Fanfic / Saints and Sinners

Armsmaster: You don't get to decide who lives or dies!
Taylor: I'm not the one who decides.

Three years ago, Taylor and her best friend Emma were in a car with Taylor's mother, Annette. It was a good day for Taylor, especially since she got an autograph from Miss Militia. Then it all went downhill when some drunk driver smashed right into them. As she was dying, watching helplessly as the life slowly faded from her eyes, Taylor wished for someone, anyone to save her best friend and mother. She'd give anything.

And it wasn't God who answered her prayers...

Saints and Sinners is a Worm and Ghost Rider Crossover written by TheStrangerThatCameFromNowhere^note also known as TheStranger.

The fanfic has the next arcs:

• Arc 1: Fistful of Embers - The Ghost Rider deals another blow to the city's villain population and single-handedly dismantles the Undersiders, all suffering the Penance Stare. Rachel and Alec leave, the latter for parts unknown, and Brian joins the Brockton Bay Wards whereas Lisa remains under Coil's thumb, though not before giving the PRT an olive branch for Brian's sake. Lung, having been humiliated and defeated by the Ghost Rider one time too many, prepares for a final confrontation, unaware that some of his own have begun plotting his downfall...
• Arc 2: Brimstone - The Brockton Bay Ghost Rider has willingly turned herself over to the PRT amid the revelation that there are more than one Ghost Rider. The Protectorate, dumbfounded that a teenager came to be a Ghost Rider, launches a full-scale investigation. Meanwhile, somewhere in the city, Carter Slade meets with Mephisto to discuss the Brockton Bay Ghost Rider and a sinner that needs to be dealt with...
• Arc 3: With a Vengeance - A month has passed since the Brockton Bay Ghost Rider fled the city. Mephisto offers Taylor Hebert a deal: Defeat the Hellfire Club and he will remove Zarathos from her. As luck would have it, her first target is in Chicago...but so is another Ghost Rider, one with an ax to grind against the apparent successor of Johnny Blaze...
• Arc 4: Heaven's Grief - TBA

In addition to the main story, Saints and Sinners also has two side-stories titled Saints and Sinners 2077 and Come Hell or High Water. The former side-story, in addition being canon to the main story, is a crossover with Cyberpunk: Edgerunners where David Martinez becomes the newest incarnation of the Ghost Rider of Night City after the ill-fated car crash that nearly cost him his mother's life. Come Hell or High Water follows Alec, now living as Jean-Paul, as he attempts to live a normal life in Boston with his new friend and roommate Delilah, only to become entangled with Ghost Rider Alejandra Jones as she hunts down a demon by the name of Hoth.

Beware of major unmarked spoilers.

---

This story contains examples of the following tropes:

• Adaptational Backstory Change: Carter's backstory isn't too different from his comic book counterpart. The diverging point was his confrontation with Reverend Reaper, which ended with Lincoln being the one caught in the cave-in and was going to die were it not for Carter making a deal with Mephisto.
• Adaptational Heroism: Or rather he's returned to heroism. After surviving the Penance Stare, Alan Gramme resolved to retake the mantle of Sphere with Riley's help.
  • This also applies to Riley, who in canon became Bonesaw. Here, she was rescued before Jack Slash could break her, resulting in her being a Cheerful Child who uses her powers to help make plants that can do things like clean up radiation to help revitalize disaster zones, such as the sites of Endbringer attacks.
• Adaptational Name Change: Well, codename change. As mentioned above, Riley was never broken by Jack Slash, resulting in her primarily using her powers on plants and, as such, using the name Botany instead of Bonesaw.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • While Emma's is friends with Sophia here, she still retains her friendship with Taylor as she's been looking for a way to free her from Zarathos.
  • Compared to his usual portrayals, Mephisto is upfront about what his deals entail and the consequences thereof. He also doesn't use Loophole Abuse or Exact Words, finding them to be pointless since it all it does is make enemies with his clients. This only applies to people he wants as Ghost Riders it seems; Emma requested he remove Zarathos from Taylor, and he instead leashes the Spirit of Vengeance to Taylor properly, holds Emma's safety over Taylor's head before making a proper deal. It's implied he did willingly release her after Taylor agreed to the deal as Emma's shown to be back to her normal self in With a Vengeance.
• Adaptational Superpower Change:
  • As is the case with other Alt!Power fanfics, Taylor gets a different powerset, though unlike the web serial, she gets her powers from a Spirit of Vengeance (specifically Zarathos) rather than Triggering with said powers.
