Overclocked -CH1- (Patreon)

Chapter 1

Stumbling onward, Wrench had no idea how much further he had to go.

On second thought, he realized it didn’t matter.

He didn’t think he could go much further anyways.

Chuckling to himself, Wrench took one more step, staring down the long hallway. His goal was somewhere ahead but realistically it didn’t matter.

The nuclear bomb he was holding onto right now would do the job regardless of him managing to get closer. That if he was honest about it, right where he was right now, would be more than suitable to destroy enough of the ship to cause it to fail.

That the vacuum of space would do the rest of the work for him once that happened. Pulling everything out, jettisoning it, and exterminating everyone on board.

Even a race as different and strange as the Tongsta comparatively to a human would still perish when subjected to space. Admittedly it only took a human a minute to die in space, and as far as Wrench knew, a Tongsta could survive for an hour or more.

Groaning, Wrench missed a step, tottered, and ended up slamming into a wall. The bomb in his arms was too heavy for him now.

He felt weak, tired, that a lot of his skin was burning, and he wanted to throw up. His stomach was just doing flips inside.

Unable to stay upright anymore, Wrench slumped down to his knees and remained there. His head sank down to one side and rested against the wall.

The thin oxygen and mixture of other gasses that were lethal to humans with long exposure had sapped him of strength. Adding that to what the bomb was likely doing to him, and it was no wonder he couldn’t make it any further.

Won’t be long now.

Maybe five minutes?

Three?

Whatever.

I wonder if I’ll be dead before it explodes.

Would be kinda neat to experience a nuclear explosion from a few feet away as a way to exit the world.

Wouldn’t it?

“Wrench? What’re you doing here?” translated the permanent implant in his head. It even provided him with directional awareness of where the Tongsta was coming from. Their form of speech was more akin to crackling noises that were all noises and sounds no human could ever make.

While he’d long since deactivated all the control portions of the implant, it would nonethless always act as a translator. That was something he could never turn off.

Some implants were better than others, or it came down to the individual, as not all implants managed to translate what was said.

There were some that could only get a few words, some that got sentences, and yet others that got it all. It was all a variable dependent on the person.

That and conversation and communication with a Tongsta was a one-way street.

You only listened.

They never understood anything you were trying to tell them. The best you could do was make gestures with your hands and arms, but even then, they often didn’t get what you were trying to tell them.

“How’d you get here Wrench? Are you okay? What’s wrong, boy?” asked the Tongsta, now clearly coming closer.

Wrench lifted his head and looked over.

The strange, eight foot tall, and nearly equally wide, brownish and gooey lump that was a Tongsta had slithered over to him. There was no humanoid shape to the Tongsta.

They were almost always round in their shapes when they interacted with humans.

Wrench had seen them relaxing in oddly shaped boxes that made them take a cube shape, however. Clearly they were more malleable than one would expect.

“I haven’t seen you in forever. How’d you get here?” asked the Tongsta.

Reaching Wrench, a thin snake-like appendage came out from the blob and lightly touched his head and shoulder. Patting him on the shoulder it then pulled his arms away from the bomb.

Tongsta were much stronger than humans.

“What’ve you got there, boy?” asked the Tongsta right as Wrench finally recognized them.

It was his owner from when he was a young-teen. This Tongsta had taken ownership of him just after he’d finished puberty. Wrench had left their home after he’d reached maturity.

They’d been simple and affectionate toward him, though that wasn’t really saying much.

Wrench was surprised to find them here though. There was no reason for them to be here at the seat of the Tongsta government.

Was there?

“How curious. It looks like old human-tech. It’s even working. Fascinating. Truly fascinating!” remarked the Tongska. Wrench had no idea what their name was, only that he recognized them as a previous owner. “Is this a present for xxhht?

“Did xxhht send you to give it to xxhht? I bet they did. So nice of them.”

The implant tended to fritz out whenever a Tongsta’s name was said. Almost always sounding just like that.

Gift…? But… isn’t this… isn’t this their government?

“You don’t look good, boy. I’ll go get xxhht to take a look at you,” murmured the Tongsta. It patted him once on the head. It then set the bomb down next to Wrench. “Stay.”

