Most people took away important points from the last episode about the messing up of Sophia's character or the way buddyfight girls are treated this season, but all I got from it was..."Da! Da! Da!" :D (What I mean is, don't expect serious writing from me ^^;)

Chapter 7/Sneaking Around

"So, what do you plan to do now, kid?" asked Drum.

"Shh," whispered Gao. "I don't know. Can you sense where the other dragons are?"

"Why would I be able to do that?" Drum grumbled. "You can't sense where other humans are, can you?"

"True," Gao admitted. "I guess you can't believe everything you see in movies."

Drum wandered down the hallway. "So, we're just going to explore and hope we find something?"

Gao scratched his head. "Well, I thought since it was a secret room, it would be on the lowest floor, like in the...movies." He stopped, realizing he'd just contradicted himself.

"Yeah. The movies that can't be believed," muttered Drum.

"Well, do you have a better idea?" Gao frowned at him. "We have to start from somewhere."

"I guess so."

The two infiltrators found the staircase and descended to the lowest floor.

"It's dark in here," said Drum.

"Maybe the room is actually down here," added Gao. "It seems a lot more secret down here than up there."

He walked down the hallway, making sure to peek in every room through the window. When he was about halfway across, he heard Drum whisper, "Pst, over here. Doesn't this seem suspicious?"

Gao jogged over to the door that Drum was pointing to with one claw. This door was different than the ones he had been looking at. It was the same color and size, but this one had no window in it.

"It does look a little...strange," Gao agreed. He tried to peek in the crack between the door and the wall. "Drum!" he whispered loudly.

"What?"

"I can see them! Dragons!"

"Huh? They're there?"

Gao nodded. "I can only see a few, but chances are, there's more of the them in that room."

"So what now?"

"I guess we try to open it and hope that someone forgot to lock it." Gao tried to open the door.

That was where his luck ran out.

A light on the wall started blinking brightly as a loud alarm started blaring.

Gao's feet seemed rooted the ground, momentarily paralyzed by the sudden cacophony, but Drum's creature instincts kicked in and he took off down the hallway, away from the strobe lights. The sight of the fleeing dragon startled Gao into action and he sprinted after him, catching up to Drum just as he reached a door at the end of the hallway.

"EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY. PUSH HERE. ALARM WILL SOUND." Gao hastily skimmed the lettering on the red lever. It only took an instant for him to make up his mind.

"Definitely an emergency," declared Gao, as he gasped for breath.

"And the alarm is already sounding," Drum pointed out as Gao seized the lever.

The door gave way and the pair found themselves in a dark stairwell as the door clanged shut behind them. A series of soft green lights illuminated the staircase which led up and away from where they had come. Gao's hand somehow found a handrail and he tugged at Drum. "This way!" he hissed. The pair ran up staircase after staircase as quickly as they could, trying hard not to make too much noise on the metal steps. Panting and sweating heavily they stopped to catch their breath on one of the landings in front of another metal door. That's when they heard footsteps echoing in the stairwell. Footsteps that were definitely not theirs (since they were standing still).

Drum leaned against the door, "We're doomed," he groaned.

Gao pushed him aside, "Not if this door opens!" he muttered in a half-whisper.

"Yeah, well good lu..." Drum started to say, but too his amazement, the metal door swung opened to Gao's desperate tug. The duo ran into a carpeted hallway as the door banged shut behind them.

There was only one way to run - away from the stairwell - so they both took off quickly; their pursuers would come through the door at any moment. Gao felt a surge of hope as he saw what he thought was a window at the end of the hallway, but when they reached it, he saw that it was only a painting. They would have to turn left or right.

"This way!" Gao instinctively headed left.

"No, this way!" Drum's instincts told him to head right.

Gao skidded to a stop and did an about face to follow his buddy. Drum turned right again and at the next "T" swung to the left. Gao stayed close behind him, grateful for Drum's apparent directional sense.

They rounded the next corner and –

"The-the lunch room?" Gao spluttered. "Drum, that doesn't help!"

Especially since the many people in the room had already heard the alarm and were ready to catch them.

"Take this!" Drum yelled, taking off the cat head and throwing it at the nearest member of the police.

"A dragon!" someone shouted. "It's a dragon!"

Gao wildly looked around for a way to escape but there were officers closing in on him from all sides.

"There!" Drum shouted while pointing to a vent near the ground. "I bet we can escape through there, kid!" He ripped off the grating with his claw. "Let's go!"

Gao quickly crawled into the vent. It was very squishy, but he had to do it to get away. He grimaced as he felt dirt and bugs brush across his body. This was definitely not as heroic as it would have been in a movie.

Finally, Drum knocked off another vent cover. Gao tumbled out after Drum. He sprang to his feet but found himself temporarily blinded by the sunlight. As his eyes adjusted, he saw that police officers were running up the stairs. And he knew if they went back through the vent, they'd be caught on the other side. There was no other exit.

We're trapped!