Chi-Town 1893 Part:1

Posted on Wed Jun 18th, 2025 @ 7:42am by Watch Leader Frederick Hollywood

Mission: Findelion Watch - Villains
Location: Chicago 1893
Timeline: 1893

This City was an old favorite of Lorde’s. He had many times dreamed of building a sister to MiddleTown right here. He led Aryel through the streets of Chicago nearly one hundred and fifty years into the past. It was the site of The World’s Fair so the streets had mobs of people. It seemed most people either dressed better, this fat back or they were hoping to have a picture taken in their sunday best.

At first he thought a good place to begin his work would be the future site of The Sears Tower. The problem was after looking closely at his maps it was dangerously close to Lake Michigan and The Chicago River. While not a huge issue in the world he was born into, in a world filled with superheroes and villains the odds of something buried underneath got much higher. After some research he decided on a spot that Union Park would both stand the test of time and remain largely untouched. Again after some more checking he could see that the underground network pushed past where he needed it too.

Aryel tugged at his arm and pointed in the direction of the Fair. “Look at the size of that ferris wheel. It seems huge, am I right?” She smiled with her golden eyes bright with wonder.

She wasn’t wrong even by Lorde’s standards, that wheel was massive. It looked like they had strapped mobile homes to the thing to act as buckets. He imagined the people inside having lunch like at The Needle. “Of course when the work is done we can go and check it out. I wonder what passes for ‘fair food' in this time.” He did stop and get a more vintage costume, one of those long dresses and a hat that reminded him of a Sunday Morning in a Baptist Church he told her that the parasol she had might be a nice compliment to the outfit.

Aryel stepped out of the dressing room with her new outfit and twirled around. Many of the women shopping gasped at the commotion and a few whispered. She flipped her umbrella open and closed. “So what do you think my Lorde?”

He smiled and looked her over. “Well you make it far more lovely. I think it fits our needs and besides I am sure we can use it again for other activities.”

He walked with her again and found a haberdashery. Sure he had a suit and tie, but he wanted accessories to match his little golden goddess. Like a cane and bowler hat. When he stepped out of the changing room he mimicked Aryel by spinning around and pointing his cane all around. He had chosen the cane for its silver skull to match the handle of her parasol. Then he changed his glasses into something more period. Still tinted but far more simple. Then he tapped his hat. “So shall we, my Lady.”

The underside of Chicago still offered Frederick amazement. Even down there people sometimes still wore business suits and hats. It was nothing like most of the photos he had seen of abandoned subways and tunnels he had seen. These places were alive with workers carrying goods from one side of town to the other. Some of them, hanging out and having lunch as if in a break room up above.

When he reached the spot he was looking for, just to the east of Union Park he waited to see how much foot traffic to expect. It seemed most of the hustle and bustle here was targeted at the areas close to the fair. Using magic he removed a small section of wall and then made a void space behind it. Then the pair walked into the void space and Lorde replaced the wall. He explained some of his plan to Aryel. “So you asked me about gaining power in this world. I thought about that and I have come up with a plan. This shall be the site of a new hidden city, but that my dear is only part of the equation. This city will be placed in another dimension like the ones we used to take time off from our adventure.”

Aryel’s eyes widened. “Oh! You mean like the Mansions!” She had spent so much time with her Lorde in places like that.

“Exactly! That city will be a vessel of sorts. Housing the power I will need to reshape the world and conquer my new found enemies.” He traced a pattern of a door on the new wall facing the old one. Then he held up his hand and focused. He used quite a bit of extra energy in creating the pocket dimension. One that could be shaped to his will. For now he simply envisioned a bridge leading away from the other side of the door to a copy of his office inside Findel.

He then took Aryel’s hand. “Okay, are you ready for the climax of the show?”

As Aryel walked through the wall with Lorde the place he created took her off guard. This city of his was floating in a great nothingness. “Why isn’t this place on the ground?”

“It needs room to grow and evolve to what it needs. There may be a time when this place serves as a lifeboat. For now through all that empty space is the beginning of the battery that will be powered by everyone on Earth.” In his time bankers used this trick all the time. Take such a small amount of money from an account that no one would ever notice. Millions of accounts later it adds up. In Frederick’s case the magical battery he would be creating would take from billions if not more. Less than one percent per person and less than that if they are a caster.

He placed a red crystal on the ground in the center of the office, the heart of every one of his cities. Again he held out his hand. This time chanting. He imbued the gem with many properties. One allowed it to grow as needed due to the change in population of the world. In just fifty years the world’s population would double and then later double again. So would the crystal change in size as well. For now it spanned floor to ceiling in a cylinder. He couldn’t claim the origin of the idea was original but he had put extra details into it.

