Riley wiggled her toes.
"There. All better!" She smiled as she pulled her sock over her reattached foot. "Now to make camp."
She frowned. She'd spent plenty of time outdoors. Sure, Manny was really good at making RVs and tents and stuff, but they'd gotten wrecked a lot of the time. Unfortunately, she'd never been in charge of things like making fire, or putting up a tent, or constructing intricate death traps to kill anyone that got close.
"It shouldn't be too hard, right?"
...
"I hate fire." Riley said with a flat voice. It wasn't true, she'd desperately wanted some fire right now, but her attempts of rubbing two sticks together had failed. It was just easier to express her dissatisfaction by saying she hated fire.
"Besides, it's not like I need one or anything." She slapped her chest. "I'm fully thermally regulated. Plus, it's not even that cold." She squinted her eyes. "More light would be nice though. You'd think two moons would make things brighter at night."
She let out a sigh and sat down. "I'll just need to do the delicate work during the day. I can still fix myself. I could do that blind." As she had done numerous times in the past.
Her stomach growled.
Oh, right. THAT was why having a fire was a good idea. Her digestive track was pretty robust. As a vital organ, she'd made sure to armor it both inside and out. The problem was that some things in the world just weren't edible. It was stupid to eat stuff that you didn't understand.
She'd learned that the hard way. Stupid Kevin and his stupid blocky food!
Food aside, she had a couple of other injuries that needed to be patched up. Her bruised spine was the major one, but she couldn't do any serious work without assistants. She flexed her fingers. Besides, it was only some minor nerve damage. Her brain's signals were still getting through. There was just an annoying amount of feedback.
The second most annoying injury was the stupid quills that were still embedded in her forearm. She'd poked at them while walking, but they just weren't coming out. It was like they were attached with glue or something. She'd have to cut out the surrounding flesh.
Simple enough. Plus, she'd trimmed some of the muscles from her previously amputated leg. She'd had to make sure the necrosis from the venom didn't spread. She'd be able to use some leftovers for a quick replacement of what she would have to cut out.
She could also use some of the skin to help fix the burns she had.
Finally, her ribs wouldn't take much work. Her mesh was durable, and had prevented them from splintering when they'd broke. She only had to cut herself open, put them in place, and maybe add a stabilizer while she was there.
Riley nodded to herself and got to work.
...
It took all night and another glymphatic syringe, but Riley was good as new once the sun rose.
Well, ALMOST as good as new. Her leg would work for walking, but sprinting and climbing would be more difficult. She'd had to remove a large part of one of her biceps femoris muscles. It was more important to replace her damaged gastrocnemius muscle.
Hard to walk well without those.
Her spine still hurt, but a targeted opioid took care of the pain. She would have to limit her mobility for a while to allow the nerves to regrow.
At least now that the sun was up, she could take a closer look at the quills!
Riley pulled out a microscope and examined the end that still had some of her skin attached.
Hmmm... No glue or any other bonding substance on the tip. That didn't really surprise her. They'd been too solidly attached for something like that to really be the culprit.
No, the strange thing wasn't the lack of an adhesive. Instead, it was the fact that there was no overlap of the quill and her flesh. Other penetrating attacks that weren't easily pulled out usually meant some sort of molecular fusing. Sibby had provided her lots of examples over the years.
Riley smiled. Her mom slash pet had proven to be very helpful with her work. She'd never be a healer, but Panda had shown promise.
The quill wasn't fused - she could see where it had pushed aside her flesh as it impaled her. It wasn't attached with any substance that she could detect. It was more like it was generating its own... super-friction. Riley dug around in her backpack before pulling out a pair of surgical shears. The good thing with having a dozen quills shot at you was that you wound up with lots of experimental material.
She cut an inch off of the end of one of the quills, and the flesh immediately fell off the tip.
"Huh?" She picked up the severed end. "That was easy. Whatever makes them stick must be in here."
The quill was tough, but Riley had some mono-filament knives for precision work. She was about to start dissecting the quill when she saw something flying through the sky.
She squinted and zoomed in as much as she could with her eyes. It was another flock of those birds. However, this time was different. This flock had a visible creature in it! A visible creature that wasn't white!
