"Explain this properly." Airachnid narrowed her eyes at me. It was that signature look of hers: part predator ready to tear me apart, part curious female unwilling to admit her vulnerability.
"Do you really want me to repeat it? I've already made it clear." I sighed, glancing at the ceiling before meeting her gaze again. "You're an Insecticon. And as a female Insecticon, which is already exceedingly rare, what's happening to you now is a direct result of your biology. Two plus two equals four."
Her eyes widened, almost offended.
"Are you implying I'm… an insect?"
"Not in that sense." I raised a hand, trying to quell the anger already simmering in her. "Your alternate form is clearly based on an animal. All Insecticon queens inherit that. It's an instinct, not an insult. That animalistic transformation isn't a choice, it's part of your lineage's essence."
Airachnid blinked, confused. It was as if someone had held a mirror up to her for the first time, revealing something she'd never stopped to consider.
"So you're saying…" She hesitated, her voice dropping to a near-whisper, as if afraid of her own conclusion. "…that I'm capable of… reproducing? Like… like humans do?"
The silence hung heavy. I could see the judgment in her eyes, as if she were trying to pin the blame for this revelation on me.
"Look…" I scratched the back of my neck, uncomfortable. "If you're upset that your species evolved to reproduce in a more… natural, carnal way, unlike the artificial methods of other Cybertronians… well, that's not my fault. It's a trait of the queens. Your species took that path. I just… awakened the instinct that was already there."
She didn't respond immediately. She just stared at me, as if weighing whether to rip me apart or… do the exact opposite.
"Listen, I know you're shocked, but think about it. I'm surprised you didn't know you were an Insecticon, when it's painfully obvious you've always been one. I'm even more surprised you never suspected… or never encountered another of your kind."
Airachnid crossed her legs and arms, her gaze drifting upward. Her expression shifted, not anger, but reflection. For the first time, she seemed to genuinely revisit her own history, searching her memories for any hint of another Insecticon, even knowing some served directly under Megatron as elite soldiers.
"Now that you mention it… I've never met another Insecticon."
I raised an eyebrow. "That makes it even stranger. When we first met, I knew you were a queen. What intrigued me was that you were alone. That's unheard of. A queen is never solitary. There's always a guard, an entire brood protecting her. I even wondered if you'd lost everything… but I never brought it up. Didn't want to poke at old wounds."
She lowered her eyes, curious, almost uneasy.
"So… you're saying this haughty personality of mine… comes from that? From my lineage?"
"Look, if you think about it logically, it makes sense. You're not like this by accident. Queens carry this… natural arrogance. In your case… you're just kind of a jerk by genetics."
A pillow flew through the air in less than a second, smacking me in the face and knocking me to the floor.
"If I'm really a queen, why didn't I know? Why didn't I ever feel anything?" she demanded. "As far as I knew, I was just another Cybertronian. Sure, I always had some differences, but—"
"Sorry to interrupt," I said, getting up while rubbing my face. "When you first awakened… what's your earliest memory?"
She froze. Her gaze softened for a moment, turning distant.
"I remember opening my eyes in a laboratory. That's where I met…" Her voice trembled, then hardened into venom. "Damn him. It all makes sense now… Shockwave."
Her purple eyes flared, brimming with fury.
"Isn't that the mad scientist you told me about?" I grimaced. "Well… that explains it. You got dealt a rotten hand, Airachnid."
She stared at me in silence, waiting.
"Shockwave probably severed your connection to your hive. He cut that link. Without it, you were forced to forge your own identity, even if traces of your nature lingered, hidden. And now…" I took a deep breath, locking eyes with her. "With what we did… I reset your body to its original state. Ground zero. And, well… it seems our bedroom antics triggered something you didn't even know you had."
"Damn it! I'll rip that one-eyed freak's head off when I find him!" Airachnid stomped her foot with such force that the floor split in a straight line to the ceiling, as if half the room had been struck by a sudden earthquake.
I looked at her. She looked at me. The thought hit us both instantly, perfectly in sync.
"To Brazil?" we said in unison.
