Overclocked -24-

“Wrenchie!” squealed Goodie, pushing him up into her ever-strange body. “Oh my Wrenchie. You’re so amazing. I watched the whole thing through my viewer.

“I was so nervous. So scared. This is all too much for your poor mommy. Too much. It makes my xxhht quiver terribly so. I don’t think I can handle this ever again, Wrenchie.

“I was so scared when you were fighting. I know you’re good, I know you’re strong, but still, something could happen. You’re worth so much more than whatever this is.”

Wrench could only laugh and be hugged.

They’d taken the King-of-the-hill match after Thinker cleared his people from the field. It’d been a slow victory without much in the way of fan-fare.

When it was finished, Wrench felt the control mechanisms of the implant kick in and his conscience mind blanked out. Only to come back to his own body right as Goodie appeared before him. Coming down from the sky above.

“I mean, this is what I wanted. We’re making a lot of… whatever… it is, you use to pay for things, right? The more you make and earn, the more I get and receive,” Wrench summarized. “I mean, aren’t you super wealthy now?”

“Ooooh, I wish I understood you. I wish I knew what you were saying. I’m sure that you’re not just making those… sounds… for no reason. That you’re trying to talk to me. I’m sure of it,” Goodie lamented. “I bet you’d have so much to say.

“You’re not anything like what everyone believes. You’re no mindless animal. Not at all. I’d swear it.”

“Ah… dear patron,” said a hesitant voice.

A Tongsta had approached them but was hovering near the edge of what would be considered Goodie’s personal space.

Or that’d be true if she was a Hume at least.

“Yes?” Goodie asked, pulling Wrench closer to herself.

“I have everything you requested,” murmured the Tongsta. “This is everything you’ve won so far. I’ve made sure to speak with all the parties involved and confirmed that it was all moved over. Everything’s been transferred.”

“Oh. Okay. That’s good. I guess,” Goodie muttered, still holding tightly to Wrench. “Okay. Thank you. You can go now.”

“Of course, madam,” the Tongsta remarked and then fled, drifting off into the air and floating away.

“Well… uhm… okay,” said Goodie. “We’re doing good, Wrench. Mommy is really appreciative of what you’re doing, it just really scares her. Really badly.

“I just really can’t see this being worth while if you get hurt. That’s all. With how many studding requests we’ve gotten, we don’t ever actually have to do anything like this again.

“Ever. The requests are just rolling in and they’re all so much. So so much. It’s… I had no idea but these games are so much bigger. This isn’t just some family thing or what might be. It’s inter-family. This is… this is so huge.

“You’ll have to review all the requests with me though. I don’t want you with any female-Humes unless you approve of them. We can go from there.”

“I mean, studding definitely has a lot more perks than fighting for my life. I guess I’ve done so much that it’s almost strange,” Wrench mused. He didn’t think he’d done that much, but more than likely he was missing something. Missing something and the context that went with it. “It’s only been like… three matches, hasn’t it?”

“Oh, and we have to change your genetic markers later. I’m sorry, Wrenchie. It won’t be very fun having it done, but we have to,” Goodie continued on, not hearing his words as anything other than noise. “When I had them confirm you’d been bred without permission they checked your breeding certificate. It’s… wrong.

“It’s so very wrong. You’re a perfect specimen of Hume. Perfect in almost every way. So perfect that it everyone is talking about it. My perfect Wrenchie. And to think that stupid box-body tried to feed you to a monster.

“I made sure to register you as soon as I got you. That you’d been abandoned. I gave xxhht some xxhht so he wouldn’t fight with me over it. Made sure he tentacled off on it, too. I bet xxhht regrets ever letting you leave your Hab, my beautiful boy.”

Errr… oh.

My super special body.

That I made.

I… uh… yeah.

Yeah.

I screwed up I guess? But I didn’t.

This is amazing? Yeah!

It’s amazing!

If I knew this was all I had to do, I wouldn’t have bothered with the games.

