Jonathan Steele vs Cecilia Lombard - Falls Count Anywhere/Cinematic Match

[winner3]

Falls Count Anywhere/Cinematic Match: Victory to be decided via pinfall, submission, or knockout anywhere in or out of the arena.
Location: Snowshoe Village-Oakside Park in Denver, Colorado. The events of this match were pre-recorded and is being broadcast to live to everyone in the arena in the Tokyo Dome, and everyone else watching around the world

[CaptainL]

Whatever Cecilia had envisioned for her next PPV match, she certainly hadn't expected this. But Jonathan was back on his kick of making nonsensical, vaguely ominous threats and trying to be all spooky and mysterious, and now he had dragged her along for the ride. She would have been just fine if he had challenged her to a match like any other - you know, like a normal person. He was one of her trainers, and they had faced off plenty of times before, so she had a pretty good idea as to how he worked and what to expect. She could handle it. But he had insisted on dragging her out to the middle of nowhere - over Twitter, of all places - and what was even worse, somehow, the high-ups at LAW actually signed off on it. Was his act really so intimidating that he could sway the athletic commissions into thinking that televising some glorified street fight in an abandoned village was a good idea, or did they really just want to see her suffer?

Cecilia grumbled to herself as she trudged through the snow, climbing higher and higher up the path. The cold wind howled around her, forcing her to clench her teeth and hug her coat closer to herself as she muttered something under her breath about how this was no time for such a match. Here she was halfway up a mountain, and the snow had grown higher and higher around her the further she went, making her strain herself more and more to work her way up the path. She could only hope she wouldn't be too worn out for the actual match.

But then, as she turned a corner...at last, she saw it. The icy winds seemed to stop for just a moment, and she could see far enough through the snow flying around her to catch sight of the forms of buildings up ahead. The snow beneath her feet gave way to a cobblestone walkway, something that made her breathe a sigh of relief when she realized she wouldn't need to be fighting her way through it any more. She passed by a hotel, a general store, a church - all buildings she could recognize, but now collapsed, dark, and dilapidated - she couldn't begin to imagine how long they had sat empty and abandoned. Then, as the came to the center of town, she passed a ring of tents, long since having crumbled into heaps of poles and canvas. That made her raise an eyebrow. Was someone here? It had to have been after the rest of the village was abandoned, if there was nowhere else to sleep. How long ago had that been...and what happened to whoever came? The more Cecilia thought about it, the more her pace slowed. She wanted to think she was better than this, but even she couldn't deny, there was something eerie that lingered with her, something she couldn't quite shrug off.

Finally, as she reached the middle of the village, Cecilia stood at the foot of a tall pole, on which a clock stood. She sucked in a breath, hugging her arms closer to herself for warmth. "All right, Jon...this better be worth it," she muttered to herself, under her breath. She wanted to think this wouldn't faze her. And yet, when she heard a ticking noise, and looked up to see the second hand of the clock spring to life, clicking closer and closer to the 12...she couldn't help but feel a chill run down her spine with each tick, a chill that only grew stronger the more it went on.

Tick. Tick. Tick."

Spoiler

[Pegasus]

The sound of the wind blowing was enough to send a chill up anyone’s spine-both figuratively for the sudden creepiness and literally for the cold weather in Colorado (the match’s location). Why would Jonathan and Cecelia be fighting in the mountains? Only Jonathan really knew what he wanted out of this. Speaking of the bigger man, Jonathan could be spotted wearing a brown winter jacket, black t-shirt, blue jeans, and brown combat boots. A fire burnt before him as he kept adding sticks off the ground and throwing them in the fire making the fire stay on longer. He looked over see his opponent and friend come into the town as he grinned mischievously waving her over.

“Thanks for flying here, Cece! It’s so good to finally be acquainted and away from LAW for once. The management thought you could use a vacation. Better come warm up before we fight,” Jonathan stated.

