A strange heat filled the heroic course students as they arrived at school, different from other times, they didn’t have backpacks, they had suitcases. They would be staying as interns for a week.

Robin was there with his parents who hugged him.

“Good luck champ, remember to make sure you're safe, you still have a long way to go, remember you're only a trainee, don’t try to fight beyond your level.” his dad said.

“I’ll be fine.” he said but he clearly wasn’t as excited as others who were going to meet childhood heroes.

Unlike his hopes to avoid Captain Stretch and his sidekicks, that was close to impossible since the good majority of Virginia elastic heroes are his sidekicks or are from his academy. Those that aren’t generally aren’t in their own heroic companies and tend to be sidekicks of others.

He was far from excited about going to one of Captain Stretch’s companies and only hoped that his sister wouldn’t be there since she had already been at their academy since middle school and naturally is in their high school division and would definitely get an internship among their companies.

Going inside he followed the lines to the gym where countless people were guiding students and giving out a number.

Robin got his own and after looking he eventually found the small group that contained a suitcase with his gear and they quickly began to show it off.

“We took a while but we were able to get all the specifics you wanted but it was hard to find stretchable tubing for the oil but we eventually found some.” the leader of the group said proudly as he took out a full body black suit and opened the zipper he showed the interior and there were silver lines along the interior. “These lines are nano tubing, the particular material was designed for elastic heroes and is normally meant to transport coolant during summer weather.” He explained.

“Makes sense but I’ve rarely felt the pains of rubber flaccidness in my life since my body has always been so rigid.” Robin said and examined the material.

They explained that the material was grade 1 military material used by elastic heroes and has pretty good hot and cold insulation to prevent the two main problems they face. They led him to a changing space and wearing a pair of underwear that came with the suit and allowed the oil to easily pass to those areas when needed, he put it on before walking out and started to put on other gear.

The gear was basically a full body jumpsuit with absolutely no restrictions on his movements except around his mouth.

After that was the utility belt and he looked on his back at the two biggest pouches and took out a bag with a plug.

“Those are your oil pouches, you just have to fill it up and it will be ready to pump the oil.” One of them said and he took out a container and they carefully filled both pouches and connected them and hid the pouch connected inside and then he put the glove and boots that functioned to protect his hands and feet from combat damage.

“This material was actually hard to find but it possesses an integral force deflection property making the force acting on your fists lessen even if spinning. They also withstand the force acted on them from high friction resistance making them good for punching as well as protection from overheating.” the leader explained. “One last thing you might like is a feature of the armor which bends around your body when you wind your arm. To avoid damage to the nano tubing we added that so that the suit will automatically unwind and cover the wound areas as if they are normal, try it.” He said.

Robin looked interested and shot his arm forward and wound it and pulled it back and compressed his arm and surprisingly the suit actually began to slip and unwind as it actually came off the folded areas and reattached it.

“This is smart fiber!” he said.

“That’s right, also called living fabric, it splits and reattaches when placed under pressure or is damaged so unless entire sections are blown off, the armor will mesh back together.” He explained.

“Is this all seriously grade 1 military material?” he asked and began to set his four limbs and after a moment they were compressed to normal size and looked no different and would be a big surprise when launched.

“It is surprising right but these things were braveman grade about 50 years ago but with advances in the production process and the creation of better material, the already good material slowly goes down in grade as it becomes more available.” He explained how grading is handled.

“So that is how it works.” he said and pulled the head cover before taking the final piece, a helmet, and put it on and they attached the final wiring that ran within the suit and it began to light up and his vision was blocked for a moment before a mechanical screen formed and instantly began to analyze everything.

“Injecting LF Oil.” a voice instantly rang in his heart and he soon felt the warmth of the oil spreading as the suit mechanisms began to spread throughout his body but also releasing some air which had been in the tubing.

“Is there a system to manage the oil?” He asked.

“Yes, you can set a timer for injection time depending on how long a covering generally lasts but if you are in the middle of a fight you can press here.” the leader said and showed him several spots such as a button on the palm of the hand just under the thumb knuckle. A button on the belt, one on the helmet as well as setting up a voice command.

