The others looked through video and info while some of them, who were big fans of the Captain, were already criticising him for his lack of respect.

The captain waited until after his fight images were done before pulling up his current footage and surprisingly two of the students from his school were seated with him and his face was far more relaxed and they heard his talk which was far more casual and less cold.

“What do you think of the boy?” the captain asked.

That said, the question wasn’t their biased thoughts and more of an analysis.

The strongmen frowned but the Braveman thought a moment before one of them took the front.

“To say nothing else, his personality sure is strong. That said, after hearing his ambition, which is shockingly big and well thought out for a child, I can understand why he came to dislike you sir.” one of them said.

“What! Sir Springs, how can you understand some childish tantrum?” one of the strongmen asked.

This man was Beat Springs, one of the few Braveman of Captain Stretch’s company and his powers are purely spring and had been the specific braveman Robin had signed up to intern under.

“None of you have ever felt the bias treatment on the other side of the spectrum when it comes to heroics.” He said.

“What is there to think about?” one of them said.

Springs sighed and asked for a screen to work with and quickly pulled up the information on the Institute of Power disabilities only in the American Union.

“Look at these numbers.” He said. Everyone looked and their faces hardened, “Look at the number of people suffering from disabilities caused by their own powers. Now look at the funding and sponsors for each institute.” He said and quickly pulled up how much funding is transferred to this branch but before anyone could talk he divided the massive billions by the number of institutes and the ‘generous’ sum suddenly became very skinny.

“In our company, me and my division are in charge of looking into schools and their students, especially any new clubs that appear if they have good potential. This information, this is what the boy pulled out, I watched his entire presentation and he was actually well liked by civilian course students. It was why I actually wanted to meet and work with him as an intern in the first place.” Springs explained.

“That doesn’t explain his hate.” One of them said.

“How could it not, he found the cure to his own powers without funding from anyone. His ‘hate’, as you put it, is the fact that large heroic companies don’t invest into improving research into the lower class. I get his views quite well. I have a cousin who was born with defective powers and doesn’t have elastic control despite our limbs being springs. She has to use braces to hold her arms and legs from extending. Look what the kid has done, with just his friends he discovered an oil that worked to balance Life force deficiency which had been an undiscovered medical condition in deficiencies, discovered medicine for bone degradation, found a Gamer space which could be used to empower weak bodies to handle their own abilities. All of this within less than what, two months of starting high school?” he said.

“I get you see his point, Springs, but remember that the company money goes to your paychecks as well as all the employees, maintaining each business and more.” Captain stretch said.

“That is true, having reserves is important but his view isn’t the same, he holds principles to help people, even deficient ones. Among his claims, he mentioned a very good point. Criminals that are hunted down more often than not become criminals because of warped abilities that warp their own bodies which cause people to not hire them leaving them poor, sick and eventually aim for crime.” Springs said.

This time the others had to accept that this fact was true.

“Alright, enough on this subject, what are your thoughts on the boy and how should we approach his clear distaste for ‘elitists’ as he puts it.” the captain asked the others.

“Well, as springs puts it, his personality is pretty strong but looking at how he talks to his classmates, it seems that he isn’t above working with others. It seems his cold personality stems from the captain himself and his sister primarily. I would suggest the captain avoid trying to teach him. Partnering with his sister and possibly our students might be a good idea as well to avoid clashes.” one of the other bravemen said.

“I think I can't avoid patrolling with him but we can reduce the stress of this as much as possible. He clearly came to our company for springs, he likely wants to learn spring style controls and there aren’t many spring style fighters in Virginia as strong as you.” the captain said.

“Yes, I was going to ask to leave him the entire week with me.” He said.

“Alright, we will do that and switch up the other students in shifts. We will work in 2 or 3 student groups depending on who is available. If there are enough, we can have one of you take one out each.” he said.

They all nodded and after a bit they checked each student and each of them showed interest in each so they planned around that.

After that they left and the captain got his lunch and half way through Robin walked in, “You wanted to talk?”

“Yes, I wanted to talk to you about how you acted.” He said.

Robin just waited.

“Like now, I did see you talking pretty well with your classmates.” He said.

“You wouldn’t talk happily if you were around people you didn’t like.” Robin replied.

“Are you talking about me or your sister? Your fight with her was quite serious. If there had been danger I would have stopped it after the first whip your sister did with lethal weapons.” He said.

“You wouldn’t understand the feeling. My father’s powers are located in our X and Y chromosomes. If we weren’t twins we would be a single person with Klinefelter syndrome and likely have the powers separate but we split becoming separate people. My sister kept the muscular strength while I kept the incomplete hardening ability. Do you think it is easy going through society always having people compare you and call you the defective one?” Robin asked.

