IDW - Spotlight Hoist

Title: The Waiting Game

Story by: James Roberts

Art by: Agustin Padilla

Colours by: Joanna Lafuente

Letters by: Shawn Lee

Editorial Assistant: Thomas Boeing

Editor: John Barber

Plot

On the planet Deimus Hoist is driving away from an unexpectedly present Tarn, but he manages to stall him, and returns to his crashed ship, inside he turns on the ship's cloaking device and explains to Swerve, Sunstreaker, Bob, and a half-melted to the ceiling/floor Perceptor. Swerve keeps talking, and drives everyone a bit mad, especially Sunstreaker who is blamed for crashing the ship (as he was distracted by his reflection), Sunstreaker also explains to Swerve where Bob came from (the Insecticon Swarm that Metroplex killed), and Swerve babbles on about his top five fears after Tarn, Megatron, Overlord, Sixshot, Shockwave, and a combination of those 4.

Later, with only 2 hours of power on the ship left Swerve is driving everyone even madder, and accidentally insults Hoist by saying he's just "green with a tow line". Later still, with just one hour of power left Sunstreaker talks about how he was left for dead on Cybertron, which Swerve jokes about, then forces Hoist to tell the story about his near-death experience too, when his ship crashed in the Rust Spot, and he was left alone, just trying to find his way back home. After story time, Hoist notices that Swerve's badly injured, his spark casing is damaged, and he's been babbling to distract everyone from it. Sunstreaker and Hoist decide they have to go outside, take down the DJD and take their ship to get Swerve to a medibay.

Outside, Sunstreaker and Hoist drive off, and Sunstreaker is quickly taken down by Tarn, Hoist goes to find him, and then sees Megatron, Sixshot, Shockwave and Overlord, who combine! He tries to fight them, but gets knocked down, however before he's crushed by the gestalt he disappears.

He drives back to the ship, where Perceptor says he got in contact with the Lost Light, and they're sending a rescue crew for them. Hoist explains what happened, and Perceptor realizes there's a Phobia Shield on the planet, which basically taps into a Cybertronian's mind and makes their fears come true and kill them, it was hacking into Swerve's mind, but he'd just recently passed out, suddenly the ship shakes, and Hoist knows whose mind is being hacked now...Bob's, as Metroplex has now appeared and stomps on the ship, crushing it, just as Hoist gets himself and the crew out.

Now outside, Hoist quickly knocks out Perceptor and Bob, leaving just him still conscious, Metroplex vanishes, and is replaced with the Red Spot, and Hoist is alone, which is his fear...

Characters

Autobot

Hoist - Tow Truck

Swerve - Van

Sunstreaker - Car

Perceptor

Metroplex - City/Ship (Flashback and Illusion)

Blurr (Mentioned)

Lost Light Crew (Mentioned)

Optimus Prime (Fantasy)

Prowl (Fantasy)

Autobots in Fantasies

Decepticon

Tarn (Illusion)

Megatron (Illusion)

Overlord (Illusion)

Sixshot (Illusion)

Shockwave (Illusion)

Overmegasixwave/Ugly (Illusion)

D.J.D. (Mentioned)

Decepticons in Fantasies

Other

Bob

Insecticon Swarm (Mentioned) Dead

Hoist's old Crew Mates (Mentioned) Dead

Notes

• For some reason Hoist has taken on his upcoming Generations toy's character model rather than his usual one...maybe he decided this planet needed a different alternate mode?
• Similarly Perceptor is in his old non-sniper body.
• Hey have you guys noticed that Metroplex has appeared/been mentioned in some way in all of these Spotlight stories? Almost like they're being used to promote some giant new toy or something!
• Sixshot is shown coloured like Black Shadow in his couple of Appearances, this could be an art mistake, or maybe Swerve just doesn't know what Sixshot's colours are?
• The ship shown to be hit by Orion Pax's ship back in his Spotlight is shown to have held Hoist and his crew on it. That's a nice way to keep this series circular!
• The bridge Sunstreaker tried to kill himself on during All Hail Megatron is named here as the Juda'S Bridge, obviously named after Judas from the bible
• Swerve references the Decepticon's obsession with combining, which has also been a major factor in this Spotlight series, and seemed to culminate in Robots in Disguise with the perfected Devastator.
• I wonder if Swerve finally won his Rodimus Star as he'd probably have been silent until he gets repaired on the Lost Light?
• The scene in Swerve's fantasy set just after Sunstreaker's "death" in AHM seems to be full of mistakes too, Optimus and Prowl are in completely the wrong bodies for one thing!