Chapter Nine: Sink Or Swim
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Frozen, Dredd, or Judge Dredd. This story of mine simply uses elements of the 2000 AD universe in conjunction with the characters and setting of Disney's Frozen.
Author's Update: Wow it's been quite a long time, hasn't it? Thanksgiving and now we're reaching the second week of December, my goodness time flies when virtually every single problem falls directly in your lap…but I digress. It would appear that you all liked my little gift to you prior to Thanksgiving and if you've not already read it then I encourage you to do so via my profile. The updates are going to be a bit hectic from here until mid-January so I please ask you all to bear with me and keep being the awesome people you've proven yourselves to be with your current patience levels. I've taken up too much of your time as is and so without further ado, on with the chapter!
An unimaginably bright light burst forth from utter nonexistence and blinded the snow princess for several moments, during which she nearly toppled over in an attempt to regain her footing as well as her vision. Shaking her head fervently causing her platinum blonde braid to shift back and forth in rapid succession, Elsa's double vision began to subside and slowly the young woman began taking in the vague details of her surrounding environment. Looking about, the young woman came to the startling realization that Judge Bjorgman no longer took position directly in front of her and couldn't be found at all and for some odd reason the room had become completely black with the exception to the singular bright light beaming down upon her lithe form from directly above.
"An armed assailant approaches you…assessment." The booming voice of the square-jawed Street Judge echoed about the room, baffling the young princess, as she couldn't pinpoint his precise location. Her efforts were interrupted as a mysterious figure stepped forward from the shadows brandishing a 12-gauge shotgun, courtesy of the remaining 21st century firearms cache's hidden throughout the older ruins of MegaKingdom Arendelle. The figure cocked the seemingly antique fire-arm, giving the platinum blonde a visible start.
"I umm.."
"Incorrect!" With Kristoff's firm declaration the mysterious figure discharged his weapon and hit the young woman point-blank in the lower torso. To her surprise and extreme discomfort, the rounds were not lethal but in fact a modified variant of the training ammunition as her father had warned her about not too long after last evening dinner. Elsa felt as though every nanometer of her body coursed with violent electric tendrils and resigned herself to lay upon the floor until the horrific sensations ceased. To her great dismay, an annoyed grunt accompanied with heavy footfalls approached her left side and the young woman suddenly felt the whirling sensation of being lifted from the ground to standing upon her feet in the blink of an eye.
"Do you know what you did wrong?" The annoyed Street Judge demanded calmly as he absent-mindedly activated a hidden remote within his right palm causing the main light of the room to activate and momentarily blind the young woman once more.
"I ummm didn't…"
"You hesitated. A Street Judge cannot hesitate when staring down the barrel of a gun, modern or otherwise." He responded swiftly as he examined her mid-section for weakness in the armor design; luckily the newer armor held firm to a direct stun round from a state-of-the-art Lawgiver, much to the Street Judge's surprise considering he knew the success rate of the older PSI-division's armor efficiency.
"So, I just arrest him on the spot then?" Elsa asked timidly as she rubbed her taut stomach briefly, impressed the armor absorbed a great deal of the blow and that the pain had dissipated so quickly.
"Depends…if a perp were to walk up to you like the sim did, then I'd expect you to take him out on the spot. Got it?"
Elsa stood shocked at Judge Bjorgman's words, flabbergasted that he'd expect her to kill a member of her kingdom so nonchalantly. She'd never handled a weapon before let alone come across an armed assailant, to say nothing about her ending another human's existence and here was this man expecting her to extinguish a member of her kingdom's life as if she were scratching her nose and to think nothing of it.
"Problem?" The gruff officer queried, giving the morose princess a curious stare.
