It was a gigantic relief the size of Jupiter that the family was ok with Lincoln hanging out with a hellhound (especially Lucy, since she has a fondness for evil and dark things). While the parents still think Loona is a rather... irritable and choleric hellhound with a bad attitude at times, they can see that she has some kind of thing for their only son.
for that, they let Lincoln spend some time with her. They did owe her their sons life from those muggers.
Luna, the rock sister of course, seemed to like her for her taste in music and her style in looks. Lana also liked her for her fondness of animals and dirty thing. Leni also liked Loona's style in a way and thought she should make some cool clothes for her as a present out of her pure kindness. Lola still didn't like her and the rest were indifferent. Lucy's opinion of Loona was... self explanatory.
Now Lincoln could hit the arcade and hang out with the hellhound girl, as long as he would come back by curfew.
It wasn't in a regular arcade, no. It was in an arcade within Hell called Devil's Island, inspired by a song from Megadeth. It wouldn't be a surprise if this place was probably tough and a little different than arcades on Earth. But alas, Lincoln might have a fun time there.
What made him feel safe was Loona and Vortex hanging out with him since that's what they were going to do before Stolas placed his punishment on Lincoln by making him hang out with Verosika.
"Here we are." said Loona.
"one of the funnest places in Hell." Tex smiled with his arms crossed.
"just try and be careful here." Loona said. "It's as unpredictable as any other place down here in Hell."
"noted." Lincon said as he and the two hellhounds walked into the premises. Sounds of kids screaming with joy and sounds of kids crying were heard in the arcade.
there were many demon children as much as demon teens and adults. It looked a little busy here. He noticed two demon children that looked like a ram and a pig fighting and trying to kill each other but throwing punches and he then saw a group of four hellhounds getting drunk and wasted away. One of the. Even collapsed drunk on the floor.
"Yeah, it can get crazy here." Tex said. "But you can still have fun here, can you?"
"totally!" Lincoln remarked.
The three went to see what fun things there were to do and Lincoln saw a zombie game called "Night of the Living Angels." Sounded like a rather twisted version of an arcade zombie game.
"Satan, I love this one." Loona recognized that machine.
"looks fun." said Lincoln. He and Loona gave it a shot and the guns were long and a little heavy, but obviously did not weigh as much as a real gun would be like.
it felt like a machine gun while Lincoln was firing at the screen against the zombie angels.
"I don't know if this makes me a terrible person for playing this." Lincoln admitted. "Look out!" Lincoln pointed at Loona who didn't see a zombie angel come up to her on the right. He fired at the thing and blew the male zombies' head off.
Loona looked impressed and looked at Lincoln before saying: "nice shooting, kid."
"thanks. Even if it's not a real gun?"
"oh yeah." said the female hellhound. "I guess you weren't kidding when you said you are a gaming expert."
"Yeah, ever thought about doing tournaments, Linc?"
"a lot of people had said that to me. I'll do that when there is some kind of opening... and my parents' consent."
"Right." Loona realized. "Good thing you're not gonna be a kid forever- oh shit!" She saw a zombie creep on the left where Lincoln is and she shot it down in an instant. "Looks like we're even, Lincoln."
"I agree. Well... I don't know if we'ed call it even." The white-haired boy remarked. "If I saved you in real life, then we would call it that."
"Pfft, I don't need saving. I don't need it as much as when Blitzo adopted me at the pound."
"Come on, Loona." said Tex. "Anywhere's better than the pound."
"true." Loona sighed.
"a pound?" said Lincoln. "Like a dog pound?"
"well it's... I don't like to talk about it." Loona said. "It's not really your business anyway, is it Lincoln."
"Oh, ok, forget I asked."
"I get it. You're just curious as part of being a human." Loona remembered. Going back to the game, they both battled a large zombie twice as big as a man with multiple heads like a human hydra.
"Imagine if a zombie like that exists in real life." Lincoln smirked
"Me and Tex can handle that" said Loona
"Yeah, I've seen way scarier things, and I know how to scare people who try to hurt or annoy Verosika." Tex cracked his knuckles. It was no surprise since Tex was like a living armored tank.
"What can scare you, Tex? Look at you. You can make Fabio cry on his knees.
The male hellhound chuckled. "No argument." He said. "Yet he is famous for being on those cheesy romance novels."
"Uh-oh. It's on it's last leg, Lincoln." Loona warned. The zombie was almost defeated, and Lincoln looked bold in defeating it, along with Loona. They both shot it down together and felt triumphant.
"awesome!" Lincoln exclaimed.
"not bad." Loona said. "Not bad at all."
"thanks, Loona."
"Care for a round, Tex?" Loona gave the gun to her friend.
"sure thing, girl. Ready for more zombies to fire, Lincoln?"
"Born ready." Then it was Tex' turn to shoot some zombies with Lincoln. The stage was a little more difficult but Lincoln did the best he could against the hordes on screen. "I had no idea angels were so hated down here. But... this is Hell."
