February 17, 2022
Team RWBY, Ren, and Penny were sitting around telling stories about some stuff they had all done in the past involving hunting and firefighting around 9 at night. Right now, it was Weiss's turn. "So it was literally 12:10 AM, literally 10 minutes into me being 16, and we get banged out for a structure fire on the 7th floor of an apartment building," she began. "My dad drives me, my mom, and Winter over to the firehouse, and we get our gear on, and my mom calls over to me and says "Weiss, get in the truck and get your air pack on. You're going in." I was like "uh okay mom." I had done car fires and some overhaul since I was 14, but I had never gone into an actual fire besides training." She then laughed and said. "I fucking shaking as I was getting my shit on, and when we get there, me and Winter take a pack of hose and start climbing the 7 flights of stairs to the fire. She's telling me to calm down, and I'm trying. So we get there, hook the hose in, mask up, and go in. The whole time, I'm going along, spraying water and shit, and I'm just like "holy shit I'm really doing this.""
Ren told Weiss, "Basically the same reaction I had when you and Winter took me into that crack house fire a few days after I graduated BF-CFR."
"Exactly," Weiss replied. "After like 25 minutes, we go back to the 5th floor, and I tell Winter "hey sis, I don't feel so good." She just sighs and tells me "go in that trashcan." I yak in there, I get my bottle changed, and I go back up to vent. I didn't pause at all, though I probably should have. My mom after I get back down again is patting me on the back like "hey honey, you did a great job! I'm so proud of you!" I'm just exhausted, and I hear someone change my bottle out again and put ANOTHER one in. I'm like "fuuuuuck." We didn't have the two-bottle rule in the entire department until soon after I started going to Beacon."
"Damn," Penny replied in surprise. "I can't imagine downing three whole bottles with no breaks."
"So, when I turned 16," she continued. "We had about 7 Code 99s in a month, including that one. One was in a convenience store. That was fucking scary because it burned above the cock loft and was hidden from us inside. A guy with me said "the fire is knocked down here on the first floor." I took the thermal imaging camera and pointed it at the ceiling and said "NO, IT'S FUCKING NOT!" After we got out, I burned my hands slightly when I touched my hot as hell helmet with my bare hands. The other fire, ohhh boy, that was a real bad warehouse fire. It was right on the canal, too."
"Oh yeah," Ruby replied as she remembered the fire. "I remember watching that on the news back then."
"For the warehouse fire, pretty much everyone that went interior showered at the firehouse afterwards because of the shit that was burning there. I showered in the ladies room, and it's only AFTER I got out that I and almost everyone at the firehouse that showered realized that they didn't bring spare clothes. The social members of the fire company brought food and stuff, and I covered myself up with a towel and cracked the door open to see a bunch of other guys and girls just walking around in towels either eating food or calling their wives or husbands or parents for a second pair of clothes." Weiss laughed hard and then sighed. "That was an interesting night. So, you know Kyle Swanson, right? Well, he was brand new back when the fire happened, and he didn't shower at first. He stunk like a motherfucker." Weiss then gagged. "Ugh, I still gag thinking about it. I'm like "dude what the fuck why do you smell." He's like "uh I don't shower outside of my house." I replied with "Ok, then go the hell home and do that.""
"Eww," Yang replied as she laughed. "I remember my dad telling me a story similar to that after he and a couple guys returned from a really bad psychiatric call with Patch First Aid during our first summer break from Beacon. The guy they transported smeared his own shit all over himself, and it wasn't pretty. Me and Ruby had to run over a spare set of clothes on Bumblebee, and when we got there, he stank to high heavens."
Penny then said, "Weiss, I got a good one."
"Alright then," Weiss replied. "Lay it out for us, Penny. You've never told us any stories from when you went through military firefighting and medical training."
"Really? Huh..." Penny then stifled a laugh. "Anyways, I was in a class involving shipboard firefighting, and this one kid in my class liked to brag about his skills and all that crap. He said that he could pull a victim fully loaded with BDUs and armor and everything out by himself from a room on board a burning ship. We threw him and me in the simulator, and he sure enough dragged a 200-pound dummy in full BDU and armor, which made the dummy weigh like 275 pounds, out by himself. What was his reward?" Penny then stifled another laugh. "The instructor goes over and says "Good job, now do that two more times." The look on his face was of shock. By the third and final time he did it, he practically passed out afterwards."
"Damn," Blake replied. "Well, that's what you get for bragging so much." She then shrugged and laughed.
