Chapter 4

"No!" Miko cried out as she tried once again to struggle against the webbing.

Airachnid noted with pleasure that there was still more outrage than panic in the girl's voice. She was a feisty one. It would be difficult to break her; difficult and immensely satisfying. The spider-bot walked out into the crystal clear lagoon and drew some of the water into her vents. The liquid was shunted to a special compartment where a swarm of specialized nanobots began mixing, purifying, and processing it with the protein rich liquid she had harvested from the fibrous brown pods she'd collected from the trees. Once the mixture was optimized she began a steady drip into the child's system through the needle imbedded in her arm. After only a few moments the femme noted the improvement in the human's vitals and nodded in satisfaction.

"So what is with you anyway?" Miko demanded, trying to get her mind off the thought of what the femme had planned for her. "How'd you get to be such a freak?"

"Oh it's a long story my dear," Airachnid said with a dramatic sigh. "It started many megacycles ago on Cybertron. I was a young femme of the artisan class, a sky-dancer in Praxis." It would be interesting she mused, to see how far she cold twist this young, pliable mind. "I had only just imprinted on my first sparkling," Arachnid felt a surge of satisfaction as Miko's heart rate increased and her body tensed, indicating the human was paying close attention now. As she had suspected anything having to do with young was a weak point for this species.

"You really did have a sparkling?" there was still disbelief in the girl's tone, but also hesitation, weakness and the predator seized it.

"Swiftwing imprinted on me on the edge if the rust desert," Airachnid replied mournfully. "We had three wonderful cycles together," the femme paused and waited until the tension in her audience of one reached its peak, "before the Autobots enforcers took him from me."

"What, never! They wouldn't have," Miko gasped out in shock and automatic denial, but there was just a bit too much venom in her voice.

Airachnid checked the nutrient flow and tweaked the level of alcohols in it upward a bit. A little chemical judgment clouding might help things along.

"Oh you innocent child," the femme sighed. "Not all Autobots were as sweet as your dear, thick Bulkhead."

Suddenly she felt a ping on her CPU. A cruel smile twitched at the corners of her faceplates as she left off the story and activated the uplink she had established over the primitive human satellite network. The human protested at the sudden silence but a quick squeeze silenced the child. Airachnid spent a few klicks making sure the line was secure and then triggered the device at the other end.

"… would send you a, 'furby', was it?" Arcee's curious voice crackled through the static.

"I have no idea," Jack's soft timber replied. "It might have been from my Great Aunt. Sometimes I think she still sees me as four."

The spider-bot waited until June Darby called her son if for dinner. As she had planned, the human male left the supposed furby in the garage next to Arcee. With a signal from the spider-bot, a near invisible cloud of nanobots exploded off the innocent looking thing and adhered to the cycle-bot. Now was not the time. Any predator must be patient, and Airachnid was a truly great predator. This plot was something she'd had in the works for quite some time, just waiting for the proper situation to spring it. While she waited for the human occupants of the house to fall asleep the femme turned her attention to the sulking Miko.

"Now where were we?"

"You were telling me about how the enforcers took your sparkling from you," the girl said trying not to sound interested.

Airachnid let sadness and regret creep into her voice.

"Yes," she said bitterly. "Those scraping fools on the council, in their infinite wisdom, had declared that we sky-dancers of the artisan class were unfit to raise the young who had imprinted on us. I lost little Cloudjump just before I joined the Decepticons." Airachnid let out a regretful sigh.

"Wait! That wasn't his name," Miko snapped out, jumping on the inconsistency. "You're lying to me!"

"Really?" Airachnid asked absently, she hadn't really been putting that much effort into the story, not thinking the emotional girl too bright, oh well. There were other ways to toy with her new pet. The noise level in the Darby house had dropped to the point that indicated the humans were asleep. "What did I say her name was?"

"You said 'he' and it was Swat… Sweetflag…Flip… Well it wasn't that. Do you think I'm something or stupid?"

The Cybertronian let out a small huff of amusement as the alcohol began to take effect.

"Darling I have the greatest respect for your," Airachnid couldn't quite keep her lips from twitching up in a smirk, "mental capacity."

"Be quiet now," she said giving the girl a squeeze. A yelp of pain came from the chamber. In annoyance Airachnid directed a web of fine wires to seal the child's mouth shut. The spider-bot finished the trap she was working on and triggered the comm. unit.

"Hello Arcee." The femme listened in satisfaction to the startled cry on the other end.

"Airachnid!" the Autobot hissed. "Where are you? How did you get this frequency?"

"Ah, ah, Autobot. Do remember to be quiet. Don't want to wake your human."

"If you so much as lay a servo on Jack or June!"

"Oh Arcee my dear, you misunderstand me. I'm nowhere near your current position, and I have no intention of doing anything to Jack, today. In fact I still don't even know where you are. In exchange for a little tech MECH agreed to deliver a package for me."

"Scrap! The furby!"

"You always were quick on your peds Arcee. Now just answer me this riddle. If not Jack; then which of your little human friends is in danger?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the signal and then the Autobot hissed.

"Miko! Listen Airachnid, I don't know how you managed to get your servos on her, but as Primus is my witness if you so much as scratch her I'll."

"You'll what Arcee? No really, tell me. I'm in a good mood and might appreciate the humor of it. You see, I've already scratched her, just a touch. I might do a bit more. No doubt by now you've figured out I'm jamming your signal. Try to call for help and I will cut her open and leave her to leak out into the sand."

There was dead silence on the other end as the cycle-bot no doubt mulled over her options.

"What do you want me to do?"