Fandom Dreddverse: 800 Million Stories in the Mega-City...

[heretech]

"Control, this is Thorne," the street judge spoke into his comm system. "Futsie in tow and en route to Sector 8 kook-cube facility."

Aloysius Thorne dumped the cuffed, unconscious man in his arms over the rear seat of his Lawmaster cycle. Relieved of the extra weight he'd been hauling, Thorne groaned and arched his back before revving the vehicle's ignition.

Winding his way through the traffic backing up near the Sylvia Plath block, Thorne approached a barricade. Ahead, a community parade was taking place, celebrating the block's recent 4-week stretch without a major turf war.

Everything appeared to be above water ... but Thorne knew from his training that crime was at its most seductive when it appeared reasonable.

"You there!" Thorne called to a nearby balloon vendor whose wares showed the smiling faces of cartoon judges.

The man swallowed a large lump in his throat.

"Unlicensed use of judge likeness and defamation of character. 120 days in an iso-cube," Thorne intoned flatly.

"But--but--" the vendor protested.

"One more word and it's resisting arrest as an additional charge." Thorne pointed at the balloon. "Now get that filth out of public view." He turned to scowl at a nearby child with a cartoon-judge balloon. "Peddling your wares to children?" Thorne added. "90 extra days. You sicken me."

As the judge drove off, Thorne flipped on his cycle's comm switch. "Control, Thorne checking in. Where am I most needed once this futsie is unloaded?"

 

[ShadowWolves]

"Thorne, Control, copy on futsie drop, stand-by for new assignment: Sector 9 reports possible body-sharking operation in progress, closest location access is pedway 7-4-6-3-8, be advised judge wolf is also en-route." Control said as the comms link between Thorne and Control was cleared and other judges were raised and assigned to various calls, from the sounds of it, it sounded like it was a very busy night in and around sector nine, multiple turf wars were still being cleaned out, It sounded like Dredd was in the middle of taking care of one of those turf-war.

"Control, this is Judge Wolf, en-route to sector-9 for body sharking operation." The voice over the comms said and then was cleared and attached to the incident. Judge wolf was an unusually tall judge for his young age of 25, most other judges that saw him usually thought he was gonna hit his head on low hanging surfaces. But this Judge, was close to Dredd in his abilities, except he was not of the Dredd bloodline, he was human and raised in the mega-city until he had been taken by the judges for passing the entrance exam with flying colors and had been personally recommended by Dredd himself on his completion of final ride, to be assigned to the council due to his abilities, but Wolf hated being in one place for too long, he liked to dispense justice at the street level, and so here he was patrolling the street on his lawmaster.

 

[heretech]

"Roger that," Thorne said, gunning his cycle toward his destination.

Several minutes later, the poor bastard behind the judge was delivered to medical professionals, with his paperwork routed to the Grand Hall of Justice for necessary processing. In the meantime, the futsie would remain in general med-ward holding ... a wait that, given the number of victims suffering from future shock and the number of forms to be filled out, generally lasted anywhere from 1-2 months.

Thorne, meanwhile, set off to Sector 9.

When he finally neared the identified pedway, Thorne looked about for his impromptu partner and maneuvered his bike to come up alongside the taller man. "Wolf," he said calmly, scanning the area. "What's the skinny? We have eyes on the drokkers sharking innocent citizens? Or maybe their likely base of operations?"

 

[ShadowWolves]

"Thorne. I'm thinking base of ops, how you wanna play it? Front door or lawmaster surprise?" He asked as he looked at the other Judge and off to the side Wolf saw a citizen about to finish off some food and then drop it and quickly addressed it "You there! Littering huh? 30 days in the cubes!" He called out to the citizen and turned his attention back to Thorne and waited to see what his analysis was.

 

[heretech]

"No reason to make a spectacle of it," Thorne said, flexing his fingers on his cycle's handles. "They know the law exists. If they don't want to pay attention to it, we've got no obligation to remind them before passing judgment."

With a flick of his thumb, Thorne primed his Lawmaster's cannons. "Knock knock," he said quietly, and fired at the building's front doors.

