Cheetor's History
Cheetor was effectively the second-in-command of the Maximal resistance after Megatron took over Cybertron.
During the journey back to Cybertron, Megatron broke free from the Autobot shuttle and somehow reached the planet before the Maximals. By the time the Maximals got there, Megatron had taken control of the planet with an army of Vehicon drones. They were hit with a transformation virus which reverted them to their original beast forms. Unable to transform, Cheetor searched for a CR chamber with which to repair himself, and ended up saving Primal and Rattrap from a Tank Drone. The trio were unable to remember what had happened to them since arriving on Cybertron. They located Blackarachnia and descended into the planet to find the Oracle. Primal communed with the Oracle, which reformatted the four Maximals into new Technorganic bodies. Faced with more Vehicons in the form of Cycle Drones, the Maximals found themselves unable to transform out of beast mode, and were forced to deal with the drones as is. When Optimus finally worked out how to transform, Cheetor admired his new robot mode.
With Optimus's guidance, Cheetor and Blackarachnia were able to remaster the art of transformation, regaining their robot modes. However, on the first attack by a Mole Drone, they spontaneously reverted to their beast modes through lack of focus. Despite the pair believing that they should find more survivors, Primal insisted that they concentrate on their training, and the group split up to find a new base. Blackarachnia persuaded Cheetor to accompany her to the surface to find more information, only to find the city deserted and the Cybertron InfoCore erased. Attacked by Aero Drones, the pair were helped by Primal, and the Maximals proceeded to the Council Citadel, where Optimus went in and encountered Megatron. As the Maximals battled against the Vehicon drones, Cheetor discovered that, though he no longer possessed a flight mode, he could glide by holding his swords together.
An attempt to access the Cybertron Archives didn't go much better, ending with Cheetor carrying Blackarachnia on his shoulders. Later on, he and Optimus had to save Rattrap and Blackarachnia again after the pair accessed the computer on the Autobot shuttle and alerted the Vehicons to their position. After being captured by Megatron, the Maximals were able to turn Tankor, one of the Vehicon generals to their side for a brief period.
Cheetor and Blackarachnia sparred with encouragement from Optimus, though Cheetor he preferred to rely on instinct not "blind faith". Realizing they were being watched, the Maximals chased down the spy with Cheetor finally catching Nightscream, a young Maximal who survived Megatron's planetwide purging. Though Nightscream led the Maximals to a fruit tree which he had been living off, Cheetor refused Optimus's suggestion that the other Maximals do the same, stating bluntly that they processed energon, not fruit. As it turned out, the fruit caused the Maximals' beast sides to take over, endangering their lives when Jetstorm attacked with a squad of Aero drones, until Cheetor felled the tree. Optimus was left weakened after reformatting Nightscream, and put Cheetor in command.
On a recon mission in a tank drone factory, Cheetor's orders went unheeded by Rattrap, who ended up wrecking the whole plan. Understandably angry at his comrade, Cheetor would subsequently brush off Rattrap's suggestions that they should attack Megatron while the Vehicon leader was weak. He did stick up for Rattrap when Blackarachnia and Nightscream suggested getting rid of the rat, however his suggestion that they cover for Rattrap until Optimus recovered did not go down well when it was overheard by Rattrap himself. In fact, it drove Rattrap to Megatron's side. After the situation was resolved, Optimus reminded the others not to underestimate their fellow Maximal.
Cheetor was glad for Optimus to be back in command, bluntly rebuking Nightscream's suggestion that Primal was still too weak to lead. Nonetheless, when Cheetor had to save Optimus's life during a battle in a factory, and Optimus became lost in his own regrets at what Megatron had done, Cheetor was forced to take command to force a Maximal withdrawal. With the revelation that the Vehicon generals housed the sparks of their friends, Cheetor's plan was for Nightscream and Blackarachnia to distract Thrust and Jetstorm while he and Rattrap attempted to convert Tankor back into a Maximal. Cheetor was able to distract the Tank Drones while Rattrap hacked into Tankor, discovering that the Vehicon was their old friend Rhinox.
Though Cheetor primarily disbelieved Rattrap, the pair decided to try to reawaken their friend, but ended up fleeing from the enraged Vehicon. Optimus, via directly contacting Rhinox's spark, was able to restore his personality, but Rhinox announced he was siding with Megatron's plan for a technological Cybertron. Optimus confided to the other Maximals that he believed the Oracle's plan was to restore the organic element to Cybertron, something that Cheetor wasn't convinced the planet ever had. While trying to find Nightscream's tree again, the Maximals were ambushed by Vehicons, who abducted Nightscream. The Maximals were able to rescue him, leading them to discover a cavern full of the remains of organic life.
The Maximals set about trying to find water, though Cheetor thought they should instead be attacking Megatron. They soon struck gold, or at least an organic goop which sprouted plants. Their victory was interrupted by an attack by Tankor, who used the Key to Vector Sigma to turn Nightscream into technomatter. Despite Cheetor's attempts to save it, the drill was damaged by the drones extracting Tankor. Cheetor and Optimus disagreed over their next course of action, but Cheetor finally came up with a plan to use a Mole Drone to drill to the organic core, to get more goo to cure Nightscream. During the battle to get control of a factory, Rattrap again found himself in the middle of a leadership tug-of-war between Optimus and Cheetor. The Maximals succeeded in getting control of a Mole Drone, only for Megatron to take control of it back as soon as they reached the orchard, and Cheetor reluctantly followed Optimus's lead and fortunately the plan succeeded. Cheetor, however, told Optimus he demanded more respect, and wasn't a kid anymore.
