When Trinity first woke, just before the crack of dawn, to find Radiance, the superhero who had captured her, clinging to her arm, she didn’t know what the fuck to do. She had to rub her eyes with her other hand a few times just to confirm it was real and not some kind of twisted dream. Once she was sure she was awake, it was all she could do not to laugh. The situation was almost comical. If she wasn’t seeing it with her own eyes, it would have been impossible for her to picture Radiance that way, at rest, eyes closed, clinging to her for… what? Warmth? Comfort? She couldn’t know, but she couldn’t help wondering.

And what was she supposed to do? Wake the hero up? Laugh at her? That seemed unbearably childish, somehow. Trinity didn’t want to be the kind of petty asshole who crowed over things like that. She couldn’t blame anyone for reaching out for something, or someone, as they slept. Not even Radiance. That didn’t make the sheer awkwardness of the situation any easier to bear, though. Trinity swiftly decided that if Radiance woke up, it would only get more awkward, and that only left her one choice.

Do nothing.

So, the supervillain - not that she felt like much of a supervillain, in that moment - stayed as still as she possibly could, allowing her hated rival to sleep like a baby at her side as she stared up at the skylight in the ceiling, watching as the sun’s golden light slowly inched its way up into the sky. It was a strange sight for a night owl like her, but not an unpleasant one.

Eventually, mercifully, Radiance released her and rolled over, the tanned, golden-haired, muscular hero still sound asleep and still blissfully unaware of what she had been doing. With that, Trinity was able to breathe a sigh of relief and shift into a more comfortable position. And, as she contemplated the strange way lying in bed next to Radiance made her feel, she slowly slipped back into unconsciousness herself.

When she woke next, the sun was higher in the sky, and Trinity was alone in bed. That, too, was a kind of mercy. The bed wasn’t big enough for the both of them, not really, and Trinity was glad for the chance to spread out and stretch her weary body. A night’s sleep had done her some good, but not enough good to completely take the edge off of all of her aches and pains. In particular, her ass was incredibly sore from the spanking Radiance had given her the day before. Rolling over and peering over her shoulder, Trinity could see that her ass cheeks looked like little more than a pair of huge, impressive bruises. Strangely, that made her blush more than it pissed her off.

When she didn’t spot Radiance right away, Trinity swiftly checked to see if the hero’s golden, mind-controlling chain was still in place around her wrist. She hated that she even needed to check; the feeling of being bound by it was already becoming too familiar to notice. Unfortunately, it was, and when Trinity peered over the edge of the bed to follow it, she was greeted with the sight of Radiance engaged in a morning workout on the floor.

Totally naked.

For the second time in as many minutes of being awake, Trinity found herself blushing fiercely. She was, once again, filled with indignant resentment towards her captor for looking so damn perfect. Radiance’s powerful, impressive muscles were so perfectly-formed they could have been cut from marble, and the way they flexed as Radiance completed a set of slow, deliberate push-ups was almost hypnotic. Her tanned skin seemed to glow in the morning light, and Trinity couldn’t help but notice that Radiance’s ass was every bit as perfect as all the rest of her.

She badly wished she could have been indifferent to the sight but unfortunately, she was far too much of a lesbian for that. The feminine urge to take those buns in her hands and squeeze them as hard as she could was all but irresistible. Normally, Trinity would have taken thoughts like those and repressed them as deeply and viciously as she could, but in her weary, groggy state, she was defenseless. It didn’t help that Radiance looked so unearthly, so angelic. Even her hair looked perfect, her wavy sidecut lending her the perfect amount of personality to make her look like a hot, gay woman and not a mere mannequin. It was so unfair. Hair that perfect was supposed to be impossible so early in the morning.

But most magnificent of all were her wings.

For the longest time, Trinity had been unsure if Radiance’s wings were totally real, or somehow part of her costume. When they hadn’t been present whilst the two of them had been naked in bed, she’d assumed the latter. But now, she could see that they were absolutely, undeniably authentic. The hero’s two huge, white, feathered wings connected to her back just beneath the shoulder blades, and flexed slightly as she moved. Trinity could see all kinds of small muscles and motions at work within them, feathers twitching and adjusting just as instinctively as any other part of her body. It was the first time she had seen the heroine’s wings up so close at a peaceful moment, and the sight took her breath away. There was a genuine beauty to them, a beauty that transcended even how she felt about Radiance.

