Optimus Primal's History
Optimus Primal was the leader of the Maximal resistance after Megatron took over Cybertron.
The flight through transwarp space was not a smooth one though, the shuttle encountering shockwaves in time that allowed Megatron to break free. After this caused one last shockwave, the shuttle emerged in orbit of Cybertron where it was immediately shot down by the orbiting satellites. Finding the planet overrun by Vehicon drones, Optimus ordered a retreat only for he and Cheetor to be bombed by a gaseous form of the transformation virus. By virtue of being a Transmetal, Primal was able to resist the full effects of the virus, though at the cost of his upgrades. Devolved back to the body he'd held at the start of the Beast Wars, unable to assume his robot mode and now having amnesia, Optimus continued his escape alone. As he leapt through an industrial complex, Optimus began experiencing visions, which led him one-by-one to Rattrap, Cheetor, and Blackarachnia, before leading them to a chamber deep within Cybertron, the access point for the powerful and legendary Oracle. As the other three Maximals watched, Primal entered into the bowels of the computer, within which he was granted visions he could not yet comprehend, including the prophetic statement that "the seeds of the future lie buried in the past". Reformatted by the Oracle, Primal emerged in a new, technorganic beast mode and urged the other dying Maximals to complete their "reformatting" as well. Shortly after this was achieved, the group was attacked by an underground army of Cycle Drones. During the ensuing fight, Primal plunged into a deep pit, but as he fell, was able to master the "art" of transformation and regain his robot mode. Flying out, Primal grabbed the nearest drone and demanded answers, but lost his concentration, causing him to revert to beast mode.
Primal began to teach the three other Maximals the lost art of transformation, which was mastered by achieving an inner calmness and finding their spiritual centers. Though Cheetor and Blackarachnia were successful right off the bat, Rattrap was unable to transform at all. The search for answers lead them to the Council Citadel, where Optimus encountered the mastermind behind the empty Cybertron—Megatron! Megatron claimed he had united Cybertron into one unified machine controlled by his mind, and purged his beast form from himself, however the combination of the Maximals besting his Vehicon drones and Optimus's goading increased Megatron's rage until he involuntarily transformed into his dragon mode. Recovering quickly, Megatron gloated that he had done away with the millions of Transformers inhabiting the planet, and Optimus demanded to know what he'd done with them all. Primal had to be dragged physically from the Citadel by the other Maximals, yelling Megatron's name as he went. Later, Optimus told the others that he blamed his own failure to stop Megatron for the downfall of Cybertron.
Investigation of the Cybertron Archives revealed that they'd been erased clean. Optimus was so furious, he singlehandedly trashed an entire phalanx of tank drones, and later lectured his troops for their poor performance in combat. When Rattrap and Blackarachnia risked their own lives consulting the logs on the shuttle they arrived in, only to be attacked by Megatron's new Vehicon generals, Optimus came to their aid with Cheetor, but was even more furious at the loss of the ship and the fact they'd endangered themselves. With the memories of Silverbolt and Rhinox reawakened, Optimus promised to find their lost friends. Sensing a spark, Optimus led his men on a search, only for them all to be captured when Rattrap used a transformation enhancer to transform, alerting the Vehicons to their location. Taken to the Citadel, the Maximals were able to break free. Primal reached out to Tankor's spark, turning the Vehicon general to their side so that he helped them escape the building. Unfortunately he didn't remain their ally for long, as Megatron was subsequently able to erase his memory and lock Optimus out. Optimus told the others that he had sensed something familiar about the Vehicon's spark.
The Maximals discovered that someone had survived Megatron's planet-wide purge, a Maximal named Nightscream who seemed to suffer from the same transformation lock virus that the Maximals had upon arrival. Nightscream led them to an underground tree he had been living off. Optimus told the other Maximals they should eat the fruit, but the fruit caused their beast instincts to overtake them. Complicating things, Jetstorm picked this moment to attack. The Maximals snapped out of it when Cheetor destroyed the tree. Following the battle, Primal showed a new talent granted by the Oracle, reformatting Nightscream into a new, technorganic body. Optimus was critically weakened by the effort and requested the over-eager Cheetor to take command in his absence.
During his rest, the other Maximals managed to drive Rattrap to Megatron's side. Optimus later convinced Rattrap to rejoin his friends, and reminded the others not to underestimate their comrade's strength in the face of adversity. The hunt for what happened to the inhabitants of Cybertron took another step when the Maximals discovered the empty shells of hundreds of Transformers, their sparks torn out. Inevitably Vehicon drones arrived and a battle began. The other Maximals became separated from Blackarachnia and were forced to search for her, even as it became obvious that the factory they were in was on the verge of exploding. After the found her, Optimus froze at the sight of the desparked bodies, anguished at all he'd allowed Megatron to do, and Cheetor was forced to take command from him in order to mount a retreat. As they fled, Blackarachnia revealed that the Vehicon Generals contained the sparks of their missing comrades.
