Paulette Batroc

''"Je suis vengeance, je suis la nuit, je suis... Batroc!" -Paulette makes some bad puns.

Paulette Batroc is the teenaged daughter of that slightly obscure master of martial arts, Batroc the Leaper.

Personality
Paulette, in a nutshell, enjoys defying stereotypes. She's a decently attractive girl from Marseille who sprinkles her sentences with gratuitous French, so it's only natural that people assume that she's delicate and abhors fighting. Women (and Frenchmen, for that matter) are like that.

Wrong.

If you dare tell Paulette that she's a Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkey, you'll most certainly get hurt. Same goes for telling her that girls can't fight or do anything vaguely active. She doesn't care as much for the finer things in life as one would expect and she certainly doesn't have anything against fighting.

She, in fact, loves a good brawl. She enjoys almost all types of physical activity, from soccer to lacrosse, but has a special place in her heart for the fighting style passed from her father down to her, savate. She can be considered rather sporty, because of this.

She's also decidedly ungirly. Anything vaguely effeminate, flowers, ponies, makeup and depending on others, is not worth her time. When you're a mercenary, you can only depend on one person: yourself.

Because of her independence, she has a strange insecurity about people being better than her. Especially those with superpowers. She absolutely loathes people who can get off easy because they have powers. She's in peak physical condition and has trained all her life to be a criminal, but those people who happen to inherit a special ability always best her.

Unlike many solo villains, Paulette doesn't think too hard about her schemes. Thinking takes too much time and her time is rather precious. She's also not the brightest in the world and tends to jump into things before she fully think everything over. But, as she puts it, heroes always win anyway, so why bother making schemes so over-the-top?

On the topic of heroics, she does realize that being a mercenary means that she can do anything, including good guy stuff, if the pay is alright. Her dad's even teamed up with that star-spangled son of a silly person, Captain America, from time to time. People regard her with some suspicious because of this, but assures others that she's strictly a crook.

Appearance
Paulette is faired skinned and dark haired. Her build is more muscular than many girls at Iron Heights and her shoulders are fairly broad. Still, she's not terribly unattractive or anything. One might even describe her long-lashed brown eyes (always hidden behind a purple domino mask, of course) as cute, but she'd probably slap you if you did.

Her typical uniform is similar in colour to her father's. It's a purple and orange unitard with long sleeves. Her legs are bare, save for a pair of purple boots.

Family
Paulette and her father don't see each other much, but that's understandable, as he lives on another continent. They keep in touch though and are always very happy to see each other when schedules (read: heists) allow such things. He tells some really great stories about his exploits and always brings her a little pilfered souvenir. People claim that Paulette is a bit softer around her dad than she is with others, but don't ever bring that up with her.

As for her maman... well, we don't know, really. She's French, but not from Marseille. She's also apparently a lot more sophisticated than Paulette herself. Maybe a painter or a fashion designer or something stereotypically Frenchy? We have no idea. According to Paulette, that's classified.

Friends
Paulette is part of this little crew of dorks. She likes them well enough. Aria's a bit mousey, Dexter's a geek and Sebastian is a control freak, but they're cool once you get past that. Her big issue is that they spend far too much time talking and don't get much done during their weekly meetings. She has a particular issue with Sebastian's leadership, but doesn't quite clash with him the way that Dexter does.

The role of her foil, instead, goes to her roommate, Johnathan. He's a nice guy and everything, but he treats her like such a girl. She can handle herself, she doesn't need him to hold doors for her and be all gentlemanly. She's convinced he does it to make her mad, but he openly denies it. He's just trying to be civil. Also, she hates the way that he expects, just because she's French and all, her to enjoy the so-called finer things in life. All in all, the guy gets on her nerves, making all these assumptions.

Pet
No, no, Paulette does not have a pet rock. That would be stupid. Ugh, that was once, okay?

No, Paulette owns a ferret named Maurice. He's a pretty friendly little guy and reacts well to being handled. Eh, at least mostly. He's proven that he can hold his own in a fight if angered. The last person who tried to make off with him (and there have been a couple, this being a school of thieves-in-training and general kleptos) got a face full of ferret teeth. This strength is one of the reasons that Paulette values him so much.

Romance
A significant other? You have to be kidding, romance is for lovey-dovey prisses like Aria. As we've already said, Paulette is keen to prove that she does not need any boy to help her out. Since she tends to see romance as 'two people caring for and protecting one another', she assures all possible suitors that she can protect herself, thank you very much. As for other girls... meh. She's probably liable to react the same to them. We don't know.

Trivia

 * The pet rock joke comes from a line in the Superhero Squad Show, in which Batroc asks if he can have a pet rock since his name is Batroc. Paulette hates when this is brought up, as that show is for little kids and is not at all a serious portrayal of her father.


 * Her page quote is an obvious homage to the famous quote from Batman: The Animated Series. How she knows much about DC Comics is unclear, but whatever. It's for the sake of puns, anyhow.


 * Though Johnathan is her foil, she also meant to be, within the Five-Man Band, an opposite for Aria. The two of them are the only girls in the group and while Aria is quiet, girly and prefers to think things over, Paulette is aggressive, tomboyish and enjoys leaping into the fray.


 * 'Son of a silly person' is an insult used by the Frenchman from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. As outrageous French accents were plentiful in that film, the reference had to be made.


 * As the most physically inclined, Paulette is the 'Big Guy' of Missy's band.


 * Unintentionally, Paulette and Jylndmkwyx share an orange-and-purple colour scheme. But hey, villains love secondary colours, right?