Chi-Town 1893 Part: 3

Posted on Wed Jun 18th, 2025 @ 7:58am by Watch Leader Frederick Hollywood

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

The waitress brought the first dish making sure they had enough to drink. The soup was quite tasty and the eggs were a nice touch. Lorde loved watching her eat. She always made it seem like an event. Also she always had something to say about things that quite often would have passed by him.

After taking another big spoon of the fancy soup as she looked around Aryel had to ask, “Is it just me or do these people seem a little quiet?”

Frederick sighed and nodded. “Yea I am sure most are worn out from walking around all day. Some I am quite sure may have had quite a bit to drink throughout the day, and as well this place doesn’t serve alcohol that I can see many might be sobering up. Lasty like the woman from the ferris wheel, I am sure some are just reserved.”

After they both finished the soup the waitress brought the second course. His Pheasant came the way he expected, really like a small gamy roasted chicken. Her dish had the little roasted birds posed on pieces of toast with the heads still intact with a small scraping of what looked like jam. Sadly he had no idea what to say if she decided to eat the heads of the birds.

She seemed to enjoy the little things immensely and ate them with a knife and fork so hey at least it all looked dignified. He was a little tempted to just grab the pheasant and eat it like fried chicken but he followed her lead and ate it in the same fashion.

By the time the main course arrived Lorde decided to ask for more drinks. Another pot for both of them, just in case they decided to get dessert. His porterhouse steak was cooked to perfection. She seemed to enjoy smashing the lobster to bits before dining on its lightly textured inside.

“So? How is it?” Hoping she wasn’t just having fun with her food.

Aryel nodded with cheeks filled with meat. “It is very yummy!” The uptick in her voice gained the attention of a few wives. “I should have just ordered three of these!”

Lorde couldn’t help but laugh about that. Picturing her working through three main lobsters almost seemed absurd.

After dinner they stepped outside. They had tables that overlooked the water. Frederick figured it was a good way to finish their coffee and also let them watch the goings on a little more. He had decided against dessert only because the one he thought sounded fancy also sounded like it might be too big to carry outside.

So after finishing their coffee he went back in and paid the bill and left the waitress a nice tip. While the place wasn’t his usual cup of tea he could see returning someday to try some of the other items.

So they returned to the place under Union Park. Lorde explained, “I have to do this part alone. Really just need to be sure that you aren’t hurt by me absorbing that much energy.”

Aryel looked a little shocked. “Why would it hurt me?”

“In essence, in this world you are a creature of magic. Now I designed the crystal to only take a very small bit from magic users and creatures of magic, but other things could happen in the transfer so I am just trying to limit possible problems.” In fact other problems had begun to fill his mind but many of those were long term and could be dealt with after today.

He walked through the portal. Before him was the massive red crystal. It now extended floor to ceiling and he suspected had worked its way through several other floors in a similar fashion. If this kept up the entire spire might be engulfed. The sky was now filled with red stars giving an otherworldly look to the place.

Just before he stepped forward to claim his prize he felt a large finger tap him on the shoulder.

“Pardon me.” Said the rather charming voice.

Lorde’s mind went into a panic mode quickly. First wondering how the hell anyone else could have entered his own personal universe. Only the strongest of magic users should be able to even know how let alone have any idea it existed. He had been so careful. His hazel eyes quickly darted to his right half expecting to have to fight or flee from whomever this was.

Standing next to him in green and gold armor with a matching robe, was a being he knew all too well. A father of lies if not the father of lies himself, Loki. His eyes widened in disbelief. “Are you really here?” Some of what he wanted to say escaped him. He had a great respect for The God of Mischief.

“Am I?” The Norse god said with a grin. “So you know me and I see you stole my idea.” Loki motioned his staff at the red crystal.

“Yes, although I did make quite a few changes. Although to be fair I wasn’t sure until now if you existed here.” What should he do? This guy gave Thor and the X-Men a run for their money and he was just one man. “Are you here to stop me?”

Loki held up his hand which made Frederick’s heart skip a beat in anticipation. “I am simply here to warn you that power like that quite often comes with unforeseen consequences.” Loki knew why the mortal wanted the power and being a romantic at heart he was curious to see if even in the face of such warnings if he would still try and rise up above being a mere human.

So he wasn’t trying to stop me. Frederick thought to himself. What was with the cryptic warning. Of course Lorde’s mind was already set. There was no other way he could keep his family safe in a world with walking gods and this just sort of hammered that home.

So he walked close to the great crystal and then looked back at Loki. “Ya know I always rooted for you.”

Then he placed his hand on the crystal and concentrated on absorbing all of its stored energy. The feeling wasn’t unlike being struck by lightning. Something he had experienced a couple of times. Maybe he should have taken things slow but he didn’t want to chance Loki changing his mind.

He now felt like he could do almost anything with that power. He continued his plan by focusing on making his normal magical abilities more grandiose. More like The Sorcerer Supreme or perhaps what he had left behind in Findel with Aryel.

The Asgardian shook his head. “Good luck young man. You are going to need it. Trust me I know from experience.” and then he was gone in a flash almost like Q.

Even though it felt like everything had gone according to plan Loki’s words haunted him. He quickly exited the hidden dimension. When Lorde saw Aryel he was quite relieved and hugged her.

The goddess of air could tell Frederick had been worried. “Are you okay my love? Did something go wrong?”

“Honestly I am not sure. Loki stopped by and gave me a warning about consequences.” Lorde tried to work through some of it but still it all seemed so vague. “I have no idea what he could mean. I think we need to get back and make sure things are okay.”

He took his wife’s hand again and this time transported them to the same day in the year 2023. He just wanted to be sure the crystal was still there. At this point if not he had a few ideas. He stepped inside and looked around. The whole city was reformed in the magical gem. So it had grown. Just in a weird way.

When he stepped out he laughed. “I just don’t think it is safe to leave this laying around ya know?” He used his new found powers to transform the doorway into a magical ring. The gem on it looked like a red hourglass shaped gem.

He held it up to Aryel. “So what do you think?”

She smiled and nodded. “Oh yes yes that is a very fancy ring. I bet people would pay a lot for that back home.”

He thought it would most likely start holy wars like Excalibur. “Okay now lets see what that deadbeat Watcher has to say.” It did bother him a little that he couldn’t let that go, but in his mind it was better to take care of enemies as quickly as possible rather than have them fester.

So they jumped forward again and went back to New Orleans. When they looked around everyone was gone. The Angel, The Watcher, there wasn’t ever any sign of a fight.

Suddenly those eyes appeared in the sky again. “You have no idea of what you have done. I am sure somewhere in the multiverse you heeded my warning but this realm will see great upheaval because of what you have done.”

In Lorde’s mind the only problem with this guy’s logic was he wouldn’t have done all this if the cosmic being hadn’t interfered.

“So I hope you can live with the consequences of your actions.” and with that the eyes disappeared and the sky went back to normal.

The biggest thing that bothered Lorde is how much he hated that guy. Maybe it was how he reminded him of the god of his own world or maybe it was something else.

The End