Cutting Edge
Template:Episodenav Writers: Ian Weir
A new group of raptor clones attacks the proto-human tribe, and it falls to Cheetor and Blackarachnia to defend them.
Characters (in order of appearance): Protohumans, Cyber Raptors, Optimus Primal, Silverbolt, Rhinox, Rattrap (BW), Blackarachnia, Cheetor, Megatron, Inferno, Waspinator, Tarantulas
Original air date: November 15, 1998
Summary
Two children protohuman play, watched over by an older primate bearing a familiar hammer. But a large raptor with evil red glowing eyes and laser vision arrive to chase the protohumans for their lives. The children hide and stay silent to avoid becoming snacks for the mechanical dinosaur. Otimus Primal and Silverbolt arrive in the sky to save the protohumans from the evil dinosaurs. Back in the Mt. St. Hilary base, Rhinox analyzes recovered materials from the dinosaurs to deduce that Megatron must be masterminding the evil robot Dinosaur's activities, and one raptor won't be the end.
Rattrap, lurking about, spies on Blackarachnia carrying around some materials in a suspicious manner. She drops her cargo when the two protohumans run past her, followed by their monkeysitter, Cheetor. Cheetor stops to explain why the kids are here, but is distracted by the sensation of being close to Blackarachnia. Ug. In the control room, Primal assigns Cheetor and Blackarachnia to take the kids back to their regular habitat (making Silverbolt act rather territorial). Once the four leave, Rattrap mentions to Rhinox that he saw Blackarachnia taking something from classified area of the Maximal's base.
While Cheetor gives male child protohuman (Jak) a ride in the air, while on the ground, the female child protohuman (Una) puts a coconut on her head and mimics Blackarachnia's behavior. Cheetor and Jak land and Blackarachnia professes her disdain for the adorable antics of the Neanderthals. A Cyber-Raptor attacks, and despite her own reservations about putting herself in danger, she fights to protect the human kids. After getting away, the maximals find their radios are being jammed and Cheetor's flight is disabled.
Megatron, watching the Maximals and their charges, sends Waspinator and Tarantulas (brandishing a new toy) and three additional raptors to attack the two Maximals in the field. Meanwhile, Primal and Silverbolt also go to reinforce the two Maximals who haven't radioed in a status report. The four other Predacons has a hearty laugh to prepare for an attack on the under-staffed Maximal base.
Cheetor, Blackarachnia, and the kids come under attack from Predacon forces. While they take cover, Silverbolt and Primal arrive to protect their comrades. Although Tarantulas's new weapon, Transmetal Cyber-Venom, disabled Primal, making Big Bot sing about his Little Guy. Blackarachnia dives to use her own body to take a shot from Tarantulas, meant for the two kids. One of the raptors gets close to Optimus, but is damaged by the sudden appearance of the hammer-wielding Protohuman. The damaged Raptor jumps crazy, stomping on Waspinator. Thanks to the human, Primal figures out that the raptors are vulnerable on the control units on their back. Blackarachnia destroys the control unit on the remaining raptor, which takes out Tarantulas as it self destructs.
Megatron's attack on the Maximal base starts well. But Quickstrike is sacrificed to fall victim to an anticipated boobie trap. After getting a radio message from Waspinator that tht e attack on the protohumans has failed, Megatron pushes his own soldiers forward to claim the Ark - but Depth Charge arrives, giving Rhinox and Rattrap the opening they need to force the Predacons back into a retreat.
As Primal's group collects themselves, the children protohumans are delivered back into the care of their parents, and wave goodby to Cheetor. Blackarachnia smuggles some hardware from the damaged Raptors. Cheetor congratulates Blackarachnia on her heroic actions, but Blackarachnia tells Cheetor she doesn't care for "nice kids". As she walks away under the wing of territorial Silverbolt, Cheetor resolves to change himself.
Meanwhile, Megatron determines that he can perfect the technology from the Cyber-Raptors by using it in conjunction with the other half of Rampage's divided Spark.
Theatrical release
This episode was titled "Beast Wars Metals: Convoy Daihenshin!" ("Beast Wars Metals: Convoy Great Transformation") and released theatrically as part of a triple feature of animated films based on Takara properties. The other two short movies included were "Super Doll Rikka-chan" and "Microman". Due to the relatively late theatrical release, the episode was not included on the Japanese DVD box set of Beast Wars Metals and is the only episode of the series to have not been released on video in Japan.
External links
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