“I wouldn’t but you should know my power relies on my knowledge of molecular knowledge. I was far from as strong as now.” he said.

“Yeah, I know. You grew to fame because you had the ability to copy the fighting style of basically any elastic hero as long as you were able to analyze their rubber structure.” He said.

This time Captain Stretch frowned. It has been a long time since he was called a copycat and was quite an irritation he had to hear in his early career.

“Doesn't it feel good to be compared like that? Well your ‘prodigy’ has always been the person I was compared with. Then you have your scouting my sister despite my results barely being weaker than her own.” He said.

“At the time your control of your hardening wasn’t like now and there was no guarantee that it was possible to cure it under our care.” He said.

“Yes, that is honestly why I stopped caring about my sister. Trying to compare to my ‘genius’ of a sister who was born with the blessings of good genetics is just futile so I just put the effort to be able to become at least a vigilante and build a business that I can put my earned money into the research to help the ignored people that all heroes, Bravemen, strong mena and society just ignore. Even common civilians with half active abilities. If you want to avoid arguments then just keep my sister away from me. As for you, I don't really care, each person has their own ideals for heroics.” He said.

Captain stretch looked at him and snorted, “You know I’ve never seen your sister like that. The academy students are well monitored in their growth but she has almost never fought the way she did with you.” He said.

“So what. That is her choice if she didn’t use her skill set properly.” he said.

“Alright then, Beat Spring is going to be your intern target this week. The squads will shift about but you will stick with him since your styles are the same.” He said.

Robin’s expression brightened a lot when he heard that and Captain stretch knew it was a good idea to follow the braveman’s suggestion.

Like that they went down and guided the students. They planned out the day’s work since it was still early and Robin was sent alone to Beat Springs and found him waiting with a smile.

“Hello.” Springs said, “I’m Beat Springs, you can call me Springs.” he said.

“I’m Robin, my hero alias is Black Bullet.” He said.

“I know, that punch you gave one of our students indeed looked like one. Mind if I see how your hardened state looks and how it works?” He asked.

“Sure.” Robin said and hardened and after a short 5 seconds he returned to normal.

“Huh? Can you only keep it up that long?” he asked.

“No, I can keep it up about a minute continuously before my body starts to feel the side effects and I have to apply the LF oil which helps counter the side effect.” he explained.

“Oh I see, how does your hardening affect your rubber?” he asked.

“Well, my normal rubber is probably like the bendable common rubber used for hoses after I trained it so much. My range is about 60 meters. For Hardened rubber, I think the hardness is already on par with truck tires.” Robin said.

“Mind taking a few punches as I check how strong your hardening limit is?” he asked.

“Punches shouldn’t be able to break rubber defense.” Robin said.

Springs chuckled and didn’t say anything before Robin nodded and hardened and got ready.

Springs got ready and gave a casual weak punch and Robin was thrown over ten meters but besides feeling heat from the impact zone there was not much else.

Still he shook his arm because of the heat generated.

“Oh, did that hurt?” he asked.

“No, my body heats up when taking impacts when under hardening.” Robin said.

“Oh, it seems you will have to further account for cooling systems then.” Springs said and he took another punch a bit stronger and this time Robin went flying into the wall while his entire arm heated up and he groaned from just that. The contact point felt like they were on fire and he quickly administered the oil which started to help reforming the cover but his body had begun to sweat to get the heat under control.

Springs came over and noticed his condition and the helmet could easily pick up the heat in his arms. “You don’t look so good.” he said.

“I just need water.” Robin said getting up and looking around and smiling as he found a bathroom and went over.

Springs followed and was surprised when Robin took his helmet off and drank from the sink for at least two minutes straight and let out happy exclamations.

“Hmm, it seems some weaknesses aren’t as easy to resolve. You fixed your leaking problem but your body heats up and uses water to cool down. This without a method to regain water, you will have to learn to be more nimble to avoid taking big blows.” He said.

“How strong was the punch you gave?” Robin asked.

“That was in the range of a strong man’s casual punch.” he said.

“How strong are Strongmen? Like using the school punching bags, how many points would an elastic class get.” he asked.

“Well there is an average for advancing and because most elastics aren’t strength type, the average isn’t actually that high. 80,000 points is the normal elastic hero strength. Spring types like how we do are counted as elastic/strength types so we punch with around 100,000.” he said.

“Really? And bravemen?” Robin asked.

“Again it is subjective but when I did my test to elevate to braveman, my test score was 250,000. I had a recent evaluation and with my strongest attack I hit with about 650,000 points.” he explained.