Still doesn’t explain the lack of fights and being almost done. There’s something else there.

Did people back out?

Didn’t want to fight me?

Fight seeding of some sort?

Did… did I fight, and forget it? I know they can wipe memories.

Did they wipe my memories?

Err… whatever.

“—get you lots and lots. With how many we’ve earned, we can legitmiately build whatever we want in the Hab. I’ll get a new xxhht after we finish our service, you a giant Hab, and then we’ll just… live. No more games. Ever,” Goodie stated with absolute determination.

Wrench was fairly certain he wouldn’t get to be in the games again given the way she’d said that.

“One more fight and we’re done. Last year’s champion lost their match, and the runner up from last year won.

“You’re the last standing challenge for them because of how well you did in the last fight.

“Thankfully even if you get hurt, they promised me they’d regenerate you,” Goodie continued on. “We’re done, you just have to finish this silliness and that’s it. All done and done.”

“One fight? That can’t be right. What the hell is going on. Why are Tongsta so weird with everything. None of this makes any sense at all,” groused Wrench, leaning into Goodie. “Just like he said, completely foreign and not really something I can understand. Whatever.

“I get what I want. Goodie gets good stuff. We’re both happy and that’s… that’s all that matters.

“Besides… a life of studding sounds like a lot of fun. If a bit man-ho. But that’s not terrible. I can live like that and be perfectly happy. All while being a Fixer for my Hab.”

***

“I knew it’d be you,” Seventh pronounced as she rose up out of the ground. She’d arrived in a similar way that he had.

They were standing in the center of a large open and hard surfaced arena like area.

There was a brown floor, no walls, and blue skies above them, with pillars supporting what he assumed was cameras now. Some type of viewing hard-ware that would allow the Tongsta to watch the whole thing.

When the pedestal she was riding on reached the level of the floor, it made a clacking noise, then went still.

“I didn’t know it’d be you,” Wrench replied honestly. “I just knew I apparently only had one fight left. Doesn’t seem like enough fights though.”

“Everyone you were supposed to fight withdrew,” Seventh confided with a smirk. “Every single one of them. The only one that they couldn’t withdraw from was the group fights.

“You’re apparently a very scary Fixer that Tongsta aren’t willing to put their Hume up against. You ended up getting here without anyone wanting to test how frightening you really are.

“I unfortunately don’t get a choice in that. I was bred specifically to be here, at this moment, at this time. The seventh in my line and born of six past champions.”

Seventh reached down and pulled up her tunic, her other hand pushing down her pants a touch as well. Revealing her long torso and pubic mount.

All to bare the tattoos all Hume bore.

Across her lower stomach were a number of tattoos. He didn’t know them all, but he didn’t have to. He knew a few and those he did, he recognized as being the extreme “best of the best” type of Humes.

Seventh was as perfect as a Hume could be genetically.

Along her left side were what looked to be a list of smaller tattoos and names.

Holy shit it’s her entire breeding history.

She’d be the seventh line-item on any child she bore. The six there are her family going upward.

“I’m here to show that I’m not just a breeder. That I’m not just a good genetic profile. If I win, I’m going to get rewarded heavily,” Seventh murmured and let her clothes settle back into place. “I’ll try not to kill you, Wrench. I think you’re an amazing person. Doubly so when you consider that you’re a Fixer.

“But I have to win. I have to. My father, my grand-mother, they both put their expectations on me. I have to win and I will.”

“Uh huh. I get that. But uh… I’m afraid I have to win myself. If I win, I don’t have to ever come back again,” Wrench returned. “I hear you, but I have to win. I’ll make my Tongsta filthy rich with this and we can just… live happilly.

“I’ll do my best not to kill you as well though. I think you’re amazing yourself. And pretty.

“Call it sexist but… the idea of marring a pretty lady seems particulary stupid. Again, sexist, whatever, I admit it, don’t care. Just consider me an idiot.”

Seventh had an odd look on her face.

