"Well that should make our lives easier." Belle stood and brushed herself off, opening the door a little wider. "Come on, let's go see what we can find." She snuck into the hallway, silent as she moved down the hallway, glancing around every few seconds. She paused at the first door and turned to Andy, since she had the keys.

Glancing at the number on the door, she flipped through the keys until she found the one with the matching number.

"Let's see what could be behind door number..." she trailed off, about to say 'one', "...B16." She grimaced. "Not as clever as the original."

"Well, we can always go find door number one later," Belle said with a little smile, pushing the door open once Andy had unlocked it. She turned on a light and found a computer room all set up, with four or five computers in there. "Huh. Someone must play a lot of games."

Andy felt vaguely like she was playing a video game herself as she peeked around the doorframe to make sure there was nothing that could potentially attack them. Call her a paranoid gamer, but she was more into staying alive than charging in.

"Doesn't look like there's anything of interest in here," she said. "I'm okay with computers, but I don't think I could get into any of these unless someone forgot to log out or something."

Belle nodded. "On to the next place then." She shut the door again once they were out of the way and headed down the hall, checking the next room, which was labeled "B18".

"I wonder if there's anything of interest in here..." She frowned, trying the door. It was locked.

Andy sifted through the keys and pulled up the one that matched the number for the door. Unlocking the door, she looked inside cautiously. She didn't see anyone in the room when she glanced around... She yelped in surprise when a massive white cat roared out of the room and pounced on her.

"Kaelas!" she squeaked. "Kaelas, easy, it's me!" The low, rumbling growl stopped, and Kaelas got off of her. She stood up and scratched behind his ear. "I don't suppose you have any idea where the others are?" Kaelas shook his head. "I didn't think so."

Belle frowned. "This is not going to be fun," she muttered. "It looks like they're all in separate rooms. Come on, we better search the rest of this hallway."

She looked down the hall; four more doors on this side, and five on the other. Meaning the rest of their bishis were spread out somewhere else in this place. She shivered, not looking forward to finding them all.

"Knowing my boys, they're probably worried sick..." Andy murmured. She looked into the room one more time and saw Kaelas's bishiball inside. Going in, she grabbed it and clipped it to her belt, feeling better already. Closing the door behind her, she locked it again, then handed the keys to Belle. "Your turn."

Belle took the keys and went across the hall to a room. She opened the door cautiously, glancing around inside, and yelled when she was pulled into the room and into Tomas's embrace.

"Tomas! Lemme go! Can't breathe!" She flailed for a few moments before the White Court member finally pulled back and looked her over carefully.

"Are you alright? What happened?" he asked, still looking her over for any injuries.

"I'm fine, and I'll explain later. We have to go find everyone else." Belle managed to grab his bishiball, clipping it on to her belt again. "Come on."

Tomas nodded and kept hold of her hand as he walked out of the room, looking Andy over as well for any injuries. "You're okay too?"

"I'm fine," Andy replied. "We have to find the others, though." Taking the keys, she went to the next room and unlocked the door. When nobody burst out at her, she carefully opened it.

"Miss Andrea?" Andy sighed in relief.

"Lawrence, you're alright," she said. Lawrence nodded.

"Are you alright, Miss Andrea?" he asked. Andy nodded.

"I'm fine. Do you know where the others are?" she asked.

"Only Temeraire and Lien," he replied, taking a pair of bishiballs from his pocket and handing them to her. She clipped them to her belt, relieved. "They were left with me because I refused to let them go."

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you, Lawrence," she replied. He handed her his own bishiball, which she clipped to her belt as well. Then she handed the keys back to Belle. "That's four, I only have three more to find," she told Belle.

"I've still got a bunch to go," Belle muttered, grumbling.

"Here, give me half the keys and I'll go that way," Tomas said, pointing down towards another hallway. "I'll meet you back here once I've gotten everyone I can find."

"Sounds good. Thanks, Tomas." Belle slid several of the keys off the keyring and handed them to Tomas. "Be careful, okay?"

Tomas nodded and ran down the hall to go find the others, while Belle sighed and picked another door at random. "Here goes nothing." She unlocked the door and opened it a little. When nothing jumped out at her or touched the door, she went in cautiously and found Acheron sitting on the floor calmly, his eyes closed and his sunglasses off to the side.

"Ash?"

"Belle." He smiled faintly and opened his eyes, giving her a brief view of the swirling silver orbs before he put his sunglasses on again.

Andy took the keys and unlocked the next door. Peeking around the doorframe, she relaxed slightly when nobody attacked her.

"Andy?" Lucivar's voice asked. Andy grinned.

"Hey, we're making a getaway, come on," she said. Lucivar grinned.

"Well, I can see you're alright," he said. Andy nodded as she went inside and grabbed his bishiball.

"I've already found Kaelas, and Lawrence and the dragons," she said. "Just Sess and Hiei left to find."

"I bet Sesshoumaru is worried about you," Lucivar said.

