The march began at 12. As the thousands and thousands of marchers and spectators began to shuffle and walk, Yang said, "Here we go. Remember, don't be afraid of anyone, regardless of who they are or where they come from."

Theresa, Blake, and Ruby nodded. Ruby said, "And remember, let's have fun."

As the emergency/military vehicles rounded the corner of the intersection of Mayer Avenue and Union Street, they saw protestors holding up anti-LGBT signs. One of them shouted, "Shame on you for supporting the homos!"

Yang looked straight ahead, ignoring them. Theresa and Ruby giggled, with Ruby saying, "The anti-gay crowd just keeps getting more and more ridiculous."

"They just keep digging themselves deeper and deeper," Theresa replied. "I ain't even mad anymore."

Then, as they passed under the Fifth Avenue Elevated Rail Line, a large red and black banner was unfurled. Yang looked up and said, "No..." Ruby, Blake and Theresa also looked up and had their facial expressions change from cheery to shock. Weiss, in the fire truck, stared at the sign in shock.

LIBERATE QUEERS NOW! ABOLISH THE MILITARY AND EMERGENCY SERVICES THAT OPPRESS US! NO MORE HETERONORMATIVE SOCIETY! NO MORE ENTERPRISM! NO MORE HETERO-DOMINATED GOVERNMENT!

The sign had the logos of the VCPD, the VCFD, the Flag of Vale, the Royal Coat of Arms, and the Valeanian Military branches crossed out with red Xs.

Immediately, police officers in the crowd, uniformed and plainclothes, ran to the tracks above through maintenance stairways to stop the radicals. The crowd and the marchers looked at the sign with disgust as the parade suddenly stopped in its tracks.

Yang said, "I knew this would happen." She began to growl.

Blake grabbed a pride flag from the fire truck behind her and said to the group, "I got an idea."

Theresa said, "Huh? What are you doing?"

Blake climbed up on top of the truck, waving the pride flag, and shouted through a megaphone, "Say NO to these radicals who want to divide us against ourselves! They actively attack the services that protect our community from harm! They attack the services which many in our community work and volunteer for! They seek only to destroy the gains we've made in the legal system and in society for their false promise of liberation! They want to see us segregated from society in separate communities! Say NO!"

The crowd that could hear her began to clap and cheer. Weiss, underneath Blake in the cab of the truck, said to herself, "Go Blake!"

Blake then took her formal hat off and revealed her cat ears. She said, "If you still need proof, take a look at me! I'm considered an oppressed person two times over! Yet I can still stand up here and condemn these instigators that are dangerous to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and plus community and the faunus race! Remember, the White Fang used to be peaceful too, until radicals took it over and turned it into a killing machine! Do you want the LGBT community to end up like that too?"

The crowd around her yelled, "NO!"

"EXACTLY! We will stand up to these proto-terrorists before they can grow in numbers and equipment!" Blake then stepped down from the fire truck to a cheering crowd.

Weiss rolled down the window and said to Blake, "You were amazing! You really got the crowd going!"

"Thanks." Blake then turned to Yang, Ruby, and Theresa, and said, "Let's continue with our march."

After the parade ended, there was a party held at Union Square Centre, a 10-building complex containing 8 skyscrapers, including 3 165-storey buildings, a transportation hub, and a convention centre.

Team RWBY admired the skyscrapers above them. Ruby said, "They're actually building an even taller place nearby that'll be 172 stories. They laid the foundation in."

"Crazy," Blake replied. "Soon there'll be buildings over 200 stories. I wouldn't wanna fight a fire in these skyscrapers."

Weiss laughed and said, "You have nooooo idea. Well, you do from the CCT fire, but I've been up on the 102nd floor of a building in downtown for a fire when I was 16. It took a LOT outta me. I've fought at least 10 high-rise fires in my life."

Then, a spectator walked over to the group with Theresa. "This guy is complaining of chest pains and he isn't breathing good."

Weiss said, "Okay, Tracy, let him down on the ground." She then grabbed her EMS bag and looked through it for a bag valve mask. "Yang, go get a medic over here."

Yang shouted, "We need a firefighter-paramedic over here!"

A random man from the crowd ran to her and said, "I'm a medic with a vollie company!"

Weiss looked to him and said, "Come over here! I can't administer drugs!"

Ruby held the man's hand and said, "Don't worry, sir, you're gonna be okay."

Weiss put the BVM over the man's mouth and began squeezing the bag to administer air. The medic ran over and grabbed a nebulizer from the bag and put a can of albuterol in it. "I'm gonna administer albuterol."

Weiss nodded and took the BVM off of the man's mouth. 2 firefighters ran over with a wheeled stretcher, waiting for the patient. The medic then administered the albuterol. Weiss ripped the patient's shirt off to put on electrodes. She then took an EKG reading.

Ruby and Blake read the stats. Blake said, "That's not good."

Weiss then handed her equipment over to the 2 firefighters with the stretcher. "I got 166 over 102 for blood pressure and his heart is speeding along at 144 BPM. Be sure to bring the equipment and bag back to Vigilant Fire Company 5 when you're done." The 2 firefighters nodded.

"Holy shit," Yang replied. "That's high."

"No kidding," the medic said as he helped put a board under the patient to lift him up onto the stretcher.

