Sorry again about the length of the hiatus, life has...not been kind. Had my front tires on my car explode and wear so thin that it was about to explode, had to replace my phone and Verizon cut my contract so I had to downgrade from 2014 smartphone to 2006 flip phone. Then I've had 4 school projects in a row, and work out the wazoo, but hopefully this should move faster because the illustrious Mr. Stark357 has become my beta reader for this endeavor and will make my gramatical revisions that much better. So now...read my pretties...read to your hearts content.

The Remnant of RWBY

Chapter 3: It's Not All it's Cracked Up to Be

Upon entering the city, Jaune took stock of his surroundings and was surprised at the level of civilized society he was greeted with. The city itself was built long before the new inhabitants had renovated it, as office complexes and housing developments were the predominant scene, while there were a few select buildings such as a police station, a church, and a water treatment plant. Built into the office complexes were the businesses of Mountain Glenn as he saw Craterside Supply, Moriarty's Saloon, The Brass Lantern, Ren-Valkyrie Wasteland Fashion, Schnee Caravans, and Vale Postal. He looked around in awe, but before they could make it into town, a man in full combat armor stopped them. As if on cue with their shitty run of luck, the local law approached them; he was a tall black man in his early forties with a full beard and an old cowboy duster. He wore a silver star and a cowboy hat, with a strange assault rifle on his back and was flanked by a young girl in a red turtleneck and a black leather jacket with a frilly black and red skirt with black pants beneath it with black leather boots; she also wore a red cloak and a red beret with a patch on it that said NVR 1st Recon and around her waist was a belt with lots of bullets and a rose brooch, "Excuse me, I'm gonna need you to come with me." He spoke as Jaune looked to Pyrrha.

"Let's just do as he says." She said looking to Ren and Nora who nodded and walked off. They followed him to his house which was built on top of the old police station, and he sat them down.

"Look, you Vault Dwellers are new here an' I get that, but we got our own rules here, and unfortunately Faunus don't have a place on the surface." He said sternly.

"What!?" Velvet roared, flashing with rage, "What do you mean!?"

"Look, I don't know how much you actually know about the Old War, but Faunus aren't exactly liked across the Wasteland so in order to preserve peace in our town and to give Faunus a shelter to call their own, we let them live in the old subway tunnels." He explained, "We call it the Veldt, and if you want to go there I have no problem with it, but if you're gonna walk around up here you need to hide those ears." He added sternly offering her a beanie. Velvet grit her teeth, but accepted the hat furrowing her brow at the man, before hiding her ears and waiting on the man to keep talking, "I don't know how much Nikos has told you, but let me just fill you in on all you need to know. If you want a drink or something to eat either visit Moriarty's or The Brass Lantern, if you get hurt or need medicine visit Doc Church in the clinic, you need armor go to Wasteland Fashion, you want guns go to Craterside Supply or Schnee Caravans, and if you want work just ask around and we can find you something." He finished as he eyed them for questions.

Fox looked to the gang and spoke first, "Yatsuhashi and I worked Vault security, and are damn good shots with a gun and are even better in a close range fight, so we'll help defend this city for some money. I assume water, food, and lodging aren't a part of the deal?"

"You're part right, I don't mind giving you all a place to live, I just hope you don't mind communal living." He said, "Food and water you'll have to get yourselves."

Yatsuhashi however was the first to speak on real-estate, "Is there any property available in the Veldt?"

"Are you serious?" He asked, surprised that they would venture into the darkness with Velvet, "Uh, yeah it's got some places, they're not the best places but they'll do." He finished looking to his protege, "Deputy Rose can show you around." He finished as the young girl saluted, and walked them all out of the house.

Once outside though, her demeanor changed completely as she stretched and yawned loudly, "I'm hungry, wanna go get something to eat?" she asked as they looked baffled, except Pyrrha who chuckled.

"Nora said she was going to treat us to pancakes and some new outfits for my friends here, so I guess we should check in at Craterside Supply." She said motioning towards the store.

"But I thought Ren and Nora ran Wasteland Fashion?" Jaune asked in confusion.

