{{episode|
|otherseries=''[[Transformers: Prime (cartoon)|Transformers: Prime]]'' ep 17
|prev=Operation: Breakdown
|next=Metal Attraction
|image=Airachnid and Silas.jpeg
|caption=They'll make you jump, jump.
|title="Crisscross"
|airdate=[[June 25]], [[2011]]
|written by=[[Joseph Kuhr]]
|directed by=[[Vinton Heuck]]
|animation studio=[[Polygon Pictures]]
|production company=[[Hasbro Studios]]
}}
'''Airachnid teams up with MECH to get revenge on Arcee and Jack.'''

==Synopsis==
[[Silas]] and three MECH soldiers are searching through a wooded area for a Decepticon. They jump into a web-shrouded ravine, but the three soldiers are snatched from the ground and stuck on one of the webs by [[Airachnid]]. Silas takes a shot at her, but is promptly thrown against a rock wall and webbed there. The Decepticon threatens to eviscerate him for what MECH did to [[Breakdown (Prime)|Breakdown]], but wants his help in finding [[Jack Darby]] and will give them [[Arcee (Prime)|Arcee]].

Jack arrives home with Arcee, to find [[June Darby|his mother]] mad that he's been breaking curfew and neglecting his job and schoolwork. She believes he may have been racing his motorcycle and grounds him for the next few weeks—with no motorcycle use. Arcee says she'll miss Jack during that time, but he points out that if she doesn't stay in the garage, his mom will think he's breaking her rules. Arcee promises she'll try to be back in the garage before his mom gets home each night.

[[Image:Motorcycle abuse.jpeg|thumb|left|300px|This must be some form of abuse, surely.]]
The next day, as Jack's leaving [[KO Burger]], he gets a call from his mother, who is on her way home early to make dinner for him. He frantically contacts Arcee, who's with [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] in the middle of a fight with some [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s. Arcee leaves Bumblebee to it and [[GroundBridge|bridges]] out. June arrives home to find the garage empty, and she blows up at Jack as he arrives on his bicycle. Arcee bridges into the garage behind her, but this merely results in June thinking one of Jack's friends snuck the motorcycle in. Jack spills all about the Autobots, but when Arcee refuses to transform, Jack's mom asks if he's been hanging out with a science fiction club. She leaves to return to work, the conversation unfinished.

[[Image:MECH ambush.jpeg|thumb|right|300px|"Jehova's Witnesses, ma'am. Take a leaflet!"]]
Silas uses images from the black box from Airachnid's ship to track down information on Jack, including the identity of his mother. A MECH vehicle soon arrives to abduct June as she leaves the [[Jasper Hospital|hospital]].

Jack arrives home on his cycle to find Arcee, but no mom. There's a package waiting for him, which turns out to be a MECH communicator. Silas tells the pair that MECH has June, and there are GPS coordinates that will lead them to the temporary MECH facility. Arcee attempts to contact base and gets an instant headache. Silas explains the communicator will scramble her brain as well as Autobot communications. Jack and Arcee follow the communicator's map to a disused factory, where they're met by Silas and a bunch of MECH goons. They race past the MECH guys to look for Jack's mom and instead find Airachnid. Airachnid webs Arcee, who is then zapped by a MECH soldier. The 'Con tells Jack he has until midnight to rescue his mother. Jack tries to plead with Silas for help, but the MECH leader pushes him back. Jack then races off to find his mom, followed by Airachnid. Silas tells his men to start working on Arcee, as he suspects Airachnid will double-cross them.

Jack runs through the factory, but is unable to find June until Airachnid points her out, dangling in a web cocoon from a building. At this point, June awakens both to discover her predicament and to spy Airachnid. Jack tells Airachnid he's found his mom, but she points out the task was to ''rescue'' June. Webbing Jack's hand to the ground, she prepares to destroy his family.

The MECH surgeons finish cutting through the web holding Arcee, and Silas instructs them go for the heart, as they only have time to take one part. Arcee has recovered consciousness by this point, and she tosses the MECH personnel aside before leaving to help Jack.[[Image:Arcee's surgery.png]]

[[Image:Airachnidconcrete.jpg|left|thumb|300px|"Thanks a lot, [[Mixmaster]]."]]

As Jack continues to try to free his hand, Airachnid moves in on June. Before she can lay a hand on mom, however, Arcee comes barreling up a nearby roof and tackles her. Jack gets free and goes to help June, while Arcee and Airachnid battle on the factory superstructure. They eventually reach the ground, but Airachnid's laser fire damages the platform June is dangling from, and Jack has to scramble to avoid falling. Jack accidentally knocks against a lever, pouring concrete into a concrete truck on the ground. Arcee manages to kick Airachnid into a container nearby, and with Jack's help, pours concrete in on top of her. Airachnid starts climbing out, but is frozen by the quick-drying substance. Arcee goes to help June, but the concrete isn't enough, and Airachnid webs her back to the ground. Luckily, the cavalry arrives in the form of [[William Fowler|Agent Fowler]] with three helicopters armed with chain guns.

Silas wonders how Fowler was alerted, and then realizes Jack stole his radio earlier.

