Shackles Ch. 17

Pheramona.

The villain was gone. Trinity had been sure that, after the dose of shimmer she'd given her, Pheramona would have been down for the count for a good while. Evidently not. She must have recovered and slipped away. Trinity cursed under her breath. That woman was stupidly tough. And now, she was another potential mess to worry about.

With that weighing on her mind, Trinity busied herself loading some of the many stacks of bills strewn about the floor back into the cargo containers Pheramona had brought them in. It was mostly a way to kill some time while she got her head back on straight, but she reasoned that it needed to be done, whatever she and Radiance decided to do with it. Once she felt ready to face the superhero again, she stepped back outside.

"Radiance," she called, "we might have a-"

She froze, interrupted by the sound of a loud, insistent beeping.

Trinity's gut started to churn as she realized what it was. It was Radiance's communicator, tucked into the hero's belt. As if by instinct, Radiance was already reaching for it.

"Wait!" Trinity cried. She didn't know exactly why, but she was overcome with a terrible sense of foreboding. "Don't answer that!"

She never got to know if Radiance couldn't hear her, wasn't listening to her, or was simply operating on sheer, long-trained reflexes. Whatever the case, Trinity's warning didn't stop her from hitting the button to answer and holding the small device up to her ear.

"This is Radiance," she said briskly. "What's-"

Trinity watched in horror as an unmistakable change came over the superhero. She went ramrod stiff, and suddenly looked more like a toy soldier at attention than a person. All of the color and emotion drained from her face, and even her deep, sad eyes came over blank and glassy. It was plain that she was thinking of nothing as she listened to the words being poured into her ear. Trinity had absolutely no doubts about what was happening.

Radiance was being mind-controlled.

She had only seen the hero react this way once before, and because of that, she knew exactly who was on the other end of the communication line. It was The Peregrine. It had to be. The first time, Trinity had sensed something was up, but she hadn't been sure what. It had seemed plausible that The Peregrine was just one scary bitch that Radiance happened to take orders from. But now, there was no mistaking it.

The Peregrine was controlling Radiance.

That meant that both of them were in very, very serious trouble.

"Understood," Radiance replied blankly after a few moments, and put down the communicator. Then she looked straight at Trinity and started walking towards her, her every movement suddenly robotic and cold.

"Violet-" Trinity started to say, a warning chill passing down her spine.

"No," Radiance interrupted immediately. Her words were as bereft of emotion as her face. "Silence. No more talking."

When Trinity's mouth clamped shut, she bitterly regretted that she hadn't asked Radiance to take her damn chain off when she'd had the chance.

"No more distractions," Radiance said, clearly echoing someone else's words. "Don't move. Stay here."

That didn't leave Trinity with many options. She was helpless to do anything more than breathe as Radiance disappeared into the warehouse and returned a moment later with the cargo crates full of money hefted across her shoulders.

"Hold on tight," was the superhero's final instruction.

Trinity couldn't disobey. She pressed herself to the brainwashed Radiance's side as tight as she could as Radiance wrapped an arm around her, spread her magical wings out from her back, and leapt into the sky.