The audience was stunned at the events, yet Grimlock, Dreadwing and Predaking looked much pissed than they usually should, at what they believed was a resurrection of Dinobot, yet they were assured that the Dinobot they saw was a clone, not a resurrection.

"Does anyone want to wish to find out what happened to Cheetor?" Omega Scion asked. The silence is his answer.

So he counted down to three to prepare for the next viewing.

Cheetor lied still in his chambers, resting rather roughly considering that he seemed to have nightmares. Primal checked on him, then returned to the command center.

Jazz scowled seeing that Cheetor had a picture of Blackarachnia in his quarters.

"Hey, Optimus, how's our boy?" Rattrap asked.

"Finally asleep, despite the damage. I don't understand why he won't use the CR-Chamber." Primal replied.

"Well, maybe he's tryin' to prove something?" Rattrap suggested.

"I think it goes deeper than that... Scan report?" Primal requested.

"All grids quiet."

"Let's hope it stays that way. See you in the morning." Primal retired to his quarters, leaving Rattrap alone.

"Quiet enough for a little rat-nap." Rattrap then began to relax.

"Somehow, I don't think that is. Especially when there's that cheetah that hunted the Predacons down." Arcee stated.

"It must have been a result of that transmetal driver incident. I am sure." Ratchet stated.

Elsewhere, Cheetor started having a nightmare. Imagining himself locked in an R-Chamber, ready to be experimented by his comrades.

"This won't hurt a bit...Just gonna see what makes you tick..."

"No, please! Let me out!"

"I think he's afraid."

"NO! I JUST DON'T WANT TO! Optimus! Where's Optimus?"

"Zap him!"

"Yuhh... Look at that!"

"It's hideous!"

"I'll protect you from that...ugly creature!"

"I'm never recharging easy because of that." Wheeljack stressed out.

"Same here." Brawl stated.

"And me." Swindle added.

Most of the audience had agreed, that sequence was rather terrifiying even by their standards.

Cheetor screamed upon waking up gasping "Just a dream... not real...", but he would soon feel the transmetal transformation taking him, overwriting his physical body so much that he inadvertently unleashed a scream that woke Rattrap.

"Oh, what the cold boot is that?" Rattrap went to investigate the source of the sound: in Cheetor's quarters until it bursted out lumps and then barged open, prompting a creature that knocked the rat Maximal off him and then skittered away

"Holy slag!" Rattrap squeaked.

"Rattrap! What happened?!" Primal asked arriving.

"Some kinda cyber-mutant nearly dismantled my butt, that's what happened! Optimus, it was big, it was ugly!"

Upon inspecting Cheetor's ravaged quarters "It got Cheetor..." Rattrap stated.

"That incident had likely altered Cheetor into that monster, from what I can tell. But the downside is that he's reverted to a primal state when he's mutated, nearly depraved of his consciousness." Ratchet theorized.

"Which means that Cheetor will be a threat to both Maximal and Predacon alike if he cannot regain his senses." Prime stated.

Bumblebee was terrified.

In the Darksyde, Megatron and the Predacons heard the roars of the creature that attacked him and his minions.

"That sound...I've heard it before."

When the ship's sensors picked up the sighting of said creature, Quickstrike pointed out. "Well, someone's out for a little moon-light stroll. At Mach 2."

"And that someone... is familiar." Megatron brought up the scratch scars on his body. "Zoom in and magnify."

When it complies, it analyzes the creature.

"A Transmetal II!  As I suspected." Megatron realized "That meddling feline destroyed my system AND improved himself in a process!"

"Improved?"

"That creature is mine...Bring him in!" Megatron commanded.

"For experimentation, it seems." Knockout stated.

The Dinobots scowled.

Elsewhere, the mutated Cheetor wandered about in a remote cave, where he began to collect his thoughts... "I... I must..." and reverted back to his Transmetal I self. He woke up the next morning.

"What? How did I get here? Repaired?" He even checked that he was also completely repaired as well. He also began to remember his nightmare...

".. ugly creature!"

"No! It didn't happen!" Cheetor gasped, frightened. "Couldn't have! What am I?"

"So it seems the mutation he goes through also clears away any of the damages inflicted upon him from that incident. Fascinating." Perceptor stated.

"What's happening to me?" Cheetor asked himself, terrified of what he'll become.

