Entry tags:

[author] sateenmusta, [band] fall out boy, [band] my chemical romance, [band] panic! at the disco

The Ghost Rider
Title: The Ghost Rider
Author: sateenmusta
Bands: PATD, FOB, MCR, (Cobra, THS)
Pairing: Frank/Gerard, implied Ryan/Spencer, implied Pete/Patrick
Rating: let's stamp this with R (mostly for language, and it's not bad :D)
POV: 3rd, Shane's
Summary: College!AU. Shane Valdez studies photograpy in college when he hears the rumors about the so-called Ghost Rider, an anonymous guy on black motorbike, who drives from city to city, makes the cops chase him and then disappears, only to appear somewhere else. Shane needs to do his video project for this semester, and when the Ghost Rider appears in town and Shane spots him by accident, he decides to go hunt after the guy with his video camera, to see if he can catch a legend on film...
Word count: ~13,000
Beta: Erin [thevelvetsun], thank you for bearing my constant stupid e-mails <3 ...I mean, 15-line ramble over one phrase is... well, just me I guess, but thank you anyway :D
Disclaimer: Ghost Rider is real. But this story is fake, fiction and just for fun.
Author's notes: So apparently going motorcycling after a long break offers more inspiration than I thought... This was a story that basically wrote itself in less than 13 hours, even though the background-checking and some other stuff added a few hours there. But it really wrote itself, felt like I didn't even have a say in it :D
More A/N at the end.

+

"Wow, what are those?" Shane sits beside Gerard and flicks through the sketches on the library desk. "These are amazing."

Gerard smiles. "Thanks. Those are just for fun, though... Have you heard of him?" Gerard points at the topmost sheet of paper.

Shane raises an eyebrow and looks from the sketches to Gerard. "A dude on a motorbike. Uh, that's not such a rare sight, okay?"

Gerard punches his shoulder lightly. "Ha ha, smartass. But his clothes and his bike are all black."

"So?" Shane looks at Gerard incredulously. "Nearly everything and everyone you draw is colored in or wearing black. Which, to be frank, is good, because black-clad vampires are a lot more scary than, say, ones dressed in pink tutus or something."

Gerard rolls his eyes. "Dude, shut up. That guy there, he's Ghost Rider."

Shane waits for a few seconds. "Um, is this the part where I'm supposed to have that lightbulb above my head and then get the, 'oh, Ghost Rider, yeah, now I know what you're talking about!' reaction? Because sorry, man, ain't gonna happen."

Gerard buries his face into his hands and lets out a frustrated groan. "Where the hell have you been? Sitting in a barrel?"

"No, actually, it's called studying, my dear friend," Shane pats Gerard's shoulder. "But you wouldn't know what that is, right?"

"Right," Gerard growls and looks up, glaring at his friend. "Like I haven't been working on my art project for the last two weeks or so."

"Whatever," Shane shrugs and smiles, picking up one of the drawings. "So, Ghost Rider?"

Gerard sighs in that way someone sighs when they are preparing for a long lecture on 'a subject that everyone should know about'. Shane rolls his eyes. Seemingly this is a big issue to Gerard, but Gerard's issues usually are something normal people haven't even heard of. Gerard is a weird person in general, but Shane likes him just because of that. Gerard likes to draw vampires and corpses and cannibalism, and he does it with an accuracy that sometimes gets his art teacher looking like she can't decide whether to praise him and stamp him as the next generation famous artist or to send him in an asylum as soon as possible.

"Ghost Rider in kind of a phenomenon by now, I think," Gerard says thoughtfully and bites the end of his pencil. "But well, I have to enlighten you from the beginning so you'll understand why it is a phenomenon."

Shane sits more comfortably. Apparently this is going to take a while - Gerard's weird lectures always do. Then he glances at the clock on the library wall and notices he hasn't got that much time.

"Ghost Rider first appeared in Europe around mid-90's," Gerard begins, but Shane holds his hands up, cutting him off.

"Dude, you sound like my history teacher, which is creepy in more than one way. Just give me the major details, I have a class to catch in like five minutes."

