Replacement
Hughie had met with Edger and went over his conditions, he wanted to be able to punish them anyway should another 'accident' like what happened with Robin, he wanted them to be accountable for their actions, Edger had agreed with them.
Robbie was following Hughie down the hall he heard the Deep getting pissed about getting kicked from the team, he was complaining to Ashly, Hughie watched Robbie sort of leaning on the statue of the team, Hughie just looked at it, his hood was up the collar was big enough to cover his mouth and nose, his burning embers were the only thing seen under the hood, he walked in, getting in front of Ashly to keep the Deep from her.
"Cool it, you should know better then to yell at a women." Hughie hissed out as he looked down at the Deep, he watched the fear rise as Deep backed away.
"L-look man, I just don't thi-" Deep started but was cut off.
"I don't care about your reasoning, if you want to complain, go to Edger, don't take it out on her." He crossed his arms looking at Deep.
"I'm surprised you agreed to do this." Maeve stated as she was about to take a drink of what looked like whisky.
Robbie stalked into the room, he looked at the clock and pointed out the time, it was a little after 8:30 in the morning and, Hughie made a motion with his hand the liquid in her cup took the form of a small shark coming out of the glass and, moving over to Hughie floating around him.
"You shouldn't be drinking this early, though with a man like Homelander and, team mates like the Deep, A-train and Noir I understand." He rasped out as he walked over to the bottle, he opened it and the shark slipped back into the glass bottle.
"Oh that's so unfair, you can just do that? I mean most of us don't have that many powers as you, I mean maybe Homelander but....still." The Deep said as he looked at the hooded hero in aw.
"I can do a lot of things, and I'm still figuring things out." Hughie responded.
"Yeah and, going crazy while you do i-" A-train jolted, Robbie had gone behind him, he brushed his fingers down A-train's neck, leaving a very warm feeling, A-train sat up quickly and looked behind him trying to see what touched him while touching the back of his neck.
"That was my boss, he didn't think it was a good idea to be here, but someone has to keep you all in line." Hughie hissed as Robbie rolled his embers.
"Before you ask, I only make people feel my heat but that's about it, according to Dr Strange at lest." Robbie stated, Hughie stiffened slightly before Robbie added swiftly. "That's his name, if he wasn't in the position he's in now, and was still a surgeon I wouldn't trust him anywhere near me with a scalpel, based on name alone, plus....he does have a little crazy look in his eye that may or may not have always been there." Robbie added a little shrug to that.
Hughie wanted to react but didn't, he gripped the table he was in front of trying not to burn it, while he was trying to understand what was just told to him, he also felt a little sick knowing someone with a crazy look in their eyes and with the last name Strange was a medical doctor. A-Train was trying not to panic knowing that whatever the hooded hero was learning from was very real and could touch him, he looked at them meeting those burning embers, they saw the panic in A-train's eyes and, that fear was very clear in them.
"Don't worry, he can't hurt you, I don't think anyway, but he comes and goes when he wants, and when he thinks I need to be trained." They stated as they stopped leaning on the table, he looked over at Ashly. "Do you want me to walk Deep out?" They asked.
Ashly never had this kind of interactions with heroes they were always negative in some way, she was always getting blamed for things, she was about to respond before Stillwell entered her heels clicking she noticed the hooded hero, she gave a tight lipped smile while holding her tablet close.
"Well hello, its good to see you here, and don't worry Ashly can see the Deep out, I don't really believe we got your name...to be fair it's also been what? Two and half months since Believe Expo and the chaos you caused?" Stillwell said it so calmly, she was used to walking on the very thin lines heroes have around normal humans, she was like a tightrope walker in heels.
"Say Storm Rider, most Riders call themselves something that starts with Ghost or something that ends with Rider, like the Ghost Ronin." Robbie stated.
"Hm? Oh uh...Storm Rider...I can ride any storm and create them if I want too." Hughie answered.
"...Well that's very comforting to know you can do that." Maeve stated, as she looked at her empty glass.
"...I was going to ask if you could fly, before you said that" Starlight said as she looked at Strom Rider.
"Is it because of what you know I can already do?" Storm Rider asked, getting a little nod in response.
The Deep started to get snippy again, Hughie just looked at him looking at him annoyance unseen, Ashly backed away as Stillwell snapped back, Hughie rubbed his fingers together, he was wishing that he could just send him away some where, he thought hard for a moment and the next moment a portal opened under the Deep dropping him into a free fall landing him in the middle of the ocean, the portal closed and Hughie tensed as they just all looked at him, they knew it had to be him.
"......That's new....." It was all Hughie could think to say.
"W-when did you get these powers?" Ashly asked nervously.
"Uh...Like two and half months ago?....I got them at believe Expo...So the chaos I caused was uh very, very unplanned." Hughie responded, they stared at him for a moment. Stillwell calmly walked out of the room, going to her office. Hughie could hear her scream.
Homelander was laying in the medical bay still, he heard what Storm Rider said, he looked up at the ceiling feeling jealously rise, because he didn't know how they got powers like that or what lingered around him teaching him, they clearly still had plenty to learn and understand about themselves. A thought hit him, if he could get them on his side, in anyway he could, then he would be more powerful, maybe even be powerful enough to no longer follow Vought's orders but he wasn't to sure about how to go about that, he was lucky enough to not get killed by them, he doubted they would want anything to do with him, but it was worth a try.