Twilight Crusade, along with a preschool-age blonde girl, her mother, two other families, and the tour guide, expanded out of the cramped elevator into a 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 door to a long, thin room made almost entirely of windows.
The windows peeked into a colossal, 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 twice as wide. The window room provided a direct view of the first two turbines, the other twelve stretching down the power plant to the right. The wall opposite the window room, about fifty feet away, seemed to be the control center. Next to the catwalk, which kept dam workers at the level of the turbines, several screens, cords, buttons, 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, nearly yelling to keep his voice above the drone of machinery. "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 little girl in the group let out a high-pitched sound of enthusiasm. She led her mother to the window, and pressed her face to the glass, fascinated by the size of the generators. Raven took Greyson and Azure's picture next to the window, and Azure took Raven and Rusty's in turn. Ember glanced curiously and quietly out across the power plant, seemingly interested in the gigantic turbines.
"Hey, tour guide man?" Dustyn asked.
"Yes sir?" The guide answered.
"So, in a hypothetical situation, what would happen if the dam suddenly disappeared? Like, the water was still behind it and everything."
"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 probably stop existing."
"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, and deeper into the dam.
The tour group walked together down a long, dark, stairway. The hum of the generators was the only sound in the damp, stone passageway. Breaking the silence, and causing a few members of the tour group to jump, the tour guide's portable radio suddenly screamed with static.
"White... are... 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, and turning the volume down. "Group three here. Can you repeat that message?"
"White Fang are in the dam!" the man on the radio shouted. "TAKE THE TOUR GROUP INTO THE SECRET ROOM!"
The entire tour group's hearts sunk, eyes going wide with fear. "Here, follow me. Keep quiet," the usually upbeat tour guide commanded soberly. 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. A green light next to the yellow doors lit up, and the touched wall slid aside to reveal a small concrete room. The room was minimally decorated, with one light hanging above fifteen simple folding chairs. A shelf in the small corner contained a pack of water bottles, and a modest selection of cheap snacks.
Once inside the room, the small girl began to weep, her mother holding her. "Don't worry, they won't find us in here," the mother assured, gently bouncing her daughter on her knee. She seemed to be trying to convince herself as much as her daughter.
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, and handed the girl over to Azure.
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," she gently assuaged.
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."
"H-Hunters?" the little girl asked, wiping away the last of her tears.
"Yep! We went to Beacon, so we know how to deal with this kind of thing," Azure continued. "You'll be fine in here. Please, don't worry."
The little girl began to trade her tears for a light smile. Then, the dam's loudspeaker crackled as it turned on.
"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. To say this dam created jobs for locals after the Great War is nothing short of a lie. This dam was built on slave 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. Greyson felt his heart sink as he heard the Phantom's voice. Shaking with fear, 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. Fern, the employee that asked about the Burgundy Bandit at the entrance, had managed to sneak past the White Fang, pushing his cart full of Twilight Crusade's weapons.
"Whew, I found ye guys!" The employee exclaimed excitedly. "I hate to ask this of ya, but if the dam goes out, who knows what'll happen! Can ye take care of them?"
Greyson nodded, a confident smirk coming to his face. "Eight of us against five of them," he analyzed, picking out Blitz and Nimbus from the cart. "We've had much worse odds than this."
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!" she cheered
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."