| Within Johnny Blaze's mind, the frustrated Zarathos screams complaints. And a voice answers him. A voice that explains how an ancient people found him, summoned him, and worshipped him, and how this drew the jealous attention of Mephisto, who used trickery to conquer and enslave Zarathos. A pawn of Mephisto gave up his soul for the power to imprison Zarathos - something Mephisto wanted done anyway! Johnny, meanwhile, sees a vision of Vincenzo, the Quentin Carnival seer he thought dead. Following Vincenzo's mind to a drab house, Johnny is set upon and overpowered by freaks serving Renaldo! Inside his mind Zarathos learns how Mephisto sent him, over and over, to Earth to possess the bodies of soulless men and punish the wicked with his flame. In the house, Johnny learns Renaldo's surgeons operated on Vincenzo and gave him the crude telepathic powers, and reduced him to a wreck! And those same surgeons mean to turn Johnny into a mechanical centaur: half man, half motorcycle! He is forced to summon Ghost Rider. But inside his mind, Zarathos learns how his mysterious benefactor, the mystical Nightmare, plans to free him - and how he must resist Johnny's summons. Without the ability to summon the rider, Johnny cannot defeat Renaldo and his freaks... |
