Rope Team 1 was composed of all Vigilant firefighters: Lie Ren, Weiss Schnee, Winter Schnee, Lieutenant Alfred Schnee, Lieutenant Hermann Schnee, Adelmar Schnee, Michael Kirkridge, Amhlaidh Egret, Iomhair Rolfe, and Todd Bannack. They would enter the building on the first floor and them climb up to the roof. However, they would have to be careful, since the 8th floor was fully involved and the 9th floor was ripe for a flashover.

As the team climbed up the stairwell, they heard another thud as another person jumped. Hermann said, "Stay focused. We got guys yelling up to them not to jump."

Ren said to Weiss, "How many do you think are dead?"

Weiss replied, "Really? You're thinking about that? Well, there must be a lot of people up there, so I assume at least 5 or 10 right now, not including jumpers."

As the team climbed, they saw people run down the stairs beside them. They were often covered in soot and coughing. Michael, a 17-year-old and the son of the captain, said, "Who's gonna attend to those civilians?"

Alfred replied, "There's some guys from Excellence advancing with truck tools. They'll take care of any injuries."

Finally, after 12 minutes of walking, they made it to the 7th floor. To advance any further, they would need to wait for 3 Goodwill firefighters that were carrying up 2 attack lines. After 2 more minutes, the Goodwill guys joined up with the team and connected their hoses to a standpipe. Hermann said, "Open the door to the stairway to the 8th floor and spray into it."

A Goodwill firefighter, wearing his mask, nodded and burst down the door to the stairs. He then quickly got out of the way just in case any flames jumped out at them. He then yelled, "Charge the standpipe lines!"

Ren ran over to the standpipe and turned it on. Soon afterwards, as he and the rest of the rope team masked up, the Goodwill firefighters sprayed into the burning stairway. Weiss pointed to the stairs and said, "I see some bodies in that doorway!"

A Goodwill firefighter pushed the bodies out of the way as the 3 of them advanced up the stairs. The team soon followed them as 2 paid firefighters broke a window on the 7th floor to gain access to it from a ladder truck. Amhlaidh said, "Don't trip! How many bodies are in here?!"

Alfred replied, "I counted about 6 or 7! Holy fuck, this is bad!"

Finally, after about 10 minutes of waiting, climbing, and stopping in excessive heat and smoke, they made it to the roof. There, they found 28 trapped people. One of them screamed, "There were like 700 people here for a NAAF event. We all ran up here from the 10th floor."

Weiss ran over and said, "Alright, we're gonna keep you here for now. We're gonna start roping ourselves to the floors below and try to rescue anyone still trapped and bring them to the 6th floor."

"Good luck. I don't think anyone on the 8th or 9th floor is still alive."

Iomhair was the first to go. He was lowered to the 10th floor to rescue a trapped girl, no older than 15. He reached his arms out and said, "C'mon. Grab on. We're going down to the 6th floor."

At first, the girl was reluctant, but she then jumped onto her. Holding onto Iomhair's rope was Weiss, Michael, Todd, and Amhlaidh. "I'm scared of heights."

"Wanna know a secret? Me too." Iomhair then laughed as he signalled for him to be lowered. As they passed the 8th floor, they could feel the fire lick the rope and themselves. "Be calm. Just hold onto me and don't let go."

Finally, they reached the 6th floor, and Iomhair and the girl climbed onto the floor. Iomhair unclipped himself as a volunteer and a paid firefighter assisted the girl. Iomhair radioed, "Rope Team 1, bring the rope back up and do another one."

For this one, Weiss would go. She would rescue a man no older than 30 also on the 10th floor. As Weiss was lowered down for her first rope rescue, she said to herself, "Well, here goes nothing. Ohhhh shit..."

The man screamed, "Help me! Help me!"

"I'm coming, sir! Hold on!" Finally, Weiss reached him, and he jumped onto her. Weiss said, "Holy shit!" Weiss could barely lift the heavy man as they finally reached the 6th floor.

