Shackles Ch. 18

Trinity didn't resist Radiance as the brainwashed superhero carried her through the sky on her enchanted, angelic wings. What would have been the point? Her power was all but useless against her; Radiance had proven that time and time again. She didn't try to squirm out of the hero's grip, and even if she'd been able to speak, Radiance wouldn't have been able to hear her over the sound of the howling winds that blew through the towering spires of Future City's beating heart. At some point, it started to rain, which made Trinity feel almost comically pathetic. Now she was cold, sad, and wet.

It was a nice reminder, in a way. She couldn't control what was going to happen to her any more than she could control the weather. Her fate was out of her hands. Just as it had been for days. No, just as it had always been. Trinity wondered if it was finally time to accept it.

Trinity hated going downtown. She hated how hostile the skyscrapers felt looming over all the streets, blotting out the sky and reminding all the little people that their wonders and riches simply weren't for them. As it turned out, flying was worse. There was no magic to it. Trinity wanted to be down at street-level, in amongst the crowds, where the people were more than just faint little lights. There were too many lights, Trinity decided. Rivers of them beneath, made of cars, and great strips of them rising up on either side of her, shining out of thousands of identical windows. It made her feel nauseous.

It wasn't long before they approached the greatest light of them all: Quinn Tower. It was the tallest building in the city by far, and lit up like a beacon. It was visible from everywhere, and up close it illuminated even the clouds above, bright as day. Radiance approached it head-on, before tilting back to catch the wind and swooping up, straight toward the sky. Then, moments later, she spread her wings wide and used them as a kind of air brake, bringing them to a dead stop in mid-air. For a single instant, Trinity felt like they were falling, but then they simply touched down gently on the rain-drenched surface of the skyscraper's helipad.

The flashing landing lights were almost blinding, especially reflected in the steadily-growing puddles, but once Trinity adjusted to the brightness and stopped feeling like she was going to throw up, she noticed there was someone else standing on the helipad with them. A figure she recognized all too well.

The Peregrine.

Up close, she was every bit as intimidating as her reputation. The Peregrine cut a tall and wiry figure, but with added bulk thanks to the costume she was wearing. Unlike Radiance's, hers was all practical; it was a dull, unremarkable gray color, and The Peregrine hadn't bothered to hide any of the armor plates worked into it. Numerous gadgets and sensors were visible all over her, attached around her belt or worked into her cowl, a swooping mask that ended in a point vaguely evocative of a bird of prey's beak. She looked like a woman who knew that she, as a mere mortal going up against gods, would need every advantage she was going to get, and so she'd decided to stop at nothing to get them.

In Trinity's opinion, she also looked scary as hell. Her reputation for ruthlessness was well-known. Most heroes did their best to bring villains in alive. The Peregrine wasn't one of them.

She didn't bother to look at Radiance as she approached the pair, but she inspected Trinity with unnerving intensity before turning and calling back:

"Bring her inside."

Radiance moved to obey without a word, walking after The Peregrine and threatening to drag Trinity along by her golden chain until she jogged to catch up. The stiff and unnatural way Radiance followed The Peregrine's orders only confirmed what Trinity already suspected, and that meant she was seriously fucked.

The door to the helipad led directly to some kind of personal suite. The large, open-plan room inside was luxurious, in that very sparse, plain, minimalist way Trinity always attributed to rich people not having enough imagination. Still, she couldn't help but be grateful for the luxury. It was pleasantly warm inside, and a far cry from Radiance's spartan, unhappy safe house. The room was dominated by a set of large, long, leather couches arranged around some coffee tables, with a bar and a desk over in opposite corners and a set of stairs leading to a loft above. The outer wall was nothing but floor-to-ceiling windows - mirrored glass, Trinity judged, since she hadn't been able to see in from outside.

The whole place more or less gave Trinity the creeps, but she was too tired not to sit down when The Peregrine indicated. The couch was disgustingly comfortable. Radiance stood sentry next to her, holding her by a short leash.

The Peregrine let her stew for several long moments.

"So," she began eventually, sitting down opposite Trinity. She moved with grace, despite her armor. Radiance remained standing. "What do I do with you?"

Trinity knew an obnoxious leading question when she heard one. She was normally good with snappy retorts, but it was a little hard to think when her chest was aching the way it was. She sat back.

