January 2, 2021

Weiss, Ruby, Yang, and Blake all met at the training academy entrance, carrying bags with their turnout gear. Starting today, they would undergo more advanced fire and medical training. Weiss would undergo Advanced Firefighter-Paramedic training, while Ruby, Blake, and Yang would all undergo Intermediate Firefighter-EMT training. Several other Vigilant firefighters would also undergo training of other kinds.

Weiss said proudly to the group, "This day begins a new era for all 4 of us. Starting today, we will all be able to perform various tasks we have only hoped of doing. For the next 24 weeks for you 3, you will undergo training to further your firefighter training and become emergency medical technicians. As for me, I will begin a training course of 36 weeks to further my firefighting skills and become a paramedic."

Ruby excitedly said, "I can't wait! I've been itching to get more certs since I passed my BF-CFR, and now's my chance!" She jumped in the air with excitement.

Yang laughed and told her, "Calm down, little sis. We still got a long way to go before we reach Weiss's level of proficiency."

"I'm not that proficient," Weiss casually replied. "I've only been doing this since 2009. Compare that to guys who've been doing this since the 1990s or even earlier."

"Well," Blake replied. "Let's hope we can reach that level one day, girls."

As they walked through the entrance onto the academy grounds, they saw Theresa enter after them. She said, "Hey guys! Over here!"

Yang turned around and said, "Hey there, Trace!" She then high-fived Theresa. "So, you here for BF-CFR?"

"Of course," the young girl said. "I brought my book bag from school and my turnout gear bag. My mom had me bring a lot of supplies, so my shoulders hurt already."

"I don't see why," Weiss replied. "We don't write things down a lot. We just put our gear on and get to work. By the way, did you make sure to bring an SCBA with you?"

The girl frantically replied, "Wait, what?! Shit!"

Weiss then laughed, saying, "Just kidding, Theresa. We don't bring SCBAs to training, only our masks. The academy supplies us with their own sets. They'll give us SCBAs that are timed to our company's timing, 30 minutes."

Theresa grinned and said, "You asshole! You almost gave me a heart attack!" She then laughed. "Well, time to go."

After training ended, the quartet returned to their apartments at 10:45 P.M. They were all tired out, having first done a series of medical practise courses and then a live fire drill. Weiss in particular was very tired, having done her first practise intravenous injection into a cadaver before doing a high-rise fire attack. Ruby asked her, "So, how's paramedic training?"

"Very tiring," Weiss replied as she yawned. "But it was fun. The cadaver we had was a really old guy who had died of a heart attack about 3 months ago." She then yawned again. "Well, I gotta go to bed. Goodnight, girls."

Yang walked into her room and saw George, who had arrived 10 minutes earlier, sleeping in her bed. She smiled and said, "Hey Georgie, I'm home."

George tiredly woke up and turned on the light in the room. He yawned and said, "Oh hey, Yang. How was it?"

"Pretty good. How about you?"

"Same." He then turned off the lights and rolled over. "Goodnight."

Yang got undressed as she opened her drawers and put her night clothes on. After, she got into bed next to George and kissed him on the cheek, saying, "Goodnight."

Ruby, in her room, yawned as she checked her phone. She said to herself, "I really hope we don't get a fire-rescue call tonight. I'm tired as hell." She then put her phone away and went to bed.

January 3, 2021

At 4:02 A.M., Ruby's worst fears were realised.

Ruby, Yang, and George all awoke to the sound of the station siren going off. Ruby jumped out of bed and said to herself as she grabbed a warmer shirt, "You gotta be kidding me!"

Yang and George both scrambled out of bed to get dressed in warmer clothes. George got a text on his phone that read out the info of the call. It was for a carbon monoxide alarm with reported illness.

Within 3 minutes, Ruby, Yang, Weiss, and Blake all reached the station. George had gotten into his car to drive to Goodwill's station. The 4 of them all quickly put their gear on.

Ruby and Yang ran to the truck while Blake and Weiss got in the rescue since there were only 2 more seats not filled on the truck. Weiss turned on the ignition of the rescue as the truck pulled out with a full crew. Blake got in the officer's seat next to Weiss as they waited for more people to get on the rescue.

Within 5 minutes, the rescue was full, and Blake radioed, "Rescue 201 to Fire Alarm."

"Rescue 201," the dispatcher replied.

"En route with a crew of 9, at least 5 interior." Blake did not know about the status of the 3 firefighters riding the rear step.

About 30 seconds later, Truck 201 pulled up. By now, Ambulance 201 and Car 5 had radioed for 2 more ambulances to be dispatched from the Situ Mingyu Rescue Squad. Their station's air horns could be heard blasting away to summon their volunteers as the interior firefighters of the truck's crew got masked up.

Weiss and Yang both grabbed carbon monoxide meters from a compartment on the truck after putting their masks on. Weiss said, "It doesn't sound too good. They got about 4 patients possibly sickened by carbon monoxide."

They then walked inside the building with several other firefighters. Hermann led the group. He said, "Ladies and gents, one of the patients said he thinks it could be a boiler in the basement of this apartment building. The basement door is near the elevators. I want Weiss and Yang to go and check CO levels down there. Everyone else follow me to find more patients in the apartments."

