167 Interlude: Guess, The Poe Subplot is Going Strong

Oakland, California, December 12th, 16:50.

As the early sun sets, a city of peace explodes into a sudden chaos.

In fourteen separate locations, groups of men and woman burst into a sudden riot. Looting, breaking and destroying everything they come across.

At the same time, the police and PRT mobilise en masse, every Hero, including the Wards, move in synchronisation to quell the sudden flames of chaos.

However, there is one spot of peace, where a woman of ethereal beauty watches over the city. At the very top of the tallest skyscraper, an office building in the centre of the city, rising over one hundred metres from the ground.

Wearing the same outfit as when she first met the Hero known as Poe, Selene stands on the building's edge, painting a picture of peace as the wind blows her long black hair behind her.

Taking a phone from her pocket, Selene pushes it's power button, and only glances at the clock for a moment before carelessly throwing the phone behind her.

The explosives she has prepared will go off in five seconds.

Taking a deep breath, Selene closes her eyes and moves a single foot forward, hovering it over the edge of the building.

"I hope you can prove me wrong, my Tragedy. Show me that hope you are so fond of. Save me."

A slight tilt of the body is all it takes, and the wind is howling at her ears as she plummets to the ground.

It takes about five seconds for a human to fall one hundred and twenty metres, the height of the building. The nearest mall is eleven hundred metres away.

Halfway through her fall, two distinct explosions sound out in the sky, and Selene lets out a smile, knowing that her Tragedy made the right choice, and that he succeeded.

He would have to travel nearly twice the speed of sound to reach her in time however, and that's assuming he already knows where she is.

It's.. disappointing, that things turned out as they did.

Selene had hoped she would be able to spend more time with Poe. She was enjoying herself.

Spinning around, Selene opens her eyes to watch the sky as she falls, when suddenly, a 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘮 reaches her ears just as every inch of glass around her 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴.

Before she can even ask why, her falling body, mere feet from concrete, starts 𝘧𝘭𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 through the air, carried by a pair of strong but gentle arms.

With wide eyes, Selene ignores the rapidly changing scenery in favour of staring at the golden mask besides her.

"You saved me," she breathes out in shock, before a warm, loving smile overcomes her, "my Hero."

The two of them soon come to a stop, hovering hundreds of metres in the air, looking down on the city and it's quelling flames. However, Selene ignores the fantastic scenery in favour of wrapping her arms around Poe's chest and closing her eyes to simply enjoying his presence.

"You've really caused quite the mess this time, Selene."

Her only reaction to his words is to snuggle closer.

"I'm sorry," she says, softly.

"You should know, everything has been dealt with. Nobody has died, and the troopers are currently finishing taking care of anything."

Despite speaking to the cause of this momentary chaos, Poe can't bring himself to feel angry at her, especially as she snuggles against him, seemingly content with the world. He only feels exasperation.

"That's good."

"Will you come in without a fuss now? I believe Director Simmons would like to have some words with you."

Unflinching in the face of a potentially, and reasonably, livid PRT Director, Selene's tone doesn't change with her equally simple answer.

"I will."

And she did. No more words were spoken between the two of them as Poe flew them to the PRT building, with Selene simply relaxing in his embrace.

It's only ten minutes later that Poe is walking Selene into Director Simmons' office, with the woman in questing hanging on to his arm like a starstruck lover.

Upon entering the office, the two of them are greeted by a room full of sentimentality, as photos and 'trophies' of the 'good old days' line the walls, however neither of them pay attention to the surroundings.

As a matter of fact, Selene doesn't seem to be paying attention to anything but Poe, who himself simply gives his old friend a wan smile, and sharing a nod with the ever serious Custard.

"Director, meet Selene. Selene, meet Director Simmons and Custard," Poe says, having to pat Selene on the shoulder to get her attention.

With her typically airy expression, Selene glances over the two of them with nothing more than mild curiosity.

"So you are the trouble-maker that's caused such a ruckus?" Director Simmons starts, her stern, wrinkled face staring down Selene in an attempt to be intimidating.

"I am," is all she says, answering the question as if it was a casual comment about the weather.

Simmons' eye twitches at the blithe response while Poe tries to hold back his sigh.

"You don't sound particularly remorseful young lady. No one may have died but plenty are injured, and that's without even considering all the property damage your actions have caused, do you not have any regret?"

"No," is her simple response, making Custard's eyes narrow slightly, "and I'm thirty-four."

"And I am still twice your age young lady," Simmons responds with a huff, which Selene acknowledges with a nod of the head, "but if it's not guilt that has brought you to surrender, then why have you given up?"

Her question causes Selene's gaze to become unfocused as she stares into space for a minute, before speaking as if she is struggling with her own thoughts.

"Because that is what my beloved wanted of me."

The gazes of the Director and Hero both turn to Poe, who scratches at his cheek awkwardly.

"I see. So you will accept punishment for your actions then? You will go to prison without making a fuss, or trying to escape? With everything you've done added up, you could be facing over a hundred and fifty years. You will not try and fight this?"

Her suddenly harsh words cause Poe to frown at his old friend, but he soon looks away from her once he notices Selene staring up at him, question in her eyes.

Poe has to close his own eyes for a moment, knowing that she will make whatever decision he asks of her. But as much as he may want to help her, he can't just let her not face any kind of justice for her crimes, that would be a betrayal of everything he stands for.

