Overclocked -CH22-

When Wrench finished up with Pretty-Girl and got dressed he was scooped up by a Tongsta.

Rather quickly, too.

Much to Pretty-Girl’s regret, as well as Wrench’s if he had to be honest, they were separated rather quickly after their coupling. He was put into a carrier and taken away.

Only to be plunked down in front of Goodie.

There were a number of Hume and Tongsta in the area. Apparently all the winners were being re-introduced to their owners.

“Oh! Wrench! There you are. Where were you?” asked Goodie, as the carrier was opened.

“Uh… where… was I?” Wrench asked as she pulled him out of the carrier. “I was with Pretty-Girl. Wasn’t… wasn’t that where I was meant to be?”

“I’m so glad you’re okay. They said they were having you checked out real quick but then someone else said they didn’t know where you were,” Goodie continued.

“Huh. Right. In other words… they just turned me into a stud without your permission,” Wrench summarized, all the pieces coming together quickly for him. Except he really didn’t have any way to communicate this to Goodie.

At least, he didn’t think he did.

Smacking at Goodie’s tentacle that was holding him with only a small amount of force, he tried to get her attention. He knew Tongsta were a solid creature and that they could easily endure a great deal of physical discomfort.

“What? What is it, Wrench?” Goodie asked, pulling him back from herself.

Though they didn’t have eyes, he got the impression she was inspecting him.

Staring at him.

Wrench began to gesture at his crotch. Using both arms to over-emphasize the motions.

“Your… your legs?” Goodie asked.

“Ugh, no. Not my… yes, my legs. Put me down on my legs,” Wrench said and then pointed to the ground.

Goodie made an odd noise then set him on the ground.

Wrench looked one way, then the other.

He spotted a short and rough looking female Brawler.

“What is it?” Goodie asked in a much softer tone. He really could feel that her entire being was focused on him right now.

Wrench pointed at the female Brawler.

“Hm? Her? What about her?” Goodie asked.

Wrench pointed at himself, then made a wide circular gesture, then began to make thrusting motions with his hips. As if acting out what he’d just done with Pretty-Girl.

“You want to Hume-mate with that Brawler?” questioned Goodie in a confused voice.

Wrench immediately shook his head and put his arms out, then crossed them in front of himself. Still while shaking his head. Then he pointed back to himself, found a Tongsta with a carrier and pointed at it, then to a different female Brawler, and began miming thrusting again.

Goodie watched him, saying nothing.

Wrench continued for a few seconds before coming to a stop. Gazing up at her.

“Excuse me, is there a Hume-tech nearby?” Goodie inquired, partly turning to a nearby Tongsta.

“Oh sure, one second. I’ll have them come right over, Xxhht,” answered the Tongsta.

Goodie hesitated then leaned in close to Wrench.

“They had you stud a Hume, didn’t they?” she whispered in a quiet voice.

Wrench nodded his head dramatically, grinning from ear to ear at the same time.

“To be fair, she was lovely. It wasn’t unpleasant and… well… they won’t get anything out of it, but it did happen,” Wrench concluded.

Goodie growled and put a tentacle around Wrench.

Standing there, he really didn’t know what to think.

This Tongsta had protected him since she met him. Scooped him up, carried him off, provided him with everything, and paid a desperate amount of attention to him.

For what reasons he didn’t completely understand, but he was grateful. Though he couldn’t quite deny he was feeling a bit weird about her calling him her baby, and that she was mommy.

Several minutes passed before a Tongsta came over.

“What seems to be the issue?” asked the new Tongsta.

“Could you please check to see if he’s been xxhht? I think someone took him away and made him stud a female,” Goodie stated in a straightforward manner.

There was a tension in several Tongsta nearby that even Wrench could identify.

“Not an issue. Easy to confirm,” offered the new Tongsta.

Wrench canceled out every System change he had going right now. Just in case something happened in a similar way to his encounter with Small-Boy.

A small rectangle was pulled out from inside the Tongsta’s body. There was a pop as it held it up in front of Wrench, then pulled back.

“I… yes. Yes he has. I can give you a print-out of the partner. Their markers are xxhht. In the breeder system,” offered the Tongsta.

“Yes. Please. Thank you. It seems I’ll need to go talk to someone,” growled Goodie.

Ha.

Sucks to be them.

Get’em Goodie.

“If possible, I wouldn’t mind Pretty-Girl joining the Hab,” Wrench said aloud. He knew Goodie wouldn’t understand but that didn’t stop him from trying.

“Hm? What?” asked Goodie.

“Pretty-Girl was nice. I hope she isn’t harmed,” Wrench said, then reached up and touched his own short hair and then made a flowing motion like it was long. Then he nodded his head.

“The… long haired Hume… was good?” Goodie tried aloud.

Wrench nodded his head quickly.

“In other words… the female Hume you studded… you liked,” Goodie added.

