You Remind Me Of The Babe...

"Intruder alert. Intruder alert. There is an invasion going on... Hello? It's still going on..." Holly's dispassionate voice filled the room, causing a slumbering Alex to stir ever so slightly. That was it, not even a snort. The computer rolled his eyes.
"Gordon Bennet! It's like trying to wake a post coital sloth. OI!"

Alex's head pulsed like a Mini Phil's pants, as his thoughts slugged their way down Muzzy Avenue on their way to Consciousville . He cracked his eyes open and a bright slice of his quarters burned his mind and his eyes. For a moment he was confused and believed it to be three million years previously. He thought he was late for his morning stint on E Shift, then the truth tumbled in to Consciousville Town Centre like a particularly nasty avalanche. An avalanche which was comprised not only of (yellow) snow, but boulders, barbed wire... and dung.

"Smeg." He groped for one of the bottles next to his bed and took a good long swig.
"There is an invasion going on" repeated Holly for want of something better to say.
Alex wiped his mouth. "What kind of invasion?" he managed to croak.
"Dunno really, something about a Doombringer."
"What the hell's that?"

Holly shrugged, as well as a computer generated face can.
Alex lit a cig "threat?"
"Pretty big one, as far as I can tell."

Alex sighed, swung himself round and started pulling his boots on.
"Better check it out."
"Yeah, you'd better go and help the others to blow up the baby."

Alex looked at Holly like he was even more computer senile than he was. "What?"
"The baby. If it's the Doombringer, they need to kill it."
"I ain't killin' a baby."

"Well I think you might need to. It's Jay's son."
"Oh for fu-"

-----

5 Super Potent Ibuprofen later, Alex skidded round the corner of the corridor where Jay et al stood in shock, facing Max or "Max".

Alex looked upon the stunned faces of the group. "Er, shouldn't we do something?"
Seymour was the first to speak. "Yes, blast it to smithereens of course!"
"You bloody dare." Growled Jay, eyes never leaving the child.
"Oh Max..." Katrina began to bend towards it.
"DON'T!" Yelled Ishani. "It's a trick."
"What if it's not, though?" Jay whispered.
Phil smiled sadly "I'm afraid I think it is."

Jay took a step backwards and the infant took a step towards him. Its movement was inhuman and sent a shiver down Alex's spine.
Ishani wrinkled her nose.

"Can't we just... trap him or something, then?" enquired Seymour.
"Ye-ah, see if it'll follow you into the side room. Perhaps you can slam the door on it and give us time to think."
"That's not going to work you idiot! It came through a smegging vortex!"
"Well excuse me! I've been sick."
"Sick? Drunk more like."
"Actually, it came through a singularity gateway."
"All right, no need to be pedantic!"
"Same difference, isn't it?"
"Well if you wanna get technical..."

The Dwarfers scuffled and squabbled and pushed among themselves until Seymour's voice halted proceedings. "Er, where's it gone?"

They were just in time to see the little striped foot disappear as the baby crawled around the corner and into a small repair bay.
The group followed him, horrified, shocked, fascinated, peed off and throbbing with emotion in some cases.

Once inside the bay, their eyes were drawn to the slumped body of Gomez on the floor.
"Oh God." Alex rushed over to him, ignoring a tilt-headed look from the baby. He felt for a pulse then shook his head. He felt sick to his stomach - Gomez had been his friend. He could see that Gomez had been building or repairing something before he died, he was just trying to muster the heart to mention this, when the baby started laughing...

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<ooc. Sorry again for being awol, been having to do extra work, and also have a broken laptop keyboard!>