DISCLAIMER: I own Derrick Bolris. The Misfitverse this story takes place in belongs to Red Witch, the characters of G.I. Joe belong to Hasbro, and everything else belongs to Marvel.
Chapter 25: Enter the Spirit of Vengeance
The flaming motorcycle rider literally blazed onto the scene, his bike's roar and flames catching the eyes of all. Derrick raised an eyebrow in confusion while Morbius recoiled. Technovore, however, stared at the machine.
"Analyzing," Technovore droned. "Error. Unknown technology bonded with unknown force. Illogical. Does not compute."
"You seek to shed innocent blood," said the motorcycle rider in an echoing, raspy voice. "You will not escape your penance."
The eye sockets of the rider's skull widened, seemingly penetrating through Technovore's very body. After several seconds, however, the eye sockets shrank back to their regular size.
"You have no soul, monster," the rider said, grabbing a chain that was wrapped around his torso.
"Error," Technovore droned. "Not monster. Virus."
"Then I will delete you from existence," the rider growled as he whipped his chain at Technovore, the metallic links instantly tearing through Technovore's metallic skeleton.
Shrieking and roaring, Technovore was torn into pieces by each of the rider's lashes. With each strike, Technovore's nanobots worked double-time to rebuild their monstrous body, but were immediately stopped by another whip. Finally, Technovore was a pile of scrap on the ground.
The rider turned away, facing Morbius and Derrick.
"The blood of innocents has been shed by you," the rider said.
"Bull," Derrick spat. "My parents died because they were too stupid to know that cutting open a living battery would make lightning fly everywhere. They were never innocent."
"Not you, for the deaths you caused were accidental in nature," the rider said, shaking his skull. "He is the one whose presence lingers with the blood of innocent lives."
He pointed to Morbius with one skeletal finger.
"Who are you, anyway?" Morbius asked.
"They call me the Ghost Rider," the rider answered. "I appear where innocent blood has been shed. And you, Michael Morbius…you have shed innocent blood."
"I am well aware," Morbius sighed. "I have moved beyond taking the blood of civilians, er…Ghost Rider."
"It will take more than the word of a living vampire to convince a spirit of vengeance," Ghost Rider sneered.
"How about that?" Derrick asked, pointing to a regenerating Technovore behind them.
"Can that creature be destroyed?" Morbius asked.
"Those who seek to shed innocent blood will fall before the spirit of vengeance," Ghost Rider declared, raising one skeletal hand. His Hellcycle came to him, and he rode straight for Technovore.
"Is he sane?" Derrick asked.
"I doubt it," Morbius groaned. "This Ghost Rider found me in Malibu some time after I left the Avengers. He somehow knows that I had fed upon the blood of civilians in New York."
"Might as well try and give Mr. Bones a hand," Derrick sighed, charging himself by draining electricity from a lamppost.
"Yes, we must!" Morbius agreed. "If we do not, more innocent people will be hurt!"
"Uh, on second thought," said Derrick, watching Ghost Rider and Technovore battle, "maybe we should sit this out."
"Why?" Morbius asked.
Derrick pointed, and Morbius looked. Ghost Rider had already driven through Technovore multiple times, and each time the beast reformed itself. This time, Ghost Rider slid to a stop, and aimed his hand at Technovore. From his hand burst a massive storm of fire that washed over Technovore. The monstrous virus screamed as its body melted into a pile of ooze, the Ghost Rider having fully defeated it.
"Oh," Morbius said.
Ghost Rider rode up beside Morbius.
"If you wish to atone for your misdeeds, do so," Ghost Rider said. "But be warned, for if you take blood from an innocent life, I will make you pay for it."
"I welcome it," Morbius said.
"My business in Los Angeles is done," Ghost Rider said. "I must continue my search for the guilty."
And with that, the Ghost Rider rode away.
"Well, that was weird," Derrick said.
"Agreed," said Morbius. "I must return to Los Angeles. Give you teammates my regards."
"Don't bet on it," Derrick muttered as Morbius flew away.
The Leapfrog soon came, and Nico came out first.
"Derrick, are you okay?" she asked. "What happened?"
"Long story," Derrick groaned. "Can we just go home?"
****
Some time after the Runaways had left, Iron Man, several other Avengers, and Nick Fury arrived to clean up what was left of Technovore.
"I can't believe Technovore went rogue," Iron Man said as he shook his head.
"Believe it, Stark," Fury snorted. "You program that thing to hunt down all tech, it'll hunt down all tech, including that owned by the good guys."
"But I designed it to burn itself out after taking out Ultron!" Iron Man insisted.
"Oh, quit whining, Tony," Warbird snapped. "This is your fault, so just clean up what's left of your latest psychopathic pet."
"Whoever did this did a damn good job," Fury said, noting the melted remnants of Technovore as several agents of S.H.I.E.L.D loaded it onto the parked Helicarrier.
"If the Runaways did that, we have more reason to bring them in," Captain America said, ignoring Hawkeye's eye roll.
"Cap, we have eyewitness reports," Fury corrected. "One of the Runaways might have been there along with Morbius, but people say that the one who turned Technovore into the third cousin of the Wicked Witch of the West was some kind of flaming skeleton biker."
"…is this town insane?" Iron Man asked.
"Tony, you see the kinds of things we deal with," Captain America said. "How hard can it be to believe in a flaming skeleton biker, far-fetched as it may seem?"
He turned to Fury.
"Anything on this biker?" he asked.
"Actually, yes," Fury said, holding out a folder that Captain America promptly looked through. Inside were pictures of Ghost Rider, along with a picture of a cocky-looking man. "Name's Johnny Blaze, goes by the alias of Ghost Rider. He made a deal with some demon named Mephisto to cure his dad's cancer. In exchange, Blaze was turned into a flaming skeleton biker that fits the eyewitnesses' descriptions."
"Think we could recruit him?" Captain America asked.
"You seriously want to after what happened with Morbius?" Fury asked. "I doubt Blaze would join up, anyway. He's pretty much obsessed with protecting the innocent, and I doubt he'd waste his time with supervillains unless they were serial killers of some kind."
"Maybe so," Captain America said as he handed Fury back the folder. "I just hope the Runaways don't believe us responsible for Technovore's attack."
"Well, if someone didn't throw them in foster care," said Hawkeye, "they might actually have a reason to believe we wouldn't."
"Come on, let's get back to New York," Fury said. "No telling when some nutjob supervillain will pop up and blow something up in this town."
Inside the Helicarrier, however, Technovore's remains began to stir slightly.
****
DUN DUN DUN!
Actually, Technovore might not reappear in this story, but you may just see a reappearance from it someday...