"How do you do it? K-K-Kill someone and j-j-just get over it? Doesn't that bother you, at all?" The snow princess asked gently, catching his world weary eyes with a sorrowful gaze. The Street Judge took in a deep breath and ran a large hand through his hair in an attempt to stifle the disbelief and incredulity building within at such a question. Kristoff remembered she wasn't another rookie fresh out of the academy nor a transfer from any of the other MegaSocieties from around the world, she was a member of the royal family and she was the heir to the throne of Arendelle. By law she hadn't been expected to fire a weapon let alone obtain a familiarization with a Lawgiver, but here she stood before him out of sheer love for her sister and raw determination to bring the men responsible to justice. The Street Judge chuckled at that last thought, he'd rather have five cadets with her will than twenty of the rookies sent his way each year.
"Being a Street Judge means a lot more than upholding the law and preserving order throughout the MegaKingdom. It means that criminals, gangs, psychos, mutants, all of the above and more are more than happy to jump at the smallest chance to take you down at a moments notice. Every day we take our lives into our own hands as we patrol the streets, and to maintain peace and civility we must occasionally remove the violent criminal element from society for the good of the kingdom. Personally, I don't see it as murder I…I see it as putting down rabid dogs, exterminating a virus, extinguishing a fire in the middle of a forest, am I making myself clear?" The young woman merely nodded and urged the broad-shouldered Street Judge to continue his explanation.
"In this mission, I will always be the first one into a room and you will always stay one step behind me…is that clear?" The young woman nodded shakily. "…There will undoubtedly be heavy resistance in at least some of our efforts in bringing this investigation to a close, and in order to ensure your survival and safekeeping I need to know if you are capable of taking another mans life should the need arise. Are you?"
"…Yes…" The Street Judge stood motionless for a brief series of seconds, analyzing every facial expression and uneasy exhale of the young princess. Nodding his head in self-affirmation, the Street Judge acknowledged her response and quickly marched toward a black duffle bag around three meters away and swiftly retrieved a lawgiver of his own. Making his way back toward the frazzled snow princess, Kristoff engaged his firearm and double-checked the ammo clip residing in within the high-tech weapon to ensure the proper training rounds had been securely loaded.
"Round Two, Elsa. Get Ready." The stern Street Judge ordered, receiving a firm nod from the young woman he watched as a helmet of pure ice not too dissimilar in design to his own encase her luscious platinum mane as she readied into a proper firing stance around two feet behind his own hulking form. Regardless of the fact he'd elected not to adorn his own patrol armor, Kristoff gave a go-ahead nod to his new 'partner' to signal the start of the next session before quickly initializing the training program via the hidden remote in his palm. The lights instantly vanished, leaving the two blondes momentarily blind to any potential threat the simulator could throw at the them before several red emergence lights kicked in throughout the room and illuminated the vastly altered landscape of the once Spartan interior as now resembling a war-torn street with fires and bodies strewn about the area.
"This assessment will test your adaptability to a dangerous environment in addition to how well you'll follow my orders. Stay close and follow my lead, understood?"
"Yes sir…Kristoff." Elsa couldn't help but slip in another casual reference to his first name despite the obvious ire it stirred within and based on the overwhelmingly obvious tension building within the tall blonde man's neck and shoulders, she'd succeeded in ruffling his feathers. To Elsa, it'd been only fair to continue teasing the poor man as he'd failed in warning her about the actual use of stun rounds. Plus, for reasons unbeknownst to her, the young woman felt a sense of reciprocated pleasure from the hardened Street Judge with each verbal exchange and quite frankly she enjoyed the emotions their rousing bouts brought forth, stirring something there that wasn't there before.
"Form up!" The Street Judge bellowed; gripping his firearm in both hands, the strong blonde proceeded forward swiftly, making his way through the rubble and smog brought about by heavy arms fire and the collapse of weakened infrastructure. Elsa followed brusquely behind the skillful Street Judge, taken completely aback at the sheer realism that technology brought to training exercises. She was nevertheless curious as to how fresh cadets handled such training, especially those who lacked a certain amount of fortitude obviously required for such a dangerous profession. Such thoughtful musings were irrevocably shattered as a hail of gunfire peppered the every inch of the street where she'd previously stood, luckily the quick-thinking actions and strong grip of Judge Bjorgman secured her safety by means of bringing her down hard.
