The sun was setting, where the light appeared more golden than earlier, and every area of shade expanded and darkened.

Nathan landed on the closest rooftop, sensing a demonic presence nearby. "That should be him."

He looked around near and far for Ghost Rider. The presence was strong, but misleading; it was as if he was close by, but Nathan could see no Rider, no Blaze. Unexpectedly, the sharp revving of an engine resonated throughout the area. Nathan peeked at the street under him and a geared up biker was zooming down the street. There was no special energy emanating from his direction, so it wasn't the Rider. Nonetheless, Nathan could still sense the demonic energy. As soon as Nathan's wings shot out again, he felt the energy intensify to the point where it gave Nathan goosebumps; it was even apparent enough to realize that it was coming from right below him.

Nathan leaped off the rooftop and into the alley with his wings slowing his descent. It was unusually cold in this alleyway, as opposed to the warm weather that's been consistent all day. In fact, it was so cold, Nathan could see his breath now. There was a large steel slide-up door to his right, and he now realized this alley was wide enough for a vehicle to drive through, thus, behind this door must have been a garage. Strangely, a thin layer of frost was crystallizing along the frame of the garage door.

Nate bent down to slide the door up, but as soon as he tugged on the frozen handle, it snapped right off. He ignited his Blazers and carved a hole into the garage just large enough for him to fit through. The metal slab fell inside with an echoing clangor that was louder than expected. Nathan cursed under his breath and morphed out two pistols in case he drew attention. There was no response from inside, but he still poked his head in and glanced around in the dark. There was nothing, but the aged smell of rubber and gasoline. The room was barely lit, with just one light rod moderately flickering above a door at the right-side wall.

Nathan stepped through the gap, but before he could fully enter, a new odor wafted, as it was a sharper metallic smell, with a hint of something rotten. Nathan proceeded cautiously into the room, trading out his pistols for his Blazers to give light. However, he could not dismiss the odor as just a typical mechanic's garage; Nathan has both experienced and even been the cause of this familiar air: the smell of dead bodies- more specifically, a recent murder scene. His Blazers were bright enough to add some light to the room, but the walls were still barely visible, except the one with the flickering rod. He tiptoed to the lightswitch by the door, while listening for anyone or anything louder than his gentle steps.

The smell of blood was souring as he came closer to the wall. On his last step, right before he went to nudge the right switch with his elbow, it sounded as if something splashed under him. Lowering a Blazer to shine on the ground revealed a small puddle of blood beneath Nate's foot. He flicked the switch and the lights came on in the garage to reveal that the puddle was just the end of a stream. The blood flowed from the corner of the room, where a motionless body lied under a wheelless green van that was lowered- or in this case, dropped on where the head should be.

Nathan turned to face the rest of the room, tensed and ready for something to strike. Instead, he was struck with the rest of the scene. There was a woman hung skewered with a metal rod, high onto the wall from where Nathan entered. One body was torn in half, as his upper body and legs were found at different parts of the room. The remaining two bodies were not dealt with as violently, but they had one striking commonality with each other, along with the woman on the wall: their skin was pitch black and thinned to the bone, like they were burned and drained of their blood. Nathan went to the closest corpse to observe this unusual death. He touched the former employee's arm, and it was as cold as ice, hard as a rock.

The flickering sound from the light behind Nathan abruptly ceased. Nathan tilted his head slightly to notice in his peripheral that that area of the room was dark, and now someone was present; the demonic energy from before felt much more different now that is was close.

"Quite an interesting half-blood you are."

The voice was like of multiple in unison, and was perhaps colder than its likely victims and grainy and grueling like that of a typical beast. Nathan rose from his kneel to take a better look at the massive demon ahead. It stood just taller than the door by the corner, with a hulking shadowy black body, similar to the three bodies. It had tiny thorns all over its body with swirled markings like engravings on its skin- or hide, as the appearance of its matte-like body made human skin look much softer and thinner. It was almost reptilian, four claws for fingers, three for toes, and a long slender tail. Its eyes- its only facial feature- were like gleaming red orbs. To top the head were long black pointed tendrils that resembled dreadlocks.

The scale of the demon's energy was too familiar for Nathan to underestimate. This was no ordinary demon pawn nor random monster creation; this demon was among the ranks of a lord, but Nathan didn't recognize this one.

Nate twirled his Blazers and leaned into a defensive stance. "Who are you?"

"You may call me Blackheart, son of Mephisto."

