Author's note. Sorry for the long wait, I hope you all enjoy this chapter which focuses on Elita.

Suggestions are welcome.

Enjoy and please review.

Elita was the first to wake that morning, yawning widely as she did so. For a few minutes, she was content just to snuggle beside Chromia who was fast asleep. But after a while, she got bored so slipping out from under her blanket, she hauled herself to her feet. She carefully crept to the edge of the crib and peered over at the Mechlings crib.

She could only just see them, they were all clearly still asleep, judging by the sounds they were all making. This made her giggle, they were always funny when they were sleeping, they all looked so cute. But after a while, even watching them like this got a little boring, so she decided she wanted to explore.

Carefully, she pulled herself up and over the crib before managing to drop.

"Oof," she gasped as she collapsed in a bit of a heap but she hadn't injured herself so thought that an okay jump.

She briefly considered waking the others up but decided not to, they were all tired out. She didn't feel tired at all, she was wide awake and wanting to have some fun. This meant peeping around the door that led into her daddy's bedroom. From what she could see in the dim light, he was sprawled across his bed, clearly in deep recharge.

She crept into the room, moving very carefully so as not to disturb him. He looked very peaceful in recharge, reminding her of Optimus a little. She sighed, she missed him a lot and wished they could be together. Although that would probably mean leaving her daddy and she wasn't so sure she wanted that.

If only she could have both of them, then she'd be perfectly happy.

She shrugged, her young self figuring that something would turn up and that she shouldn't' worry about it. She watched her daddy for a little longer but eventually got bored of this. But she really didn't want to disturb her daddy when he was sleeping, it wouldn't be very nice especially as he worked so hard during the day.

So even though it was naughty and definitely not allowed, she decided to go exploring. The pink Femme had always had a stubborn streak within her where if she made up her mind to do something, she'd go right ahead and do it.

It wasn't easy breaking out of Skywarp's room but since she had been an adult, she retained quite a lot of intelligence and cunning along with a Sparkling's sneakiness that she was able to find a way out. All the doors had manual over rides to them, all she needed was a key and she'd be able to get out of here.

So she started hunting about the room, trying to find Skywarp's key. Luckily for her, he hadn't made a huge effort at concealing it, he probably hadn't realised his Sparklings might have a go at stealing it. It was located on a shelf near Skywarp's berth and it seemed that the only way she'd get it would be to climb on his berth.

She knew this would be tricky, her daddy might sense her presence and wake up or he'd accidently move and hit her. She didn't realise either scenario, so mentally promised to be very careful. It wasn't easy getting onto the berth, Seekers liked having high ones but eventually she did. She stifled a giggle, it was nice and soft on his berth, Seekers also enjoyed very comfy berths.

After enjoying the feel of the berth, she suddenly remembered what she was doing and continued with her mission. Skywarp continued sleeping peacefully as she crawled to the head of the berth and stood up, stretching for the shelf where the key lay. She snuck a glance at her daddy, making extra sure that he was asleep.

She almost giggled at the way his mouth hung slightly open as he slept but managed to suppress it. She stood as high as she could before crouching and leaping up into the air. Somehow, she managed to grab hold of the shelf and haul herself up long enough to grab the key and fall back down.

She bounced but luck seemed to be on her side as Skywarp didn't wake, he merely grunted before rolling over. She puffed air out of her intakes in relief that had been a close one. But now she had the key and all she needed to do was find a way to get high enough to reach the place to slot the key in.

She had to ponder this, sitting on the berth with her prize, little legs hanging over the edge. Finally, her optics spied a crate which looked just the right size for standing on to reach the door. So she quickly scrambled off the berth and hurried over to the box, throwing her weight behind it and shoving.

It wasn't easy, she had to really push at it while trying to remain quiet enough so she wouldn't disturb Skywarp. But after a lot of huffing and puffing, she finally made it to the door and triumphantly climbed up. She felt an enormous feeling of pride as the key went in and the door opened, allowing her to hop off the crate and out of the room, the door closing behind her.

Despite the fact she hadn't had her morning Energon yet, she felt full of energy and wanted to use it by exploring the quiet Decepticon base. The corridor was empty which gave her a choice of where she could head to first. She decided to go to the Rec Room, there might be some fun objects lying around she could use.

