[center][img]https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/552541122153414703/873121320722890772/rsz_1rsz_raven3.png[/img][/center] [Sub]Previously: [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5288268]Something Begins[/url][right] Chapter 3: The Caretaker And How Raven Got Her Wheels[/right][/sub] [color=8666C6]Raven[/color] [color=D3C90E]Ghost Rider[/color] [color=FFBF00]Johnny[/color] She was terrified and all alone, covered in blood and gore. The young girl could barely move after that night, she couldn't eat and she couldn't sleep. The only thing going on in her head was a incredibly strong scent. It smelled like iron and brimstone. Like blood and fire. Soot and sorrow. Hiding in a pair of sweatpants and a oversized hoodie she had stolen from the church lost and found, she was constantly shaking. Her skin as pale as it could be. Yet, that smell in her head, it dug it's way to the deepest parts of her mind. To her very core she felt it. Once upon a time, Raven had been a member of the Teen Titans, a premier teenaged superhero who had rubbed elbows with the Robins and wonderboys of ages past. With that came a certain amount of knowledge. She knew of the lords of orders and chaos, she was acquainted with the Zatara family and she knew full well of the once regal knight known since Camelot as Jason Blood. And it was in one of his archives that she had broken in, frail and her magic as weak as it had ever been, she managed to undo Blood's rudimentary safeguards. She was deep in Texas middle of nowhere, nose to the tomes of old. There she found it. Mentions of the being that was calling her. The very same essence that she had made a deal with to spare her body and mind - fate of the world, from the wrath of her father. The spirit of Vengeance. Blood had made translations of the ancient language, enochian alphabet was as far as Raven could identify it. She certainly should've paid more attention in rune-class back in Azarath. While reading his translations, she found out that this spirit was a part of some incomprehensible host of the heavens, a counterpart to demonic entities, the purest manifestation of justice. Yet, Blood's had made personal notes in his translations that this spirit of Vengeance wasn't such justice at all. Tainted by humanity and it's sin, the spirit was far more like divine wrath. Blood speculated that this very spirit would be enough to slay the demon who inhabited his body. A theory that Raven's predicament seemingly has proven true for she couldn't feel her father's touch upon her mind anymore. Jason had tried to search this spirit out, finding out it inhabited a human host at the time. [b]Jonathon Blaze.[/b] [hr] The bus stopped and out stepped the beat up, worn out 16 year old girl. The busdriver wished her a safe hike, which she absent mindidly ignored. That burning in her chest was ever bigger, greater now than it had ever been before. She still could only smell and taste blood and brimstone. Yet, this burning feeling felt... familiar to her. Something in her was calling home. Casting a locator spell, she managed to visualize a trail in her mind's eye, generating a path she could follow through the wildlands in the southern part of the country. The hike was long and took many hours, her feet hurt when she finally arrived to a seemingly abandoned ranch, built on an old church. The meager two cows that made up the cattle walked in what had once been a graveyard. She trespassed ever so carefully, making her way into the main building, the former church was in ruin, yet someone had built a makeshift house out of the ruins, closing off some parts of it. Raven knocked on the door, which with great labor, came open at the slightest touch from the young sorceress. On the walls were runes, pentagrams and Eyes Of Solomon. All of which were deeply powerful magical protection, or at least once upon a time they had been. She took another step, only to get knocked off her feet by the wooden stock of a gun being smacked in her face. Landing on her back, Raven got the wind knocked out of her as the larger figure in front of her stood wide-legged in front of her. Grabbed her by the collar and pusher her up against the wall, as she was pinned to the wall, the pentagram on it started to glow, and she felt what little strength she had left start to leave her. The sawed off shotgun was put to her face as the man who's breath smelled of whiskey and tar spoke. [color=FFBF00]"You evil son of a bitch!"[/color] He spat out. Raven grimaced, trying to break free. [color=8666C6]"Who the hell are y-"[/color] Raven was interrupted by the man's grip tightening. [color=FFBF00]"You were not supposed to come back, ever! I gave everything to keep it that way. I stopped Ketch for you! That was the deal!"[/color] He shouted, all of it was nonsense to the purple-clad former heroine. [color=FFBF00]"Goddamit, I killed the black host. I killed my own brother! And now what?! This girl wiffs of some crusty low-level demonic minions and you come running back?! So fucking ready to get kneedeep in blood again?!"[/color] He shouted, a rage Raven could barely recognize in a man. Yet, that was it. Barely. She could recognize it. She had felt it. That night, the night she died. [i]She[/i] was that angry. The man's arm was trembling, Raven felt her body grow stronger as a voice erupted from deep within her, her eyes glowing with flame. [b][color=D3C90E]"The girl is needed. She chose this, to prevent the rise of pure evil."