Dusk had arrived and the full moon was slowly rising to the sky. The grass rustled quietly as the lions raced stealthily to the south of the Asante territory with Lumina leading some of the way. Now that it was night time, she was hard to be spotted when she’s bathed by moonlight. The lionesses of the pride glanced at each other uneasily as they left their territory; most had never been outside of it.
Lumina turned to Rain; it was great to have her back, but everything was bittersweet while Emmy was gone. Lumina nodded to the hybrid, and Rain gulped.
        “Don’t worry, Rain, don’t think of it as your first time flying. You’ve done short flights before; I know you can do it!” Lumina encouraged her quietly. Rain nodded nervously, and as they reached the top of the hill, she snapped out her wings and ran right into the air. The stormy gray wings billowed in the air, and then Rain was doing several powerful down-strokes to gain height. The pride gasped as they stopped upon the hill. Rain circled above their heads once, and Lumina saw her smiling. Then she was gone, scanning the savannah for the lab that started it all. Mansa, Umbar, and three other lionesses ran silently through the yellow sea, following Rain high above them.
        Lumina watched Rain as the first group disappeared. The second group would follow when Rain landed...there! She saw Rain fly lower until she tumbled into the grass. Well, not bad for her first real time.
Luna signaled Lumina, Lalibela, and the rest of the lionesses to follow her. With Luna leading the group, they followed the Rain’s and the other groups’ scent.
As they walked, Lumina noticed that Lalibela had her front left paw up, limping slightly and was having trouble keeping up with the group. Lumina frowned as she saw this. Hmm… should I help or not? After all the rude comments she has made I don’t think so… but then again that would just be mean… I guess I can try to help her… she sighed and started to walk very slowly so that the other wouldn’t noticed her sudden disappearance. When she was far enough from the group she turned and trotted over to Lalibela. Lalibela noticed Lumina approaching and shot her a glare.
        “What do you want?” snapped Lalibela.
        “What’s your problem? I’m just here to see why you’re falling behind.” Lumina growled.
        “Just because you’re leader of this whole plan doesn’t mean that you’re in charge.” Lalibela snarled. Lumina opened her mouth to growl something back. But Lalibela ran ahead of the group. She was already at Mansa’s side when Lumina’s group met up with the rest of the lions outside of the enclosure fence.
        Hmph… snot-nosed brat… I’m trying to help her out here… how did she become Mansa’s favorite I’ll never know… she rolled her eyes and trotted after Lalibela.
When she finally caught up with the other two groups, they patiently waited in front of the building’s chain linked fences where the hole that Emmy and Rain made to escape was still there.
        “Lumi, what took you so long?” Luna asked in concern.
        “Nothing,” Lumina quickly replied. “And how did your group do? Did any of you run into trouble on the way here?”
        “Luckily no,” answered Umbar. Lumina turned to Rain and asked,
        “Did you see any of them inside the fences or anywhere around the building?” Rain shook her head. “I’m surprised that there aren’t any guarding the place.”
        “Hmm… that’s a bummer. I wanted to maul something,” said Luna, her ears twitching back and forth.
        “There’s no time to think about that now, we have to get inside.” Lumina said, determinedly in her voice. She found the hole they had escaped through before, and she found it filled in.
        “We’ll have to dig again,” she growled.
        “Don’t worry,” Mansa rumbled. Frustrated that they might lose time. With a whole pride of lions, they quickly excavated it. Lumina crouched and slipped through the hole first and beckoned for them to follow uncertainly.
        “Go already,” said Rain, nudging Luna in front of her. One by one, every lion slipped through the hole. When they were all through, they followed Rain through the enclosure. She glanced around sadly. This had been the first place she had ever been outside.
        The lions gathered around a closed door. The whole pride was excited as well as frighten as they stood in front of the door; wondering what’s inside. Umbar appeared at Lumina’s side with an I.D card in his mouth. Lumina saw smears of blood on it and frowned at Umbar. The lion only grinned. Lumina took a deep breath and stood on her hind legs to swipe the card above the door handle. She held her breath until she heard a little beep and the door automatically opened.
        “Quickly, everyone inside before the door locks.” urged Rain, leading the other lions inside. The Asante lions were awestruck when they saw all the lighted halls, machines, and doors leading to different places. It was like nothing they have ever seen. As for Rain, Lumina, and even Luna, it was all too familiar. After all, they had grown up in this kind of environment.
        “Alright, anything that you happen to pass by, I want you to destroy it. Anything that’s a machine, break it; rip it apart… do whatever it takes.” ordered Lumina.
        “That’s not going to be a problem,” smiled Umbar, looking almost eager to break all the lab equipment. Lumina glanced at Rain and Luna and nodded. Without saying a word they nodded and led the pride deep into the lab, breaking anything in sight. Umbar scampered towards a table with different glass containers which held chemicals. He pounced and swiped them with his paw and the sound of shattering glass was heard. Different colored liquids splattered all over the white floor.
        “Ha-ha! This is more fun than teasing rhinos!” he laughed as he knocked beakers, and flasks. He was enjoying the sound of glass being broken.   
        Lumina watched them for a minute before she turned and ran towards the section that their cages used to be in. Knowing the Professor, I’m pretty sure that she’s in the room where we used to stay for the night… she ran so quickly that she almost missed a turn and crashed into the wall. Up ahead she saw an open door and slid to a stop. As determined as she was to find her friend, she knew that she needed to know if there were any labcoats inside first; or even worse the Professor. She sniffed cautiously and couldn’t find any fresh human tracks. But she did catch Emmy’s.    
