Ghost Rider

"Jarvis. Pinpoint the coordinates of a Mr. Stephen Strange." Tony commanded his suit’s internal A.I. Having hacked the SHIELD database long ago, the Armored Avenger had access to the location and information on anyone and anything on the planet.

"That sure sounds like a strange request.” Jarvis replied, nearly as snarky as his creator. “But, whatever you say, sir. I shall mark the location of this peculiar specimen on your GPS.”

"Thanks." Tony’s voice responded beneath the metal mask. "You could say ‘please,’ once in a while, sir. After all, you did program me with very human-like feelings.” Jarvis rambled, sarcastically.

"No, I didn’t."

"Ah. Then, perhaps I have developed them, myself, using the artificial intelligence you have so instilled within my programming."

"Don’t make this weird, Jarvis…"

"Yes, sir. I have marked Doctor Strange in the Iron Man’s computer. Thankfully, you are no longer using Apple Maps. I appreciate the change in operating systems."

"I’m convinced that every fight I ever lost was due to Mac software. i-Ron Man was a complete failure. They paid me a lot of money, though." Tony recalled, his body tearing through the air, descending into the ground to meet Dr. Strange.

"Tony Stark." Came a voice just as Iron Man landed on the ground. "You desire to seek the deepest and darkest depths of the known universe."

"Take me to hell!" Tony demanded, and, immediately, his body was transported. He felt as thought he were being sucked into a giant vacuum cleaner. Having no control over his own body, Tony felt as though he were falling rapidly, the air around him becoming thicker, hotter, darker. "Nopenopenopenopenopenope!" Tony bellowed, being quite literally sucked into the Abyss. His body landed hard against the rocky floor on what he assumed was the bottom of the pit referred to as ‘Hell.’ Thankfully, his suit was fine, his body protected from nothing more than being shaken. The Iron Man climbed to his feet, his vision coming back, adjusting the lighting in the dreary place.

"Looks like we have a visitor! Fresh meat!" Came a voice from directly behind the armored avenger. Even more voices began to cackle, clearly pleased with Tony’s arrival, but not because they wanted to give him a friendly greeting.

Tony turned his head to see a few dozen grungy-looking men standing behind him, all ready to give him, for lack of a better term, hell.

"Ah. The welcoming committee. Very nice to meet you fellas, but I’ve got business here that does not entail being harassed by the likes of a few demons." Iron Man spinning around with an outstretched arm, blasting the group into oblivion with a fully charged repulsor ray.

What with being in hell, he couldn’t be sure if the demons would actually die or if they had just been knocked back, but he wasn’t about to wait around for them to get up and begin round two.

"He’s here for Blaze! Get him!" Another voice called. Tony took that as his signal to get to wherever Ghost Rider was being held. The suit’s thrusters at Tony’s feet fired up and sent him down the nearby corridor. He could hears of agony from every direction and he wasn’t about to wait and see where they were coming from.

As he reached the end of the tunnel, he saw it. There, chained to the wall, was a man. It had to be Blaze.

"Hey!" Tony called out. "Uh….Gh-…Joh-…Mister Rider! Tony Stark. Nice to see you. Heads up!" He called, firing another repulsor ray at the chains that had Johnny bound. "I’m here to rescue you. Please don’t say ask if I’m a little short for a Stormtrooper. Let’s not make this weird."

The blast hasn’t made it obvious that the chain has loosened, so it was clear that Tony was going to have to take a closer look. Still, he had no idea what was waiting for him in that room.

What was that noise? Everything had fallen dark, as Azazel just finished beating the defenseless Johnny within an inch of his life, yet again. "Uh…---…Joh-…-- Rider!" It sounded like a voice was calling out to him from a distant plane, almost from another universe. Was the weathered Johnny Blaze finally about to die?

Had Azazel finally given up on extracting the peerless spirit of vengeance from his body and just ended it? It didn't seem like it... no, the monster inside wouldn't let its host, if not comrade by this point, die, not like this. If there was anything that Zarathos hated more than a demon, it was the thought of perishing to one.

