SimonSnip
Beep
Beep
Beep
Loud noise woke Supergirl up, but she instantly knew what it meant. Emergency meetings weren’t very common, so it had to be a serious threat. She quickly changed her pajamas for her standard red and blue suit, and rushed to the main room. She saw Wonder Woman swiping through the popping windows on the computer screen, but when she closed one even more showed in its place.
– Supergirl! I’m glad to see you there. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but we have record numbers of high-risk situations and we need every single one of you. Thanks to Batman’s algorithm our system is able to assign the best person for the threat. We don’t know the cause, but we have to trust the computer once in a while. Let me find your file and I’ll give you more details. Get ready!
Wonder Woman was furiously typing when Supergirl headed towards the Earth, but after a few minutes she got her mission file.
Place: abandoned “The News Channel” building, New York
Thread: Alien – kryptonian origin, name unknown
Assigned heroes – [removed], Supergirl
The blonde girl took a second look at the last part. It seemed like the computer wanted to send someone else here, but then something worse happened, so she had to take their place. If another kryptonian was causing the trouble… Was she assigned to this case instead of Superman?
She felt cold sweat on her back, but with the deep breath the courage came back – she’s going to do her job and she wanted to do her best!
Locating the building was hard – a huge, corroded sign of The News Channel was still hanging on the side of the wall, abandoned after one of Joker’s attacks when he escaped from Gotham and decided to cause havoc in other parts of the country. Some people came back to this part of the city, but most of the companies decided to move their headquarters to safer places.
Fortunately the whole construction was mostly intact, so Supergirl was able to spot the lights turned on in one of the studios.
She slowly approached the window, trying to see inside of the building, but all the lamps were heading towards her. The only thing she saw was the outline of a chair, but at the moment she realised what it was, she was dragged by her cape and thrown to the wall.
– My oh my, look who’s here. I was waiting for you, Kara!
Another hit came out of nowhere – Supergirl was shocked by its force. After the third strike she was falling down as the mysterious woman was laughing hysterically. The voice was familiar, too familiar even, but she wasn’t able to spot her enemy.
When she hit the ground the other girl was already here, grabbing Supergirl by her long locks.
– W-who are you..? But there’s no more krypto-
Her sentence was silenced by the hand grabbing her chin. Her eyes had a hard time, but she was finally able to see the figure standing in front of her.
White costume, golden belt and blonde bob, so similar to her hairstyle a few years back…
– Do you remember me sunshine? I am your sister, well, kind of. I am you, but better. And I’m done living in your shadow! People say “oh, Supergirl is the best, she should be the leader of the next generation in the Justice League!” And you know what? I don’t want to hear about Justice League anymore, I can get rid of you one by one till no one’s left! But you know what?
The girl in white forced Supergirl to get up, pinning her to the wall.
– First of all I want to send them a message, but the whole world will hear my name. Galatea will be taking your place, but it would be too easy to do it right away. You have to suffer!
And without hesitation Galatea lifted Kara to the air, heading to the studio when the lights were turned on.
Supergirl was trying to gather her strength – it cannot end like this! She remembered previous encounters with her clone, but Galatea wasn’t at her full strength then. Right now it seemed like she surpassed her – not only with the appearance, but with the powers too.
Girl in a white costume dragged Supergirl into the building, which surprisingly wasn’t empty. She was able to pick up a few details before she was blinded by the series of camera flashes. Journalists? Why?
Then she saw some thugs carrying weapons, but they weren’t just normal criminals. They had full body armor, riot helmets and plates with the STAR Labs logo.
Did they bring everyone here just for her? What was the reason?!
– Will it be the fall of Supergirl? We’ve got a mysterious call this morning, inviting all the news stations here. We are live from the New York City. My name is Iris West, broadcasting for the Central City Picture News.
The blond girl was being pushed by her rival, who was waving and smiling to the crowd, slowly approaching the elevator. Right before they entered it, one of the guards put handcuffs on her wrist. She tried to break free for the last time, but when the cuffs snapped she felt how her powers were leaving her body.
Her body froze in fear – it must be kryptonite!
Untill she had those things on, she was just an ordinary girl in a silly superhero costume. She had tears in her eyes when the doors closed, but her crying face will be on the news around the country, or even around the world. It was such a disaster! Now her only hope was Superman, or any other member of the Justice League who will notice that she’s missing.
Galatea pushed the button to the highest floor, the old elevator was a little bit slow, so she had enough time to mock Supergirl even more.
– That’s pitty, I hope they got your best angles, because this face will not be that pretty in a while!
– What the hell are you talking about? What’s your plan?! You know if you hurt me the rest of the Justice League will hunt you down and-
Galatea just laughed when Supergirl was trying to intimidate her. STAR Labs was working on the new project, and Galatea was just a first phase.
– Baby, do you think all those emergencies are coincidence? We are not looking for a win, but we want to gather as much information about different heroes as possible, connect it with their DNA, and make it better! Just like they did with us. I’m not trying to be you. I AM you. Better, stronger and I’ll take your place, very very soon.
Supergirl was defeated, and the words of her nemesis cut her deeply, STAR Labs was trying to create an army of new superheroes, and it all started because of her. This battle was lost long before it even started.
