Heroes No More

Copycat

The Copycat. Normally with a name like that, Yumi would have laughed or teased whoever decided to come up with that kind of name. However, with the man standing so close, so tall, and looking so menacing there is no joke or response to follow.

In fact, there is only a silent horror; a mental plea to the gods for this monster not to take her powers and by some miracle her prayer works.

At first when he reaches his hand out and contorts his face there is only a heavy silence that is quickly followed by a growl from the Copycat. He doesn't understand how his power isn't working. He wants her powers and he wants them now!

Perhaps they are too strong or too complex like some others he has come across in the past. No powers have been able to resist for long, and for that he knows he can wait it out.

For days he waits and for days Yumi is kept within that small dungeon room. She's given little food and little water, and constantly woken when she falls asleep to keep her from resting for too long.

By the end of the week she is famished, exhausted, and scared. She's not used to being so long without her cards. She desperately wants to be with her spirit friends more than food, sleep, or water.

On the seventh day the Copycat returns to check on his guest.

"My- you look awful." He chuckles with pleasure, delightful at the pitiful sight.

Everything is dirty from her hair to her shoes, there are bags under her eyes, and she has herself curled up in a corner of the room. She cringes when he speaks, prompting him to speak further.

"It must be so painful to be so alone," he mocks. "You have nothing, you are nothing. How does that feel?"

Yumi hugs her knees tighter, the tears visible as they trail down the worn paths on her face.

He reaches his gloved hand through the bars and his whole body begins to glow white. The energy stretches out from his hand like a claw. When she comes within reach the energy encases her. If she can feel what's happening, see what's happening behind her closed eyes, she makes no indication.

Her trembling form remains until the white light digs into her body and tears her golden light out. Yumi cries out as it does, reaching desperately for the light as it is dragged into the Copycat.

When the energy enters him he pulls back his hand and twists his body to admire the changes taking place. "So much power! So much energy! How have you allowed yourself to live with such restraints for so long?"

"They'll never listen to you," Yumi declares just audible enough for him to hear.

The Copycat laughs. "It's not me they'll be listening to..."

Gold and white swirl around him. The air suddenly picks up and a blinding flash fills the space. Once it fades, Yumi is suddenly standing before herself.

The real Yumi gasps. "Y-You copy everything?!"

"That's right," the fake Yumi replies in a voice the real Yumi can only assume is how everyone else hears her. "I get everything: your memories, your voice, your look, and more importantly is your power. Your life is pathetic. You have all of this power and yet you allow yourself to get pushed around, to be limited by everyone's fear of you, and you choose to be friends with those monsters rather than control them. Not me. Oh no. I'm going to succeed where you have failed. Thanks for all the inspiration, puppet."

Yumi glares at her laughing copy as they saunter away to do all of the evil things they plan on doing. She doesn't want to believe that her copy can have all aspects of her and can get away with all of this.