Author Notes:Woo! I know I probably shouldn't be starting a new fic with my current two ongoing, but the plot bunnies assaulted me quite violently. Thanks so much to Artisan Brown who will be co-authoring this piece with me whose work helped inspire me to start writing fanfiction. This is my first TFA fic, but I hope it doesn't show. Please remember to R&R!

Rating:T

Prologue
Boot Sequence

Let's see, if the limit is zero and x is equal to two then…

"Dammit, not now!"

The interruption from this calculus homework was certainly something Amalia didn't need. This assignment was going to be late if she didn't get her rear in gear. So, upon hearing her Lise's swears echoing through the spacious hall of their house, she – too – swore inaudibly. Amalia groaned, her forehead making contact with her desk.

She swung around to face the door, not sure if this was worth getting up for.

Amalia had dirty blond hair currently tied back in a ponytail to prevent her from playing with it too much. Her brown eyes crossed over her unnaturally tidy room, and out to the doorway. She didn't feel like getting up, for she knew that if she did, she probably wouldn't come back. But if she didn't, the curiosity would kill her. When another swear word reached her ears, she stood up and followed it to the very end of the hallway. The door to her mother's office was cracked open.

She'd seen horror movies like this.

Amalia peeked into the room – hesitantly, but determined – to see Lise, a lanky woman of about fifty, pulverizing her keyboard.

"C'mon, you piece of shit!" Lise hollered.

"Hey, Lise?"

The woman turned around in shock, calming when she saw who it was. "Oh…hello, honey. I didn't hear you come in."

Amalia smirked and leaned against the doorframe. "You know, for someone always telling me not to curse, you sure do it a lot when you think you're alone."

Her mother rolled her eyes as she turned back to her desk. "Yes, well, you know what they say 'Do as I say, not as I do.' Besides, I wouldn't be cursing if it wasn't for this fuuuu…reaking computer!"

"Wow, smooth recovery, Lise."

Lise waved her hand dismissively. "Hush, dear, now, do you have any idea how to fix this thing?"

"Oh, for Christ's sake, again? Lise, that computer's over ten years old now; it's starting to cost more to keep it working than buying a new top of the line model."

"That doesn't help me."

Amalia crossed her arms. "Then what is it?"

"It refuses to connect to the internet, so I can't send Professor Sumdac the reports on the company's budget for next year."

"Please, I've met him at some of those stupid company parties," scoffed Amalia. "He doesn't care one bit about that stuff. Sumdac is an inventor, not a businessman."

"Yes, but rules are rules." The mid-age woman was silent for a few moments. "Tell you what. You're going out shopping later, right?"

"Yeah, Val and I are going to the mall."

"Well," Lise picked a file up from off her desk, "it would be very helpful if you dropped these files off at the Sumdac building on your way there."

"...Ten bucks."

"Help a withering old woman for a change, dearest."

Lise waved the file expectantly in front of her daughter's flat expression. Finally, Amalia snatched it.

"Fine, but you owe me."

As the teenager left the room Lise sat down at her desk and sighed. "Why can't she just call me Mom? Why? Is it because I didn't read all the way through that child psychology book?"

Amalia slammed the car door shut behind her and looked at the imposing building in front of her.

Sumdac Tower.

She never liked coming here. She didn't even like looking at it. It was tall and ugly, and oddly resembled a sparkplug. Amalia often wondered the same thing whenever she headed through its interior; she wanted to know what idiot designed this place and what exactly were they on. But despite how she personally felt about its design, it had a sort of lazy appeal to it. Perhaps Sumdac's view of the world rubbed off on it. Like Amalia had noted on more than one occasion, he was no businessman. He liked fixing things.

She entered the lobby, the titanic automatic doors closing behind her. (Amalia wondered why those things to be so big. Were they expecting giants to come through or something?) Dragging her feet, she made her way over to the unattended reception desk.

Empty. Amalia leaned over the counter. "Hello?"

She checked the counter to see if there was some sort of bell to get someone's attention; there was none.

"Hey, anybody home?!" she shouted this time. All of the sudden, a figure popped up from behind the counter. Amalia flew backwards, dropping the file.

"H-He-Hello therrrrree…"

Amalia growled as she realized what it was. The robotic secretary was obviously malfunctioning; aside from the robot's aphasia, it kept on twitch spasmodically and occasionally let out stray sparks.

"Stupid robot," Amalia muttered. She did not need this delay. Honestly, I get that Sumdac's trying to set an example, but there are some jobs that just aren't meant for robots.

Amalia stood back up and looked around for any other presence besides that of the broken receptionist. Preferably someone soft, fleshy, and with a brain not made of metal. "Hello?! Anybody?!"

There only answer was silence. You'd think there would be more people here, even if it is Memorial Day. Security or something.

When a minute had passed without anyone entering the lobby, Amalia decided she might as well take initiative. The elevators better not be broken too.

Oh my, this isn't good.

Isaac Sumdac leaned feverishly over his desk, fidgeting with various electronic circuits and other minutiae that to most would seem like a pile of junk. But they were Isaac's bread and butter.

I told them to get me 30 ohm resistors. These are obviously 300 ohm! He inwardly seethed. He sighed, slouching back in his chair and massaging his temples. I need to hurry up, I told the board that I'd have something new and we're meeting in less than two weeks.

"Hello?"

Isaac sat up quickly. That didn't sound like Sari.

"HELLO?!"

