Nemesis was kicked out of his brother's pod. He was getting in the way of Optimus, and that wasn't going to work. So Optimus sent his brother in a different direction to build his own pod.

Easier said than done, especially when the biggest pod, Megatron's pod, had most of the femmes. Most being the key word. While there were a few femme pods out there, they were mostly injured, defective, and not good carriers, but Nemesis had a little hope in finding a good-looking femme pod with excellent carriers before Megatron found them first.

Optimus' pod had consisted of twenty femmes, sixteen calves, and two mechlings. Megatron had triple that, at least. No one sat around to count the number of femmes, calves, and mechlings some mech had unless they had a death wish.

Not three hours into the journey to find femmes, Nemesis found a pod skimming across the sandy bottom of the ocean. He could see a blue, white, and yellow femme, a blue femme, and a purple and black femme. They uncovered a large Energon deposit, and the purple femme and the blue femme went about marking their territory. It was a weak scent since they didn't have a mech, but it did the job against fish, young mechs who had no idea why they were kicked out of the pod, and other femmes.

But not Nemesis.

"Hello," he purred as he descended on them.

The first femme Nemesis spotted was very young. She hid behind the blue femme, and the purple one immediately rushed to fight Nemesis for the Energon. He could see it the way her denta were bared, her fins fanning out, and the way her optics dimmed and filmed over, ready for a fight. But Nemesis threw up his webbed servos.

"Friendly, friendly."

"What do you want?" she growled. She was backing into the blue femme, her servos wrapping around the femmes.

"I notice you three femmes are alone. Don't you know there is safety in a pod?"

She laughed at him. "Do you see us as stupid? Of course we know that! You know, mechs are just scrabbling over each other to get us into their pods."

Sarcasm, Nemesis' most favorite language. "Well then. Since you're obviously so famous down here, I'll carry on and find a different pod of femmes waiting for a mech."

The blue femme swam closer. She had no fins, only smooth skin. "You're looking for femmes?"

"That's right."

"Are you interested in us?"

Nemesis saw the purple femme flare up again. "Unless you've got your optics set on another pod leader."

All but one femme clung to him then, and he offered a hug to the purple femme, but she growled. She liked being alone, he reasoned, or she had been alone for so long that she didn't know what it was like to be in a pod. Femmes didn't get kicked out of pods, and the only reason femmes would be on their own is if the mech in their pod changed and they were too old to kill cleanly like sparklings if they were related to the old leader.

"So what are your names?" He pushed them back so they lined up.

"Strongarm," the little femme chirped. She was the blue, white, and yellow femme he had admired. She had scales all down her body leading to a beautiful tail that swung side to side. She was very pretty to look at, but not suited for deep, deep water. In fact, her breed didn't like open spaces, preferred to be kept in a small environment. A sea cave, perhaps. How did Strongarm get here?

The one that called her Arcee was the smooth-skinned, up-down tail femme. Her breed loved the open water, so it was no wonder she was here. Had she coaxed little Strongarm out into the open water?

The last femme was like Strongarm: Frilly, pretty to look at, but she was dangerous. Her frills were deadly and were always fanning out. Unless she wanted someone to touch her, no one had the ability. Nemesis couldn't stop the grin from creeping over his face when she told him her name was Nightshade.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing." He brought his servos together. He was smooth-skinned as well, black and splashes of purple where Optimus had been red with splashes of blue, little blue ovals behind his eyes where Nemesis had purple ones. He smiled at the femmes. "Migration happens soon," he said.

Strongarm curled her digits close to her chest. "We're going to migrate?" Her optics were wide with worry.

"Of course!" Her kind didn't migrate. They more or less stayed in the same place, the males making bubbles on the surface of the water and the females squeezed below the bubbles so eggs, of which they are heavy of during the time of migration, float to the bubbles. Most femmes die during the process, so they miss their children's arrival several weeks later, falling out of the bubbles and learning to swim on their own.

Arcee nuzzled Strongarm. "It's okay," she purred. "I've migrated before. It's actually fun."

Nemesis smiled and nodded. "Maybe we could migrate with my brother's pod."

As if on cue, he heard his brother's songs, and he turned so see his brother shoot by with his cloud of femmes. Energon clouded the water behind them and his optics widened. "Oh, no."

Megatron's pod was behind him, his sharp denta revealed in a cruel grin. He had Lilylight in his servos, one of Optimus' favored femmes. Megatron was notorious for chasing pods for weeks before migration, taking femmes that lagged behind, impregnating them, and then later killing them if they did not suit him anymore.

