October 17, 2021

"So," Captain Ling Hua Yi asked a young prospective member of the fire company, with Weiss and in attendance, as she brushed her black hair back. "You said your girlfriend has concerns about you signing up, eh?"

"Yeah," the prospective member replied back as she thought to herself. "I told her not to worry, but she still is. We've been dating for three years ever since we graduated high school, and ever since the attacks, I've been interested in joining the fire department as a volunteer. You guys happened to be the closest fire company to me. I'm only about 2 and a half minutes away by car. I'm seriously considering asking her to marry me, but this may throw a wrench into that."

Weiss said to the concerned girl, "Most of us have spouses or girlfriends or boyfriends here. Some are even members here. Let me tell you this: Even though firefighting and emergency medical services are dangerous, you most likely will never die in the line of duty or get seriously hurt. There are 9,000 volunteer firefighters in the city, and that number is growing with the new fire companies being formed in the past year as the city grows, as well as 3,000 paid firefighters and counting, and we have maybe two deaths in the line of duty per year. These past two years have been tough, since first we lost all those guys at that warehouse fire in downtown, and then the attacks, but that is not normal. Firefighting is much safer now than it has ever been due to better education, better equipment, and better healthcare. When I joined as a junior firefighter in 2009, firefighters had a 74% greater chance of developing cancer than the general John Q Public. Now, that number is down to 32%. It's still too high, but that's a huge improvement over 74 in just 12 years. We're using air packs more, we're getting vaccinated for some of the most common cancers among us, like lung and throat cancer, and we're finally getting the government to crack down on some of the most toxic building materials." She then held the girl's right hand on the desk. "Stacey, trust me. We will make sure nothing happens to you."

"Thank you," Stacey replied, having many of her own concerns relieved. "I knew a bit about the cancer thing because my girlfriend brought it up. Another thing, though, is that she said it would feel odd having me do all of this." She really didn't know how to put it. "How do I explain it to you, like..."

Weiss understood what she meant and related to her. She said to her, starting a long speech, "It can be awkward having a volunteer fireman in the house, especially when she isn't a "man." You're afraid to drink at social events even as your friends down beer after beer because what if you get the big one and you can't go? You have to skip out on dates because a call that was supposed to only take half an hour takes two hours. You get looks from men who wonder how a five-foot-three woman like me could be a firefighter. You get the outsiders who wonder why we are not paid and think we're somehow slaves when the word "volunteer" is in the title, or the ones who think "volunteer" means "inexperienced and undertrained." And as for my family, I lost count of how many times my father had to explain to Atlesian execs in the SDC that the world wasn't ending during a video conference when the siren blew. And you do all of this on top of having a paying job. It's not much of a life, unless you like missing birthdays and parties and family events because the pager went off, unless you like being at the station on weekends, unless you like coming back to your house after missing a whole night's sleep smelling either like smoke or like vomit."

"You'll rub elbows with all sorts of people. You'll see politicians trying to get brownie points by visiting us. You'll see the best and the worst of society on the street on every call. You'll see those left behind: The drug addicts, the boys and girls who can't keep an address and their clients who don't care, the liars, the con men, the homeless, and more. Then... Then you have the heartbreak. The calls with kids are the worst. Underfed kids, burned kids, abused kids, raped kids, molested kids, crushed kids, sick kids, dying kids, and then dead kids. Dead kids always hurt. Then you have the pensioners, the elderly, the ones who die of frostbite on the street or of CO poisoning or burns after trying to heat themselves with an unventilated and unsafe heater. Then, the worst heartbreak is when one of your own dies. Forget about August 23. My mother was hit by a drunk driver at an accident while I was in class at Beacon. Her helmet, her gloves, and her boots came flying off. She died an hour later in an ICU. The driver will spend the rest of his life in prison. My grandfather got cancer from the fire service and from smoking. It mostly started when he was at a fire where people had been illegally dumping chemicals at an old factory site. He wasn't the best man, but damn could he fight fire and run a multimillion dollar corporation at the same time. I had to watch as he died in agony and pain. I've been to too many fucking funerals for guys, and that's before August 23."

"I knew 74 paid and volunteer firefighters that were murdered that day, 15 from my fire company, including my father, my uncle, my aunt, and my sister. They found my aunt almost whole, missing her head and hugging a worker from the towers. They found my uncle's head. My father's arm was all that was left of him. And do you know what they found of my sister Winter? A finger. A God damn finger. But... even after all that... I wouldn't wanna give it up for anything. There are so many more rewarding things about it. You get a sense of camaraderie you can find in few other places. You get the good calls: The childbirths, the saves at fires, the ones where no one gets hurt and everyone goes home. Those are the ones that make it worth it. Sure, I'm not paid, but I prefer it that way in a sense. I mean, it would be kind of a downgrade in pay for me, Weiss Schnee, to go from a CEO and huntress to a paid firefighter, but even if I only had a common job, I would still prefer to stay a volunteer."