Robin was shocked by the amount of force he could produce.

Thinking about it, Robin thought a bit and remembered Kevin’s gamer space and his first examination of strength. His strength was 60 and 1 str produced 10 kilo of weight and force exerted meaning his 8000 points backed by the three impulses had been upwards of 1800 kilos of force.

He quickly started to do some calculations using his own strength, which he knew at the time with just a straight spring loaded punch reaching about 3,500 points, if 3,500 is roughly double his raw 600 kilos at the time then 650,000 points would be roughly 222,000 kilos of force.

“Wha… woah.” he said.

“What kind of calculation did you do? 222,000 kilos of force, what is that?” Springs asked.

Robin explained Kevi’s gamer space and he soon understood and laughed. “Oh I get it, now it makes sense. So my physical brute strength is reaching that much huh. Shame that Heroes can’t be under 2 million points, I’ve got a long way to go.” he said.

“What… 2 million?” Robin said in sheer shock.

“Yep, if you were to calculate that it should be…” he said doing a quick mental math and smiled, “Three times more force then my strongest punch. Remember that this is the lowest benchmark for heroes, it is the requirements for your name to be taken up to the supreme court of the heroics beauro to be analyzed. After that your name is also sent to The Seer to be approved or not. Without her approval, you are likely not going to get the honor of holding the title of hero.” He said.

“Wow… but is it that hard to increase your power?” He asked.

“Don’t even joke about it. I’ve been training for the last 15 years since graduating. In all honesty, I’ve still got room to grow but others like the captain are almost 10 years older then me and likely already passed their peak prime. If they are growing it is because of a collection of many things from technology, proper training and more. Honestly I’ve been drooling at the chance to spend a few days at your school to get a chance to tap into my latent potential in that gamer space. I heard that there are limits to stats but for most people it is about 5 stats per level and roughly 5 or 6 levels can be stored at one time but more of this potential is extracted after rest. Can you imagine so many Bravemen and strongmen tapping into that strength.” He said.

“It would be good but we don’t want Kevin to be abused by the hero population. If something like that happened, it is possible that he might be taken through all of America for years just to strengthen army men, heroes and more.” Robin said.

“Ah yes… Admin server actually faced that trouble in his early career and it is why he picks all the gamers as his sidekicks and gives them an umbrella to hide under. Many government workers or other people in the heroics profession have tried to force gamers to help them but they would usually meet the impenetrable wall that was him. Many people gave up over time which is why the method used by your school and the boy is so unique.” he said.

“Right… I would think so.” Robin nodded.

“Alright, now let's take one more hit, I want to show you a little something.” he said.

“Okay.” Robin said putting his helmet on and took his defensive pose and Springs grinned as he punched as strong as the second punch but there was a difference and as he connected, Robin’s eyes instantly widened as pain shot through his arms and he was shot back like a cannonball all the way to the wall and screamed in pain.

“Kid, get your head in place, in this world there are many things that can make it possible for rubber bodies to feel blunt damage and pain.” he said as he raised his fist which was letting out steam. “Be aware kid, although it is extremely rare and hard, there are still people with abilities like ours who can learn and awaken bioenergies and learn to bypass natural protection.” He said and walked to Robin and helped him up.

Robin’s arms were trembling in pain.

“W-what was that?” He asked as he tried to calm down his arms.

“Life force used in a manner that helps attack.” He said.

“H-how do you have life force, elastic powers don’t use any bioenergy.” He said.

“I’ve said it before, it is rare and difficult but not 100% impossible to awaken this because all biological energies exist in our bodies. Just like there are psychics and chi users who can enhance the energy of the other through external means, anyone can do the same with other natural energies like life force. Everyone has it but not everyone can openly develop it. Your club actually has a strong presence of life force users. It wouldn’t be surprising if you eventually figure a way to awaken your own. If you absorb enough of something with high concentration, eventually it will become something you can consciously feel and control.” He explained.

“How did you use that to attack?” he asked.

“That comes with training chi based martial arts but using life force in its place. Remember, people who use their bodies can only grow stronger by using what is natural to their bodies.” He said.

Robin nodded seriously but he had no idea how he would go about with this. Of course he could easily get life force droplets but he felt that was dangerous and he presently didn’t feel the need for it.

“Good, let's get to it then, we are going out to patrol the west side.” He said and walked to the window and opened it up. “Are we jumping?” Robin asked.

“Scared?” Springs asked as his arms and legs took the form of his springs and tightened, “No but I don’t have enough control to not cause damage.” He said.

“That’s not a problem, you just got to learn.” he said and jumped.

