Gamelover41592 – A little bit, but after some thinking it shouldn't affect the story much, but it does give me some extra resources to work with, for sure.
Shadow Joestar – And for this chapter, a bit of the payoff for Loona.
burkr7735 – I did enjoy writing that, and I am glad you enjoyed the bit of slapstick I subjected ol' Blitzy to.
jeremiahkelley93 – Thank you!
Mr. Dusk – Thanks, little brother.
Mr. Haziq – A little bit, but that is a ways away for now.
Wolvmbm – This chapter will explore the antagonist I have in mind for this story arc.
Enigmus-288 – Well, women be a bit of a mystery, that's the way I see it.
Djinn – Thanks anyway
Boss Teal – For Lincoln having a bit of an advantage living in Hell, he unfortunately forgets where he is.
dogspirit1 – I left a reply for you on PM, hope you got the chance to read it.
SonicMax – It isn't the one who killed him in life, read on and find out who she is.
…
Man's Best Friend (With Benefits)
A young Hellhound pup was lying down in bed, night had fallen and it was time for sleep as intended on their schedule, but Loona awoke to feel someone tapping her shoulder
"Loona, Loona, come on!" it was Loona's roommate in the orphanage, a Shih tzu Hellhound named Lottie. Loona got up and threw the blanket aside as she sat up on the side of the bed.
"Sorry, I got a little too cozy, Sia put me through a really hard task and I kinda wanted to lie down tonight."
"We can relax later, once we get out of this place." The two young Hellpups arranged their beds so that it looked like someone still slumbered peacefully and with resignation.
Loona and Lottie pulled on a nearby grate from the wall and broke it free. They took their packs and crawled inside, and closed the grate behind them tightly.
Hauling the large knapsacks with them, the two passed by a lot of air ventilation and a few openings to rooms that led to some places that they weren't supposed to find, and which prompted their little escape attempt to begin with.
The two opened another grate, using some acid they managed to sneak with themselves back to their rooms. They soon emerged into a large garage-like area with large armored cars parked about and large freight containers and pallets of cargo and the like.
The two of them carefully stuck to the shadows, avoiding the few adult Hellhound guards posted to keep an eye on the area.
Lottie and Loona were almost towards the entrance and started moving quicker and less-carefully, and Loona accidentally tripped on some errant cable on the floor, which pulled down a large barrel and making an awful lot of noise in the process. The Hellhound guards were alerted and started heading towards them, pulling out some tonfa batons since the Lady Marchosias didn't want any undue harm to come to her product.
The two female Hellhounds ran as fast as they could, but they couldn't outrun two full-grown adults, and so they needed something to keep them delayed. They passed by a barrel of petrol and Lottie had an idea. She ran up and onto the barrel and kicked it on the path, knocking the cap off and spilling it on the ground.
"Loona! Get a match out!" Lottie jumped towards her friend as Loona pulled out a matchstick, lit it up and threw it at the puddle of fuel, setting it ablaze and forcing the guards to take pause.
"Come on, we're almost out of here!" Loona was now making for the exit ahead of Lottie, letting her excitement drive her to recklessness.
Suddenly, near the mouth of the exit, a large winged figure suddenly descended with a loud crash and shook the ground across the wide area, throwing Loona who was a couple of feet away onto the asphalt.
Loona looked up to see the tall, menacing form of Marchosias, the 35th Lemegeton, and by her self-imposed right, the master and owner of Loona and Lottie. Loona was frozen in place a moment and tried to scramble away.
"You're making this more difficult than it needs to be." Marchosias approached the young Loona, her imposing eight-foot-tall frame was absolutely gigantic compared to the tiny Hellhound pup.
In a few strides of her muscular legs, Marchosias was already upon her, she reached forward for Loona, arm outstretched and prepared to grasp her. Lottie pulled something from her pack, a shiv made from a toothbrush with a handle made of cloth sheet, and she jumped on Marchosias and stabbed her on her side. Loona tried to bite at her leg, and she dug her canines as hard as she could into Marchosias's ankle.
Their attack caught her off-guard and she yelped in surprise and annoyance. Marchosias, now incensed and not feeling quite as lenient as before, angrily kicked Loona away from her as she grabbed a hold of Lottie by the small pup's neck.
"I should have never given you little brats toothbrushes." Without another word, Sia tightened her hold on Lottie's neck, followed by a cracking sound of bones breaking and Lottie's body going limp.
"Lottie!" Loona cried out in anguish at seeing her only friend taken from her, and terror set in knowing that she was next.
The other two Hellhound guards from earlier had made it past the fire and approached Marchosias, "Sorry, Miss Sia, we coulda got here sooner but…"
"Never mind that, get the other one!" she pointed towards Loona, who wasn't allowed time to grieve as the two guards approached her.
Knowing she couldn't stay here, Loona spotted a small opening to one of the drainage tunnels, probably left open by careless workers. She ducked into it as fast as she could and used her keen canine nose to try and smell her way towards what she hoped was the outdoors. The guards couldn't fit into the hole since their frames were much larger than Loona's, and she was long gone before they could get their paws on her.
"For fuck's sake…" Marchosias walked up to a nearby phone box and made a call towards the facility's maintenance office, "Yes, this is Marchosias, I need you guys to flush out the tunnels, now. Yes I know it isn't the time yet but we have a runner in them and I need you to flush her out, literally and right now!"
Loona was busy scrambling through the dirty tunnels, stopping to catch her breath after going for a good few minutes and hopefully was as far away from Sia or her goons. Not a minute passed when she heard a surging sound all around her, and she quickly attempted to rush towards the exit, wherever it was.