Wrench nodded his head once again.

“Good. If there’s an issue, I’ll claim her,” Goodie offered, then picked up Wrench and held him against herself. “And good boy, Wrench. You made mommy… so… so… proud. So proud. You’re getting the best of everything I can get you.

“We only have to finish this up and then go home. You never have to do anything like this ever again. It’s making me sick with worry.

“This is all so horrible. They way they treat Humes is no better than my xxhht. No better at all. This should be outlawed completely. I’d be perfectly happy if we never had to come here again. I know you wanted to be here but it’s just too much for my poor xxhht.

“I’m so worried for you, Wrench. This is all so wrong and just… just… it’s wrong. This isn’t how we should be treating our Humes if we love them.”

“Ah… it’s fine, Goodie. I wanted to be here. Next year will be a bit harder for us to win as much since they won’t bet against you that time,” offered Wrench lamely as Goodie just about pushed him into herself. There was a part of him that felt like he was betraying all Humes with how well he got along with Goodie.

Now he just had to wait for the next fight.

***

The door shut behind him, and Wrench was standing inside of a massive stone slab lined arena. Spread throughout it were ruins.

Broken metal column-like things that reached upward, shattered door frames with Hume sized openings, a broken house leaning to one side that looked a lot like it was put together by a Hume hand, rather than being fabbed in a Tongsta Fabricator.

It had the look of a city for Humes that’d been absolutely left to the ravages of time and a lack of maintenance.

“Kinda impressive, right?” asked a voice from beside him.

He was standing along a glass Hab-wall that ran all the down to a point he couldn’t see the end of.

Not far off and standing in front of one of four-other Air-Locks other than his own was a female Brawler. Beyond her was one male Brawler that looked much less surprised than Wrench felt.

The woman was tall for a woman. Likely six-foot given he was about half a foot taller than her. Wrench was still getting used to his adjusted height, in truth.

She had dark-black hair that only came down perhaps four or five inches in length. It was a mess of waves and partial curls and was pinched back with bits of wood and slivers of metal. As if she’d done it in a hurry and with whatever she could find.

She was dressed in tight-fitting fabric and what looked like leather armor of some sort. If she had any figure or curve, Wrench had no idea. She was smashed into her clothes and it left not much more than a lumpy stick to be looked at.

Pale green eyes watched him, apparently expecting him to give a response to her question.

“I mean, it’s a real shit-hole. A wreck. Ruin. But it’s impressive for what it probably once was,” Wrench answered. “Or at least… what it’s supposed to be. I have no idea if this is just another pre-built Hab from the Tongsta or something they brought here.”

“Remains of a city. They scooped up a big section from where-ever we came from and dropped it here,” answered the woman. “Talked to an Admini about it. Supposedly there’s even Hume skeletons here if you dig down deeply into it.

“We’re not in the more interesting parts of the ruins though. This is just an outskirt that we’ll be fighting in. We can move about a bit, but not much. They just want us to give them a bit of an opening show with this part. They’ll open up a different area nearby when it’s time to get to the main event for our event. King of the hill.”

“Right,” Wrench muttered, looking back to the ruins. “Errr… you seem knowledgeable about what’s going on. Care to share? First time.”

“I know it is. I picked you,” remarked the woman. “This is a team fight. Us three eight new-bloods. They’ve only survived the preliminary and intro fight so far. I’ve been in three sets of games. He’s been in two. You’re our new-blood part of the team. I’m the Head. He’s my second in command.”

“Great. Three versus eight. I can probably keep two busy by myself. Maybe three if I can get a decent weapon,” offered Wrench as a summation of what he could do. He didn’t know why she “picked him” but he didn’t want to disappoint someone who put their faith in him.

“Bullshit,” grumbled the male Brawler. He’d come up and was standing beside the woman. “You just watch our backs and it’ll be fine.”

Staring at the man for several seconds, Wrench didn’t respond. He waited for an awkward amount of silence, before he finally looked back to the woman.

“I’m Wrench,” he said, not answering the man.

“Seventh,” the woman said and indicated herself with a thumb pointing to her chest. “He’s Mr. Happy.”

Raising his eyebrows, Wrench looked to the male Brawler with a grin.

“Pleased to meet you… Mr. Happy. Seventh,” Wrench said with a nod for each of them. “Orders, Seventh?”

“Just stick close to us and watch our backs. Rather than separating and trying to handle them individually, we’re best served in working together,” Seventh answered. “I’d very much feel better with you watching my blind-side. I know you’re capable, I just don’t know how capable.

“I’d like to see more of it so I picked you. You personally. Over a great many others in fact.”

As she said the last part, her eyes slid to the side as if to indicate Mr. Happy that was nearby. That perhaps Wrench had been her first pick, in fact.

“I understand. I won’t disappoint you, Seventh,” Wrench responded with a decisive nod of his head. He wouldn’t let her down, even if he couldn’t verify if her words were true or not.

