If anyone was really looking, they would have seen a small sailing ship floating towards an island.

Not that unusual, unless you count the fact that this selfsame sailing vessel was floating slowly down from the sky. Or the fact that several astronomers had just been accused of drinking during the night. Or one of the auto-camera observatories now checking their entire system for where a hacker happened to insert pictures of this particular boat having a full sail heading towards earth.

Then again, for the people of this island, it was a normal day, or rather, it was a boring day as there hadn't been an explosion as of yet.

Soon, the anomaly, known to a couple of jokers as 'The Black Ship', landed in front of one of the entrances and the sole passenger on board got off and immediately walked into a dimly lit area.

"If there was ever a time to be embarrassed by something, it is now," Harry decided as he went down the halls to talk with a certain person who may be able to help him.

To do that, he had to pass the threshold of a certain door that he barely paid attention to. It was a door that had smoke with a greenish tint, dark, maniacal laughter, and warnings strewn about. Of course, if he was anyone else, say like a visiting dignitary, government official, or a terminally ill patient with only hours or minutes to live, a lot of people would have reminded him of the adage of the cure being worse than the disease. Or at least that is how some of the people coming to the island described the door leading to Henchgirls lab.

Henchgirl herself was considered a sight not to be missed.

The lab was always an interesting place. Not in terms of items or the other bits of 'ambiance' that people liked, such as the electrical arcs going up some wires leading to the ceiling, clouds of fumes in different colours that snaked across the floor, and a deep red glow coming from one corner of the entrance that looked as though there was a bubbling lava pit. Harry looked around a bit, trying to find the newest addition to the place before going into the area where Henchgirl actually did her work. He finally found what he was looking for and stifled a laugh. There was now a giant Acrumantula web, complete with a realistic 20 foot fake moving along the ceiling.

The twins had to have come up with that one.

He was quickly tackled from behind, by a rather enthusiastic blond. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't Henchgirl. Even more unfortunate, he would have to admit this big mistake in front of the woman who was slowly becoming a fixture in his heart. "Hi Kara."

"Hi dear," she said while going around to see his face. "Did the probe work like it was supposed to?"

Ok, it was worse than expected. Much worse. Where was Henchgirl when you needed her? "Errr...Well...I'm not quite sure..."

Kara frowned. "What happened. Did another coincidence happen, or was it pirates, or did you run into a customs agent?"

Harry was desperately trying not to do the usual thing, which was pull at his collar. Instead, he just decided to go for it. It wasn't as though she wouldn't find out. "I, well, lost the probe."

Kara pulled back from him and narrowed her eyes. While it wouldn't take long to make a duplicate, it would be annoying. Besides, the probe would answer a lot of information on the differences between the planes of existence. "Lost it, how?"

Sighing, Harry pulled up a stool. "I lost something as well, you know. I didn't just lose your probe. Anyway, I just finished starting the star, and sat down to relax, putting my remote on your probe. Well, to make a long story short, I fell asleep. When I woke up, the probe, AND my remote were missing. I wasn't able to find them anywhere in the local area. And before you ask, they had already gone too far for a direction spell to find them."

Kara started to rub her eyebrows, "Well, now I know what Meridith meant by planing for failure. I planted a homing device on it, so we'll be able to find it where ever it ended up. Let's go to my lab, Joe."

Harry nodded, then frowned, "Shouldn't we say goodbye to Henchgirl first?"

Kara coughed nervously, leading him to her lab. "No need. We can see her later."

She was able to get him distracted before he inquired further. Besides, Harley wanted to test her latest gag so much, that she couldn't refuse. It wasn't as though her boyfriends sister would be hurt by it, and she did need to get some payback for that little 'close encounter' the week before.

---

In the Pacific Northwest of the United States, a small town sheriff was wondering what to do with this latest incident, or even how to write it up. Well writing it up was simple, but who would believe that he had been hit by an energy blast that had ripped open part of his chest and was killing him with radiation. Even better, who would believe that he was also healed in seconds by a scientist who was inordinately advanced over normal humans. It was nuts. And it defined the word impossible.

It was simply another day in Eureka for the residents. A small, super-scientific town that was constantly under threat of being ripped apart, if not for the fact that those ripping it apart would then turn loose some of the brightest minds on the planet, or the fact that the President would rather have those threatening to do so killed for being so power hungry. It was also the only small town in the world that advertised such devices as 'microwave mitts' or 'cryo kennels' on local tv.

Hell, they even had a device that allowed one to edit their memories, how much weirder could it get?

For Jack Carter, former US Marshal conned into being a small town sheriff, he really didn't want to know.

Of course as his deputy, Lupo would say, "it's a boring day. No explosion at all, and no one has done any 'finding of things that mankind is not supposed to know' since five yesterday."

Henry chose that moment to knock on his door and come in. "You seem bugged."

Jack took a quick look around himself before realising that it was slang, not an actual event. "Yeah. How do I explain what happened yesterday? I mean the people at the Pentagon read this."

Henry sat down and leaned back, "What's to worry about. Just write it up and forget about it. Not like they'll ever do anything about it until we're ready."

Jack looked up from the paperwork he was trying to fill out. "Don't you ever worry about that? I mean, everything that's happening around here could end the world. Hell, that seems happens about once a month from what I've been reading."

"Science, Jack," said Henry, "Is always pushing the barriers of knowledge. It's what we do here, no big deal."

Jacks eyes half closed and opened quickly as an incredulous expression was on his face. What would the nuts around here consider abnormal?

That was when Allison chose to come in, almost like a play. "Carter, I just got a message from the White House. Some people are coming here to claim something one of them lost. We're to do whatever they tell us."

Jack looked at the woman who was so tempting to him, "Wait, I thought they have to have approval from you and Stark?"

"Apparently not," grumbled Allison as she sat in another chair, "According to the White House, we're pretty low on the top secret list compared with the people who are visiting. At least all they want to do is recover their property, which somehow made it's way into this town."

Henry looked up, "So. Who's visiting?"

"A Mr. Black, a Ms. Inze, and people going by the code names the Professor, and Henchgirl. I have no idea who they are." Allison replied.

Henry shot straight up. "Ah...I think I'm going on vacation for a while. Florida sounds nice."

"Henry..." Jack said, "What do you know about these people?"

"Know? I don't really know anything. Just rumours." Henry replied.

"Rumours?"

"Lets just say a person I met a few years ago described them as doing things that we have yet to catch up on in this town, and that includes the catastrophes!" Henry shuddered, remembering his time on that island, all of two hours that he really wished he could erase. "I really should be going now. I've got to pack."

Jack snorted. He was really going to let him go if he couldn't get out of this. "Henry, I'm going to need your help. You're about the only one other than Allison who could dumb down their talk to something I can understand."

"Now, you really don't need me."

"I'm afraid we do, Dr. Deacon." Allison smiled slightly. He wasn't going to abandon her like this. "At least until I get the files from Washington on them."

Henry's glare was actually comforting to the two people responsible for the security of the town.