Airachnid TFP

"You mean my trophies. I collect endangered species. Of course, they aren't really endangered...until they meet me."

- Airachnid to Arcee in Predatory after Arcee observed Airachnid's collection from a past experience.

Airachnid is a rogue Cybertronian torture expert and alien collector. She used to be with the Decepticons, where her cruel, cold-sparked, murderous demeanor served her well. After the Great Exodus of Cybertron, however, she decided to go solo. These days. she spends her time engaging in her new hobby: collecting endangered species. when she does, she takes... "souvenirs" — the heads of the species she encounters, which she keeps in specimen jars on her ship. She has quite a history with Arcee from back in the Great War.

War on Cybertron
During the war on Cybertron Airachnid was a torture specialist. During that time she tortured Arcee in effort to gain a set of Autobot attack-coordinates from her. Arcee refused to talk so Airachnid tried a simpler method - Either Arcee talked, or her partner, Tailgate (whom Airachnid had also captured) would die. Arcee swore she didn't know the coordinates but even then Airachnid made good on her threat and splattered the walls with Tailgate's energon, killing him right before Arcee's eyes. She was about to terminate an emotionally-stricken Arcee when Bumblebee and Cliffjumper broke in, blasters blazing, killing Airachnid's two Vehicon henchmen while she made a quick escape. This event would forge a mutual desire for both Arcee and Airachnid to off-line the other.

After the exodus, Airachnid went solo and traveled the universe in pursuit of her new hobby - Collecting endangered species (that weren't really endangered until they met her) and mounting their heads on the walls of her ship.

Arriving to Earth
Airachnid's ship crash landed on Earth while Arcee and Jack were on Energon Patrol. She had come to Earth for her next souvenir. As soon as Arcee saw the ship, she knew who it was. This led her to a flash back while she was in Airachnid's torture chambers on Cybertron. Airachnid then proceeded to make a mark on Arcee's face with her acidic touch. Arcee witnessed her partner Tailgate's death by Airachnid's hand. Later though, Arcee faced Airachnid and was soon webbed to a cliff side by her. After Arcee told Jack to run away, since Airachnid was only interested in hunting humans, Airachnid left Arcee as she chased Jack instead. After a chase through the forest, Jack was able to light some leaked energon near Airachnid's ship, thus destroying her ship and leaving her stranded. However, Airachnid managed to web Jack to a tree but Arcee arrived just in time to stop Airachnid from harming Jack. Arcee managed to defeat Airachnid, only to see her escape under-ground in her drill mode.

MECH
She later had a brief "partnership" with MECH to get revenge on Arcee and Jack. M.E.C.H kidnapped June Darby, Jack's mother, and lures them to Airachnid. When Airachnid was about to strike her revenge, Agent Fowler showed up. She scanned his helicopter and fled, much to Fowler's irritation of his vehicles again being scanned by Decepticons.

Returning to the Decepticons
Later, she stole the Polarity Gauntlet from Breakdown in the desert, claiming "It fits, a girl can never have too many accessories." When Arcee arrived, magnetized to Bulkhead's back, they fought again. A stray blaster bolt from Arcee knocked the gauntlet from Airachnid's hand, causing it to activate, but Breakdown managed to turn it off. Later in the battle, she got stuck to Breakdown and was taken aboard the Nemesis. She told Megatron, "What can I say, it's good to be back." Airachnid and Starscream went in search of the Harbinger, a lost Decepticon transporter that carried a special weapon, the Immobilizer. Airachnid activated the ship's computer, but Starscream warned that the Autobots would trace the energy signal, which they did. When Airachnid found out the ship was broken in half when it was attacked by Autobots, she wasn't happy. She tied him up and left for the Autobots. He told where the other half is though. When the Autobots found him, he said he wanted to change sides and become an Autobot.

