Baxter Building, Underground Lab
The portal's sparks faded as James stepped into a dim chamber. Black, organic tendrils pulsed on the walls, the floor squirming like living flesh. The air reeked of rot and metal.
His super senses detected dense virus particles. His bio-field filtered them instantly.
His eyes glowed gold, piercing the lab to a figure at its heart.
"Reed Richards," James's voice echoed.
A lanky silhouette turned. Once Mister Fantastic, now a grotesque, elongated corpse, gray-green skin, eyes sharp with eerie intellect.
"A guest," Reed's voice rasped, clear despite decay. "Who are you? This world has no record of you."
James stopped, facing him. "You're still rational."
Reed's rotting gums bared in a grin. "Rational? No. I'm just more aware of my hunger." His neck stretched, face inches from James, sniffing. "Your flesh… smells unique."
"You caused this," James said coldly.
"Caused?" Reed laughed, a grating screech. "This is evolution! All life will merge as one!"
His body split, dozens of spiked, sucker-lined tendrils erupting. They lunged at James.
Heat vision flashed, severing them. Foul liquid sprayed, but the stumps writhed, regrowing.
Reed's body melted, the lab's tendrils animating. Walls, ceiling, floor became his weapons.
"You can't kill me," Reed's voice boomed. "I'm the plague itself!"
James floated, bio-field shredding the tendrils. His super brain analyzed: Reed was fused with the lab, physical attacks useless.
His vision locked on an energy core below. Reed's weakness.
"Got you."
He dove, fist shattering the floor, plunging through layers to a spherical chamber. A pulsing black tumor hung at the center, veins feeding the virus citywide.
"You turned yourself into the hive," James said.
The tumor split, Reed's face emerging, mad and feral. "You can't stop evolution… join us!"
James's eyes blazed. Solar Flare! A white beam laced with magic engulfed the tumor.
"No!" Reed's scream warped, the tumor melting like snow. The lab's tendrils withered.
But his super hearing caught roars citywide. The zombies persisted.
[Sir, secondary infected remain active,] Jarvis said. [The virus is their cellular foundation.]
James scanned Reed's notes, his super brain absorbing them in seconds. The virus wasn't alien—it activated dormant DNA, irreversible without killing the host.
Reed's final scrawl read: We weren't infected. We became what we were meant to be.
James closed the notes. This world was lost.
[High-energy signatures approaching,] Jarvis warned.
James's vision pierced the walls, seeing zombie heroes converging.
"Time to end their torment."
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