EDITOR’S NOTE: This arc takes place before Ghost Rider #1

TWO-LANE HIGHWAY

Part VII: Break Down

By John Wick

What is it you seek?
The rightness of wrong?
The virtue of vice?
-Enigma

“The trail leads to the west,” the sorcerer said calmly.

John Blaze wiped the sweat from his forehead and tried to shake off the remnants of the battle he had just endured. Somehow, he didn’t think the pain was going to leave him any time soon. Blaze felt cold in the parking lot of the warehouse despite the intense heat his body held from the earlier battle.

“Listen Drake, why don’t we get the Hell outta here, no offence Mr. Blaze, before I decide to roll up my jacket and sleep in the God Damn freaking parking lot for the night.”

“I thought his name was Comanche?” John questioned out loud.

“His Name’s Comanche, Chief, Jedi Freaking MOFO, it’s whatever I want it to be when we’re going into battle, when we’re just shootin’ the shit, I use his Christian name.”

Drake winced a bit at his partner’s comment.

“Sorry Drake, I know you ain’t too fond of the whole ‘Christian name’ thing, Hell… come to think of it you probably ain’t too fond of it yourself are you Johnny-Boy?” The mercenary laughed loudly at his own joke.

“Actually, I’m fine with your religious references, smart ass, it’s the demon you gotta worry about. So what say you shut your trap for once before I bring him back to fry your ass again.”

The mercenary raised an eyebrow and began to reach for the sidearm strapped to his waist. Blaze looked at him with indifference, as smoke began to rise from beneath his coat.

“Enough!” Drake shouted. “The trail leads west and that’s the way we go. If battle is truly what you both seek then our fight lies in that direction.”

Blaze simply shrugged his shoulders and jumped on his motorcycle. The two mercenaries looked at each other then back to Blaze.

“I can feel him too. It’s my daughter he has. I can’t wait here. I finish this fight weather you’re there or not.”

“We shall meet you before your struggle. Tread carefully Defender of Souls, the night is filled with portents of evil things to come.”

“Thanks” Blaze replied. He brought the bike to life and hellfire swarmed around the wheels illuminating the faces of all three men. The sound of his motorcycle echoed in the parking lot and died off in the distance leaving the two men standing alone together in the night air.

“You know… I can feel the look,” the mercenary stated coldly.

“You deserve the look,” replied the sorcerer.

The mercenary was about to reply when he turned to his partner. The look he was getting was even worse than he imagined. For the first time in years Jack Murdock, Mercenary With an Attitude kept his thoughts to himself.

Angel had long ago lost the ability to scream. The amount of torment she had suffered was more than any human could possibly endure. If it weren’t for the fact that Blackheart owned her soul, she was sure she would have died hours ago.

Her flesh pulled away from her arm easily enough. Angel watched with a strange fascination, as it seemed to melt into a gelatinous substance. It became malleable in her tormentors hand. Even though it was pulled away from her body she still retained sensations from the nerves in the flesh.

Angel’s mouth dropped open as the end of the gelatinous mass was placed against her face. She let out a sick moan as she felt the tissue connect and merge with her cheek. Though she tried to pull it away she found that it would not budge. Tears welled up in her eyes as she realized her body was now nothing more than a toy for evil.

Time seemed to move in slow motion. If life was recorded and played back at twenty-four frames per second Blaze’s life was recorded at a hundred frames per second and played back at twenty-four. Every emotion seemed to rise up in his chest and change within a heartbeat yet the landscape around him moved by at a fraction of the speed.

The old man was definitely right. The trail led west. The road beneath his wheels illuminated as hellfire played across the cracked asphalt. A truck driver heading east noticed Blaze and gave two loud blasts of his horn; snapping him out of his momentarily dazed condition. Blaze lowered his head, reducing wind resistance, and gunned the accelerator. His eyes narrowed to little more than paper-thin slits. He was exhausted but he vowed he wouldn’t rest until his daughter was safe again. He only hoped that he wasn’t too late.

Her bones ached. Some would say it was because she had been chained to the ceiling for nearly six hours, her feet barley touching the ground by her toes. Somewhere around hour-three her arms literally dislocated from her sockets. There was a time she would have thought that to be one of the most painful experiences of her life. There was a time she would have been right. But these… were different times.

Angel tried to shut her eyes, but recently the lids had been re-formed so that the edge of each was fused to the skin both below and above her eye sockets. There was still enough space left for her to try to command them to close. The flesh would momentarily attempt to pull shut, only to encounter resistance causing great strain to her ocular nerves.

A long dribble of her own saliva leaked from her mouth. What remained of her lips had also been bent backwards and joined to her face. The hand came near again. She wanted to look away but couldn’t. There was no escape.