"You're changing, Cheetor. Into something you have no control of." Prime stated.

After Silverbolt returned to Maximal Base empty-handed, Blackarachnia asked "Any sign of our Tabby?"

"No. Not so much as a whisker. Your... concern... does you credit." Silverbolt replied.

"I'm full of surprises." she replied off-handedly.

"Great. Neither of those junxies found Cheetor in their turf." stated Smokescreen.

When they returned, Rhinox asked "You found nothing?"

They both shook their heads. Cheetor was nowhere to be found in their sectors.

"I was up close an' personal with that freak-bot, and I am tellin' ya: Spots is spare parts!" Rattrap stated.

"DON'T YOU DARE SAY THAT! HE'S STILL ALIVE! WE KNOW HE IS!" Bumblebee angrily shouted.

"Don't give up so easily, Rattrap." Primal objected. "So far we've found nothing. What that means, is open to interpretation."

"Well, if you got a theory, I'm sure we'd all like to hear it." Blackarachnia suggested.

"No, not till I'm certain. Now get some rest, all of you, We'll resume the search in two cycles."

The Maximals dispersed to their quarters, leaving Primal alone.

"Replay security hologram, section 0058 to 0063."

The security hologram relayed the incident that nearly got Rattrap killed. "Freeze hologram..." once it stopped, it revealed the mutated Cheetor attempting to run out.

"That's definitely Cheetor alright. Those spots don't indicate anything else."

Shockwave scratched his chin in wonder, for his "Transmetal II Project" was now in thought.

Depth Charge arrived, likely under suspicion by Primal. "You wanted to see me?"

"What happened to Cheetor on that mountain top?" Primal interrogated. "And I mean, what REALLY happened?!"

"You hauled me in to ask THAT? Ask the cat."

"I'm asking you!" Primal accused.

"Then you're wasting your time!" Depth Charge tried to walk away yet Primal pushed him roughly to a wall of crates and throttled him.

"You listen, hardhead, Cheetor is gone, and I think you know something, so you will talk, or I will rip out your core processor and extract the information personally!" Primal threatened.

"Oooh, a threat! Our Optimus never did such a thing when he interrogated me." Vortex cackled.

The Combaticons remembered having to rescue Vortex from Autobot interrogation because of his knowledge of the underground supply line Megatron used to effectively support his troops.

Prime stayed quiet; he never threatened anyone, even in interrogations: that was Ironhide's thing.

"Well, since you asked so nicely." Depth Charge then replied "Your little kitty-cat ripped some kind of alien gizmo off of Megatron's organic transmetal unit."

"Did he succeed?"

"Yeah, but the unit was already activated. He was caught in the overload. I already destroyed the gizmo. I'm sorry. I didn't know that was what he'd become."

"Not true. Blackarachnia has the Transmetal driver." Knockout pointed out.

"The question is, what is she planning to do with such a device?" Starscream questioned.

"Likely to get an upgrade that she never had when that quantum surge struck the Earth." Onslaught added.

Elsewhere, Dinobot and Waspinator were tasked by Megatron to find the mutated Cheetor in the remote cave that they tracked.

"Wapinator detects stink of unnatural transmetal." when they stopped. When Dinobot roared, the wasp Predacon replied "Waspinator exclude present company." out of regret.

"Hehehehe, poor wasp-boy can't even stand being with Dinobot there." laughed out Barricade.

Dreadwing stayed quiet.

"I will subdue and retrieve the target." Dinobot suggested going in the cave, yet Waspinator stopped him midway.

"Wait! Need plan! Waspinator in charge!"

"I am the plan!" then Dinobot raised both his claws to slice Waspinator to thin ribbons.

The Renegatrons had a good round of laughter, yet Skyquake, Onslaught and Dreadwing kept their traps shut.

When Dinobot arrived in the cave, he attempted to scan yet the mutated Cheetor is not present. "Target has fled... for now."

"Rotten luck on Dino-boy's part, I say." Breakdown stated. "Kitty's already left the litter."

Two cycles later, Primal reinstated the search for Cheetor.

"Rattrap, you and Silverbolt will take grid Alpha-two!" Primal ordered.

"Havin' a picnic without me?" Cheetor replied, out of nowhere.

Which surprised the Maximals.

"He-hey! Spots! Eh, you're lookin' good,heh. You know... for a dead-bot." Rattrap praised then complimented."

