Prologue: Mainframe's hunt for an assistant.

I slink back in my chair from the mental exhaustion of what I just accomplished. "That should take care of the capital for a start up. But man, I don't know whether to be happy or sad that I found a corrupt company and their funds so easily." I say to myself while stretching my overworked fingers and relaxing my similarly overworked mind.

After sitting in contemplative meditation for like 2 seconds I get back to work and yell a victorious cry. "Mainframe strikes again. Suck it losers" while sticking out my tongue at the message on my screen. Which of course is just a bank transfer but I mean with the numbers on screen and the meaning behind them I deserve a little celebration.

"Ok now to look for a different kind of capital. TO THE DATABASE OF HUMAN CAPITAL!" I shout acting totally like a medieval general just before he charges into war. Then I warm up my fingers with a crack and get to work hacking the local star-system's quantum network.

"I mean I can't get a whole view of things I'd need some physical ports for that but I can get into any non-classified files and it's not like I'm lookin' to take down this government just yet" So talking to myself the whole time about how cool I am and how utterly stupid those idiots at cyber security are I look at a few different databases for a specific kind of person.

I bring up a file on my computer and after a second of scanning it I close it down "Too timid". Then a different file comes to my screen and I scan it for a similar amount of time before once again dismissing it.

"Too stupid" Similar mumblings come out of my mouth every so often as I bring up and dismiss files with government labels on them one by one. From being too good at backstabbing to being utterly naive I bring up and close files at a dizzying pace until a file from the department of welfare catches my attention.

"Huh this one seems promising. No personnel file though so I guess it's too soon to tell." I skim over the file and think about the details to myself as I start investigating the contents. A mother claimed her kid was being beaten for no good reason and was becoming dangerous because of it but almost immediately retracted the claim and it was ultimately never investigated.

"Let's see Emily andddd no last name apparently. Or rather guess she just doesn't like it or something. Can't blame her but still that's pretty stubborn." I continue to talk to myself as I start hacking into the security system of the planet she lives on mainly focusing on security footage and any wireless cameras she or her acquaintances have on them.

"Now if I just check over the footage for the last few years. Hey Frame can you search the footage for abnormal behavior" I start giving orders to my trusty AI that now runs my apartment and is likely my most important partner for the rest of time if my little project turns out like it should.

"Certainly master" I hear a sonorous yet robotic sounding female voice resound through my room and I notice from the task manager that a good deal of computer resources are being used up without me doing anything.

"Well then I guess I'll look at the present if you're going for the past. Hehe, one day I'll be able to predict the future too. I'm sure of it." I say with a grin on my face not unlike the mischievous child I am.

So I do a quick facial search with the remaining resources on my computer and quickly find two wireless cameras have a match for her face. I look at the models for the cameras and cock my head a little. "Isn't that the ones used in reaaaallly old robot models. Like you can find those in any random junkyard. Pretty cheap way to get parts actually." I say to myself as I click on the link for the two wireless cameras and bring them up in separate tabs to see what they see.

Turns out they're right next to each other and though they cover 360 degrees around them the quality is kinda bad. Still tech's good enough nowadays that even crappy cameras like this one have enough clarity to make out everything well. Though it does look kinda artificial now that I'm used to good resolution cameras.

"This is even worse than those security cameras in that whatever it's called city where they experienced constant budget cuts. I mean they didn't want a surveillance state so they cut the funding to anything surveillance related and they still had better quality than this. Though I'm not sure you can avoid surveillance stuff nowadays but whatever." I continue to look at the image and finally spot my possible new assistant.

"So what ya' up to Emily." Looking around her all I see is junk. In fact it almost seems like she and this camera are buried in a mountain of junk with only a really small hole to the outside that's providing a little light to the place.

"This a secret base or something? Man I know how ya' feel Ems I really do." I continue to talk to her despite knowing she is incapable of hearing me purely because It's a habit of mine. The base also has a bunch of what at first glance I assumed to be junk on the floor but when I actually look at them it's a massive armory.

"The hell?! You going to war? Why'd you need that much firepower. Wellll It's not actually that powerful when I get a good look at it but she sure makes up for it in quantity" I continue to ogle the absolutely ridiculous number of lethal firearms piled up on the floor like toys. I mean every single one of those things could totally murder someone and none of them are meant for disabling.

