diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 23d0446..25280bd 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -41,8 +41,10 @@ GNU wc's lone win — 1M lines, by a single millisecond, on hand-tuned
 AVX-512 assembly — is a historical footnote now. We closed it, then the
 10M case, then the 100M monster, and then we added a 1B-line race with
 no opponent, because beating GNU wc at this point is just cruelty to
-software. Busybox was removed from the suite for the same reason: it
-stopped being a challenge and started being a participation trophy.
+software. Busybox is back in the suite too — for shits and giggles. It
+stopped being a challenge years ago, but watching it count is the
+closest thing this project has to a hobby. Every run ends with the
+average speedup against each oracle, so the cruelty is quantified.
 
 ## Why
 
@@ -99,13 +101,16 @@ make bench                          # build release + run every suite
 
 The suites live under `benchmarks/files/{lines,words}` (file input) and
 `benchmarks/stdin/piping` (standard input), and fail fast the moment
-fastwc loses a single case. The lines suite also carries the monsters:
-100M lines raced against coreutils, and 1B lines timed solo — there is
-no reference for that one; we are the reference now. The suites
-interleave runs so both commands see identical cache warmth, keep the
-minimum, and fail the moment fastwc loses a single case. GNU `wc` is
-used as an oracle the same way you'd use a broken clock: occasionally
-it's right, and it's the only one around.
+fastwc loses a single case. Every suite races against GNU coreutils wc
+and, when it is installed, busybox wc. The benchmark locates the real
+oracles by their `--version` answer — a `wc` that answers as fastwc is a
+symlink somebody made, and is skipped rather than raced against itself.
+The lines suite also carries the monsters: 100M lines raced against
+coreutils, and 1B lines timed solo — there is no reference for that
+one; we are the reference now. The suites interleave runs so both
+commands see identical cache warmth, keep the minimum, and fail the
+moment fastwc loses a single case. When the run ends, the average
+speedup of fastwc against each oracle is printed.
 
 ## Development
 
diff --git a/benchmarks/files/lines/bench.sh b/benchmarks/files/lines/bench.sh
index 41d156f..33fe1fd 100755
--- a/benchmarks/files/lines/bench.sh
+++ b/benchmarks/files/lines/bench.sh
@@ -1,10 +1,12 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 # bench.sh — race fastwc against GNU coreutils wc on line counts, file input.
-# Includes the monster cases: 100M lines raced against coreutils, and 1B
-# lines timed solo (no reference to beat — there isn't one).
-# Fails fast: the moment fastwc is slower than (or disagrees with) coreutils
-# wc, a human readable report is written to FAILED-benchmark.txt and this
-# script exits non-zero.
+# Busybox wc is raced too, for shits and giggles. Includes the monster
+# cases: 100M lines raced against coreutils (busybox through 1.1 GB is a
+# spectator sport, not a benchmark), and 1B lines timed solo (no
+# reference to beat — there isn't one).
+# Fails fast: the moment fastwc is slower than (or disagrees with) an
+# oracle wc, a human readable report is written to FAILED-benchmark.txt
+# and this script exits non-zero.
 #
 # usage: ./bench.sh
 set -u
@@ -15,17 +17,26 @@ source "$REPO_DIR/benchmarks/std.sh"
 
 checkfastwc
 checkwc
-BENCH_NAME="coreutils"
 
-printf 'benchmarking %s wc vs fastwc: lines, file input (%s interleaved runs each, minimum kept)\n' \
-    "$BENCH_NAME" "$BENCH_REPS"
-printf '%-28s %10s %22s %8s %s\n' 'test' 'wc' 'fastwc (ms µs)' 'ratio' 'status'
+for oracle in $ORACLES; do
+    select_oracle "$oracle" || exit 1
 
-printf '%s\n' '--- lines ---'
-if ! run_cases lines -l 10000 100000 1000000 10000000; then
-    exit 1
-fi
+    printf 'benchmarking %s wc vs fastwc: lines, file input (%s interleaved runs each, minimum kept)\n' \
+        "$BENCH_NAME" "$BENCH_REPS"
+    printf '%-28s %10s %22s %8s %s\n' 'test' 'wc' 'fastwc (ms µs)' 'ratio' 'status'
 