"Cheetor, where've you been?" Primal asked.

"Sorry, Big-Bot. I was uh...taking care of that monster that tried to recycle me." Cheetor lied.

Prime frowned. It reminded him of the time Hot Rod lied that his position was alright, when it clearly wasn't when he arrived. His teammates were wounded, nearly out of ammunition, they were nearly overrun and Hot Rod arrived at the fortunate minute he arrived to relieve them.

All because Hot Rod wanted to prove himself worthy in front of Prime, to perform the temerity of disobedience and nearly destroying himself in the process.

"Really?"

"Oh, y-y-yeah, yeah! It won't be bothering us again. You can count on that!"

But Primal was suspicious... "Hmmm... Well, since that's taken care of, no point in keeping you two, Cheetor and I will be in after I've examined the cyber creature's...remains."

"He'll find out soon enough that the monster is Cheetor himself." stated Swindle.

Upon arriving to the jungles where the creature was last seen, Primal began their search.

"I don't see why we have to do this. Don't you trust me?" Cheetor questioned, worringly.

"Normally? Yes." Primal replied; incredulous how Cheetor managed to survive such an incident that was guaranteed to take his Spark to the Matrix. "But at the moment I think you're hiding something."

"I'm not hiding ANYTHING!" Cheetor denied. Then he struggled against the transmetal transformation threatening to overwrite him. "Why is everyone giving me such a hard time?"

"They do care, they just want to know what happened to you that turned you into a monster." Prime sternly replied.

"Because we care and because I think I know the truth. I just want you to trust me enough to tell me-" Primal replied out of concern for Cheetor.

"All right, all right!" Cheetor gave in and tried to confess "It's like this..."

But as he heard something from the trees, Primal yelled "Cheetor, look out!" and shoved him out of the way just to take the laser shot in the chest.

"AMBUSH!" Warpath yelled.

Bumblebee was incensed. The times Prime, his father-figure, had risked his life for him more often than not was not something he'd like to remember. Some of which had nearly destroyed him.

"BigBot! NO!" Cheetor dashed to the damaged Primal "No! Optimus!" but he soon felt the mutation energy overwriting him.

"Oh, Lizard-bot stand aside now. Waspinator will take kitty-bot to Megatron!" as he dashed to grab Cheetor.

But as the transformation had already taken him, Primal gasped "Cheetor... watch out for the other bot!"

"Which bot?" Cheetor replied; his tone matured. "Oh, you mean this bug right here?" and fired his newly refurbished gun at Waspinator without even looking at him, eliminating the wasp Predacon easily.

"Hehehe, just like Bumblebee when he upgraded." Bulkhead stated.

Blast Off was not pleased. Bumblebee did a similar phrase when he tried to attack him.

"So now it seems that while Cheetor is in conscious control of his new Transmetal II form, he still hasn't attained control of his Beast Mode yet. This may prove to be a danger to the Maximals." Ratchet stated.

"Like I did, I hope my descendant can help Cheetor in this." Prime assured.

"That, or join the real Dinobot in the All-Spark." Ultra Magnus pointed out.

Which earned him the ire of Grimlock who throttled him by the throat "Don't say that! Don't you ever say that!"

He was held back by his colleagues who understand Grimlock's plight.

"You hurt my friend, freak-bot!" Cheetor glared daggers at Dinobot, who replied "Yes, and now I shall neutralize you!" and fired his laser, but Cheetor dodged it by sidestepping a foot beside the laser's trajectory.

"I don't think so." Cheetor taunted upon wiping dust off his chest. When Dinobot transformed, Cheetor quipped "In fact, I think it is time to shred some Pred, and transformed as well."

But not before Dinobot blasted a laser at Optimus again, angering Cheetor.

Bumblebee was reminded of the same thing when Prime was wounded while they were behind enemy lines. A pile of Vehicons and Prime survived it all because of his son figure. He was never any prouder than that when they infilitrated Kaon.

When they began to leap at each other, they tear their claws at each other's underbellies, though Cheetor's was more direct than Dinobot's, then he leaped safely and prepared his rocket booster to then spear Dinobot to the ground.

While damaged, Primal hailed "This is Optimus, we need back-up! I think-" as Cheetor clawed and tore into Dinobot ferociously, not even stopping for one second even as Dinobot tried to roll around for room. Eventually, Dinobot kicked Cheetor off and looked as Maximal reinforcements arrived. He said "This is not over..." and fled.