The Maximals held a memorial service for Rhinox, before concentrating on trying to make their orchard succeed. A catalyst Rattrap found caused the plants to grow too well, forcing the other Maximals to rescue him from the rapidly growing vines. Cheetor was keep to use the fast-growing vines as a weapon against Megatron, but Optimus claimed the Oracle had other plans. When it turned out that Blackarachnia had gone trying to turn Thrust back into Silverbolt, Cheetor took the opportunity to prove that his plan would work, by rescuing her with a giant vine. Unfortunately it backfired, as the Vehicons zapped it into technomatter, and only swift work by Optimus saved the rest of the orchard. Optimus was not pleased, but he knew that the Maximals had much bigger concerns.
In search of information on who had tampered with the Oracle, Cheetor and Rattrap hacked into the central computer, but were forced to retreat before learning anything. They returned to the other Maximals, and Optimus led them to the Plasma Energy Chamber which, if opened, would destroy technological life on the planet, leaving only the organic. Shocked, Cheetor talked him out of opening the chamber and came up with an alternate plan to get Rattrap to find a way to disable the duplicate Keys. The operation was curtailed when Rattrap was zapped into technomatter by Tankor, leading Optimus to confront Megatron in person. Cheetor and the other Maximals continued fighting, but were overcome by Vehicons and turned into technomatter.
Restored to health by Optimus Primal's sacrifice, the Maximals were shocked to find their leader dead. Cheetor reacted violently to Nightscream's assertion that Cheetor wanted Optimus gone, but took a leadership position anyway. When the surviving Vehicon generals attacked, Cheetor called timeout, and unsuccessfully attempted to get them to join the Maximals. He believed they should continue with Optimus's mission, and led the other Maximals down to the Oracle chamber, where they discovered Primal was floating within the Oracle. Cheetor gave an impassioned speech to Big Bot, which helped him realize what his real mission for Cybertron was, and to choose life over joining the Matrix.
Together again, Cheetor suggested the next step should be to find the missing sparks, but when they approached the Council Citadel, a giant floating head hovered into view. While Optimus tried to contact Megatron's spark, Cheetor led the other Maximals in attempting to find Jetstorm and Thrust, and they encountered Noble, a completely organic Transformer, whose transformation into Savage was uncontrollable. Cheetor favored leniency in dealing with Noble, but the creature was soon revealed to be Megatron, who transferred himself into the Grand Mal and reactivated the Vehicon drones, forcing the Maximals to flee underground once again.
While trying to save Nightscream from a pack of drones, Optimus and Cheetor were drawn aboard the Grand Mal via a tractor beam and interrogated for information. They were soon rescued by Silverbolt, who Blackarachnia had resurrected from Jetstorm. A Hate Plague virus created by Megatron infected the Maximal ranks, giving Cheetor a rather more forceful leadership style and causing the Maximals to fight among themselves. Though Cheetor seemed to fight it for a short period, he soon succumbed again, even taking his frustrations out on Optimus physically. Finally, they realized what was happening and managed to work together.
With the technorganic crops failing, Cheetor tried to console Optimus. The news of a crashing ship led the Maximals to encounter Botanica, a Maximal formatted as a plant-based life form, who was able to lend a hand with the crops. They would later encounter two new Vehicon generals created by Megatron — Obsidian and Strika. The Maximals split up in their search for the missing sparks. Silverbolt revealed he still regarded Cheetor as a child, calling him "kid", much to Cheetor's annoyance, though Cheetor's inability to come up with a plan to shake the drones pursuing them doubtless didn't help. Once Cheetor saved their lives by getting rid of the drones, Silverbolt developed a smidgen more respect for him.
The reappearance of Noble caused problems for the Maximals, leading Cheetor to suggest that Nightscream get rid of the creature before it got them all killed. Noble, however, did help them as Cheetor, Silverbolt and Nightscream distracted the drones so that Optimus could sneak into the Grand Mal. The action cost Noble his life, and all of the Maximals mourned him. With the Grand Mal down, the Maximals celebrated. However, Megatron's spark lived on, albeit in a disembodied state, and Cheetor tangled with it when it possessed the corpse of an Aero drone. Eventually Rattrap trapped it in a Diagnostic Drone.
The Maximals were under siege within the Grand Mal, trapped with the sparks they had searched for. Cheetor worked unsuccessfully to bring the weapons systems online. Rattrap's act of saving Botanica accidentally left them wide open to attack, and Optimus had to stop Cheetor telling off the rodent. Fortunately the three of them survived the Grand Mal crashing. Down, but not out, the Maximals began preparing their defenses for the impending Vehicon assault. The shields did not hold long, and the Maximals found themselves fighting against hordes of drones. Outnumbered, the Maximals used spark power bestowed on them by the Oracle to decimate the drones, until Megatron took the Oracle from them.
Cheetor found himself facing the three Vehicon Generals on his own, but was able to use the anti-gravity generators to fire Obsidian and Strika into orbit. Cheetor struggled with Thrust, finally using a spark extractor to rip out the Vehicon's spark. He was unprepared to face his next foe — Megatron, newly installed into a duplicate of Primal's old "optimal" body — and had his own spark torn out by a Cycle Drone. After a city-spanning battle, Optimus sacrificed himself to destroy Megatron and reformat Cybertron into a technorganic paradise. Cheetor and the other Maximals were restored to their bodies and, as the sparks were reborn into new bodies, Cheetor had a final vision from the Oracle and told the other Maximals that Optimus would always be with them.
