The massacre at the safehouse had made big news all across Remnant. While the Royal Valeanian Gendarmerie declined to press charges against Team RWBY, Qrow, or Taiyang, they did hold them for questioning to see if they could gather more information on the Mistralian mob.
Hermann had to hold a press conference on the involvement of the SDC in the battle. He stated that the only involvement the Schnee family, the Vigilant Fire Company, the Vale City Fire Department, or the SDC had was that Team RWBY's members were involved. He also stated that he had a private discussion with Weiss the day afterwards. The Commissioner of the VCFD also issued a statement confirming that the department had no direct involvement as well.
A week later, the RVG announced they had arrested 15 individuals connected to the Mistralian mob in Vale using the info collected from the gang and the safehouse, and had issued arrest warrants for 7 more. For all intents and purposes, the Mistralian mob had suffered a massive blow.
February 1, 2021
As Yang and George watched T.V. in their apartment at around 5, they commented on the news. Yang pointed at the screen and said, "That guy's fucking sick. I'm glad they shot him."
The story Yang was referring to was being covered by veteran news anchor Lisa Lavender. "Officials say that John Linen-Mauve, an accountant, was implicated by an accomplice who has been arrested in the theft of over 15,000 Lien from a senior citizens centre's banking account which he allegedly spent on child pornography and an underaged prostitute. When police confronted him in his apartment to arrest him, Linen-Mauve charged at them with a large axe, forcing the officers to fire. One officer was taken to the hospital with severe injuries, but is expected to recover."
George shook his head and said, "That's horrible. Who would steal from old people and then spend what you stole on child porn and a teenaged prostitute afterwards?"
Then, Blake called Yang on her phone. Yang answered it, saying, "Yo, what up?"
"Yang," said Blake in a worried voice. "Can you come over to my apartment? Uhhhh, it's hard to explain..."
"I'll be right over," Yang quickly replied.
"Thanks!" Blake then hung up.
Yang got up from the couch and said, "I gotta go to Blake's apartment. Wanna come?"
"Sure," George replied. The 2 then walked out of the apartment and went over to Blake's apartment across the hallway.
Blake greeted them, wearing only underwear, a bra, and Sun's coat. "Hey there... Me and Sun have a big problem. No time to explain. C'mon."
When the 3 of them walked into Blake's bedroom, Sun stood there, having hastily put his pants back in. He said, "We were about to bang when we heard something in here. We don't know what it was."
"Okay," George replied, confused. "What was it?"
"It sounded like a little girl," Blake said. "And it freaked both of us the fuck out."
Suddenly, a high-pitched and girlish voice from the closet said, "I'm hiding. Can you find me?"
Everybody jumped. Yang booked it and ran out of the apartment, screaming profanities. George said, "Holy fuck... Well... One of us is gonna have to open that closet..."
"I'm grabbing my staff," Sun said as he walked out of the room. Hen then came back with Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang, both in their nunchuck/shotgun form, and said, "Alright, whoever or whatever's in that closet better come out now!"
As Yang slowly walked back into the apartment, Sun burst down the closet door, aiming his guns at everything in the closet. Blake, worried, said, "Be careful!"
Then, Sun found something and said, "Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me." He then emerged from the closet with a toy doll. "It was this thing." He then pressed a button on the doll that made it speak in the exact same voice they had heard earlier.
Everyone stared at the doll in disbelief. Yang said, "You gotta be fucking kidding me. I almost pissed my pants over a God damn doll?!"
Then, Blake's pager went off in the living room. When they all heard the siren tone afterwards, Yang ran out of the room and down the hallway to the stairs. Blake hurriedly got dressed in her own clothes as George's pager went off as well, causing him to run out of the apartment as well. When Blake got dressed, she kissed Sun goodbye and also ran out of the apartment. The dispatcher told them that it was a 3-car accident with a possible occupied car fire, an Echo response due to the danger of the call.
Outside, George got into his car and sped off to Goodwill's station as Yang and Blake ran across the street diagonally to the Vigilant fire station. As they entered, the ambulance left the station. By now, Car 5, Vigilant's captain, requested that the North Vigilant Fire Company and the Situ Mingyu Rescue Squad be added to the call for more manpower after another dispatcher notified responding units that the doors on another car involved were jammed and needed to be cut.
As Yang and Blake hurriedly put their gear on, Ruby and Weiss also ran into the station. Yang and Blake jumped into the Rescue, getting the last 2 seats, thus forcing Ruby and Weiss to ride the rear step with another firefighter. In the cab, everyone was strapping into their seat's SCBA and putting their masks on without air in preparation to fight the car fire.
Eventually, 3 minutes and 22 seconds after the call came in, Rescue 201 pulled out the door with a crew of 9. By now, Ambulance 201, Car 5, and Car 6 were on scene and reporting that they and several police officers had pulled all 3 occupants out of the burning car with severe burn injuries. They had also confirmed that one of the other cars needed to be cut up with the jaws. Yang breathed a sigh of relief, saying to Blake, "Thank God they got those people out of the car." She then attached her regulator to the end of the low-pressure tube on her mask to clear up her fogged-up mask with some bottle air.
Within 5 and a half minutes of the call, Rescue 201 was on scene. Everyone went on air as they got out of the rescue's cab while Weiss, Ruby, and another firefighter stepped off the rear step and opened several compartments to prepare for extrication.
Yang and Blake pulled a 2 1/2-inch hand line while 2 other firefighters pulled a 1/34-inch hand line. The 5th firefighter on air directed the 2 lines to strike the car from the right side.
