Judge Schaefer

Origin

Judge Schaefer's great great grandfather was Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer. His legendary survival against an alien Predator carried great standing in her family, to the point that she herself developed a fascination with the creatures.

Despite her relation to Dutch, she was largely a noncombatant, serving as an auxiliary in the Psi-Division who typically dealt with missing person cases.

When a Predator was discovered killing Judges in Mega-City One, Schaefer's position in the Psi-Division coupled with her knowledge of Predators made her a logical choice to assist in tracking down the killer creature.

Creation

Judge Schaefer was created by John Wagner and Enrique Quique Alcatena. Appearing in the Judge Dredd Vs Predator crossover, the character was first introduced in 1997.

Major Story Arc

Predator Vs Judge Dredd

After Judge Dredd had a run-in with the Predator the Judges were able to get a blood sample of the creature, allowing them to ascertain the nature of the threat it presented from information regarding the Predators in their databases. Schaefer was given the blood sample in hopes that her psychic abilities could allow her to track the Predator down before it killed again. This was no easy task however, as it was extraordinarily difficult for her to reach out to such a resistant, alien mind like the Predator's.

With little success on her part, more and more Judges began dropping dead by the hour. Dredd became increasingly frustrated with Schaefer's lack of help and openly dismissed her supposed abilities as useless. Furious, Schaefer stormed out. In her rush, Schaefer realized that she'd forgotten to return the vial of Predator blood she'd been given, but decided to leave that for another day. As she drove home, she fumed silently to herself about Dredd and nearly drove into a truck in incoming traffic. She came out of the near accident all right, licking at a minor cut on her hand. Just for a moment after she suddenly felt a direct connection with the Predator's mind, and she realized that in her dazed state she'd spilled the Predator blood on her hand and accidentally licked it. Realizing that she finally had a way to connect with the Predator, Schaefer quickly downed more of the blood.

Schaefer quickly contacted Dredd when she realized that the Predator had captured and trussed up another Judge. She also began feeling severe pain from the Predator, leading her to believe that it was sick, dying even. As Dredd and a squadron of Judges mobilized, she suddenly received a shock as the Predator killed the captive Judge. She had at least been able to lead the Judges to the Predator's hiding place: the ruins of old New York City beneath Mega-City One. The Predator soon engaged the Judges and nearly killed several more of them. Schaefer begged Dredd to let her try and communicate with the Predator in order to prevent more killing, but Dredd wasn't going to let it go unpunished. Schaefer was sent away, but rushed after Dredd nonetheless to try her idea. The Predator made short work of Dredd's support team, leaving the two killers to go mano-a-mano. When Schaefer returned she accidentally distracted Dredd briefly, allowing the Predator to get its hands on Dredd's Lawgiver. Schaefer tried to talk it down, but it merely shoved her aside and fired the gun, setting off the booby-trap for unregistered users and blowing off its own hand. Dredd followed up by thrusting his knife right into the Predator's chest, finally killing it.

Schaefer told Dredd that she'd been able to see into the Predator's mind and that it knew that the Lawgiver was booby-trapped, but it had fired in anyhow. It seems the Predator was gravely sick and dying, painfully, to the point that it wanted one last challenge to face, one that it couldn't win. Schaefer told Dredd he should feel honored for having been that challenge.