Gerard sighs gloomily and taps his pencil against his paper. "Fine. Ghost Rider was some dude who had a black bike and all-black clothes, and he 'terrorized'," Gerard makes the air quotes, "the major European cities a few years back. He appeared in a city on his bike, broke enough traffic laws to attract cops on his tail and then escaped, every single time. He had a video camera attached to his bike and he filmed some of these chase scenes and put them online. He drove like fucking crazy, man, and they never caught him or found out who he was. Then he disappeared, and some people said he smashed his bike into something at the speed of like, one-eighty miles per hour, but no one knows for sure." Gerard looks at Shane and grins. "That guy is a fucking legend!" he enthuses.

"O - kay," Shane says slowly. "Cool."

"Hey, that's not all!" Gerard stops him as he tries to stand up. "Okay, so the European one vanished, but now there's a new one, either the same or a different guy, but he's in the States. He's already been spotted in Miami and Las Vegas!" Gerard beams, and Shane shrugs.

"Cool," Shane says again. "Look, I have to go to class, plus I need to start thinking what I'm going to do for my video project, which sucks because I have no ideas on that and I have to get it ready in like four weeks." He frowns thoughtfully. "Hey, I'll see you at lunch, okay?"

"Okay," Gerard says, and Shane gets up and leaves toward the doors. "He might come to LA as well! That would be amazing, huh?" Gerard shouts after him and earns a glare from the librarian behind the check-out desk.

Shane walks out, shaking his head. It's so like Gerard to get overly excited about something weird like this Ghost Rider dude.


+++


Shane is sitting at his desk and biting his pencil, trying to scribble down ideas for his project. His roommate is lying on his bed across the room, headphones on and oblivious to the surrounding world. Shane can hear the music all the way to where he is sitting, and he glances at the boy on the bed. His old roommate was nice, quiet and shy, but he transferred in the beginning of the second year and now Shane has been stuck with Frank Iero for almost seven months. It could be a lot worse, though, so Shane isn't complaining. He could have gotten some moron who'd do nothing but party every night. Frank goes to some parties as well, and blares his damn music, but other than that he's okay. He's a music major and mostly spends his time at the practice spaces on the other side of the campus.

"Frank?" No response. "Frank!" Shane says louder, but the boy has his eyes closed and his head keeps nodding along with the music. Shane crumbles a sheet of paper into a ball and aims it at Frank, somehow managing to hit the guy's side. "Frank!"

The boy sits up and drops the mickeymouse-like headphones hanging down his neck. "What?"

"Just, turn down the volume, okay? Even I can hear your damn music," Shane sighs. Frank smiles a bit sheepishly and turns down the volume so Shane can only hear the distant rumble of the bass drum. "Thanks," Shane says and turns back to his desk, staring at the empty paper.

Frank comes to his side, stretching the paper ball open in his hands and reading the the few scribbled lines. "What's this?"

"I don't even know," Shane groans. "I should do my film project but I haven't got a clue what I'm going to do. I have no theme, no ideas, nothing!" Shane throws his hands up in the air with frustration, almost hitting Frank in the face in the process. Frank backs off a few steps and shrugs.

"How long have you got until you have to hand it in?" Frank asks.

Shane buries his face into his hands and leans on the desk. "Four weeks."

"Well, you can do it in four weeks, dude. C'mon, we should go grab some dinner, okay? Your project can wait for another half an hour," Frank says and nods towards the door.

Shane sighs and looks up. "Okay."

"Let's go get Gee as well," Frank says and smiles to himself.

Then there's this side to Frank as well. Shane groans aloud, hiding his amused smile. "Great, so I can watch you two sucking each others' faces off over a pasta plate? Bon appetit to me! I'm seriously beginning to regret I ever introduced you two to each other."

"Pfft." Frank flips him off, but Shane sees he blushes a bit. Frank with his odd appearance and over-energetic nature somehow appealed to Gerard right away after Frank arrived to the college, and even though Shane sometimes can't understand how they can go so well together, they seem to complete each other in some weird way. Frank is talkative and cheerful and full of energy, whereas Gerard is gloomy and weird and spends his time sulking in the corners and drawing corpses. Nothing between them has been declared officially, but basically anyone can see how these two are drawn to each other. "You're just jealous."

"Sure," Shane huffs and rolls his eyes. "Okay, let's go get your little Gee so you can make lovey-dovey faces at each other until I get sick."

