HIATUS

Due to S.H.I.E.L.D having caught the burning man in a tape, Fury made Team Coulson immediately take point in finding the identity of the man. The dynamic of the team was damaged due to the secrets that were revealed in Fury's meeting. Both Ward not telling Skye about her real parentage and for Melinda May spying for Fury pertaining to Coulson's health had some minor damage to the team's relationship.

All this secret-keeping among friends had hurt their feelings and their trust among each other. It was because of this that they had some awkward moments on the bus. Jemma and Fitz now spend even more time in the lab due to them not wanting to deal with the issue. While Skye had become even more aggressive in her training, opting to attack the punching bag for all her frustrations.

Coulson and May no longer had casual conversations, if it has nothing to do with the mission at hand then the two individuals would rarely talk to each other. Another consequence of keeping secrets.

Ward had immediately recognized this but he believes that time would help each of them cope with this issue. He had apologized multiple times but Skye was adamant not to talk to him. Right now he was doing his best to salvage his relationship with everyone on the team. At least Fitz still sees him as that of an older brother.

Ward went inside the lab and he could immediately see Jemma and Fitz being fascinated about the chemical composition of a drug they just found.

In their investigation of the rumors pertaining to this burning man, the team immediately realized that this person had a moral code. He is a vigilante and people living in the bad neighborhoods of Los Angeles had now considered the man a hero. But others still believe that he is only a myth and that people, particularly parents are using it to scare their children from doing illegal activities when they grow up. The thought of a man with a burning skull going after you if you commit illegal crimes in the future is something that would fill children with nightmares.

"This is extremely fascinating, Fitz", Jemma said as she looks at one of the computer screens.

"This chemical composition...is so unique", Fitz stated.

When Ward and Melinda arrived at the location where the video of the man was taken, which Zero has dubbed as Ghost Rider, they found nothing peculiar in the location, until Fitz arrived that is.

Fitz with him his fancy tech toys was able to find small traces of drug powders littering the ground. Not far from the location, Fitz also found a stash of cash and drugs hidden under some rocks. The team believes that it was a drop-off site for a drug deal of some kind.

Fitz then took the drugs and began analyzing them in the lab. At first, they thought that it was nothing of importance but it seems after the computer finished scanning the chemical composition, the two of them became fascinated.

"Well, what did you guys find?", Ward said as he approaches the tech-dou of the team.

"The computer finished scanning the drugs and I am quite fascinated by the results. If you use conventional devices to scan the composition of the chemicals it would look similar to that of standard party drugs", Fitz replied.

"But with the advanced technology of S.H.I.E.L.D, we are able to find a chemical that we don't recognize. And that is what makes this drug so fascinating", Jemma said with a glimmer in her eyes. She had the look of a child that just received a new toy but in her case a new chemical compound that she can't wait to study.

"So, fancy drug, brain go high. I got it", Ward said with a smile on his face.

This was the moment Agent May entered the room, she looks at Fitz and said, "Did you ran what I asked yesterday?".

"Yep, it was already finished last night. I was about to call you but I became interested in this drug composition. Sorry about that", Fitz replied. He got a tablet and opened up some files, he sent them to the hologram table that was located in the center of the laboratory.

"Before we arrived in L.A, I have been gathering online posts of people who allegedly spotted our burning man or Ghost Rider", Fitz said as he looks at Ward. They had started using the name due to Ward telling them that it was what Zero called the man, "At first it was hard to differentiate facts and people just making up stories but last night, Agent May told me something that makes sense. We know that the Ghost Rider is a possible vigilante based on online rumors. We then found drugs in the location where the only video of him was taken. What if he is tracking where this drug was coming from. Perhaps that is what he was after before he was caught on tape. So, I compiled a list of drug bust operations that the local authorities have been doing and with this information, I was able to confirm some of the stories online".

Suddenly multiple files and news articles began to show themselves above the hologram table. Each news article had a corresponding online post to it, "So, yeah. The Ghost Rider is currently hunting down drug dealers".

"hmmm... So if we find the source first then we can find him", Agent May asked.

"Then we can place him in the INDEX", Jemma added.

"Well I had a better idea", Fitz said. "After this was done, I also thought of finding the source of the drug as a way to find the Ghost Rider, similar to Agent May's idea. But look at this", Fitz said as he zoomed in to all the police documents.

"All these police documents have one thing in common. All the raids are requested by one man, Police Sergeant William J. Burns", Fitz said to everyone in the room.

"And there is our middle man. All we have to do is to find him and he will lead us to the identity of the Ghost Rider", Ward stated.

The purpose of finding the identity of the Ghost Rider is not to antagonize him. Fury wants him to be a possible ally but he will settle for 'not an enemy' label. Fury has heard from Zero how dangerous this person is and he doesn't like the idea of him walking around without them knowing his mental state.

With powers comes the possibility of them abusing it and Fury doesn't like that one bit. Ghost Rider may be a good person right now but by the off chance something is wrong with him then Fury wants to know it first. He wants to plan accordingly. He has vowed that the events of HYDRA will never happen again and he is making sure of it.