Robin looked down as the man laughed as he fell and turned before shooting his arm and only then Robin noticed that all the buildings had some kind of pole stuck on along it’s walls and he gripped it and pulled and shot out his arm and began to pull himself in the air.

Robin was shocked that the city was built around this but he didn’t have time since Springs was gaining distance and with no fear for his life and jumped and quickly shot his arm and grabbed a pole and swung like spiderman and followed Springs.

***

Huff huff!

Robin huffed hard as he kneeled on top of a building after following Springs for so long.

“Just breathe it out, city swinging isn’t something you pick up in a day and the forces that act on your body isn’t a joke.” He said, patting his back.

“Do you always do this?” Robin asked.

“Yes, it is so much faster than driving a car. It is also safer than breaking buildings and concrete. Also, it is great fun and keeps my form in top shape.” he said laughing.

Though pale, Robin smiled weakly after the joy ride he was made to do. Naturally he was not skilled in swinging through a busy city where thousands of vehicles move around. Naturally there are also those that fly in the air and have secondary roads that need to be watched out for and Springs saved him several times from crashing into these and causing accidents.

“How do you fight like that?” Robin asked as he finally caught his breath.

“Oh, well like most elastic heroes, I sneak attack them to get the advantage. It is amazing what one attack can do in the overall picture. Oh right, if I was going through a head to head collision then I wouldn't really be caring about collateral, you have to think about how to stop a villain and something at the Braveman stage is already a viable option to ignore much more about the surroundings.” he explained.

At that moment they suddenly heard screams and they both quickly went to the side only to see a sudden eruption as a massive 3 meter tall man burst from a building. One of his arms was some kind of living metal while the other parts of his body only had some parts that looked to be of metal.

“Metal body, it seems to be an inferior type which doesn’t completely cover the body. They are also pretty heavy.” Springs said.

“He has minions.” Robin said and quickly pointed to five others each with different strange powers such as acid generation or edged bodies.

“Can you take care of the small ones?” He asked.

“I can try.” Robin said.

“Good. Then do it.” He said as he jumped and gripped two poles and suddenly pulled.

Like a blur it took only a moment to reach the big guy. Surprisingly he reacted quickly and raised the metal arm before the two feet extended and slammed it.

The asphalt suddenly cracked. Spring jumped back and found barely an indent on the arm.

“Hey, tough guy.” He said.

“Beat Spring, you little bitch, do you think you can catch me after failing twice already?” He asked.

“Hehe.” he grinned as his springs form just as he jumped.

“Kill him!” The big guy shouted.

Robin however came in the same way and fully hardened, he took no pity as dropped towards the guy that made acid and drop kicked his face into the ground before he could cover himself.

“Wha!” One of the others shouted, “He has a brat backup! Kill this bitch!” One of the other four shouted but Robin didn’t wait and burst towards the next one.

“You think you little elastic bitches can hurt me!” He shouted and suddenly his body was covered in bladed scales. It was very similar to hardening and Robin suddenly hardened as well, “Let’s see who is harder!” Robin said, and burst through the last 10 meters and slammed his chest as and let out the punches full power out at point blank range and sent the guy flying back and crashing on the ground.

“What!” one of them shouted as they watched Robin’s fist be perfectly fine and he jumped up as soon as his leg returned and extended his arms to the fallen guy before pulling himself and extending his legs just as he reached right into the guys stomach.

“Gah!”

He didn’t let up as he grabbed the guy's arm and swung him like a wrecking ball and swung him down towards his ally.

The guy instantly ran away.

Before anyone could move the massive metal armed man was sent flying and landed and growled. “You little fucker!” he shouted and instantly turned towards the nearby Robin and with shocking speed for his mass his metal arm crashed into Robin who, moments before, hardened instinctively just like the day he awakened and was sent flying through a building wall.

“You three fucking bitches go finish that motherfucker! Don’t make me do your job for you!” he roared and rushed Springs.

The three remaining guys all ran towards the building but as they arrived Robin burst out from the dust cloud. His entire right side was burning hot from that massive impact and was hurting like nothing else from the heat but his fist made contact with the head of the middle one and he guided that all the way to the ground. Half way through he pumped the spring down for the extra power and then burst out of the building out of reach of the two guys.

“Fuck that hurts.” Robin said, feeling the intense heat burning inside his body. He definitely needed some kind of fast acting cooling system so that he doesn’t waste so much internal fluids.

The other two started to get fearful but Robin wasn’t letting them get away.

At this moment one of them suddenly changed as his body produced a white liquid substance and suddenly surrounded himself changing almost into like a golem with barely space for his face.

