Snow softly collapses on the pavement of this hectic metropolis. Tall skyscrapers pierce the clouds as wind whistles through the ears of those on the ground. In the basement of one apartment building live Roca and Rota, siblings who have never left each other's sides. Many families live above them: people who work all day and all night, following their routine of coming home, having dinner, and going to bed everyday. These families never talked much to one another, concerned with only themselves and their own lives. Roca and Rota never wanted to live like that. They would have been happy to live at home with their parents and watch movies or play games for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, this wasn’t possible at the moment. They loved their parents, but they weren't able to look after them; their mother was ill, and their father was quite old but worked all day and even some nights just to pay for her medicine. Rota and Roca had reached a tough decision. They left home, even though they knew it would be difficult for their Father, to create a brilliant invention that everybody around the world would want. When they did eventually return home, they would buy all of their Mother's medicine, and hire a full-time nurse so that their Mother and Father could both rest.

Despite this, at the moment, they were struggling for inspiration. They were desperately trying to earn money, but were happy that at least they were together. Rota was a chameleon, adept at science and physics with dreams of creating machines that could help care for anybody that couldn't look after themselves. Meanwhile, Roca was an engineer, capable of creating absolutely anything from a blueprint. The idea was that Rota would design something incredible, and Roca would create it. The only problem was coming up with ideas. Everything great had already been invented! There were computers, telephones, toothpicks, and melon ballers! What else could anybody possibly want?

One day, a week after Rota and Roca had been living in the metropolis, a family of baby spiders approached the scientists in desperate need of help. At first Roca and Rota were surprised and slightly nervous, but they listened to the spiders, hoping they could somehow help.

"Excuse me, we heard you were scientists who invent things?" said one of the three baby spiders. They were small with large brown eyes and big heads. Their legs were tiny and gangly and could barely support their own bodies.

"Yes, well, at least, we are trying to be. At the moment we’re a bit low on ideas, but I’m sure we’ll think of something soon," responded Rota with a thin smile. The baby spiders all turned around and grinned at one another. 

"Well, we have an idea," said the second sibling with a glint of hope shining in all eight eyes.

"We sure do! Please follow us," said the third sibling, eagerly. They waddled away looking more like ducks than spiders, Rota thought, laughing. 

Roca and Rota followed the spiders, and when they finally walked into the spiders' home, what they saw shocked them, bringing tears to their eyes. On a large bed lay an older spider, thin and shivering, looking up at Roca and Rota and trying to force a smile. The poor creature was in obvious pain. 

"Oh no! What's wrong?"  said Rota, shocked and quickly moving forward to help.

"This is why we need you. She’s our Mother. We need you to cure her,"' said the first sibling.

Roca and Rota looked at one another. They knew immediately that there was no cure; they recognised it as the same illness their own Mother had. It was the kind of disease that could be slowed down almost entirely with medicine, but this version had progressed so far that unless this old spider had a carer to administer the medicine, it would only get worse. 

They told the spider siblings softly. Two of them cried, but the first sibling remained resolute.

"We have plenty of money! We can pay for anything!" the little spider said with wildly shaking arms.

"Now, now, don’t cry, my children,” the old spider murmured. “I’m sorry for causing so much trouble…if only Ronnie was still with us, I could’ve had someone to look after me without being so much trouble for you all…”.

The old spider coughed softly, trying to stifle a sob.   

Roca and Rota looked at one another, their hearts breaking with the memory of their own mother. They couldn't let this poor old spider down; they had to think of something. They went home, brainstorming all night until, finally, they stumbled upon a brilliant idea. Why hadn’t they thought of it before? They knew that the old spider couldn’t be cured, but with enough medicine, the disease would be made basically powerless. The spiders had said they had money, so Roca and Rota knew they could use that to buy the medicine. Despite this, even if they were able to buy all of it, they would still need a full-time carer to administer the dosage to the old spider. 

Roca and Rota knew that with their new invention, they could solve this problem and change the world! So they got to work, using recycled and discarded materials they had found, like scrap metal, iron, wires and more, until they created their masterpiece: R.O.N.N.I.E. (or, Robotic Orthopaedic Nurse and Neurological Intelligence Enforcer)! 

Roca and Rota decided to honour the little spiders by designing the robot to look just like them (except much bigger…obviously) and naming it after their father. The only things left for Roca and Rota were to work out those last few kinks and then they could show their creation to the whole world! More importantly, though, they knew that with the R.O.N.N.I.E., they could ease the burdens of their parents and finally return home.