When the Exiles traveled to Earth-8545 they found a world taken over by the Legacy Virus. Well, that’s not technically true. While the Legacy Virus does convert people into technology, it only affect mutants, and it’s also lethal. What happened on Earth-8545 is that when a mutant called Cypher was infected and dying, his friend Warlock, a half technological half organic being, attempted to help him by merging with the infected half of Cypher’s body. He had hoped his unique physiology would somehow be able to cure his friend. Instead what happened is the virus changed. Now it was no longer lethal, and could also infect any and all life, not just mutants. This new merged being of Cypher and Warlock became known as a Vi-Lock.
Most Vi-Locks became mindless, almost zombie-like. But the more powerful beings, superheroes, super villains, etc. maintained their intelligence, but became evil. These were called Vi-Lock Primes. Driven by the virus to infect as many others as they could, the Vi-Lock Primes quickly infected the entire world. Spider-Man was one of the Vi-Lock Primes.
Positively Jim 