The helicopters stop firing, but this just allows Airachnid to [[scanning|scan]] Fowler's chopper and make her escape in her new [[alternate mode|altmode]]. Her scanning process is also observed by Silas.

Fowler introduces himself to June and attempts to weave a cover story, but June doesn't buy it. Jack introduces her to Arcee, and the next day, they go to the [[Autobot Outpost Omega One|Autobot base]] so she can meet the rest of the Autobots.

==Featured characters==
{{featuredcharacters
|c1=
* [[Arcee (Prime)|Arcee]] (5)
* [[Bumblebee (Prime)|Bumblebee]] (7)
* [[Ratchet (Prime)|Ratchet]] (12)
* [[Bulkhead (Prime)|Bulkhead]] (13)
* [[Optimus Prime (Prime)|Optimus Prime]] (16)

|c2=
* [[Airachnid]] (3)
* [[Vehicon (Prime)|Vehicon]]s (8)

|c3=
* [[Silas]] (1)
* [[MECH]] soldiers (2)
* [[Jack Darby]] (4)
* [[June Darby]] (6)
* [[MECH Surgeon]] (9)
* [[William Fowler]] (10)
* Soldier (11)
* [[Miko Nakadai]] (14)
* [[Raf Esquivel]] (15)

}}

==Quotes==

"Tell me you haven't fallen in with a bad crowd." 
"W-what? N-no no no no, my friends are the good crowd, seriously good."
:—'''Jack''''s not wrong.

"Ah, the mother lode." 
"Government database?" 
"Social networking page."
:—'''Silas''' teaches '''Airachnid''' the fastest way to track down a teenager.

"Now, I know we promised the spider-bot that she would have first crack at you, but something tells me she's going to turn our mutual crisscross... into a double-cross."
:—'''Silas'''

"Jack, your motorcycle?" 
"I can explain, Mom. Wait, I already did."
:—Even with '''June Darby''' in mortal peril, '''Jack''' can still crack wise.

"Oh, not again!"
:—'''Agent Fowler''' is exasperated at Decepticons copying his vehicles.

"So that's how it's done. Genius."
:—'''Silas''' on seeing how Airachnid scans a vehicle mode.

"It's time you knew the truth. For the past several months, Jack has been... interning for me at the agency." 
"Agent Fowler, Mom's not gonna buy that." 
"He's got that right."
:—'''Agent Fowler''''s first meeting with '''June''' hits a rocky start.

"Motorcycle, Guardian, Autobot, friend."
:—'''Jack''' lists '''Arcee''''s status to his mom.

"Mom, meet my science fiction club!"
:—'''Jack''' introducing June to the Autobots

==Notes==
===Animation and technical errors===
*Airachnid scans Agent Fowler's helicopter, which resembles a [[wikipedia:Bell UH-1 Iroquois|UH-1 "Huey"]], but the alt-mode she adopts is of a completely different design, resembling a futuristic [[wikipedia:Boeing/Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche|RAH-66 Comanche]].

===Continuity errors===
* June takes an early break from work to cook Jack a dinner, but then as soon as she gets home, she returns to work.

===Continuity notes===
*Airachnid wants revenge on Arcee and Jack for the events in "[[Predatory]]".
*The rumors June heard about Jack racing his motorcycle may have been referencing the events of "[[Speed Metal]]".
*Airachnid has heard of Breakdown's treatment by MECH, which happened in [[Operation: Breakdown|the previous episode]].
*Messages on Jack's social networking page refer back to "Speed Metal" (Sierra refers to a race) and "[[Con Job]]" (Miko's message about a monster truck rally references a line of dialog from that episode).
*Agent Fowler previously had a vehicle of his scanned for an alternate mode by Skyquake back in "[[Masters & Students]]".
*The soldier who reports to Fowler at the end is the same one who was on the train in "[[Convoy (episode)|Convoy]]".

===Transformers references===
*The final sequence of Arcee and Jack taking June to the Autobot base is an almost shot-for-shot replica of the first time Jack, Miko and Raf were taken there back in the pilot. Even the same musical piece, "We Have Returned", is used.

===Real-world references===
*"Crisscross" as the title of this episode, with Silas acknowledging that it refers to a team-up murder plot in which each participant takes out the enemy of the other, is a reference to Alfred Hitchcock's [[wikipedia:Strangers on a Train (film)|"Strangers on a Train"]], which famously originated the use of the word "crisscross" for such an arrangement.

===Foreign localization===
'''Korean'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Geomi ui Boksu'''" (거미의 복수, "Spider's Revenge")
:*''Original airdate:'' [[October 24|24 October]] [[2011]]

===Trivia===
*The name of the social networking page is partially obscured, but begins with "Some Social".
*Fowler got someone else to pilot his helicopter for him this time.
*Silas calls June Darby "Miss Darby", but Fowler calls her "Mrs. Darby".
*Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Bulkhead, Raf, and Miko all cameo at the end, but have no lines.
*The way Airachnid says "'Transformer', was it", implies that Cybertronians don't use that term themselves and that it's mainly an invention of humans.
*This is the first time anyone from the Autobots' team meets Silas face to face.

[[Category:Prime episodes]]