The hand touched her arm and slowly began to merge with her flesh. It reached through the muscle until it connected with her bone. Menacing dark laughter filled the room.

“Yes … the Humerous… I find this very humorous indeed!”

Angel felt the heat radiated by the hand as it gripped her bone. In a few short seconds she felt it give way. It didn’t break it simply began to bend. Her face lit up in horror as she watched the bone being bent out of her flesh. Another hand reached into her chest through chest. A few seconds later she watched as one of her ribs bent its way out of her body through the proud flesh of her left breast. In a few short seconds it was fused with her Humerous.

In the darkness the voice rang out again in a singsong manner…”The rib bone’s connected to the arm bone, the leg bones connected to the shoulder bone…” Blackheart smiled a wicked grin and looked directly into Angel’s eyes. “You should already be used to having your legs by your shoulders, I hope you’re paying attention… If things go the way I’m singing them, you’re finally going to be beautiful.”

The taint of evil was strong. Blaze felt as if he were arriving at the gates of hell itself. The motorcycle came to an abrupt halt just outside the wooden fence that surrounded the structure. A sign on the front read:

WARNING:
BLASTING ZONE 1000 FEET
Turn off all 2-way radios
Absolutely no Smoking

Blaze scowled and threw his cigarette to the ground crushing it beneath his heavy motorcycle boot. The wooden fence ended before him at a chain link door that someone had left ajar.

A voice called from the darkness, “Don’t suppose we’ll have too much of a problem with the radios, but you’re definitely going to have to work on that smoking habit of yours.”

Blaze took a few steps forward and raised his shotgun. Jack Murdock stepped out from the shadows and gave him a large grin.

“You can’t get rid of us that easy Johnny-Boy. It comes in handy having an Indian medicine man as a partner, ease of travel I tell you.”

Blaze lowered his shotgun and took a few more steps towards the mercenary. “Where’s Drake?” he asked.

“Hell J.B. I dunno he told me to wait here for you and said he was gonna do some scouting ahead. That was about a half hour ago. I was just about ready to go in there after him myself then I heard your ride pull up. You might want to think about getting a quieter vehicle if you plan on sneaking up on your quarry pal, I heard you a mile away.”

The convulsions started almost immediately. Drake had managed to sneak his way into the building however, after traveling down three stories it felt like something had gripped his entire body and began to squeeze. The sorcerer had never before felt pain the way he was now feeling it.

From deep within he tried to pool his concentration to teleport away from the room, however he found that whenever he tried to use his magic the pain only grew worse. One word alone ran through his mind over and over again. “Trap.”

Jack pushed his way through the broken door to the building. Blaze walked several paces behind him taking in the scene. Everything seemed calm and quiet. Blaze knew though, that with blackheart nothing was ever as it seemed.

The darkness inside the building was thick. Only dim facets of moonlight were able to break through some of the broken windows. The building had been gutted long ago. Only debris and refuse remained. Jack let out a cry of surprise. Blaze felt his heart pumping and immediately went to check it out.

Blaze walked through the doorway and turned left. There he saw Jack standing still and staring at an open elevator shaft. Hanging upside down in the shaft were two security guards still in uniform. Their skin had been removed and deep puncture wounds covered most of their bodies.

Blaze felt the change coming on. Jack heard Blaze approach and turned just in time to see him light up like a human torch. He watched as Blaze gripped his head and grew taller before his eyes. It didn’t take long at all really. In just a few short seconds the Spirit of Vengeance stood before the mercenary.
“That’s a neat trick.” Jack said out loud.

“Innocent blood has been spilled. The guilty will pay.”

“Well where do you think…”

Jacks words cut off as Ghost Rider pushed past him towards the elevator shaft. Without another word the Spirit of Vengeance jumped down into the darkness below. A second later jack heard his impact on the ground below.

“I take it back… that … was a nice trick,” Jack mumbled under his breath. Cautiously he approached the edge of the shaft and peered down. The bottom of the shaft was illuminated by Ghost Rider’s hellfire. He had dropped roughly three stories. Suddenly Jack lurched backwards. A large chain now filled the space where his head had been only moments before.

Cursing under his breath Jack approached the shaft once more and began to climb down the chain.

“We Really need to work on your communication skills.” Jack yelled out.

Suddenly the chain was retracting pulling him down towards the bottom of the shaft. A loud thump echoed throughout the shaft as Jack’s body impacted with the ground.

“This way” Ghost Rider commanded. Without another word he kicked the closed elevator doors before him. Hellfire surrounded his foot and the doors broke apart flying into the darkness beyond loudly clanging on the tiled floor.