Now that the last 2 people in the building that were alive above the 8th floor were rescued, the team would have to deal with the people on the roof. Ren said, "We could lower them to the 6th floor."

Alfred replied, "Are you sure?"

Hermann said, "Ren's right. Let's go."

3 people, Ren, Hermann, and Amhlaidh, would be responsible for lowering the 28 people. Ren would lower the children, Hermann would lower the women, and Amhlaidh would lower the men. Ren would go first. "Alright, you with the wolf ears that looks to be about 7, come here."

The child ran to him and said, "Mister Fireman, what's gonna happen to us?"

"I want you to hold onto me and not let go. We're gonna lower you from the roof to the 6th floor. Don't be afraid. This fireman isn't gonna let you go." Ren smiled. "Ready?"

The child nodded and said, "Yeah!"

Ren and the faunus child were then lowered over the side. Ren said, "Hey kid, what's your name?"

"Abel White," the child replied.

"Abel, what do you wanna be when you grow up?"

"A policeman like my daddy," Abel replied. "He's at work right now."

"Really? You wanna be a cop? Good for you. There's a policeman in my fire company. He's a cool guy. Anyway, I think we're reaching the 6th floor now. This is where I must go now, Abel."

"Bye, Mister Fireman," Abel replied as he was handed over to the firefighters on the 6th floor.

"Goodbye, Abel." He then signalled to be brought back up for another rescue.

Ultimately, the 28 rescues took 37 minutes. By the time the last rescue was completed, the fire was beginning to die out as firefighters gained the upper hand.

At 2, the fire was declared under control. From 12:21 to 2, the 8th and 9th floors were completely gutted, and half of the 9th floor had collapsed. Additionally, the 10th floor was halfway gutted.

Now that the fire was out, the main job would be to count the dead and injured, as well as overhaul.

At the triage centre, Yang and Blake were tired out. They had counted hundreds of people as either green tag, or minor injuries, yellow tag, or major injuries, red tag, or life-threatening injuries, or black tag, or dead or expected to die. Yang said, "Ruby's not doing too well. After about an hour of triage, the IC had to tell her to take a break because she was crying so much."

Blake replied, "Ouch. Are you sure Ruby's ready for firefighting?"

"Well, she trains well, and she's dedicated, but she doesn't react well to seeing people die in front of her."

"Ruby's younger than us. She's also a bit more innocent too. Could that be a part of it?"

Then, District 2's assistant chief said, "Hey vollies. You 2. Get over here now."

Yang and Blake stood up. Ruby also came out from an ambulance and said, "Hey guys, what's going on?"

The chief said, "Thanks for helping out. Man, this was a fucked up fire. I had to keep track of all the tags that were assigned. Last time I counted, I got 185 black tags."

Ruby, Yang, and Blake all reacted with shock. Yang said, "No fucking way, chief."

Ruby fell to her knees and said, "One hundred... Eighty-five.." She then fainted and collapsed to the ground.

The chief yelled, "Get some water over here! A vollie fainted! She needs help!"

A paid firefighter ran over with a bottle of water and said, "What happened?"

Yang got down to Ruby and said, "C'mon, wake up, Ruby."

As the paid firefighter poured water on her face, Ruby shot up and said, "What happened?!"

Blake replied, "Calm down, Ruby. You just fainted. You're okay now." She then turned to the chief. "Want her to go get checked out?"

"Sure," he replied. "Go to one of the ambulances. We're not gonna transport you, but a firefighter will check you out."

Ruby got up and walked to a nearby ambulance. Yang went with her. Blake turned to the chief and said, "Any guesses on what caused the fire?"

"Too early to tell," the chief replied. "But I would not be surprised at all if it was arson."

