Episode 4: Part 2

<Announcer Gippal>
     "All teams are now making their way to Enhasa by way of Epoch Interdimentional Flights. On the 9:45 flight landing two hours before the second flight are Edgar and Sabin, and Steiner and Beatrix. On the 12:00 flight are Yuna and Rikku, Fujin and Raijin, Strago and Relm, Auron and Jecht, Shinra and Rufus, and Amarant and Lani."

<9:45 Flight>
     Edgar and Sabin were first to race off the plane and head straight outside to the entrance of the city of Enhasa. Directly in front of the building was a clue box, which was right beside a yellow mat with its own box and an hourglass.
     "Yield," Edgar said, looking at the yellow mat.

<Announcer Gippal>
     "A yield can be used to force a team to stop for a predetermined amount of time. If a team has been yielded, they must stay at the yield until the hourglass is empty before they can continue. Teams may only use the yield once, so they must decide when it is most advantageous to use it."

<Edgar & Sabin: Brothers, Currently in 1st>
     Edgar and Sabin stood on the mat and faced the camera.
     "We choose not to yield anybody," Edgar said.
     "Why not, Bro?" Sabin asked Edgar.
     Edgar shook his finger at Sabin. "We don't need to be making any enemies. We'll wait until later to yield."
     Edgar and Sabin left the mat and moved over a couple feet to the clue box. Edgar pulled out their clue and read it.
     "Search Enhasa for the answer to the following riddle: According to Enhasa books, "Wind summons water, water makes fire dance."

<Announcer Gippal>
     "Teams must now figure out the solution to a puzzle in order to find the next clue box. The solution to the puzzle is to open three magical books scattered around Enhasa in the correct order, that order being: Wind, Water, then Fire. Once they have opened them, a bookshelf will lower and reveal a hidden room with the next clue box."

     "I think I've got part of it!" Sabin announced. "At the end it says 'fire dance.' I can do that!"
     "But other teams can't," Edgar explained. "This clue isn't specific to you."
     "Maybe the other teams will have to learn the fire dance! We've got a good jump on them!"
     "That's not the answer, Sabin. Now let's wait for those other two behind us. Maybe they'll help us figure this puzzle out."

<Steiner & Beatrix: Dating, Currently in 2nd>
     Steiner and Beatrix stood on the yield marker and faced the camera.
     "We choose not to yield at this time," Beatrix announced.
     Steiner and Beatrix walked to the clue box and read through their next clue. Once they'd finished reading, Edgar approached them.
     "Excuse us," Edgar said suavely. "Would you two like to form an alliance with us? Just for this leg. We'll work together to figure out this puzzle so that we can keep a big lead on the other teams."
     "Never you lecherous-" Steiner began. He shook his fist at the brothers.
     "Adelbert!" Beatrix yelled, grabbing his hand and pulling it down to his side. She moved to his ear and whispered, "he has a point. Perhaps we should use this opportunity to possibly take the lead."
     Steiner sighed, then nodded. "Agreed, let us walk indoors. Perhaps the clue lies within."
     The four racers wandered inside the magical city of Enhasa. It really wasn't a full sized city, but instead more like one giant building. Scattered around were people wearing robes, stairs leading to elevated landings, many bookshelves, and several counters and tables. Directly in front of them on a nearby table was a book. Sabin raced to the book and opened it. Instantly a flame shot out of the book. If not for Sabin's quick reflexes he might've singed off his eyebrows, but luckily he was prepared for anything weird to happen in this peculiar city.
     "Bro," Sabin said quietly. "There's some serious Nazi shit going on."
     "No no no, Sabin," Edgar replied, staring at the book. "See? It isn't burning. It's just on fire."
     "We'll search the area for further clues," Beatrix announced, saluting out of habit.
     After a while of searching, the four found two more books around the city. A book in the north-west corner, which shot out gusts of wind when opened and a book in the north-east corner that spurted out water.
     "Obvious enough," Beatrix said.
     "Indeed," Steiner responded. "But I- I'll let you explain it to them."
     "I'll go open the wind book, then on my signal, Sabin will open the water book, and finally Edgar will open the fire book."
     The four agreed and rushed to their positions. Beatrix opened the wind book then shouted across the city to Sabin. Once Sabin began to open the next book, Beatrix rushed toward the fire book where Edgar and Steiner both waited. Sabin signaled to Edgar that he had finished and began to head back to the regrouping point slowly. Edgar opened the fire book, and sure enough, a bookcase slightly north-west of them sunk into the ground and revealed a door.
     "That was too easy," Edgar said, but as he looked around, he noticed that Beatrix and Steiner had already raced into the opening while Edgar waited for Sabin to catch up.
     Beatrix and Steiner ran inside the room and found a clue box in the center of the room. Beatrix reached inside and pulled out a clue.
     "Make your way to the city of Kajar," she read.

