Transformers: Survival of Defective Products

As soon as Vector stepped out of the experimental area, he saw Red Spider and Knockdown, and a "I knew it!" expression instantly appeared on his face.

"What about shockwave?" Starscream asked directly.

"Access has been frozen, and the technology has been handed over."

"He didn't object?" "No."

Starscream's expression was complex; after all, the shockwave's timing was unsettling.

Vector didn't want to continue discussing the giant rabbit: "You're looking for me because of my human identity?"

Red Spider immediately said, "I'll go first."

He raised one eyebrow and said, "You just said the order doesn't matter."

"I've waited here long enough!"

"Please." Knocked down gracefully took a step back to the side.

Red Spider was taken aback by his attitude, then flicked his wing and pointed to an empty cabin next to him: "Go in."

Vector: "...Are you here to talk to me or to interrogate me?"

"Interpret it however you like!"

The hatch closed, and Red Spider gave a cold snort as he looked at her.

"First of all," he said, lifting his chin, "you don't need to worry."

Vector: "Huh?"

"That matter."

Which one?

Red Spider's wings suddenly trembled: "That thing about you being human before!"

"oh."

"I won't tell anyone," he said, as if he had made some extremely magnanimous decision.

Vector looked at him, and Red Spider waited a moment: "Don't you have anything to say?"

"Uh, thank you?"

"Not sincere at all."

"Shall I present you with the award now?"

Red Spider snorted: "I'm just reminding you that the fewer people who possess this kind of secret, the better."

"That's already quite a lot."

"That's why it needs to be controlled even more!" Starscream took two steps, his tone clearly agitated. "Megatron knows, Soundwave knows, Shockwave and Knockout know, and now those Autobots know too. How did you manage to make such a top secret known to almost everyone in the core group?"

"It's a long story."

I don't want to hear it.

Vector raised an eyebrow, and after a moment of silence, Red Spider couldn't help but say, "And who would have thought that your consciousness originated from such a weak, short-lived, and fragile organic..."

His voice gradually faded, and Yin Yi raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, waiting.

Red Spider himself realized the problem.

Weak? The machine in front of him left him speechless. It had established a judicial center, fought Megatron, stopped Optimus Prime, and could handle a whole host of other miscellaneous matters.

She did have a short lifespan, but she later lived for millions of years using a machine.

And vulnerable... Red Spider's optical glasses landed on her, and she couldn't finish her sentence for a long time.

The vector pointer kindly reminded, "Why did you stop talking?"

"I'm organizing my thoughts!"

"…oh."

"Stop with the 'oh oh oh'!" Starscream flapped his wing angrily. "What I mean is, the physical performance of humans is indeed inferior to that of Cybertronians, that's an objective fact."

"I admit that."

"But..." Red Spider paused, this shift was quite difficult for him, "The source isn't important enough to change the current facts."

He looked at him with a smile, his optical glasses curving upwards: "What fact?"

Red Spider immediately became alert: "You did this on purpose?"

"I just want to be more specific."

"You are the chief judge of the judicial center."

"Anything else?" "It's still that troublesome guy who likes to meddle in everything, adds new rules all the time, and is extremely difficult to persuade."

"Wow, that doesn't sound like a compliment."

Starscream refused to elaborate further, probably preferring to be beaten up by Megatron rather than admit to his face that "I still care about you."

The vector didn't press him, but Red Spider continued: "In short, if this gets out, there will always be fools trying to take advantage of it."

"Like you?" Vector joked, trying to amuse him.

"I'm not that stupid!" Starscream instantly bristled. "What good would it do me to attack you with something like this? The judicial system would investigate me, Megatron would go crazy, Optimus Prime wouldn't remain inactive, not to mention..."

Red Spider abruptly stopped, and Vector immediately approached, demanding, "Not to mention what?"

"It's nothing."

"Red Spider".

"I already told you it's nothing!" He walked past her irritably to the hatch, placed his hand on the switch, but didn't turn it on immediately. "Be careful yourself."

The vector looked at his back.

"Humans are fragile." Red Spider turned around angrily. "When you return to this planet, don't do anything irrational just because of those past relationships. What if you sacrifice yourself again to protect something..."

Red Spider suddenly realized he had been too blunt, and the entire aircraft froze instantly. Then, its wings snapped up: "Anyway! I'm just giving you a strategic warning! You'd better watch yourself!"

