Dev lay back against the lean-to he'd made and enjoyed the fire. The wooden partitions he'd put around it kept it from broadcasting his position while still letting air in and providing him with heat and light. Not that it was that cold, objectively speaking. So far this world's weather was similar to his homeland's mild winters, but that might change.

He let out a satisfied sigh as he sketched the landscape and the animals he'd seen that day. Ironically, his pencil was just as good as a paintbrush. Part of that was the fact that the only break from white this land offered were shadows. It made capturing photo-realistic images with just paper and lead possible. The other part was his newest class: [Drawer].

Heh.

Classes.

Skills.

Another world.

It was like he was in a story, and he was going to enjoy it.

Still... he felt a little bad about the group that had arrived with him. 'A Scout is loyal.' The 2nd command of the Scout and Guide Law gnawed at him.

Not that he'd had any reason to be 'loyal' to a group of people he'd just happened to be standing close to when they'd been transported. A common background didn't mean he had to offer his service. The Scout and Guide Law didn't make him an philanthropist.

However... 'To help other people', was part of his Promise.

He'd tried! He really had, but there was only so much you could do. He understood the wilderness. He had experience. He knew that 'soft foots', to use an English term, like them would never survive in the wild. Their ideas about what to do... to sell their phones... to form a 'mercenary company'... they were just wrong.

Dev didn't want any part of that.

So he'd set off. To explore the un-explored. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go...

Ah. He chuckled softly to himself.

He never was one much for television, but his English was pretty good, and he loved StarTrek. It was one of the few shows that practiced the ideals of The Bharat Scouts and Guides. In fact, it was what inspired him to join in the first place.

A slight rustling came from the edge of his camp followed by a twang.

Good. That meant dinner was here.

Dev got up and walked over to one of his traps. A rabbit hung by his snare, now visible. Like him, the non-predators were mostly active at night. Thankfully, being invisible didn't mean much against snares and pits.

[Fortify Camp] only did so much. He still had to be smart about placing his traps and making sure he was secure. It was more important during the day as that was when the dangerous animals prowled about, but it was also vital to capture food where he could get it.

Dev poked the rabbit with his knife to make certain it was dead before taking down and re-arming his trap. He'd break camp just as soon as he skinned and cooked the rabbit. It wouldn't take long. He could do the former in a flash long before he'd gotten skills to help him. The latter would also be quick as the rabbit was thin. It wouldn't take much time to cook through.

He'd just placed the skewers next to the fire when a thin red line shot through the night sky.

Dev glanced at it before doing a double take. Red? This world was strange, but the one constant of this un-explored area was that it was white. The other color stood out like a beacon. Dev's eyes traced back along its path to where it had originated.

He blinked.

He recognized that landmark. It wasn't hard. The Chalklands were mostly a flat savanna, so the plateau that jutted out of the ground was distinctive.

He'd also camped there for several days. It was the safest location he'd found so far.

"Well, well, well." He sat back and waited for his catch to cook. "I guess there's a change of plans." He'd been intending to keep pushing inward through the Dyed Lands to find the center, but it was worth backtracking some to say 'Hi' to a fellow [Explorer]. They were the closest thing to a Rashtrapati Rover that he was likely to find in this world.

'A Scout is a friend to all and a brother to every other Scout.'

Besides, anyone else that had made it this far into the Chalklands had to know a trick or two. It would be fun to compare notes.

Riley woke up and yawned. While her REM replacement solution worked, nothing beat a good night's sleep. With the badger dead, she finally felt safe enough to allow her remaining Monkey-bots to stand watch. Speaking of which...

Riley ► All Monkey-bots, assemble.

The pure white Monkey-bots started to converge on her.

Monkey-bot A ► Ook.
Monkey-bot B ► Ook.
Monkey-bot E ► Ook.
Monkey-bot H ► Ook.
Monkey-bot I ► Ook.
Monkey-bot J ► Ook.
Monkey-bot K ► Ook.
Monkey-bot L ► Ook.

