Chapter 4
Case 2-2: The Ghost Rider (Part 2)
Shinjuku Abandoned Zone – Halphas's Weapon Tower
'And now for the boss…' The Ghost Rider thought in anticipation as he opened the door that led to the rooftop. The door swung noisily and the cold wind brushed hard against him. Flames around his head grew larger as the wind fuels it. He scanned the area, letting the lights of the abandoned zone dance and surround him.
And then he stopped after he saw his target. Halphas stood a couple of meters away from him. He was wearing a grey muscle shirt and camouflage pants. His white hair moved as the wind brushed passed him and his grey eyes stared at the Ghost Rider with deadly intent. A pretentious smirk was etched across his hardened face.
"Hello there, Ghost Rider. Or should I call you by your real name?" he said in an arrogant tone. The Ghost Rider growled at him and took a step forward.
"Reveal your true form, Halphas." He threatened, his hellfire shotguns materialized in his hands.
"Ugh…fine, Your Majesty." Halphas bowed in a mocking way and then a sharp line appeared on his face. The cracks lined up and crawled all throughout his body. Halphas's human skin crumbled as he slowly grew larger. His human face morphed into a beak, his grey eyes became sharper and much rounder. His muscles made a sickening sound of snapping apart as he grew, black fur emerged and replaced his human skin. Feathery black wings spread wide on his back and the Devil Stork towered over the Ghost Rider.
Halphas, according to what the Ghost Rider had heard from other demons in hell, was a Stork with black feathery wings. He was famous for his sadistic nature, but he was also famous for one other thing.
"Now then…you like what you see?" his voice became hoarse as if it came from the deepest part of the earth.
Johnny tilted his head, judging the seven-foot devil, and then shrugged his shoulders, muttering in an unamazed way. "Meh, Storks like you aren't appetizing enough."
Halphas roared loudly like an eagle and moved his wings with tremendous force. Rocket launchers suddenly appeared and hovered behind him. At this instant, the Ghost Rider remembered the other rumors that he had heard. Halphas was Mephistopheles's weapons supplier and manufacturer for his underlings. He loved collecting…and making weapons.
"Oh…shit." The Ghost Rider cursed grimly as Halphas waved his right hand. The rocket launchers burst and flew towards him.
The Ghost Rider ran to the sides, avoiding each of the rockets. Explosions rocked the whole building, debris falling to the sidewalk below. Crap! The Ghost Rider jumped and rolled on the ground towards a pillar.
'Ok back up plan-' But before he could think more, the pillar exploded and the forced of the explosion propelled him towards the edge of the building. Damn it! He flicked his right hand, summoning his chain which then attached to the building's ledge as his body flew over the edge, and dangled dangerously high from the ground.
"Tch. Lucky shot-"
"Do you need a hand?" The Ghost Rider was startled after he felt his chain tugged. He looked up and saw Halphas holding the other end of his chain and he was smiling wickedly, like the former king of hell was nothing but delicious bird food.
The Ghost Rider growled and activated one of his spells. Flames engulfed the chains but nothing happened. "Ha! I am Halphas, the weapon master of hell. I know every weapon and their weaknesses…and that includes your Hellfire chains!" Halphas laughed and showed his hands. They were both wrapped in gloves made out of chain-mail and imbued with hell magic, protecting him from his hellfire. He then swung the chain playfully like it was a yo-yo.
The Ghost Rider, angered by what Halphas was doing to him, landed his foot on the walls of the building and then forcefully pushed himself. He pitched and rolled on mid-air, but the great earl of hell had predicted such action, he pulled the man with force towards him and punched him right into his guts.
"Augh-!" The Burning Rider let out a strained cry and fell to the floor. But the Devil count wasn't finished yet. He quickly bent and wrapped the chains around the Ghost Rider's neck.
"Going up!" he said energetically before thrusting upward. The Demonic count soared up, dragging the former king of hell with him.
"Damn it!" the Ghost Rider cursed and stretched out his left hand, moving his index finger in a pattern, but cried out as Halphas tugged him hard.