Frank giggles and paces to the door. Shane follows him after grabbing his phone from his bag. "Have you got the key?" Shane shouts, and when Frank shouts a 'yes' from the hallway Shane gives up trying to search his own and closes the door behind him, heading down the hall.

Gerard is still enthusing over the Ghost Rider, and from Frank's expression Shane can conclude that the boy has heard about this before. Frank doesn't seem to mind, though, but merely leans his head into Gerard's shoulder and listens to the darker male explaining about the mystery guy on motorcycle. Gerard is waving his fork in the air as he goes on, and Shane smiles, because Gerard rarely is this animated while speaking. During the two years in college Gerard hasn't exactly become known for his enthusiasm, but Frank seems to balance this by being over-excited about everything for both of them.

"--So then he actually drove into the building and through the whole ground floor and then escaped again," Gerard finishes, and Shane realizes he hasn't heard much of Gerard's story.

"Nice," Shane says and forks a piece of chicken off his plate, trying to sound as if he's very excited about this. Frank hums something into Gerard's shoulder and picks absently on his sleeve. Gerard looks down where Frank's tattooed fingers tug at the fabric of his shirt, and Shane smiles at them, shaking his head. These two are sickeningly adorable together. He doesn't realize how it works, but somehow they seem to transfer energy telepathically or something, since in Gerard's presence Frank is completely fine sitting still and just touching the other boy, and Gerard actually seems to be more than half-alive, unlike most times.

Soon a few other people come to sit at their table, and Shane talks with Ryan while Frank and Gerard speak quietly with each other, heads pressed together and hands obviously linked under the table. Shane looks at them and remembers how he met Gerard on the second day of college. He was wandering around the campus with his camera, taking in the new surroundings and trying to see if he could find anyone familiar. He noticed a dark-haired boy sitting alone under a magnificent maple tree in the shade of the Lawrence Hall. The boy had his head bent down as he sat hunched over a sketchbook, hand drawing firm lines to the paper with a black marker. Shane stopped to look at the view, and immediately his photographer's eye - or whatever people want to call it - saw the eerie beauty of the scene. This would make a photograph titled 'Solitude' Shane thought and stepped closer, asking if he could take a picture. The boy looked up, surprised, and Shane hurried to assure that he was no creep or anything else, he just wanted to take a photo of the scene. The boy huffed nonchalantly and shrugged, returning to his drawing. Shane had paced further, aimed the camera and snapped the picture, which is now hanging framed in his room, with the title 'Solitude' written below it.

Gerard looks up and sees Shane staring. Ryan has stopped talking and is now eating his pasta, having concluded that Shane is not exactly listening to him right now. "Dude, what? Have I got pasta sauce on my face or what?" Gerard blinks at Shane.

"I can lick it off," Frank offers immediately, and Shane rolls his eyes. Ryan groans beside him and mutters something about not wanting to eat after all. Frank pokes his tongue out and mutters, "Shut it, Ross, you know you're dying to see it."

"No, I was just thinking about the day when we met," Shane says to Gerard.

"Oh, the day when I was in all peace and quietness sitting under a tree and making sketches, and then someone decided to be Creepy McFuckingCreeperton and snap a photo of me?" Gerard smirks. Frank giggles beside him, and Shane rolls his eyes.

"Hey, you didn't say no either." He quirks an eyebrow. "And we wouldn't be friends if I wasn't such a creep, right?"

"Dunno if that would be such a loss," Gerard counters with a wink.

"But it's a good picture," Frank pipes in. "I like to stare at it in the evenings if I can't sleep."

"Dude, don't tell me you jerk off to my art piece," Shane says, fake-horrified. Ryan laughs beside him, and Gerard rolls his eyes, muttering something about how questionable the 'art' in the picture is.

"Yeah, I wouldn't consider my face as art if I were you, either," Shane shoots back.

"Oh! I see, I see," Gerard nods a few times, faking being insulted. "Right back at me, as usual."

"You just suck at comebacks, man, not my fault," Shane snickers, and Gerard flips him off. "Love you too," Shane says cheekily and blows a kiss at Gerard.

"Hey!" Frank gasps, wrapping an arm around Gerard's shoulder. "Mine."

"Oh, so are we talking about some state of official here?" Shane chuckles in a teasing tone.