Isaac hurried from his office, the door sealing behind him. He scanned the hallway for the source of the voice, half-expecting to see some murderous madman or perhaps Sari about to try to pull a fast one on him. Back towards the end of the hall he could see the shadow of a person around the corner.

"Sari, is that you?!" he called

The person came around the corner. It was not Sari as Isaac had hoped, but instead a vaguely familiar looking young woman.

"Hi there, Professor Sumdac, did you know that your receptionist robot is broken?" she greeted him with a dull familiarity that indicated he should know her.

As hard as he tried Isaac couldn't put a name to her face. "Um, excuse me, but do I know you, young lady."

The girl looked momentarily surprised. "Oh, well it was only twice at those parties so I guess you wouldn't remember me. I'm Amalia Vos."

Isaac's mouth hung open rather stupidly.

"…Lise's daughter."

Isaac smiled and then chuckled. "Oh yes, now I remember, last year's unveiling of the new security bot line. Powell spilt his champagne on you if I recall."

"Oh yeah, that party was a blast."

Isaac's chuckling slowly died down. He coughed to clear his throat and continued. "So what are you doing here anyway, Ms. Vos? And why isn't someone from security accompanying you?"

"Um, well it's Memorial Day, so I guess they have vacation or something..."

"Memorial Day? Oh my, that was today? I completely forgot..."

Amalia shrugged. "Well it's not that huge of a holiday, so I guess that happens. Anyway I was sent here to give you these." She handed a manila folder filled with papers to Isaac. "My mom's computer is down so she couldn't e-mail them to you."

Isaac looked down at the file. "Umm, what is it exactly?"

"The company budget, I think. Something along those lines anyway."

Before Isaac could ask further he was interrupted.

"Dad?"

Isaac looked behind Amalia to see his daughter of five. Sari briefly glanced at Amalia, then turned back at her father.

"Sari?" Isaac blinked. "What are you doing out of your room? Shouldn't you be in lessons?"

"Dad…" Sari moaned, stretching out the word. "It's almost 5'o clock. I finished with Tutor Bot more than an hour ago. I'm hungry!" Sari looked at Amalia and pointed. "Who are you?"

"Sari you know dinner's at 5:30, and it's rude to point." Isaac reprimanded. "This is Amalia. She's the daughter of one of the board members."

Amalia smiled at the young girl. "Nice to meet you, Sari."

Sari stared at Amalia for a few seconds, disinterested, before returning her attention to Isaac. "But Dad! I'm hungry now!"

"Sari, you'll have to wai -"

"NO! I'm hungry now!"

Isaac sighed. "I… suppose we could have dinner a little early today. Go wait upstairs, Sari. I'll be up in a few minutes."

Sari immediately switched out of her grumpy mood to a large smile. The young girl skipped back down the hallway until she was out of both of their sight.

Isaac massaged his temples, the beginnings of a migraine starting to form. "Oh Sari, what am I supposed to do with you?"

Amalia was still looking down the hall where Sari had disappeared. "…Kids aren't your cup of tea?"

"No, I suppose not…Although the fact that I have to run a multinational corporation probably attributes to that somewhat."

"What about her mother?"

"Sari's…mother?" Isaac started to laugh in a way that sounded a lot like crying.

"Umm…Wow, I guess you don't like to talk about that huh? Sorry."

"No, not particularly..."

"Well what about babysitters?"

"Again, I'm the head of a multinational corporation, I can't really trust anyone with that responsibility without the risk of them trying to kidnap and ransom her...Or worse, the other way around…"

Amalia nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. That's what all those parents basically said when they hired me."

Isaac looked up from his depressed slump. "Pardon?"

Amalia was lost for a second. "Huh? Oh yeah! Um, for the last two years some of my neighbors hired me to baby-sit their kids when they went out. We live in a neighborhood where a lot of the higher ups in your company live. So I guess they trusted me because my mom worked for the same company as them."

"Really, now?" Isaac was very intrigued. "So…would you say you were good with children?"

"Well, yeah. I mean you'd have to be to not strangle some of those spoiled…" She trailed off as a look of shock came to her face. "…Wait, I wasn't volunteering!"

Sari let her legs swing under the chair as she watched the seconds on the clock slowly tic by. She was hungry. Worse, she was crabby. Having had to endure the afternoon listening to Tutor Bot drone on and on about stuff that was way out of her league; Sari was in the mood to play. But she couldn't concentrate on playing when she was so hungry! She just hoped that her father would have the sense to get take-out instead of making a hastily prepared meal.

Better yet, she wished she could go out to the Burger Bot herself and grab something to eat. But there were two problems with that. One: she didn't have any money. Two: she was five. Any attempts to get food for herself wouldn't end well. Unless she tried acting cute…

Sari look back at the clock. Blast it, that lapse in thought hadn't made time pass more quickly.When's dad getting here?

At the sound of the doors sliding open, the red haired girl looked up with a hopeful smile.

"What are we having, Dad?"

Isaac smiled kindly. "Well Sari, I was figuring we should go out."

"Really?!" Sari exclaimed. Perhaps her luck was changing.

"Yes, although I will have to invite Mrs. Vos."

Sari tilted her head in confusion. "That teenager? Why?"

Isaac beamed, a rare sight for Sari. She vaguely tried to recall where she'd left her camera. "Well, I figured we should discuss terms."

"…About what?"

Isaac motioned towards the door. "Sari, meet your new babysitter."

Amalia walked in slowly, waving at Sari with a forced smile on her face.