Nathan's eyebrows furrowed, "Mephis- Do you mean, 'Mephistopheles?' 'German Satan?'"

Blackheart chuckled, "Normally, I'd defend my father as the only Satan, but I doubt that'll work with you."

"Yeah, Mephisto ain't Satan, I know that much."

"Are you sure?"

"As the son of Satan, I am very sure."

Blackheart's eyes widened, "Wait, you know the Satan?"

Nathan laxed slightly. "...I'm lost. There's only one Satan."

"Yes, none of the Hell Lords could ever find him; we've even questioned his existence."

"His real name is Lucifer."

Blackheart's eyes dimmed and narrowed. "Now I think you're lying, boy. From what realm do you hail? Your energy doesn't feel like any of the Hell Lords I've met, so maybe you are telling the truth, as I have never met Lucifer, but never has word gone around that he has a son."

Nathan was only growing more confused; upon entering this new world, the Hell beneath him already felt more complex than that of his world's, but Blackheart was only perplexing the matter further.

"I'm not from this universe. Where I'm from, there's only one Satan, and is- or was, Lucifer. I am his son, former prince of Hell." explained Nathan.

Blackheart crossed his arms, "That was spoken in past-tense?"

"Satan was killed, the Grim Reaper rules Hell now."

"We come from very different worlds: there are several Hell Lords, some of which claim to be 'Satan,' the king of all demons. If you ask me, that title belongs to my father, and at some point, me. However, none of those who claim to be, may not actually be, as it is believed that there is a true 'Satan,' but was never found. 'Lucifer' is often mentioned, but we are unsure of his existence, as well as him being 'Satan.'"

"That's a mess," said Nathan, realizing he digressed. "Speaking of messes, don't think I forgot about what you did here."

Blackheart sniggered, "You stand no chance, your Spirit lies dormant."

"How do you-"

"Spirits of Vengeance are quite common in our world."

"You don't know a damn thing about me."

"I know enough."

Blackheart's body phased into the ground, leaving Nathan turning to every part of the room to search for him. A portal opened up on a wall behind him, but Nathan heard the low grumble of warping space and reacted with a spinning roundhouse kick to a charging Blackheart. Blackheart warped in mid-air again before Nathan landed his leg and reappeared above Nathan, reached down and grasped Nathan's entire head in his hand, pulling him up into the portal. Another portal opened on the ground and back up Nathan was thrown at the concrete ceiling. As he fell back into the portal, the one from above opened up again and Nathan would fall through it and back into the ground again and again, in an endless fall. Blackheart reappeared at a distance, and timing it perfectly, he sprinted towards the portal loop and right before Nathan fell through the floor again, Blackheart tackled him right out of the air. He rolled with Nathan on his land, then broke out of it as he kicked Nathan into the green van at the corner of the room. Though groggy, Nathan mustered the will to form a submachine gun and fire at Blackheart, but the latter stood there as the bullets ricochet off his body.

"Is that all you got?" cackled Blackheart.

Blackheart teleported to Nathan again and reached down to lift him up, but was met with a pungent burning sensation at his abdomen that caused him to flinch.

"What is this hellfire?!" Blackheart spat, awed that the Blazers were able to puncture him.

"That's a dumb question," Nathan began, as he yanked out one Blazer, killed its light, and used the same hand to slug Blackheart in the same spot to send him down the room; "Considering you 'know enough.'"

Blackheart agily rolled back to his feet. "How dare you?!"

He raised a hand out to Nathan, who subsequently lifted off the ground. Blackheart then brought his hand closer and curled his fingers slightly, causing Nathan to croak and gasp in a constricting paralysis.

"I'll make you my bitch!" hissed Blackheart.

Just then, Blackheart grunted at a burning metal that whipped and coiled tightly around his neck. He traced the length of the fiery chain back to the garage entrance; the sight of the Ghost Rider only made Blackheart strengthen his grip on Nathan, who let out a sharper cry.

"Kneel, bitch." demanded Ghost Rider, yanking the chain to make Blackheart drop to one knee.

"I will crush everything inside of his body!" Blackheart threatened.

"You don't let him go, and I'll send you back to Hell- the hard way."

The flames volumized on the chain and now Blackheart was holding himself up with one arm, while the other held onto Nathan, whose skin was nearly beet red, and his nose and lips trickled with blood. A full wrap of his fingers was all that was needed to potentially kill Nathan, but Blackheart's head was now steaming, and he felt his energy draining hastily.

He couldn't focus on his powers anymore, so he released Nathan to rest his hand on the ground. "Damn you, Blaze!"

