[CENTER][img]http://i.imgur.com/ngb1xfU.png[/img][/center] There was a strangely serene moment, in the midst of being rough-handled by HYDRA soldiers, the ship vibrating with the echoes of sabotage, gunshots reverberating off the metal interior, that had Dani quite at peace for a moment or two. Maybe even three. Her teammates coming for her and her alone, despite her still only recent entry into their ranks...after 'escaping' from her hometown, it was nice to have a second's calm and the thought that perhaps she'd found a new place to belong. Of course, her peaceful epiphany was sharply intruded upon by the gruff tones of her captor barking in her ear. "We got word you don't take to harm too easy." He said, Dani hearing the sneer he hissed through. She wondered what he meant, and then got word herself when she saw the open hangar ramp of the helicarrier, and a hovering shuttle flying beneath some fifty metres below. He thrust her forward and she dangled, for a second, legs thrashing in the open air kicking at clouds, and then she fell, the roar of the engines drowning out her screams. She landed hard on the shell of the HYDRA ship, shocks travelling from her feet through her shins to the core of her torso - but she felt little pain, and she sensed Zarathos growling as it dulled the damage. [i]Some perks to be had[/i], she thought, as she rolled toward a certain death on the ground miles below - no matter was growling Zarathos had to do - before a hatch opened and she was expertly snatched by another agent, dragged into the ship, and immediately black-bagged and bound. She felt a kick planted on the small of her back and lurched forward, and then smelt a strange substance. [i]The bag seems a little unnecessary...[/i] she thought dreamily as the gas beckoned her into unconscious oblivion. --- She awoke within brick and mortar, another cell but far less comfortable. On the helicarrier, her cell was such in function only, being outfitted with comforts and recreation, a room with some more protective modifications. This truly was a cell, though, something explicitly for holding prisoners. There was no warmth, no en-suite. No speakers or workdesk, no screen with which to watch and play. Not even a bunk. A bare room with a single barred window, and a stone floor. Dani stood and peered through the window. The sky was a miasma of oranges and pinks, with the sun hanging heavy and low just over the horizon, and a frozen landscape of white and blue tundra beneath both. The Helicarrier had been somewhere over the atlantic, and she supposed that the HYDRA ship she'd been thrown onto had headed north. She shuddered. She hated the cold. Zarathos felt eager inside her as she watched the sinking sun, and she turned away. Its strange squirming made her anxious and nauseous in equal parts. The front wall of her cell was barred like the window, but with bigger bits of metal Dani could more clearly see that etchings that covered the surface of the metal. She put a hand out to wrap around the cold iron, but quickly withdrew it after skin contact produced a violent hiss from Zarathos and an intense burning sensation on the flesh of her palm. She inspected her hand, but saw nothing. [i]Protective wards[/i], she noted. Nearly identical to those that worked her cell on the Helicarrier, but inscribed with far more malevolence. She looked out the window again. Half the sun remained. There was a great metal creaking and [i]ch-thunk[/i]-ing from down the hallway, and Dani heard heels clicking on the stone slabs of the corridor floor. A single man's footsteps, no others following or retreating. It didn't take long for the footsteps to reach the bars between Dani and freedom, and now she saw who they belonged to. A tall, vicious-looking man, dressed smartly in an obssessively-neat SS uniform, only the nazi pips on his collar and sleeves replaced with those of the HYDRA symbol. She felt Zarathos recoil and then slink closer, chuckling throatily, and a warmth on the back of her right hand where Mephisto's sigil began to glow a deep red. She nearly smirked. "You're Red Skull." She said simply, surreptitiously looking out the window again. A sliver left. Red Skull said nothing. The last light of the sun fled away from Dani's cell, the soft glow of the moon beginning to illuminate what was now definitely night. Dani felt Zarathos growing within her, filling her bones. "You picked the wrong time to visit." She continued, almost a warning as she doubled over and staggered away, trying in vain to fight off Zarathos and tumbling into the corner, twisting in her agony and Zarathos' ecstasy. "Actually," Red Skull finally replied as Dani's hair began to singe and the symbol on the back of her hand grew so bright as if to brand her all over again, "I find I have visited precisely as I mean to." And then Dani couldn't hold Zarathos off any longer. Her hair burst into flames at the same time her hands did, and as the skin of her arms and face melted away to leave flaming bone, her screams morphed into laughter, the sound of her voice changing from a singular sound to the combined mad laughter of a thousand souls, the edges of her voice sounding like the licking and crackling of flames. Her clothing changed and spikes erupted from her new jacket's shoulder pads and her boots. She slowly uncurled, standing to her now full height of six feet, Dani no longer. Her skull wreathed in flames, and fire licking her hands from the sleeves of her jacket, Ghost Rider stood in the center of the cell, directly opposite Red Skull, who looked on with a stony gaze. Her skull's eye sockets sparked, tiny flames showing life within the bones, and she met his gaze. Ghost Rider laughed, an agonizing, manic sound, filled with fury and power. She stepped toward the bars and opened her jaw, speaking in a voice backed by hellfire and a legion of condemned souls. She raised the bones of her hand and extended a single finger. "[b][i]Red Skull. You will atone for your sins.[/i][/b]" She said, and then pulled the finger into a fist, and pounded one of the bars of her cell. The iron sparked as she struck it, and her fist recoiled, the bars standing strong as the etchings glowed softly. Red Skull chuckled, and Ghost Rider opened her jaw, ejecting a stream of Hellfire from her mouth into the bars. It similarly sparked against an invisible but solid barrier, and she stopped. "You will find you are stuck quite where I mean to keep you. Like the wards? They are of your own design. HYDRA can place a man where ever we find one is needed." Ghost Rider ignored him and raised another fist, striking the bars again. More sparks. "[b][i]You have been Judged, and will face your Sentence.[/i][/b]" She hissed, and Red Skull turned and walked away. Ghost Rider did nothing, but began to strike the bars rhythmically.