Rattrap's History
Rattrap was a Maximal warrior under the command of Optimus Primal during the Beast Wars and was an original crew member of the Axalon.
After following the Predacons through a transwarp portal and appearing above a mysterious planet, both ships were damaged in the ensuing space battle, and before both ships crashed into the planet's surface below, the stasis pods carrying the rest of "Rattrap's" crew were ejected into orbit.
The planet was rich with energon—so much so that prolonged exposure would short out their bodies. The Maximals and Predacons were forced to take organic forms from the local creatures; Rattrap took the form of an oversized rat, and was dismayed to find that they were going to have to use the disguises to avoid the energon radiation. Forced into battle, he refused Optimus Primal's order to rescue Cheetor on the grounds he'd get shot up. When Optimus went to do the job himself, Rhinox had to hold up Rattrap to get the rat to provide covering fire. Afterwards, Rattrap was unrepentant, pointing out that they'd all come out of it alive.
On the way back to base, the Maximals ran into the Predacon Dinobot who challenged Primal to a fight over leadership. Rattrap objected to Primal's decision to subsequently let Dinobot join their group, accusing Dinobot of trying to kill Rhinox when the Predacon accidentally caused a rock fall. Primal had some harsh words with him. During a battle atop a mountain laced with energon, Rattrap found himself having a beast mode fight against Tarantulas.
After Cheetor got himself blasted by Scorponok and got Rhinox's new comlink trashed, Rattrap didn't hesitate to mock the cat for his mistakes. When Cheetor ran off to fix it, though, Rattrap found himself going after him to stop him from doing anything stupid - which failed miserably, as Cheetor was captured by Tarantulas long before Rattrap reached him. The rat and the spider engaged in a heated duel in Tarantulas' underground lair, with Rattrap gaining the upper hand by using a heat box to fool the spider's thermal scanner. After rescuing Cheetor, Rattrap gave an alibi to Optimus about their whereabouts, but then chewed out the cat for almost getting them both scrapped. He left to munch some garbage, but earned a new friend when Cheetor thanked him for saving his life.
During an energon storm, Rattrap tried fruitlessly to raise Optimus, only for their leader to arrive and scrub the mission Cheetor was due to go out on. At least this time it was Dinobot who goaded Cheetor into going out, but all of the Maximals were later thanking the cat for saving their lives later on. When Optimus went semi-missing in action, swallowed by a alien probe, Rattrap objected strenuously to Dinobot nominating himself as new leader. A vote was left stalemated until Optimus managed to get a signal to the base and named Rattrap group commander in his absence. After a moment of initial indecision, Rattrap commanded capably while Primal was missing (even earning Dinobot's grudging respect). When Primal returned, he offered his compliments as well. Rattrap's response dripped with sarcasm.
Over time, Rattrap grew to respect his commander grudgingly, with the earliest glimmers showing through when Primal and Rattrap infiltrated a flying mountain that was loaded with supercharged Energon. Primal bravely distracted a super-powered Terrorsaur while Rattrap planted explosives to destroy the mountain (and had a brief tussle with Tarantulas). Optimus then got them both off of the exploding mountain with a fearless beast mode leap off the edge, which ended with them dangling in the treetops far below. Rattrap commented that Primal did pretty good. Rattrap was a member of the party sent out to attempt to capture a stasis pod after Optimus Primal was taken out as soon as he left the base. The group was cut off from the pod when Waspinator and Terrorsaur took out a snow bridge, and Rattrap radioed base to break the bad news. Fortunately Dinobot and Primal were able to set up a transmitter, and by the time Rattrap and the others got to the pod, the protoform inside had already been reformatted into Tigatron, who was able to help them fight the Predacons off.
