Ghosts
Hughie was making use of the proper training room, he was practicing his levitating something that he wanted to try out to see if he could, it was like floating on water almost, though he did his best to keep his hood on, Ashly had been nice to him since he stood up for her last week, it was a little extra kindness that made Hughie wonder if she started to have feelings, but he shrugged it off for the most part.
The door to the room opened with Ashly entering followed closely by Ezekiel, both were looking up at him as he levitated.
"Hey!" Ezekiel called out.
Hughie looked down and floated down but dropped half way hardly landing on his feet and, nearly loosing his balance, but catching himself, his hood came off showing his flaming metal skull. Now that Ezekiel got closer to this being, he saw were the components of the skull connected, he looked for rivets or bolts but saw none just near seamless connections, he was amazed almost, but mostly afraid by them as their ember's followed his movements.
"I would like to apologize for what happened, my boss said it was because I was thinking of something negative, and that I need to focus on positive things, feelings, really anything like that, until I get better control, if not....Well you saw what happens." Strom Rider stated. "But that's still no excuse for my actions, I have Vought moving a good chunk of what ever they will be paying me to fundraisers and charities, in the name of your main church."
Ezekiel was stunned, as well as Ashly, she had never seen a hero doing something like this, sure they said they did things like that but only when on camera never in privet, she was wondering where they came from, clearly it was from a different cloth then the rest, it was refreshing in a way.
"I...Thank you, I really don't know what to say." Ezekiel said, his voice till coming off in stunned aw.
"You don't need to say anything, you don't even need to forgive me, forgiveness is something that is earned though actions not words, its like respect in that way, and I have yet to earn ether of them." Storm Rider stated as he looked Ezekiel in the eye.
Ashly was more then impressed with them as he seemed to have a good understanding for things like this, rather then Homelander's understanding of power and forcing things wanting to always have his way not matter what, she was scared of Homelander but, knowing what Storm Rider could do to someone like Homelander, it gave her piece of mind to know that he would stand up for people not just her, and he would be able to go toe to toe with Homelander and would most likely end up on top.
Hughie noticed what looked like a little girl in the doorway, he was about to say something but realized there was something off about her, then he realized she was translucent, he could see through her, he focused back on Ashly and Ezekiel acting like there wasn't a little ghost girl watching them, he noticed her coming over.
"Can you see me?" She asked tilting her head to the side.
Hughie could only give her a glance, Ezekiel noticed and followed his gaze, he wanted to see what those burning embers saw, but there was nothing, he started to move around looking for anything that could have taken Storm Rider's attention.
"What are you doing?" Ashly asked Ezekiel.
"I'm trying to see what Strom here is seeing." Ezekiel stated.
"SR is fine, and.....you will not be able to see what I see.....This building, the land or perhaps a person is haunted, maybe, unless she's just a wondering spirit." Storm Rider stated, while trying to remember the bullshit from those ghost hunting shows he watched out of boredom once.
"You can see me!" The little ghost girl seemed pleased by this, and she then ran off most likely to tell other spirits.
"Aaaand she just ran off, great." Storm Rider sighed, flame lowered slightly before picking back up.
"You see ghosts?" Ezekiel sounded a bit skeptical.
"Yes, now I guess." Was Storm Rider's response.
A few days pasted and Hughie found himself gripping the porcelain thrown, he had thrown up twice now, he didn't know why, he felt fine, he was doing alright, he was sure he didn't eat anything bad, he got up shacking slightly before flushing, he went to the sink flushing his mouth with water, cleaning the area and started to brush his teeth, he nearly jumped when he noticed Robbie's translucent form by the shower.
"Nice place they set you up with Hughie.....I know I said you weren't a killer....but you need to kill." Robbie told him.
"What?" Hughie asked muffled by the toothpaste foaming in his mouth.
"Its the reason why you're throwing up, I'm the same way, getting sick after going without killing for too long, I'm sorry I passed this to you, I didn't know it would effect you like that." Robbie looked at Hughie.
"....What's going to happen if I don't kill anyone?" Hughie asked.
"You will loose control." Robbie answered.
Hughie had told Edger and Stillwell this later on that day, Edger was quick to arrange something with a prison who had death row, Stillwell decided that the rest of the team could use a reminder how deadly this new member was, mostly Homelander now that he was out of the medical bay and fully recovered, he was getting on her nerves with his obsessing and complaining, she wanted to remind him while he was still on top, he wasn't a truly a god, for if he was then they just found his devil.
When they got to the prison two days later, they walked to the back where some prisoners were lined up, they had been told that their execution was moved up, they looked confused seeing the Seven there and Stillwell who only came to over see Storm Rider's actions.
"What is this?" One of them asked.
They didn't get an answer as Storm Rider went up to him, he looked into his eyes seeing his sins, he went to each one looking into their eyes, he stopped at an older man at the end of the line, when he looked he didn't see anything worth him being there, worth him being on death row, he stared at him for a moment. The Seven members have been told that Rider needed to spill blood to keep him form loosing control again, Starlight looked away not wanting to see this older man die by the hands of Storm Rider.
"This man is innocent!" Storm Rider shouted to the guard at the other end of the line. "He has nothing staining his soul...Nothing worth being on death row or in prison for that matter."
They were shocked hearing that, the older man seemingly wanted to cry with relief knowing that someone believed him, as he had been telling them that he didn't do anything wrong that he was innocent of the crime they believed he committed, hearing someone, anyone, say the same that he had been telling others nearly made him loose balance, Hughie was quick to catch him, making sure he was alright.
The guards tried to tell him he was wrong, but Rider made it clear that he could see into people's souls, seeing the sin that stained them, he could also smell it, so he was sure the man was innocent, the guards took the older man away, Stillwell made a comment that they would have their lawyers take a look at his casefile.