“Great, is it all set then?” he asked.

“Yes, oh right!” the leader said and took out a few pouches that went into the oil pouches but it was filled with a strange blue liquid. “This is a cleaning solution, the samples of oil we got we tested cleaning solutions on it so use this once you finish the day. The oil, exposed to the air, will slowly congeal if it isn’t in some form of packaging. This will be able to completely remove any remaining oil before you put the suit to wash.” He said.

“Oh, that is good to know, I didn’t know this stuff hardened, most of the oil I use is sealed in a container it comes in which seems to preserve it.” He said looking at the container and then storing that carefully since it still had a good amount inside.

“Interesting, anyways there are 2 pairs of boots and gloves and 4 suits in case you actually damage them, the helmet is super reinforced to survive strongmen level attacks and will record combat logs and analyze all the attacks and damage you give and receive. From there we will further modify your costume. If you find any inconvenience make sure to tell us about it.” the leader said and Robin shook hands and stored away the large suitcase with the extra suits and headed to the bus.

His things were marked and he soon found which bus he would go to. The travel locations are all over Virginia but thankfully his wasn’t far but it wasn’t close.

After a while the buses started up and roll calls for each bus's passengers were called and they finally left.

***

Stretch Incorporate, captain stretch’s main office as well the HQ for many businesses he works in from medical to R&D to weapon manufacturing, everything eventually centers around this place.

Naturally it is also the central heroic office that his sidekicks work from. That said, sidekick is a rather strange term to use for it because a lot of those under his organization are strongmen and there are even a few brave men meaning they match him in strength, at least on the same level.

His own powers are unique in elastic powers because he can transform his body into every known molecular structure he has seen before if it is rubber or elastic in nature.

Robin sighed as he was beside four others who were elastic in some way or another. Their elastic powers have grown since the start of the year, thanks greatly to Keven’s Space for slowly enhancing their power.

They were all in gear, ready to meet the person that was going to be their teacher during their internship.

What was shocking was that Captain Stretch himself walked out and met them making the four others exclaim at his appearance.

“Welcome children, you are from Jackson county public school right? I have been expecting you all. Other students are already inside, I didn’t take many and this week I am participating among those of my company to take care of you personally since I have free time.” He said with a smile.

The boys exclaimed and he grinned and looked at Robin and thought it was strange that he just continued on without cheering like he was a superhero.

His costume had similar helmets to most heroes who used headgear and it quickly pulled up his file and surprisingly it connected to one of his intern sidekicks and quickly revealed the faces and even an event he was part of and he was surprised.

“Oh, are you that child with the blended rubber body and hardening ability?” He asked Robin. “I believe I helped identify your ability 8 or 9 years ago? You’re the brother of Pink Whip.” He said.

Robin looked at him through the helmet visors, “Yes, Ruth is my sister.” he said simply and folded his arms.

“Was your disability not crippling? Is it safe for you to assume heroics?” he asked.

“I would not be here if it wasn’t safe. I already have a cure to my defect and am currently treating it and slowly the side effect is going away. You do not need to worry about my ability or my lack thereof to do heroic duties.” He said dryly.

The four boys suddenly looked at him strangely and the closest one whispered, “Hey, this is Capt Stretch, you should be more respectful.” he said.

Robin did not say much after that and the Captain noticed that there was clearly something strange that might have happened and decided to leave it.

“Welp, we should get inside. There are 3 students from my own academy which I will also personally tutor along with a few from other district schools. Of course your field duty will likely be shifted around among the strong men during this week as well.” He explained.

Like that they entered and went up on the elevator going to the top floors and in there they found many strong men and civilian class running around getting jobs done until they reached his office and there were ten others there.

Robin looked around and instantly noticed the pink clad girl and knew it was his sister.

The Captain took his helmet off and turned around after putting it down, “Alright, you 15 will likely be working together for the next week in shifting squads so that you can learn to be flexible when working with others. Shall we start by introducing ourselves and your current alias you presently go by. Remember that you are likely to change as your powers develop until the end of your highschool years but at this time you are likely to use this alias for the time being.” he said.