Weiss patted Theresa on the back and said, "You helped a lot by bringing him over to us, Trace."

Theresa smiled and said, "Thanks."

October 5, 2020

Yang, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Jaune, and Ren met at Beacon. Today would be the day that they would all go into the exclusion zone again, this time from October 5 to October 9. The mission to clear the exclusion zone of Grimm was nearing its end, and construction on a new city wall surrounding the former zone would begin on November 20.

Ren said as the team sat in the library of Beacon, "Nora wished us all good luck. She says she wishes she could be here to kick some Grimm ass and break some Grimm legs." He was reading texts from Nora.

"Tell her thank you," Weiss said. "We'll more than happily make up for ass not kicked and legs not broken by her not being here."

Jaune laughed. "I remember that! That became like the running joke of Team JNPR throughout Beacon. Toaster isn't working? Break its legs. TV on the fritz? Break its legs. Bird shits on your stuff? Break its legs. Enemy of the week bothering you? Break their legs."

"Didn't we break Cinder's legs?" Ruby asked.

"Adam did," Blake replied. "When he fought Cinder, he smashed her legs before killing her and then dying of his injuries. Believe me, there were bones sticking out of her legs."

"Jesus," Weiss replied. "I know Cinder was a bad person, but that was a bit much. Then again, she did support a terrorist group and lead it for a few months, not to mention she had a hand in killing the President of Menagerie in 2017."

"That pissed me off so fucking much," Blake replied. "When I was in the group, while we did condemn the Menagerie government for being "nice to humans," we didn't target their leaders because they were faunus. Now the White Fang wants to kill faunus who disagree with them too. It was one of our core ideas that we should never harm other faunus unless they attack us directly in person first. That Third Crusade book is what really made the group a violent organisation."

Jaune said, "Anyways, how's the fire service?"

"Growing in Vale City," Weiss replied. "A bunch of new companies have been approved. They'll be in service by late November and early December. Also, the Underwriters Board has decided to reform the Fire Patrol by February of next year after a huge petition campaign to bring it back was launched. In regards to us, we swore in 2 new members, both junior firefighters."

Ruby then got up and said, "Hold on, I gotta take a phone call for a sec. I'll be right back."

Yang grabbed a box out of her bag. "Hey guys, remember Remnant: The Game?"

Ren replied, "Of course. You guys would always play it loudly here and I'd get annoyed. Wanna duel?"

"Sure." Yang then grabbed her card deck, followed by Blake and Weiss. "I brought my 3 decks, so Jaune, you can use my Green-Blue deck, and Ren, you can use my Black-Yellow deck. All we gotta do is wait for Ruby." She then unfolded the playing board and grabbed the pieces before giving Ren and Jaune her other decks.

Ruby then came back. "Nothing major. So, we're gonna play Remnant: The Game? I'm in."

October 6, 2020

Team RWBY had had 4 kills so far today. The time was noon.

As the team walked through a burned-out patch of forest, Ruby said, "You can easily smell the napalm in the air. They really toasted the wood here."

"Toasted might be an understatement," Weiss said. "A few weeks ago, a fire started by the bombs almost burned out of control before the air force dropped water on the fire."

"The lumber industry's gonna have a hard-on for all the trees they'll still have to tear down," Blake said. "I bet most of it's gonna go into the houses here."

Ruby then shushed the entire team. "I hear something," she whispered.

Then, a giant nevermore appeared from above and swooped down at them. The team got out of the way as it crashed into the ground, got up, and charged at Yang.

Yang jumped up and onto the nevermore's back, shooting deafening blast after blast of shotgun shells into the creature to weaken it. Weiss then froze the monster's tail to the ground with Myrtenaster. She said, "Someone slash the nevermore!"

Blake slid under the beast and slashed it across the stomach with Gambol Shroud, severely injuring the creature. She said, "Go for the kill, Ruby!"

Ruby jumped up onto the creature and placed her scythe's blade around the nevermore's neck. She then jumped up again, decapitating the beast and killing it. Its head flew in the air for a short while before the entire thing dissipated into red leaves.

The team regrouped on the ground, proud of their 5th kill of the day. Ruby said, "Good job, team. Good job. But we still got a lot more work to do. As for now, I need to take a piss since I drank water faster than my semblance back at base. Yang, Blake, Weiss, hold the fort, or lack thereof."

The 3 of them nodded. Yang said, "We'll make sure of it, sis."

Then, Jaune radioed to them, "Platoon 1 Firebase to Fireteam 1."

"Go ahead," Weiss replied.

"Return to firebase for an assignment."

"Roger. We'll return."

Blake said, "I wonder what that's about."

"No clue," Weiss replied. "We can't be too specific on the air for confidentiality reasons."

Yang said, "I wonder if there's anyone listening in on the communications for this operation."

"Probably not through a streaming website," Weiss replied. "There are websites where they stream the fire department and police department radio communications, but it would be illegal to stream military radio ops in an active warzone. Hell, most of the websites for the volunteer companies feature their own streams for their radio frequencies."

Ruby then returned. "Alright, I'm back. What did I miss?"

"We gotta go back to firebase for an assignment per Jaune's orders."

"Okay then. Team RWBY, let's roll out."