The sounds of running water were getting closer and she knew it wasn't long before she was submerged, so rather than run away she decided to try and ride it out. Bracing herself with her hastily-put-together bundle she turned towards the sound as the onrushing tide pushed her for a ride. Though rattled she held on long enough to feel herself thrown some feet into the open air and into a reservoir of water, with her pack acting as a buoy that kept her safe.
After catching her breath and getting herself re-oriented, she swam towards the nearest bit of land she could find. Coughing up water and drenched, but alive, she looked around and could see nothing but woods, but she hoped to find something that would help her get further away from this place.
After some running through the underbrush, she came upon what looked like a truck stop next to a road, with one truck's cargo freight open. She could see the driver, an imp, being interrogated by a Hellhound in the uniform of Marchosias' legion.
"Have you seen any little pup come by here?" referring to Loona, no doubt.
"Nope, and probably won't be seeing any as I'm on my way to Imp City." The imp sounded like he had more important places to be, "Also didn't really think you'd let lil Hellhounds run around in these woods."
"We don't," the Hellhound replied sternly, "We just have a little one thinking she can run away from Miss Sia, and we can't have that now or else she sets a bad example for the others. The boss is even ordering us to put her down just to be on the sure side."
The imp's response was still the same, "Unlucky for the little one then, but like I said, I haven't seen any little Hellhound pup."
"Hmph," the Hellhound guard growled under his breath, but it looks like there was nothing more to be done here, "All right, all right, guess we'll look elsewhere."
Unseen by both the guard and the imp during their conversation, the little Hellhound pup in question had slipped in behind some of the cargo inside the freight container. The imp closed the truck and not soon afterwards, it rode away to Imp City.
With her adrenaline lowering, Loona set the small pack down and laid down on it like a pillow. She allowed herself to cry as she remembered Lottie's death, her only friend that she had ever known in that horrid place; they said they would escape together, but now she was gone and Loona was alone, cursing herself for being careless just as they neared freedom…
…
Another day of work at Immediate Murder Professionals went by, and Lincoln was busy poring over some stacks of paperwork that he needed to get done; while we're at it, why does I. M. P. even have paperwork? Who needs receipts for this sort of thing? I can understand this sort of thing in Heaven and in Earth in-universe but considering how Hell's sense of "law" seems pretty fast and loose, I don't quite get the necessity for it.
Anyway, Lincoln had finished putting the stamp on the final sheet, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He stood up and stretched his body after sitting for a while.
B-G came to life to chat with his charge, "Brutal paperwork, wasn't it, rabbit?"
"Yup, can't wait to get home and have a dip in the hot tub I put together." Lincoln pushed his chair back into place and proceeded to head out. On his way, he passed by the entrance to the meeting room, and could see Loona inside, all by herself, with a bottle of alcohol, a large drinking glass and her Hellphone, and curiosity got the better of him, "Wonder what's the matter with her?"
B-G didn't particularly care for Loona all that much, the Hellhound had so far been nothing but callous to Lincoln, "She's drowning her sorrows, but what those sorrows are I wouldn't know, and given all the grief she's given us, I'd say let's leave her to her waterworks."
"That's mean, B-G," even if Loona had been mean to them for a while, it didn't mean that Lincoln would want to start being a jerk to her for petty reasons.
He stepped inside to check up on her, "Hey, uh, Loona, you all right?"
"What's it to you?" she responded, pouring some more alcohol into the glass and drinking it aggressively.
Lincoln stepped inside, keeping a distance from her, "Well, for one thing you're still here at the office."
She retorted, "Of course I am, my stash is here, obviously."
"Can't you drink that stuff at home?" he asked.
"Are you kidding?" she poured another one for herself, "and let fucking Blitzo get into them, fuck no!"
Lincoln cocked his head, looking worried for her, "Shit on a stick Loona, can you handle that much booze?"
She takes another swig, "I can handle this…" her head was getting heavier, and she was swaying a bit more prominently, "…fuck." She fell to the floor, but scrambled back up, "Shit, where did this wall come from?"
Lincoln helped her get up, "It's the floor, Loona."
After getting her back up on the chair, Loona shooed him away, "The fuck are you still doing here, everyone's gone home already."
"Well I would, but I had a crapton of paperwork I needed to get done," a thought came to Lincoln as he said this, "And isn't that your job, you being our secretary and all?"
"Fuck off, rabbit," she continued drinking, "Yeah I'm the secretary but I don't have time for that shit, and Blitzo lets me do whatever the Hell I want because I let him think I'm his little girl or whatever, it's the least I can do to get a free pad."
Lincoln frowned, "I'm not sure whether to be pissed at you or sorry for you."
She gave him the stink-eye amidst her drunken haze, "The fuck is that supposed to mean?"
"Look at yourself!" He exclaimed, not sure why he is finding himself caring about Loona right this moment, "Instead of going out and having fun with friends you're just wallowing in your own filth." He caught himself a minute, then another thought occurred to him, "In fact, do you even hang out with anyone?"
Loona slammed the bottle on the table, "Shut up! You don't know anything about me, just get out, get the fuck out!"
Lincoln said no more and departed, Loona was being a wall right now, and a drunken one at that.
He came home and got cleaned up, before heading inside and lying down; he needed to cool off after that turbulent departure.
Outside, Loona was stumbling her way into the park. She was drunk as a skunk, and she's a dog, but that's not important. Although she was incensed by Lincoln telling her off, she found herself near his turf, clutching her bottle that she brought along from the office. Even through the haze of intoxication, she could still go to where she needed to be, and she needed to be here in order to give a certain bunny rabbit a piece of her mind. Eventually, she found the trailer where Lincoln lived.
She squinted at the trailer, dropping the bottle to the ground, "Fucking rabbit, I'll teach you to piss me off!" Loona threw her pants off and got on all fours next to the trailer, and she lifted one leg up and started urinating against the wall.
