What has gone before:

Part 1: aka the Infinity Challenge Arc
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=299729

Part 2: aka the Hypertime Arc
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=315090

The Retcon Arc: Infinity Challenge and Hypertime
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=321516

Part 3: aka the Clobberin' Time Arc
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=341297

Part 4:aka The Xplosion Arc
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=345499

To make this story easier to write (for me) as well as speed things up, I'm going in a fashion similar to the Retcon Arc, so we'll be returning to day one.

Day 1: Early Morning,

Judge Joseph Dredd was in hot pursuit of a vicious perp. The punk had robbed a convenience store and then slaughtered the witnesses. Dredd and another judge had spotted him leaving the store and as soon as the punk saw the judges he had opened fire and began running. Dredd chased after the perp while the other judge investigated the crime scene.

The perp took a fire escape and headed to the rooftops. Dredd followed in hot pursuit. The perp was unusually fast and agile and was difficult for Dredd to draw a bead on. Dredd made it to the rooftops and began racing to catch the criminal.

He was narrowing the gap between himself and the criminal when the crook took an unusually wide leap to another rooftop. Dredd stealed himself and prepared to make the leap as well.

Dredd left the edge of the building and sailed across to the other rooftop. Unfortunately; in mid leap, he found himself engulfed by some strange rift in reality with no way to avoid it. His only satisfaction was seeing that the perp ran directly into some Judge reinforcements that Dredd had radioed for to head the perp off.

Judge Dredd found himself in a wet swampland.

He was angry and confused. What had just happened? He had accidently drenched his lawgiver pistol and rendered it temporarily inoperative. Cursing he stood up and began wading through the marsh in search of some dry land. It was murky and dark but Dredd could sense some sunlight slipping through the overgrowth of trees that effectively shut out the sun.
He drew out his daystick and kept it ready.

He had only waded about ten feet when the water before him erupted and he was faced with a giant leech. Had he been transported to the cursed Earth? Was this a mutant? He began beating the creature with his daystick with his left hand while he worked to free his knife for his right hand.

The leech was stymied by his body armor and he soon left the creature in a puddle of gore. However he'd made a tremendous amount of noise fighting the leech and he heard some splashing noises and guttaral sounds coming from many directions around him. A quick check of his pistol told him it wasn't a viable weapon yet and the sounds definitely suggested that whatever was out there had him heavily outnumbered.

He began splashing recklessly through the swamp in a desperate effort to find dry land.

Dredd didn't get far before he saw the first of the assailants. It looked like a bipedal alligator with a sense of modesty. The creature carried a shield and a poleaxe, as if that long row of vicious teeth in that snout wasn't deadly enough.

The creature saw him and literally licked his chops in anticipation of a meal!

Dredd would have none of it and lobbed a gas grenade at the creature. The creature literally snapped at the grenade as it was lobbed toward it and unfortnately for itself, caught the grenade in it's jaws and instinctively bit down, disrupting the grenade and releasing the gas. It immediately succumbed to the gas and collapsed.

In a stroke of luck for Dredd, more of these creatures hurried up and paused to investigate their fallen colleague. Since they had no idea what the gas was, they swiftly succumbed to it. Dredd decided not to wait to see what might happen if more came and rushed to find dry land so that he could move more freely.

Dredd found some dry land without a moment to spare as more of these creatures began discovering his "invasion" of their swamp. Trying to avoid getting caught in the marsh and avoid uneccessary encounters with his assailant, he hurried along looking for a break in the brush where he could see some landmarks and determine where he was.

He tried to not think about the possibility of any pockets of radiation. If he'd run through any of those he was a dead man. He was certain he must have been transported into some section of the cursed Earth because he only saw obvious mutations. Why else would he have met a 5 foot long leech that could lunge at him? Why else would there be 7 foot tall bipedal alligators chasing him?

Suddenly he disturbed a normal looking alligator that hissed at him but scurried into the marshland to avoid a confrontation. This confused him.
How could their be normal alligators and mutants as well? It didn't make sense.

He had no time to reflect on this anomaly because more of these bipedal alligators were converging on him and he needed to keep moving.

As he ran, he was forced to change direction several times as he was cut off by these gatormen that loomed out of the swamp and into his path.

He was grateful that the dry land seemed to be holding out with only an occasional need to splash through a section that was flooded with marsh water.

His pistol was still waterlogged and he tried to beat a gatorman down with his daystick. The creature merely hissed at him unphased and Dredd barely broke free. Luckily his armor held true and deflected the creature's attack.

Dredd was desparate for his lawgiver pistol to dry out as the numbers of his assailants were growing and he was not able to take time to lob more gas grenades.

He also wanted to be careful not to waste his grenades. He only had nine more and he wanted to use them judiciously. It would only be a matter of time before he was cut off.

Suddenly; almost incongruously, he spotted a cabin ahead. It had a small dock and a skiff along with a shed behind the cabin.

He stopped and took out another gas grenade and lobbed it at the greatest concentration of these gatormen. Clearly they weren't too smart because these creatures also snapped at the grenade as it sailed into their midst. One caught it and by catching it, freed the gas and incapacitating several of their ilk.

