[White House, Oval Office]

The woman that walked in was gorgeous, what many would have called a bombshell blonde, with a body to match. This immediately drew the President's attention; his disloyalty to his wife was common knowledge among his staff, and as best as Cthulhu could tell, the President thought he had found his next mark. She ignored the President entirely, her eyes going to Cthulhu and a smile lighting her face. "My God, Cthulhu, it is an honor." She bowed low to him.

"Rise, my daughter, as you should know, I do not enjoy formality," Cthulhu said, extending a hand to her, half hoping she would not take it due to his touch driving many a human mad. She took his hand with her right hand and straightened; her smile did not falter as she shook it. "Well, now I am impressed. I have only known one other who would willingly shake my hand and not lose their mind." A memory seemed to sift from the bottom of Cthulhu's mind making this woman look familiar.

"Yes, I know, but since it seems I was right, I will tell you that the woman you speak of, Vallory Hillside, was my great-grandmother." She continued ignoring the President, much to his frustration. "I am Victoria Lansdow, the current head of The Faith, and your servant in any and all needs or wants you may have." She looked at Cthulhu in a way that begged him to see how far she was willing to go.

"Eh-hem." The President cleared his throat far more audibly than was required. He stuck out a hand, his right. "I am Wilfred Staltson, President of the United States. It is a pleasure to meet a woman such as yourself, Victoria."

Victoria looked at the President with distaste and offered her left hand to him as if he were not fit to touch the same hand her God had shaken. "Yes, Mr. Staltson, I know who you are, and I know several young women who know you quite intimately." She shook his hand with her left curtly and withdrew it quickly. "I would appreciate it if you addressed me as Ms. Lansdow or High Priestess. Only my friends may call me Vicotria; fortunately, you are not my friend."

Cthulhu laughed a sound that could have made blood boil, and the President flinched while looking enraged. "Oh, Victoria, I can tell that I will like you so very much," Cthulhu said, and Victoria smiled.

"I am the President!" President Staltson said, sounding like a child throwing a tantrum. "How dare you address me in such a way!" He moved as if to step up to her and continue his tirade. Cthulhu did not move for several reasons. Firstly, he did not believe that as a God, it was his place to encourage or condemn any actions or thoughts. Secondly was when she shook his hand. When Cthulhu touched a human, one of the reasons that most found it so rattling is that it opened up a two-way connection in their minds. Cthulhu was able to read almost all of a human's mind and life experiences in the blink of an eye, but on the other side, the human was inundated with everything that went on in the God's mind, and his past, all the many, many eons of his past. In Victoria's past, he had seen a loving but hard life, and once she became an adult, years upon years of martial arts.

The President stepped up to Victoria and pointed at her face. "Sir, please step back," Victoria said calmly.

"Step Back? Step Back?!" The President was raging. "I do not step back. I do what I want." The President moved as if he were going to poke her in the shoulder. In a flash, Victoria moved, and suddenly she had the President's arm twisted behind his back.

The two secret service agents, down from nine, made it as if to move, and Cthulhu made an exception to his guideline of non-interference. "Do not interfere; this is humanity at its finest." He stepped to where he could see the two bodyguards. 

He touched Victoria's shoulder, "The strong, or the Alpha, brings the weak into line." He gestured to the President when speaking of the weak. "It is the defining feature of your race that I find so enticing that you have somehow fought past this most basic instinct of survival and decided that money or popularity was more important. But at the end of the day, this is humanity." He gestured at the two humans, locked in a tableau of combat. "The strong ruling the weak. The only difference is that it is your leader, your 'pack alpha' being ruled."

"Victoria, I would appreciate it if you did not hurt him, though, for my sake," Cthulhu said to the woman, practically whispering in her ear where he stood. She nodded and let him go. 

The President stood upright and turned back to face Victoria, only to find himself face to face with the gruesome smile of Cthulhu. "And you, Mr. President, I would appreciate you not throwing a tantrum around me simply because I despise seeing a man, who is supposed to be the most powerful man on the planet, lose his mind because a woman with a particularly large set of mammary glands has entered the room, and then become enraged when she does not show any interest in him. Do you think you can handle that?" Chtulhu asked.

The President's face was stop-sign red. "Yes, I think I can manage that." He turned to Victoria. "I am sorry, Ms. Lansdow, I seem to have let my more base emotions get the better of me; please forgive me." He said this all through gritted teeth, and despite the apology, he could not help himself but let his eyes slip down her front.

"My eyes are up here, Mr. President, but I accept your apologies. And I apologize for any pain I may have caused just now." Victoria said, meaning every word she spoke.

"If you will, Victoria, Mr. President, we have some things to discuss," Cthulhu said, gesturing to the resolute desk and summoning a second black chair for Victoria to sit at. "Starting with how quickly I can help you get at least one, if not more, interstellar capable ships off the ground."

[Chilxan Ship Orbiting Mars - Containment Room]

"So what would you recommend then, Human?" Kal'Tak asked, smiling as if he had just heard a very sarcastic joke. "Would you suggest that we meet your people, who have no divine representation, for negotiations and then abide by them for no reason?"

"Yes," Ted said, "you should. And what the hell is all of this about divine representation? You should work with us to get what you want from our world. Still, if you don't, then I can assure you that humanity as a whole will work against you, and if the three down on Mars and these seven," he gestured at the seven guards on the floor, all kneeling with their hands behind their heads as he had instructed, "are any indication of the strength of your forces." He laughed, "You will have the worst time of your oh-so-very short lives."