"Eyes open Elsa!" The Street Judge chastised as he leaned around the corner and unleashed four well-aimed rounds into four carefully targeted windows. To Elsa's great surprise, she found the overwhelming roar of hot led propelled at incredible velocities had dropped phenomenally fast as the Street Judge narrowly avoided machine gun fire as he barreled across the street, never firing off more than three burst shots into the enemy stronghold. Elsa couldn't help but stare in awe, content in watching the intricate display of raw talent and the ferocious power this man exuded as he single-handedly eliminated each armed assailant as they attempted to return fire. Under normal circumstances, the snow princess would've been utterly petrified at the entire showcasing of blood, sweat, and death that seemed to surround her yet the platinum blonde's attention found itself entirely consumed with memorizing every minute detail of Judge Bjorgman's magnificent performance.
The Street Judge grunted as a high-intensity round blew through the concrete barrier he'd opted to use for cover and relayed the verbal command for explosive rounds; he waited until he could be certain that the simulated assault troops ceased their onslaught to reload before vaulting his strong body clear of the pile of rubble that had been his cover. Walking sinisterly slow, the square-jawed Judge methodically unleashed a one-man artillery barrage upon the tattered remains of the concrete structure. Elsa could hear the screams of those men and women in the building as Kristoff effectively eviscerated what remained of the infrastructure, each carefully timed round blasting through the mixture of heavy metal and cement, debris-turned-shrapnel fanning further into the building as fires soared higher and higher from the upper windows.
Curiously, Elsa watched as the seemingly unstoppable Street Judge ceased his demolition spree; swiftly he motioned for her to approach with a curt hand gesture to which Elsa took a reassuring breath before stepping out behind cover, her weapon firmly locked between her nimble fingers. Approaching the Street Judge from behind, Elsa dropped her guard and breathed an uneasy sigh of relief with east step taken closer to Kristoff but in her bliss the young woman failed to notice an armed figured moving about the wreckage. Just as the snow princess opened her mouth to voice the incredulity she was experiencing, a calloused hand appeared from the ether and clamped tightly over her mouth and she felt the unnatural pressure of metal against her soft skin and instantly recognized the predicament she'd inadvertently allowed herself to fall victim. Kristoff's ears twitched and within nanoseconds the powerful Judge turned directly around to find his protégé with an early laser pistol, undoubtedly stolen from a local MegaKingdom depot. Gripping the lawgiver firmly, Kristoff snarled at this simulated young punk before launching into full Street-Judge mode.
"Release the Judge and surrender…you have ten seconds to comply." Kristoff viciously demanded with a gravely undertone causing a series of Goosebumps to traverse the terrified snow princesses quaking form.
"Fuck you Bjorgman! The way I see it, there's five of us…" As the young punk declared this statement in a matter-of-fact tone as four perpetrators emerged from the deceptively desolate rubble, all of whom brandishing various forms of melee weaponry. "…and only one of you. Plus, I've got the leverage, and you've nothing! So why don't you throw your weapon down and we'll show you how we take care of pretty little girls out here? Whaddya say?" The Street Judge directed a petrifying glare directly into the hostage taker's cold eyes and growled.
"Time's up." Kristoff fired a high-ex round directly between the deviant's eyes resulting in shower of gore and death. Before Elsa could comprehend the gravity of what she'd just witnessed, the young princess found herself tossed to the ground with brute force resulting in complete and utter disorientation. The four modestly-armed perpetrators took flight upon realizing their comrade had fallen and barreled over the dazed and confused royal with one thought on their minds, vengeance.
