Blaise Jeannot Andrieux - Early Childhood (France)

Early Childhood (France)

Shortly after the destruction of the Four Aces at the hands of HUAC, the alien scientist known as Dr. Tachyon was deported from the United States. This marks the beginning of Tachyon's "lost years" wherein he wandered Europe in a haze of alcohol and self-pity, deported and kicked around by fearful European governments that didn't want him. While a guest of the revolutionary Left in France and poster boy for other victims of the capitalist HUAC witch hunt, Tachyon met a nineteen year old girl named Danelle Dorcy in the August 1950. Unknown to Tachyon, their brief affair produced a daughter, Gisele. Tachyon, having received a pardon, returned to New York, founded his clinic and became a significant figure in Ace/Joker society. Meanwhile, his daughter was raised to adulthood by Danelle, who infected the child with her revolutionary fervor. Before her death in a gunfight with the bodyguards of a wealthy French industrialist, Gisele had married the terrorist Francois Andrieux and produced a son, Blaise. Grandchild of Dr. Tachyon, the outcrossing of Takisian and human DNA endowed Blaise with enormous mind-control powers, but very limited telepathic senses. The key limitation to Blaise's power was his inability to read a subject's mind, though he could effortlessly manipulate it.

Raised as much by "Uncle Claude" (Claude Bonnel, a joker entertainer/terrorist known as le Miroir) as by his father, Blaise grew up surrounded by violence, living on the run from the law and with very little in the way of formal schooling or discipline. From an early age he employed his considerable mental powers to help commit acts of terrorism with childish enthusiasm and the full encouragement of those around him. Aside from being a useful tool in Uncle Claude's schemes, Blaise's powers were not derived from the Wild Card virus, so he did not register when tested at birth (mandatory in France at that time).

In the late 1980s, Tachyon participated in a World Health Organisation tour of selected countries to inspect the medical and social health of Wild Card victims internationally. One of these countries was France. Upon arrival there, Tachyon met with the elderly Danelle, who had aged while her alien lover had not. Still bitter and hungry for revenge, she informed Tachyon of the child he fathered then crushes his good spirits by telling him she is dead. Later, at the formal reception for the WHO tour at Versailles, Blaise takes control of a security agent from somewhere safely out of sight. The guard tries to detonate a bomb, but Tachyon overcomes the unseen telepath and foils the attempt. Puzzled by the powerful mental signature, Tachyon reviewed the government records for all known aces. No telepaths of that level were on record.

Initially, Tachyon believed that Danelle had lied and his daughter was, in fact, alive, and using Takisian based telepathy to attack the delegation. Danelle dies in a drive-by shooting before she can reveal any more, but Tachyon probed through her dying mind and discovers the existence of his grandson. Through Bonnel, in his capacity as a member of the French Communist Party, a meeting with Francois and Blaise Andrieux is arranged. The meeting does not go well and when rescheduled, Tachyon is kidnapped. Bonnel blackmails Tachyon into assisting an attack on the French presidential debate, but is outwitted by the alien, and his forces, including Francois Andrieux, are captured. Bonnel nearly escaped with Blaise, but Tachyon put the child into a telepathy-induced sleep and shoots the joker terrorist in cold blood. Using the dead Bonnel as a scapegoat, Tachyon claims that le Miroir was the wild card telepath causing all the recent attacks. Using faked documents, Tachyon leaves for London and then home, taking Blaise with him.