The next day, inside a S.H.I.E.L.D. safehouse on the outskirts of Houston.
Sunlight sliced through the gaps in the blinds, carving long, narrow spots of light onto the floor.
Johnny Blaze woke up with a hangover-like headache in an unfamiliar bed. He bolted upright and checked his body. His skin was intact—no fire, no burn marks. Was that Demon from hell last night just a terrifyingly realistic nightmare?
The door was pushed open, and Lin Huai walked in with Nick Fury.
"Awake?" Lin Huai pulled up a chair and sat down. "How are you feeling?"
Johnny looked at them with eyes full of suspicion, especially the black man wearing a single-eye patch; the'stay away' aura radiating from him made Johnny very uncomfortable.
"Who are you? Last night... I..." Johnny's thoughts were a mess.
"Johnny Blaze," Lin Huai spoke, breaking through his confusion. "Let's straighten things out first. Years ago, to save your father, you signed a contract with an old man calling himself Mephisto. He cured your father's cancer, but your father died in an accident. In exchange, your soul... belongs to him."
Johnny's face turned pale instantly.
Lin Huai continued, "Last night, Mephisto found you. He needs you to retrieve something called the 'zarathos contract' for him. In exchange, he activated the dormant 'power' inside you. That power, we call it the 'Ghost Rider'—a soul from Hell, well, at least for now. It takes over your body to judge and incinerate those it deems sinners."
Johnny listened numbly; every word Lin Huai uttered was like a hammer, smashing his last bit of wishful thinking.
"I saw some memories..." Johnny clutched his head, a groan escaping from between his teeth. "That man named Rumlow... all the bad things he did in his life... I saw them all."
"The ability of the Eye of Judgement." Lin Huai nodded. "We have a team that specializes in handling supernatural events like yours. I'm inviting you to join us, Johnny. We can teach you how to control that power, to make it work for you, and to protect those who are truly innocent."
"Join you?" He leaped off the bed, pacing the room like a trapped animal. "I just burned a living man's soul to ashes! I could feel all his fear and pain! I could even taste what sin tastes like when it burns! And you want me to keep using this thing?!"
He rushed up to Lin Huai and grabbed him by the collar, his eyes bloodshot, practically roaring:
"I don't want to be some bullshit Rider!!! I just want to be a stunt rider! Breaking bones to the sound of cheers... not turning into a Monster in the dark!!"
His emotions collapsed, his voice turning from a roar into a plea, even carrying a sob. "You! Since you know about Mephisto and all of this! You must have a way, right? Please, help me get it out of my body! Help me get rid of that Demon! I'll give you everything! My money, my bike, even my life! I just want to be a normal person again!"
Lin Huai watched him quietly. After a moment, he shook his head with a look of helplessness.
"I can't do it."
The light in Johnny's eyes died out instantly.
"Johnny, you have to understand," Lin Huai's voice was soft, but every word was crystal clear. "Your opponent isn't some street thug; he's a Lord of Hell. Your soul is property written in black and white on a contract, safely stored in his vault. I don't have the leverage to redeem legal property from a King."
He added, "Getting a normal person out from under the control of a Lord of Hell... is really no simple task."
"Why... why me, ahhh!... ugh..."
The sound of painful weeping came from the man... until only sobbing remained.
"...Let me go." Johnny looked up, his face filled with nothing but ashen despair. He used his last bit of strength to say, "This is my fate, my curse... I'll carry it myself. Let me go."
Lin Huai locked eyes with him for a long time. Finally, he turned to Fury beside him and nodded.
"Your ex-girlfriend has already been safely escorted home by us, but I don't recommend you go looking for her. You understand what I mean."
Fury frowned.
As soon as they stepped out of the safehouse, leaving Johnny alone in the room, Fury immediately asked, "Just letting him go like that? Our people just confirmed that the one whose soul he burned last night was Rumlow, Pierce's best fighter. HYDRA won't just give up; they'll definitely find a way to capture him. An out-of-control Ghost Rider falling into HYDRA's hands... the consequences... tsk."
Lin Huai, however, smiled.
"Fury, you're afraid of a living person being captured by HYDRA. But let me ask you, are you afraid of a 'ghost' being captured by them?"
Fury was stunned for a moment.
"Johnny Blaze is an Undying, an asset whose soul is gripped in the hands of a Lord of Hell. What can HYDRA do if they catch him? Kill him? He'll just resurrect. Research him? Every night, what awaits them is a hellish Inquisitor who is immune to physical attacks, can see through all sins with a single glance, and can burn souls to ash. Hellfire temperature isn't exactly low."
Lin Huai patted Fury on the shoulder, a playful smile curling at the corner of his mouth. "So, not only should you not worry, you should even look forward to it. Look forward to HYDRA actually doing something that stupid. You know, it's called 'targeted elimination'—the most efficient use of waste."
The lines on Fury's iceberg-like face actually softened. He first curled his lips, followed by a low, genuine laugh.
"Haha... Hahahaha! I'm starting to like this 'Ghost Rider' a little."
He immediately issued orders through an encrypted channel, removing all surveillance and restrictions on Johnny, allowing that lonely figure to mount his motorcycle and disappear at the end of the highway.
"OK," Lin Huai's expression turned serious. "There's one more piece of business. Is everything OK on Tony and Banner's end?"
"They're waiting for you." Fury resumed his posture as the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. "About yesterday's revelation?"
"Of course."
Lin Huai briefly recounted the scene he had seen above the gray mist: "Under the Arctic ice, I found that crashed plane. It's well-preserved deep within a massive glacier crevice. Decades ago, after Red Skull was teleported away by the Tesseract, the spatial Door didn't close immediately. It persisted in the plane wreckage for a long time, only disappearing three months ago. Before it vanished, a black metal box appeared at that location, bearing an emblem of a gear and a wrench."
He paused, looking directly at Fury. "So, Director Fury, what you really want me to help you find isn't just that old plane, right? It's also the device stored on the plane that HYDRA used to extract energy from the Tesseract, along with all the related research data. Am I right?"
Facing Lin Huai's all-piercing gaze, Nick Fury didn't even bother to feign surprise this time. His single eye held only calmness—a calmness that had become completely immune to the Soothsayer's prophetic abilities.
He simply nodded.
"That's right."
"Very well," Lin Huai snapped his fingers. "Then let's not delay. Have your men get the plane ready; it's time for us to go treasure hunting."