"We're not talking about anything like that here," Gerard groans and shakes Frank's arm away. Frank looks hurt for a moment, but since he's Frank he recovers from the blow in mere seconds. Besides, he knows Gerard well enough by now to know that the boy is terribly horrified at the thought of his artistic soul being bound to something that doesn't contain ink or isn't white and made out of cellulose, so it's nothing personal. Sometimes Shane thinks Frank wishes he could be a sketchpad or a pencil to be more cherished by Gerard, but mostly the boy just shrugs Gerard's stupid moods off way better than many other people would. Frank is a good guy, and he's good to Gerard, and that's why Shane likes him.

Frank drags Gerard off somewhere, waving at Shane, who realizes only after they're gone that Frank has the key to their room. Shane groans and leans his face to his hands. "What?" Ryan asks and sips his juice from the carton.

"I haven't got my keys and Frank took Gerard somewhere to molest him, so I can't get in our room," Shane explains.

"Oh," Ryan says. "You can come hang out in my room, Spencer's got homework with his business class partner in the library so it's cool. Besides, I just got a new lens to my camera, you should come check it out - I've taken some fantastic close-ups with it!"

Shane smiles. "Cool, thanks."

Ryan is a photography major just like Shane, but they don't have that many classes together since Ryan is more leaning towards the journalism industry and photo shoots, whereas Shane concentrates on moving picture and art photography.

When they get in the room Ryan shares with Spencer, Ryan flips his laptop open on his bed and opens a picture folder to show Shane some new photos. Shane peers over the boy's shoulder at the screen, nodding and humming approvingly every now and then. "I really liked the one where that ring was in a pint," Shane says.

"Thanks," Ryan smiles. "A chick actually dropped it into the pint, she broke up with her boyfriend in the party last weekend, slapped him in the face and dumped the ring in the pint... I kinda feel horrible for taking advantage of the guy's situation, but he left and the ring was still there, so I just snatched a pic..." Ryan absently clicks open his inbox and checks his e-mail while Shane discreetly looks away. "Do you need to check something on the internet?" Ryan offers, turning to Shane.

"I don't think so," Shane shrugs. He checked his e-mail a few hours ago, there can't be anything dead-important there right now.

"Okay. We can just kill time by watching stupid videos on YouTube, then," Ryan chuckles and scoots over on the bed so Shane can lie beside him.

They are in the midst of watching some comedy clip when Shane remembers something. "Hey, can I look for something?" he asks.

"Sure," Ryan says and pushes the laptop closer to Shane. Shane quickly types 'ghost rider' to the search box, and Ryan groans in fake frustration. "C'mon, not you too! Way has already been talking about this non-stop for the last three days or so."

"I know, I just wanna see..." Shane trails off and clicks on a video. Surely enough, it's a chase scene where one camera angle shows the front of a black motorbike, and a strip of the road ahead, and every now and then there are flashes from behind, showing police cars chasing after the bike. "Shit, that guy is fucking insane," Shane shakes his head after the video. Ryan rolls his eyes. "Okay, I better go check if Frank is done with sucking Gerard's face off and is back in our room," Shane says and rolls off the bed. "Thanks for showing me those photos."

"Anytime," Ryan shrugs and stretches on the bed. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow," Shane agrees. "Say hi to Spencer for me."

Ryan nods, a slight smile on his face. Sometimes Shane doesn't know if those two are just best friends or not. Spencer and Ryan are both from Vegas, applied to the college together, arrived together and are pretty much an inseparable combination outside classes. Spencer is a business and economics major, but despite their very different career choices Ryan and Spencer seem to get along a bit too well at times. They are just a step away from finishing each others' sentences, and they seem to have developed a whole communication system of their own where Spencer can immediately tell if Ryan is okay or not.

Ryan is a little bit like Gerard, not too animated, and his voice is often void of emotion so it's really hard to tell his moods from one another, but Spencer knows Ryan inside out after spending almost his entire life with Ryan. Spencer is a nice guy, but when he gets angry his glares are fatal, and the easiest way to earn a lethal stare from the boy is to upset Ryan.

Shane ponders the two boys on his way back to his own room, finally shrugging it off because there is no way telling if those two are just friends or not. In any case, they are close, closer than what Shane has ever been with anyone, and sometimes he feels a bit jealous about that. Sure, he's got Gerard and Frank, but they're not exactly the same, especially now that they spend most of their time being all cute and cuddly.