“You know that thing I was telling Blaze about his bike being too loud…” Jack said from the ground as he rubbed his head, the demon continued walking without a word.

“He’s here, and he’s not alone. This will be so much fun. Go now Angel. It’s time you shared your beauty with the world.”

From the dark shadow of the room a sound issued forth. It was like a mix between a wounded animal and a predator ready to attack.

“Time to play.” Blackheart said maniacally as he clapped his hands together. “Time to play indeed!”

Ghost Rider walked into the room and felt the strength of the curse that lay upon it. Focusing his vision he saw the fallen sorcerer writhing on the ground. Jack moved next to Ghost Rider and tried to rush into the room. The demon gripped him by the back of his coat and flung him backwards into the darkness he had just come from. Without another word Ghost Rider walked to the fallen sorcerer and picked him up. Quietly he carried the sorcerer out of the room.

The mercenary came running forward cursing the entire way. “What the Hell is your problem you flaming pyrotechnic bitch? I oughta put a bullet in you for that. If I don’t…”

“Silence, He saved your life, Murdock.”

“What the hell are you talkin’ about Comanche? And what the hell were you doing?”

“If you had walked into that room you would have died instantly. It is cursed. It took all my mental concentration just to keep my mind from fracturing.”

“Well Flame Boy here sure didn’t seem to care now did he? Why’s he not fractured? Or is he already?”

“He comes from a place where curses are nothing more than a child’s game. He has endured tortures and torments you cannot begin to fathom. He has inflicted his own torments as well.”

Ghost Rider looked at both men and opened his mouth wide to speak. “Tend to your friend. The child is close. Find another way if you must, but beware more traps may lay ahead.”

Jack was about to protest, but Ghost Rider simply walked into the cursed room. Jack looked down at his partner who was desperately trying to regain a normal level of movement in his limbs. “You really know how to pick ’em Comanche… You really do.”

The taint of evil was strong behind the door. Ghost Rider felt Blackhearts presence. Forcefully, he kicked in the door and walked inside with his shotgun drawn. Off in the corner of the room he could see Emma Blaze. She looked as though she had been crying. In the center of the room illuminated by a solitary light Blackheart stood facing the Spirit of Vengeance.

“YOU HAVE TAKEN THE BLOOD OF INNOCENTS!” Ghost Rider yelled at Blackheart.

“Yes yes, blood of innocents, I will pay, vengeance will be yours, I will burn in Hell… I got news for you big guy, been there… done that. I’m offering you a chance, Zarathos. Join me… together we can rule this planet. None will stand in our way.”

Ghost Rider pointed his shotgun at Blackheart and pulled the trigger. A blast of hellfire hurled through the air at an exponential rate towards its target. A moment before impact Blackheart leapt to the ceiling and clung to its surface by his claws.

“I thought you might say that.” Blackheart said angrily. Another blast of hellfire shot towards Blackheart, but he managed to dodge the blast again. “Seems I’m always one step ahead of you. Its no wonder Mephisto took you so easily, you’re predictable.”

Blackheart lunged through the air and raked his claws deep into Ghost Rider’s shoulder. Hellfire spilled forth from the wounds. To his astonishment he realized that the wounds did not heal the way they normally did. At the moment the wounds were inflicted Ghost rider brought his knee up hard between Blackheart’s legs, causing the demon to drop to the ground. “Prediction is a gamble” Ghost rider said coldly as he lowered his shotgun towards Blackhearts face. Before he could get off a shot Blackheart’s tail whipped around and swept the Spirit of Vengeance off his feet.

“Nice move Zarathos, but you gotta stay on your toes in this game,” Blackheart mocked clapping his hands together. Ghost Rider rose to his feet and dusted off his jacket. Without a word he dropped his shotgun to the ground clenching and unclenching his fists. “I will exact vengeance myself.”

“Such wonderful threats from someone so impotent. I would have kept my big gun if I were you Zarathos, no matter, you were probably shooting blanks anyway.”

Ghost Rider crouched close to the ground. “Bring it, Demon,” he said coldly.

It had been twenty minutes. Twenty minutes of entering room after room of booby-traps. Drake had dropped to the ground once, been tossed against a wall, and felt as though nearly all of his mystical energy was drained. Jack had nearly lost his head (quite literally), dodged poisoned arrows, and felt as though the night would never end. Both of the mercenaries were exhausted beyond reason. The journey from where they parted with Ghost Rider to where they were now should have taken only three minutes; it felt like a lifetime.

