Sector 102 // Novar: The Psychic Kid from the Cursed Earth
Peps here. People in Mega-City One love talking about mutants like they’re all monsters waiting to crawl over the wall. Truth is? Most folks out in the Cursed Earth are just trying to survive. But then there’s Novar.
The Kid with the Metal Tree.
Dredd first crossed paths with Novar during the infamous trek across the Cursed Earth toward Mega-City Two. You know, the journey packed with cannibals, mutants, dust storms, and enough nightmares to fill a hundred case files. Right after a nasty encounter with Brother Morgar and the Mutant Brotherhood, the convoy stumbled onto this strange kid living out in the wasteland. Spikes Harvey Rotten found him first. Novar was sitting outside his home quietly building a tree sculpture out of scrap metal. Not exactly threatening. At least… not at first. Something was definitly off, Novar wasn’t like other kids. He was too calm, too aware. Like he already knew things before they happened. Turns out he did.
The kid had powerful psychic abilities, future sight, telekinesis, the whole deal. And despite growing up in the radioactive madness of the Cursed Earth, he had this deeply empathetic streak. A strong sense of right and wrong, he saw evil clearly. Maybe too clearly.
The Attack
Before anyone could settle in, the Mutant Brotherhood had caught up and ambushed the team from all sides. Cue blaster fire, chaos, mutants dropping left and right. One of Dredd’s people was killed in the assault, and something in Novar snapped. Not rage exactly, more like grief weaponised. Then the scrap metal storm happened. Remember that metal tree he’d been building? Every shard of scrap suddenly exploded outward into the air like a steel tornado. Novar controlled every piece. Metal spikes ripped through Brotherhood attackers from every direction. Blades of junk steel punching through armour, flesh, weapons, you name it. And Brother Morgar? Novar turned the guy’s own knife against him…Game over.
That’s the weird thing about Novar. With power like that, you’d expect some screaming mad mutant tyrant. Instead, he just seemed…sad. Like he understood exactly how ugly humanity could get. After the battle, Dredd and the survivors moved on. But before they left, Novar hinted they’d meet again someday.
Honestly? That sounds less like a prediction and more like a certainty and with a kid who can see the future… that’s not comforting.
Final Thought
The Cursed Earth creates hard people. Cruel people. Broken people. But every once in a while, it creates something else. Something powerful enough to change the world around it. Novar’s just a kid, at least for now. And if he ever decides humanity isn’t worth saving anymore? That’s a future I’d rather not see.
