Transformers: Survival of Defective Products

Chapter 67 First Aid

The vector opened its mouth, but couldn't find the words to say.

In her current state, even when she's cursing back, she has to go through her mental modules first before deciding whether it's worth saying. The burning sensation in her shoulder and back is drilling into her body in waves, not to mention her left leg, where the white capture device is still nailed in. With the slightest movement, the pain shoots up her thigh and makes half of her body go numb.

Red Spider clearly didn't expect her to maintain her usual stubbornness at this point.

He crouched down, glanced at the penetrating wound on her leg, and frowned even more.

"Don't touch it." His tone was cold. "If you pull this thing out now, you'll be lying flat on your back in a minute."

Yin Xiangzong originally wanted to reach out and press near the wound, but upon hearing this, he stopped.

As Red Spider spoke, she raised her hand and popped out a small section of emergency restraint from her arm armor. She quickly pressed down the structure around the penetrating device to prevent her from tearing open the wound if she moved around.

"Don't worry about your shoulders and back for now." He didn't look at her, leaving no room for argument. "Stabilize your left leg first, so you don't tear yourself apart again."

Yin Vector leaned against the wall and took a soft breath.

She was actually still conscious, but the pain was so intense that it felt like the whole machine was nailed to a halt. She looked down at the white tip still sticking out of her leg, and her throat tightened slightly.

"...So sinister."

She managed to squeeze out only two words at the end.

"You're only finding out now?" Red Spider sneered, his hands still moving. "This place, this setup, plus a pre-installed capture device. It's clearly designed to make your death look good, so that others can have a plausible explanation afterward."

As he spoke, he brought up the terminal with his other hand and switched directly to the encrypted frequency band.

When Yin Zong heard the soft sound of the connection being made, his eyes flickered.

Red Spider didn't turn his head, his tone even colder than before: "Zhen Tianzun, your men are here with me, and they're almost beaten to a pulp."

There was a brief silence on the other end, followed by Zhen Tianzun's tightly controlled voice: "Location."

Red Spider has already sent over the coordinates and information about her injuries.

The vector, which had been leaning there, frowned upon hearing this.

"Why did you contact him...?"

It took me a lot of strength to say those words.

Red Spider glanced at her, his tone chilling.

"Don't contact him, and wait for him to slowly crawl back and report that he's safe?"

"I……"

"You'd better shut your mouth now," Red Spider interrupted her rudely. "Save your energy, at least don't exhaust yourself before they get here."

The vector was rendered speechless by his words and shut up.

-

On the other side, Zhen Tianzun and Orion were still discussing a newly compiled document.

On the table were lines drawn from the recent abnormal match schedules and external adjustments in the arena. Just as Orion marked the source of one of the abnormal fluctuations, the terminal on Zhen Tianzun's side rang.

The frequency band of the red spider.

The moment Zhen Tianzun raised an eyebrow, Red Spider's words came flying back.

The air changed instantly.

Before Orion could even ask, he saw the entire machine of the Thunder God tense up almost instantly. The person who had been sitting there calmly just moments before now stood up without even closing the interface.

Orion's heart sank: "What's wrong?"

Zhen Tianzun didn't answer immediately; the coordinates sent by Red Spider on the terminal had already popped up. He glanced at them, his voice low and cold.

"Something went wrong with the vectoring mechanism."

Orion's expression changed instantly; his previously gentle and serious demeanor was now completely blank.

"What?"

"Assassination." Zhen Tianzun spoke quickly as he walked out. "Red Spider's side is under control for now."

As he walked, he switched to another frequency band.

"Knock him down, come here. Bring something that can treat penetrating wounds and high-energy burns."

They clearly sensed something was wrong, and their usual nonchalance vanished.

Send me your location.

Zhen Tianzun flung him away and had already walked out the door.

Orion immediately stood up, and in a split second, his brain module dialed the ambulance.

"ambulance."

The other end answered quickly, but the tone was as impatient as ever.

"Speak if you have something to say."

"The vector is injured." Orion barely stopped. "Not a minor injury. Assassination, a penetrating wound, and possibly burns from a high-energy weapon. Starscream and Megatron have already gone there. I'll give you the coordinates now."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the ambulance line, then a simple reply: "Send."

-

In the alley, Red Spider finished the temporary fixation on the thigh of the vectoring device.

He glanced at the injuries on her shoulder and back but didn't immediately touch her. The environment and tools weren't suitable for careless handling, and her body was still on the verge of stress; any further movement would only make things worse.

