[[Author's Note: Sorry about the lack of updates recently, I'll try to get back in shape.]]

December 20th, 2012 [Friday]
4:21 PM

“So,” the first figure said, “what are we going up against, what can kill it, and how much am I getting paid?”

“You can have all of those corpses,” Anita replied sadly.
”And for what I have?”, the second said.
”The souls of the mannequins,” Anita answered.

“You’ve got yourself a team,” B.B. Hood said, looking around for her prey.

B.B. Hood’s job involved collecting the heads and ivory off of Darkstalkers, and sometimes she needed scouters; that’s why she had made a business deal with Q-Bee and her hive, providing them with the souls of B.B. Hood’s prey in return for protection and services.

”Please,” Anita said, “don’t kill him; just stun him. I’d appreciate it if you left him alive.”

“What happens if we kill him?”
”You won’t be paid!”

B.B. Hood looked around.
”How… do I stun him?”
”Hit his shadow!”

B.B. Hood scoffed at the simplicity, and she and Q-Bee got into a fighting stance.

“I’ll show you,” Shadow Cecil said, taking off his jacket to not restrict his movement; instead of unbuttoning it, it just flew off with one hand gesture, as if held by only one button.
B.B. Hood was stupefied like how Anita had been, but got over it much easier.

B.B. Hood shot at the shadow, but her bullet stopped in mid-air and fell onto the ground.
”What the…”
”Oh,” Anita said wearily, “he… has my psychic powers, but strengthened.”
”What the hell?!”, B. B. Hood said. “Okay… let’s see.”

B.B. Hood threw a mine at him, and instantly made it explode as it went next to his feet; the shrapnel stuck in midair, and went towards B. B. Hood in a dragon-shaped spiral of flame.

Anita would comment on how cool the sight was, and how well Cecil handled her powers, but she was a little too beaten-up and scared to do it.

“Aaaaagh!”, B.B. Hood said, barely dodging all of her dress lighting on fire. “Oh god, he’s making it spread…!”

“Pyrokinesis,” Anita interjected. “He can control fire.”
”What else?!”

Anita reviewed the list of latent powers in her mind.
”Space, time, minds, fire, wind, and gravity. And he has telekinesis.”

B.B. Hood dodged some shrapnel being thrown at her.
”What the hell?! It’s like the bastard child of you, Pyron, and Jedah!”

Q-Bee, who had been fluttering around dumbly this entire time, aimed her stinger at Cecil, intending to suck out his soul.
”No!”, Anita cried.

Q-Bee, distracted, missed her hit, instead piercing into the ground… where his shadow was.

Cecil writhed, his head snapping to the sides violently.
”Gyaaaaaah! Where… am I…? No…!”

He regained himself, becoming mind-controlled again. Then, creating a series of psychic ‘hands’, lifted up Q-Bee and threw her into a tower. Q-Bee, who did not know anything of what was happening, hit Raptor’s casket as she crumbled into a heap at the base of Marionette’s throne.

B.B. Hood, who actually viewed Q-Bee as one of her few friends, hurled herself onto Cecil, wrestling him onto the ground.
”You sick bastard! I don’t care if I don’t get paid!”
She aimed a handswipe at his face, but Cecil’s index finger stopped her entire hand.

“And super-strength?!”, B. B. Hood said incredulously.

B.B. Hood was mercilessly thrown on top of Q-Bee, and she fainted as well.

What… What in the world, Anita thought sadly.

Don’t worry, Lilith said, We need to give this guy a reality check!

The forms of Morrigan and Lilith appeared out of a portal.

“Well, big boy,” Morrigan said quite dynamically, “I never thought you’d play so dirty.”

[[Author's Endnote: When Cecil flaunts it, he's a stud.]]