So he nods his head, and Selene immediately turns back to the Director, her soft smile not fading in the slightest.

"I will accept the consequences of my actions," she says before turning back to Poe, and when she speaks again, for the first time, there is a hint of something else in her tone, a hint of vulnerability, "you'll visit me, won't you?"

"Of course," Poe affirms, not hesitating for a moment.

"Hm, good," the Director says with a simple nod, ignoring the small byplay, only for her face to crack into a sly smirk a moment later, "𝘰𝘳, instead of serving your time in a prison, I have a different offer for you. Would you like to hear it?"

Finally catching on to his old friend's plan, Poe can understand why she was so uncharacteristically harsh earlier.

"Ok."

"First, you are a parahuman yes?" Simmons asks, getting a nod affirmative, "good. In that case, how would you like to be a Hero instead? Think of it like community service, serving as a probationary Hero as a form of parole. What do you think?"

A period of silence follows the question as Selene contemplates it, only for her eventual answer to leave the rest surprised.

"I.. would have to decline."

"Why?" Simmons can't help but blurt out, confused on why anyone would pick prison.

"I am not a Hero, it is not my Fate. But, I could do something else? I could perhaps be a trainer, or something similar? I may not enjoy fighting, but I am quite good at it?"

"Really now," Simmons drawls as a calculating glint flashes by her eyes, "well, I suppose it will depend on if your claim holds merit. For today, you can stay in one of our rooms. Tomorrow we can see if granting you parole to work as a trainer would be worth it or not."

Decisions made, the Director calls for an agent to take Selene to a guest room, being courteous enough to not throw her in a cell as a sign of trust.

"Haaah, I suppose I'll get going too then. Let me know how things go tomorrow would you?" Poe says as he turns to leave, however, right as his hand is on the doorknob, he is stopped by his friends words.

"If it turns out that she truly is competent, than I would prefer her to be working as a Hero. Something she would probably be willing to do if you were to ask instead of me."

Poe doesn't say anything, simply staring at the door in silence until Simmons' voice sounds out again with a sigh.

"But I see that you would prefer to respect her wishes. Have a good night Poe."

==

Oakland, California, December 13th, 10:30.

It's a new dawn, a new day, and inside the PRT building's main training room, a gathering of parahumans can be seen.

Sitting around the edges are seven young parahumans whispering to each other, each being a Ward, while in the centre of the room, inside of a large open area, three adults stand.

A pair of Heroes, Custard and Shortcut, standing facing the lone Selene.

"So, I hear you're auditioning for the role of trainer here," Shortcut starts, tilting her head curiously, "I thought your whole thing was showing us Heroes our tragic, 'fated' deaths or something, how come you're trying to work with us now?"

Her words only spur on a more intense bout of whispers for the group of onlookers who are poorly pretending to be exercising, one of them even just standing on a treadmill without having turned it on as she blatantly stares.

"Fate.. has been defied. I am here, because Hope overcame me. Everything I thought I knew has been thrown into question. The fact that I'm even alive is.. difficult, for me to accept, but I am trying to see the error in my previous views. So please do forgive me if I need some time to adjust."

Her words, perfectly polite and softly spoken completely take the wind out of Shortcut's teasing sails, causing the woman to let out a slight pout.

"Director Simmons has decided that if you are competent enough that you can get assigned as a full time personal trainer for the Wards. Shortcut will spar with you."

With his piece said, Custard takes a few steps back and simply crosses his arms and waits.

"Welp, I suppose that's that then. Do you know what my power is?" Shortcut asks as she stretches herself slightly, noticing that Selene is not doing the same, simply looking at her with the ever same soft, slightly airy smile.

"Do you know mine?"

The response causes Shortcut to laugh a little, "I suppose that's fair," she says before straightening up and getting in a boxers stance, "ready?"

She receives a nod in response and prepares to use her power, the ability to appear anywhere that she could have been in six seconds, effectively making for a form of teleportation that is based around her sprinting speed.

In the blink of an eye, Shortcut disappears from where she stands, reappearing behind Selene and kicking forward to force her to kneel, only to suddenly find her world blurring until the feeling of her back slamming into the padded ground rocks her body.

She tries to use her power again to gain some distance, only to flicker in the same space, belatedly noticing that Selene has her in a hold, the woman's legs wrapped around one of her arms and over her neck and chest.

If she can't move anywhere in six seconds, then her power is basically useless.

In other words, she, a teleporter, lost before she could even realise that the fight had properly begun. How embarrassing.

"Well," Shortcut says with humour as she taps out, "I guess you'll be getting the job then eh?"

=================

A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

Man, fuck this chapter, I hate this chapter. It took me way too fucking long to write it, because I hate doing time skips in the middle of a chapter, even if it's only 10 minutes, and I did it like twice here.

So yeah, fuck this chapter, I don't like it one bit.

In other news, I might be getting carried away with this subplot lmao. At this point, are you confident in your assumption of what is going on? Either way, I'm looking forward to it's ending, so I can finish this arc, with another mini arc inside it, and then I can finally move on to another part of the same arc, and Then, I can finally move onto the next arc, which is when we're gonna be getting into canon territory baby! It's so close!

(5+)Advanced chapters with the links below!

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