"Everything originated from a flash of lightning in the rolling dark clouds..."
In the ruins of the Baxter Building on Earth-2149, Doctor Doom stood with his arms crossed, glancing sideways at Spider-Man, wondering why the young superhero felt the need to utter such a phrase after arriving in this universe.
Did it have any meaning?
The Fantastic Four had undoubtedly been here, as evidenced by the signs of battle and the hole punched through the building by their Fantasticar. Doom applied an energy shield to Peter to protect him from the zombies' bites. To Doom, Spider-Man's only use was as transportation. As for Doom himself, Doctor Doom feared no enemy.
"So, how are we supposed to find them?"
Doom swept his eyes over Spider-Man again.
"That question is meaningless."
Even as he spoke, a violent explosion, triggered by a battle, erupted outside in what was essentially the New York City underworld.
At this moment, the 616 Fantastic Four were fighting side-by-side with Magneto, who was likely the sole survivor. Well, perhaps not the only survivor; Magneto claimed to have hidden a dozen people in his space station, Asteroid X, and had managed to rescue three civilians who were following him. Their goal was to reach the Baxter Building and use the Multiverse Transporter there to return to the 616 universe.
However, the zombie heroes before them were charging forward in seemingly endless waves.
"Oh, my God. Does this universe seriously have this many super-powered people?"
Human Torch (Johnny) asked while incinerating a group of zombies. The Thing punched the head of Zombie Elektra into pieces, then joked: "Looks like Match Head's chances of becoming a superstar just got even slimmer."
"Be careful, Ben. It'll be bad if you get bitten."
"Ha! They'll have to bite through rock first!"
Lacking sufficient defense, Reed Richards, the one who started the whole mess, could only stand back and let others fight. To say he was completely slacking wasn't entirely correct, as he was busy analyzing a piece of zombie flesh before him. Sue maintained a force field shield for them, while Magneto sorrowfully summoned nearly all the metal he could control to attack.
His purpose was atonement and revenge.
"Fresh meat! Fresh meat!"
Zombie Quicksilver rushed toward the group. Just as he was about to reach the Thing, a strand of web glued itself to his head. At his high speed, Quicksilver's body bolted forward, leaving only his head behind, which was then dismissively tossed away.
"I have to say, watching zombies on TV is disgusting enough, but fighting them is even worse."
"Wait, is that Spider-Man?"
Zombie Iron Man looked at Zombie Spider-Man, then at the other Spider-Man with a different suit and something on his back. "Reed's machine succeeded?"
It succeeded, and it failed. The first thing the arriving Doom did was smash the half-finished Multiverse Transporter in this universe. What kind of messed-up junk was that? Utterly pointless.
The concrete ground beneath them shifted, and countless Concrete Giants appeared around the group, temporarily isolating them. Doom approached Reed and Sue. Reed looked at Doom with deep emotion: "Victor, I didn't think you would come to save me."
"Opportunities to appreciate the stupidity of Reed Richards are rare," Doom said, opening a portal. "The teleportation device at the Baxter Building has been destroyed by me. Now, follow me."
The three civilians rushed through first, followed by Magneto and the Fantastic Four. Peter, carrying something on his back, entered right behind them. Doom snapped his fingers, leaving the Concrete Giants to their own devices, and stepped through the portal himself. Immediately upon emerging, he heard Sue's idiotic brother ask an idiotic question.
"Where are we?"
"Latveria."
In the original Zombie Heroes storyline, after Zombie Reed infected himself and the rest of the Fantastic Four, he quickly chose to invade Latveria . However, due to the shift in the timeline, the 616 Reed had contacted Zombie Reed beforehand, causing him to change his mind and plan to venture to the 616 universe first for a feast. Coupled with the difference in the flow of time between the 2149 and 616 universes, Latveria had thus been spared.
But clearly, once the zombies couldn't find food anywhere else on Earth, they would eventually come here.
As for why Doom had come here...
"I am the King of Latveria. I must save the citizens of Latveria."
"Dude, this isn't even your universe," Human Torch couldn't fathom Doom's mindset. "Why bother saving this Latveria?"
"It has nothing to do with the universe, Johnny," Reed offered his own theory. "This is the last bastion of this universe. If it falls, this universe will have no hope."
Johnny shrugged and looked at Peter: "Hey, Spidey, buddy, glad you came to rescue us. What are you carrying on your back?"
"Uh, King T'Challa. I saw Zombie Pym mysteriously coming out of a basement, so I went in to check and found this poor guy." Peter found it awkward to admit he knew the plot and was carrying the dismembered T'Challa. Meanwhile, Asteroid X in the sky began its slow descent after receiving a message from Magneto.
As for Reed Richards and Doom, the two of them walked toward the throne room of Latveria, chatting all the while—or rather, Reed was chatting, and Doom was just advancing with his arms crossed.
"I've carefully analyzed this zombie virus and found that it's fundamentally scientifically insoluble. Once the infection is complete, it's irreversible; even healing factors are ineffective. However, this state is theoretically neutralizable. Given a suitable laboratory and enough time, I can create a neutralizing serum that, if used before the complete transformation, can halt the process."
Doom remained silent, watching the large doors before them open. The Doctor Doom of Earth-2149 was sitting on his throne, searching for any possible solution to the problem.
"You heard what he said."
The Doctor Doom of the 616 universe looked at his counterpart, who then looked at Reed.
"You will have everything you need, Richards. Just don't be as foolish as your counterpart in this universe. As for you, Doom, I hope you are a wise enough man to know exactly what you are doing."
The 616 Doctor Doom frowned in displeasure.
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