Optimus became increasingly withdrawn, demanding the other Maximals leave him alone and spending all of his time with the Oracle, experiencing visions. Confused by what the Oracle was showing him, he nonetheless persevered, and was rewarded with a meeting with Rhinox in a vision. Unfortunately their talk did not go well, Rhinox siding with Megatron's ideal of a technological Cybertron and openly hostile to the idea of reintroducing the organic. Optimus awoke and rejoined his fellow Maximals, who had awakened Rhinox's spark within Tankor, only to find the same thing Optimus had—their old friend had changed. Primal confided to the others that he had realised the true mission which the Oracle intended for them to carry out: to make Cybertron wholly organic once more.
While they were in search of the fruit tree Nightscream had originally lead them to, the Maximals were attacked by the Vehicons and Nightscream kidnapped. During the rescue, Nightscream discovered a cave lined with fossils, and Primal realised this proved that Cybertron was once organic. Optimus and Cheetor would continue to butt heads over what course of action they should take. The discovery of a green goop from Cybertron's core which caused plants to spontaneously sprout appeared to justify Optimus's opinion they should concentrate on restoring the organic to the planet. When a subsequent attack by Tankor left Nightscream in a technomatter state, more disagreement over the proper course of action ensued. They eventually stole a mole drone at great risk, and Optimus was able to guide it downwards, unleashing a torrent of green goo which cured everyone. Following the victory, Cheetor told Optimus that he refused to be treated like a kid any more, but grudgingly accepted Optimus's leadership.
Believing Tankor to be dead, the Maximals were finally able to hold a memorial for Rhinox. Tankor, however, still functioned and plotted to have Megatron use the Key to Vector Sigma to purge all organic life from Cybertron. Hoping to force Megatron's hand, Tankor surreptitiously provided Rattrap with a catalyst to increase the plant growth, and Optimus and the other Maximals subsequently had to rescue Rattrap from the marauding vines. Though Optimus turned down Cheetor's suggestion that they use the rapidly-growing vines as a weapon, Cheetor went ahead and tried it anyway, almost spelling doom when the plan backfired. Quick work by Optimus saved the orchard, and he scolded Cheetor before breaking the news that he believed the Oracle had been tampered with.
Despite the apparent tampering, Optimus continued to follow the Oracle's visions, leading the Maximals to the Plasma Energy Chamber, capable of wiping out everything technological on the planet. The Oracle had bestowed on Optimus the power to open the chamber, however Cheetor managed to talk him out of opening the chamber outright, and the Maximals set about finding a way to deactivate the Keys instead. Rattrap, hacking into Megatron's computer, was disabled by Tankor. Optimus sensed something was wrong and rushed in to confront Megatron directly. As the pair fought, Megatron revealed the defeat of the other Maximals, but Optimus wouldn't yield, attempting to reformat his opponent. Tankor arrived in time to use a Key to turn Optimus into technomatter, lecturing the Maximal on sporting behavior, only to be promptly captured by Megatron, who took the opportunity to gloat over Optimus. In desperation, the Maximal leader finally opened the Plasma Energy Chamber. At the same time, Megatron ordered his Tank drones to fire the Key, the energies released creating a planetwide storm. Optimus's body began to crumble before his eyes.
Though his body was destroyed, Primal's spirit was transported into the Matrix, the Transformers' afterlife. As he and Megatron fought in the void, he pondered if this was his destiny, to fight his nemesis for eternity. Before him, he saw the faces of his comrades, the Maximals, berate him for his poor leadership and near-genocidal behavior. He then found himself back on prehistoric Earth, where a red-eyed copy of Primal attacked him, scolding him for his fanatical behavior. Floating in space, he saw the collective sparks of Cybertron, who similarly warned him of the consequences of his choices. Awakening back in the maelstrom of energy, Primal used himself as a power conduit, taking advantage of his techno-organic body by channeling both plasma and key energies through himself and back into their respective sources before being blasted into atoms.
Meanwhile, the other Maximals journeyed downwards once more, speaking to Optimus via the Oracle. Primal refused to lead the Maximals, asking only for their forgiveness, but they merely told him there was nothing to forgive—without his guidance, they'd never have made it this far. Preparing to become one with the Allspark, Optimus realized his mistake: his mission was not to create an organic Cybertron, but to restore the balance between the technological and the organic. As he chose life and was returned to the other Maximals, the Oracle congratulated him for passing his greatest test. A forest of technorganic trees sprang up in the chamber around the Maximals, as the Oracle vanished.
Believing their next task was to find the missing sparks, the Maximals headed for the Council Citadel, only for a giant head with the likeness of Megatron to move into view. When the giant head failed to do anything, Optimus attempted to contact Megatron's spark directly, but received only confused images which didn't even come from a sentient mind. Meanwhile, the other Maximals had discovered two more beings roaming the city—an intelligent and sensitive wolf named Noble and a bestial dragon dubbed Savage. With Primal's help, they trapped Savage, only to discover that Savage and Noble were one and the same—a Transformer with two beast modes. Optimus vowed to do all he could to help their new friend.
