A/N: First Meet the Robinsons fanfic! I saw the movie, loved it, wanted to write something Lewis and Franny related, couldn't think of anything good, gave up, and then THIS hit me. Ok, and I know Franny's not a Robinson yet, but it sounded cool in my head.

So…if people are interested, I'll continue it, if not, oh well. If I do continue, I can promise Wilbur will show up to help (because let's face it, he's awesome) though hopefully it won't be in a cliché way. Ok, so, let me know if you want to see more!

Disclaimer: I do not own Meet the Robinsons or anything related.

Cornelius Robinson twisted the last screw into place and sat back to survey his work. Yes, that should do it.

This was his tenth model for a smart lamp, which could adjust itself to give you the right amount of light from the right angle. He knew it would be an advantage when he was working all night.

"And now," he muttered, "to test it."

He flipped on the switch, and the light bulb flickered a few times before emitting a level low-intensity light. The lamp twisted itself to look up at its creator. Cornelius thought it seemed rather shy.

"Hello," he said with a little wave.

The light flickered, which Cornelius assumed was the lamp's way of communicating. He grinned. So far, so good.

He sat down at his desk, picked up a pencil, and made as if to write something in his notebook. A dark shadow from his arm spread across the page.

The lamp looked over at him, then extended spidery legs from its base and scrambled across the desk to a better position, then brightened the light so that he could see to write, but wasn't blinded by the glare from the page or the light bulb.

Cornelius swelled with pride. "I think you're ready, little fella," he said fondly to the lamp. It flickered at him twice. In agreement, he hoped.

A door slammed somewhere downstairs. There was incoherent shouting. Then someone was running up the stairs. Cornelius stood up, and out of the corner of his eye saw the lamp duck behind a pile of books.

"No dear, wait!" his mom shouted. "Cornelius is –"

His door flew open. Franny stood there, glaring at him and gasping for breath.

Cornelius had the craziest thought that if he stayed still, she wouldn't see him.

His mom, slightly concerned, poked her head around the door. "Sorry Cornelius, I hope we're not disturbing you."

"Oh, no, I – I just finished," he said, still wishing that Franny would stop looking at him like that.

"Oh wonderful!" his mom cried, grinning like the proud mom she was. "Did the new base help? I really thought that the problem was properly compensating for the top-heaviness of the –"

"Cornelius," snarled Franny.

He gulped.

His mom gave a little laugh. "Oh, was that the oven? Silly me, I'll just go turn that off, shall I?" And she whipped out of sight.

"Uh…Franny?" he said. He resisted the urge to back up until he hit the opposite wall.

"You…" she said. She stepped towards him.

If it had been storming right now, Cornelius would not have been surprised if lightning had flashed across the room. As it was, on this clear blue-sky day, he couldn't help backing up a step or two.

"Um…do you want to see my new smart lamp?" he asked desperately. The said lamp was cowering under some blueprints he'd drawn up the other day.

That seemed to shake her into speech. "Do you know what they do at that school?" she whispered dangerously.

"Uh…teach?" he guessed.

"Do you know what they're making us do?"

"Learn?"

"Do you know what we're dissecting on Monday?!"

"Um…" His eyes widened as realization hit him.

"FROGS!" she shrieked. "They've killed innocent frogs and are forcing us to mutilate their bodies! Don't they have any respect?! Don't they know what they're doing?!"

Cornelius wanted to tell her that they were just frogs. But then he heard an echo from the past, from the future.

Even when I'm wrong…I'm right.

"Y-you're right," he stammered.

Franny looked up sharply. She saw him for the first time since she'd entered the room. She blinked up at him much like his smart lamp had done.

"It's wrong," he added on a whim. "Someone should do something about it."

"Exactly!" Franny cried.

"Yeah, exac – what?!"

"Prepare yourself, Cornelius," Franny told him. "Because we're going…on a rescue mission!"