The last room they entered was large. Drake believed Ghost Rider and the Devil were located within the next room. The sounds coming from within it only served to verify his hypothesis. Carefully Drake crouched down to the ground extending one arm before him, his palm at a 90-degree angle to the ground warning his partner to stop.

“You hear horses Comanche” Jack asked sarcastically.
Before Drake could respond a large metal pipe slammed into Jack’s left arm.

“No,” replied Drake. “I heard that” he said as he pointed towards the end of the room.

Jack pulled himself up from the ground shaking off the dazed feeling that threatened to infect his mind and spread throughout the rest of his body. As his eyes focused on his assailant he shook his head a few times from side to side to ensure that the image he saw was real.

“What the HELL is that?” Jack shouted to his partner.

Both men looked to the end of the room in silent horror, each ossified where they stood. Standing at the end of the room was something that looked as if it were female at one time. Something that looked like it could have been human.

Crouched down close to the ground, the creature had what appeared to be razor sharp rib bones extending from its chest. Breasts and stomach were lacerated and openly bleeding from the extruding skeleton. The arms were fused at odd angles to the ribs and from the outside of its arms spikes of bone extruded. Flesh was inconceivably melded from shoulder to cheek.

The creature’s eyelids were pulled back and fused with its face. Its teeth were molded into sharp fangs. Beyond all this, it, looked angry… very angry.

“That, my friend… is trouble,” replied Drake.

Pure hellfire swarmed around Ghost Rider. The fury he felt consumed every nuance of his dark soul. Blackheart continued to chastise the Spirit of vengeance. Each step Ghost Rider took towards his rage, each blow he dealt to Blackheart, was another step closer to releasing the true evil within Zarathos.

The battle had been fierce. Ghost Rider dodged another one of Blackheart’s blows diving deep into the darkness at the far side of the room.

Blackheart let loose a loud laugh. “Better be careful, Zarathos… In case you hadn’t noticed this building is rigged for demolition. I’m afraid your Spark-ling personality might just set off the charges.”

Ghost rider focused his vision and saw that, most likely for the first time in Blackhearts existence, he was telling the truth. A large package of explosives was wired and taped to the main support beam in the room. Quickly, he rose to his feet and pointed his finger at Blackheart.

“If we must both die here tonight then so be it!”

Blackheart let out a deep laugh. “Have you forgotten already? What about the girl? What about the innocent? You would be responsible for her death.” The demon pointed to the opposite end of the room where young Emma Blaze sat bound to a chair. “Yes, that’s it Zarathos. Bring the house down and free yourself. Free yourself from the crutch of exacting vengeance for innocents.”

Ghost Rider felt the rage fill him. He wanted nothing more than to blow the entire building straight to hell. But a voice from deep within compelled him to resist. He heard in the darkness that enshrouded his mind the sound of a father begging for the safe return of his daughter.

Blackheart had cautiously approached the demon. When he was within a yard, Ghost Rider snapped out of his reflective state. The Spirit of Vengeance lunged forward and gripped the demon by the throat. Blackheart’s claws dug deep into Ghost Rider’s arms. His tail whipped his face. No amount of struggling or pain though caused the grip to loosen.

“Zarathos is dead” Ghost Rider said. “The Spirit of Vengeance remains. You will perish here tonight.”

*BAM*

The doorway to the room suddenly blew open. Large amounts of smoke pooled into the room and a mass of flesh flew through the air past Ghost Rider. From the darkness beyond he heard a man laughing.

“Guess she didn’t like that much, did she?” he heard Jack Murdock yell.

The Sorcerer rushed into the room and let out a bolt of mystic energy at the form that was quickly rising to its feet. Bullets flew through the air penetrating the creature as it rose to its deformed feet.

Ghost Rider Squeezed Blackheart’s neck harder and began to look deep into the void that was the demon’s soul. Just as the Penance Stare was about to begin, two of the bullets slammed into the creature on the ground and Emma Blaze let out a loud cry. Ghost Rider shifted his attention towards the girl and then looked back towards the demon in his grip.

“What have you done, Devil?” Ghost Rider yelled out as Blackheart chuckled through what little air remained in his windpipe.

The creature rose to its feet again and lashed out at the sorcerer causing deep lacerations in his legs. Jack Murdock let out two quick blasts from his sidearm, hitting it in its leg. The cry of pain once more did not come from the creature but from the girl tied to the chair.

Drake rose to his feet and realized the truth behind what was happening. The girl at the end of the room had two bleeding holes in her arm and two in her leg. “Stop!” Drake cried out as Murdock raised his gun towards the creature, which was standing once more. Jack didn’t hear the words and began to pull the trigger. The sorcerer did the only thing he could do. He let out a bolt of energy at his partner slamming him back several yards into a concrete pillar.