+    printf '%s\n' '--- lines ---'
+    if ! run_cases lines -l 10000 100000 1000000 10000000; then
+        exit 1
+    fi
+
+    printf '\nall %s lines benchmarks passed — fastwc was never slower than %s wc\n' \
+        "$BENCH_NAME" "$BENCH_NAME"
+done
+
+# The monsters stay coreutils-only (busybox through 1.1 GB is a spectator
+# sport, not a benchmark), so switch back from the last oracle raced.
+select_oracle coreutils || exit 1
 printf '%s\n' '--- monster: 100M lines vs coreutils ---'
 if ! run_cases lines -l 100000000; then
     exit 1
@@ -33,6 +44,3 @@ fi
 
 printf '%s\n' '--- monster: 1B lines, solo ---'
 run_solo_case 1000000000 -l
-
-printf '\nall %s lines benchmarks passed — fastwc was never slower than %s wc\n' \
-    "$BENCH_NAME" "$BENCH_NAME"
diff --git a/benchmarks/files/words/bench.sh b/benchmarks/files/words/bench.sh
index 8ea852b..0b30649 100755
--- a/benchmarks/files/words/bench.sh
+++ b/benchmarks/files/words/bench.sh
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 # bench.sh — race fastwc against GNU coreutils wc on word counts, file input.
-# Fails fast: the moment fastwc is slower than (or disagrees with) coreutils
-# wc, a human readable report is written to FAILED-benchmark.txt and this
-# script exits non-zero.
+# Busybox wc is raced too, for shits and giggles.
+# Fails fast: the moment fastwc is slower than (or disagrees with) an
+# oracle wc, a human readable report is written to FAILED-benchmark.txt
+# and this script exits non-zero.
 #
 # usage: ./bench.sh
 set -u
@@ -13,16 +14,19 @@ source "$REPO_DIR/benchmarks/std.sh"
 
 checkfastwc
 checkwc
-BENCH_NAME="coreutils"
 
-printf 'benchmarking %s wc vs fastwc: words, file input (%s interleaved runs each, minimum kept)\n' \
-    "$BENCH_NAME" "$BENCH_REPS"
-printf '%-28s %10s %22s %8s %s\n' 'test' 'wc' 'fastwc (ms µs)' 'ratio' 'status'
+for oracle in $ORACLES; do
+    select_oracle "$oracle" || exit 1
 
-printf '%s\n' '--- words ---'
-if ! run_cases words -w 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000; then
-    exit 1
-fi
+    printf 'benchmarking %s wc vs fastwc: words, file input (%s interleaved runs each, minimum kept)\n' \
+        "$BENCH_NAME" "$BENCH_REPS"
+    printf '%-28s %10s %22s %8s %s\n' 'test' 'wc' 'fastwc (ms µs)' 'ratio' 'status'
 
-printf '\nall %s words benchmarks passed — fastwc was never slower than %s wc\n' \
-    "$BENCH_NAME" "$BENCH_NAME"
+    printf '%s\n' '--- words ---'
+    if ! run_cases words -w 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000; then
+        exit 1
+    fi
+
+    printf '\nall %s words benchmarks passed — fastwc was never slower than %s wc\n' \
+        "$BENCH_NAME" "$BENCH_NAME"
+done
diff --git a/benchmarks/std.sh b/benchmarks/std.sh
index 3c8c6b5..1fa4d96 100755
--- a/benchmarks/std.sh
+++ b/benchmarks/std.sh
@@ -41,7 +41,13 @@ BENCH_NAME="${BENCH_NAME:-wc}"        # set by the caller: coreutils
 BENCH_REPS="${BENCH_REPS:-3}"         # interleaved runs per case; minimum is kept
 RESULT_ROWS=""                        # accumulated results table
 
-WC_CMD=()                             # filled by checkwc()
+# Per-case speedup ratios accumulate here so the run can end with the
+# average speedup per oracle. test-all.sh overrides this with a shared
+# temp file so every suite feeds the same average; a standalone suite
+# run gets its own file ($$ differs per process).
+: "${RATIOS_FILE:=/tmp/fastwc-ratios-$$.tsv}"
+
+WC_CMD=()                             # filled by checkwc/select_oracle
 TEXT_FILE=""                          # filled by createtxt()
 
 if [[ -z "$BENCH_REPS" || "$BENCH_REPS" -lt 1 ]]; then
@@ -61,19 +67,90 @@ checkfastwc() {
     exit 1
 }
 