        She slowly stepped inside and spotted Emmy sleeping inside a cage out in the far corner of the room.
        “Emmy!” she whispered, running over to her cage. Emmy woke up to the familiar voice and lifted her head to find Lumina standing in front of her.
        “Is it really you?” Emmy purred, pacing in her cage.
        “Well, do you know anyone else that’s blue?” joked Lumina.
        “Lumi it is you!”
        “And you said that I was such an easy target… heh, look where you ended up.” chuckled Lumina
        “I’m not in the mood for jokes,” grumbled Emmy. “I heard that the Professor was going to sell me!”
        “I know, don’t worry I’ll get you out,” she said as she neared the cage.
        “Wait, don’t get any closer!” Emmy warned.    
        “Why? What’s wrong?”
        “You’ll set the alarm off.”
        “What alarm?”
        “Can’t you see it? There are little red sensors all over the cage! It’s going to be practically impossible for you to get me out!”
        Lumina inspected at the cage more closely and then saw the little sensors that surrounded the whole cage.
        So the Professor is afraid of another escape… dammit! We don’t have time for this, the Asante will get the attention of those labcoats soon, she looked around trying to find a way to free Emmy without setting it off. Lumina could hear more crashes throughout the building, the roars of the lions and shouts of the labcoats. She doubted any labcoats would come if she did set the alarm off.
        She trotted over to the other side of the room and started rummaging through the lab equipment until she found a metal pipe on the floor beneath the table. With her mouth she carried it over to the cage and she then wedged the pip through the cage door.
        “Umm Lumi… what are you going to do…?” Emmy wasn’t exactly liking the look on Lumina’s face.
        “Wait and see…” was Lumina’s only response. She backed up a couple of steps, and then she ran and threw her weight against the pipe.

        CRACK!

        The door popped open; and the hinges were broken. They both winced as the alarm started to wail.
        “Whoa… good job!” Emmy said, hopping from her cage.
        “You ok?” Lumina asked as she opened her eyes and looked the damage she did.
        “Yeah, I’m ok,” Emmy said wearily. “I’m just thirsty, they haven’t gave me anything…” she walked to the a water dish sat.
        “Hurry up and let’s get out of here… we have to catch up with Luna, Rain and the rest of the pride!” Lumina said anxiously, tugging on her arm gently with her mouth.
        “Wait, you found Rain??” Emmy gasped, looking up from the dish, her chin dripping.
        “Yeah, we’ve found each other over at the hunting grounds,” Lumina replied, watching the open door anxiously.
        “Oh, I can’t wait to see her again! I missed her so much!” Emmy said excitedly.
        “And she misses you too. Now come on!”
        Emmy nodded and they both started running towards the door but they were cut off. The Professor was standing in the doorway.
        He didn’t look at all like the last time Lumina had seen him. His hair was all sticking out of place, and he was wearing the same lab coat as from the day they’ve escaped. His goggles were hanging around his neck and he held a tequila bottle in his bruised hand, and it looked like he hadn’t gotten any sleep, bags hung under his blood-shot eyes. With an insane look in his face, he stared coldly at the two lionesses.
        “Where do you think you two are going..? There’s no way you’re running away again!” he said in a slurred voice, taking a couple of chugs from his bottle; tequila dripped from the side of his mouth. Lumina stepped in front of Emmy and glared at the Professor, unsheathing her claws and growled. The Professor wiped his mouth with a dirty sleeve and looked at Lumina.
        “Ah Lumina, my precious pet... I see that you managed to free Emmy… you’re such a smart animal… that’s why… that’s why I chose… you… to be my pet…” he swayed his feet but he quickly hung on to the side of the doorway and regained his balance.
        “All I wanted was to make you and me famous! I c-could care less about those other two… side-show freaks I’ve… created… and you should too…”
        “Never! I will never abandon my friends! I’m not like you, you sick, selfish person!” Lumina said angrily. But the Professor couldn’t understand her. Instead, all he heard were snarls and hisses.
        “Oh? Is someone getting a little cranky here…? Why…? Cause I was… I was going to sell… your little… buddy to t-those… slaughterhouses…? Those people were… going to p-pay me some good money…”
        Emmy’s eyes widened and she folded her ears back in fear when she heard the word “slaughterhouses” Lumina felt Emmy tremble and Lumina took a step towards the Professor.
        “You better get out of the way…” she hissed. The Professor noticed her nearing the doorway and he immediately smashed his bottle against the wall, causing the two lionesses to jump back. Glass flew everywhere and alcohol dripped from the wall. He held his half broken bottle by the neck and pointed the jagged end at the lionesses.
        “And where do you think… y-you’re going…? The only place you… you two are going… is back into that…c-cage… like good kitties…” he clumsily walked towards them with the broken bottle, trying to herd them inside the cage.
        “Oh, I don’t think so… it’s not us that’s going inside that cage…” said Lumina.
        “… It’s you!! NOW EMMY RUN!!!” she roared, and ran past the Professor, trying to avoid the bottle. She dodged the Professor and was leading him away from the doorway. Emmy quickly caught on and ran past him on the other side.
The Professor didn’t know who to attack first and the two lionesses saw his hesitation and ran behind him. Emmy noticed Lumina buck her hind legs and kicked the Professor. The kick caused him to lose his balance and fall into the cage.
        “Quick! Close the door, it will buy us time to get everyone out!” yelled Lumina, rushing out the door. Emmy closed the door and jammed the pipe through the bars to keep it closed. As she was running out, she looked back and saw the Professor struggling to get out of the cage, cursing loudly. It would only take him seconds to free himself. She gulped and ran after Lumina.