BrainWash™

Lois Lane kept her eyes closed as the water washed over her. A thick liquid was poured over the top of her head, something that caused the skin to tingle. There was a weirdly sweet chemical odor, like bubble gum and bleach. The strong, slim hands of Angie Blaze began to massage the shampoo into the reporter's scalp, the tingle spreading as she did.

It was nice, Lois decided. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had someone else shampoo her hair...and whatever Angie was using, Lois could feel the tingling seep down into her tired muscles. It almost felt like the tingling was working its way through her skull.

"How often do you wash your hair?" Angie asked.

Lois had to think about that. She frowned at a sudden pain in her forehead, like an icecream headache.

"Every...two or three days?" Lois said, less sure than she should have been. The chemical odor of the shampoo must have been getting to her, because she was feeling suddenly light-headed, and her thoughts felt...fuzzy...like her brain was wrapped in cotton candy.

As soon as she stopped trying to think, the ice cream headache vanished. Lois sat there, breathing gently. The strong fingers were rubbing down near the edge of the hairline at Lois Lane's forehead, and the tingling there increased, the cotton candy sensation seemed to grow thicker.

"And what's your favorite color?" Blaze asked.

The ice cream headache returned as Lois fished for an answer. She grit her teeth, the sickly-sweet chemical smell almost gagging her. It was so hard to just think.

"R-red?" Lois said after a long moment, sighing in relief as she managed to spit out the answer, and relaxed back into shampoo-mode.

"Are you sure it isn't pink?" Angie said. "You look like a pink."

"N-nnn..." The word stuck in Lois Lane's mouth as her mind turned over the question. The headache seemed to fill her own head, like a vast balloon filling her skull. She could feel herself digging her nails into her palms, trying to distract herself from the ache in her head. The answer that she had just given had flit out of her mind, and the more Lois concentrated on trying to get it back, the more her head hurt.

"Pink," she said, finally, exhausted. As soon as she gave up trying to concentrate, the pain dissipated.

"I thought so," Angie said. "Do you remember what color your hair is?"

Pain. Lois grit her teeth and automatically tried not to think.

"No," she said, the pain fading away. The cotton candy felt like it filled her entire head.

"Blonde," Angie Blaze said smugly. "You're a blonde."