"Stop, stop. I'm losing his scent, bring me down."

Nathan let his wings glide him and Joseph into the middle of the street below. Vehicles screeched to a halt, fortunately not hitting them, nor causing any other accident. Ignoring the blaring car horns, Joseph started taking whiffs of the area, trying to catch a scent of Shadow. Nathan, however, was annoyed with the obnoxious civilians and fired two bullets in the air. Drivers and bystanders responded in a panic and took to running away from them.

"I think I got something; it's pretty faint, so we gotta get moving." said Joseph.

Nathan was lost in thought.

"Nathan?"

"Sorry," he shook his head, "I'm adjusting to having an active Hell below us."

"Oh, so this world has one? That's normal I guess."

"Uh, sort of. It feels...complex. Like- never mind, let's go."

Elsewhere, Sonic stood on the rooftop of a brick row house, scoping the city. He took in the typical city sounds: people speaking, cars beeping and revving their engines, and the humming void of the wind in the background.

"It's just like home." he thought.

"HELP! HE'S GOT MY BABY!"

Sonic checked the opposite sidewalk and a masked man was sprinting away from a fallen mother, holding something small and wrapped.

He sighed a smirk, "Baby-nappers; yep, just like home."

The criminal put the baby in a box in the backseat of his getaway vehicle and hopped in to accelerate away from the scene. Seconds into his ride, a blue figure caught up to his side by foot. "What is that?!"

Sonic kept his speed even with the driver. He pointed his thumb to his backseat. The driver rolled down the window and Sonic gave a cool smile, "We both know that's not your baby!"

The man pulled off his mask to reveal an utterly confused tan face as this speedy rodent spoke. He shook his head as if waking from a hallucination, rolled up the window, and pressed the gas pedal harder to beat the yellow light ahead of him. It turned red as he just passed under the light. He glanced to his side again and Sonic was still there, waving at him. The window came down again, but this time a gun greeted Sonic. His eyes went wide and he promptly cut his speed down when the trigger went off.

The crook wasn't sure if he hit him; when he checked his side and rear-view mirrors, Sonic was nowhere to be found. He decided to dismiss the issue again and continue on, but was startled to now see Sonic running in front of the car. Before he could aim his gun, Sonic hopped into a sphere, allowing himself to break through the windshield. After the shards of glass dispersed, the man found Sonic in the passenger's seat with his feet kicked up on the dashboard.

"How's it goin'?" winked Sonic.

The driver fired his gun at Sonic, but missed again when Sonic reclined the seat back. In that instant, Sonic brought his knees to his chest and threw them over hard enough to launch his body and drive his legs into the criminal's side. They both busted out of the vehicle, knocking the door off the car. While the man tumbled and rolled through the rugged asphalt, Sonic twisted his body accordingly to let his feet skid himself to a stop while posing himself to land in a running-start position.

As soon as his feet and hands met the blacktop, he let himself only slide for a second, then he pushed harder to reverse his momentum, and in the following second, he was already accelerating towards the driverless car.

Sonic slipped in through the front and saw the car was heading straight for a busy intersection. He couldn't swerve the car anywhere without causing more damage or hurting the baby. The car was already going too fast on this downhill street that hard-braking will likely put the baby at risk of a traumatic injury. The car was now about a hundred meters away when Sonic made a last-minute decision to jump in the back and grab the box the crying baby was in.

He opened it up, "Hang tight!"

His plan was to try and jump out of the car before they crossed the intersection, but upon holding the box closer to his chest, the car had just clipped another vehicle in the side-rear. Sonic didn't realize he didn't have a chair to protect his backside and he flew out through where the windshield used to be- still holding that box no matter what. His body slammed into the street and he somersaulted along it- clenching the box enough to where he can feel the baby's body and hold it in place as to prevent shaking.

He forced his rolling to a stop as he kicked off the ground when his feet met and he finally landed hard on his back, knocking the wind out of him. The dented box was safe on his panting chest. Sonic tilted it to face him and removed the lid, to find the baby still crying, but not harmed in anyway. He finally caught his air and steadied his breathing. His head fell to the side and he noticed a red delivery truck was screeching to a stop, but the driver wasn't quick enough to slam the brakes and it still seemed to be approaching at full speed.

A weakened Sonic got to his knees and shielded the baby again with his back turned to the truck, "Yep."

But while bracing for impact, the truck suddenly went silent. Sonic looked over and a familiar aqua energy field was lifting the whole truck off the ground. Silver descended behind Sonic and placed the truck down.