Ruby replied, "Reminds me of this one kid who thought he was hot shit in my Special Ops 1 class at Beacon. He said he'd pass it with ease, but failed halfway through. The kid was a dick, so nobody really felt too bad for him. The whole time he was in, I wanted to deck him in the face every time he bragged." She then laughed and shook her head. "Last I heard, he's not even a regular huntsman anymore."
Weiss then got a text message on her phone. "Huh? Oh... Oh my..." She then showed the rest of the gang the message. "We're getting an update on staffing policies for career firefighters in the city apparently."
Ren looked at it and said, "It says that effective tomorrow, career firefighters can ride any rig they want at a volunteer fire company, and they are no longer restricted to one rig. Also, we are now dropping to three companies for a box alarm instead of four due to the increase in volunteer manpower.
"Oh yeah," Blake replied. "I heard about that at the Fire Alarm Office yesterday. Weiss, you'll probably have to change the run order for calls since Ambulance 201 doesn't have to be first-due to everything anymore."
"Oh shit," Weiss replied as she looked over the text. "You're right. I'll send out a message to all the members now while I write up a new response code." She then walked out of the rec room to her office. "We'll discuss it more next week during the meeting before drill."
February 18, 2022
Effective today, the new orders for career firefighters and box alarms went into effect. Also, Weiss had officially changed the run order for various types of calls.
BOX ALARM (1ST DUE): Engine 201/Truck 201/Ambulance 201/Rescue 201/Ambulance 201B
BOX ALARM (2ND DUE)/MULTIPLE-ALARM INCIDENT: Truck 201/Rescue 201/Ambulance 201/Engine 201/Ambulance 201B
MULTIPLE-ALARM INCIDENT (MASS CASUALTY): Ambulance 201/Ambulance 201B/Rescue 201/Engine 201/Truck 201
MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT (NO FIRE): Ambulance 201/Rescue 201/Ambulance 201B/Engine 201/Truck 201
VEHICLE FIRE/MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT (WITH FIRE): Engine 201/Ambulance 201/Rescue 201/Ambulance 201B/Truck 201
MEDICAL EMERGENCY: Ambulance 201 or 201B/Rescue 201 (Per request or for Echo-responses only)
MEDICAL EMERGENCY (NO AMBULANCES AVAILABLE): Rescue 201
BRUSH/GARBAGE FIRE: Engine 201/Truck 201/Ambulance 201
HAZ-MAT (EXCLUDING CARBON MONOXIDE, NATURAL GAS, OR DUST): Rescue 201/Ambulance 201/Engine 201/Ambulance 201B/Truck 201
CARBON MONOXIDE LEAK: Rescue 201/Ambulance 201/Ambulance 201B (Reported illness or confirmed high CO levels only)/Truck 201 (Confirmed high CO levels only)/Engine 201 (Confirmed high CO levels only)
NATURAL GAS LEAK: Truck 201/Rescue 201/Engine 201/Ambulance 201/Ambulance 201B
DUST LEAK: Rescue 201/Truck 201/Engine 201/Ambulance 201/Ambulance 201B
TECHNICAL RESCUE: Rescue 201/Ambulance 201/Ambulance 201B/Truck 201/Engine 201
ELEVATOR RESCUE: Truck 201/Rescue 201/Ambulance 201 (Per request or if reported medical emergency only)/Ambulance 201B (Per request only)
WATER RESCUE: Rescue 201/Ambulance 201/Ambulance 201B
BOAT/SHIP FIRE (UNLESS BOX ALARM TRANSMITTED): Engine 201/Rescue 201/Ambulance 201/Truck 201/Ambulance 201B
BOMB THREAT: Engine 201/Ambulance 201 (All other apparatus to standby in quarters and be ready to roll in case of uncontrolled detonation, NO PERSONAL VEHICLE RESPONSE/SELF-RESPONSE TO SCENE ALLOWED EXCEPT FIRE POLICE AND CAR 5)
UNCONTROLLED DETONATION AT BOMB THREAT: Units that already rolled/Truck 201/Rescue 201/Ambulance 201B
UNKNOWN SMOKE/FIRE IN AREA: Engine 201/Truck 201/Ambulance 201/Rescue 201/Ambulance 201B
At 12:06, Ruby and another volunteer hopped off the ambulance with a stretcher as they walked into a busy restaurant for a 62-year-old male who had fainted. As the two career firefighter-paramedics talked to him and found out his medical history, Ruby asked the career lieutenant, "Want the ALS bag off the stretcher opened up or nah?"
"Nah," he replied. "We won't need it. The jump bag we got should be good."
