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Judicial Practice
Sunnydale, the first step.
Part I
Authors note:-
Well here we go the first story in this anthology, Judge Dredd Vs. Buffy as it were. This one's going to be played for laughs, I can't do it any other way. Also I'm setting this early (-ish) Buffy season 5. There's quite a few things in season 5 I want to write for. Buffy's mother, young (and, in this case, carefree) Dawn, Tara, Spike and Giles. Also someone who I can't write for is gone; Finn.
I did want to do this as a massive single chapter story but I'm afraid I ran into writers block and decided to finish at a opportune point. If you have any problems with that leave a review, or just leave one please. You never know how it could help. On with the show...
Sunnydale California. A small American town in the middle of the west coast state California. It's infamous for only having one day of snow in it's short history, if anyone bothered to check it also had a death rate higher than the rest of the coast combined. The fact that no one did check was just one of its many oddities.
Others included, with thanks to this death rate, almost a dozen full scale cemeteries and the lowest house prices in the state. With a growing population of retired people trying to get away from the cities, young families who haven't quite found their footing in life and people looking for a fresh start the small town has quite a few big city trappings. A fair sized university, small airport and a single main street helped add to the mix.
Unfortunately this town's ambition to be something more is hindered by its location. In the centre of town, hidden in what is now the ruins of the Sunnydale High School is the Hellmouth. Some say its a hole in the world, others that it's an unholy pattern of leylines, even some say it's a portal to hell itself. Those in the know simply reply:- "It was high school dude, how much more evil do you need?"
Whatever it truly is the Hellmouth draws the mystical and the demon to it like a magnet. This is the most active know Hellmouth in the world, drawing the meanest, enticing the darkest demons from the planet. Hidden in secret great powers devoted to life and freedom fight endless battles in the sewers, on the hill tops and even once in the aforementioned high school
In one of the many cemeteries filled with crypts, memorials, graves, hidden pagan temples, daemon spawn (and spawning) three young people are ducked behind grave stones. These three have spent the last four and a bit years fighting demons. The Slayer, the Witch and the Zeppo...
'Xander, what are you doing?' Buffy asked her friend. The apprentice carpenter had just started monologuing in a movie trailer voice. It was actually pretty good. Xander looked at her, Twinky half in his mouth. 'This is supposed to be a stake out.' she reminded him pointedly.
Doing something incredibly gross he stuffed the whole snack cake in his mouth at once and picked up a whole pack of the things from his weapons bag. Silently he shook it and grinned. Willow's stifled giggling didn't help much.
Tucking into the bag Xander swallowed before speaking. 'I got bored.' He shrugged 'So what time was this supposed to happen?'
'11:30' Willow answered in a whisper.
'It's almost that now. Shouldn't they be here already.' he asked
Buffy shrugged and picked up her sword. 'I guess they're late. I hope it's not too late. Now that mum's back on her feet she's in L.A to scope out some art work for the gallery.'
'Oh that's good! But is it such a good idea to for her to be alone?'
'It's sorted Will. Angel offered his hotel, mum's saving a bit of cash and staying there. He promised to keep an eye on her for me.'
Xander tapped her shoulder. 'Who's looking after Dawn then?'
Buffy grinned rather evilly.
Buffy insisted on listening to any rubbish, her only quantifying remarks were it needed a beat and wasn't "old". The fact her version of "old" could mean anything up to four months was rather confusing. Dawn, on the other hand, dear lord! It seamed she picked her musical taste on how the talentless masses looked. Looked! He'd never heard of anything so foolish. Just because someone is handsome doesn't mean they can sing or have any musical skill. As demonstrated by this situation.
'Ohh look! isn't he great!' the brunette squealed pointing at a kid barely old enough to shave attempting to look "moody". As if some form if fake angst could make him any better at singing. The CD track finally finished. A few seconds later a new one started sounding exactly the same. Dawn continued to flip through the CD booklet, squealing periodically at another glossy photo.
'Have you set this... thing to repeat?' He had to ask, not for the first time he half wished if the world would end before he lost his mind listening to this drivel.
'No. Why do you want me to?'
'NO... that will be okay. Your mother's not fond of this music is she?'
Dawn huffed as only a American teenage girl could. 'She likes Pink Floyd. How silly is that? It's old and always way too long, I mean how long does a song last in their world? Two days?'
For a moment the idea of a two day long Floyd concert came to mind. That would be worth it. Almost. The track ended and another one started. Blasted MTV generation, at least Buffy and the group had avoided the worst of it. Enough to bury their heads into research for a moment's peace...
'Dawn, how would you like to learn another language?'
'Does Buffy have to learn them?' she tossed her hair back to glare at him.
Sibling rivalry, most of the time annoying and pointless. Here it was a godsend. 'Yes but she's not very good at it. Or at all really. I know you have asked your sister if you can help and I've seen you flicking through some of the books.' Truth be told Buffy couldn't grasp high school French. Lord help her with anything more complex.
'Buffy really isn't good at it? Okay, it would be cool!' Moving faster than any mortal had the right to she stopped the disk player and sat back down.