The bird holding it was still invisible, but the tiny... man? in its claws stood out in the sky.
They were still far away, so she couldn't make out any details. Being visible might mean that the other creature was dead. Riley blinked and focused on the infrared spectrum. The small creature might not be moving, but it still glowed warm in her thermal sight. Perhaps it was a non-invisible (a.k.a. visible) creature?
That warranted investigation.
Riley looked around her make-shift camp site. She'd pulled numerous items from her backpack already, but she could do without them. ...Unless she wasn't able to return. She kept one eye rotated to watch the birds while she repacked her bag.
The hyena, snake, and bird corpses could stay. She didn't want to lug them around, and they weren't that fresh anymore. If she wasn't able to make it back in a timely manner, she'd have to dispose of them anyways.
All set, she applied another layer of the frog mucus to her hands and feet before climbing back over the side of the plateau.
One. Two. Three. Fouuuuuur!
Riley's right leg gave out as she put most of her weight on it. She quickly swung her left leg back. The impact turned the thin film of liquid into a sticky mass again.
Right. She needed to rely on her left leg and her arms. She could do that.
One. Two. Three. She got a rhythm going. One. Two. Three. She got down the side quickly and started moving in the direction the birds were flying. They were moving too fast to catch, but she might be able to intercept them.
She really should've packed one of Kevin's guns. Then again, they'd never really interested her and she'd never used one in a fight. Presumably there was some skill involved. So it might be best that Riley didn't have that particular option right now.
Oh! The creature was wiggling.
That was a good sign. It implied that they weren't too badly injured. Sure, the movement might not have been a conscious action. Riley didn't know what it was, and the wiggling might be muscle spasms. Or a seizure. Heck, it might even be the result of a parasite. Something to make the host visible and moving so it gets attacked by a bigger predator and the worm/fungus/bacteria has a better ride.
Riley circled around a snake. It was harder to make out than most obstacles - probably because it was cold-blooded. Probably. She really wanted to cut one open and see how that worked with being invisible.
Later. She had a wiggling... thing to take care of first!
The creature did something that resulted in it falling. Riley frowned. While it was understandable to panic if a (relatively) gigantic bird was carrying you away, it was a pretty poor choice to make it drop you. She slowed down a bit. It would still be worth it to collect the remains. If for no other reason than they'd make a nice contrast for all the invisible animals.
Assuming, of course, that the visible creature was incapable of turning invisible. Surely if it could it would've done so while falling. Then again, something was powering the ubiquitous effect. It obviously needed energy of some sort to maintain it. She didn't even know if it could be voluntarily activated or deactivated.
The large badger that attacked her had turned visible shortly before pouncing. That was only one data-point. It might mean that there was a speed restriction, a demand on concentration, or something else.
Riley shook her head. She was going on a tangent, but she was at least close enough that she could see the visible animal on the ground.
It looked surprisingly intact.
Riley slowed as she approached it. It was clearly alive. The fall hadn't done much damage to it. Instead, the (relatively) huge hole in its center of mass was the more pressing concern. At least it didn't appear conscious. Everything else she'd encountered had tried to kill her, so she doubted the visible creature was any different.
As she got closer, she noticed a few things. Unlike everything else on this God-forsaken world, it wasn't white. It was red, brown, and pink. Red from what she assumed was its blood. Pink from the hair on one side. Brown from its clothing.
That implied sapience. Or at least tool use. Either way, it MIGHT not try gouging her eyes out as soon as it woke up.
Finally, Riley stood above the... dwarf? gnome? midget? little person? It was slightly taller than her hand, and carried a tiny bag and dagger on its belt. She could hardly believe her eyes. It was a miniature human! ...With pink hair.
Fascinating. She wanted to look at its brain! How could something with such a small skull make such intricate clothing?
That could wait. The... dollman's breathing was shallow and quick.
Eh... it was probably relatively shallow and quick if she compared it to what a human's breathing would be if they were that size. It was also a large amount of blood - relatively speaking.