"Who's baby?" Silver asked, levitating the box off Sonic's hands, opening it, and letting the baby float in mid-air to entertain it from sobbing.

"Err, she's down that road somewhere. Thanks, Silver."

All the traffic had stopped as people were now staring in awe, unsure whether to praise these heroes or fear these aliens.

"Ugh, this treatment again." Sonic huffed.

"Hopefully we won't be here long enough to worry about what they think." assured Silver.

"How'd you find me?"

"Come on, really," Silver chuckled, "Breaking the sound barrier has a pretty significant sound!"

Sonic slapped Silver's arm and pointed behind him, "What about that sound?"

There were sirens echoing and down the road were white cars with flashing red and blue lights above them, led by two black vans with no visible labels or logos.

"No, that's a bad sound," Silver elevated again. "See? Everyone knows when you're around."

Sonic took the baby out of Silver's telekinetic hold, placed it back in the box, and looked around him for a solution.

He zipped over to the driver in the delivery truck, "Get this baby to its sad mama up the road; Priority Mail! Handle With Care- Fragile!"

The groggy driver leaned over, "This package doesn't even have its shipping label.

Sonic peeled a random sticker he found under the box, pasted it on the baby's forehead, and left it on the driver's lap.

"Hey," he called out as Sonic zipped back to Silver, "This is a barcode sticker. I need-"

"PRIORITY!"

The sirens were growing louder now as the vehicles approached.

"You are unbelievable." scoffed Silver, flying by Sonic as they retreated further into the city.

They continued on with what felt like an endless arrangement of skyscrapers and buildings. But, as they zoomed around avoiding the authorities, they missed the one alleyway in which Shadow was hidden.

He peeked his head out again and the coast was finally clear. "I need to get out of this city without drawing attention to myself like those morons did."

With his attention kept on his surroundings, he failed to notice that there was a pitch black chopper motorbike on his sidewalk, right in front of him.

"Hello there."

Shadow looked around again, and noticed only a few bystanders, but they were on the opposite sidewalk. He could make it unnoticed if he was swift, which he concluded to be no problem. He ran out and ducked next to it, searching around the handlebars to look for the ignition wiring to hotwire the bike. Surprisingly, they weren't visible. He looked around for a protective cover, but found nothing. Someone from the other sidewalk glanced over to admire the bike and Shadow ducked on time. After a few moments, he crouch-walked to the other side of the bike, frantically searching.

He arose frustrated, "What kind of bike is this?"

"It's my bike, and what in the hell are you?"

On the other side of the vehicle stood a reddish-blonde, middle-aged man wearing a black typical biker outfit.

"Make this easy and hand over your keys." Shadow threatened, pulling the man closer to him by his collar.

"Found you!"

Shadow looked over to the new voice and found Nathan landing in the middle of the street, Joseph following after leaping off a convenient store.

"Demon scum." Shadow heard his hostage mumble.

"Demon?" Shadow replied. "What are you tal- What the- grm!"

Shadow's hand felt like it was on fire and he stepped away from the man that was gripping it where it burned. Shadow was usually resistant to burns, so to feel such pain at such an intensity was rare to him. He was also unsure how it happened, but could only reason to blame this man before him, who was now intently focused on Nathan and Joseph.

Joseph for a moment also presumed something was off with the situation, but ignored it when Shadow decided to make a dash for it. Nathan, once again, was distracted. He felt something inside of him, like a certain warmth that was too familiar to him, and all he could do was stare at this average biker to figure it out.

Joseph shape-shifted back to normal again and slapped Nathan in the back now, "Yo, Shadow's on the move! Forget this guy!"

Nathan blinked out of it when he heard engines roaring off in the distance; S.H.I.E.L.D. again. Nathan regarded the stranger once again before taking off with Joseph to follow Shadow.

The man walked out into the middle of street and stood there as if challenging S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury was in the second of the line of vehicles.

"Director, there's someone out in the middle of the road up ahead," said a voice through the speakers on the roof; it was coming from the leading vehicle. A holographic video feed appeared on the windshield in front of him.

His jaw clenched slightly when he saw the biker in the road, "Give me room to have word with him."

They all quickly braked on time for Fury's to stop next to the biker. The window slid down for the Director to speak, but the biker approached the window confidently to face Fury, placing his hand on the window frame.

"Do me a favor, Fury, and stay outta my way. Those three are mine."

"I can't promise that."

Suddenly, the black bike's engine started. Automatically, it rode off the curb on its own and stood still behind its owner.

"Then I can't promise not sabotaging your mission."

