We wait and wait and wait for Johnny to return to his home. It might have taken at least six or seven hours, and day soon turns to night. My Nightstalkers and I sit patiently in the cab of our new driver, Renee—well, at least some of us are patient…others (more particularly Hoggle, Ray-Ray, Spud, Trixie, and Jake) grow tired of waiting for the rider to return.
But before anyone could make his or her complaints, we hear the sound of an approaching motorcycle. It is Johnny Blaze, looking happier than he had ever felt before. As he enters his home, we find ourselves transported from inside the taxicab to the inside of Blaze’s home.
“Man! You wanna warn somebody first before you do that, dawg?” Jake demands of me, obviously still getting used to my teleportation powers.
Even as Jake badgers me over my abilities, some of the other Nightstalkers seem very jittery over our presence here in Blaze’s house, most particularly Sarah. “Do you think it’s really wise for us to invade the privacy of this man’s home?” she asks me.
I simply reply, “He shall be pleased we’re doing so, once Blackheart, Jareth, and their minions begin to show themselves before him.” I can understand how Sarah and the few of my Nightstalkers feel about the methods we are taking to protect Johnny Blaze, but we must do whatever’s possible to succeed in our mission.
The gated entrance of the home opens, and Johnny enters with the motorcycle that he rode on. At first, he barely even notices our presence—which is quite baffling, considering the fact that I don’t have my invisibility field cloaking us at the moment. But after taking a few more steps…
“AAAAHHHHHH!”
His motorcycle falls to its side, as Johnny releases his hold on it. Much of the machinery on the cycle breaks off the bike as it hits the floor. However, Johnny pays no mind to it, for he is more interested in knowing—
“Why in the h*ll are you people in my house?” he screams.
Before I can even explain myself, I am interrupted once again by Renee, who steps in to shake Johnny’s hand with a blissful expression on her face. “Mr. Blaze, sir, let me just say it is an honor to meet you in person! I have seen all of your coolest stunts! I tell all of my friends how great you are and how much they should come to see your shows! But the poor saps have weak constitutions and can’t even take the sound of your motorcycle humming ferociously as you ride up that ram and…”
“Thank you, young lady. Thank you.” Johnny remarks. “But, you and your friends from the Critter Shop need to scoot on out of here, because I really need to get ready for a date I’m having with someone who I have no seen in years.”
“You are forgetting Mephisto’s warning after you signed that contract to save your father’s life, Johnny.” I say to him. “You must forget about love.”
He stares at me with a look of his face that expresses both bewilderment and suspicion. “How do you know about that contract?”
“I am the Storyteller, my boy. There is much I know about everything that goes on in the universe. I know that there are Muppets working hard to protect our society from threats like Nicky Holiday and Doctor Doom. I know there is another world that exists beyond our own, where a man of steel coexists with people from a friendly neighborhood where children play all day under the great sun. I even know that there are people reading this tale as we speak.”
Wow. He’s good, isn’t he?
Johnny can barely find the words to express his shock over what I have just told him. And I cannot blame him for being so overwhelmed by my vast knowledge. The only thing he can say in a disbelieving way is, “If you know so much about my life, Mr. Storyteller, then you know that I’m gonna completely ignore you and your friends while I get ready for my date.”
“Johnny,” Sarah begins with her own attempt to convince him, “You have to let us help you. There is a real wicked man named Jareth, a king amongst goblins, who plans on using you for his own desire while some other evil beings bring h*ll amongst our world.”
Johnny shakes his head, trying desperately to avoid hearing our warnings. “Is there some internet forum that you people go to make stuff like this up?”
“Well, there is one place that I personally go to.” Renee states. “You might’ve heard of it. My friend Philip Chapman is the…”
Before Renee can continue on, I immediately speak up to stay on track with the subject at hand. “Johnny, time is greatly of the essence. The son of Mephistopheles and his minions will come after you very soon, and you can do nothing to stop them, unless you allow us to protect you.”
“Even if I want to believe this wild story of yours, Mr. Teller, what am I gonna tell Roxanne when she’s waiting for me at that restaurant?” Johnny asks. “I don’t have time for silly games or scary Halloween stories, especially when it ain’t that time of year yet!”
So he thinks.
