uneasy_rider (uneasy_rider) wrote in exiles,
@ 2010-05-08 02:39:00

Entry tags:

"contemplate infinity", adam warlock, ghost rider roxanne simpson

Soul Gem Search
The fact she can command the bike in outer space is breathtaking. She shouldn't be able to do this, but with belief, maybe all things are possible. Big Z is appreciating the unparalleled freedom so much he's sort of kind of letting Roxanne ride in the proverbial bitch seat a little more on this one and just take things in. Adam Warlock isn't what she'd call "chatty." It's fascinating to consider there are other beings out there like herself trying to just get up in the morning and not become some terrorist or something. Maybe he can answer something that is gnawing at her.

"So what is it I'm sensing out here?" she asks. "I feel...It's like driving through Montana. Big stretch of awesome nuth'n, but you can feel some sort of pull towards the horizon. Only there ain't no horizon."

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	exiles_cosmic 2010-05-08 02:08 pm UTC (link)
	He wasn't the chatty sort by any stretch of the imagination but her question had a perception he didn't expect. His mind was focused on the task at hand, but it surfaced long enough to give her an answer. "You are limited by your perception. Your mind gives your surroundings a shape and dimension that allows you to cope with your task." (Reply to this)(Thread)

	uneasy_rider 2010-06-09 07:04 pm UTC (link)
	"What'da suggest ah do about it, guy?" she asks. "I'm not smart like you." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	exiles_cosmic 2010-06-10 05:03 pm UTC (link)
	"It has little to do with intelligence. I suggest you remake and adapt your perceptions into what you can defend." He glanced at her. "Or offend, as you wish. I believe it is referred to as a 'gut feeling'." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

uneasy_rider
2010-06-11 02:59 am UTC (link)

"Gut ah get. Why didn't ya just say so?" She closes her eyes and tries to see the place with more than just her eyes. That's when the real vastness of this place shows up on her mental windshield. Things ebbed and flowed through the universe in great muddy rivers of energy and decay. Life and unlife. Beings surfaced and then either drown or dove into the stream depending on their time. Good and evil were deep marshy banks of the streams, both supporting life and death, with only one able to keep life growing.

A tear escapes her eyes. "It's beautiful," she murmurs. "Even when it's all ugly-like."

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	exiles_cosmic 2010-06-11 04:58 pm UTC (link)
	"It can be," he agreed, "but it will always what you make of it. Can you complete your task with what you see now?" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	uneasy_rider 2010-06-24 07:37 am UTC (link)
	"Depends," she murmurs. "Am look'n fer something I usta have." She closes her yes and tries to get a compass heading for loss itself. (Reply to this)(Parent)

The Road to Hell

exiles_hero
2010-07-04 07:50 am UTC (link)

Once she looks, she finds. Searching for loss itself leads Roxanne directly to what she's lost most acutely. Johnny Blaze.

Not just a Blaze either, hers. Somehow, she can tell. From her destroyed universe.

He's bound to a set of black iron gates. There's no guards about, and the gates are open, leading to a wide plane of charred, rocky ground with a single winding road. Johnny's bike rests nearby. His chains are of blackest iron, no reflecting of light escaping at all from their surface. Despite using a hammer instead of the chains, Roxanne knows the hell-forged iron well enough, nearly unbreakable, certainly more than sufficient to keep Johnny there.

As the pair approach one of the skeletons laying about the gates rises, dusts itself off, and approaches to stand next to where Johnny Blaze is held captive.

"My master bids me welcome you, Roxanne Simpson and Adam Warlock."

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	Re: The Road to Hell uneasy_rider 2010-07-04 08:22 pm UTC (link)
	She looks to the heavens and cries out in a voice that is equally her and the demon. "Ain't no one this boy's master, 'cept me! Show yerself, ya coward!" (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: The Road to Hell exiles_hero 2010-07-04 08:25 pm UTC (link)
	The skeleton bows to Roxanne. "My master wishes me to inform you that that, in fact, is not true... but you can make it so. He wishes to offer you a simple trade for the life and soul of Johnny Blaze." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: The Road to Hell uneasy_rider 2010-07-04 08:32 pm UTC (link)
	The kickstand goes down as the rider slides from her ride. Her hammer falls rhythmically into her bony hand filling the soul of universe with a death rattle. "Then your master can come himself instead of sending a flunky." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: The Road to Hell

exiles_baddie
2010-07-04 08:40 pm UTC (link)

The skeleton catches fire, and where it stood, a new form begins to take shape, rising until a 20' tall Mephisto towers over the landscape, looking down at Roxanne.
She's met this devil before, of course, so its quickly obvious something is different. When he speaks, its with an odd, stero effect, almost perfectly synced, but still sounding like there's two Mephistos talking at once where only one is standing.

"Very well, Miss Simpson... I will tender this offer myself. You've earned it. I have with me two souls..." he holds out a hand, opening it to reveal two contracts. "And two lives... Johnny Blaze's, obviously, and Crash Simpson's. The souls, of course, are yours and Johnny Blaze's. And they're all yours for a simple price... Zarathos. He has been a very naughty demon, and requires punishment. All you have to do is desire that he exchange places with Johnny Blaze, and by the devil's promise... a binding rule in Hell, as I'm sure you know, in exchange for turning Zarathos over to me, your soul will be returned, your father will be restored to life in full health, and Johnny Blaze will be freed to you, soul and life intact. The three of you may go on to live whatever lives you see fit, with no further interference from me, and no Ghost Riders, ever again."

