“So, ready for the Courts?” Antefalken asked.
“The Courts of Chaos? Are we really going there?” Rupert looked anxiously from Antefalken to his father. Tom apparently hadn’t filled the boy in on everything. The kid was certainly excited about the idea though.
“That’s the next stop.” Antefalken nodded. “We’ll just fly south to the nearest boom tunnel and hop on over.”
“Boom tunnel?” Rupert asked. Antefalken tisked, weren’t parents teaching their children anything these days?
“Boom tunnel. It is similar to a Runic Gateway in the Abyss except that they are always on and most everyone can adjust them to different locations. Or at least to the other boom tunnel gateways that they know of.” Antefalken told Rupert.
“Why do they call it a boom tunnel then?” Rupert asked.
“You’ll see when we try it.” Antefalken just smiled and winked at Tom who smiled back.
Woohhhmmm...Woohhhmmm throbbed the archway standing in the middle of the small valley. Antefalken landed a short distance in front of it; Tom and Rupert landed next to him. Through the ground, Antefalken could feel the characteristic throbbing of the boom tunnel. Antefalken smiled at Rupert and then proceeded to the archway.
The archway was a free standing arch made of black marble, approximately twelve feet high and six feet across. Looking through the archway, one saw only an undulating field of various shades of red, instead of the other side. The colors undulated in time to the throbbing sensation. Antefalken walked up beside the arch.
On the left hand side was a small silver plate, about the size of one of Tom’s hands. Antefalken reached up and placed his palm upon it. After a moment of concentration he removed his hand and looked at the others. “Ready?” He asked. The pitch of the throbbing had changed just slightly, a human probably wouldn’t have detected it, but demons had no problem.
“Sure!” Rupert exclaimed enthusiastically. “This will take us to the Courts?”
“Well, just a short distance outside the city limit. No boom tunnels or gateways are allowed in the city itself. Unless created by one of the higher powers themselves.” Antefalken smiled at the two and said, “OK, let’s go, follow me.” With that, he stepped through the tunnel.
Woooohhhhmmmmmm... BOOM! went the tunnel as he stepped through. As usual, he momentarily lost his sense of balance as the boom tunnel shook him to his core. Otherwise, he stepped out from the tunnel just fine.
Quickly he scanned the surroundings of the exit. No one around to cause problems. Good enough. As he turned back to the arch, Rupert wobbled out, a bit unsteady on his feet and holding his hands to his ears. “Ugh. I see why you call it a boom tunnel.” Antefalken smiled.
Tom stepped out, also slightly unsteady from the experience. Antefalken was happy to see that even the truly powerful were not immune to the tunnels. “The Courts of Chaos, Rupert...” he spread his hand in the direction of the city.
Rupert’s jaw dropped. Antefalken smiled. He knew what an impressive sight the glass, steel and concrete of the city was. Especially the view from here. This view had been especially tailored for maximal effect on arriving visitors. Nowhere in Astlan did one find sixty story buildings, only the Abyss could produce such magnificence.
As he’d expected, Tom wasn’t overly impressed. Or, at least he didn’t seem to be. He was studying it some detail. Unless Boggy’s story was correct, which Antefalken rather doubted, Tom must have seen the city many times before. “It reminds me,” Tom said slowly, “of a rather twisted and stunted version of the Manhattan skyline. Is that supposed to be the Freedom Tower?” He pointed to the Enslavement Services building. “The Empire State building?” He pointed out the Evil State building. Interesting, he knew similar names, but not the correct ones. Was he really a novice? Or had he just not been here in so long that the names had changed?
The buildings did change fairly rapidly, the names not quite so fast. The names had been the same for at least the last three hundred years. “Trump Tower?” Tom asked incredulously. Well, at least he got that one right, thought Antefalken, shuddering at the thought of its namesake Archdemon.
“Almost.” Antefalken said. “Let’s head on in. I’m going to need to go to the Notorious Dame Cathedral.” Tom looked at him cock-eyed. “That I probably should do on my own. I can take you to a bar where we can meet later. In the meantime you guys can just wander around.”
“Great!” Rupert exclaimed. Tom looked intrigued, but a little more dubious.
Tom was relatively sure he could find the bar again. Its name had certainly been memorable, ‘The Ripe Young Maiden’s Surprise,’ he wasn’t sure what the surprise was, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to find out. Unfortunately, the bar didn’t seem to be in the best part of town. Actually, from what Tom had seen on the way in, there didn’t seem to be a best part of town.
From a distance the city had looked rather impressive and shiny, a miniature New York, almost. The closer he got the less the resemblance held. While he’d never been out of the U.S., he’d almost have to guess that if one were to mix Paris and Manhattan together, tossing in the odd bit of London and Istanbul, one might get the Courts of Chaos. It wouldn’t hurt if one also projected them into some sort of neogothic future. The whole place was a rather chaotic jumble of science-fantasy and cyberpunk. The sort of place where the ideas of a lot of really bad authors came together, or drunk game designers.
He had just avoided stepping in the waste from something that looked like gryphons pulling a coach, when he’d nearly been ran over by a De Lorean. Every nook and cranny in the buildings seemed to hide some shady-looking character. He didn’t know what these characters were doing, and, if they were anything like those at home, he knew he didn’t want to know.
The reddish twilight seeping over the towers didn’t seem to help the atmosphere much. Or maybe it did, depending on what ambience one was trying to achieve. Garbage collection seemed to be about on par with New York though; he stepped over several bags that may have contained formerly living beings. As a demon walked by with a green Mohawk, he decided maybe the place wasn’t that different from home.
Overall, though, the general seediness of the locals, the curious mix of medieval and hi-tech, the apparent crime rate, what appeared to be a demon slave market, the rather over-obvious places of ill repute, everything he’d seen, made him decide that despite a lot of amazing similarities, this place sort of made New York look like Des Moines. Sure, his home town had some areas just as bad, or maybe in parts worse than some of what he saw here, but the whole City wasn’t a cesspool; the same couldn’t be said about the Courts. There didn’t seem to be any good neighborhoods, any ritzy zones. New York, at least, had a lot of very glamorous places. This place just looked nasty all over.
To be honest, not having much to fear for himself, given size comparisons between himself and the local demons, he might come to enjoy the place. It did seem to be the adventurer’s paradise, if said adventurer happened to be named Arnold. The only problem was Rupert.
Not that the place intimidated Rupert. Far from it, the kid was gawking like a tourist. Which, Tom supposed, he was. Unfortunately, such behavior was exactly the sort of thing to get one in trouble. Tourists wanted to see everything, and they were always very obvious about it. Survival, on the other hand, demanded that one notice everything and see nothing. More importantly, even if you see something, don’t look like you’re seeing it. Rupert, being from small villages or maybe a farm even- Tom realized he didn’t actually know where Rupert was from- had obviously never learned this lesson.