Disclaimer: I do not own GoBots nor its characters. Just this strange plot.

Author's Note: Heheh...chapter 13...hmm...somehow that number always seems to bring forth bad luck. Weird coincidence with this chapter too. It WASN'T planned! Honest! And now you'll realize why I created some of my own characters in this fic...

Aboard Command Center One...

Leader-1 locked the restraining bolt in place upon Crasher just as Matt and Scooter entered. He refrained from using the neural lock, but kept it nearby just in case.

"Are you sure you want to do this again?" Scooter asked.

"Our options and time are limited, Scoot."

"It's your call, but honestly, I DON'T like picking through her brain. It's a very nasty place."

"WHAT'S IT TO YOU, SQUIRT!" Crasher shot back.

Scooter stuck his tongue out at her as she fought the grasp of both the restraining bolt and Leader-1.

"Scooter, please don't antagonize the prisoner." Leader-1 added.

"But she--" Scooter started, but a stern look from his Commander told him to cease any intention to finish.

Leader-1 muscled the struggling Renegade out the door and down the hall with Matt and Scooter in tow.

"Look, it'd be easier if you just told me right now. Heck, I could even release you. And you know I'm a GoBot of my word." Leader-1 whispered within her audio receptor so that only she could hear.

Crasher said nothing. As they were passing by the med bay, she caught view of a form she recognized almost instantly.

"FITOR!" she exclaimed to no avail.

"It'll do you no good Renegade. He's out and has been out for a couple of days. We don't even know if we can salvage his life."

Crasher struggled to get one final look at her fallen comrade before being dragged off to the next room.

"Give me my freedom and Fitor and I will tell you what you want." Crasher replied to Leader-1 as both caught view of the Brain Stormer.

"Fitor may perish if he is released from our med bay. Our instruments are the only things keeping him alive at this time. He's on the edge of powering down. He's slowly responding to treatment, but if we remove him..."

Crasher thought about her dilemma. She looked at Leader-1, then the approaching human and runt of a Guardian, then back towards the med bay that contained Fitor.

"Time's short, Renegade." Leader-1 pressed.

This brought Crasher's attention back to the once again, stoic Guardian leader.

"Fine. Not Fitor. But I want my freedom...and safe passage away from this ship and whatever that freakish other one is."

"Don't do it, Leader-1! She knows we have Fitor! She'll relay the news back to Cy-Kill as well as our position!" Matt yelled.

"Noted, Matt." Leader-1 replied, then turned to Crasher once again. "He's right. I can't just let you go...at least not directly from here. Too much at stake. I'm sorry. But, there IS a way we can both get what we seek. I CAN give you your freedom...just not here, not now. But, I can release you and save you a trip to Cy-Kill. Just tell me where he is and I'll take you to him, personally. My ship and team will NOT follow."

"And of the other team and ship hmm? I'm not Cop-Tur. I do think of these things."

"The other ship and team will be ordered to remain with my Command Center."

"How do I know they will? I know of Guardians who've disobeyed your direct orders before." Crasher stated and looked right at Scooter.

Scooter sputtered, but could say nothing in his defense.

"She got you there, Scoot." Matt muttered quietly to the small Guardian.

"HMPH." Scooter huffed as he decided he was no longer interested in the present conversation. He made his way over to the console which controlled the Brain Stormer and started inputting start up commands.

a few miles beyond the Star Ray...

Aurora flew high and fast in an attempt to remain above and get beyond the incoming Thrusters. She wanted to get in from behind and drive them into her awaiting ship's range where a barrage of deadly blasterfire and one nasty sting would easily dispose of the nosy Renegades. With her attention focused on the oncoming Thrusters she failed to notice a silent form streaking even higher above her.

In a similar maneuver of Aurora's, Snoop had utilized her recon skills to remain in a high orbital track above her comrades' ships. She was circling like a bird of prey in full hunt. She spotted the Guardian advance before the opposite could do the same. In a tactic uncommon for her youth and inexperience, Snoop silently waited and stalked...looming quietly and watching her prey approach. At the same time, she quietly alerted the two Thrusters of her approach and course of action. Upon reaching a coded response from both Thrusters, she set her plan in motion. She silently slid into some cloud cover while one of the Thrusters peeled off in a flanking maneuver.

*They detected me? But how?* Aurora thought as she watched the one Thruster deviate and bank hard right. *No time for that now. There's work to do and the faster the better!* Aurora thought as she engaged her engines into full thrust and shot towards the straying Thruster. She had to herd it back with the other to keep both in visual sight at all times. Just as she arced downwards, the brief shine of sunlight upon metal caught her eye. But it was too late to maneuver out of its way. As Aurora followed the one Thruster, Snoop dove as the other Thruster countered and spun in behind her. She was pinned on top and behind. Her only course was down, but there really was no down with the high, sharp peaks of one of Earth's tallest mountain ranges.

Sliding and rolling, Aurora dodged blaster fire from the fast approaching Snoop.

"This is MY SKY bitch!" Snoop yelled as she rained laser blasts down upon the pinned Guardian jet.

"Not if I can---UUUGGHOOWWW!" was all Aurora managed as she took two direct hits from the Thruster and plummeted towards a mountainside. She tried to convert for better maneuverability, but one of the blasts damaged her conversion mechanism. The other had tore through a portion of her left wing, shearing off nearly all of its exterior skin. Using every flap, canard, and aileron that still functioned, she jammed them all in the same direction then shifted her entire weight in the same direction. She had to somehow get herself out of the head-on collision with the monsterous mountain reaching out to her. Within seconds she had her body turned, but her speed continued to send her towards the ever closer rockwall.