"Now going down!" Halphas screamed in pleasure as he swooped down towards the city. The Ghost Rider roared in defiance. The streets of the city below them was filled with moving vehicles. The Demonic count then, before reaching the ground, veered and leveled above a road. The Ghost Rider smacked the pavement with a loud bang.
"Let's have a drive by, shall we!?" Halphas sneered and flew speedily while still tugging the Ghost Rider. Vehicles careened and stopped as the vengeful ghost crashed and smash into them like they were bumper cars.
"Shit—agh-!" The Ghost Rider groaned and tightened his right hand around the chain. Pain pierced his body and it slowly numbed him. 'Must. Not. Let. Go!' he screamed mentally as he crashed on the windshield of a bus, towed again, and then slammed right into a hood of a car.
The devil count checked behind him and snickered at the sorry state of the Ghost Rider. 'Heh, the rumors were true. Johnny Blaze is no longer the strongest Ghost Rider. Trapping him is gonna be easy!' He smiled from ear to ear at the thought.
MWPSB – Lobby Floor
'Today's investigation was a bust.' Arata thought heavily. He was walking across the lobby of the Public Safety Bureau building. He made a heavy yawn as he glanced at the large mantle clock on the wall to his left. The night was already deep. The moon was already high in the sky.
"Maybe, I need to look at these in another angle?" Today's investigation didn't give him answers. Theories and more questions only formed in his mind, which displeased Arata more.
"Hmm?" He was disturbed when his device rang. It was Kei and he immediately answered.
"Oh hey, Kei just got checked out-"
"Arata, we have an emergency: the chief is deploying all of the available inspectors and enforcers right now!" Kei said in a rush, which confused the inspector. What the hell's happening?
"Kei, what-?" He was about to ask, but his partner quickly answered him.
"The Ghost Rider has appeared. He's in Shibuya crossing!" Arata stopped his breath for a moment. The Ghost Rider was on the move. He wasn't expecting him to appear right now.
"I'm coming with you!" he said and dashed immediately towards the elevator.
Shibuya Crossing
Halphas soared speedily above the Tokyo's famous crossing, the Shibuya Crossing. The Shibuya crossing was one of the busiest crossing intersections in the world. Hundreds, if not, thousands of people crossed the street every day. And tonight was no exception.
"Ain't this a beauty eh, Ghost Rider?" Halphas said in amazement. He always crossed here every time before, but this was the first time that he saw the place from high altitude. The view was stunning and breathtaking. The Ghost Rider below him grasped around the chains tightly. Flames sprouted and crawled towards the other end. But again, nothing happened. Halphas's magic chain mail gloves deflected his hellfire.
Halphas sighed to the Ghost Rider's poor attack. "How rude of me. You wanna look at the Shibuya Crossing up close right?" He let out a chuckle before diving down.
'I'm going to hit-!' The Ghost Rider rotated his body so that his back would absorb the impact. He landed on the middle of the intersection with a loud smack. A crater was formed underneath him, and the flames around his skull died down.
The busy crowd suddenly stopped as everyone looked at him. His sudden appearance had made everyone stand still in shock.
"Augh…" A low painful moan escaped from the Ghost Rider's teeth. Soreness ate his bones, which slowly turned numb as he tried to move. "Fucking hell…!" He then thrust his upper body up and rotated his shoulders, groaning about his injured back. The flames around his skull returned together with his sense of hearing, which then began to pick up loud and horrified screams.
'Huh? Oh right, I crash landed,' he remembered, momentarily, and looked around. The people around the intersection ran like spooked mice. A lot of them sprinted away from the creepy looking Ghost Rider while most of them were gathered on the sidewalk, creating a large encirclement in the intersection.
"Hmm, now I'm noticed." He said in amusement, after seeing a lot of them were hovering their phones, taking pictures or recording videos of him. 'Heh, make sure that I'll look good on those-ack!' The chains around the Ghost Rider's neck jerked him up, making him yelp. He looked begrudgingly at Halphas. He had completely forgotten that he was still tied to him.
"Hoh, now the whole world knows about you, Ghost Rider, perhaps you would like to say hello?" Halphas hovered in mid-air, ignoring the frightened crowd and their phone cameras below. The Ghost Rider looked down to the ground, seemingly in deep thought, and then a low chuckle poured out his mouth.