Lincoln opened the door when he heard the sound of splashing liquids, and saw Loona next to the trailer taking a whiz on it, "Loona, what the piss are you doing?"
"Marking what's mine, you prick!" she responded, finishing up with a few flicks of her leg.
Ignoring the mess she made, Lincoln asked, "What are you even doing here? Why aren't you home with your father?"
"Blitzo is not my dad!" she retorted, "and d-don't change the subject, long-ears!" She walks up to him, "besides, I bet that it made you hot, right?"
Lincoln blushed, "E-excuse me?"
"I bet you like watching girls relieve themselves huh? You get off watching us do some damn dirty things?" she continued.
Lincoln would be lying if he said he wasn't into stuff like that, "W-well… I mean, kind of?"
"I fucking knew it…" Loona then ripped her shirt open, revealing her doggy mounds, "I bet you like this too, right?"
"H-holy shit…" Lincoln backed up a little, "Look, Loona, you're drunk, don't do something you'll regret."
"Just shut up and fuck me!" she exclaimed, "That's all you want, isn't it?"
Lincoln was holding onto the door just in case, "L-Loona, I… I'm not going to have sex with you!"
"Why!?" she screamed, looking pissed, "Is it because I'm not pretty enough? Or because I'm just a nobody and not like your other girl toys?" Without another word she lunged towards him, tongue out and drooling. Instinctively Lincoln shut the door and Loona slammed her face into it, knocking her out with a loud bang. Lincoln opened the door and could see Loona's unconscious, naked body splayed in front of him; he knew he couldn't leave her out here without any clothes on, so with a sigh he decided to bring her in.
As Lincoln brought her inside and tucked her under the blanket of his bed, he did not notice the pair of imps that came to scope him out. He stripped down and unzipped his pants as the two imps looked in secret from the window, seeing him in the middle of undressing.
"Oh shit, he is gonna fuck the bitch!" said one, who seemed to shake in anticipation at the thought of watching a free show.
"Calm down, we can't leave any trace of our presence here you ding-dong! Keep your stuff in your pants!" exclaimed the other.
To the former's disappointment, and the latter's relief, Lincoln picked up a nearby comic book and started reading it.
Loona began to stir from her sleep, and rolled on the side of the bed to see Lincoln sitting across from her, wearing just a pair of red boxers.
"Ahh! Fuck!" she immediately jumped up and pressed herself up against the wall.
"Oh you're awake," Lincoln glanced at her, smiling just a little mischievously before turning away, "You may want to cover up a little."
Loona turned red once she noticed that she was in her birthday suit, and she grabbed the blanket to cover herself up as she sneered at Lincoln, "You sick bastard, what did you do to me!?"
"Uh, I brought you inside after you fell unconscious?" he replied, not sure what Loona was getting at.
"Yeah, well why am I naked?" She gasped, "You did something didn't you, while I was asleep? What did you do!?"
Lincoln paused a minute, "Uh… literally nothing?"
"Then why are you naked?"
Lincoln shrugged, "I've got my boxers on, and this is how I always read my comics."
"Yeah, right," she retorted, "Who reads in their undergarments anyway?"
Meanwhile, back at their residence, Blitzo was busy reading in a speedo, briefly looking up from his magazine when he thought he heard someone call out his name, before shrugging and turning back to his reading.
Besides her head still throbbing a little from running headfirst into his door, there wasn't any sign or feeling on her body that Lincoln did anything to her, "You… you really didn't have your way with me?"
"I'm not that kind of guy, Loona," he responded matter-of-factly.
It wasn't quite the answer Loona wanted, "Well, why not?"
Lincoln was quite taken aback by that question that he stared at her with a look in his eyes like whenever Leni didn't get the obvious train of thought he was going for whenever he said something. He didn't even feel like dignifying that with a response, so he merely said, "I'll let you sleep on the bed tonight Loona, but tomorrow, I'm taking you back to Blitzo." He continued reading, not wanting to continue speaking with her until the morning, "Good night Loona."
"But…" Loona was still in a mood to talk, but considering how the night has gone so far she wasn't going to get any further with the rabbit.
"Good night, Loona," Lincoln responded sternly, he was not in a chatting mood, especially not with a Hellhound who has been nothing but a headache to him all night. Resigning herself, Loona pulled the blanket over her body and went to sleep.
"We've gathered all we can here, come on, we need to send the boss our report!" As one of the imps attempted to leave, he noticed his compatriot was still intently observing them, "What do you think you are doing, man?"
Imp Two turned to him with a mad grin, "But he's going to fuck her!"
The first imp rolled his eyes and dragged his companion away by his horns, "C'mon you damn pervy bastard."
…
The next day began without much excitement, with Lincoln taking Loona's clothing and leaving them beside her on the bed, while he was outside making some breakfast for himself. Loona put on her clothes and stepped out to see Lincoln fiddle with some cookware over a campfire.
She walked up next to him and saw he prepared a small log for her to sit on, which she took without saying another word.
Lincoln was the first to initiate conversation, "Morning, Loona, were you comfy?"
"I guess so…" she responded, just staring into the fire and watching the pot that was filled with some kind of porridge.
"Well, that's good to know, hope you like some…" Lincoln handed her a bowl with a spoon and filled with the food he made, "…liquid breakfast I made."
"Beer?" she said aloud, eyeing the bowl handed to her.
"Actually it's some oatmeal I whipped up."
She stared at the bowl, "I'd really like a heavy drink, myself."
"Got nothin' on me, I'm not really a drinker."
"Figures…" Wanting to get to the point, she asked him the pertinent question, "So, what are you planning to do today?"
"What else?" Lincoln took a spoonful, "I'm taking you back to your father."
