Melissa

People didn't care too much for bounty hunters anymore or any other mech for that matter. Nowadays they were fighters for hire, beaten and abused by "Masters". I didn't care too much for former Bounty Hunters anyway, but that all changed when I met Lockdown. It was then that, for the very first time, my heart melted for a veteran bounty hunter. He could've, at one point, torn his human Master to pieces, but he was so abused…he could barely do anything but fight when I rescued him.

Using mechs for fighting was illegal back then, but it gave a better thrill to people than dog fights. Authorities in certain cities knew about it, but they did nothing to stop it most of the time. It was a dangerous world for someone like me. My name is Melissa Ulrich, and I'm an orphan slash mechanic slash Mech caretaker.

I lived in a little farm house, kinda like a ranch, about two hours away from the city. It was a nice place to live, and I took care of a lot of Mechs and femmes. Many of them were sick, injured, beaten, or abused by Masters. But we got Lockdown….the one who would change my life forever….

I was in town getting supplies when I noticed a large crowd gathering around a huge cage of sorts. I'd heard that Mech Fighting was common in the region as a form of entertainment, so I tried to avoid it as much as I could, but something drew me to it. I put my supplies in Scorcher, my truck mech, and went over to the cage.

What I saw broke my heart.

He was a mismatched mech, but very strong looking. One of his hands was replaced by a hook and well…he was just strange for lack of a better, less insulting word. All in all, none of his parts matched except for all that army green parts he had. I'd seen this all before, and a lot of my mechs suffered from it. It was a little thing called Upgrade Addiction and it was plain to see that he was an addict.

The mech he was facing was relatively small and silver colored. Sure, he was supposed to look cute to deceive opponents. Its small flashed blue on minute and turned red the next. To me, he looked like a little monster.

"C'mon Frenzy, eat him up! Finish him! Kill him!".

"Lockdown, you've come way too far to just lose now! Get up off your ass and run him over!".

But he couldn't get up. Despite his imposing size, the one called Lockdown couldn't because he didn't have the energy anymore. I, being a mechanic, knew all of his strength was gone. He needed Energon to keep going at the rate he had been earlier on in the fight. He was on the ground on his side with Frenzy on his throat like a leech.

It was a pitiful sight to be truthful, like that part from the book White Fang. I didn't know what to do or if I could do anything. But I couldn't just sit there and let him die. He was still living, and every living thing deserves another chance, no matter how bad its past.

"Hey!" I yelled, "Hey, let him go, you'll kill him!".

"What's it to you, sweetheart?" the man who "owned" Lockdown asked.

"Look at this! Do you not see what you're doing?!".

"I'm makin' a profit!".

"You're killing an innocent life!".

The man laughed. "Innocent? Oh please, missy. This is Lockdown, the Bounty King. His life is far from innocent. I don't see a point in someone like you saving his life".

"You don't, but I do. Let me buy him off you if you wanna make a profit off of him".

"How much?".

"Well, a bounty hunter like this is usually worth six grand, but you've abused this one so bad to a point where he's worth only half that much. I'm willing to give you three grand for him".

"I want six, missy!".

"I only have three, mister. Take it or leave it!".

"Leave it! I ain't selling my bounty hunter for half of what he's worth!".

I didn't know what made me do it, but I punched out right in the face.

"If I ever see you fighting mechs again, I swear I will have you run out of town! Do I make myself clear?!".

He didn't to say anything, nor did he, since his lights were out. I put the money on his body so that when he woke up it would be there and he couldn't press charges. I managed to pry Frenzy off of Lockdown's throat.

"Can you transform?" I asked.

Lockdown transformed to his vehicle mode, which was pretty cool looking, kinda like a jacked up batmobile in another life.

"Nice" I thought, "At least he's got good taste".

When I got Scorcher out there, I literally had to drive Lockdown into the trailer attached to him. There were a few energon cubes in there for him; I knew he'd need them. All throughout the drive home though, I worried about him. I kept looking back to see what he was doing, and almost freaked out whenever he went into recharge.

"He's on the verge of an emergency shut down. Don't worry, he'll be fine".

"You sure?".

"Positive, just trust me on this, Miss Ulrich".

What I was really worried about is how he'd fit in. I mean, I had tamed fighters before, but I even I knew this was going to be a challenge.