Pride

Friday's warning came through the headset, tense and urgent. "Sir, there's a huge heat source underground, and its energy intensity is off the charts. You need to get out of there now!"

Charlie, controlling Batman, had already activated detective mode, and his screen lit up with a glowing red orb buried deep below the surface, moving quickly towards them. He knew something was about to go very wrong.

Suddenly, boom! The ground beneath him exploded with incredible force, sending chunks of earth, shattered rock, and even the bodies of fallen creatures spiraling into the air like shrapnel. Batman's reflexes kicked in, and just half a second before the blast hit, he unfurled his cape and launched himself upward, narrowly dodging the eruption below.

Leila wasn't as lucky. The explosion struck her head-on, and she was launched into the air, spinning uncontrollably. Her brightly colored wings flared open, and she managed to regain her balance in mid-air, though her expression showed clear annoyance as she shot a sharp look at Batman. It seemed as if she was silently blaming him for not warning her sooner.

Still, Leila was tough—one of the few remaining Ancients, after all. Her unique resilience kept her from suffering serious harm, but if she were an ordinary person, that blast would've been devastating.

And then, they both saw it—the source of the explosion. Rising from the ground, it was huge and awe-inspiring. Its scales shone like black metal, and its powerful body was covered in jagged, rock-like spines jutting out from its back. The creature's claws, sharp and deadly, scraped the earth as it emerged, its eyes blazing with a fierce, ancient intelligence.

It was a dragon.

Its enormous body rippled with muscle, and every inch of it seemed designed to inflict fear. Batman and Leila hovered above, stunned by the sight of this legendary creature in the flesh. The dragon's head swung back and forth, and with a growl that rumbled like distant thunder, it leaped forward, its claws outstretched to snatch them from the air like helpless insects. Batman and Leila split in opposite directions, dodging just in time as the claws missed them by a hair's breadth.

As Batman soared in a wide arc, gaining height for a better view, Leila's monitoring equipment transmitted a live feed back to the Ninth Division's base camp. The agents watching were silent with shock and awe. No one could believe what they were seeing.

Ivan Petrov's voice broke the silence, his tone filled with disbelief. "Is that... an actual dragon?"

Leila's voice crackled over the comms. "They were supposed to be extinct ages ago. I didn't think any of them were left."

"It doesn't matter," Batman's voice cut in, calm and cold. "We're ending this here."

Down on the ground, Ant-Man assessed the scene and quickly pulled two Pym-particle darts from his belt. He threw them with perfect aim, knowing they could shrink the dragon down to the size of a mouse if they hit. But the dragon had been watching his previous battles. With a low growl, it summoned a powerful gust of wind. The darts spun off course, one of them striking a nearby tree, which instantly shrank to a tiny size. The other dart hit the ground, causing a small crater that immediately shrunk, warping the earth around it.

Leila's voice came through again. "It saw your fight earlier. It knows what those darts do—it won't let you hit it that easily."

"Good point," Ant-Man muttered, dodging the dragon as it lunged at him. He activated his suit, shrinking down to the size of an ant and riding the swirling wind currents stirred up by the dragon's movements. The dragon's claw hit only air, sending another cloud of dust into the sky.

Meanwhile, Batman saw his chance. He dived from above, gliding straight over the dragon's head. As he passed, he extended his gloved hand and released a surge of high-voltage electricity. The bolts struck the dragon's skull but seemed to bounce off its thick scales, barely making an impact.

The dragon's head snapped around, its fierce eyes locking onto Batman as it let out a furious roar. It swung its massive tail in a powerful arc, aiming to knock Batman from the sky. Batman retracted his wings, his thrusters firing to drop him rapidly out of the tail's path. As he fell, he tossed a freezing grenade at the dragon, but it let out another ear-splitting roar. The force of its voice created a swirling wind that blew the grenade off course. It detonated mid-air, scattering icy crystals everywhere, but failing to reach the dragon.

The air around the dragon shimmered with waves of heat, creating an almost blinding glow. Even Batman's advanced suit was beginning to feel the effects of the rising temperature. But Charlie, now fully immersed in the game's world, was quick to adapt. He let the dragon's wind carry Batman for a distance, then spread his cape to slow his descent, stabilizing just above the ground before firing his thrusters again and taking off in a sweeping arc, kicking up a cloud of dust as he lifted away.

Switching perspectives, Charlie directed his focus back to Ant-Man, who had shrunk down and was now riding a flying ant, surveying the battle from above.

"So, are you planning to help or just float around?" he teased Leila as he rose into the air.

Leila frowned, her hands igniting with flames that danced across her fingertips, but even her ancient powers couldn't penetrate the dragon's impenetrable scales. "Dragons were considered the most perfect creatures on Earth's Polar Star. And whatever they implanted in me has blocked some of my abilities—I can't fight at full strength."

Implanted? Charlie thought. The Ninth Division must have put some sort of failsafe in her to limit her powers, he realized. Still, he wasn't counting on her for this fight. Charlie had his own plan, a move he'd been waiting to use.

Switching Ant-Man's skill to "Giant Mode," he prepared to unleash a game-changer.

Ant-Man launched off the back of his flying ant, his tiny form dropping toward the ground. Then, halfway down, he activated the giant mode. In an instant, his small figure swelled, growing larger and larger until he hit the ground like a skyscraper crashing down. The impact shook the battlefield, creating a shockwave that sent dust and debris flying in all directions.

Ant-Man, now a towering giant, stood face-to-face with the dragon. Every agent at the base camp stared in awe.

The dragon, seeing this human grow to its size, froze in confusion, letting out a deep growl that sounded almost like, "Aba... aba aba?"

The dragon's instincts told it that humans were small, insignificant creatures, barely worth noticing. But here was this human, now matching it in size, challenging it head-on.

The dragon let out an enraged roar that shook the entire underground valley. Trees bent under the force of its cry, and the ground trembled. But Ant-Man didn't flinch.

Instead, he cocked his fist back and, with a powerful right hook, punched the dragon square in the jaw.

The impact sounded like a bomb going off. The dragon's roar was cut off as its head snapped to the side. It was lifted off its feet, sent flying backward. It crashed into the ground, sliding and tumbling, a cloud of dirt and rock billowing up around it.

As the dragon lay dazed and disoriented, its ancient mind struggled to understand what had just happened. How could a human have become so powerful?

It was a blow not just to its body, but to its pride.

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