[/color][/b] [color=FFBF00]"Chose this?! OH yeah, same was I or Danny did when we were bleeding to death because some satanist punks thought they could get a better SAT score if they slit our throats?! "[/color] He continued shouting, god, he was so incredibly angry. The few not broken windows in the church shook at his voice. Raven's eyes started glowing more intensively, and the magical trap that bound her erupted into an ember, sizzling out as the girl was freed. With one hand, she pushed the man away from her, he slid on the hardwood floor, gritting his teeth, hand clutching the shotgun in his hand. Raven landed gracefully on the floor, holding up her hand, small fragments of the skin on her hand was flaking off, erupting into flames as it did. [b][color=D3C90E]"You served well, Johnny. Even when your brother betrayed us and threatened all of creation, you played your part. A soldier finer than all others."[/color][/b] [color=FFBF00]"A soldier? A soldier?! Are you fucking shitting me?! I killed Lucifer. A hundred times! I sent every evil piece of shit that ever crawled up from that hellhole back into the brimstone. I know where your road leads, and I'm not gonna let some girl ride shotgun while you take her for a ride"[/color] Cotninuing screaming, he aimed the gun at the burning girl. [color=FFBF00]"I killed my own brother for you!"[/color] Unable to pull the trigger as his hand was quivering. Gritting his teeth, Johnny Blaze tossed the shotgun to the side and bowed his head. [color=FFBF00]"Take me instead. Leave her and I'll be the rider again."[/color] Johnny solemnly asked. Raven felt a pang in her chest, her empath magic picking up on all of the sadness that decision came with. All of this burning rage Johnny had was born from sorrow. If she was still able to, the raw emotion would've been enough to make her cry. Raven was engulfed in fire as she started to float in the room, flames creeping around her as the voice coming from deep within her spoke with greater intensity, creating powerful gusts that blew Johnny's hair and black coat back. He gritted his teeth. [b][color=D3C90E]"This isn't your fight Johnny. You already played your part. Destiny calls for this witch."[/color][/b] And with that judgement, the fire went out and Raven collapsed on the floor, Johnny quickly grabbed her and would become her caretaker, same way others had for him in the past. [hr] Three weeks had gone-by, Johnny had nursed Raven back to health. Telling her old stories about his days as the rider. Some of them were too tall to believe. How he fought demons, ghouls, vampires, devils and even angels. He told him what he knew about the spirit of vengeance, or at least all he wanted to share. [color=FFBF00]"You're the last one, Raven. I thought I was, but seems the world has need for one last stringer. When I started, well... It was different. There were more of us. There always had been. Things got complicated and really, really bloody."[/color] [color=8666C6]"Danny was a rider as well, right?"[/color] Raven asked and Johnny nodded. [color=FFBF00]"Yeah, Ketch was a rider all right. Best there had ever been. First one to lose his grace, too. To truly fall. See, we always thought the Ghost Rider was a demon punishing the wicked. But... Well, there's more to it. I don't quite know what it is myself, either. Just that it's powerful. Powerful enough to, in the wrong hands, rule all of creation."[/color] [color=8666C6]"Those 'wrong hands' were Danny's, I assume?" [/color] [color=FFBF00]"As wrong as it got. He killed every other rider and stole their power. When I beat him, I locked the spirit away, in heaven. Promised that in exchange for my brother's life and his soul, the spirit would never again find itself on earth. Clearly, bargaining with it wasn't a good idea."[/color] Johnny said, sighing. He nodded over at the barn, Raven peered, contemplating her own position in all of this. [color=FFBF00]"I dug something up for you. Promised I'd never use it again, and well, this ain't breaking my promise."[/color] The duo walked over the barn, revealing a vehicle covered in cloth. Dramatically, Johnny spoke, putting his hand on the dusty cloth. [color=FFBF00]"Being the Ghost Rider, it's like being changed to a comet. That's why I'm making sure you've got wheels fast enough to keep up."[/color] He pulled the tarp off, revealing the very same bike he had ridden on many years ago. [hr] [right] New York City 2 Years Later[/right] Stopping the bike at the top of the hill, the woman wearing the long leather coat stepped off, putting down the kickstand. Taking off her black and purple helmet, she revealed her still pale face, purple hair blowing in the wind. The gem on her forehead revealing her identity as Raven, the former daughter of Trigon. That wasn't who she was anymore. She had hidden herself away, dealing with the very worst dregs of creation. Yet, as she watched the portal open above the biggest city on the planet she realized that this was the time to make her reappearance into to world. [color=8666C6]"Haven't seen hell pour out of the sky before... That's new."[/color] The witch stated, holding her helmet by her side as she looked on at the invasion beginning above the city. The blood of innocents being spilt made the spirit grow stronger. Vengeance would have to claim it's due.