Weiss and Yang nodded. Yang said, "Alrighty then. Let's go to the basement."

As soon as they opened the door, stepped into the basement, and turned their meters on, they spiked and began to beep. Weiss said, "Holy shit! There's like 400 parts per million just in this doorway!"

As they traveled down to the basement floor, the uneasily watched as the ppm of carbon monoxide gradually increased. Yang said, "It went up to 800 ppm just by stepping onto the floor! This is bad!"

As they looked around, they heard the beeping of carbon monoxide alarms going off. It didn't take them long to get to the boiler room.

As they approached the door, Weiss said, "Wait, Yang. Before we go in, we should call for more firefighters." Yang nodded. Weiss got her radio and said, "Vigilant Basement Interior to Vigilant Command."

Captain Kirkridge replied, "Go ahead."

"Can you send Rescue 201's interior crew down to the basement? We're getting really high ratings down here."

"10-4. We'll send them down."

Yang checked her meter again and gasped. "I got almost 1,600!"

"My God," Weiss replied in shock. "I can only imagine the readings in the boiler room." She then opened the door.

Immediately, the readings spiked to 2,700 ppm, shockingly high. Yang said, "Oh my God..."

Weiss said, "I pray nobody was down here at this time of night. If they were, they're probably dead now."

"Let's pray nobody used a match either. After 1,000 ppm, carbon monoxide's flammable." Yang looked around the room and saw the various boilers used to heat the water of the building. "Well, we can start making this better by shutting off these boilers."

"Good idea." Weiss then walked over to one of them and looked around for the control panel. "Aha!" She then pressed the 'off' button on the panel, shutting that boiler down. "Now, let's repeat."

About 20 minutes later, Yang and Weiss emerged from the building, having turned off all the boilers and opened several doors and windows to air the basement out. They had about 4 minutes of air left when they did.

Ruby and Blake were outside, helping to direct residents to a triage area. By now, Incident Command had counted at least 35 patients, making this a mass casualty incident.

Yang and Weiss walked up to them after they took their masks and helmets off. Yang said to an exhausted Ruby, "How's triage, sis?"

"Tiring," Ruby replied as she yawned, holding a clipboard and 4 markers. "I dabbed the foreheads of like 15 different people in 10 minutes with the triage colour markers, all while having to console them and take down info about them. Blake here directed them to the tarps."

"That was fun," Blake said sarcastically. "I had a few guys faint on me while I had to carry them to the tarps. It didn't matter whether or not they were green, yellow, red, or black." She then sighed. "I had someone helping me earlier, but I don't know where they ran off too."

"Sorry I left," George suddenly said as he walked to the group. "I had to go change out SCBAs for my company, Blake." He then turned and saw Yang. He immediately ran over as the couple embraced. "Yang!"

"George!" The couple then kissed and split from each other. "So, I presume you didn't make the engine?"

"Nope. I had to grab my gear at the station and drive down here by myself." His tone then changed to one of annoyance. "It was a God damn nightmare getting through traffic to the station and to the scene, which is surprising at night. This one lady cut me off like it was nothing. I know my blue lights are just a courtesy, but come on."

"Sorry you had to go through that," Yang replied. "I remember this one time before I joined the fire department back in 2019 when some guy talking on his cellphone and eating at the same fucking time cut me off and did an illegal turn. I let him have a piece of my mind when we both came up at an intersection later. And you wanna know what he was still doing? Talking on his cell and eating at the same fucking time. I ended up causing a huge cramp in my right arm."

"Let me guess," Weiss said. "The spot where it was cut off and then reattached?"

"Yup." Yang then pulled up the right sleeve of her long coat, exposing the sword scars and surgical scars. "The doc said I may have overexerted something there. I got it all patched up though. By the way, thanks for grabbing the severed half of my right arm after Adam cut it off, Blake."

Blake smiled and gave a thumps up, saying, "Don't mention it." She then laughed.

Ruby, however, suddenly began to stare off into the distance, as if watching something nobody else could see.

Weiss looked at her, confused, and said, "Uhhhh... Ruby? You alright there?"

Yang waved her arm in front of Ruby's face, saying, "Uhhhh... Ruby, can you hear me?"

As Ruby stared into the distance, she began mumbling something to herself that nobody else could understand. Then, she yelled, "No! Stay away from her!"

As the redhead fell backwards onto the ground, Yang, Blake, and Weiss all rushed to her, helping to pick her up as she began to return to her senses. Weiss said, "Holy shit! Ruby, what was that?!"

"I... I don't know..." Ruby then sighed. "All of a sudden, it felt like I was... Back there..."

Blake asked, "Back where?"

"Beacon during the attack..."

"Oh boy," Yang replied. "Look, Ruby, don't worry about it anymore. That was a long time ago. The White Fang may be still around, but Cinder and her cronies are long gone." She then patted Ruby's back. "Now, how about we relax after this call?"

"Yeah. I guess that would be nice." The redhead them sighed. "That was a doozy."

Yang looked in the distance and thought to herself, "It's obvious Ruby could use some help, but I fear that if she seeks it, she could get booted from the Hunting Corps or art least demoted. God, what should I do? My own little sister could have some disorder, and I'm just standing here doing nothing out of fear!"