Stacey, taken aback by Weiss's speech, could only stammer out, "I... I had little idea..." She then took a deep breath. "I want to volunteer. I know I do." She then suddenly felt her phone vibrate. When she looked at it, she said, "My girlfriend?" She then answered it. "Hello? Huh? Really? You're letting me?" She then laughed. "Thank you. I'm glad. I'll see you later. I love you. Bye." She then hung up. "She says she wasn't thinking clearly, and she was wrong to try to stop me."

Yi joyfully replied, "Alrighty then. I can't wait to see you at calls."

October 21, 2021

As Weiss and Jaune walked out of Atlas City International Airport's Terminal 3, they were immediately met with reporters as they walked to a limousine that would bring them to the Schnee Family's Atlas Residence. They asked their questions in a variety of languages and surrounded the couple.

One reporter asked her in Valeanian, "Weiss, can you confirm that the SDC will be setting its workers' minimum wage to that of Vale's, the highest in Remnant?"

"We are, indeed," Weiss replied to him. "I will explain more in a press release soon."

Another reporter then asked her in Atlesian, "Wird die Schneestaubgesellschaft eine aktualisierte Version des Paladin-Waffensystems veröffentlichen?"

"Ich werde mich zu dieser Zeit nicht dazu äußern," Weiss immediately replied, not wanting to release potentially confidential information. "Es gibt noch einige Teile des Programms, die zu dieser Zeit klassifiziert sind."

Another reporter asked her in Mantillian, the old main language of Atlas when it was called Mantle, "Puoi confermare che recentemente hai avuto uno screening per il cancro a causa del potenziale di polvere tossica nel sito di Union Square Center a Vale?"

Weiss was taken aback by the question, which asked her if she had gotten a cancer screening due to exposure to toxic materials at the USC site. Not knowing how to reply, she said, "Uhhh, no. Non ho avuto uno screening per il cancro. Probabilmente non sarebbe una cattiva idea. Rilascerò una dichiarazione su di esso se avrò uno screening per il cancro." She was visibly disturbed by the question as she and Jaune finally made their way into the limo. As she shut the door, she sighed and said to Jaune, "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"It's fine," Jaune replied. Now, he was curious. "What was that one Mantillian guy asking you about? You seemed pretty scared when he asked you."

"I may need to get a cancer screening," Weiss told her boyfriend. "There probably was a whole bunch of toxic shit that was at the USC site that causes cancer. I can already tell this will be a big issue for firefighters in the City of Vale down the road, as well as any firefighters from elsewhere that came to our city to help at the site."

Jaune, visibly concerned and shocked, told her, "Weiss, that scares me. I think you do need to get that screening." He then sighed. "My uncle on my mom's side died of a rather aggressive liver cancer when I was 13, and my mom hasn't been the same since."

Weiss then kissed Jaune and told him, "Jaune, don't worry. I will. I promise."

October 22, 2021

At 3 in the morning, Yang was awoken by the sound of the fire company siren blowing. As it did, she and her fiancé George were then awoken by his pager going off, as Yang normally turned her pager off at night. They both jumped out of bed and raced out of their apartment, with Yang running to her firehouse and George taking Bumblebee as always and driving over to his firehouse. The call was for a fire alarm activation at an apartment building, nothing that usually lead to anything serious.

Yang ran into the firehouse about two minutes after the call had come in and began putting her gear on. As she did, Penny and Ren also ran in and out their gear on quickly as a few more firefighters ran in. Yang ran over to the driver's seat of Engine 201 and saw that someone else was already driving, so she ran over to Truck 201 and decided to start that rig up. Meanwhile, Penny and Ren both hopped into the last two seats in the back of the engine. At the three minute and 52 second mark, Engine 201 rolled out of the station with a full crew as several firefighters began boarding Truck 201.

Captain Ling was in the officer's seat of Engine 201. For fire alarms, interior firefighters would put their packs on, but not put their masks on. Penny said to Ren, "Probably something stupid, huh?"

"We've been to this place many times before," Ren replied. "Every time, it's either some random dust clogging up the smoke detectors or it's because of a resident being really bad at cooking."

Sure enough, over the District 2 dispatch frequency, Car 6 radioed, "Car 6 to Fire Alarm."

"Car 6."

"I'm gonna be holding Engine 202, Ambulance 201, and Engine 201 only. Return all other units and fire companies to their quarters and have them go 10-8."

"10-4." A tone beep was then heard. "Fire Alarm to Assistant District 2 Chief, North Vigilant Fire, Situ Mingyu Rescue, and Fire Patrol Station 3, you can all return to quarters and go 10-8."

Back at the Vigilant firehouse, Yang turned off Truck 201 and hopped off. "Oh well," she said as she shrugged. "It's bullshit anyways."