The vector was leaning against the wall, its breathing rate already a bit erratic.

Red Spider looked at her, who seemed to be trying to hold on but was clearly about to collapse, and his tone became even colder: "Wake up."

Yin Xiang looked up at him, his vision blurred even through his optical glasses, but he still replied in a low voice, "I'm not dizzy."

"I know you're not unconscious," Red Spider said. "I'm warning you, don't start showing off now."

Yin Xiang was so annoyed by what he said that she wanted to roll her eyes, but before she could, the pain in her shoulder and back made her gasp.

Red Spider looked at her, scanned her exposed damage data on the terminal again, and his expression worsened.

"Before you left my lab today, didn't I just warn you that things weren't going well outside lately?"

Yin Xiangmu gritted his teeth, his voice becoming much softer.

"You call that a reminder?"

"I even threw the blind spot map in your face."

"Didn't you just toss that away...?"

"I just tossed it to you and you didn't even flinch," Red Spider said coldly. "Looks like not only your body needs repairing, but your brain module should also be taken apart and checked."

This time, the vector truly lacked the strength to fight him.

Just as she was about to close her eyes to catch her breath, she heard a series of hurried and heavy footsteps coming from the alleyway.

Zhen Tianzun has already rushed in.

He walked so fast that he even created a gust of wind. His steps abruptly stopped the moment he saw the figure by the wall.

When Yin Xiang looked up, the first thing he saw was the coldness in Yin Xiang's eyes, so deep that it was impossible to see the bottom.

After knocking down the one following behind, the first thing he saw upon entering was the attacker lying half-crippled on the other side, which had been mostly destroyed by the Red Spider. Then, his gaze shifted and landed directly on the vector.

The joking expression on his face was gone.

"...Alright." Knockdown took two steps closer, his voice lowered, "This time it's no small matter."

When Zhen Tianzun stood in front of Yin Xiangzong, he didn't touch her immediately. He first scanned her from head to toe, not missing anything, including the blasted wound on her shoulder and back, the white penetrating device on her left leg, and the charred marks on her outer armor that hadn't dried yet.

Yin Xiangzong initially thought he was holding up quite well, but when he met his gaze, he inexplicably felt a little uneasy.

"I didn't..."

She wanted to say that she was doing alright.

As soon as the two words were uttered, Zhen Tianzun raised his hand and gently touched the uninjured side of her shoulder armor.

"Don't speak."

The vector suddenly fell silent.

The emotion in that voice was suppressed too much.

Zhen Tianzun turned to look at Ji Dao, his tone quickly returning to normal, but even colder.

"deal with."

He had already crouched down after being knocked down. The scanner turned on very quickly, and as it swept over the burned area on his leg and shoulder, his complexion grew increasingly worse.

"The penetrating wound is immobilized fairly well," he said, glancing at Red Spider. "You didn't cause any trouble."

Red Spider leaned against the side and sneered.

"I'm not stupid enough to create extra work for you at a time like this."

He didn't catch the blow, and continued to look down at his injury, cursing as he looked.

"These guys are really going all out to kill her. High-energy beams grazed her shoulders and back, capture devices pinned her legs, and then another shot came down. She wouldn't be sitting here right now."

The air in the alley became even more oppressive.

Zhen Tianzun stood there, saying nothing, only his profile became even more taut.

Leaning against the wall, her eyes half-open, she tried to stay awake. But when she knocked down the device that was being used to treat her wounds, the waves of pain made her fingertips twitch and her breath catch in her throat.

Zhen Tianzun's gaze darkened, his hand already instinctively reaching forward halfway, but he stopped abruptly at the last moment, and whispered to her:

"Look at me."

The vector was difficult to lift its eyes.

"Don't close your eyes." He stared at her. "The ambulance and Orion are coming too."

The things in her brain that had started to disperse due to the pain were actually pulled back a little.

She nodded with difficulty.

Outside the alley, another series of footsteps rapidly approached.

The ambulance and Orion arrived as well.

-

The ambulance rushed in.

As soon as he landed, his gaze swept over the half-crippled attacker by the wall, and then fixed on the vector.

She leaned the whole machine against the wall, her face so pale that she looked like she could no longer keep up the fight.

The ambulance driver's face immediately turned sour, as if they had come to collect a debt.

"Get out of the way."

