Of Louds And Goddesses: Tidings in the Dark

Chapter 4

Everyone walked inside the large building, coming across the lobby, a large round room with shiny floors, a small fancy cafe to the left side with a large fountain in the middle of the room with an elevator and doors to stairs at the far end, leading to the apartments on the upper levels. By the fountain were a few small red couches with a few people sitting on them, minding their business, reading books or on their phones.

Venus thought the place looked beautiful. These humans seemed to like making things as decorative as possible, though who knows how long it might last given her thoughts on how she could try to take over this city with her species at her control. She watched as the Louds went over to the cafe to get some sort of drink or simply sit down and also get on their phones, devices that confused Venus quite a bit. "Such simple looking machines, yet they are captivated by them. Perhaps it could be useful to get one to help myself blend in. However learning them might be tricky."

"How do you like the place?" Lincoln asked the tall woman who gave an approving nod. "I assume that you like it?"

"It's serviceable. But I know you and your human family don't live on this floor. Unless you tend to sleep on the ground?"

"What? Uh... No. We live on the top floor of this building. Biggest apartment for my family. Perfect for a space creature like you," Lincoln replied. "But, I guess I have to show you around?"

"Yes. But I'm more interested in learning more about this city before we head to your home. Seeing your family won't give much interesting or useful information than an entire human city."

"Not interesting? Yeah right. You'll get to see that they're better examples of what you'll find out in that awful place. But I might as well play along since I don't want anything bad to happen if she controls whatever is in the forest. Actually, maybe showing her around may not be a bad idea!" Lincoln thought to himself before going to Rita who was in the middle of getting a coffee.

"Hey sweetie. You need something?" Rita asked Lincoln, giving him a warm hug in case he needed any comfort. Lincoln smiled and hugged her back, ordering a coffee from the cashier and sat down by his mom.

"I'm... fine. But I was wondering if it would be ok if I could show Venus around the city until it gets dark? It might help her get to know the area a bit more," Lincoln asked, hoping his mom would accept.

"Well... Do you promise you'll be careful? I know you can handle yourself but can Venus? You know you need to be careful in some parts of this city."

"I know. We'll stay on the good side. No need for trouble or violence!" Lincoln said, seeing Rita get a slight nervous at the mention of violence, making Lincoln slightly feel guilty. He sighed and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I promise to keep things under control. I promise."

Rita stayed silent, thinking about her final decision before sighing and nodding to Lincoln. She was still worried about him due to past events involving fights and such but she knew Lincoln wouldn't try to get into trouble on his own. She gave him another hug just for safe measure. "Just be safe. If you're going to get her something to eat, let me give you some cash just in case."

Rita reached into her pocket to get some money only for Lincoln to stop and pull out a metal stick of sorts with a small point on the end and a sort of number counter at the end. "No need. Got this thing to help."

Rita nodded and patted him on the head and let him head on over to Venus who had been listening in on the whole thing.

"Well I guess I'll show you around. Just don't do anything dangerous or noticeable. If you're the leader of whatever is in the forest-"

"My species is named the Great Hunger. Known for consumed and corrupting entire solar systems that are unable to defend my attacks upon them."

"Well the name sure is fitting which I'm glad you're not here to do with Earth I assume?"

"Correct," Venus said with sight venom in her throat. "Normally I would have just destroyed your planet but blending in with the humans here had become more viable for my own existence thanks to another divine powered goddess giving me trouble, leaving me no choice but to flee to a simple and non-exciting part of the galaxy. Interestingly enough, I've managed to land on an interesting civilization."

"Couldn't you have landed on Mars? There's a colony over there."

"Ah yes. I noticed a city or two on that red barren planet. Such a perfect place for my kind with it's cold temperatures. However, the lack of much vegetation and cover makes it difficult with my current predicament. Such a shame, if I hadn't been named after a goddess or planet named Venus, Mars would have seemed like such a nice name as well."

"Yeah well... Let's just head out before anyone hears us. Word travels around fast and the last thing I need is the public spreading rumors about me," Lincoln said, heading the door with Venus in tow. "Now then, let me show you around Royal Woods, shall we?"

"Yes. Hopefully this shall yield helpful information."

The two headed down the sidewalk with Lincoln showing Venus the important spots and what their uses are. Venus was amazed at everything around her. The many lights above buildings trying to get your attention, vending machines with food, metallic vehicles hovering on the streets which slightly confused Venus on why the Louds seemed to drive such an old looking piece of transportation when everything else had the ability to fly. Everything was a nice sight to the eyes although Venus couldn't understand why everything was so flashy. While Venus didn't have much of what you could call civilization, her home planet did have a city where she used to reside with the most intelligent creatures of her species roaming and living in.

"Your city is nice looking I must say. Are other humans welcoming? I noticed quite a few stares around here," Venus said, looking around at a few passerby's. Lincoln looked around, wondering who Venus was talking about.

