Sorcerer in the Marvel Universe

Melinda was completely pinned down.

Several assault rifles were pouring rounds into the vehicle she was using for cover, forcing her to stay flat behind it without so much as lifting her head.

Evenson’s first-stage enhancement had made her stronger, faster, and tougher than an ordinary human.

It had not, however, made her bulletproof.

So, in perfectly reasonable terms, the situation was entirely normal.

It had absolutely nothing to do with Evenson’s earlier tendency to tempt fate with his commentary.

Carrigan and his men maintained their suppressive fire as they slowly advanced.

They worked together with surprising discipline. Even when someone needed to reload, another gun immediately took over. At no point did their barrage completely stop.

But once they reached a certain distance, they stopped advancing.

Melinda’s aerial assault had left a deep impression.

So had the stone she’d turned into a miniature incendiary weapon.

Those attacks had the same terrifying effect as white-phosphorus rounds, and none of the mercenaries had any desire to fight her at close range.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t simply leave her behind and walk away.

They were dressed in civilian clothing, which meant they had only brought a limited amount of ammunition.

They couldn’t maintain this level of suppressive fire indefinitely.

The moment they ran dry, or even allowed a gap to appear in their barrage, Melinda would come charging out and turn them into sliced meat or piles of ash.

Carrigan made a decision.

He gave his men a quick signal.

The firing stopped.

The mercenaries immediately divided into two groups and began advancing from opposite sides, moving left and right around the vehicle in an attempt to encircle Melinda.

Melinda had anticipated exactly that.

When it came to combat experience, the SHIELD operative known as Iron Cavalry had spent far more time in the field than Carrigan’s hired guns.

She quietly placed her goggles on the ground.

Their reflective lenses gave her just enough of a distorted view to track the approaching men without exposing herself.

Then she drove her hunting knife into the ground in front of her.

With both hands, she picked up two stones.

Green markings instantly spread across their surfaces.

Thin wisps of sulfurous smoke curled from the rocks.

They were charged.

When Carrigan’s men came close enough, she would throw both stones.

The resulting flames and explosions wouldn’t just kill some of them. They would create the confusion she needed.

The chaos might last only a second.

One second was enough.

She would pull the hunting knife from the ground and finish the survivors.

If that didn’t work, she could still charge into the middle of them, use their bodies as cover, and pick them off one by one.

There was just one small detail.

She needed Carrigan and his right-hand man alive.

Unfortunately, Melinda never got the chance to execute her brilliant plan.

Just before she made her move, a long, inhuman howl tore through the night.

Then came an explosion.

Something massive slammed into the ground.

Melinda froze.

The power inside her suddenly stirred.

Her body trembled with an almost involuntary excitement, and a strange sensation rose from somewhere deep inside her.

It felt like...

Her eyes grew unfocused.

She unconsciously licked her lips.

"Hunger..."

"Wait."

Melinda violently shook her head, snapping herself out of the bizarre state.

She glanced toward her goggles.

Sure enough, Carrigan’s men had stopped advancing.

Something was standing behind them.

A brilliant yellow-orange blaze illuminated the darkness.

Melinda’s expression changed.

"Ghost Rider..."

She understood what had just happened.

Her powers came from Ghost Rider.

His presence had triggered a response in the power she’d received.

But it wasn’t the power yearning to return to its original master.

It wanted something else.

It wanted to consume him.

Since Carrigan’s attention was no longer focused on her, Melinda cautiously raised her head and looked over the vehicle.

Then she stared.

Something about Ghost Rider looked wrong.

He was different from the last time she’d seen him.

His leather clothing was visibly suffering beneath the intense heat radiating from his body. The material was bubbling and warping.

But that wasn’t the strangest part.

Ghost Rider simply stood there.

He wasn’t attacking.

He wasn’t speaking.

He was just swaying slightly, striking an oddly dramatic pose.

He looked like someone who had taken far too many questionable substances and forgotten where he was.

Melinda’s eyes drifted downward.

Then she understood.

And suddenly, a childhood memory surfaced.

Her father had once told her stories about legendary figures from ancient mythology.

One in particular came to mind.

The divine warrior who commanded tremendous power and rode upon blazing wheels.

The Third Prince of the Sea.

Nezha.

Melinda’s expression became increasingly strange.

Then Evenson’s voice suddenly sounded inside her mind through their mental link.

"Melinda."

She could practically hear the curiosity in his voice.

"How exactly did Ghost Rider get here?"

A pause.

"And what’s he riding?"

From the aircraft, Evenson was looking at a distant overhead feed.

The distance made the details difficult to make out.

All he could see was Ghost Rider standing with his legs completely still while something beneath him carried him forward at incredible speed, trailing fire across the ground.

It was bizarre.

What had Ghost Rider found for a new mount?

And, judging from the strange feeling he was getting, Evenson wasn’t the only person desperately curious about the answer.

"He..."

Melinda sounded exhausted.

"He came here on flaming wheels."

Silence.

"...Excuse me?"

Ghost Rider stood in the middle of the road.

Unlike before, flames were now burning beneath his feet.

Inside the fire, two wheels could just barely be seen.

Silver skulls with burning eyes were mounted one behind the other, rising from the flames and locking neatly around his feet.

They were unmistakably a pair of roller skates.

Very heavily modified roller skates.

Ghost Rider had suffered enough humiliation for one day.

After transforming, his first instinct had been to find his motorcycle.

Unfortunately, his motorcycle had been blown into scrap metal earlier that day.

The Ghost Rider might be immune to death, but even supernatural immortality couldn’t turn half a destroyed handlebar into a functioning motorcycle.

So he’d been forced to travel on foot while searching for a replacement.

Unfortunately, Johnny had deliberately chosen an isolated hiding place.

Ghost Rider walked several miles without finding a single usable vehicle.

Then fortune finally smiled upon him.

He discovered an outdoor extreme-sports park that stayed open late into the night.

A group of teenagers were still awake, blasting music while skating, riding small bicycles, and launching themselves off ramps.

Ghost Rider immediately decided he’d found his new ride.

He dropped into the park.

He also put an immediate end to their noise.

The teenagers took one look at the flaming skull descending from the darkness and fled.

Several of them probably needed to change their underwear afterward.

Ghost Rider initially considered one of the bicycles.

After all, it had two wheels, just like his motorcycle.

But he still had some dignity.

The thing wasn’t even tall enough to reach his waist.

Trying to ride it would leave him frantically pedaling with his knees practically against his chest.

At that point, there’d be no need to fight anyone.

He’d simply let his enemies laugh themselves to death.

So his attention shifted to the roller skates.

He vaguely remembered watching an animated show during one of those bleak periods of his life when he’d spent far too much time staring at cartoons.

There had been some legendary foreign hero in it.

A warrior who could slay dragons and command the seas while riding on exactly this kind of thing.

So, as far as Ghost Rider was concerned, there was absolutely nothing embarrassing about it.

He had found his new ride.

And it had wheels.

That was all that mattered.

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