Hello once again, my wonderful readers! Welcome back to Team Storm, now with seven chapters!

Now, in this chapter, we will not only be seeing a bit about the Decepticons after the femmes' first battle, but we'll also get more info on Ark before he started to hang out with Rosalina.

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or anything related, other than my characters and this story.

Now, to the chapter!

Megatron and Shockwave were waiting for the troops from the most recent conflict to return, Megatron tapping his digits impatiently on the arm of his throne, and Shockwave standing as emotionless as ever. Just like some of the autobots, he looked more like the Transformers Prime version of himself.

The door opened - and the two were shocked at what they saw. Well, Megatron was shocked, Shockwave merely crossed his arms behind his back.

Only half of the troops they had sent returned - unfortunately, one of them was Starscream, although he was rather banged up.

"Soundwave!" Megatron exclaimed as the tape deck walked by. "What happened?!"

"Cause: Arrival of new femmes. Effect: Most mechs underestimated, ended up beaten."

Shockwave's one optic glowed with a dangerous light. "New femmes, you say?"

"Response: Affirmative."

"What did they look like?"

Soundwave's chest lit up, showing images of the femmes locked in combat.

"I recognize them." Shockwave stated, looking towards Megatron. "They were the ones I had bought from the Quintessons. They must have escaped somehow."

"Femmes arrived from above." Soundwave added.

Shockwave rubbed his 'chin'. "A stray shot might have hit the hull of the transport ship." He then diverted his attention back to Soundwave, calmly asking, "What of A-091?"

Soundwave turned his helm to the Decepticon SIC, with a simple, "Ask Starscream."

The two turned to the mangled mech that was receiving poor medical attention from Hook, but not due to inexperience or lack of proper tools. Much the opposite, Hook was highly experienced with more than enough tools. He just hated Starscream (just like everybody else) and wasn't very appreciative of how he complained about everything.

Shockwave looked at the seeker, and asked him, "What happened to A-091?"

"The Predacon?"

Shockwave stared at Starscream, making him feel uncomfortable. "Yes, the Predacon. The Predacon you were supposed to reaquire for me after it escaped while we were distracted with deploying troops. Which wouldn't have happened if you had watched it," he stuck his face in the SIC's face, making him scoot back, "like you were supposed to."

Starscream gulped, tapping his digits on the makeshift berth as he tried to avoid making optic contact with either the cyclops in front of him or Megatron. "Well, you see, I was about to have it-"

"About?" Megatron asked, his optics glowing dangerously.

"Yes, about. But then, these femmes appeared out of nowhere! One of them took me by surprise, but I quickly got back. Before I could eliminate her, however, another femme came flying in, but rather than just pushing me away like the first, this one made relentless attacks on me, before-"

"Starscream," Megatron interrupted, the dangerous light in his optics getting brighter. "Where. Is. The. Predacon?"

"Oh. That." Starscream gulped. "It... miiight be... with... the... Autobots... please don't slag me!"

Megatron's right optic started to twitch, before he screamed in rage, making all of the remaining 'Cons jump. "You had one job!" He yelled, grabbing Starscream by the neck and holding him above his head. "One job!" Megatron then smacked his captive against the wall, several loud cracks following. "All you had to do was grab one Predacon! And it was a sparkling!"

Starscream whimpered, and most of the other Decepticons were smiling in glee.

"And your excuse," Megatron slammed the seeker into another wall, getting dangerously close to his face, "is that a few femmes stopped you?!"

"They were also younglings." Shockwave added, and Starscream could've sworn he saw that the cyclops was enjoying this.

Megatron relesed Starscream, whom immediately collapsed onto the floor, rubbing his neck. "Consider yourself lucky I don't blast your head off right now."

The seeker glared at the warlord as he walked away, Shockwave following him.

Now in Shockwave's off-base lab, Megatron asked the scientist, "Will the absence of the sparkling do anything to our current... project?"

"Negative." Shockwave replied, pressing a few buttons on a control console. When he finished, the wall before them opened up to the room Shockwave's current project was in. As the two mechs walked in, they were met with the view of unusual tools... and a seemingly endless hallway of mostly empty containment devices. They were tall and cylindrical, and were big enough for a full-grown Predacon to fit inside. There were two neat rows, the first five in each one being filled with a bright yellow liquid and a small body curled up into a ball.

Megatron walked up to one, studying it closely. It held a mech, which resembled a griffon that was slightly smaller than Ark. The warlord continued on, looking at all of the ones Shockwave had cloned thus far. There was a hippogriff, an ursagriff, a small chimera, a large bird, and five dragons. "How long until they are ready for deployment?"

"They will require another six earth months, due to a lack of proper resources. However, this gives us enough time to give them the programming A-091 never got. While his absence is incapable of stopping the project, it does throw a wrench in it, so to speak."

"How so?" Megatron asked, walking before the broken pod that once held the escaped Predacon.

"He was designed to be the alpha of our Predacons." Shockwave replied, pressing buttons at a table with an old Predacon bone on it. "As such, it is possible that he could take command over the other Predacons."

Megatron frowned. Turning to the scientist, he questioned him, "Why did you give him command, and not me?"

"It was part of his CNA. I theorize that the Predacon I cloned him from was one of the old alphas in the past." Shockwave explained, still working on the fossil. "I was going to implant a program that would make it so that only you could give him commands, so that the entire Predacon race would be under your rule. However, the program was incomplete when he managed to escape."

Megatron arched an optic ridge at this. "Incomplete, as in... he has the program in his systems?"

"Affirmative. While the command will be incapable to apply to you, it will activate with the first Cybertronian to form a bond with him."

"So his sparkmate?"

"Possibly, but unlikely. A far more likely possibility would be if anyone formed a creator bond with him. Of course, even if he were to form one with an Autobot, I could easily break it."

"How so?"

"Because I am his creator." Shockwave replied. "The Predacon CNA was incomplete. As such, I required Cybertronian CNA to make it whole."

A malicious grin appeared on Megatron's faceplates, his optics looking out at the Predacons they still had. "So each of these Predacons are your sparklings."

"In a sense, yes. They are technically my offspring."

"So if we can grab the Predacon, you can guarantee that you'll be able to regain control over it?"

"Affirmative."

"Good," Megatron crossed his arms behind his back, walking out of the lab, "then continue on with your project. I will try to find that stray Predacon."

"As you command, my lord." Shockwave replied, giving the warlord a low bow before going back to the fossil.

There you go! A basic explanation about Ark, where he came from, and what the first wave of Predacons will be! Can anyone guess what the bird is? Cause I'm not telling!

In the next chapter, we'll see the femmes at their different jobs, along with starting up the Grimlock X OC relationship.

Til All Are One,

- Alpha