Thunderwing's History
In a better world, Thunderwing would be the ideal Decepticon leader. He's fearless, ruthless, and immensely powerful, while uncommonly concerned about the welfare of his fellow Decepticons. For this mindset, Thunderwing gets a high approval rating from his peers, but, sadly, this is not the whole story.
Thunderwing's vice is, simply, obsession. When his mind sets its sights on a who or what that furthers his goals, he will stop at nothing to achieve victory. Slowly but surely, his esteem for his colleagues is replaced by single-mindedness, until finally Thunderwing awakens from his haze, potentially victorious, but either abandoned or surrounded by the bodies of the few friends who tried valiantly to snap him out of it. In these dark moments, the usually noble Thunderwing is as deceitful and two-faced as any halfwit Decepticon.
But what truly separates Thunderwing from the rest is his sheer power. His Pretender shell is likely the most powerful ever built, and it forms impenetrable armor around his robot body. Every inch is covered in weaponry, from the electrostatic guns in his shoulders, to the hoses in his chest that emit dangerous gases, to even the rarely-used metal-eating laser beam that fires out of his forehead. In addition to this built-in arsenal, he carries around his signature cyclone cannon, the power of which is increased 50% by the powerpack his shell houses on its back. In jet mode, Thunderwing can unleash a never-ending torrent of plasma charges.
Because of all this, Thunderwing is almost always successful in hunting down his obsessions, though at regrettable costs.
handful of Transformers are born with a natural affinity to the Creation Matrix. Though these special few are usually Autobots, Thunderwing was an exception. Thunderwing felt that the Matrix called to him, and believed that he would become the first Decepticon to possess it. Deadly Obsession
Early on in the war, he served at Fort Scyk. He became a protege of Fort commander Megadeath, who saw and encouraged the burning ambition within the lad, grooming Thunderwing as an asset and potential general for when he'd make a bid for leadership. For his part, Thunderwing thought Megadeath was utterly mental but also that he'd be his ticket to the top. When the Magnificent Six were holed up in the neutral town of Yuss, it was Thunderwing who broke the siege by destroying the town's Ampodrome with a thermo-charge, which was instrumental in turning the neutralists against their would-be saviours. He later soured on Megadeath when he viciously tortured the Magnificent Six, which Thunderwing felt was ill-fitting for such valiant enemies, and then Megadeath let himself and the whole of Stanix get nuked to slag anyway. The Magnificent Six!
Four million years later, a vacuum in Decepticon High Command allowed a driven Thunderwing to rise quickly from relative obscurity to a command position in the ranks. Thunderwing oversaw an operation that lured the Battle Patrol into a Decepticon facility in order to capture them and steal Micromaster technology from the Autobots. The Race Car and Off Road Patrols staged a successful rescue operation but failed to stop the Decepticons from making their own Micromasters. A Small War!
Fourteen months later, to test of his readiness to takeover leadership of the Decepticons, Thunderwing was given a hunting mission: Three Autobot prisoners were released on Earth, and Thunderwing was charged with chasing down and executing them on his own. While Playback and Horsepower did fall before his cyclone cannon, the last runner, Hosehead, was saved by his fellow Autobots Nightbeat and Siren. The Headmasters exploded the fuel core in Playback's corpse at close range to Thunderwing, nearly cooking him alive inside his own impenetrable Pretender shell. Shrieking in agony, Thunderwing plunged into the nearby surf. The Big Shutdown!
Thunderwing eventually rose from the waters, his still-cooling shell juxtaposed with the growing intensity of his rage at being beaten. Thunderwing lashed out at everything around him and very nearly destroyed a ship of his fellow Decepticons who had been sent to find him. As a duly appointed officer of the Decepticon High Council, Ruckus was sent to inform Thunderwing that his bid for leadership was not being rejected outright, but was still under review, and the Councilors had asked that he return to Cybertron. Instead, Thunderwing violently conscripted Ruckus and his team into joining him for an assault on the Ark in order to get revenge on Hosehead and his ilk. Rage! Thunderwing single-handedly blasted his way into the Ark and confronted Optimus Prime directly before Ruckus convinced him to save the fight for another day. Returning to Cybertron, Thunderwing was surprised to learn that the Decepticon High Council was impressed by his initiative and the strength of his vendetta, and so granted him full leadership of the Decepticons of Cybertron. Assault on the Ark!