'He's laughing?' A foreboding feeling formed inside the Devil count. He tightened his hands around the chains, startled from the man's unexpected reaction. The Ghost Rider's chuckle became a maddened cackle before he stopped and flashed his right index finger at him.
"Fool, you think you got me just because you tied my own mystical chains around my neck?" He stared at him and snickered as Halphas's face turned into an ugly irate frown, clearly clueless to what would happen next.
"You know, Halphas…my hellfire chains are just one of my favorite weapons."
Halphas's eyes then widened in a doom realization, 'I haven't seen his motorcycle!' "Wait where's your fiendish motorcycle-" And, like it was on queue, Halphas was suddenly shoved to the ground. His body smacked hard on the pavement as the Ghost Rider's motorcycle hit his back squarely.
"Hello, my old friend!" The Ghost rasped the words lavishly as his bike responded by revving its engines. The Ghost Rider's bike was absolutely nothing of this world. It was all colored black. Its headlight was a skull and lights were coming out of its socket as if it was its own eyes. But the most amazing detail was its wheels – both were on fire.
"Agh!" Halphas let out an agonizing cry as the wheels grinded his skin and muscles, dislocating both of his wings. The motorcycle moved and maneuvered beside the Ghost Rider.
"How-?!"
"I planned it all from the very beginning." The chains slithered out of the Count's hand and snaked towards the Ghost Rider's chest and left shoulder. "I know you, Halphas. You love to torture your victims like they're playthings. Truly you're Mephisto's henchman. You love flying and being a show off." He then walked slowly towards the downed devil and towered over him. "All I need is…for you to put me on the ground so that I could call my loyal stead." he said with a raspy, gladdened, deep voice.
"Now…let's have a drive by, shall we?" He yanked his chains again and it speedily crawled and wrapped around Halphas. The poor devil cried in a helpless manner as the Ghost Rider moved and sat on his bike. The flames around the wheels shoot out, welcoming his master's presence.
He attached the other end of his chain on the back of his bike, revved up the engines, but stopped after he noticed a small boy on his right standing on the side walked with his phone pointing at him, mouth opened in awe and shock. He stared at him for a moment before he pointed his bony right index finger at his camera.
"Sybil System sucks!" He laughed manically as the boy smiled happily before he revved his engines and took off, dragging the chained up Halphas who began to scream for his life.
Elevated Highway No ####
Kei swerved madly to the right as Arata pressed his device and talked to Shion on the other end. "Shion-san, is our drones picking him up?"
"Wait a second…he just entered the elevated highway no ####." Shion dictated. She looked through the drone camera and then was startled. "He's right behind you…and he seems to be dragging something-"
"Whoa!" Kei shouted as his car shook. The Ghost Rider shot passed on their left. The engines of his Hell Cycle roared loudly as the wheels throttled him forward, leaving a burning trace on the pavement.
"Is that-?"
"Yes, that's him! And he's dragging something." Kei said in anger. He pressed his device and called Shion again. "Try to block him, send at least fifty droid blockers!" he ordered as the analyst replied.
"Sybil had done that. The Highway is now blocked."
Arata looked behind him and saw the police wagon trailing them. He pressed his device and called one of the enforcers. "Are you guys ok back there?" he asked as Irie boomed in to his Device's speaker.
"Of course, we are! All four of us are excited to bring him down!"
"No, you're the only one who's excited," Mao said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Arata grinned at the enforcers' riled up spirits. "Ok, a short briefing: Capture Ghost Rider alive!" he ordered and the whole Unit 1 enforcers answered him back.
"Yes sir!"
The Ghost Rider thundered down the highway. The flames on his head moved and swayed violently, the air fueling it more. Behind him, Halphas stopped his screaming a long time ago. His eyes were closed and his mouth only let out several sharp gasp and grunts of agony.
"No…stop…please." Halphas tried to speak the words but his pleas had fallen in deaf ears.
'No, why would I stop? You're a demon, you don't deserve this world.' The Ghost Rider thought coldly. And then he pulled his brakes, his hell cycle rattling and stopping.
"Tch. Really?" His eyes focused and zoomed in front. One hundred meters away from him was a row of droid blocker. The Sybil system must have detected him and it pissed him off. He spat an ember on the ground before he pulled the throttle of his Hell Cycle and took off.