Hmm... a third of them had been killed. Riley could, of course, use their remains to assemble some more Monkey-bots, but that could wait. The poison that had killed them was still preventing any rot or degradation from kicking in.

No, she had a much bigger and more important project she had to start first. Tinkers needed Brutes to deal with things, and the Bloodrage Badger was one of the biggest Brutes around.

There was so much to do.

She had to examine its nervous system. Some electricity could restart things, but she only wanted the sub-conscious processes reactivated. Making it live again was the first step as the longer it was dead the harder it would be to bring it back to life.

Riley hummed as she worked.

There were soooo many options! A body this large was both a blessing and a curse in that sense. She could cram soooo many upgrades into it, but it would take a good amount of time. She had to start prioritizing. Her Passenger was already providing idea after idea, but she got a sense of... uncertainty. Like, the outcome of some of the potential modifications was in doubt.

Well, that made sense.

This world had magic. Shards didn't.

Until she worked out the process of how the white coloring worked, there were bound to be unknown variables that threw things off. The part of her she'd turned into a plant and grafted onto the tree was doing fine, and it hadn't turned white so far.

That was probably for the best.

Better to have a 'scarce' resource (compared to the rest of the world that Pinky had described), than an infectious one.

...

"Hah! Who! Yay! Hee!" Pinky was awake and attacking imaginary opponents with her dagger. "And now, [Scarlet Beam]!" A red laser shot up from her diminutive form and into the clouds. "[Scarlet Beam]! [Scarlet Beam]! [Scarlet Beam]!" The Fraerling fell silent for a moment. "Aww... Only three times? I wonder how long it takes to recharge?"

Riley looked up from the badger's corpse. It was breathing again, but until she got the heart beating she couldn't really call it 'alive'. "What are you doing Pinky?"

"Oh, just something [Foolish]." She walked over and jumped up on top of the badger so they were close.

"I've been meaning to ask." Riley pressed another section of the badger's brain. Nope, no response from that. "If you can tell what's 'foolish' and what isn't, why do 'foolish' things?" Wouldn't the point of a Thinker ability like that be to avoid trouble.

...Then again, if the leveling system here was like the Shard Network, it might be compelling people who used it. It may be purposely forcing them into conflict. Something to watch out for.

"Well, there are different kinds of [Foolish]." Pinky stroked her chin. "Plus, most things are [Foolish] in one way or another. Like, shooting a bright red beam into the sky is [Foolish] in that it draws attention to us. It's also [Foolish] to waste a skill." She smiled. "However, it's NOT [Foolish] to test your new skills and determine how powerful they are, what their range is, and how often you can use them." Pinky nodded to herself. "It's like the Titan always says, 'Information is power'."

"Ah, I understand." At least she'd waited until they'd both gotten some sleep before potentially drawing more invisible creatures towards them.

"Also, doing [Foolish] things is how I level." Pinky shrugged. "It's hard sometimes to determine how [Foolish] is too [Foolish] and what kind of [Foolish] actions lead to what kind of results." She tapped her foot. "Take my decision to enter the Dyed Lands, that was the wrong kind of [Foolish] in hindsight. I mean, it worked out great for me, but if I hadn't bumped into you, I'd probably be dead." Pinky shuddered and then scratched the back of her head. "Plus, I had other reasons for wanting to... uhm... 'spread my wings'."

"Oh?" Riley sent a jolt of electricity that triggered the badger's pulmonary system. "And what would those be?" She placed her ear against the badger's chest.

"Eh, heh heh heh." Pinky chuckled as she rubbed the back of her head. "Nothing important. Certainly no dark family secrets or anything like that." She walked towards the badger's head. "So, what exactly are you doing here?"

"Huh?" Riley brought her head up. "Right now I'm trying to map out the badger's neurology." She pulled one of her blocking pins out of its exposed brain. "I need to isolate its aggression, but before I do that I need to determine just how it processes its information and what parts are part of its automatic nervous system."

