In fact, just as Peter and his companions arrived in Latveria, another temporal adventurer also made it to Earth-2149. He was Ash Williams, the chainsaw-wielding, one-armed protagonist of The Evil Dead film series. He was also the first person to witness the Zombie Crisis erupt. In his universe, he died and arrived at what seemed like Heaven. While he was haggling with an angel about whether he could bring his chainsaw and boomstick into paradise, a pervert in a yellow spandex suit appeared at the gates and started eating people.
Then, accompanied by a flash of lightning in the rolling dark clouds, Ash was resurrected and brought to this universe. He felt threatened by his old foe, the Necronomicon, and believed the zombie virus was its doing. Thus, he embarked on a "quest" to find the Necronomicon. He rescued two superheroes, Dazzler and the Scarlet Witch, and after learning the Necronomicon was in Latveria at the Sanctum Sanctorum, he brought the two heroines there.
But Doom ignored him, Ash offended Doom, and Doom locked him up. However, the Scarlet Witch, Wanda, let him out. So, he disguised himself as Doom and went to his study, found the Necronomicon, and was hit with a piece of information like a thunderbolt:
The Zombie Crisis had nothing to do with the Necronomicon.
The Necronomicon merely wanted to mock its old rival, Ash. It told him that a massive army of the dead was about to rise, and Ash would assume the Necronomicon was behind it. He'd then travel thousands of miles and risk his life to get to this miserable place. The Necronomicon had been waiting for this moment to mercilessly ridicule Ash, and tell him to forget about any heroic dreams of saving the world and winning the girl—the world was over.
This was why a despairing Ash decided to release the imprisoned Enchantress Amora, whom Doom had locked up.
"I'm really sorry, but I just don't have much resistance to pretty girls," Ash said foolishly to Dazzler and the Witch who had followed him all this way, not noticing that Amora, behind him, had already turned into a drooling zombie with a gaping maw, charging at him.
"Hey, try this!"
At that moment, a mass of pure black matter surged forward, rushing into Amora's mouth and inflating the zombie until it exploded, splattering blood and gore everywhere.
Next, this black substance was "cut off" by its owner. Peter looked at the severed piece of the Symbiote coating the ground, feeling disgusted. "Sorry, I might have to find Johnny to burn this. It'd be a problem if a zombie symbiote showed up."
"Oh, um... Spider-Man?"
Seeing Spider-Man wearing what appeared to be a Symbiote suit, the Scarlet Witch and Dazzler looked quite surprised. Wanda, as the sole survivor of the Sentinel arrival, looked at Peter with disbelief. "But you... I clearly saw you turn into a..."
"A zombie? Sorry, ma'am, but I'm not the Spider-Man of this world. The Fantastic Four from my universe were tricked here by your Fantastic Four-Zombies, so we came here to find our friends, and, incidentally, help you all out."
Wanda finally nodded in understanding. Covered in zombie blood, Ash looked at Peter, helpless and angry, and asked word by word, "Why did you kill her!"
[Is this guy an idiot?]
"That was a zombie, pal. Ask them if you don't believe me."
Peter gestured toward Wanda and Dazzler. Ash looked over, and the two girls both nodded. Ash fell silent. Peter then explained his presence: "When I visited the refugees, they mentioned some one-armed dude with a chainsaw running off and talking about saving the world. I figured I'd follow to see what was going on. That would be you, right, pal?"
Ash was stunned for a while, then let out a helpless sigh. "No, it's not."
"Ash?"
"Witch, this disaster wasn't caused by the Necronomicon. It just wanted to mess with me. There's no way to fix this!"
Wanda and Dazzler, who had followed Ash all the way here, fell silent. Peter looked at them all and finally asked: "Alright, then we'll have to follow Doom's original plan and use the dimensional portal to seek refuge in another universe. I happen to know one that needs some heroes... The problem now is that opening the portal takes time, and time is what we lack the most. If that book can't solve the Zombie Crisis, can we use it against the zombies?"
Ash suddenly seemed enlightened and immediately ran back to Doom's study. Peter shrugged, and then turned to see a Doctor Doom. He reached out, but only to clean up the residue on the floor.
"I was merely curious why my guests departed. I didn't expect to have an unexpected gain—you did well, Spider-Man, in providing Doom a measure of a wretch's worth. Mr. Williams will receive a ticket for his actions."
Well, it was the native 2149 Doom, not the 616 Doom. Peter shrugged and followed him. A servant then reported that a massive zombie army was approaching.
It had been less than 24 hours since the zombie virus appeared on Earth-2149, and the entire world had already fallen. Perhaps a few survivors were hiding elsewhere, but they certainly wouldn't last long. It was questionable whether Latveria Castle itself could withstand the world's army of zombie superhumans for even a few minutes.
2149 Doom led the native Dazzler and Witch to the castle's main hall, which had been converted into a temporary laboratory and portal entrance. Reed Richards from Earth-616 was busy there, carrying several test tubes of murky orange-yellow liquid.
"Good news, the vaccine—the temporary vaccine—is ready. It's effective for about an hour. Even if bitten, you won't be infected, or you can drink it before the conversion to prevent infection after a bite." Reed began drawing the vaccine into syringes, and then gave the bad news: "Bad news is, this is just the theoretical effect. We haven't had clinical trials, and we can't have clinical trials. And right now, if we're caught, we'll all be torn apart."
"I have an idea, Doctor Richards." Peter looked at Reed. "We should send these refugees to the Wasteland Universe. They need them there, and it's relatively safe."