'First we'll decide what to go over first then I'll teach you how to speak it.' She nodded and for once Giles felt he would get somewhere teaching a Summers girl. 'What do you want to learn? Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Greek, Latin, Sandscript...'
'Latin. That sounds cool.' she said.
Yes! Giles almost crowed. Latin was perfect it would take all month to get it right and it wouldn't be too difficult to get the reading and writing done with the same alphabet! Then Dawn pulled the rug from under him. Whatever hope he had that it was going to go well was shattered by three words.
'Where's it from?' she asked.
Not for the first time Rupert Giles understood despair a little too well.
'Both.' Buffy shrugged. Dawn was just annoying and Giles needed to be punished for getting her out on Slayer duty. Otherwise she would be happy moping around her home between watching teen movies and romantic comedies. Nothing really got in the way of a good depressive funk like destiny and saving the planet from demons and vampires.
'Hey, you know I'm always ready for Dawn patrol?' Xander complained, half hearted.
'You just want the money mum gives you.' She huffed at him.
'That and I wouldn't have to sit here in the cold waiting for some demon to try and summon his army of whatever.'
'Englal-farthen.' Willow supplied. 'Sort of like big skeleton hedgehogs.'
'That's all we need. Sonic's undead cousin.' Xander grouched. Buffy agreed, here they were hiding and waiting for this bozo demon to play his little games. She didn't know what was worse, the "Me Smash" demons who just caused mayhem and ruined her clothes or the "Kunning Plan" bunch who ruined what little beauty sleep she needed.
Right now she had her ire targeted at the Kunning group. From just over a near wall there was a massive explosion.
The three of them looked at each other and at the same time said. 'You don't think...' A heartbeat later there was the sound of gunfire followed by a thunder clap. 'Oh no. Wrong tomb.' Buffy shouted, jumping over the wall in the same move that got her out from around the gravestone.
'Sounds like someone's got a gun.' Willow was just behind her.
'All we need, amateur night. Oww, my legs still asleep.' Xander cried but the Slayer couldn't wait.
On the other side of the wall Buffy was quite glad someone else had stepped in. Their new demon friend had heard of the the phrase overwhelming force. There was at least twenty vamp henchmen with him. Well there was, the amateurs as Xander called them were more than taking care of themselves.
Both in matching outfits of green, gold and really dark blue the two of them knew what they were doing. The big guy was making right for the lightning bolt throwing demon wizard. The over sized gun in his hand firing burning bullets that cut down vamps better than fire arrows. Shoulder rolling one way and then flat out throwing himself around like a floundering fish somehow he dodged thunder bolt after bolt. Blondie was half crouched picking off Vamps with her own ridiculously big gun, occasionally shooting at lightning boy but the flame rounds weren't doing anything.
'You can't kill him with fire. You have to rip him apart!' Buffy shouted.
'Gotcha! the woman shouted back before diving away from another lighting bolt. 'High-ex!' she shouted and fired almost before the gun was in place. The explosion wasn't the biggest Buffy had seen. Hell she'd blown up the high school, that was a big boom. But the idea that these guys could fire bombs big enough to do that. That was impressive. It didn't do anything of course but it looked cool.
'I said R-I-P! Not B-L-O-W.' She screamed at the woman before charging. Buffy's hope was that between the three of them the demon would be too distracted to get her in time. Only it wasn't the Slayer that got to him but the big guy.
Moving faster than any convenient metaphor the man had a long knife in his hand. Burying it to the hilt in the Demons neck he growled at his gun four words; 'Standard issue; Rapid fire.' He then literally cut the big bad demon in half.
Lifting the whole damn thing off the ground, left handed by the knife handle, was quite impressive. At point blank range he drew the huge gun across the Demons waist, little metal cases falling like rain. Then a large thud as a pair of legs dropped. 'Right then. That should slow him down.' Buffy gasped.
Dropping the gun whoever he was reached up and twisted the sorcerer's head off like it was a bottle top. 'Has that killed it?' he shot over his shoulder to her.
'Yep... its dead now. Very dead.'
'Whoa. Someone called in the marines.' Xander called. He and Will had just made it around the wall, Buffy was glad. These guys might have just done her job but that didn't mean she trusted them.
'Juvies. Isn't there a curfew in this town?' The big guy was striding towards her, casually reloading.
'No, besides I'm the Slayer. Kinda my job to kill those things.' she tossed her hair back and looked up, and up. Alright big guy was an understatement. He was half again taller than her and about three across. If she didn't have Slayer strength she wouldn't have thought once about standing up to him. There would be a Buffy shaped blur on the horizon. Even with Slayer strength and years of training she was a little scared of him. Maybe it was that silly helmet of his. 'You know I can see right up your nose.'
As his nose flared the woman laughed. 'She got you there Dredd. Besides I think these locals might be helpful.'
'Is this one of your jokes Anderson?' Buffy looked down, well okay at her head height, and there was a shield like badge just over his heart with the word Dredd written across.
This close and now that the battle was over she could finally come to grips with the outfit. It was a big midnight blue body suit with bits on. Big green gloves, boots, belt, elbows and knee pads. The gloves had two long pockets on the forearms and the big boots held the gun and the long knife. Oddest thing was the gold. Left shoulder was just half a beer keg strapped on for armour. The right was awesome. This huge jutting eagle, easily bigger than Buffy's head. Also the badge was attached to his massive zipper with a thick golden chain.