  • Similar to his depiction in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Robbie Reyes got his powers by making a deal rather than getting possessed by the spirit of a devil-worshipper. Unlike in the show, Robbie made a deal with Mephisto and became Zarathos' host instead of inheriting it from Johnny Blaze/Danny Ketch.
• Adaptational Villainy: Implied. While Johnny was never the nicest of the Ghost Riders, he was still a heroic figure nonetheless and had a good relationship with his fellow Riders. Not so much the case in Saints and Sinners as when Mephisto jokingly says Taylor might be his second coming, Carter reacts with venom and says another Johnny Blaze is the last thing anyone wants.
• Adaptation Deviation: The Ghost Rider's presence in Brockton Bay and actions throughout the past three years have caused no small amount of chaos. For starters, the Merchants no longer exist. Squealer joined up with the Protectorate and Skidmark is either dead or quit being a cape. Uber and Leet have also quit the cape business. Hookwolf is dead, Rune and Purity joined the PRT as Psy and Polaris respectively, Crusader's seemingly gone, and Fenja's defected from the Empire and joined up with Night and Fog as an Independent Hero. The Undersiders have also all-but officially broken up, with Grue joining the Wards, Rachel moving to the city's seedy outskirts, Alec leaving for Boston, and Lisa still stuck with Coil.
• Ambiguous Gender: Because they're a flaming skeleton, no one knows for certain whether the Ghost Rider is male or female.
• Amicable Exes: T'Challa and Hannah were a couple during their Ward years, but broke up at some point in the past. Despite this, they still get along very well as shown in the interlude All Along the Watchtower.
• And I Must Scream: Taylor makes it very clear to the PRT that she has zero control over Zarathos. When describing what it's like when the fiery skeleton takes control, she says he takes over the driver seat. She doesn't get the passenger or even the backseat; she gets shoved and locked inside the trunk.
• Anti-Hero: Given how the story is entirely focused on Ghost Rider, this was a given. They're also regarded as one of the most prominent examples of vigilantes and the reason why the PRT has become so quick to crack down on other anti-heroes.
• Arc Villain:
  • Fistful of Embers: This position is shared between Lung and Kaiser, the Brockton Bay Ghost Rider's main targets during the gang war. Kaiser is apprehended by the Protectorate whereas a weakened Lung is killed off by the Ghost Rider.
  • Brimstone: Coil is center focus for this arc, as the entirety of Zarathos' actions for the last three years have been part of a plan to attack him in both timelines with the help of another Ghost Rider.
  • With a Vengeance: Like Fistful of Embers, the position is shared between Satana Hellstrom and Vengeance, the former being one of Taylor's targets and Vengeance being obsessed with her by virtue of being Zarathos' host.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: As Victoria finds out the hard way, the Ghost Rider's hellfire doesn't so much as break through her force field as it ignores it.
• Armor-Piercing Question: In the interlude End of the World, when Legend goes to check up on Eidolon after the latter distanced himself from Cauldron, the latter asks him a very poignant question that temporarily leaves him stunned and unsure how to respond.
  Eidolon: Do you think Clarke would ever be okay with all this?
• Back from the Dead: Before the previous Ghost Rider reached Annette's car, Taylor died. She came back to life shortly afterwards when they passed Zarathos onto her.
• Bad Boss: Lung's refusal to leave well enough alone and desire to defeat the Ghost Rider, one of the most powerful capes in the world, has him throw his ABB into a frenzy in an attempt to draw the Ghost Rider out, having figured out they come running whenever there's chaos around the corner. Not only has this resulted in several ABB members being brutalized and being on the receiving end of the Penance Stare, but the Empire takes advantage of Lung's attempts and attacks his gang in the middle of the confusion, hurting the ABB further. By the time the story starts, Lung's reduced to threatening his members to cooperate when they refuse or threaten to leave. It's gotten so bad that Oni Lee convinces Bakuda to help him oust Lung from leadership.
• Battle Couple: T'Challa and Hannah used to be this during their days as Wards. Various factors led to them becoming Amicable Exes, but both are open to the idea of getting back together again, especially when T'Challa turns out to be alive and well.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Piggot has been asking for more manpower for the Protectorate ENE since she was stationed there, only for each request to be denied for varying reasons. Her request is finally granted, but she's forced to out Taylor Hebert as a murderer to the BBPD by the Chief-Director.
