Problem Sleuth: Volume 4

The fourth volume of Problem Sleuth is divided into four chapters. Team Sleuth continues the fight against Demonhead Mobster Kingpin as both sides unleash increasingly powerful attacks. Meanwhile, Nervous Broad and Hysterical Dame embark on a complex mission to plug the giant electric fan into an outlet in the Whore Island brothel.

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Chapter 14

 * Nervous Broad enters the brothel. The plug of the giant fan crashes through the ceiling and lands next to her. On the Chicago Overcoat, Zombie Ace Dick starts biting one of DMK's tentacles. DMK opens his mouth in response to the pain, allowing the Candy Mecha to fire into it and increase DMK's Blood Sugar level. Some bees arrive to collect the Pang Nectar seeping out of DMK's wound and, under the supervision of the Honeybee Professor, begin constructing an Impetus Comb to convert the nectar into Jocuse Honey and allow the heroes to perform Comb Rave attacks.
 * NB dons the Aspect Corset and picks up a can of paint stripper, then enters a room containing three curtain-covered private booths of different sizes. On the imaginary streets, Hysterical Dame walks to a section of town called the Gutterpipe Projects. Honeybee Professor explains the mechanics of the Comb Rave system: each Impetus Comb constructed is larger than the last, with the attack power of the Comb Rave tied directly to the size of the comb used to activate it.
 * HD checks out a strange pipe and accidentally falls inside. She is shrunken down and launched through a movie projector showing a burlesque film. NB walks into the tallest booth; a Mannerly Highbrow watches her through a window in the booth.
 * DMK's blood sugar begins to decrease as Problem Sleuth realizes that most of the team members have no weapons. Taking advantage of their defenselessness, DMK uses the Cinder Ablockalypse attack and shoots the cinder blocks through the portholes at rapid speed, then rains them down upon the Chicago Overcoat. The candy mecha is destroyed, but everyone else survives with varying amounts of damage. He then molests PS, AD, and Pickle Inspector with his thorny flagella, decreasing the health of their candy armor suits to near-critical levels.
 * NB throws some paint stripper on the mural in her booth, then uses the stripper can's flamethrower alternate mode to burn the mural off the wall. The pleased Highbrow applauds and his window turns into a portal connected to somewhere in the imaginary city. Meanwhile, HD enters a mouse hole and arrives in the studio of Madame Murel. She climbs up onto a table and dons the Scale Bodice.
 * As DMK prepares to unleash another attack, PS uses his delegation skills to contact the Four Kingdoms from afar. The kingdoms send four of their heroes to scale the Cathedral of Syndetic Ascension and join the fight. PI turns the Overcoat's steering wheel, reorienting the universe and making DMK dizzy. His attack is cancelled and he vomits pie filling all over the Overcoat. DMK then lights the pie filling on fire, destroying the candy armor.
 * NB goes through the portal and comes out of the back of a bread truck. Her body has been deformed into being taller and narrower, but she sets her dimensions back to normal by adjusting the Aspect Corset. She passes through the portal again and gets deformed again, this time becoming shorter and wider. Meanwhile, Madame Murel spots HD and flicks her through the Scale Bodice. She is dumped out of the pipe's scale valve and remains tiny.
 * FPI puts out the fire by blowing cake frosting onto it. PS realizes that FPI is inexplicably blue, and it is revealed that FPI will use Temporal Replicsimile in the future; the blue FPI is actually one of these duplicates, Past-Future Pickle Inspector. The original FPI makes PFPI go play Trouble with Death to avoid further confusion. Suddenly, DMK strikes and turns PS, AD, and PI's hats inside out, returning them to their non-nautical states.
 * HD investigates the pipe system. Turning the crank on the scale valve makes the Scale Bodice change sizes, turning the crank on the upper valve adjusts the movie projector's image size, and flipping a switch swaps the scale valve with an aspect valve. NB adjusts the Aspect Corset again to make herself shorter and wider again, allowing her to lift the giant plug.
 * PS summons the Weasel King, who proceeds to Flip the Fuck Out and do heavy damage to DMK. Unfortunately, DMK possesses health regeneration abilities, so it will take a constant barrage of attacks and sugar to defeat him. * NB enters the shortest booth; the Churlish Toff in the window does not find her appealing and presses the coin return button, turning his window into another portal in the back of a ham truck. NB goes through it, then comes back and enters the bread truck portal instead. HD turns the crank on the aspect valve and the Aspect Corset adjusts by itself. NB is pushed through the corset and shot out of the pipe.
 * PS tries to create a critical fractal reaction by putting a skylight into his office window. FPI coats the window setup in a jawbreaker shell and PS lobs the candy into DMK's mouth. A critical reaction occurs inside his mouth, doing heavy damage and raising his Blood Sugar at the same time.
 * NB and HD enter the upper valve and are projected into the brothel movie theater at mostly normal scale. They enter a room containing the customer entrances to the private booths and NB flips a switch above the middle one. In the booth, the Dapper Swain is looking through the portal and imagining that he is riding in the back of the truck, but the switch flip makes the portal change to the inside of the truck. The Swain is disappointed and puts coins in the coin slot, deactivating the portal. NB goes through the bread truck and redons the Aspect Corset while Madame Murel makes HD wear the Scale Bodice and locks her in the lobby.
 * PS tries to activate his candy corn vampire Gambit Schema, but he does not possess the necessary Schema Pumpkin and is certain that one will never exist.

