System Overclocked 2 -ch 11- (Patreon)

Wrench thankfully had the ability to make his refractory period, zero. He’d been able to go through the entirety of the studding in a short period of time.

Going from one woman to the next until the “job” was done. That even if the Tongsta had been creepily watching it all happen, they wouldn’t have a reason to get mad at him in any way.

After that, he’d simply sat down next to a book case, picked a book that looked interesting, and started reading. A number of the Solos, as they were all Solos he’d found out, would come and chat him up.

They all seemed to be genuinely interested in him which was rather flattering.

To the point that he didn’t actually get any reading done. No sooner than one of them got up, then another came to take their place.

Thankfully none of them asked him to go back to the bed again. They were all perfectly happy to talk to him, or one another, and more or less remain as they were.

Reading books, playing with toys, or each other with games, and generally relaxing. Wrench tried to keep himself calm but he found himself worrying over the Hab.

An entire day passed like this.

The next day went the same as the first.

Each of the women ran him down once during the day to stud, then spent the rest of the day relaxing. Quite a few chatted him up once again and he even started to learn about them as Hume.

On the morning of the third day, the Tongsta finally came back.

Thankfully it’d been early in the morning. So early in fact that the Tongsta had scooped him out of his bed while he was asleep.

“— so excited. I can’t believe he mounted every single one!” said the Tongsta.

In that moment, Wrench decided to name them Greedy. Greedy Dickhead.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” said a second Tongsta. Wrench couldn’t recognize their voice but it sounded like they were well aware of the situation and what was happening. “We should contact lady xxhht and just collect the reward. You saw how high it was.”

As well as not really wanting to be a part of it, apparently.

“No, I just need a few more xxhht. It’ll be fine after that,” Greedy answered. “Won’t be an issue at all. We just have to keep going with it a little longer.”

“I-I’m going to go. I need to take care of some xxhht and my xxhht is waiting,” said the nervous Tongsta.

“Alright, alright,” answered Greedy.

Wrench felt like everything briefly became inverted, the straps of his carrier pulling at his legs, before once more settling down. Then the carrier was put down and he felt still.

The front of it was pulled off and he was once again greeted with too much light. Unfortunately the Tongsta was still using the same carrier from earlier. It did a truly poor job of letting in light and left him in absolute darkness.

“Come on. Get out. I need to get to work,” Greedy asked, shaking the carrier.

“Stop it you bastard. I can’t see and you’re just making it harder to get out,” growled Wrench as he clambered his way out. Knocking him around wouldn’t help the situation at all.

Greedy shook it more firmly and ended up sending Wrench to the ground.

Rather hard, too.

His skull smacked into the ground and he felt a strange boom go through his body. In that moment, he felt the strength go out of him.

“Shit. Ah… are you okay?” asked Greedy, suddenly regretful for their actions. “Wrench?”

Groaning, Wrench tried to push himself up and only manged to flop around on the ground.

“Oh fuck, oh shit, oh fuck. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I just-ahhhh, fuck,” whined Greedy. Before Wrench could try again something picked him up and none-to-carefully. “Ah, ah ah, Peaches! Yes. The medical ward.”

Wrench felt himself being jerked through the air. There was a crunch that sounded like something breaking nearby, then he was thrust forward once again.

“Oh my, oh my, what’s going on here?” asked Peaches’ withered voice.

“Shit, xxhht, please be able to fix him,” Greedy moaned.

Wrench felt a cool hand press against his head and then something hard touched his temple. The pain and odd sensations going through his head fled.

Then he opened his eyes and realized he’d moved.

He was laid out on a medical bed and staring up at Peaches.

The top of the medical building wasn’t attached at the moment. He knew most buildings could be pulled apart with a few casual tugs from a Tongsta, but it was still surprising to see.

“You cracked your head pretty good,” Peaches remarked, peering into his face. One of her hands was pressed to his cheek and eye area. “A skull fracture, actually.

“I take it our dear Tongsta wasn’t very gentle? They’ve managed to kill more than a few Hume with their actions. First time they ever brought someone to me though.”