Luckily Frank is back already so Shane doesn't have to lurk in the hallways, and they both bury themselves in homework and go to bed early. Usually college life isn't as glamorous as some people have implied, Shane groans to himself after finishing tons of homework. Frank is already asleep in his bed when Shane slips to his and switches the lights off.


+++


Shane forgets all about his project for a few days, concentrating on classes and other homework, but he remembers it again when Frank enters their room, carrying a pile of drawings in his hand. Gerard usually hands Frank some of his sketches and Frank hangs them up in the room. Right now there is a bloody-faced vampire and an one-armed zombie above Frank's desk and a werewolf accompanied by a grossly realistic picture of an infected wound above his bed. Shane doesn't know how Frank sleeps with those pictures around him.

Frank piles the drawings on his desk and pulls out one. He pinches a stud off of a corner of a poster and stabs the sketch to the wall with it, and Shane smiles as he glances over his studybook and recognizes the picture.

"Ghost Rider again, huh?" Shane mutters and drops his book on the bed, stretching a bit. The black-clad figure on black motorcycle hangs beside the werewolf, and Frank looks at the pictures contently.

"Yeah," Frank chuckles and tilts his head a bit. "Gee said he's heard the guy is in LA right now."

Shane raises an eyebrow. "Oh really now?" He yawns and reaches out for his water bottle. "Where did he hear that from?"

Frank shrugs. "I don't know. He said it was on the internet."

"There's a lot of shit on the internet that isn't true," Shane winks.

Frank laughs shortly. "I know, right? But I don't know, Gee said something that the guy had released a new video, and in the credits there was something hinting that he might be coming to LA."

Shane just chuckles and shakes his head, returning to his book.

"We should hunt him down," Frank muses and drops on his bed, staring up at the sketch. "After all, this guy is a legend."

"Oh, god, not you too," Shane groans over his book. "I've already heard the phenomenon-talk, the legend-speech and the mystery-preach for about thirty-seven times."

Frank giggles. "I can imagine you with your damn video camera, hiding in the bushes and trying to film the guy or something. Oh shit, I need to ask Gee to draw a caricature of that!"

"Oh no you won't," Shane threatens. "I'm not going to hide in any bushes for that guy. Though I really need to start doing my film project, shit!" He slams his forehead. "It has to be returned in like three weeks now."

Frank hums sympathetically from his bed, but doesn't say anything. Shane taps his index finger on the edge of the book and considers his options. It's about time he does something about this project. He decides to go for a walk with his camera some day - maybe during the weekend - and see if he comes up with anything.


+++


Shane wanders aimlessly around the city on Saturday morning, but finds nothing inspiring or even remotely interesting. It's nice to be off the campus for a while, though. He doesn't come to the actual city that often, since the bus ride takes more than half an hour - the college is a little bit outside the city.

Los Angeles, the city where there is supposed to be everything.

"Bullshit," Shane mutters to himself. There is nothing special in this city, or nothing inspiring, even if it is the holy land of the movie industry. Shane drags his camera along around his neck, ready for filming, and decides to drop by at Starbucks to get some coffee. He might as well try and stay awake if he's planning on filming something. It's still really early in the morning - Shane actually prefers the city around this time, when there aren't that many people swarming around, when it's still so early everyone is asleep after the previous night. Shane shakes his head at a group of people on the opposite side of the street who haven't apparently even made it to bed yet, or then they have just decided to skip the sleeping part and move on to next day's party right away. The group is loud and some of the girls are giggling obnoxiously. Shane snorts softly and heads to Starbucks.

He orders a venti mocchachino and heads back to the street again. The air is still a little cool from the night, and the warm beverage actually feels nice in his hands.

Shane stops as there is a faint sound of screeching tires against asphalt coming from behind him. He turns around and almost drops his cup as the sound comes closer, and he thinks, no, it can't be...

Then there is a motorbike curving from behind the corner, and Shane actually is thankful that his camera is ready and within easy reach. He raises the device and aims, and manages to catch a whole two seconds - a black flash of a person and a bike - and then it's gone.

Shane stares down the street. He can still hear the distant rumble of the engine, but there is nothing to be seen anymore, and shit that was fast. He looks down to his video camera and flips it to viewing mode. He checks the video, the mocchachino forgotten in his other hand, and then slows the clip to half-speed, but it's still just a black flash on the street.