Her body posture opened up and she tilted her head to one side. A smile slowly bowed her lips and gave her a warmth to her face. Wrench noticed her upper body tilted toward him and her breathing shifted as well.

“An idiot, then. Let’s try to beat the shit out of one another and not kill the other then. Since we share an equal admiration for one another,” suggested Seventh, her chin lifting up fractionally.

“Uh… yeah. Let’s do that,” agreed Wrench. As they’d stood there, he’d been warming up all his Systems. Pushing them this way and that to bring himself up to a full readiness. “Err… do they give us weapons or do they want us to punch each other out?”

“What… worried about making me not so pretty again?” Seventh asked with a curious tilt to her eyebrows. The smile that’d popped up on her face had never faltered.

“Yeah? Yeah. Yeah I am. Why? Gonna make it a problem? Do I have to punch you out for you to admit you’re too pretty to be punched out?” asked Wrench, unable to help himself.

They were about to try and possibly kill one another, but here he was, flirting with an attractive woman.

“Maybe I wanna make it a problem. I don’t think I’ll believe I’m too pretty to be punched out, until you do so. Then maybe I’ll believe you. But you’d have punched out me, who is according to you, too pretty. How would you make it up to me?” replied the Brawler.

Grinning now, Wrench wanted to keep talking to her rather than fight.

This was rather entertaining now.

“I guess I’d have to make sure you kept that pretty face to start with. Or put it back together? My Tongsta is pretty damn amazing. She’d do it if I demanded it,” Wrench countered. He was half tempted to ask if she wanted to have a go on the ground right here and now and postpone the fight all together.

That seemed to be a bit too much though and would jump a great number of hurdles.

He couldn’t help the flights-of-fantasy his mind was throwing at him though. They just kept coming, despite his best efforts to respulse them.

“Mm… I’ll keep you to that promise. As to the weapons,” Seventh looked up and to the side, then held up a hand. “Clubs. They’re going to be clubs.

“Easier to break bones and knock someone flat, less likely to skewer a person and kill them outright. So long as we’re both careful to not hit the other’s head.”

“I can promise that. Hitting your face with a club woudl be a lot worse than punching it,” Wrench promised easily, nodding his head.

Seventh laughed loudly at that.

Two clubs materialized from nothing and landed on the ground in front of them.

“May the best fighter win,” she drawled and then took up a defensive stance. Weapon held out in front of herself. “We’ll begin in about ten seconds or so. I’ll just say ‘go’ and we’ll begin.”

Wrench took up his own club and readied himself.

He eyed the attractive Brawler and wondered if this was going to be too much for him.

He’d seen her in combat and thought that it wasn’t the best side of her. The odds had been unequal and realistically they’d been fighting their way out of a deficit from the start.

In a one on one fight, she was lightly quite intimidating.

Thank fuck I got to sleep once before this.

That damned head-ache faded.

“Go,” hollered Seventh, yet made no move. She stood there, watching him.

What a good person.

Wrench activated his slowed-down perception, nodded his head to her, and then began sliding forward. Inching his way toward her without lifting his feet from the ground.

He was determined to keep his center of balance as he closed on her.

Like a whip crack Seventh was moving toward him one moment, then snapping out the next. The speed she put out was beyond what he’d seen of her.

At a level that felt fast even with his current perceptions.

Fast as fuck, boy!

Wrench snapped his club around to intercept Seventh’s There was a firm clack that felt incredibly loud as the two thick weapons slammed together.

A reverberation traveled up his arm and into his shoulder though neither weapon moved away afterward. Seventh stared at him from a few feet away. Her eyes were locked to the middle of his body though rather than his face.

Shit, where’m I looking!

Looking to Seventh’s middle he realized she was twisting to one side. The arm behind her was about to be lashed out faster than he could probably handle.

Wrench realized that she was trying to lock him into place when she didn’t move her weapon.

