Transformers: Survival of Defective Products

"stop!"

The ambulance instinctively cut off the injection, and the treatment fluid stopped flowing instantly.

But it was too late; some of the potion had already entered the energy cycle of the gravitational vector, spreading deeper along the arm.

The Soul-Suppressing Spear's circuitry remained lit, and the dazzling white and golden patterns did not extinguish as quickly as they had after the miniature gripper was destroyed. Instead, they rose up in sections along the outer armor of the forearm.

The ambulance driver's expression changed drastically: "What's wrong? What's this?"

"The Soul-Suppressing Spear." The vector provided a brief explanation.

No one had time to be shocked or confused about what it was.

The vector looked down at its right arm: "It responds to high concentrations of dark super-energy... but it's still glowing..."

The sound waves scanned the entire area multiple times in an instant: [No high-concentration dark super-energy body detected externally.]

Shockwave remembered something and said to the ambulance lane: "The remaining medication needs to be checked."

The ambulance immediately withdrew the syringe; there was still some liquid left in the needle, and there appeared to be no problem from the outside.

The test results were still negative, the structure was stable, the temperature was normal, and it was almost identical to the data when it was first prepared.

The shockwave improved the detection accuracy, but after several rounds, there were still no abnormalities until he took the initiative to call upon the spectrum of the dark super-energy body he had brought back from the volcano for targeted comparison.

The screen suddenly lit up with a matching dark purple light, extremely faint.

[A homology reaction with a dark super-energy entity was detected.]

The joint channel is silent.

Even by Cybertronian standards, 97's face was completely devoid of color.

"...The antidote has also been touched?"

-

The vector quickly figured out what had happened.

The miniature gripper seized the gray death virus strain and then followed the antidote transport box to the judicial liaison point. It must have come into contact with the antidote after that.

"Sampling interface." The vector suddenly looked up.

The ambulance also remembered.

In order to be able to review the treatment agent in the future without opening the main container, they retained a self-sealing sampling port in the medical cabinet.

An alarm will not be triggered when the pressure change is below the minimum threshold.

The gripper was very small; perhaps not a single drop of the dark super-energy was dripped in—just a tiny bit would suffice.

Jiuqi's voice trembled: "Was it already contaminated with the antidote back then?"

"It seems so." The vector's tone was unusually calm.

The ambulance driver glared at her: "Don't talk like that!"

-

The scan data suddenly jumped, and the previously stable data fluctuated wildly.

[The rate of spread of the gray death is increasing.]

The ambulance driver's attention was immediately drawn to the scene.

The gray death disease originally spread slowly to the periphery along the energy cycle, but now the infection is spreading much faster.

The entry of the dark super-energy entity was like opening a new channel for the gray death, and the infection quickly spread outward along the adjacent pathways.

"The diffusion rate has increased by 36 percent."

The ambulance recalculated.

"Fifty-two percent."

97: "Why is it still going up?!"

"The dark super-energy entity is stimulating it."

The shockwave responded: "There is a coordinated reaction between the two."

As Yin Xiang subconsciously wanted to make a joke, his hand suddenly twitched slightly.

The normal bodily control signals seem to be blocked for a moment when they reach the fingertips.

She frowned, clenched her fist, and then opened it several times, but now she seemed normal.

"What just happened?" The ambulance didn't miss any details.

"Control delays."

The ambulance driver's expression grew increasingly grim.

Just then, the vector suddenly heard a laugh, echoing as if it came from a distant underground place, yet the volume was clearly right next to its ear.

She immediately looked up: "Who?"

The ambulance driver paused for a moment, then asked, "What? Who?"

97 and AZ were both at the entrance, and the only sounds coming from the joint channel were chaotic breathing and equipment noise.

No one laughed.

Then a second sound rang out, clearer, coming from her brain module.

"finally."

The entire machine immediately tensed up upon the introduction of the vector.

Ambulance: "What's wrong now?"

She didn't answer immediately. The voice was slow and heavy, not coming through an audio receiver, but more like something churning in her brain.

"worm."

The antenna fins for the vectoring antenna stood up completely, and I instantly realized who it was:

"Unicron".

The joint channel went silent again, while a jumble of noises came from Megatron's side.

The sound waves immediately tried to capture the external communication source, but to no avail.

Shockwave: "Where is the sound coming from?"

"In my head."

The ambulance driver's composure completely crumbled: "Don't make it sound so easy!"

Yin Vector stared at the empty space ahead: "But I can't kick him out for now."

The voice seemed to have heard it, or perhaps it had been able to hear it from the very beginning.

"Primus and his twelve losers," He said with an unsettling condescension, "placing their hopes on such lives."

The vector, who had been trying to remain calm, suddenly became furious upon hearing this:

"Who are you calling a loser?"