He looked at the students of his academy to start.

Ruth was the last of the three, “I’m Ruth Harrison, I go by Pink Whip because I learned and used my limbs like whips, this is strengthened with my armor.” she said, showing off the faint claws while taking off her helmet.

After that some of the other schools went at Captain Stretch’s call until it was finally Robin’s turn.

“I’m Robin Harrison, I go back Black Bullet, my power is Hardening Rubber body.” He said.

Some of the students noticed something, “Are you and Pink Whip siblings? You look really alike.” One of them asked.

“We are… identical twins. Besides our gender, our DNA is almost the same.” Ruth explained with a slightly strained expression while Robin was just stoic faced.

“Why does he have a different power?” one of the others asked.

“Is there a problem with twins having different powers? I have twin club members in my school with different powers.” Robin asked.

“Ah… no I didn't mean that, it is just rare for the Rubber body abilities to mix with other abilities.” He said.

Robin didn’t elaborate and he looked at Ruth and made sure she didn’t say more.

That said Captain stretch didn’t, “If i recall correctly, the day I saved you both from a hijacked truck, you both awakened your powers and after analyzing your DNA it was shown that your father’s power was focused in the XY chromosome which is why your sister doesn’t demonstrate any of the Hardening ability.” he said.

Robin frowned having this spoken and frowned while looking at the captain.

“At the time I believed your rubber body was so rigid that it didn’t have any flexibility like common elastic abilities.” He said.

“Yes… the same reason was also why you scouted my sister for your academy since she has a more greatly enhanced elastic ability with high tensile strength and stretch range.” He said coldly.

When he said that, it suddenly clicked in the captain’s head why Robin was so cold. Being the leading elastic hero, most of the others worked for him, if that wasn’t the case he might not have come here.

That said, this fact was not picked up by the students as one of his own students began to chuckle condescendingly, “So your are defective powers that somehow reached this point, I actually have to pr…” He couldn’t finish because Robin suddenly stepped forward and suddenly punched from the other side of the room with an explosively fast punch as his body suddenly expanded to nearly adult size and smashed into the boy's face and pounded his face against the wall.

Only then the others noticed how the suit was suddenly molding to a twisted arm and he opened his hand and gripped the boy's face and pulled him back forming a perfect spring arm which rapidly started to compress while he held him.

“Listen here, I’ve no patience for elitists like you who think only strong abilities are everything. With my own hard work I fixed my own genetic problems without the help of any researcher, much less even Captain Stretch. Unlike me, you are just a little prick with an inflated ego. Say I am defective one more time and I will turn you into the first target I test my strength on!” he said coldly.

The much larger size surprised everyone before he tossed the boy to the ground. Even Captain Stretch, who was preparing to intervene if it went further, was surprised as Robin’s size shrank back to normal and he felt his body condition.

He looked at his arm and extended it and twisted it back and they all watched his full extension be compressed into the size of a normal arm before the suit molded around it, hiding it perfectly.

“Do you train in spring style?” Captain stretch asked as he walked over and helped the boy. There wasn’t much damage, it was rare for elastic heroes to actually get hurt from blunt force but he was very amazed by the speed of the punch. “Black bullet is a fitting name with a punch that fast.”

“Yes, I’ve used the stretcher machine to develop my elasticity for years and started using the spring style because my elastic control was too weak to allow me to extend my arms and legs at will.” he said simply as he went back to his spot.

The others who had been thinking of making fun of him for being a defective ability kept their lips sealed, the large indent on the wall along with the cracks was more than enough of a warning to them.

“Alright, let’s please avoid making fun of each other, you never know when you will be forced to battle together against much stronger villains. You can’t be fighting each other or when disaster truly strikes it will get messy.” He said, trying to calm them down.

That said the boy was clearly very angry and glaring at Robin. He naturally didn’t care as he glared back.

He made sure to split them up and while near Ruth he whispered, “Try to keep him calm, okay.” he said.