Obviously. It was much easier to run away than to explain to the landlord how the apartment had suddenly split in half. The bed breaking during sex is something I could proudly justify, but destroying the infrastructure... that would put me in a legal battle I'm not interested in getting into.
I grabbed my single suitcase, slinging it over my shoulder. Airachnid, meanwhile, was hauling her five bags as if it were the most natural thing in the world, though the sight was undeniably comical.
We climbed to the roof of the building. We both knew what had to happen there. She'd need to transform, and the rooftop was the only place remotely discreet.
I broke the padlock effortlessly and pushed open the door, revealing the cityscape. I'll admit: the view was stunning.
Airachnid stopped abruptly, crossing her arms and fixing me with a dangerous look. "Now that I think about it… if I have the ability to reproduce… is there a chance something could *come out* of me?"
I froze, staring at her seriously for a moment… then replied with casual ease: "If anything resembling a Xenomorph pops out, I swear I'm leaving this planet on the spot."
She narrowed her eyes, clearly not catching the reference. Which was probably for the best, there was no need to traumatize her with *Alien 3*. No one deserves that kind of cinematic disappointment.
"That sounds like a reference to some terrible movie," she said.
"Quite the opposite, Airachnid." I dropped my suitcase and, unable to stand the mess, began organizing the five bags she'd carried up. "The first film is a masterpiece, the second still holds its crown despite a slight dip, the third is a cinematic tragedy that should be buried, and the fourth only seems decent because the third is such a monstrosity."
Her purple eyes widened in an almost childlike expression of surprise, and for a moment, I found it oddly endearing. But she quickly composed herself, and then the real spectacle began.
Arachnid claws sprouted from her back, her skin dissolved into metallic plates, and her height surged past four meters. Her elongated body adjusted with a metallic snap, but I noticed something: she seemed less comfortable in this form. Each day, she was growing more accustomed to her human body, and now she appeared almost out of place without certain… anatomical adaptations. Her eyes lingered on her metallic chest for a moment, her expression unmistakable: she was missing the "extra pair" she carried in human form.
Deep cracks spread through the ground. Energy began to shimmer, expanding into a sphere around us. I briefly touched one of her legs, mentally transferring the coordinates. She registered them in silence, the glow intensifying until a blinding flash engulfed everything.
When my eyes adjusted, we were surrounded by green, the air thick with humidity and the sounds of the jungle filling the space. Before us, a colossal tree dominated the horizon.
"Oops…" I scratched the back of my neck, eyeing the rivers around us. "I think I overshot. Welcome to the Amazon."
She turned her head slowly toward me, her purple eyes sparking with near-theatrical irritation. It was clear she was fed up with forests and, to be fair, this time the blame was entirely mine. I couldn't even muster an excuse.
"Just when I think you'll get something right, you manage to mess it up again. Impressive." Her tone was venomous, as if she were delivering a death sentence. And this from someone who was hardly the picture of perfection herself. Talk about royal hypocrisy.
"Fool me once, it's human; fool me twice, it's stupidity; keep going for a third, and you deserve a beating… so shut it." I recited it like some ancient proverb. Naturally, the last part earned me a fitting reward: a sharp smack to the head. The catch? She was still in her robotic form, and I sank halfway into the mud.
"Did you *really* need to hit me like that? You could've waited to smack me in human form," I grumbled, spitting out a bit of dirt.
"Let's just get out of this pile of foliage already. I'm curious about that food you mentioned earlier. I hope Brazil's delicacies live up to a royal palate." She lifted her chin, slipping into her haughty queen mode, and, without ceremony, shifted back to her human form. She grabbed her five suitcases as if she owned the forest and strutted off… with no clue where she was going.
I, meanwhile, was still trying to climb out of the hole she'd buried me in. When I finally managed, I noticed something curious: a Goliath bird-eating spider—nearly a foot across—had decided to quietly climb up her back.
I didn't warn her.
Grinning, I adjusted my suitcase and followed calmly behind. She was the one about to have a bad time, not me.
"Oh, I think this trip is going to be a lot more entertaining than I expected…" I murmured to myself, already anticipating the spectacle when Her Majesty discovered her less-than-charming arachnid hitchhiker.