Late at night in Wolfvegas

Lungfish hugged the corner of the building. a pizzeria in Wolfvegas. Wolfvegas was a well off but fairly small University town with a homey one street town vibe to it that belied the several thousand students it housed for 2/3rds of the year. Just around the corner of the pizzeria were the criminals he was stalking and this was his first time, well being a super hero.

Lungfish looked down at his costume. It was ridiculous really, baggy and vaguely aquatic bodysuit tucked into rubber boots. Yellow Kitchen Cleaner gloves hid the boxing wraps he had on under them. On his head something like a cloth Chinese dragon-head sat. Its long whiskers kept getting in his face. At least its not a cape , Mark Holmes thought. He had read that comic, capes were totally a bad idea. Lungfish closed his eyes, looking deep inside himself for that special place he didn't really have and he'd didn't know where to find. Mark Holmes was just a fish scientist. He didn't know how he got these damn powers or why he kept having visions of lungfish in his dreams.

It was maddening really. He thought to himself. Keeping his eyes shut he began trying to breath with his belly to calm his thrashing heart.

It wasn't working. Then he heard "Excuse me!" from ahead of him and mark opened his eyes.

The two criminals were looking at him with a bizarre and perplexed look, taking in his strange costume with a look almost as incredulous as mark's was when he saw the villains.

CRAP! Lungman shouted as he began flailing and trying to get away. His sudden movement broke the villains out of their stillness and one tried to stab him. "Get HIIM" the other one yelled.

Everything got frighteningly real. I am an Ichthyologist and what the bloody blue murder am i doing out here!

The knife narrowly missed him, clanging against the building for a second before the thug could pull it out.

Now or never mark thought and something changed. It wasn't mark anymore it was LUNGFISH and it wasn't now or never it was most definitely now.

Lungfish looked with an almost evil smirk at the two thugs. Boys really. They were trying to get into the local Wolfvegas pizzashop as it closed to burgle the night's cash. Lungfish simply withdrew their breath and held it in the palm of his hand. It was frighteningly easy and the two kids collapsed, grasping and clutching at their throats that wouldn't take air for some unknown reason. They quickly passed out.

mark flush with exhilaration stood around jubilantly not noticing the scared pizza guy running away from the fish costumed weirdo that just collapsed two men with the power of their lungs. Mark didn't notice until after a minute or two of celebration, when he heard the sounds of sirens and getting closer. Mark quickly checked the kids, making sure they were breathing normally before running into an alley, and taking the long way home. A victory lap for the Lungfish.

Mark Holmes stood in the hallway of the cancer ward. Since his first excirsion almost two weeks ago he had been patrolling nightly, arround his job and lack of social life. That said, the reaction to his decision to become a superhero was ... less then enthusiastic.

The opinion columns called him the masked weirdo . The two would be thieves he stopped actually were portrayed as victims to an unintelligible masked weirdo. An artists depiction of him in his costume actually appeared in an amber alert. He heard he would be a novelty feature on america's most wanted.

Not quite the reaction he had hopped for. Still mark patrolled. It was the summer months so the town was slow but he managed to save an old ladies purse from being snatched ... promptly to be beaten with it.

More alerts, costumed wierdo and purse snatcher.

Hadn't stopped mark or LUNGFISH for that matter. Mark breathed out noisily in the hallway getting a dirty look from the nurse or janitor or someone. It was getting better but mostly worst. The visions of the lungfish in his dreams were more common. Mark felt out of sorts. The only part of his day he really looked forward to were work and his patrols.

But this. This was stage two.

He may not be a brilliant scientist but he was still a scientists. His powers confounded science, but he knew that it wasn't just regular science, but super science involved. So it was time to grow a little.

Mark could manipulate lungs with his mind , almost instinctively. But could he heal them?

He walked into the room , sneaking in after the doctor had left.

An old man taking oxygen and grasping a pack of cigarette lay there. Eyeing him coldly. "Whadder yu wan" the man gasped out as mark checked his chart.

Stage 4 lung cancer, prognosis, weeks.

Mark then, finally moving forward with the fishy grace of Lungfish towered over the bedridden man.

"yu ain no dowctur" the man grasped as Mark laid his hands on him.

The machines blared for a loud minute. Mark could hear people begining to stir, to run outside. Towards this room. The old man shook and shuddered as if possessed under mark's hand, and then lay still.

Did i? Mark thought to himself unwilling to finish the question until the old man, took a deep breath. Deeper and deeper it went , the old man swelling up with the fresh taste of air. The man looked at mark solumnly for a moment before saying "praise the lord, mister" as mark slipped out of his room.

Just in time to avoid the rushing nurses and orderlies.

Walking out mark was relieved. He wasn't entirely sure that would work. Mark was at the hospital entrance when he stopped. He had felt something when he cured that old man, he had felt ... lungs. Turning arround, mark knew LUNGFISH had work to do.