Dredd lobbed two more grenades at other clusters of the creatures and gained the same results. He then hurried to the strange cabin and entered it with plans to make a stand. It shouldn't be long before his lawgiver pistol dried out and he might be able to bring the fight to the gatormen then.

Dredd found the cabin unlocked but surprisingly easy to secure. Whoever built the cabin was mindful of defense as the cabin had only small, easily secured windows and several small "murderholes" to fire through while attackers could not get a bead on the defender.

Dredd found himself approving of the cabin's defenses. Despite the cabin's wooden structure, it was sturdy and considering the nature of his attackers totally adequate to protect him.

Dredd found that he was hungry and explored the cabin. He was delighted to find stores of pemmican and bacon. There was also several jugs of water available.

He also found biscuits, flour, sugar, coffee grounds and berries.

He began to wonder if he were actually even in the cursed Earth.

The strange bipedal lizardmen surrounded the cabin, attempting to force entry. Dredd waited patiently for his lawgiver pistol to finally dry out. After what seemed like hours, it finally began working again and Dredd began firing. The gatormen fell back in shock. They had hardly been expecting an assault like this! The strange looking human hadn't shown an ability to kill any of them before! It must have been something he found in the cabin.

After several of the assailants fell dead, they began beating a hasty retreat and Dredd incongruously was reminded of an old song he'd heard once called "The Battle Of New Orleans".

Dredd finally had time to relax and look around. He stepped out to look at the cabin property. The gatormen seemed to have stolen the skiff he'd seen.

He walked over to the shed. It was open and only contained some yard tools like a spade, rake and hoe as well as a wheelbarrow.

But there was a door in the back of the shed and that seemed odd to him.
Why would there be a back door to a simple shed? He moved into the shed to look. Clearly the door would only take him back outside. It seemed redundant. Why did they bother?

Dredd reached out to open the shed door.

Dredd opened the door and was stunned by what he saw. He saw his office assigned to him at his precinct in Mega City One! In disbelief, he closed the door and reopened it. Nothing changed.

He closed it again and walked out of the shed the way he came in and began to walk around to the other side of the shed. There wasn't even room to walk behind it as a large stack of cordwood was piled against the shed. Dredd impatiently struck the cordwood away. There was no sign of the door on the outside of the shed.

Now Dredd was alarmed! He rushed back to the entrance of the shed and looked in. He was relieved to find the doorway was still there, at least on the inside of the shed.

Part of him was feeling relief but another part was greatly irritated. He felt like he was being toyed with! Angry now, Dredd marched to the doorway and entered it. Shutting the door, he swiftly reopened it.

The shed was still there.

Dredd moved over to his desk and inspected it. Everything seemed to be in order. He surveyed the office. It seemed to be the same one he shared with Judge Anderson. However, she was nowhere around.

The door was in a section of the wall that he knew did not have a door of any kind in his memory. He tried the door again and saw the shed again. The door seemed to be some kind of portal that allowed him to traverse from his world to the strange swamp he'd found himself in while trying to nail that perp.

The whole thing brought more questions then answers and he knew he needed to file a report about all of this but he decided to consult with his partner Judge Anderson first. He left the office to find her.

Dredd couldn't get over the eerie stillness. It was unnerving. All the offices, the lobby and the halls were completely still. Where was everybody?

Dredd did not like what he was sensing. Before he'd gone very far he rushed to the elevators to go down to the lower levels to check the prisoners. If no one was around, what had become of the prisoners?

He soon found that all the cells were empty! Dredd began to doubt his sanity.

There was absolutely no way Mega City One could ever be empty of humanity! It was inconceivable! And yet; since he'd walked through the door in that shed, he hadn't encountered a single soul.

Something was wrong. He took the elevator back up to the ground floor. The entire lobby was silent. This never happened! It was always teeming with probation officers, lawyers, relatives, reporters, witnesses, complainants, even Judge groupies.

Dredd felt like he was in a dream/nightmare.

Once again he checked the strange door. It was still there. He returned to the lobby. Still empty, even devoid of the people that were assigned to be there.

Dredd checked the motor pool. His Lawmaster motorbike was their despite his having left it behind as he was forced to chase that perp along the rooftops.

He rode out into the greater Mega City One area.

Dredd covered a lot of Mega City One on his bike but failed to find a single soul. It sort of reminded him of an old Twilight Zone episode Judge Hershey and he watched during some down time they had together. Despite the amount of area he had searched, he'd barely skimmed the surface of the Mega City One area.

The eerieness of the empty city was beginning to wear on even his steel nerves. Deciding he was getting nowhere, he returned to the motor pool to switch to an air flivver so he could cover more area.

Day 1: Midmorning,

Johnny Alpha was on an assignment. He needed to track two rogue mutants that were running a traveling deli that had begun specialising in "Long Pig" barbecue. They were traveling through the solar system offering their wares to any comers and some of the customers were often in danger of becoming part of the menu.

He'd traced them to Earth and had a lead that they were trying to ply their trade in Antarctic City. He left his spacecraft docked and activated his teleporter to bring him to the heart of the city.