'Look Dredd why don't you just let me do this.' Blondie shook her head, probably from having to put up with grumpy. 'Hi there, I'm Cassandra.'
By now Xander and Willow had come and stood by Buffy, waiting for her lead. 'Buffy Summers. This is Xander and that's Willow. I take it your "Psi"?'
'Well yes I am physic. Oh you're talking about the badge! No my names Anderson. We've got a problem and after this little diversion I think your just the locals we need to talk to.'
'We need local knowledge. Death goes to ground and it could take us all week to find him.' She was right, he still didn't like it. Anderson shook her head and turned to the kids. 'I don't know how much of this you'll believe but its the truth.' She told them everything. Death, where they came from and what would happen if they didn't stop the drokker before it was too late.
'Well he came to the right place.' The small blonde said. 'Let's try that-a-way.' she pointed.
The boy winced; 'You don't think he came here for the Hellmouth?'
'If not the Hellmouth would draw him here like a magnet.' Anderson agreed. 'I'm a telepath, I just read your surface thoughts. Sorry.'
'Hey no it's cool.' Harris shrugged. 'Buffy had the same thing a few years back. As long as I'm not thinking about sex it's okay.'
'Urm Xander... Hate to mention this but she is fairly attractive.' The red head pointed out.
'Thanks Willow, I think your cute too. Though between the two of you you've got Xander well trained. It hadn't even crossed his mind.' Anderson grinned.
The group walked the short distance to a destroyed building. In his home dimension this whole area was the site of the doomed Mega-City 2. Nuked off the face of the planet during the Necropolis. A time when the world was under attack by a necromancer conjuring the undead into a massive army.
Dredd was not happy with the current arrangement, the juves had no idea what they were getting involved in and knew exactly what to do about it. Then, just outside the site, Anderson fell to her knees:-
'Anderson!' The two girls supported his fellow Judge. 'What happened?' he asked
Rosenburg answered. 'Its the Hellmouth! She must be able to feel it!'
'Wow, talk about your jumbo sized enemas' Anderson gasped. 'If Death was going to come anywhere it was here. It's like a bottle of evil with the cap half twisted off.'
'That's a pretty good description. We sort of grew up on it, you kinda get used to this sort of thing.' Summers put a brave face on it. Being a street judge you had to know when someone is lying. Summers was a brave girl, a bit quick with the witty remarks but bright enough to know what she was doing. She had the making of a good street judge and her friends might have made good Judges too. This wasn't their dimension and if there was a street Judge system someone should have recognised it by now.
As it was he couldn't let civilians, even if they were experienced, get in the firing line. 'You three stay here with Anderson. I'll be right back.'
'And if he's in there you'll come back for reinforcements, right?' Harris asked.
'No. Stay here.' With that he strode into the wrecked building.
Cassandra shrugged. 'Don't bother following him. He'll just get peeved and we'll never hear the end of it.'
'So you know him well.' Buffy shot back. She was insinuating something no judge could be involved in. She was lucky Old Stony hadn't heard.
But Cassandra just laughed and shook her head. 'Don't get any ideas little miss. We're Judges and that that means no corruption at all.'
'You mean no money? Stuff like that?' Xander asked, quite interested.
'I mean nothing.' She got back up, the headache was fading and the static fuss in her noggin was a little better. 'Mind if we take a few steps back, I think I'm going deaf in my third ear.' Yep she was still a bit dizzy, that Hellmouth was something else.
'So you mean nothing, wow no wonder he's grouchy.' Buffy joked.
'Never thought of it that way.' Cassandra admitted. Honestly she hadn't, Judge training helped remove those useless drives and desires. She said that to the three of them.
'Are you all like monks or something?'
'Yep, of the holy church of the Law. Smiling Joe in there is the high priest.' Cassandra joked.
'And patron saint of cutting demons in half with a machine gun.' Buffy supplied.
'Its a side job.' Dredd was back and from the sound of things his usual cheerful self.
'No sign? she asked.
'Just means we're early.'
'We can't stay here. My heads clearing but that could be I'm just getting used to the noise. Whatever the cesspool is doing to me it isn't Psi friendly.'
'How far away you need to get?' he asked. Concern, even sympathy, from Dredd? No chance, he was probably concerned she wouldn't be able to function.
'I'll let you know.'
'If your looking for somewhere to crash my place is a good distance off.' Buffy got a black look from Dredd for that suggestion. 'Think about it. Where else are you going to go? We know the lay of the land, we know about you and what's happening. What do you have?'
'Lawgivers.' Was Dredd's elegant answer. Brandishing the standard Judge side arm.
'We've had this argument Dredd.' Cassandra stood up to him. 'I know you don't like the idea of putting these three in the firing line and neither do I. We both know how bad Death can get but trust me, they've handled bad before and survived. We need them.'
There was one of those long moments she often had with Dredd. When he was considering her point of view. Usually he dismissed it and did things his own way but rarely, very rarely, he'd agree.
End Part I