"What the fuck is going on?" she demanded.

"Let's begin at the beginning, shall we?" The Peregrine replied. "You're a supervillain. And you recently stole a great deal of money."

'Supervillain'. Yuck. "Well, it's not here," Trinity shot back. "As you can see."

"I'm well aware." It was difficult to read The Peregrine's expression under her cowl, and her voice remained level. "Some of my people are retrieving it right now, as a matter of fact."

Trinity frowned. "Then... what am I doing here?" She risked a glance at Radiance. Then, her willpower slipped, and she asked the question she really wanted to ask. "Wait, no. First, what have you done to her?"

"Worried?" The Peregrine tilted her head to one side. "Or... impressed?" When Trinity didn't answer, she answered: "I've brainwashed her, of course."

"So, that's your power?" Trinity tried not to show too much concern on her face. "Some kind of mind control? But you've been hiding it?"

The Peregrine laughed. "Hardly," she replied. "No, I'm not nearly as impressive as you, Shimmer. I simply have the resources it takes to reverse-engineer the human mind." When Trinity was visibly nonplussed, she rose to her feet. "Allow me to demonstrate."

She walked over to Radiance and slapped her across the face once, very hard, and quickly enough to make Trinity jump. The blow couldn't possibly have hurt one such as Radiance, but it seemed to rouse her a little. She blinked, and her posture became just a little less stiff.

The Peregrine sighed. "Oh, Radiance," she mused theatrically. "You really are a high-maintenance girl."

The hero - if she deserved that title - reached down and snapped one of her gadgets off of her belt. In her hand, it quickly unfolded into what looked like some kind of smooth, metal visor with a blank screen running across it. In a well-practiced motion, she slapped it onto Radiance's face and, with a small, mechanical whir, it clamped itself in place. Immediately, a small, red dot appeared on the visor's screen and started bouncing back and forth, like some kind of sinister loading graphic.

The Peregrine turned back to Trinity. "It's not as quick as your power," she said. "And it isn't perfect. But it was worth every penny, don't you think? It's my most closely guarded secret."

Trinity's jaw tensed. "Shit."

Her captor tilted her head, curious.

"You're showing me your most closely guarded secret? Me?" Trinity explained unhappily. "That only means one thing. You're going to kill me, but you want to brag first."

Trinity was just about ready to jump off the helipad if that was the case. Trading barbs was sometimes fun. Not today. She was too tired and too miserable.

The Peregrine, though, simply laughed like it was a good-natured joke. "You think I'm one of those supervillains who can't get enough of the sound of their own voice? Hardly. Not that it doesn't have its appeal, sometimes." She sounded rich, Trinity was noticing. Posh. Well-educated. "But rest assured, Shimmer, you're more than just a disposable, captive audience. I wasn't being rhetorical earlier. I really am deciding what to do with you."

A shiver ran down Trinity's spine. Why did that not sound like a good thing? "So... what are the options, exactly? They say it helps to talk things through."

The Peregrine laughed again, but then turned serious. She held up a gloved hand and raised three fingers, one by one. "Kill you. Brainwash you. Recruit you."

Trinity blinked rapidly. She had lots to say about each one of those, but it was the last that caught her attention. "Re- sorry, recruit me?"

"Of course." The Peregrine returned to her seat opposite Trinity. "Your abilities are remarkable, Shimmer. And you're quick-thinking. You managed to get under Radiance's skin, which is an achievement. You've seen too much for me to simply let you go, but I'm loath to let talent go to waste. There's so much I could do, with you under my wing."

"Seen too much? I don't know what the hell is going on!" Trinity blurted out, but The Peregrine ignored her.

"I considered simply giving you the same treatment I've given Radiance," The Peregrine continued. Trinity glanced at the strange visor on Radiance's face. "But with a power like yours, it's a risk. I don't know enough about how it works. Deep psychological conditioning could easily render you useless. And that last thing I'd want is to damage the goods."

Trinity swallowed. "Hold up," she said. "You're not... recruit me to what?"

The Peregrine's good humor was back. She laughed and held up a hand. "You're quite right, of course. I'm getting ahead of myself."