“He will only get more agitated with me around.” She said in return, “We don’t have that peaceful of a relationship at home.” she said and looked at the boy who had said what he said and the captain frowned as he instantly knew what was going on and knew it was going to be sensitive when these two were matched together.

“Okay, before anything we should get to know each other, each of your goals and maybe have a small spar so you know each other’s capacities.” he said.

“That’s fine.” one of the boys said. The others nodded and after a bit they found a seat among the coach and chairs and thinking a bit he looked at Robin, “Why don’t you start first?” he asked.

Robin snorted, “My ambition is to form a heroics company to help fund the research and development into deficient and out of control powers negatively affecting the population. If you all have heard about the recent curing of countless psychic patients, that was the result of my club’s activities. Among other things I want to open a division into researching the proper activation of all abilities normally left half awakened. Many club members we possess are in this condition and we even helped elevate one of our members to the heroic course.” He said and ended there.

Everyone was shocked by his statement.

“What do you mean you’re the cause of the mass curing of psychic abilities?” the boy that ate Robin’s punch asked.

“Among the people who joined the club i founded with my friends, one of them contained an ability to produce a gamer space, through the detail gained towards stats, we opened that space around one of the Institute of Power Disabilities and by enhancing the brains of the patients through improving the wisdom stat, their brain capacity grew to the bare minimum required to be able to handle the much greater psychic power and stabilized it.” he explained. “Along with that, one of my childhood friends is a summoner necromancer and he obtained medicine recipes from that side and produced medicine that can heal bone degradation.” He said.

“So that is where those pills came from, I’ve heard that the herbs are being mass produced but they need underground farms away from sunlight, now it makes sense, it is from the nether realm populated by undead.” the captain said.

“Yes, my goal is to continue recruiting more people and research into the abilities and activation process to eventually find a correlation between similar types.” He said.

Like that he ended and the captain clapped and the others followed, “That is an admirable goal indeed.” he said.

Robin looked but didn’t say anything that would dampen the mood once more but his look towards the captain was all he needed to know from hearing his ambition exactly why he didn’t like him like he once did as a child. Ignoring even slight deficiencies for those that can grow rapidly, it wasn’t some unfounded anger but he couldn’t change the fact that he invested into a lot of fields and unless he reaches hero status, his funding has currently peaked.

After that the others started to talk about becoming as strong as the captain or some other brave men. Many of them probably knew to some extent how far they could go which just made Robin inwardly sigh. They were basically people who didn’t have a clear goal in life since they haven’t found a true passion and are likely to become people following others and working as sidekicks or office hands if heroics doesn’t work out like it doesn’t for at least 60% of the people who train for it.

Of course there were ones with much better ambitions.

The cocky boy grinned on his turn, “I’m aiming to become the first elastic hero! I’m even surpassing the captain! My dad is a strong man here but my powers grew even stronger my generation so I definitely have a better chance of getting higher up!” he said.

On Ruth’s turn, she thought for a moment, “I want to build my own company and grow successful like the captain, if I get there, hopefully I would gain the power to be called a hero but that would be hard without a lot of training first.” She said.

The captain nodded and the last few finished up.

“Alright, everyone has pretty good goals but you can’t forget to try and find something to strive for and grow towards. Now let’s go to the sparring field so we can see how strong you children are. This will help properly organize squads when you children go out.” he said.

He guided the children down to the basement floors which had a large training ground.

“Wow! This place is amazing, there are so many grip and hiding spots.” the kids shouted.

Robin looked and knew this was a training field meant for elastic heroes who generally had the ability to morph their body shape and hide stretched out, it was his weakness since he didn’t have that freedom.

“Alright, is there anyone that wants to start out?” Captain Stretch asked.

A few people looked at Robin but he wasn’t even inching forward, he wasn’t battle hungry after all.

Ruth was among those to look at him a moment and after a bit the captain picked out a pair from the other schools.

They deactivated all sharp and slashing weapons if they had any so that they would only deal blunt damage which would affect them less.

For a good 30 minutes they saw a wide range of how elastic powers affect people.