"Your father already has, and look where we are now."

A portal spun beneath Blackheart for him to escape to Hell before Ghost Rider killed him again. The Rider pulled his chain back and it wrapped itself diagonally around his torso once more. Nate heard footsteps draw near; he pushed himself to all fours and looked up to see a bony hand reaching down for him. He went to grab it, but realized it wasn't a helping hand when the hand yanked him up by his collar. The Rider pulled Nathan to a stand and shoved him against the closest wall.

"Just the man I was looking for." Nathan grinned with scarlet teeth.

"And yet, I found you; what do you want, boy?" the specter grumbled.

"Your universe is in danger of colliding with several others, mine and those Mobians included."

"You mean those hedgehogs?"

"Yeah, them. In their world, they have these mystical gems that can manipulate time and space, but their abuse has caused more harm than good."

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, I'm here, and so are they. And, it's not like we're in one of our alternate universes within our respective multiverses- because I have yet to see another me, nor any other Mobian doppelganger. We're dealing with completely different universes, ones that should have little to no chance of even nearing."

"Give me one good reason why I should care and help you, instead of believing that you are also part of the problem, and kill you?"

"Because you seem to know your stuff on extradimensional matters, and you'd be valuable in our search for that Chaos Emerald. Plus, 'kinship,' am I right?"

"Don't even play that card with me. You're telling me there's one in this world now?"

"And Shadow is out there looking for it."

"That's what he was up to. Shit, and I let him go."

"If we can get it, and find a way back to their world, Joseph and I will be out of your way."

Ghost Rider pulled Nathan off to slam him again onto the wall. His skull's flame was burning ferociously now. "I'm not gonna babysit a bunch of 'extradimensionals,' so if you so much as fuck up or are fuckin' around with me, I will see to it myself that you and those hedgehogs burn in my Hell! Do I make myself clear?!"

"I bet my soul on it." Nathan smirked.

"That's a high price, but I think Zarathos wouldn't mind meeting that Spirit of yours." Ghost Rider released Nathan, then his flames died and skin and hair took form on his body again. "Where's your friend?"

"Looking for Dracula." said Nathan, spitting out his leftover blood.

"That's right, word on the street is that he's returned from wherever he was banished to."

"Our planet."

"Is that so? Interesting. Well, I'm sure Blade and Strange will be ecstatic to find out."

"Who're they? Drake's mentioned them before."

"Nobody you gotta worry about," Johnny pulled out a cigarette from his jacket, and put it to his mouth, as it lit up in his hands. "Why's your friend looking for the vampire?"

"Same reason I was looking for you."

"You boys just love trouble, huh? He does know how far that is, right?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D.'s got him."

"Mm. Got any idea where this gem is?"

"Austria, but we gotta meet up with Joseph and Drake first."

"Who's to say ol' Drac' will join you?"

"He will, trust me."

"Alright, whatever you say. One more question, what's this gem look like?"

"It's the shape of an emerald, but it's white, and palm-sized."

"OK. I was worried that we were going to be dealing with some other gems."

"What other gems are there?"

"Don't you worry about that, too much for you to know about anyway. Before we head out, I'm getting something to eat."

"Fine."

Suddenly, there were cries and screams outside, with glass shattering and car alarms sounding off. Nathan and Johnny exited the garage to find a swarm of Heartless terrorizing the streets.

"What the hell are those?" Johnny muttered.

"Not sure, but they've been causing trouble on my planet, and the Mobians' too. Seems like they're invading this one too."

Nathan felt a brush of heat at his side and now the Ghost Rider was once more.

"What kind of shit did I just get myself into now?"

Transylvania, Romania

Joseph reached the bottom of the ramp of the aircraft and pulled an arm across his body to stretch. "This is really it: 'Dracula's Castle.' You think of it as like this cliché horror movie thing, but now that I'm seeing it- while knowing that Dracula exists...it's fucking weird."

"Yeah, well it's about to get pretty real, pretty soon. You sure you know what you're dealing with, and that you don't need our backup with you?" offered Fury from the top of the ramp.

"Nah, I'm good, bro, thanks!"

"I'm not your 'bro.'"

"OK, sure..."

"We're on standby if you need us."

The aircraft's ramp rose as the rest of the vessel turned invisible. It was a breezy evening, with an overcast sky and the air had a fresh scent of wet ground from the rain that passed.

"OK, here we go." said Joseph, beginning his roughly mile of a jog to Bran Castle, where Dracula resided.

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