A Soul for a Demon
Normal talking: "Go Beyond, Plus Ultra!"
Thinking: 'Go Beyond, Plus Ultra!'
Over Radio/Speaker: .:Go Beyond, Plus Ultra!:.
All Might/Powerful Beings Speaking: "Go Beyond, Plus Ultra!"
All Might/Powerful Beings Thinking: ‘Go Beyond, Plus Ultra!’
All Might/Powerful Beings Over Radio/Speaker: .:Go Beyond, Plus Ultra!:.
Sound Effects: BLAM!
AIs/Computers: "Go Beyond, Plus Ultra!"
Speaking Another Language: {"Go Beyond, Plus Ultra!"}
Flect Turn leaned forward, quietly observing the engineers working below him. Edward “Eddie” Soul & Alan Kay were not willing recruits to his organization, but their skills were needed if he wanted to create the Gene Cleanser bombs. Humanity had been corrupted and tainted by Quirks, Alterations, Inhumans, and Mutations. With quirks growing stronger each day, it was only a matter of time before the world saw another reality altering Scarlet Witch, or worse, En Subah Nur’s return. Thus, their scientists created the Gene Cleanser. Through various connections in the World Hero’s Association and the criminal underworld, and using research based upon the work of Doctor Curt Conners, William Styker, and some yakuza associates in Japan, they discovered a way to wipe out the alterations of human DNA permanently.
“How much longer until completion?”
Mr. Soul looked up with a glare, hatred boring into the blue skinned man. Ever since he learned that his son had been sent to the hospital in the process of acquiring the man, the engineer had refused to speak to him. His partner, however, was willing to speak up. “Only a few more hours until the prototypes can be tested, I think.”
Flect Turn smiled. Soon, he would have the world restored to the way it should be: no gods. No devils. Only man.
No sooner did he think that when several alarms rang out across the base. “You two, with me!” Flect Turn shouted to the two scientists. Not because he cared about them, but they were vital to Humarise' mission, so they needed to be protected. The two obeyed, and soon joined the cult leader. Rushing to the security room, Flect Turn glared at the Cultists working on radio and computers. “What’s happening?”
“Sir, we’ve detected an unauthorized aircraft approaching our location on Radar!!” one member exclaimed.
“Avengers?” he asked, the member checking via an earpiece. The response, however, confused him.
“Er, no, we think it’s one of ours, but they're not sending out the any access codes or messages.”
“Hail them, and find out what they want.”
One of the operators nodded and got to work. “Attempting to contact them no-”
What came through the radio was an unholy screech. A thousand screaming voices mixed with monstrous roars that made everyone flinch and throw off their radio headsets.
“What the fuck was that?!” the operator shouted.
“Sir, I think we have a visual!”
“Put it onscreen, now!”
The image that appeared shocked them all. It looked as though it had once been a WWII era Bomber plane, but all over the body, metallic bones had been sculpted along the outside. The body had large, rib-like structures, the landing gear resembled the talons of a bird of prey. A long, narrow bird skull was the cockpit, the eyes forming a windshield that was blacker than the night. The wings had a vaguely avian look to them, with long metal plumes trailing behind it, the tail of the plane had a demonic bird face sculpted upon the fin, glaring at the viewers, as though it knew what horrible deeds they had done.
Oh, and the whole thing was on fire, though that seemed to be the most normal thing about it.
As the nightmarish aircraft approached their fortress, the beak of the vehicle opened up, and several flaming missiles shot out. Moments later everyone in the security room could feel the impacts of the missiles.
“What happened?! What did they hit?!”
“They’ve hit the airfield, garage, and docks, sir!” one of the security officers shouted. “All our vehicles have been blown apart!”
“Radio our brothers in the other outposts! We need backup now!!” Flect Turn commanded, the plane landing on the remains of the runway. “Are any of our brothers or sisters near the runway???”
“The Serpenters are already on their way, my Lord, and Rogone will join them when he can!” One of his loyal underlings quickly put the feed up onscreen. The twin assassins arrived in time for the plane’s cargo hold to open. Stepping out was a single person. He was unusually short, wearing patchwork clothes with an old fashioned aviator jacket thrown atop it. The most distinct feature of his, however, was the flaming skeleton that was his body, his eyes currently hidden by a pair of aviator goggles. As he stepped down, the figure put his fingers to his mouth and, despite lacking lips and lungs, whistled loudly.
Shooting out of the plane, the skeleton of a flaming bird the size of an eagle shot out, screeching as it rocketed at Ena of the Serpentor Twins. Ducking down, Ena thrusted his arm out, converting to a segmented whip-like blade, intending to slice through the bird. But the moment that the blade touched the raptor, pain shot up through Ena’s arm. He screamed in pain, drawing his arm back. To his and his twin’s horror, the blades at the end had melted into a lump of metal.
Ena’s twin, Dio spun around to the flaming skeleton. “You… you’ll PAY FOR THIS!” Pulling out a needle that he plunged into his neck, he cackled sadistically. The Trigger did its job, enhancing the Humarise assassin’s quirk, Sword Kill. From his back, four more whip-like blades emerged, dashing towards the pilot, who simply grabbed the blades and pulled the twin towards him. Grabbing Dio by his throat, the figure glared. Dio smiled viciously, a seventh sword whip shooting out of his mouth, attempting to impale the intruder through the skull.