[CaptainL]

And there he was. Soon enough, Cecilia heard the sound of the crackling fire just nearby, and when she looked up at its source, Jonathan was right there, standing beside the rising flames. Wait...was he always there? For a moment, Cecilia questioned how long he, and the fire, had been there in her peripheral vision...but she just as quickly shook that thought out of her head. It didn't matter. She couldn't let such intrusions distract her from what was important. Jonathan wanted a match. And, for whatever reason, he had dragged her out to this ungodly hellhole of all places to have it. At this point, she didn't even want answers - she wanted to give him a piece of her mind.

It certainly didn't help that he insisted on being cute about it, either. At Jonathan's flippant comments about the match and what it meant, Cecilia hissed under her breath, hugging her arms closer to her body as her muscles tensed. She was used to Jonathan's new spooky, mysterious persona - the same one he'd insisted on faffing about with when he issued the challenge in the first place - and she'd assumed that he'd bring it to the forefront here. But no, he was joking around as though all of this was perfectly normal; as though they weren't going to have a match in some abandoned village out in the middle of Colorado. At this point, Cecilia didn't know what was worse - the Jonathan who insisted on acting obtuse, or the one who made everything she did seem like a joke.

"Cut the crap, Jon," she said with a sneer. "You and I both know this isn't time for fooling around. I don't just hop on a plane without very good reason. And if making you shut up is all the reason I need, then-"

Cecilia had begun to step closer to the fire as she spoke. But it was right at that moment that the flames flared up brighter, higher, and hotter, with a shower of sparks bursting from within. At that, Cecilia's eyes went wide, and she took a step back. Was it a trick of some hidden pyrotechnics...or maybe something more? Either way, she'd soon discover she and Jonathan weren't alone...

Spoiler

Kanon Fujiwara - one of Jonathan's newest associates, and as far as Cecilia was concerned, one who was even crazier than he was with her self-professed magical powers - suddenly rose from behind the crackling fire. She held a book in front of her - the same book, in fact, that Jonathan had given her following his I Quit match against Marzia Servelli - neatly letting the pages drop open in the palm of her hand, and began to read. Her voice was slow and steady, its rhythm careful and controlled, almost like a chant. "Praecedit te in forma hominis...Scire autem suum esse est cognoscere damnationem..."

As she read, the fire's crackles grew even louder; the air around them seemed to pulse with its heat. Once again, Cecilia realized she hadn't noticed her there before - and that was enough to make her start wondering, in the very back of her mind, what it was that was going on. Could she really trust her own senses? Her own ideas of what was and wasn't real? As her gaze shifted from side to side, her eyelid began to twitch, and her lips pulled back, revealing her teeth locked in an anxious grimace. But what chilled Cecilia most of all was what came next - as Kanon paused from her reading just long enough to lift her head and lock eyes with her. When she did, she smiled. And when she smiled...Cecilia knew that nothing here was safe.

[Pegasus]

Jonathan smiled as Kanon arose from the flames and took her place around the open fire with her “father.” He looked back at Cecelia with a knowing smirk and just shook his head. Jonathan got up as he leaned down to whisper something in Kanon’s ear and flipped to a certain page pointing out a line to his disciple to read. Jonathan then watched the crumbling snow crack under his feet as he looked back up at the Ice Bitch. His fingers curled up against each other clearly affected by the cold, but that wouldn’t matter in a moment.

“Truly astonishing. You still believe there’s an actual chance for you in this match. Everyone wants to think I’m just smoke and mirrors. A character. A gimmick! This world will soon realize what it’s up against. First, LAW needs to understand there are more than just actors and pretenders. There are monsters. Lurking in closets and under beds. Lurking in the dark forests of parks. Lurking in the shadows of the abyss. They are very real. And he is one of them. The one who rules amongst them. Cecelia, you’ve entered his realm. Not the other way around,” Jonathan touted as Kanon would read the chosen spell for her and the flames of the fire grew higher concealing Jonathan from view.

