S.P.E.A.R. was China's equivalent of S.H.I.E.L.D., officially known as the Special People's Enforcement and Advanced Response division.
Its director was Marcus Cross.
The organization already had more than 150,000 personnel, sixteen airborne carriers, and a dedicated scientific research division.
Its headquarters resembled S.H.I.E.L.D.'s flying helicarriers, though S.P.E.A.R.'s main fortress was built as a hollow circular mobile citadel. Internationally, it was simply called the Circle.
There was one major difference, though.
In the mainstream Marvel universe, S.H.I.E.L.D. operated as an international organization rather than an American-exclusive agency like its film counterpart. S.P.E.A.R., meanwhile, was entirely China's own independent superhuman authority.
And there was another discrepancy.
Under normal continuity, S.P.E.A.R. was supposed to emerge after the events of Infinity War.
Yet Drex Valen already knew the organization existed now.
At the moment, though, it was still relatively small-scale. China simply hadn't encountered enough superhumans to justify expanding it further.
Ironically, the organization's existence was tied directly to Drex himself.
The wave of monsters and catastrophic incidents he had unleashed across the globe forced governments to reconsider their defenses. China responded by establishing its own superhuman security force.
A butterfly effect born from chaos.
For a long time, Drex had wondered whether he had landed in some distorted version of the Marvel universe.
Still, he never targeted China directly.
Some remnants of his old life lingered in the back of his mind, stubborn as ghosts.
"Director, these were taken last night."
Black Widow handed over a stack of photographs.
Drex studied the blurry images.
A streak of fire.
Distorted asphalt.
A speed readout beside the image.
600 kilometers per hour.
It looked less like a motorcycle and more like a fighter jet skimming across the street.
"The traffic officers on-site reported seeing a flaming skeleton riding a motorcycle," Natasha continued.
A few years ago, people would have assumed the witnesses were drunk, high, or both.
Now?
With superhumans and monsters appearing almost daily, nobody laughed at reports like that anymore. The local authorities feared the incident could qualify as a Demon-Level disaster, maybe even Dragon-Level, so the case had been escalated immediately to the Hero Bureau.
The moment Natasha finished speaking, Drex already knew who it was.
The Ghost Rider.
Most likely Johnny Blaze.
So Mephisto had moved earlier than expected.
Which also meant this was probably retaliation aimed directly at him.
And for once, Drex's instincts were correct.
Although Drex had destroyed Mephisto's projection using the Dragon Force, the demon lord had still recovered fragments of information before the avatar was erased.
Incomplete fragments.
But enough.
Enough to sense the aura of a Hell Dimension.
A foreign Hell Dimension.
An ownerless fragment.
That alone was enough to make Mephisto greedy.
Unfortunately, the information recovered was limited. So Mephisto advanced his plans and sought out Johnny Blaze ahead of schedule, awakening the Hellfire within him and using the Ghost Rider's supernatural instincts to track down the individual connected to that Hell Dimension energy.
Once Drex pieced together the possibility, he decided on the only sensible approach:
Strike first.
Fortunately, locating someone was absurdly easy for him.
With his super vision, super hearing, and the assistance of the Black Queen's information network, finding Johnny Blaze took almost no effort at all.
Johnny Blaze was a motorcycle stunt performer who made a living performing impossible jumps. Though technically still considered an independent rider within the industry, his feats had already elevated him to near-mythic status among motorcycle enthusiasts.
Money, fame, recognition.
Johnny had earned all of it.
He'd long since escaped the carnival circuit and established his own studio, traveling constantly for invited performances and exhibitions.
The true source of the Ghost Rider's power actually came from Heaven.
At its core, the Spirit of Vengeance had been personally created by God Himself.
After the Great Flood and the story of Noah's Ark, God realized humanity's sinful nature remained unchanged. But having already promised never again to purge humanity through catastrophe, He instead created the Spirits of Vengeance to monitor mankind's corruption.
Those spirits descended upon Earth in the form of flame, merging with mortal hosts to become Ghost Riders, beings meant to cleanse sin from the world.
Their purpose was simple:
Punish evil.
Avenge the innocent.
Destroy the wicked.
In truth, "Ghost Rider" was only a title.
Its real name should have been:
The Wrath of God.
As for how such a being ended up corrupted and working for Mephisto?
Either the Spirit of Vengeance had the worst luck imaginableā¦
ā¦or Mephisto was just that cunning.
Through contracts, manipulation, and silver-tongued deception, Mephisto secured ownership over the Spirit's soul.
Hellfire itself ignored the laws of nature.
Vacuum couldn't extinguish it.
Water couldn't extinguish it.
The Ghost Rider could burn anything he desiredā¦ or choose not to harm what the flames touched at all.
Beyond raw destructive heat, Hellfire possessed countless abilities:
Enchanting weapons.
Reconstructing the Ghost Rider's body.
Empowering machinery.
And ultimately, the infamous Penance Stare, a supernatural judgment capable of attacking both the mind and the soul.
During his first transformation the previous night, Johnny completely lost control.
He slaughtered an entire mafia syndicate.
For most Spirits of Vengeance, punishing sinners was normal behavior.
For Johnny Blaze, though, things were different.
Because he wasn't a normal Ghost Rider.
The entity fused with him was born from the soul of Zarathos, the elemental demon lord.
In theory, that made Johnny one of the strongest Ghost Riders in existence.
If he ever obtained the Medallion of Power, he would become monstrously dangerous within his own continuity.
The souls consumed by Johnny's victims didn't simply disappear, either.
Most of them eventually ended up feeding Mephisto.
To demons and devils, corrupted souls were both nourishment and power. Feeding them into a Hell Dimension strengthened both the realm itself and its ruler.
After massacring the gang, Johnny transformed fully into the Ghost Rider and tore through the city on his motorcycle like a living natural disaster.
He accelerated down major streets at maximum speed, scorching entire roads black behind him.
The ruined landscaping alone would cost a fortune to repair.
Worse still, the Hellfire left molten trenches carved directly into the asphalt.
Not large ones.
Just catastrophically inconvenient ones.
Every repair would require road closures, reconstruction crews, and weeks of work.
By dawn, sunlight finally forced Johnny out of his transformed state.
The backlash hit immediately.
He collapsed unconscious in agony.
Drex found him without difficulty.
Killing Johnny during the daytime would accomplish nothing. Once night fell, Hellfire would simply resurrect him again.
Ghost Rider was one of the hardest superhumans in existence to permanently eliminate.
An antihero wrapped in divine punishment and infernal loopholes.
But none of that mattered to Drex right now.
Because inside Johnny Blaze was something far more interesting.
The soul of Zarathos.
Drex brought Johnny back with him.
The fire of scientific curiosity was already blazing in his mind.