The keyword being ‘attempting’, since all Dio managed to accomplish was setting his tongue aflame. He tried to say something, probably an insult, but with his tongue burned, he could only scream incoherently. The intruder squeezed tightly, opening his mouth wide as he inhaled. Dio tried to impale the skeleton, wiggle free, anything, but as he screamed, something from within him flowed out from himself and into the fiery pilot. From all over, Dio felt his blades retracting back into his skin, the trigger he had taken fading, vanishing as his quirk seemed to shut off.
Ena’s eyes widened in horror, and he pulled out his own dose of trigger, but a blast of fire destroyed his hand and the dose. In shock, Ena couldn’t even scream. Even when the man… no, the monster approached, carrying a shotgun made of glowing iron and chains he couldn’t move. All he could do was ask, “what are you…?!”
The figure looked at him, eyes narrowed behind his goggles. Wordlessly, his hawk-like companion flew over, landing upon his free arm. Taking aim with his shotgun, the monster spoke.
“I’m the Ghost Rider.”
*BLAM!*
The entire control room was silent in fear. Flect Turn gripped the railing tightly, his blue skin paling, his teeth gritted in anger. For several minutes, there was silence as they watched the Ghost Rider do… something to Ena’s remains. He was interrupted by Rogone running towards him, carrying a massive girder as a weapon. But the Rider threw out an arm, spiked chains wreathed in flames impaling the thug, pulling him closer. When he was in grabbing distance, he grabbed the man’s head. He screamed in terror, his head glowing brightly before exploding. A shard of bone flew into the security camera with enough force to break the lens, cutting off their feed.
“T-t-the…. Gh-gh-ghost Rider…?!” one of his followers whimpered out. “We’re being hunted by the Spirit of Vengeance?!”
Hearing his underlings mutter and whisper in fear was enough to get Flact Turn to come back to reality. “All of you, calm yourselves! He’s not really a demon from hell, just a diseased man who LOOKS like one! He’s as mortal as any of us!”
“But… what was he doing to the Serpenters and Rogone..?!” one of his underlings, Sidero if his memory was correct, brought up.
“It’s probably just his diseased quirk,” Flect Turn angrily dismissed. “Now be silent! He’s more than likely coming for us, and we need to get our defenses ready while he tries to navigate through the-”
*BOOM!*
Most of the people were thrown back, the wall having blown apart. Several chunks fell to the ground, crushing several people. The cause of it was soon revealed, being the hawk-like bird of the Ghost Rider, now the size of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The bird warbled and screeched at the survivors, many of whom tried to flee, but walls of flame covered the exits.
“Knock, knock.”
The Ghost Rider leaped down from the back of his bird, eyes turned to the numerous villains before spotting Flect Turn.
“Matthew Kathréptis!! Your soul is stained with sin! Murder, apathy, wrath, and hypocrisy are just a few of the sins you’ve committed! Your soul is mine to-”
*Blam!*
A gunshot interrupted the rider. One of the foot soldiers, a quirkless man, was carrying a pistol, hands shaking.
“P-please…! We’re just trying to save humanity- HRRK!!”
To everyone’s horror, one of the Serpenter’s blades shot out of the Ghost Rider’s arm, and the soldier fell to the ground, his head rolling to the rider, who stopped it with his foot.
“Atrocities committed for greater goods do not exempt you from the Fires of Hell.” the demon sneered, his arm returning to normal.
“...rejoice!”
To Flect Turn’s shock and anger, Sidero ran forward, bowing low in reverence to the confused skeleton. “A savior has come, able to cleanse our souls of the disease of quirks!!”
Flect Turn’s eyes widened, and more of his followers ran forward, going on their knees. The traitors bowed low to the demon who stared at them, eyes glowing behind his goggles.
One of the traitors ran forward, a wide smile upon his face, arms splayed wide. “Please, take my quirk, and cure me of the-!”
*BLAM!*
The blast of the hellfire shotgun to the man’s face quickly jolted everyone out of their desperate reverence.
Sneering at the body, the Ghost Rider turned to the men who thought that worshiping the demon would save them. “I’m not here to save any souls. I’m here to inflict punishment upon all of Humarise!!”
Before he could attack the terrified traitors, a massive form tackled him. Leviathan, Flect Turn’s most loyal lieutenant tackled the Ghost Rider, his Helical Scythes impaling the skeleton’s body, shredding his clothes, the brute cackling. But his laughter turned to horror when the Ghost Rider grabbed his head, flaming hands encasing the man’s head in his hellfire.
“ROMAN KRETSANDE! YOUR SOUL IS SATURATED WITH SIN!!! YOU WILL SUFFER PENANCE WITHIN ZARATHOS!”