He left as soon as he finished speaking, as if an enraged Megatron was chasing after him.

The vector was standing in the cabin and finally let out a laugh.

-

Knocked down outside, he saw Red Spider quickly leaving, sidestepping the opponent's towering wing: "How did the talks go?"

Red Spider ignored him, knocked down and watched his retreating figure, then looked at the Graviton Vector emerging from the cabin: "Looks like everything went very smoothly."

Before the vector could answer, Knockdown glanced at Red Spider, who had walked away but was clearly still listening, and casually tidied his appearance.

"After all, his concern always sounds like a threat."

The red spider, who had walked away, suddenly turned back: "I can hear you!"

He knocked her down, smiling and waving: "That's why I said it."

The red spider completely disappeared around the corner, its feet stomping hard on the ground with a resounding thud, before finally turning towards the vector.

"It's my turn."

"Do you need a private room too?"

"No need."

The two machines slowly moved forward along the passage outside the experimental area, and the one who knocked down spoke first: "I actually accepted it quite quickly."

Why?

"It's very simple." He raised a pointed finger. "First, from a profit perspective, I am a long-term nominal medical officer in the judicial center."

He knocked her down and raised a second finger: "Secondly, in terms of our relationship, we've known each other for a long time. Who you were before doesn't change our current cooperation."

The third finger slowly rose: "Thirdly, emotionally, I am clearly biased towards you."

The vector looked at him with some surprise: "So direct?"

"There's nothing you can't admit now." He glanced at her.

"So you won't tell anyone?"

Knockout laughed out loud: "Revealing your secret will damage my relationship with the judicial system, offend you, and might even cause Megatron to suffer another emotional catastrophe. It's extremely unwise from both a financial and personal standpoint."

"Very rational."

"Thanks."

After knocking her down and taking a few steps, he couldn't help but look her up and down, which immediately alerted him.

"What do you want to do?"

"It's hard to imagine that you were actually an organic being before? Without a metal exoskeleton?" "No."

"Skin? Hair? Body temperature? Heartbeat?" "All of the above."

"These things are amazing." Knockout's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

Vector looked at him speechlessly: "So what are you trying to do? Study shockwaves?"

"I just find it really interesting that even though we have completely different physiological structures, we are all you, and in the end, we formed a complete spark. But I didn't mean to use you as experimental material. Even from a researcher's perspective, shockwaves are a bit abnormal; sometimes they are too fond of the unknown."

"Just 'sometimes'?"

"Honey, I still have to work with him."

The vector burst out laughing; this guy is just so realistic.

He glanced at her a few more times after knocking her down, and slowly said, "To be honest, you're quite interesting. You're actually able to completely accept both of these lives."

He raised his hand and gestured lightly at her shoulder, without actually touching her: "Now, this body, the spark, and the former human consciousness are all gathered in one body."

He laughed, deliberately speaking slowly and deliberately, as if emphasizing his words: "It's charming."

Vector's eye twitched: "Did you guys plan this all along? Why is every machine saying such incomprehensible things that are giving me a headache?"

"No." Knockdown smiled and looked away, then added, "If you'd like, you can tell me about human medicine and how humans maintain vehicles later."

"Why the latter?"

He was utterly shocked: "Wait, you used to live in human society, and you didn't realize this was the important point?"

"I drive only for traffic."

The act of knocking down the statue was utterly a waste of resources: "We need to talk about this."

"...We'll talk about it later."

"make a deal."

-

The attacker knocks the victim down at the next entrance: "Good luck."

The vector stopped in its tracks: "What do you mean?"

Knockout gestured with his chin behind her. She slowly turned around and saw Megatron standing at the end of the corridor. He had been standing there for an unknown amount of time. Knockout smiled gloatingly and said, "I'm leaving now."

He turned and slipped away.

Vector: ...Will this ever end?

Megatron approached, not asking any specific questions, but simply stopping in front of her. He spoke first, "Didn't you already talk to her? What are you doing now?"

Megatron paused for a few seconds: "I'll see you."

The vector waited a while for the next line to follow, but nothing came: "And then?"

"there is none left."

This time it was her turn to get stuck: "Just to see me?"