Ruby gave a thumbs up as she waited alongside the stretcher, wearing a Vigilant FC t-shirt, a pair of jeans, and her hip boots folded down. As she did, several restaurant-goers took pictures with their phones of both the scene unfolding before them as well as Ruby. One tourist from Atlas said to another, "ch kann nicht glauben, dass sie ihre eigene Königin haben, die so eine harte Arbeit ohne Bezahlung machen."
The tourist replied to her, "Ich finde es beleidigend. Warum sollte eine Königin etwas tun, was ein Bürgerlicher tun sollte?"
Ruby heard them and could make out enough of their comments to know they were insulting her for being royalty and yet doing such "hard work" for free. She thought to herself, "Well, to be honest, I expected someone to make a comment about it eventually."
Then, she heard a female voice reply to the tourists, "He, ich habe eine andere Idee. Halt die Klappe um sie herum." Ruby turned around to see Weiss staring down both of them.
Ruby said to Weiss, "Oh... I didn't expect to see you here."
"I stopped by to see what you guys were doing, since I just got back from doing a fire prevention detail at a school with the engine and a couple of guys." She then looked over the scene. "I see the patient is doing better than before."
"Yeah," the career lieutenant replied. "Just a fainting spell, that's all."
"Good," Weiss replied. "Now..." She turned to both of the rude tourists from Atlas. "Erkennst du mich?"
Both were bewildered that they were staring at Weiss Schnee herself. "Uhhh... Ahh..."
"Ja. Hat die Katze deine Zunge geklaut?" She then sat down at their table, wearing her full set of turnout gear, including her helmet. "Ich glaube, Sie schulden dem Feuerwehrmann Rose-Aberffraw eine Entschuldigung." She referred to the fact that Ruby legally had her last name changed to Rose-Aberffraw, the latter part being the last name of all royals in Vale and the name of their house, the House of Aberffraw. "Du hast Glück, dass wir gerade nicht in Atlas sind. Wenn wir in Atlas wären, könnten Sie wegen Majestätsbeleidigung verhaftet werden."
The male tourist them cleared his throat and said in annoyance, "Fein. Wir entschuldigen uns. Sind Sie glücklich?"
"Danke," Weiss replied. "Hab einen schönen Tag." She then got up from their table and said to Ruby, "I got them to apologize. Don't worry."
"Thanks," Ruby replied as she chuckled. "You know, that's the first time anyone's said anything negative about me being queen and being a firefighter. Anyways, we'll be heading off to Central Vale soon."
Then, Weiss heard Blake over the radio tell her, "Fire Alarm to Car 5, just to let you know, we're gonna be striking a box in your second-due for a fire alarm activation at Box 2116."
Weiss replied on her radio, "10-4, you can put me on it. Ambulance 201 will not be responding to that since they'll be 10-82 to Central Vale City Medical Center." Weiss then waved bye to Ruby and said to her as she ran out of the restaurant, "I'll catch you guys later!"
Ruby waved and replied, "Bye, Weiss!" She then saw Weiss hop into her captain's car and speed off to the second call as they all heard Vigilant's siren roar to life from several blocks away.
Later that day, after working at Signal Academy as an instructor for the first time in many years, Raven had called up Tom and invited him over to her house. About an hour and a half later, the two finished a half-hour-long sex session and relaxed in bed. "So," Tom said to the older woman beside him. "How was work today?"
"It reminded me of how much I missed teaching huntsmen and huntresses," Raven replied. "I'm definitely gonna enjoy teaching. By the way, word from the grapevine is that this is Peter Port's last semester at Beacon, actually, before he retires."
"Who's Peter Port?" Tom was unaware of many of the teachers at Beacon and Signal.
"He's a professor at Beacon," Raven replied as she yawned. "He's I think 68 now. He's been a teacher for God knows how long, like 42 years now. He taught my team, Team STRQ, as well as my daughters' team." By now, Raven and Ruby had begun to acknowledge each other as mother and child in the wake of Taiyang's death in August. "He's been a huntsman for a long time, too, and he feels like it's time to hang it up, and I can't blame him. He's one of the oldest instructors in Hunting Corps history." She then sat up in bed and stretched, not caring that she was not wearing any clothes. "Want anything to eat? I'll make something."
"Why not?" Tom replied as he also got up and began to get dressed using the clothes Raven had practically ripped off of him half an hour ago. "By the way, Raven?"
"Yeah?" Raven turned around as she put on a t-shirt and underwear before Tom approached her and gave her a kiss on the lips, surprising her before she returned it.