• Big Bad: Arc 3 reveals the main villains (at least for Taylor's story overall) are the Hellfire Club; a group of devil-worshipping capes comprising of contractors and rogue demons.
• Blessed with Suck: Taylor makes it very clear that being the Ghost Rider is not a pleasant experience. Yes, she's the most powerful cape in the world and capable of scarring Endbringers, but she's not even in full control of her actions unless Zarathos hands the reigns back over to her, and he rarely ever does unless she forcibly takes back control or fights for it.
• Blood Knight: Out of everyone in the Slaughterhouse Nine, Crawler and the Siberian are the most eager to fight the Ghost Rider. The former is ecstatic when he learns the burns the Ghost Rider inflicts cannot regenerate and can't tell if he's laughing or screaming. The Siberian, meanwhile, wants the pleasure of killing one of the most infamous capes in the world.
• Bounty Hunter: Zarathos and the Spirits of Vengeance are Hell's very own debt collectors and bounty hunters. Specifically, they're tasked with hunting down people who have made a Deal with the Devil for one reason or another, but manage to evade Mephisto's wandering eyes.
• Break the Cutie: Spending a few years with a vengeful demon from hell in your head will do that to you. By her own admission, Taylor was horrified and scared out of her mind by what Zarathos was doing with her body, but after six months of dealing with all kinds of scum, she's since come to agree with his line of thinking and rarely puts a fight when he takes control, the sole exception being when Othala begs for Victor's life and revealing she's pregnant with his child.
• Break the Haughty: Eidolon was originally a man ruled by pride who thought himself the best, and was willing to do whatever it took to save the world. One asskicking and Penance Stare later, courtesy of the Ghost Rider, and he's since distanced himself from Cauldron. In the interlude chapter End of the World, he has a private conversation with Legend and asks him if Hero would accept what they were doing.
• Bullying a Dragon: Ironically, the so-called dragon of Kyushu attempted to defeat and/or kill the Ghost Rider when they first arrived in Brockton Bay, only to end up with hellfire-induced burns. He's made several attempts since, and they've all ended in failure.
• Canon Immigrant: The amalgamation of Ghost Rider and Black Panther, Ghost Panther, is re-imagined as an Earth-Bet native and one of the first Wards alongside Miss Militia and Mouse Protector. He did start off as simply being T'Challa (known publicly as Panther), but his deal with Mephisto led to him being the newest recruit in the Spirits of Vengeance.
• The Chessmaster: Surprisingly, Zarathos shows he's a lot more cunning than Taylor assumed. His three-year-long rampage across Brockton Bay and allowing Taylor to be taken into custody by the PRT were all part of his plan to draw a fellow Spirit of Vengeance to Brockton Bay so they could attack Coil simultaneously, having figured out how his powers function.
• Cliffhanger: So far, the story loves to end on these.
  • The end of Fistful of Embers sees Colin arrive to find the tail end of Lung's death and an unmasked Kaiser unconscious with the Ghost Rider willingly unmasking themselves, the identity of the infamous cape shocking him and Dragon considerably.
  • Brimstone ends with Taylor meeting Mephisto for the first time, who offers her a salespitch of some kind while dangling Emma's safety over her head.
• Collective Identity: Like in canon, there are multiple Ghost Riders, distinguished by their mounts. Taylor is just the strongest, due to her Spirit of Vengeance being Zarathos.
• Composite Character: Carter Slade is a mix of his comic book portrayal and the Caretaker from the Nick Cage movie. He was originally the Phantom Rider, an infamous outlaw/vigilante in the old west up until his fateful encounter with Reverend Reaper, where his brother Lincoln was going to die thanks to the cave-in. He made a deal with Mephisto to save Lincoln's life, and in doing so, became a host to a Spirit of Vengeance. As a result of his new circumstance, his Phantom Rider attire became affected by the Spirit's powers, and was later rechristened as the Ghost Rider by the frontier.
• The Corruptor: Initially, Taylor resisted Zarathos as much as possible when he inhabited her, even trying to reason or at least hold him back. Six months later, exposed to all sorts of criminals of every kind, Taylor's stopped trying and lets him do as he pleases. That said, she does draw the line when Zarathos is about to kill Victor and Othala says he's going to be a father.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Every fight the Ghost Rider gets into, regardless of host, tends to end in their favor and without much effort.
  • The Wards and Victoria do little to actually hamper or stop the Ghost Rider and ultimately fail in preventing them from killing Trainwreck.