Pinky laid down. "And resting your head on it? What's that for? Some sort of [Trainer] trick to make it like you once you animate its body?" She rolled around. "It can't be for comfort, this things fur is really... not."

"No." Riley shook her head as she administered another jolt. "I'm listening for a heartbeat. Once I get that working, I'll be able to start fixing the damage without having to worry about the body degrading further."

Pinky rolled to her back and put her arms behind her head. "Y'know, for all your claims of not having levels, you sure do act like a [Saw Doctor]." She paused. "And a [Tamer] and a [Necromancer]. I mean, taking the bodies of your slain foes and turning them into your underlings is totally a [Necromancer] thing, but they don't care about heartbeats or 'automatic nervous systems' or anything like that."

"I told you, I don't have a class."

"Uh-huh." Pinky yawned and closed her eyes. "You need to accept the truth, Bit. That's the key to consolidation."

Riley rolled her eyes. "I'll take your advice under consideration." She then smiled as she raised her head. "That did it! IT'S ALIVE!" Riley raised her hands to the sky and spoke with a deep voice. A few seconds passed, but Pinky didn't respond. Riley lowered her arms with a huff. Kevin would've like that. "C'mon Pinky, let's go."

"Huh?" Pinky opened a single eye. "Go where? Are you done?"

Riley stretched. "For now." She patted the badger's side. "It's alive, but basically in a coma now. I want to make sure everything's working and that it both stays that way and doesn't get better." Her blockers would prevent it from moving and attacking them even if 90% of them failed or were bypassed in some way. "It will keep until then."

"So where are we going?" Pinky sounded confused.

Riley let out a sigh. "Just away from the badger. I want to get some feedback from you about your mount."

"My what?" Pinky sprang to her feet with a suspicious look on her face.

"Your mount."

Riley ► Monkey-bot A, come here.

"You have a Stranger power and like sneaking around in a fight."

Monkey-bot A ► Ook.

"But your mobility could be better. So I figured that you could ride on one of the Monkey-bots." Riley turned her head and smiled. "Plus it will allow you to do more than sit around while I Tinker."

Dev looked up at the plateau. He was still about a mile away, and the rock formation was much clearer. [Eye of the Explorer] made him feel like he could reach out and touch it.

However, the sky was turning into a dull shade of red. The sun was about to come up. With the predators active, he would need shelter. The plateau would work for that... but who was on top? The excitement he'd had at meeting another person after isolating himself in the wild was turning into anxiousness.

What if they wanted to be left alone?

What if they were a [Hunter] and didn't want any competition?

Dev didn't think that [Poachers] were a thing in this world, or at least not a thing in the Dyed Lands. He was reasonably sure that if someone came in and managed to hunt an animal in here to extinction nobody would bat an eye.

Heck, how would they even know? Plus, even if they did, wouldn't it be naively considered a 'good' thing?

This might've been a bad idea. Did he really need to meet any other [Explorers] anyways? What was the up-side? Dev had food. He could make shelter. He'd already proven he could live off the land. Someone else might mess those things up.

Besides, they probably liked to be alone. Why else would they be here? What would he do if someone just strolled up into HIS camp? That might be a huge imposition.

And what if it wasn't just a single person? What if it was a group? That would be even worse. They would have their own inner dynamics and shared experiences and jokes. He would just feel like an outsider if they welcomed him... and that was the best case scenario. More likely, they'd turn him away or even attack him.

Yeah, what if it was a scouting party of a native tribe? Plenty of explorers back on Earth had died like that, and they weren't in a 'Death Zone'. Whomever lived in the Chalk Lands had to be just as vicious as their habitat.

No. This was a mistake. He should leave.

Dev sighed. If only he'd thought about the most likely outcome of meeting someone else before wasting three days backtracking. He looked up at the sky. No time to spare. He'd have to start making camp now if he wanted to be done by daybreak. Even with his new skills, it took time.