<Announcer Gippal>
     "Teams must now travel to the city of Kajar. The path to Kajar can be slightly confusing since teams will have to use land bridges to teleport down from the floating city of Zeal to the world below and find the correct skyway to take them up to Kajar."

<Steiner & Beatrix: Dating, Currently in 1st>
     "Let us make haste," Beatrix ordered.
     Both Beatrix and Steiner ran out of the room just as Edgar and Sabin were squeezing their way in. Edgar, having just seen Beatrix read her clue, opened the clue while he and Sabin simply followed the two.
     Within a couple minutes, both teams found a device labeled as a land bridge. All four stood on a strange circular pattern on the ground. Suddenly all four of them were instantly transported to a mysterious room. They made their way to the entrance and stepped outside into an unexpected blizzard.
     "Damn!" Edgar said, shielding his eyes from the snow. "I can't see anything out here. We should've asked directions. I have no idea what direction the next one is."
     "It is likely north," Steiner informed. "It has been my experience that new destinations are always north."
     "I always tend to go south," Sabin said.
     "Should we split up then?" Beatrix asked.
     "No," Edgar said. "We'll stick together. "Let's go north."

<12:00 Flight>
     The six teams onboard the noon flight raced off of the plane as quickly as they could. Several players pushed by others but were forced to exit the plane one at a time. After a short race through the airport, the first team spotted the clue box and the yield.
     Fujin and Raijin stood on the yield mat and faced the camera.
     "We choose not to yield anybody, ya know?" Raijin said.
     Fujin moved quickly to the clue box and opened it, removing the clue inside. She looked at it with a puzzled look.
     Raijin moved in beside her and looked over her shoulder. "A puzzle? That's kinda crazy, ya know?"

     "A puzzle!?" Rikku whined as she and Yuna approached the clue box. "Could you two like, wait for us and help us?"
     Raijin and Fujin looked at each other, and without speaking seemed to confer with each other.
     "NO," Fujin said sternly.
     "Sure!" Raijin said enthusiastically.
     Yuna and Rikku looked at each other and shrugged.
     "Okay, look," Raijin said, "we'll help you two if you do something for us, ya know?"
     "Anything!" Yuna said.
     "Yield a team, ya know."
     Yuna and Rikku both looked at the yield mat that they'd almost completely skipped. Their eyes grew wide as they turned to each other, then clasped their hands together and jumped up and down cheering. Rikku searched through the box and finally came across a picture of Auron and Jecht. She tacked it up to the board and finished it all off by finding a smaller picture of herself and Yuna. She placed the second picture in the "you've been yielded by" box. Both teams laughed evilly, then ran inside Enhasa to start the puzzle.
     Once both teams stepped inside, they made a startling discovery. Not far from them was a flaming book and a seemingly hidden door. Both teams eased toward the door and peeked inside. There was a clue box directly in the middle of the room.
     "EASY," Fujin declared.
     Raijin turned to Yuna and Rikku. "Guess you didn't need to yield them, ya know?"
     Yuna shook her head. "No."
     "Yeah, they totally had it coming!" Rikku said.
     Both teams jumped inside and grabbed their clues, then headed out to the land bridge. Just as they were about to leave, Fujin stepped back inside and closed the fire book. The bookcase rose up and the other two books closed automatically.

<Amarant & Lani: Coworkers, Currently in 5th>
     "Red! Hurry the hell up!" Lani yelled as she neared the yield. She looked at the picture of Auron and Jecht on the yield board and laughed.
     Amarant strolled up to the yield as well and looked at the picture. "Suckers."
     Lani grabbed a clue from the clue box and read through it, then waved for Amarant to follow her inside. "Come on, Flamer, we haven't got all day!"
     Amarant pointed over his shoulder at Auron and Jecht as they ran toward the yield. "No, but they do."
     "Ha! Nice one, Red."