Not far away, Airachnid had found the other half of the ship, and the Immobilizer. When the Autobots arrived, she attacked them with it. She hit Bulkhead, freezing him. Nearby, Arcee was guarding Starscream when he made the awful mistake of admitting to her that he was the one who killed Cliffjumper. Enraged at finding the 'Con who killed her partner, Arcee allowed Starscream to be escape and they began to fight. Thinking she had frozen him, Airachnid left Bumblebee, only for him to sneak up to her and punched her round the chops. She dropped the Immobilizer and Bumblebee destroyed it. Airachnid transformed and escaped in her helicopter form, only to get the riot act from Megatron, who was furious at her for leaving Starscream to the Autobots, thereby giving them access to valuable Decepticon information. What both of them did not realize was that Starscream had escaped and declared himself neutral to the bots and cons before flying off to parts unknown.

Later, Airachnid was placed in command of Megatron's vessel in his absence. When Megatron did not report back for some time, Airachnid stated that the Decepticons "should consider the possibility of a future without Megatron..." As Earth began to fall into ominous chaos due to the awakening of Unicron, Airachnid threatened the troops into obeying her command of retreat. Soundwave, however, challenged Airachnid's authority. When she tried to correct him, Soundwave easily beat Airachnid down, forcing her to yield, and embarrassing her in front of the entire crew.

Leaving with Treason
Aboard the Nemesis, Airachnid suggested her tracking skills would prove useful for tracking down remaining relics to Megatron. After Megatron claimed to have noted her suggestion, Airachnid briefly addressed Soundwave before leaving the room. With her request approved, she was sent out with Breakdown and Dreadwing to locate a spike of Energon. As the three walked, Airachnid claimed Megatron had overdone himself with supposedly sending two of his professional and trusted Decepticons to track it down, as opposed to one. This would caused an argument and eventual fight between her and Breakdown, as she made it clear to him that she was referring to Dreadwing and herself. Airachnid continued to pester Breakdown, making puns directly related to his loss of his eye. ''"I know we've never seen eye to eyes, but that doesn't mean we can't patch things up a bit." Airachnid to Breakdown.'' As Breakdown became enraged, he attacked the female Decepticon with all of his might. As referred to by Megatron during his contact of Dreadwing, Airachnid proved to be difficult as she quickly moved away from the two with her leg and webbed Breakdown's face. Things grew more tense as Dreadwing joined in the fight, carrying on his original intention to kill her. As Dreadwing shot at her, Airachnid dodged his blasts. Dreadwing's shooting came to a close when Airachnid finally succeeded in hitting him with one of her webs, attaching him to a tree and rendering him unable to use his weapon. One particular blast hit a tree, of which Airachnid was currently positioned on, causing her to hit her back against it and fall to the ground. Just then, Breakdown joined in the battle. Following a few of his own blast, he followed her deeper into the forest and away from the immobile Dreadwing. Seemingly cornered, she allowed Breakdown to follow her, wrapped him with her webs and killed him by literally tearing him apart, limb-by-limb.

Soon after departing from his corpse, she stumbled across an Insecticon. In turn, it came across Starscream, who had left the Decepticons like herself and was desperately looking for energon. With her former fellow Decepticon in her sights, she asserted to him that she and the Insecticon had a unique bond,  stating that they  were "one of the same mind". Starscream offered a proposal for a truce between the two rogue Decepticons, to which Airachnid rejected and instead ordered her lone Insecticon to kill him. Though Starscream survived, she would later set her sights on Megatron, whom she challenged to come and face her new warrior. Megatron did just that and proved to be a worthy adversary for the Insecticon. Megatron reminded her of his training in the pits of Kaon and defeated the Insecticon before being too worn out to even stand and collapsing to the ground.

All the while, Airachnid was chased down by a consistently vengeful Arcee. Though the female Autobot tried her best, she proved unable to detain the warrior and was instead webbed herself by Airachnid. However, she would not be able to carry out her full intentions as Starscream shot at Airachnid, causing her to flee. After fleeing, she stumbled across a vast amount of Insecticons and concluded that her first was merely a scout.

