aleksei grinned wide.
"Thanks, Boss!"
Nolan handed him over to Dr. Connors, who had just entered the lab.
"Take him," Nolan said. "Administer the serum And keep him under observation."
Connors, eyeing the mountain of muscle nervously, nodded.
Nolan watched them leave.
His mind was already elsewhere.
The bigger picture.
The real challenges ahead.
Phoenix Serum v2 would accelerate cellular regeneration reinforcing Aleksei's weakness.
If Aleksei proved stable, maybe maybe he'd earn Phoenix Serum v3.
But Nolan wasn't naïve.
He wasn't about to create an unstoppable monster without safeguards.
No free monsters.
Only weapons.
Only controlled assets.
Stripping off his lab coat, Nolan rubbed his temples.
There was a greater challenge looming.
Something infinitely more complex.
He needed to crack the secret of Super Breath the integration of Storm's weather manipulation and Iceman's molecular freezing into his own body.
It would require fundamentally rewriting his respiratory gene expressions.
And that wasn't even the hard part.
Because, unlike most mutants, Storm and Iceman didn't just manipulate existing matter.
They bent fundamental forces.
Temperature.
Airflow.
Molecular speed.
At a glance, it seemed impossible.
But Nolan had a theory:
It wasn't magic.
It was magnetism.
The brain's electromagnetic field.
Storm could command weather not because she "prayed" to it—
But because her mind's magnetic field could excite, slow, and direct molecular behavior in the environment.
Iceman?
He could directly inhibit molecular movement, causing the temperature to collapse and manifest ice.
Not water freezing.
Molecular suppression.
He wasn't freezing air moisture. He was creating mass.
That put Iceman on a whole different scale.
An Omega-level mutant.
The problem was simple:
Their brains were designed to handle such feedback loops.
Nolan's wasn't yet.
But if he could replicate the brain's magnetic amplification…
If he could strengthen his internal magnetic fields…
Then he'd do more than just match the mutants.
He'd transcend them.
----
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