Ghost Rider #3

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Ghost Rider #3
The Long, Hard, Road Part 3

Written by Mike Bowen
Edited by Daniel Dyer

The paramedic gave one last pound on Johnny Blaze’s lifeless chest, before almost collapsing in exhaustion.

“He’s not coming back,” the man told his partner in between deep gasps of air. He had been performing CPR on Blaze’s body for almost 30 minutes following the motorcycle accident. “Tell them to cancel the chopper and alert the coroner.”

Before the second paramedic could speak into the radio clipped to his shoulder, a wail came from a line of security holding back several spectators. A middle-aged woman was struggling with a pair of security guards, tears streaming down her face.

“Get her back,” one of the security personnel yelled. “She doesn’t need to see this.”

One of the paramedics scrambled to his feet and raced over to keep the woman back. The other one, still breathing heavily from the CPR, was watching the near-melee across the field when he heard a sharp intake of breath. Whirling around he saw Blaze’s chest rising ever-so-slightly as the man drew air into his previously unused lungs. The paramedic’s eyes widened in shock and he quickly took Blaze’s wrist, checking for a pulse. It was faint, but it was there. And if he wasn’t mistaken it was getting stronger.

“Hey!” he screamed. “Hey! He’s alive! Hurry and get some help over here!”

All around the accident scene, people stopping arguing, talking, crying and moving. It was like time had stopped. But just as suddenly, things started moving again and people raced towards Blaze to try and help.

By this time, Blaze had his eyes open and was trying to prop himself up on an elbow, but the paramedics quickly had him lying back down.

“Is’ okay,” Blaze mumbled. “I’ma fine. Juss let me up.”

The paramedics looked dumbfounded. Here was this man, legally dead for almost half an hour and now he was saying he was fine and wanted to get up.

“Mr. Blaze, the accident might have caused you to have some problems feeling pain or something, but you need to lie down until we can get some transport here for you to be taken to the hospital,” one said.

Blaze frowned and again propped himself up on an elbow.

“I said I’m fine!” he growled, his voice much more stronger than the first time. “And if you want me to prove it to you, then try to keep me down again.”

The paramedics both shook their heads and backed off as Blaze went from his elbow to his knees and then struggled to his feet. His knees started shaking and the two paramedics rushed to his sides to catch him, but Blaze waved them off with an angry look and straightened up.

Up until this moment, an observer would have never known that all of this was taking place in front of 115,000 fans that came to see Blaze’s stunt show. But as soon as Blaze got to his feet, the entire stadium went into a frenzy, chanting his name.

Blaze staggered slightly as he made his way to the woman who was trying to break through the line of security and put his arm around her. He gave the woman a deep kiss and bracketed by security, the couple then walked off the field through a tunnel under the stands.

* * *

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Blaze sat on a small couch with only the blue hazy glow of a television illuminating him. He took a drink from a beer that was on the coffee table and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

There was a slight rustle from the hallway and the woman from the field appeared in the doorway.

“Are you coming to bed yet, John?” she asked.

Blaze picked up the bottle and drained the last of its contents and stood up, bringing a smile to the woman’s face.

“Not quite yet babe,” he replied. “I think I need to go out and get some fresh air and clear my head. There is this buzzing in the back of my skull that I just can’t shake. Maybe it’s because of all that has happened today.”

“I think you just need some sleep, John,” she said with a worried look.

“But I think that a ride will do me some good,” he said as he turned towards the door. He opened it and walked through, leaving Clara behind to wonder if her husband would ever be the same after his accident.

* * *

[Spider-Man Beyond]

The night air was cool on Blaze’s face as he rode his bike down the street. It was nice, but it wasn’t doing anything for the buzzing in the back of his head that was growing louder now. It became so much worse that he had to park the bike, stumbling onto the sidewalk. A few minutes later, Blaze leaned against the opening of an alley as the buzzing was almost too much for him to bear. On top of that he was burning up.

I’m dying, Blaze thought as he leaned against the wall. At first he thought he was hallucinating, but he swore that smoke was starting to roll off of his hands. The pain was starting to get unbearable, and the heat was literally roasting him alive. Blaze fell to his knees on the corner, clutching at the collar of his shirt. His skin was starting to turn red and blister as the pain grew ever worse.

“What’s happening to me,” Blaze gasped as his throat tightened. He reached up to touch his face and found that the flash on his fingers was starting to burn up and fall off.

With one final scream Blaze’s body burst into bright yellow and white flames. It burned for almost two minutes or so when the fire abruptly drew itself back within the body, leaving only a blazing, white skull on fire. But that wasn’t the remarkable thing. What was truly remarkable was that Blaze was still alive. Well, technically Blaze was still alive.

“Where am I,” came a hoarse, monotone voice from the skull. The creature that existed in Blaze’s place slowly turned his hands over as it looked upon them with empty eye sockets. “Why can I not remember anything?”

