Meanwhile, Buddy Blank observes a news bulletin in which the police were called to a suburban residence for a domestic hostage situation. The suspect went mad, foaming at the mouth like a wild animal and attacked the police before he was taken down by police dogs. But to make matters worse, the dogs went out of control and attacked the handlers forcing the police to have to put the dogs down. Upon reviewing the dogs' corpse Cadmus labs finds that the dog had begun to grow human hands!

As Karate Kid's corpse is sliced open, the virus inside of him makes direct contact with air, leaps out of the incision and grows to a huge size. The Challengers do their best to contain the gigantic viral strain but are unable to do so until Kyle Rayner finally encases it in a containment sphere from his power ring. Suddenly the virus monster bursts into a million different dust particles inside the sphere.

Kyle rushes the dust to a sterile air lock but it's too late. Atom and Dubbilex tested a sample of the dust particles and discovered that even in the 20 seconds that the beast was exposed to the air, the virus had mutated and become airborne. Morticoccus is loose.

Green Lantern goes out in search of Jason Todd who was in Gotham City where the first major viral outbreak occurred. Kyle brought Red Robin back to Cadmus Lab in order to have all of the "anomalies" contained in one place. Atom had begun making a limited number of inoculations for the virus using the natural immunity in his bloodstream.

Buddy Blank deduces that the nature of the virus is simple. It targets DNA and then scrambles it before moving onto another subject much like a bee would cross pollinate a flower in a field with the pollen from another field. This explains the news report from earlier - the dog had gotten an altered genetic code from the virus just as the man had taken on the mannerisms of a rabid dog.

The media was spinning the outbreak claiming terrorism and war strikes. The virus, which naturally altered the genetic code of every living thing it came in contact with reducing it to it's most vicious animalistic form, was set to cause World War Three.

The Challengers were beginning to get restless but they weren't the only one. Worse yet, a scientist in the Test Animal Department at Cadmus came down with the virus and took on the characteristics of the animals she came into contact with. It took 20 minutes before she could be subdued and examined.

As the virus spread over seas and the threat of nuclear attack was becoming more and more eminent, Buddy Blank came to realize the full scope of what he was dealing with. Karate Kid's 31st century immune system, full of a millennium's worth of cures and vaccinations, had caused the virus to mutate past any of the curative measures of the 21st century. Any inoculations Cadmus might be able to come up with could help a few - but the virus would mutate past it within hours. All of existence is doomed.

The Superheroes from an entirely different world (and in some cases millennia) had brought with them the end of the world.

Buddy Blank prepares to leave Cadmus labs to be with his daughter and grandson during the final days of Earth's existence when Una stops him. She begs to be brought with him and Buddy obliges. The last thing he see is a green bolt of light launching up into the sky as Green Lantern searches for interstellar help.

Unfortunately, he was bringing the Morticoccus with him....

NOTE:
Special end of issue story entitled, "The Origin of Felix Faust"