Cheetor's History
Cheetor was a Maximal warrior under the command of Optimus Primal during the Beast Wars and was an original crew member of the Axalon.
After the Axalon crash-landed on a mysterious planet, the most youthful crew member of the disabled ship chose a cheetah as his new beast form. After admiring his new appearance, he renamed himself Cheetor. While the other Maximals were unpacking, Cheetor decided to show off, racing after some cheetahs. He soon encountered Waspinator, and opened fire, but found himself outmatched. The rest of the Maximals and Predacons turned up, and Cheetor cut off Megatron's speech with a sneak attack. A full battle ensued, during which Cheetor's foot became caught in some rocks, and he had to be rescued by Optimus.
When Dinobot challenged Optimus to a duel, Cheetor was keen to take out the Predacon himself, and had to be restrained from joining the fight. After the battle was interrupted by the other Predacons, a huge energon crystal was revealed in a nearby mountain, and the Maximals rushed there to try to prevent the Predacons claiming it for themselves. With the massive amount of energy there, they were forced to fight in their beast modes, though it did give Cheetor the opportunity to try to settle the score with Waspinator. Ultimately, the energon was all destroyed.
Cheetor enthusiastically volunteered to check out a new experimental comlink. Despite being under orders not to get into any combat situations, he unsuccessfully attempted to attack Scorponok and was left heavily damaged. After a strange precognitive dream, he awoke back on the Axalon, where the other Maximals expressed their disappointment in his actions. Given a hard time by Rattrap, Cheetor rushed out to make another attempt to capture the cannon that Scorponok was recovering, and was captured by Tarantulas. Luckily for him, he was soon rescued by Rattrap, who also lied to Optimus to cover the young bot's hide.
Though Cheetor was looking forward to another mission to install energon monitoring devices, Optimus delayed the mission due to the heavy storm raging. Dinobot managed to goad Cheetor into going out anyway, and, while placing one of the devices, a lightning bolt hit it, resulting in a bizarre two-way teleportation effect between the Maximal and Predacon bases. Cheetor himself found himself in the Darksyde, where he was able to hack the Predacon data files and discover that the two crashed ships lay on a common energon vein, meaning that an explosion at one base would destroy both. He managed to get the information back to Optimus, but Dinobot had already sent through a bomb — Cheetor was able to detach it from the console it was fixed to in time. He returned to the Axalon, where he promised Optimus that he would pay more attention to orders.
After a decisive Maximal victory at the Standing Stones, an alien probe swallowed Optimus Primal. The argument over who would lead turned into a secret ballot, during which, from Rhinox's reaction, Cheetor voted for Dinobot, suggesting he trusted the Predacon's leadership skills over those of Rattrap. As it turned out, the exercise was rendered pointless by the revelation that Optimus wasn't dead after all.
Terrorsaur discovered a flying mountain with a cache of super-powerful energon at the top, but he was spotted by Cheetor, who immediately dashed back to the Axalon to inform the other Maximals. When one of the stasis pods crashed to the ground and Optimus was damaged by a Predacon sneak attack, Cheetor, Rhinox and Rattrap set out to try to get to the pod, but were delayed by Waspinator and Terrorsaur. They were beaten to the pod by the Predacons, but a last-minute gambit by Dinobot and Optimus meant that the protoform inside had already been reformatted into Tigatron. Like the other Maximals, Cheetor couldn't believe that Rattrap had defected to the Predacons. Of course, it turned out to be simply a ploy to determine how the Predacons had been spying on the Maximals.
Cheetor, Rattrap, Dinobot and Rhinox were forced to evacuate the Axalon when a fight caused Rhinox's new defense system to go out of control. Infected by a Predacon virus which caused uncontrollable rage, Optimus managed to persuade Cheetor to release him from his confinement, only for the Maximal leader to head off on a one-bot mission against the Predacons. After Primal had slagged most of the Predacons, Cheetor managed to get hold of the antivirus and administer it to Optimus.
When a temporal probe sent from Cybertron came into range of the planet, the Maximals tried to set up a signal array to contact it. The Predacons had other idea though, and Tarantulas's transformation lock lens locked both Cheetor and Tigatron in their beast modes. The pair were captured and put in cages in the Darksyde, but soon escaped and used the Predacon repair pools to fix themselves. They rejoined the fight in time to save Optimus and Rhinox from Megatron, but the Predacons had prevented the signal from being sent.