This made both Kal'Tak and Shiv'Ru look at each other these seven, along with the three that had been sent down the surface of Mars, represented some of the most highly trained and strongest soldiers that they had on the ship. Shiv'Ru broke the look first. "As far as your question of Divine Representation, it is a sign that you are a developed and accepted race; your god, your creator, represents you to the gods of the other races."

"Well, that's some bullshit if I ever heard it." Ted said, "Regardless if you have no intention of releasing me, can you at least give me food? I won't answer any questions, and if I have to, I can always kill and eat a guard." He cast an appraising eye over one of the heftier guards kneeling. "You guys at least look edible compared to the shit they served in the mess hall at basic training."

"You would eat one of us?" A guard asked from where she knelt.

"If it were a choice between starving to death or eating you?" Ted said, a smile on his face. "I would eat you so fucking fast your last vision would be the acids in my stomach boiling into your eyes."

"We will arrange for food to be brought to you," Kal'Tak said, his face seemed paler to Ted. "And we will consider the words you have spoken to us." Kal'Tak turned and moved to leave; the guards scrambled after him at a motion from Ted. Kal'Tak paused, "Are you coming to Shiv'Ru?"

"I will remain to speak with Ted." Shiv'Ru said, looking at Kal'Tak and then turning to Ted, "As long as that is acceptable to you."

Ted shrugged, "Fine by me; I just want some food."

Kal'Tak shrugged, "Your funeral Shiv'Ru." and walked out.

[White House - Oval Office]

"Wait, what?" The President was in shock. Cthulhu had just spent the last several moments explaining the meeting he had attended with the other gods and how they had refused to recognize his authority. Cthulhu went over it again slowly. "Okay, but what does that mean for us? Why does it matter that you are not part of this council?"

Victoria's eyes lit up. "It means that their rules do not bind you." She looked to Cthulhu.

"Correct. The council has several rules that regard giving advice or technological designs that a race has not developed or traded for on their own. Since I am not on this council, I am free to act in any way that I see fit. And presently," Cthulhu waved his hand over the desk. Two portable hard drives appeared, each as dark as Cthulhu's flesh. "that assistance amounts to providing humanity with everything I know of interstellar travel and spaceship design."

The President made to grab the hard drives, and Cthulhu placed a hand over one bringing the President up short. "This one goes to Victoria, and her charge as my apostle will be to ensure that all of this information gets onto the internet and is available for free to every human on the planet."

"What you can't!" the President said. "This technology can not fall to the hands of the…."

"Mr. President, I can do whatever I please," Cthulhu said, his voice dropping back down to the earth-shattering bass that was his normal tone. "I am providing this to you in person because I believe that America has the best bet of getting a ship up and running in the shortest time possible. Remember, I am the God of humanity, not the God of America."

"I will see that it is done, Lord Cthulhu," Victoria said, bowing low to him and then catching herself. "I am sorry, it is a habit from worship."

"Understandable. Now, I am going to go find some food, and since this is the first time I have freely walked the Earth, I intend to find a restaurant and eat my fill." Cthulhu said, turning to the door and heading out.

Victoria scooped up the black drive and walked to catch up with the God. "If I may, Lord Cthulhu, may I join you for your meal?"

"Only on the condition that you stop with the 'Lord' thing. Just Cthulhu is fine." He smiled at the woman. "If it helps, you can take this as a divine directive or some such nonsense."

"Very well, Cthulhu. I know just the place for us to eat." Victoria said, sliding her arm through the Gods and walking with him.

[Divine Council Chambers]

"What is this?" The Chilxan God, Dem'Noq, was fuming as he and seven others did their utmost to dispel the black chair that marred their council chamber.

"What have we done?" Asked the three-legged God who had first spoken with Cthulhu.

"What do you mean?" Dem'Noq said, not turning from his efforts.

"We just set him loose from the council. He is not bound by our rules and his humanity; they are strong, stronger than any of the races that I know of or are represented here." The female God said. "This is your fault Dem'Noq."

That stopped everyone in the council chambers. None of them had bothered to think of the consequences of their dismissal of Cthulhu. They were Gods; why would they think their actions had consequences?

"I want it known that I hold you responsible for whatever comes of this Dem'Noq." The three-legged God said before disappearing from the council chambers.

[In'Quinar Homeworld - Temple of the Goddess]

"Oh, Goddess Ivarna, you are back." A three-legged woman said.

"Lettara, good I am glad you are here." Ivarna, the three-legged Goddess, said. "I have something that I need to happen as soon as possible. Get a diplomatic envoy together, including scientists and people of the arts; once they are assembled, send them here." The Goddess waved her hand over her attendant's datapad, and a star address appeared. 

"The planet they are going to is the third from the star. The race they will encounter is called Humans or Humanity. I don't care about the cost or if they have to burn out their ship's core to get there, but they need to get there in no longer than a standard week." Ivarna said, a tone of worry in her voice.

"I will, Goddess, but if you don't mind me asking," The attendant sounded concerned, "but what is wrong? What happened?"

"I saw a monster today," Ivarna said, fear creeping into her voice. "A monster who claimed to be the Second God of an equally monstrous race. And the rest of the council, mostly that fool god of the Chilxan, dismissed him. They shunned him and forbade his entry to the council." A shiver ran down Ivarna's spine. "And I can't help but think that is exactly what this monster wanted so that our laws would not bind him."

"Oh," Lettara said; she was dumbfounded; she had never heard fear in her Goddess's voice in her hundred or more years. "I will get on it right away." She hurried from the chambers of the Goddess.

"Please," Ivarna said to herself. "Please be in time, and let the humans be reasonable, and their God be open to negotiations." She broke a rule of the council then and quietly laid a blessing upon the mission to Earth.