Hughie looked at the other men, the rest were guilty, their souls ether blood stained or soaked in blood, there was on that was the lesser evil, he walked over to them, he looked them in the eye, they were a larger guy so he had to look up at them, he noticed Robbie appearing again, just behind the guy.
"Nice deal, you got yourself Hughie, I normally have to hunt them down, but be careful prisons are like an all you can kill buffet and, you might loose control here." Robbie warned he looked the man over a bit. "This one's soul isn't as bad so let's see if you can penance stare him, or if you have one at all. Now look him in the eye, and repeat after me." Robbie said, his voice remaining unheard by the rest of them.
"Look into my eyes, your soul is stained with the blood of the innocent, feel their pain." Storm Rider hissed, at them as he maintained eye contact.
They watched wondering what he was doing until he hissed those words, the other man's eyes seemed to ignite, as he cried out in pain, it was only a moment before he collapsed to the ground sputtering out seemingly random words, while twitching slightly, the other death row inmates, looked in horror at their fellow inmate was put into this state. One tried to run for the fence, he was quickly impaled by a stone spear that ripped from the ground, it had gone through him cleanly the tip coming out of his left eye.
The another tried to run as well, he was stuck down by a bolt of lighting, it was like he had been smote by God himself, the blot was powerful enough to burn them from the inside, the flame spreading out oh their body through their mouth and eyes.
Storm Rider walked over to one, who had his back to him as he watched three inmates be downed quickly by this member of the Seven, the inmate felt a hand on his back, he then started coughing, blood started foaming out of his mouth as he dropped to his knees, the hand had moved to his head, more blood came out of his mouth, before it started pouring out his eyes and ears, his skin paled as the blood was drained out of him, pooling on the ground around him and Storm Rider.
Two were left, Strom Rider looked to the one on his left and with a swift hand movement, the pool of blood turned to a spike that went through the other inmate, freezing solid and the ice spread through out the inmate freezing him from the inside out. He then turned to the inmate on the right, he started to gasp for air choking on seemingly nothing as the air was removed from his lungs, Storm Rider walked over and breathed smoke and embers in the inmate's face, the smoke and embers were breathed in, making the man cough and sputter as the embers burned their way into his lungs, the man collapsed as he started to burn from the inside out.
Stillwell was regretting ordering Storm Rider to make this as brutal as possible, she felt sick as she had watched the effective way he killed, if this was how he was when he was in control, she worried just how bad he could be when he wasn't in control. Homelander had only watched the way their flame changed, and earthy green before returning to normal flame that seemed to have electricity moving through it, then a deep blue before seemingly going out before the last inmate was killed, he thought it was a wonderful display, he didn't care about a few humans getting killed by this dangerous being.
Starlight through up after backing away a bit, she was careful not to get any on her boots as she doubled over to resee her breakfast. Maeve wanted to do the same, but after so long of dealing with Homelander, and seeing what he could do to a person, she did her best to stomach it, A-Train was regretting his life choices at the moment and hoping that Storm Rider didn't turn his rage to him one day, Noir was horrified but remained his stoic stance though Homelander could hear the pounding of his heart.
"Take the man to a hospital, he's going to need to spend some time in a psych ward." Storm Rider stated as he motioned to the man he seemingly ignited the eyes off.
"Wait he's still alive?!" Starlight nearly screeched.
"Tell her yes, and that he's just feeling all the pain he's caused to others." Robbie stated. Hughie repeated his words to her.
"Oh god, you...yo-" Starlight was cut off by him.
"I locked him in his own hell." Strom Rider said calmly.
"its temporary though, well sort of.....He might be trapped like that for a few days to several years." Robbie stated as he looked at the man on the ground who was still mumbling.
"He's gonna be like that for a while...." Storm Rider stated.
"How long is a while?" A-Train asked.
"Uh....." His embers floated in two directions before snapping back focused on the group, it would have been funny if it wasn't for what they just watched him do. "Anywhere from a daaayy to uh....several years." Strom Rider answered as he saw the look some of them gave him.
"In honesty that can kill people if they are bad enough." Robbie stated, almost in a sing song way.
"He really is locked in hell, oh my god, you can just do that to a person." Maeve was having a little break down about this.
Robbie got up from his meditation spot and calmly went to get himself something to eat, when he went into the canteen he noticed Steve and Bucky were in there, he had told them and the rest of the avengers and other's what was going on.
"Hey spooky, how's your little friend?" Bucky asked, as he took drink from his glass.
"Oh he's good, he just got a sweet deal going for him now, because he started to get sick if he goes too long without killing...He just killed a few inmates and penance stared one, all this while his team watched for whatever reason...I should ask why they were there." Robbie answered, he seemed a little lost in thought after stating that.
"Oh...uh...I-is that all?" Steve asked a little worried, as Bucky put his cup down, he wasn't that worried as this was a ghost rider in another universe where they didn't exist, and knowing what they did about ghost riders, violence like that was normal.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure the bastard hate fuck, love child of you and Hyperion, was turned on by the display of powers Hughie gave." Robbie stated calmly as he went into the kitchen area of the canteen.
Steve looked horrified, while bucky had started to laugh, they had been told about the people, the 'heroes' of that world, from Robbie, he had given pretty good descriptions of all of them, they knew about Homelander, Steve already didn't like him by the way Robbie talked about him, and what information was given to him by Hughie, that he just replayed to them.
"I swear, he just gets better every time you tell us something about him." Bucky said, sarcasm dripping from his words.
"Oh I know, and I know Hughie is going to kill him sooner or later, its just a matter of time." Robbie said as he opened a can, and sipped at the bubbly and sweet liquid inside.