Riley did a quick glance around before putting her bag down and pulling out the tools she used for her most delicate work. The... female? Yes, the female dollman's chest had been punctured by the bird. There were two holes in the front and one in the back.
A quick examination showed that the dollman was lucky. Its armor was tough enough that two of the talons hadn't pierced too deeply. Otherwise her heart and spine would've been punctured or pulverized. Riley was sure she'd still be able to resuscitate the girl, but it would take a lot of work.
Compared to that, cleaning out the acid and stool that was leaking everywhere from her mangled digestive track, repairing the delicate organs, and closing the wound was child's play.
(Literately in her case, as she'd done similar things while practicing with chipmunks when she was trying to be a Good Girl.)
She was mostly done when she smelled fresh-baked cookies.
She immediately jumped to her feet and started really LOOKING at her surroundings. Her Stranger fail-safe had re-routed signals in her brain that weren't making it to where they were supposed to go. It was a warning that something was trying to get her to ignore something she shouldn't.
(Or that Kevin was baking again. Either way, it meant trouble.)
Riley chuckled nervously at her joke as she glanced left and right. Her brother's cooking wasn't bad - if he wasn't trying to 'empower' his food. Plus, stuff he made didn't smell. At all. Which was really strange now that she thought about it.
There! A large heat mass that she should've noticed earlier. It was the biggest one she'd seen, and it was slowly creeping up on them. In fact, Riley could now hear a faint sniffing coming from it.
She bit her lip. It hadn't reacted when she'd stood up, or when she looked at it. Another ambush predator? At that size? She narrowed her eyes. Actually, its size was vaguely familiar...
She slowly reached for her tools and placed them in her backpack. If she didn't make any sudden movements, the invisible animal might continue its slow approach. She pulled out an ampule before gently placing the dollman inside as well.
Next, she hefted her bag onto her back and drew back her arm. Her adversary hadn't noticed her yet. She broke the seal on the ampule before hurling it towards the large animal.
Her aim was good, and it landed right in front of the creature!
The ampule's contents reacted with the air and it began to eject a thick, yellow smoke. The thermal outline of the animal raised its head and moved it side to side. The sniffing sound grew louder before it growled and advanced faster.
"But that was my most potent..." Riley whispered to herself. What could survive THAT?
The badger came into view as it pounced!
Riley dodged to the side, and it flew past her. That was at least a twenty yard leap!
Uh-uh. Nope. No way. It might look like a badger, but it clearly had something keeping it going despite her poison. No real badger could do that - no matter its size. Riley glanced at it as she stood up. Its face was scarred, and its eyes were a ruined mess.
So it WAS the same badger that she'd encountered before. What? Had it been tracking her with smell this whole time?
The badger cocked its head and sniffed the air before launching itself towards her again.
This time, she didn't manage to dodge fast enough, and it clipped her arm.
Riley winced. That was a deep cut. Even worse, it had landed close to her!
She ran.
Riley then jerked to the side, allowing the badger's next leap to go wide. She didn't have the materials on hand to deal with it. Sure, she had some acid squirreled away, but delivering it would be tough. She might be faster and stronger due to her modifications, but that THING had several hundred pounds on her.
How was it immune to her poison? That wasn't fair!
She zigged again.
The badger might be faster than her, but without its eyes it could only approximate her location. Riley continued running, while taking sharp turns every few seconds. The badger sniffed, leapt, and then nearly took her head off as it crashed to her right! She had to get back to the plateau. Even if the badger could climb, she could pour acid on it while it was immobile on the cliff side.
Riley coughed from the dust that had been thrown up. The badger roared and only a sudden stop prevented it from connecting again. She saw the snake she'd avoided before and quickly circled around it. Hopefully it would provide a distraction...
Nope. She glanced over her shoulder as the snake bit the badger. It was about as effective as Riley's attacks had been. The beast didn't slow in the slightest, but this time its charge was off-center.
The plateau was close, but her leg was starting to give out. She stumbled, but kept herself upright. There was no way she'd have enough time to apply the mucus. She needed...
That.
Riley smiled, and angled towards the side of the plateau that she'd been avoiding. The one with the pond. The place that almost assuredly had something dangerous lurking in its depths. The badger sniffed the air before trying another flying leap.