The Tongsta began sliding off.

“This isn’t-their government head-is it?” Wrench whispered. “This won’t do-anything. We assumed-they live in a way like-we do. This-we… it’s all wrong.”

There was a loud static noise coming from directly in front of Wrench, only to fade away after a few seconds.

Shit, I’m hearing things now.

With a soft hiss, like a seal breaking, a man simply popped into existence directly in front of Wrench.

He was dressed in some type of space-suit that had them sealed from head to toe.

A fully enclosed helmet all the way down to boots that were all part of one bit suit.

In their hands was an odd looking rectangle. It reminded Wrench of tech he’d seen before in human ruins.

A distant and almost dream-like memory floated up from the depths of Wrench’s mind. He’d met this person.

Met them long long ago.

Years upon years.

Perhaps seventy years past, in fact.

“Ah! There we are. You seem to have it now,” stated the suited figure. “Perfect. We’ll just… huh… you’re a lot older now. You’re dying, too. Holy shit, you’re super dying. You’ll be dead in minutes. That’s a lot of radiation. Probably glow at night. Shit. I wonder if that radiation is why you have a super power now.

“Ha, that’s kind of funny. Mutant radiation. So cliche.

“Whatever. We’ll just bump it and go from there. This goes here and…”

The suited figure was tapping at the square in his hand repeatedly.

“Is this-their- government?” rasped Wrench.

“Uh… what? Their government?” asked the suited man, looking up from their piece of tech. He stared at Wrench, waiting for confirmation.

“This place-is it-their government?” Wrench pushed. He wanted to know if his sudden doubts were founded.

“Uh… no? No. No it’s not,” the man said with a nod of his helmet. “This is more like grandpa’s house, I guess. Great grandpas house?

“There’s really no way to explain their system of government because it isn’t comparable to anything you’d understand. It’s like they don’t have one and just move about in family units. But each of them is part of a larger family that just goes up and up and up until they’re all family.

“I barely understand it myself. It’s just not very Earth-human at all, really. The human’s a few hundred-thousand light years off that way would probably understand it better than you or I. They’re far more similar and have a very sympathetic mind-set to this.”

He’d pointed off in a random direction with the hand not holding the rectangle. Then grabbed it again with both hands.

“Doesn’t matter. Anyways… we’re ready,” the man murmured. “I want you to help me with something. You can’t do that since you’re… well… old. Old and dying.

“Old and dying won’t help anyone.

“I can send you back to the past with what I need. Then I’ll come back after a while to get your help. You just have to help me do something. That’s it.”

“What-is-it?” grunted Wrench a moment before falling onto his face on the ground.

“Save a man. You have to help me save a man. You help me save him, I’ll save you now. That’s it,” offered the man.

“Okay,” whimpered Wrench before throwing up all over the ground.

There was a fizzling noise, followed by the world turning white.

“Holy shit, that nuke went off,” said the man a second after the world resnapped back into place.

Wrench was sitting in the corner of a pen. He had his back pressed against the walls and his hands in his lap.

Looking to his hands, he saw they were intact. All his fingers were there, they didn’t have any of the scars and spots he’d collected over the years.

Then he looked down to his chest and legs, finding them to be whole, young, and healthy as well.

“Was a bit close. I’ll probably need to take some anti-radiation stuff or whatever. Wouldn’t want to become a Harold or anything,” the man with the suit mumbled, then turned their helmet toward Wrench. “Okay. What I need help with involves your super power.”

Wrench only vaguely nodded his head, his hands patting at his chest, then stomach. Moving across his body and finding it perfect.

Standing up he really looked at the pen he was in and instantly recognized where he was.

This was his home for the better part of thirty years. Where he’d really lived his name and caste.

Wrench. Part of the Fixers.

Fixers were brought into every habitat to make sure they kept their inhabitants alive. To insure that the Tongsta’s pets weren’t just dying off because the oxygen mix was wrong due to a machine failure. That there was no seal break and the Tongsta’s natural environment that enclosed the habitats killed off the humans.

