Vaudevillain

Quartet ran from the guards as they piled into the room, his lanky figure almost leaving a dust cloud behind in his haste. He needed to meet up with his other bodies. Only then could he show his true power. His shared vision caught a glimpse of Mabel and Cass as he ran, the two minions stopping in front of his other bodies.

"Now–" Quartet heard Mabel start. He stopped her speech with a high pitched whistle, breaking a vase sitting next to Mabel. The noise bought Quartet enough time to run. He wasn't going to lose his shot at leadership by falling for the same tricks.

Cass tried stopping Quartet's body with the Jacques under his command, but Quartet whistled and gave the minions a look. The Jacques paused in their rush, coming to a halt behind Cass and using him as a shield. Quartet had already shown them how powerful he was, the treacherous minion instilling fear into the ranks. Cass tried to urge the Jacques on, but Quartet was already on his way by the time he'd convinced them.

Quartet's four bodies met up on the stairs leading down to Constantine's workshop. With his bodies together, the minion could exponentially unleash more power. He went to work, softly humming as he walked down the stairs.

"Oh, I've been working for Dr. Zlo. All the livelong day," Quartet started to sing as he reached the bottom of the steps.

The guards looked at the minion, confused at the sight in front of them. There were four Quartets now, each one with the exact same face and singing in harmony. However, their bodies were vastly different. Two of the four were similar in shape, yes, but the last two were complete opposites. One was broad, giving a squarish impression. And it didn't help that his voice was in the deepest bass the guards had ever heard. The other was tall and skinny, like a whistle. His voice matched the tone of a whistle as well, a high tone that almost grated on the guard's ears.

"Yes, I've been working for Dr. Zlo. All the livelong day," Quartet continued to sing.

As he did, the air in the room vibrated, Quartet's power shaping the sound into something useable. The vibrations became swords of air, lancing toward the guards in front of Constantine with deadly precision.

"Oh, Guardsmen won't you go, guardsmen won't you go, guardsmen won't you go away," Quartet hummed as the swords attacked.

The guards fell under the assault, their protective vests not built for superpowers. They disappeared moments later, leaving behind bulletproof vests and stun batons.

Quartet walked up to the now unguarded Constantine, "Looks like this is going to be my win. You're coming with me."

A dish tray clattered off the wall next to Quartet, surprising the minion. He instinctively glanced over at the noise, taking his eyes off Constantine for a second.

"Now!" Cass shouted.

The Jacques sprang out, rushing to Constantine and scooping him up like a goalie scoops a soccer ball. Quartet whipped back to try and intimidate the minions but was forced to stop when Cass threw a crafted drink.

"I won't let you become the boss," the butler shouted. "Not even for a day."

"You!" Quartet shouted, his rage preventing him from thinking of more words.

"If anyone is going to capture the boss's favor, it'll be me," Cass said. "All the Jacques have to do now is bring Constantine over."

Quartet sneered, "You think that joke of a fighting force will make it to the boss? Face it. I'm going to be the winner of this competition."

"Now, dears, it's not right to argue about something you're both wrong about," Mabel said.

Cass and Quartet whirled to see Mabel gingerly setting Constantine down, the man still shaken from the past events.

"And look what you did to the poor dear," she said. "He's in shock. Here, let momma fix all of this for you."

Quartet sang a tune of bullets at Mabel, making sure she didn't get enough time to speak over the sound of gunfire cracking through the air. Mabel ducked behind her controlled guards, a few of them falling under the assault.

"What if you hit our captive, you idiot!" Cass shouted.

The butler shoved one of Quartet's bodies into the others, throwing the man's singing off and changing the bullets to rubber ducks. The sound of squeezing rubber echoed down the halls and out of the villa, attracting the attention of the few Jacques left outside. They'd followed Dr. Zlo's orders to the letter, cutting off the alarm system, so no one knew Constantine was in trouble, and now they wanted to see what all the noise was about.

Back in the villa, Quartet's sounds had shaken Constantine out of his stupor. The man blinked rapidly, taking in the three minions fighting to capture him and the guards falling under the assault. After a moment, Constantine came to a decision. He wasn't about to wait around for three kidnappers to finish their argument.

Constantine bolted up the stairs, his old body surprisingly spry. Cass was the first to notice, crying out as Constantine dashed up the stairs. Mabel and Quartet turned at his shout, both realizing too late as Constantine turned the corner.