Chapter 15

 * The bees complete their first three Impetus Combs. Each AD has his suckle receptacle filled with Jocuse Honey, enabling them to perform a Triple Comb Rave.
 * HD takes a paint roller and bucket of paint, then enters the Dapper Swain's booth and starts painting over a mural. Intrigued by the steamy scene, the Swain rapidly twirls his mustache and starts a mustache fire. Meanwhile, the Highbrow enters the bread truck and starts driving it. NB gets into the passenger's seat and the Highbrow asks where she would like to go.
 * PI conjures up a candy telescope for the sniper rifle, but it doesn't work and he throws it away in disgust. The candy telescope lands on the bread truck, bounces into a traffic light and is sent through a porthole into DMK's mouth. DMK's Blood Sugar reaches his maximum limit, so the three ADs unleash their Comb Rave and perform a Triple Truffle Shuffle. The brutal attack fully depletes DMK's health and he descends. His weak spot, the Nether-Region Vulnerabulb, is exposed.
 * PS once again refuses to use Sepulchritude, though he would need a level 8 Impetus Comb to actually perform it. FAD throws a crate at the Vulnerabulb and misses, but PI turns the steering wheel, reorienting the universe so that the crate hits. DMK loses his supply of Salubrity Frankincense but retains his Spunk Myrrh and Pep Gold. He re-ascends and regenerates with a new face and two full health bars. Using the Roll for Dextrosity variant of the Running Numbers ability, DMK cures himself of diabetes and permanently removes Blood Sugar as a method of weakening him.
 * PS goes to ask FPI to conjure up a Schema Pumpkin, but he realizes that one is accessible for a brief period of time during the stroke of midnight on Halloween (this update was posted on Halloween 2008). Meanwhile, the four warriors continue to fight their way up the cathedral, reaching level 794.

Chapter 16

 * PS carves his Spook Schematic into the Schema Pumpkin and transforms into a candy corn vampire. Two more schematics are carved, turning PI into a Tootsie Roll Frankenstein and ZAD into a gummy worm zombie.
 * The Highbrow tries to drive NB to the Gutterpipe Projects, but the bread truck is too tall to fit through the square toll booth. In the brothel, HD continues to paint over the mural and the Swain continues to twirl his mustache. HD suddenly uses the paint roller's stun gun alternate mode to electrocute two outlets in the wall, shorting out the coin-operation system and reactivating the portal.
 * While the candy monster detectives pose as a team, FAD decides that he should go back to MK's office and destroy his fort. Death shows up and asks AD if he wants to play the Game of Life. DMK unleashes another Thorncoddle attack, but PS's vampire speed allows him to dodge the flagella; PI and ZAD are less fortunate. The Gambit Schemas possess two different meters, Ripeness - which decreases at a constant rate for all three candy monsters - and Flicker - which decreases as they take damage. When one of these meters hits zero, the Schema upgrade wears off.
 * PS summons Moe, then immediately realizes that Moe is useless and unsummons him. As AD starts to set up the Game of Life board, Death writes a lengthy recap of the story so far.
 * HD and the Swain enter the cheese truck and drive it next to the bread truck. NB pulls the fan plug through the bread truck portal but there is not enough slack, so HD and the Swain create some by driving the truck around the city. NB is now able to bring the plug through the ham truck portal.
 * AD and Death enter the Game of Life. Death begins by calculating how to best spend his money and reading some college brochures. AD begins by stealing Death's money, then fleeing in his car game piece as Death shoots at him with his rocket launcher scythe.
 * In MK's office, FAD breaks MK's fort by riding it like a mechanical bull. The four warriors reach level 33,333 of the cathedral, halfway to the top. DMK summons the Clown Pontificate, who unleashes a Clownstorm upon the candy monsters. After the attack ends, ZAD cleans up by eating the clown corpses.
 * With Death distracted, PFPI decides to cheat in Trouble by advancing his peg one space, but he feels instant guilt and moves it back. In the Game of Life, AD hits a piece representing a female pedestrian, who begins to die. AD begs Death to spare her life and offers to play any board game he wants for her life, but Death leaves to deal with other matters and the woman is spared. AD punches her to establish superiority and the woman marries AD, becoming Wifehearst.
 * DMK is moved by AD's story and his Emotions level increases, making him vulnerable. PS uses the Armistyx combat operandi to summon Death and bargain with him, eventually getting Death to lend PS his scythe. PS uses his new weapon against DMK.
 * FAD pursues MK but falls through the dumbwaiter shaft due to MK cleverly hiding its entrance with a Persian rug. He falls to the bottom of the shaft and becomes trapped in the back room of AD's office. MK returns to his speakeasy and wedges the oboe back between the still room and piano room doors. However, FAD is too strong to keep trapped and he smashes through the still room wall, then effortlessly breaks the oboe and enters the speakeasy. The floor above the still room collapses and MK falls through; when FAD examines the hole, MK sneaks out and pushes him into it, then flees through the exit.
 * PS increases his attack speed in an effort to keep pace with DMK's regeneration. PI walks over to the ship's anchor with the aim of throwing it at DMK, though his Frankenstein slowless means he only move at a rate of several inches per minute. ZAD continues to bite DMK's flagella.
 * With the plug now hanging out its back, NB drives the ham truck to the Gutterpipe Projects and drops the plug into the pipe's upper valve, then jumps through it along with HD and the Swain. All three arrive tiny-sized in the brothel theater and the plug is now at a normal size. HD loosens her Scale Bodice and accidentally makes herself giant, breaking through the brothel ceiling. Meanwhile, MK arrives in his legitimate establishment, located on the south side of Whore Island. He observes the Clock Tower of Cartesian Alignment, which is directly behind, and aligned with, the Cathedral of Syndetic Ascension. FAD arrives but cannot find MK because he has switched hats with a nearby gentleman.
 * In the Game of Life, AD has gotten rich through gambling on races and has invested his money into casinos and profitable criminal schemes. Wifehearst gives birth to a child, Sonhearst. The four warriors have made it to the cathedral's penultimate level. PS unleashes his final attack with Death's scythe, turning into an atomic bomb and lobbing it at DMK.

