Cheetor

Beast Form: Cheetah

Cheetor also took on several missions, both with and without the permission of Optimus. One of them was planting a series of probes that would allow the Maximal's to destroy the Predacon base. While out setting the probes, one was struck by lightning as he set it and the extra power, mixed with the veins of Energon in the era, created a transporter between the communication stations of both bases. It was fortunate that this happened, since it allowed Cheetor to hack into the Predacon's Energon maps and find out that, because of a single Energon vein that ran under both bases, the destruction of one would lead to a similar fate of the other. Cheetor was able to get this information back to the Maximal base by way of the new transporter, but only just before they had sent a bomb to destroy the Predacon Base, and after being allowed disarming it by the Predacon's, Cheetor teleported himself back to the Maximal base, in the process destroying the probes so no Predacon's could follow.

Other missions included the recovery of the stasis pods that both Tigertron and Airazor arrived in. Though it was not much more then a foot race with the Predacon Fliers, Waspinator and Terrorsaur, for Tigertron's pod, Cheetor played a much larger part in helping Airazor. Not only did he stop both Waspinator and Blackarachnia from reaching the pod before he was defeated by Terrorsaur, but be also donated some parts to help Rhinox to fix the pods activation program.

When the Aliens known as the Vok deployed their orbiting super weapon, Cheetor was the first Maximal to volunteer to take Optimus Primal's place in the rigged stasis pod, and also was able to get a scanner signal through the shields in order to track the pod as it made its approach to the weapon. After it and Optimus was destroyed by the transwarp explosion, none of the Maximal's had any time to grieve as a quantum surge was on its way to both their and the Predacon base. When it hit it effected both Cheetor and Rattrap, changing them into a new type of transformer, the Transmetals. And though it took some time to get used to his new body, not to mention its ability to fly, Cheetor was able to master it in time for the battle that followed, where the new Fuzor transformers, Silverbolt and Quickstrike,  made their Beast Wars première as Predacon's. Fortunately, two good things happened at the end of the battle, Silverbolt decided to switch sides, and Optimus Primal returned from the grave to single handedly fight off all the Predacon's.

Since both Airazor and Tigertron had gone off to find out what the extent of the damage was to the rest of the planet as a result of the Alien weapon, it fell to Cheetor and his new flying ability to become the Maximal's new aerial scout, and in this new roll was the first one on the scene when Tigertron and Airazor were taken by the Vok, as well as the first to find the stasis pod that Rampage was in, and also the first to notice that Megatron was up to something just before Dinobot died. When Predacon Special agent, and former Decepticon, Ravage showed up to deal with Megatron, Cheetor participated in the battle to capture him, as well as going with Optimus Primal to recover one of his stashes of Energon to refuel Ravage's ship, which the later proved to be a trap, set by Megatron, and sprung by Inferno. After Ravage turned on them, the remaining Maximal's chased after Megatron, who was not headed back to the Predacon base, but to another location, which was revealed to be non other then the 4 Million year resting place of the Autobot's and Decepticon's, the Ark.

Though they were not in time to stop Megatron from entering the Ark and trying to rewrite history by destroying Optimus Prime. Fortunately the Maximal's had the assistance of Blackarachnia, who had all of the Ark's command codes, to help preserve Primes spark long enough to move it into Optimus Primal's body, and then begin the repair sequence. However during the repairs, the extra power of Optimus Prime's spark gave Optimus Primal a new body, which he put to good use in protecting the Ark from Megatron. After driving away the Predacon's though it became apparent that the Maximal base was unguarded, and thus Cheetor accompanied Primal back to their base, only to arrive too late to stop the Axalon from being pulled off the mountain face that it rested on, and into the river below, by Rampage and a number of Tarantulas's spider drones. And after returning Primes spark to his body, the Maximal's set up a new base in the volcano that the Ark was housed in.

A short time after that while on patrol Cheetor spotted a Star Hopper class Maximal ship crash into the water. Unfortunately he was blindsided by Rampage and fell into the water. He was later found by the Star Hoppers pilot, Depth Charge, who had tracked Rampage to Prehistoric Earth, and intended on destroying it. Optimus later told everyone that Depth Charge had been in charge of Security for Colony Omicron, where Rampage, then known as Protoform X, was created, and was the lone survivor when Rampage destroyed the colony. Unfortunate Depth Charge wanted nothing to do with Primal's group, since they had failed to properly dispose of Rampage, and flew off to hunt him down himself.

Over time Depth Charge does change his mind about joining the team, just in time to help Optimus and Cheetor try to stop Megatron from stealing a Protoform whose spark has already gone out. Unfortunately Optimus is damaged, leaving Cheetor and Depth Charge to find out what Megatron is up to. They soon find out that Megatron, who has been experimenting with Transmetal technology, is using an alien device to change the dormant Protoform into a new Dinobot. Megatron succeeds in his experiment, and in the battle that followed, Cheetor was caught in the energy beam that the device created, and subsequently, this beam transformed Cheetor into a Transmetal 2 creature, not to mention took the young Maximal into what Rattrap referred to as Cyber Puberty.

Unfortunately this new form didn't help Cheetor much when the Predacon's decided to kidnap a couple of Early Human children that he was teaching the basics to, or when they were able to gain control of Optimus Primal's body and use it to gain access to the Ark so that Megatron could steal the spark of his predecessor (the Original Megatron) in order to gain his new Dragon form.

When the Vok decided to send Tigerhawk to deal with the problems that Megatron was causing on Prehistoric Earth, Cheetor was the first on the scene, but was blindsided by Tarantulas before he was able to do anything. When he came too, the sparks of Tigertron and Airazor, who's bodies had been used to build Tigerhawk, led him to Tarantulas's lair, where he watched the Vok finish off the Predacon, before the lair blew up. Fortunately, Cheetor was able to escape, with Tigerhawk's body, and as he and Optimus Primal watched, Tigertron and Airazor's sparks united and took over the body of Tigerhawk.

Though at first he was part of the attack force for the last battle in the Beast Wars, Cheetor quickly took himself out of the fight when Silverbolt was badly damaged and needed to be returned to the base for repairs, which is where he was when Megatron, who now commanded the Decepticon Warship, The Nemesis, attacked the Ark, and afterwards was one of the survivors that left Prehistoric Earth behind them as they headed home to Cybertron, and the battles that waited there.

To be Continued in the Beast Machines Section!