Knocked down, who was crouching there, raised his eyes upon hearing this: "I've already secured it; the penetrating object hasn't moved, and there's been no random movement to the shoulders or back."

"Do you need to remind me?" The ambulance said this, but the action was already in place. The scanner was turned on, and several beams of light fell on the wounds on the vector's leg and shoulder at the same time. "The fixation was done well. It didn't make her look any more difficult to treat."

He sneered, "That's a really touching compliment."

"I wasn't praising you," the ambulance driver said coldly. "I was praising her for not being so unlucky as to die on the spot."

The vector was already numb with pain, but upon hearing this, it managed to squeeze out a few breaths from its throat.

"...Are all you medical officers so rude and offensive?"

"You still have the strength to talk, which means it's not the worst yet." The ambulance operator started adjusting the temporary flow control and stabilization devices. "Good, keep it up, don't faint."

Orion also came to her side.

He subconsciously took half a step forward, as if to confirm that she was still conscious. But when his gaze fell on the white penetrating device on her leg and the shattered armor on her shoulder and back, his hand froze in mid-air.

When Yin Xiang raised his eyes, he saw the movement that made him hesitate to land.

Orion clearly realized that touching her rashly at this moment would only make the situation worse, so he quickly withdrew his hand, his voice soft and low.

"I'm here."

As soon as Yin Xiang opened her mouth, the ambulance pressed down on her leg and re-stabilized it, causing her to tense up in pain, and she couldn't squeeze out a single word.

Orion's heart sank, his hand unconsciously clenched into a fist, but he held back and asked the ambulance in a low voice, "How can I help?"

"Pass her the voltage stabilizer. Also, hold down the edge of the outer armor on her right shoulder and back to prevent the break from tearing open again. Be gentle, or I'll deal with you first if you hurt her."

Orion did as he was told.

He moved very carefully, and when his hand landed on the uninjured part of the vector's shoulder, it was so light that it was as if the vector would shatter if he made a wrong move.

The vector could be felt. Her eyelashes fluttered, and she managed to steady her breathing, cooperating with his and the ambulance's movements.

On the other side, Zhen Tianzun was restraining himself from making any sudden movements.

He hadn't left the vector's sight since he came in, but the more he wanted to reach out, the more he knew he couldn't just touch it. Knockout and the ambulance were treating the injuries, and Orion was helping out; if he really intervened now, it would only make things worse.

So he could only stand there, staring at her, staring at that leg, staring at the charred wound on her shoulder and back.

Red Spider leaned to the side, watching all the machines in the room surrounding the vector generator, his expression no better than anyone else's.

He was already annoyed.

Now it's even more annoying.

Especially seeing Orion's hesitant and cautious manner, as if he were handling some rare material that would break if it were to crack, Red Spider felt that today's whole affair was incredibly ugly from beginning to end.

But he didn't say anything else, only coldly:

"The attackers were lying in ambush. They chose a brilliant location, launched a long-range attack, and pre-installed capture devices. It's clear they weren't there to probe, but to collect the bodies."

Zhen Tianzun's gaze did not waver.

"Is he still alive?"

"Dead." Red Spider twitched the corner of his mouth, but there was no smile in it. "But if I had arrived two minutes later, it might not have been him who died."

Suddenly, it felt like there was no air in the corridor.

He didn't stop hitting his hand; he looked down at the scanning interface.

"It wasn't just any random machine we picked. The configuration was designed to counter her, the terrain was designed to counter her, and even the penetration devices were pre-installed. The other side knew exactly what she lacked and what she was currently defending against."

The ambulance's response was more straightforward.

"They came here to kill her; they didn't intend to let her leave that alley alive."

The vector knew that something was wrong today, but upon hearing this, the optical mirror still shrank slightly.

Orion, who had been moving cautiously, finally raised his eyes.

"So they're no longer going to cover it up."

"They stopped covering up a long time ago," Red Spider said coldly. "They just look a little worse today."

Zhen Tianzun finally moved.

He took half a step forward and looked down at the vector.

"Can it hold on?"

Yin Xiangzong wanted to nod, but the pain made her want to curse. In the end, she honestly closed her eyes and let out a low breath: "...It's going to be tough."

Zhen Tianzun stared at her for two seconds, then stopped pressuring her to say more, suppressing his anger which had already reached its limit.

The ambulance then finished the first round of temporary treatment, straightened up, and made a crisp sound.

"We can't stay here any longer. The implant in your leg needs to be removed in a more stable environment, and your shoulders and back need deep treatment immediately. If we delay any longer, the recovery will be more complicated."