Instead of explaining, she rose to her feet and walked past Trinity, crossing the room to the bar. As she was pouring a drink, Trinity had eyes only for Radiance. The superhero was still motionless, The Peregrine's visor over her eyes. Trinity wasn't sure what she was looking for, exactly. Maybe for her to move, at least a little. To struggle. To say something annoying, something high and mighty. She couldn't believe she was actually yearning for that, but it would have been a comfort. Right now, she felt alone, and like Radiance was slipping further away from her with each passing moment.

Trinity was startled when The Peregrine appeared back next to her and pressed a glass full of red wine into her hand. "Drink," The Peregrine urged, when Trinity started shaking her head. "I can assure you, you've never had better."

Reluctantly, Trinity took a sip. She was no sommelier, but it didn't taste all that great to her. It was so rich it almost made her choke.

"Oh, and where are my manners?" The Peregrine added. She snapped her fingers. "Radiance, take your shackle off of her."

The brainwashed hero moved very, very slowly. She looked like she was underwater. Obediently, she reached down and slipped her golden chain off of Trinity. She was free. Not that it was worth much now.

"Tell me, Shimmer," The Peregrine began, sitting down. "Have you ever wondered why, no matter how many superheroes devote themselves to keeping Future City safe, nothing seems to get any better?"

That earned The Peregrine a surprised look from Trinity.

"Villains break laws," The Peregrine went on, "And then heroes punish the law-breakers. Over and over again, round and round. It's all so... rigid. Don't you agree? For all their heroism, are our heroes truly bringing Future City any closer to the utopia it once promised to be?"

Trinity was hard-pressed not to nod along in agreement. She'd said the same thing many times, in different words. Usually with more expletives.

"I mean to do better." The Peregrine was practically lounging, now, wine glass in hand, entirely at ease. She took a sip from under her cowl, savoring the drink with a satisfied sigh. Suddenly, she changed tack: "Do you know why I'm called 'The Peregrine'?"

Frankly, Trinity didn't care. "It's a kind of bird, right?"

The Peregrine nodded. "The peregrine falcon, yes. 'Peregrine' means traveler. Wanderer. The peregrine falcon flies wherever it wills, without regard for borders or laws. It can be found all over the world, flying higher and faster than any other, looking down on those beneath. A king amongst birds." Trinity could see her smiling proudly from beneath her cowl. "That's what I intend to be, Shimmer. We need heroes, yes, but we need something else too. Someone who doesn't just enforce the law. Someone who stands above the law, and does whatever needs to be done. For the sake of a better world."

There was something oddly reassuring about hearing all of that, despite its insanity. Now, Trinity knew what she was dealing with: a genuine, full-on god-complex egomaniac. But she still needed to keep her talking. "OK. Um. How, exactly?"

"Simple," The Peregrine replied. "Control. Complete and total control. I want to control every heart, every mind, and every purse string. Once I - once we - have complete and total ownership over every street in this city, we can put everything right. No more crime. No more poverty. No more chaos. All it takes, Shimmer, is a strong hand."

"So that's why you..." It all fell into place. The gentrification. The voracious acquisition of buildings, blocks, neighborhoods. It had never been innocent, but now Trinity saw that it was even more sinister than she'd believed.

"I knew you'd understand, Shimmer." Trinity could hear the smile in The Peregrine's voice. "It's all about control. Always. It's what everyone wants and craves - but unlike most, you and I can reach out and take it. I'm glad to see you're a kindred spirit."

That, perhaps more than anything else, left Trinity completely floored. Keeping her composure was a struggle. "OK. Uh. There's still one thing I don't get," Trinity said. "Why do you care so much about the money I took? It's just a few million dollars, right? "

The Peregrine sighed and rose to her feet. She went to stand by the window, looking out, sipping her wine. "How much do you think a city is worthy, Shimmer? Dollar value, I mean. It's a trick question: it's priceless. You can't even conceive of how much an entire city is worth. The more you own, the more expensive it gets. There's competition and scarcity. Complications and holdouts. I may be wealthy, but I'm not that wealthy. Nobody is that wealthy. So, I need partners. Creditors. Investors, you might call them."

"You're... you're broke," Trinity realized. "And you're in debt, aren't you?"

"Hardly broke," The Peregrine scoffed. Trinity sensed it was her word choice, more than anything, that The Peregrine objected too. "But, well, my partners expect results and returns. I've had to extend my finances considerably in order to make good on my plans. You might say I am... temporarily over-leveraged. A few million dollars is an unacceptable loss, at this precise moment."

