February 24, 2021

At the company meeting, Captain Kirkridge said, "Tonight, we will be swearing in a new member. Penny Polendina, you may stand."

Penny stood up from her seat and walked over to Ruby, who held the rules and regulations book for the VFC. She placed her right hand on the book and her left hand in the air. Ruby said, "Repeat after me. I, state your full name."

I, Penny Schumacher Polendina."

"Do hereby declare,"

"Do hereby declare,"

"That I will support the Kingdom of Vale,"

"That I will support the Kingdom of Vale,"

"And respect and uphold its laws."

"And respect and uphold its laws."

"Furthermore, I will protect the City of Vale,"

"Furthermore, I will protect the City of Vale,"

"From the threat of fire,"

"From the threat of fire,"

"As a volunteer firefighter of the Vigilant Fire Company."

"As a volunteer firefighter of the Vigilant Fire Company."

"Furthermore, I will provide,"

"Furthermore, I will provide,"

"Rescue and emergency medical services,"

"Rescue and emergency medical services,"

"To the City of Vale."

"To the City of Vale."

"I will not reveal,"

"I will not reveal,"

"Sensitive information,"

"Sensitive information,"

"Unless authorised to."

"Unless authorised to."

"I recognise that my badge,"

"I recognise that my badge,"

"Is a symbol of trust,"

"Is a symbol of trust,"

"And if I break that trust,"

"And if I break that trust,"

"I will face the consequences."

"I will face the consequences."

"As a volunteer firefighter,"

"As a volunteer firefighter,"

"I will accept no compensation,"

"I will accept no compensation,"

"In the form of money."

"In the form of money."

"Finally,"

"Finally,"

"I will do my duty to the best of my ability."

"I will do my duty to the best of my ability."

"Welcome to the fire department," Ruby said as she shook Penny's hand. The 2 then hugged as she whispered, "You did good." The rest of the room clapped for Penny.

Penny laughed and whispered back, "Thanks."

After the meeting section of the night was over, the company went downstairs to put its gear on and practice hitting hydrants out on the street. Team RWBY led Penny to her gear locker, which contained a brand new long coat, a leather fire helmet, a mask, a pair of gloves, and a pair of high boots. Her helmet had a giant letter P on it for probationary firefighter. Weiss said to her, "You will get the probie shield taken off after exactly one year of service. Ruby, Blake, and Yang still have their shields."

Penny said, "This gear looks a lot different than it did in Atlas. Looks lighter too." She then took the boots out and slipped her shoes off before sliding her feet into them. "You pull up the folded section, right?"

Blake said, "Yep."

Penny pulled her boots all the way up and said, "These are like wading boots." She then let her hair down and put her coat on, buckling and zipping it all the way up before stuffing her hair in the back of her coat. "I assume this strap in the middle is designed to keep this coat from blowing upwards."

"It is," Weiss said as she adjusted and tightened the hip strap. "Don't keep it too tight, though, or you'll lose mobility."

Penny then grabbed her mask and put it on. "Let me guess, you guys don't have hoods?"

"Nope," Weiss said. "Some companies do, but we don't."

Then, Penny put her helmet and gloves on. "How do I look?" She gave a thumbs up as Ruby took a picture of her.

"You look awesome," Ruby said. "Hey Weiss, doesn't the captain have to get Penny checked for SCBA usage?"

"Oh yeah," Weiss replied. She then turned around and called out, "Captain!"

"Yes, Weiss?" Captain Kirkridge emerged from his office carrying paperwork.

"Penny's ready to try on the air packs!"

"Got it," he replied. "I'll get my pack from my car and bring it out during hydrant training."

Eventually, as Team RWBY and the rest of the company hit the various hydrants outside the fire station with the truck and the rescue, Captain Kirkridge got Penny suited up. He grabbed the pack from his car and said, "These packs are 2200 PSI and are rated to last for 30 minutes. Now, obviously, as a robot, you don't actually need this to breathe, so you may probably be able to extend this pack to twice that. You really only need it to cool your internal computers down, correct?"