-# checkwc — locate the coreutils wc implementation and store its invocation
-# in $WC_CMD. Exits on failure.
+# wc_impl <cmd...> — identify a wc implementation from its --version
+# answer. coreutils and fastwc respond to --version; busybox does not
+# have the option and names itself in the error it prints instead.
+wc_impl() {
+    local out
+    out=$("$@" --version 2>&1)
+    case "$out" in
+        *'GNU coreutils'*) printf 'coreutils\n' ;;
+        fastwc*) printf 'fastwc\n' ;;
+        *BusyBox*) printf 'busybox\n' ;;
+        *) printf 'unknown\n' ;;
+    esac
+}
+
+# checkwc — locate the wc implementations to race against. Walks PATH
+# for every wc binary and identifies each by its --version answer. A wc
+# that answers as fastwc is a symlink somebody made to our own binary —
+# people do symlink wc to fastwc — and is skipped, because racing
+# ourselves proves nothing. Busybox usually exists only as the
+# multi-call binary, so that is probed too; it is back in the suite for
+# shits and giggles, not because it is a challenge.
+# Sets COREUTILS_CMD, BUSYBOX_CMD (empty if absent) and ORACLES, and
+# points WC_CMD at coreutils. Exits if no coreutils wc is found.
 checkwc() {
-    printf 'checking for coreutils wc... '
-    if command -v wc >/dev/null 2>&1 \
-       && wc --version 2>/dev/null | head -n1 | grep -qi 'GNU coreutils'; then
-        printf 'yes\n'
-        WC_CMD=(wc)
-    else
-        printf 'no\n'
-        printf 'configure: error: GNU Coreutils wc not found in PATH\n' >&2
+    local dir impl
+    COREUTILS_CMD=()
+    BUSYBOX_CMD=()
+    ORACLES=''
+
+    printf 'locating wc implementations... '
+    for dir in ${PATH//:/ }; do
+        [[ -n "$dir" && -x "$dir/wc" ]] || continue
+        impl=$(wc_impl "$dir/wc")
+        case "$impl" in
+            coreutils)
+                if [[ ${#COREUTILS_CMD[@]} -eq 0 ]]; then
+                    COREUTILS_CMD=("$dir/wc")
+                    printf 'coreutils %s; ' \
+                        "$("$dir/wc" --version | head -n1 | sed 's/^wc (GNU coreutils) //')"
+                fi
+                ;;
+            fastwc)
+                printf 'warning: %s is a fastwc symlink; skipping as oracle\n' \
+                    "$dir/wc" >&2
+                ;;
+            busybox)
+                if [[ ${#BUSYBOX_CMD[@]} -eq 0 ]]; then
+                    BUSYBOX_CMD=("$dir/wc")
+                    printf 'busybox; '
+                fi
+                ;;
+            *) ;;
+        esac
+    done
+
+    # busybox is commonly installed as the multi-call binary only
+    if [[ ${#BUSYBOX_CMD[@]} -eq 0 ]] && command -v busybox >/dev/null 2>&1 \
+       && [[ "$(wc_impl busybox wc)" == 'busybox' ]]; then
+        BUSYBOX_CMD=(busybox wc)
+        printf 'busybox; '
+    fi
+
+    if [[ ${#COREUTILS_CMD[@]} -eq 0 ]]; then
+        printf 'none\n'
+        printf 'configure: error: no coreutils wc found in PATH\n' >&2
+        printf 'configure: error: if you symlinked wc to fastwc, point PATH at a real coreutils first\n' >&2
         exit 1
     fi
+    printf '\n'
+
+    WC_CMD=("${COREUTILS_CMD[@]}")
+    ORACLES='coreutils'
+    [[ ${#BUSYBOX_CMD[@]} -gt 0 ]] && ORACLES="$ORACLES busybox"
+}
+
+# select_oracle <coreutils|busybox> — point the racing functions at the
+# chosen oracle by setting BENCH_NAME and WC_CMD.
+select_oracle() {
+    case "$1" in
+        coreutils) BENCH_NAME='coreutils'; WC_CMD=("${COREUTILS_CMD[@]}") ;;
+        busybox) BENCH_NAME='busybox'; WC_CMD=("${BUSYBOX_CMD[@]}") ;;
+        *) return 1 ;;
+    esac
+    return 0
 }
 