“—super power to modify yourself. You can… you can-uh… ah… er… huh. How would I explain it? You wouldn’t understand if I told you that you could Overclock yourself. You probably don’t even know what a computer is,” mused the man.

“I know what a computer is. I’ve fixed several of them,” Wrench answered reflexively, looking to the other man. “I also know what Overclocking is. I have a super power?

“And did you really bring us backward in time? Is this the past or an illusion?”

“Oh! Nice. Fantastic,” the man said enthusiastically. “And yeah, this is the past. I totally brought you back. Back to the past. Not-so-samurai Wrench. Let’s hope you have a better fucking ending. That was fucking terrible.

“Anyways. Yeah! You have a super power. Super rare for your species and in this universe! Aren’t you lucky?

“You can Overclock, or Underclock anything that relates to your body.

“Wanna heal faster? You can do that. Heal slower? Yep. Remove your ability to have kids? Have-at. Make your hair stop growing? Sure. Make it so you grow hair a mile long in a minute? You could totally do that. Probably will have to eat a lot of food or find something else to offset the energy needs.

“Wouldn’t go too far outside of what would be the expectation without like… preparing. If you wanted to put on muscle mass you could, but if you didn’t have the fat or calories reserves to do it, it’d take it from somewhere. Somewhere you wouldn’t want, probably.”

“Uh,” Wrench offered by way of an elegant and thoughtful counter.

“Here, I’ll just uh… let’s make it easier. That’s kind of hard to work with,” muttered the man, tapping away at the rectangle in front of him. Then he looked up at Wrench and tilted his head to one side. “Okay. Just try to ‘activate your super power’ in your head. That’ll open a window. That’ll teach you the rest.

“Eh, you can check it later. I don’t really have time right now. Okay, I’ll be back in a few years. See you later, Wrench.”

A second after and a wave of their hand, and the man simply ceased to exist. They weren’t there anymore yet Wrench remained in what was quite literally his past.

Blinking several times, Wrench couldn’t quite wrap his mind around everything that’d just happened in the last five minutes or so. That his entire life had culminated with an attack that ammounted to absolutely nothing.

Decades in a resistance movement to free humanity from being pets.

Covert operations, target destruction, actually killing Tongstas, working against humans who wanted nothing more than to remain pets.

Endless years of suffering and sacrifice for absolutely nothing.

Wrench let out a single bark of a laugh at that. His eyes moving across the bare-bones furniture he had.

A decently wide double-bed, table with two chairs, work-desk for projects, cabinet, pantry, and bathroom. Everything was simple, well-worn, but not disused.

Things that a good Tongsta would provide for a Fixer that hadn’t yet proved themselves, but there was hope for. This was his assigned space given to him by the Tongsta who owned the habitat he was in right now.

A small room, but not a bad one.

“But… doesn’t that mean Freckles… is… my woman?” Wrench asked, his mind drifting back to the memories he had of this part of his life. Once he had that thought he looked to the work-desk and then moved over to it.

Freckles was his woman at this point in time. They’d been together for many years.

Almost fifteen years in fact before she’d been removed from the habitat.

She was a fairly non-descript School-Hume. Running with others like School-Hume’s when they were out during the day when the Tongsta had the lights on. Moving in their groups and protecting one another.

“The Adminis would have given me a work-list. I’d have put it…” Wrench’s trailed off as he looked over everything that was on his desk.

In the corner of it was a single piece of metal-pape, or met-ape, which meant it’d come from a Tongsta device, rather than the Adminis. Or more accurately, the habitat monitoring device.

Wrench picked up the metallic piece of paper and held it up.

“Seal maintenance, oxygenator calibration, check containment levels… this is a bi-monthly refresh check. I can’t remember what months this used to fall on though,” grumbled Wrench with a shake of his head.

None of the tasks were difficult to him when he read them over. They’d likely only take him an hour to do, realistically. This habitat never really had any issues as the owner kept up on the upkeep fairly regularly.

Thinking back, he knew for a fact that this list would normally take him several days to complete. He simply didn’t have the experience, knowledge, or know-how to really be the Fixer.

The original Fixer, Happy-Hammer, had been killed by Club-Head while Wrench had still been learning.

