He is on a second-storey rooftop in a dark and rundown-looking city. Possibly grimdark, it's too early to tell, but it's definitely nighttime and the streets are unlit.

Some distance down the street there's a group of men (class: street tough). A particularly big (and shirtless) man is speaking. None of them are visibly armed or armored; the light of cigarette tips glints off small metal devices some of them are holding.

If he's perceptive, he will notice a dark silhouette on the roof of the opposite building before it moves into cover.

"...the children, just shoot.  Doesn’t matter your aim, just shoot.  You see one lying on the ground?  Shoot the little bitch twice more to be sure."

Despite the light show and it being nighttime, his eyes seem to be pre-adjusted to the dark. Cool! There are so many buildings… Elan doesn't think he's ever been in a city this big.

He briefly registers the silhouette but is distracted when he notices the Tough Guys, especially when he realizes what they're saying. He doesn't think before leaping down, trusting that Lightfoot and Gloryseeker will protect him here.

"Hey, shooting kids is bad and wrong! You shouldn't do that."

An unfamiliar parahuman. Not masked - perhaps it's not his real face? No visible weapon, but he leapt down from a rooftop and challenged Lung. Either the sort who thinks they're funny, or a distraction from the real threat.

"There may be others. Stay alert, let me know if you see anyone," he orders his men.

"Tell me your name," he tells the stranger. "In case it will not shame me to say that I bothered to kill you, later." His power stirs, eager for a challenge, but this is his territory and he doesn't want to destroy part of it to swat a gnat.

Well, Elan sure hopes he's funny!

"I'm Elan! I don't think you're gonna kill me, though. I guess you could give me a cool scar if you were really good at fighting? But anyway, it would be hard to protect the kids if I was dead."

Where are the kids, anyway?

"You there, shoot him." He'll either miss or the shots will have no effect, but either way Lung will learn something about the other cape's powers.

He begins to grow, his skin rippling and giving off an aura of heat, the tips of metal scales beginning to poke out. He will put down this fool who challenged him, as soon as he sees the effect the bullet has.

(There are no visible kids.)

The man he selected nervously points his device at Elan, a bit like a wand, and then there is a very loud BANG.

Naturally, when the shirtless guy starts to power up, his Soundtrack motif grows darker, richer, more dramatic. Like boss battle music. A nervous oboe pipes up as the lackey draws his weapon.

Elan could probably just stand there and get missed by the bullet anyway, but where's the fun in that? Instead, he does a twirl at just the right moment, his cape billowing artfully in a way that suggests perhaps more material than he's actually wearing. When he faces Lung again, he's retrieved a gleaming silvery rapier, modeled subconsciously on cool swords Elan's seen in plays and comic books, from who knows where.

"What did I just say?" Elan says, not realizing this was a test.

A Mouse Protector type. Could be working for the Undersiders. Probably hopes to lead Lung on a rampage that destroys his own territory but fails to hit the cape.

None of that matters, because Lung doesn't intend to miss.

He strides forward, haloed by flame.

A buzzing swarm of insects materializes out of the night to drop on Lung.

He snarls and burns them, sending out jets of flame from his hands where the swarm is thickets. The ones that land on him die quickly, and his healing can deal with any insect bites.

Any insect bites, you say?

...Lung ignores the insects and tries to hit or grapple the cape in front of him who must be controlling or generating them.

Whoa, cool!

"Thanks, bugs!"

Later, Elan might connect the dots between the tune that played when the swarm first descended on Lung and the sting he heard when he spotted the shadow on the rooftop. He's busy right now, though, what with the guy who thinks the bugs are his fault.

Elan dances backwards, trusting that he won't back into a wall. He's never tried to parry a grappling attempt with a sword, but there's only one way to find out if it'll work!

Lung can move forward faster than he can move backward. Also, he's eight feet tall and on fire.

Elan can still manage to dodge, but his cape has less luck! As soon as Elan realizes this, he ceases to be wearing it. Which is good, because of that whole "on fire" thing.

Elan's going to have to go on the offense for this, apparently. He presses the first gap in Fire Guy's defenses he can detect.

The sword pierces a lung. No matter, he will regenerate shortly. More importantly, while the sword is in him it cannot dodge; he grabs at it.

"Uh-oh!"

Elan lets go of the sword and dashes away while Lung is occupied removing it. What does he do next? Try and fill this guy with swords like a reverse porcupine? That probably won't work for very long.

Maybe he can try diplomacy again? After he scampers up the nearest climbable-by-him thing.

"Why are you doing all this, anyway?"

Lung breaks the sword in two and tosses it aside.

"You challenged me, on my turf. You will not walk away." He crouches and leaps, two stories up to the roof where Elan is.

Behind his dragon-mask, one eye has flattened into a slit but the other is a fiery orb.

There is a huge swarm of insects on this rooftop! It envelops Lung. They can't survive on his skin for very long, but more keep coming from somewhere.

Lung hunches over, frantically swatting himself, but when more insects keep swarming him he explodes with flames like a miniature fireball. In the few seconds that affords him he spots Elan and lunges for him with a frustrated roar.

Elan wishes that he had ever handled, like, an ice wand of some sort. That would probably be really handy against Fire Guy.

Fortunately, he can keep dodging. It's still pretty scary, but he tries to reframe that in his head as exciting.

"I only challenged you because you were talking about killing kids! And that sounded like it was happening already when I showed up, you can't blame it on me!"

"CHALLENGERS DIE."

Lung is still growing bigger and faster. At this rate he'll be able to corner Elan, or fall through the roof.

A shadowy figure moves into sight from behind a rooftop hatch.

"Um."