"He's been acting strange lately," Andy replied. "I'm worried about him, too."

"He'll be alright," Lucivar replied, "just give him time."

Belle shook her head a little as she got the keys again and went to the next room, Acheron following her. She opened the door and peeked inside, blinking when she found three bishis in there: two Hieis and Kurama.

"Hey, I found both our Hieis," she called to Andy. "You guys all okay?" She turned to the bishis again.

"We're all fine. Are you alright?" Kurama moved over to her, frowning a little while her Hiei grabbed his and Kurama's bishiballs.

Andy's Hiei handed her his bishiball and vanished, obviously feeling he filled his socializing quota for the week. Andy clipped the ball to her belt and looked down the hall.

"This is the last door on this side," she said. "Sess must be down the other way."

"Well, let's go take a look." Belle clipped both the balls back to her belt and Kurama and Hiei both vanished for the moment. She went over to the only door they hadn't checked and handed the keys over to Andy.

Tomas headed back down the hallway, holding the keys and a batch of bishiballs in his hands. He stopped a little ways behind Belle, murmuring to her and returning the keys and the bishiballs before he vanished.

Andy took the keys and went to open the one door they hadn't tried yet. Unlocking it, she opened it carefully.

"Sess?" she asked. She opened the door completely. Inside, Sesshoumaru was sitting against the wall, already half-way to his feet. She could see the relief on his face, which surprised her.

"Andrea," he said, "you're alright."

"I'm fine, and so are the others," Andy replied. "Come on, we're leaving before anyone realizes we're gone." Sesshoumaru regained his composure quickly and nodded, handing her his bishiball before vanishing. She clipped the last ball to her belt and sighed in relief. She felt so much better with her bishies back with her.

"Come on, let's go. I set a set of stairs," Belle said, quickly leading the way to the staircase and heading upstairs. She paused at the top, looking around quickly. Her eyes widened when she saw a few bishis milling about, but she could also see clear, blue sky and trees out the nearest window.

Ducking down a few steps again, she turned to Andy. "We have a problem."

Andy followed Belle's gaze and blinked. Then her brain seemed to click into gear and she glanced out the window. The window was big enough for them to climb out of, and low enough that it wouldn't be much of a problem. There seemed to be plenty of room outside...

"Problem solved," she said to Belle, grabbing one of her dragons' bishiballs. She knew as her fingers closed around it that it was Lien, which was good. Lien would blend a bit better with the sky, rather than Temeraire. Creeping over to the window slowly, she motioned for Belle to follow her.

"When I say so, go out the window," she whispered. "Just trust me." Quickly, she stuck her arm out the window and let Lien out. "Go!"

Belle didn't hesitate. She threw herself out the window, holding on to her pack and her belt to make sure everything went with her. She landed on Lien, a little ruffled. "Sorry!" she quickly apologized to the dragon, moving to make room for Andy.

Andy jumped out the window as well, landing in Lien's back. She knew that the dragon would barely feel their impacts.

"Lien, just go, I'll tell you when to stop," she said. Lien didn't reply, but she swept her wings powerfully and took off higher into the sky. Even though the dragon didn't say it, Andy knew that Lien was glad to be able to just fly for a while.

Once they were far enough away that they would have time to react if they were followed, Andy relaxed a little.

"Well, I have to say, that's one of the best escapes I've ever been in," Belle said with a little laugh. "Nice thinking, to use Lien."

She turned her attention to the dragon then, patting her neck hesitantly. "Thanks, Lien!"

"It was my pleasure," Lien said, effectively speaking for the first time in days. Carefully, Andy made her way over to Belle. Lien was immense, bigger than Temeraire, and Temeraire was the size of a small mansion to begin with. After a few more minutes of flying, Andy tapped Lien's hide with her foot.

"Come on, we can land now," she called. Lien gave a small nodd and went in to land. Andy held on as tight as she could to Lien's jeweled-gold collar. "This would be so much easier if she had a harness," she said to Belle. "Temmy has one, and he's still able to wear his gaudy pendant..."

Belle couldn't help but laugh. "Who cares about easier? This is more fun!" She grinned broadly, clinging to Lien but clearly enjoying herself.

Once they'd landed she carefully waited a few seconds before she let out her breath. "Okay, that I want to do again. Preferably without the whole escaping thing, but even so. That was really damn cool."

Andy slid down Lien's tail to get back to the ground.

"Maybe when we get a bit of downtime you can ask Temmy," she said. "He'd probably be willing to give you a ride." Once Belle was back on the ground, Andy recalled Lien. "Now that I have no idea where we are..."

"Well, let's think about this. You can't have an evil base in the middle of nowhere; you have to be able to bring in supplies and find people to experiment on. So, the most logical placement would be somewhere near a town, maybe a few miles outside its border." Belle shrugged. "That would be my guess, anyway, since then it would be easy to bring in supplies and trainers. But that's just a guess."