  • The Slaughterhouse Nine were completely and utterly trounced by Robbie when he came for them. The only ones to put up a decent fight are Mannequin and Siberian, and both are easily dispatched once Robbie gives them the Penance Stare.
• Cursed with Awesome:
  • On the one hand, Taylor is the Ghost Rider and has a whole slew of powers that makes her one of, if not the strongest cape in the world. On the other hand, said powers also come from a vengeful demon hellbent on punishing each and every sinner they come across and can hijack Taylor's body anytime it wants.
  • Alec regards his Heel–Face Brainwashing as this - on the one hand, having a conscience means he can't be as cruel as his People Puppet powers sometimes require, but he hated being an Empty Shell, so while he knows just how horrible the Penance Stare is, he's actually happy it happened to him.
• Deal with the Devil: Mephisto's bread and butter. Unlike his usual shenanigans where he exploits a Loophole Abuse or takes advantage of Exact Words, he's otherwise earnest and follows through on his end with no strings attached. He even makes it very clear to his clients about the consequences of his deals.
  • Robbie Reyes made one at some point in the past with Mephisto. In exchange for giving him the means to get revenge on the Fifth Street Locos who murdered his brother Gabriel, he would be the devil's Bounty Hunter for the forseeable future.
  • T'Challa's deal is one of the most unusual Mephisto's had since all he asks for is the power to protect others. Mephisto flat-out tells him what this deal entails and he may regret his choice. T'Challa retorts that it doesn't matter if the deal bounds him to hell for eternity; if the power of the Ghost Rider can be used for good and save others, then that's all that matters.
  • Taylor accidentally made one three years ago, which is how she became the Brockton Bay Ghost Rider. She prayed for someone to save her friend and mother and was willing to offer anything in exchange. The Ghost Rider took that to mean she was willing to become Zarathos' new host and become a Ghost Rider herself. When Mephisto meets her, he leashes Zarathos so as to make her "a proper employee" of his before offering his deal: he'll remove Zarathos and fulfill his contract with Emma in the process, but in exchange, she has to hunt down and kill the Hellfire Club.
• Death by Adaptation: Gabriel Reyes, who is alive and well in All-New Ghost Rider, was killed by the Fifth Street Locos when Robbie agreed to take him along for a ride in his new Dodge Charger. His death is what leads to Robbie making a deal with Mephisto.
• Death Glare: And in the form of an Eye Beam. The Penance Stare is the strongest weapon in the Ghost Rider's arsenal as it can not only force whoever is unlucky enough to look the Ghost Rider in the eyes to feel the pain and suffering they caused onto those they've hurt, but also inflict the same injuries as their victims onto them. The experience, as one might imagine, is so brutal and horrifying that anyone lucky enough to survive the glare either gave up the cape life entirely or pulled a Heel–Face Turn and joined the heroes.
• Dem Bones: The Ghost Rider is a literal skeleton that is perpetually on fire.
• Disproportionate Retribution: When Mephisto takes Emma's body for a joywalk and goes looking for Taylor, they happen to bump into an ABB member, spilling the latter's drink all over them. The ABB member gets pissed and drags them into the alley "to teach them a lesson". Mephisto walks out of the alley, all smiles and covered in blood. Since this happened in broad daylight, Emma winds up on the news as a wanted murderer.
  Mephisto: And just as this jacket was starting to grow on me...
• The Dreaded: The Ghost Rider is feared by pretty much everyone for their ruthlessness, willingness to kill criminals of any kind, and even attack heroes. They also don't follow the Unwritten Rules, having apparently unmasked a few capes, intentionally or no. When Shatterbird realizes it's the Ghost Rider they're fighting, she tells the Slaughterhouse Nine to forget Riley and book it.
• Driving Question: The big question throughout Fistful of Embers was the identity of the Ghost Rider since no one knew for certain whether they were male or female. It isn't until Brimstone that the Ghost Rider's identity (or rather the Brockton Bay Ghost Rider) is revealed to be none other than Taylor Hebert.
• Elective Mute: Implied. At the end of Fistful of Embers, it's noted that the Ghost Rider has never spoken at all in the three years they've been in Brockton Bay. It's implied Taylor was speaking at the end of the arc and not Zarathos, who is shown to be able to communicate with her. He drops this in Brimstone where he does speak as the Ghost Rider.
