text: “Hah!” I huffed as I pinned my arch-nemesis to the ground, “I finally caught you, Echo! Are you ready to admit your defeat yet, or must I pause time to pummel you to a pulp?!” Echo’s facial expression was completely hidden by zir mask, but I could feel zir fury radiating from zem. Ze spat, “No! I will never admit defeat from the likes of you, Mirage! Let me go, before you feel my true wrath!” “You tried to show me your true wrath before and it didn't work!" I scoffed in response, before giving zem a gentle kick. "How disappointing! You should have given more of a fight. I love a challenge, and the citizens love a good fight, isn't that right?!" Echo and I looked over to the crowd that had been forming. They all broke out cheering for me and jeering at zem. This only pissed zem off more. "Fine! In that case, I will rip you apart from limb to limb!" Shadowy tendrils spawned from their trench coat and attempted to push me off. I was not having any of that, though. Instead, I heroically paused time and began absolutely pummeling zir face. One punch, two punches, red punch, blue punch, and then unpause time and uppercut! The mask ze wore flung off and revealed a very familiar face. To anybody else, we would look completely alike. We both stopped as the crowd went completely silent. Aw, shit. I done fucked up. I had to think of some stupid excuse so the Agency doesn't decide to terminate us, and fast. "Oh my god!" I suddenly gasped at my confused-looking nemesis. "You... you're me?!" "Yes, I am you!" Echo shouted, quickly getting the idea. "I am you from... from an alternate universe! I am here to stop you from your heroic path!" "You will never stop me from being a hero, me from an alternate universe! Now that you're distracted, I have to bring you to prison!" "You will never imprison me, the great supervillain Echo-" I paused time again and immediately pulled out my Agency-provided teleportation device. I tossed zem and zir mask on the device, and once they were gone, I unpaused and looked back at the cheering crowd. "So long, civilians!" I shouted, "Remember, crimes are bad and you will face the same treatment if you do them!" I stepped on the teleportation device, pressed the button that would make it teleport itself as well, and promptly left the scene. It brought me to Hilltop Park, one of the safe places for superheroes and supervillains to drop their act and be themselves. It was locked to the civilians via huge fences so that our stupid little act wouldn't get caught. Echo was already waiting for me, fiddling with zir mask and sitting on a bench. "Was it really necessary to unmask me?" ze teased. "I didn't fucking mean to!" I responded with the same lightheartedness. I sat next to them and continued, "We fixed it, though. The civilians don't suspect anything." "Whatever you say, Mirage. Improv is still super hard." "Yeah, well, that's what happens when you're a performer. You gotta do a bit of improv when things go wrong." "Doesn't make it any damn easier!" Ze lightly punched my arm. "You're the one who told everyone you're from an alternate universe!" I teased and punched zem right back. "Wouldn't long-lost twins have been better, and I don't know, more accurate?" "Yeah, but hear me out: I just wanted to see if they would fucking believe that dumb shit." I scoffed as I said, "The civilians would believe anything we say, so I guess the alternate universe bullshit is funnier and way more complicated than the truth." I held out a fist to Echo as I chirped, "Twinzies forever?" "Twinzies forever," ze confirmed and fist-bumped me, "Even if you're the most annoying sibling I could ever ask for." "I'm older than you, so shut up.