"Ben?" someone whispered uncertainly.
The team stared at the zombie-like figure, which radiated an overwhelming aura of decay and corruption that seemed to poison the air itself.
The creature had lost almost all its hair and teeth, resembling a desiccated mummy that had just crawled from a pyramid tomb—ancient, wrong, dead despite still moving.
'Friday, capture photographs immediately!' Tony commanded his AI silently.
How could he possibly miss documenting such a compromising image! This was absolutely priceless blackmail material!
Though admittedly, everyone on Earth already knew that Stark's... equipment... wasn't particularly impressive. Fortunately, Pepper didn't seem to mind the mechanical limitations.
"I'm surprised you people actually recognize me," the zombie said, his voice carrying genuine puzzlement.
As soon as he opened his mouth, noxious gas spread outward in visible greenish waves.
The atmosphere seemed to thicken and curdle, instinctively triggering primal fear responses—an overwhelming urge to retreat from something fundamentally wrong.
"Are you really Ben Parker?" Peter asked, astonishment evident in his voice.
He found it profoundly difficult to believe that the seemingly omnipotent Ben Parker he knew could ever deteriorate into... this.
Wanda attempted using her mystical senses to verify the stranger's identity, but Benzarro in his undead state registered as something ghost-like—possessing no conventional life energy signature for her powers to detect.
Benzarro pointed an accusing finger at Peter: "You're obviously the Omnitrix wielder in your universe. So why do you outsiders know my identity?"
Peter opened his mouth to explain, but the zombie interrupted before he could speak: "Actually, never mind. None of that matters anymore."
"Ever since I was infected with the genocidal pathogen, I've dedicated myself to traveling through realities that were born solely to be destroyed!" He gestured dramatically with his long, ill-fitting sleeves, indicating all the infected individuals surrounding them.
As a living corpse, he wasn't the original source of the zombie virus plaguing this universe.
Quite the opposite—his existence served the singular purpose of systematically eradicating entire zombie universes from the multiverse.
Including this particular Marvel Zombie reality.
But before he could complete his purification mission, he'd discovered a catastrophic complication: the collision events within the Marvel multiverse were actively spreading the zombie contagion to previously uninfected realities.
The terrifying virus might accompany Peter and his fellow dimensional travelers back to their home universe—contaminating a clean reality with apocalyptic plague.
The infection could potentially arrive in the alternate world before the two Earths even entered their collision countdown sequence.
"I believe the optimal solution is doing absolutely nothing," Benzarro said with disturbing calm. "Simply observe as both worlds collide and transform into cosmic dust scattered across the multiverse."
"You want us to die alongside you?!" Pietro roared furiously. "You bastard—you're definitely NOT Ben Parker!"
"Parker?" The zombie's expression shifted slightly, confusion evident despite decomposition.
"My name is Ben Tennyson. Not whatever name you just said."
Suddenly, the decaying body began writhing grotesquely. Strands of purplish-black slime throbbed and pulsed, reassembling his hideous appearance into something resembling the animated Ben 10 protagonist—still obviously wrong, but closer to human.
Clearly, he wasn't the same person as their Ben Parker.
But they shared one critical commonality: both wore identical watches.
"I don't know who this 'Ben Parker' you're referencing is," Benzarro continued. "But since you refuse to accept my proposal, I'll simply force compliance through superior firepower."
He manipulated his Omnitrix, and countless silhouettes flashed across the display.
"Transform: Bloxxzarro!"
A blocky, geometric gorilla infected with the virus materialized—an alien transformation nobody present had ever encountered before. Even in corrupted form, the infected hero radiated terrifying presence and overwhelming death-energy.
"Bloxxzarro Cage Formation!"
Benzarro raised both hands overhead like a cartoon panda attempting to stand upright. Layers of building blocks began stacking from his body, seemingly extending without physical limitation.
SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!
Within seconds, an impenetrable wall of interlocking blocks surrounded everyone completely, cutting off all escape routes.