"Affirmative," Penny replied as she grabbed the pack and swung it around her back. "Oh my God, this thing is a dinosaur. It weighs twice as much as the packs in Atlas, and those went for an hour and were charged at 4500 PSI."

The captain laughed and said, "We like to stick to some traditions. But hey, we don't go overboard with tradition."

Eventually, Penny pulled tight the straps on her pack, and she said, "So the regulators on these are not attached to the mask?"

"Nope," the captain replied. "You attach them to the end of the tube attached to the mask."

Penny then turned on her pack and attached the regulator to the low-pressure tube attached to her mask, charging it with air. As Penny took her first breath of air from the pack, her fogged-up masked cleared out. "So, am I interior as of now or later?"

"Well, since you completed all training necessary and then some, you will be cleared to go interior starting today. Of course, you probably won't be taking the lead inside buildings until you get some more time in." The captain then drank some hot coffee he had brought with him outside in the cold. "So, how do you feel?"

"I feel pretty good," Penny replied. "I'm ready to fight some fire."

February 25, 2021

Penny had just come home from conversion training at Beacon Academy when she heard her pager go off at 4:42. It had gone off so much the night before for EMS calls that Penny turned it off. She had turned it back on before going to the 7-hour training session. "Huh," the girl said. "I wonder what the call is for." Then, as she heard the station siren go off in the distance, more tones went out over the pager to call other companies. She immediately bolted from her apartment as she realized what the dispatching of 4 fire companies meant.

As she raced to and then down the stairs, she felt her hard drives race as she realized that this was her first box alarm, the terminology for a reported structure fire or a fire alarm activation.

Eventually, she made it to the station after about 2 and a half minutes. She hurriedly kicked her shoes off and slipped her boots on before grabbing her helmet and putting it on. Then, she grabbed her coat and held onto both as she ran to Truck 201 to get a seat. She ended up getting the 8th seat.

Ruby, who had gotten the 7th seat, said to Penny, "I see you're excited, Penny."

Penny excitedly replied, "Ruby! You made it!" She then put her coat on and began to zip it up as 2 more firefighters, one of whom was Blake, jumped on and grabbed the last seats.

The firefighter in the front seat, Lieutenant Alfred Schnee, turned around and asked, "Penny, you're interior-trained, right?"

"Yeah, I got trained by Atlas." Penny then sat down in her seat as the truck began pulling out the station, 3 and a half minutes after the call went out.

"Got it. Put a pack on and we'll put you to work." Alfred then turned around and radioed, "Fire Alarm, Truck 201's en route with a crew of 10, 9 interior." The driver was non-interior, being a much older firefighter in his mid 60s.

Penny reached behind her and began pulling tight the shoulder straps on the SCBA. Once this was done, she reached for the waist strap and clipped that in as well. "Everything's all correct on the pack, right?"

Blake nodded as she reached forward and reached her right hand to the bottom of her pack to turn it on. "Just be sure to turn it on. Mask up when you get out of the truck, Penny."

Eventually, after 2 and a half minutes of driving, Truck 201 arrived at the scene of a 2nd floor apartment fire. By now, fire was blowing out of a window and heavy smoke billowed out of another. Penny and a second firefighter stepped out first, running to the back to grab a supply line. As Penny jumped out of the truck, she tightened her waist strap on her SCBA, her mask's tube already attached to the regulator and her pack ready for use later.

When she got to the back of the truck, the second firefighter opened the supply line compartment door and pulled the 5-inch hose out, with Penny feeding the rest to him as he ran to the hydrant. Penny thought to herself, "This is really happening! My first call is an actual fire!"

Eventually, Penny grabbed the hydrant bag from another compartment and ran to the hydrant. There, the second firefighter said to her, "You know how to hit one of these?"

"I remember most of it from last night," Penny replied as she got the tools out. As she did, another firefighter began raising the aerial ladder of Truck 201 up to the 3rd floor.