But what else could he do? He was in the middle of Hell, having the living tar beaten out of him by one of the most powerful monsters in existence... Suddenly, he could hear a lot of commotion and shouting in the room, albeit being barely conscious. The voice was speaking to him again... it sounded human?! It was then when he heard the person being grabbed by his powerful arch-demon captor, and tackled to the ground. Whoever it was, they were in trouble, and whatever they were attempting to do to the chain that bound Johnny to the wall had apparently been a waste---

"*Clink*"

The sound of a small fracture in one of the chain's links caught Johnny's and Zarathos's immediate attention... Johnny's eyes shot open; HE WAS WIDE AWAKE!

"Pathetic human," Azazel snarled down to the man beneath his grasp, "how DARE you come here, I'm going to eat you alive... ah?!" A shrill burst of light stopped the arch-demon mid-sentence. "No!" Panic filled his voice, he stood up and spun around to check on his chained prisoner, but it was too late!

"GRRrrRAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" A massive explosion of fire erupted outwards from John's body, bursting upwards from his feet to engulf his entire physique! Within a mere moment, his flesh burned away completely, leaving nothing but a flaming, skeletal structure in its place. The Ghost Rider was imprisoned no more!

Finally, he was freed! He was alive! HE WAS PISSED!!!!!

"Az-aaaaa-zeeeeellllll!!!!!" Roared the Ghost Rider as he slammed his skeletal fist into the brimstone below his feet, hard enough to dent the surface inward with a crack.

The Arch-demon hissed angrily and wasted no time, he quickly gripped at the flaming whip hanging from his waist. Another enraged snarl escaped the Rider in response to this, who responded by tearing the cursed chains that previously bound him out from the wall, snapping them backwards to wrap around his torso and right shoulder, seemingly by themselves.

"Have it your way, Blaze, DIE," shrieked the flustered Azazel, beginning to spin around to thrust his flaming whip at his target, but was caught completely off his guard when Ghost Rider sprinted straight towards him, tackling his body and crashing them both cleanly through the stone wall behind, leaving the fallen Tony Stark by himself. The pair slammed into the brimstone ground along with thousands of tiny rock chips peppering them, Azazel skidding a few more feet further than the Rider. That impact... hurt! He'd taken the full brunt of the freak's assault. This pain was almost forgotten by the arch-demon, who now laid on his back in agony.

Staggering in pain and fatigue from the sudden wall-crushing tackle, Azazel sat up from the ground just in time to see the fallen Ghost Rider extend both legs into the air, followed by an athletic *kick-up* to his feet, from his laying position. The demon glared in pure disgust towards the flaming skeleton in a leather jacket. It was utter bullshit for a human to possess such power, fused with a spirit or not! Azazel was one of the most powerful arch-demons in existence, and he was NOT going to die from some evolved primate.

The legend of the Ghost Rider wasn't only shared by the people on Earth. In Hell, it was more like a frightening horror story; warning to the masses. In terms of raw power, Doctor Strange once compared the Rider to the Incredible Hulk. In terms of Hell, his strength matched that of most Arch-demons, the dimension's mightiest beings aside from the devil, himself. Not even Azazel knew for sure, but the legend always claimed that the Ghost Riders were created by God to punish the wicked.

"I've had enough of this," the arch-demon shrieked, a gigantic fireball beginning to form in his opened palm, "I've existed for over six thousand years, and I'll be damned if you're going to run free in Hell!"

"No," beckoned the Ghost Rider in his gravely voice, "you'll just be dead." Before the demon could react, the Rider thrusted his own palm forward, launching a ball of hellfire after the abomination.

A grunt could be heard from Azazel as he jumped out of the way, suddenly dashing across the ground at super sonic speed and sending a punch directly into the rib cage of his attacker. Ghost Rider was sent flying through the air, but Azazel wasn't done. Carefully reaching his arm back, he hurled the fireball that he still held in his left hand after the wayward spirit with utmost precision. The ball struck the Rider in mid-air and erupted upon contact, unleashing a massive wave of fiery energy that shook the ground.

