In an mine in Negaunee, Michigan, the miners were doing there job to mine for its iron. One of the men stuck the wall when a small hole formed with cracks forming around it and a faint, glowing light shining through. "Hey, Larry! I think I found a cave opening." The miner informed. He adjusted his grip on his pickaxe and continued to strike the wall until it collapses, making an big enough opening. He dropped his tool to cough into a fist and the other hand to wave off the dust, dirt and debris.

Once it was cleared, the miner was left speechless and amazed at the sight before him. The sound of quick footsteps echoed towards him, but he paid no mind as he felt a hand placed on his shoulder. "Well? What did you find... Hudson..." The manger, Larry, asked before he saw the sight before him.

It was a very big cave, massive even; enormous, giant- however you describe it. There were glowing algae and running water. But what caught their attention was the center piece of the cave. At the center was a nest, and bones surrounding it. The bones seemed to be made of metal and were extremely rusted. They even seemed similar to the Autobots down in Detroit, but much, much older, even looking like how a fictional dragon would.

There were two bodies of metal and very massive in size. The one on the left had three sets of empty eye sockets, a nasal horn, a coral-shaped frill, and a jaw that is lined up with huge, needle-like teeth, coral-like spines, and finally a tail that is tipped with an ankylosaur-like bludgeon to be used as a devastating weapon. It estimated to be 400 feet/121.92 meters long, 99 feet/30.18 meters tall, and has a wingspan of 550 feet/167.67 meters.

The other one on the right was way bigger, being 647 feet and 11 inches/197.49 meters long, 160 feet and 5 1/2 inches/48.9 meters tall, but a much smaller wingspan of 274 feet and 3 inches/83.61 meters that don't seem ideally for flying. It had a pair of gigantic tusks that protrude from the sides of its head similar to an elephant, a flat, almost hominid shaped face with a wide mouth, two large, empty eye sockets with a collection of short, almost antennae-like spikes that are situated between and around them, a large, and flaring crown of spikes that fan out from the back of the head. Irregularly sized spikes continue along the breadth of the shoulders and then dwindle down to a single row along the back and dorsal aspect of the tail, seemingly almost a crystalline structure.

The only thing that they have in common is the position they're in, curling around a nest which held the main attraction.

The main star was an egg, laying alone and idle and voided of any rust. "Oh, my god." Hudson muttered as he and Larry approached the egg, stepping over the dragon corpses. It was round and wide, covered in red and peach colored scales.

Larry put his ear on the shell as he wrapped his arms around it, his fingers barely grazing the ones on the other hand, attempted to lift it up a bit and shook it slightly. "What the hell are you doing?" Hudson questioned as Larry set the egg down with a grunt and sigh of relief. "Shh, I'm focusing, and trust me, I know what I am doing. I was raised on a farm with chickens. I'm performing tests to check it." Larry informed, sniffing the egg. "Check it for what?" Hudson asked as his superior took off his gloves and felt all over the egg.

"To check to see if it's healthy. And it's still good. The first test, you have to listen for swishing or sloshing. If that sound is there, it's not good egg. The second test was to smell for a foul odor; there was none. And the last one was to check for cracks, slimy, or powdery exterior. There was none, meaning... This egg is healthy. In fact, I felt a heartbeat. So, it's also alive." Larry informed. "I'll call Professor Sumdac." Hudson said, running out of the cave and into the mine shaft.

(Time-skip)

In Detroit, it was a bustling city with machines and robots as far as the eye could see, left and right, below and above, they're everywhere. And, with the recent appearance of giant, robotic life-forms that can transform into their everyday vehicles, just makes the city grander for the citizens of Detroit are under the protection of the Autobots. And the group of Autobots have met up with Professor Sumdac.

"So, you're saying there's life in this egg?" Prowl asked, holding the egg. Fascinating. He never thought that a life on this planet would be born from such a giant egg. Sure, he's seen bird eggs, but none were this size, nor did they ever have scales that were even made of metal. "That's what the scanner's show, yes." Prof. Sumdac confirmed. "Where did you find it?" Prowl asked with much interest. "Some of my men found it in an iron mine, surrounded by metal bones." He informed. "Metal bones?" Ratchet asked, humming in thought. "Yes. That is what I said." Issac said. "...Show us the image of the cave." He requested.

Issac raised a brow. "I think what Ratchet is trying to say is that he might know what those bones belonged to." Optimus explained. "Considering that he's also old, I wouldn't be surprised if he knew 'em." Bumblebee muttered, only to be smacked across the head by Ratchet. "I may be old, but I'm not that old." Ratchet grumbled.

