Judges Stone and Parker confront their lead in the conclusion to Mark Wooden’s Judge Dredd without Dredd fanfiction.

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In days long past, stained glass windows had decorated the sides of the derelict church. As Judge Stone walked down the church’s right outer wall, she saw those windows were now shattered. Only fragments remained in their frames.

The missing windows afforded Stone an unobscured look inside. Rotting wooden pews were scattered about, barely any of them remaining in the position facing the altar. Some were broken apart to form a few unlit firepits.

Worthless, the man she and Judge Parker had followed from the shuggy hall, stood at the altar. He wore the orange overalls the Badger juves had mentioned.

The man muttered something. From this distance, all Stone heard was what sounded like chanting.

“Guy’s in here alone,” Stone told Parker through their helmet comm. “I’ll slip in through a window. Take up a crossing position on the left side.”

“What’s he doing?” Parker asked.

“Best I can tell, finding religion.”

Stone holstered her Lawgiver so she could use both hands to climb through a window and into the church. It wasn’t a completely silent entry, but Worthless didn’t seem to notice.

Drawing her Lawgiver, Stone moved cautiously toward Worthless.

She noticed a tablet-sized, black globe resting on what remained of the pulpit area.

With her closer proximity to Worthless, Stone realized the man was praying. The words didn’t make sense, but one word did stand out — Obsidian.

The Judge was nine meters away from Worthless when he reached into a pocket.

“Judge behind you!” Stone said, authority in her voice. “Slowly move that hand out of your pocket!”

Worthless remained still. He must be used to getting drawn on by a Judge. “You can’t stop it,” he said in a nasal voice.

Stone cautiously approached Worthless. “Stop what?”

“The flood. Obsidian’s wrath.”

“What the hell is Obsidian?”

Worthless slowly turned his head, so Stone could see his jagged-toothed grin. “When you find out, Judge, it will be too late. Too, too late.”

“You don’t take that hand out of that pocket, slowly, it’ll be too late for you.”

Worthless turned away from Stone.

A bright light shot up from the object on the pulpit. Stone had to look away for a moment. When she looked back, the light had turned into the shape of a door hovering above the black globe.

Worthless was halfway through it.

“Don’t do it, Stone!” Parker yelled from outside one of the church’s windows.

Worthless had passed through the light.

“Creep’s getting away!”

“It’s not worth it! We’ll get a Tek Judge out here to —”

Stone ran forward. The light door started to close. “Obsidian!” she said before diving at the light. Her boots disappeared into the doorway just as the light shut off.

Parker leaped over the windowsill and into the room. He ran to the pulpit and saw the small device there.

Stone was gone.

Twenty minutes later, Judge Parker watched as several Tek Judges poured over the area. Tek Judge Scott turned the black globe that had emitted the light door over in his hand, studying it.

Psi-Judge Asaji entered, spotted Parker, and joined him. He noticed blood on her uniform.

“Yours or the other guy’s?” he asked her.

“The other guy,” Asaji said. “I better wipe it off before Stone sends me to the cubes for a dirty uniform.”

Parker shuffled his feet. “About that.”

Asaji looked expectantly at Parker. He pointed to Judge Scott. “Hopefully, the Tek Judges can tell us something.”

Off Asaji’s curious look, Parker added. “Stone did say something odd before —”

“Before what?” Asaji asked.

“Before she disappeared.” Parker waited to let that sink in with Asaji.

The Psi-Judge shook her head. “What do you mean, disappeared?”

“This is an interestin’ piece a tech,” Judge Stone said on his way over to join Asaji and Parker. His thick Scottish brogue made his words barely understandable.

Combine that with the technobabble…

“We’ve been working on something like this for some time. Hadn’t gotten it just yet. Something about having to energize the inverted —”

“What is it?” Parker asked.

Scott, annoyed by the interruption, glanced at Parker. The Tek Judge held up the object between him, Parker, and Asaji. “Best we can tell it opens a dimensional portal.”

“A what?” Asaji asked.

Scott glanced at Asaji like a teacher upset at a student who hadn’t done their homework. “Think of it as a doorway. You walk through it and end up somewhere else, probably where another portal is activated.”

“So how do we open the portal and get to Stone?” Parker asked.

Scott’s shoulders dropped. “I’ve only looked at the thing for a few minutes, but I think this is just the projector. Maybe a navigation tool. Ya need a controller to open it.”

Parker swung his hand at a nearby pew. Wood broke off at his contact.

“You were saying Stone said something odd before she went through,” Asaji said.

Parker nodded, though his expression under his helmet visor still displayed frustration. “She said the word Obsidian.”

Asaji was silent. Parker looked at her, his frustration fading to interest. “You’ve heard of it.”

“That guy handcuffed to the door back in Karl Urban block,” Asaji began. “He said Obsidian would rise up.”

“What the drok is Obsidian?” Judge Scott asked.

“I asked Control, and they didn’t have anything,” Asaji said. She looked at Scott and then Parker. “Whatever it is, we’d better find out.”

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Well, that wraps up my foray into the world of Judge Dredd. What is Obsidian? What happened to Judge Stone? Questions I may answer… one day. Let me know in the comments if you’re into that.

With a little help from EN Publishing’s Judge Dredd RPG!

In addition to the Rebellion comic books “2000 AD” and “Judge Dredd Megazine,” I used EN Publishing’s “Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD” role-playing game to help put this together. Check them out!

What’s next, you ask?

Meanwhile, I’ll have some new stuff coming in the next few weeks. I mean, what else am I gonna do in the middle of a pandemic lockdown but write?

In the meantime, I also write original fiction. Check out my “Shadowdance” urban fantasy novels and short stories. They’re filled with vampires, werewolves, and all sorts of action — cuz that’s my thing.

Click the link below for a free preview of and a way to purchase the first novel, “By Virtue Fall,” at Amazon.

Stay safe out there. Stay home. Read a book.

Thanks for reading.