Nemesis looked at his newly acquired femmes and he bolted, his tail moving up and down in his attempts to get away. Strongarm was gripping his fluke, her body following this unnatural movement while her own tail flicked back and forth rapidly. Arcee and Nightshade were swimming after him, the former reaching Nemesis' side while the latter started to lag behind. Her kind wasn't built for endurance. Sprints were their strong suit, and this was wearing her down.

And then Nemesis did something incredibly stupid and smart at the same time. He grabbed Nightshade with both arms, wrapped her in an embrace, and he swam into his brother's pod before he released her to swim there, smack in the middle, jostled this way and that among the sparklings and expectant mothers. Nemesis grabbed at a carrying femme. "Watch her for me?"

The femme nodded and took Nightshade's servo without question. Nemesis was Optimus' brother, and so the pod also answered to him. Mostly.

He held Strongarm close as he swam to the front of the pod to his brother, who was strangly cool through the whole chase-around-the-ocean. "Brother," he greeted.

"Ah. You have returned. With femmes." Optimus touched Strongarm's helm gently. "Excellent."

"What's your plan?"

"Megatron keeps only the sharks in his pod. While they preform acrobatic feats as well, only we do so to elude predators effectively and for fun."

Yes! They could leap out of the water repeatedly to confuse Megatron and his pod! Even the smallest sparkling knew how to become airborne! But Optimus' pod was mixed, a perfect mix of up-down tails and left-right tails...

"Piggy-backing."

Optimus smiled at him and then he whistled. Nemesis put Strongarm on his brother's back and went back for Nightshade, who was bristling and peeved. She heard the command and while Optimus wasn't her pod leader, she obeyed it. She clung to Nemesis' back.

Arcee had an older femme on her own back, and she was trembling in excitement when Optimus angled up to the surface. And then they were out of the water.

Ultra Magnus was breaching in the distance. Optimus sang for him, and the giant pod of whale mers immediately swam toward them.

Megatron was scared off by Ultra Magnus' songs and his massive size. He growled at the larger mech and the other pod swam away, Magnus' pod wrapped firmly around Optimus'.

"My brother," he said. His voice made the water around them vibrate. "Why are you so far away from your territory?"

Optimus touched the larger mech's face. "It is time for us to migrate."

Ultra Magnus nodded. "I see..perhaps you should come with us, then. We were on our way, slowly." He looked around his pod, who nodded and smiled. They enjoyed their smaller cousins, the up-down tails. They even enjoyed the left-right tails, the babies of which would swim around and under them.

Optimus led his pod and Nemesis led his own, Ultra Magnus escorting them through the ocean. The pods were kept separate mostly save for the occasional sparkling that strayed, but Nemesis guided them back to their carrier.

Optimus swam around through his pod, and a different cloud was forming in the water and the femmes knotted around him for their turn.

The mers went back and forth from one end of the ocean to the other, the warm part of the ocean was where the sparklings Optimus was creating would be born and the long trip back would be where they would grow slowly. The sparklings with him now were going on their first full migration.

Nemesis looked back at his femmes and watched them squirm for him. He swam around them, sliding beneath Arcee first. His spike found her virgin opening quickly, and once he was buried in her completely, he felt himself overload for the first time. Arcee stayed on his spike for a little longer before she pulled off, and then Strongarm was next.

Her belly was rounded with eggs, and instead of them being forced out of her body, Nemesis was going to inseminate her. He wasn't sure if that had ever happened before, but it had to be better for her than the usual way. Her seal broke as well, and her eyes was wide as she gripped his shoulders. When he overloaded, she shuddered and pressed her face into his neck.

Nightshade let him overload inside her, and she stroked her belly once when he was gone.

Optimus had finished a while ago and he was smiling at his brother. "Congratulations. I will be looking forward to see what you have produced." He swam closer to the femmes, playing with Strongarm's fins. "Very pretty. I hope she will be okay. That is not the usual way for her to breed."

Strongarm swam close to Nemesis, lacing her digits with his. Arcee was swimming beside a carrying femme from Ultra Magnus' pod named Aurora. She had streaks of blue and green down her sides and a white underbelly where a calf was squirming and making her sides ripple with movement.

Nemesis glanced behind him and almost stopped swimming.

In the distance, he could see a massive cloud of bodies. Megatron's pod wasn't too far behind. Megatron's breed didn't migrate, so the only reason they would be following them would be to make his pod bigger with stolen femmes.

Nemesis held Strongarm closer.

Migrating after making a new pod was definitely easier said than done.