Kristoff deftly blocked the first attackers attempted at battery via mangled rebar with a swift rise of his forearm and successfully ripped the rusted pole from the assailants' flimsy grip. Sneering at with disdain the Judge proceeded in disabling the thugs arm and tossing him to the ground before delivering a powerful final blow to ensure the criminal would not return for a second offense. Tossing the make-shift weapon off into the mangled rubble, the Street Judge returned his focus to the remaining perpetrators and growled with disgust. Around this point Elsa began to awaken from her less-than-peaceful slumber, to find she'd been casted roughly two meters from the 'arena' and as she attempted to lift her shell-shocked form up off the floor a sudden wave of exhaustion and pain flooded every inch of her body resulting in a slight gasp from the ice princess.
"Think Elsa, you have to be quick on your feet...too bad you can't move them." The exhausted princess mused internally as she assessed the situation and sought out a viable escape plan to extract herself from this combat zone.
"I can barely move my legs...*tries to move and winces*...that's out for the time being, wait!" Elsa closed her eyes and took in a slow deep breath and released slowly and in doing so reconstructed her concentration and slowly but surely the pavement beneath her palms began to ice-over and within seconds she'd guided the layer of frost into a neatly organized path to a cleared section of the sidewalk. Grinning in success, the young princess grunted and pressed forward to slide across the pristine surface of the mystical ice to her intended destination with a prideful gleam in her eyes.
The skillful Street Judge retrieved a handle from the utility belt and sharply made a sweeping motion allowing for the device, a day-stick, to reach full length. The remaining simulated gang-members flinched at this movement and looked to each other as if pleading for one of their comrades to come up with some semblance of a plan to take down this one-man army of justice. Unflinching, the Street Judge stood in wait for these thugs to continue their futile efforts and join their accomplices, fortunately he wasn't kept waiting for long.
Blinded by rage and fear, the thug brandishing a fire-red axe threw himself at the armored officer of the law in hopes of catching the Street Judge by surprise and brining a swift end to the slaughter. With the quirk of his brow, the Street Judge methodically raised the day-stick up to block the lethal weapon much to the surprise of the rage-fueled deviant as his charge came to a grinding halt. Grunting angrily, Kristoff brought his right fist to bear upon the gangly man's throat with a sickening crunch, the vile criminal gasping for air as he fell to the ground and promptly succumbed to trauma induced asphyxiation. The other two men shared a fearful glance and nodded as if to finalize an unspoken agreement and reluctantly charged the impervious Street Judge armed only with brass knuckles and a length of up on their dread the Street Judge wasted no time turning their emotional duress to his advantage as he launched himself once more unto the breach.
The skinnier of the two, armed with brass knuckles, threw the first punch to which Kristoff instantaneously reversed by effortlessly pulling the obviously inferiorly skilled man into an inescapable vice grip. At that moment the fatter man swung the chain length around in a wide arc to build up sufficient momentum before bringing his meaty appendage down with the hope of sending the metallic line directly into Kristoff's midsection. Judge Bjorgman growled as he reversed his position with his 'hostage' and watched with analytical eyes as the weapon collided into the perpetrator's midsection and how he let out a wail of anguish at bearing the full momentum of the attack. Kicking the man's legs out from beneath him, Kristoff administered swift justice to silence the painful cries by means of a single gunshot.
"KRISTOFF!" Elsa's piercing shout startled the Street Judge from his reverie as he'd virtually forgotten her presence. The momentary surprise at learning she was conscious wore off immediately as the Street Judge turned to discover the lumbering beast of a man remaining in the midst of bringing a massive block of concrete down upon his form. Closing his eyes, Judge Bjorman awaited the painful shock and potential grievous injury commonly associated with such scenarios, perhaps he'd be the first to experience death by simulation, nevertheless it was his own failure in observation that lead to this moment.