 # createrandstr — print one random 10-character alphanumeric string.
@@ -211,13 +288,19 @@ run_case() {
     else
         ratio='-'
     fi
+    # feed the end-of-run average speedup (numeric ratios only)
+    if [[ "$ratio" == *x && "$ratio" != 'infx' ]]; then
+        printf '%s\t%s\n' "$BENCH_NAME" "${ratio%x}" >> "$RATIOS_FILE"
+    fi
 
     verdict='PASS'
     reason=''
     if [[ "$fast_count" != "$wc_count" ]]; then
         verdict='FAIL'
         reason="output mismatch (fastwc: ${fast_count}, ${BENCH_NAME} wc: ${wc_count})"
-    elif (( fast_ms > wc_ms )); then
+    elif (( wc_ms > 0 && fast_ms > wc_ms )); then
+        # a 0ms reference is below the benchmark's resolution: sub-millisecond
+        # runs (startup noise, mostly) cannot prove fastwc slower
         verdict='FAIL'
         reason="fastwc was slower (fastwc: ${fast_ms}ms vs ${BENCH_NAME} wc: ${wc_ms}ms)"
     fi
@@ -271,13 +354,19 @@ run_stdin_case() {
     else
         ratio='-'
     fi
+    # feed the end-of-run average speedup (numeric ratios only)
+    if [[ "$ratio" == *x && "$ratio" != 'infx' ]]; then
+        printf '%s\t%s\n' "$BENCH_NAME" "${ratio%x}" >> "$RATIOS_FILE"
+    fi
 
     verdict='PASS'
     reason=''
     if [[ "$fast_count" != "$wc_count" ]]; then
         verdict='FAIL'
         reason="output mismatch (fastwc: ${fast_count}, ${BENCH_NAME} wc: ${wc_count})"
-    elif (( fast_ms > wc_ms )); then
+    elif (( wc_ms > 0 && fast_ms > wc_ms )); then
+        # a 0ms reference is below the benchmark's resolution: sub-millisecond
+        # runs (startup noise, mostly) cannot prove fastwc slower
         verdict='FAIL'
         reason="fastwc was slower (fastwc: ${fast_ms}ms vs ${BENCH_NAME} wc: ${wc_ms}ms)"
     fi
@@ -346,3 +435,25 @@ run_stdin_cases() {
     done
     return $rc
 }
+
+# print_averages — average the accumulated speedup ratios (reference time
+# over fastwc time) per oracle and print them. Reads $RATIOS_FILE, which
+# test-all.sh points at a shared temp file across all suites.
+print_averages() {
+    local oracle avg n
+
+    [[ -s "$RATIOS_FILE" ]] || return 0
+
+    while IFS=$'\t' read -r oracle avg n; do
+        [[ -n "$oracle" ]] &&
+            printf 'average speedup vs %s wc: %s (%s cases)\n' \
+                "$oracle" "$avg" "$n"
+    done <<< "$(awk -F'\t' '
+        { sum[$1] += $2; n[$1]++ }
+        END {
+            if (n["coreutils"])
+                printf "coreutils\t%.2fx\t%d\n", sum["coreutils"] / n["coreutils"], n["coreutils"];
+            if (n["busybox"])
+                printf "busybox\t%.2fx\t%d\n", sum["busybox"] / n["busybox"], n["busybox"];
+        }' "$RATIOS_FILE")"
+}
diff --git a/benchmarks/stdin/piping/bench.sh b/benchmarks/stdin/piping/bench.sh
index c7ce272..6b10d4f 100755
--- a/benchmarks/stdin/piping/bench.sh
+++ b/benchmarks/stdin/piping/bench.sh
@@ -2,9 +2,10 @@
 # bench.sh — race fastwc against GNU coreutils wc on standard input, fed by
 # shell redirect (the same path every real pipeline uses). Counts must agree
 # with coreutils' stdin behavior, and fastwc must not be slower.
-# Fails fast: the moment fastwc is slower than (or disagrees with) coreutils
-# wc, a human readable report is written to FAILED-benchmark.txt and this
-# script exits non-zero.
+# Busybox wc is raced too, for shits and giggles.
+# Fails fast: the moment fastwc is slower than (or disagrees with) an
+# oracle wc, a human readable report is written to FAILED-benchmark.txt
+# and this script exits non-zero.
 #
 # usage: ./bench.sh
 set -u
@@ -15,26 +16,29 @@ source "$REPO_DIR/benchmarks/std.sh"
 
 checkfastwc
 checkwc
-BENCH_NAME="coreutils"
 
