Grappling With Death is the fourth episode of season 18 of Dimension 20, Mentopolis.
The Fix finds himself trapped, while the rest of the PIs put together the clues.
Introduction[]
"Last we left off, oh boy, were we in for a wild time. The Fix is in the middle of the DA's Office, with a shadowy figure holding a white key made of a frequency from outside of Mentopolis itself, coming for the throat of our friend, The Fix. Meanwhile, everyone else converges on Oblongata Station.
After a narrow miss with the fuzz, Anastasia has sundered a block of ice and gotten her family key out, along with her cousin Imelda, as they race towards Oblongata Station to meet up with Conrad Schintz, Hunch Curio, and Dan Fucks. [...] So, all three of you are racing here with Ivana Popov, aka, the fight response of the brain, headed towards the switchboard at Oblongata Station, one of Mentopolis's few switchboards that these sort of incredibly significant keys can go in to add influence to the big guy's decision making, Elias Hodge. All of you race there as fast as you can, with Hunch still holding onto the oculus, which connects to De'lux Industrial, to the sort of raw vision processing back in Occipital Park.
All of you have had various run-ins. Gangsters from the Avaricci family pursuing you outside of Sugah's Speakeasy. You had a run in with the horrifying DA, M. Bition, before the shadowy figure appeared, who appeared to say that the brain will only feel good when he says it can feel good, and seemed to say that the biggest impediment to Elias's life was Elias. What a horrifying prospect. We also met Self Doubt and Dominance. Dominance was really not doing great, and Self Doubt was doing incredible.
Folks, we return to the rainy streets of Mentopolis, and Oblongata Station, as a cab pulls up in the rainy streets, splashing through a puddle, the brainstorm overhead. You hear another crumble of highway off in the distance, from the initial blunt force trauma somewhere to the scalp. The thing that Anastasia discovered the last time she was here at the station, the cab pulls up, a door opens, and you see the pulsing of electricity throughout Mentopolis, as you feel the presence of pressure, and I remind all of you about the giant dial in front of you, measuring exactly how much pressure the big guy is under. Imelda and Anastasia, you each have your keys with you. As you exit the cab, you still see those paddy wagons with shock troops over there. You see one or two of them clock you getting out of your cab. What is it that you do as you exit the vehicle?"
Synopsis[]
Anastasia and Imelda are trying to sneak into the train station. They attempt to disguise Imelda buy making her look like a journalist. The police notice them but assume that they are a flash mob. Brennan is happy that flash mobs are a thing of the past. Max Medula is is inside sitting at his post. Anastasia introduces Imelda to Max as "Stacy Fakename", but Imelda notices that Stacy Fakename is wanted and says her real name is Joanne Fakename. Max says that there has been hundreds of crimes committed by Stacy in the past few days. Anastasia convinces Max to allow her to access the master switchboard by calling in a favor. Max goes to get coffee and asks if Ana and Imelda want anything, to which they ask for hot tea, room temperature vodka, a bottle and a flute of champagne. Imelda is ready and wants to use her key right now, but Ana decides to wait. At that moment, Conrad, Dan, Hunch, Justin, and Ivana arrive to the station in the car they stole from Self Doubt . Justin is wearing bags filled with cash and walks over to distract the shock troopers. Ivana says that they can use the controls but without the other responses, Elias will likely do something directed towards fight. As they stick their keys in, alarms go off and the workers of the train station start moving. The oculus alerts Hunch to the fact that Elias is now looking at his crotch and they see that the buzzing was a grapple gun he brought. As the response kicks in the pressure rises again. The shock troopers can be heard moving in outside. Ivana says that Ana and Imelda are free to leave and she can try to control Elias by herself. Dan says he has an idea and marches out to the police. He exclaims to them that Elias is finally having sex and that's why the alarms are going off. He fails horribly to convince them and the troopers beat him unconscious. Imelda successfully figures out the controls and gets Elias to shoot the grappling hook. Ana walks out to the shock troops and asks them if they can make statements for the paper. She asks all of the troopers questions to stall them. Conrad uses the microphone at the station to issue a message to Mayor Logic saying that they need to talk. After Conrad finishes talking, a group of Avaricci's gangsters including Charlie Hungry come out from the shadows. The group decides to deal with the cops where in a daring move Imelda pushes Conrad towards the officers saying he's Stacy Fakename. They place Conrad under arrest. Ana persuades the troopers into letting her ride along with them back to the station. Imelda reveals herself to the officers and they bring her in as well. Hunch convinces the officers that he was trying to arrest Dan and they let them leave. The strange being with the alien key fails miserably to attack The Fix. The Fix pleads with the figure to let him do his job while slyly reaching for his gun. He successfully tricks the being but fails to injure it. He dives out of the window, landing hard on the ground. Jacques Ennui introduces himself as the organ grinder with the monkey after being started by The Fix. Fix stumbles his way to Las Vagus Casino. He scares a worker inside so bad he shits himself and that causes Elias to shit. This has the effect of causing Elias to relax and the pressure goes back down to the green. The Fix decided to go to Hunch's office to try to heal himself. Justin pops out of the back seat of the car and asks Hunch where Conrad is. Upon learning that the police took him he starts froth at the mouth and says he will kill the troopers. In the armored car, Conrad starts speaking in a British voice, unsure how to pretend to be someone else. Anastasia and Imelda notice the gangsters cars following behind the on the highway. Ana convinces the officers to deal with the cars. The officers all pull over after receiving a radio call from Deputy H. V Lance to investigate anything interesting and to "kill everybody in every car on the road". Ana then gets all of the keys Officer Joie de Vivre owns from him just by asking. Ana frees everyone from their cuffs and Conrad drives them away. Imelda tells Lance about how Elias shit himself and how many people probably saw. Lance freaks out and the radio goes silent. In Hunch's office, Hunch nurses Dan back to health with many steaks and lots of meds. As Dan is coming back into consciousness, he remembers the pleasant experience Elias had with the barista. At this time The Fix arrives and gives Dan and Hunch the information about what happened to him. Hunch puts it together that Elias was not thrown out of the window but prepared and jumped out himself to escape.
Locations[]
- Mentopolis
- Motor City
- Cortex City
- City Hall
- The DA's Office
- The Mayor's Office
- Mentopolis Police Station
- Cortex Square
- Las Vagus Casino
- Parietal Lobe
- Hunch's Office
- City Hall
- Occipital Park (mentioned)
- De'lux Industrial (mentioned)
- Thalamus and Sons Pawnshop
- The Red Light District (mentioned)
- Sugah's (mentioned)
- Gobstopper Industries (mentioned)
Featured Characters[]
Prefrontal PIs[]
New[]
- Officer Joie de Vivre
- Pasha N.
- Charlie Hungry
- Jacques Ennui
- Deputy Chief H.V. Lance
Returning[]
- Elias Hodge
- Justin Fication
- Mark Bition
- Max Medula
- Ivana Popov
- Mayor Leon Logic/Frank Freeze
- Chief Alexander Tightass