Everyone: "..."

What time is it? Why is she focusing on the wrong thing again!

Unicron did not react much to her rebuttal.

"You stand upon my body, my blood flows through your veins, and you dare to dictate my slumber."

"Who cares about your Bloodlust?" Despite the increasing stinging pain in his circuitry, Yin Vector subconsciously added, "Now that Earth is under the jurisdiction of the human government, your unauthorized long-term occupation is, strictly speaking, quite troublesome."

There was an eerie silence on the joint channel for a moment.

Fuller subconsciously nodded, then suddenly realized what he meant.

Now is not the time to discuss land rights!

The Cosmic Emperor was silent for a moment, and when his voice rang out again, it was noticeably colder.

"Insignificant and ignorant."

Vector: "The vocabulary is quite small."

-

While she was arguing with the dark god in her mind, she reached out and touched her breastplate.

The Blade of Time is still in the internal storage. If they take it out first, they will at least have a way to enter the Earth's core.

She pressed the unlock button, but nothing happened.

Press the vector button briefly, then press it again.

[Permission denied.]

Her optical glasses slowly narrowed: "...What the hell?"

Ambulance: "By God's grace! What happened?"

"The storage compartment cannot be opened."

"Fault?"

"impossible."

This is her own machine, and the permissions belong to her. Even if the lock is broken, it should display a machine malfunction message instead of being denied access.

Force access permissions for the vector.

Execution failed.

Then her right hand suddenly tightened.

This was neither her idea nor her action!

The five fingers were clenched tightly together, and the joints even made a soft cracking sound.

The vector's expression finally turned completely ugly, and he used the magnetic field to forcibly pull his fingers apart.

"He can control a part of my body."

The ambulance driver's face turned blue; fueled by anger and worry, energy surged from his armor.

"How could that be?! Which part can He control?!"

She tried to raise her right arm, which she could move; her left leg was fine, and her head was normal, with only a very few joints or parts experiencing extremely brief delays.

However, the internal storage compartment completely refused her access.

The vector instantly understood why the Cosmic Emperor had specifically chosen to occupy that place:

"He knew the Blade of Time was inside."

Megatron's communicator crackled with a furious, teeth-gritting exclamation: "How did he know?!"

"The gripper." Vector gritted his teeth. That thing was able to ambush her like that. It must have been hiding in the judicial liaison point for a while, seen her coming and going, opened the storage slot, and probably even seen the Blade of Time itself.

Now that Unicron has used the Dark Super-Energy Body to connect to that clamp, he must have seen those memories.

So He immediately locked down the only thing that could enter the Earth's core and banned it.

-

Your struggle is pointless.

The voice of the Cosmic Emperor rang out again, "This body is stained with my blood."

The vector tried storing the data again, but failed again: "This constitutes illegal intrusion into my private system."

The ambulance driver was nearly driven mad by her: "Can you please stop trying to reason with Him right now?!"

The joke didn't last long. A chill gradually spread through her chest, and the cold sensation slowly approached the ignition chamber along the internal wiring.

Vector could no longer contain her emotions; she knew what the Cosmic Emperor wanted to do.

"ambulance."

"I'm watching!"

On the scanned model, the dark purple color is moving along the infection path towards the chest, with a clear target, heading straight for the source of the infection.

She suddenly remembered what Rui Tianxiao had said before: a spark that has been contaminated by the dark super-energy body cannot return to its source.

The vector felt a real, uncontrollable panic.

She absolutely could not let that thing contaminate her flame.

The magnetic field suddenly contracted inward, and she tried to interfere with the metal circuitry inside her body.

The ambulance driver shouted sternly, "Don't tamper with the internal wiring!"

"He's heading towards the ignition chamber!"

Her words silenced everyone else.

The vector could feel the dark purple color gradually approaching its chest, and just as it was about to break through the fire seed chamber, it collided with something.

The scanner cannot capture all of this; only the vector itself can sense it.

A faint light shone around the fire seed chamber, first from the bluish-white traces left by the Impermanent Heaven, then from the ancient energy she was familiar with, that of the Primordial Ones.

The last few golden specks of light, long dormant and forgotten by her, slowly rose from around the flame.

They are connected to the blessings of the ancestor, silently forming a thin but indestructible barrier.

The invasion of the Cosmic Emperor was thwarted, and the usually aloof voice did not immediately continue.

After a long while, the voice finally appeared, this time with a hint of cold snort:

"Primus".

The golden light still surrounded the spark, and she finally remembered that it was in the void of the Magic God Orb that those light spots of light had somehow stuck to her shoulder armor, fins, and spark chamber.

At that time, Sai Tianjiao only said "it is light".