The engineer came face to face with the Jacques from outside, their dirty shovels marking the lovely wooden floor with dirt.

With no time to stop, Constantine barrelled through the Jacques, knocking over two of them and somehow grabbing a shovel. If the man could just reach his shed, he knew he could fend off these superpowered attackers.

"They must want my knowledge," the man huffed out as he ran. "But I won't give it to them. My thoughts are my own to share!"

Constantine dashed outside to his shed, throwing the doors open to reveal a mechanized vehicle sitting on two legs. Good, the kidnappers hadn't found it, probably because Constantine made sure to disguise the building as a generic shed and kept his guards away from it. No one but Constantine knew the mech was here.

So it came as a surprise when a man in a top hat jumped out of the cockpit and sprayed him with an adhesive.

"Get down, Mr. President!" Dr. Zlo shouted as he landed.

Constantine struggled, but Dr. Zlo's adhesive held fast.

"An impressive piece of work here, Doctor Constantine," Dr. Zlo said to his captive. "Why, I'm sure that if you reached it, no one would be able to face you. It's a shame you were up against me in a battle of wits."

"And who are you?" Constantine said, his struggles dying down now that he knew he couldn't escape.

Dr. Zlo pointed his cane at his captive, "An excellent question! I am Dr. Zlo! Criminal mastermind. And I require your services."

"I'll never give up my secrets," Constantine said. "No matter how much you torture me."

"We'll see about that," Dr. Zlo answered. He turned to see his three minions appearing in the doors of the shed.

"Ah, good. You've all arrived. Mabel, if you would be so kind as to control this man?"

Quartet blinked, "But, what about the contest?"

Dr. Zlo glanced over, "Hm? Oh. I won, of course. I was the first to capture our captive. Therefore I'm the winner and will fulfill any one request I have."

"That's not fair!" Quartet complained. "I found him first!"

Dr. Zlo rolled his eyes and looked to Cass, "Imagine being a criminal and arguing about fairness. Quartet, really."

"Don't be too hard on him, boss," Cass said with mock consoling. "He's a recent addition."

"That he is," Dr. Zlo said. "And he will learn. That or he'll get lost like his prototype."

Quartet gulped, "Now boss, you know I won't fail you."

"I'm sure you won't," Dr. Zlo answered. "But right now, we have bigger fish to fry! Mabel?"

"I can't seem to get it working, hon," Mabel answered.

"What's that?"

"Your mind control won't work on me, villain," Constantine spat. "I've protected myself against such tactics."

"Well, that does hinder my plans," Dr. Zlo said. He looked up and down the scientist, trying to see if the man held a blocker like the Quli.

"What if we found someone else?" Quartet asked. "I'm sure we can find plenty of people to let us into the fusion reactor."

Constantine perked up at those words, "Come again?"

"Quartet, remind me to scold you for talking about our plans in front of captives," Dr. Zlo said. "At least, not before I talk about them."

The villain turned back to Constantine, "Yes. We need someone to get us inside the fusion reactor. I plan to steal it."

"Very well, I shall help," Constantine said.

Dr. Zlo turned to Cass, confused, "Sorry, did he say he'll help?"

"He did, boss," Cass answered.

Dr. Zlo turned back to Constantine, "Why?"

"A simple reason," Constantine answered. "My life's work wasn't supposed to be used like this."

The man gestured around. Or at least he gestured as best he could with Dr. Zlo's adhesive holding him to the ground.

"Look around you. What do you see? Conformity, that's what. Tractus has become a city of conformists, people who can't do anything but obey those that live in the space city above. Every day, workers from Tractus climb the space elevator, performing simple tasks for those fat pigs up in space. The city is a pristine slum, nothing like the utopia I envisioned."

Constantine took a breath, then continued. "I'm the only engineer here as well. The rest of them have rushed off to space, only performing maintenance on the elevator when they can. Don't those fools know that if a catastrophe happens here, their precious perks up in the city will crumble before their very eyes! No, all they care about is the benefits."

"And we're convenient pieces to show up," Dr. Zlo said.

"I was going to do it without assistance," Constantine said, gesturing to the mech. "I would rip the very cable from the city, separating Tractus from the parasite latched onto it. But with you here, I don't need such a destructive plan. Removing the fusion reactor will have the same effect, depowering the station and giving power back to the people!"

Dylan blinked as a quest appeared in his vision:

Assist Constantine Tsolkovsky in his attempt to split Tractus from Space City Jetu?

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