Ratchet - IDW

Personality:   Ratchet found this youthful optimism tempered as Cybertron descended into millions of years of civil war, giving rise to a brand of world-weary cynicism all his own. This cantankerous and sometimes gruff attitude is something of a façade he's deliberately cultivated to hide his natural compassion for his fellow Autobots and innocent organics, a personality trait that's come in handy more than once during his adventures on Earth. Following the end of the war, Ratchet's war-weariness led him to leave Cybertron aboard the Lost Light, embarking on a series of adventures across the galaxy that saw him come to terms with his advancing age while battling demons from his past. Despite captain Rodimus's objective to find the mythical Knights of Cybertron, Ratchet remains a staunch atheist and a firm believer in empirical science—something that irritates his friend and frequent verbal sparring partner Drift to no end. Ratchet of Vaporex was forged, and due to the circumstances of his birth, he was gifted with a set of incredibly dexterous servos, possessing a naturally unique skill which made them almost hypnotic while in motion. Ratchet studied medicine at the Iaconian Academy of Science and Technology alongside Thunderclash, and befriended Orion Pax. Though Ratchet eventually became the Senate's Chief Medical Officer, he felt unsatisfied with his work; Orion encouraged him to open a free clinic without the Senate's knowledge in Rodion's Dead End, where he assisted the impoverished "Empties" who lived there. When Nominus Prime was badly wounded in a terrorist attack, Ratchet was responsible for saving his life but was unable bring the Prime back online, leaving him to languish in a coma. Some time later, Ratchet treated a destitute junkie named Drift, who had overdosed on circuit boosters. Ratchet told the homeless 'bot that he saw something special in him, a remark that both would remember. When a nearby news broadcast revealed that Nominus had recently perished, Orion—now a police officer and the 'bot responsible for bringing Drift to the clinic – trusted the medic enough to reveal that he had a friend in the Senate who knew members of the Senate itself had done the deed; Ratchet was skeptical until the broadcast claimed that Nominus had died from a "long-standing rust infection" that he knew for a fact the Prime didn't have. Investigating further, Orion uncovered a Senate plot to plant a bomb in Nominus's body and blame it on the new Decepticon movement, and so Ratchet joined him in putting a stop to it. atchet joined Orion, Roller, and a crew of outliers on a mission to the Primal Basilica, using his precise fingers to pick the locks holding the bomb in place. Though one close call nearly led to Ratchet dropping the bomb, the team was successful in their mission. Pax and his allies were now fugitives for crossing the Senate and they were forced to go on the run, leaving Ratchet behind to look after his patients. Ratchet's inability to say goodbye to his friends meant that he never properly bid Roller farewell; when Roller seemingly vanished from history some time later, Ratchet's failure would haunt him for many years. Ratchet would go on to work for Nominus's successor, Sentinel Prime. As the Decepticon movement evolved from a political philosophy into a full-blown insurgency, Ratchet served with the Security Forces stationed in Kaon and was present at the funeral of Bumper and Fastback. When Zeta Prime took command following Sentinel's defeat at the hands of Megatron, Ratchet became his Chief Medical Officer Post Hoc and left Rodion, taking a staff position at Ultirex's prestigious technoversity. There, he befriended Jetfire, a brilliant graduate student whose airborne alternate mode made it difficult for him to find scientific work under the tenets of Functionism. Shortly after Zeta Prime ascended to Primehood, Ratchet was kidnapped by the Decepticons and held at the Rust Spot as a ploy to capture Alpha Trion during a hostage exchange. Fortunately the hostage exchanger was Orion Pax, who managed to save both Ratchet and Trion. Following the death of a Decepticon sympathizer in police custody, Orion took Hefter's body to Ultirex for Ratchet to examine; Ratchet correctly deduced that Hefter's injuries didn't match the official report of his death. The news that an Autobot cop was investigating the murder prompted Jetfire—a believer in the Decepticon cause—to attack Prime, much to Ratchet’s horror. Ratchet participated in Orion Pax's uprising against an increasingly corrupt Zeta Prime, and would have repaired Orion after the battle if not for a sudden betrayal by their Decepticon allies. He was still working in Ultirex when Orion Pax, now Optimus Prime, broadcast a rallying call for support against Megatron's dictatorship. As the Great War between the Autobots and Decepticons began in earnest, Ratchet would distinguish himself as the only Autobot who had personally saved the life of every Prime since Nominus. Early in the war, Ratchet repaired Optimus Prime after his first confrontation with Megatron at Sherma Bridge, a duel which left Prime in so many pieces it took Ratchet over two months to find and put them all back together. Optimus Prime sent a team of scientists including Ratchet to the remains of the Toraxxis mega-refinery to search for traces of energon. Indeed, they did find some in the form of a pool in the caverns beneath the crater, but when an earthquake sent Ratchet falling into the liquid, he went berserk and started attacking his comrades. He quickly regained his composure, but before they could study why the energon had turned him into a mindless beast, the scientists were attacked by monsters living in the caves. As they fled, Ratchet used his alternate mode to bust into another cavern, where the team found a gigantic sleeping dragon. They reported their findings to Optimus Prime, who told them to find a way to neutralize the creature so the Autobots could make use of the energon, Ratchet then fought against Trypticon's minions during the monster's rampage across Cybertron. Ratchet played a role in curing the Dynobots of the effects of the same corrupted energon, and shortly afterwards patched Bumblebee up during a Decepticon assault on Iacon. Ratchet was later transferred to the Deltaran Medical Facility and became friends with fellow Autobot medic Pharma. The two of them accompanied the team who apprehended Roadbuster for brutalizing the cadets under his command to the point of death. Of those cadets, he and Pharma were only able to save Hubcap. As the war went on, the young Drift, whom he'd once helped, went on to become "Deadlock", one of the most brutal Decepticon warriors. This long rankled the medic. When Ultra Magnus died under unspecified circumstances, Ratchet became one of the few Autobots who was privy to Chief Justice Tyrest's project to keep the legend of the "immortal lawman" alive using the Magnus Armor. Indeed, Ratchet was the only Autobot who knew every wearer of the Magnus Armor, right back to the original. In the 19th century, Ratchet was stationed aboard the Autobot command vessel, and helped repair the armor after the passing of its most recent bearer. In the early 2000s, Prowl ordered Ratchet to join his covert team on Earth. Rather than properly say goodbye to Pharma, Ratchet just left when his back was turned.

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