Wrench grunted at that. It made sense and fit with everyone he’d learned so far.

Greedy was an asshole that didn’t see Hume as much.

“Thank xxhht. I almost flushed away millions of xxhht,” grumbled Greedy, only further establishing Wrench’s view of them.

There was a bang as the roof of the medical building was set back down. The Tongsta was gone in a flash.

“Well, wish I could say I was surprised but I’m not. They’re probably studding you out, aren’t they?” asked Peaches with a chuckle. “That’s not surprising, no, no. Given what I saw of you from my testing you’re the pinnacle of a Hume.”

“Thanks,” grunted Wrench and then forcefully sat up. Gently pushing Peaches hands out of the way at the same time.

Even as he levered himself up to a seated position, he felt the world spin around him. He wanted to immediately throw up onto his knees.

“Easy, easy. I fixed the fracture but it’ll take a while to truly mend itself,” warned Peaches. “Just because it’s no longer broken doesn’t mean you didn’t bruise your brain. It’s right on the border of a concussion.”

Wrench grunted, and stabbed at his systems window. It popped up immediately.

There was a red blob over his head.

Dialing into it, he quickly tapped into the Lymphatic system. He’d toyed enough with his regenerative properties to know this was a major part of it.

In a single minute the vertigo was gone. He would need a good amount of calories to cover the cost of forcibly fixing it.

“Got some food?” he asked instead.

Peaches sucked in a slow breath, staring at him. Then she reached up to his head.

She pulled something off of him.

He hadn’t realized there was something even there.

Glancing to her hand, he saw that it looked to be some type of medical monitoring device. In her other hand looked to be a small display screen.

“How… how did you—”

“Peak genetics, remember?” Wrench asked, interrupting her quietly. “Food? High calorie food? And did I miss anything?”

Peaches shuffled over to a cabinet. She opened it, pulled several items out, then came back to him.

“No. It’s been quiet,” Peaches answered. “I released Blue-Bill. He’s resting in his room. There was no reason to keep him pinned up any longer.”

Wrench took the items proffered and looked it over.

The first thing was a high calorie milk substitute given to babies.

“Nothing from the Lower peoples?” he asked, putting the other items down next to himself.

Oh shit.

This is perfect.

Pulling the tab to one side, then the other, Wrench tore the top off the can. Not even thinking about it, he simply picked it up and started gulping it down.

“Nothing. Haven’t had to fix or patch anyone due to their antics since you arrived,” Peaches admitted, chewing at the inside of her cheek. “I’ve helped more than a few people cross over that barricade of yours to join us up here. People who were afraid to do so before hand.

“That they’d just be beaten up and dragged back down. Made the arrangements with Shinista.”

“You guys do you,” Wrench gasped out after finished off the entirety of the can. “I won’t be here forever. My Tongsta will be here eventually and then Strip, Seventh, and I will be leaving. After that, you’re all on your own. Most of the Fixer stuff will be on a basic auto-run till someone else shows up. Should be fine.”

Peaches looked surprised at that but said nothing.

Picking up the next item, Wrench tucked into that as well. There was no reason for him not to load up on calories.

Every calorie was just fuel for him at this point to be used later.

***

“What the fuuuuuuuck,” groaned Wrench and then threw down his shovel. It clanged against the ground and settled down against the concrete. “What the fuck. Really? Really? This is a non-solid filter. Non-solid.”

Angry, frustrated, and feeling incredibly bitter, he sat down on the ground right there. Staring at the sub-floor filter.

“Well… it’s becoming a non-solid, though quite slowly. That and the bones don’t dissolve do they,” Stripe murmured, reaching out with the shovel she held and tapping at the discolored and partially decomposed head. “I wonder how long it’s been there.”

“A while, I’d imagine. Probably back when the sub-floor was actually the sub-floor for the Hab. Instead of empty space below the pads,” spat out Wrench, glaring at the filter’s entrance. He finally understood why the drains were also so problematic.

Chances were there were bodies in all of them.

“Damnit. Fucking damnit,” he complained. “There’s nothing we can do because I’m betting it’s just clogged with bones and dried waste. It’s all clogged up.