616 Doom was simply analyzing 2149 Doom's dimensional portal, remaining silent, seemingly having discovered something. Reed paused, then nodded.
Now, only one person disagreed with the plan.
Chapter 263: The Origin of the Zombies
Sometimes, things are just this absurd.
The superheroes and scientists of Earth-2149 could never develop a vaccine. Perhaps Reed Richards of Earth-2149 had the chance, but he chose to accept the infection, believing the zombie virus was a form of evolution. He then infected the Fantastic Four, Doctor Strange, Thor, and Luke Cage—beings that ordinary zombie heroes couldn't bite through. (God knows how he managed that.)
In contrast, Earth-616 Reed, given a relatively stable environment, didn't even need two hours to complete the development of an experimental vaccine, though it would most likely just serve as food for the zombies.
Honestly, at this point, both Doom and Peter could have chosen to leave. They had rescued the necessary people, and the location was extremely dangerous, clearly not a place to linger. But Doom refused. He insisted on staying in Latveria for reasons unknown, claiming he needed to save everyone here. Neither the Fantastic Four nor Peter would reject that proposal.
"I think Doom is hiding something from us," Reed said as he administered the vaccine to Susan (Sue Storm).
Susan looked at Reed with a hint of curiosity. "You know, Reed? I heard this world's Doom say that your counterpart in this world believed the zombie virus was a form of evolution and infected everyone else."
Reed gave Susan a strange look.
"Only an idiot would think that's evolution. Forget the massive decrease in physical strength. We've fought those zombies before. They are creatures completely ruled by appetite, entirely unable to fight their own desires. Theoretically, they don't need to eat, yet they are tortured by a terrible psychic compulsion. This isn't evolution. If you ask me, it's a form of... enslavement. That unknown virus is enslaving us."
Susan raised an eyebrow and remained silent. It was clear that Reed had also thoroughly researched the zombie virus; they just came to different conclusions.
"I can be responsible for destroying the portal. After all, I can leave this universe on my own, so we don't have to worry about the zombies following us." Peter was explaining the plan to the Earth-2149 Doom. After he finished, Doom nodded. Reed had already set the destination to the wasteland universe, Earth-21923, based on the vibrational frequency of the multiverse. Once everyone was transported, Peter would destroy the portal and escape on his own.
As for the Earth-616 Doom, he was simply staring at the portal's control panel, seemingly having discovered something.
T'Challa woke up in pain. The last thing he remembered was discovering Ant-Man Hank Pym had been bitten, and then Hank had attacked him.
Am I dead? Or have I been infected and turned into one of those monsters?
T'Challa struggled to sit up, finding that one of his legs and one of his arms had been replaced with prosthetics. Where his original limbs went was an obvious, grim question.
"You're safe, T'Challa, at least for a few hours."
He heard an unfamiliar voice. It was Magneto's. T'Challa propped himself up and asked, "Did you save me, Magneto?"
"...No, not me. It was heroes from another world who stumbled in here by mistake. You are in Latveria now. Doom created a portal that can cross the multiverse and plans to send everyone to a safe universe."
A safe universe...
Black Panther stared blankly at the unfamiliar room. He noticed a sob in Magneto's voice and likely understood what happened—Magneto's children were undoubtedly devoured or turned into monsters in this fight. He asked with concern, "Are you alright, Erik?"
"I... I... What have I done, my God."
"What?"
"I brought all of this, T'Challa. It was me."
As T'Challa watched in shock, Magneto told him a terrifying story: a day ago, Magneto was contacted by a mysterious individual on Asteroid X. This person claimed to have a virus that could differentiate between ordinary humans and super-powered beings for infection. After detailed communication, Magneto believed it was a bioweapon that could eliminate all ordinary humans and allow mutants to become the rulers of the world. Thus, Magneto chose to accept the deal.
The moment he pressed the button, a lightning bolt flashed across the sky, and a superhero he had never seen appeared in Manhattan. That was when everything began. The mysterious person was right: the virus could indeed differentiate between ordinary humans and superhumans, but the problem was that superhumans were infected much faster.
"...Who was that mysterious person?"
T'Challa grasped the key point and immediately counter-questioned. For a moment, Magneto forgot that detail and replied hesitantly, "I don't know. He contacted me directly, on Asteroid X."
"And where is Asteroid X now?"
"It has landed in Latveria."
Black Panther immediately got up, walking with his still-unfamiliar prosthetics, and headed toward Asteroid X. He walked past the confused eyes of a few survivors from the Brotherhood of Mutants and the X-Men, went inside, and began sifting through Asteroid X's communication logs.
If this terrifying disaster wasn't a natural selection but some kind of evil conspiracy, then perhaps the mastermind of this plot had a way to fix everything. He tried to re-establish contact with the individual but found no communication logs, causing him to angrily smash his fist onto the control panel.
"Hey, hello?"
Peter, who was looking for his father to tell him Magneto was alive, poked his head in. Black Panther sighed helplessly. "I'm sorry, Spider-Man, I, I just..."
"Who are you trying to contact?"
"The mastermind. He unleashed the zombie virus on this world. Perhaps he has a way to solve all of this."
"Maybe your method is flawed. If the zombies, who are the source of the infection, aren't from this universe, then the person you're looking for might not be in this universe either." Peter shrugged and walked to the control panel. "Fortunately, I know a lot about multiversal travel and vibrational frequencies. So we need to re-calibrate the signal source—"
The screen on Asteroid X lit up. The mastermind who unleashed the zombie virus on Earth appeared. A massive, intensely polished bald head appeared on the screen, looking at Peter, who had contacted him, in surprise.
"Spider-Man?"
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