As Yang and Blake inched up on the car, sweat pouring from both of them, Yang gave Blake a pat on the back to signal her to open up the line and begin spraying. Blake replied by nodding and opening up the line all the way, knocking the fire down and spraying thick smoke in their direction. The crew on the second line, parallel to Yang and Blake, also began spraying down the fully-involved car.
Meanwhile, Ruby, Weiss, and 4 other firefighters began laying out extrication equipment on a green tarp. It included several airbags, a spreader, a cutter, a combi tool, chocks, and medical equipment. Weiss and another firefighter grabbed some chocks while Ruby walked over the airbag filling box and a spare SCBA bottle.
After about 2 and a half minutes of setting up, Ruby pumped air into the airbags, lifting the car up slightly to stabilize it while Weiss began taping up the glass on the 2 unbroken windows so that when they broke them, glass wouldn't fall on the 2 patients in the car. Meanwhile, the paid firefighter-medics and a volunteer firefighter-medic were in the car administering painkillers intravenously to both patients and putting on neck braces.
Once the 2 unbroken windows were taped up, Ruby used a hammer to break the glass. She and another firefighter then lifted the glass out of the car and onto the street. Another firefighter pressed the spreader into the side of the door and began spreading it apart. With a minute, the door was opened, and firefighters began to move the driver onto a stretcher.
At the same time, Yang and Blake both stopped spraying down the car now that it was almost put out. They laid the hand line down, took their helmets and masks off, and took deep breaths. Yang hi-fived Blake, saying, "Good job."
"You too," Blake replied before wiping the sweat off of her forehead. "We sure knocked down that car fire."
February 3, 2021
Today, the weekly meeting and training session would be at 5. After about an hour of going over department business, the firefighters at the station walked downstairs and put their gear on. An old school bus then pulled up to the station. This bus had been converted for use as a transport for fire companies that went down to the city fire training centre for training.
All the interior-qualified firefighters had SCBAs on their backs. Ruby said to Yang as they got on the bus, "It's just like elementary school all over again."
Yang laughed and replied, "Sure is, except our backpacks are now like 75 pounds." The 2 half-sisters then sat down in a seat. In total, 42 firefighters would be going down to the tower, leaving 10 volunteers at the station. For this night, 6 paid firefighter-EMTs and 2 paid firefighter-paramedics were working overtime from 5 to 10 at the station to fill in for all the missing firefighters.
35 minutes later, the bus arrived at the training centre. Everyone got out in front of a 5-storey tower. Captain Kirkridge gathered them all around and said, "Alright. Tonight, we'll be doing live fire training. All interior-qualified personnel will be split up into 2 teams, one to go in, and one to stay out. The exterior personnel will stage with the outside team and get them ready." He then pointed to the 5th floor of the tower. "The fire will be on the 5th floor. The job of the interior team will be to advance 2 hand lines up to the 5th floor and knock it down. Now, how would we access the 5th floor?"
A firefighter raised his hand and said, "With an aerial ladder?"
"True, but let's say we can't use any ladders. How would we access the 5th floor?" As he asked that question, a reserve pumper from the city shops pulled up.
Blake raised her hand and said, "We would climb the stairs and connect our handlines to the standpipe on the 4th floor?"
"Correct, Belladonna. We would climb the stairs and use the standpipes on the 4th floor to charge the lines. Now, Lieutenants Hermann Schnee and Alfred Schnee will lead the 2 interior teams and pick who is on each team." As he said that, the fire instructors on the reserve pumper hit the hydrant and turned the pump on. Several exterior firefighters, including Denis and Theresa, pulled 2 hand lines from the side of the engine. Theresa said to Denis, "I can't wait until I'm allowed to go inside buildings."
"Same here," Denis replied. "That day will come, love. That day will come."
February 4, 2021
"I just don't get it," a dispatcher said to Blake in the Fire Alarm Office's break room. "Why would the director do that?"
"I got no clue," Blake said before drinking some coffee. "I'm just a dispatcher. That's way above my paygrade." Then, she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket as got a call. "Hello?"
"Blake," Ruby said. "It's Ruby. I'm with Delwyn right now, and his bodyguard just collapsed. We're at the entrance to the Royal Palace right now doing CPR."
"I'll get right to it," Blake said as she walked back into the main room and to the paging board. "What's his problem? Is he breathing?"
"She is not breathing," Ruby frantically replied. "She is unconscious and not alert as well."
"Got it, I'll send over the fire department right away." Blake then hung up. "You guys got a call for the Royal Palace entrance?"
"Just came up now," a dispatcher at the board replied.
"Alright, I got a call from my friend saying that they're doing CPR on the guard and that she is unconscious, not alert, and not breathing."
"Got it. I'll send it out as an Echo response."
As the dispatcher got to work, Blake sat down back at her station, which was one of the boards for the 7 districts in the city. She said to herself, "God, I hope Ruby's doing a good job." Meanwhile, a call came into her district for a fire alarm activation at a supermarket. She immediately got to work, turning the mixer on and transmitting 3 alert tones before saying the box of the call and what operations frequency the responding units would use.
"Car 17 to Fire Alarm."
"Car 17," Blake replied.
"Car 17's en route."
"10-4, just be advised, callers are reporting no smoke or flames visible at this time."
"10-4."
Then, another unit called up. "Assistant District 3's en route to the box."
"10-4, you copy the info from earlier?"
"Affirmative, Fire Alarm. No smoke or flames visible at this time."
"10-4."