OF HUMANS AND ROBOTS

Quite a few people have been asking me about Melly, what she's like and where she came from, and how she first came to meet Blurr, as well as the rest of the Transformers gang. This gave me a good excuse to write another TFA story, and another one with chapters at that. I think I'm starting to get the hang of the TFA universe, but I'm still an amateur, so again, go easy on me.

This first chapter explains how Melly and Sari first met. It takes place in the first episode, "Transform and Roll Out".

Characters (with exceptions) © Hasbro and Entertainment Rights

Story © unicorn-skydancer08

All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

"Who's that girl, Dad? The one with the strange glasses and the funny hair?"

Looking toward the girl his young daughter was referring to, Isaac Sumdac said, "Ah, that's Melly Manchester. She's my newest employee. She joined our team only last summer."

Sari knitted her brows. "That's weird," the small, scrawny, skeptical seven-year-old said, "I never even knew she was here, let alone worked here. How old is she?" Melly Manchester looked to be only about a head or so taller than she was; the girl certainly appeared young, undoubtedly the youngest of all of Mr. Sumdac's human resources—at least that Sari had seen.

"If I remember her records correctly, about twenty-two, perhaps twenty-three."

Sari was surprised; most people didn't get into Sumdac Systems until they were thirty-five, at bare minimum. "I thought your business had an age policy, Dad."

If Melly could hear what was being said, she made no sign of it, for her eyes were focused on her digital notepad, on which she was diligently jotting notes.

Mr. Sumdac smiled, somewhat lopsidedly. "That is true," he admitted. "But with Miss Manchester here, I decided to make an exception. As far as I'm concerned, she meets all the qualifications. She has an outstanding breadth of knowledge in the field of science and technology, she graduated with top marks from a first-rate college, and she has excellent references."

"And she's only twenty-three?" Sari shook her head in disbelief. "Talk about an overachiever!"

"Don't be rude, Sari," her father cautioned. "I felt Miss Manchester deserved a chance, at the very least. And she has proven to be a very bright young woman, and a hard worker, well worth her salt. Why, she's put in more time and effort within the last three months alone than most of my remaining staff has within the last three years."

She must not get out much in the real world, then, Sari thought, but resisted the temptation to say the words out loud.

Sumdac Systems, established at Sumdac Tower in Detroit, Michigan, was the backbone of the city's economy, as well as the overall world's primary manufacturer of automatons—living robots whose functions ranged from law enforcement to entertainment to janitorial labor. The company was the leading dominator of the robotic market. Of course, it wasn't called Sumdac Systems for nothing; Mr. Sumdac was the founder and head of it all. His daughter Sari had spent essentially her whole life surrounded by robots; she was about as familiar with them as she was with the back of her hand. With regular people, on the other hand, she didn't get along nearly as well. It wasn't that she had anything against humans.

Due to being a shut-in most of her life, she simply didn't know how to properly interact with them.

While her attitude toward Melly Manchester would have appeared snobbish, even downright rude, that was the way she was with just about everybody else.

And she was right about one thing: Melly didn't get out much. Melly Manchester was the sort of person who kept to herself most of the time. She just went quietly about her own business, hardly speaking to anyone else, and avoiding direct eye contact. For all her credibility, for all her intelligence and skills, the young woman had virtually no social life.

Though Melly acted as though she didn't care, the truth was, she did care. She wished she had someone to talk to, to listen to her, to truly understand her.

For as long as she could remember, she had always been an outsider.

She had been an amazing student in school, skipping two grades and starting college when she was sixteen, and nearly every teacher in the field of education raved about her. But her classmates were a different story. Even now, Melly clearly remembered the unmerciful abuse she'd endured. She was called just about every name in the book, she was left entirely alone during lunch and gym, the girls excluded her from their games and gossip, and no boy that she knew of wanted to date someone who knew more about cars and computers than they did.

She did have one or two friends here and there, but one by one, they all ended up dropping her like a hot potato.

Even here at Sumdac Systems, Melly didn't feel like she really fit in. It felt awkward working in a place where almost everyone was nearly twice her age. At least there was plenty for her to do, and she was surrounded constantly by machinery—something for which she had always harbored a strong passion. She knew essentially everything there was to know about cars and machines. She'd grown up around a car shop, and her father, who raised her and her older brother single-handedly, and who was a genius mechanic, taught her everything he knew.

Melly didn't know why, but somehow she had always favored cars over girly stuff. She preferred oil-spattered denim jeans to dresses, and the smell of fresh rubber and gasoline to flowers and perfume. Computers were another forte of hers. Once, she had even put together a computer of her very own, with her own two hands, entirely from scratch.

So, this job with Mr. Sumdac was nothing short of a golden opportunity for her.

Even so, Melly longed for a friend, somebody who actually cared about her. More than that, she wanted somebody who loved her, just the way she was.