 

[ShadowWolves]

"Criminal Scum! Freeze! This is the Law!" Wolf said over his bikes megaphone as he gunned his bike through the path that Thorne had made and jumped off it, immediately jumping off the bike and going for his lawgiver.
"Shit, Judges! Waste 'em!" one of the criminals called and fired his weapon at the judge who had just entered.
"You drokkers make me sick! Assault on a street judge, the sentence is death!" Wolf said as he pulled the trigger and a round flew from the barrel of his lawgiver as the other two ran behind cover "Not gonna work scum. Heat Seeker!" Wolf called as the digital display on the side of his lawgiver changed from 'semi' to 'Heat Seeker' and fired two rounds, one for each perp. The rest were taking cover and setting up defenses in the next room.

 

[heretech]

Swinging his leg over his cycle to dismount, Thorne slapped the gun in his thigh holster and drew it. He followed Wolf at a brisk pace, hunched over just enough to try and make use of what cover there was by the building's entrance.

"Additional charge: threat to public safety on account of your terrible aim!" Thorne called before adding, "Ricochet!"

The setting changed with a 'click' on his Lawgiver pistol, its display reading RICOCHET. The judge squeezed its trigger several times, targeting the walls behind the hunkered-down perps.

 

[ShadowWolves]

"My aim is not that bad!" Wolf called back as he moved up clearing all corners of the room as he walked at a slightly hunched position so as to have a bit of a defensive posture if he had to fight with a perp, in which case he did when he turned his gun to clear to his right and a hidden perp came running out that had somehow survived the ricochet that Thorne had laid down and quickly just grabbed the perp "Wrong move you!" He called as he dropped the perp before a solid blow could be established and added "Semi!" before the display changed from HEAT SEEKER to SEMI and he pulled the trigger, killing the perp.

"Wanna check out the skinny's base ops? Investigations are gonna be here soon to collect evidence once we call it clear!" He told Thorne as he ran a DNA Analysis on the perps blood "dead perp was a Christopher Wright, assigned to Lee block, let's run a DNA analysis on the others shall we?!" He then went ahead and started doing so.

 

[heretech]

(OOC: Ha! I meant to refer to the perps, but that was a great retort.)

Thorne stepped into the room as Wolf finished clearing it out, the barrel of his pistol kept down. "Absolutely I do," Thorne said, giving the area a quick visual scan. "Looks like plenty of illegal equipment in addition to the body-sharking itself. Not that it's surprising."

Stepping over one of the bodies, Thorn knelt. "Doesn't look like the sort to have enough brains to run this kind of operation. Might be another around here, hiding out," he added, quietly. "That ... or these pieces of stomm were organ-harvesting savants."

 

[ShadowWolves]

(OOC: Lol. But just so you know Wolf has the same aim stats as Dredd and Dredd will most likely refer to Wolf and Thorne in good terms since the movie events havent happened yet and thorne isnt dead yet, unless your using a custom thorne.)

"Yeah, it seems like these pieces of stomm didnt have the brains to set up proper defenses and expect that Judges would pop in on their operation. Let's go and get these guys." He said as he added "It could be both you know, I see many different holding tanks that would be perfect for holding organs and tools." He said as he scanned the next room and looked for any possible doors that led to other rooms.

 

[heretech]

(OOC: I am unfamiliar with a Thorne in any of the comics! I figured the name seemed suitable for a judge. Maybe this Thorne is just related to them, then.)

Like Wolf, Thorne cautiously approached exits to the room. "Staircase up ahead," he noted, raising his pistol before peeking around the stairs to look up above. "No immediate indica--"

Thorne whipped around at the sound of sudden noise behind him. His gun pointed at a pair of newly arrived citizens who appeared to be appraising the scene.

"Coming to loot?" Thorne asked, his voice nearly a growl. "There's still room on Devil's Island if you don't turn around and reconsider that crime right now."

The citizens took the hint and scrambled back out the front door.

 

[ShadowWolves]

(Okay, you haven't seen Dredd 3D then, never mind.)