After the apparent destruction of the Predacons, Cheetor and Rattrap mocked Dinobot's sorrow at the passing of his ex-comrades. It was, of course, a ruse, and the Predacons revealed themselves once the Maximals had repaired their ship. Cheetor accompanied Optimus into battle to retrieve the injured Dinobot, providing cover fire for his leader. When Terrorsaur hit a retreating Optimus from behind, Cheetor flew into a rage, firing wildly (downing the flier) before getting shot by Megatron. He managed to drag himself to the Axalon as it took off, and would've pulled Optimus onboard if not for Scorponok's parting shot. As he broke the sad news to his allies, he was ambushed by their stowaway—Megatron himself—and awoke to find the Axalon grounded permanently.
When Rhinox was twisted into a Predacon by Megatron's Transmuter, Cheetor was keen to rescue their friend, Optimus ordered everyone to hold back, while the evil Rhinox wreaked havoc in the Predacon base. On another occasion when Rattrap went missing, Cheetor and Optimus looked for the ratbot, only to discover that the Dinobot who had sent them on the hunt was a clone controlled by Megatron. By the time they got back to base, the clone had already been defeated—and devoured—by the real Dinobot.
Rhinox and Cheetor got to another crashed stasis pod before anyone else, however the ambient energon was endangering the protoform inside. Cheetor shut himself down to allow Rhinox to extract his locking chip to use in place of the damaged pod's one, and dreamed that Rhinox was telling him about sparks. After reawakening, Cheetor was forced to try to defend the pod against Blackarachnia, Waspinator and Terrorsaur, while only having limited use of his robot mode. Though he managed to defeat the first two, Terrorsaur prevailed only to be defeated by the newly activated Airazor.
During Tigatron's disappearance, Cheetor spotted Blackarachnia and Scorponok leaving the Predacon base on a mission. As it turned out, they were heading towards a flying island which Tigatron had crashed on. Tigatron sent a Cyberbee containing footage of the island, which the Maximals were able to recover, despite Cheetor firing on it. Cheetor and Rhinox were forced to evacuate the Axalon after Blackarachnia took control of the island, intending to destroy the Maximal base with it. The spider's scheme was thwarted, but Cheetor bore witness to the island's final action: a beacon sent to its creators, who would most likely be very displeased with the island's demise.
Another Predacon gambit saw them stealing the rectifier coil from the Maximal base, effectively trapping the Maximals in their beast modes. Overcome by bestial instincts, the Maximals wandered off into the jungle, and it was only through Tigatron's intervention that they were able to delete the blocks separating their robot and beast psyches. During a routine energy-harvesting run, an energon explosion caused a group of Maximals, of which Cheetor was a part, to be blinded far from base. As they attempted to journey home, Cheetor was attacked and severely damaged by a huge snake. He spent most of the rest of the journey on Rhinox's back, until they came under attack by Terrorsaur and Waspinator. Rhinox was able to guide everyone in fending off the attack without the use of their sight, and they were soon found by Optimus.
After a violent storm damaged the Maximal base, making it vulnerable, Cheetor shot down a cyberbee which was spying on them. Unfortunately the Predacons had gained enough information and the help of Starscream, who had possessed Waspinator's body, enabling them to easily take over the Axalon. The Predacon occupation didn't last long, as internal conflict in their ranks allowed the Maximals to retake their base. After Rattrap and Dinobot's bickering caused Rhinox to beome infected by a Predacon energon discharge virus, Optimus insisted the pair go out alone to find the cure. Cheetor was part of the party which went to back them up when they located Tarantulas's lair.
After Snowstalker the tiger was killed by incidental fire during a battle, Cheetor tried unsuccessfully to comfort Tigatron, but the other Maximal announced he would no longer be a part of the Beast Wars. This was short-lived, as Inferno proved to the embittered Maximal that there was no hiding from the war during an attack.
After Megatron called a truce and the Maximals needed to find out what he was up to, Cheetor suggested that Rattrap infiltrate the Predacon base unarmed, so as to not violate the truce. Rattrap was less than impressed with the suggestion. In the end, Tigatron did the infiltrating, and the other Maximals covered his escape. Rhinox and Cheetor "intercepted" Terrorsaur with a sheet of metal.
Tigatron and Cheetor observed the moon splitting open, but were called back to base by Optimus. They got back as the alien weapon began super-heating the planet's surface, and helped the damaged Dinobot and Rhinox into CR chambers. Optimus intended to use a stasis pod Tarantulas had been working on to attack the Planet Buster, despite Cheetor, Tigatron and Airazor all volunteering to go in his stead. As the pod lifted off, Cheetor managed to tune the sensors in to follow its path until it destroyed the Planet Buster—and thanks to Megatron's meddling, Optimus Primal as well. The resulting transwarp shockwave would mutate Cheetor into a new transmetal body.