She growled under her breath, "Blitzo is not my dad."
"Whatever it is that's going on between you two is your business, but either way, you'll have all the time in the world to yourself at your own place."
Loona said nothing more, this was already embarrassing enough for her and she'd like to shut herself in her room and maybe drink herself to sleep so she doesn't have to sulk.
The two proceeded to Blitzo's place, not talking much, besides asking how they've been doing, and responding with a terse "good" or something similar. Once they arrived at Blitzo's place, they were standing in front of a locked door, with a note taped on it in Blitzo's handwriting.
"Hey Loony, had to leave in the middle of the night to stuff an owl. Will be busy the whole day tomorrow too so you're free to do whatever. I left money on the counter."
"Don't you have the key or something?" Lincoln asked, watching Loona fecklessly rattle the knob.
"Must have left it back at work, fuck…" she cursed under her breath as she hung her head low.
"All right, so you can just head on over to the office, then," Lincoln was heading out to leave for the day, figuring that Loona would be able to get back inside on her own.
"W-wait a minute!" Lincoln turned around to see Loona looking at him, "I… Blitzo keeps the key with him during off-days when he needs to uh, service the owl. I can't get into the office without it."
"No offense, Loona," Lincoln didn't break eye contact with her, "but that sounds made-up."
"Look, I can't get inside our apartment, and I can't get the keys in the office." She paused a moment, then asked hesitantly, "Can… can I hang out with you?"
"Umm…" he looked aside for a moment, needing to think of something, "let me get back to you on that." He pulled out his own phone and attempted to contact Octavia or Verosika and see if maybe they had time to spare for him.
Both of them replied soon enough. Octavia was the first to do so, "I'm with my mom today. I'll send pics later."
Verosika's reply was a bit more substantial, "Pennyboy, baby, gotta take a rain check. I'm busy helping my bitches get drowned in cum and meeting their quotas for the season. I mean, I'd bring them to you, but you're exclusive to me and not my sluts. Hope you understand! Here's a little sugar to hold ya over." Attached was a close-up picture of her pussy and her hand in the middle of fingering it, which he saves for himself.
"So?" Loona asked impatiently.
"Are you sure you want to follow me all day?" Lincoln asked, "I mean, considering you don't like being around my company and all."
"H-hey…" she stumbled over her words, trying to respond to that, "Well maybe I can change my mind, ever thought of that?"
"Now it sounds like you just want to bother me." he'd heard all this before, his sisters having played the guilt-trip card on him on a number of occasions, until he got wise and would have none of that ever again, "in that case, no."
"Okay, okay, I get it." She sighed, none of her attempts getting him to budge, "Look, I...really don't have anything better to do. I barely have anyone to hang out with other than Blitzø, as sad as that sounds."
This seemed to be the first time Loona has interacted with him that didn't involve her being a condescending smartass, and considering that she really didn't have anywhere to go, maybe he could let her come along while he did his errands for the day.
"Fine, but if you try getting smart with me I am leaving you behind, all right?"
Lincoln's first order of business was to go and find some more supplies to get him by the next week or so, and maybe a couple of things for any home-improvement projects to make his trailer more homely. The most-affordable place he can rely on for supplies with the paycheck Blitzo gives him is of course the Hell-Mart – the cheapest and most common supermarket around Imp City, where all of the essentials that many city residents need.
Lincoln's visited the place a couple of times already, at first with the married couple, who helped ease him into the fundamental differences between department supermarkets in Hell and on Earth – chief among them was the fact that in Hell, it often involves a lot more gunfire. Driving your own vehicle and finding your own parking wasn't ideal, since every space for customers' vehicles had fees attached to them, and those who can't pay the fee will probably need to wait a bit longer to recover them, unless they've been appropriated by the authorities or chopped and shopped by crooks.
Lincoln and Loona were in front of the door where an elderly imp armed with a shotgun worked as the greeter, "Welcome to Hell-Mart, if y'all need a cart, too-fuckin'-bad. They're all over the parking lot and everyone is killing each other over them."
The Sinner and Hellhound turned to look at the mayhem of several demons running in and out of an epicenter of violence while fire and bullets flew in and out from it.
"Just like always," Lincoln remarked, unfazed by the brutality unfolding now that he's had his share of violence.
Just then, a family of Sinners burst through the front door. On the cart was the Sinner Martha and her family, late of Earth, making a cozy life for themselves in the unrestrained chaos of Hell; they had tricked-out a cart decked with firearms and spiky bits, and Martha was laughing maniacally while standing triumphantly on the front end with a machete in one hand pointed skywards and one foot on the edge of the cart, her children riding comfily inside a pile of stuff they claimed and the husband steering some helium tanks that pushed them forward.
"Hey that's store property!" The elderly imp pulled out a scooter and set off after the family of Sinners.
Lincoln and Loona headed inside to get started.
So far, besides a couple of people whizzing past trying to steal the last of the day's hot item, or maybe try and pilfer some loose funds off of Hellhare and his companion, there was nothing too crazy that Lincoln hadn't already seen before, and he managed to get all the things he needed on his list.
The two were on their way to the cashier, when Lincoln turned back to see that Loona was staring at a wall of boxes in the snack aisle. Lincoln wheeled towards her as she was staring at a display of a food item in boxes labeled "Burger Bones!" in colorful font and a cartoonish Hellhound excitedly beholding the Burger Bone that was the image's centerpiece.
"Hey, Loona, you want some?" Lincoln asked as he got close.
Loona got flustered as he approached, breaking her train of thought and forcing herself to look away so he wouldn't see her blushing from taking interest in the Hellhound treat, "N-no… this is just…"
"Just what?" He asked, smiling with a gentle look on his face that made Loona feel her heart skip a beat just once, or maybe twice, she wasn't sure as she looked aside and tried not to smile herself.