Suspicious of why the Predacons had managed to ambush three straight Maximal operations, Optimus sent Rattrap on an undercover mission into the Darksyde, under the guise of not trusting Rattrap and him defecting to the Predacons. Captured by Terrorsaur as part of the mission, Rattrap pleaded his loyalty to him and was taken to the base, where he knocked out Megatron with a transformation-disabling device, allowing Terrorsaur to seize power. After he was locked in the lower chambers and Megatron made his escape, Rattrap broke out and continued his mission, discovering that the Predacons had acquired a Maximal decoder chip which allowed them to hack the Maximals' communications. He was almost caught by Tarantulas but disabled him and signaled Optimus, who attacked the Predacon base with the other Maximals. In the firefight, Rattrap was forced to fire on Optimus, blasting him from the sky and seemingly confirming his traitorous ways. Dinobot almost destroyed him, but two timely breaks allowed Rattrap and the Maximals to escape. Back on the Axalon, Optimus congratulated Rattrap on a job well done, adding that he didn't need to make his "defection" that believable (as he rubbed where Rattrap had shot him).
Rattrap distrusted Dinobot and insulted him at every turn. Dinobot wantonly returned in kind, constantly bickering with the "vermin". Dinobot and Rattrap's arguments ranged from being a minor irritation at times to causing serious chaos in the Maximal ranks at others. Rattrap's taunts caused a berserk Dinobot to damage the control module of the newly activated Sentinel defense system, which promptly drove the Maximals out of their own base. Under the circumstances, Rattrap's rarely seen sense of nobility and fair play came to the fore; recognizing the predicament as his own fault, he immediately volunteered to stay inside the base and deactivate Sentinel. His considerable skills at infiltration and demolition allowed him to reach the central computer core and order Sentinel to stand down, though very nearly at the cost of his own life.
When Primal was hit by one of Scorponok's Cyberbees, injecting a virus and turning Primal into a berserker, Rattrap unexpectedly became the voice of reason, telling Cheetor and Dinobot to settle down. He objected to Dinobot's idea to set their enraged leader on the Predacons, but it became academic when Primal escaped and headed for the Darksyde anyway. Rattrap and the other Maximals provided cover fire for Cheetor, as the young Maximal mounted a rescue. During an attempt by the Maximals to build a communications tower to contact a temporal probe, which the Maximal High Council had sent to search for the Axalon, Rattrap managed to save Dinobot's life by blasting Blackarachnia over a cliff. Unfortunately he was promptly hit by the same Transformation Lock Lens which had disabled Dinobot's robot mode. Ultimately the tower was destroyed by Megatron.
Rattrap planted a spy cam in the Darksyde, and the Maximals were surprised to watch the Predacons apparently manage to blow themselves up. He proceeded to try to push as many of Dinobot's buttons as possible, but without getting a rise. The Maximals managed to salvage enough to get their own ship working. As Rattrap was telling Tigatron about a "sweet little hole-in-the-wall", it was revealed that the Predacons weren't slagged after all. Megatron managed to get on board and blasted everyone but Rattrap, attempting to crush the Maximal with his bare hands (or at least his beast mode jaws). Fortunately Rhinox came around in time to come to Rattrap's rescue, though the ship still crashed. Afterwards, Rattrap and Dinobot resumed their usual bickering.
After Rhinox was captured by the Predacons, Rattrap managed to tap into his friend's comlink, and the Maximals listened in horror as Rhinox was converted into a Predacon by Megatron's Transmuter. Though Rattrap was determined that they should go in there immediately, Primal held them back, allowing the evil-ized Rhinox to wreak havoc in the Predacon base. Dark Designs Tricked by a clone of Dinobot, Primal sent Rattrap with the clone to investigate a possible Predacon base. Instead, while Rattrap was crossing a log over a lava flow, the clone kicked the log out from under him. Rattrap survived, landing on a rock and using a grenade to get himself out of the chasm. He swiftly warned Primal and Cheetor, but by the time they reached base, Dinobot had already dealt with the clone.
