Chapter 13: I'm Going to Jail

"Fine, if you won't tell me what I need to hear, maybe you'll show me it." Bashing a goon's skull into the wall, Jack forcefully tilts his head to look at him even while concussed, and gives him the good ol Penance Stare.

As his sins play through, Jack gets frustrated as it's yet another dud. These guys only ever met at disposable areas, despite them being higher ups. He was really starting to get tired of this wild goose chase.

Not to mention over the past few nights, he's had to fight a couple more heroes, which was quite annoying. The only entertaining thing about it was some of them trying to lie to the news later about how they got the bruises and damaged costumes.

Some accepted their loss gratefully and admitted to the public that Ghost Rider whooped their ass, and some either blamed it on another villain entirely, or called it a 'close fight' that he barely escaped.

Finally, when he was spending time with Lyn as himself the next day, a lead was finally opened up to him. She was just now discharged from the hospital, so he was sitting with her in her house to celebrate.

Neither of them could really get in a cheery mood given the circumstances, but they tried their best to not be mopey 24/7 when there was only so much they could do. After a while, Lyn spilled some very important beans.

"We have that assassin in captivity, the one who got impaled against the wall by Ghost Rider."

"Wait he's alive? Wasn't that guy stabbed right through his spine? How in the hell did he survive?" This was covered by the news, so it wasn't weird for him to know this. A good reason to watch the news, to keep track of what he can and can't say without giving himself away.

"They really gave their all in keeping him alive, bringing in some of the rare people with healing quirks. I swear, he got better healthcare than Skylar did." The heroine in question was still in the hospital, but she would recover eventually.

Sadly, Jack had been unable to visit her as the Ghost Rider, though with Joe's help he'd been able to get some texts to her.

"Nice, that means you can interrogate him and find out where Jackie is right? Or at least someone else who would know?" Jack looked excited for her potentially making a break through, though secretly he was more excited for himself finally getting to make a move. Lyn's head fell down, dejected.

"Whatever drug he took to fight Ghost Rider, had side effects. The dude can't really think or speak anymore. Even if we got some mind reader in, I have no idea if his brain would be intact enough to find anything, not to mention that mental interrogation is actually illegal."

It was probably obvious, but using mind reading on someone in custody, villain or not, is technically a violation of human rights, and only acceptable if used in combat as a fighting tactic. This is because they'd only get surface thoughts, and not pry through their entire life.

Looking at her, Jack had an idea he knew would work, but he didn't know whether he should tell her or not. Eventually, he decided to at least be half truthful with her, and hint his intentions.

"What if Ghost Rider used his Penance Stare?"

"What?" Lyn stared at him confused for a second, before realization slowly dawned on her.

With his Penance Stare, he'd see the place where the kids were taken, maybe he could find some clues. But there was one major problem with that.

"Sure that would work, but there's no way we can let that happen. Both morally and legally, there's no way for that to work without making a whole mess." She sat back, exhausted just thinking about it.

As a sister, she was tempted to just give the Ghost Rider the keys to the cell, and let him do whatever he needs to. But as a professional, there was no way in hell she could let that happen.

"Besides, he'd have to break into a prison in order to do it, so it's not like he could even do it on his own, so no point in hoping for that either." Lyn really kept her guard down with Jack, and just let confidential information flow like water.

In a way, he seriously felt bad for using her like this, but he needed to in order to help everyone including her. Or at least, that's what he told himself. Whether he was right or wrong was entirely subjective.

Like saying it out loud let that last hope finally flicker away, Lyn's mood plummeted. It had become habit at this point, but Jack just held her close in his arms, till a while later her breathing became steady.

She fell asleep quite easily with him, because she basically didn't get any sleep any other time. Picking her up, he walked her into her room and tucked her into bed, before leaving and locking the door as he left.

Sticking around while she was asleep would just be creepy, and now he needed to make plans. Very, very big plans. First thing he did was call up Joe to tell him the news, see if he could get some insight on this.

"So, long story short. Police has that assassin dude in a prison somewhere, probably to hide him from me. His brain's too fried for them to get any info from him, but my Penance Stare probably could."

Seeing exactly where this was going, Joe sighed. "So you need to break into prison to kill a prisoner. Dude, you do hear how crazy that is right? And do you even know which prison he's in?"

"I don't. But I'm thinking if they're hiding him from me, the most secure one in the city is probably my best bet. No way they'd risk transporting him too far when he was hurt like that."

"Alright so what are you gonna do, bust through the front door? Cause no offense, but I'm not gonna help you outside of brainstorming on this one. I know it's necessary and all, but this one's a little too forward for my taste."

