Steve could feel the fire burning around him, but the flames were cold on his skin. He heard the roar of the rushing flames, but it was drowned out by the beating of his heart. The creature's arm twisted in his grasp, his hand was iron, his grip a closed trap. The flames roared all about them like the beating heart of a dragon, and nowhere did they burn brighter than in the masked rider's crimson eyes.

"S-Steve?" said the Bat-creature, the thing that had worn Frank Nelson's face and spoke with his voice.

"Exo," said the Rider, his hand squeezing the Bat's wrist, feeling bones fighting against a raging chitinous strength. "Don't you call me Steve."

The Bat shrieked and tried to strike at Exo with his claws, but Steve could see him moving as if suspended in thick water, watching a slow-motion ballet with his senses at the peak of perception and his reflexes like a precision clock. He shifted his feet and thrust his arm in the Bat's direction of motion, turning his frenzied attack into an uncontrolled throw that saw him flung into the pews. The Bat landed with the sound of cracking wood and shattered tile, but he was far less injured than the interior design was.

"How could you…?" said the Bat, rising to his feet, dust and splinters falling off his black skin. "It should take you months to grow! You couldn't… this isn't what you're supposed to be!"

"Whatever I am, whatever your fate, you can blame yourself for it," said the Rider, dropping low into a fighting stance, arms raised to strike. "Frank wasn't my friend, but he… none of them deserve to be your puppets!"

The Bat's lipless mouth broke in a laugh.

"I see you're still not fully grown," it said. "The master will teach you just how wrong you are."

The Bat charged at the Rider, claws out in a blind feral strike. The Rider saw it coming before the Bat even knew what he himself was doing. He could see the pattern of motion sketched out in the air like the neon afterimage of a moving light. When the Bat was striking out with his claws, Exo was in the air, a standing leap that catapulted him up and over his opponent, landing behind the unsuspecting creature.

The Bat whirled around, but Exo was already moving to attack. A heel kick to the knee stopped the Bat's movement, and a powerful jab to the midsection hurled him back down the aisle and into the burning altar. A light fixture fell from above, trapping the Bat in the flames.

Steve turned to his friends, the other humans, the fire circling and swirling around them, but not coming any closer.

"Out! Now!"

The flames parted before them, a path opening up to the great brass doors. Briggs and Jimenez each grabbed John under an arm and ran for it, a blur of red and black streaking past them. Exo pushed the doors open like they were made of fiberglass, and the four of them fled out into the night, long shadows cast by the flickering red lights.

The two agents lowered their far less capable human cargo to the ground, the three of them coughing up smoke and gasping down lungfuls of cold air.

"Holy… holy crap…" said John, clutching his throat. "Is that… is this normal for you?"

"We are like ten miles out from normal, buddy," said Steve, clutching his head. "What… what happened in there? Everything went all red."

"That's because you set fire to a Church!" said Jimenez, staring into the flames. "We are going to catch such hell for this…"

"We can cover this up," said Briggs, shaking soot out of her hair. A sour look crossed her face. "…cannot believe I actually said that."

"How are you going to cover this up?" said Steve. "I turned into a bug man and killed a vampire in the largest church in the city! Somebody is going to know!"

HE IS NOT DEAD!

"Oh crap," said Steve, staring up into the sky. The Beetle seemed large and small at the same time, and half-faded like the moon seen in the daytime. "Guys, get ready, the beetle says-"

"Wait, did you just hear the giant talking space beetle?" said John, getting shakily to his feet. "I thought I was just hallucinating that."

"…what?"

What?

"I can see it too," said Briggs, reaching out her hand. From the right angle, with one eye closed, it looked like she could clasp the beetle in her fingers. Behind her, Jimenez simply nodded, expressionless behind dark glasses.

"This… since when could you appear to other people?" said Steve. "This would be a lot easier to explain if you could just do that!"

This is… beyond my experience. I am not used to this sensation.

The beetle's horned head turned to each person in turn.

Is this what it is to be human?

None of them knew how to answer that. Fortunately, a fifth person had a reply.

"DON'T FORGET ABOUT ME, DICKBAGS!"

