CHAPTER TWO
It was starting to rain and thunder racked the sky in the most laud way they had ever heard. Warehouse was on the completely other side of the town, meaning that Johnny and Ben had to take the subway to get there. Of course, the love birds took the new flying vehicle so they wouldn't have to go through embarrassment at the airport. Blah, blah, blah… Johnny sighed as he walked toward the warehouse, Ben hot on his trail. The grumpiness that radiated from his orange rocky friend, perfectly illustrated his.
"Are you sure this is the place, Peebles??" Johnny asked annoyed with weather.
He was soaked to the skin, not even his flaming persona helping him. If he tried to burn out the wetness or at least warm himself up, more water will come with just few of this fat drops of rain. Who is crazy enough to go out on a weather like this???? Reed send them here while he and Sue spent their honeymoon somewhere nice and warm. And dry. So not fair!!!!
"Well, Reed said it was. It is not like I am happy about this too so don't make any grumpy faces at me!" Ben replied sharply, annoyed just as much Johnny was.
Alicia was still waiting for him and he just wanted to go home. Not track some lunatic who was trying to rack havoc in the city. Like one crazy lunatic of a scientist from some weird state with the power to electrocute anything at a year isn't enough… Please. How many of them are out there anyway? Is this what his life would be? Catch crazy people who want to destroy either human kind or the planet? No!! Think happy thoughts!!!!
Johnny fought the urge to stuck out his tongue at Ben's back, knowing it would be so childish of him and he really shouldn't behave like that. Scratch that. He is wet, cold and in the middle of nowhere. He will behave any way he wants.
"Okay… So lets go and check it out."
After few minutes of mindless wandering they only ended up more wet, if it was even possible, and with a lot of scrappy metal lying around. The only possible way that this might turn out to be something worthy of their attention, if all this metal slouches itself together and creates a twelve foot metal skeleton which attacks them then. Since that obviously wasn't the case, they both decided to go home.
Johnny knew. It wouldn't be that easy. His cell phone started ringing and Ben eyed his melody… Hard as rock by AC/DC. His stony eyebrow shot up and Johnny just shrugged at him, again fighting the urge to just stick his tongue out at him. He was interrupted by a shrieking voice from the other line which, even in this high frequency, suspiciously sounded like it belonged to his sister.
"Jonathan Storm!!!! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MIND???? How could you even come up with the idea to sit on a flaming motorcycle and rack havoc around town????!!!!"
Johnny's mouth dropped and he looked at Ben. She was shrieking so loudly even Ben heard what she had to say. Of course, this meant that the two love birds weren't capable to enjoy their lovely honeymoon.
"Say what??" Johnny asked perplexed. "I would never do such a thing. Besides, the motorcycle would melt away. I wouldn't be able to drive it."
Now, this is interesting. He knew that the motorcycle isn't fit to sustain his amount of heat from experience. It hurt him that Sue would think that he was stupid enough to drive around on a flaming motorcycle. Ben on the other hand looked at him with a suspicious glare.
"HELP!!!!!!!" a shriek came from the warehouse and both Johnny and Ben instinctively turned around.
A creature with horns and blue face ran out of the door, stumbling on the wet ground and falling face first. The snarl he let out of his purple lips made them cringe.
"What is going on?" came Sue's concerned voice from the other line.
"Just something with horns and a blue face just ran out of the warehouse. Must be Reed's target."
Johnny spoke calmly into the phone while Ben moved toward the creature ready to clobber him into revealing what he is doing here.
"Please… I don't want to go back!!!!" the creature suddenly shrieked again looking in the direction of the main door.
Ben looked toward the door and he spotted a bright light coming from the half closed door. He blinked as the light became brighter.
"Uhm… Johnny…" he called out.
Johnny looked in his direction and frowned at him. He never called him by his name, he always used some nickname so he would annoy him just like Johnny did to him. He only called him Johnny when something was up. Now, Johnny too looked in the direction of the door just to witness it being blown up with raging fire. It was like the Hell itself opened and spit out part of its fire. Shattered parts blew around them and the source of heat and fire strolled toward them.
Ben and Johnny stared at the creature enveloped in fire, but obviously not being bothered by it. It had the flames coming out of its head like fiery beams and its body was covered in flames on all the places where there where was no clothes. Johnny blinked once, then twice and then even thrice for the sake of blinking. The heat it radiated was way hotter than his and the ferocity of the burning flames could be compared to his hottest flames, Supernova state.
Ben looked at Johnny probably to convince himself that it really wasn't him there burning. It wasn't like Johnny's abilities were a syndrome that people tend to get. It is not like you can see a fiery creature every day.
"Johnny. It is on fire and it's not you!!!"
"I'll call you later…" Johnny said in the phone and closed it not even paying attention to the protests from the other line.
"What the hell??" he moved to Ben and suddenly noticed that creature was female like.