• Even Evil Has Standards: While unforgiving and brutal in its judgment, Zarathos doesn't necessarily go out of his way to punish every sinner he finds with the Penance Stare or scarring them with hellfire. When recounting a robbery gone wrong, a fresh Empire recruited named Thomas admits to having just joined the Empire recently so to make enough money to get his family out of a rough part of the neighborhood or out of the city. The robbery went FUBAR when the Ghost Rider cropped up, but unlike the rest of the crew, the Ghost Rider didn't subject him to the Penance Stare and settled for beating the shit out of him.
• Eye Scream: Carol had a previous run-in with the Ghost Rider, with said encounter leaving her with a horrible burn mark across her eyes and rendering her permanently blind. As the wound was inflicted with hellfire, Amy was unable to heal it.
• Famed In-Story: The first chapter establishes that the Ghost Rider has been around for a very long time, with their first appearance being in the tail end of the Gold Age, though it's worth noting that there were plenty of zany and wild stories about a "flaming skeleton" roaming around the country since before parahumans began to appear. Their appearance in Brockton Bay puts both the villains and the Protectorate ENE on edge since the Ghost Rider has never been known for their mercy and is brutal and unforgiving to those they perceive as guilty.
• Fate Worse than Death: Or in this case, a worse fate after death. In the interlude God's Gonna Cut You Down, Robbie hunts down the Slaughterhouse Nine. Jack Slash, the leader of the group, has the unenviable pleasure of being given a one-way ticket to hell. Literally. When we see Jack Slash again, he's stuck inside the bunker he grew up in, all the while hearing his parents and victims screaming and clawing at the door.
• Faux Affably Evil: When greeting Jack Slash in Hell, Mephisto acts courteous and claims to be a fan of his work. A minute later, he's happily listening to Jack's horrified, sobbing screams as he's trapped inside his bunker while the voices of his parents and victims scream and claw at the door on his radio while eating dinner.
• Foregone Conclusion: The Interlude End of the World (which took place before the final chapters of Fistful of Embers) revealed ahead of time that not only will the Empire be utterly demolished and all but gone, but Lung will die at the hands of the Ghost Rider, who will later willingly turn herself over.
• For Want Of A Nail:
  • The ill-fated car crash that robbed Annete Hebert's life had an extra twist: Taylor and Emma were also in the car, the former just having gotten an autograph from Miss Militia. When the car crash occurs, Taylor begs for someone to save them, willing to give up anything to do so. This not only landed her as Zarathos' new host, but the Ghost Rider also saved Emma and Annette as well, sparing the latter from her canon fate.
    • This event also had the smaller effect on Emma and Sophia's future relationship. While the circumstances behind their meeting were more or less the same, Emma was focused on finding Taylor since the latter disappeared after becoming the Brockton Bay Ghost Rider. Sophia is also implied to know little, if anything, about Taylor save for that Emma has been looking for her.
  • As shown in God's Gonna Cut You Down, the Ghost Rider's arrival during her Trigger Event and subsequent murder of the group prevents Riley from becoming Bonesaw and replacing Crimson.
• Good Is Not Soft: The Ghost Rider is an Anti-Hero by all accounts, hellbent on delivering their own brand of justice to anyone they deem guilty and have even attacked other heroes, either in self-defense or also finding them guilty. The severity of their punishment depends on two things: who's in the driver seat and which Spirit of Vengeance the host has. If it's Zarathos, then the odds of him being merciful are slim to none.
• Heel–Face Brainwashing: Downplayed, as the Penance Stare did this accidentally with Regent/Alec - the forces its subject to feel the pain that its subjects have caused - which Alec was incapable of thanks to Heartbreaker circuiting his conscience, with the Stare rebooting it.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • After being afflicted with the Penance Stare and surviving it (and learning he accidentally killed a man), Grue willingly turns himself in to the Protectorate and asks Miss Militia if there's any chance of him turning over a new leaf. He's later made a probationary member of the Brockton Bay Wards.
  • Interlude Green Day reveals that Alan Gramme, formerly Mannequin of the Slaughterhouse Nine, has retaken his old mantle as the benevolent tinker Sphere and is working with Riley, who goes by the name Botanist.
• Heel Realization: Those who survive the Ghost Rider's Penance Stare has made several characters take a deep, long look at themselves and wonder if they're doing the right thing. Some even pulled a Heel–Face Turn and joined the PRT while others reportedly gave up the cape scene entirely, with Grue being the earliest on-screen example.
