Lung was a parahuman that Greg knew well.

His power was literally to turn into a massive fuck off dragon.

Was it any wonder that he'd spent many hours prowling forum posts dedicated to the man? The forums disagreed on a lot of things when it came to the dragon, the parameters of his power, whether he even had an upper limit or not. But there was one thing that the PHO community agreed on, he was a dragon, inside and out.

Unlike other capes who expanded and held ambition for future prospects, Lung was content to simply hold what he had. A dragon sitting on his horde of gold and pretty things, unwilling to spend or lose so much as a coin without a lot of fire being involved. He'd made it abundantly clear over the years what happened to those who dared tickle a sleeping dragon.

And here Greg was, coming into his cave and trying to steal an entire treasure chest.

Lungs posture was entirely relaxed as he took in the crowd of cowering naked girls. Then his attention turned on Greg, and he had to stop himself from flying away then and there.

"First those stupid undersiders tried to steal from me last month, now you?" He shook his head slowly. "I guess burning them alive wasn't enough of a message." Lung shrugged, raising a suddenly flame wreathed hand.

Greg rocketed up into the air, fully intent on leaving, panic and fear completely drowning out all other thoughts. Like hell was he gonna fight that psychopath!

With his speed, he would be well out of danger within just a few moments.

A pained cry echoed in his ears, the sound like a spike to the brain. Greg stopped abruptly. Facing the direction he came from with a heart that was stuck in a vice.

Lung loomed over a downed girl, her long dark hair did little to cover her bruised back. Her shoulders were hunched and her head bowed, a dog that was used to abuse.

She looked down, avoiding eye contact, shrinking in on herself like a singularity. The girls didn't care, pushing and shoving at the taller girl, ripping pages out of her notebook-

Greg didn't know what happened, one moment he was almost a full mile in the sky, the next he was at street level with his arm outstretched in front of him with a clenched fist. The building in front of him had a rather large hole blown through the front of it, almost as if-

Surprisingly, there was no panic when he realized what he'd just done. Just a cold acceptance. A glance behind him showed the girl that Lung had struck, still prostrating herself on the ground.

"Get up, you need to get out of here." Greg wasn't willing to take his eyes off the hole, already he could spot the dragons wounds healing, soon he would be getting back up, getting bigger, getting stronger.

"You need to leave, NOW!" He snapped over his shoulder. The harsher tone seemed to do the trick. He heard a brief scuffle then the pitter patter of bare feet getting further away.

The hand that gripped the side of the hole was covered in silver scales and tipped with long claws. Lung had grown immensely, standing so tall that his head nearly brushed the ceiling of the building he was exiting. Muscles bulged and writhed under thick silver scales.

Greg wanted nothing more than to fly, but the rabbit like hearts he could hear behind him kept him anchored. All he had to do was buy them enough time to run, once they were far enough, he could scram. Easy.

Lung grew another foot.

Real easy. Greg gulped, his closed fists shook slightly. He'd never in his life been in an actual fight before, and his first was going to be against Lung of all people? One of those bullets must have hit his head harder than he'd thought.

Lung leaped forwards, clearing the entire street in a single bound. Greg's eyes widened, a silvery fist slammed into his cheek, the blow sent him rocketing to the side, bouncing off a parked car and skidding several more feet.

Greg stared up at the flickering streetlight. At least it hadn't hurt. Greg got back up to his feet easily enough, though his legs shook something fierce. He really had thought he was going to die for a moment there.

Lung tried to say something, but his misshapen face didn't allow for anything intelligible to be communicated.

"Sorry, I don't speak idiot, idiot." Gregs blabber mouth was firing on full cylinders, fear was an excellent lubricant, he didn't even have the time to realize he'd said that out loud before Lung was on him. This time, Greg was marginally more prepared for it, ducking under the clawed swipe. Seeing an opportunity, he sent out a jab of his own. It was a truly pitiful thing, even Greg could recognize that.

There was nothing even approaching a semblance of form, the punch, if it could even be called such, was a purely reactive thing fueled by a panicked mind. More of a vague flail than a punch if he were honest.

So when Lungs rib cage caved inwards, and his body was sent ragdolling through multiple buildings, they were both understandably shocked.

Greg stared at his fist in open shock.

Holy shit.

He had felt things snap under his hand.

Maybe he could actually do this? His confidence soared.

The building Lung was in exploded in flames, all of its windows blown outwards from the force. Greg watched in fascinated horror as Lungs bones crunched and skin tore, all of it rekniting itself.

Within just thirty seconds, Lung was a dragon in truth. Elongated neck, digitigrade legs, wings . And he was still growing.

The ensuing roar was loud enough to make him feel it in his chest. It put the lions roar he'd heard at the zoo in the third grade to shame.

Greg began to inch backwards, surely he'd done enough, surely the girls were far enough away now?

He wanted desperately to check, but he couldn't bring himself to look away from the creature in the building, some hind part of his brain was tripping hard at the sight of the monster. His body screamed that if he took his eyes off of it, it would be the last thing he did.

Those teeth were mighty big… was Lung a cannibal? With a mouth that large, surely he was a cannibal, right?!

Greg was starting to hyperventilate.

The Dragon of Kyushu crawled out of the hole, the cloak of fire it was wrapped in burned hot enough for Greg to feel the heat from where he stood, almost half a block away. His slitted eyes locked onto his, Lungs already terryfing jaw split down the middle in a nauseating display of splitting skin and bone-

Nope.

Greg flew up, up, and away.

The Bay vibrated with the shameful sonic booms.