Stepping away from her with full speed and control he only barely managed to get away from her fist. A hook that’d rocketed out from behind her and came around to where his ribs would’ve been.

Her innerarm smacked into his side instead as he’d moved into her.

Their weapons ended up trapped between them, and Wrench then put his arm atop hers.

Keeping her essentially against himself.

Their eyes met for a moment.

Then she headbutted him. Slamming the crown of her head down into his nose.

Or tried to.

Wrench had seen it coming and dipped his head down, catching the same point of her head with his own.

The bonk noise that he heard more than felt left him seeing stars. The world flashing white around him.

At the same time the two combatants stumbled away from one another. Each taking a few steps and freeing themselves due to the impact that ended up knocking them back.

Not wanting to let up, as he was no longer certain he could beat Seventh in a straight fight, Wrench charged forward. Getting the club up in a wide swing he aimed it at her leg.

Slamming hard into Seventh’s weapon, instead. Coming once more to a complete stop.

No sooner than she’d stopped the attack, then she rotated her wrist and flicking her weapon up at the underside of his forearm. There wasn’t much room for her to generate force, but Wrench wasn’t about to risk that.

Instead he leaned back, kicked out with his leg, and pulled his arms backward.

He caught Seventh low in the guts and kicked her roughly. Causing her to take two steps back.

The second she got her her foot planted Seventh lunged forward, her club leading the way.

Having committed completely to the kick, Wrench couldn’t dodge the return blow. The club speared into his shoulder and knocked him to the side.

There was also an ugly crunching noise that he heard with the strike. His body sent numerous pain signals to him, which Wrench promptly cut off. Letting them go silent in the exact instant that they had a fraction of a second to scream at him.

Wrench realized he was now going to lose.

He was skilled, he had Systems that made him nearly super-human, his experience with combat was great.

Even with all that, Seventh was a terrifying opponent that simply was bred, born, and made for this moment exactly. Trained specifically for something like this.

A curse flickered through Wrench’s thoughts, before he realized that was stupid.

He was being stupid.

There was no reason for him to lose given his Systems.

Given what he could do.

Wrench pushed his perception beyond where he’d ever gone.

Moving to a point that made it feel as if the world was now completely still.

An immediate and overwhelming headache exploded inside of his skull. As if his eyes were going to be ejected with force out of his eyesockets.

Pulling his right arm around, he felt things break and tear. That his body was shattering under the weight of what he was putting it through.

The club came around in a way that was faster than Seventh could blink.

With an ugly thump the club clacked hard into her shoulder joint. The whole of it shifting inward and becoming a U-shape.

Pulling his arm across her, the club trailing across her neck line, Wrench wound up a few feet. Then whipped it through the air.

Even as Seventh flinched, her eyes closing slowly in response to the first hit, Wrench blasted the club into her right arm. At the same exact point in the opposite joint.

With another crunch, this arm also broke with the force of the blow.

Unable to hold it together, Wrench let go of his hold on his perception. He felt as if his head would peel apart and a ball of molten lava would roll out, and he couldn’t handle a single second more of it.

Seventh suddenly collapsed to the ground in front of him. Falling down to her knees.

Each arm dangled uselessly beside her and she stared up at him in shock. Her face completely drained of color and her eyes wide. Her pupils constricted down to what looked like mere pinpricks as she looked up at him, her mouth hanging open.

“God damn, Seventh,” whimpered Wrench, standing there above her.

His right arm was likely broken or had the muscles torn. It could work, but it wasn’t going to work well. Enough to make it seem like he could use it, but nothing beyond that.

The left arm hung at his side akin to how both of Seventh’s did.

“You’re way too damn strong,” Wrench grumbled, then let the club slip free of his fingers. “I win, right? Tell me I win so we can get fixed up.”

“You win,” she croaked, then slowly toppled backward.

She didn’t say anything more, twitch, or even make a noise.

Wrench stood there, looked up.

To the side.

Then back down to Seventh.

Promptly passing out the moment he released his hold on his Systems.