“I’ll fucking kill this bastard! Try to break my condensed wax!” he shouted and rushed forward like a raging bull.

“Wax…” Robin muttered and after some thought he prepared his punch and as the guy got near he sent a punch but it was different, suddenly his arm spun around like crazy and smashed into it with a heavy impact but his fist turned into a drill and an intense amount of heat began to come from the spinning before cracks appeared and he was pushed back before Robin’s second fist that was already wound rushed forward and like the first it began to spin like crazy but this one was an upper punch and lifted him momentarily of the ground and Robin knew it was hard to beat this guy but he didn’t need to think much as he quickly grab his arm and with one turn he sent the heavy mass flying into the side of a truck.

Before he could turn, he already ducked as a leg that had a bladed edge passed where his head was and he saw the last guy possessed the ability to turn his body into bladed weapons.

The leg came down and Robin jumped forward dodging before grabbing a manhole cover but not to pull up but to pull his arm and release it to wind up his arm while dodging.

“So you need a little time huh! Don’t think I will give you that! He shouted he swung his arm while Robin jumped and kicked and shot his leg into the incoming arm and got shot back. He swung his extended arm and suddenly grabbed the man’s shirt and pulled back before kicking him with the incoming force, one kick to block the other arm and the other connected to his face.

Sadly this man was far harder to deal with and he had to quickly jump.

“Hehehe, because of my ability, my skin and bones are already as hard as iron.” He said.

“Is that so.” Spring said, suddenly appearing and punching him on the back of the head and his body was punched into the ground.

Robin looked surprised by the quick finish and looked at the rest of the battle and found the massive man beaten like a punching bag.

“Good job Black bullet, taking out the acid one was the right choice.” Spring said and grabbed the closest guy by the shirt and dragged him to the large pile.

The only awakened one was the guy in the strange wax but he was stuck in the side of the truck unless he came out.

He was fearfully hiding in there though.

Soon the police arrived in the area along with many powerful trucks for transporting dangerous criminals with high strength.

“The big one is at least a strongman, he is Metal arm, the one that kept getting away from me recently. Finally caught the guy.” He said.

“Thank you for the help. Is that a new recruit?” the police asked.

“I’m an Intern left under Beat Spring’s command. I’m Black Bullet.” Robin said.

“Quite the promising boy, smart as well. Helped me catch all of them by letting me focus on the big guy.” Springs said laughing.

The officer knew he was giving the boy a moral boost and the officer thanked them for their work.

Soon the reporters came and they had to deal with that side of being a hero but it was quickly dealt with and they quickly headed off to patrol.

Damages caused from battle are mostly covered by the city's Heroics bureau. There are many civilian abilities that aren’t made for battle and many of them help in repairs. Only extreme damage was hard to fix but the small damage happening but the damage here was small and within a few hours this road and the buildings are likely to be finished.

Before going on, Robin and Springs looked for water because that hit from the leader had caused him to lose a lot of fluids. He even asked for help unzipping and shockingly steam began to come out from his exposed upper body.

“God damn, how are you emitting so much heat?! How is this not affecting your powers?” He asked.

“I don’t know but it feels so good.” he said as he cooled off. How strong was that guy, running away from you seems pretty hard with your speed.” Robin asked.

“He is a strong grunt in a few crime syndicates that are honestly well hidden. Even with the majority of super villains running to Australia that doesn’t mean new ones aren’t born. Not to mention that they also have espionage spread all over. One of their biggest industries we are constantly on the lookout for is the sales of illegal heroic level weaponry.” He said.

“You mean armor and weapons that amplify or balance an ability?” Robin asked.

“Exactly. That guy was pretty weak but if you had paid attention you would have noticed that what they attacked was material deposit and were trying to run with that so they could cut costs in better equipment. The previous two times they got away they used pepper gas which almost knocked me out. It was two different gases which stunned me so badly that they got away. However it seems it was one of the minions that threw it so you saved me another embarrassing show against the same people.” He said.

Robin smiled slightly while breathing and drinking a lot of water. When his body cooled down a lot he put his armor back on. “So how strong on a hero scale?” Robin asked.

“A strength/defense type strongman. His strength increment is much higher than normal but he is slower. It took a bit of effort to hit unprotected areas. What is most surprising is your own defensive power. His punch was almost three times stronger than the one I hit you with.” he said.

“Yeah but you just saw the side effect.” Robin said feeling a lot better with the heat gone.

“Right, we aren’t even close to finishing the patrol, there is a lot of city to cover so you can cool off while swinging about.” He said. Robin smiled weakly and wrapped his arms and they headed off.