Finally a quiet bell announced that they had arrived at their destination. It was the same room Supergirl saw from the outside – clean white walls were reflecting all the lights, creating the illusion of an endless space, only with the windows heading towards the city.
There was a chair of course – heavy, metal, with the letter seat in the reddish colour and small table with equipment that Supergirl wasn’t familiar with.
– Sit, you have to obey me if you want to leave this place in one piece. Well, sort of. C’mon, the audience is waiting!
The handcuffed girl couldn’t do anything else than obeying commands. She was trying not to cry, but this situation was overwhelming and it seemed like the nightmare was about to begin.
In a few minutes the room started to fill with cameras, but Galatea didn’t let the crew stay, so the girls were left with dozens of silent observers, transmitting their conversation to the world.
– So miss Supergirl, you are here today to officially give away this title. In an hour or less the only person who might be called “Supergirl” will be me. This is the announcement for all of you!
She pointed at the cameras, waving to every lens watching them.
– And I want to make it easy for all of us. Every queen has her crown, but we cannot share the spot, am I right honey? So I have to take away yours!
Supergirl tried to jump off the chair and escape, she was ready to break the window and jump down, but the strong hand of Galatea held her in place.
– We can do it the easy way, or the hard way. If you move once more I’ll make you suffer even more, understood? I accept “Yes, mistress” as an answer.
– Y-Yes mistress…
Supergirl was pumped out by the kryptonite and by the dread, so she sheepishly sat in the chair, waiting for Galatea’s move.
The woman in charge picked something from the table – Kara was getting ready for the pain, but she felt slow strokes of the brush through her hair.
Her cheeks felt warm and she was clearly embarrassed by this situation. It felt nice, but she also felt like a little girl who cannot take care of herself.
Then the brushing stopped, and her heart was pounding like crazy. The room went silent, and she wondered if the viewers might hear her heartbeat in front of their TVs.
Galatea brought a standing mirror in front of the chair. They both looked pretty much alike – the only difference was the suit and the hair.
Supergirl’s locks were reaching the middle of her back, when Galatea was sporting a sharp lip-length bob.
– Now the real fun begins! Don’t close your eyes, I want you to enjoy every single second of this.
And she put scissors on the right side of Supergirl’s hair, exactly on the same length as hers.
Shnick
The cut sent the first part of the golden locks to the floor. Galatea didn’t put any cape on Supergirl, so the girl on the chair felt as the mass of her hair slid down, firstly hitting her arm, sliding towards her thighs, and after all of this the rest hit the floor.
Galatea was slowly cutting towards the back, so the long hair started to fall under Supergirl’s costume, tingling her everytime she tried to move, so she had to sit still, hoping it will be the end of her torture.
Shnick
The haircut was halfway done – Supergirl was watching in horror as she was looking more and more like her enemy.
Tears filled her eyes, but she was looking straight in the mirror, when Galatea was taking her precious hair away.
– Trying to put on a brave face? I don’t think it will work, because we are far from done.
For the last few cuts Galatea held the blond locks, and after the chop she tossed them into the girl’s lap. Supergirl was not even able to shake them off, she was shocked to the bone by the amount of her hair that wasn’t attached to her head anymore.
– Now look at you. We are truly the same person, but we are not equal at all. You are defeated, weak and totally under my control. How could someone like you rule the Justice League? You should be ashamed of yourself! I don’t want anybody to associate me with a rat like you.
As she said the last sentence Galatea pulled Supergirl by her hair and a loud, vibrating noise filled the room. Supergirl saw in the mirror how her nemis picked up something from the table, but she didn’t have any time to react before Galatea plunged clippers through her long bangs.
Her shortened, but still quite long hair was parted in the middle by the strip of white scalp, and the locks from the middle of her head were lifelessly heading towards the ground. Supergirl wanted to scream, but the voice was stuck in her throat. Crunchy sound of the clippers was still the only thing that these two girls and thousands of viewers could hear. Strip by strip Galatea was taking away more and more of Supergirl’s hair, clipping the top of her head first, then moving to the sides.
When the clippers touched Supergirl’s temple she was wondering if it’s not a fever dream and the buzzing near her ear was a mosquito or something, but the rain of hair was awfully real.
She was looking as her golden locks were replaced by the whiteness of her scalp, still feeling longer strands in the back of her head, still tingling her neck, not used to the touch of shorter hair.
But her clone didn’t let her enjoy this feeling for too long – she pushed Supergirl’s head forward and without hesitation shaved the last bits right to the skin.
It was done.
She was bald.
Her eyes teared up, blurring her vision. She wanted to run away and hide, she felt horrendous and naked.
Galatea was looking at this breakdown with joy, she successfully crushed Supergirl’s spirit, and she knew that her weaker self wouldn’t be a problem for a very long time.
– Take this as a warning! Go back to the rest of your friends and tell them we are coming, and remember – your scalp might be resistant to my laser eyes, but I’m not so sure if your hair follicles are. If you will show up for another fight we will find out!
She was still laughing when she finally uncuffed Kara, the former Supergirl.
Girl in the blue costume stored off from the building, breaking all the windows and sending parts of the building on the heads of people below. But she didn’t care. She lost her title, she lost her hair, Galantea took everything from her and she had no power to take it back.
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