In a special effects cinematic shot, The Anomaly took Jonathan’s place and growled with a vibrant menacing tone. The demon crossed his hands as his eyes laid on Cecelia and two evil forces finally meet one-on-one. One human that had no remorse for her actions when she hurt those the crowd cared about. But the other…..a very demonic force that had mystery beyond comprehension. The Anomaly looked over to Kanon as he casted some black smoke around his “daughter” in order to change her into ring attire just with a referee shirt over her exposed body. Only instead of a normal referee shirt, Kanon wore a buttoned up black dress shirt with a red bow tie around her neck. The clock still chimed and the hands still ticked as it seems the war was upon them.

Finally, the clock struck midnight! *DONG! DONG! DONG!* It seems that was the ring bell to start this match.

[CaptainL]

When Jonathan gestured to the right line in the book, Kanon obediently bowed her head lower, never for a moment questioning her master's orders. When she read the text aloud, it was in the same slow, even tone - almost serene, in spite of her surroundings - that she had used since she'd first arrived on the scene, and she continued on as though what she was doing was as mundane as any everyday task. "Ipse imperabit inferni, et inimici eius opprimentur..." And as she read, the snow around Jonathan's feet began to shudder and hiss, as though the earth itself was shaking. Was it? Was this all something they were setting up - or was it something more?

That was one thing on Cecilia's mind as she took a step back from the fire, her teeth clenched in a grimace. She sucked in a breath, and her fists clenched tighter at her sides as the tension took hold of her body. This was nothing she hadn't heard from Jonathan before - he'd posted these same sorts of inane monologues on his Twitter account many times, including in the leadup to this very match. When she was just reading them off a screen, a safe distance away from Jonathan, Cecilia had given them little heed - they were just the ramblings of someone trying to be dramatic. But hearing them now, in person...she could sense the conviction in his voice, the purpose with which he spoke. She had no reason not to believe that Jonathan at least believed every word he said, and when he did, it left Cecilia wondering if she believed it too. It was that power in his voice that truly made Cecilia shiver, more than any of the words themselves. Before, she might have been skeptical of Jonathan's newfound persona...now, when she was staring it right in the face, was another story. She believed in the Anomaly's power. And that power chilled her to the bone.

It certainly didn't help when, as Kanon finally shut the covers of her book, the fire crackled and burst higher into the sky. It flared with such heat that Cecilia had to shrink back, her teeth clenched in a grimace as she raised her arm to shield her face from the rising flames. And when that fire cleared...something had changed. Jonathan - no, the Anomaly - leered before her, dark and shadowy and clouded in an aura of menace so palpable even Cecilia's eyes began to waver the longer she looked at it. And Kanon had donned the attire of a referee, standing by to observe and to officiate what was to come. Cecilia couldn't even be frustrated to know she would be dealing with a referee who was sure to be less than impartial. In the face of everything else that was happening around her, that seemed like the least of her worries.

"Nngh...fine-!" she growled, at last lowering her arm and digging her heels into the snow as she settled into a stance. "If I'm just going to have to shut you up myself, I'll do it!" Cecilia glared at the Anomaly as she began to circle around him, her fists raised in front of her. She just wanted to prove that he was nothing but talk. That his act wasn't going to scare her; that she was too smart to fall for those tricks. But her eyelid twitched, and her shoulders trembled. Jonathan had been right. Cecilia just wanted to think that, for her own peace of mind - not only because it made her feel like she had a chance in this match, but also that the world, as she knew and understood it, still made sense. She drew closer to the Anomaly, preparing her attack. But at the back of her mind...she knew all too well that she had no way of anticipating what lay in store for her. For now, she would strafe around her foe, waiting for his first move, and being ready to counter if she needed to...

[Pegasus]

The Anomaly circled Cecelia not even raising a fist to combat his adversary. He didn’t really need to. He saw the fear in the eyes of Cecelia even after her declaration to shut him down. The demon just chuckled darkly and strolled forward with an unnerving feeling as his trench coat picked up small lines of white snow sticking to it. This was pretty much his way of saying “Try something, I dare you.” A demon loved nothing more than manipulation and fear so taunting was all the more natural to feed it strength.