“Now, for the last time, scoot on out of here before…”
He quickly stops as soon as he notices something very bizarre about his right hand. It starts to turn bright red and smoking, as if it is being baked under intense heat.
“Johnny…”
A soft, eerie voice calls out to him, but we all seem to hear it as well. He turns to his assortment of motorcycle materials and books dealing with the supernatural, wondering what is happening. He then turns to me, his look of suspicion returning. “Now you cut this stuff out, ya hear?”
“I swear to you…I am doing nothing of the sort.”
Feeling somewhat assured of my words, Johnny quickly heads out of his home, leaving behind my equally baffled Nightstalkers and me. Even Sarah comes up to me and asks, “Are you sure this isn’t some way to convince him of letting us protect him?”
My only simple reply to her question is, “No.”
“I was hoping that you would say the opposite of that, pal.” Fu Dog says.
With not a single minute to lose, we follow Johnny Blaze out of his home and onto the dark alleyway outside, the voice still calling out…
“Johhhhhhnnnnnnyyyyyyy…”
“Please tell me there’s some way you can phase that freaky voice out.” Juniper Lee asks me, and I just simply shake my head in reply.
Then, without notice, the roar of an engine catches our attention. And we suddenly find ourselves face-to-face with a motorcycle reminiscent of the one Johnny used to ride when he was just a teenager, except it was larger…large enough to suit his adult figure.
“Man! Is it just me or is it gettin’ chilly up in here?” Trixie asks, and soon we all begin to feel very cold, seeing our own breath billowing out from our mouths in the form of a brief but clear cloud.
After seconds of staring bizarrely at the mysterious bike, Johnny looks away from it and points in a single direction with a fierce gaze in his eyes. “You.”
And with a flash of light and dark energy, out comes the figure of Mephistopheles, just the way Johnny remembers seeing him years before. “Hello, Johnny.”
“Stay away from me.” Johnny warns him, but Mephisto keeps walking to him, marveling over the sight of the motorcycle sitting in the alleyway that he obviously put there. “Why are you here?”
“Oh, I’ve always been here, Johnny. All along.” Mephisto tells him. “Phoenix…Denver…Houston.”
“It was you keeping him alive?” Sarah asks.
“No, it was all him.” Mephisto replies. “He’s the best. And I’m his greatest fan.”
Renee scoffs. “No one a greatest fan of his than me, dude.”
Mephisto looks in her direction, giving off a cold glare that makes her shiver in fear. He then returns his focus to Johnny and is very quick to make his demand. “Find the one known as Blackheart and destroy him.”
“Why don’t you just leave him alone?” Sarah exclaims to Mephisto—not a very wise move, considering how much of a powerfully dark figure this being is. “You’ve already made his life miserable with your unruly deals.”
Mephisto lets out a dark cackle. “Miserable, you say? How miserable is a man who has grown into such popularity over the years? Very little, I say. Johnny has just about everything he wants. Every show…every moment…every place he goes…the crowd is there chanting his name. Johnny…Johnny…Johnny!”
On the last “Johnny,” Mephisto’s mouth briefly changes from human form to a demonic one. It was undetectable by Johnny, whose back was facing Mephisto at the time of the change. But my Nightstalkers and I had noticed it and a few of us were completely frightened by it.
“He’s like an investment that has been growing and growing until the day comes to cash it in.” Mephisto continues. “And that day is today.”
Johnny has been giving Mephisto nothing more than a dark glare, ever since he appeared before our eyes. “You wanna find this Blackheart of yours? Find him yourself.” Thinking of only Roxanne, he gets on the motorcycle and attempts to ride off from the scene. However, something keeps him from going…and also keeps him from getting off the bike.
“It doesn’t work like that. You’re under contract, remember?” Mephisto reminds him. “If you succeed…I’ll return your soul.”
Johnny’s fear grows with each attempt to get himself off the bike. His hands are stuck to the bars and his feet to the pedals. Mephisto’s dark energy is keeping him on the bike long enough for him to give his instructions, which Johnny, of course, still refuses to take. “I’m not doing it.”
“You cannot let him, Mephistopheles.” I say. “If you send him out to face your son, you will be practically handing him over to the very people you’re trying to prevent from creating a new h*ll!”
