Name/Nickname: Subject 317
Gender: Male
Age: 4, most of which has been as a nymph.
Appearance: Subject 317 is a dragonfly, measuring about 155mm in length with two pairs of differently-sized wings, possessing a wingspan of roughly 180mm each. The biological portions of its body are iridescent in nature, with a distinctive grey-and-black pattern resembling demonic horns across its compound eyes, and a bright pattern of reds, oranges, yellows (the predominant colour in Subject 317's case) and blacks across the head and thorax. In a normal member of its species, this pattern would continue and stretch along its abdomen too, whilst its wings would possess a distinctive black colour edged with a spiked yellow pattern; however, Subject 317 has been subjected to processes which have, through means it does not understand, replaced most of its biological organs with artificial versions small enough to be compressed into its thorax, then replaced the empty abdomen with a long blade of grey metal, and its wings with a metallic construct similar in design, save for the same grey colouration as its new abdomen and the presence of a miniature, if relatively large ramjet atop where the four wings meet. All of these artificial replacements, though Subject 317 is not wholly aware of this, are composed of some form of living metal, capable of regenerating itself in much the same manner as the dragonfly's biological tissues, and at the same time introducing some substance that has vastly extended Subject 317's natural adult lifespan, though for how long is thus far undetermined.
Personality: Computerised processing protocols result in more logical thought processes than most members of Subject 317's species, though the manner in which these are implemented can lead to somewhat strange ways of thinking. It also has a slight obsession with becoming the best hunter the world has ever seen.
Species/Sub-species Name: Devilled Dragonfly - Yellow-Edged (
anisoptera diaboli flavens)
Species Biology: Devilled dragonflies in general tend to live in high-temperature environments of quite varied humidity, feeding off of local, smaller bugs as both nymphs and adults in daylight hours, and generally acting as the apex predator of the high-temperature invertebrate world during their adult life, being too large for the majority of insects to try to eat, and too mobile and/or airborne for most of the remainder to catch, the latter of which is often enhanced by their general proclivity toward wind magic, the combination of traits lending itself to a fairly reasonable population size in general (though larger organisms such as frogs often feed upon them if they are unfortunate enough to cross paths, and exceptionally fast flying insects such as certain types of wasp can catch up to them for the purposes of feeding or, in the case of the aforementioned wasps, parasitic egg-laying). Of these, the yellow-edged devilled dragonfly is particularly agile, having an association with lightning that gives it notably greater speed than many other insects whilst in flight, on top of a combat style which promotes sudden strikes, use of motion camouflage to target prey, as well as a general tendency to dodge rather than tank attacks made towards them.
The average devilled dragonfly spends the vast majority of their life, the same as any other dragonfly, in their nymph stage, going through multiple incomplete metamorphoses before reaching their adult form, a process which takes around five years. By contrast, they tend to live in their adult forms for little more than a few months under normal circumstances; whilst some may acquire magic that extends their lifespans to a (possibly vast) extent, the majority follow the path of most summer dragonflies, with most adults tending to die off by Autumn's end at the very latest. Thus, whilst most nymphs are somewhat more relaxed beyond their day-to-day hunting procedures, adult devilled dragonflies have a tendency toward jitteriness and haste, generally finding a need to breed as quickly as possible before their lives end, and moreso for the yellow-edged sub-species than most others.
The yellow-edged devilled dragonfly has a very high proclivity toward speed and agility, being able to move at exceptional speeds and seemingly alter their direction of motion on a whim, moreso even than most other types of dragonfly. Furthermore, they are not overly poor in terms of offense or defense as one might expect, given how large some can get, though the yellow-edged sub-species in particular is notably weaker in both areas than its black-, red- and orange-edged counterparts, which in turn are appropriately less fast and dexterous than their yellow-edged cousins in exchange for other statistical improvements (respectively more effective in physical strength, magical power, and defense, though all have at least a reasonable tendency toward speed and agility); its magical abilities are not particularly above average for a creature of its size, and often tend toward wind and electricity, as one might expect. Indeed, it is quite capable of resisting both of these elements, in addition to those elements based on the use of earth and earth-bound structures such as plants, which evidently have trouble reaching high enough in many circumstances; yet adult devilled dragonflies as a whole suffer when pitted against water and other typically liquid elements such as acid, an irony considering the often aquatic nature of their young.
Habitat: Devilled dragonflies can be found across a fairly wide portion of the world, oftentimes in warm areas as described above; in particular, adult yellow-edged devilled dragonflies have a marked tendency to either chase, precede, or rarely reside within prolonged storm weather, seeking to benefit from both the high winds and electrical energy that may be present within the area of such a storm, though nymphs are obviously less mobile than this for lack of wings.
Grouping: Devilled dragonflies in general are relatively solitary, not particularly forming groups of any size except to breed. Indeed, most males are as territorial as any other dragonfly, defending any chosen breeding areas from other males of their species, as well as other dragonfly species in general and other potentially-interloping insects when necessary, though the ephemeral nature of these areas reflects their fast-paced nature.
