Summon Swat Squad

Ch. 9 Punishment

The light slowly trickled into my vision as the waking world came to me. Pain shot across my brain like a bullet and continued like thunder. The shapes dancing around my vision slowly came into focus. Looking around there was not much to see, it was a dark room and it was empty with a door on the other side of the room. I tried to move my arms to get myself up, but they did not move and only the sound of clanking chains came of my movements. Looking at the chains my guess was right; they were the type swat squad used to tie up summons and summoners to dull their powers. The stuff is rare, iron mixed in with B.A.M crystals. There would be no calling Grog or using my strength to bust out. Whoever had me right now wanted me as weak as just another person on the street.

It felt like hours before the door opened, and a figure stepped into the room. It was Commander Stryker her face as unemotional as always. She was followed by the officer from the front desk and the desk man that checked me in. The desk jockey was holding an old style lantern that had a flame burning in it that gave the room a strange glow.

"I would hope that seeing you guys meant that I was saved. Although these chains seem to tell a different story." I said.

The Commander stared at me for awhile her face giving away nothing then she gave a long sigh.

"Maximus, do you know why you are here?" She asked.

"I am guessing you guys raided the party, thought of me as a culprit then brought me in. Why I am in chains instead of an infirmary bed though does have me wondering."

"Not in this room Maximus, why you joined the Summon Swat Squad and don't tell me to help and protect the city and world because through the years I have seen very few who that is their sole reason."

"Well, you should know since you and my Dad were so close that I can't just take the fact that he is just gone. He has to be out there somewhere and I have to find him.

"We are just a resource for you then," the man with the lantern replied.

"So once you find him is your duty done? Do you think that you can just walk off and do what you want? We are a team for a reason Maximus." Said the man from the front desk.

"Ever since I found out you had a gargoyle summon Maximus I hounded your father about having you join. They are not exactly rare, but gargoyles fill a role we need here and that is why you are not locked up in prison right now."

"So what I am supposed to be a tool for you to use, I don't remember ever hearing that the swat squad was so strict."

"We have to be Maximus, do you know who are in the swat squad? For the most part, they are summoners who when compared to the summoning world at large are not that powerful. We are not dragons who can just fire breath our way out of things or gods who can do as they please. We are the people who must follow the rules, who have to have the rules or else we die. If we had not come when we did Maximus I am sure we would have put you on the body count for that raid.

There was not really any arguing with her on that point. Dionysus had known who I was long before I had even got there. If that was a part of his powers or just connections that warned him beforehand I had no idea. Looking back on it now going there really was a stupid idea, thinking back on it I did not really even get the info I wanted even though he said he was going to help me. Just the sound of metal rang from the floor and a letter sealed by an old Greek coin landed on the floor.

"I would guess this is what you got from the party," Stryker said picking it up and examining it. Taking a knife out she cut the letter that almost had a bit of a magical pulse to it when cut. When she took it out she read it and looked to me.

"I am guessing this is the info you were wanting, it's an address"

"Yes, he said that he could tell me the location of the berserker's blood. I thought he was lying cause I don't remember him giving it to me," I said watching her face. It gave nothing away and she looked at it again. She handed it to the man from the front desk.

"Get a line out on this I want surveillance on it for about 48 hours I don't want to walk into a shit show," she said and the man nodded and quickly walked out.

"So does that mean I am off the hook or on probation?" I asked unable to hide the bit of worry in my voice.

"Unfortunately for you Max we can't just have you go without punishment for this one. We can't have a bunch of action movie cops running around dispensing justice as they please," She stepped close to me and brought out from her side what looked like a bamboo training sword. "This is bamboo from the summon world, an old training partner told me about it and got me some of it. To any normal person, it is just bamboo, but to summoners, it is able to damage them like any normal bamboo rod. Not a great weapon per se too easily destroyed for punishment however, it works quite well. I am going to throw you on the floor Max and when you make it to the door I am going to stop until then you are my practice target."

There was no time to think I got up and ran to the door as fast as I could. She seemed to appear out of nowhere slicing the bamboo into my leg with a swift cracking sound then as my body flipped into the air she threw me across the room into the wall. The thud came with an explosion of pain in my back as I landed on the floor I tried to get up, but the leg she had hit was unresponsive with pain. I had to get to that door and the only way get there now was to crawl, I started my way there army crawling like they told us in basic. Stryker appeared next to me and made another swift strike to my other leg. The pain made that unusable as well, it might basically be regular bamboo now, but in the hands of the Captain, it might as well had been a metal bat. The only thing that could be in my mind right now was that door if I thought about anything else I would not have the strength to continue. She continued her onslaught on other parts of my body hits coming to my arms and when I would try to use my hands to move she would smack them down onto the ground. After a minute that seemed like an eternity, my finger and hands did not want to move they puffed up like bloody sausages. I could not stop though I had to keep going I put every last bit of my will into moving and I saw it I was almost to the door just a few more inches and I would be there just before I crossed the line I felt something grab onto my leg.

"Not yet," Stryker said in a cold tone and again threw me like grass in the wind into the wall. My strength was spent I crumpled into a pile of pain and bruises. This was not a movie where the hero would pull it off at the last second. The body does not work like that I did not even want to think about how many bones had to have been broken in me at this point. I looked up through a blood-soaked vision up at Stryker as she walked up to me.

"Do you see now Max this is what could have happened to you out there, this is what is going to happen if you keep running around as you please. This is the real world, it's not like the arena where they stop when someone gets winded. I am at full right to crack your skull in and end it all right now and the world will keep turning. You are not the hero Max you are just another guy trying to make his way in this world like anyone else. I don't care to use us as a resource, but you will follow orders or else I will deal with you myself.

She swung the bamboo like a sword to the side of her letting the free-flowing blood on it fly off and then wiped a white cloth on it. The blood disappeared without a trace. I heard something about an infirmary bay before once again darkness took my mind unable to deal with the pain.