The body, specifically the curves were defiantly female. Both of them were just gaping at the creature, not being able to move.
"NO!!!! NO!!!! HAVE MERCY!!!!" they barely registered the creature on the ground, trying to get the hell away from the… well… obviously Hell itself.
"No mercy for violators…" came the eerie, sepulchral voice that brooked no dissent.
It froze the fire in Johnny's and crumpled Ben's stony resolution. The voice sounded like it was thrown here from their worst nightmares. Just the mere look at obsidian black eyes crumpled their will to fight and suddenly they felt guilty for something unknown.
"You hate them also. I can help you…" the creature tried to bargain, but there was no bargain wit forces of Hell.
"Back to Hell…" said the fiery creature and raised a mean looking chain.
Fire ignited along the length of it, making the chain fly like a enchanted snake. The creature raised the chain and wiled it at the creature on the ground. The moment the chain made impact with the creature, it started to burn. Agonizing scream followed the burning as the creature turned into ash in a matter of seconds. Stupidly enough, Ben chose that moment to step in and challenge the creature.
"What the hell are you doing???"
"Justice…" came the response, followed by a toothy grin which revealed sharp fangs.
Ben gulped visibly while Johnny still stood cemented to the ground. This is so not good.
The creature was probably over with its business and obviously they weren't its target. Johnny noticed how the creature moved slowly, making the ground melt under its feet. But calling it it is totally wrong. It was a she. He could see it by the round chest and the way she swayed her hips in almost seductive, more predator way.
Now the question was, what the hell is she?
Hell Rider could smell the foul scent of violators. The escapees from the pit whole of damnation. The foul scent was getting stronger as she moved toward the warehouse. Rider caught him while he tried to ran from her. He broke the immutable laws of Hell and there would be reckoning.
But the Rider didn't expect to have audience. They were guilt free. Both of them. Not completely innocent, but they had no innocent blood on their hands. On the contrary. Rational mind which was subdued to the demon of fire, Spirit of Vengeance at this moment recognized them as members of the Fantastic Four. How interesting. The Rider had no business with them. so she will restrain herself from getting into fight with them.
After she killed the demon, she turned her attention to the two of them. The orange one, The Thing, came at her. The Rider smirked and whipped her chain like a bullwhip. It scared of the hero and made him take few steps back. Wonder if fire can beat stone in this game?
For now, they will be left alone. She will approach them in her less scary form when the time is right.
"What are you??" suddenly the Human Torch asked her.
She eyed the young man very carefully, noting slight fear in his eyes, but he stood his ground. Interesting… The Rider just smirked and she turned around, the flames which enveloped her, scorching the very air around her. Her rational mind was scared of fire. Vampires feared fire because it could kill them and burn their perfect skin. Perfect, unblemished skin that was so sensitive to sunlight. But another part of her, enjoyed the burning sensation that flew through her skin. This fire burnt from within her. Deep and hidden place where the Spirit resided. How she end up with it, was a mystery of the century. It should be one Rider at a time. Two Riders couldn't possibly exist since one Spirit made them what they are.
Her father sold his soul to the Devil because he wanted to save his father. So, the Devil eventually made him a Ghost Rider, but that doesn't explain what the hell is she doing with this abilities. She decided to just dwell on that when she is much better position. And not blazing with fire.
Rider waved her fist in the air, fiery fingers snapping in a quick move, beckoning silently for her ride to come. Yes, a Hell Rider as well as Ghost Rider has its ride. Roaring motorcycle transformed into Hell ride by hellfire. At first, the black Kawasaki Ninja rode through the street in all its untouched, sport ride glory. And it ride riderless. It roared as it responded to her summons and came to her side. Her father had a Harley Davidson, but she preferred modern, faster bikes. But even though it was an impressive and fast machine, it still wasn't fully sufficient to her purpose. Here comes the real story behind the name of Rider.
Her fingers touched one of the handles as it ignited in fury of flames, soon enveloping the whole ride. Solid metal twisted into new and more intimidating configurations. It changed from the colour black to obsidian, dark silver and it roared with new power as its tires caught up in flames, elevating the bike to a higher level. The seat turned into serpent like shape. The entire chassis suddenly resembled the sculpted vertebrae of some unearthly beast.
In a matter of seconds, the customized Kawasaki Ninja turned into something else. And only one ride was remotely similar to it. The Hellcycle which belongs to her father. The Rider removed her hand and mounted the bike. Its supercharged engine snarled like a wild animal as she opened the throttle and raced away from the lifeless warehouse leaving two superheroes in her traces and a melted maelstrom of licking flames and burning asphalt.
Ben Grimm stared in complete horror at the scene in front of him. Actually he wasn't sure whether it was horror or shock, but it made him speechless. That was until Torch over there flamed on and went after the creature on the flaming motorcycle. He moved forward on instinct and tried to stop him from flying off, but he was only met with angry fire and one stubborn kid.
