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Girl Genius

Captain Vole used to be a Jägermonster, but he was kicked out of the official club for attempting to kill Bill and Barry Heterodyne , considering them to be unworthy and weak.

Adventures in Mechanicsburg[]

When introduced into the comic, he is working for Baron Wulfenbach, has nothing but hatred for House Heterodyne, and would very much like to see Agatha dead; he holds loyal Jägers (or, as he puts it, "slaves") in the utmost contempt. He appears to be confined to Mechanicsburg, probably in order to keep him separated from his former companions who aren't allowed in.


He first appears in the comic while Gil is fighting off assassins at his father's bedside in the Great Hospital. When one of the attackers attempts a threat via a bomb equipped with a "dead man's switch", Vole simply rips off the guy's arm, and then gives a report on Agatha, who is currently making a splash in a certain coffee shop. Gil, not realizing Vole would actually try to kill Agatha upon learning she truly is a Heterodyne, sends the Captain to retrieve her, but she manages to subdue him with some perfect coffee and a couple of wrench-blows to the head.

Vole's antipathy for the Heterodynes is no big secret. When Carson von Mekkhan conducts Agatha and her colleagues into the Heterodyne family crypt, he remarks that the effect she had on Vole is one of the reasons for believing that she's really a Heterodyne.

Following the battle with Rudolf Selnikov and the war clanks, Da Boyz and Jenka "kidnap" an injured Gil intending to take him to Mamma Gkika's to get patched up, and run into Vole just inside the Mechanicsburg city wall. At first they're at first glad to see him: "Hoy! Vole! Dot really is hyu! Dot's great! Ve heard-". However, they realize almost immediately that their first impression was mistaken: Vole really has renounced the Jägertroth.

He maintains his arrogance and contempt for them from the start of the encounter to the finish, and although he does get impressively dominated by Gil and sent to recover Selnikov's remains for Doctor Sun, he seems to have learned nothing from the experience. Vole later claims that he threw the fight with Gil, because he had been ordered by the Baron not to kill him . At first Vole backs this up during a fight in Castle Heterodyne in which he takes on and initially defeats both Gil and Tarvek, despite getting shot by Violetta. But a little later on, after he slips fully into the madness place, Gil is able to prevail over Vole once again, this time genuinely impressing the Captain. Circumstances then immediately force the two of them to continue working together.

DupreeSmitten

Bang! Tingle! Bang!

Vole catches up with Gil, Tarvek and Bangladesh DuPree as the trio make their the way to Gil's secret lab on Castle Wulfenbach. Vole announces that he now works for Gil, on the basis that he (Gil) will now be fighting a bloody civil war with Klaus. Vole's psychotic and bloodthirsty nature causes Bang to be instantly smitten with him, and she becomes seriously annoyed with Gil when he sends Vole plummeting out of a hatch.

Vole catches up to Tarvek and Othar, who Gil had dumped out of the same hatch moments earlier in his second experimental flyer. Vole is knocked out by Othar during the subsequent fight and turned over to forces loyal to Lady Heterodyne. He is carted off to the Mechanicsburg Gaol and suspended in time with the rest of the citizenry until extracted two and a half years later by Gil and Higgs. As soon as he is removed from the time-freeze bubble, something strange starts to happen to Vole. Gil immediately contains him in a temporal stasis field, bringing whatever is going on to an immediate halt.

General Vole[]

Oldvole

Back in his lab, Gil releases Vole from the stasis field, allowing him to be affected by the passage of time again. This causes Vole to age by centuries, due to an as yet not-well-understood side effect of being released from the Mechanicsburg time-freeze bubble in the first place. The accelerated aging results in several severe physical mutations , making Vole start to resemble the Generals.

OJDupree

Is it my birthday?

As he ages and changes, Vole flies into a berserk rage, trying to destroy everything around him, including the equipment keeping him alive. To stop this, Gil and Higgs (mostly Higgs) fight Vole to distract and subdue him. After a grueling battle, Higgs brings Vole down, but not without suffering a significant amount of damage himself. Despite his battered state, Higgs volunteers to look after Vole during his recovery.

Dupree seems to be rather delighted with Voles physical transformation. Unfortunately for her, a later conversation with Higgs, after he and Vole have mostly recovered from their fight, shows that there have been mental changes as well. Vole now realizes he no longer wants to see Europa reduced to a burning pile of rubble and bones. Or at least, probably not. He'll have to think about it for a while. Either way, Higgs indicates that perhaps "General" is now a not-so-honorary title. They then learn that Zeetha has been injured in Paris and they immediately set out to find her. However, Higgs only reappears after our heroes have traveled on to England and as of yet there has been no further sign of Vole.

The Novels[]

In Agatha H and the Voice of the Castle, it is noted that Jägers tend to settle on hobbies to help the centuries pass, and Vole went with being a fashion aficionado. And so, getting a face and chest full of coffee from Agatha is particularly enraging. In an expansion of the comic, while he is lying unconscious the citizens of Mechanicsburg also take the opportunity to thoroughly express their low opinion of his betrayal of the Heterodynes, with his initially dazzling white uniform offering up the perfect canvas.

The Name Vole[]

In biology, a Vole is a species of field mouse.

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