The relay tower loomed above the industrial skyline like an obsidian tuning fork, thrumming with Guild broadcasts. Antennae sparked in the midnight drizzle as Jack, Lyra, and Patch roosted on a ventilation platform one block away.
Zara's voice guided them through static: "Spirit‑mesh barrier surrounds the tower core—viscoelastic field. Time your breach or you'll be slingshotted off the roof."
Jack licked rain from his lip. "Viscoelastic? Sounds bouncy."
Patch narrowed beady eyes. "Do not treat it like a trampoline."
Lyra activated her wrist console, mapping the barrier pulses. "Window opens for three seconds every minute. We rappelling or—"
Jack sprinted. "Shortcut!"
"Wilson—!"
Too late. Jack leapt the gap, colliding with the shimmering barrier. Instead of repelling him, the membrane flexed—absorbing kinetic energy, stretching outward like bubble gum, then snapping back with a sonic twang.
Jack vanished into the glow.
---
Kinetic Imprint
Inside the barrier, time thickened. Runic lattices spiraled around his cells, reading, copying, merging. Pain and exhilaration fused as the sigil on his palm pulsed a new algorithm: Tissue Elasticity Protocol.
Jack's atoms remembered the barrier's flex. Muscles uncoiled; bones threaded with micro‑filaments; skin synthesized shock‑gel layers. The transformation lasted a heartbeat.
Then the barrier spat him out.
He slammed onto the tower roof—only, his torso compressed like a spring, rebounded, and Jack bounced upright unharmed.
Lyra and Patch followed via grappling line, gawking.
Patch flapped circles around him. "Why aren't your ribs powdered?"
Jack stretched an arm experimentally—it elongated three metres, noodle‑smooth, then recoiled. "Guess I'm… bendier now."
He pinched his forearm; the flesh snapped back with a satisfying whip.
Lyra's jaw dropped. "You turned into human licorice."
"Humble elastic hybrid, thank you." Jack beamed. "Time to test drive."
---
Snapback Smash
Two Guild sentries rounded the roof hatch, stun‑lances raised. Jack flung his rubberized arm in a wide arc; it stretched, looped a chimney, and slingshotted him forward. Momentum compounded—he crashed boots‑first into the guards, sending them skidding like bowling pins.
He landed, spine corkscrewing then realigning with a wet pop. "That was disturbingly fun!"
Lyra planted tap‑bombs on transmitter nodes while Jack ricocheted around disabling turrets. Each impact stored potential energy in his tendons; each rebound unleashed it twice as hard.
"Call this mode Rebound Riot," he announced mid‑jump.
Patch muttered, "Please file trademark later."
---
Relay Collapse
Lyra's last tap‑bomb blinked ready. "Detonating in five—"
Draven's shadow wings burst from the stairwell, but Jack wrapped an elastic leg around a mast and catapulted himself, intercepting the hunter mid‑flight.
"Surprise hug!" Jack's extended torso coiled around Draven, pinning arms. Stored kinetic charge detonated—flinging Draven across the roof into a dish array, fracturing metal.
Jack snapped back to normal length, dizzy but grinning. "Elasticity: one, edgelord: zero."
Lyra hit the trigger. The relay tower's core surged, glyphs shattering. Signal beams fizzled into silent rain.
---
Aftermath & Limits
Sirens wailed across the district; Zara whooped in their comms. Jack flexed, feeling joints ache with unfamiliar fatigue—the new mutation guzzled calories, his muscles trembling.
Lyra steadied him. "You good, Stretch?"
"Need… carbs," Jack panted. "And maybe a chiropractor."
Patch landed on his head, triumphant. "Guild comms are dark for the first time in a decade."
Below, Draven rose from twisted metal, fury simmering. But without radio support, Guild squads retreated.
Jack eyed the night sky, rain rippling off neon. "Freedom's stretchy, folks," he laughed, shoulders rebounding like rubber.
Lyra sighed—half exasperation, half admiration. "Let's go before your new power melts."
They vanished into the storm, chaos crew one step closer to tearing every chain.