This time, he came up short. That wasn't a good thing. It was adjusting its tactics.
Riley got to the edge of the pond and grit her teeth. This was going to hurt.
She bent down before pushing off from the ground with her two feet - and with her extendible spine!
Something lunged up at her as she flew over the water, but she was too fast. She landed... as gracefully as could be expected on the other side of the body of water. Not that she'd leapt over the entire thing. She'd only cut across the edge. Enough, hopefully, that her scent trail would be obscured and that the agitation from the ambush predators would provide enough noise for her to escape unnoticed.
She limped around the rest of the obstacle. Her leg had been injured from the running, and couldn't support her weight anymore. "Malleable." Her costume thickened into a brace, allowing her to hobble to the cliff.
A splash, a roar, and the sounds of flesh rending echoed behind her. Riley didn't look back. She didn't have time. She shrugged off her backpack and rooted around for the jar with the mucus.
The sound of fighting grew louder.
She applied a layer of the adhesive to her hands and feet, before putting it away. The backpack felt ten times heavier, but she wasn't about to leave it behind.
One. Two. Three.
She started climbing up the wall.
One. Two. Three.
It was hard with one leg in a makeshift splint.
One. Two. Three.
Something crashed into the rocks below her. Riley didn't need to look down to know the badger had caught up.
One. Two. Three.
She didn't look down. Instead she concentrated on striking the wall with the precise amount of pressure that would keep the mucus sticky just long enough.
One. Two. Three.
The badger was raging below her. It sounded like it was pummeling the ground.
One. Two. Three.
She made it to the top! Riley pulled herself up before looking down. The badger wasn't climbing after her. Instead it was invisible again and creeping around the ground.
...
Riley patched up her arm and glared down at the badger. She thought about swearing at it, but shouting might wake up her patient. Although, to be fair, if the dollman hadn't woken up during the chase, then she wasn't likely to wake up from a little noise either.
Regardless, Riley needed to finish up her surgery.
The tiny female was a little worse off. Her small intestine had spilled out from all the shaking. Nothing too bad.
Riley set her down and took her precision tools out again. A snip here. Some anti-baterial smoke there. Some fusing sutures along the side... and done!
Riley eyed her patient for several long minutes. She COULD do a little exploratory brain surgery... The shaking, the fall from that height, and the jostling from the backpack were all decent reasons to... make sure everything was working right. If she happened to discover something new, what was the harm?
"Hey! Knock it off!" Riley spoke to herself, or rather her Passenger. "You're not fooling anyone. Don't make me put my foot down!"
She wasn't sure if Surgery could actually hear her, or if it had been trying to influence her for that matter. Still, better safe than sorry. At the very least she'd convinced herself not to cut open her patient's skull.
For now.
"Okay. Fine. You got me." A high-pitched voice came from her feet. "I've been awake for five minutes." The pink-haired tiny person gingerly rose into a sitting position. "You must be good to see though my [Fool's Death] skill. Huh?" She poked her stomach, and then twisted around to try and look at her back. "Wow. I didn't know there were any Tallfolk that could treat wounds so well. No offense, but your healing potions tend to be watered-down compared to what I'm used to."
Riley's mouth fell open as she looked at the small, pink-haired woman from another planet/dimension... who was speaking English!
"Wait, what? Language!" It slipped out involuntarily as Riley's hands went to her mouth. She cleared her throat. "I mean. Why are you speaking English? And what do you mean about healing potions?"
The tiny woman was still twisting left then right in an attempt to look at her back. "Am I speaking English? Wow. You learn something new every day. I thought I was speaking Gnomish, but I've heard it's the most common language in the world. Where did my jacket go? And what are these bandages doing on my back and stomach?"
"Gnomish? So you're a Gnome? I took the jacket off to work on you and the bandages were there to protect your wounds while I carried you."
"Of course, of course." The Gnome paused and tilted her head. "Wait. Why did you carry me? Couldn't you have just used the potion where you found me?" Her eyes opened wide. "Oh! That means that I didn't fall on you! You had to come and get me? So much for [Fool's Luck]." Her eyes narrowed as she smirked. "But yes, I AM a great and powerful Gnome! Behold me in all my glory!"
