Hope to a Tortured World

[Hope98]

I watch in despair as Zex falls and Lemminkainen runs toward the wizard. Vaienmoinen rasies the staff and a tidal wave of water flows from it. It washes Lemminkainen away, and the tide pulls him under. Water quickly fills the room. I walk over to a higher elevated corner to observe the fight.

I do not see Lemminkainen bob upward in the deluge. The wizard again raised his staff and the waters part. I see Lemminkainen lying on the black tile floor, drenched and gasping. On each side of him is a pillar of water. Vainemoinen marches toward Lemminkainen's gasping, huddled body.

In the corner of my eye, I see Zex. He is on the ground and the 3 headed vulture stands above him. The heads look interested in making a meal of his tender flesh. On dives for a taste, about to spear Zex with its knife like beak.

I run over to Zex and give the bird a swift kick in the side. It topples over. I ignore Lemminkainen to protect Zex from the scavenger.

[Zex]

i open my eyes and see hope fighting the vulture. everything is blurry. i struggle to watch the fights.
"you kill that overgrown turkey," i mumble to hope.

[Lemminkainen]

My lungs are full of water. I cough, but still can hardly breath. i sit on the floor, trying to empty my lungs. then, a shadow falls over me. he is behind me....

before I can turn around, i feel something sharp spear me in the back. energy fills my body...i convulse with pai and yell out....
he stuck his staff in my back. but i won't let him win....
i am weak, but if I don't defeat him, who will....
i get up and spit up some water and blood. i have my own powers too. i raise my arms and start chanting in the name of Ilmatar, the goddess of air. then, when the spell is complete. I say the last words and release a typhoon. the typhoon blows away all of the water, but does nothing to Vainememoinen. he stands before me, unphazed by the attack!
He starts another incantation. this is not going to be good. he says the final words and it starts to rain...acid.
my skin and eyes burn and i fall to the ground in misery.

[Hope98]

I take some satisfaction from breaking the vulture's necks, one by one. I am also glad to see that Zex is alive. I glance at Lemminkainen, who is struggling against a much stronger foe. Men simply do not know how to think things through. Where would they be without me. I warned them of the dangers, but did they listen...no!

There is only one way to end this conflict. I walk over to the man with the egg. His shirt says the word "Druski" on it. That must be his name. He laughs at the fights, but stops laughing when I walk up to him.
I regard him coldly.

"Mr. Druski, this fight is over. Turn over the egg, or I will kill you."

"Vainenmoinen..come here...I command you to fight her..."

I grab him by the neck, and throw him to the floor.

"That was not one of your choices, Mr. Druski."

I pick up the egg. I have the power now. I see that the fight with Lemminkainen is at a critical stage.

"I command you to return to the egg!" I shout at Vainmemoinen.
He does not listen and continues to fight LEmminkainen.
I was certain that because I have the egg, he would have to listen to me. I am perplexed by it.

[Lemminkainen]

"The commands must be said a certain way or else they won't work, Hope!"

Vainemoinen hammers me in the side with his staff. I am totally getting my @ss handed to me. How did he get so powerful?

[Hope98]

"What? how very annoying. Whoever invented these eggs could have been a little more practical!"
I grab the egg. I don't have many options. It doesn't seem that Lemminkainen will win this fight, and I certainly am not about to fight this wizard.

With time running out, I put the egg on the floor. Then, I stomp on it with all of my might. The egg shatters.
The room fills with blue smoke and the wizard disappears. Zex is starting to wake up and Lemminkainen seems to be okay as well. I gather the egg shells.

"Sorry, but it seemed like the logical way to resolve the sitaution."

I walk out the door of the agricultural center. I destory all of the suveylance tapes and burn any evidence that we were there.
"We can not afford to be sloppy like this. Red Infinity would like nothing more than to kill all of us. We must be careful." I scold Zex and Lemminkainen.

I walk over to Genki, who waited outside the entire time. He hates fighting. He may be the only sensible one around here.

"You didn't miss much, Genki...unless you wanted to see these two morons get beat up."

[Zex]

"Moron, who you callin' a moron. I'm smarter than all of you combined, so shut up. Miss Prissy. You were the one who broke the egg. If you ask me, that was pretty dumb. Now how will we get to Ukko's realm?"

[Hope98]

"Oh, excuse me if I mistook your lives as more important than some silly egg. Next time, I will simply let you die if that is what you want."

[Genki]

"There's no need to argue, so stop it. Hope did what she felt she had to do. I am just glad to see that everyone is alive and well. Hope is right though. we really need to take fewer risks. Red Infinity could easily capture us if we do something stupid. We should all listen to Hope. She seems to know what's best."
Lemminkainen and Zex scowl at me. They don't want to follow her. If they had their way, they would march to Beijing right now and fight Lin-Sat. They fail to see the power we are up against. Anyway, I am not convinced that Red Infinity is evil.

[Hope98]

"I am glad that someone supports me. Now then, our best plan of action is to leave here right away. Soon Red Infinity will find out that we were here and will send someone after us. Even if this is just some remote agricultural outpost, Red Infinity is quick to react. I say we should fly eastward (on the back of Lemminkainen as a giant goose.) and continue onward to Tokyo. There, we can meet Genki's mother and perhaps I can meet up with some of my late father's supporters."

This seems like the best course of action. I notice that the egg is staring to reform itself. I hand the shell pieces to Zex.

"Here, Zex....you were the one who wanted this. It seems to be coming back together. I guess hope is not lost."

[Zex]

i look at my wrist sensor to track the other eggs.
"'kay, according to the sensor, one egg is in Moscow. Maybe i can get a lock on the power signal....yep, that's it. it seems to be located at the ministry of terror. lemme see if I can get a lock on the other. hmm....that one seems to be about 900km from here...in a forest. I say we go after the eggs. what d'ya say we go to moscow and get that egg!"

[Hope98]

"I say we avoid Moscow at all cost, and go to the forest. We will never get the other egg if it is at the Ministry of Terror, there is no point in even entertaining the thought. It is quite impossible and very dangerous."

I cross my arms over my chest. I hope that they aren't stupid enough to take such a risk. If they are, I am afraid that I can not go with them, since I personally do not wish to die.

[Kaieka]

I continue to row the inflatated raft over the many waves. Land is unseen, and my energy is draining. I dumped the corpse of the airman into the water a long time back, as I had drained him of all of his blood.

I still do not know if I am heading in the right direction. I think of Bassarov. I wonder if he is searching for me. I think of Zephyr and wonder the same thing. My hope lies with the former.

As I row and think of all these things, I look up to spy a boat on the horizon. I row toward it and it slowly is revealed to be a fishing vessel. I wave my arms to get their attention and continue to approach. This might just be my way back to the mainland.

[Genki]

Going to a forest sounds a lot safer than Moscow, so lets go there. " I suggest.

Everyone seems okay with the decision and Lemminkainen turns into his giant blue goose form. We climb on his back and head off to find the next egg.

[Valodya Bassarov]

Bassarov looks into the mirrors. He sees his past, his parents, friends who died to bring about the revolution. He feels sad to see all of the the people he has lost. He sees Kaieka, she is on a raft struggling for life. He is not certain what this vision means but it distrubs him. He should have left her a note or something. Claudia will tell her what happened....

Bassarov continues down the dizzying corridors, looking for an escape.