Shane clicks the device off and looks down the street once more. So apparently Gerard was right. And soon that guy will have a dozen cops tailing him all the time, for however long it is he's decided to stay here. Shane blinks a few times, then looks down at his beverage and leaves towards the bus stop. He's fairly certain he won't find any more inspiration during the day.

Shane replays the video clip over and over again during the bus ride. He can't wait to get home to his laptop and video editing program to see if he can actually get anything decent out of the flash of movement. He can only slow down the clip so much while it's still in the camera, so he has to upload it to his computer. Shane almost runs back to the dorms from the bus stop.

Gerard and Frank are sitting on Frank's bed when Shane comes back. They both look up from the drawing Gerard was making, and look questioningly at Shane who is slightly out of breath and flushed. "What is it?" Frank asks, detaching his hand from Gerard's thigh.

"Guys." Shane sits down and inhales. "I just saw him," he points at the drawing above Frank's bed. "And I'm not talking about the werewolf."


+++


"Dude, I thought Gerard was the one obsessed with him," Frank teases from his bed, looking over at Shane who is glued to his laptop, the video editing program open on the screen.

"Shut up, Iero," Shane retorts and doesn't even look at Frank. He's been working on the video for hours now, playing with the slow modes and detaching screencaps from it.

"So, now that he's here, I doubt he's gonna stay long," Frank says thoughtfully.

"Hmmh," Shane says, not listening.

"I wonder if you'd say that same thing if I told you my mother just died or something," Frank rolls his eyes.

Shane's head snaps up. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing," Frank snorts and cracks up. "Hey, I'm gonna go find Patrick, he said he has some new ideas for the song he was working on last week."

"Cool," Shane nods. The door clicks shut after Frank, and Shane just stares at the screencap he has detached from the clip, one of the clearest so far. He can see the outlines of the bike and the guy bent over it, but there is nothing in the picture that would reveal anything about this guy. Everything is black - the bike and his clothes from head to toe, and his helmet is black with a dark visor over his face. Shane ponders if the guy usually moves around early in the morning to avoid collisions with anyone until he wants to cause a scene. Shane has already come to the conclusion that the guy cannot possibly arrange his escape without knowing the city first, so he needs to lurk around at least a few days, learn the streets and alleys and escape routes. Shane has heard everything what happened in Vegas and Miami from Gerard - and then again from Frank, though surprisingly with a little less enthusiasm, considering he's usually the more enthusiastic of the two - and this guy knows how not to get caught.

So that is why Shane finds himself in the city again on Sunday morning around time when he usually is still fast asleep. He shivers a bit from the cool morning air and wraps his hoodie around his torso, clutching his morning-fix coffee and his video camera. The streets are silent, just a few people walking their dogs, and Shane feels a little annoyed that he doesn't really know where to find this guy. He might be anywhere in the city, but Shane stays close to the area where he spotted the guy for the first time - maybe if he's lucky it's the area the guy is staying in.

Shane is walking down a slightly sloping street when he hears a distant sound of an engine roaring, followed by a screeching sound of the breaks. Shane's hands are shaking of excitement when he fumbles his camera and looks towards the sound. It's coming from a side street, and for a moment Shane is horrified that the Ghost Rider might pass him by with a damn building in between them, but then, suddenly there is a black motorcycle turning to the street. It's driving slower now, the engine purring like a content cat, and Shane watches, fascinated, as the guy drives past him. The Ghost Rider notices him, startles and accelerates off in a second, leaving a bitter-smelling cloud of dust and gas behind him. He disappears behind a corner quickly, and then Shane hastily turns his camera up the street again, because he can hear another vehicle approaching. He isn't exactly surprised to see a police car passing him and disappearing after the motorcycle.

Shane snaps the recording off and wanders down the street to see if he can catch a glimpse of the police car, but it's already gone. So, it's on now, he whistles to himself and turns to continue his walk. He doesn't think he's going to spot the Ghost Rider again today, but while he's here he can do some background-filming as well. Shane doesn't know at what point he decided to make this little footage his film project, but apparently that is the case now.