Professor Sumdac pulled up the image and Ratchet's eyes widened in shock. "No... way..." Ratchet muttered. "Is everything okay Ratchet?" Bulkhead asked with concern. "How... How did they even get here?!" Ratchet exclaimed. "What are they?" Prowl asked. "Those are Predacons! They've been extinct for millions of years! They shouldn't have been able to make it this far from Cybertron!" Shouted Ratchet. "What is the difference between us Cybertronians and the Predacons?" Optimus asked.

"These Predacons have existed long before Cybertronians did. But the only thing in common we have with them is that we can change forms, but the difference is what types. current Cybertronians can transform into vehicles, while the Predacons transformed into beasts and were sizes two times bigger than the average Decepticon. In other words, they were the first lifeforms to roam Cybertron." Ratchet told. "They do look cool, but what caused them to go extinct?" Bumblebee asked.

"The Quintessons." The old medic started. "Conquers of many galaxies, and they came to Cybertron, but the Predacons weren't willing to give up so easily. So, a war broke out. Unfortunately, they lost the fight; some were forced to flee Cybertron with limited supplies and resources while others died fighting." Ratchet said. "But... I never even heard about the Predacons in the history videos." Optimus argued. "That's because of what happened during the war. All because of Megatron and his legion." Ratchet said, grimly. "They got their servos on some Dark Energon and sought to raise the fallen Predacons into an undead army. But the Autobots thwarted their plans. In order for that event to never be repeated, the council decided to erase the very existence of Predacons so no future generations will think to attempt to raise them from the dead again." He finished. 

Optimus looked over at the egg in Prowl's servos, optics filled pity and empathy. This is a living thing, trapped in a shell, not even aware of anything outside. And once it hatches, it will be all alone with no one that is their species, shares their physical characteristics, and much more. They'll be... different, judged, and discriminated.

The choice is obvious.

At the Base

"Can't believe we're actually doing this. I bet it will look so cute when it hatches!" Exclaimed Sari, jumping all over the place around the egg. The said egg was cushioned against a bunch of pillows and blankets and a heating lamp aimed at it in attempt to warm it up, even though the lamp is dwarfed by the egg by a long shot. "True, but we don't know what or how Predacons are like." Bulkhead voiced. "That may be so, but Ratchet is downloading the history of Predacons from ship." Optimus reminded. "But it will take forever to dig up in those files! Who knows how long it will take!" Cried Bumblebee.

Prowl was kneeled next to it, watching and observing with excitement hidden behind his visor. He couldn't believe that they rediscovered the last being of an extinct species in a million cycles. Not only that, but he wonders what it will look like, robot and alt-mode. Since they are supposed to turn to something more animal like, he can only think of forms that compare to the species on earth that also comes from eggs. Will it look like a bird? An amphibian? A reptile? A bug? What will be of its color scheme? The possibilities are endless!

"Prowl!" Bee yelled. "Huh?" Prowl hummed, turning his attention to the small bot. "Didn't you hear Prime?" The minibot questioned. "I'm sorry, no. I was lost in thought." He said. "Bossbot said that one bot will watch the egg until the next hour. You get the first shift." Bumblebee informed. The ninjabot gave a curt nod of understanding.

Prowl looked back at the egg and picked up its bundled form, holding it close to where his spark chamber is. It was warm, he noticed, warmer than it was when they came back to the abandoned factory.

This went on for a few days, and each bot took care of the egg as they waited for Ratchet's return. During it, they found out that it's temperatures aren't a sign for it's due date. Why it's temperature keeps changing for each Autobot holding it? They don't know. It was the coldest when Bumblebee held it, a neutral temperature when held by Bulkhead, and it would be at it's hottest when the Prime held it. No one could figure out what it meant for the life of them and would continue to be in the dark until Ratchet comes back with the information.

By day 6, trouble was brewing. "Come on, it's my turn to hold the egg!" Bee shouted. "Not in another 10 minutes, Bumblebee." Prowl countered, holding the egg out of the minibot's reach. "You said that 10 minutes ago three times ago!" Yelled Bee.

"What's going on here?" Optimus asked as he entered the main room. "Prowl is hogging all the egg time!" Bumblebee shouted. Optimus sighed, "Prowl, you know the rules." Prowl looked down at the egg in his arms and sighed in defeat, begrudgingly handing it over Bumblebee. Bee eagerly took it and gave Prowl a smug victory look. That's when he felt the egg instantly get hot. "Ouch!" Yelled Bee, burn marks scorching his armor and dropped the egg.

A loud crack echoed through the room.

Looking down, they see a large crack on the egg, causing a glowing red to peak through it.