"Halt, in the name of the law!" The Droid blockers announced, but it only made the Ghost Rider rev his engines more.
"Halt, in the name of the-"
The Ghost Rider slammed into the first row, metallic sounds of clashing reverberated around the place. He then smashed his way through rows and rows of droid blockers like they were nothing but bowling pins. All were trying to stop him, but the Ghost Rider only flipped his left third finger and cackled madly.
"Strike bitches!"
He continued and boosted more speed towards the end of the highway.
"He what?!" Kei exclaimed loudly as Shion, on the other end of the line, reported to him.
"He smashed right through them. He has now exited the highway." She typed into her computer and tried to predict the Ghost Rider's route. "It looks like he's going to the North Pier."
'North Pier?' Arata thought as he pressed his device and looked through the maps. "Is that place abandoned?"
"Yes." Shion answered as the inspector closed his device and turned to Kei.
"We got him. The road ends there." He said in pure determination and looked in front. 'I'll get you this time Ghost Rider.'
North Pier – Abandoned Warehouse
The Ghost Rider burst right through the metallic door of an abandoned warehouse. The engines of his Hell-cycle resounded through the walls of the building. He pulled his brakes, careening to a stop, and stepped down.
The North Pier was facing the opened Pacific Ocean. The lights from the city glowed dimly in the darkened ocean. This was a perfect place to interrogate Halphas. He looked behind him and saw the Devil count moving his shoulders around his chain. He was weak and the Ghost Rider detected it.
"Augh…" Halphas moaned in agony as the chains slowly unfurled on his body. The chains retreated on the Ghost Riders right wrist and the man walked towards him. The Devil gasped in ache as the man took him by his neck and started dragging him across the dirty floor.
"Now, let's begin our date!" The Ghost Rider snarled and lifted the poor Devil with his right hand before slamming him into the wall. Halphas let out a strained choke and looked down at the Ghost Rider.
"The other counts, are they also here?" Ghost Rider began as the Devil slowly retreated to his human form. He shouted in pain again as the Ghost Rider slammed him into the wall again. "I didn't tell you to change."
"Pl-please…I am weak already." Halphas begged and held onto the man's right forearm. "I'll tell you everything, just put me down first." He added while his voice shouted poorly. The Ghost saw the he was telling the truth. He let him go and Halphas grasped loudly, breathing the dirty air around him.
Silence loomed between the two and it unnerved the Ghost Rider more. He was about to roar when the Devil looked at him again. This time, his eyes were sad and his lips form a desperate smile.
"I am sure you have seen it in me, that I don't really have any intention to kill you." The Ghost Rider paused and tilted his skull. He was puzzled to his words. 'That's true though…but…' He had seen his intentions already and it puzzled him, but Halphas was a devil. And Devils were always liars and bad. He snorted in disbelief.
"Bullshit."
"I don't need you to believe in me…the MWPSB is going to arrive here any minute, so please listen to my final words." The Ghost Rider clicked his teeth. He wanted to finish him off, and yet deep inside of him, curiosity of his last plea made him unable to do so. 'The MWPSB will arrive here in 15 minutes.' "Fine, speak."
The Ghost Rider crouched down and forged another shotgun in his left hand. He then pointed it at the Devil's head. Halphas looked at him, making sure that he would listen, and then made a mournful smile.
"All five of us Counts escaped hell after you defeated Mephisto." In a melancholic way, Halphas spoke as he looked to his right towards the open ocean. "But we knew immediately that you'd hunt us down because we swore our allegiance to Mephisto…That allegiance was a lie, it was born out of fear. Mephistopheles had tortured us endlessly so we would yield to him."
Halphas closed his eyes and his hellish memories played. The Ghost Rider was also watching his memories, but he didn't react to it.
"When you defeated him, it was a miracle to us. We escaped hell and here we lived as humans…for twenty years." He slowly shifted his dying grey eyes and stared at the Ghost Rider. "It feels nice to live like humans. I thought they were useless, but after I got the taste of their life, I began to regret belittling them." Halphas' smile changed to serene and he glanced down to the ground, reminiscing his human life. "I never ate nor possessed any humans after I came here. Though there were times that I'd done something bad, but those are just situations where my survival or disguise was threatened. Those are my only sins in this world." He looked up again to the Ghost Rider. The man hadn't moved his shotgun out of his face, but Halphas saw his left index finger was not on the trigger.