The “man” rolled his head around his shoulders, looking like a runner loosening up for a morning job. The pop of bone on bone contact sounded like gunshots on the quiet night. He slowly stood up, the flames from the skull licking the still air of his head. Dressed from head to toe in black motorcycle leathers, he had a length of chain wrapped around his waist.

This was definitely not Johnny Blaze. At least not all of him.

The creature tugged at the outfit in all the usual places a man would if he was checking the fit of a new suit — the shoulders, cuffs and waist. He might have smiled, that is if he had lips.

He was much bigger than Blaze, his chest broad and the flames leaping off of his head reached over seven feet tall. He glanced around, but there was no one else on the street. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he felt like he shouldn’t be here in the middle of the city.

But before he moved a blood-curdling scream pierced the calm, silence of the night. The skull whipped around frantically looking for the source of the terror. The scream rang out again, this time from the alley directly behind him.

The creature moved with surprising grace through the opening of the alley and into the shadows beyond. It didn’t take him long to find the source of the racket.

* * *

[Spider-Man Beyond]

John Rodriguez was in heaven. He had the young woman he spotted at the bar at his mercy. He wasn’t worried that his face was probably etched in her mind right now. She wasn’t going to live to tell anyone anyway... none ever did.

“Will you stop squealing,” Rodriguez said in a hoarse whisper. “It’ll all be over soon.”

The woman continued to struggle, trying to get out of her attacker’s clutches when she suddenly stopped and stared wide-eyed over his shoulder.

“That’s it honey,” Rodriguez said. “Don’t fight it.”

The woman didn’t answer, just mumbled something that sounded like ghost.

The look in the woman’s eyes was one of pure fear, something even a serial rapist/murderer like Rodriguez rarely saw in his victims. He quickly spun to see the blazing skull faced Blaze stalking down the alleyway towards him.

“El Diablo!” Rodriguez said as he dropped to his knees and began frantically praying in Spanish.

Blaze stalked over towards the man, who was now brandishing some sort of knife, though his hand was trembling, barely allowing him to keep a hold of it. Rodriguez slashed weakly at the outstretched hand of the demon, cutting into the palm. Blaze didn’t react as he reached out and snatched the man by the neck, lifting him up to stare at him with those black eye sockets.

Images exploded in the demon’s head. Flashes of women begging for their lives before being murdered. Women being stalked through the streets only to be brutally raped. All at the hands of the man in his hands.

“John Rodriguez,” the creature said, his skinless face inches from the man’s trembling features. “You have terrorized women in this city for too long. It ends now!”

Rodriguez’s eyes widened. “Who the Hell are you man!”

The skull tilted slightly to the side as if the man was trying to dredge up an old memory. “I...I don’t know,” he said, the voice softer. “But I know what I must do!”

The hand squeezed tighter around the man’s throat until his eyes bulged and legs began shaking. The struggle ended with a wet snap as the vertebrae were crushed.

He tossed the lifeless body aside into a heap of garbage lining the alley walls.

“You are safe now woman,” he said. “This one will no longer trouble anyone.”

The woman took one look at the blazing skull and quickly pushed past and ran screaming out of the alley into the night.

Blaze turned slightly and stalked out of the alley, not noticing the broad-shouldered man, hat pulled low over his eyes observing the entire exchange between the two.

The man crept out of the shadows. He was tall, his dirty, blondish-gray hair pulled behind in a pony tail. He looked as if he might have been living in the alleys. He slowly walked over towards the body and bent down and felt for a pulse. He nodded almost approvingly, then took a small notebook out of his pocket and scribbled a few notes.

The roar of a motorcycle, louder than any the man has ever heard nearly made him drop the notebook. He quickly scurried towards the back of the alley and melted into the shadows.

* * *

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Blaze awoke with a start to find his wife shaking his shoulder violently.

“It’s about time, I’ve been trying to wake you up for almost five minutes,” she said.

Blaze just mumbled something groggily and slowly opened his eyes.

He still had his clothes on from the night before and a splitting headache. He struggled out of bed to find the bright afternoon sun hitting him dead in the face.

“How long have I been asleep,” he yelled down the hall as he headed for the bathroom. There was no answer, but Johnny could here bacon frying in the kitchen and smelled the eggs. Blaze quickly finished his shower, got dressed and headed down the hall towards the kitchen.

As soon as he passed through the doorway he came to a dead stop. Standing at the stove cooking bacon and eggs wasn’t his wife Clara, but a man he had never seen before.

He was wearing a worn hat, pulled low on his head and his hair was in a pony tail.

“Who the hell are you and what have you done with my wife,” Blaze screamed.

The man turned slowly, smiling with a spatula in one hand and a pan of bacon in the other.

“Have a seat Johnny, we’ve got a lot to talk about.”

Continued...