The second firefighter opened the large steamer cap on the front of the hydrant while Penny opened up the smaller right nozzle cap. She then grabbed a hydrant gate and attached it to the nozzle connection. This would serve as a backup in case the steamer connection failed. Meanwhile, the second firefighter hooked up the supply line to the steamer connection with another gate. He said to Penny, "Don't charge the hydrant until we get the order to over the radio."

"Got it," Penny said as she attached a wrench to the top of the hydrant.

Sure enough, Truck 201's driver, now operating the pumps, radioed over the fireground channel, "Truck 201 Pump to Hydrant 1, charge the line!"

"10-4," Penny radioed back before cranking the wrench all the way until it stopped, filling the supply line with water. Once the line was charged, she ran back to the captain.

The captain saw her and told her, "Get your mask on and go in the building with the paid lieutenant off of the ambulance."

"Yes, sir," Penny replied. She then took off her helmet before pulling her hair back and putting her mask on. Once she was on air, she put her helmet and gloves on as the captain pointed to the paid lieutenant.

He said, "So, your name is Penny, right?" He then donned his own mask.

"It sure is," Penny replied back. "Your gear looks much more like the gear I used in Atlas."

"Interesting. Anyways, we'll be entering on the 3rd floor with the ladder." He then pointed to Truck 201's aerial ladder.

Penny nodded and followed him as they walked to the truck and climbed up to the base of the aerial. As she looked up at the smoke and flames, she thought to herself, "Here I go."

Then, they climbed up the ladder. As Penny watched below her, she began to smell the smoke intensely. The paid firefighter then said, "When we get up there, we'll meet up with some Vigilant firefighters on a hand line."

Eventually, they reached the window. Penny climbed in first, stepping through the window and into the third floor, followed by the paid firefighter. She said, "Alright, where's the hand line?"

"Follow me," said the paid firefighter. The 2 then began walking through the smoke, which got thicker as they went deeper into the building. Penny looked in awe at the environment surrounding her.

When they reached the line, 3 Vigilant firefighters approached them. The leader of the group said, "It's all charged and ready to go for you guys. We'll be leaving to get our air bottles replaced and refilled."

"Got it," replied the paid firefighter. He then motioned with his right hand for Penny to follow him as they both got down on their knees to crawl below the smoke, which had become thick. It was almost impossible to see down the hallway they were going down.

Eventually, they reached the end of the hand line, and Penny decided to be at the front, with the paid firefighter backing her up. At the very end of the hallway was some of the fire.

"You know what you're doing, right?"

"Yes, I do!" Penny then slowly opened up the bale of the nozzle as they both moved down the hallway further. As the water hit the flames, steam billowed throughout the hallway as they both heard the sizzling walls and floor. Penny thought to herself, "By God, it feels amazing to do this for real! I haven't done a real fire since that one Reichsmarine frigate burned up on a deployment!"

After everyone returned to the station, Penny was taking her gear off and putting it back when suddenly, Ruby came up from behind and hugged her, saying, "Good job at the fire, Penny!"

Penny smiled, laughed, and replied, "Awww, thanks, Ruby." After they split, Yang, Weiss, Blake, and Ren came up too.

Ren asked, "So, how do you like it?"

"I love it," Penny replied excitedly. "I haven't fought an actual fire in 3 years. I can't wait to do more stuff with you all."

Weiss replied, "You won't wait long. We do over 1,000 fire-rescue calls and 6,000 EMS calls per year. That includes at least 50 to 60 working fires. You'll see a lot here, Penny. As someone who's been here since they were 12, trust me on that."

"Since 12? No way! They let people do it that young?"

"You have to be 14 to receive Basic Firefighter-CFR training," Blake said. "You then have to be 16 to actually go inside buildings. Before then, you're exterior-only."

"I wonder if I break that rule," Penny replied. "It's been only almost 7 years since I was built. Then again, I was built with a physical age of 15+ starting out, so it doesn't matter, I guess." She then laughed. "I'm gonna really enjoy it here in Vale," she then thought to herself. "All of my old friends are here with me again, and I'm still doing what I enjoy: hunting Grimm. And now, I'm even starting to enjoy fighting fires too."