Trinity considered it a further indignity, on top of all the other indignities, that she had to cling to Radiance for dear life as the two of them flew through the air. She preferred to think of it that way - the two of them, flying - because it sounded better than 'the superheroine had picked Trinity up in her arms, abducted her, and was now dragging her unceremoniously across the sky while she tried not to look down.' Really, anything sounded better than that.
At first, she'd tried screaming, but Radiance's golden, mind-controlling chain was still wrapped around her ankle, and it seemed that the command to 'shut up' extended to screaming, crying, whimpering, grumbling, and just about any other noise she could think of. Left without the ability to plead with, insult or annoy her captor, there was little for Trinity to do except try not to look down. Not that there was anything else for her to look at. She couldn't see Radiance's face, which was looking determinedly straight ahead as if she didn't notice the ways her captive was squirming and clinging. Trinity couldn't help but wonder what kind of expression the superheroine might have been wearing.
Mercifully, it was a short flight. To Trinity's surprise, they headed not towards the inner city, but outwards, towards a sleepy industrial zone on the outskirts. Trinity flinched as they swept in low over the tops of warehouses, before eventually Radiance pitched backwards, wings stretching out to catch the air and bring them to a sudden halt. After an ominous pause, the two of them started falling from the sky, and for a horrifying moment Trinity was certain they were about to crash into the metal roof beneath them - before they instead plunged through an open skylight, and landed safely in the room underneath, Radiance's powerful legs bending to absorb the shock.
Trinity couldn't help it. She squeaked.
Radiance smirked at her, making her cheeks grow hot with embarrassment, before abruptly dropping her on the ground. Trinity winced. Like she wasn't already bruised enough. Fortunately, she had her new surroundings to take her mind off the pain.
Such as they were, anyway. The room around them was decidedly spartan. It was clearly a smaller space carved out of a larger warehouse, with a set of large skylights above and single door, dead-bolted from the inside. There was also an adjacent bathroom - no door for that, though. Frankly, Trinity would have struggled to say more than that. There was a bed, a desk, a laptop, a TV, and a mini-fridge. It looked like an uninhabited student dorm, except for the fact that the bed was so clearly slept in. It wasn't hard to tell what this place was: Radiance's safehouse.
Trinity felt decidedly uneasy about that. The only way a superhero would ever show a villain their safehouse was if they never thought they were going to get a chance to tell anybody.
"You can talk now," Radiance told her, after double-checking to make sure her chain was still in place. "Not too loud," she added sharply.
At first, Trinity found she had nothing to stay. Her stomach was still churning from their sudden, entirely unexpected flight. And anyway, what could she say? Eventually, she settled on simply: "Fuck!"
For perhaps the first time ever, Radiance seemed faintly amused by her. "Nothing to say, for once?" she asked. "No wisecracks?"
"W-wisecracks?" Trinity spat incredulously. She was so far out of her depth she couldn't even see the bottom. On some level, she was always prepared for the boring old ritual of being clapped in handcuffs and hauled off to jail. But this... "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
"With me?"Radiance's face immediately hardened again. "What's wrong with me? No, Shimmer. Wrong question. What the fuck is wrong with you?"
"I'm not the one who went fucking renegade, abducted a criminal - away from the cops, I might add - and flew across half the city to your atrocious little love nest." Trinity wasn't sure why she felt the need to defend herself.
"Yes, because that's so much worse than what you just did!" Radiance retorted sarcastically. Trinity noted she didn't correct her about this being a love nest. She'd really been hoping Radiance would correct her about this being a love nest. "So much worse than burning up thousands in charity money, just out of fucking spite."
"Yeah, spite for Eleanor fucking Quinn!" Trinity exploded, as loudly as Radiance's mind control would allow. "I've got no problem looking like a grade-A asshole if it means robbing that bitch of some satisfaction! Maybe you're too busy with your head in the clouds to see what she's done to this city, but I'm not! I know exactly what kind of person she is."
"Yeah?" Radiance rounded on her dangerously, and Trinity was suddenly reminded of just how much stronger the tall, gold-clad superheroine was. She could rip Trinity in half if she pleased, and not even break a sweat. "Go on. Tell me. Tell me what kind of person Eleanor Quinn is."
Trinity made herself take a deep breath, and look into Radiance's hard, ice-blue eyes. "Forget it," she said slowly. "Not like you'd ever listen."
"That's what I thought," Radiance snarled. "You know nothing, Shimmer. Believe me, Eleanor Quinn has done more for this city than you could ever understand. I know her a lot better than you do. She's made sacrifices. Not that you'd know anything about those. All you do is take. You go around, mess with people's heads, and take whatever you want from them. It's sickening. You're a parasite."
Trinity flinched. That stung. It really did. More than she cared to admit. More than anything, though, she was scared - scared of Radiance might do. She'd never seen such a composed hero go this far off the rails.
"That's why I brought you here, in fact," Radiance continued slowly, after taking a few, long moments to catch her breath. "To see if I can teach you a real lesson, for once. Villains like you just keep getting worse. The cops are useless. The justice system is even worse. Unless I do something about you, nothing will change. I need to fix this."
Trinity's concern only grew. "And how are you going to do that? Huh?" It was all she could do to put on a brave face.
She expected Radiance to continue with some obnoxious, self-righteous screed. What she didn't expect was for uncertainty to flicker across the superhero's face. "I... we... you will..."
She trailed off, and a grin returned to Trinity's face. She might have still been up shit creek without a paddle, but seeing Radiance look so nervous was a victory all of its own. "You didn't think this through, did you, hero?"
Radiance flashed Trinity a glare that would have killed most mere mortals. "Of course I did. I'm just not going to tell you my plans."
"Uh huh," Trinity snorted derisively, slowly clambering to her feet. Apparently Radiance wasn't so perfect after all. She was a terrible liar. "Yeah. Bullshit. Let me take a better guess: you got mad, you flew off the handle, you ended up kidnapping me, and now you're wondering what the fuck you're going to do about it."