"Hmm." Megatron's reply was so casual that she didn't know what to say for a moment.

He didn't really have any new problems. He was the first to know her human identity, and the secrets, trust, and the ugliest thoughts between them had all been revealed that night.

Now, other machines are coming to her one by one: Soundwave, Shockwave, Starscream, Knockout, and the Autobots are even lining up. Megatron certainly doesn't like this, but he no longer barges in or interrupts; he just waits.

"Are you going back to the judicial liaison point now?" he asked.

"That's how it was originally."

"Later."

He looked at him and asked, "How long?"

Megatron extended his hand, which remained there respectfully, awaiting her choice: "I don't know, but stay with me for a while."

After looking at the vector for a while, he finally took it.

Megatron immediately grasped it.

-

He took her to an observation platform near the hull of the USS Retribution.

Outside was Earth, and the clouds were moving slowly. The vector sat down on the edge of the platform, and Megatron sat down next to him.

She was actually a bit tired today, after all, she first met with Agent Fuller, and then had a bunch of conversations that gave her a headache.

She herself was also rethinking the past, her fears, and her longing for home. Now that it was suddenly quiet, she felt a little uneasy.

Megatron held her hand the whole time, and only after she relaxed a bit did he ask, "Did they tell you a lot?" "Yes."

"Where's Optimus Prime?"

The vector turned to look at him, but Megatron remained unfazed.

"He had talked about it before."

"What about the jazz?" "They talked about that too."

Megatron didn't ask any more questions, though he was clearly very concerned. Looking at his expression, the Primal Force suddenly wanted to laugh: "What do you want to ask?"

Megatron looked into the distance, his fingers tracing hers, and after a while, he finally spoke the truth: "After you talked to them, did you change your mind?"

"What are your thoughts?"

He paused for a moment again: "About me."

Megatron finally stopped breaking down or interrogating whenever the topic came up, and he no longer felt an almost instinctive fear mixed with destruction. Now he just wanted to know, so he asked softly.

"No," she said, speaking frankly, "I still care about you, and that has nothing to do with anyone else knowing about my past."

He finally turned his head: "Like them?"

Vector frowned: "Why do you have to bring them up?"

Megatron remained silent, still trying to distinguish between priorities, importance, and different levels, in order to find himself a position that would never be replaced.

The vector, however, is too lazy to follow this logic: "Every relationship is irreplaceable."

This wasn't the absolute answer he most wanted to hear, but it was true and it left a place for him.

Megatron lowered his head and gently nuzzled her head, but did not take anything further, nor did he dodge the vector.

The two machines sat there for a while longer, then Megatron suddenly asked, "Will you shut down the old frequency bands again?"

Vector: "If you cross the line again, you will..."

Megatron's face immediately turned sour again, and she continued, "I won't lock you up unless you cross the line."

His expression softened a little: "I can't."

"Don't be so absolute—" Before Yin Xiang could finish speaking, he saw his sour face, a mixture of grievance and dissatisfaction. "Okay, okay, I know you've been doing well lately."

Fortunately, Megatron didn't fight again.

The vector leaned against the metal railing beside her, and the optical mirror slowly dimmed. Megatron felt her weight tilting slightly towards him, so he adjusted his posture to make her lean against him more steadily.

"Tired?" "Yes, I'm exhausted."

"Then let's rest." "I need to go back."

"Wait a moment."

I won't go into detail about the vector; I'll close the optical lens.

Megatron looked down at her. She was still there, and she was happy to have him hold her hand, so he didn't ask for anything more.

-

After squinting for a while, the vector opened the optical lens again, and Megatron was still in a similar posture.

"I should go." "Okay."

Megatron agreed much faster than expected, sat up straight, and glanced at him.

"Aren't you going to stop them?" "That's enough."

She paused slightly.

Megatron used to be tireless and insatiable, and could be described as greedy. She never had enough power, never had enough victories, and never had enough vision.

He gently released her hand and stood up: "I'll take you to the land bridge."

The two machines returned to the teleportation area. Megatron stood quietly to the side, and after opening the blue-green portal, he said, "Let me know when we get there."

The vector looked at him.

Megatron continued matter-of-factly, "Use our old frequency band."

Vector couldn't help but laugh: "Okay."

Megatron watched her disappear into the tunnel, patiently waiting for her private channel to light up.