He returns to his new favorite Starbucks about an hour later and gets another coffee. Shane sits down at a window-table and checks his video camera. He has got some amazing clips while the sun decided to peer through in between the buildings and the dust from the street swirled in the air, forming gold-glittering clouds speared by the sunlight. Shane already is planning captions for his video footage. Mysteries of the city. He wants to show something not seen every day - a current myth and urban legend in action. He skims through the videos and watches the first one in slow motion. He can actually see the guy fairly well this time since he was driving so slowly, and maybe the screencaps will bring something new to his appearance.

Shane looks up from the camera as someone comes in. So far it's only been him and the bored-looking Starbucks employee, but now there is a young guy pacing in. He goes to the counter, orders a vanilla latte and then occupies a table near Shane. Shane sees the guy looks at him for a while, dark eyes measuring him, but then the guy pulls out a newspaper and starts reading it. Shane plays with his coffee cup and stares at the guy's profile. He isn't exactly looking at the guy himself, but more like staring into space and thinking.

When he leaves the coffee shop he can somehow feel the guy's eyes are following him. Shane rolls his eyes to himself. Creep.


+++


"So, how was your Ghost Rider hunt?" Frank yawns from his bed when Shane comes in.

Shane quirks an eyebrow. "Have you been sleeping until now? Dude, it's almost midday."

"I had a rough night," Frank smirks, and Shane slams his palms over his ears.

"Oh no, I don't want to hear any more!"

"You see, Gerard and I--"

"Lalalalala, I can't hear you," Shane looks up at the ceiling and holds his ears. Frank bursts out laughing.

"Dude, we just had a movie marathon."

"Sure you did," Shane says disbelievingly and removes his hands from his ears. "Oh and, I saw him again." He points at the drawing beside the werewolf.

"Cool! Show me!" Frank jumps up from the bed, and Shane squeals, covering his eyes.

"Man, too much nakedness for my taste!"

"Hey, don't complain," Frank laughs. "It's not like everyone gets to see my hot ass naked in person. Buy yeah, sorry, I forgot I took my boxers off--" He trails off.

"To jerk off to my art picture, got it," Shane grimaces. "Okay ewww, mental image, go away!" He drops down to his bed and flips his laptop open, rolling his eyes at Frank who struggles to get into his jeans. It's not that Shane minds his roommate jumping around naked - he doesn't care - but it's nice to bicker Frank about it because he knows the boy won't mind, either.

For the past two years, Shane hasn't had any girls - or boys, for the matter. He's preoccupied himself with school and friends too much to even think about relationships. He isn't even sure what his orientation is - he doesn't exactly see himself turning completely gay or anything, but seeing as most of his friends are more or less queer, some of their ideas might have rubbed in on him. Frank finally manages to get himself decent and plops down on Shane's bed. "Show meeee," Frank whines pathetically.

"Just a sec, it's uploading," Shane mutters and waits for the videos to transfer. He clicks on the first video, and Frank gasps as he sees the black bike drifting past the screen.

"Whoa, man. That was ace, must be one of the clearest videos anyone's managed to get of him," Frank beams and scurries off the bed. "I'm gonna go get Gee, he needs to see this!" With that he bounces out of the room and leaves Shane sorting through the clips.

Gerard and Frank return soon, and Shane shows them the clip in slow motion and then the rest of the videos he's shot, all three of them lying sprawled on his bed and staring at the screen. "Dude, those are awesome," Gerard says. "Now, one thing though..."

"What?" Shane looks up from the screen.

"Are you still claiming the Ghost Rider isn't interesting?"

"Gerard Way, wipe that smirk off your face or I'll stick your head up your ass," Shane growls and reaches out to punch Gerard's thigh. Gerard pulls back and snickers into Frank's side. Frank smiles and reaches out to ruffle the dark hair, and Gerard looks up at Frank's face, smiling. Frank looks back eyes full of warmth, and they lean in to kiss each other briefly.

"Hey, not on my bed, assholes!" Shane kicks Frank a bit. "Move to your bed, okay? And even then, spare my eyes of the details, use a blanket!"

"I thought the usual sentence was 'use a condom', but times change, times change," Gerard shrugs, causing Frank to giggle into his neck.

"And spare me the details of your kink-filled sexlife as well, thankyouverymuch," Shane groans.

"Kink-filled?" Frank quirks an eyebrow. "Well well, Gee, I think someone has been spying on us, otherwise he wouldn't know..."