When they split, Tom told her, "Thank you." Raven smiled and hugged him before she left to go to the kitchen. They then heard Raven's pager go off, but not Tom's. "Is that a call for Signal Fire?"
"Sounds like it," Raven replied as she listened in to what turned out to be Blake dispatching.
"Vale City Fire Alarm on the air for Signal Fire Company 88, you have a Bravo response to the field behind Building 10 for a possible brush fire called in by military police. They are reporting a haze of smoke coming from the field and in the forest. Your time of dispatch is 15:52 hours, Dispatcher 875."
"You can go head out to it," Tom told her. "I don't mind. Just come back safe." They both then laughed.
"Why not?" Raven then began to put more clothes on, taking her shirt off and quickly putting on a bra and a pair of shorts before putting her shirt back on, before grabbing her keys and clothes. She would take her captain's car from Patch and head over to the Signal Fire Company station at Signal Academy and hopefully make the third or fourth rig out. "I'll see you later!" She then ran out after grabbing the last of her stuff.
About 13 minutes after the tones dropped, Raven pulled up at the firehouse after turning her lights and sirens off. She then ran out to the back of her car and grabbed her Signal Fire Company gear. By now, Brush 2002, Engine 2002B, Brush 2002B, and Tanker 2002 had left, and Engine 2002B was about to roll next. After putting her boots and coat on, she grabbed her helmet and mask and ran to the back step of the engine just as it began to pull out of the station and jumped on.
As the engine rode through the icy pathways at the academy, Raven held on as the only person on the backstep of the rig. She grabbed her helmet and put it on with one hand while still holding on with the other. She then looked over and saw the smoke from the brush fire and said, "Shit, that's gonna be a while."
As the engine came to a stop, she jumped off and walked to the officer's side of the engine to await orders. The firefighter up front got out and greeted her with, "Hey, Raven! Your brother wants us to grab the portable water tanks off the engine and go join the crews putting out the hotspots."
"Got it," Raven replied as she and two younger firefighters, most likely students from Signal, opened up a compartment on the engine and grabbed 3 steel portable water tanks with a small hose and nozzle attached to them. Each one could be carried like a backpack and carried about 5 gallons of water.
After Raven put her's on, she pulled her hip boots up and began the short trek to the fire. She thought to herself, "At least this isn't the summertime. That would really suck."
February 20, 2022
"BREAKING NEWS," read a graphic that flashed onto the screen on VNN as an announcer read out a story early in the morning around 3 A.M.
"We have breaking news from Port Vacuo," the announcer said. "Where it is currently around midnight. We are getting reports now of a shooting at a nightclub in the city. We have unconfirmed reports that there was also an explosion elsewhere at the capital city's airport. Do we have a reporter on the line right now? We do? okay, let's get him on the line."
"Cyril!" The reporter, named Jonathan Woodrow, on the other end called out Cyril Ian's name. "Hey! I'm at the VNN field office in Port Vacuo now. What we have so far is that there are believed to be multiple shooters that attacked a large nightclub where an EDM band from Vale called Cityriders was in fact performing. We have no words on the conditions of the band members at this time, nor any estimates on how many shooters there are or how many have been shot. All we know is that there are multiple shooters. Also, as to the airport explosion, we have initial reports that it was a suicide bomber that detonated explosives in the security checkpoint area. We are currently sending reporters to both locations now and trying to get more information from local news agencies, as well as fire, EMS, and police agencies in the city."
In the newsroom, Cyril could feel the atmosphere in the air grow dim as everyone inside began to think back to the August 23rd attacks in Vale and Mistral. "Thank you for the update, John," he replied as he got more information from the screen on his desk. "Alright, the Royal Vacuouan Gendarmerie has sent out messages on Screenbash in Vacuouan, Han, and Valeanian warning citizens and visitors alike to stay away from the airport and the Love Bug nightclub in the city, which I believe is where the shooting is. You can see the posts on the screen here." The posts, all translated into the three aforementioned languages, flashed on the screen. "These posts also urge people who are trapped in those locations to remain as calm as possible and to either escape if they can access a safe exit or seek shelter immediately if they cannot flee. We also have received word that all flights to and from Port Vacuo Resistance Fighters International Airport have been suspended until further notice, and all flights coming into the airport are being rerouted." The main airport for Vacuo's capital was named as such to commemorate rebels who helped topple the Authoritarianist government of Vacuo in the Faunus War. "It should be noted that many flights had been delayed at the airport due to an unexpected snowstorm in the area that only now was clearing up."