"Bumblebee!" Prowl shouted. "Hey! It wasn't on purpose! It felt like I was holding a sun!" Bee shouted back as Optimus picked up the egg, hissing at the scorching temperature change continues to grow hotter every second, and the crack glowing brighter and brighter as he transformed and headed to the Ark for Ratchet, possibly breaking a few traffic laws in the middle of it.

"Ratchet, come in." Optimus called, activating the comm-link. "What? It's almost done, just a few more minutes," argued Ratchet on the other line. "The information will be useless if we don't have the med-bay up and running and a couple minutes; it's the egg!" Optimus informed, seeing Erie Lake just a few miles ahead. "I'm on it, just hurry up before we lose it." Ratchet urged, ending the call.

Optimus entered the lake, driving as fast as he could underwater. He entered the ship, transformed into robot-mode and ran as fast as he could to the med-bay. The heat of the egg was so unbearable, so hot that it was starting to feel it was starting to melt his paint job. "C-Come on, where is it?" Optimus muttered to himself. Then he saw an open door just two doors down. Sliding to a stop he sees Ratchet finish preparing. The Prime ran over and carefully plopped the egg on the slab.

"What happened?" Ratchet asked, getting a tool to check the spark rate on the monitor and temperature. "Bumblebee dropped the egg. He said it felt like he was holding onto the sun. It's temperature just keeps rising." Optimus informed. "So far, the sparkling is still doing okay, but the temperature is increasing to the thousands." Ratchet said, showing that it was growing extremely fast. He blinks once and it's at 1,483 degrees Fahrenheit; the second blink, he catches 1,727; the third, 2,269, and so on.

"Is there a way to stop it?" Optimus asked. "In all my time as a medic, Prime, I don't know what to do for a phenomenon like this." Ratchet stated as the temperature rises over 4,738 degrees. Optimus tries his fire extinguisher foam, but it melts only a few feet away. Well, there goes that idea.

Soon enough, the temperature stops at 6,192 degrees Fahrenheit, and the cracked shell ceased its glow. Silence filled the room. They watched the egg, waiting for something to happen. A cracking sound echoed in the room, making the duo jump in fright at the sudden sound. The crack had grown bigger, which caused the temperature to start dropping immensely. The temperature continued to drop quickly for each new crack forming. And the cracks stopped forming when the temperature reached zero and started going into the negatives.

An arm shot out from the egg, causing them to flinch at the surprise. It was hatching! Another arm shot out, and then the legs broke through, breaking off from the bottom part of the egg and stumbled around blindly and fell off the edge of the slab. Luckily, the top part of the eggshell broke their fall and were fully free with a big piece covering its eyes.

Optimus knelt to the ground and plucked the piece off them. Once it was taken off, the sparkling frog-blinked a couple times before noticing the big mass before them, bright yellow eyes peering into his cyan blue ones, and it was like something... weird was going on internally. Like some sort of program that he couldn't make out being placed into his coding in a delicate manner that one wouldn't notice, but he did. The little Predacon pushed themselves up but fell back down on their afterburner. Optimus almost extended his arms out to catch the little sparkling, which greatly confused him. Why was his body acting weird?

The Predacon tried again and successfully stood up and looked back up at the Prime with a big smile as it took a few steps forward. "Mama!" The little Predacon shouted, throwing their arms in the air before hugging the Prime's leg, snuggling against it. "Uh..." Optimus dragged out, looking over at Ratchet with a nervous expression. "Ratchet, a little help!" The Prime whispered. "I don't know what to tell you, kid." Ratchet said.

Optimus looked back down at the Predacon sparkling, who is rubbing their head against his leg, their eyes filled with bright, joyous stars and a happy expression, and his was an expression of unsureness. "Um... sure?"

(Time-skip)

Optimus and Ratchet drove back to the planet, where the crew was waiting expectantly in the main room. "Prime's back!" Bulkhead yelled, alerting Prowl, Bumblebee, and Sari. "Is the egg okay?" Prowl immediately asked, rushing over to the entrance with Bee following behind. "Are they, Bossbot? I didn't mean to drop them! It just-"

"It's fine, Bumblebee." Optimus assured.

The medic and Prime entered the planet and transformed into robot-mode, but Optimus was concealing something in his arms. "They're alright. In fact, I think you should say hello to our newest member," Optimus introduced, unknowingly having a proud smile on his faceplate as he adjusted his arms to show the little Predacon that glanced at the four in curiosity.

"Everyone, this is C/n, the first Predacon to be born since the Great Cataclysm."

---

A/n: FINALLY! After so long, after so many reedits and rewrites, the baby Predacon book has finally been published to those who have been waiting for its release. I hope that you all have enjoyed this prologue.

Little Dragon will return after these messages.
Coming up next: Home Is Where the Spark Is