“Greedy will have to replace the piping outright. It won’t be hard for them to do it, the issue is getting them to do it.”

“In other words… we can just give up on all this,” Stripe summarized, gesturing at the fridge sized filter. The grate on the top had been removed in the past. At the elbow, a few feet past the entrance, they’d started working to clear it.

Only to find the corpse.

“What if it’s just one body?” Stripe asked. “We could clear one, couldn’t we?”

“Pretty sure I saw at least three skulls,” Wrench mumbled. “Didn’t realize they were skulls till only now. Thought they were just rocks put in the Hab for decoration.

“Makes more sense that they’re skulls. No sense at all that they might be rocks, since, there aren’t any in the Hab. I haven’t seen a single damn one.

“In fact, this whole Hab seems to be as cheaply decorated and outfitted as possible. Just the Pens back in our Hab probably costs more than this whole Hab.”

“Oh, yes. I see your point,” confessed Stripe and then sighed. “That’s a shame. It would have been nice to open up the ground floor for the Hab before we get taken away.

“I… do you think it’ll be soon? I hope it is. I’m really tired of this place.”

Thinking on that, Wrench scratched at his jaw.

It’d been about a week since the first time he’d been studded out. Since then, he’d been brought back three more times. Greedy had remarked each time that there was no reason to not try and make sure of the pregnancies.

Though he didn’t miss it when new women showed up and the numbers increased. Greedy had been attempting to increase their possible profits.

Each studding visit had been two days long. Arrival, a day there, and then going back. Oddly, this type of time frame matched fairly closely to Goodie’s coming and goings.

The Tongsta who forgot to turn on and off lights tended to be fairly absent. Leaving with Wrench of a thought that maybe they were just incredibly busy.

“No idea. Honestly. I’m starting to think that every two days or some odd is roughly one day for them. Or something like that,” Wrench suggested. “With that in mind… maybe it’s been enough time that whatever Greedy broke got fixed.”

Suddenly, the assembly went off.

Calling everyone to their positions once again.

“That’s a bit soon. Didn’t you just come back yesterday?” Stripe asked, sounding frustrated. Not that he could blame her.

When he came back each time they spent time just talking and reconnecting, but the strain of being studded out and vanishing for two days was clearly weighing on both of them. Thankfully they were able to reconnect each time and he felt stronger for it.

“Yeah, it’s a bit soon. Let’s ah… go see what’s up,” Wrench mutterd and got to his feet.

And practically stepped into Stripe as she stepped up to him. She wrapped herself around his middle and stuck her forehead to his sternum.

“I’m really not okay with this anymore,” she whispered. “I know we have to do this, but its not-I really don’t like it.”

Sighing, feeling torn, Wrench had expected this. No matter how emotionally strong Stripe was, this was a lot to handle.

“You have to go of course,” stated Stripe firmly. “I’m allowed to complain, even if I know you have to do it. So… let’s go up and see what’s going on.”

Stripe pushed away from him and then moved back toward the access elevator. Wrench followed along behind her.

The fan blowing the gas away from them made it impossible to say anything as they got up next to it.

There was no reason to pick up the shovels either. They’d made them specifically for this purpose, and weren’t really needed otherwise.

There was no dirt anywhere in the Hab outside of the sub-floor.

Entering the elevator they went straight up into the Duct. This had been once again another access location that was specific to the Duct. If there had been breathable air there might have been a concern.

Anyone going through the sub-floor without a gas mask made from a Fixer fab, or Wrench’s odd abilities, would be dead in half a minute.

Halfway up the elevator the Assembly call shut off.

Suddenly and without warning, it just was simply no longer calling everyone to position. Which left Wrench feeling odd and concerned about that.

There was no way Greedy would ever shut down the Assembly for no reason, nor would they call it if they didn’t have to. Something must have happened.

The question became for Wrench, was it something that’d happened to or from Greedy, or if something had happened with the Hab.

When the elevator pinged and the doors swung open, he was already feeling anxious and nervous. Knowing that something was wrong was already eating at him.

Without even being told yet he could just feel like something had to be Fixed.