Army at her disposal
Later, she found the location of the Nemesis and awakened several of the Insecticons inside the nest she had found. While they were busy flying to the Decepticon warship, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Arcee arrived. However, Airachnid then had the rear unit of her Insecticon army attack the Autobots while she escaped, but Arcee was able to escape the Insecticons and chase after her. While giving chase, Arcee also had to handle two Insecticons; however, one of them stopped right in front of a tree, which caused the other to ram into it. One of the disabled Insecticons then crashed near Airachnid, causing her to fly off the ledge she stood upon. Upon recovering from the impact, Airachnid tunneled underground, into the nest she had discovered, and Arcee followed.

Inside the nest, Airachnid began to actually combat Arcee. During the fight however, she knocked into one of the opened Insecticon stasis pods by Arcee. She then activated the pod, which sealed before she could escape (and slicing off one of her "legs"), then entered a form of stasis. The pod was then brought back to the Autobot's headquarters.

After Defeat
Airachnid was kept in the Autobot base within her stasis pod. Smokescreen and Starscream were both surprised to see her there. After the Autobot base was destroyed, the Decepticons salvage team found her in the stasis pod undestroyed. The Decepticons moved her to Megatron's new fortress in Jasper, Nevada. She would later be moved to the Nemesis and would remain there for some time. When Smokescreen sneaked his way into the Decepticon warship with his phase shifter, he stumbled upon Airachnid's stasis pod where the frozen Airachnid spooked Smokescreen. He looked back into her stasis pod and told himself that she does not scare him as he referred to her as "ugly". Starscream's problems were quickly replaced with Shockwave and Predaking, where he would later state that he would like nothing more than to put Shockwave and Predaking in Airachnid's stasis pod.

Return and Banishment
During the time in which C.Y.L.A.S. (the revived Silas within Breakdown's body) was experimented on by Knockout, Airachnid would be freed from stasis by C.Y.L.A.S. as he had been transformed into an energon-hungry Terrocon. Surprised to see Breakdown again, the two fought and Airachnid again tore apart him apart. However, she was dumbfounded to find out that Silas was within Breakdown, who thanked her for finally ending his suffering.

Airachnid quickly regained control over her Insecticons and led them on a rebellion against Megatron. Her revenge was short-lived as she and her hordes attacked Soundwave, and was tricked into a space-bridge portal to one of Cybertron's moons. It is later revealed that she was infected with the same Dark-Energon hunger as C.Y.L.A.S. was and is now feeding on her own Insecticon minions in order to survive.

Personality & Traits
A sadist in the purest sense of the word, Airachnid takes sick and twisted pleasure and enjoyment out of inflicting pain upon others; whether it's physical, mental, or emotional. Having studied and practiced the arts of torture to horrifying degrees, she is able to measure one's strength of will by how much they resist the agony she inflicts upon them. She can use others' weaknesses against them. A 'con of sport, Airachnid enjoys hunting (mostly sentient beings), as well as collecting endangered species (and if they're not endangered, she'll make it so). She likes to toy with her victims, prolonging their suffering for as long as possible. A vengeful and conspiring woman, Airachnid will always settle scores, as she tried to against Jack when she ominously attempted and failed to kill his mother in front of him, making him watch while she takes his family apart "the sweetest revenge [she] can possibly devise", as retaliation for Jack destroying her ship.

An opportunist, she acts on anything that would benefit herself, such as when she tried to steal the polarity gauntlet, and thought that delivering the Immobilizer would allow her to worm into Megatron's favor. She has no problems backstabbing her fellow 'Cons, as she tried to take command in Megatron's absence and didn't think anything of abandoning Starscream. And she even killed Breakdown as a sign of malice towards her former comrades.