"It's… um, this stuff is just a bunch of junk food kid-stuff," she responded, not making eye-contact, "I'd… I'd get 'em, but I'm worried it'll make me fat."
"You looked very interested in it though," Lincoln remarked, "I'm willing to spare some if you'd like, but seeing as you're keen on watching your figure…"
Loona immediately pulled as many boxes of Burger Bones off the shelf as her arms could carry without falling off, and dumped them on Lincoln's cart. Lincoln eyed her with annoyance, while she sheepishly twiddled her fingers and grinned awkwardly.
Her only response, "I can uh… I can pay for this if you want."
While they were finishing things up, the imps keeping tabs on Hellhare watched from the far end of the aisle, watching the Sinner and his Hellhound do some shopping.
"Looks like the Hellhound is his pet or something," one noted, while his companion was slurping a large cup of a frosty drink.
"Guess he fucks with her too," the other said, followed by slurping his drink, "Between a Goetia and a succubus, the rabbit really knows his way around pussy."
"Could you stop bringing that up, you perv?" replied the guy in front, groaning, "We're on the clock!" He pulls out a phone and speaks with someone, "Hey, we're ready, tell the boss she's free to hunt."
Lincoln and Loona headed out with bags of their stuff, with the imps continuing to observe them.
"So, I got enough supplies for about a week... and what about you?" Lincoln turned to Loona as they walked, "Will all that last a month for you?"
"Probably…" Loona replied, a cheeky smile on her. She rarely gets the chance to find some Burger Bones, not since Blitzo got into a bit of trouble with the manager of this particular Hell-Mart.
Lincoln continued speaking with her, "Well, once we get back to my trailer, you can head off someplace to wait before Blitzo comes back to the apartment."
"Actually," she started, "do you mind if I help put some of your stuff away?"
This got Lincoln's interest, "Right… okay, what's your angle?"
"Uh, to apologize for the shit I caused last night?" she replied rather matter-of-factly.
"You still don't come off as the apologizing type..." Lincoln's voice softened, "but I appreciate it, Loona."
The Hellhound shrugged, "Eh... honestly, it gives me more stuff to do to kill time."
Lincoln decided to ask a bit more, given that Loona seemed a bit more cordial right now, "So uh... if you don't mind, what is up with you and Blitzo? I get he adopted you, but from the looks of things, he didn't adopt you too long before you were old enough to be on your own."
Loona started to open a little on her childhood, "Eh, well...there's not much to talk about. Blitz walked into the orphanage, saw me and soon enough he was signing my papers. I was seventeen, close to being kicked out anyway and they were glad to get rid of me." She paused to take a breath, "At first I thought it was gonna be for some creepy shit since he seemed to be just some sad jackass... but well, he gave me a roof and food and other shit and most of the time he was busy doing fuck-knows-what."
Lincoln stifled a laugh a bit, "Sounds like you two were made for each other."
Loona scoffed, "Yeah, right."
"I mean it," he continued, "I mean, granted, Blitzo doesn't seem the most stable person to be responsible for someone but... it looks like he treats you well enough."
"Yeah..." she sighed, "I'm not sure how he's able to do it. He's usually the same at home."
He understood that point well enough, "I know what it's like to uh... have family we can't live with and can't live without. If you ever wanted to, you could talk to me about it, let off some steam and stuff."
Before she could say anything in response, they were rocked by a massive shock of force that threw them off their feet, and split the Sinner and Hellhound a good couple of feet across from each other. The blast cratered the parking lot and formed a thick pillar of smoke, and Loona was thrown behind a few cars that were battered and piled over each other. The Hellhound opened her eyes not long afterwards, her vision blurry and swirling and she was struggling with a strong ringing in her ears, she got up and looked over the wrecks to see if Lincoln was okay.
She could make out a tall shape from the smoke, with large feathered wings and a long tail that seemed to slither about unnaturally. One arm was stretched upwards, clutched upon them was Lincoln, trying to wrestle his way out of the large hand that extended from a large, cylindrical gauntlet.
Lincoln was trying to speak, "Who the fuck are you…?"
She slammed Lincoln into the ground, then picked up a wrecked car, holding it over him and said, "Your undertaker." The rabbit was flattened beneath the car, and his attacker started pounding it further, pressing the slab of metal into the concrete and burying Lincoln beneath it. After a couple of strikes, the figure stopped to catch her breath; then, as if to make sure, she followed it with an angry stomp.
Loona was frightened as she recognized who it was: Marchosias – whom she hadn't seen in almost a decade and a half since she ran away to Imp City – and attempted to creep away; her attempts to get away and stay out of sight faltered when the two imps spying on her and Lincoln today happened upon her.
"Well, what have we here?" said the one who was a little too obsessed with Lincoln fucking ladies in Hell, "Sorry about your bunny rabbit, but I'll be your new boyfriend if you'd like."
"Shut up," replied his more-serious fellow, pulling out a gun, "Let's just finish this bitch, so we don't get into any trouble from people who know 'em."
As he brought the muzzle level to Loona's eyes, she knew there was no sneaking away and she needed to fight her way out of this, she swiped the gun away and, adrenaline rushing, she opened her jaws wide and bit the imp's face clean off, and his corpse toppled into the rubble.
"Holy shit!" his partner cried in shock, and whom Loona ended by giving him a swift, sharp kick to the 'nards that exploded into a spray of nasty fluids from her savage blow.