A black missile flew out of the burning door, pale wings spread out like the sails of a great black ship. It bypassed the three humans and swooped over the head of the Masked Rider. Exo's arms latched onto the Bat like a wide receiver catching the game-winning pass, and clung to him like a crimson barnacle. The creature shrieked and aced off into the night, carrying its thrashing stowaway into the darkness.

"Steve!" John shouted.

"Do you have eyes on him?" said Briggs, squinting into the darkness.

"Negative, we lost him!" said Jimenez, pulling down his sunglasses. "Could have gone anywhere."

I can bring you to him.

The beetle flew off towards the horizon, a gleaming red beacon invisible to all but four select people. By the time their brains had processed the beetle's words, Briggs was already behind the wheel of her car and peeling off into the night.

"Helen, wait!" said Jimenez, running futilely after the black SUV. "Don't go without backup!"

"Man," John said. "It really sucks being the sidekick, huh?"

"I'm her partner."

"Right," said John. "And I'm an expert in Masked Rider biology."

The two of them sat down on the steps of the church and sighed.

"…you know, she does not look like a Helen," said John.

"No she doesn't," said Jimenez. "But then I don't look much like an Abraham."

"…what?"

"It's a long story," said Abraham Jimenez.

The Bat was swooping and stalling up and down in the air, barely able to keep a level flight with the heavy Rider dangling from him. A powerful armored fist jabbed the creature in the kidneys again and again, making his flight stall and driving him closer to the cityscape below.

"What are you doing, human?" the Bat shrieked with each strike. "You'd try to kill me now? We'll both go down!"

"I'd die if I let go, too!" said Steve, smashing his head into the Bat's chest, the golden crest upon his forehead driving into black flesh. The Bat cried out and dropped from the sky, the two fighters spiraling down to a dark warehouse below. "I'm not going out without taking one of you with me!"

They hit the warehouse and burst through, landing on cold, hard metal. The building was full of disused industrial scaffolding, metal beams and latticework arranged at every angle like the blackened skeleton of a roller coaster. The center of the room was round and open, like a gladiatorial arena encircled by steel. The Bat got to his feet and fled, running off into this three-dimensional steel maze, with Exo following after.

In the fires of the church, the crimson warrior Exo had by far the upper hand, but in the darkness of the warehouse it was the Bat who was in his element. He kicked the Rider off the scaffolding in a single motion, knocking him hard to the floor, landing in a heap in a pile of lead pipes. The Bat swooped down after him, white-skinned wings flashing in the darkness like a great fanged smile.

"You'll never win, human!" said the Bat-thing, clawing and striking at Exo, their fists and feet thundering against each other's rock-hard skin. "I am one with your kind and my own! I have reached unity between man and beast! I know perfection, and you, creature, fall far short!"

Steve's answer was a sharp kick that hit the Bat's chest with the force of a hydraulic ram. He staggered back into a chain-link fence, ripping it from its mountings with his fallings, and fell into the wall. An electrical cable was shorn clean through and whipped back and forth in the darkness, showering brilliant white sparks that lit up the room as though it were day.

"Some perfection," said Exo, as the Bat fled from the light, pushing through piles of debris to reach the safety of the shadow. "I'm stronger than you and this is only my second day!"

The Bat let out a high-pitched staccato screaking, shaking his head from side to side. It took Steve quite a few seconds to realize that this creature was laughing.

"Steve, I know I'm vain, but I'm not that vain," he said. "I'm pretty awesome… and I'll admit, you've got a lot going for you two. But you haven't seen the master yet. You weren't around when he was in his prime. He makes us look like… like humans. He's the closest thing I've seen to a god."

"I'm really happy for your boss," said Exo, approaching the bat with a firm deliberation in every motion. "But I don't see him coming to save you."

"He sent me!" said a familiar voice from the darkness. A sickly green shape swung down from the darkness on a cord of white silk. His clawed feet struck the Rider in the chest, knocking him to the floor. The spider-creature landed on hand and foot between Exo and the bat, rising to his full height and staring down the Rider with his six piercing eyes.

"Had a feeling I'd run into you again," said Exo, rising to a fighting stance. "Poor old spider, came running back just to get squashed!"

"Ettercap!" said the Bat, running up to the Spider's side. "I knew I might find you here."

"Murcielago… snared so easily," said the Spider, holding out an arm to block the Bat. "Hold now. I am not done with this one. Truly, I never even began."