Schools school, Admini’s admin, Solo’s survive, Fixers fix.

Sighing, Wrench stepped out of the elevator and headed for the control room. Given that all the security monitors, systems, and communications were all in one room it’d become the heart of the Ducts.

Joy was hunched over the input keyboard while also staring at a monitor. It looked like she was inputting commands to try and get information.

Her head snapped to the side as he entered and she gave him a nervous smile.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Joy murmured. “The Assembly call went off, everyone started moving, then it just suddenly shut off. Greedy was here when the Assembly went off but then they left. After that the Assembly turned off again.”

Frowning, Wrench really didn’t know what to say to that.

He’d expected something to be wrong, but this just seemed to be something more to do with Tongsta being Tongsta.

“Okay, that uh… seems kinda normal for Tongsta. Depending on who they are, it can be really bad,” said Wrench, peering at the systems. Trying to figure out if there was something else going on.

Joy genuinely seemed happy to see him and it didn’t quite seem to be based on the Tongsta situation. That didn’t seem like enough to shake the tough-minded School Hume.

“What’s the problem?” he asked, reading through all the system windows. Nothing looked out of the ordinary and everything had an appropriate readout. Nothing had alarming numbers.

“I mean, that seems like an obvious answer to me,” Seventh growled. At some point she’d entered the room as well.

Looking to her he raised his eyebrows.

She gave him a grim smile, then pointed at a screen.

Following her arm he looked to the monitor she was indicating.

It was the camera they’d stuck on the side of the Supply Depot shack at the Skybridge walkway. The cable they’d run had been hard to get back to the Ducts but they’d managed it.

That had been worth while apparently for this particular moment.

The Lower Parts Brawlers were attacking the barricade as the Brawlers hired by the Supply Depot.

Part of the barricade was over-run and part of it wasn’t. It looked as if they’d knocked the window out and clambered through it. Though the door was still held.

“I couldn’t detonate the charges,” Joy murmured. “For whatever reason, they won’t… go off. There’s something wrong with them.

“You told me that this was a situation where we should blow the bridge and I tried to. It doesn’t work.”

Joy reached over and picked up the wireless detonator. It was a small item that was no bigger than the length of a hand. A cylinder that’d fit smoothly in the palm.

A bright red light, and button, sat on the top of it. The light meant it was actively connected and actively receiving and sending signals to the explosives.

Joy thumbed the button. Then did it twice more.

Nothing happened at all.

“Right,” Wrench muttered looking at the screen. It seemed like he’d have to go out there and start knocking people off the Skybridge. There was no way he could let the Upper Parts citizens handle this by themselves.

The number of hired Brawlers just wasn’t high enough to take care of this without assistance. Not to mention, they would only work just hard enough.

They weren’t motivated to die for the Admini.

Then again, neither was Wrench, but he was less likely to have to make that choice against the Lower Parts Brawlers.

“Before you decide to go out there, you should know that Tongsta said something,” Seventh warned, putting a hand on Wrench’s shoulder.

“They did?” Stripe asked.

Seventh nodded her head and sighed.

“I caught most of it. I can’t remember the exact words but… it wasn’t something that needed to be heard verbatim,” continued Seventh with a huff. “It basically boiled down to, ‘Where’s Wrench. I need to get him out of here.

“Which to me sounds like another studding session. Which would take you away for two days again. Hopefully.”

Grimacing, Wrench didn’t like the way this was playing out.

Every time Greedy took him away, Wrench worried about when he’d be brought back. When he’d be brought back, and if he’d be brought back at all.

Looking to the monitors, he found he didn’t want to risk it.

Not for a fight that wasn’t truly his to begin with.

“We’ll stay in the Ducts for now,” he murmured. Given Greedy’s recent change and that they were hopefully expecting Goodie to show up, he didn’t want to run the risk of not being here. Or Greedy running off with him outright. “Though we won’t just sit idle. I’m going to figure out why the bombs aren’t going off.

“We can at least do that without putting ourselves into any danger. Or at least, danger from the Tongsta.”

He looked to Joy, Seventh, and Stripe ashe spoke.