Instead of searing pain and agony the Street Judge felt nothing, heard nothing with the exception of something colliding with the pavement and a labor-laden grunt. Opening his eyes to address the situation Kristoff couldn't help but allow his jaw to drop momentarily at the sight that lay before him. The ice princess herself had somehow managed to find some reservoir of inner strength as well as endurance and launch herself into the fray, summoning a shield reminiscent of the mythological knights of the famed 'Middle Ages' to block the colossal concrete and simultaneously created a powerful ice sword which currently protruded from the rotund man's back. Truly a sight to behold, Kristoff grunted in what could be read as approval as he retrieved the remote from one of his many pockets and pressed the center button. Within seconds, the entire simulated environment ceased to exist and the room returned to normal, though the path of ice made by Elsa earlier still remained.
Elsa stood wide-eyed and breathing heavily as exhaustion had once more begun to take hold of her lithely form, and within moments the young ice princess crumbled to the floor in a very un-royal like heap. Kristoff couldn't help but groan at the young woman's lack of energy, she'd never been properly prepared nor trained for intense combat training or any combat training at all come to think of it. Nevertheless, Elsa made the decision and Kristoff would be damned before he allowed any 'partner' of his go out onto the streets without being properly trained.
"If you're to take anything from that demonstration it would be this; I'm not in the business of giving out live demonstrations and I never repeat them and I will expect double the efforts from you after witnessing your abilities. Moreover, you cannot expect to have every angle covered when faced with a grim situation and as such a Street Judge must always have his or her eyes open to better prepare for any situation. As you saw, one screw up can make all of the difference between life...and death."
The young princess slowly lifted her gaze to match the gruff Street Judge and slowly stood to meet his firm stance with as much strength as she could muster at the moment, which being honest wasn't something to brag about by far.
"You...you didn't have to go through..." Elsa paused to catch her breath as she fought the screaming pain released with each breath emanating from her lungs and forced it down to finish her sentence. "...through all of that trouble, just to..to...impress the...the ice princess." Elsa finished breathlessly but with a smirk as the normally no-nonsense lawman broke his stance with a groan and craned his neck in annoyance.
"As you are unimaginably aware by now, being a Street Judge is more than flashing your badge and reciting every law in the Code of Arendelle. Being an officer of the law, working at the Grand Hall of Justice, all entail duties that we are sworn to uphold even if it's means giving our lives for the Kingdom, for justice. Fortunately, as you're under my supervision you will not be forced to forfeit your life though I doubt anybody would survive a close encounter given your unique talents." Elsa nodded at the hidden implication of his last words as well as the subtle acknowledgement of her ability to think on her feet, small smile graced her lips which stirred mysterious feelings within the Street Judges chest which served to befuddle and aggravate the Street Judge for virtually no end.
"A Street Judge who cannot effectively utilize their Lawgiver's in situations involving armed combat are considered as good as dead…" To this Kristoff noticed a crestfallen look befall the snow princess's face before he decided to continue. "…However, recent developments have since convinced me that your ice-focused abilities can more than make up for that particular handicap."
Elsa perked up at his last words, a rush of pride and confidence swept through her veins as the young woman felt like leaping for joy at receiving an actual compliment on her abilities rather than the normal fearful remark or disparaging feelings associated with remembering how everybody treated her different, like a freak, for the longest time in her existence.
"You'll have fifteen minutes to rest and regain your strength after which we'll start round two of your training exercises." Kristoff announced with a nonchalant tone, striding forward to disengage the relays about the room, all the while feeling the burning stare of shock and confusion coming from his protégé.
"I-I'm sorry, d-did you say r-round two?"
"Yes. I did, is there a problem?"
"Nope not at all, round two, bring it on."
Author's Note: I do apologize again for how long it's taken me to get this chapter written and uploaded, but I had to play around with the mechanics of it all and I'm extremely busy this time of year…in fact, it's probably unwise that I even wrote this chapter what with all that I have to do…but I was feeling a little down in the dumps and decided that the perfect way to push an utterly depressive day/situation out of my mind was to give you all what you've been waiting for all this time. I sincerely hope you all enjoy this chapter, and I look forward to what you think on the chapter itself via reviews…so don't be shy; I know you all are thinking about stuff and things.
I hope you all enjoy your weekend!