"Oh god, you're right!" Gerard fake-gasps. "You dirty pervert!" He points a finger at Shane, who buries his head into the pillow, laughs and then kicks the couple out of his bed. Frank mutters something about a charicature of Shane and a video camera stalking them in a bush, and Shane flips him off.

"I have work to do, go fuck each other somewhere else."

They leave, saying they'll be back to drag him to dinner, and Shane realizes he hasn't eaten lunch, but whatever.

He's just about to call it a day when something catches his attention. Shane quickly detaches three screencaps off from a time frame of one second and then zooms in. Right there, when the guy leans back a little on his bike, there is a glimpse of something colorful when his sleeve detaches from his glove just a fraction of an inch. Shane stares at the object for a few seconds and then realizes it's a bracelet. So Ghost Rider isn't all in black after all, Shane smirks to himself and saves the caption. He's already closed the laptop when he realizes that the capture had shown some pale skin around the bracelet as well.

"Fact one; Ghost Rider is a white person, and he wears a bracelet," Shane says aloud to himself and heads out to find Frank and Gerard and then get some dinner.


+++


"I'm losing my last nerve with the damn film project," Ryan says in his usual monotone, though there is a hint in the tone that indicates he really is a wreck right now. Shane looks up at the boy and nods.

"Same here."

"So what are you doing it about?"

"Urban legend," Shane says, not wanting to tell exactly to what legend he's digging in. Ryan nods.

"That's cool. I wanted to romanticize death but then decided it's way too emo, and scrapped the whole project. Now I'm just looking for new ideas," Ryan sighs and sits down beside Shane.

"I'm sure you'll come up with something," Shane assures.

Ryan shrugs. "Yeah, I guess."

They walk to the video class together but split up in the end of the hallway. Ryan has his class in VID1 and Shane in VID2. "Talk to you later," Shane waves from the classroom door, and Ryan nods back.

Victoria sits beside Shane in the class and drops her bag on the table. "Ugh, everyone is complaining about the project," she mutters. "How's yours going?"

"Okay," Shane shrugs. "I'm doing mine on an urban legend. How about you?"

"That's cool," Victoria nods. "I'm gonna do a real art blast, the teacher won't even know what hit him," she snickers.

"What's that then, flashes of goatse for the subconscious only to notice or...?" Shane laughs as Victoria grimaces.

"I swear to god, if you mention that hideous picture ever again, I'm gonna--"

"Shove a basketball up his ass and take a picture of it?" Pete asks innocently and plops down beside Victoria.

"Pete, what are you doing here?" she huffs.

Pete shrugs. "Just hanging around, Vicky-T, because I don't have a class right now," he beams.

"But anyway, if you ever mention that picture again," Victoria says, pointing a finger at Shane, who raises his hands in a surrendering gesture, "and the same goes with you, Pete, I'm gonna kick your balls. Hard."

"She's violent," Pete squeaks, and Shane nods blankly.

"Scary."

Victoria rolls her eyes and then spots Greta on the other side of the classroom. "Greta! Can I come sit there, these dudes drive me nuts," Victoria hollers, and Greta looks up from her phone, nodding.

"She had a point, though," Shane says. "What are you doing here? It's not like you'd be very interested in photography, except when it includes taking pictures of your own--"

"Okay, okay, I think I have heard enough of that already," Pete grimaces and flips Shane off.

Shane laughs. "You're gonna hear about this until the day you die, I can assure."

"How relieving," Pete snorts. "And yeah, I guess I should be making love to my bass in the practice space right now, but I was bored and Patrick was being bitchy about the new song," he continues with a shrug.

"Ugh, do you have to use such terminology about instruments? I don't tell you I'm fucking my camera or anything," Shane snorts.

"Please do tell," Pete bats his lashes, and Shane shoves the guy further.

"Perv."

"Okay, I think a five-minute visit to your video class has already fulfilled my insult-, threat- and violence needs for the rest of the week, so I'm just gonna leave now," Pete huffs theatrically and paces off. "See you later," he grins from the door, and Shane waves absently, already bent over his notes. The teacher arrives right after Pete has left and Shane spends the rest of the class taking notes about the details of the processing of the project and what aspects are included in the final grade.


+++

Part Two