• Hellfire: Being a demon from hell, Zarathos is wreathed in such flames and commands them in any way he pleases. As the Ghost Rider, this extends to Taylor, who can infuse anything she touches with the stuff, be it something as simple as a chain or a shotgun.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: While the Ghost Rider has a few supporters, they're not the most-beloved cape in the world due to their ruthless nature and willingness to kill their opponents.
• Hidden Depths: Of all the people to be well-versed in the occult, Emma Barnes is the last person you'd expect. When Sophia investigates her disappearance, she learns her friend owns several books about the occult, specifically demonology. Brimstone reveals Emma was into the occult because she's been looking for a way to free Taylor from Zarathos and found some success when she summoned Mephisto and the latter possesses her body.
• Homeless Hero: At some point after becoming a Ghost Rider, Taylor began living on the streets. A missing persons poster reveals she's been missing since 2008, having run away from home some time after the car accident.
• Hope Spot: The Heberts always believed they would one day find Taylor after she disappeared. They get their first piece of good news in three years from the PRT, saying they've found her. The problem? She's the Brockton Bay Ghost Rider that's been tearing apart the gangs since her disappearance.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: Oni Lee followed Lung because he was stronger than him and was one of the top villains in Brockton Bay. Numerous losses to the Ghost Rider and growing unhinged to the point of self-destructing has Oni Lee rethink his loyalties and plot with Bakuda to take over the gang.
• In Love with Your Carnage: Shadow Stalker makes no secret of her admiration for the Ghost Rider for their brutal methods. She even sees them as a role model and aspiration. Unsurprisingly, the PRT was not happy to learn about this and forced her into joining the Wards under threat of sending her to Juvenile Hall.
• In Medias Res: The story starts in April of 2011 where Taylor is well into her cape career. The twist is that she's been active for three years as the Brockton Bay Ghost Rider.
• It Can Think: Played with. Taylor knew Zarathos held some degree of intelligence, since he could restrain himself from attacking sinners who committed minor things like theft and is sapient enough that he can converse with her as shown in the tail-end of Fistful of Embers. She did not him it to be capable of complex plans. Zarathos gave back control of Taylor's body to her and let her turn herself over to the PRT as he needed to be in a position where he could go after Coil in one timeline while another Ghost Rider who came to investigate his activities would be drawn to Coil as well in another, since Coil is on Mephisto's blacklist.
• It's Personal: Victoria has some serious beef with the Ghost Rider. Brandish tried to fight them at some point, only to wind up permanently blind after getting a faceful of hellfire.
• Mythology Gag: In the first movie, Johnny snags one of Blackheart's underlings and prepares to kill him when the mook begs for mercy, only for Johnny to tell him he's all out of mercy. Zarathos tells Calvert the same thing when he douses him in hellfire.
• Named by the Adaptation: Some of the capes in Brockton Bay are given names whereas they were only ever known by their cape identities. Browbeat's civilian identity is Trent, Victor's full name is Victor Hoyt, Othala's real name is Natasha, and Battery is Carly.
• No Body Left Behind: This usually happens to anyone who is burned alive by the Ghost Rider's hellfire or dies from the Penance Stare. In the latter case, they start crumbling to ashes and break down until there's virtually nothing left of them. Lung is heavily implied to have undergone this, having been killed by hellfire and reduced to little more than a human-shaped scorch mark on the ground.
• Noodle Incident: The Cairo Massacre. It's mentioned twice, first in Brimstone and in the interlude All Along the Watchtower. The only concrete detail is that it was an incident involving an African Warlord, and is apparently bad enough for Emily to compare it to Elisburg.
• No-Sell: During his latest confrontation with the Ghost Rider, Lung used some of Bakuda's grenades, among which were her infamous stasis-bubbles that replicate Gray Boy's time bubble. They did absolutely nothing to stop them, much to Lung's annoyance and fury.
• Not Quite Dead: Despite what the public believed, Panther did not perish during his last encounter with Moord Nag and her African Warlords. He was put in a medical-induced coma and hid in a general hospital so the Warlords wouldn't find and kill him to finish the job. Mephisto woke him up and made him a deal, to which T'Challa accepted with little hesitation.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • The Wards, especially Grue (who's previous encounter with the Ghost Rider led him to joining the Wards in the first place), all start to panic when they realize the Ghost Rider has arrived at Central Bank and is gunning for Trainwreck.
  • When Taylor willingly gives herself up to the PRT after having killed Lung, she explains the nature of her powers, specifically how she has zero control over them. Tying into this with the reveal that there are multiple Spirits of Vengeance, the PRT come to the conclusion that the person who gave her powers and is responsible for creating the Ghost Rider is a horrific blend of Teacher and the Butcher, capable of giving identical powersets that can be passed down.
