Twilight Crusade Ch.4, Security Breach

    Twilight Crusade, along with a small girl, her mother, two other families, and the tour guide, funneled out of the elevator into a somewhat dimly lit concrete hallway. Several small, old pictures depicting the dam’s construction hung on the right wall. At the end of the hallway was a left turn into a long, thin room made almost entirely of windows.

    The windows peeked into a much larger, but similarly shaped room. The lights on the high ceiling cloaked the expansive powerhouse in an odd yellow light. Fourteen massive, teal hydroelectric turbines sat in a row, each one at least twenty feet tall, and just as wide. The opposite wall seemed to be the control center. Next to the catwalk, which kept dam workers at the level of the turbines, several screens and a rainbow of small flashing lights covered the wall.

    “This here is the heart of the Great Canyon Dam, and, in some sense, the heart of much of the Kingdom of Vacuo!” The tour guide announced proudly. “This is where much of the hydroelectric power is harnessed. In fact, each one of these turbines generates enough energy in one hour to power Great Canyon City for three days!”

   The small child in the group let out a drawn-out sound of enthusiasm. She led her mother to the window, and pressed her face to the glass, fascinated by the size of the generators.

   “Hey, tour guide man?” Dustyn asked.

   “Yes sir?” The guide answered.

   “So, in a hypothetical situation, what would happen if the dam suddenly disappeared?”

   “Well, it would be extremely inconvenient,” the guide answered. “Much of Vacuo’s power would be shut off, and I’d imagine it would hurt farmers and the local economy quite a bit. Also, with nothing to hold the water, Great Canyon City would be swept away.”

   “Yikes,” Dustyn replied. He turned to look at the generators with Ezelia. Five minutes later, the tour group continued on its way, walking through a door on the opposite side of the room, deeper into the dam, toward the underwater observatory.

   The tour group walked together down a rather large stairway. The hum of the generators was the only sound in the dim, moist, stone passageway. Breaking the atmosphere, the tour guide recieved a call on his portable radio.

   “White... are... in the dam,” the man on the other end warned, half the message obscured by static. “...take... secr.. om.”

   The tour guide stopped, grabbing the radio from his waist. “Guide here. Can you repeat that message?”

   “White Fang are in the dam!” the radio blasted. “TAKE THE TOUR GROUP INTO THE SECRET ROOM!”

   The entire tour group’s hearts sunk, eyes going wide. “Here, follow me. Keep quiet,” the usually upbeat tour guide commanded. He continued down the stairs, stopping in the small room just before two heavy yellow doors. The guide pressed his left palm to the right wall, which slid open.

   Once inside the room, the small girl began to weep, her mother holding her. “Don’t worry, they won’t find us here,” the mother assured.

   Azure walked over, and knelt next to the two. “Excuse me, may I hold your child for a second?” she inquired. After a brief thought, the girl’s mother agreed.

   Azure looked into the girl’s eyes, smiling slightly. She put one hand on her shoulder. “We’re well hidden here, please don’t cry.”

   The small child’s cries began to slow. “Please, don’t be afraid. Even if something bad starts to happen, those seven people over there are some of the strongest huntsmen and huntresses I know.” Just as the girl wiped away the last of her tears, the dam’s loudspeaker crackled.

    “This is the White Fang’s Phantom,” a monotone, robotic voice said. “We’ve planted a bomb in the main powerhouse. All workers and visitors to the dam have five minutes to evacuate. This dam was built on faunus labor. Great Canyon City, a haven of discrimination for those who founded it, will be wiped from the map.”

   The small girl cried again, with a shrill, horrified scream. Slightly panicking, the tour guide opened the doors again, and beckoned for the group to exit quickly but carefully.

   As Greyson briskly walked through the powerhouse observatory, he looked down into the powerhouse. Five White Fang members stood on one of the turbines, a large black box, the size of two of the members combined sat in the middle of them. Greyson was disgusted at his own powerlessness

   “Five members here, this can’t be all they brought,” Greyson quietly noted. “Where’s the Phantom?”

   As the elevator doors opened, Greyson saw a familiar face. One of the employees had managed to sneak past the White Fang, pushing his cart full of Twilight Crusade’s weapons.

   “Whew, I found you guys!” The employee exclaimed excitedly. “I hate to ask this of ya, buy if the dam goes out, who knows what’ll happen!”

   Greyson nodded, a confident smirk coming to his face. “Eight of us against five of them,” he said, picking out Blitz and Nimbus from the cart. “We’ve had much worse odds.”

   Azure grabbed her Moonbow, then turned to her new friend. “We’ll take care of this. Be safe, okay?”

   The girl smiled through her tears. “Okay! Me and mommy will be safe! Beat the bad guys!”

   Her mother looked at Greyson, Azure, and the six others who all grabbed their weapons from the cart. “Who are you guys?” She asked.

   Greyson looked at her, the confident smirk still on his face.

“We’re Twilight Crusade.”