Elsa, Alfred's youngest daughter, said to her, "Yep. That's like the 4th time this month we've been to that apartment block for bullshit alarm drops. Oh well. Say, Yang, you want some coffee?"

"Sure," Yang replied as she yawned. "I'm gonna need it, since I feel like dropping on the apparatus floor and falling asleep." Then, Yang felt a slight pain in her stomach. "Actually, scratch that. Ah, fuck, not morning sickness." She then ran over to a trash bin in the firehouse and vomited into it. "Jesus Christ, c'mon..."

Elsa walked over to her and said, "Yang, are you okay?"

"Yeah," Yang replied before she retched and threw up again. "Just morning sickness, Elsa. You'll know it when you have a kid one day." She then laughed a bit before throwing up again. "Agh... Okay, I think I'm good."

Another firefighter came over with a replacement trash bag and a medical bag from Truck 201 and said, "Need any medical attention?"

Yang turned around and wiped her mouth off before saying, "Nah. Nothing wrong. Just the baby making me sick. I think I'm good now. You're gonna need a new trash bag for this bin, though." She then peered into the trash bin. "Yeah, you're definitely gonna need a new bag." She then took her gear off.

Elsa said to her as she took the old trash bag and tied it off, "At least it isn't all over the floor."

Several minutes later, right as Yang came out of the bathroom, having brushed her teeth and washed her mouth out, all of the firefighters inside heard over the radios, "Vale City Fire Alarm, Standby Goodwill Engine 6, Vigilant Fire 5, and Situ Mingyu Rescue 92 for a Delta response traffic accident, Box 244."

Yang said to herself, "Here we go again..." Then, everybody's pagers rang, followed by the siren on the roof roaring to life as information poured from the radios and pagers. She ran back to her gear locker.

However, as she was about to put her gear on, a lieutenant stopped her and said, "Yang, take a break. You just stopped throwing up like 5 minutes ago. Go relax in the radio room or something. It's not like you won't get credit for the call since you're already here."

Yang, annoyed, reluctantly agreed and replied, "Fine, I'll take a break." She then took her boots off and put them back in her locker before putting her shoes back on and walking to the radio room of the firehouse. Over the radio, Ambulance 201 and Engine 202 called en route from the fire alarm around the same time Ambulance 215B from the Situ Mingyu Rescue Squad called en route. Yang watched as several other firefighters ran into the station from home, having ignored the initial fire alarm. As Rescue 201 got ready to respond, Yang could hear the sirens of Ambulance 201 and Engine 202 coming closer to the firehouse. After about a minute and a half, both rigs sped past the firehouse at high speeds.

Then, Rescue 201 rolled out of the station another minute and a half later as an officer on board radioed out, "Fire Alarm, Rescue 201's out with a crew of 14." For this call, Vigilant would only roll Ambulance 201 and Rescue 201, leaving Truck 201 behind just in case another call came in. It had been 4 and a half minutes since the second call came in, and now there were now just 4 firefighters left at the station.

"Damn," Yang said to herself. "I wonder what would happen if we got a third call now." Sure enough, her pager rang again, though this time, it was only for an EMS call, so the siren did not go off. The Valeanian Legion Ambulance Corps was also dispatched for an ambulance to respond. "Of course." Yang then ran out of the radio room and to her gear locker. She quickly put her gear on and ran to the driver's seat of Truck 201 to start it up.

A firefighter who hopped in the front seat switched the truck radio to District 2 Operations 1 and radioed out, "Vigilant Base to Car 6, we got a crew here for Truck 201 to take that EMS call."

"10-4, go ahead to the call."

The call was for a 73-year-old male feeling ill with blood in his vomit, a Bravo response. As Truck 201 pulled out with its lights flashing and its sirens blaring, the firefighter in the front seat radioed out over District 2 Dispatch, "Fire Alarm, Truck 201 is out with 4, 1 medic." It had been about a minute and a half since the call.

About three minutes after they left, Engine 201 began pulling into the station from the fire alarm. It had been a total of 35 minutes since the original call for the fire alarm came in. Then, just as the front of the engine backed into the station, the 13 firefighters aboard all heard dispatch say for the fourth time that night, "Standby Vigilant Fire 5 for a Bravo-response vehicle fire, Box 225." After the pager tones rang out, the siren tones followed, activating the siren again for a third time that night.

Ren threw his hands up in the air and said, "Another one?! Really?!" He then laughed before he put his air pack back on in his seat before taking his helmet off to put his mask on as everyone else that was an interior firefighter in the cab of the engine began to do the same.

Captain Ling hopped back aboard the engine and said to the driver, "You got that address, right?"

"Yeah," the driver said as he sped out of the station.

"Got it," Yi replied before she radioed out while operating the engine's mechanical siren with a foot pedal, "Fire Alarm, Engine 201's responding with 13, 9 interior." She then said to herself, "This is gonna be one of those nights, huh?"