July 3, 2020

An emergency meeting of the Ruling Council of the Kingdom of Vale was ordered on this day by the King*, Delwyn IV, in regards to the NAAF fire. Attending the meeting were over 2,000 spectators watching the proceedings in the grand and lavish auditorium. On the stage of the auditorium were the 24 seats of the council members surrounding the King's seat in a semi-circle.

To begin, the King said, "Attention. This emergency meeting of the Ruling Council will now come to order on the 3rd of July in the year 2020 since the birth of man from dust. The topic of this meeting concerns a fire that had occurred on June 27, 2020. This fire took place at the headquarters of the National Association for the Advancement of Faunus, or NAAF. It, so far, has claimed the lives of over 180 people, faunus included. While it is too early to establish a definitive cause, as of now, all signs point towards the fire being of malicious origin. Tonight, we will have the council determine the facts from fiction in regards to this event, and several others like it in the near future as we uncover more details. Councilperson Andersen, you may present.

Alexander Andersen was a 35-year-old, relatively young for the council, and had been elected to the council in 2020, beating the former incumbent in a landslide. He was controversial for arguing for greater military control over the government. He said to begin, "As we speak, there are still emergency forces at the NAAF headquarters clearing out bodies and inspecting the ruins for structural instability. To the common layperson of Vale, do you wanna know who exactly is present there? The same people who, in the city of Vale, answer each and every single emergency call? Unprofessional and untrained volunteers."

Weiss, watching the proceedings in the auditorium with her family, had her jaw drop as several other firefighters in the audience reacted in numerous ways, ranging from facepalming to jaw-dropping.

"Atlas, Mistral, and Vacuo all have military and government-operated professional emergency services in their major cities. In fact, Atlas' emergency services across the ENTIRE country are under complete military control. So why is it that we, as the Kingdom of Vale, cannot do away with the outdated system of volunteer firefighters and militarise our public safety services? The world of Remnant is dangerous, and dangerous situations call for full-time and paid professionals who are staffing their stations 24/7."

Weiss whispered to Winter, "Holy fuck, this guy's an idiot."

Winter replied, "I think I just heard my brain shoot itself from the amount of stupid it had to process."

"I also call for fire and ambulance services to be separated. There is no reason why we need a fire engine running to an ambulance call, even if the engine can beat the ambulance by a few minutes. Firefighters are supposed to do one thing and one thing only: Put water on fire. The ambulance attendants will carry rescue equipment and bring people to the hospital. Police officers arrest the bad guys. If we can do this, we can downsize not just the city's fire department, but the fire service in our country as a whole. Fires are at an all-time low. We don't need a fire station in every neighbourhood anymore, and we certainly don't need young, untrained, and unqualified volunteers mishandling calls."

Hermann then got up and shouted, "My King and Sovereign, if these proceedings are going to be nothing but an attack on the firefighters of Vale, then I will gladly invite any first responder, whether they be a firefighter, a police officer, or an EMT, to join me in leaving these ridiculous proceedings!"

Alex replied, "Sit down, sir! You are an observer, not a speaker!"

The rest of the Schnees then got up and exited the auditorium, followed by about 50 others. Delwyn IV said, "Councilman Andersen, are you finished?"

"I am, My King and Sovereign."

The platoon consisting of Team RWBY and Team JNR was being teamed up with another platoon in a high-risk hunting mission in the ruins of Mountain Glenn. Jaune, as the commander of the company, was to stay behind with Nora and Ren at the command post. The mission was to kill 2 Nevermores that were threatening Valeanian Air Force aircraft in the restricted airspace above Mountain Glenn.

In the ruins, Team RWBY was chatting about the events of Friday. Yang said, "Andersen really said all that?"

"Every last fucking bit," Weiss replied.

"He sounds mentally screwed up in the head," Blake replied. "He honestly thinks we just put water on fire?"

Ruby said, "How was he even elected? That's what bothers me."

"No clue," Weiss replied. "We made a lot of news for leaving those proceedings abruptly." Then, they heard a Nevermore's roar. "Quiet down, I heard a cry."