Thinking of Club-Head, Wrench wanted to run out and bash the man’s head in. The entire time Wrench had lived and existed in this Human-enclosure, Club-Head had been the bane of his existence.

Stealing from him, trying to rape Freckles, or just to kill either one of them.

Wait… he said I have a super-power.

One that could let me Overclock or Underlock myself, right?

That means I could give myself insane muscle growth if I start working out. I could become the ultimate gladiator. Right?

I could become so fast, so strong, so full of stamina, that no one could ever stand against me. I could dominate in every way and never have an issue.

Club-Head is only here because the Tongsta likes to send him off against other habitat Brawlers. He won more than he lost and they always had him fixed up.

I could do that, couldn’t I?

Take his place.

Then I could take over the habitat. Make it my own. Become the Head.

I’d be Wrench-Head. Be a Fixer and a Gladiator at the same time. I could do that.

If… if this isn’t a delirium caused by the nuclear bomb. Or some type of hell that I’m in after blowing up.

Let’s… start with that super power.

Wrench did as he’d been instructed and tried to access his “super power” as the man had suggested. That he wanted to see something to do with his super power.

That a window would open.

Then one did.

Wrench took in a slow breath as his eyes flicked over everything he saw there. Most of the words made no sense to him.

I’ll have to… talk to a Mender and ask a few questions about it but… I think I can test it easily enough right now. I mean, the helmeted man made some really good suggestions.

Like… wanting to make my hair grow really long.

But uh… which… one of these would be my hair. How would I even figure that out?

Does each one have a sub-listing list? Because these are all very vague or… or is it more intuitive?

Less informative, more responsive?

Chewing at his lip, Wrench shook his head as he pondered what he was looking at here.

It was almost too exciting for him.

Exciting, thrilling, and dream-like in what it was offering him. A chance to relive his life from a point in time where he was just starting out.

To dodge all the pitfalls of his previous life, live for himself, and make the best of it. To grasp hold of every possible opportunity for himself and make it real.

“Respiratory,” Wrench murmured suddenly, realizing he could test this. See if it’d respond to his wishes.

He wanted to modify his respiratory system. He wanted to throw the % Decrease as far as he could so that his lung capacity was half of what it should be. So that it’d be impossibly hard to pull in a full breath, as if he’d run too long and was winded.

In the table there was a sudden change. The % Decrease column now had -50% in the Respiratory system listing. At the same time Wrench felt himself unable to get a full breath as he inhaled.

It felt like his lungs were just too weak to pull anything in.

That there was something terribly wrong and he couldn’t catch his breath.

Almost instinctively Wrench tried to revert it back to how it should be. Wanting to have the full capacity to breathe back to him once again.

The negative percentage value became a zero and Wrench could breathe once more. Taking in full, crisp, clean breaths without an issue. That everything was back to normal.

“Well,” he murmured and nodded his head slowly. “It seems… it seems I really do get to start over again. No sense in questioning it. Take what you can, eat what you catch, plan for anything you can’t.

“Because as a Hume… as a Hume, we’re just pets. Pets in a habitat with an overlord we have to appease. Why bother trying to resist what’s already happened.

“This time, I live for me. This time, I live for my own desires and wishes. I’m going to enjoy my life because… because I don’t even give a crap anymore. Enjoy my life, become the king of my Hab.”

All of the strong desire for change had been knocked out of Wrench. The extreme wish to free his people and their kind was gone.

To be able to break humanity free of their enslavement and become a free-people once again, was just a dream he was waking up from now. If the entirety of his existence had amounted to fighting what he could as closely relate to as “a single family” then there was no point.

No point at all.

“So let’s live for me, since living for others didn’t work,” he murmured and went to his work desk.

Grabbing his tools, he set off for a day of work.

He had no idea what the date was, what the time was, or even what was going on in the habitat.

What he did know ws he had a job he could do, then go get information.

All while playing with his new super-power.

Let’s go live our best life and damn the rest. They can go resist the Tongsta by themselves all they want.

I really want to eat the best food, sleep on the comfiest beds, and get everything I want.

To hell with the rest.