Without another word, the biker hopped on his chopper and sped down the now smoky road.

One agent holstered her gun, "Director-"

"Nope, we're done here. I'm calling for help. In that time, find the other two," Fury ordered. He held a finger to his earpiece, "Get me Thor down here."

The Loose Cannons' chase was cut short when they saw Shadow waiting for them in the middle of the road.

"I realized there's no point in running. I may be much faster than you, but you still manage to to track me down, even without that fancy ship of yours." said the hedgehog.

"What're you getting at?" questioned Joseph, morphing up.

"I guess I also have to prove that I'm stronger than both of you. I'm going to have to make sure we don't ever meet again."

Nathan fired two bullets in the air and Joseph vehemently roared out in order to scare off nearby civilians. As they all scurried away and abandoned their vehicles and items, Joseph was now focused on sniffing a new scent, while Nathan's attention turned behind him.

Joseph let out a deep snarl, "You're no hedgehog, you're a demon!"

Shadow chuckled, "Thank you? But, what is it with everyone and demons around here?"

"Nathan, I thought you said there wasn't a Hell on their planet?"

"There is, but not like ours. I don't necessarily sense anything Satanic or religion-specific in theirs." replied Nathan.

"Shadow's a dem- what're you looking at? Are you OK?" Joseph asked.

As soon as he turned around, the demonic scent he picked up strengthened.

"It's not Shadow," said Nate, pointing out in the distance.

Shadow frowned when he could see between Nathan and Joe that someone else was coming: it was the stranger from earlier on his motorcycle.

Joseph took a final whiff now, "He's the demon."

"Something's still off." Nathan pulled out his pistols, "And I don't like it."

He fired four rounds at the biker, but the biker was evaded them. Nathan and Joseph dove out of the way when the biker almost ran them down. The biker swerved and drifted to a stop in the gap between both parties, establishing himself as the neutral party. However, this wasn't the same stranger from a few moments ago.

Another familiar warmth blossomed within Nathan, but it was more than sensing a demonic presence, "What the hell?"

The biker stepped off the bike and suddenly, the man's head and hands ignited in fire and he cried out in agony. His skin and hair turned into ashes in seconds, leaving behind a still-burning skeleton under his attire.

Now Nathan felt a pang of a different energy, deeper within him- The Black Phoenix, and it was stirred, but not really provoked; it was an extrinsic feeling to Nathan. Nonetheless, Nathan welded his pistols together into an assault rifle and he unloaded at the fiery demon. The latter raised his hand and produced a flurry of flames from it, catching every bullet shot his way. As soon as Nathan holstered his guns, the specter produced a shotgun from that same flame and shot back at Nathan. This ability caught Nathan too off-guard for him to think about dodging it and the unexpected fireball blasted him back onto the concrete. He lost his breath as the fire burned over his battle suit, over his heart. Joseph thought twice about making his move, realizing Nathan was actually in pain, that he wasn't immune to this fire- which also meant not to underestimate this demon.

"You boys don't seem to be from around here, at all," the rider said- his voice hoarse and echoey- turning to Joseph. "But for as long as you're in my world, I'm still gonna judge your souls accordingly...Especially yours, Joseph Luno."

Joseph's expression of growing fear was evident, as he was unsure how to react. Nathan was equally disturbed and equally uncertain on a plan of attack against this horror.

The demon cackled maniacally, "As for the Spirit of Vengeance over there, I'll leave you for last- just out of kinship."

Shadow waited no longer and Spin-Dashed into the side of the demon's legs, sweeping him down. He unrolled and jumped in a backflip into the air over the demon's body, balled his fist and threw it down with a lethal force onto its skull.

Shadow imagine shattering it upon contact- but it was completely intact, and the force of Shadow's punch was absorbed entirely, "Wha-?!"

The demon snaked his bony hand through and wrapped it around Shadow's throat. Shadow tried pulling himself off, kicking away, prying the hand off, and even threw more fists- but to no avail, he was overpowered. The rider pushed himself off the ground to a stand, holding Shadow in the air to bring him face-to-face. The two hollow eye sockets each kindled little vortices and Shadow was brought closer.

"Shadow the Hedgehog," the demon began.

Shadow's eyes widened, "How do you-"

"Gaze into my eyes, and feel the pain you have brought on every single person you've brought torment upon."

At that moment, Nathan arose, "Reaper!"

The skull rolled to Nathan, laughing, "What? You wanna get it first, boy?"