She stood up and tossed aside her bandages with a flourish before striking a pose with her hands on her hips. A second later, her pants fell down around her ankles.
Riley giggled as the Gnome frantically tried to pull up her pants and cover her chest at the same time. She apparently hadn't realized the bandages were keeping her decent.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, uhm, Miss Gnome." Riley did a little curtsy. "What should I call you?"
The Gnome had elected to crouch down with her arms crossed over her chest once she'd gotten her pants back on. "You know what they say, only a [Fool] tells strangers their real name." She smiled. "You can call me whatever you want, just don't call me late for breakfast!"
Riley frowned. "Alright. How about I call you..." She looked at the tiny Gnome's pink hair. "Pinky."
"Sure." 'Pinky' nodded. "And I'll call you... Brian!"
"What?"
"Brian. It's an ancient and noble name."
Riley stomped her foot. "It's a boy's name! If you want to call me something, call me 'Bit'."
Pinky raised an eyebrow. "You don't want to be called 'Brian', but you do want to be called a verb? You know your 'name' means to cut, wound, or tear with teeth, right?"
"What? No! It means." Riley frowned. "You know what? Never mind. Sure, my name is a verb. At least it's cute." Which was something that 'Brian' definitely wasn't!
"So..." Pinky's face was nearly as pink as her hair. "Can I have my equipment back?"
Riley's hands shot to her mouth again. "Oh! Of course!" She bent over her backpack. Thankfully, the Gnome's clothes were on top. "Here you go."
Pinky accepted the (relatively) large parcel. She paused to look at the holes in her shirt before getting dressed. After she was clothed, a sinister looking smile spread across her face. "Ah ha!" She brandished a tiny fang like a sword. "Now that I am armed again, none shall stand between me and my destiny! Mwah ha ha ha ha ha!"
Riley reached down and plucked the fang from Pinky's grip. She held it close and looked at it from different angles. "Huh. Did someone bend this so that it's straighter?"
Pinky waved her hands and shouted with a panic filled voice. "Be careful! My blade contains an infinite amount of poison that can kill even the most vicious of animals!"
"Oh?" It was hollow, and it did have a fluid reservoir on the inside. "Let me see." Riley checked to make sure she had a scalpel ready, just in case this toxin also somehow worked on her. She then stopped her heart, and poked her left pinky finger.
"Aaaaahhhh! What did you do?!" Pinky ran around in a circle around Riley with her arms in the air. "What did you doooooo?! Dead Gnomes, I'm sure I have an antidote somewhere!" She stopped and looked around. "Where's my bag of holding!?"
Riley watched as the venom tried to connect to her nervous system. Unlike when the snake had bitten her, her improvements worked precisely as designed. The toxins failed to find any purchase on her modified biology.
She shook her head and restarted her heart. "Nope. This won't help me figure things out." Oh well, at least she didn't have to make a new finger. Those were tricky, especially with her own venom and pressure launchers and what-not.
Pinky's arms fell to her side as her mouth opened wide. "But... How... I... What?" She shook her head. "No, no, no, forget all those questions!" She pointed at Riley. "The big one is WHY would you stab yourself? What are you a [Masochist] or a [Death Wish Warrior] or something?" She glanced side to side before bringing a hand to her mouth and whispering. "I might be able to offer aid with any... destructive urges you get. Don't be afraid to ask for help!"
Riley smiled and handed the Gnome back her weapon. "Nothing like that. I'm immune to all toxins. Well, at least I thought I was until a snake here bit me."
"A snake bit Bit a little bit." Pinky giggled for a moment before growing serious. "No, I get it. You have a class that grants you immunity to poison." She shook her head. "Guess what? There's always a counter skill. The Dyed Lands aren't a Death Zone for nothing!"
Class? Skill? Death Zone? Two of those things sounded suspiciously like her brother's power. Oh God! Was this whole thing Optimize going off the rails?!