Ugh.

He'd have to go without a fire too. He couldn't risk it attracting the attention of the people up above.

"Hey, it's another human!" A high-pitched voice spoke from behind him.

Dev froze for a second before slowly turning around. A foot away from him was a tiny, doll-like humanoid with bright pink hair. She was riding on an albino monkey.

No. Scratch that. The monkey was only albino in the sense that it was like everything else in the Chalk Lands. The main difference was that the monkey had white eyes. Those didn't come from anywhere else.

"Uhm... Hello?" Was this the person who was camping on top of the plateau? Didn't someone say something about a race of secluded tiny humanoids? What were they called? Fairlings?

"Hi!" The pink-haired person waved at him. "What are you doing around here?"

"Exploring?" Dev surreptitiously glanced to his sides. Were there more of them? Was he being surrounded?

"Oh, neat! So am I?" The woman bit her thumb and looked up and to the side before nodding. "Yep. So am I! I mean, my friend has things under control, right?" She giggled. "Heh. 'Control'. But her trained monkeys are still just monkeys, isn't that right Aye?" She playfully slapped the monkey's head. It didn't respond. "So while she's busy doing... stuff, I wander around to see if I can find things!" She puffed out her chest. "And I found you! Isn't that neat?"

"Uhm... yes?" Dev still had no idea what was going on.

"Do you want to visit our camp?" She pointed at the plateau. "Oh, you can call me 'Pinky' by the way."

"Uhm... Hello, Pinky." Dev smiled and tried to make it feel natural.

"C'mon, let's go!" Pinky nudged her monkey and it started walking towards the landmark. "Are you good at climbing? We don't have a rope or anything."

Dev nodded and followed. It was awkward, but it would be worst to... what? Run away? Not set up camp? Get eaten by some invisible thing?

...

"Hey! Guess who I found!" Dev could hear Pinky's voice from above him. He grunted as he pulled himself up with another handhold. He hadn't had as much gear weighing him down when he'd left this place. "YOUR BROTHER!" Dev crested the top and nearly slipped at the announcement. Niru was here?

Wait.

Nirupama was his sister. He hadn't thought about her since... Wow.

"What?" A tiny girl with long black hair done up with ribbons turned away from... WAS THAT A BLOODRAGE BADGER?!

Dev had asked about the Dyed Lands before entering, and he'd heard stories of its most infamous monster. Of course, that was probably because Bloodrage Badgers were the only creature known to leave the Chalk Lands in search of their prey.

He'd sketched one at night from a mile away and it still had made his palms sweat.

"Your brother!" Pinky gestured at Dev. "I found him wandering around below!"

The girl, who had to just barely be a teenager, crossed her arms and looked at him. She arced an eyebrow. "That's not my brother."

"What?" Pinky's mouth fell open. "Are you sure?"

The girl rolled her eyes and walked over to him. Dev stared. Was she wearing a frilly Victorian-style dress? His knowledge of Western fashion was limited, but it looked complicated and uncomfortable to wear. "Hi, you can call me 'Bit'." She reached down with a hand. "You'll have to excuse Pinky, she means well."

"Uh, my name's Dev." He held out his hand. It was more for a handshake than an assistance, after all how strong could a-

Dev yelped as he was pulled up to the top of the plateau. Right. Levels. He shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Plus, whomever the girl, Bit, was - she had to be talented to get this far into the Chalk Lands. ...Especially in that getup.

"Nice to meet you Dev." She beamed at him. "Hey, are you from Earth?"

What?

...

Okay. Keep it together Dev. Bit's story wasn't the most outlandish he'd ever heard, at least not after being transported here, himself.

However, both her and Pinky seemed a little... off. Could he verify their story?

Well, Bit WAS from Earth, obviously. Or, rather, a different version of Earth if her story was to be believed. It wasn't like he could confirm that with his own eyes. Dev supposed she might, MIGHT be a superhero, but he doubted it.