One of Thunderwing's first actions on taking over Decepticon leadership was to abolish neutral territories, making places such as Maccadam's Old Oil House Decepticon-only establishments. Out to Lunch! Despite these movements, Lord Thunderwing became displeased with the growing success of the newly rebuilt Jazz, Grimlock, and Bumblebee and their raiding of Decepticon fuel and ammunition depositories. Fearing the Autobot resistance movement was gaining momentum, he ordered Bludgeon, Octopunch, and Stranglehold, the Mayhem Attack Squad, to find and kill the Autobot Pretenders. Yesterday's Heroes!
When the Mayhem Attack Squad failed, Thunderwing became curious when teams of Autobots were subsequently ordered to search an area of space. Trailing a team on Pz-Zazz which included (again) Nightbeat, Hosehead, and Siren, he waited until the right moment to blast and capture them. Bird of Prey! As Thunderwing's Decepticons began trailing another team of Autobots on Cheyne (Backstreet, Dogfight, and Override), he subjected the captured first group to his Mind Leech machine. He learned from these torture sessions that the Autobots were scouring the universe for the lost Creation Matrix. Unfortunately, the second group was no closer to finding the Matrix either, and he left them to their own devices. Kings of the Wild Frontier. His obsession with finding the Creation Matrix caused some concerns for the Decepticons under his command, and he even began attacking his own troops when accused of taking his personal quest too far. These outbursts began coming to a head when he found traces of Matrix energy in a sea monster on Pequod. Ruckus made the mistake of questioning his leader's growing obsession, and Thunderwing backhanded him into some equipment (unknowingly shorting out the Mind Leech which held their captive Autobots immobile). While his troops battled the Autobots searching there, he used his affinity for the Matrix to mind-link with the sea monster. Discovering that the Matrix was on Cameron's third moon, VsQs, he abandoned the battle, much to the growing frustration of his troops. Deadly Obsession
As it happened, between the revival of the Klud and the arrival of Thunderwing, the Creation Matrix had become warped. Thunderwing fought intensely with Bumblebee, Jazz, and Grimlock on VsQs, and they were overwhelmed not only by his vastly superior might, but by the strength of his desire to possess the Matrix. However, he and his troops were subdued by a Matrixspawn, a darkly-evolved creature contaminated by the Matrix, allowing Bumblebee and the other Autobots to grab the Matrix and head for their ship. Dark Creation The Autobots were low on fuel however, and struggling against the moon's high gravity. Thunderwing overtook them with ease, snatched away the Matrix, and stole their shuttle. All Fall Down Thus, when the Autobots allowed their shuttlecraft to board the Ark, it was Thunderwing who emerged, in full possession of the Creation Matrix, enshrouded in its energies. Dark Creation
On board the Ark, Thunderwing savagely beat Optimus Prime, the latter of whom was afraid to return the violence in kind, in fear that the Matrix would be destroyed and their race would be doomed against Unicron. Waves of Autobots stormed against Thunderwing, ending in Landmine and others being killed or critically wounded. Quickly, the increasingly-evil Matrix took over Thunderwing, overpowering his thoughts and controlling his actions. After turning his power on his own troops, he had one final moment of clarity at what he had become, but it was too late. He was consumed. Nightbeat, Siren, and Hosehead, who Thunderwing had captured earlier, had escaped their constraints, and after releasing the bay doors, harpooned Thunderwing to the shuttlecraft. The shuttle self-destructed and Thunderwing and the Creation Matrix were seemingly lost, out in the void of space. All Fall Down
Optimus Prime would later refer to Thunderwing (and the lost Matrix) in his pitch to Scorponok for an alliance against Unicron. Surrender!
The Matrix, however, was made of sterner stuff, and after some time reactivated alongside Thunderwing's body and the Autobot shuttlecraft on the surface of a planet. Out of Time! As time passed, and though only the "barest spark of life remained", it healed Thunderwing's body, eventually allowing it to transform and escape. It (they) now hungered for revenge! The Void!
Thunderwing, completely controlled by the Creation Matrix, arrived on Cybertron just as Unicron had attacked. Through Thunderwing, the Matrix continued to manifest as a frightening demon, which blasted Unicron and buried its tendrils within him. Though Unicron was momentarily stunned, once the Matrix revealed that it was now attempting to be a force of Evil, Unicron ripped the manifestation apart. Unicron has no equal in the arena of evil. Thunderwing's body fell in tatters, and the Matrix casing dropped to the planet below. On the Edge of Extinction!