Ruby then pointed with the Crescent Rose. "I see one!" Sure enough, there was a Nevermore sitting on one of the ruins. "Let's get its attention."

Yang then radioed, "Platoon Team 1 to Firebase, we have a G-Class 5 in sight. Ready to engage, over."

Nora radioed back, "Clear to engage, over."

"Roger that, Firebase." Yang then turned to the team. "Let's kick some ass."

Ruby shouted to the Nevermore, "Hey Mister or Misses Nevermore! Down here! We're a couple of vulnerable humans! We taste pretty damn good!"

The Nevermore turned to them and immediately began flapping its wings. It then flew towards them. Blake shouted, "Now!"

Yang and Weiss jumped onto the Nevermore. Yang then used her Ember Cecila to force the beast onto the ground. Weiss followed up by jumping off and freezing the beast's tail. Afterwards, Weiss and Yang high-fived. Yang said, "Fuckin' A, Weiss."

Ruby and Blake then said, "Our turn!" As the beast tried to use its wings to break free from the ice, Blake used her Gambol Shroud to cut the wings in 3 spots each in rapid succession, rendering them useless and the beast flightless. Ruby then finished it off by getting on top of the beast and putting 3 bullets into the back of its neck with Crescent Rose.

Ruby said as the beast dissipated, "There we go."

"Yang then said, "Boarbatusk!" A large Boarbatusk then charged at the group.

Weiss said, "Piece of cake." She then charged at the beast and as the beast jumped to try and tackle her, she stabbed it in the stomach with her Myrtenaster, killing it instantly. "See? I told you. Piece of cake."

Yang then radioed, "Platoon Team 1 to Firebase, we have neutralised the G-Class 5 and we also neutralised a G-Class 2 that engaged us. What is the status of the second G-Class 5 at this time, over?"

Ren radioed, "At this time, G-Class 5 number 2 is being engaged. We are awaiting a further update from Platoon Team 2, over."

"Roger that, Firebase."

The leader of the second platoon team then radioed, "Platoon Team 2 to Firebase, the second G-Class 5 has been neutralised, over."

"Roger that, Platoon Team 2."

Yang said to the group, "Let's head back to Firebase. We did good today, girls."

At 8:12, George and Yang returned from a night out. George said as he let Yang into his apartment, "That restaurant was kinda slow, but the food made up for it. You made a good call tonight."

"Thanks," Yang replied. "Anyways, I wish I could stay the night, but I gotta go by 10." The 2 then walked into the apartment.

"That's okay. Wanna drink?"

"No thanks. I would like a little something else, though." Yang's tone of voice then changed to a seductive one. "You know what I mean, darling."

"I see," George replied as he kissed Yang. "Why don't we go to my room and put that idea of your's to work then, Yang."

"I love the way you think." Yang and George then got up and walked to George's room. "I wanna try something new."

"Well then, let's try it, Yang."

For the next 13 minutes, Yang and George had sex. It got loud at certain parts, and George certainly enjoyed the 'new thing' Yang wanted to try out.

Then, at 8:25, just as their activities ended, they both heard the familiar beeping of George's pager. Yang, still panting, said, "Damn it!"

"Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 285 for Vigilant Fire 5 and Goodwill Engine 6 for 104 Weeping Willow Street for an odor of gas in the residence. Repeating, Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Box 285 for Vigilant Fire 5 and Goodwill Engine 6 for 104 Weeping Willow Street for an odor of gas in the residence. Fire Alarm signing off at 2026 hours, Alarm Operator 182."

George and Yang quickly got dressed and ran out of the apartment. Yang got in her car as George ran to his fire station. As he ran, Yang called out, "Love you, George!"

George then ran back and passionately kissed Yang, surprising her. "I'll be back, Yang." He then ran fast, as if the ground itself was fire.

As Yang drove away, she said to herself, "What the fuck just happened?"