Some were almost fluid and could shape themselves to even fit in small spaces while others showed strength.

At the end, only Robin was left and he didn’t feel like walking out since it was an odd number.

“So who wants to partner with Robin?” the captain asked.

Before her classmate could say anything Ruth cut in, “I’ll spar him.” she said.

Robin frowned and stood up from the wall he was leaning against and picked up his helmet and the two jumped into the arena.

“What do you want to accomplish with this?” he asked.

“Nothing, I just want to compare how strong we are against each other.” she said. “You’re not the only one that felt the pressure over the years.” she said.

He stopped and glared at her, “Some pressure, you don’t know what it is like to always be compared and called the defective half.” he said pointing at her face.

“And you don’t know what it’s like being put on a pedestal and made to maintain that, do you think it is sunshine and rainbows? That I don’t put as much effort into training to be a hero just like you are trying? You don’t have everyone in your surroundings calling you a genius one moment and talking down to you behind your back because you put in the effort to maintain the title.” She said back to him.

Instantly the group at the back frowned while Ruth’s Classmates looked confused.

“Ruth sure isn’t her normal self around her brother. It seems their family problems go quite deep.” the other one said.

Captain stretch frowned and went to a mic, “You two, get to your positions.” he said to break up the argument so that it didn’t turn the spar into an actual brawl. He was actually well aware of Ruth’s talent but knew little about her brother but he wasn’t a fool to think the punch he gave one of his students wasn’t powerful. He did it without putting his back into it and made a minor dent.

He put on his helmet and quickly began to try and pull up more information on Robin but all he got was the common information that the Beauro of heroics produced with typing and his initial year score which was actually a bit surprising that he could get 8000 points.

It is likely much higher now because even the worst schools that give heroics courses can still double a student’s strength with just weight training.

The two looked back and then Robin snorted before fixing up his helmet and, while walking, he connected the cables and activated the helmet which instantly began to map the surrounding terrain. “Mark all points of interest which have half my body’s width between buildings. Note all pipes.” He said giving the system specific points to mark.

Neither of them knew how each other fought but unlike Robin thought, Ruth was a physical fighter. She did have a good control and was good as a scout but she actually lost some common elasticity for the higher tensile strength in her rubber so she actually can’t morph her shape as greatly as he thought she could and it is also why she is called Pink Whip, she used her limbs to fight mid or close range.

Robin didn’t hide and he was surprised when he found Ruth standing on the opposite side of the clear path at the center.

“Huh? Ruth isn’t taking her normal cautious fighting style today?” her classmate said.

He started to hop as he got ready and leaned slightly forward like an athlete about to start their sport but he looked at Ruth.

A horn blasted and instantly Robin’s leg bent and he stomped.

Thump!

Cracks formed under his foot and suddenly his body burst as his leg extended.

“Legs too!” someone shouted and he instantly cut through a third of the field.

Ruth didn’t wait as she swung her arms and suddenly they extended and she caught a pipe and pulled her body as she skillfully moved her body but Robin was a ball of forward momentum and as his first leg pulled back his other one stomped and he faced up and suddenly expanded and launched him towards his sister but she was nimble and in the air she looked and her other extended arm moved like a viber and rushed at Robin and she didn’t hold back. Her claws were sharp and there was a moment only for a single warning light to come on his screen.

This was all Robin needed, his mind was under complete focus and his mind was running at twice the speed with his High speed mental processing fully active and his entire body suddenly hardened and the claws hit and struck like hitting tire rubber and he grit his teeth as he punched.

BANG!

Ruth could barely used her elastic control to move her body as the rocketing punch barely glanced at her chest but the arm instantly softened before it gripped it’s own hand hold.

“Black rocket!” he said and it hardened once more with intense retraction and he instantly headbutted her gut all the way into the pipe he was holding before his legs came forward and both of them blasted onto Ruth’s body as he sent himself back to gain space as she groaned and swung her free arms clawing at her brother and missing but hitting some metal and leaving claw marks which Robin could see.

Robin secretly pressed the button for the oil as he jumped back a bit to give his legs time to reload the spring and compressed them.

