The train ride was a wise decision. If he hadn't taken the train, Wayne figured that the walk to the nearest city would have been about five or six hours. Nobody had noticed him when the train arrived at the nearest depot, and he'd managed to get out of the trainyard without alerting any of the personnel. He didn't really particularly feel like dealing with railroad bulls, if this place had those.

Whatever city he was in, it was nice. Clean, well-managed, and nothing like anything he'd seen in his lifetime. Aircraft flew overhead without any visible weaponry or recognizable signals, the buildings had power and no signs of radiation or explosive damage, hell, the streets were impeccably paved. He'd heard rumors of places untouched by the bombs, but Wayne found it hard to believe such places existed. Now, he'd found one. He probably stuck out like a sore thumb.

Still, he needed to get into this city and find a way home, which meant meeting the people in charge of it, which, judging by the size of the city, wasn't going to be easy. A walking tank bristling with heavy weaponry, especially, would find it difficult to present himself as non-threatening in such a peaceful-looking place. He'd have to go incognito, which meant hiding his power armor somewhere where it wouldn't be noticed. Easier said than done in a bustling city.

"Come on, Wayne, it's been 200 years, but surely you remember how cities work. Where would you hide something you don't want anyone to find?" he asked himself, looking around the industrial area he'd found himself in. There wasn't much foot traffic, and the few cars that passed him didn't seem to care much about him standing there, if they saw him at all.

"You know what?" he said, shaking his head, "Let's do it."

Armor be damned. Wayne slowly ambled forward, power armor clanking with each step as he made his way out of the back of the rail yard and onto a nearby street. The first living being he saw in this newfound settlement was a man in a suit that he nearly bowled over on his way out, who yelped in shock at the giant mass of metal that had just crashed his neighborhood, before immediately recomposing himself to flip Wayne off and storm away.

"Fucking Atlesian jackboots!" the man shouted back at him. "Go home!"

Atlesian? Never heard that one before.

"Right back at you," Wayne grumbled, not caring to start a confrontation in the middle of unfamiliar territory. He'd find someone a bit more polite to ask for directions. There were plenty of people to choose from, anyhow, a lot of whom were staring at him. He ended up settling on a young woman in a sundress who seemed to be pointing a device at him, chattering excitedly to someone. "Hey."

"Oh, um, hi, sir!" the young woman replied, lowering the device. "What's up?"

"Where on Earth am I?" Wayne asked. The woman looked at him like he'd just told her that he was a human popsicle straight out of the Vault, an expression he was very familiar with.

"Uh… you're in Vale," she replied hesitantly, taking a step back. "Aren't you… one of those Atlesian soldiers?"

"No idea what an Atlesian is. I'm looking for the person in charge of this city."

The woman blinked, a long, pregnant pause following before she spoke. "I, uh… well… I have somewhere to go, actually, so I don't really have time to explain. Maybe someone else can help you?"

Before Wayne could respond, she was already hurrying off, occasionally shooting a concerned look over her shoulder. So much for 'polite people'. Whatever. He'd find something, eventually. Maybe if he could get out of this industrial district. He kept walking, trying to put the pointed stares and hush whispers of the people who practically dove out of his way as he walked down the street out of his mind. He'd dealt with far harsher receptions as a member of the Brotherhood and Railroad alike. No one had started shooting yet, which was a fantastic change of pace. The Commonwealth could learn a thing or two from 'Vale'.

There were a few more token attempts at asking for clarification, but very little in the way of conversation was had. One older man had told him that Vale was ruled by a council, but that he'd have better luck 'pulling an egg out of a Creep' than getting a hold of them in a timely fashion, whatever the hell a 'Creep' was. The man was kind enough to point him in the direction of the city's commercial district, and told him about some of the local landmarks, including a 'Beacon Academy' just outside of the commercial district. Wayne made a note of it, as it was pretty much the only significant landmark he mentioned. After that, though? Pretty much nothing. Within an hour, he was in the commercial district, and the mood changed considerably, hell, even the looks he was getting did. People were less suspicious of him, instead pointing devices like the one that young woman had at him or taking pictures of him with angular, futuristic-looking cameras the likes of which he'd never seen before. He really should have ditched the power armor.

The low hum of the commercial district was pierced by a scream from off to Wayne's right, down one of the alleys. That was new. A part of Wayne said to just keep walking and not get involved, but for all his self-loathing, Wayne's conscience wasn't a vestigial organ. He tramped through the crowd, even shoving a rather distracted man out of the way as he went into the alley.

"Hello?" he called out, looking around for any sign of the source of the scream. "Who's there?"

"Help! I-" a female, heavily-accented voice cried, before being cut off. It was coming from further down the alley and off to the right, so off Wayne went, armor thudding against the concrete as he made his way to an L-bend behind some buildings. More voices, including that of the woman in distress, became audible as he closed in on the bend.