-printf 'benchmarking %s wc vs fastwc: stdin (%s interleaved runs each, minimum kept)\n' \
-    "$BENCH_NAME" "$BENCH_REPS"
-printf '%-28s %10s %22s %8s %s\n' 'test' 'wc' 'fastwc (ms µs)' 'ratio' 'status'
+for oracle in $ORACLES; do
+    select_oracle "$oracle" || exit 1
 
-printf '%s\n' '--- stdin lines ---'
-if ! run_stdin_cases lines -l 10000 100000 1000000 10000000; then
-    exit 1
-fi
+    printf 'benchmarking %s wc vs fastwc: stdin (%s interleaved runs each, minimum kept)\n' \
+        "$BENCH_NAME" "$BENCH_REPS"
+    printf '%-28s %10s %22s %8s %s\n' 'test' 'wc' 'fastwc (ms µs)' 'ratio' 'status'
 
-printf '%s\n' '--- stdin words ---'
-if ! run_stdin_cases words -w 1000 100000 1000000; then
-    exit 1
-fi
+    printf '%s\n' '--- stdin lines ---'
+    if ! run_stdin_cases lines -l 10000 100000 1000000 10000000; then
+        exit 1
+    fi
 
-printf '%s\n' '--- stdin lines+words+bytes ---'
-if ! run_stdin_cases lines -lwc 1000000; then
-    exit 1
-fi
+    printf '%s\n' '--- stdin words ---'
+    if ! run_stdin_cases words -w 1000 100000 1000000; then
+        exit 1
+    fi
 
-printf '\nall %s stdin benchmarks passed — fastwc was never slower than %s wc\n' \
-    "$BENCH_NAME" "$BENCH_NAME"
+    printf '%s\n' '--- stdin lines+words+bytes ---'
+    if ! run_stdin_cases lines -lwc 1000000; then
+        exit 1
+    fi
+
+    printf '\nall %s stdin benchmarks passed — fastwc was never slower than %s wc\n' \
+        "$BENCH_NAME" "$BENCH_NAME"
+done
diff --git a/benchmarks/test-all.sh b/benchmarks/test-all.sh
index c6623b0..3690373 100755
--- a/benchmarks/test-all.sh
+++ b/benchmarks/test-all.sh
@@ -1,12 +1,22 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 # test-all.sh — compile the benchmark helper tools first, then run every
-# benchmark suite (words, lines incl. monsters, stdin). Exits non-zero if
-# any of them fails.
+# benchmark suite (words, lines incl. monsters, stdin) against every
+# oracle found (coreutils, plus busybox for shits and giggles). Exits
+# non-zero if any of them fails, and ends with the average speedup of
+# fastwc against each oracle.
 #
 # usage: ./test-all.sh
 set -u
 
 SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
+REPO_DIR="$(cd "$SCRIPT_DIR/.." && pwd)"
+
+# Share one ratios file across all suites so the final average covers
+# every case; each suite still races through its own process.
+RATIOS_FILE="$(mktemp /tmp/fastwc-ratios.XXXXXX)"
+export RATIOS_FILE
+
+source "$SCRIPT_DIR/std.sh"
 
 # 1. build the helper tools before running any benchmark so createtxt()
 #    can use the fast C generator instead of the slow shell fallback
@@ -29,6 +39,10 @@ rc_stdin=$?
 if [[ $rc_words -ne 0 || $rc_lines -ne 0 || $rc_stdin -ne 0 ]]; then
     printf '\ntest-all: FAILED (words=%s, lines=%s, stdin=%s)\n' \
         "$rc_words" "$rc_lines" "$rc_stdin" >&2
+    print_averages
+    rm -f "$RATIOS_FILE"
     exit 1
 fi
 printf '\ntest-all: all benchmarks passed\n'
+print_averages
+rm -f "$RATIOS_FILE"