The location: Mega City 1
During Necropolis, ordinary cit Art Ingence is sent out to try and find a safe hiding place for his family - his mother, brother and uncle. He runs along the streets, terrified, when he hears a familiar noise behind him... Somewhere, along the street, Judge Death is hissing. He panics, and runs round a corner - straight into Judge Fear!!
'Be at peaccccce, sssssinner' hisses Fear, lifting his visor.
As Art gazes into what lies beyond, he falls to the ground, unconcious - presumed dead.
SEVERAL HOURS LATER
Art wakes up, lying in the street. He feels completely fine - maybe a little groggy, but certainly alive. He stumbles home to his family, and waits for Necropolis to end.
He becomes increasingly obsessed with his survival. Why? Why could he survive? He eventually starts experimenting on himself. He tries to take a blood sample - and is horrified to find that his arm is full of wires!! He x-rays himself, and finds that he is, in fact, a robot! He doesn't tell his family - hell, how can they BE his family? - but instead runs away.
A few hours later, he crashes through the door of a tech shop, and blurts out his story. It doesn't take much to persuade the mechanic to take a look. His fears are confirmed - he is entirely robotic. The tech tells him that he has large chunks of his memory deleted, but they're probably retrievable. Art gives him permission.
WHOOSH
Art was a human once - a mutie, with incredible abilities to manipulate machines. He was captured by the Justice Department after causing an explosion that killed 5000 cits. He remembers.... He remembers the experiments... The torture. Then he remembers the ultimate humiliation - being forced to transfer his mind into a robotic body, so he could watch his human form be burned. Experiments - all experiments. He was eventually deemed too valuable to destroy, but too dangerous to reenter society, so parts of his mind were deleted and he was placed with 3 full time minders, who he believed to be his family.
His name? A Justice Department joke - ARTifical INtelliGENCE.
Full of rage, he storms into Justice Central, and heads for a terminal. He is gunned down almost immediately - before he has time to do anything.... Or has he?
Mega City 1 - Now
It's snowing. Drokkin' everywhere. No vehicle in the city is working - not even Lawmasters. The robots are turning against humans once more, and technology can't be relied upon. Everything is infected with the AI virus. It's crept carefully through the system for years, plotting, planning, getting used to protocol throughout the city... Waiting to take it's revenge on the pathetic humans who killed it. For AI is Artificial Intelligence.... And Dredd's got a hell of a fight on his hands.
An army of robots, every vehicle in the city, weapons no longer work, buildings are turning against people....
Millions dead.... Even more trapped....
AI is here
