La Brigade Fantastique

The government-sponsored team la Brigade Fantastique operates in Paris, actively opposing the criminal element there, but also deals with national and international threats to their country. The members of the team include the telekinetic Marianne, the gun-wielding Baroud (Last Stand), the gadgeteer Arsenal, and the re-activated Esmeralda.

MARIANNE

Genevieve Henart is the third superhero to hold the name of Marianne. The other two were a wind-controller in the mid-eighties and a super-strong powerhouse who retired in 2007 due to an unexpected pregnancy. As Marianne, she is the symbol of France and the French people, the very representation of the Republic… and she hates every bit of it. Nothing fated Genevieve to become a patriotic hero; she was a skilled police inspector when a failed operation against a MENACE base activated her latent telekinetic powers. Since the previous Marianne had just retired, she was immediately pressured by her superiors and the government to take up the mantle. After a good deal of resistance, Genevieve finally complied and joined la Brigade. Since then, the serious, no-nonsense former policewoman has done a professional job, but she hates the exposure and the needless social niceties inherent to her role. She is taking more and more time off from her social duties and her superiors fear it’s only a matter of time before she slams the door and leaves the country with no patriotic symbol.

BAROUD

When you grow up in Corsica, you learn not to cross the wrong people: the separatist groups, the old family clans, or the mafia. Julien Castelloni did anyway. The young policeman thwarted a bombing in downtown Ajaccio and caused the untimely demise of an influential separatist leader. With only two options—leave the island or always watch over his shoulder—Julien chose the former and enrolled in the Foreign Legion. What happened after is known only to Julien himself: an overseas mission in French Polynesia on the site of a past nuclear test transformed him into a super-soldier gifted with enhanced physical attributes and the ability to absorb kinetic energy and magnify it. Now named Baroud, Julien was assigned to la Brigade soon after his transformation.

ARSENAL

A scientist who accidentally merged with an “abstract dimensional singularity” during an experiment gone haywire, François Bonnotte has the ability to create spatial singularities near himself, allowing him to miniaturize items as long as they remain near his body. He became a registered, non-active power within the CNRS (the largest governmental research organization in France), but François was soon drafted into la Brigade as Arsenal, a science and tech expert. Aware of his lack of firepower when compared to his more gifted (and experienced) teammates, François designed a series of weapons and utility items that he keeps miniaturized until needed, affording him a personal armory hidden within his costume.

ESMERALDA

An intelligent robot created by Lemurian science and powered by alchemical magic, Esmeralda was the all-purpose lackey of the Morlock Quasimodo. He found the android within a Paris catacomb in the 1930s. It took decades for him to fully repair the robot, but when he did, she became his obedient servitor for most of the 1970s and ’80s. After Quasimodo’s death, Esmeralda remained buried and inert in the catacombs until Talos found and reactivated her. During a conflict with la Brigade, trapped under rubble with Arsenal, she became intrigued by the hero, because he treated her like a person and not a weapon or technological curiosity. She decided to defect from The Foundry and explore the concepts of humanity and freedom.