It was more likely that she'd gone insane from appearing in a new world and was trying to cope. That was a thing, right? Creating a delusion that you were happier with?

However, he had to admit that she did probably appear in the Chalk Lands. From the... lackluster camp the two of them had made, it was virtually impossible for them to have gotten this far on their survival skills. That did point to Bit being... something.

As far as Dev knew, taming the animals of the Dyed Lands wasn't a thing. So, even if she'd appeared on the plateau, the only explanation for the monkeys and the badger was...

Nope. He didn't have an explanation.

...But that didn't mean one didn't exist.

"You've been quiet for a while now, Dev." Pinky stopped doing cartwheels and flopped to the ground. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Dev shook his head, and then looked at Bit. It wasn't part of the Scout and Guide Law, but Dev found if you were forced to talk to someone, it was better to be direct. "I'm sorry, Bit, but all of what you said sounds unbelievable." He looked around the camp and shrugged. "I mean, I know we're in another world and all. A world that has... all sorts of things, but believing that you're a superhero from an alternate Earth?" He shook his head. "That's out there."

The world wasn't like Star Trek or other science fiction. Or at least Earth wasn't. If that had been the case, there would've been... proof? Accounts? Something other than conspiracy theories.

Bit frowned and nodded. "My power isn't flashy like other parahumans. I could do some clearly superhuman things, but you might just dismiss them as..." She waved her hand. "levels and skills. Oh!" Bit slammed her fist onto her palm. "I know! My brother could do things that even your levels couldn't. He's not here, but some of his tech is. That's proof!" She took a deep breath. "Malleable!"

Something... cubes... flowed out from under her clothing and encased Bit in the blink of an eye. They covered her head to toe and made a sort of... armored dress. It was primarily pink and red, but with a black section around her arms and legs. It had thick boots and gauntlets along with a durable looking helmet that covered most of Bit's face - aside from her mouth.

And it was made of cubes.

It looked exactly like she'd stepped out of a video game.

That... shouldn't be possible. Could you get that with levels? Could it be a magical item? If so, how would it have been made? If it came from levels, what sort of class would grant it? How high level would you need to be?

Bit could have gotten some strange skill or found it... where? In the Dyed Lands?

No. That was impossible. Each cube was a separate color, so Dev could imagine it might be a great secret at the center of the Death Zone... but not here. Not in the Chalk Lands. Non-white things just didn't exist here.

So.

So...

Dev put his face in his hands.

"So you're a superhero. Okay. I accept it."

It might sound crazy, but it was still the most logical conclusion he could come up with.

...

"...and this is my tent!" Pinky stood on top of a small house with her hands on her hips. She was obviously quite proud.

"It's very nice." Dev knelt down to get a closer look. "Where does Bit sleep?"

"Usually under that tree." The Fraerling pointed. "At least when she does sleep."

"Hmmmm..." 'A Scout is courteous.' Dev didn't want to be rude. Especially since Bit's organization had traveled to another Earth to try and help people like him. He couldn't come out and say that their camp... sucked. "Has she thought about building a lean-to? Something to protect against the wind is important, especially when the temperature drops at night."

Pinky shrugged. "I hadn't thought about it." She hopped down and ran towards a box made of white flesh. "And this is our milk box!" She patted its side affectionately. "Bit made it with her own two hands! You dump in food in the top, and squeeze that part there for milk!"

Milk?

Dev's mouth watered. He hadn't had milk since coming here. Cows weren't common in the jungle. There had to be some elsewhere in the world, but he hadn't seen any. While Dev wasn't that devout about cows and milk, he still enjoyed the luxurious liquid immensely.

"Can I have some?"

"Sure!" Pinky gestured at the milk box. "It makes more than we can drink on our own."

Dev nodded, pulled out an empty canteen, and brought it to the... creature? It was alive, but it also wasn't an animal. 'A Scout is a friend to animals and loves nature.' How did that apply to this? Killing for sport was bad, but that didn't mean that you just shouldn't kill any animals at all. It was a necessity if you wanted to live in the wild. Making use of what you killed was the only reasonable thing, so in that case, Bit's work was a good thing.

