Sarah Jane AdventuresInvasion of the Bane

"Get upstairs!" Sarah Jane yelled, and Cicely grabbed the boy and dragged him upstairs.

There was a creak and a sucking sound, and the door was ripped off it's hinges and a great big green alien came in. Cicely abandoned the boy and blurred back downstairs, lifting Sarah Jane clean off her feet, she ran upstairs twice as fast.

But the alien would not be denied. Instead of clinging to the roof, it dropped down onto the stairs and started climbing.

"Okay Cicely, put me down," Sarah Jane ordered, and she obeyed, and darted into the attic.

"Wait here!" Sarah Jane told everyone. "Ten seconds, I'll be ten seconds!"

Cicely wasn't sure whether they had ten seconds.

"This is not happening! This is so not happening!" Kelsey gasped holding the boy like a shield.

"That contradicts the facts," the boy said, and Cicely sank into her hunting crouch, bared her white teeth and growled.

When she had growled before, it had been a warning, or perhaps out of playfulness, but this time, the feral sound was like a chainsaw, ripping through the air, low and vicious not a warning, but a promise.

The monster did not halt, and Cicely, with a roar, launched forwards, and grasped a tentacle. With a soggy wet snap, the tentacle was snapped clean off, and then, Sarah Jane emerged from the attic room.

"Cicely, MOVE!" Sarah Jane roared as she emerged, holding a very elaborate spray, and as soon a Cicely had leaped clear, she had pushed her hand down on the spray button and had sprayed the creature.

Amazingly, it not only made it retreat, but it had now got knocked down a flight of steps and was now on its back, its image flickering slightly, until it had transformed into the man from the tour.

His eyes widened, hair soaked, and seemed to sink downstairs, leaving some sort of black goo.

"I'm glad I didn't try to bite that," Cicely said, looking disgusted. As Sarah Jane bent down to examine it, so did Maria.

"Maria, don't get involved," Sarah Jane said sharply.

"I think it's little to late for that," she said, staring at the goo, and then looking back at her.

"Thank you. You saved our lives."

"Oh my flipping heck," Kelsey exclaimed from the attic.

"No! Don't go up there!" Sarah Jane yelled, scrambling to her feet.

But of course, everyone followed Kelsey.

"Who said you could come up here? Don't touch anything!"

Everyone was walking around examining the trinkets and machinery in the attic.

"These things...are they alien?" asked Maria.

"Where did you get them?"

"I suppose you've seen too much, and it isn't as if anyone's going to believe you..."

She sat down on the step, and Maria joined her.

"Aliens are falling to Earth all the time, not just those ones you hear on the news. Some have got lost, like the one you saw me sending home last night. Some of them crash land, and some of them want to invade."

Maria was silent for a few seconds.

"You still believe me?" Sarah Jane said.

Maria nodded, dumbstruck, but managed a "yes".

"How come?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Because you're bonkers, but I don't think you're a liar," Maria said.

"Oh, well, that's nice to know," she said. "Well, not about the bonkers bit."

"This place is beautiful," the boy said.

"Thank you," Sarah Jane smilied.

"Not so bad yourself, fella," Kelsey said, peering through a magnifying glass at the boy.

"What does that mean?" he asked.

"He's mine," Kelsey grinned.

"Is that good or bad," he asked, and Maria replied, "That's bad, that's very bad."

Then she turned back to Sarah Jane.

"It's just you then? On your own? Or is it with Cicely?"

She stood up.

"Cicely turned up the night before you did. I've still got things to work out about her. But the government know all about aliens, and then their are secret organisations dedicated to finding them, but they tend to go in all guns blazing and I just think their is a better way."

She picked up an object, examined it, and set it down again.

"How did you get started?" Maria asked, intrigued.

"I met this man, a very special man, called the Doctor. And years ago, we travelled together."

"Through space," Maria said, slightly dreamily.

"Through space and time . . . and then it came to an end."

She walked over to a bookshelf and put the object inside it.

"And suddenly, I was back to a normal life, with electricity bills . . . burst pipes . . . tickets . . . and then . . ."

"She's completely looped the loop," Kelsey chipped in, sitting in a rocking chair by the window.

"There, you see?" Sarah Jane said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Who can I talk to about it? For years, I tried to forget! And then I met him again - the Doctor - and we'd both changed. But it was funny because we were still both the same. And I learned that I cold carry on here on Earth, doing what we always did. And that's when I started this. I began my life again."

"And at the BubbleShock factory, it's run by aliens?"

"Okay, everyone's an alien here - you, me the Pope, James Blunt, no, I can actually believe that one . . ."

"For the record, I'd like to point out that I'm half-alien," Cicely chipped in, glaring at Kelsey.

"But Kelsey, you saw the alien!" Maria exclaimed, gesturing.

"I saw a guy in a suit, that's all, like in the films, it's pretend?"

There was a rapid beeping noise and Sarah Jane's head came up and she raced across to her safe set into the wall, and twiddled the dials.

Even Cicely's mouth dropped open - inside was a safe full of space.

"Their was a scientific project in Switzerland, that created a black hole. If it gets free, Earth could be swallowed up. You see, K-9 is sealing it off."

And a mechanical voice issued from a dog-shaped robot, "Greetings mistress!"

"K-9?" Maria asked in disbelief.

"He's my friend," Sarah Jane said.

"K-9? As in canine?" Kelsey snorted in disbelief. "That's so lame."

"He's been in there for a year and a half now, plugging the distortion. And every so often, he passes my way."

"Your best friend is a metal dog, stuck in a black hole?" chortled Kelsey in disbelief.

"I know," Sarah Jane said lightly.

"How are you K-9?" she asked, more affection in her voice than Cicely had ever heard before.

"How do you feel?"

"Misunderstanding of the function of this unit mistress. I do not feel."

But despite his cold, robotic words, I could understand why Sarah Jane liked K-9. The tone of his voice was almost comforting and protecting.

"However, all circuits are functioning at full capacity."

"Can you ever come out K-9?" Maria asked, fascinated.

"Oh, K-9, this is Maria," Sarah Jane introduced.

"Greetings young Mistress," he chirped. "I cannot emerge until this breach is sealed."

"And how long will that take?" asked Maria.

"I cannot estimate the duration of this task," it replied.

"You see? A bunch of knuts and bolts."

"The small female is hostile!" K-9 stated.

"Don't listen to her," Maria sighed, rolling her eyes.

"I regret I must transfer my co-ordinates Mistress."

"Bye-bye K-9. Good dog!" Sarah Jane called to him.

"Affection noted Mistress," K-9 said, turning.

Sarah Jane smiled and closed the safe door and pulled the fake cabinet panelling over it.

"How long was he gone for?" Maria asked.

"I don't know," Sarah Jane said, and then even quieter, she said, "but I miss him."

There was a giggle, so out of place that it took Cicely a moment to realise that it was Kelsey.

"Don't laugh Kelsey Hooper!" Sarah Jane said indignantly. "He was my dog! My daft metal dog. And now, I'm on my own."

She settled into a chair, but instead sank into it as if the life had gone out of her, lonely and vulnerable.