“Staring?” Radiance asked, amused, eyes still turned to the floor.

Trinity was glad Radiance wasn’t looking her way to see the shade of red she was turning. She didn’t realize the hero had noticed her wake up. “Just… curious,” she answered lamely. “Where have you been keeping those things? They take up an awful lot of space.”

After Radiance completed one last push-up, she raised herself to her knees and turned to face the supervillain. She made a small gesture with her hand, and her wings vanished into so much golden, shimmering dust that evaporated into the air within moments. It was just the way her chain vanished when she dismissed that.

“They do,” Radiance explained. “Which is why I keep them under wraps most of the time. But I like to spread my wings in the morning, when I’m warming up. Feels good.”

Trinity just nodded. The casual, conversational way Radiance answered her question had completely disarmed her. What was she supposed to say next? ‘How did you sleep?’ ‘Nice weather this morning.’ She felt like she was going crazy.

The fact that she could totally see Radiance’s tits wasn’t helping matters.

After a few moments and with an impossibly-irksome, knowing, lopsided smirk on her face, Radiance rose to her feet and broke the silence. “You hungry?” she asked.

Trinity instantly realized that she was. “God yes,” she replied. And then, since she felt like she was letting Radiance get the better of her a little too much: “So, I know you’re kind of going rogue here, but do I still get some rights as a prisoner? How about three square meals?”

Radiance merely laughed good-naturedly. “I’ll do my best.”

As Radiance rose to her feet and disappeared into the bathroom, Trinity took the opportunity to slip out of bed and hastily throw some clothes on. Being dressed made her feel less vulnerable - a little, anyway - but whatever small pleasure she might have derived from that swiftly evaporated when she saw Radiance reaching into a cabinet in her bathroom to retrieve a kettle, a jar of instant coffee, and a small stack of granola bars.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Trinity muttered.

“Here,” Radiance said, plugging the electric kettle into a stray outlet. “Make me a coffee too. I need to put some clothes on.”

Trinity shook her head, but obliged. Searching around a little more, she discovered a pair of mugs, a teaspoon, and a small bag of sugar. Making coffee for both of them as Radiance slipped into a sports bra and a pair of panties felt morbidly domestic, but she didn’t have it in her to refuse. As the kettle boiled, she noticed that Radiance was donning her superhero costume, instead of the casual clothes she’d been wearing the night before. Trinity wasn’t sure what that meant.

“Thanks,” Radiance said breezily, taking one of the cups of coffee as she flipped back her hair. She took a sip, and then held out a fistful of granola bars. “Take as many as you want.”

Trinity paused, just to make sure Radiance understood that she was speechless in disbelief. “This isn’t breakfast.”

“Sure it is.”

“This isn’t what you eat for breakfast every day,” Trinity pleaded, appalled.

Radiance shrugged and started eating one of the breakfast bars. “It’s good enough.”

“No! It isn’t!” Trinity couldn’t believe what she was hearing. But when it became clear that Radiance had nothing more to say on the subject, she took one of the bars. Food was food, and her empty stomach was grateful for it.

The two of them stood in silence, sipping their coffees and trying not to look at each other too much. Food and caffeine was helping Trinity to feel a little more like herself again, but she couldn’t stop her mind turning to the conversation the two of them had held the night before, and what it implied about what was going to happen.

Radiance wasn’t done with her. Which meant she was about to face more punishments. More pain. More humiliation. Trinity was determined not to let Radiance know any of it was getting to her, but after all she’d been put through yesterday, she found herself filled with trepidation.

“So,” Trinity began, breaking the awkward silence as her anxiety got the better of her. “What’s next?”

Radiance took her time answering, slowly finishing off her granola bar and drinking the last few drops of her coffee. Once she was done, she let out a satisfied sigh and then slowly turned to Trinity.

“Well, I have a question,” she said. “Does your power work if you use it on yourself?”

“W-what?” Trinity froze. She didn’t like that one bit. “No. No. Of course not.”

Radiance tilted her head. “So, you’ve tried it?”

Trinity cursed her captor’s intuition. “It’s not… that’s just not how it works!”

“How do you know?”

“What?” Trinity threw her hands up in a huff and started pacing, at least as much as Radiance’s chain would allow. The hero seemed happy to keep her on a long leash while they were inside. “Of course I know! It’s my power! I know this stuff!”

