Spade. Samantha Spade. Private Investigator. Tired of talking in short sentences, but it's part of the job. I've been a flatfoot since the day a Number Cruncher stepped on my toes -- yowch! Since then, I've made it my mission to use my keen detective skills to defeat the Cogs. Plus, I look pretty good in a trenchcoat. But this case is no Cog conundrum. No, this case was as Toony as a Saturday morning television program.







It all started January 25th. A message from Doctor Surlee notifying Loony Labs employees that their network is back online. But why? What prompted this announcement to be made through the Toontown Blog? A seemingly random announcement -- with disastrous consequences.

The next day, I get a knock on my door. It's a Toontown Times journalist -- they're always coming for a story. "I've got nothing for ya, ace," I say to them. But it turns out they're not coming to me for a story -- they're coming with one.

It's January 26th, and a strange message has popped up on the Toontown Blog. No doubts that the whole town has seen it by now. To a layman, it means nothing. To a sleuth like myself, it's got the most exciting information since Root 66 Diner started serving breakfast all day. Let's get this case crackin'.





The Big Buildup

This case has been years in the making. It all started a little over four years ago when a cryptic message showed up on the Toontown Blog on the 26th of November. For years, the puzzle continued. Strange ciphered texts showing up on rare occasion, but always on the 26th.







Toons who took notice began piecing together that these messages always seemed to revolve around Loony Labs, and more specifically -- Doctor Surlee. Each of these messages led to blueprints of various inventions in Toontown, and finally, pages from the diary of Doctor Surlee himself.

Something about these pages seemed strange, though. They talk of Cogs as an invention, and mention years that have not yet passed. Finally, they credit the inventions of Doctor Surlee to a different Toon named Gyro Gearloose. This made me question: What if Doctor Surlee is Gyro Gearloose?





A Slice of C.A.K.E.

Now that we know the background, we're ready to solve the case. I asked myself: Why do these mysteries occur on the 26th? Who REALLY is Doctor Surlee? and What's the deal with this incoming transmission from Loony Labs?

One thing was clear: Doctor Surlee had a plan. He knows of the 26th mysteries, and wanted it to happen again. That's why he made a blog post on January 25th, the day before the transmission appeared. It seems that the clever Doctor, like us, wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery once and for all.

Toons from far and wide put on their detective hats and began to investigate once the transmission hit. Top cipher solvers in the community found morse code and radio frequencies in the background of the video. What they found inside, you wouldn't believe: The password to Terminal 26 on LoonyLabs.net.

With a few commands and a bit of digging, it was quickly uncovered that the terminal belonged to a Doctor Fissionton. This Fissionton, however, has never been seen! According to Loony Labs records, he resigned many years ago. What was Fissionton's computer doing with this message? How did it play into the mystery of the 26th?

Toons dug further and found a number of Research Reports, written by Doctor Fissionton. These Research Reports were filed by the C.A.K.E. Team (Categorizing All Known Energy) of Loony Labs, which left one mystery solved: The occurrence of all of those cakes in the transmission!

Still, however, the reports didn't add up. They mentioned dates that hadn't passed. Events that hadn't happened. I got the inside scoop with Professor Purrview, the author of the final research report, who had this to say:

"I've seen many strange things here at Loony Labs, but perhaps the strangest one yet is a report that I didn't write! I have no memory of writing it, but I do know the name Fissionton. Apparently we were supposed to work together, but he turned in his resignation before research even began. It's a shame."

The Research Report evidence can be read below.

The find was huge, but not huge enough. There was more to the caper left to be uncovered.





The Rewritten Experiment

The final Research Report gave us another password. This time, one to a folder on the terminal that peaked my interest more than the daily crossword of The Toontown Times. A folder called "26." The insightful investigators of Toontown found a file inside covered in codes -- codes that translated to specific words of specific blog posts. They knew they weren't going to be able to solve this alone.

Toons from Hither'n'yawn to Timbuktoon came together to crack the code. Just look at this document! Toons everywhere, trying to track down the words. It was only a matter of time until we'd have the secret messages revealed.







What we found beneath the veil of code was something we couldn't believe...

Doctor Fissionton was a Loony Labs scientist skeptical of Doctor Surlee. He uncovered plans for all of the blueprints above, but the biggest find was "The Rewritten Experiment." It described an experiment by Doctor Surlee to take Toontown back in time in order to defeat the Cogs. A plan to rewrite Toontown using a pocket watch. Have you ever seen such a device before?

The watch in the state Doctor Fissionton found it, however, was unstable. It malfunctioned and ripped him away from time itself! However, the watch unveiled the true nature of the 26th: an anomaly caused by Doctor Surlee's time travel, starting on October 26th, 1998: The day he traveled back to. The past can't be perfectly replicated, which resulted in Doctor Fissionton finding a "Rewritten" version of himself. A cat instead of a dog.

The full scoop is in the documents below.

One thing is certain: This is no ordinary investigation!





The Fissiontons' Puzzle

Upon entering a final password to an alarmingly titled folder called "The Final Plan", our puzzle-piecing Toons were met with something no one expected. The Fissiontons -- formally rumored amongst sleuths as "The Two," and titled in their blog post appearances as "???" -- began speaking directly to them.

The Fissiontons told us about the reason why Doctor Surlee did all of this: To save Toontown. We live, apparently, in a "Toontown Rewritten." A version of Toontown that has been taken back in time in order to save us. Surlee Gyro Gearloose (his full name, as The Fissiontons revealed) had even rewritten himself into a monkey, to avoid anyone from discovering that he accidentally created the Cogs.

Their full message is put below. At the end of the conversation, The Fissiontons left us one final puzzle. I stared at it in astonishment, knowing it was the biggest puzzle yet.

This puzzle was big. As big as a puzzle truck heading for the toy store. The Toons were on the case, and immediately started collaborating to put the last piece of this caper together!







At long last, the puzzle was completed. It revealed a glimpse of what the future has in store. "The Final Plan" seems to involve some sort of meter, and a strategy to save Toontown from complete Cog chaos. Doctor Surlee and the Fissiontons need our help!





I returned to my office, resting at ease knowing that we'd cracked the case of Loony Labs. Unfortunately, it seems this puzzle has only just begun. We know what Doctor Surlee's been up to, who Doctor Fissionton is, and what's been causing these mysteries of the 26th. Now, it's time to end the 26th once and for all.

This case wouldn't have been cracked without the expert detectives in the Toontown community, who worked tirelessly to get it solved. If you're a caper-crazed detective like them, be on the look out for the next puzzle. You'll know it when you see it.

Until then, it's time to move on to my next case: Return of the Cookie Jar Culprit. My tip for solving mysteries? Get a clue!