The two Thrusters peeled off of pursuit and maintained a steady hover as they awaited the outcome. Snoop dove in and continued to pursue her adversary...ready to finish her off if the rock didn't do its job properly.

Aurora braced for impact. There was nothing more she could do other than try and hit the mountain in the least damaging position... full broadside to spread out the impact thus avoiding certain death in a direct hit of any single region that would crush her innards and possibly sever her neural interface...a death in itself.

"Spinner, bring us hard starboard, Aurora's about to get basted by earth rock!" Jazzmin yelled as she helplessly watched the events beyond her unfold.

"Already at it Jazz!" Spinner replied as the Star Ray leaned and rotated. "Give me coordinates."

"8 o'clock low, distance 7k!" Jazzmin yelled back.

Spinner typed in the numbers and hit the launch button. Two large torpedo like missles launched with such force, the ship shuddered.

The missles impacted the mountainside to the lower side of Aurora, causing the rock to loosen just as Aurora slammed into the same face. The loose rock reduced impact almost immediately. It was a softer impact than it would've otherwise been and Aurora reacted by instantly converting back to robot mode. Regardless, it knocked the Guardian unconscious and caused some serious damage to the now helpless GoBot.

"Cop-Tur, NOW!" Snoop yelled over her comm as she realized the female Guardian was no longer a threat.

A Thruster turned hard about and sped in. Snoop converted to robot mode and caught the helpless Guardian. She returned to Cop-Tur's Thruster and entered.

"Why not just kill her?" Cop-Tur asked as Snoop placed a neural lock upon the Guardian and threw her in a holding cell.

"No fun in attacking something that's already half dead. She has valuable information that could prove useful to the Renegade cause. She's a Guardian Commander. Cy-Kill may also find her a worthy pawn to draw in the other Guardians. Besides, she may not even survive the trip to Cy-Kill. She's in really bad shape."

"You think the Guardians have Crasher and Fitor?"

"This Guardian doesn't fly alone for long. The others are nearby somewhere. Those were Guardian missles that impacted that mountainside. There's a ship nearby. No single GoBot has missles that large or powerful. Only ships do."

Snoop reached for the comm. "Bad Boy, Spike...there's a Guardian ship somewhere in this sector. Go into Stealth mode and seek it out. Cop-Tur and I will return with our prize."

"Yes ma'am!"

"Ooooh, don't call me that! Just do it. OUT!" Snoop returned.

Aboard the Star Ray...

"Spinner...we just compromised our position."

"Yes, but Aurora said defend at all costs."

"We've gotta move or we'll also reveal the Command Center." Jazzmin noted.

"I know."

"And Aurora?"

"I know. We can't think about that right now. We need to prevent this from getting any worse. Let's go." Spinner replied as she slid the ship out of position and pointed them in another direction, away from the Command Center.

Once some distance away, Spinner slowed the ship and sighed. This was not how things were supposed to go. Jazzmin shot her a worried look.

"Leader-1 will make things right again. Just watch. " Spinner replied as confidently as her uncertain mind could muster.

They never even considered the possibility that the second Thruster was tailing them in Stealth mode. Too distracted with the events that just took their beloved Commander, they never realized the Star Ray's warning and blip upon the screen. Letting their emotions cloud their actions and distract them, they neglected the ship's advanced systems. It was a fatal error.

With their 'back' turned and before they could get their shields up, the Renegade Thruster decloaked and fired several salvoes of blaster fire and missles at the ship. They didn't have a chance to respond. The Star Ray prototype was no more than a bunch of tiny bits of metal raining down upon the frozen earth.

Back at the Command Center...

A.J. charged through the Command Center as fast as she could run. She was nearly out of breath when she reached the Brainstorming chambers.

"Leader-1!"

Leader-1 spun at the urgent calling of his name, dragging a reluctant Renegade in a turn with him. "What is it A.J.?"

"Aurora's down and captured!"

The news slammed into Leader-1 harder than any missle could. But, he could not show it. His training would be put to its greatest test now. "Understood. And the others?" he asked calmly and vaguely.

"Gone." A.J. replied vaguely, but the tears welling up within her eyes gave the outcome away.

Leader-1 turned to Matt and Turbo. "Return to the bridge. Scooter and I will handle things here."

The two males nodded and departed.

"But, aren't you going to save her?" A.J. asked Leader-1 before following them out.

Crasher was listening intently and trying to gauge exactly what the esteemed Guardian Commander was about to do. Would this be an attribute to his greatness or instead reveal one of his greatest weaknesses?

Without a single word, Leader-1 roughly tugged her towards the brainstormer.

"No more games. Tell me NOW!" he growled as his patience was now gone and replaced with full blown temper. It was almost Renegade-like and it was rather frightening to see on a usually controlled figure such as Leader-1.

With little option since he was going to find out one way or another, she opted to speak and keep her own chassis in one piece. Leader-1 was fully capable of ripping another GoBot to shreds and leave them just on the verge of dying without actually killing them. Not a way any GoBot would want to be left as it was actually a fate worse than death. And he looked on the verge of losing it.

"Volcano...56...121..." Crasher gasped softly.

Without the utterance of a single word, Leader-1 dropped her to the floor and charged out of the room. With his fist, he slammed down upon the button that opened the cargo bay doors. As they opened, he launched himself into the skies, converted to jet mode, and shot forward. He was supersonic within moments.

to be continued...