<Auron & Jecht: Grizzled Old Guys, Currently in 6th>
     Jecht ran ahead and was starting to near the clue box. He turned around and started to yell at Auron. "Hey, move it already! Don't you know what a race is!?"
     "I'm not the one who refused to use an airplane bathroom and forced us to find one after landing," Auron responded.
     "Yeah, yeah. Leave it alone. I can't stand airplane bathrooms. Now hurry up! We're not winning."
     Auron and Jecht ran up to the yield sign and looked at their picture staring back at them with a courtesy of Yuna and Rikku picture in the corner. Auron promptly flipped the hourglass over.
     Jecht rubbed the back of his neck. "You know, I was hoping they'd be eliminated before we reached a yield."
     "As did I," Auron said. "We broke our rule."
     "Yeah. From now on we don't piss off anybody unless we're sure they'll be eliminated."
     "Or at least do so before the next yield," Auron added.

     Steiner, Beatrix, Edgar, and Sabin all continued to trudge through the snow, until they finally reached the sky bridge. All four ran inside as quickly as their frozen legs would take them and stood on the emblem. They were instantly transported up to Zeal once again. They stepped outside and found that they were now on the larger part of Zeal. There was only one other city within viewing distance, so the foursome started to walk to it. Sabin looked across to the smaller island and nudged Edgar. He pointed across at the barely distinguishable Auron and Jecht waiting at the yield. The brothers high-fived.

     Amarant opened the book of fire and the bookcase lowered. He watched Lani walk proudly down the staircase toward him.
     "Told ya it'd work," she said.
     Amarant just walked inside the room and headed for the clue. Lani followed, angered by Amarant for not being awed at her prowess.

<Shinra & Rufus: Father/Son, Currently in 7th>
     Rufus and Shinra trotted up to the clue box and pulled their clue out. Both looked over at Jecht and Auron standing on the yield mat. Rufus and Shinra pointed at them and laughed wildly, then both stopped instantly and headed inside to work on the puzzle.
     Shinra walked inside the door and started looking around for clues while completely blocking the entrance. Rufus snuck in by sliding between Shinra and the edge of the door. Once he made it through, the sight of a burning book instantly caught his eye.
     "Son of Hitler!" Rufus cried as he ran to the book and slammed it shut. The fire went out and the bookcase slid up quickly. Rufus quickly put it together that the book was the key to the puzzle. He and Shinra ran quickly to the bookcase to examine it. An easily identifiable voice started yelling at them.
     "You stupid pricks!" Lani yelled from behind the bookshelf. "Hurry up and let us out! Open the damn wind book, then the water one, then the fire one! And hurry up!"
     Rufus and Shinra ran around the room quickly to find the books. They finally found them all and opened the bookcase. Lani and Amarant jumped out of the room and ran off to the land bridge after giving the Shinras a couple choice hand gestures. Rufus and Shinra ran inside the room and grabbed their clue, then chased after Lani and Amarant.

<Strago & Relm: Grandpa/Granddaughter, Currently in Last Place>
     Strago and Relm breathed a sigh of relief as they ran past Auron and Jecht at the yield. Strago pulled the clue out of the box and both ran inside to figure out the puzzle. They didn't make it far before Relm stopped Strago with an idea.
     "Hold up a minute," Relm said to Strago as they walked through the entrance. "Is there any chance of us actually beating those two?"
     "Of course we can!" Strago announced enthusiastically.
     "Okay, now answer as if you weren't a complete jackass."
     Strago thought a minute, then nodded. "I take it you have a plan then?"
     "Of course I do! Follow me!"
     Strago sighed and followed Relm. "I must've done something wrong," he mumbled to himself.
     Relm led Strago back outside to the yield where Jecht and Auron had sat down to play cards. Relm interrupted their game of Speed by standing on their game.
     "Excuse me, gents!" Relm said. "How much time is left on your timer there?"
     "It's sand," Jecht pointed out. "Not exactly an exact science. Give or take a couple hundred grains of sand, I'd say twenty minutes."
     "Well I have a proposition for you," Relm said. "There a puzzle in the next room. If you two would help us -the deadweight team- to keep from coming in behind you, we'll solve the puzzle and save you a good amount of time."
     "You seem pretty confident that we'll pass you," Auron said. "Why would we want your help then?"
     "Look at us!" Relm said, pointing to Strago. "You actually think we're gonna win!? We're your ace in the hole! If you two can keep us in the game until the final leg, your competition is a lot easier!"
     "If we agree," Jecht began, looking down at her foot. "Will you get the hell off of our cards?"
     "With pleasure," Relm said, lifting her foot.

     Edgar, Sabin, Steiner, and Beatrix all reached Kajar and the next clue box at the same time. Beatrix and Sabin pulled out clues and turned to read them to their respective teammate.
     "Roadblock," Beatrix said, pulling out the red roadblock clue.
     "Who's itching to win?" Sabin read.