Will Hayes

Will Hayes is a Decepticon-allied human from the Shattered Glass continuity family.

All this robot trouble is making poor Will go grey before his time...

William "Will" Hayes and his best friend, Rick, manage to get into all sorts of trouble together. Although when they signed up to be Professor Arkeville's interns for college prep purposes,^[1] they probably weren't counting on said trouble involving giant robots.

Will also has an insatiable appetite. Thank goodness for his quick metabolism!

Fiction

Fun Publications Shattered Glass continuity

Will Hayes was one of three interns working for Professor Arkeville, along with the technologically-obsessed Sephie Beller and the generic white male Rick Ottman. They accompanied the professor to check out a fallen meteorite, which came out of the sky during a magnetic anomaly which disrupted satellite and communications activity around the nation. Their investigation uncovered some curious remote-controlled vehicles and a giant white cat that not only spoke, but spoke exclusively in l33t txting! Rick and Will fled in terror from the cat, only to receive a "Hai i'm waving!" txt from the stalking kitty moments later. When they tried to hide inside the nearby panel wagon, it transformed into a giant robot, who thought the hard tugging on his door handle was "most uncool".

Once everyone calmed down, Will and Rick learned these Decepticons were actually friendly metal monster alien robots from outer space, unlike some of the planet's previous...issues. Reuniting with Sephie and the professor, they travelled to the crashed spaceship the Nemesis and learned all about the war between the Decepticons and the Autobots. The quartet of humans agreed to work with the Decepticons during their forced stay on Earth. Will first helped the (only) heroic Autobot Cliffjumper recover the crashed Crasher from a systems crash at her, er, crash site.

The Decepticons weren't the only robots on Earth, however. The insidious Rodimus Prime and his Autobots had also survived the forced planetfall, and had taken over a defense installation controlling America's Global Orbiting Defense Satellite. With the entire Earth in peril, Will and Rick helped the Decepticons get the drop on the Autobots. They drove Soundwave into the occupied Air Force base, pretending to be food delivery for the captured soldiers. Once inside, the duo teamed up with Frenzy to seek out the control center for the GODS. They used a fire extinguisher to goad Goldbug into chasing them, and watched in horrified fascination as...Frenzy...GOT...ANGRRRRYY!! With the control center cleared out, Heatwave was able to contact the satellite control system and end the doomsday weapon's threat. Eye in the Sky

Will adjusted better than most of his friends to working with the Decepticons, and could often be found casually hanging out with the 'Cons, tuning their systems. He was talking to Blitzwing once about the difference between Earth and Cybertron when he got the idea of installing his oPod into Blitzwing's comm system. Blitzwing graciously accepted the "whole 8 gigabytes" of music before they went cruising through the desert. Blitzwing hooked up with Heatwave to investigate an Autobot tech signal, but Heatwave ended up lost in space thanks to Goldbug's stellar spanner, and Will's oPod was now broadcasting 24–7 in Blitzwing's comms thanks to some damage he took.

Blitzwing was initially used as the ultimate non-lethal weapon, foiling Autobot schemes by broadcasting insane amounts of music over their comm frequencies, but the effect soon spread to the Decepticon comms and increased to the point where the 'Cons faced going off-line due to systems corruption. Will, Rick, and the others stood guard over the Decepticon base while Starscream's team went into stasis lock for their own protection. Unfortunately, the evil Autobots Blaster and Beachcomber proved more-or-less immune to the now-worldwide musical cacophony, and the latter came to the base looking to eliminate the helpless Decepticons. In true Home Alone style, Will and his friends managed to occupy Beachcomber with fire extinguishers, ball bearings, and zero-friction fluid until Blitzwing was cured and the Decepticons awakened to drive the buggin' buggy away. Blitzwing Bop

When the Decepticons got their own stellar spanner working, Will and Rick attended the initial activation with video cameras to record the arrival of Shockwave. Will was later trying to organize Professor Arkeville's notes with Rick, when Sephie revealed to them that she had replaced a good deal of herself with cybernetic parts. Will could only stare at her with open-mouthed disbelief. When Sephie later went to face the Autobots alone, Rick was determined to go after her. Will had to physically stop him leaving, pointing out that unlike her, he was still completely flesh and bone, and would squish easily. Transhuman

Notes

• Will is one of only a small number of Shattered Glass characters who are not based on Generation 1 characters. In ever-cunning mirror universe style, Will possesses the insatiable appetite that is normally the distinguishing feature of Billy's friend Fred.
• Will's name was inspired to some extent by professional wrestler Billy Jack Haynes and to some extent by late infomercial pitchman Billy Mays.

References