"They do, but Nora's aunt runs Craterside Supply." Ruby said as she skipped along as they followed her. Jaune took this opportunity to get better acquainted with his surroundings, in the town square there was an undetonated Dust Fission bomb, that had collided with the fountain in the town square. Not far off in the ruins of an old stone church was a group that had raised radiation warning signs up and put up a sign that was spray painted to say, "The Children of the Atom". In the same square, in the ruins of an old diner was The Brass Lantern that had been converted into a bar, built up and fortified using concrete, sheet metal, and rebar. Across the way was the clinic which was basically an old apartment complex that had been converted into a housing center for Megaton residents with a triage on the first floor. Due to the desolate nature of the city, walkways had been build out of metal that spiderwebbed their way through the city's skyline. Old office buildings had been turned into housing and commercial business, as they built around the internal columns that preserved structural integrity. Likewise, Vale Postal was an old post office, but next to it was an office building that housed Schnee Caravans, but at the top of the same building was Moriarty's rising above them all like a king's castle.

But after seeing all there really was within the walls, Jaune focused on walking up the ramp to Craterside Supply. The building itself was the third floor of a department store, that had it's windows replaced with plates of steel and had fixed a door closest to the ramp. When he entered he was baffled by the strange floor plan as the floor was previously used to sell cosmetic based on the columns with displays mounted on them and some of the torn banners in the store, but it had recently been filled with spare machine parts, articles of clothing and armor, as well as random medical supplies and bullets just lying in a strange form of organized chaos. However the main attraction here seemed to be the rapid fire exchange of information between Nora and her aunt that was conveyed in giggles, shrieks, and sentences so fast they were hardly comprehensible. "Oh, Aunt Moira, this is my new friend Jaune and his friends whose names I don't quite know…" She said suddenly in disappointment, as Coco smiled and stepped forward.

"My name's Coco, and this is Fox, Velvet, and Yatsuhashi." Coco replied with a smile, "We're from Vault 73, and we're looking to set up shop here for the time being." Jaune admired Coco because she was a disciplined speaker and was good at getting to the heart of matters.

"Wonderful!" Moira exclaimed clapping her hands together, "Well Nora tells me you all may be in need of some new equipment and I'm happy to provide you with a start up, on one condition however."

"Name it." Juane spoke, eyeing the guard Ren was near. The man had armor made of leather and an assault rifle strapped to his back; he eyed them warily as well.

"Well I'm working on this book you see, because despite the years people have spent in the Wasteland, there is still no guide documenting how to properly survive. So my proposal is that you help me a bit with my research and I reward you for your efforts with some of my better stock and some caps, how does that sounds?" She asked looking them all over.

"That sounds grand." Jaune said, "So what kind of research do you need?"

"Well for the first chapter I think it'll be best to focus on the most basic aspects of the Wasteland: knowing the terrain, finding food, and avoiding radiation." She said as she handed him a list of things to do, that he read over, "But first I'll hold up my end of the deal and give you all something proper to wear so you'll look just dandy!"

She led them off, having Ren take the men while she and Nora took Coco and Velvet. Ren quickly got them out of their jumpsuits as he worked on redesigning them and offered them some pre-war clothes to slip into for a while. As he changed, Jaune looked over the list she required and was stunned by the five items on it. The first was to head to a local Super Duper Mart and inspect the food and medicine to see how much if any remained. Then he was to contract radiation poisoning!? She must have been really crazy, and he could see how it was inherited in Nora's personality, as her third task was to inspect raider settlements nearby to inform people of the telltale signs of raider occupancy. Her fourth task was to scout the town of Minefield for frag mines, and his fifth mission was to head to the nearby manufacturing plant Vulcan Arms and scavenge weapons to break down for parts. Jaune stepped out and was wearing a white tuxedo, Yatsuhashi was wearing a button down and a sweater vest with slacks, and Fox wore khakis and a short sleeve button down. The girls were wearing new clothing too, as Coco emerged in a nice beige spring dress with a beret and some sunglasses, while Velvet was wearing a pink spring dress with a shawl and a floppy hat. "The modifications will take a while, so please do explore the town and absorb some information." Nora called, as Moira came to join them.

"Hey, Moira, I have a question for you." Jaune asked.

"What is it?"

"Well, it seems like Faunus are pretty hated around here, is there a reason behind that?" He asked the question they were all thinking.

"Oh, well, that's a mystery to me too." She said quizzically, "Personally I think they're lovely people and I'd like to see more of them above the underground. But I guess they like it better down there, it's a shame." Wait, she thought they lived down there by choice? There was something definitely wrong with this town, and Jaune would soon get to the bottom of it.

Like I said in the last chapter, it will get longer, so have faith. I'm just focusing more on telling a decent story now than length of the chapters. Tell me what you think in the reviews and if you like what you see, please keep reading.