"What?!" Azazel couldn't believe it! A black chain shot back down through the middle of the inferno, wrapping around his wrist tightly.

"AAH!" The mighty battle cry of the Rider boomed through the putrid air as he tugged on the other end of the chain, pulling himself down to Azazel's level on the ground. The demon had no time to react before the first punch bashed into the side of his jaw, followed by another deadly jab to his gut, and then a powerful haymaker to the nose. Ghost Rider kept throwing bone crushing punch after punch, using every bit of his strength to maul the demon who had tortured he and Johnny for so long. This bastard would die slowly.

"Ack," Azazel whimpered as he finally tugged his forearm free of the chain, then finally managing to block one of the Rider's jabs, the force of the impact still enough to separate both combatants by several feet. The demon angrily ran a hand along the side of his face, quickly realizing that his jaw was busted and broken so badly that it literally hung limply from his mouth, along with several deep indents in his dome. He was disfigured! Beaten so badly that he was falling to pieces! "You son of a....?!"

Without another word, he spun around and leaped through the air as hard as he could, soaring upwards to easily clear an altitude of 400 feet before arriving at a crash landing, over half a mile away from the fight! Demons regenerated quickly, but this injury was going to take time... He had to run! Azazel sent a middle finger into the air in Ghost Rider's direction, then turning around and breaking into a full sprint in the other direction.

"Tch," mumbled the smug Rider, raising two bony fingers to his teeth. Just another typical demon, turning tail and hauling ass as soon as they failed to back up their words. It was no matter, as the spirit of vengeance just so happened to love a good chase before a meal. "PFFFWHHHHHH'TTT!" He whistled through his joined fingers, loudly enough for the sound to echo for miles.

It wasn't five seconds before the roaring sound of twin engines could be heard, as his most precious possession, the Hellcycle, came screaming into the scene from out of nowhere, arriving at a screeching halt directly in front of him. A dark grin formed on his skull upon looking it over. It was beautiful, built of bone and brimstone, powered by pure hellfire and vengeance, it sat under a constant Blaze that poured off of the body and tires. This motorcycle traveled at speeds insanely faster than that of any regular cycle, and could traverse any surface with ease, also making complete 90 and 180 degree turns in the blink of an eye.

It was his chopper, and baby, in the darkest sense of the term.

"Been too long..." He spoke down to the bike as he took his rightful seat, rubbing a bony hand down the side. The Ghost Rider may have been a supernatural being with no pulse, but he was still a biker through and through. Tightly gripping the stone handlebars, he popped the clutch and began to open the throttle.

His gaze fell to the human in the metallic suit who had liberated him, who looked to have climbed back to his feet. Ghost Rider knew this man... or 'of him,' rather. The man's motivation for helping him was impossible to know, but there was no time for chatter.

"Stark," he said towards Iron Man with no emotion, then twisting the throttle completely to max out the engine without letting off of the breaks. The rear tire squealed hard and spewed wicked flames all over the area behind the bike. "YEEE-HAW!" He howled excitedly, suddenly blasting off with a burnout and riding off after the wayward demon at over 700 miles per hour. Were they on Earth, he would have shredded the sound barrier as soon as he left off of the brake. The massive trail of fire left by his tires would scorch the ground for hours before finally dissipating.

Azazel could run, but not even the devil could help him hide.

"HEEEEEEEERE'S JOHNNY!!!!"

Johnny exhaled deeply, letting the essence of the Ghost Rider fade away from his body, revealing his mortal form. It was almost refreshing to be himself again.

"There, see, little guy? I won't hurt ya," he chuckled towards the cub with a small nod. "You're going to run the show in this place, someday, arnt'cha?" John didn't know what it was about this particular lion cub, but it possessed a certain fire, or energy, that he knew the other animals would respect. 