Believing he was sidetracked, Joseph pounced at the demon as he felt comfortable now that this figure had a recognizable name to go by. But, the demon was quicker to react when it violently threw Shadow's body down the road and with his other hand, a blazing chain spawned wrapped around his fist and he slugged Joseph out of the air before he could even make contact. He then heard pebbles scraping as Nathan got to his feet to charge, but the demon flung out his hand and let his chain loose. It spun and wrapped around Nathan's arm, but the intensity of the hot metal increased and it weakened Nathan to bring him to stand afoot and retract his wings back. The demon yanked his chain, but Nathan resisted. A harder tug, and Nathan slid forward a bit, now starting to bear the burning sensation on his forearm.

"Ooh, your spirit's quite cozy in that soul of yours." cooed the demon, now pulling the chain closer little by little with alternating hands.

"Reaper, w-we made a deal!"

Nathan was sliding too close for his comfort, so he spiked his boots into the street and now he couldn't budge. The demon chuckled a bit and a similar metallic shrill came from his side.

He picked up his own leg and took a large step with his own spiked boot, then pulled himself closer. "I'm not your same Grim Reaper, because I don't remember making any deals with you."

"Then how-"

"I know you're not from this dimension, so let me bring you up to speed," the demon paused his climb to Nathan, only feet away from him, "In this world, I am also Spirit of Vengeance- a Ghost Rider- and here, we Ghost Riders do all the soul-reaping."

Just then, the sky went dark, as dark gray clouds pooled over the area. Nathan and the Ghost Rider tuned their attention to the sky, now producing lightning bolts and thunderclaps. The Ghost Rider's cleats retracted and his flame died on his chain, allowing Nathan to lax a bit. Another clamorous blow resounded, but it was distinctive from the normal thunder.

The Ghost Rider's head tilted off a bit, like he spotted something, and the inferno on his skull lightened in volume. "Fuck."

He was brutally struck in the head too quickly for Nathan to see what it was, but the Rider took the brunt of it as he knocked hard into his own motorbike. Nathan was still caught in the chain, so he was only yanked and dragged on the ground. He noticed the Ghost Rider's flame had diminished, so he quickly unraveled the chain off his numb arm. Someone from behind him then landed on the street hard enough to make the ground crackle.

His blocky muscular tonnage was still visible in his chainmail sleeves and armor leggings. Aside from the six large studs on the black vest, Nathan immediately recognized the long red cape, golden blonde hair, and the signature Asgardian helm.

"Thor! Oh, thank goodness, I'm so glad to see you; finally someone I know!"

The God of Thunder's face stood emotionless.

With that, Nathan was yet again reminded that this was no longer his planet, and that he was now a stranger to this god. "Does Odin know I'm here? Can he take my friend and I back to-"

Nathan was cut off when what felt like a metallic block cracked him in the back of the head and instantly, everything went black. After taking down both of its targets, Mjölnir, Thor's signature hammer, flew back into its owner's hand. Thor surveyed the area and noticed Joseph had just recovered from the Ghost Rider's attack to witness the god's arrival.

"Whoa, you're- AaAaAaAGH!"

A band of electricity shot from Thor's hammer to Joseph and in moments the beast collapsed and shrunk back into his normal self. Thor then remembered his orders mentioned three targets- excluding the Ghost Rider, but when he looked around for Shadow, he was nowhere to be found.

He put a finger to his ear, "Fury, I have two of your targets, the other one escaped. I'm returning to the Helicarrier with what I have."

Thor walked by Nathan and grabbed his collar, slinging him effortlessly on his other shoulder. He grabbed Joseph's leg and piled him on top of Nathan. He then noticed the Ghost Rider waking as small flickers were burning to life. Thor twirled Mjölnir continuously until it blurred, then launched himself away at breakneck speed. By the time he was gone, the Ghost Rider had finally revitalized.

"Damn it!" he roared out monstrously, with flames fuming from his mouth.

He whipped his chain over his shoulder and it wrapped its entire span diagonally around his torso and he jumped on his motorbike. Upon first touch, the tires were outlined in fire, and the generic headlight transformed into a chrome skull of a bull and the horns became the handlebar. After a long nasal inhale, the Ghost Rider fixed himself onto a certain direction. He angled his bike and drove like Hell down the road in that same direction to hunt down Shadow the Hedgehog.

*Are we feeling a little more connected yet? A bit more comfortable- if not, understanding of this yet? I haven't dropped the bomb yet, but for my previous readers, this chapter dropped details of this bomb that should jog your memory a bit.

But until that bomb comes, vote if you liked, comment your thoughts, and stay tuned!