Grimlock pinched the bridge between his optics "Normally, the actual Dino-boy would rather stand and fight until he's gone, this clone just did the opposite when he saw enemy back-up coming his way. This clone's giving us Dinobots a bad name." 

His comrades nodded in agreement.

As did Predaking and Dreadwing.

"He's also giving honor a bad name as well..." Dreadwing muttered.

Silverbolt and Rattrap aimed weapons at Cheetor, not recognizing their upgraded comrade.

"Silverbolt, no!" Primal stopped them before they could fire. "That's Cheetor!"

"Cheetor?" Silverbolt replied in confusion.

"Yeah.... Pussy-cat used up his first life, now he's on his second." Rattrap replied.

"That's putting it mildly, grandnephew. He's upgraded." Arcee pointed out.

"The transition's been rough. His beast-mode is still feral." Primal approached, surrounding the feral Cheetor.

"Looks like he can't get out of it." Rattrap stated upon backing off slightly from Cheetor's roar.

"He'll learn. He just needs a little guidance at the moment." Primal then attempted to reach out to Cheetor, who resisted by clawing and biting at Primal.

"Sparks in, sparks out, what else can be done about it?" Cliffjumper replied jokingly, yet he got hit by a pile of used confectionary cases by most of the audience.

Ratchet chuckled. "That was good, believe me."

"What did you teach Cliffjumper, Ratch?" Bulkhead asked.

"...my sense of humor." he admitted.

"Well, your sense of humor smells worse than Rattrap, grandpa!" Warpath stated.

"I thought he called me that." Ironhide groused, embarassing Warpath.

"If I could just reach his spark-" Cheetor clawed away his hand.

"Easier said than done." Silverbolt sarcastically pointed out.

"Leave the terrible sarcasm to Rattrap, grandson." Silverbolt groused.

"Easy... Easy Cheetor. Use your spark. Get control." Primal tried to mediate the feral Cheetor.

"Yeah. Nobody's gonna hurt you-" yet Cheetor clawed off Rattrap. "Us. I'm not so sure about-"

"We're here, Cheetor, all of us, your friends! We know you can do it!" Primal mediated again as his energies tried to connect with Cheetor's. "Do it, Cheetor, MAXIMIZE!"

"MAXIMIZE!" Cheetor broke out of his feral state and transformed.

"YES!" Bumblebee praised. "CHEETOR'S BACK!!!"

"Yes! You did it!" Primal picked up the matured Cheetor, like an action figure.

"Optimus! Back off, okay? Yer embarrassing me!" Cheetor groused, sounding humiliated. "You lookin' at somethin'?" when he snapped at Rattrap and Silverbolt upon being dropped by his leader.

Bumblebee scratched his head, Prime did something quite similar to what their descendants went through.

Yet Prime was never going to live it down.

"Oh joy! Cyber-puberty!" Rattrap complimented.

Back in Maximal Base, Cheetor went to look at his new upgrades.

"Just like us when we've got new chassis." Knockout stated.

"So, this is the new improved Cheetor." Blackarachnia arrived, apparently impressed with his new form.

"Yeah, this is it." Cheetor replied "Teach me to pull the plug on Megs' machinery, huh?"

"It's got some nice features." Blackarachnia replied with an off-handed tone. "I could get used to it."

"You wouldn't. You still have your knight in shining armor. Don't throw that away for Cheetor!" Jazz wailed dramatically.

"Yeah?... I mean, uh, whatever." Cheetor replied, mistaking Blackarachnia's tone for flirtatious.

"I still want her to stay away from my descendant." Silverbolt pointed out in an overprotective tone.

"Uh, don't let it go to your processor, Blondie. I'm just saying that a Transmetal 2 body doesn't look too bad." Blackarachnia corrected.

"Huh? Like I care what it looks like. It shreds Preds, okay?" Cheetor pointed out. Blackarachnia just gave a friendly scratch to the chin in return.

Jazz protested. "If she's a conniving snake, I hope she gets better being someone else!"

"That's the spirit." she then walked away.

"Oh, yeah. I think I like it!" Cheetor self-praised.

"So do I." Blackarachnia then held the Transmetal Driver with her.

The Orb eventually cuts off mid-view...