Ohayoo from Japan.

Newest chapter to our Dredd tale. Hope it will stir some sort of emotion in you. If it does, review and let me know. Sayonara for now, Birgitta

11. Threat of another Sort.

It started out like any other day. I woke up before her, got ready, and then waited for her like I have been every morning since we've become partners. After a simple breakfast, we took off to the perp who had yet another list of possible candidates. Some 19 physics are now being trained but there is still need of many more. Over the last weeks, the Captain has sent added assistance and even a place for training. Anderson is becoming a big deal, soon her name may even carry more weight that mine. Who could have predicted?

'A physic perhaps?'

The day moved on as it should with one name at a time checked off until only one name remained. If I would have known ahead of time what a pain in my ass he'd prove, I would have found some way of preventing us from locating him. I could have "accidently" lost the paper or convinced her that we had enough or… something… anything… cause I have since begun to absolutely hate the kid.

We tracked him down at some shit-hole of an eatery. One of those eateries where only the starved and desperate go, and where you'd rather lose a limb than take a bite of whatever filth they are loading up on a soiled cracked plate. The moment I stepped through the door, I simply wanted to turn back around but Anderson kept going and I would never leave her side. I almost lost her once, in the mega complex of Peachtree, and it is something I never want to relive again.

A boy, dark brown hair, tall, and unusually build for someone working at a filth food place, stood behind the counter and Anderson approached him with no hesitation. "David Sands, we are here to collect you."

He stepped back, startled by our sudden appearance, our Judges uniforms, and her words. "I've done nothing wrong. I've broken no laws. I'm no perp."

"You're right," she answered him back calmly and coolly. She has said the same thing over and over again; the reassurance and persuasion script. "You've done nothing wrong. We are not collecting you as a punishment, David, but as a reward. A reward for who you are and the gift you possess."

The fear in his brown eyes changed to suspicion and irritation. "A reward? What kind of reward, like money? And what gift? I have no gift."

I remember changing footing behind her, already getting bored and weary of the exchange of communication. With each and every one of the new recruits, it is the same waste of time babble. They insist they are not like Anderson, that their physic abilities are not powerful enough, and that they are not worthy.

So while trying to wait patiently, I recall leaning back against a wall and folding my arms across my chest. There was nothing else to do until the repetitive performance was over. I'd rather just take a heavy object to the kids' head, knocked him out, and thrown him over my bike. He would have woken up at the training site and had no other choice than to join our team. That's what I would have liked to do but unfortunately I wasn't running the recruitment show. I never have and I never will. Anderson is and Anderson likes to take the nice pleasant route…. the nice, pleasant, and so very long route.

"I know what you are. I can feel it. Even as I am invading your mind, I can sense you trying to stop me. You're subconsciously trying to erect a block. You are a physic, just like me."

The boy's eyes dashed around the room and his fingers flew up to his lips. "Shhhh," he hushed her rudely and I pushed off from the wall with a frown. No one hushes Cassandra. "Do you want me to lose my job? Get thrown out? Stamped and labeled as a freak?"

But, she had shrugged, not caring a bit… because she needs not to… because she knows what power she possesses and she knows that I will always be there to shield her need be. "I'm here to offer you another job, a better one, one that will give you pride and a place amongst the greatest. I'm here to offer you a chance to work alongside Judges."

The kitchen boy chuckled at her promising words and begun to rotate away from her, causing me to instantly fire up. "Don't turn your back on her," I growled, warning him. He stopped, wisely so, and dared a cautious glance my way. "Show her the respect she deserves; the respect she has earned. She's here to help you."

"Help me…" he muttered, shaking his head just as a patron came shuffling up to the counter. We watched as he served up a spoonful of some sad excuse of a stew and handed over the plate. "How would you help me?"

No irritation, offense, or hurry seen or felt in her as she indulged him. "I told you. I am offering you a chance to get away from all of this. Come with us and I will teach you how to amplify your ability, make your physic powers greater, and become something more than you could ever have imagined."

It was a nice speech, more nicely served than that filth on the plate that he had handed to the customer, yet unfortunately the annoying boy did not buy it. "Say, I am a physic. Why in the hell would I want to amplify whatever power I may have? Why would I want to become an even bigger freak? Why would I come with you and let you mess with my head, and screw me up even more? Isn't it bad enough that my parents decided to raise me in a nuclear waste area and turn me into mutant?"

He didn't just ask her. He demanded an answer of her, believing himself to be entitled and in the right to demand. He was really starting to piss me off. He was acting as if going with us meant nothing… as if going with me meant nothing. I am Judge Dredd. Surely, he had heard of me. Everyone has heard of me.

Anderson just shook her head, smiling, all the insults dripping off of her like spring rain. "I called it a gift because that is what it is. It is no curse and you are no freak. You are special and your ability is highly sought after. There is a war brewing and you are to be one of the specialized soldiers. Come with me and I will train you. I will give you a place amongst the Judges…." She held here and I knew why. She was digging for information, material that she could use to persuade. "I know that your life has not been easy. I know that you were denied entrance to the Judge's program after your parents died."

His brown eyes turn even darker as he looks down at her, looking at her too intensely for my liking. "I was shunned, turned away, rejected… ended up in hellhole after hellhole…with one asshole after another. This ability has never done anything for me. It is has given me nothing but misery. I am judged as a freak and treated as such because of it. It is a curse… and it is not even a very good curse. Shit, I can't even read a person's mind well enough to make a little money. I used to be beaten raw by my so called caregivers because I couldn't read well enough. That's why they took me in, you know, cause they thought that I would come handy, that they could use me." He chuckled and shook his head solemnly. Damn, were they wrong and damn were they pissed when they realized that I was a waste of space kind of freak."

Nodding and smiling, despite the grim topic and the challenge ahead, as she absorbed. "It is not a curse, David. It is a gift. I will show that it is and I will help you get stronger. You are barely a level two, that is why you can't read that well, yet you do have the ability and that is all that matters. Let me make you more. Let me give you more. You won't regret it. I promise you this. I won't give up on you."

He brought a soiled hand up to his sweaty forehead and gave it a slow wipe. I could feel my face displaying disgust over his appearance, over his composure, and frankly over him. Even at this point, there was something about him that I did not like. I couldn't define it. I couldn't specify what it was. Maybe it was his face.

'Never trust a pretty boy, that's what they say. Right?'

"I may not be able to learn. I may be ruined," he told her, his puppy face begging for sympathy.

And it worked to my dismay. Cassandra offered her hand to him and he walked around the counter to take it. I looked on, emotions building with need for carnage, as their fingers touched and wrapped.

This was the beginning. Beginning of what feels like the end. I am losing her before she was even mine. I, Judge Dredd, is losing her to a barely level 2 pretty boy. The world is truly going to the shits!