The Anomaly towered over Cecelia and growled lowly running his left hand across her cheek to send more shivers down her spine. It was quickly sinking in for the Ice Bitch. Others may have feared her, others may have feared her when joined with Skylar Jones, but this demon didn’t fear this woman below him. Even if she took her best shot, The Anomaly had immunity from pain. You can hit him with everything, even the kitchen sink, and he’ll make it look like a barrage of pebbles hit him. The Anomaly activated his voice modulator so he could speak his taunting in words.

“Come on, bitch. Let’s see what you got,” Skylar Jones’s voice, Cecelia’s tag partner, came through The Anomaly.

At best, Cecelia and Skylar had an understanding partnership due to a shared history of being born street brawlers and mainly fending for themselves while their mothers suffered and no father figure to guide them through troubled times. However, at the heart of the matter, the two wouldn’t let their partnership get in the way of their ambitions. If they had to break each other’s bones to get what they wanted, so be it. The Anomaly wanted to use that in order to get under Cecelia’s skin and prompt her to strike first.

[Pegasus]

The Anomaly circled Cecelia not even raising a fist to combat his adversary. He didn’t really need to. He saw the fear in the eyes of Cecelia even after her declaration to shut him down. The demon just chuckled darkly and strolled forward with an unnerving feeling as his trench coat picked up small lines of white snow sticking to it. This was pretty much his way of saying “Try something, I dare you.” A demon loved nothing more than manipulation and fear so taunting was all the more natural to feed it strength.

The Anomaly towered over Cecelia and growled lowly running his left hand across her cheek to send more shivers down her spine. It was quickly sinking in for the Ice Bitch. Others may have feared her, others may have feared her when joined with Skylar Jones, but this demon didn’t fear this woman below him. Even if she took her best shot, The Anomaly had immunity from pain. You can hit him with everything, even the kitchen sink, and he’ll make it look like a barrage of pebbles hit him. The Anomaly activated his voice modulator so he could speak his taunting in words.

“Come on, bitch. Let’s see what you got,” Skylar Jones’s voice, Cecelia’s tag partner, came through The Anomaly.

At best, Cecelia and Skylar had an understanding partnership due to a shared history of being born street brawlers and mainly fending for themselves while their mothers suffered and no father figure to guide them through troubled times. However, at the heart of the matter, the two wouldn’t let their partnership get in the way of their ambitions. If they had to break each other’s bones to get what they wanted, so be it. The Anomaly wanted to use that in order to get under Cecelia’s skin and prompt her to strike first.

[CaptainL]

Cecilia's heart was pounding faster and harder the closer she drew to her opponent. Her hands balled into tight fists - tight enough for her fingernails to bury into the palms of her hands. She needed to stay focused. The closer she crept in on the Anomaly, the more she could feel there was something...off. Something wrong. She couldn't quite tell what it was - whether it was simply her nerves, or something far more sinister - but there was an air around her foe that was oppressive, that gave her a sense of building danger with every step closer she took, as though every fiber in her body was telling her she was making a mistake. But Cecilia couldn't let that stop her. She bit her lip, and she shook her head. She had to beat him, just to end this silly charade once and for all. She had to knock some sense into Jonathan!

And yet, the closer she drew, the more Cecilia became all the more aware that she could truly expect nothing that lay ahead for her. This far out into the wilderness, there were no rules but the Anomaly's rules. There was no crowd to get in the way; no ring to hold them back. The only referee they had was slavishly in the demon's command - as she strafed around her foe, Cecilia glanced back in Kanon's direction, but the pallid woman would only look straight into her eyes with the slightest of smiles, as though daring her to make a single wrong move. Of course, Cecila couldn't let her eyes off of her foe for even a second. She didn't know what the Anomaly could do to her - and that, perhaps, was what frightened her most of all.