Mephisto looks in my direction and grins. “You underestimate my rider, Storyteller. But you’ll soon marvel over his power!” And with that said, Mephisto takes his cane and pokes it fiercely into the concrete.
Suddenly, the engine of the motorcycle roars more fiercely than possible, and Johnny an overwhelming force come over him. The wheels of the motorcycle spin so intensely fast that they tear into the concrete and cause chunks to fly out in all directions. The Nightstalkers and I quickly move away from both Johnny and the unearthly motorcycle, as more chunks of fire and concrete fly all around.
It isn’t very long before Johnny is off and zooming down the alleyway, fire shooting out from the back of his cycle. As he passes by several parked vehicles, the windows of them shatter to pieces, unleashing shards of glass all over the pavement. Johnny makes several attempts to stop or maybe control the unnatural motorcycle, but the force of it is too much, even as the tires begin to ignite in flames.
Still standing in the alleyway, the Nightstalkers and I look around to see that Mephisto has vanished from sight—his deed already done. Realizing how dire the situation has become, I turn to my Nightstalker companions and say, “We must follow after him.”
“Are you kidding? He’s movin’ faster than the speed of light now.” Jasmine Lee tells me. “There is no way we can keep up with him, even with your magic, Storyteller.”
“Then we will just have to try with Renee’s cab.” I declare, looking into her direction and seeing the bewildered look on her face after I had.
She is very quick to turn down my offer. “No way, man! I’m not gettin’ myself involved with some scary old white dude and his bike from h*ll! I’d rather be home watching Back to the Future: Part II!”
“You’re as involved in this as the rest of us are now, Renee. You must help us in preventing a great threat from using a powerful being to ensure a new underworld over this realm.”
Renee shakes her head over the thought of becoming a temporary Nightstalker, as the others pile into her advanced taxicab. “I knew I should’ve called in sick today.” As soon as she takes her place at the wheel of the cab, we chase after Johnny and the demonic bike, which are currently near the outskirts of the city.
At that particular section, our other heroes (Uncle Deadly, Sam, Tucker, and the Fenton family) sit in their RV vehicle, which was parked behind a “Welcome to Arizona” sign at the side of the road. They have been planning out their next move of searching for me—The Storyteller—until they suddenly begin to pick up a great amount of energy from their “Ghost Detector.”
“We have something! We have something! We have something!” Jack excitedly exclaims again and again.
“Jack, calm down.” Maddie tells him. “It might only be a…”
Before Maddie can continue her assumption, a massive explosion erupts near them, blowing the welcome sign to smithereens and knocking the RV over on its top. Luckily, the passengers inside are wearing their seatbelts and kept from falling on their heads, as they stare out the window of the upside-down sight of Johnny Blaze and his demonic bike passing through and leaving behind a line of fire scorching the road.
“Was that…?” Danny begins to ask, until Jack quickly interrupts him.
“A GHOST! THAT WAS A GHOST!” He screams.
“It wasn’t just any ghost. That was the Ghost Rider.” Sam indicates.
“You mean the one Death’s been telling us about?” Tucker asks.
“Is there any other?” Danny remarks, before taking advantage of the opportunity to turn invisible and slip out from underneath his seatbelt and through the side of the RV. As soon as he is out, he quickly goes into his ghost form and chases after the proclaimed “Ghost Rider.”
Soon Johnny and the demonic bike come to a train station outside the city, which used to be the location of a cemetery from which several graves had been moved to a different location. It has already become the grave sight for a man in charge of watching over the premises whose body had been frozen stone cold by Blackheart.
This, of course, goes unnoticed by Johnny, as he is too busy controlling the motorcycle that brings him inside a warehouse at the station. As soon as he is brought inside, he is thrown off his halting cycle with enough force to throw him twenty feet across the air and slide down an extra twelve feet. My Nightstalkers and I, as well as Danny Phantom, arrive in time to see the transformation begin.
Transformation? What transformation?
We all watch intently as Johnny gets to his feet that are engulfed in flames, his tear ducts smoking from his eyes. With each step he takes, he leaves behind a fiery footprint in his wake. Soon his whole head and hands begin to smoke—the pain of his flesh starting to singe takes an unbearable toll on him, leaving his groaning in pain.