"No, don't go after it!!!!" Ben's shout dyed in air as it was completely ignored by the youngster.
Ben looked at the gloomy sky that still spit out rain at all of them and saw an orange trail in the distance flashing across the dark blue.
To tell the truth, Ben was afraid that this fiery creature might be a bit too much for the Human Torch. Something was really wrong in this picture, but he couldn't put his finger on it. What did it exactly killed? His head wiped to the ashy remains of… Well, he wasn't sure what it was, but he saw enough scary movies to recognise a demonic thing. Maybe it wasn't a demon per se, but remembering how the creature begged not to be returned to Hell, he had to think about that possibility.
But, whatever it was, it was pretty scary. And considering what Reed told him on the phone, he doubted that this was a just big coincidence. That just never happened with them.
I just hope the kid wont get himself into too much trouble.
Johnny Storm propelled through the dark sky after the creature, illuminating it like a big orange lightning. He just had to catch her… it… whatever that is… Leaving Ben there wasn't such a good idea and his rational part of brain figured it out, but his instincts lead him this time. Like they usually do, as a matter of fact.
He sped faster, igniting his flames a bit hotter as he spotted the rider on its way out of town. Good… Less people to see the clash between the Human Torch and Flame Driver. Something about that name struck him familiar, but he sat aside that thought as he noticed it on the highway. Suddenly rain stopped falling and he noticed that they left the esteemed territory of New York city. He wondered how fast is that thing going. It wasn't possible that it was faster than him because he even caught up with Silver Surfer. That didn't end up so well, so he hoped this little clash would end up in his favour.
He really hoped because his blood ran cold at his realisation. It looked to him like normal fire just burning hotter. That was until he saw a black Kawasaki Ninja rode toward it as responding to a call, without having a driver behind the wheel, so to speak. Self diving bikes?? Not likely. But then it put its fiery fingers upon the handle and in matter of seconds that bike turned into… Johnny wasn't sure what, but it looked down right cool and freaky. They way it transformed thru the fire made his jaw drop to the ground. That must be the thing that Sue spotted on the news and called to yell at him.
Suddenly those flashy flames went off. Or went somewhere else. Johnny stared at the gloomy night ahead of him that slowly became morning. Dawn was starting to raise among the clouds but it was so hard to tell because of the clouds.
He kept looking for the driver but it was hopeless. It actually outran him. The Human Torch!! Oh, damn it…. Johnny turned around and decided to head back to the city, his thoughts in overdrive thinking about the driver.
Meanwhile, as the first rays of light shone upon the hellish figure on the motorcycle, it slowed down. The ride suddenly became normal again and the Rider stumbled of it as she stopped the ride just next to the old cemetery. All of the fire extinguished as the sun finally came up somewhere behind the clouds and light shone across her slowly reappearing pale face. Her forehead shone with sweat as she grabbed the ground in obvious pain.
Night and night alone was the Rider's rightful domain and as much as she is different from her father, some rules stay the same. As much as that one which calls her to a cemetery when the Riders is in the most vulnerable state, between transitions.
The flames died out completely and crop of black hair fell across her face and shadowed her face from the bright light. Her obsidian eyes returned to their usual ebony iris and she blinked against the offending light. It was painful. Her ribs cracked as she tried to get up, but her body refused.
She only managed to flop herself on her back as her shaky hand moved the hair of her face.
"Bloody hell…" she whispered into the wind as it slowly cooled her still hot limbs.
The sun hasn't shown beneath the clouds, but power of light was still affective enough to subdue the hellish power of the Spirit. She vaguely remembered what happened last night. Pictures of fire and something blue invaded her memories and she sighed. She really hoped she hasn't done anything bad.
After two hours of lying on the wet ground and trying to recall all she did last night, she stood up and went to her bike. Vivid images of Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm and the way they stared in bewilderment and shock at her were her primary preoccupancy. First she had to go back to her place and take her a shower and replace the vehicle, since both of them saw the same motor when the Rider summoned it.
Then she will go to the Baxter Building and speak with dr. Reed Richards about the bloody wholes and disrupted energy fields. This has to be stopped before they get an outbreak of hellish rogues on their hands. And considering dr. Richards great knowledge of pretty much everything, it was clear that he is the man to talk to.
The motor roared again, just this time with less infernal ferocity as she drove away from the cemetery.
A/N: Thank you for the reviews and the wish for continuation of the story. I would have updated sooner but I had to finish my exams first and now I am free to write.
I hope you liked this chapter and the introduction of the Hell Rider in all her glory and f(l)ame. Next chapter will take some time to be updated too since now are holidays and I need a break.
Read and feel free to leave a review. They are greatly appreciated and welcomed.
Merry Christmas to you and your families. Have a safe and jolly holiday.
Sincerely yours, Bella