The sentiment was worth more to him at the moment.

“Wonderful. This is a group fight and a small area of control. A king of the hill type of thing like I mentioned earlier. Same type of game you probably played in your kinder group. We don’t know where it is though, or where the enemy is. We’ll find out where sometime while we’re searching about.

“The enemy gets released first though since they have less experience. They’re already in there somewhere and probably just hiding. Trying to keep low until they figure out where the zone of control pops up. We’re going to go in and find some weaponry. If we find them, we’ll engage them, too. That seems unlikely though. They’ll just be trying to keep their heads down I imagine,” Seventh said, gesturing over to the ruins. “Weapons are whatever you can find so… make do. A big chunk of rock often gets used. You’d be surprised what kind of damage you can do bashing someone with a rock held in two hands. Other than that… we do what we have to.

“This isn’t a death round but… there’s no telling who lives or dies at the end. Sometimes their Tongstas kill them, sometimes they don’t. Seems kind of arbitrary. Though anyone in the zone of control can’t be spared. If they’re there, they have to be killed or removed from the area. There’s no sparing anyone that’s there.

“Battles with lives on the line always get better rewards for everyone involved. My father said it’s because they get more bets and that means more rewards for the winners.”

“Makes sense,” Wrench said, feeling better with gaining more information. “Lead on then. I’ll be right behind you.”

Even as he said it, he realized it could very well be taken out of context.

Given that Seventh was attractive for a Brawler, he wondered if he’d misspoken.

She didn’t even seem to notice the comment.

With nothing more explained she and Mr. Happy began walking into the ruins. Their heads moving back and forth as they started to pick through the debris.

Doing the same as them, though likely with a great deal more experience, Wrench let his eyes, ears, and instincts direct him. Moving through the broken and rubble-strewn boulevard that ran through the center of the city.

He didn’t really agree with walking down it in the open like this, but he imagined they knew what they were doing. It wasn’t as if they wanted to fail this gladiator fight either.

Wrench was going to suceed.

One way or the other.

Oh, there we go.

Moving over to a building that wasn’t far off, Wrench saw what could only be a pipe. If it was anything similar to what he was used to, he could make it work.

A pipe he used in the ducts could easily crush a skull if striking with enough force.

Grabbing it, Wrench gave it an experimental thump into his palm. It felt solid.

Solid and heavier than he expected.

He didn’t know what material it was made out of but he had no doubt it’d be handy enough to kill someone.

Putting his eyes ahead, he found that Mr. Happy was eying him speculatively, though Seventh had picked up a very similar pipe to what he had.

She had apparently found his choice of weapon agreeable.

“This won’t do for me, use it until you find something better,” instructed Seventh, handing over said pipe to Mr. Happy. “We’ll just keep looking until we can get something worth while or we run out of time.”

Weird.

I wonder why she did that.

Perfectly valid tool to use to crush a skull. I can firmly attest that this is a perfect head-breaker even if I’ve never used it before.

Or… was it just to make him take a weapon? Because he wouldn’t take the same thing I did otherwise?

Ha. I bet it was that. That he wouldn’t have wanted to use it because I was using it. That it’d somehow validate my own thoughts and that’d be some type of mental owie.

Brawlers are stupid.

Really stupid.

They should all—

Seventh glanced at him for a second, gave him a smirk, then began looking around again.

Well. Maybe not all Brawlers.

She seems intelligent enough.

Very intelligent, actually.

Maybe… maybe smarter than I am?

I’m not that smart. I’m just really good at fixing things.

And unfixing people.

Wrench didn’t stop looking for weapons. There was always the possibility of an upgrade or getting something for Seventh.

Except there wasn’t going to be any time for that apparently.

Or so Wrench guessed when the trap they’d stepped into was sprung.

All eight of their foes scurried out from an abandoned building and worked to quickly encircle them. Most of them had hunks of rock or tree branches in hand.

“How good’re you at hand-to-hand,” Wrench asked Seventh moving up behind her and Mr. Happy a bit more closely.

“Not very,” admitted the Brawler. “Prefer a sword or an axe. A club if I have to.”

“Here then. I think I’ll do better at it than you. It’s too short for me to use effectively. I’m better with my own long-sword,” Wrench muttered with a chuckle and handed over the pipe to her. Given his abilities, hand-to-hand fighting wouldn’t be terrible for him. He could obliterate an enemy, even without being very experienced in the fighting style.

His Systems would carry him the distance.

I’m Overclocked.

Everything is active but the perception.

This isn’t an issue for me, I just need to hold my third of the area.

Just hold my third of—

Wrench’s thoughts were abruptly cut off as two male Brawlers rushed him. The time for thinking was quite over, and now it’d come down to a fight with odds that were heavily stacked against him.

Always wanted to be in a three-way, just didn’t think I’d be the man-in-the-middle!