Ah, the wild world of México State... There are more people here than anywhere else in the Mexican States...including Mexico City.
Here, the federales are almost always on patrol. They have to be. The black market here rivals the police. Both forces also have several spies in their respective enemies' ranks...
Cuffed to a chair in a federales' station, Robbie Reyes thinks he can sense the presence of several black market moles in cop's clothing. Alas, he'd hate to point fingers before he's sure...
But then, having a Spirit of Vengeance within you has its advantages. In this case, the SV is telling Robbie that the cop there, there, and there are ALL working for the black market. Also, one of them has a resume. It's not very long, but... For him, Mephisto reserves judgment...
And one night, Robbie will exact that judgement, when the SV rides him into battle...as he himself rides a Dodge Charger into the same. Alas, it's broad daylight. Plus, Robbie has a life to live away from the duties of the Ghost Rider.
That mole should consider himself lucky. Even so, he'd BETTER enjoy his last days in the real world while they last... Robbie and the SV both SO wish they didn't have to...
Robbie's hair keeps itching. He hates having to scratch his head. He hates it more when his hair itches. He knows he shouldn't scratch too much. He's just sad that one of the SV's many talents ISN'T hair maintenance...
At last, the hot she-detective comes back to her desk, and un-cuffs him. "Congrats, Sr. Reyes," she says. "You've been cleared. We've no evidence that you pitilessly slaughtered the Aryan Brotherhood in one big drove between the warehouses in the industrial parks."
"Gracias." Robbie stands, and turns to leave...
"Oh, and Sr. Reyes? There's one more thing."
Robbie stops. In him, the SV's tempted to burn off the surface of Robbie's head, and come out of hiding. Too bad the SV won't be able to shave Robbie while doing so...
"I recommend getting a haircut," she tells him. "As much as I admire men with too much hair on their heads, that does NOT look good on you."
Robbie sighs, and leaves. He should be more relieved. Alas, when the activists lobby Robbie into getting a haircut, there's only so much Robbie can do to get them to stop rallying.
Funny; as Ghost Rider, Robbie can send entire armies of criminals to Hell...but he can't get the fashion police to stop telling him to get a haircut...
Ray Stevens, Robbie's gonna hate this...
High in the Sierra Madres, there are dry softwood forests. They're isolated and wild, in contrast to México State and Mexico City. Alas, Robbie WISHES he was coming up here to prospect for gold, like in Treasure of the Sierra Madre...
Up here, there's a mutant barber. He lives in a log cottage. Tree stumps surround it. As high up as this is, it's not too high up for trees to grow...or get chopped down.
Behind the cottage, there are sheds. In here, Sr. Puente keeps a lot of weaponry. Somehow, he's got AKMs and AK-74s. And land mines of all kinds. And grenades of all kinds...
As of now, Sr. Puente does pull-ups, between a pair of trees. He's a mutant with a superhuman condition. In the field, they call him Warpath. But today, he'll be just a barber...as soon as his client arrives.
Downhill, a dirt road dead ends. A Dodge Charger arrives speedily, turns in a half-circle, shrieks with its brakes, and parks. From the driver door, Robbie dismounts.
Swinging a short chain around like a lasso, Robbie begins his way uphill...towards Sr. Puente's cottage. It's a long uphill hike. Good thing Robbie's never had to banish anyone to hell up here... Although personally, he's always had a Treasure of the Sierra Madre fantasy he's wanted to sate...
Past him, a Gila monster crawls. Robbie scoffs. He feels like he's among gold prospectors already... Good thing the banditos don't swarm up here, lay siege to him, and say, "badges?! What badges?! We don't need no stinking badges!"
At last, Robbie's sitting in the barber chair...in one of Sr. Puente's sheds. From the walls, many weapons hang. A lot of them are Slavic imports.
Sr. Puente seems to have an affinity for vibranium Bowie knives. Robbie would hate to think that his barber plans to cut his hair with a pair of THOSE...
Alas, Sr. Puente does worse. He takes up two pairs of vibranium Bowie knives, and uses them to stake Robbie's long sleeves and long pants to the barber chair.
For now, Sr. Puente just wears a black shirt. Alas, he takes the shirt off to do this...which would be bad enough. Alas, he's got a huge tattoo across his chest that says I HATE DENSITY-SHIFTERS.
NOW Robbie feels like panicking. Inside him, SV does too...a bit. As Ghost Rider, Robbie can change his own density.
Sr. Puente's got a nice six-pack. And as a Latino, his body is permanently-tanned. He's half-Apache. So, he crosses his bulky arms, grins, and asks, "Que pasa?"
In similar sitches at work, the SV would burn off the surface of Robbie's head, and launch Robbie into action as the Ghost Rider...complete with a hellfire chain. Initially, of course, Robbie mentally asks SV for that kind of help.
Alas, SV merely assures him that Robbie's got no defensive to go on. He's not a bad man. He's just a simple little corpse. He wields his little hellfire chain, defends his little homefolk, and sends big people to Hell.
Unable to tell the truth, Robbie improvises a lie. "I'm a trailblazer," he says. "I go into wild spots where the grass is overgrown. I use vibranium machetes to clear all of that out. Once it's cleared, we burn what's left. If the grass ever grows back, or if the trail doesn't get used as much as we expect, depending on how much we're paid, we do it all over again...from start to end."
Sr. Puente smiles, takes up his vibranium-bladed razors, and gets to work cutting Robbie's hair.
In the end, as Robbie's lumbering downhill away from Sr. Puente's cottage, his hair is like a reverse-Mohawk. He feels like the Warpath's just carved his own warpath over his head...
Good thing it wasn't an actual war. He would've had to find out about Robbie's powers as Ghost Rider in order to do that...if he didn't know... But then, why didn't he kill Robbie?
Alas, if this new haircut punishes Robbie as much as he thinks it will, it's possible that Sr. Puente would've thought that killing Robbie would've been unnecessary, considering all of the torture Robbie will have to soak up in the years to come...at work, as well as at home...