"Yeah, I know, can't see too much up there, even with the night vision mode in the helmet. We're gonna have to approach it cautiously. I didn't see any windows up there when I initially saw the building as I pulled up but who knows what these skinnies have done with this place." He said as he kept his gun raised and tried to get a better angle view of upstairs without exposing himself to any direct fire.

 

[heretech]

"Alright," Thorne said to Wolf with a sharp nod. "I'm on it. Cover me."

He launched himself up the initial half-flight of stairs to the small landing where the stairs turned a corner. Gritting his teeth, Thorne pointed his Lawgiver into the darkness above.

"Attention!" he shouted, leaning around the corner to try, futilely, to get a better look of the second floor. "This is the law! Get on the ground immediately to avoid obstructing justice! Comply or face judgment."

Thorne sucked in a deep breath and then began slowly ascending the remaining stairs.

 

[ShadowWolves]

"I'm right behind you. I got you covered." He said as he rushed up the stairs keeping his feet as silent as he could while rushing up the stairs and covering Thorne's back while he ascended and was on point. He was prepared for a fight and tried not to breathe too heavily as he tried to find an access point that he could call into control and request a law drone to give them a more detailed layout of the building.

He heard Thorne announce as he prepared himself for the inevitable firefight they were gonna have as soon as these perps upstairs caught on to them and brought out heavier firepower to take them out with.

 

[heretech]

Just before Thorne's head broke the plane of the floor, a rapid series of white-hot laze-blasts lit up the hallway like a strobe, the smell of ozone lingering in their wake. At the end of the hallway was a tripod-mounted laze-gun, its operator doing her best to aim at the foremost judge's helmet. The blasts ended up melting holes in the walls, nearby furniture, and parts of the floor leading to the stairwell.

"Gah!" Thorne spat, dropping forward against the steps as he tried to line up a shot with his pistol. "Watch out, Wolf! I'm pinned!"

 

[ShadowWolves]

"Hold on, I got em. Get your respirator on! I'm throwing a gas grenade out!" He said as he holstered his lawgiver and taking a gas grenade and slipping on his respirator and calling "Gas out!" before pulling the pin and trying to make an aimed throw that would bounce off the wall and land in the middle of the room since the gas grenade would usually fill an entire room with gas and threw the grenade.

 

[heretech]

Thorne quickly retrieved his respirator from the pouch at his belt and set it in place over his helmet.

Sounds of hacking and gasping were followed by heavy THUDs as multiple bodies dropped to the floor. The laze-gunner was convulsing at the end of the hall, and it sounded like someone else was having an equally terrible time just inside a doorway near the gunner's position.

Thorne crouched low, Lawgiver in hand, as he maneuvered down the hall. Making it to the agonized gunner, he put one booted foot over her right hand and leaned into the next room.

In addition to the previously hidden figure on the floor, there was an individual strapped to what appeared to be an operating table--a victim of the body-sharkers!

"Control!" Thorne barked, the sound of his voice muffled by his respirator. "Get a doc-wagon to my location stat. Wolf, you have any medic training? I can't tell if this guy's stable at all..."

 

[ShadowWolves]

"Yeah, I got Paramedic training! Clear the rest of the rooms and Ill run a diagnostic on the vic and see if I can save him!" He barked as he quickly swept the room and cleared it before slapping his lawgiver back into his holster and went to work on the vic giving him a once over.
" Control?! Do you Copy?! Be advised gas grenade deployed at my gps! Advise doc wagon of gas deployment and request investigations to my GPS, advise we got 2 to 6 deceased for Resyke and 3 live possibles for the ISOS!" His speech was also muffled by the respirator but they were able to get their message out.

" Thorne, Doc wagon has been notified about gas grenade as well as control, investigations and Resyke are inbound and a pat wag for our 3 live perps that I can still hear around the room." He said to his partner as he added "Vic is stable for now but we gotta get him and these perps out of the gas if we wanna extract any useful information from the live ones and the vic survives this ordeal."

 

[heretech]

"Roger that," Thorne replied, holstering his own weapon as well. With one hand, he grabbed the nearest convulsing criminal's shirt and began dragging him out into the hall like a sack of wet laundry.