The whole scuffle had drawn the attention of the Lemegeton, who saw her minions get offed by the Hellhound who was with Lincoln. Still enraged and needing to let off steam, she was upon her quickly, and with her large, gauntleted hand she swatted Loona to the ground and stomped on her belly, and Loona coughed up some bile and saliva from her mouth. She lifted her foot and was about to stomp on her again, and Loona rolled aside to dodge, then she reached up and bit into her ankle.
Marchosias yelped as an old wound on her leg acted up, and soon her anger at Hellhare was replaced by an old, seething resentment, "You?"
The rush was gone as Loona was staring down the angry face of her former warden, and she scrambled to run away.
But in case you thought for a minute Lincoln was out of the picture, well, he wouldn't be the main character if he was offed right now, wouldn't he?
Beaten to a proverbial pulp, but alive and breathing, he was having difficulty moving, as the way Marchosias had smashed him into the ground had made it seem as though he was molded into it. He pulled up all of the strength he could muster, and still he couldn't budge.
"Hey, B-G, could you help me out here?" he asked, requiring more assistance now than he would usually.
B-G had his own reasons for not doing anything right that minute, "Now I'd love to, but that was Marchosias, the 35th Lemegeton, and she's still out there, so I figure we should lay low and make her think we're dead so we can get away scot free and not have to deal with her until later."
"Sounds smart," Lincoln admitted, being that he would have agreed if it were just him and the ring demon, "But Loona is out there and I got to make sure she is okay."
"You sure seem to have gotten fond of the Hellhound, even though she's been a rather unpleasant dog to you," he responded, unwilling to think highly of Loona after her intrusion the night before.
"Well, it looked like she's willing to start fresh with me, and I don't feel like holding it against her if she's legit." He explained, "Besides, I think we'd get into some trouble with Blitzo if we let anything happen to his little girl."
"A fair enough point, all right then; I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this, but I know just what you need, Lincoln." B-G glowed and an aura of demonic energy swirled about Lincoln, "Be careful, fluffball, I was going to help ease you into this when we had some more free time, but might as well go for a trial-by-fire, so try not to get reckless."
Loona felt a sharp kick behind her as she was pushed towards a car and slammed face-first into it. She crouched and covered her nose, which was slightly bent from impact and oozed a bit of blood.
Marchosias walked up towards her, every step of her canine feet cracking the asphalt as the sheer power of her rage bled from her person.
The Lemegeton grinned with a psychotic anticipation in her expression, "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for the day I get to find you again, stray."
She picked up the Hellhound by the scruff on her nape, and then she jabbed her in the belly, drawing a small yelp of pain from Loona.
"Do you have any idea how much trouble you caused when you and your little friend tried to get away from me?" she jabbed Loona's abdomen again, "Your little stints got other whelps bold; you became an inspiration to them, you made a month of work nothing but a fucking headache as I had to deal with some brats thinking they could make their own great escape after you."
She kicked her hard and sent her impacting a nearby car, and Loona having the air squeezed out of her as a result.
Marchosias stood above her again and cracked her metallic knuckles, "I had no choice in the matter, I had to cut some of my losses if I needed to restore order," she kicked Loona's side, "I turned them into rugs and coats; it was messy and didn't make as much money, but there was nothing else I could do about it." She put her foot on Loona, pinning her down as she pulled her arm back, "But now, I'm going to personally make a goddamn coat out of you…"
Before she could land a blow on the Hellhound, Marchosias felt her serpent-tail getting violently tugged away and her being flung back and thrown several feet from where she was just standing. She got back up to see who would dare attack her, and standing there, shielding Loona, was a humanoid shape, a lean one, his body was wrapped in some smooth mass of red, black and gray… malleable flesh over his skin. She quickly determined this to be the Hellhare, as evidenced by the fact his rabbit head and face were only partially exposed, with a streak of the black matter covering over his eyes and glowed with a bright, hollow white.
"So, it looks like you've got some surprises in store after all, Sinner," Marchosias stood up, spitting a touch of blood out of her mouth.
"Leave the Hellhound alone," he replied, summoning his mace-staff and striking a battle pose.
"You don't give orders to Goetia, rabbit; especially not a Lemegeton at that!" She snapped her fingers, which made a clanging echo; at that, an imp ran up next to Sia, hefting a large grenade the size of an American football, taking it from the imp and pulling its pin, "Have a taste of this!" And then she flung it with the speed of a bullet from her blurring-fast arm.
Lincoln swatted the grenade away and it flew high into the air and out of sight.
"Miss, I think he cast the grenade aside," the imp pointed out, which got Marchosias angrily gripping his head in a crushing grasp.
"I know he did! Now make yourself useful!" She set his heard on fire, which then engulfed his body in fiery heat, and threw the flaming and unstable imp towards Hellhare.
Meanwhile, the manager of the Hell-Mart could see the action unfolding, and knew that once a Lemegeton was involved, the store wasn't safe. One of his employees approached, seeing what he saw, "Sir, should we close early?"
He nodded, "You know the drill, pull down the blast doors, and put up the standard response message."
"You got it, boss," The employee imp ran up to a nearby button locked behind a glass panel, unlocking it with his keys and slamming the button inside, shutting the mall under layers of blast-proof plating; he picked up a nearby microphone, "Ladies and gentlemen, due to an unforeseen violent engagement occurring on our exterior premises, this site is currently under lockdown until further notice, we apologize for the inconvenience."
Not a moment sooner, the explosive imp was thrown against the plating, leaving deep, black scorch marks and a few minor dents. Meanwhile, Lincoln was forced to defend when Marchosias rushed up to him with her weapon ready to smash into him, and he just managed to dodge her attack, but was momentarily unbalanced by the shockwave from her miss.