"Nobody in this town's gonna put a break in their busy schedule for a rat like you, you filthy fuckin' animal," a man growled. "Scream all you want."

"Florin, I'm telling you, I heard something," another man stammered nervously, "We need to go!"

"Go? We're just getting started, ain't that right, miss?" another said, followed by an impact against the concrete and the woman crying out in pain again. "Those are some pretty little ears you've got. I think I'm gonna keep 'em."

"Guys, there's someone coming-" the nervous voice repeated.

Wayne had heard enough. Using his jetpack to give himself a little boost, he flew around the corner, stomping down to grind his heel against the concrete and slow himself down as he came face to face with the source of the voices. Three men no older than him stood around a beaten, bloody girl, one of them armed with a revolver, another with a pair of fighting knives, and the third with a club. The one with the club seemed about ready to piss himself at the sight of Wayne barreling around the corner, while the other two were slightly more composed, the one with the gun already training it on Wayne's head, like it was gonna do him any good.

"Is that fucking Atlesian tech?" the one with the knives asked.

"Doesn't matter," the one with the gun replied. "This ain't none of your business, Captain Atlas, so I suggest you go your own way. We're just taking out some trash."

"You fire that gun and I will kill everyone in this alley," Wayne stated, ice in his voice and veins. He'd already gotten a targeting solution on all three of the men, as if he'd needed one. He was wearing power armor against two goons with short-range weapons and one with a six-shooter. He could flatten them all bare-handed. "Starting with you."

His threat had certainly done some good. If the guy with the club looked distressed before, the growing stain on his pants leg proved that he was more than just 'distressed'. The guy with the knives was on the back foot, looking just about ready to cut and run. The apparent leader of the trio attempted to hold his ground, but he wasn't doing a very good job of it- the shake in his gun hand was easily noticeable.

"I'm going to give you till the count of five," Wayne said, opening and closing his right hand as he checked on the girl on the ground. She was alive, if bad off. "One."

"Last chance, buddy," the gunman said. "This isn't your fight."

"Two."

The man didn't move. Even if his compatriots looked ready to cut and run, they looked to their leader for direction first. They wouldn't leave if he didn't.

Ah well.

"Five," Wayne stated, and drew, pulling his plasma rifle off of his back and firing a burst. The first shot that landed hit the knife-wielder dead on in the head, sending it splattering over the pavement in a green-and-red sludge and drawing a scream from the one with the club. A couple of shots hit the gunman, but did seemingly no damage- some kind of red energy flashed around his body as he stumbled backwards from the impact. The last two punched clean through the coward with the club as he turned to run, sending him faceplanting to the ground and his weapon clattering uselessly next to the leader, who was now panic-firing his revolver at the hip as he righted himself. All but two of his shots missed, the others harmlessly dinging off the X-01's chassis as Wayne surged forward, jumping to clear the injured girl as he raised the butt of his gun to strike his assailant. He landed clean, knocking the man to the ground with another surge of energy before using his free hand to grab him by the neck, lift him up, and hit him with the flashlights, causing the man to scream in pain and attempt to cover his eyes.

"S-shit!" the man screamed, his gun falling out of his hand as Wayne slammed him against a nearby wall, causing the energy to flicker, much more vibrantly this time, before dissipating with a low buzz. Something told Wayne that wasn't going to be a problem anymore.

"Now, what did I tell you?" Wayne asked, mockingly chiding the thug for his downright stupid attempt to intimidate a man in power armor. "If you fire that gun, everyone dies. Now, tell me, what did we learn today?"

"Man, you don't have to-" he started.

"I do have to. I keep my word."

With that, Wayne slammed the man against the wall again, a low, wet crack and the man going limp in his metal vice grip indicating that he was gone. Even outside the Commonwealth, Wayne was still cleaning up garbage. Figured.

His attention turned to the injured woman, who had managed to pull herself up to lay on her side, watching him with awestruck eyes, left nearly swollen shut and both ringed with bruises.

"You okay?" Wayne asked.

"You're not Atlesian," she noted, her voice strained. "Are you?"

"As I've said many times today, I don't know what Atlesian is. I don't even know where I am," Wayne replied. "What'd you do to piss off those thugs?"

The girl slowly sat up and pulled on her blood-matted hair to reveal what looked like bloodied, torn mouse ears. Mouse ears, on a human being. Wayne wasn't sure how to respond to that revelation, other than the obvious.

"Are those real?"

"Yes, genius. I'm a Faunus. Or do you not know what that is?"

"Don't know, don't care. Was that why they attacked you?"

The woman seemed surprised, but collected herself in short order, and nodded. "Yeah. Some people aren't really fond of us, in case that didn't make it clear. Say… if you're not Atlesian, and you don't know what a Faunus is, where the hell are you from?"