"I, indeed, sold weapons of mass destruction, but during those times I also asked my buyers not to proceed into their heinous plans. I was nicknamed 'angelic mercenary' because of my naïve attitude." He let out a low keen chuckle and then coughed blood out of his mouth.
"The crime that you stopped on the Odaiba bridge. It was planned by that rookie member of mine. It was never my plan. I knew that they'd be caught by the MOFA and I'd let them to be captured." He glanced back again at the ocean and made a light, sad, laugh.
"I fell in love with someone, and then, for the first time, I also experienced my heart being broken. I met a lot of wonderful people and the same time, a lot of worst ones. I made friends that I adore and then enemies that I hate. The humans are indeed sinful and selfish…and they aren't." Halphas wheezed hard, his lungs slowly being filling with his own blood. Death was staring right into his face.
"Twenty years and I don't regret it. I love this city…therefore I will accept my death, just as long as you're the one who's going to do it." The Devil count moved his right hand and touched the Ghost Rider's shotgun.
'What is this…?!' All throughout the minute, the Ghost Rider was in disbelief to every word that Halphas had said. Even though he kept on activating his ability to read souls, the results infuriated him more. Halphas was still a Devil…with an innocent soul. He stood up and walked in a circle, temper rising as his judgment blurred into nothingness.
"Goddammit, what the hell! This could be a trick, you're tricking me, aren't you?!" He charged and shoved the shotgun at his head. "You're a demon! You deserve to be in hell! Your death through my judgment should be an everlasting cruel punishment…not some kind of shitty, cheesy, salvation!" He roared in fury. Hatred screamed in to his ember eyes.
But Halphas only sat motionless, his eyes only staring right through him and his calm smile still on his face. "To die by the hands of the Ghost Rider, the avatar of the Spirit of vengeance…is a salvation to some demons."
"Shut up! I am not your salvation! I will never be!" Ghost Rider hit Halphas' head with the butt of his shotgun and then he pointed it at him again. He wanted to end him now, but he couldn't pull the trigger. Emotions swirled violently inside him. It made his chest feel uncomfortably heavy.
'Move, press the trigger. Why won't you press the trigger? You're a Ghost Rider, right?! You condemn the sinful and bring the rampaging demons back to hell right? So why won't you now-!?'
"I'll help you." The Ghost Rider's raging thoughts were cut as he felt Halphas's right hand grab his left again. The Devil's right thumb was above his left index finger. He lowered his shotgun right into his chest and cast his one final tranquil smile. "Thank you…for listening to me." He said with a gladdened tone and then pushed the trigger.
A single shot rang out. "Wha—what-!?" His mind was still lost and everything happened so fast that he couldn't react on time. He quickly stood up and stepped back. Halphas was lying motionless on the ground, eyes still open and his face still showing his last smile.
"What the hell!?" He roared in frustration and threw his shotgun on the floor. He was so lost as to what happened. A devil had tried to trap him just so he could talk about his pathetic life and then he was 'gladdened' that he would be killed by him. No demon had ever showed this kind of reaction to him.
The mixed-up situation stirred something inside the Ghost Rider. He kneeled and grasped the air, hard. 'Why…?' His chest ached painfully as his heart, wrapped around in a web of flaming cage, beat furiously when a familiar emotion emerged from within his deep dark mind.
"This feeling…this feeling…its-!" But before he could fully remember it, the sound of a police siren echoed in front of him. Lights coming from the police car and police droids casted over him. And then a familiar voice boomed and filled his ears.
"Stay where you are, Ghost Rider!" The Ghost Rider slowly shifted his eyes and looked straight ahead. The aloof, goofy inspector, Arata, was standing beside a police car, but he wasn't alone. Twenty or more so inspectors and their enforcers were encircling him now. Their Dominators were lit and were aimed at him. True to what he expect, the whole MWPSB had just trapped him.
