Transformers: Survival of Defective Products

Chapter 52 Muscle Nurse

After settling into his spare accommodation, the first thing Vector did was deal with the overwhelming stream of messages.

She sat at a metal table on the second floor of the temporary accommodation, scrolling through the frequency bands one by one. There was the maintenance team's blockade receipt, 97 asking if she was dead, a stiffly formatted work stoppage confirmation from the logistics department outside the arena, and several new documents piled up at Red Spider's.

……marvelous.

Even if we lose our houses, we still have to go to work.

She crossed out the least important ones first, and finally stopped at Red Spider's private frequency.

The latest message is very short.

Return if you're alive.

Yin Vector stared at those four words for two seconds, then replied: "Alive."

After pausing, I added another one.

The house is gone.

This time, Red Spider responded very quickly.

I can see that now.

[You and Zhen Tianzun have both ended up in this state; the efficiency is truly appalling.]

The vector's lips twitched.

His familiar tone indicated that nothing had actually happened to him.

She replied directly: "Before you start cursing, can you at least stop pretending to care so poorly?"

There was a half-second silence on the other end, then a new message popped up.

【cannot. 】

[Additionally, Shockwave took your private frequency band.]

The vector was stunned for a moment.

Immediately following, another message came from Red Spider: a new frequency band number.

Here you go.

He will continue to review your data.

Don't die.

She looked at the last three words and suddenly felt like laughing.

One is Red Spider, the other is Shockwave; they both speak incoherently, yet they both make their attitudes very clear at this crucial moment.

She replied, "Okay."

After thinking for a moment, I added: "Thank you."

A few seconds later, Red Spider replied: "Your data is valuable now."

As soon as the vector was switched off the interface, the new frequency band on the other side of the shockwave lit up.

There was no small talk; the first thing they said was:

[Is the post-war situation stable?]

Leaning back in his chair, Yin Zongfu typed, head down: "I'm stable. The house isn't so stable."

They paused there for a moment.

The logic holds true.

[Your cooperation is still needed to complete the data collection.]

Looking at the terminal, Yin Vector felt as if he were being continuously tracked by some extremely rigorous research project.

She thought for a moment, then replied directly: "Okay."

However, I should clarify first that I might not be available to assist you with any comprehensive examinations recently.

The shock wave returned to its usual flat state.

【understand.】

The current priorities should be survival, repair, and mitigation of secondary attacks.

She paused for a moment after hearing that, then slowly replied: "It's barely a mechanical response."

This time it was quiet over there for a little longer.

After a while, the reply came: "[The conclusion is valid.]"

I almost burst out laughing.

This illogical person's sense of humor is probably limited to this level; anything more would be disrespectful to the world.

She had just put the terminal down when she heard Zhen Tianzun's voice coming from downstairs.

"Are you planning to move into the terminal room instead of working up there?"

Yin Xiang stood up and walked towards the stairwell: "You've recovered quite well; you even have the energy to complain about me now."

Zhen Tianzun was standing downstairs. His shoulder and arm were in better shape than before, but the new wounds were still there, and the edges of his outer armor still showed obvious signs of repair. He glanced at her: "Red Spider?"

"And there's the Shockwave," Vector said as he walked downstairs. "Starscream gave me the Shockwave's private frequency band. You know him?"

Zhen Tianzun raised an eyebrow: "I know him. You acted so quickly."

"Hmm." Vector shook the terminal. "Looks like these two machines have figured out which side to choose."

Zhen Tianzun responded softly, without refuting.

The vector walked up to him and said something else: "Also, I'm planning to go there to take down that guy."

"What are you doing?"

"What?" She glanced at him. "Why don't you look in the mirror first before asking this question?"

Zhen Tianzun: "..."

"In your current state, soaking in the repair pod might prolong your life, but to properly treat both the old and new damage, you'll still need to see a medic." She sighed, then added, "I have to go too. That ring around my chest hasn't completely gone away yet."

Upon hearing this, Zhen Tianzun's expression in the optical lens darkened slightly.

"Let's go." That was the last word he uttered.

-

They knocked down the other side and knew exactly what had happened more clearly than they had imagined.

As soon as Vector and Zhen Tianzun entered the medical area, before she could even speak, Knockdown was already leaning against the door, arms crossed, scanning them from head to toe.

"I thought you were going to drag it out for a couple more days, waiting for the wound to heal on its own before you came."

The vector remained unfazed: "We're giving you some buffer time so you don't get too agitated when you see the patient."

"Really?" Knockout raised an eyebrow. "Then I really thank you for being so incredibly considerate."

After he finished speaking, his gaze lingered on the newly reopened cracks in Zhen Tianzun's shoulders, arms, chest, and abdomen, and the casual smile on his face faded slightly.

"Come in." He stepped aside to let you in. "I'm working overtime today, so I won't overcharge you Shanks. Aren't you grateful?"

After hearing this, Yin Vector paused slightly and glanced at him.

Knocked down, it was obvious she understood, but her tone remained languid: "Don't look at me like that. I just don't want to see the arena and those upper-class bastards having it too easy."

As he spoke, the mirror turned and swept towards Zhen Tianzun.

"Besides, if we fix your weapon of mass destruction a bit more, at least we can make a more impressive scene when we take them down in the future."

Zhen Tianzun sneered, "Your mouth is still as annoying as ever."

"Thank you for the compliment. I rely on this to maintain my professional appeal."

The vector, standing to the side, suddenly found it a little funny.

These guys are really something; they can't come up with anything serious, but when it comes to which side to stand on, they're all pretty clear-headed.

Knocked down, he turned around to turn on the equipment.

"Let me make this clear first, I'm in a pretty good mood today, so I can give you all a more thorough check-up," he said without turning his head. "Including you, Vector. Don't think you can pretend you're fine just because you're standing a little straighter than usual."

"I wasn't pretending."

"You'd better be."

He brought up the scanning station and raised his chin: "One by one. Also, I recently got a new assistant, so don't look like you've never seen anything like this before."

The vector didn't pay much attention at first, but the next second, a tall and sturdy figure, almost exaggeratedly so, turned out from the inside.

The man was quite tall and burly, and his appearance made the already cramped medical area seem even more crowded. Most importantly, his face combined with his size made him look like he could carry a patient, bed and all, away at any moment.

After a two-second silence, the vector expert asked sincerely, "...This is the assistant you were talking about?"

Knockout said in a light tone: "Yeah, dead fire."

Deadfire glanced at them and nodded as a greeting.

Vector glanced at Knockdown, then at Deadfire, and finally couldn't help but ask, "Did you raise a muscular nurse?"

The air was quiet for a second.

Then he knocked her down and burst out laughing.

"I take back what I said earlier," he said. "Your statement today was worth the repair fee."

Even the Heavenly Venerable Zhen standing next to him turned his head slightly.

Deadfire himself didn't react in any particular way; he just stood there calmly, clearly having developed a considerable degree of immunity to such comments.

After laughing enough, he slowly added, "Don't underestimate him. When it comes to whether he's steady in action, he's much better than many medical officers who just pose with instruments."

Deadfire spoke at this moment, his voice low and brief.

"Sit down. Inspect."

Yin Vector looked at the muscular nurse, then glanced at Knockdown who was watching the spectacle with amusement, and finally resigned himself to sitting down.

Help.

There are hardly any normal machines on Cybertron.