  • Calvert starts to panic when Zarathos, after sensing his presence aboard the Rig, takes over Taylor and starts hunting his ass. His panic skyrockets when he learns in his other timeline that his base is being attacked by another Ghost Rider.
• Only Sane Man: Piggot finds herself in this role in the Deleted Scene where she's the main focus. She's dumbfounded and outraged that the Chief-Director wants to out Taylor as a murderer to the BBPD after what happened, telling Costa-Brown it is a very bad fucking idea and points out that Taylor has zero control over her powers and anyone who does come looking to arrest her will be staring down the Brockton Bay Ghost Rider and potentially out her, which would lead to a whole slew of other problems.
• Outside-Context Problem: The Ghost Rider is this for Cauldron, outright calling them an aberration due to how little they actually know about them and their impact on cape society. Any attempts to subdue them end in failure, and the reveal that there's more than one leaves them at a loss. This goes double for their powers. Both these factors lead Doctor Mother to speculate that the Ghost Rider may in fact be a natural superhuman figure on Earth-Bet rather than one who got their powers from a Shard.
• Playing with Fire: Hellfire in this case. The literal flames of hell are part of the Ghost Rider's powerset, which damage not just a person's physical body, but even their own soul. When used on a person, worst case scenario they end up a scorch mark. Best case, they get third-degree burns that will never heal.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Something of a catchphrase for the Ghost Rider when they inform the unlucky sod they're targeting they are going to someplace very unpleasant, as Jack Slash can attest to.
  "Hell's waiting for you."
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Before his debut in the interlude God's Gonna Cut You Down and in Brimstone proper, Mephisto was called the Red-Eyed Man by numerous characters. He's also the devil in charge of finding potential Ghost Riders.
• Scars Are Forever: Due to the supernatural nature of the Ghost Rider's flames, the burns they inflict on their victims cannot be healed. This aggrivates and terrifies Amy since she's never encountered anythling like it before, and as a result she's distressed and ashamed by her inability to do so when Carol was blinded in a previous confrontation with the Ghost Rider and Victoria's "fight" with them left her with a burn on her cheek. Lung also sports similar scars across his body from repeated encounters with the Ghost Rider, which he despises as they're constant reminders of his failure to beat them.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Those who survived the Penance Stare and didn't pull a Heel–Face Turn afterwards decided to quit the cape life, such as Skidmark (who may be dead as noted in the PHO post at the start of Fistful of Embers), Crusader, Uber, and Leet.
  • During the ABB gang war, when the Ghost Rider has Victor dead to rights, Othala bargains for his life by saying he's going to be a father and that they'll give up being capes and leave Brockton Bay. They appeared to have followed through on their end in the interlude End of the World.
  • When the Ghost Rider came for the Slaughterhouse Nine and kills five of its nine members, Crimson attempted to flee. His efforts were in vain as the Ghost Rider snatched him with his chain and killed him with the Penance Stare.
• Secret-Keeper: As it would turn out, Emma knew all along that Taylor became the Ghost Rider. She was awake and conscious when she saw Taylor's predecessor drag them out of the car, saving Taylor last and witnessed them passing Zarathos on to her.
• Shout-Out:
  • There's a PHO user going by the name of Sumbastich, who is cited as one of FlippinMad's sources for information on the Ghost Rider. By his own admission when someone asks, the name is a reference — specifically a gender-neutral swear used by the Main Man.
  • The interludes are all named after songs. The Cauldron and Slaughterhouse Nine interludes, for examples, are titled End of the World and God's Gonna Cut You Down, sung by Skeeter Davis and Johnny Cash respectively.
  • Taylor's backstory of how she became the Ghost Rider is near identical to how Robbie Reyes got his powers in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
• Spanner in the Works: The Ghost Rider's continued interference in Brockton Bay and destabilizing the power block throws a huge wrench in the cape feudalism experiment Cauldron had planned. Although Number Man and Contessa explain they can continue the experiment, they would have to expend a great deal of resources and there's no telling whether the Ghost Rider will continue to interfere so long as they're in Brockton Bay. Rebecca decides to cut their losses when it becomes clear the situation isn't worth salvaging, and as a result, they leave Coil up to hang and dry.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Annette Hebert managed to survive the car crash that would have killed her, courtesy of Robbie Reyes pulling her out of the car wreck and implied to have healed her.