"Oh. Well given your looks, it inevitable that someone will stare. You are good looking in human standards," Lincoln said, wondering if Venus would understand the real reason as to why some people were staring at her with Lincoln taking note of her height and massive curves.

"Ah. I take it humans are drawn to a physique like this?"

"H-How did you..."

"I did make this body off of what a human of your gender and age would find not threatening. However I didn't make it just for you. It's also comfortable for me due to this body being odd to be in."

"I see. Well how about we head over to get some food. Introduce you to what we have in store?"

"Very well. The aroma I've smelled close by has been appetizing," Venus said, following Lincoln into an open area with a food place right by with Venus seeing the place was named Tics Taco Stand. An odd name that only piped Venus's curiosity even more.

"I'll go get some tacos. I don't know what you prefer so I'll bring back just a normal taco if that's alright," Lincoln asked with Venus giving back a nod. The Loud headed in line with Venus waiting patiently. As she waited, the goddess noticed a few people were eyeing her with sinister faces. Venus obviously wasn't stupid and could easily read their faces as perversion, letting her start to plan out something in the process.

"Hm... They should be interesting. A small test for Lincoln will prove useful in using his new powers. Just need to get them to trail me..."

Venus waited until Lincoln returned with some tacos and gave one to her. She decided to at least try the food and gave it a bite, finding the taste to be fulfilling and quickly eating it whole. Lincoln was surprised to see her like it, considering this was her first time eating human food. That is unless she also fed on any unfortunate souls that got lost in the infected forest which based on any alien movies he's seen, might be the case.

"So what do you think of Earth so far? Good enough to not destroy it?" Lincoln asked, taking a bite into his taco.

"You think I simply go to random planets and take control over them with my species? Well that is mostly incorrect. I have a system for whatever planets I choose to destroy."

"Really? Care to tell me what that system is?"

"If you're curious then I guess it should be..." Venus said before seeing the thugs were still there, waiting for a chance to strike. Venus smirked and began to enact the next step in her plan. "Actually... Follow me. I saw something that caught my interest."

Lincoln got confused but shrugged, deciding to play along and follow Venus. The two came to the entrance of an alley with Venus quickly walking in, making Lincoln trail her. When they got in far enough, the two thugs went in behind them.

"Venus where are you going?! The alleyways tend to be dangerous!"

"Doesn't seem that bad. Besides, I've seen worse in my time."

The two eventually came to the end of the alley with nothing but a dead end in their way. Lincoln rolled his eyes at this pointless journey into the alley and turned around, only to get knocked to the ground quickly by one of the thugs with the other pinning Venus to the wall with the alien purposely holding back her strength to fool the newcomers.

"Well well. Look who stepped into our turf! A kid and his hot mom!" said the thug holding Venus.

"Yo Chet. Take care of the kid. I got first dibs on this chick."

"Will do!" Chet said, getting out a knife.

Venus sighed and looked at Lincoln who was still struggling against the burly human pinning him down. She would have expected at least some of his new abilities to pop up by now but that didn't seem to be the case. Seems bringing out her champions powers would require some more hand holding that she thought. 

She easily pushed the thug off of her and snapped her fingers, making them glow a faint purple with energy seemingly going into Lincoln. Lincoln's eyes glowed a bright white as he kicked the thug off, grabbing him by the neck and holding him up high.

"Holy shit! What the hell is going on?!"

The thug screamed as Lincoln's arm seemed to transform, mutating into a mass of black tentacles and small mouths that quickly began to tear into the thugs face with his screams muffled against it all. 

The other thug watched in terror as his friend's face was torn up and ripped off by Lincoln, the man thrashing his arms and legs in an attempt to kick Lincoln but avast, nothing happened as his screams of agony were soon silence once the mass of tentacles and massacred his face. Once done, he dropped the faceless body and fell down in shock at what happened, unable to say anything.

"Oh. Do you have a phone? I need one just to help better understand things," Venus asked the remaining thug who nodded, completely terrified and gave Venus his phone which she took from him. She turned it on and saw she couldn't get past the lock screen. "Turns out I need all the information at once. Hold still for a moment."

Before the thug could run away, Venus pointed a finger at his head which then extended out into a long, sharp tentacle that punctured his brain and began to siphon information about the phone, instantly letting Venus know everything on how to operate a phone and even a few more electronics. Once done with the task, her finger returned to normal with the thug collapsing to the ground and bleeding from his head. "Thank you for your cooperation."

Lincoln looked at the scene before him, and then at his hand, unable to believe what just happened. He looked at Venus, utterly terrified at the thought that she was the reason that this just happened. She caused... this.

"I... Take it that was part of my new... power or something?"

"Correct," Venus replied, helping Lincoln on his feet. "Now then. I think now will be an appropriate time to head back to your home and learn more. This shall also prove to be... useful."