Opening his mouth, the Ghost Rider inhaled deeply, and a stream of something red and white flew into the demon’s throat, and Leviathan, arguably the most powerful member of all of Humarise, shrank down to a normal man, his Helical Scythes crumbling to dust as he withered, and fell to the ground. Glancing at his hands, Ghost Rider focused, and the appendages turned into Helical Scythes, coated in hellflame.
Seeing this, the remaining Humarise members decided to try and risk the doors, though the flames didn’t let down, even when several members tried to use their water quirks to douse them. With a gesture, the Rider’s bird lunged at the men, their screams silencing one after the other.
Seeing no one else was left to fight, Flect Turn growled “Fine, then I will deal with you myself!” Activating his Arachne Support Item, Flect Turn faced the Rider, one of the spiked mirrors firing a laser straight at the demon. The beam knocked the skeleton to the ground, but he got up, his clothing stitching itself back together.
“Eager to face your punishment, cult leader?? Fine by me!!”
Summoning a chain whip, the Rider struck it at Flect Turn, who didn’t even flinch.
“Nothing can harm me! My quirk deflects everything away from me! I can’t even shut it off! You see now, Rider?! You cannot harm me! Kill my men if you will, I can always enlighten more, and I have dozens of other outlets all over the world, ready to show the truth of the dangers of the Quirk Disease! You should join me! Together we could-”
The Ghost Rider interrupted him with his whip, only now it was coated in hellfire, and much to Flect Turn’s shock, he felt the flames burn him.
Flect Turn tried to aim another mirror at the Rider, but the heat of the flames melted through the limbs of the Support Item, the now liquid metal pouring off him. “H… how…?!”
“Hellfire is not blocked by the defenses of mortal men! It burns your soul directly, and what you call Quirks are just a physical manifestation of the kind of person you truly are. Your quirk pushes people away because that’s what you are truly like! You aren’t distant from people because of your quirk! Your Quirk is like this because deep down, you separate yourself from them, placing yourself on a pedestal above them!”
“Oh, and about your other bases? I’ve been spending all week tracking them down and destroying them. This place was the last one on my list. You never even bothered to check in with them, did you? You’re not even that good of a leader, it seems.”
Flect Turn stared at the demon, too stunned to even speak, even as the flames burned away the remains of his support gear.
“But don’t worry… you are going to be special, if only for one reason.” The rider approached, lifting up his goggles to reveal blue pinpricks of light in the sockets of his skull. Grabbing the stunned cult leader’s head, he pulled him close, so no matter where Flect Turn looked, all he could see was the Spirit of Vengeance. “I’ve saved this power just for you.”
“Stare into my eyes… see the sins you have committed… the blood of the innocent, spilled by you through your men’s actions… NOW FEEL THEIR PAIN AND BURN!!!”
Unable to turn away, Flect Turn screamed, his eyes glowing bright orange. From the depths of his eye sockets, beams of fire shot out, bloodcurdling screams echoing through the room. The flames spread out from Flect Turn’s body, and within his cries, one could swear there were voices, thousands of different screams joining in, their terror mixing with his as his body convulsed, near white flames spreading along his body while not burning any clothes away. After a minute, the flames died down, and the rider threw Flect Turn to the ground. The blue skinned man was still breathing, but the skin had become scarred with third degree burns, the areas around his eyes blackened like charcoal, and the eyes themselves were hollow pits, containing only embers of a dying fire.
The Rider turned to the massive bird, who finished her meal. The Rider sighed in relief, and stroked the massive creature’s beak. “Our work… is finally over. Let’s go home.” With a quiet warble, the duo turned to leave.
“My kids…”
The Ghost Rider stopped, turning to stare at one of the scientists, unnoticed all this time, was stuck under some rubble, a piece of rebar in his gut. The man, his soul surprisingly clean, was clutching a worn photograph. “Please… don’t…” and with a final gasp, the man went still, dropping a photo of a little girl and two boys, one of whom had a small pink bird on his shoulder.
The skeleton pilot fell to its knees, its flames vanishing, flesh appearing over its bones. Looking down at the body of Eddie Soul, the boy, Rody Soul, wept, the now normal Pino joining him.
“Oh, how pitiable.”
Rody’s head whipped up, glaring at the figure that appeared. Pino narrowed her eyes and ruffled her feathers angrily “You… you knew..!”
The figure, an old man leaning on a cane topped with a glass skull, smirked, his yellow eyes boring into him. “I did warn you that you wouldn’t like getting revenge on all of Humarise…”
Rody charged at the man, Pino ready to kill him. Immediately shackles and chains made of red metal formed around his hands, identical ones appearing on Pino.
Unbothered, Mephisto manifested a scroll, Rody’s name written upon the bottom in red ink. “Regardless, I’ve fulfilled my end of the deal. Now you work for me… and I have a task that you’d be well suited for.”
“What about my siblings??” Rody Soul demanded, gritting through the pain his shackles caused.
Mephisto rolled his eyes. “Calm down. As long as you behave, little Roro and Lala will continue to live nice and comfortably, safe from harm.”
“Now get back to your plane. Collect the souls of sinners and evils until I have need of you. And if everything goes as well as I hope back in Japan, that time won’t be far off.”