“You don’t seem very sure.” Radiance cocked her head. “I’m just… wondering about the potential. Especially since your power seems to be more, shall we say, flexible than mine.”

Trinity swallowed. That was certainly true. Radiance’s mind control was certainly potent - seemingly irresistible, in fact - but it was limited to direct commands. Trinity’s could do much more. Her infamous shimmer could affect the mind on every level, manipulating emotions, memories, feelings. She could melt your brain in surround sound, even if it was more of an art than a science.

“Well, stop wondering!” the villain snapped, turning her back to Radiance to make sure her face didn’t give anything away. “It doesn’t work.”

“Let’s find out.”

The way all the playfulness suddenly vanished from the superhero’s voice sent a chill down Trinity’s spine. She turned back to Radiance. Looking at her, dressed in her signature white-and-gold outfit once more, was a forceful reminder of who exactly Trinity was dealing with.

She looked her captor dead in the eye, sensing what was about to happen. “Fuck you, angel girl.”

Radiance ignored her and hefted the golden chain that was still wrapped tight around Trinity’s wrist. She pulled it taut, and it shrank to oblige her. “Come here.”

It wasn’t a request. Trinity obeyed, glaring mutinously at her captor as she did.

“Kneel.” Radiance’s eyes were cold.

Trinity lowered herself to kneel on the ground in front of Radiance, and as she did, she cursed herself just as much as the woman on the other end of the chain. What the fuck had she been doing all morning? Sipping coffee and swapping banter? She should have been looking for a way out. How had she let her guard down so badly?

“I’m telling you,” Trinity said through gritted teeth. “It’s not gonna work.”

“We’ll see about that,” Radiance told her firmly. Her chain started to glow with a faint but brilliant light as she fixed her concentration on the captive supervillain. “Trinity, use your shimmer on yourself.”

Trinity tried to fight it. She really did. She tried to tell herself it would be different. Her power was something that belonged only to her. No-one else could touch it. Radiance could control her body, maybe she could even control her mind, but she couldn’t make her use her power. It was special.

She was wrong.

Beads of painful sweat were dripping down Trinity’s face as she tried and failed to prevent herself from lifting a hand to her own temple. The mere effort was unfathomably exhausting. She could feel her willpower being stretched inside herself like a muscle, and it wasn’t enough. She knew right away that no matter how hard she tried, Radiance was stronger. She couldn’t be resisted. That fucking chain of hers was wrapped tight around Trinity’s soul.

But that didn’t stop Trinity from trying. Not until her fingertips, already glistening with shimmering, purple sparks, made contact with her skin.

The moment they did, she gasped. That feeling was all it took for all the fight to go out of her.

It was incredible.

Her shimmer felt nothing at all like Radiance’s chain. Radiance’s mind control was like a shackle around her neck that pulled and dragged her to wherever the hero wanted her to go. It was forceful, even violent. Trinity’s shimmer, by contrast, was a calling and a beckoning. It felt magnetic and seductive, as it worked its way into her head. Trinity found herself panting faintly as she injected yet more shimmering beads of light into herself, feeling the way they danced underneath her skin. It felt good the way nothing else did.

More than just pleasurable, it felt right. There was something eerily reassuring about what her own shimmer was doing to her. It smothered away any possibility for doubt or concern. Instead, she could feel its sinuous, intimate voice nestled amongst her thoughts, whispering everything that she wanted to hear and more. Trinity knew she could kneel like this and listen forever. She understood now how her victims always succumbed so easily. She’d never known she was blessing them with a miraculous sensation like this. Trinity let out a satisfied sigh, and she barely even noticed it when a purple haze passed over her vision, leaving her eyes alight with shimmer.

“Trinity?” ventured Radiance. She sounded a little uncertain. “You in there?”

Trinity nodded, and even that small act of compliance was bliss. Everything felt good, so nodding felt good. It made sense. Everything made sense.

“Wow,” Radiance breathed. “That’s really something, huh?”

Trinity imagined what the superhero was seeing: the villain she’d hunted for and tormented was now kneeling before her, nodding obediently at her every word, a placid smile on her face and a dull, docile look in her eyes. With the small part of herself that was still capable of independent thought, Trinity realized that this was probably the first time Radiance had ever mind-controlled someone and seen them look at her so adoringly.

