Sarah had been right in the middle of a rather pleasant dream about sledding down a mountain made out of chocolate ice cream slathered in whipped cream when she was woken up by an insistent tapping on her forehead. She opened her eyes to see an owl standing over her.

"Sorry to bother you, ma'am. Do you know where I could find Dr. Octavius?"

"He's sleeping in that cot literally three feet away from here," Sarah said.

"Oh. Right. That cot over there. Yes, I see it now. Go back to sleep. Pretend I was never here."

She sat up and looked at him. "Who are you? And how did you get in here? I thought this was a secret lab."

"Oh, it is. My name's Dennis. I'm Lothar's new lab assistant. You know Lothar, right? Crazy science guy who specializes in doors? Well, at least that's what he obsesses over when he's not working on his numerous other experiments. Anyway, he sent me here to find Dr. Octavius. Important scientist business. You know how it goes."

"I might be familiar with how these mad scientist types operate. And yes, I remember Lothar. He's kind of hard to forget."

"Tell me about it," Dennis said. "I can't seem to even forget about him when I'm sleeping. The guy keeps invading my dreams. Literally. He's been working on a door that leads to the dreamworld lately and he insists on testing it out on me. Every freaking night. It was kind of a neat breakthrough at first, but now it's just getting irritating. But speaking of dreams, I really didn't mean to disturb your slumber. You should go back to sleep. Just think about something soothing like a lush meadow or a tropical island at sunset. Works for me everytime. And then like clockwork Lothar shows up and interrupts my dreams to talk about work. Can't a guy get some peace and quiet and me time for a few hours? But I don't mean to complain about my problems. This is Dr. Octavius here you say?"

"Yeah, that's him."

Dennis began tapping Dr. Octavius on the forehead in a steady rhythm.

"Eh? Who left the spectrometer plugged in? It's making that thumping noise again. Maurice! Turn it off!" Dr. Octavius let out a few more unintelligible mumbles and rolled over.

"You know, he complains about noise when he's trying to fall asleep, but once he's out he's a pretty sound sleeper," Sarah said. "Especially when he's really tired. We didn't get any sleep at the hotel last night because of the whole riot situation there. I think he's pretty knackered. He could probably sleep through anything right about now."

"I told Lothar we should just come talk to him in his dreams. But nooooo. Lothar said that would be rude. Even though he keeps coming into my dreams. In fact we had this argument in one of my dreams."

"Are you sure you really discussed it in your dreams?" Sarah asked. "Maybe you were just, you know, dreaming."

Dennis got a confused look on his face. "Are you suggesting he's not invading my dreams and I just can't stop dreaming about him?"

"I don't know," Sarah shrugged. "How would you know the difference?"

"I don't suppose I would," Dennis said. "For that matter, how do I know I'm not dreaming right now? Damn it, lady. Stop making me question reality. I'm here to do a very important task and I need Dr. Octavius to wake up." He grabbed Dr. Octavius by the shoulders and began shaking him violently.

"Uh oh, forgot to take my earthquake boots off again," Dr. Octavius mumbled as he flipped over again without even opening his eyes.

"Good luck," Sarah said. "He fell asleep on a launchpad one time after he'd been awake for a whole week. He slept right through the blast-off of an industrial strength rocket. Said it was the best nap he'd ever taken in his life."

"Yeah? Well it's hard to sleep when you can't breathe," Dennis said as he grabbed a pillow and pushed it over Dr. Octavius's face.

"Hey! Cut that out! Are you trying to wake him up or murder the poor man?"

"Sorry, sorry. Got a bit carried away there. Do you have a glass of water I could splash in his face? Or maybe some smelling salts? How does he usually wake up ?"

"I don't know. He just kind of opens his eyes and sits right up and he's ready to go. Like I said, it's worse when he's really tired. I'm actually not sure when the last time he slept was."

"Maybe if I shout directly into his ears?" He tried it without any noticeable effect.

Then an alarm on Dr. Octavius's watch made a quiet tinny beeping sound and he sat straight up. "Oh, hello. And who might you be?"

"Hey there, Doc. I'm Dennis. Lothar's lab assistant. He's got some business he'd like to discuss with you. Rather urgent, from what I'm given to understand."

"I see. Well, shall we go to him then?"

"That actually won't be necessary. He's waiting outside your lab."

"Why did he send you in here then?" Sarah asked. "Couldn't he have just come himself?"

"Yeah, you'd think that," Dennis said with a sigh. "He's got this new thing where he's really big on making an entrance. Specifically he wants to be announced. With fanfare, no less. So if you'll excuse me for a second." Dennis reached into his pocket and pulled out something that looked like a trumpet. He blew several notes into it and then spoke in an extra loud voice. "Presenting the one... the only... Quartzwater City's premiere expert on doors and one of its most prominent mad scientists... Loooooooooothaaaaaaaaaar!"

The door to the lab burst open and Lothar came strutting in waggling his fingers and blowing kisses.

"Hello, Lothar. Good to see you again." They flashed the secret mad scientist hand signal at each other in greeting.

"Dr. Octavius! My man!"

"How did you know I was in town?"

"Oh, I had a late night craving for a pineapple, black olive, and summer squash burrito. There's this little dive across the way that specializes in them. Anyway I was sitting there coloring the placemat with the free crayons they provide and munching my burrito when I looked out the window and saw you go into your lab. It's fortuitous timing because I've been wanting to talk with you. I've got some amazing new doors I've been working on. You'll have to come by and see them. There's one that goes straight into Dennis's dreams. You've definitely got to try that one out. The guy's a real perv, let me tell you. But anyway, I was taking some energy readings after a jaunt through a door I set up between my house and my favorite donut shop when the meter spiked so far into the red it actually exploded in my hands. At first I thought I needed to make some major adjustments on the door, but then I realized it wasn't coming from the door at all. No, it's something else. Something I can't identify. Something of monumental power the likes of which I've never encountered before. And it's here somewhere in Quartzwater City. I can't get an accurate fix on where it's coming from because its raw power keeps destroying my meters. But I know it's here and we need to find it because something like that could be extremely dangerous. Like, potentially blow up the entire universe dangerous. Especially if it falls into the wrong hands."

"Oh my," Dr. Octavius said. "I'm afraid switching your boyfriend back to his proper body is going to have to wait. This is something that clearly warrants an investigation. Do we know any detectives?"

"Well, there's Max," Sarah said. "But he's off on his little treasure hunt and I don't know when we'll see him again. Honestly he's not really that great of a detective anyway. I'm not sure why we keep hiring him."

"Didn't we hire him to locate Pauline?"

"We did, but I'm not really sure that's his top priority at the moment. Maybe I should fire him next time we see him. Whenever that turns out to be."

"I don't mean to intrude into your private conversation," Dennis said. "But it just so happens my brother is a detective. A pretty good one, too. He once cracked the supposedly unsolvable case of the pungent ball of crimson yarn. I bet he could locate the source of this mysterious power surge in a jif. Also, he'd probably give you guys the family discount, since I'm his brother and everything."

"Discount?" Dr. Octavius said. "Now that's music to my ears. Let's go meet this brother of yours."