Drake ran as fast as he could to dodge the creature’s blows. When he reached the wounded girl the creature let out a howl of rage but Drake turned in time to let two blasts of energy surround his attacker. The creature was wrapped in blazing blue cords of mystic energy entrapping it.

“Shit!” Murdock shouted as he came running into view, “Why didn’t you tell me you could do that?” He raised his gun once more towards the bound creature and without a word the sorcerer raised his hand towards his partner, who abruptly lowered his weapon.

“Look at the girl,” Drake said calmly.

“I’m looking at her and she’s ugly as hell!” replied Jack.

“Not the beast!” Drake replied, “this girl”.

Jack Murdock saw the child sitting in the chair bleeding profusely from wounds that matched exactly where he had shot the beast before him. “Holy crap!” he said.

“Help me get her out of here” Drake yelled. “My bonds will not hold that beast much longer.”

Jack Murdock pulled a long hunting knife from his coat and cut the ropes that bound the girl to the chair. Within a few short seconds she was free and hoisted upon his shoulder.

“Get her out of here, Jack. I will cover you.”

“You got it, Comanche!” Jack Murdock replied as he ran through the exit.

Ghost Rider had been doing his best to hold Blackheart in his grip. As the two mercenaries fought to free Emma, Blackheart’s rage had intensified.

“LEAVE THIS PLACE OF EVIL” shouted Ghost Rider to the sorcerer. “SHE WILL BE FREE SOON AND SHE WILL HUNT YOU DOWN UNTIL THE GIRL IS RECLAIMED; CARE FOR THE CHILD. PROTECT HER INNOCENCE. ”

Drake nodded his head and ran through the exit. Ghost Rider fought to maintain his grip on the demon as he reached for his chain. Before he could though, Blackheart whipped his tail and punctured the spirit of vengeance deep in the chest causing hellfire to spew forth. Both Ghost Rider and Blackheart let out a moan of pain.

The creature that had been bound in mystic energy let out a wail as the bonds disappeared. Quickly she ran through the doorway the mercenaries had taken only a minute before.

Jack Murdock ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He ran through the rooms where booby-traps were, praying to God that none of them would kill him. His luck held out and in only a fraction of the time it had taken him to travel into the depths of the building he was outside gasping in deep breaths of fresh air. Loud blasts could be heard behind him mixed with the sound of something very angry. He took a moment to look at the face of the unconscious girl draped over his arm.

“Don’t worry sweetheart. Drake’s a real pro he’ll take care of you, but we gotta get you out of here and we gotta go now!”

Murdock continued to run across the lot through the open chain-link door and down the road beyond. Each step he took sent a shockwave of pain through his entire system. If he was running on adrenaline only moments before he was now running on nothing more than the strength of his own willpower. As he approached the second street before him he suddenly felt the ground shake. A deafening roar filled the air. Jack Murdock stopped in his tracks and turned to see what was causing the noise. To his complete shock the building he had been in only moments before was collapsing to the ground. Series after series of explosions echoed throughout the night air.

“Comanche…” he whispered through pained breaths. Tears welled up in his eyes for the first time since the massacre in the swamp. The dust from the explosion began to rush forth towards him absorbing what little light was provided by the streetlights. Instinctively he wrapped the child in his arms and covered her up as he dropped to his knees on the ground.

The last thing Jack Murdock saw was a large blue explosion where the building stood, just before the dust wrapped everything in its thick cloud of darkness.

NEXT: Emma is free, but did Daddy-Dearest go up in smoke with Blackheart, Drake, and Angel? Will I have to change the name of this series to ‘How to raise a girl the Mercenary way’? Lets hope not… Join us next time as we find out just what the repercussions are of Emma’s newfound freedom.

PENCIL OF VENGEANCE

The last issue of Ghost Rider didn’t include the mighty Pencil of Vengeance, well mainly because I wanted to jump right into writing this issue. The long delay between issues five and six were mainly due in part to another title taking up way too much of my time and my own damn determination to finish its story arc. I am glad to once again be able to devote the time necessary to everybody’s favorite “Sprit of Vengeance”, and no I am not talking about “Bob the Builder” though I am sure he could wield a mighty bad-ass hammer of vengeance when he needs to. Needless to say… I digress…

I have been told that the torment and the pain in the issues I have written are easy to picture. That is something that I would like to maintain. Blaze has literally been to Hell and back a few times and the suffering that a real demon like Blackheart would inflict should not be sloughed off as something you read while eating a bag of chips. The universe this is set in is a dark one. But as the hellfire proves… sometimes there is light in the darkness.

-JW 07/8/03