To his shock he stepped forward into a dank and fetid swamp. A far cry from the bustling Antarctic City that he'd been expecting.

Cursing as he splashed around in the knee deep swamp water, he wondered how his teleporter could have malfunctioned so spectacularly. He was further perplexed because Antarctic City was nowhere near any swampland. His teleporter could only cover short distances and should never have brought him anywhere near any swampland. Luckily enough sunlight was filtering through the overgrowth of trees to allow him to look around.

Reluctant to try the teleporter again, he began slogging through the swampland to try to get a bearing on where he was. He winced at the noise his splashing made as he had no idea what mutations might be attracted to the noise he was making. He began moving more slowly so that he could get a sense of what the threat level might be in this unknown swamp.

He heard some noises off to his right that sounded like a skirmish of some sort and moved to discreetly investigate.

Peering through the mangrove trees and marsh grasses he saw a cluster of bipedal crocodile men surrounding some kind of grotesque mutation in a concerted effort to bring the creature down. The huge lizard men were armed with primitive spears and shields.

The beast they were assaulting was one of the ugliest things he'd ever seen, and he'd seen some ugly things. It looked like a water buffalo with hippopotamus legs. It had an extended neck that ended in an amped up version of a warthogs head. It had a long snake like tail that it was using as a weapon. But the deadliest part of the creature was the deadly rays that emanated from it's eyes. The lizard men that fell within it's gaze were falling like flies.

The beast was wounded by the lizard men in several places but showed no signs of faltering. Eventually the few remaining lizard men fled from the devastating attack of the horrible creature. Unfortunately, one of the lizard men fled directly toward him.

Johnny already had his blaster primed and ready and when the lizard man spotted him and moved to strike him down, Alpha was forced to drop the attacker before he could complete his blow.

To Johnny's further dismay, other lizard men had decided to follow the first one and the beast they'd been assaulting had decided to them!

Johnny decided to make a run for it as well, rather then get caught in those deadly rays from the creature. He was faced with a problem though, both the lizard men and the creature were better adapted to the swamp then he was.

He decided to climb a mangrove tree and draw a bead on the enraged beast.

Luckily for Alpha, the monstrous creature's rage left it focused on the lizard men that it had chased down and he was virtually ignored. As Alpha drew a bead with his blaster, the creature managed to cut down two more lizard men.

Alpha fired at the extended neck of the beast and was gratified to see the head severed from the grotesque body. The few remaining lizardmen didn't even bother to look back as they fled from a losing situation.

Johnny dropped out of the mangrove tree and took a closer look at the deadly beast. He'd seen some bizarre mutations before but never anything quite like those.

Now that things had calmed down, he saw some dry land he could get on and hopefully find a path of sorts that would lead him out of this swamp and off to somewhere that could allow him to get back to his mission. He slogged off to the drier land.

Alpha wandered through the swamp for what seemed like hours. Eventually he came to a clearing and was able to get a better look at the sky.

He spotted two moons in the sky!

This couldn't be Earth! Earth didn't have two moons! Plus, he hadn't detected any radiation since he'd been here! Since the big one, the Earth was riddled with radiation. This damned swamp was unpleasant but it sure didn't give anybody the sense of contamination that the Earth he knew, had. This place seemed radiation free, despite those mutant crocodiles and that strange beast. What the Hell was going on?

He finally decided to try his teleporter again.

Johnny Alpha's teleporter brought him to another clearing. Only this one was at the site of a cabin with a shed and a dock.

Unfortunately for Johnny, the cabin was surrounded by a horde of lizardmen that seemed intently interested on the cabin in question, almost as if they were waiting for someone or something to come out.

However the teleporter gave a telltale noise whenever it was used and several of the lizardmen turned and noticed Johnny's arrival.

There were too many for Johnny to fight off effectively, so he blindly used the teleporter one more time. Johnny got out quick.

Judge Dredd buzzed a lot of Mega City One in the flivver but still came up dry. There was no sign of anyone, anywhere.

Mega City One took up nearly the entire East coast of the former United States, so even with the flivver it would be impossible for Dredd to investigate the entire city for signs of life, but attempts to reach anybody by radio or cell phone were fruitless.

He decided to give up and return to his headquarters.

He felt frustrated. The feeling of isolation wasn't helping either. What was happening here? No one in Mega City One at all? Over night? it was impossible.

One of his enemies must have slipped him some hallucinatory drugs. He was imagining this. They were trying to drive him crazy.

He returned to his office and looked into the door on the back wall that should not even be there. There was that strange cabin. he entered it and looked out. The cabin was surrounded by those strange gatormen he'd tangled with before.

Shaking his head in disbelief, he could not begin to fathom why he could see bizarre signs of life here and absolutely nothing in Mega City One.

What was going on? His job was to uphold the law! Hell, he was the law! What use was he, if he couldn't enforce the law?

Frustrated, confused and angry, he decided to remain at the cabin rather then face the debillitating stillness at Mega City One. It was then that he finally noticed the two moons in the sky of the swamp/cabin world.