Cheetor's History
Cheetor was a Maximal warrior under the command of Optimus Primal during the Beast Wars. His body was mutated by the quantum surge that resulted from the destruction of the Vox Planet Buster.
When the quantum surge from the explosion engulfed the planet, Cheetor's exostructure was mutated into a shiny new Transmetal body. Along with a tougher metal hide and built-in weaponry, his beast mode gained the ability to fly via two powerful thrusters in his torso. Unfortunately, his first attempt at flying led him on a one-way trip into a bulkhead. His new flight mode allowed him to be particularly effective against Waspinator in a subsequent battle, however he was then blasted off a cliff by Megatron, and crashed into Rattrap while trying to fly to safety. Rhinox fortunately interceded before the pair could be slagged.
While Rhinox set up some equipment to send his core consciousness on a jaunt, Cheetor left the Axalon to look for Dinobot. Instead he found the Predacons and was attacked by a new addition to their forces, Silverbolt. He radio'd base to warn Rattrap. Rattrap and Dinobot soon joined him and prepared for a showdown with the Predacons. Though outnumbered, the trio persisted in defending the Axalon, eventually capturing Silverbolt and taking him back to the ship for repairs. As the Predacons pressed on with their attack, the Maximals found themselves out of ammo, but were saved at the eleventh hour by the resurrection of Optimus Primal in a new Transmetal body.
Despite his new form, Cheetor was still assigned to monitor the sensor grid, reporting on strange signals. hen Rhinox worked out that there was an alien site in Grid Zeiram, the area Tigatron and Airazor were patrolling, Cheetor was sent to warn them. He was moments too late to prevent them from being shot into space by the alien plants there, much to his anguish. Though Cheetor wanted to rescue Tigatron and Airazor, the priority was on stopping Megatron, and the Maximals returned to Grid Zeiram, where a spaceship grew from the plant life and released an energy surge which blasted everyone present. As the Transmetals and Fuzors recovered quickly from the blast, Cheetor and Silverbolt took Dinobot and Rhinox back to base for repairs. After Megatron took control of the alien craft, the Maximals launched an attack on it, distracting Megatron long enough for Rattrap to undertake some sabotage.
Out flying on patrol, Cheetor spotted a crashed stasis pod marked with an X, which Optimus explained contained Protoform X, a Maximal experiment. Of course, the Predacons arrived to try to take control of the pod, and weapons fire caused energon beneath the pod to explode. Damaged, Optimus and Cheetor returned to base, but were repaired in time to help Silverbolt and Blackarachnia defeat Protoform X. The Maximals left to consult Rhinox on the abomination, but that gave Megatron time to conscript X into the Predacons as Rampage. On another patrol, Cheetor encountered the Predacon forces, again, and communicated their position to Dinobot. After Dinobot died defending a valley of early anthropoids from the Predacons, Cheetor extinguished the flames in the valley and joined the other Maximals in mourning his loss.
While out hunting for yet another Predacon jamming tower, Rattrap and Cheetor stumbled on a stasis pod containing a strangely mutated Transformer, which became known as Transmutate. Unfortunately the first thing it did was break up their fight with the Predacons using its sonic attack. As Rattrap later joked about the creature's appearance, Cheetor pointed out Transmutate was standing right behind him.
The Maximals were overjoyed when Rhinox revealed that the transwarp wavefront from the Planet Buster explosion would soon be detected by Cybertron and a rescue mission sent. Cheetor was looking forward to going to Six Lasers Over Cybertron, much to Rattrap's embarrassment. Instead of the expected rescue mission, they got Ravage, a Predacon operative sent to apprehend Megatron. Joining forces, they mounted an attack on the Darksyde. Cheetor was blasted by the defense systems. Twice. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't present when Megatron was finally captured. With the Maximals in control, Optimus order Cheetor to go out and look for Blackarachnia, whom Silverbolt had allowed to escape. Cheetor assured Silverbolt, who had developed feelings for the Predacon, that he would bring her in in one piece, only for Silverbolt to punch him out, leaving to find Blackarachnia himself. Cheetor wasn't happy.
He and Optimus instead went to fetch some energon crystals stashed by Tarantulas, only to run into Inferno and were forced to retreat when the crazed Predacon blew up the energon. The pair headed back for the Axalon, only to be informed by Rattrap over the commlink that Ravage had switched sides — a fact made obvious by the transwarp cruiser bearing down on them with Megatron riding atop. Pinned down on the battlefield, Optimus and Cheetor were blasted flat by Megatron (although Cheetor managed to deal with Quickstrike first), but fortunately survived without too much damage. After Rattrap took out the transwarp cruiser, the Maximals set out in pursuit of the retreating Megatron.
As it turned out, the Predacon leader had found the Ark buried in Mount St. Hilary. The Maximals worked frantically to dig out the cave in he'd created to block their passage, and then to evade the Ark's defenses, but were too late to prevent Megatron from shooting a stasis-locked Optimus Prime in the head.
The timestorm abated once the Maximals stabilized Optimus Prime's condition. Cheetor and the newly "optimised" Optimus Primal attempted to stop the Predacons from attacking the Axalon, with Cheetor taking out both Waspinator and Inferno, but the pair were helpless to stop the ship plunging off the cliff and being lost. The Maximals subsequently took up residence in the cavern housing the Ark. Some time later, Cheetor was out on patrol when he saw a spaceship entering Earth's atmosphere. He was in the middle of a radio report when Rampage shot him down, and he was rescued by new arrival Depth Charge, who left him on a small rock. Without his flight capability, Cheetor had to wait to be rescued by Optimus. The pair picked up Depth Charge, who'd lost his fight with Rampage, and took him back to base for repairs. Cheetor's attempt to thank the new Maximal resulted in Depth Charge insulting him and swatting him aside.
When Rattrap was assigned to recover Sentinel from the underwater remains of the Axalon, Cheetor was highly amused at the wee ship that would be used, imagining it would make a swell kitty toy. While looking after Chak and Una, after the pair had become separated from their tribe, Cheetor displayed the first hints of a crush on Blackarachnia, much to Silverbolt's displeasure. He volunteered to accompany her on a mission to return the children to their people. And gave Chak rides. As soon as they were attacked by a Cyber raptor, he was blasted off a cliff and his jets damaged. Then during another battle with Tarantulas and a pack of Cyber raptors, he was blasted from behind by Waspinator. Primal and Silverbolt soon joined the battle, but Optimus was quickly incapacitated by a new cyber venom. They were all saved by the anthropoid leader, who attacked the raptors with his club. Afterwards, Blackarachnia rebuffed his thanks, walking off with Silverbolt.
Optimus and Cheetor were unsuccessful in preventing the Predacons stealing another stasis pod — in fact Cheetor's missile accidentally took out Optimus, much to his dismay and embarrassment. After scolding Cheetor, Optimus told him to get some backup and assist Depth Charge, however Cheetor opted to go on alone. As he assisted Depth Charge in battling the Predacons, Cheetor was able to steal the Transmetal driver which Megatron was using in an experiment to create a Transmetal 2 clone of Dinobot. No sooner had he thrown the artifact to Depth Charge, than Cheetor was knocked into the cloning machine's electrical arc and apparently destroyed. He was not dead, however, and would soon be undergoing a new kind of transformation.