For a time, the two of them circled through the snow. No one wanted to take their eyes off the other, and yet, no one wanted to make the first move - behind every impulse Cecilia had to act was the thought that things could go very, very wrong for her if she shook things up too much. Yet the Anomaly was content with waiting and playing the long game. He didn't need to press the advantage. He was already in power here - he just needed Cecilia to come to him.

It was when he took a step closer that Cecilia truly felt like she was much too close to her opponent. That same imposing aura that had surrounded his every move was all the more stifling now, and all the more inescapable. For just a moment, Cecilia let out a stifled gasp. When the Anomaly's fingers brushed down her cheek, her eye squeezed shut, and her teeth clenched in a grimace. A shudder left her body, and immediately she cursed the way her own body was betraying her. There was another reason Cecilia had waited for the Anomaly to make the first move. Whether she liked it or not, she was afraid. Of the way he made her feel - of the way he even could make her feel so small, and so powerless. Of the fact that she barely knew anything about him, and how she had no way to predict the fate that lay in store for her. That fear was holding her back, but she knew that if she took the first step, that fear would show through. The last thing Cecilia wanted was for the Anomaly - or anyone, really - to know that she was afraid. She couldn't be weak like that. She couldn't succumb like that. It was all just a trick; it was what he wanted...

But then, when the Anomaly spoke - when he spoke in the voice of Skylar Jones - that truly froze Cecilia in her tracks.

"...Sky..?!" She glanced back and forth out of the corner of her eye, though she didn't want to look away from the Anomaly for long. She looked left and right for the source of the noise, but Skylar was nowhere to be found. And that just confirmed, to Cecilia, that she hadn't imagined it - the Anomaly had spoken such words. How was he capable of doing that? And why? Deep down, Cecilia treasured her friendship with Skylar. She was the only friend she felt she truly had, the only one who could connect with her, and the only one who could see herself in. She'd always denied that she kept Sky around for anything other than brute force, but her greatest fear was some day having to lose the one source of connection she had in her life. It was her deepest, most closely guarded secret - and now, she had to ask herself, did the Anomaly know that?

In that instant, Cecilia stood, transfixed and pale. She had been shaken to the core. But moments later, she shook herself out, gritting her teeth and narrowing a glare on her foe. No, she couldn't give in like this. She knew she was stronger than this. If she gave into fear - if anyone knew she had given in to fear - she had already lost. She had to show the Anomaly it wouldn't move her, whether she believed that or not!

"Nngh-! SHUT UP!!" she roared - looking away from the Anomaly's eyes, unwilling to make contact. "Your stupid tricks aren't going to fool me!!" Determined to stand in defiance of her foe, Cecilia at last made her move, swinging out with an uppercut aimed right at his jaw. She had to do something. It was better than calling everything she held true about herself into question!

[Pegasus]

Cecelia struck and connected her move as The Anomaly let out a grunting gasp. His head was twisted left from the punch, but, of course, a simple punch wasn’t gonna trounce him. If anything, it was the desperation starting to settle in and he hadn’t even laid one finger on Cecelia. He had expected Cecelia to scoff off his tricks and see it nothing more than a cheap horror gag, to come at him with violence in her hands and voice, to block out all distractions, but at the end of the day, before this match truly started, The Anomaly already struck first blood mentally. Cecelia is no pushover as most of her matches left her opponents clinging on to some form of consciousness as she just left them in dismay. However, when faced with a force of evil greater than she could ever hope to be, just by mimicking her tag team partner’s voice, it shut down Cecelia for the briefest of moments.

The Anomaly chuckled darkly as it was a mixture of Jonathan’s human voice and a demonic laugh. It was scary to think this monster could utter anything human. The demon simply reared his left hand back and thrusted it forward hurling it into Cecelia’s gut to send her all the way into the snow! Once Cecelia got over her cold, The Anomaly advanced hitting his own uppercut to her chin!