"I'm going to purchase the Lego Company just so I can send him a cease-and-desist letter!" Tony announced while frantically deleting the photographs he'd captured.
He'd documented the wrong person entirely. If Ben Parker discovered Tony had mistaken some random zombie for him, the mockery would be absolutely unbearable!
"Please—your company was sold ages ago," Harry observed while studying the towering block construction descending toward them. "You're just an employee working for Ben now. He owns controlling shares."
Several bombs were deployed, blasting massive holes through the wall. But the gaps regenerated almost instantly, blocks flowing like liquid to patch the breaches.
"The material isn't particularly durable, and its regeneration speed is impressive," Harry confirmed after initial analysis. "But ultimately useless. This construction can't actually trap us."
After confirming this appeared to be the extent of the enemy's capabilities, Harry stopped worrying and loudly mocked: "Is that really all you've got?!"
"Not particularly durable?" Benzarro sounded genuinely amused, as though Harry had told an excellent joke. "How about this enhancement?"
Black slime suddenly erupted from the Bloxxzarro gorilla's body, twisting into greasy tentacles that instantly attacked Zombie Iron Man and Zombie Captain America nearby. The appendages functioned like giant grasping hands, seizing both zombies and forcibly absorbing them into the Bloxxzarro construct's mass.
"What IS that?! It's even more disgusting than Venom!" Harry exclaimed, genuine revulsion evident in his voice.
"Do you really need to ask?" Tony felt profoundly exhausted.
Watching an alternate version of himself being consumed alive wasn't remotely pleasant, regardless of that version's zombie status.
"Assimilate: Infinite Armor Configuration!"
After Bloxxzarro devoured Iron Man and Captain America—or more precisely, absorbed their armor and Vibranium shield—it seemed to immediately decipher the equipment's complete blueprints and the shield's atomic structure through some kind of technological osmosis.
Within moments, silvery metallic plating covered the Lego-block creature's entire surface, the armor conforming perfectly to its geometric shape.
Harry deployed another bomb, but this time all kinetic impact was completely absorbed by the enhanced armor. Not even sound waves escaped the containment.
"Stop wasting munitions—it's Vibranium," E.U.N.I.C.E. announced, halting their attacks.
Adamantium was arguably Earth's most indestructible material.
Combined with Bloxx's powerful regenerative capabilities, attempting to breach the armor through brute force was essentially futile—wasted effort and depleted resources.
"Then I'll incinerate him completely!" Peter declared without hesitation.
He transformed into Heatblast, though compared to Ben Parker's version—which featured two enormous volcanic formations on the head—Peter's Pyronite form looked somewhat underdeveloped.
But functional capability mattered more than aesthetics!
The Plumbers possessed comprehensive intelligence on Adamantium alloy properties. Peter understood the metal was extraordinarily strong but possessed relatively poor resistance to extreme temperatures.
Raising both hands overhead—the limbs glowing red-white with compressed stellar heat—he launched two scorching plasma streams toward the Adamantium-plated gorilla.
"Heatblast's maximum temperature output can rival a supernova's core! Even you couldn't withstand that intensity!"
"You're absolutely correct," Benzarro agreed calmly, the gorilla's blocky face reassembling to address Peter from within the armor. "But what about them?"
He gestured toward Tony and the others, who were already suffering from the intense heat radiating through the enclosed space.
The claim that Adamantium alloys weren't heat-resistant was relative—compared to their legendary indestructibility, thermal resistance was indeed the weakest property.
However, compared to conventional metals, Adamantium possessed an extraordinarily high melting point.
"Your friends will be killed by heat exhaustion before I'm melted by your flames!" Benzarro said coldly, his strategic calculation absolutely accurate.
Peter suddenly realized the horrifying tactical situation. Because the Bloxx gorilla had enclosed them like a giant metallic lid, the flames he was generating were circulating within the confined space—essentially cooking his own teammates alive.
But none of them voiced complaints or requested he stop.
Instead, they gritted their teeth and endured the escalating temperature, trusting Peter would find a solution before they literally cooked to death.