"The Commonwealth. Boston," Wayne replied.

"Never heard of it." The mouse-woman attempted to pull herself to her feet, but cried out and collapsed when she tried to put weight on her arm. "Shit!"

"Hey, easy!" Wayne said, putting out a hand. "Don't move. I can fix you up."

The problem with that plan was that he was in his power armor, but it was one that could be easily remedied. Entering the release position, the armor opened up to allow Wayne to exit the chassis, and immediately, he got to work, pulling out a stimpak, some bandages, and a splint from the doctor's bag he was carrying around as he knelt down next to the mouse-woman and grabbed her arm, drawing a pained gasp. "This is gonna hurt. Think it's broken."

He got to work on the arm, starting with a stimpak to the bicep- her forearm was what was broken, so it wasn't safe to inject there. Then, he got to work with the bandage and splint. "You got a name?" he asked.

"Clair," she replied through grit teeth as he started to adjust her arm and place the splint. "Y-you?"

"Wayne. You think you can make it home like this?"

"Yeah. I've got family waiting for me."

"Good, cause this won't be a fix-all. You need to get medical attention from a real doctor," Wayne stated, tying the brace tight and offering Clair a hand up, one that she took gratefully as he pulled her to her feet. Even out of the armor, he was much taller than her- she couldn't be more than four-and-a-half feet tall, she didn't even come all the way up to his chest. "Don't try and push it with the arm. Give it time."

"Yeah, thanks," she said, backing up from him. Even after the rescue, she seemed not to trust him. "Hey. If you don't know anything about Atlas, or Faunus, or any of this, why come down here and help me?"

Wayne wondered that himself. He could have easily kept walking and not given it the time of day. Sure, he might have bitched himself out about it if he somehow found out that his actions had consequences, but the information would likely have never reached him, especially since he was planning on getting out of here as soon as possible.

"I have no idea where I am," he replied honestly, "and I have nothing better to do."

Clair chuckled. "Good a reason as any, I guess. So, you're lost, huh?"

"Yeah."

"I'm staying in town for a little while for my… work. Come with me, we can sit down and I'll explain to you what the hell is going on here, and you can get a shower."

"Shower?" Wayne repeated.

"You smell like shit, Wayne."

Wayne smirked. Guess that Wasteland grime was still on him. "That's no way to talk to your knight in shining armor, Clair."

Clair smirked right back. "Just shut up and get your shit together."

Clair, or 'Clair Delune' as she later clarified, had a rather spartan apartment. There was a couch that folded into a bed, a kitchenette, a bathroom, and a TV. Wayne had to crouch in his armor to get inside the thing, and the suit took up a good quarter of the space when he went to exit it. He took the offer of a shower without hesitation- he hadn't had a good, hot, long shower since he left Sanctuary for Far Harbor, and it showed when he was done with it. He ran the water for a good few minutes after he was done just to clean it out.

By the time he was done and redressed in clothes that he couldn't help but note didn't smell the greatest, either, Clair was laid out on the couch bed on her good side, obviously still in a good deal of pain.

"I've got some Med-X in my bag," Wayne said, before clarifying after remembering that she probably had no idea what the hell Med-X was. "Painkillers."

"I'll be fine. My Aura will fix it up in no time," Clair replied.

"You lost me there," Wayne stated, and Clair just up and laughed at him now.

"You really have no idea where the fuck you are, huh?" Clair asked through peals of laughter. "Brothers, this is amazing. I get rescued by a know-nothing hick in a gigantic suit of armor!"

"Hey, I'm not a hick. The rest of that is spot-on, though," Wayne said, settling for leaning against the wall next to the TV. A news report was on, talking about sightings of a strange man in armor, bodies in an alleyway, and a young man literally appearing out of thin air. All interesting stuff, and all but the last of it involving him. He was sort of curious about that last one, though. "You said you'd explain it."

"You remember the guy with the gun?" Clair asked. "How he didn't go down when you shot him? That red stuff? That's Aura. It's the manifestation of our souls in the physical world, basically heals you and makes you stronger while it's up. Once you run out, then you're just an ordinary person again."

"So, you have superpowers," Wayne said, "got it. Does everyone have Aura?"

"Yeah, but not everyone knows how to use it," she replied. "You have to actually use the stuff for it to work."

"Gotcha."

"So, Wayne, how did you get here?" Clair asked, shifting gears as she sat up to lean back against some pillows she'd stacked up. "You're obviously not from any of the big cities, or any large towns, if you don't even know what an Aura is. Never heard of 'The Commonwealth', but it sounds way too big to be a tiny village."