The Nemesis wasn't s bad when it didn't have mean, loud mouthed Mechs stomped about. Since it was so empty, she could resist charging down it as fast as she could, loving the fact there was no one to tell her off. She'd never been able to do anything like this as an adult so she could going to live life as a Sparkling to the fullest. With this thought in mind, she started allowing herself to slide along the floor, it worked fairly well but not as well as she'd like.

She needed some wax, then she could really fly across the long corridors. So, she went in search of a storage room, there were normally a few dotted about a base. Sadly, the first one she found was locked tightly shut, so she couldn't open it. This didn't discourage her, she knew it was only a matter of time until she found another one.

Finally, she successfully located one which was partly open, the lock mechanism appeared to be broken. She slipped inside, the small room was lined with shelves that contained all manner of things. For a few minutes, she had a good time rushing around, peering into shelves and containers, seeing just what exactly this room had.

She finally found a shelf that was filled with nothing but polishing wax and happily examined them. There was wax for the floors, wax for different pieces of equipment and special wax for the floor. On a shelf just above this, there were loads of different oils and their usage was even more diverse than the wax.

She grinned, she could have some fun with all of these. She carefully picked a nice tube of wax which would give the floors a shiny, but rather slippery shine, a cloth and a couple of oils that were a bit smelly but would make things even more slippery. She could always come back and grab a bottle of nice smelling oil once she'd had her fun.

With these items in hand, she happily strode out of the storage room, wanting to find a nice long corridor. As it happened, she knew of one that not only was nice and long but sloped ever so slightly downwards. It was because this base was a former spaceship that had crashed into the ocean and now lay on the seafloor. A part of the ship had sunken in the sand and despite reengineering to make the floors even, there was still a slight slope on one side of the base.

Elita had to walk quite a bit to get there but didn't mind it one bit, it was just nice be doing something fun for a change. She finally reached it and sat down for a little rest, admiring the nice long corridor with its slight downward slope. She'd gotten the idea for this from watching those human cartoons and it looked tons of fun. If she managed to make this work, she'd tell the others and they could find some way to set it all up.

Still sitting right at the incline of the slight slope, she took out the tube of wax and starting squeezing the whole lot of it onto that incline, watching as it oozed out in a large puddle. She giggled before pouring a little oil over her front, just to help with the whole process of sliding down this corridor.

She now stood up, a tingling feeling of excitement and nervousness blossoming inside of her, just like when she was about to go into battle. She calmly walked away from the puddle of oily wax before turning to face it. She let out an intake of air, giving herself a moment to build up the excitement before charging at the puddle.

At the very last moment, she lunged for the puddle, shrieking with delight as her momentum and the oily wax sent her shooting all the way down the corridor. Holding her arms up in the air and her little legs, she continued squealing with pleasure as she shot along on her front, showing no signs of slowing down whatsoever.

She was having the time of her life, nothing could spoil this, nothing...

"What the slag is that racket?"

Elita screamed as a door opened and Megatron stuck his head out, his face glowering with a ferocious scowl. His next expression was one of astonishment as she shot past him, unable to stop herself, the incline carrying her further away. However, even that had to end and she started to slow until she was just sliding gently along the now oil slick corridor.

As she came to a stop, her body slowly turned so that when she finally did stop, she was looking back up the corridor to where Megatron was. If the situation hadn't been serious, she would have laughed because he looked utterly shocked at what he saw. Especially when he glanced the way she had came and saw the long trial of oil and wax, spreading all the way back to the incline.

And then he turned back to her and his expression was thunderous. He didn't even say anything, just started striding towards her, easily avoiding the slippery trail of oil and wax. Elita struggled to roll onto her front and scramble away, sadly, the oily wax was her undoing, meaning she just fell forward.

"EEee," she squealed as he reached down and grabbed her by her scruff bar, rising her up to glare at her full in the face.

"Uh...morning?" she tried weakly as his lips thinned.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" he hissed angrily, gesturing him with his other hand to the mess on the floor.

"Playing," she said quietly as his red optics bulged.

"Playing?" he repeated furiously.

"Uh huh," she said, knowing she was in deep trouble, staring at the floor where oil dripped from her form.