Even after being knocked down, he got up.

"This is all I can do temporarily here; the rest will have to be moved."

Red Spider glanced at them and finally straightened up from the wall.

"Then stop talking nonsense. There's a better processing room further in my lab. Take her there first. It's better than you guys standing here in this shabby alley staring at her blankly."

Neither the ambulance nor the shooting objected.

Orion instinctively stepped forward, as if to help lift the vector.

Zhen Tianzun was a step ahead of him, already half-squatting down, his movements swift, avoiding the most severely injured part of her body.

"Don't move," he whispered. "I'll take you there."

Yin Xiang looked up at him, opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing and simply nodded.

-

Once the processing room door is closed, the atmosphere is completely different from outside.

The takedown and ambulance operation barely stopped; the equipment was deployed and they immediately took over. The penetrating device on the leg had to be removed, but it couldn't be pulled out forcefully. First, the surrounding damaged structures had to be stabilized, and then the remaining energy and stuck metal edges had to be separated little by little. The high-energy burns on the shoulder and back were more troublesome. The crack in the outer armor wasn't the most serious issue; the problem lay in the wires and circuits inside that had been burned.

When the vector was laid down, the whole machine tensed up.

This injury is quite serious.

While adjusting the equipment, the ambulance driver said coldly, "Bear with it."

Knockout had already retrieved the leg scan image and quickly replied, "Your statement sounds like she has other options."

"If she had other options, she wouldn't be lying here."

"That's true."

The two of them still didn't exchange a single kind word, but their hands moved with the speed of a pre-rehearsed procedure. They deflated the ambulance, dismantled the restraints, and when they encountered tangled circuit boards and wiring, they didn't need any further explanation; one raised his hand, the other handed him tools—it was all so smooth.

Orion was standing closest.

He had wanted to help, but once he stood by the treatment table, he hesitated to reach out. Finally, he took the voltage stabilizer from the ambulance and gently pressed it against the edge of her uninjured side of her armor, whispering, "Tell me if it hurts."

The vector was already numb from the pain, but upon hearing this, it still managed to move the corner of its mouth slightly.

"What you're saying... makes it sound like I could stop the pain just by saying it."

Orian paused, the anxiety and heaviness in his eyes becoming even more apparent, and he didn't even respond to her joke.

"At least I know you're still conscious."

Red Spider was leaning against the side, his face looking terrible ever since he came in.

"If she's not conscious right now, it'll save me some trouble. At least I won't have to watch you all crowding around here, looking even worse than the patients on the treatment table."

No one responded to his statement; at this point, no one wanted to argue with him.

Zhen Tianzun stood on the outermost side, arms crossed, the entire machine eerily quiet.

Red Spider spoke first: "They're even daring to lay their hands on my side now."

The ambulance driver didn't look up, his hands still moving, as he uttered, "That shows they're not going to leave any room for negotiation."

Orion pressed down on the voltage regulator and continued, "Or rather, they felt there was no room for maneuver left."

Zhen Tianzun finally spoke at this moment.

"It was useless to begin with."

All the machines in the room understood.

It's come to this now.

Just then, the Zhen Tianzun terminal lit up.

He glanced down at the screen, which displayed the sound wave icon.

The message was very short.

The attacker's identity has been confirmed.

[Contact records with the arena's management have been secured.]

The specific link has been sent.

[This was not a personal action.]

Immediately afterwards, a message came from the vector control side, not through the terminal, but directly through internal communication.

I was too late.

The last one then popped up from Zhen Tianzun.

Laserbird has arrived.

After Zhen Tianzun finished reading, Yin Liuxiang clearly saw that his lips moved slightly, as if he was holding back something.

A very faint mechanical flapping sound came from outside the treatment room. As soon as the door slid open a crack, the Laserbird flew in through the gap and landed on the stand next to the treatment table. Its optical scope quickly scanned the injuries to the Vector's shoulder, back, and legs, and it quietly began to record.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of that familiar purple and still managed to turn his head slightly.

Before she could say anything, the ambulance ruthlessly pulled her attention back to reality: "Don't move. If you really want to pass out from the pain right now, I might consider granting your wish."

He knocked down the man next to him, his tone anything but gentle: "Stay awake. I still want to preserve your leg as beautifully as possible."

The vector closed the optical mirror and finally let out a very low breath.

"...I'm begging you, please watch your words, doctors."