She turned around quickly and tried to hit him again, and Lincoln parried with his staff, catching it on the haft of his weapon, and then forced her to lose her footing. He tackled her with his shoulder, putting all of his weight into it and the force of his newfound powers to shove her a good distance away and into some cars turned into slags of metal. This knocked the Lemegeton unconscious, and Lincoln was able to get to Loona, who was regaining consciousness after Lincoln pulled Sia's attention away.
She attempted to scurry away upon seeing the unfamiliar demon that Lincoln had become, but paused when he spoke, "Loona, it's okay, it's me, Lincoln!"
"L-Lincoln?" Loona was surprised, and coupled with the panic from knowing Sia was probably still near made her head hurt, "W-Where is she? What's going on?"
He picked her up in his arms, and she momentarily blushed upon realizing just how Lincoln was holding her, "Look, I'd love to fill you in but I think the smart thing to do is get out of here before the crazy dog lady comes to."
He ran with all the force his legs could muster, and thanks to B-G's powers, he had even more stamina than he normally did, and he ran without ever looking back.
Sia came to after a few minutes, she was surprised that a Sinner could handle a scrap with her, and she was mildly impressed by this development, though simmering with annoyance that her intended target and the object of old hatreds was gone, "Fucking damned bastards."
With any sign of them nearby gone, she decided to leave and rethink her strategy, knowing this "Hellhare" was definitely more capable than she anticipated.
Lincoln was restored to normal when he entered the park where he made residence. He gently set Loona down as he caught his breath; Loona was at a loss for words, it wasn't every day, or any day, for that matter, that a Sinner would stand up to a Goetia, a Lemegeton even, and get out of the situation relatively unscathed.
"Oh hey, you wouldn't believe this Loona, but I actually managed to save a box of those Burger Bones you wanted," Lincoln produced one of the boxes of Burger Bones from his person, and held it out to her.
Loona stared blankly at the box of treats Lincoln was holding out, and she didn't show it on her face, but she was impressed by the fact that, even with the chaos of dealing with a Lemegeton barreling for their lives, and just trying to survive her onslaught, Lincoln actually had the time to salvage one of his purchases, and it wasn't even one of his own.
"Hey uh, Loona, I know this is a bit inappropriate to ask, but I'm afraid I need you to go home," Loona looked at him, as he expected her to, "That lady demon might come looking for me, and I can't have you here where she could come get you too."
"Y-yeah…" was her response, as she held the crumpled box of treats she had been looking forward to.
"Try and keep this a secret from the others, I don't want to get them in trouble and if it gets bad, at least you lot will be out of the crossfire." Lincoln went inside his trailer, needing to make some phone calls.
Loona remained standing there, taking a few minutes to process the chain of events that left her here – scratched and put through the proverbial wringer – but alive and in one piece. She looked back to the box of Burger Bones in her hands, the one that Lincoln bought for her despite his reservations, and she held it tight to her chest before deciding to head home. She now had something she needed to do as well, and she had to act quickly.
The next day, Lincoln was busy doing some packing and putting stuff away that couldn't be easily hauled. He had asked for help from Renon, who pulled some strings with his company to help Lincoln relocate to a place where Marchosias wouldn't find him; he needed to act quickly, as no one besides the Lemegeton and her cronies knew when she would strike back against Hellhare. He heard a knock on his door, and he froze a minute before he realized no assassin out for him would just have the courtesy to knock, unless they were really confident they could pull it off. He peered through the peephole and could see Loona standing there, looking impatient.
Lincoln opened the door, and was greeted by Loona giving him a wry smile, "Hey, I left Blitzo's shitty place so I can stay at your shitty place."
Lincoln raised a brow, and replied flatly, "Umm… no?"
"Too late, I already marked this place as mine, if you recall," She barged in, gently passing by him as she entered his door, "You like, trying to ditch us, or something?"
"If you recall, I got attacked, and by a Lemegeton Goetia at that, so I'm trying to find someplace to lay low until the heat's off." He responded, going back to his packing.
"Makes sense," she responded, dropping her things and then asked, "So, what do you need help with?"
That caught Lincoln a touch unawares, "Loona, I appreciate the help, but I am not going to get you or anyone else in trouble."
As Lincoln was about to pick something up, Loona placed her paws on his hands, "Look, Lincoln," This was the first she called him by his name, "I get it, and to be honest, I am probably crazy even thinking this, but…" she inhaled a deep breath through her nose, "…I like you."
This made Lincoln scoff a bit in disbelief, "You… you like me?"
She blushed and looked aside, "I… I gotta admit, the first reason I liked you was when I saw you with the Goetia princess, and uh, seeing your carrot."
Lincoln smirked a little, as he recalled, albeit just vaguely as he was feeling groggy, how Loona looked away from him while he just awoke from his night with his lovebird.
Loona continued, "Then, well, I couldn't help it but I actually watched you and Miss Mayday, when you were making love."
That genuinely surprised him, and he couldn't help but be annoyed a little, "That was a bit uncalled for, Loona."
"I know, I know…" she sighed, "…the point is, I have a shitty life, and up until I got to know you, I don't like anyone getting close to me because... uh... I mean, because..."
Lincoln noticed Loona was having difficulty finding the right words, "Do you even know how to talk to people?"
"No." She replied matter-of-factly.
"...yeah, that explains a lot." Came his rather dry reply.
"Can you at least hear me out?"
"Fine," he picked up one case of his things, "just help me by handing me some stuff or get out."
"Okay," so they started talking, Loona talking about her childhood, talking about the misery of having to live under the rule of Marchosias, how she escaped as a kid, and how she lost her best friend and how she would lock people out so that she would never have to deal with it, yet that sort of thing made her unbearably lonely. She has occasionally reached out to others, tried to find someone to share her life with, like Verosika's bodyguard Vortex, but every time she thought she was close, there was a caveat that kept her from getting it.