“Let’s see,” Radiance mused to herself, pacing a little. “How do we wanna do this?”

Trinity couldn’t help but eagerly await whatever the answer turned out to be.

“You know what your problem is?” Radiance began eventually, after several moments lost in thought. “You think you’re above the rules. I think that’s it. You think the rules apply to everyone but you.”

Trinity nodded again. Her mind was an open vessel, ready to receive Radiance’s words.

“You’re going to listen to me and you’re going to believe me,” Radiance told her. The chain in her hand and the shimmer in Trinity’s head lent extra force and compulsion to her words. “You think rules are things for other people,” she continued. “You think everyone else has to be fair and nice and good. But not you. You’re special. You’re allowed to go around doing whatever you want to whoever you want, and everything else will magically fall into place to justify it. That’s how it is, in your head.”

“Yes,” Trinity agreed breathlessly. If it hadn’t been true before, it was now.

“You…” Radiance paused. There was a strange look in her eyes, perhaps from the raw eagerness to please that filled Trinity’s voice. Trinity couldn’t tell if the hero was repulsed or gratified. “Well, you’re wrong. That’s what you need to understand from now on. What you’re going to understand from now on. It’s what I’m going to teach you.”

“Yes,” Trinity repeated, this time even more urgently. She needed Radiance to teach her. She needed whatever Radiance wanted to give her. Her shimmer had made her mind malleable, and now it was shaping itself around the inevitability of what her captor promised.

Radiance licked her lips. Her mouth was dry. “I’m going to change you,” she told Trinity. She sounded like she was finding her rhythm, regardless of what she felt about what she was doing. “Because you need to change. Whatever I tell you is going to become the truth. Your truth. You’ll make it that way.”

You need to change. Trinity gasped as the implications of that washed over her, a cavernous, yawning need opening up with her. She needed to change. She needed Radiance to change her. It didn’t matter how. It didn’t matter into what. She just needed the superhero to start twisting her mind into whatever shape she pleased. Trinity wanted to beg for it.

“You…” Radiance faltered briefly, hesitation flashing in her eyes, but it was soon swept aside by a far more reckless, dangerous passion. A smile started to appear on her face as she decided to allow herself to take pleasure in what she was going to do. “You love to obey.”

The room around Trinity started to spin as she struggled to absorb that command, instinctively responding to Radiance’s command to make whatever she told her the truth. She was helpless to keep herself from directing her shimmer that way, echoing Radiance’s words inside her own head, but laced with the supernatural power that made them utterly undeniable.

“I… I love to… to…?” The villain’s head was hurting. She wanted to fight this. She just didn’t know how. Radiance was too deep in her head. But in spite of that, in spite of how placid her own power had made her, the idea that she loved obedience was so foreign and repulsive that it aroused a fierce indignation within her.

But… wasn’t that also what made it so good?

The thought was foreign, even as it whispered to her in Trinity’s own voice. The supervillain was left swaying by their persuasive force, and by the way they made her burn between her legs. Why? Why did she think that? Why did she so suddenly, ardently love the idea of Radiance warping and twisting everything about her that she’d once known?

Because she needed to change.

Trinity let out a strangled gasp as the last remnants of her independent mind figured it out. Radiance’s suggestion, whether meant as a command or not, had taken root deep within her. She wasn’t just powerless to stop Radiance from brainwashing her. She wanted it. She actively craved it. She needed it. And even if she knew that need was fake, it demanded satisfaction just as much as the need for oxygen and food.

“I love to obey,” Trinity whispered, and a thrill ran down her own spine as she felt herself change. With a single impulse, driven by Radiance’s control over her, she made her own shimmer pulse within her head, fixing the new desire in place. Once it was done, she felt all the better. She was kneeling. She was listening. She was obeying. Just like she wanted.

As soon as she accepted that about herself, Trinity knew she’d lost, completely and totally. She couldn’t fight anymore. Her resistance had been taken from her and twisted around into a desire for more. She wouldn’t muster a single piece of resistance to anything Radiance said or did from now on. The compulsion was total and irresistible. Something about the way her and Radiance’s respective powers worked, layered atop one another, made them even more potent. It was all the deep, penetrating, persuasive magic of Trinity’s shimmer, but with all the force and purpose of Radiance’s chain. Together, they weren’t quite like a shackle or like a voice. They were both at once, and they were even more than that. It was like a song, Trinity realized. It was as though she could feel music all around her, so loud and passionate it stroked her soul, and she had no choice but to dance to it, the rhythm pulling her onward and holding her in its grasp every bit as powerfully as Radiance’s commands normally did.