• Spotting the Thread: Dragon is the first to realize there are multiple Ghost Riders rather than a single entity. She wasn't able to put the pieces together until the Ghost Rider in Brockton Bay was revealed to be Taylor Hebert, who was born well after the Ghost Rider made their debut and presence in the cape community.
• The Starscream: After Lung's numerous failures to defeat the Ghost Rider and callous handling of the ABB in recent years, Oni Lee's faith in Lung has begun to dwindle. The final straw is Lung deciding to mount one final assault and throwing the entirety of the Azn Bad Boys at the Ghost Rider, after which Oni Lee decides to enlist Bakuda's help in plotting a takeover.
• Tailor-Made Prison: The Cell is designed to house some of the most powerful Brutes on Earth-Bet, with the creators of said cell having put the strongest possible Protectorate capes inside to stress-test it, including Alexandria. Taylor is placed inside one under orders by Piggot, who doesn't want to leave anything to chance. To the shock of everyone present, Taylor smashes her way through it in under a minute with nothing but brute force. It took Alexandria an hour to break out of the cell by punching the door at full strength non-stop.
• There Is Another: Something that shocks and horrifies the PRT. The interludes God's Gonna Cut You Down and End of the World as well as Fistful of Embers 4 reveal the existence of additional Ghost Riders such as Robbie Reyes, T'Challa, and Carter Slade respectively. It isn't until Brimstone that the PRT learns there are more than a few Ghost Riders running around the world.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • Constant losses against the Ghost Rider in the last three years have worn Lung down considerably. When we see him after his latest confrontation, he's tearing apart the room he's in and spewing fire from the mouth. He's gone from a previously unstoppable force and powerful juggernaut in Brockton Bay to a deranged madman who wants to destroy the Ghost Rider by any means necessary, even if he has to burn down all of Brockton Bay.
  • When Coil learns he's being attacked by two Ghost Riders, one in each timeline, his normally calm and cool composure cracks in seconds and tries to escape, only to be caught and suffered to burn to death via hellfire in one timeline and subjected to the Penance Stare in the other.
• Wham Episode: The interlude End of the World reinforces what the fourth chapter of Fistful of Embers establishes with the reveal that there is more than one Ghost Rider by showing off the existence of a third: Ghost Panther. The interlude ends with Contessa meeting Danny Ketch after being directed by Mephisto and asking about Johnny Blaze, who has apparently undergone some form of Adaptational Villainy.
• Wham Line: Piggot decides to bring in Taylor's parents to try and coax some information out of her. Taylor decides to tell them how she got her powers and asks her mother if she remembers the person who saved them and Emma from the car crash.
  Annette: I never saw their face. I remembered how they tore open the car doors like they were nothing and just pulled us out of there. I was fading in and out. The last thing I saw before I passed out was a car. A Dodge Charger R/T.
• Wham Shot: Just when it looks like Dinah is about to be captured by Coil's mercenaries, a man dressed like a cowboy and suddenly intervenes. When Coil's men refuse to back down, the man's face suddenly turns into a flaming skull. Word of God and later chapters would reveal him to be none other than Carter Slade.
• Wound That Will Not Heal: The damage inflicted by hellfire is permanent and cannot be healed or undone. Since the Ghost Rider came to Brockton Bay, there have been several scorch marks that still linger around the city, much to the citizens' chagrin. People who have been burned by hellfire are permanently scarred. Even Endbringers aren't immune, with one Ghost Rider having scarred Leviathan. Because of the nature of the wounds, Amy is unable to heal them, which distresses her since Victoria gets a hellfire-induced burn mark on her cheek and Carol was rendered permanently blind in a prior confrontation.
  Amy: In most cases, I know how to heal a wound or fix a broken bone. My power lets me know where the injury is and how to heal it. The burns that flaming skeleton causes? I can't do anything. I've tried, believe me. As far as my powers are concerned, there is no injury or the wound is so severe it has no idea how it can be healed.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: This is Assault's reaction when the Brockton Bay Ghost Rider escapes the Cell by bashing through the door, which took Alexandria an hour to do when she stress-tested it.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Played with. Cauldron doesn't wipe their hands of Coil because He Knows Too Much or because they decided to scrap their cape feudalism plan for Brockton Bay, but they don't go out of their way to keep him as a worthwhile asset and leave him to deal with the Ghost Rider by himself, knowing full well it's a matter of time before they come after him.

---

Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.

---