Once there, Thorne grasped the gunner by the arm and hauled the two toward the stairs. "Stay limp," he said in his muffled voice without looking down at his charges. "Almost to fresh air. Fresher, at least."

Then, the judge pulled the two perps down the steps, and they mostly slid limply--although each suffered a few bumps along the way.

Once on the ground floor, Thorne quick-restrained them to one another around the base of a load-bearing pillar. "Stay here and muscle control will slowly begin to return. Don't try and exert yourself or it'll only make things worse."

Once the criminals were secured, Thorne returned to the operating room. "Ready to haul this one," he said, nodding to the victim on the table. "Hope he wasn't being targeted for his lungs."

 

[ShadowWolves]

"Yeah, you and me both Thorne." He said as he added, "Ready, 1, 2, 3!" He then, with Thorne brought the perp up to a semi-standing position and dragged the vic out and sat them down against the wall away from the others and just waited for the arrival of the doc, Resyke and the pat wagon that they had requested as well as investigations. "So, which do you think is the brains of this whole op?" He asked Thorne as he turned to him and waited for an answer.

 

[heretech]

Pursing his lips, Thorne spent a few moments staring at each of the assembled suspects in turn.

"Chances are good it's the last one we came across--the one nearest the victim. Assuming a surgeon's the one in charge." Thorne rubbed his chin.

"Of course, they could just be a well-paid crew member." Thorne looked at one of the dead criminals. "These brains don't appear to be smart enough to have stayed out of the way, though..."

He turned back to Wolf. "What do we know about any other victims of this operation that the department's come across? Maybe there's a shared piece of information that could clue us in to the identity of the mastermind here."

 

[ShadowWolves]

"Not much. I hadn't even heard about this operation until they popped up on the radar. The perp I scanned in the bottom floor was a Christopher Assigned, he was assigned to the Lee Block and was working for one of the Munce factory, before he was terminated from his position for dangerous practices while on the job and on other workers at the facility. I saw many holding containers that looked like they could hold human organs, this might have been a serious operation seeing how many holding tanks they had and the Laze-cannon defense. This might have something to do with last weeks major bust of that body-sharking op in sector-36, the major one that Dredd busted wide open with "Frankenstine-II. Oh man was that brain ugly and stupid as munce." He chuckled as he looked at Thorne "Other than that there's nothing much else that is in Justice Department records unless Dredd knows something we don't. In which case we should ask him."

 

[heretech]

"We could," Thorne replied. "But I hear Dredd's not the type to hold in much esteem judges who can't pronounce a sentence on their own."

He took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. "At the very least, we're looking at a minimum of ... three months per organ. Conspiracy and illicit possession of another citizen's bio-property."

Thorne glanced into a nearby container at a vacuum-sealed kidney. "It's possible this is connected to the Frankenstein-II affair. Even if not, we're looking at, say, twelve years per skell here. Twelve years of hard labor on Titan should cause the offenders to reconsider their choices."

The judge gestured to his partner. "You want lead on tracking down connections with Dredd's case?"

 

[ShadowWolves]

"Yeah that's true, old Stoney-face doesn't hold that high esteem for Judges that get even one point lower than what the perfect passing grade was. I was lucky enough to survive through Dredd's final ride, but I passed and I guess Dredd held me in some esteem or something, I don't know. He's a weird judge, but tough as hell, just ask that Psi-Judge Anderson who's worked with him before. We should probably give them the maximum, hopefully, they will learn it's not good to try and commit a crime, but they never learn. I mean shit, earlier today I almost had to put a ten-year-old in a juve-cube because her parents weren't watching out for her and she almost got mixed-in with the wrong crowd." He told him

 

[heretech]

"You heard the man, scum," Thorne said to the lot of mostly unconscious criminals lying on the floor. "Lifetime stint on Titan without parole."

Thorne put his hands on his hips and turned back to Wolf. "Nothing ever feels as satisfying as the application of law. Hopefully that kid learns to appreciate it as well."