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	Re: The Road to Hell uneasy_rider 2010-07-04 08:50 pm UTC (link)
	In that moment, Zarathos is contained and somehow away from her. Roxanne is...alone. Herself. She looks and she does desire it, but... "This ain't ah deal you can make, and even if you could it ain't ah good idea." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: The Road to Hell

exiles_baddie
2010-07-04 08:54 pm UTC (link)

"Oh, I assure you, Miss Simpson, everything I've said is within my power. You see, Zarathos broke your reality. Trillions of souls, suddenly freed from their mortal coils... I've made contact with my own counterpart from that reality... for things to be restored, Zarathos needs to be returned to hell. If he is, your obligation to the Timebroker is done... you're free, no longer an Exile, no longer a Ghost Rider. Everything, and everyone you desire can be given back to you... for one simple trade. Surely you don't want Zarathos more than you want... everything.

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Re: The Road to Hell

uneasy_rider
2010-07-04 09:31 pm UTC (link)

"Problem is," she says, voice shaking, but oddly firm. "I've been so many places ah can't count. Everywhere ah go, there's Riders." She remembers them all, even if they were just images in the papers or on the computer - Johnnys and Dannys and these Western guys and Nick. Nick who never felt the love of God and never will because his parents shut him out of it. how many more of them would she condemn.

"Yer assurance means piss when I need lemonade," she retorts. "Big Z is evil incarnate. Every time he takes me over, it's like everything I am is ripped aside. I wouldn't wish him on anyone - but ah gotta. The worlds I've seen need someone with dirt under their nails to help those in places where there aren't no angels. Zee ain't mine to bargain - and ah ain't gonna make him yours to bargain with either."

"Johnny and Crash?" She swallow and steels herself. "I'm trusting them to God."

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Re: The Road to Hell

exiles_cosmic
2010-07-04 09:38 pm UTC (link)

Mephisto roars with rage when his offer is refused. He lifts a hand, holding an odd gem which radiates power. A vortex extends from the gem, howling with the sound of ten thousand damned souls as it extends towards Roxanne.

"If you will not give me the traitor, Zarathos, I will take him!" he roars in that weird stero effect.

Just before it can reach Roxanne, however, Adam Warlock leaps into the path. His body falls, lifeless as his essence is sucked from his body, swirling and distorting in the vortex, heading back towards Mephisto. As Adam touches the gem he had mastered for so long, it glows brightly, washing everything in a blue light. At that moment, there's a calm voice in Roxanne's head.

"I trade my life for the universe, child. The devil has a soul... my own."

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: The Road to Hell uneasy_rider 2010-07-04 09:51 pm UTC (link)
	She doesn't have time for shock, just anger - anger at everything in ever world the Devil ever took and for the deaths of Johnny, Crash, and Adma. Zarathos - granted his freedom within Roxanne wells up from within her like never before, more fierce for his acceptance. But it is Roxanne's visage that turns the demon's non-eyes and stares. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: The Road to Hell

exiles_baddie
2010-07-04 10:01 pm UTC (link)

There is a brief moment of realization as she stares. There's not one Mephisto there, but two - the one of this universe, and the one from her home. Zarathos had broken her universe by breaking the laws of hell, leaving Mephisto a refugee, and trillions of souls floating loose, to be claimed.
She can feel the mind of the devil, seeing his sins through his eyes - the two Mephistos made contact, and made plans to double-cross Thanos. After all, why settle for a fraction of half the souls of one universe if he could claim ALL the souls of another? All he needed to succeed was Zarathos back in his grip.

Mephisto, both of them, scream. Its the most horrible sound imaginable, the type of thing that drives weak men to instant insanity, echoing and rebounding, coming from everywhere at once, and with him, all the souls of the condemned, and all of his servants scream from beyond the gates in terror.
There's a grinding nose as hell itself begins to come apart at the seams. Souls begin to flood from the gates, giving Roxanne and Mephisto a wide berth.

As he screams, unable to advance, Mephisto's hand lights on fire the contracts containing Johnny and Roxanne's souls burn, and with it, Roxanne can feel her heart burning, and with it, the Rider's flames begin to go out, the skeletal eyes begin to go dim.

Then Mephisto collapses, his eyes black and empty, save for the barest hint of a reflection of Adam Warlock in them. The scream stops, and the only noises are the sound of Roxanne's own breathing, and hell collapsing beyond the gates.

She can see the body of Johnny Blaze, struggling with the chains as he catches fire, his soul being destroyed, but as his eyes settle on Roxanne, he calms himself, despite the spreading flames.

"We're... free."

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Re: The Road to Hell

uneasy_rider
2010-07-04 10:45 pm UTC (link)

The flesh burns from her body until the agony stops because there are no more nerves to burn. She sinks to skeletal knees and still she stares. The universe screams so loud other universes can hear it. Somehow, the Rider - the entity that is Roxanne Simpson, Zarathos and more for the merging - knows these Mephistos' death knells can be heard in other worlds. Somehow, she has wounded all Devils by making these two feel a soul's torment.

With nothing to support her skull any longer, it rolls off her body next to the gem and the silence deafens as much as the scream. the hammer melts into a small pile of rock and metal dust on the floor.

Those with eyes to see catch a fleeting image. A maiden in white and a skeleton in black merge from the remains. For a moment, they appear to clasp one of each of their arms and hands in a feral salute of brotherhood and thanks before melting away into vague memory like the shape of a snowflake long remembered after it has turned to water in a warm hand...

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	Re: The Road to Hell vicious_cycle 2010-07-04 10:49 pm UTC (link)
	A world away, another soul feels the shift. He's not a reverent person, or given to sentimentality. Even so, Nicholas Salem lowers his head and holds a moment of silence, as he will every year at this time for the rest of his life in honor of Roxanne Simpson. Fitting day for the All-American southern girl to earn her freedom forever. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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