Chapter 17

 * Death's scythe and DMK's second health bar are destroyed in the nuclear blast. ZAD unsuccessfully tries to get PI to the anchor faster by pushing him.
 * FAD locates MK when the giant HD points him out. MK retakes his own hat and flees into the brothel. HD restores herself to normal size. NB takes the plug through the mouse hole into Madame Murel's studio, then uses the Aspect Corset to make herself tall and thin enough to plug the fan into an outlet. As a side effect, the aspect valve grows so long that it punctures the hull of one of MK's bust-smuggling boats. While the fan is now finally plugged in, a switch in Madame Murel's dollhouse's attic must be flipped for it to actually receive power.
 * HD enters Madame Murel's studio and MM becomes enraged. NB's corset snaps back and she reverts to normal dimensions, sinking the bust-smuggling ship. MK steps on the tiny Swain while fleeing from FAD, who becomes distracted by the burlesque film and sits down to watch it. He gets slapped on the back of the head by MK.
 * FPI prepares to play a haunting tuba refrain to raise DMK's emotions. DMK shoots an eye beam at him, but FPI dodges by using Temporal Replicsimile and splitting himself into PFPI and FFPI, who then travel through time. PS is hit by the beam and his Flicker meter is depleted, turning him back to normal.
 * NB enters the dollhouse and sees that the attic is blocked off by a door covered in padlocks. She leaves through a studio door and arrives in MM's studio at normal size. NB and HD attack MM and PFPI decides to join the battle now that FPI has been split and there will no longer be any confusion which PI he is.
 * MM and her attackers briefly pause as FAD and MK fight their way through the studio. The two end up in the brothel pantry, containing the Lazy Susan of Endowment upon which the Comb Rave suckle receptacles rest. The Swain watches the battle through his eyepiece, strongly implied to work as a telescope for the sniper rifle. Meanwhile, PI has finally grabbed the anchor, the bees have made a new Impetus Comb, and the four heroes reach the top floor of the cathedral.
 * Before PI can perform an anchor attack Comb Rave, MK smashes PI's suckle amphora and replaces it with his own suckle chalice, which is promptly filled with the Jocuse Honey intended for PI. DMK prepares to unleash his ultra-deadly Fill 'Em with Daylight attack, which will kill anything in its effect radius. PI drops the anchor and it latches onto the cathedral's base, pulling the Chicago Overcoat away from DMK's attack. The Overcoat swings around the cathedral and into view of the clock tower.
 * MM flees into the dollhouse to grab her own corset, but someone has stolen it. She uses her Skeleton Brush and paint palette to create a Skeleton Flail and hits HD with it.
 * DMK unleashes Fill 'Em with Daylight.