He snarled under his breath before turning and marching back up the corridor and entering the room he'd come from, Elita realised that this was his quarters. By the looks of that cube of fresh Energon, he'd just gotten up and she'd disturbed him. It was now she remembered what Megatron had said if any of the Sparklings got into trouble and she was clearly in trouble.

"I'd ask if Skywarp knows you're out here but I think we both know the answer to that," he said coldly, taking her over to a worn out looking chair.

"I'm sorry," she stammered as he sat down, placing her on his lap. "I was just bored, I didn't mean to be naughty, I'll clean it all and then go straight back to bed."

She tried to squirm away from him but he still had a tight hold on her scruff bar and wasn't letting go. He now said silkily.

"Do you remember the rules?"

"Y-yes," she said, trembling now.

"Apparently you don't, let me remind you of them," he said sternly before adding. "You do not cause trouble, you do not run screaming down the corridor, you do not cause a mess, you do not disobey and you do not leave Skywarp without permission."

Her lip trembled, she knew she'd been naughty but she really didn't want him to punish her. Staring up into his angry red optics, she said pleadingly.

"I know I was bad, I'm sorry Megatron, please don't spank me."

"You're getting a spanking," Megatron said firmly, "You knew what you were doing wrong, yet you still went ahead and did it."

"I'm sorry," she cried as he now draped her across her knew, ignoring the waxy oil stains her front was leaving. "Please, don't."

"You did wrong Elita, now you get punished," Megatron said sternly, glaring down at her exposed bottom.

"No...," she wailed but it was no use, he brought his heavy hand down on her little aft and started spanking her in earnest.

She wailed, kicked her little legs and whacked her fists against his leg but nothing could stop him. He carried on, putting more effort into the heavy smacks until finally she was just hanging limply in his lap, crying miserably. Only when she'd reached this state did Megatron give her a few more good smacks before deciding she'd had enough.

She clutched at his lap, feeling utterly sorry for herself, her little aft felt like it was aflame, she'd never had such a punishment like that before. She barely noticed as Megatron lifted her up and took her into another room and still didn't notice until warm water splashed down on her form.

"What?" she gasped, raising her tear stained face to see Megatron had taken her into his shower room and under the shower head.

As she stared, tears still dripping down her face, he placed her against his shoulder and grabbed a cloth with his free hand to start gently wiping her down. She froze for a moment before flinging her arms around his neck, bawling her optics out. He gently rubbed her back with the cloth, saying.

"Enough child, it's over now."

"I'm sorry," she wept, clinging tightly to him. "I won't do anything like that again, don't be mad at me."

"I'm not now," he said with a slight huff. "You caused a slagging big mess but you've been properly punished for it."

He sighed before saying musingly as she buried her face against his plates.

"I never thought you of all bots would act up like that Elita. What would Prime think?"

"Are...are you going to tell him?" she hiccupped, her face still pressed against his armour.

"I'm sure he'd find it funny you decided to create your own oil slide," he said dryly. "And even he can't complain about my punishing you."

"Mmm," she murmured, suddenly feeling extremely tired.

He glanced down at her, seeing that she was falling asleep in his arms, something he never thought would happen. He thought for a moment as he continued cleaning her, allowing the water to wash all her grime from both their bodies. Once he'd decided what to do, he sent an internal message for Skywarp, who'd receive it when he woke up.

He then stepped out of the shower and under the dryers, set at a low setting for the little Femme, he didn't care if his armour was slightly damp. With Elita still holding onto him tightly, he grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around her, heading for his berth.

"Hmm?" she mumbled, half asleep already as he laid down on the berth, her resting on his chest.

"Go to sleep Elita," he said softly. "You'll see your daddy soon enough."

"Mmm," was all she'd say as she snuggled properly into him with a heavy sigh.

He rubbed her back gently as she drifted off to sleep, worn out by the morning's naughtiness and punishment. She'd have a sore bottom for the rest of the morning and most of the day but it would eventually fade. Compared to what Starscream had apparently faced as a youngster, this was nothing. Megatron wondered just how his SIC was getting on at the Ark, was Optimus managing to cope?

He'd have to call later to make sure everything was alright. In the meantime, it seemed he'd be remaining in bed for quite a while yet.

Author's note. How do the Sparkings and Skywarp react when they find out what's happened? How is Starscream getting on with the Arielbots? Find out next time, until then.