For now all he could do was wait. He would come back with Aryel after a day or so and check on things and if things went well he could begin the next phase of his plan. So after checking to make sure the hallway outside was clear of possible witnesses he opened a dimensional portal for the pair to travel back through. He took Aryel’s slender hand and smiled. “So you wanted to see that big ferris wheel right?”

As they entered into the underground tunnels Aryel giggled and laughed. “Are we also going to try some of the food?” She didn’t just ask that out of her own curiosity she knew how much Federick loved to try new things. Especially with food and drink.

Once they reached the fairgrounds Lorde got a program with a map. That said, the sheer magnitude of the place was not well represented by pictures. There was even an Eiffel Tower model on the list of things to see.

There was a massive line leading up to one of the food booths. Lorde figured rather than make a scene he would ask one of the finely dressed denizens of the fair what the line led too. When the man told him Aunt Jemima’s pancakes he asked Aryel if she wanted to wait that long for them.

Aryel was in no hurry and the smell of fresh maple syrup did stir her curiosities. “I would like to see if they taste good.” Also felt like Frederick would enjoy them and maybe have the chance to do some of his normal people watching.

They stood in the line watching crowds of people pass by. Their wait was ultimately shortened by a brawl that broke out over skipping in line. Ten people all in all were loaded into the back of a horse drawn paddy wagon.

When they finally had the chance to sit down with pancakes and blue ribbon beer, almost every table in the place had someone sitting at it. So they took the only two adjacent seats they could quickly find. Most of the people seemed either friendly or tired. Some of them had rather large families and that included little kids running around and making noise.

After cleaning some syrup off her face Aryel asked, “So what’s next?” She wrinkled her nose still feeling some of the stickiness on her.

Frederick smiled and licked his handkerchief and rubbed her nose with it. “Oh I think we should ride that giant ferris wheel.”

The golden haired girl nodded. “It's bigger than most dragons.”

Lorde nodded in agreement. “It also weighs more than all but the most legendary of dragons.” Even some colossal dragons didn’t weigh as much as the beast of steel and iron.

The beer wasn’t bad considering beer was usually on the bottom of his drinking list. He had hoped Aryel would like the bubbles. Of course he knew she may have outgrown some of that. The pancakes were excellent. He remembered when many packaged foods went through a revamp for “health” reasons and many of them had lost something.

When they finished eating he asked if they had tickets to give as a gift to people. They told him not normally but they would figure out something. When the usher returned he asked how many Frederick wanted. “Would a hundred be okay?” The woman seemed quite pleased and handed him a roll of tickets each with a signature of Aunt Jemima. As the couple left he handed out the tickets to most everyone in line. Honestly he really did enjoy seeing people have a genuinely good time.

On through the crowds they walked marveling at sites they would rarely see in either world. Frederick pointed out the milk carts and that his grandmother had milk delivered and that at least for a short time in her life would have likely been dropped off by one of those. He explained later trucks would take over and eventually few people had milk delivered from a dairy company at all.

Finally they arrived at the West End of The Midway Plaisance. From Woodlawn Avenue it was a short walk to the Ferris Wheel. Hundreds of people stood in line waiting. So many in fact that news boys and other walking sales people walked alongside the line offering many of the fair’s delights. Frederick bought two packs of Juicy Fruit and pocketed on and offered the other to Aryel. He considered the candy worthwhile enough to think about preserving it, and then copying it with a spell to try it.

Up close the wheel looked even bigger. When looking through its heart Lorde could see structures like a suspension bridge might be made of. There was a somewhat loud noise of a steam engine. A calliope played cheerful music like one might expect at a merry go round. This put the time traveler in an even better mood. He took his wife's hand and started dancing with her in the line. Most of the people smiled and gave them birth but when he ventured too far behind them an older woman maybe fifty glowered. He just simply smiled. “Oh I am so sorry it’s our honeymoon ya know?” That did seem to put the woman at ease and her husband congratulated them on getting married.

Aryel didn’t like how that woman had judged Lorde one bit. Although he had taken care of the situation she still was most likely one of those religious types that he had warned her about from time to time. Her mind spun a bit thinking, “How dare she put her god above us, we are gods after all.” The small woman knew better than to hurt the woman. Making a scene might cause undue attention. Of course her love couldn’t get angry if she only humiliated the old hag a little in jest. So she used her control of the air to make a draft lift the old bitch’s dress right over her head.

Frederick tried not to laugh. Before he could offer the family and words of comfort they darted away into the nearest exhibit. Which so happened to be The Algerian and Tunisian Village. Next to that another exhibit caught his attention, The Street in Cairo and Egyptian Luxor Temple. That looked amazing. Parts of it looked taken right out of The Mummy. He thought to himself that he could most likely come back for the entire World’s Fair and feel like it was time well spent.

TBC