Tony(V), Steve, Wanda, and Natasha looked at Luke.
Now they understood why the other Tony called him the strongest person he knew.
No one argued it.
What they had just seen didn't leave room for doubt. This wasn't strength in the way they understood it, it wasn't pushing limits or overpowering an enemy, it was ending everything in front of him in seconds without resistance.
An entire city filled with enemies was gone.
If that didn't count as the highest level of strength, then they didn't know what did, because nothing they had seen before even came close.
"So… do you know anything about this universe?" Tony asked, glancing at his variant.
"No," said Tony(V) replied, frowning. "This is the first time I've seen something like this. I didn't think there'd be a world where zombies actually took over everything."
"Well," Luke said, looking out over the ruined city, "this one's definitely on the dangerous side. One bite—and you're done."
"So it's like those movies?" Tony asked. He'd seen plenty of zombie apocalypse films. He just didn't expect to end up in one.
Luke shook his head slightly. "Not really. It's worse."
He paused for a moment, organizing how to explain it.
"This isn't a normal infection. It's more like a highly aggressive extraterrestrial or interdimensional virus. It hijacks the nervous system completely. And unlike traditional zombies… they don't lose everything."
Tony's expression shifted.
"They keep their intelligence," Luke continued. "Memories too. But the rational part is gone. What's left is hunger—and they know exactly how to use their abilities to satisfy it."
"That's…" Tony exhaled slowly. "That's a nightmare."
Then something else clicked.
"Wait," he said, turning toward Luke. "If there are versions of us here… infected…"
"Then yeah," Luke replied calmly. "You're looking at Avengers without limits or morality."
Silence settled for a moment.
Tony rubbed his face. "Great. Zombie Avengers. That's exactly what I needed today."
"Yep and not only that in this earth there are people who even I have to be careful with so I won't get infected," said Luke.
There is Sentry to watch out for—the one who brought the hunger virus into this world and the first to become infected. He is the origin of the outbreak, and everything spreading across this Earth traces back to him.
He isn't just another infected. His power was already on a completely different scale even before the infection.
Sentry possesses the power of countless suns—raw strength, durability, speed, and energy output far beyond normal heroes. Now that power exists without restraint or control, driven only by hunger, making him far more dangerous than anything he has faced so far.
"So can we go back to our Earth? I think I miss it," said Tony, looking around at the ruined city, clearly not interested in staying any longer than necessary.
"Yeah, we can," Luke said as he pulled up his system and moved to open dimensional travel.
The interface responded immediately.
[Dimensional Travel is blocked by Avatar of Virtuoso]
Luke's expression stilled for a fraction of a second.
'Ummm… who the fuck is that now?'
He closed the panel slowly, his gaze sharpening slightly as he looked out across the dead city again, no longer treating this place as just another dangerous world.
"Tony," he said, tone flat but clear, "I think we can't go back. We're stuck here for a moment."
Then suddenly all of them heard it.
A shockwave tore through the air, sharp and violent, making the ground beneath them crack slightly as something cut through the sky at impossible speed.
They all looked up at the same time and saw it—a small black dot rapidly growing larger, moving faster than anything they had seen so far, not like a missile, not like any machine, but something else entirely.
It closed the distance in seconds.
"Another problem?" said Tony's variant as his mask slid down into place, armor locking in as he prepared for impact.
Luke didn't move.
He was staring at it.
"Huh?" he said, his expression shifting into confusion rather than concern, which was already strange given everything they had seen so far.
"What the hell is that guy doing here?" Luke muttered, clearly recognizing something the others couldn't.
The black figure didn't slow down.
It came straight at Luke.
And instead of attacking,
It crashed into him.
Not like a strike.
Like a hug.
The impact still carried force, pushing Luke back slightly, but there was no hostility in it, just a sudden, almost absurd embrace that didn't match the situation at all.
Tony paused mid-action, watching that happen.
"…Ummm," he said, lowering his repulsor slightly, "you know this guy?"
The figure didn't move immediately.
It was still clinging to Luke for a second, its form flickering slightly, like it hadn't fully loaded in yet, the surface of its body unstable, almost like a glitch still resolving.
Then it pulled back.
The form stabilized.
"Of course he knows me," the figure said, voice casual, as if nothing about this was strange. "I'm his nephew."
Luke just stared at him.
"…Daniel?"
"Yeah, uncle."
"What the hell are you doing here?"
*****
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