'Why is he kneeling?' Arata questioned the state of the Ghost Rider who then slowly shifted his head to scan everyone.
'Oh, the whole MWPSB is here huh…wow.' The Ghost Rider whistled in appraisal, completely forgetting his earlier ordeal. "Heh, like the stunt I showed to you, Inspector Goofy?" The inspector clicked his tongue, displeasure to what Ghost Rider said, and trailed the vigilante, who stood up.
"You better stay down, you monster!" Kei barked the order, but the Ghost Rider stared his uninterested eyes at him. And then he called Arata.
"Say, Inspector Goofy."
'My name is Arata!' Arata protested mentally, but instead he just let out a disappointed sigh. "What is it?"
"Despite discovering the reason of your father's suicide, which is the reason why you became an Inspector…why are you still an inspector?"
Arata's hand shook. How did he know that? Just how-" "Why on earth would you care, you crazy bastard!?" Kei roared back as his Dominator activated and scanned the Ghost Rider.
'Warning: Unidentified biological being detected. Target is not legible for enforcement. Trigger is locking.'
'I made sure my Dominator was fixed!' Kei protested as the enforcer Sho, who was standing beside him, exclaimed. "Sybil is unable to judge, Inspector!"
"I know that!"
"Hey, Arata…" he called again as the whole group winced in terror. "Answer me…please." The Inspector was puzzled by his tone. He had detected sadness hidden behind his hellish voice.
The inspector then lowered his Dominator and answered. The Ghost Rider could only read his lips, because the whirling sound of a drone helicopter flying above him drowned the inspector's words. He only tilted his head and the flames around his skull burst up.
"Ha! What a loser you are then." he said mockingly as Arata frowned.
"You asked me and then you-"
"Get down!" Kei suddenly pulled Arata to the ground, a hellish sound drumming loudly above them. The Ghost Rider's Hell-cycle revved up a police car and landed hard on the ground, surprising everyone. It then moved in a circular pattern, its wheels throwing dirt and sand at the Inspectors and enforcers, blinding them temporarily.
"Shit, he'll escape!" Arata shouted as he put his hands over his face, but then he caught a glimpse of the phantom rider. The Ghost Rider sat down and then looked back at him. "See you later, Inspector Hardy…and Nancy."
"Wha-?" Arata was confused, but before he could ask, the Hell-cycle blasted away.
"Fool, he's driving towards the ocean!" Kei answered angrily and took off. Arata immediately followed as they both ran as fast as they could.
They both watched in anticipation as the Ghost Rider reached the end of the pier. They were both going to capture him if he crashed hard into the water. But then the unexpected happened. The Ghost Rider jumped…and continued running on the surface of the sea.
"What the fuck!?" Kei and Arata exclaimed in shock as they watched the Ghost Rider thunder across the sea, his loud, lunatic, cackle reverberating everywhere.
"That-that's impossible!" Kei called in dubiety. "That's impossible!" he called again, this time his tone filled with raging fury. Arata, however, stood silence.
'Ghost Rider…who are you really?' He had heard a lot of crazy people laughing madly before, but the cackle of the ghost vigilante, despite being loud, was lonely and filled with bitterness.
MWPSB – Bureau Chief's office
Shizuka Homura watched intently at the drone footage playing on his computer. He followed the Ghost Rider as it rode across the Tokyo Bay. His right finger tapped lightly on the table, and then he clicked his tongue in irate.
"So, he got away." The footage stopped and the Bureau Chief rested his head on his seat, closing his eyes. 'After all this time…' He opened his enraged eyes suddenly and, after a second, he muttered softly and gently. "Son of a bitch!" For a long time, as long Homura could recall, he had never uttered any curse words before. He had heard them, but he never had the guts to say it out loud. This would be his first time.
Hello there, woo-hoo! Latest chapter!
Special thanks to Pure Red Crane.
Say Guys, what can you say about the Ghost Rider in this chapter? Are the Devil counts really that bad? And why is Bureau Chief seemed to bore an old anger against Johnny Blaze? And one more thing...Is Halphas the only devil that has an innocent soul?
Fine out more! Stay Tuned! Thinker Out!
Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Rider marvel comics and Psycho-Pass anime.
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