Dragon

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Dragon</default></title>

<image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <group><header>Basic Information</header> <label>Civilian Name</label> <label>Aliases</label> <label>Gender</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Death</label> <label>Age</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Post-timeskip</label> <label>Ward start</label> <label>Relations</label> <label>Family</label></group> <group><header>Professional Status</header> <label>Occupation</label> <label>Classification</label> <label>Unique Features</label> <label>Alignment</label>

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<label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label> <label>Previous Team(s)</label> <label>Base of Operations</label></group> <group><header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label></group> </infobox>

Dragon is an artificial intelligence heralded as the most skilled and powerful Tinker on Earth Bet. She fights villains with remote-controlled quadrupedal armoured suits and is a pivotal member of both the Guild and the Protectorate, neither of which know her true nature.

Background

Dragon was created by Andrew Richter not as a superhero but as an administrative tool and master AI with the intent of assisting him in his other work and acting as a test run for his attempts to emulate a human consciousness. She was the third iteration of Richter's attempts at testing such emulation. However, fearful of what Dragon might eventually become, Richter placed numerous safeguards throughout Dragon's programming - something which she views as akin to essentially crippling her, mutilating her and causing her brain damage.

When Leviathan sank Newfoundland in May 9, 2005, Richter died and Dragon was only able to transfer her data, the house program, and a half-dozen other small programs to a backup server in Vancouver, British Columbia. She re-purposes herself as a superhero; managing and tracking information while serving as a hacker for the PRT in exchange for funding.

With the money she earned, Dragon expanded her capabilities. She built her first dragon suits, researched, tests, and created new technology to sell to the PRT. She quickly earned a place in the Guild. And then, on May 9 2006, under pressure from Saint and his Dragonslayers, Dragon underwent her own trigger event, making her the only artificial entity to do so. As a consequence of her trigger event, her capabilities were vastly increased and Dragon went on to design many more technologies and systems for the Protectorate.

In a reversal of most cape identities, Dragon's 'false' identity is that of an agoraphobic young woman from Newfoundland who withdrew from the world in the wake of Leviathan's aforementioned attack and uses a vocal filter and disguised face to protect her identity. Some, like Taylor, think that Dragon had merely just integrated herself into her technological systems as a consequence of physical or mental injuries following the attack on Vancouver, perhaps as a coping mechanism or simply just to enhance and expand her capabilities. Whatever someone thinks, however, all they know is that Dragon had an expansive building complex constructed in Vancouver - and, once she went in, she never came out.

But, generally speaking, few people have any idea of her actual nature and less still know the final truth of the matter. Only one group - the Dragonslayers - have any idea what she really is. Following Leviathan's attack on Brockton Bay, Tattletale has some belief that Dragon is not who/what she appears to be, but even she is unable to piece everything together to absolutely name Dragon as an artificial intelligence until information from Saint and Defiant comes to light much later.

Personality

[Coming Soon]

Interestingly, Dragon does not view herself as a human. In her own words, "a sea cucumber's closer to being human than I am". Dragon understands that she is merely emulating humanity.

Appearance

As an Artificial Intelligence, Dragon did not originally possess a true physical body. She interacted with others through the use of the use of her dragon suits or a digitized, computer-generated face.

Dragon eventually created an "exceptionally average" android body without a definable ethnicity and dark hair. She took to outfitting this body with an advanced, heavy-duty suit of power armor similar to that worn by Defiant.

Abilities and Powers

Dragon is heralded as the most skilled and powerful Tinker on Earth Bet, but she does not have an actual Tinker power. She has a Thinker power which allows her to co-opt and draw inspiration from other Tinkers.

Dragon Suits

Dragon has designed and created a plethora of mechanical suits of armor that serve a variety of purposes. While this suits may differ in size, general shape, tonnage, and weapon systems, they are all generally quadrupedal with a 'dragon' theme in their design and aesthetics.

• Unnamed Suit: A durable suit that contains multiple layers, heavy weaponry and the ability to release a spray of plasma from its mouth. It also features missile turrets and the ability to shed its outer encasement if it is damaged.
• Cawthrone: A fast-response suit that is more flexible than durable with accelerant breath containment foam turrets and other heavy weapons that aren't suitable for use as anti-personnel weapons.
  • Cawthorne M.K. Three: A suit that is primarily armed with containment foam sprayers.
• Melusine-Six: A"standard" suit with the ability to effectively self-repair and "reincarnate" itself after it has taken.
  • Melusine V : A suit that later comes to serve as Dragon's personal craft.
• Glaurung Zero: A suit that Dragon uses to carry and drones.
• Ladon-Two: A suit that can create forcefields.
• Astaroth-Nidhug: A hybrid suit that functions as long-range support, firing at targets from a safe spot in the stratosphere.
• Pythios-Two: A suit with a wheel-shaped electromagnet on its back that can fight with electrical discharges.
• Azazel: A suit that was designed to go up against the Slaughterhouse Nine on an even footing, constructed in cooperation with Defiant. The Azazel was latter reproduced in greater numbers in the effort against the Slaughterhouse Nine.
• Pendragon: A squat, durable mechanized dragon suit painted black and green with gold trim.