A light bulb came over his head, and Jack had an amazing idea. "I'll be getting help from a hero, but don't worry because I won't need it from you. Just no matter what you do, don't respond to the call from Rikers Island."

Joe almost shouted, before hushing himself. "Hold your fucking horses, Rikers?! You do know they turned that into basically a maximum security prison island after heroes and villains became a thing right? The entire island, consists of several prisons to make up one super prison. Walls on the outside of the island, several layers of security for each prison on the entire island!"

The more he talked, the more Jack got excited. His main target aside, this was like kids discussing how to break into a candy shop for him.

"Yup. This one's gonna be a little tough but don't worry, I have a plan. And if it doesn't work, then yes Plan B is breaking in through the front door. Honestly between you and me, I'm pretty sure I could do that no problem, I just wanna keep guard casualties to a minimum."

Joe just sat back and thought through on how crazy this entire plan was, but he knew it was their only way, and was willing to put the law aside by standing aside and letting this happen. "Gotcha. Good luck in there."

With that he hung up, and Jack was free to make plans. First, he took everything personal and left them at home. No phones, keys or anything. Then, he made an excuse to be out of town for a bit, and went on his way to find his unknowing accomplice.

Wandering around his usual patrol area, Jack finally found High Flier laying in a back alley nursing a couple bruises, probably having lost yet another fight. He jumped up the second he saw the Ghost Rider, but Jack just raised his hands in the air.

"I'm not here to fight you. I'm here to surrender. I want you to arrest me, and take me to Rikers Island for detainment right now." Immediately dumbstruck, High Flier had to repeat that sentence in his head a couple times to make sure he heard it right.

"Are you serious?! Just like that?!" Nodding his head solemnly, Jack tried putting on the act of someone who regret his actions.

"Well, I don't know if I can just take you straight there. Pretty sure there's a much longer process than that."

"Not if you just hand me to them at their front door. At that point they'll have no choice but to slap some quirk disabling cuffs and take me in, or else what are they gonna do, turn you away at the front door and just hope to god I don't escape while you go somewhere else?"

This would only work due to his pre-existing reputation, and well known high physical capability. If it was anyone else, they probably would just send them somewhere else for proper procedure. But if the Ghost Rider himself showed up at their door, they'd lock him up right away and worry about the procedure later.

And so that's exactly what they did, as Jack feigned unconsciousness while High Flier carried him on his shoulder to the checkpoint on the bridge to Rikers Island. Even just the checkpoint was it's own building with several armed guards stationed inside.

On the other end of the bridge, was Rikers Island, surrounded by steel walls nearly a dozen feet thick, and standing nearly fifty feet tall. Fifty feet above those, sat steel gunners towers dispersed along the wall, which not only surveyed the entire island, but kept watch on the mainland as well.

The guard at the front of the checkpoint building immediately shot his head up from the porn mag he was reading below the desk, and looked very confused.

"I finally caught the Ghost Rider, and decided to bring him straight to the highest security prison right away!" High Flier looked proud for his accomplishment, his bruises making it look like a hard fought battle had just been won. Not trusting this shit for a second, the guard relayed this info to his higher ups, and they relayed it to theirs.

Pretty soon the entire chain of command had passed it up, and the Warden of the entire island was debating on what to do. Clearly something was fishy about this, but turning him away was an equally stupid idea that had major risks. So, they decided to just go all in on containing him from the start.

On the other end of the bridge, the giant gate started opening up with a loud siren, and a big hulking containment unit was wheeled over. First, Jack was given quirk nullifying hand cuffs. Then, a metal helmet was placed over his head, sealing his vision and just barely letting him breathe.

After that, he was laid back into the wheeled unit, which immediately locked thick steel bars all around his body, everything below his neck contained in it.

'Man, they are going all in on this. I really hope I can actually break out of this. Honestly it was kinda a gamble that my quirk wasn't nullified, but the fact that I'm still a skeleton is proof that this will work.'

With that, they slowly but surely wheeled him into the prison island, and wheeled him into a specific prison, before lowering him down to the deepest, and most secure cell they had, originally designed for opponents that All Might fought back when he was still in America.

Of course, Ghost Rider noticed none of this as he was sealed, and simply waiting for the sensation of moving to finally stop. This entire process took several hours, as they needed to clear dozens of security measures to finally get him into what they assumed was his final resting place.

Once everything was done, the Warden sighed in relief, as their gamble seemed to have paid off. With all that layered security on him, even if he came here with a plan none of it would work now. None of the monsters they captured before have escaped from here, and none ever will.

Unbeknownst to them, he wasn't even gonna stay here for a week.