Dalton said, "Even cops are sadists at heart."
Police Chief Booth said, "Careful, I run my department very tightly to prevent corruption."
Dalton had dark, messy hair and large, black glasses. He was a little overweight and he had a mild acne problem. He wasn't ugly but he wasn't handsome. "I'm just saying that everyone has a sadistic streak. People try to act all nice and good but it's just an act. Sadists think that it's okay to hurt people and their victims should thank them. Cops put crooks behind bars and think the crooks should thank the cops for turning them from crime."
Booth was black but his hair was starting to turn grey. He had a few scars on his face. "I don't expect the crooks to thank me. I expect civilized people to thank me for protecting them from crooks."
"That's just it" said Dalton "Is anyone truly civilized? The wealthy prey on the poor. The strong prey on the weak. The beautiful prey on the ugly. Even the righteous, religious types with their pretense of holier than everyone, they preach condemnation and punishment and yet millions flock to worship a god that disciplines those he loves."
Booth said "People get discipline and punishment mixed up. Discipline is supposed to be about teaching, not about punishment."
"Yea, well that just proves that people are sadists." Dalton said "People would rather punish than teach."
"We are getting way off subject here."
"I'm just waiting for the volunteer. How long until he gets here?"
Booth activated the intercom to call for Officers Locke and Sanders. Finally the two arrived. Paul Locke had a wiry, beat up look. He was in his early thirties. He kept his hair cropped extremely short. Johnny Sanders was in his mid twenties and fresh out of police academy. He had dark hair and a great build but he looked way too young to be a police officer.
Dalton started his presentation. "I have come up with a more humane way to detain criminals."
Booth interrupted, "Alleged criminals."
Dalton sighed, "Alleged criminals. Anyhow, we don't want to kill or injure criminals because then the criminals could use that to cause problems for the police making your job more difficult."
Booth interrupted, "It's also a problem because the alleged criminals might be innocent."
Dalton said, "Yea, there is that. Anyway, I invented a weapon that can render anyone powerless and easy to catch. The really great thing is that you will no longer have to decide whether to shoot or not. Just shoot everyone in the area and you can sort them out later."
Booth interrupted, "Officers, you will not shoot everyone in the area but you don't have to worry about hitting innocent bystanders. Once you've captured the alleged criminals, restore everyone else and let them go their way, no harm done. They might be a little embarrassed and sue us for the humiliation but they won't be injured."
Dalton interrupted, "Whose invention is this?"
Booth interrupted, "Yours but if you want this police department to buy your invention, then you better remember that this police department is mine."
Dalton continued and explained how he'd already tested it on animals and humans so he knew it was safe. He also knew about the side effects but he didn't explain them to the police officers. He said that it was time for testing in a real life application. Booth explained that it meant that a volunteer would have to be shot, immobilized, and processed like an alleged criminal. Booth had already set up a system for handling this scenario but needed to test the system. Booth volunteered Johnny.
"What, why me?" Johnny said "I didn't volunteer. Use an actual criminal."
Booth said, "You're not much good to us otherwise. No one takes you seriously as a cop because you look like a high school kid. I try to send you on undercover missions but you're too much of a rookie to do much undercover. In some ways, this will be like an undercover assignment. You're going to go to prison and pretend to be a criminal. I've already created your temporary identity as a violent drug smuggler so the cops will have plenty of reasons to keep shooting you with the device. A real criminal would be too unpredictable."
Dalton added, "Besides, you cops aren't much better than criminals and you probably deserve a little punishment."
Booth scolded Dalton. Then Paul Locke asked, "Why am I here?"
Booth said, "You will be the first one armed with a, uh, what did you call the device again?"
Dalton said, "A dalmon."
Booth said, "Paul, you will carry a dalmon from here on out instead of a gun. You've pulled your gun too frequently and I'm afraid you're going to hurt someone. With the dalmon, I don't have to worry about you killing someone anymore. Dalton has invented how many?"
Dalton said, "Seventy Five. I intend to keep the supply low so I can charge high prices."
Booth said, "The government is already looking into making it illegal to sell dalmon's to the public. These weapons have no value for hunting or self-defense. They are purely more humane forms of offensive weapons. But slowly, we will start replacing all police and military guns with dalmons. As for you, Paul, this dalmon is yours now. Shoot Johnny and take him into custody."
Paul shot Johnny without hesitation. Johnny's protests were muffled immediately as he shrank into his clothes. Booth fished a naked Johnny out of his clothes. "He does seem more fragile this way. Are you sure he's okay?"
Dalton grabbed Johnny and said, "More than okay. Watch." Dalton grabbed Johnny's left arm and right leg and stretched them. Johnny was only six inches tall but Dalton stretched his arm to twenty-five inches and his leg to twenty inches long. "This is just a natural side effect of the dalmon. He can be stretched or pressed like putty and therefore, he is resistant to harm."
Booth asked, "Are you okay?"
Johnny sat there trying to move his twenty-five inch long arm. His muscles could move but being that stretched out made his arm weaker. Still, he wasn't crying in pain. "Turn me back. I quit."
Booth asked, "How long till he returns to normal."
Dalton said, "Depends on how badly stretched he is. My guess is his arm won't be back to normal until tomorrow."
Booth said, "I meant, how long until he grows back to normal size."
Dalton said, "Oh, that. He won't grow back but he can be restored by using the dalmon in reverse. Or we can do other things with him. It took a long time to figure out how to safely and humanely shrink a person but once I got a person stretchy, I found it easy to do other things to him. I can make him into clothing or plastic or stone. The different settings are on the keypad here."
The dalmon was the size of a small refrigerator so it was not very portable but the gun part was connected by a tube so the gun part was easy to aim. The dalmon was also on wheels to make it a little easier to move around.
Paul saw his opportunity. "Don't let Johnny talk you into letting him go. He just needs to toughen up. He's not hurt. He's crying for no reason.