Optimus ordered Noble and Nightscream remain outside the Council Citadel while he and the others ventured inside to look for clues to the lost sparks. His orders were, of course, disregarded, and it soon transpired that Noble was actually Megatron, attempting to access his control harness. After using a spark extractor on himself, Megatron took control of giant floating head, reactivating the drone armies and forcing the Maximals underground. While rescuing Nightscream, who'd gone to try and find Noble, Optimus and Cheetor were pulled up to the floating head with a tractor beam. Megatron demanded information on the Oracle, attempting to take it from them by force, but they were rescued by Silverbolt, who has been reformatted from Jetstorm by Blackarachnia.
Though the Maximals were happy to have Silverbolt back, Optimus was reminded of the loss of Rhinox. Their introspection was interrupted by an attack—Megatron unleashed a variation of the Hate Plague on them, infecting all of the Maximals but Optimus, who was scooped up by the Megatron's floating head. Inside, Optimus and Megatron argued at length on the topic of free will versus the harmony of one mind. Seeing his Maximals furiously infighting, Optimus returned to them to try to quell their anger, only to be infected himself. Still, with his help, the Maximals were able to overcome the effects of the virus. Despite their success through teamwork, Primal believed that the virus had only magnified existing tensions in the group.
Down in the technorganic orchard, the plants were faring poorly and beginning to wither. Worried, Primal wondered if the orchard was to be in vain. When an extraterrestrial shuttle crashed into Cybertron, Optimus led the Maximals toward the site. Discovering organic matter inside, the team was attacked by a strange plant-creature which headed for the orchard. Following it there, Optimus reformatted the creature into a techno-organic plant. The plant introduced itself as Botanica, a fellow Maximal scientist, and revealed that the only problem the orchard had was incorrect lighting.
Optimus's depression about their inability to locate the missing sparks was interrupted by a vision, cluing him in to the fact that something was amiss. In fact, Megatron had taken two of the sparks and created two new Vehicon generals, Obsidian and Strika, who subsequently almost bested the Maximals in combat. The timely intervention of Botanica allowed the Maximals to escape, but Optimus vowed not to let Megatron violate any more sparks. Another vision lead Optimus to believe the sparks were being moved. He and Nightscream ventured deep underground to the lost great city of Iacon. There Optimus encountered a giant hologram of Optimus Prime, however it turned out to be a trick on the part of Megatron, who forcibly extracted the Oracle access codes from Primal. As Primal later revealed, he had allowed it to happen so that he could access Megatron's systems and find out the location of the missing sparks.
The Maximals infiltrated the Megatron's giant head, finally finding the lost sparks. They found themselves bound by metal tentacles as Megatron's spark began consuming their prize. Horrified, Optimus implored the sparks to resist, but to no avail. When Megatron killed Noble, Nightscream was moved to turn his sonic attack on Megatron, stopping their foe as he was on the verge of ripping the sparks from the Maximals' bodies. Megatron thus defeated, Rattrap managed to switch the plummeting Grand Mal to manual control, allowing Optimus to halt its descent. The Maximals later held a memorial for Noble and Primal gave a eulogy.
The Maximals celebrated Megatron's defeat, with Optimus assuring the others he could confirm Megatron was definitely dead through virtue of the link to the Oracle which the two shared. However Megatron was not dead, existing as a free-floating spark and though Primal initially welcomed Obsidian and Strika to the Maximal team, they abandoned the cause when Megatron turned up, trapped in a Diagnostic Drone thanks to Rattrap's handiwork.
In control of the Grand Mal and the sparks within, the Maximals failed to convince Optimus they should give the sparks new bodies. He was worried it would leave the spark vulnerable to recapture by Megatron, and they needed to reformat Cybertron first. With Megatron back in control of the drone armies, the Maximals soon found themselves under siege in the giant head anyway. Rattrap's gamble to save Botanica's life backfired, leaving them vulnerable to the drones, who managed to penetrate the head's shields. Despite the best efforts of the Maximals, the ship plunged to the ground. 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. Finally, Optimus was confronted by Megatron in a new form—a replica of Primal's own "Optimal Optimus" body—while the other Maximals had their sparks ripped from their bodies.
Enraged, Optimus struck out at Megatron, and their battle raged across the city. As the moved from location to location, Optimus found the bodies of his Maximal friends, and found the technorganic orchard ravaged. Returning above ground, Megatron unveiled a huge throne, drawing all of the sparks into himself, despite Primal's protests. Megatron began to reformat Cybertron's core using the Key to Vector Sigma, but Optimus managed to distract him long enough to throw him off balance. Together, the two enemies plunged into the heart of Cybertron and ushered in the reformatting that returned the deactivated population to life and gave birth to the new, technorganic Cybertron. As the surviving Maximals looked out over their new home, Primal and the Oracle spoke to Cheetor, and Primal departed with the words "Transform, and Transcend", as his Spark joined the Matrix.
