My purpose was to defeat you.

It became my very reason to exist. I longed to be the victorious one, to show that a copy could defeat the original. It was my only desire. My only wish in this pathetic excuse for a life.

I changed myself, threw away my previous body to be able to match you. See this 'skin' of mine? Streamlined, to make me faster. My 'fingers'? Tipped with sharp metal, it's purpose to attack you. My whole body had been twisted and changed, for the sole purpose of destroying you.

Or at least, it was.

I spent years in research, taking every possible upgrade that could give me the advantage. Granted, some were for vanities sake.

This mouth I have? Fully functional. I designed it with an image in my head, one of me giving you that smirk you give all your defeated enemies.

The one you tortured me with again and again.

I even began, to my disgrace, model my appearance after you. So when I won, you could know it was your COPY that beat you, that would become you. Then I could see your face, holding that same suffering I've always felt.

I became so fascinated by my fantasy, that I forgot something. The one thing that made us different.

I forgot how you organics tend to die.

I may have found peace in your death, if you had died of an attack by my creator, or even on one of your self righteous "Hero" adventures.

But no, you defeated me in the worst way possible.

You died of old age.

You're mocking me, even from your grave. Taunting me, telling me that I am, was…

To slow.

Like I've always been.

But that's not the worst part. No hedgehog, your timing was perfect, you added insult to this injury of mine. You just had to wait until my upgrades were complete, applied to myself, and irreversible. Somehow you must have known. You knew that I had done this to myself. Somehow you knew that I would be stuck…

Like this…

….

Now, as I look in a mirror, do you know what I see?

I see a blue hedgehog, with red shoes and green eyes.

I see you.

I suppose most would consider this an achievement, a robot that was identical to an organic. However, to me it is a curse. For you see, every time my eyes meet an even faintly reflective surface, I am reminded of my failures, and how in the end.

I am one myself.