Elements: Wind, Electricity
Specialized Body Parts:
-Wings: Replaced with a construct that emulates Subject 317's original wing design in grey metal, albeit to a larger degree to account for the large blade replacing its abdomen, and adds on to it a relatively large ramjet over its thorax which, when activated by folding all four wings back against its abdomen, can propel it in a straight line at an astonishing rate, far faster than the vast majority of natural insects could move, though with little maneuverability as a result for various reasons.
-Abdomen: Replaced with a large, flexible blade of grey metal making up more than three quarters of Subject 317's total length, extending beyond the natural length of a yellow-edged devilled dragonfly, and basically designed to be a giant (by insect standards) sword of sorts that can be controlled by thought in the same way as any other extremity. Whilst Subject 317 does have the capacity to attack other insects the same way a normal dragonfly would, i.e. with its toothed jaw and extensible labrum, the abdominal blade has proven to be more effective by far, being quite capable of slicing insects of poor defensive capability in two with one slash, without necessarily being unwieldy to swing round under or over the rest of its body, and it can even channel electricity generated by Subject 317 (see Electrostab below). Whilst fairly strong, the main issue with the blade is that its fairly substantial size and relatively small striking area can make it difficult to use against smaller targets, and is thus rather ineffectual against large swarms of tiny insects - whilst quite a few may die in one strike, far more would remain to react to the deaths of their brethren.
Skills/Spells/Tactics:
Electrostab (Abdomen): Subject 317 can generate electricity from both its own magical prowess and some form of device implanted into its thorax alongside its other artificial organs. This electricity can then be channeled through the blade on its abdomen in order to badly shock and potentially even paralyse targets that it strikes, helping to ensure that they are killed by this attack.
Ramjet Charge (Wings, optionally Abdomen): By folding its four wings back against its abdominal blade, Subject 317 can activate the miniature ramjet attached at the point between its wings, sending it speeding forward at a frankly incredible rate, in order to catch up with and/or ram into other insects; combined with minor use of Wind and Electrical magic to further boost speed to the point of generating small shockwaves, which in turn can be boosted with use of additional Wind magic, or by instead performing a fly-by strike with the abdominal blade for an extreme amount of shearing force, a massive amount of damage can be dealt all at once. Naturally, this is a very powerful attack option, but comes at the cost of being both draining and quite risky to utilise - ramming head-first into another insect at that sort of speed is rarely good for Subject 317's health to begin with, since it only has a rather minor amount of reinforcement in place to protect it from the forces in play, and even a fly-by strike with the abdominal blade can result in damage from abrupt deceleration or redirection into the ground if the blade sticks. Also, it is obviously very difficult to turn or slow down from moving that rapidly, meaning that if the target is quick and agile enough to move out of the way, it is likely that Subject 317 will move past it quite a significant distance before it can stop, or worse fly straight into a solid surface before it can deactivate the ramjet, which is naturally not a fantastic way of living one's life.
Motion Camouflage (Combat Style): A frequently-utilised attack method among dragonflies and certain other insects, the principle of motion camouflage involves a pursuer choosing a flight path which allows it to remain on the line of sight between its target and a designated landmark point, usually where the pursuer was as it began to head towards the target, such that it appears to remain stationary relative to the target beyond looming larger as it draws nearer; this is in contrast to classical pursuit paths, which keep to the target's line of sight from the pursuer's current position, and is commonly a somewhat more efficient method of attack, not least because targets are often confused into believing that the pursuer is still next to the landmark it started at and just growing bigger.
Stats: Subject 317 has seemingly been modified specifically to improve its one-on-one combat prowess. The replacement of many of its biological parts with metallic equivalents has improved its offense and defense, very much so in the former case, and a certain amount of effort has been used to moderately boost its magical capabilities as well. This does come at the cost of somewhat decreased speed and agility due to increased weight, more in line with the mid-point in the family that is the red-edged devilled dragonfly than the yellow-edged devilled dragonfly Subject 317 truly is, but overall, its modification has been a statistical improvement over unaltered members of its race. However, the procedures to implement artificial parts have rather exarcerbated its natural weakness to liquid substances, particularly magical elements like water and acid, to the point of at the very least increasing the damage taken from attacks of those elements by 25% or so, whilst extremely well-aimed or wide-area attacks capable of exploiting both multiple weaknesses and one or more weak points on Subject 317's body can result in nearly doubled damage from such attacks, a very bad proposition for it even after defensive improvements given its initially low-ish constitution.
Biography: Subject 317 spent a great many years as a nymph, whiling away its days as a ravenous predator of any insects smaller than it living in its pond, though every so often, it found itself moving into a new pond after the old one dried up or otherwise became difficult to inhabit safely. There is little to discuss about this extensive period of several years, as it is all but identical to the lifestyle of any other devilled dragonfly nymph, save its very end: during one such pond change, the nymph was captured by some monstrous, titanic entity, one which walked on two proportionally thick legs and trapped it in some invisible-yet-impenetrable cage held in one of its two front legs, with massive claws of some pale-pink colour holding the cage in place. Truly, this creature was an unassailable god. Or whatever concept comes closest to such in the mind of an insect.