After she was done, Lincoln mulled over this info, "All right, Loona, I guess when you put it like that, I suppose I can't exactly leave you alone now, not while she's out there."
Loona cracked a soft smile, "R-really?"
"As long as you behave like a good girl, understood?" That question was partially in jest, but Loona's tail started wagging about rather vigorously as a look like pure adoration was plastered on her eyes, which signaled that she would do her best for him.
While he continued, a thought crossed Loona's mind, "I sure hope your other girls don't mind."
"You say that as if they own me," he responded with a slightly flirty tone, "If they have a problem with you, that's on them. Now come on, we have to finish packing."
While they continued, B-G had some ideas to discuss with Lincoln privately through his telepathy, "You know, the dog's imp father may not take kindly to you taking her in."
"Loona is her own woman," Hellhare replied, "and besides, she is up the hierarchy compared to him so I don't think he could get her to do what she doesn't want to."
"True, but Blitzo is a bit of a nut, if you've surmised from his manner. All I am saying is that we will need something that'll keep him from going after us too hard."
"So what do you suggest?"
"When you have the chance to speak with that Convenir again, I know of what other services he can provide for us in this context, now listen carefully…"
Blitzo was checking his Hellphone, seeing that Loona had apparently seen the fifteenth text he sent asking where she had gone. Her room was vacant, leaving behind only whatever she couldn't haul by herself.
Blitzo had finished his most recent routine of bird-mating to keep his business afloat, and now his most-pressing concern was knowing where his adopted daughter was and making sure she was all right, "Shades of Satan, Loony, where the fuck are you!?"
He had come over to Millie and Moxxie's place to ask if they knew what was going on and where she was, though that was after explaining that he didn't come over to spy on them that time.
Just then a tow-truck passed by towing what looked like Lincoln's trailer behind it, and since the married couple didn't seem to have a clue, perhaps his newest employee would. He ran towards it and jumped on the door, hanging on as he knocked. He was surprised when Loona was the one to answer.
"Loona? What are you doing in the rabbit's trailer?" He asked as the wind from the drive threatened to push him out.
"Oh, hey Blitzo," she replied calmly, "Yeah, um, I live with him now."
That confused the imp, and then it annoyed him once her response set in, "Well as your father I order you to come back home!"
"Up yours, Blitzo!" was her harsh reply, "Lincoln owns me now."
"The fuck did you just say?" He asked, confused, although he was quick to pick up on what she meant when she showed off the collar on her neck, bearing the inscription "Hellhare's Dog" on it.
She smiled in her small victory, "I'm his pet now, so I gotta stay with him."
Lincoln's head popped up from the side, "if it helps, you're still her father, Blitzo."
"Shut it, rabbit!" Blitzo retorted, "there's no way that's official!"
Just then, Renon emerged from the side as well, "I'm afraid it is so, Mr. Blitzo," and the mercantile demon produced a glowing piece of parchment paper with some arcane writing that shimmered with a pale glow.
The old imp driving the tow truck up ahead looked behind him and could see the commotion with Blitzo and the others, and he had no time for this, "Hey, you better get off buddy, or I'm blasting you off!" He pulled out a shotgun and had it aimed towards Blitzo's general direction.
Gritting his teeth, but unwilling to let go, everyone around the odd scene was at an impasse, until Loona decided to defuse the tension, "If it helps any, I can spend maybe a weekend or two with you, okay… dad?"
Blitzo's eyes widened and softened a touch, and for now, a portion of his outrage and adrenaline dispersed, "Fine, but you better take good care of her, Hellhare, or I'm making a coat from your hide!"
"Will do," Lincoln replied, and watched as Blitzo jumped off and tumbled along the road to keep himself from getting too hurt.
Renon leaned outside and turned to the imp driver, while Loona and Lincoln sat back down to go about their business, "Many thanks again, sir."
"Hey, don't worry about it, this gig pays a lot better than my last job at Hell-Mart." He responded, after putting his weapon away.
"Out of curiosity, how come you got laid-off?" Renon asked.
"Well, I was already in a fair bit of trouble trying to keep company property and the stock from getting stolen," he started, "So I imagine they weren't too happy with me leaving my post to go get a cart back, not that it was worth it in the end, it was the darndest thing…"
…
"Have a taste of this!" Marchosias flung the grenade with the speed of a bullet from her blurring-fast arm.
Lincoln swatted the grenade away and it flew high into the air and out of sight.
Some miles away, Martha and her kin were continuing their path on to their home, with the imp greeter from earlier hot on their tails.
Martha looked back and gritted her teeth angrily, "Honey," she turned to her daughter, "shoot out that fella's wheels, will ya?"
She nodded and pulled out a pistol from their pile of stuff and fired a clean shot on one of the scooter's wheels.
"Shit!" the imp was forced to steady and swerve aside to avoid tumbling about and breaking his elderly bones.
"Ha! Smell you later, you old fuck!" She didn't have time to savor her gloating, as the grenade Lincoln had sent away fell into their cart, and exploded.
The elderly imp shielded his eyes from the light, and all he could see was Martha and her family, strewn about and aching in pain from the blast, as well as the scrapped remains of the cart. He sighed upon seeing this, "Hope this doesn't come out of my paycheck."
…
Man, this one took a while longer than I thought necessary, well, at least I got it out of the way, but I hope you guys liked my own take on Loona's backstory, and that now you know how she got to live with Lincoln in the next year. Next up is the continuation of Lincoln's troubles with the Lemegeton Marchosias, and a newcomer to his growing harem, visiting from Pentagram City. Who will it be, stick around and hopefully you'll all get to find out in the next one.
But first, perhaps a short little minisode since I didn't know a good spot in this chapter to include a scene of Lincoln and his new pet dog to get to know one another.