Author's note/disclaimer: I do not own GoBots nor its characters. Just this strange plot.

It wasn't long before Aurora's advanced tracking picked up the two jet Renegades. "Leader-1, I have them. Three clicks northeast of our position. They are inbound 5,000 feet higher than us."

"Your internal tracking system works THAT well!? And I thought Scooter was good. Okay, lets play it this way. You take the high road, I'll take the low and we'll make a Renegade sandwich."

"Giving me Snoop eh? Guess you ARE old." Aurora joked before peeling off and heading skyward.

"I fell into that one easy enough." Leader-1 muttered to himself as he dove for the ground below.

Closing in on the two Renegades, the two Guardians orchestrated an ideal surprise attack. Aurora swept in on Snoop and the two were engaged in a high speed, high altitude fight. Leader-1 easily closed on Fitor, who was too occupied with the attack on Snoop to see the Guardian commander. Leader-1 angled behind Fitor in an ideal 'kill' position. But before he could get a shot off, Snoop dove between the two male jets with Aurora hot on her tail. Leader-1 was forced to break off in the turbulent air that developed.

"UGH! NO!" Leader-1 shouted as he suddenly realized Fitor, who had clean air, had adjusted and was now closing fast upon him in a sharp arcing turn. Banking sharply himself, Leader-1 dove for the deck, opting to use land topography as both shield and buffer. As he rounded a hill, he immediately slammed his nose cone upward, converted to robot mode, and fired his foot thrusters forward. Directly in his path was a Thruster, coming out of Stealth mode, with weapons aimed directly at him!

"We've got him now!" Cy-Kill yelled as he locked on his adversary and heard the tone of a lock on. Crasher's cackling nearly caused her to lose sight of the other Guardian.

Aurora's warning systems went off as she realized what had just transpired. In a smooth, high speed turn, she sped towards Leader-1, allowing Snoop to get in behind her. "Leader-1, when I say so, just let yourself fall!"

Seconds later, "DROP NOW!"

Leader-1 didn't hesitate and immediately cut all power and thrust, allowing Earth's gravity to pull him downward. A half second later, Aurora was slightly below the space he previously was and that put Snoop in the crosshairs. Thruster had fired...hitting Snoop instead of Leader-1 or Aurora.

"NOOOOOOO! Curse you Guardians!" Cy-Kill exclaimed as he punched the console.

"WHO is that Guardian?" Crasher asked, trying to get a fix upon the other black jet.

With the ground rushing upward, Leader-1 had no time to recover. He was going to hit the ground...hard. As he braced for impact, he felt and heard a strange 'ka-thunk' of metal on metal. He'd landed on something, but it wasn't ground.

"Going my way flyboy?" Aurora said as she leveled out and allowed Leader-1 to assume a sitting position atop her.

"We need to stop meeting like this. 'Bots will talk. But, thanks." Leader-1 replied as he rolled off her and converted back to his jet mode. "Where's Fitor?"

"Saw him go behind Thruster."

As the two jets turned to confront the Thruster...it was nowhere to be seen.

"Fitor must have gone aboard. I can't track him anywhere." Aurora said.

"The Stealth Device. But why were they here in the first place? I don't see anything but grass, dirt, and rocks. And they left far too easily. It's not like Cy-Kill to give up like that."

"Leader-1, there's a strange reading below all that grass, dirt, and rocks."

"Okay, now we know." Leader-1 commented as he converted back to robot mode. Aurora did the same.

{This is Leader-1, calling Command Center. Come in Command Center!}

[Command Center. Turbo here. What's up Leader-1?]

{Lock in on my coordinates and meet me here.}

[We'll be there in ten. TIME TO GO!]

A short while later, the Command Center arrived with Turbo, Scooter, Nick, and A.J.

"Is THAT Snoop?!" Nick yelled as they noticed the black GoBot beside Leader-1.

"No, that's NOT Snoop, but I've never seen that bot before!" Scooter replied.

"Maybe Leader-1's got a giirrrrrlfrieeend. " Turbo teased.

"Well that GoBot IS female." A.J. replied.

"Guess we'll find out soon enough." Nick said as the Command Center landed. Aurora and Leader-1 entered the open hatchway.

"Who's the babe?" Turbo asked with a smirk.

"Turbo! Manners!" Scooter exclaimed.

Leader-1 chuckled. "Okay, if you'll allow me a moment, I'll introduce you. Meet Aurora, a Guardian Commander of a top secret team. Aurora, meet Turbo, Scooter, Nick, and A.J."

With pleasantries aside, it was back to business. There was no time to talk any further on the matter.

"Scooter! Scan this entire area underground for unusual energy readings." Leader-1 commanded.

"You got it!"

The Command Center's computers hummed to life and spit out various reports.

"Well Scoot?"

"There's a huge cavern below. Mostly limestone. But Leader-1...OHMIGOSH, IT'S EXPLOSIVES!"

"A trap! Scooter, shields and get us out of here NOW!"

The Command Center shot upward just as the explosions commenced. Piles of rock, dirt, and debris shot upward, rattling the Guardian ship. But they cleared it just in time.

"Whew, another close call." Leader-1 replied as he looked over a console to check if any damage reports were coming in.

"Well, that is certainly annoying." Aurora commented.

"This happens ALL the time." Scooter replied.

"Sanity checks is what we like to call them." Nick added.

"Yeah, they're trying to drive us insane!" Scooter exclaimed.

Aurora walked over to Leader-1 and spoke softly out of earshot of the others. "And you can't resolve this little problem? These Renegades are more like pests than terrorists."

"You're more than welcome to try if you think you can do a better job." Leader-1 shot back.

"Thank you. We will. Allow my team full access to Earth and its resources. I will inform the Council."

Turbo heard part of the conversation and couldn't help himself. "Leader-1, we're being replaced!?"

Leader-1 didn't reply. He turned about, exited the cockpit area, and went deeper into the Command Center.

Aurora watched him with concern. This wasn't how she wanted to approach the matter, but the time seemed appropriate enough.

"He'll be all right. We don't intend to take over, Turbo. We just want to see what we can do to assist. But my team, we work alone with no other Guardian interference. These Renegades, like yourselves, have never seen us nor our new technology. We have the advantage."

"He won't be all right. That was a slap in the face for him." A.J. mentioned.

"He's a tough bot. He'll overcome it. If he doesn't, then I'll be sure to remedy that." Aurora stated.

The rest of the journey back to UNECOM was in silence. Leader-1 was not seen for the rest of the night aside from the briefing he gave General Newcastle on the recent attack.

Aurora was left to introduce the rest of her team to the rest of Leader-1's without him. As she predicted, his team took it much easier than their commander.

Matt walked over to Scooter, who was standing to the side, alone.

"Scooter, you know Leader-1 better than anyone. Where does he go to be alone?" Matt asked.

"He could go anywhere. A lot of times he converts to his jet mode and just goes for a long flight. A peaceful flight seems to calm him down."

"If we don't see him by morning, I'm going to go looking for him." Matt replied.

"If he doesn't want to be found, you won't find him. He may need time, Matt."

"We don't have time. If the Renegades get wind of any of this and Leader-1 in the state he is and alone...time is our enemy." Matt added then walked off leaving Scooter with a worried look.

to be continued...