“My God!” Renee says near me.
Johnny begins to scream, as parts of his flesh burn away from his hands and head. His eyes are suddenly burnt away, leaving behind nothing more than flames seeping out from two empty sockets. It is indeed a horrid sight, watching a man whom at one point was screaming in pain is now screaming with joy.
“AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Within seconds, we are no longer staring at an ordinary man…we are staring before a true demon, much like the one Sarah had once seen in her dreams. A demon with a fiery skull and fiery, skeletal hands, standing at seven feet tall. It is what Mephisto has anticipated for many years of creating: a real-life Ghost Rider.
“AAAAAAAGGGGGGRRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH!”
As we stare at the horrible monstrosity, Danny Phantom glides his way near our vehicle and says, “You guys gotta get out of here! I’ll handle this…uh…would ya call it a ghost?”
That is when we hear the sound of wicked cackling from the other side of the warehouse, echoing throughout the interior. All of us, even the demonic Ghost Rider, look in the direction of the cackling to see a vampiric ghostly figure clad in a long white cape and white and black clothing, with a light greenish complexion, black hair that has a devilish style to it along with a gray streak down the middle, a black goatee, and eyes that were as red as blood. This is Danny Phantom’s archrival, Vlad Plasmius.
“Quite an introduction, Mr. Storyteller.” Vlad says. “It’s too bad you won’t be able to make any more just like it, after I’ve taken over this world with some of the best supernatural beings ever.”
Hearing how his worst nemesis addressed me, Danny Phantom turns and looks in my direction with a bewildered expression. “You’re the Storyteller? The guy whose voice we’re supposed to listen out for?”
“Oh, Daniel. Don’t bother with trying to figure out what you can never comprehend in a million years.” Vlad remarks. “Just go back to your pathetic father and friends to leave me with controlling the universe with this marvelous creation by my side, as well as that of the love of my life, Maddie.”
Tired of Vlad always criticizing his father and friends and trying to win the affections of his own mother, Danny does not hesitate to attack him. He flies at full speed towards Plasmius, only to realize at the last moment how Vlad turns himself invisible and leaves Danny phasing through him. Danny crashes into a pile of wooden crates, while Vlad does not bother paying any attention to his fallen opponent.
Vlad’s attention is focused solely on the Ghost Rider, whom he soon approaches without any hesitation. “Time to join the side of the real warriors.”
The Ghost Rider simply shakes his head, points a flaming skeletal finger directly at Vlad, and states…
“BACK TO H*LL!”
“We’re not going to have a meaningful conversation now, are we?”
“YOU’RE GOING DOWN!”
“I think not, my grotesque friend.”
Vlad then unleashes an ectoplasmic energy blast (two beams—one from each of his eyes—consisting of pink ectoplasm) that knocks the Ghost Rider several feet from him, soaring him through the air. The Rider flies into a set of looped chains that tangle around his “throat” and choke him hard enough to render him unconscious. The flames shrouding his skull and hands extinguish as he hangs there, not budging an inch.
“Oh, no!” Sarah exclaims.
“Oh, yes!” Vlad says afterwards, as he gazes upon the inert form of the hanging Ghost Rider. “I guess we made a mistake recruiting this pawn of Mephistopheles. He’s not as tough as he claims he is.”
Before Vlad could utter another insult, the flames on the Rider return as he moves his head around to glare into the eyes of a shocked Vlad Plasmius. The Rider grabs the chain tangled around his throat and tears it away from the pulley system supporting it, dropping himself back to the floor. He then wraps it tightly around his right hand and balls up a fist consisting of bone and steel.
“SUCK ON THIS, DIRTBAG!”
With one single flaming punch to the face, the Ghost Rider sends Vlad Plasmius flying backwards across the air and then skidding across the floor, stopping close to where Danny Phantom had crashed. Danny, who has been witnessing the whole battle since he regained composure, looks directly at the face of Vlad to see one side of it dreadfully scorched.
The once-mighty Vlad Plasmius gazes at Danny with teary eyes, shaking and whimpering as he pleads, “H-H-H-Help me, D-Daniel! H-H-He i-is too powerful for m-m-me.”