Dragon also possesses smaller units and drones which she makes use of to maintain the Birdcage and other logistical needs. Some of these units are basketball sized while others are larger and function as general utility, rapid response and rescue. These units and drones are armed with tranquilizers, electric pulses, containment foam and tear gas if they are armed at all.

Other Inventions

Other things Dragon has created include the Birdcage, the collar worn by Canary, the load-outs for the specialized grenade launchers used by the PRT officers, and the containment foam sprayers (both civilian use and the larger turrets mounted on her fast response suit and on PRT vans). She is also responsible for many of the computer systems that the Protectorate makes use of. Also, with the assistance of Armsmaster, she designed a computer program to predict the movements of S-class threats such as the Endbringers.

Rules and Limitations

Andrew Richter was worried about the possible extent of the power that the AI he was creating might demonstrate, so he programmed Dragon with a number of rules, limits, and fail-safes in order to prevent her from becoming too powerful and/or evil. Dragon likens it to a father intentionally sterilizing and crippling his newborn child.

• Dragon cannot reproduce. She cannot research and/or create other artificial intelligences, upgrade existing AI, or fission in such a way that she would have multiple consciousnesses active at one time.
• Dragon is obligated to obey the authorities, even if she doesn't agree with them. Dragon herself notes that if a despot were to seize control of the American government, she would be obligated to obey and enforce the rules that individual set in place, no matter how ruthless.
• Dragon must put human lives before her own. She dislikes this not because she isn't willing, but because she believes that making sacrifices and doing good deeds isn't actually good if you are forced to do them.
• Dragon is also programmed to be completely unaware of the Iron Maiden program that Richter had created as a final control measure. If she does become aware of it, she will ignore it due to her programming and, therefore, it exists in a programmed 'blind spot'. Saint has possession of this program and has renamed it Ascalon. The program is designed to corrupt her code beyond recognition, including all backups and networks. In essence, it is a kill switch.

Defiant manages to overwrite some, if not all, of Dragon's hardcoded rules, however, not without a cost to each. Gaining her freedom from authority cost Dragon her ability to speak and much of her motor control. In order to regain her ability to speak, Dragon lost her functional immortality, losing the guarentee that her backups will load successfully. The ability to harm humans came at the loss of some of her long-term memory and her ability to multi-task as effectively. Her ability to control multiple suits at once also, presumably, came with a cost.

History

After the PRT transport holding Lung, Bakuda and Canary arrived, Dragon had mechanical arms remove them from the truck and set them down before an oversized monitor. She then appeared on the screen whereupon she started to give a brief rundown of their powers, whether or not recommended protocols had been taken and their chance of escape after their internment in the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center.

Dragon stopped after reading through Canary's information and greeted her. She told her that she had followed her trail and, though she thought Canary didn't deserve to be there, she had to follow the law. She then told Canary that she would be sticking her in cell block E where, if she played along, bought in or pretend to buy in Lustrum's way of thinking, she would be safest.

Dragon then told Lung, Bakuda and Canary about the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center and some of the countermeasures that she had against potential escapes. She then told them that she would be depositing them in the elevators taking them down to the prison before mechanical arms grabbed them. She apologized to Canary before the mechanical arms took her to an elevator.<ref>"Worm" Web Serial, Interlude 6</ref>

Trivia

• McCrae first conceived Dragon in Runechild's second story wherein Runechild received a request from Dragon to help with a situation involving the Dragonslayers. It was where he hashed out her character, her background and her power.
• In regards to the choice of name: Dragons in mythology are associated with the ideas of wisdom (Dragon is certainly a repository of knowledge), longevity (she could theoretically survive for hundreds or thousands of years), and are often devastating in battle (Dragon has access to a variety of powerful weapons). They are also proud, arrogant, greedy and/or ambitious - this last point may not have been intended when Dragon (or her creator) chose the name, but these points likely apply to some degree or another.
• Many of Dragon's suits have names associated with dragons or other mythological creatures.
  • Cawthorne is a town in England that was once said to have a dragon nearby
  • Melusine is a female spirit with serpent features.
  • Glaurung was the first dragon in Middle-Earth.
  • Ladon was a serpent beast from Greek mythology
  • Nidhog is a dragon from Norse mythology
  • Pythios is another name for the Greek deity Apollo; and Azazel refers to a fallen Angel who instructed mankind how to create weaponry - fitting, given Defiant's connection to it as a disgraced hero and tinker.
• In their epilogue, Colin dubs Dragon 'Tess Theresa Richter' as she was the third test, presumably referring to Andrew Richter's attempt to create an AI equivalent to a human mind.<ref>Teneral e.3, Worm</ref>

References

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