Dracofire
- Our sun is one of 100 billion stars in our galaxy. Our galaxy is one of billions of galaxies populating the universe. It would be the height of presumption to think that we are the only living things in that enormous immensity.
- —Wernher von Braun, New York Times (29 April 1960)
Dracofire has the dubious honor of being the first alien character I've put together. The character doesn't pay homage to any particular character, but to the general concept of the Outsider. There's an additional mystery to him as there's no way of telling whether or not the story of why he's on Earth is even remotely true.
Thermal Radiation
Personality
Dracofire looks upon the people of Earth-and its technology-as being painfully primitive in general, although certain spots-like Grandville-seem to be closer to the level he considers "passable". He was known to be fairly impressed with Praetoria when he visited the area with the Entropy Legion.
As a representative from the Conglomerate of Worlds, Dracofire prefers to play the role of the observer in most social situations. In a combat situation, however, he isn't afraid to cut loose with his powers, and isn't particularly bothered if his enemies end up as charred piles of ash in the end. The best enemy to have is a dead one, in his opinion; living ones have the temerity to try again harder next time. He just hates do-overs.
His personal morality is somewhat questionable; after all, in order to research Earth for the Conglomerate, he came to the Rogue Islands and is using it as his basis for examination. He doesn't have trouble following orders, and doesn't seem to care if those orders involve morally questionable acts-but then, he may not even share the basic concepts of morality that humanity tends to have.
Dracofire possesses an odd sense of humor-or at least, that's what his fellows in the Entropy Legion think. The odd noises he makes occasionally could well be laughter, and he may or may not be playing a practical joke on Radium Blight when it comes to Conglomerate technology. His evaluation of the general level of intelligence of humans occasionally causes him to make remarks on the species that go over their heads, which occasionally confirms his opinion of the species. That said, he has great respect for humanity in general, for nowhere else has he seen such a variety of individuals with powers that could literally shape the future of the planet.
Powers
While Arachnos has labeled Dracofire as a "mutant", the truth is that their ability to classify beings and their powers was never really meant to deal with alien physiology. The truth is that Dracofire's "power" is native to his race, but requires alien biotechnology to actually utilize it to a variety of effects. The biotech suit he wears is actually linked to his physiology, and this is likely why he wound up being classified as a mutation.
Dracofire really doesn't care what Arachnos classifies him as.
Fire Blast
Dracofire's personal body temperature well exceeds 2000 Kelvin, capable of melting titanium. The biotech outfit regulates this so that-as a general rule-his body emits only roughly a small percentage of that heat. Even so, it is enough to cause the air near him to burn in perpetual flame. With the suit, he can utilize this fire as an offensive weapon, whether through simple fire balls, or through igniting the air around his enemies. In some instances, he even appears to breathe flame.
Thermal Radiation
Strangely, Dracofire has also used the heat he generates to protect allies with auras of intense heat, and to even heal wounds with fire-whether his own or another's. Dracofire doesn't bother to explain how this is possible, saying only that "Earther ssscience hassss a long way to go".
Additional Powers
The biosuit allows Dracofire to presumably survive in alien environments (like Earth), and prevents his natural body heat from igniting a far larger area around him than is already being affected. It is also likely that the biosuit enables him to understand the languages of Earth; certainly it translates his native language to the most commonly used language around him (English, in the Isles).
With as large a pair of wings as he has, Dracofire has one more fairly obvious power.
Flight
Dracofire's wings allow him to fly on a world with suitably low gravity-like Earth.
Abilities
Dracofire hasn't evinced any obvious talents or skills to the people on Earth. He's revealed that he isn't a technological genius; when questioned about it given his views on Earth's technology, he asked in return if the questioner knew how to build his own car, supercomputer, or microwave oven.
While he hasn't shown special skills, it can probably be assumed that he is an excellent observer; whether he's a spy or an ambassador examining Earth, that trait would seem to be essential to complete his assignment.
Weaknesses and Limitations
At present, Dracofire's most notable weakness involves his lack of pop-culture knowledge, slang, abbreviations-in short, all the little things that make up a culture. He's mistaken some rather heated arguments between a couple of members of the Entropy Legion to be a mating ritual, for example.
Equipment
Dracofire has not revealed this openly, but it's likely that he has a spacegoing vessel concealed somewhere near the Rogue Islands-possibly near Mercy Island. He may also have access to advanced Conglomerate technology to use as he requires it-but if so, he has been reluctant to demonstrate the use of that tech, outside of a single instance, when it was used to break him out of an Arachnos prison cell.
Character History
Dracofire doesn't go into much detail as to the origin of his species, or his own personal history. What is known is that he arrived on Earth through unknown means in early 2011, and fell in with the Union of Dire Ambition not long after. He claims to be a representative of a "Conglomerate of Worlds" to evaluate the status of the planet Earth for the Conglomerate. He would eventually be assigned to work with the Entropy Legion, and he decided to continue his observations on Earth with this group.
Dracofire also hasn't been exactly forthcoming about just what the Conglomerate of Worlds wants with Earth: to open relations, to induct it into the organization...or to conquer it. Dracofire has been rather elusive in answering questions on this subject, as he does not want to "taint the evaluation processss." There was even the possibility that there is no Conglomerate of Worlds, and his story is complete fiction; or perhaps he is on the run from the Conglomerate. Unfortunately, there isn't any convenient way to determine the truth-his alien nature makes the standard methods of lie detection useless; the existence of the Conglomerate was recently confirmed by the hero Stellar Protector in an unrelated situation.
In late 2011, the Entropy Legion was suckered into transmitting into the clear a large amount of classified Arachnos and The Union of Dire Ambition data. This put the group on a number of prominent hit lists. Dracofire was captured during a surprise attack by Stellar Abyss, and was imprisoned on a Volans-class air carrier commanded by Operative Rostov. This imprisonment was short-he was apparently broken out by means of advanced (and destructive) technology. He rejoined the Legion in time to help deal with the mess the Legion had gotten into.
Dracofire left the Earth shortly in late 2012 to attempt to stop a Conglomerate planet-killer from destroying Earth; the rationale of the Conglomerate was that it was better Earth should die than potentially increase the power of the Battalion. Dracofire's rationale was that Earth was the first world he knew of that had a shot at stopping Battalion. In one alternate future, Dracofire succeeded in stopping the planet killer and helped convince the Conglomerate to offer at least token assistance to the heroes of Earth in defeating Battalion once and for all. In another alternate future, Dracofire also succeeded, but was punished for his actions and had his wings amputated. Dracofire was returned to Earth when the threat of Battalion faded to resume his duties as an ambassador/observer/spy. Dracofire also hoped to find a way to regrow his wings with the help of Earth's tech...although he was not optimistic.
Affiliations
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Friends
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Trivia
- Dracofire claims that his species has been referred to as the "K'rsh-thaa" by the Conglomerate. The actual species name is one that cannot be vocalized by humans.