A strand of white webbing shot out from the shadows, aiming to ensnare him. Garus swiftly sidestepped, avoiding the attack, and turned to look at the object that had fallen to the ground.
Spider silk?
The mysterious attacker wore a tight red spider suit, leaping nimbly across the surroundings. That silhouette bore an uncanny resemblance to Spider-Man.
"Ah, my poor Parker... to end up like this. Though, I suppose I'm not much better off," Deadpool quipped, now reduced to nothing more than a disembodied head, completely immobilized. "Hey, you can take him, right? Otherwise, you'll be joining the zombie club pretty soon."
Though Spider-Man's speed wasn't overwhelming, his enhanced Spider-Sense had become even sharper after turning into a zombie. He often anticipated Garus's moves before he even acted.
Several Death Coils in a row failed to hit their mark, with Spider-Man effortlessly dodging each one. Instead, Garus found himself covered in sticky webbing.
Winter's Chill!
A wave of icy cold radiated from Garus, freezing the struggling zombie remains, as well as the ever-chatty Deadpool head. Even the leaping Spider-Man was caught mid-air and fell to the ground, encased in ice.
With the zombie Spider-Man dealt with, Garus quickly thawed Deadpool's head, lifting it up and questioning him. "What happened here? Are there any other zombie superheroes?"
"Just Parker and some speedster who took off running. That's about it. Hey, don't pull my hair—damn it! My perfect hairstyle is ruined..."
Garus conjured a portal and shoved the frozen Spider-Man inside, planning to destroy this place before moving on to find Kallruth.
Ding! Frostmourne gleamed with a radiant violet glow. Everything around them ignited with eerie purple flames, burning away like snow under a scorching sun. Metal, zombies—everything reduced to ashes.
Though he wasn't sure if the virus lingered, it was better to cleanse the area completely. Losing one Earth Defense System base wouldn't make much difference.
Passing through the portal, Garus arrived in a pitch-black room.
He pressed a switch, illuminating the chamber with a soft white glow. The space was barren, enclosed by thick isolation walls. Within the room stood two metal frames, designed to restrain test subjects.
Concerned about potential infection, Garus had traveled to Azeroth Tech's biochemical quarantine sector, where Dr. Connors was secretly studying the Scourge Plague.
Garus picked up the room's intercom. "Dr. Connors, come to Sublevel Three Quarantine Room."
Dr. Connors, immersed in his experiments, hesitated upon hearing Garus's voice but quickly set his work aside, hurrying over.
Seeing him about to enter, Garus stopped him. "Don't come in yet."
"Mr. Garus, what's the situation?" Connors's gaze landed on the frozen figures of Pietro and Spider-Man Parker, his expression shifting. "They resemble subjects infected by my plague experiments."
Garus spoke into the intercom. "Run a full scan—on them, on me, and on this head—check for any viral presence."
"Understood, Mr. Garus."
Spider-Man and Pietro were secured to metal operating tables with thick chains, while mechanical arms and scanning instruments extended from the surrounding walls.
"Hey, I'm not infected," Deadpool's head interjected. "You only turn into a zombie if you get bitten—well, except for me. I'm immune to everything. Can't catch a virus. But I gotta say, being just a head really sucks."
For once, he sounded genuinely miserable. Even when he'd lost limbs before, they had always regenerated quickly. But now, stuck as a severed head for so long, he had yet to recover.
"If you guys could help me regrow my body, then I—hey, don't—mmph!"
Annoyed, Garus shoved a piece of cloth into his mouth.
"This head might carry an antibody. I'll leave it to you."
After a thorough scan, Connors concluded, "Mr. Garus, this virus only spreads through bites or blood contact. As long as you don't get bitten, you'll be fine."
Airborne transmission was the real concern—but thankfully, that wasn't the case.
"Keep them here," Garus instructed. "Find a cure as soon as possible. And don't harm them—Wanda will go berserk if anything happens to them."
He had no idea how he was going to break this news to Wanda, so delaying for now was the best course of action.
"Understood, understood!" Connors nodded fervently, shelving his initial plans.
As Garus turned to leave, Spider-Man seemed to regain a sliver of consciousness. He began to sob. "Aunt May... forgive me! I couldn't control myself..."
Hearing the anguished wail from the decaying mouth of a teenage boy was unsettling.
"Parker."
"Huh? Who are you?" The zombie Spider-Man abruptly ceased crying, glancing around in confusion. His expression changed upon realizing his surroundings. Slowly, his fragmented memories resurfaced—he had arrived in another universe. Spotting the severed head beside him, he quickly asked, "Wade, did we destroy that machine?"
Deadpool, finally spitting out the cloth, answered, "Pretty sure it's busted. But who knows if they can fix it?"
"What machine?"
Spider-Man looked up at Garus and explained, "It's the device that brought Wade and me to this universe. Multiple universes have already fallen to this plague. In my world, Dr. Reed Richards developed a machine capable of opening portals between parallel universes. The infected superpowered zombies are hunting for it, hoping to invade other worlds for food. I got to it first, and just when I tried to destroy it... I lost control again."
Thinking about his past actions, Spider-Man couldn't forgive himself. Destroying that machine had been his last act of redemption, but his and Deadpool's arrival in this universe had been an accident.
A machine capable of interdimensional travel? That could be troublesome. Then again... such a device could prove useful.
"Meat... fresh meat!" Within minutes, Spider-Man relapsed into his primal hunger. He hadn't fed in a long time. In his universe, nearly all sources of flesh had already been devoured by the insatiable zombie superheroes, leaving his lucid moments increasingly rare.
In truth, zombie superheroes retained their intellect and memories after some time. They could think, reason—but hunger was their driving force. Parker had fought against his urges, but that very resistance made his relapses even more violent.
Unlike Parker, the other infected heroes had abandoned restraint entirely, endlessly seeking fresh prey to satiate their ever-growing hunger.
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TN: This fanfic has been fully translated and is available on my Patreon —— PATREON.COM / PRIMALDEMON