On the side everyone was surprised that trainees could fight so hard, much less siblings and knew this fight was far more than a spar already but the captain saw something surprising. He had watched all the promising students and Ruth surly was one and he had seen all her spars and how she trained herself. The way she was fighting was completely unlike her but was incredibly dangerous in itself. It is almost like she fought the ways she fought for appearances but facing her brother she couldn’t do that.

Robin took a quick glance and quickly swung his retracted arms and grabbed two hand holds.

“So that is why he uses spring style, he is a force extender.” The captain said.

“Huh? What is a force extender?” one of the students asked.

“It is a type of elastic hero which has a more rubber band-like body. They can’t will their bodies to expand but they apply strong force to get their bodies to extend and they use the elastic force to amplify attack power. The spring style is meant to reduce the weakness in this body type which is speed and flexibility. With his leg springs shooting him at speeds he normally can’t achieve and his rubber body making him ignore blunt force he doesn’t need to care about otherwise suicidal actions that would follow this style. He is definitely a strength type, he has almost no stealth that elastic heroes can normally achieve.” the captain said.

They watched as he leaned back and shot back with one leg and after his arms hit full extension he landed and let go and his springs reformed while he looked where Ruth had been but was now gone.

“Why is Ruth fighting like a front liner? She is normally so cautious?” the student that took the punch asked confused.

“You mean the textbook style, that is what happens when emotions stir. She is likely to slowly change her style from today forward. That said, she used her claws which should have been deactivated but she couldn’t even pierce his skin. I didn’t think his hardening was so strong.” The captain said.

“Is it that amazing?” one student asked.

“When he had initially awakened it protected him from getting run over by a speeding truck when he was 3 or 4 years old.” he said, making the jaws of all the students drop.

On the field he walked forward and looking around he pointed his arm and shot it towards a high ledge and pulled himself up going up and shooting to one of the high ledges and caught the edge and landed and looked down but Ruth was now acting cautious but Robin wasn’t going to.

“Get out here.” he said as he hardened his body and walked to a large pipe and forced the pipe out of the wall and with it came the entire system being pulled. It was all pipes as thick as his arms but he began to move them like light weights as he took that and tossed it over where Ruth had been before rocketing down into areas of cover, hardened, and smashed through metal with his body alone shocking everyone before a scorpion tail like arm shot out and Robin instantly reacted and punched it before shooting his arm and grabbing the arm.

“You have almost double my extension range but let’s see how long you can keep from getting dragged out.

He said grinning as he pulled his arm back and trapped her hand at the wrist as he slowly walked to main road and was ready to rush down the road and pull her like a ragdoll but she rushed out and shot her other arm but he grabbed it and instantly made the mistake of letting him get it and he instantly swung the arms.

He instantly tried to throw her off but she was naturally good at manipulating her arms but he suddenly turned and shot down the road and swung the arms pulling her.

She knew he wanted to slam her down and she instantly took a drastic decision as she pointed her feet and her boots formed a sharp point and her heels turned into spikes and instantly pulled her body while her legs came down.

“You’re an idiot!” he said as she got within ten meters and he stopped, letting go of her hands which needed a second to withdraw and rushing at her, his fist connected straight into her gut and he drove her into the ground launching his spring at the final second pushing her into the ground.

All her breath was squeezed out and she was momentarily trapped.

“It’s done, if you were a villain, you would already be caught.” He said and snorted before ending it there and didn’t look back as he turned to the group and jumped out as she struggled to get up because her breath had been punched out and this was painful even if the force itself didn’t hurt her body.

When Robin got back to the group the Captain was there, “Later come to my office.” He said quietly. He went and helped Ruth catch her breath and returned. “Alright, this was an… exciting morning to say the least. I’m sure you want to relax and eat at least. The lunch area is on the 2nd floor, you all can take the elevator up and after a bit I will already have some squads ready for evening patrol and you can get some patrol tutoring.” he said trying to brush it off.

He led them up and left them on the second floor before going up to his office and calling the brave and strong men available to get opinions on the current interns and see about Robin.