Danny almost decides to assist his fallen nemesis in battle. But after the snide remarks he has made to his father and friends, as well as his helping the very dark forces that are attempting to create a new h*ll out of Earth, it is very hard for him to even make such a choice.
However, even if young Danny did make one there and then, he would not have enough time to make a move, as the Ghost Rider has already advanced upon Vlad. He grabs him by his collar and lifts him high off the ground. While weakened under the Rider’s fierce grip, Vlad is forced to return back to his human form—the form of Vladimir Masters.
“The fella who was tryin’ to get Johnny Blaze to sign a contract with him and that Damien Takashi guy?” Fu Dog remarks with surprise. “I knew he was bad news the moment I saw ‘em!”
Vlad makes an attempt to plead for his life by saying, “Have mercy.”
“SORRY. ALL OUT OF MERCY.”
The Ghost Rider then let out quite an inhuman roar, as he glares directly into the human eyes of Vlad Masters. As Vlad stares into the fiery sockets of the Ghost Rider, he starts to scream insanely, squirming under his grip.
What is he doing to him?
He is forcing him to experience all the pain and suffering he had caused others. Even as Vladimir goes through this supernatural experience, he realizes that it is a punishment far, far worse than death itself. And after his eyes have turn to nothing more than molten rock, the soul of Vlad Masters (a.k.a. “Vlad Plasmius”) is seared and sent to h*ll, while his limp, catatonic body falls helplessly to the ground. Even as Danny witnesses the fate of his worst enemy, he feels a bit of remorse for him—it is something he would never, in his wild feud with Vlad, wish upon him.
After taking care of Vlad, another group of people soon enter the scene in an RV vehicle: Sam, Tucker, and the rest of the Fenton family. They park their vehicle right behind Renee’s taxicab and quickly pile out to find the Ghost Rider inside the warehouse, standing before the body of Vlad Masters. The sight is horrifying enough for Jack and Maddie, seeing as how Vlad is an old college friend of theirs, and make them angry enough to aim their weapons directly at the demonic Rider.
“You won’t kill any one else dear to me, you stinkin’ ghost!” Jack screams, and before Sam, Tucker, Jazz, or even Danny could remind him or Maddie of the warning by Death himself, the two ghost hunters have already pulled the triggers of their weapons.
However, the Ghost Rider—aware of their presence—turns and howls atrociously while a wall of flames shoots out before Jack and Maddie, knocking them both back and leaving them firing their weapons into the night sky. Seeing this other threat easily taken care of, the Rider then calls upon the unnatural motorcycle that had brought his alter ego, Johnny Blaze, there.
The motorcycle immediately comes on his call and stops right outside the warehouse. Stepping outside to greet it, the Rider places his skeletal hands on the bike’s gas cap and howls once again. As soon as he removes his hands from the gas cap, a transformation more fierce than that between Johnny Blaze and the Ghost Rider commences.
The bike’s wheels became larger (along with the rest of the motorcycle) and consume in mystic hellfire and the rest of it looks like a high-tech, futuristic machine with a demonic personality. It is entirely engulfed in flames and suitable for the Rider’s needs. Along with the flaming wheels, it includes a shield-like battering ram on the front. This is the Rider’s pride and joy, his Hellcycle.
Immediately he gets on it and begins to ride away from the scene, until pillars of black flames and white smoke appear in front of him and block his path out of the area. The form of Death stands before the Ghost Rider, towering over the demon by only a few inches. “RIDER! YOU WILL NOT LEAVE HERE UNTIL YOU HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED INTO THE ALLIANCE! THESE BEINGS HAVE WORKED HARD TO PREVENT YOU FROM FALLING INTO THE HANDS OF THE ONES THAT DESIRE TO USE YOU FOR THEIR NEW H*LL! YOU WILL NOT ABANDON THEM!”
The Ghost Rider’s reply to Death’s command is short and simple…
“@*% OFF!”
With that being said, the Rider zooms directly into Death, phasing right through his dark form and leaving behind a trail of fire in his wake. As Death watches him depart, he lowers and shakes his head. “BONEHEAD.”
Welcome to the Muppet Central Forum!
Jim Henson Idea Man
Back to the Rock Season 2
Bear arrives on Disney+
Sam and Friends Book