...No. That didn't make sense. Even if Optimize was doing something, the other Shards would notice. The whole reason they'd gone to Earth Iota was because Dragon didn't know what was happening.
"What do you mean by Class and Skill?" Riley asked. That seemed to be the quickest way to find out what the... energetic Gnome was talking about.
Pinky looked up at her and tilted her head. "You know, classes! The things that make you better at stuff?" She waved her hands in a circular motion. "That voice that tells you what class you're going to get when you sleep, unless you tell it to go away." She brought a hand to her chin and started tapping her foot. "Although, I guess you could say that skills are where the real power is and that classes are just, y'know, prerequisites. Hmmmm." She closed her eyes and furrowed her brow. "You make a strong argument, Bit. There are even class levels where you don't get a skill, and those are lame! I mean, really disappointing! When I was a young Fra- er, fair Gnome, I recall being so upset about not getting a skill at level eleven! I mean, sure, capstone skills and what not, but it was such a let down from getting one of those to getting nothing!" She looked up and blinked. "What were we talking about?"
Riley could've taken this opportunity to back pedal. Any further questions about classes or skills would reveal her ignorance. Then again, so what if some Gnome knew she was from another world?
"I don't have a class." She sat down cross-legged to be closer to Pinky. Just how was she speaking so loudly anyways? Perhaps an examination of the larynx and lungs was in order.
"Ha ha ha ha ha!" Pinky wiped a tear from her eye. "That's a good one. So what? Are you a [Joker] or something?"
Riley shook her head. "Nope. No joke. I just arrived in this dimension a short while ago."
Pinky crossed her arms. "Sounds fishy to me, but hey, whatever works for you."
"So you get levels and hear a voice?"
Pinky nodded. "Everyone except for monsters and super-powerful things." She squinted. "You don't look like either of those. You sure you don't have a class? If you concentrate you should just... know what it is. Is this what Tallfolk education is like?"
"And it happens when you sleep?"
Pinky nodded again. "Sometimes its so exciting you wake up immediately! If you don't, then it feels like the level up happens as you wake up."
"Interesting." Riley pulled her backpack closer to her and began to dig around in it.
Pinky climbed up her back and stood on her shoulder. The Gnome looked down into the bag. "Hey! You have a bag of holding too! And a big one, that's cool!" She hummed as Riley pulled out one thing after another. "Whatcha looking for?"
"This!" Riley held up the clear glass container that held a power-suppressing parasite.
"Oh. I see, I see." Pinky nodded. "And what, do tell, is that?"
"It's what I'm going to use to monitor my thought patterns."
"What?"
Riley had gotten up and gone to the hyena and snake corpses she had. She extracted their brains and started making a rudimentary spider-bot. It wouldn't make for much of an assistant, since she wasn't giving it any limbs, but it was going to be quite useful despite that. All the time, she answered Pinky's questions and narrated what she was doing.
Finally, after several hours, she was done.
"And you're going to PLUG that thing into your head?" Pinky still looked flabbergasted. "That doesn't seem... uhm... sane?"
Riley rolled her eyes. "Don't worry. I've connected with lots of brains in the past." The box sat around her neck and started monitoring her thoughts. This would be so much easier to do with someone else's brain as the base, but she'd have to make do.
It took a while for the proxy-brain to sync up. Once it did, Riley could feel her thoughts 'echo'.
"All right." She clapped. "Time for the experiment!" She sedated the assembled brain and waited.
It didn't take long for something to happen.
[Doctor Class Ob—]
[Doctor Level—]
[Skill: Anti—]
[Skill: D—]
[Ski—]
"No."
She heard the voice, and she rejected the offer. However, far more interesting, were the changes occurring in the proxy-brain. It was hard to notice, but Riley had a lot of experience in powers manipulating minds. It happened to nearly every Parahuman, and she had studied it extensively.
She hadn't liked that her Passenger could affect her like that at first, but she and Surgery had reached an understanding.
Riley took out the power suppressing parasite and made a few tweaks. She'd have to run more tests and adjust it, but it would prevent any outside tampering for now.
"There. That should block any changes." She looked up at the sky. "No offense, whatever-you-are, but one Passenger is enough."