The vector is now at a loss for words, whether to be thankful or speechless.

This is ordinary light?!

-

Unicron stopped attacking the Fire Seed Barrier, but he didn't leave either.

Darkness still lingers in the energy cycle of the gravitational vector, the gray death is accelerating, and the body occasionally twitches, clearly indicating that the Cosmic Emperor is tampering with things.

The Blade of Time remains locked.

The vector breathed a sigh of relief; at least the spark was safe, which was the only piece of good news amidst the pile of bad news.

The ambulance driver, however, was far from relieved: "Don't relax! The pathogen is still spreading!"

"Then let's make the antidote now," Vector said immediately.

Shockwave had already worked with the data sent by 97 to sort out the formula: "The original formula is complete."

Ambulance: "Where are the materials?"

More bad news has arrived.

Several materials used to stabilize circuits near the spark do not exist on Earth.

Cybertron has it, but it needs to be allocated and remade, both of which take time.

-

The earth suddenly shook violently, so violently that the lights at the temporary judicial liaison point flickered twice.

Simultaneously, numerous alerts popped up on the Earth model on the main screen, and Fuller yelled, "Go look at the satellites!"

The footage was projected onto the joint channel.

A desert, now evacuated, is trembling. Huge cracks appear in the ground, and then rock layers arch upwards, with gravel, soil, and metallic minerals gathering together under the pull of energy.

Finally, a gigantic silhouette resembling a Cybertronian, but much taller, appeared, and then purple light shone from its eyes.

When He stood up, the nearby mountains seemed to shrink in stature.

The human command center was deathly silent.

Fuller asked with difficulty, "Is this also Him?"

Before the vector could even respond, the alarm popped up as if it had lost its mind.

The Cosmic Emperor temporarily created earth clones from the soil and scattered them to various places, with some even near the contact point.

The surface war has officially begun.

-

The joint channel instantly switched to wartime dispatch.

Alita takes over the Autobot ground defense zone: "All personnel, proceed within your designated areas!"

Optimus Prime simultaneously opened the personnel list: "Prioritize isolating the manifested entities and human evacuation routes."

Megatron immediately gave the order: "Starscream, Thunderfury, Overpower, intercept from the air! Barricades, Deadfire, clear ground targets!"

The sound waves were synchronized to provide the real-time location of all Decepticons.

Chong Yunxiao transformed into his beast form, roaring as he flew out of the temporary communication point and spewed flames at his earth clone.

Nine-Seven instinctively took a few steps to follow, then suddenly stopped and turned back to look at Vector: "You..."

"Go." Vector leaned against the wall. "They need you outside. An ambulance and AZ will be with me."

The Type 97's wings twitched taut for a moment, then it finally turned around.

"If something really happens to you, I'll track you down to the source of the spark."

-

More and more members went to the surface war, but communication was not interrupted, and voices from different battlefields kept pouring in.

Energy cannons, rocks shattering, human evacuation alarms, and the roar of Chong Yunxiao leading the cloud leopards and Xuan Tie.

The Cosmic Emperor was still rambling on in the vector consciousness, seemingly manipulating countless manifestations effortlessly for Him.

"Look, everything will eventually return to chaos."

"Your slogan is even more outdated than Megatron's early speeches."

-

Optimus Prime, far away at the top of the barrel, stared at the medical data that kept popping up.

The spread of infection continues to accelerate.

[Abnormal machine permissions detected.]

[Spark Status: Stable.]

The last sentence made him barely breathe a sigh of relief, but he immediately said, "Turn around."

The jack has already changed course: "That's exactly what I'm going to do."

"No, please." The voice of the vector generator came through the communication, and both machines stopped moving simultaneously. "Continue searching for the source of the fire."

Optimus Prime: "But now even your Time Blade can't be used."

"Therefore, containers are even more necessary."

"Your most urgent need right now is to get treatment."

"Even if you come back, you can't get the gray death disease out of my body."

The vector tried to make his voice sound steady:

"Bringing back the container was what saved me."

Optimus Prime fell completely silent. The gravitational vector could not see his expression, only the occasional static coming from the communication.

If she hadn't been listening so carefully, she might have missed that slight, almost imperceptible sob.

After a while, the Thousand-Pound Hammer finally advanced deeper into the nebula.

-

The ambulance was still calculating the treatment plan, AZ was urgently retrieving the missing materials, and BICk0 was handling Cybertronian affairs while expediting the transportation process.

All messages are "Access denied."

The Cosmic Emperor chuckled softly within her brain module, mocking her stubbornness.

"You have nowhere to go."

The stinging pain from the gray death within my body was more pronounced than before, while the dark super-energy body acted as a catalyst, continuously accelerating the infection rate of the gray death.