"It's a place in what used to be Massachusetts," Wayne explained. "Boston's the capitol. I was living there when I hit the button on a teleportation device I'd helped some friends of mine build, and somehow, my entire house ended up in a forest full of blood red leaves. I got attacked by some weird black smoke-animal things, went to the train tracks, and caught a ride on a train this morning. That's how I ended up here."

Clair didn't respond. Instead, she just stared at Wayne like a Brahmin at a brand new pen, and Wayne responded in kind, looking for any sort of recognition or response.

"Okay, but how did you really get here?" Clair asked.

"That's really how I got here," Wayne replied.

"... well, fuck," Clair muttered. "Okay. So, your house ended up in Forever Fall, which is a decent ways away from here. You got attacked by Grimm, monsters that are attracted to human emotion. Then, you caught the express and ended up in the city of Vale proper, the capitol of the Kingdom of Vale, which is one of the Four Kingdoms of Remnant. Make sense?"

"Am I still in the United States of America?" Wayne asked.

"I don't have any idea what an America is."

"Damn." Wayne folded his arms, pressing the back of his head against the wall. "I need to get back home. Got people waiting on me."

"Yeah, well, I don't know anything about teleportation devices and stuff. I'm just a grunt, really."

Wayne cocked an eyebrow at that. "A grunt, huh?"

"Yeah. I, uh… let's just say that those guys trying to take me out in the alley isn't an isolated occurrence. Faunus have it really shit here. Humans only care about themselves and their own, and at best, they allow us to live in their place, on their terms, as if they're doing us some charity. Sucks to see that humans suck everywhere… as a whole, I mean, you're pretty okay."

Wayne rolled his eyes. "Ringing endorsement."

Clair continued. "My family and I are fighting to change things. We're fighting for the Faunus that can't fight for themselves, and ensure that the Humans can't put us in cages or make slaves of us again. We tried being peaceful about it, but then they started shooting us, so… yeah. Now we're being a little less peaceful about it. I was here to scout something out for the leader of our group, but I got jumped on my way home. If you hadn't showed up, I'd have probably never left that alley."

Wayne didn't know anything about Faunus or humans in 'Remnant', but from what it sounded like, things weren't so different. Just replace 'Faunus' with 'Synth' and you weren't too far from the Railroad.

"Believe it or not, I understand," he said, gently, as if the words could wound him just by being spoken.

Clair scoffed. "No offense, Wayne, but how would you really understand our struggle?"

"I wouldn't. But a friend of mine would, if he were still alive. A lot of my friends, actually. Where I'm from, there are 'Synths'. People that bleed red and have skin, flesh, and bone just like us, but were made in a laboratory. Other than that? No difference. Same dreams, same ambitions, same internals, pretty much everything. People in the Commonwealth hate them, fear them, because of who created them. Kill them, if they can. I met a few Synths, turned out they were pretty alright…"

'Some more than alright,' he noted bitterly, the same sting that he felt every time Danse came to mind hitting him, without any chems to dull the pain this time. He took a moment to compose himself, then continued on.

"I decided that I didn't want to be a bystander. There's a group called the Railroad in the Commonwealth. I joined up. Started saving Synths, helping them start new lives, safe from paranoia and bigotry. Been doing it ever since."

Clair watched him with rapt attention as he spoke, and once he finished, she offered him a solemn nod. "Sorry for doubting you, Wayne. I can see it now, just from your face. When you talked about it. Humanity's fucked everywhere, huh?"

Wayne shrugged his shoulders. "You could make the argument." In truth, for all the good the Commonwealth had shown Wayne, it wasn't the world before the bombs, no matter how hard people tried to make it that way, and it never would be. Not even close. Not that the world before was perfect, but it was better than what was now. Humanity had some diamonds in the rough, but a lot of those diamonds were just diamond dust now, ground away by time and far worse people than Wayne.

Clair turned away from him to look at the TV before speaking again. "Look, I know you're new to all of this and that you don't know anything about any of this, but I think we could help each other. You help me and my people, and we'll help you get back to yours. It'll be hard work, and you might have to beat the shit out of a few more racists, but from what it sounds like, that's just another day in the office for you. You're a soldier, like me. My family wouldn't trust you, at first, after all, you're a human, but I think you can change their minds. What do you say?"

"I'm not afraid of a fight." Wayne replied, and truthfully, he wasn't. He wasn't a hitman for hire, nothing of the sort, but the United States Government, the Brotherhood, and the Railroad had asked him to kill, and he hadn't failed yet. "You get me a way home, I'll beat down every bigot in Vale. Can you take me to this organization of yours?"

"No problem. We're out in the woods not too far from the city," Clair explained. "Like I said, I'm not sure they'll accept you at first, but you'll see for yourself that we're a family. We take care of our own. As far as I'm concerned, you're already one of us, Wayne."

She offered him a smile. "Welcome to the White Fang, brother."