Rattrap and the other Maximals later welcomed Airazor to the Beast Wars. During a contact with Tigatron, Rattrap was alarmed to hear his comrade was under Predacon attack. After news came in by Cyberbee that Tigatron had discovered an alien-built flying island, the Maximals were alarmed to hear that Blackarachnia and Scorponok were trying to take control of it. Rattrap and Primal headed for the island, tangling with Terrorsaur and Waspinator on the way, Rattrap commandeering Terrorsaur as his new ride. After they reached the island, Blackarachnia took control of it. Rattrap's leg became trapped, and he told Tigatron to go on, dealing with the problem himself by using the island's own defense system. This also provided a crucial distraction, allowing Tigatron to destroy the island's power source.
Megatron's next gambit involved the Predacons stealing the Axalon' rectifier coil, forcing the Maximals to remain in their beast modes at all time. The Maximals soon succumbed to their base animal insincts, wandering out into the jungle, but were aided by Tigatron, who helped them to delete the block between their instincts and Maximal programming. Rhinox and Rattrap improvised a ratball special during the ensuing battle.
Rattrap was part of the group of Maximals who were searching for energon when Scorponok triggered an explosion, blinding them all. Lead by Rhinox, they attempted to make their way back to the Axalon, but were attacked by a snake. Though Rattrap failed to rescue Cheetor, he did manage to save his companion in a way, by proving a more attractive meal. Luckily for him, Rhinox got rid of the snake. They continued on, managing to nearly reach the Maximal base when they came under attack by Terrorsaur and Waspinator. Rhinox was able to guide the other Maximals in fighting the Predacons off while blinded. After a violent storm damaged the Maximal base, making it vulnerable, the Predacons mounted an attack with the help of Starscream, who had possessed Waspinator's body. The Predacons triumphed, expelling the Maximals into the wilderness, however the Predacon occupation didn't last long, as internal conflict in their ranks allowed the Maximals to retake their base.
Another costly incident resulted when Rattrap and Dinobot were ordered to clear rampant wild bean vines growing outside the Maximal base. A prank by Rattrap quickly turned into a brawl between the two. Their struggle continued even when the Predacons launched a sneak attack, requiring Rhinox to exit the base to provide covering fire for them. Tarantulas used the distraction to inject Rhinox with an energon discharge virus, which eventually wore down his systems to the point of near-deactivation. Primal ordered Rattrap and Dinobot to find Tarantulas's lair and retrieve an antidote. Despite continuing their argument the whole time, Rattrap and Dinobot managed to find Tarantulas's lair, and retrieve the counter-virus.
After Megatron called for a truce, Rattrap was sent with Airazor to infiltrate the Darksyde to find out what was going on. They were immediately detected and asked to leave, but they'd provided the necessary distraction for Tigatron to get into the Predacon base. Rattrap later took part in a (non-violent) operation to aid Tigatron's escape, and Tigatron reported that Megatron had discovered that the aliens were coming. Rattrap and Airazor were first to reach the alien landing site, but Rattrap was blasted, while Airazor became trapped in the alien structure which sprouted up. After dealing with Waspinator in a not at all non-violent manner, Rattrap attempted to cut into the structure using a laser, but was unsuccessful. fortunately Scorponok's sting allowed him to enter the construct with Optimus, and he was able to pull Airazor out, only to find the truce was over and he was at Predacon gunpoint.
Rattrap and Airazor were subsequently able to overpower the Predacons and make a retreat when Optimus's escape from the bungalow provided a distraction. High above, one of the moons opened up, revealing what Rattrap would later dub the "Planet Buster". Returning to base, the Maximals discovered it had been compromised, and Rattrap and Airazor found Blackarachnia in the hold with a spacecraft Tarantulas had constructed from a stasis pod. Optimus would later pilot the stasis pod, using it to destroy the Planet Buster and save the Maximals, though at the cost of his own life.
The destruction of the Planet Buster caused a quantum surge, mutating Cheetor and Rattrap into new Transmetal forms.