Breakdown was the only one who had a crush on Airachnid. Sadly Airachnid had no clue of his affections and killed him before Breakdown had the chance to end her himself. She can also be flirtatious.

Appearances
Airachnid transforms into a helicopter, which she scanned from one of Agent Fowler's helicopters. Airachnid appearance is like a spider, with long spider like limbs on her back. Airachnid wears a built in skirt that exposes her midriff, like Arcee has. Airachnid also appears to have purple eyes with a compound look and her primary color is dark purple with a Decepticon symbol on her chest.

Skills, Weapons, and Abilities
Airachnid is a torture expert, and can measure one's strength of will by how much they resist the pain and agony she inflicts upon them in interrogations.



She is armed with a plethora of weapons: Blasters built into her hands, which also fire webbing; acidic poison secreted from her razor-pointed finger tips; six extra spider-like appendages that can be used as claws or blades; and she has the ability to command Insecticons by emitting a specific frequency, an almost buzz/hum sound.

She is considered to be of a unique kind of Transformer called Triple-Changers: her robot-mode, vehicle-mode (stealth copter), and a spider-like "beast mode". However, she is also known to have a kind of "drill-mode", in which she uses her arachnid legs to spin and dig down below the ground.

Due to her interaction with the Energon-hungry Terracon C.Y.L.A.S., she now has the ability to drain other Transformers of energon.

Relationships
Main: Airachnid Relationships The Decepticon Breakdown mentioned his admirence for Airachnid to a vehicon in Stronger Faster.

Behind the Scenes
 * She is voiced by Gina Torres who worked alongside Adam Baldwin (the voice actor of Breakdown) on the series "Firefly" and the movie "Serenity".

Trivia

 * Because of her alternate forms of a helicopter and a spider, she appears to reference the Transmetal Transformers from the Beast Wars show.
 * The Japanese dub of Prime has a different take on her. In the dub, she is chasing after Jack like a female Pepe Le Pew, but with the same psychopathic tendencies involved.
 * Her horns resemble that of Predaking. She also resembles a bit of Megatronus Prime and she is like an evil version of Arcee.
 * She is the first Decepticon in the series with an animal motif.
 * Airachnid didn't even know that she killed the only bot who showed feelings for her.
 * Airachnid has killed the most minor characters in the series: Tailgate, Breakdown and then Cylas.
 * The sound used for her webbing is the same used in The Spectacular Spider-Man, which had Josh Keaton in the title role.
 * Airachnid can control Insecticons with her mind. It is possible that Airachnid herself is an Insecticon as she claimed she was of one mind with them and Wheeljack would later state that all Insecticons are bound by a single mind.
 * Her design, color, and spider like appearance is inspired by Blackarachnia. As well the horns on her head resembles Maleficent from the 1959 Walt Disney film Sleeping Beauty.
 * She has light purple eyes on the outside, but they see in green, as shown in Predatory. 
 * In the Transformers: Robots in Disguise season 2 episode 3 called Metal Meltdown, Kickback goes back to his team's secret hideout where other Decepticon prisoners were. A few of these prisoners resembled some Decepticons from Transformers: Prime such as an Insecticon and Airachnid.
 * It remains unknown wether or not Airachnid is still alive since all cybertronians need Energon to survive. However, after becoming an Energon vampire, it became possible for her to dehydrate to death pretty quick. She could have died after draining all the energon from the insecticon hive, but there are dozens of them, so god knows how long that’ll take.

Appearances

 * Predatory
 * Crisscross
 * Metal Attraction
 * Partners
 * One Shall Fall
 * One Shall Rise, Part 1
 * One Shall Rise, Part 2
 * One Shall Rise, Part 3
 * Orion Pax, Part 1
 * Crossfire
 * Grill
 * Armada
 * New Recruit
 * Inside Job
 * Patch
 * Darkmount, NV
 * Prey
 * Thirst

Gallery
Main Article: Airachnid/Gallery