The caged bug was carried to some place of metal and extremely shiny lights, and in that place, it was restrained, then stabbed with a gigantic metal rod that pumped something cold into its body. A short time later, Subject 317 moulted into its adult form, despite its own vague knowledge that it was not the right time for such a thing to occur, nor was the dragonfly of the right age to become an adult yet. This, however, proved to be only the first in a series of events that it utterly failed to define from its worldview - many times during its imprisonment, it was held still once again even though it dodged as frequently as it could, only for metal claws to descend upon it, slicing open its exoskeleton and removing things from inside of it in ways that should have been lethal, yet never did quite end its life, and afterwards repaired its exoskeleton like nothing had happened. Subject 317 noticed its thorax felt heavier and heavier with each claw attack, whilst its abdomen became lighter and lighter, mixing up its ability to fly ever more severely... until, one day, the claws descended again, and outright removed more than half of its body, leaving just its head and thorax.
The shock of realising that its entire being had been reduced so severely was only amplified when, out of nowhere, a much longer, grey abdomen was attached to where the old abdomen had been, and attached with scalding heat and long dual-needles that would be removed in a later claw attack, so that when the claws released Subject 317, its length had been greatly increased from what it was before. Not only that, but this new colourless abdomen was far more flexible than its old one to the point that it could bend it right over its head, and exceptionally sharp with that. The insects that were dropped into the dragonfly's cage to feed it were quickly found to be far more easily killed by this sharp-abdomen than with its mouthparts, and it quickly learned the best ways of utilising the sharp-abdomen in its hunts. It did, however, end up having to adapt to the weight of the sharp-abdomen in order to fly properly, as it had been made much, much slower than it was before... until the next group of metal claws came down, pinned it on the table, and removed its wings, only to replace them with much bigger, grey wings, and a strange circular object that it could just about feel with its new sharp-abdomen.
The purpose of this object was found out only when the titanic pale-pink-clawed thing took it outs of its invisible cage by its wings, took it into a long area, then bent its wings back in a way that it thought should have broken them off. Instead, it shot out of the monster's hands, propelled by the object on its back, flying at speeds far beyond anything it had ever experienced before but which it was somehow processing, and only managed to unbend its wings moments before it hit a wall, slowing itself down just before impact. The object's speed boost had left Subject 317 feeling somewhat drained of energy, yet despite this, it was, for the first time in its life, thrilled... which was itself an odd sensation, because you'd think most insects aren't quite smart enough to feel emotions at all. Regardless, though, the metal claw attacks mostly stopped happening after this, and Subject 317 began to practice using this massive amount of speed whenever the pink-clawed thing took it into the long area, folding its wings back to activate the speed boost for several seconds before impact, as well as using its sharp-abdomen to hunt and kill flying insects for sustenance. At some point, it realised that it should probably have bred and died off by then, but it found itself not really caring. After all, more time to live only meant more time to become the best hunter ever. And so it practiced, and practiced, and practiced... until one day, after it had been returned to its invisible cage, a purple rift opened up inside its cage. Not knowing what the rift was, Subject 317 touched it... and everything went black.
Professor Alexander Farrons and his team of scientists had been tasked by the local military leaders to create a secret weapon out of a newly-created living metal, which would be able to destroy an enemy army whilst itself being exceptionally difficult to destroy. After much thought, they decided to try modifying the local insects into this secret weapon; insects, after all, are notorious among humans for being quite difficult to kill, and the combined magical power they possess could be channelled as a single unit to make a large swarm of them into the equal of any mage army. Many such insects were captured and subjected to experiments to alter their physical makeup and improve their magical powers, with miniaturised versions of advanced technology such as ramjets being attached to them by micro-surgery machines, as well as more standard close-range or projectile weapons composed of living metal replacing extraneous parts of any given body. Professor Farrons himself kept a close eye on the devilled dragonflies being altered, which were frequently captured as nymphs, only to be injected with a serum of sorts that forced them to moult into their adult forms within days; it was discovered about three months in that living metal had an interesting effect when combined with the trace molecules left behind by this serum, basically mass-producing a substance in their bodies that promptly rendered any affected insect apparently ageless. Whilst examining this effect in human subjects was handed off to a separate research team, it proved exceptionally useful for retaining the secret project team's current subjects for much longer than they would naturally live, allowing them to be trained for much longer periods of time, and so to be made an ever more effective force.
Containment procedures for this secret weapon were fairly substantial, as were safety measures for the insects themselves. However, insects are nearly-impossible to contain forever, and it took time for most to figure out how their modified bodies worked, and it was therefore the case that every so often, a number of them would be marked down as either escapees or casualties. This was not a problem, as the living metal body parts would not be passed on to the escaped subjects' children, if they were still capable of having children by the time modifications were complete; however, Subject 317's disappearance was a bit of an anomaly, as Farrons insisted that he had placed the yellow-edged devilled dragonfly under perfect containment the previous night, and that its sudden disappearance couldn't be easily explained as a simple escape. Regardless, it was marked down as "Escaped", and promptly forgotten about by the rest of the team. It weighed upon Farrons for a time, but ultimately, he too forgot that it had ever been an issue.