After the call, Hermann decided to talk to his daughter Weiss at 9:08. "Listen," he said as they both went behind the fire station. "I have a confession to make."

Weiss was confused. "What is it?"

"I'm sorry for what I've said about faunus in the past." He then exhaled. "I'm sorry I let my prejudices become so hateful. Listen, remember those arguments we had in the past?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I shouldn't have done that. Now I know why you were hesitant to show me your friends until your later Beacon years. Listen, I know I have my prejudices, and I'm not gonna excuse them because I know they're wrong. I see potential in Blake. She will make a great firefighter, and I'm not gonna hold her past against her."

Weiss was silent for a few seconds. Then, she said, "I see. Dad, I'm sorry for calling you those names and cursing at you all those years."

"You don't have to be, Weiss. I apologised and talked to Winter as well. I mean, she is 28 years old and has a 3-year-old son and a 5-month-old daughter at home. I don't want them to be exposed to any nasty arguments or hate. That's why I have decided to empty out any baggage I have with my 2 beautiful daughters."

"Makes sense. Speaking of which, why hasn't Winter changed her last name yet? She's been married for 2 years now."

"Well, as you know, my balls apparently don't like boys based on my results with you and Winter, so maybe she's hesitant to let the family name die out."

"Okay, first, WAY too much info. Second, Schnee isn't gonna die out. We still have a lot of relatives, and Uncle Alfred has 2 sons and 1 daughter."

"I've been reminding her, but she doesn't want to yet. Her kids have her husband's last name of Trenowden. Ultimately, it is up to her. Anyways, I gotta run. I love you, Weiss." He then hugged Weiss.

Weiss hugged her dad back and said, "I love you too, dad."

July 7, 2020

Blake tiredly got up from bed at 8, almost falling off in the process. After taking a shower to wake herself up, she got dressed and dried her hair to go downstairs and check her apartment mailbox.

When she got there, she opened her box up with a key and noticed a letter inside. "Huh... I wasn't expecting mail today other than junk." She then opened the envelope with the letter. Her eyes then widened as she smiled and said, "Yes! I was accepted!"

The letter was an acceptance letter from the Fire Alarm Office. It told her to report to the office for training on July 10 at the beginning of 2nd Shift, lasting from 8 to 4, for training. Then, a voice from behind her said, "Why are you so happy today?"

Blake turned around and saw Ruby staring at her. "I got accepted to the Fire Alarm! I finally have a well-paying full-time job apart from hunting!"

Ruby replied, "Good for you, Blake. It's gonna be so weird hearing your voice on the radio."

"I know," she replied. She then ran back upstairs to show Weiss and Yang.

Ruby said to herself, "That's out of character for her. Usually, I'm always the bright and cheery one." She then laughed to herself.

The Kingdom of Vale, in theory, is ruled by the King, in this case being Delwyn IV. However, in practice, the Parliament, a tricameral legislature, has all of the law-making power. The King Regent (or Queen Regent in some cases due to the 40th Amendment of 1936) possesses the executive powers of the country, signing laws into power and serving as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, as well as occasionally signing into power "royal orders" that are within their legal power under Vale's Constitution of 1649.

Elections are held every 4 years for seats in the Ruling Council. Originally, there was only 1 election, and the top 24 candidates received the 24 seats. However, in 1879, an amendment to the Constitution, the 29th of 47 such amendments, changed this, and since then, there are 24 elections held in an election year, 1 for each seat. These seats are not attached to any geographical areas.

In the House of Commons, the 52 manors of Vale are represented proportionally by their population. Elections are held every 2 years. There are currently 312 seats.

In the House of Lords, there are several types of seats. The Lords Spiritual are the leaders of the 10 biggest religions in Vale. They occupy 20 appointed seats. The Lords Temporal are composed of the lords of the 52 manors of Vale. There are 52 Lords Temporal, all of which are inherited. This makes the House of Lords the only unelected house of Parliament.