It was breathtaking, and immediately, Trinity was hooked on the sensation. It made her obey, and she loved to obey.

She could see that Radiance loved her obeying too. There was a fire in the superhero’s eyes as she claimed the control over Trinity she’d spent so many hours chasing. “You need rules,” Radiance told her. “You love rules. Laws. You love those things because they tell you how to behave and how not to behave. They’re important. You’d never break them.”

Trinity nodded rapturously, absorbing this revelation with newfound eagerness. “I love rules,” she repeated. She could feel herself being changed, and it made her throb with pleasure. “I need rules. Laws. I’ll never break them.”

She felt the words inscribe themselves on her heart, becoming a part of her. She knew - absolutely knew - that she loved following rules. Nothing else felt better - except obeying, perhaps. Her shimmer worked deep, smothering and warping any facets of Trinity’s personality that didn’t match what she was being told. Her natural, rebellious urges were taken away from her. Trinity didn’t mind that either. It made her better at obeying.

“Never,” Radiance repeated. Her smile was growing, becoming slightly crooked as the joyful thrill of dominance took hold. “You love rules because you love being good. You want to be good. Rules and laws tell you how. Following them is good, and breaking them is bad. You want to be good, so you’ll follow the rules. You love knowing that you’ve been good.”

“I want to be good.” The words felt like honey as they dripped from Trinity’s lips. She hadn’t been questioning Radiance before, of course, but it all made so much sense now. She wanted to be good. It was good to be good. It was so obvious. A tautology.

“You need to be good,” Radiance insisted, and the feeling gripped the brainwashed villain even tighter. “And you’d hate to be bad. You hate breaking rules. You hate disobeying. It feels awful. It makes you feel so guilty. That’s why you need to be good instead.”

Trinity’s mood flipped on its head in a single instant. Instead of merely feeling joyous at her new set of values, she felt a horrible, all-consuming sense of guilt at how she’d lived her life. She’d broken so many rules. It was awful. Perhaps she’d never be good. At least she was changing. That was some comfort. She needed Radiance to keep changing her.

“P-please,” she begged. In the mind-warping fugue her shimmer had placed her in, it felt all the more pressing.

“You’ve been bad.” Radiance picked up on her mood at once. “But that’s why you need to redeem yourself. You need to be good from now on. You need to follow rules, and you need to help make sure other people follow rules too. You need to… to make people feel good. To keep them safe. That’s the most important thing of all. If you make people feel good, that makes you a good person.” Radiance paused for a moment, before her temptation got the better of her. “A good girl.”

That last phrase caught alight in Trinity’s mind like dry kindling. “Yes,” she echoed. “Please. I want to be a good girl. I want to make you feel good. I want to make everyone feel good.” The approval she saw in Radiance’s eyes only spurred her on. “I’ll be such a good girl from now on! Please, just give me a chance.”

Radiance licked her lips once more. Her eyes were shining every bit as bright as Trinity’s were. It was obvious to anyone that she was being driven by far, far more than just a noble desire to reform the supervillain - not that Trinity minded, of course. She could see that Radiance was feeling good, and she wanted to make Radiance feel good. She wanted to make everyone feel good.

“Yes,” Radiance breathed. “I think the new Shimmer is going to be much better for this city. The new, helpful, law-abiding Shimmer. Don’t you agree?”

To Trinity’s surprise, Radiance reached out and removed her chain from around Trinity’s neck. She felt it slip free for a moment, before feeling it vanish into nothing. She gasped in surprise - and in disappointment. She loved the feeling of Radiance changing her. Without the hero binding her thoughts and actions, Trinity’s shimmer quickly faded from her mind. It left her feeling dazed as she slowly recovered from the trance, and awed as she felt the many, many changes Radiance had made cementing themselves into her personality.

“You’re right,” Trinity agreed unsteadily. “Much better.”

Her head was churning with unfamiliar thoughts. There was so much to do. So many rules to be followed. There was so much she needed to atone for. And there were so many people she needed to make feel good.

Starting with Radiance.