...It was still creepy.

Dev brought the white liquid to his nose and sniffed. It smelled like milk. He took a tiny sip and held it in his mouth. No numbness. No strange taste. It... was just milk. He would have to wait to confirm that there were no side-effects. You couldn't tell with most poisons immediately.

In fact, he should've rubbed some on his skin first if he was following the proper guidelines. Pinky was another species, and Bit was a superhero, so their drinking it didn't necessarily mean it was one hundred percent safe.

Dev sat down and leaned against one of the trees as Pinky continued to describe their fight with the Bloodrage Badger. Was it really that unbelievable that Bit was a superhero, and that her power was super-surgery?

He'd never heard of a hero like that before, but then again, superheroes were fictional on his Earth. It was hard to believe, but it was also hard to dismiss the milk box. The monkeys and the badger he could explain as her just being good with animals.

REALLY good with animals.

The milk box? That was clearly impossible. Such a thing most assuredly did NOT evolve in nature. Pinky seemed... excitable, but he didn't think she was lying.

He nodded to himself. Dev knew what he'd do next. He didn't want to go home, at least not yet. Bit had said that she didn't know how to do it, but that her brother would find a way. Dev liked this world. He'd rather stay here and be an [Explorer] than go back to Earth.

Of course, that wasn't a decision he needed to make just yet.

No, his immediate course of action was clear. Pinky and Bit needed him to show them how to survive. It was impressive what they'd done so far... for amateurs. They needed to be taught how to weave rope. How to build a fire that wouldn't be seen. How to construct a tent.

...They were probably fine as far as hunting went.

Regardless, he'd help them get to the Red Lands at least. It wasn't where he'd intended on going, but it was the least he could do. Plus, it would make him feel a little better about leaving the other group.

Today was the day.

Riley crawled out of her tent and stretched. The Red Land jungle had been in sight since yesterday, but they'd finally reach it today.

She had to admit that traveling with Dev was a lot nicer than when she'd wandered the Chalk Lands on her own. It was a lot slower too. Her new companions couldn't see in the infrared spectrum, so they were a lot more wary of their surroundings.

Ah well, it worked.

Plus, Dev was good at making camp. He'd been the one to construct her tent out of the left over parts of her badger's kills. Sure, Badgy could tear its way through most of the Chalk Lands, but it was better if it didn't have to - aside from bringing food and corpses to study.

Another benefit was that traveling slowly gave her time to Tinker.

Riley would've preferred to have stayed on the plateau until she'd built up a sizable army of invisible animals, but she'd been out-voted. Dev wanted to explore and draw things. Pinky wanted to visit the Red Lands for... well, some reason.

Riley wanted to go out and find civilization so she could find Kevin. However, to do that she needed power. Tinkers on their own were vulnerable. Admittedly, that was the case for inexperienced Parahumans and not for her, but there was still merit in having companions.

And friends.

Dev was nice enough in a withdrawn sort of way, but Pinky was slowly growing on her. The cheerful Fraerling was also her best source of information on the outside world. So, if Pinky wanted to visit the Red Lands first, that was fine with Riley.

She'd also be able to add some creatures with new tricks to her growing collection of minions.

Besides, Pinky also wanted to visit the hero of her people after she'd 'leveled like crazy'. Friends in high places were a good thing, and it sounded like the Titan lead what passed as a government in this world.

So all in all, things were going well. Hopefully Kevin wasn't making too big of a mess without her.

Pinky stepped out of her red dwelling and yawned. "Good morning, Bit."

Riley smiled at her. "Good morning, Pinky."

The Fraerling looked at the crimson vines that marked the border between the Chalk Lands and the Red Lands. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I doubt it."

Bios:

Dev - Died in canon. Not much known except he was a competent enough [Explorer] to survive in the dyed lands.