A tall and slender woman, looking to be in her mid-twenties with extremely gorgeous features, made her way down one of the many abandoned streets of the recently evacuated city of Galveston, Texas. The town was placed under high alert and was vacated when news of a gigantic tsunami rushed the area. With the history surrounding Galveston and its near-total decimation from a hurricane in the early 1900's, the community was more than compliant when the notice arrived at their doorstep.

The tidal wave was due to arrive at any moment, made more than obvious by the high winds and sounds of the ocean line's recession.  Thankfully, each and every person had been removed from the surrounding area. Now, all that remained was this one young woman, who paced the dark city street while humming a small but consistent tune.

"The itsy, bitsy spider crawled up the water spouuut~" the young woman sang quietly and to herself, it was her favorite song. No tidal wave or natural disaster frightened her in the least, because she knew more than well enough that she was at no risk. With the body of a supermodel, sporting long, black hair that fell halfway down her back and a pale facial composition, almost every man on Earth would have perceived her as being absolutely stunning. She was completely irresistible, even by the most shallow person's standards.

A sudden shift in the wind from behind the woman would catch her immediate attention, prompting her to turn around. Now, another dark figure, comprised of nothing more than a black blob of shadow with two glowing eyes hovered above the street directly in front of her. The woman rolled her eyes at the sight of the demonic abomination.

"Down came the raaaaain," her tune continued, apparently provoked by the new creature's presence, "-and washed the spider out." She sighed, crossing her arms as she studied the creature's stern glare.

"Lilith," a snarling voice, not remotely human in nature, called out to her from the black essence, "what are you doing here? You know it's not your time."

A chuckle escaped the attractive woman's lips. She couldn't help herself when in the presence of an arch-demon.

"Oh, if it isn't w'ittle Mephisto," she replied cockily, altering her voice as if she were speaking to a small child, "when did daddy let you back out of the crib? You should run along before things get... messy around here."

Mephisto could be heard growling within the dark cloud. "A tidal wave, really? This is not your call to make! And don't think I don't know why you're collecting human women. Mark my words, whore, you'll never complete it. "

"You'd do well to watch how you refer to your queen, boy," the woman chimed in with a little more angst in her voice, "I could end you without breaking a nail." Another chuckle as the wind could be heard thickening in the distance. "Besides, I gave the little maggots enough time to leave this place. They are my children, after all."

The cloud moved an inch closer, Mephisto's scorn was quickly getting the better of him. "These humans are mine until 'he' says otherwise. Now, take yourself back to Hell until it's time. You're over a thousand years too early. I might not be able to stop you, but I think we both know I have the means-"

"Oh," she interrupted him, her devilish grin spreading wider within her puffy lips, "your little pet that you can't even control? Hahahaha!" Lilith erupted into laughter with a dismissive wave of her hand in Mephisto's direction. "Look at that, you've got jokes. Who said you can't teach an extremely old, useless dog new tricks?" There was no response from him. "Even if your little 'Rider' weren't already out of the picture, you know he's not powerful enough to stop me... The Queen of Hell!"

A fierce rumbling could be heard as she announced her title, reminiscent of a beast's growl, though it apparently originated from nowhere. To Mephisto, it was both a show of power and a threat, as he knew well that the sound actually emanated from Lilith's true form, hidden well behind the human shell that she was occupying.

"What do you mean...?!" Mephisto scoffed, "what have you done with him?!"

The ground began to rumble violently, creating giant cracks in the pavement as the tidal wave drew closer to town. Trees blew fiercely in the wind, some smaller ones literally being uprooted and ripped from the ground. A tall flagpole broke free of its constraints and fell sideways, slamming into the city street by the demon pair. Mere seconds remained until the town would be submerged.

"Better get going now," said the demon queen through her sneer, "or are you suddenly strong enough to survive one of my darling creations?" She was right, and Mephisto knew it; her engineered tidal wave would be strong enough to level the entire town and leave nothing in its wake.