Trinity didn't know what 'over-leveraged' meant, but she knew desperation when she heard it.

"Then, of course, there's the other reason I care about the money you stole." The Peregrine sounded smug as she said that. She reached up to her cowl, and it disengaged from the rest of her suit with an audible hiss. "It's my money. I am Eleanor Quinn."

She turned to face Trinity with a flourish, lifting her cowl off over her head to reveal her face.

Trinity didn't give her the reaction she was plainly hoping for. "I know," she replied, unimpressed. "It was pretty obvious, given where we are."

Eleanor Quinn - The Peregrine - sniffed. Trinity wasn't surprised, but it was still strange to see the face of Future City's most famous billionaire under the mask of one of its most famous heroes. She would have recognized Quinn anywhere, but this was her first time getting to study the woman's features properly, in the flesh, and unfortunately, she was beautiful. Eleanor Quinn had a sleek, sharp, pale, aristocratic face, sculpted to perfection with makeup and other cosmetics, and made almost ethereal by her piercing, ice-blue eyes and near-white hair. She looked like a queen, like she deserved every little bit of her own ego and arrogance, and she was kind of exactly Trinity's type.

"I suppose that's true," Quinn conceded. "But I wanted to make it clear I'm not keeping any secrets. After all, we're getting along so well."

She actually seemed like she meant it.

"At first, I was furious, of course," she went on. "That stunt you pulled at my charity gala? It was the last thing I needed. I thought I could count on Radiance to deal with you. But when she let me down, I got curious. When I saw how strangely she was behaving, I got more curious still - about you. I decided to learn everything I could about Shimmer, the small-time supervillain. I liked what I learned. I got to wondering what you could do with those powers of yours, if only you had a little more... direction."

Trinity wasn't sure if she should be flattered or offended. Or both. Frankly, she was barely listening. Quinn's offer was surprising, to say the least, and not entirely unappealing. They had yet to reach the 'what's in it for you' part of the pitch, but it wasn't difficult to imagine how great the rewards could be. However, Trinity just didn't like the way Quinn was toying with her - bringing her here, giving her the seduction treatment. If they were going to talk, Trinity wanted to do it on her own terms. That meant winning back a little of that precious control that Quinn was so obsessed with.

And there was only one way Trinity was going to manage that. She had to hit Quinn with her power.

That was sure to be easier said than done. But her cowl was off; that was a good start. Direct skin contact, ideally close to the head, was the most important thing for Trinity's mind-controlling shimmer to work effectively. But as she knew from people like Radiance, even that wasn't a guarantee. She should assume Eleanor Quinn, as The Peregrine, was just as formidable. She needed to make her let her guard down.

Again, easier said than done.

"You know, I'm starting to understand why villains always monologue like this," Quinn remarked, interrupting Trinity's train of thought. A thin, crooked smile came to her face, and there was something about her voice that caught Trinity's attention. She started walking back towards Trinity and didn't stop. "It really is satisfying. I don't get a lot of chances to unburden myself, Shimmer. To get... intimate with someone."

That sent a distinctive shiver down Trinity's spine.

"He- wait, what are you-" spilled out of Trinity's mouth, as Quinn perched back down on the couch - not opposite Trinity, but right next to her, uncomfortably close.

"It's funny," Quinn purred. "You and I are hero and villain. Opposites. Enemies. And yet for all that, we have a lot in common." She tilted her head, and a few locks of her platinum, silken hair fell into her face. "You aren't drinking your wine?"

Before she could think twice, Trinity found herself bringing her wine glass to her lips and taking another few sips. It was still painfully rich, but she could feel herself getting used to it. Strong, too. Trinity's head was already starting to buzz pleasantly.

Fuck. The way Quinn's tight-ass corporate supermodel haircut was starting to loosen as she drank was really, really pretty. Trinity couldn't believe she was catching the hots for her mortal enemy right now. That was so typical of her and her trash taste.

Quinn nodded approvingly as she sipped her wine, and seemed to inch closer. "You must get lonely too," she said softly. "For true companionship, I mean. For someone to confide in. For a partner in crime. I'm sure you don't have trouble finding girls to warm your bed at night. Not with your power." Quinn licked her lips, and her icy eyes flashed. "God, that's so fucking hot."