"right." said Tex. "Polar opposites, light and dark, yin and yang, you get the picture. No demon can withstand the holiness of an angel, that's for damn sure."
this round proved to be more difficult for Lincoln as he was getting hit more, and he was trying harder.
at last, there were too many zombies than he can handle but he managed to take down thirty zombies before his character got killed off. "Aw, so close." Lincoln.
"very close." said Vortex. "Wanna play again, buddy?"
"I'll probably take a break from it. Besides, I wanna see what else is in here."
so this time, Loona and Tex were the ones playing on the zombie device together. "You got skills, Tex."
"Thanks. I can say the same for you, Loona."
the female hellhound blushed and smirked at being complimented like this. "Ah, well, you know." she replied.
Lincoln sat on one of the pizza chairs to look around at the place and see what games he can play. Then he found a machine that was dubbed "Dance Rave 3" and he wanted to give that one a try.
Dancing and dancing, Lincoln felt a few drops of sweat going down his face from all the movements. "Look what we have here." said a voice. There was a large teenage demon that looked like an imp. He was accompanied by two boys and two girls.
They all looked unsightly and menacing to him, probably looking for trouble by the look of their gang clothes. "A human kid?" said one of his male friends.
"out of the ordinary to see a fragile-skinned boy." The other male teen added.
Lincoln stopped playing and looked at them, and they towered him since these teenage demons were somewhere around seventeen or eighteen. He hoped that these delinquents weren't looking for any trouble at all. "Look, I am a human and I don't care if you guys hate me."
"hate you?" said the other female demon.
"Come on, we're demons, not Death Eaters." the leader said. I can tell you're far from home, are you squirt?"
"what do you guys want from me?" Lincoln asked
"we want to have some fun with you." the leader said. In a change of demeanor in his voice, he barked: "grab him, guys!"
Lincoln felt himself being picked up by two of these teens and his arms and legs were bound, and the two demons began swimming his body sideways over and over again, which was rather annoying for the boy.
"hey!" a female voice said. "Let him go!" It was Loona.
"Ooh, well look at what the dog brought it." another female teenage hellhound said.
"You might want to turn around or we'll crack your head open." The leader said
"Last warning, release him now." Loona snarled.
"or what, bitch?" said another teen.
"Or you will have to deal with me for messing with my friends." Vortex appeared on their side and looking terrifying and intimidating as ever with his arms crossed. He even snarled and growled in a very low growl like he was going to give out a demonic bark at any given second. "So I suggest you let me friend go, and get the fuck out of here before I pop you like a cyst!"
The scared teens did just that and put Lincoln back down on the floor.
"Move it! Move your asses!" Tex barked as the delinquents were leaving.
"heh, that's telling them." Loona smiled with her arms crossed. Then she looked at the kid. "You ok, Lincoln? Oh, not that was even worried about you, because I wasn't."
"I'm fine." Lincoln smiled. "Thank god you and Tex were here, or I would have been turned to a human kid casserole."
"well, they won't be doing that to you any time soon, Lincoln." Tex gently patted the kids' head. "So your family found out about Hell?"
"Yeah, but they will keep it a secret." Lincoln pointed. "Crazy things happened since you've seen what they are like when sick."
Vortex let out a small laugh before saying, "True. And they were ok with you hanging out with us?"
"yep. Though they said I just be careful with you guys."
"Ah, they're just looking out for you." said the male hellhound. "And Loona told me about one of your sisters who was Goth wanted to visit down here."
"Lucy? Yeah. And she's... a complicated kind of girl. Being fascinated in monsters, Satan, misery, sadness, shall I go on?"
"A typical goth." Loona said. "You've made that very clear, kid."
"So, besides the sinner demons who were once people, do demons hate humans?"
"Nah, not a lot of demons hate human beings. I've met a couple of sinner demons before, and Tex has some sinner demon friends as well."
"Yeah, and they are quite the company to have. My girlfriend, Eclipse, throws crazy parties and all demons are welcome there."
"Ooh, I would like to go to one of those parties." said Lincoln.
"Sure, I can talk to Eclipse about-"
"Whoa whoa whoa, I don't think that's the best idea, Tex." Loona interrupted him.
Lincoln made a frown, "why not?"
"well, the parties Eclipse has involve alcohol and... when people are drunk enough, they are easy to get angry and ruin a party."
"Well I know I'm not old enough to drink." Lincoln said. "Besides, it doesn't taste very good from what I heard." He made a disgusted face.
"it's not just that," said Loona, "but the parties can get a little rough if you step out of line."
"But we'll be there with him." Tex said. "And I know danger like eyes in the back of my head, being a pop stars' bodyguard and all."
"Right." Loona keeps forgetting that. "I mean you've hung out with Verosika before, so whatever."