Meanwhile in the middle of this veritable trove of lethal weapons is a 15 year old girl looking happy as punch. Her chestnut coloured hair drooping to just below her shoulders looking fairly clean despite her being in a massive dump at the moment.

Her sleepy black eyes stare fixated across from where the camera is situated. Despite the clear sleepiness in her eyes, her expression doesn't reflect anything more than a bouncy kindness. Taking a closer look I see another lethal weapon casually lying on the bench the girl's working at.

She tries to shoot the laser at the wall but the laser just ends up sputtering with light for a moment and fizzles out. "That things defo got some safety standard issues. Even if you fix that up Ems it's just not gonna work more than once or twice before you have to fix it again." I say this to myself as I watch her fruitlessly attempt to get the laser to fire at the wall and fail.

Despite all the failures however this girl still seems perfectly content working on it. In fact she's smiling every time she tries to fire the laser. "Honestly I get reaaallly bad vibes from that smile and that sounds like the perfect person for me to get on my side." I animatedly push myself off my desk with my hands and reel back in faux fear and shock before instantly my chair tries to right itself once more and I come crashing down towards my desk. Stopping my momentum with my hands I get a little cheeky grin on my face.

Now getting another look at the girl. She has a brown thin tail with a white tip swaying behind her a little like a metronome. Though it reminds me more of the one for hypnosis than the one for music. The ears on the top of her head are similarly brown with white tips though it'd be hard to tell from here if she wasn't focusing so intently.

This is because of the brownish red hoodie with white accents she's wearing with a hood that covers her head and ears. Or it would if she kept it up but it appears to have fallen down and she hasn't bothered to put it back. I can't even see her hands most of the time because of her hoodie. If they're not working on the laser in front of her she keeps them hidden away in her sleeves.

"I mean I get that urge too. It's just so warm and cozy to have your hands in your sleeves. Even if everyone around you thinks you're shy because of it." I mumble to myself with something resembling empathy already building for the girl. Though I was never particularly empathetic so I could just be imagining things.

Lower than that is a pair of black jogging trousers. Those really comfortable ones with the weird tying up thing on the waist area. "I love to wear those too. Those or pajamas are my favorites personally but I guess they're pretty similar to pajamas anyway. They're just more socially acceptable. Not that I ever care."

I continue talking to myself as I analyze her. "Her clothes look a little too clean to be in a junkyard. So she probably doesn't live there. I mean sure they're a little frayed but that's likely just cause they're a favorite of hers"

While I'm doing so I finally get a report back from Frame "Master I have finished compiling the videos that you will find interesting. Would you like to view them now?" asks Frame in that same sonorous yet robotic tone she always uses.

"Yeah play them on 2x spe- no make it 4x speed for me. I don't need specifics just a basic rundown. Oh can you project it on my third monitor please" I order Frame with a carefree tone expecting something interesting out of the girl's story.

After giving the sped up play through of the girl's most important moments a peek I spot something interesting all right. "Frame stop it a few seconds into the 4th video please" I think I spotted something there and I order Frame to quickly give me a little look at it.

On the screen is Emily arguing with the man I've learned is her father but that seems pretty common what interests me is the look in her eyes. "She's definiteeeeeely doing this on purpose. Girl looks like she wants to murder him." She has such a murderous look in her eyes and yet her expression is nothing but smiles. In fact that's the scary smile I spotted before.

"Oh this girl's nuts. She's gotta be a psychopath or something. I've seen more friendly looks on my friends before they murder their client for setting them up to be killed. She'd be a scourge on society if she ever got free." Despite the grave subject matter and the negative way I'm phrasing it my smile only grows wider and wider the more I stare into the girl's eyes.

"You might be a scourge on society but for me you're my knight in shining armor Emily." I say to myself with my massive grin stretching from ear to ear. Maybe I'm a little crazy myself. Well I don't get murderous urges or anything... very often. But hey I gotta be if I find this to be an exciting development.

"She's building a robot to murder them then? I scratch your back you scratch mine eh Emily? I'll just wait for a while and borrow that robot of yours. Ohhh I can't wait." I bet I look just as off my rocker as she does when I cackle to myself like this but hey when life gives you psychopaths.