Fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck... He knew he shouldn't have tinkered with it! But that upgrade chip didn't come cheap either and it was supposed to be compatible with the AI cores! Sure.. the model number was off by a few digits and letters, and they were already heavily modified before he got them, but he's stuck less compatible stuff together and it all worked out before! Just- lemme-.. ugh! Why doesn't the schematic match?!
So how did he get here? An accident involving cubs and a greedy corp, of course! He was one of the few that wasn't beyond saving, even if they only manage to save just a bit of his skull and his brain! The corp was very proud to demonstrate to their investors how their new medical body was able to keep a cub alive and functioning! Though behind the scenes it was highly suspected that they were in charge of the accident in the first place.
Kit was just gonna go on a field trip! To maybe see one of the factories he will one day slave at! But then there was a deafening sound and it all just faded to black. The awakening was beyond rude. Suddenly he was standing in a room before so many people and cameras and displays, being moved like a doll, fully aware but his body not responding to what he was trying to do! A HUD over his eyes displaying 'REMOTE MODE' along with a lot of quick scrolling gibberish that he didn't understand at the time. He just remembers the applauds and laughs as he bowed and waves, even did some twirls and bends! But then it quieted down as someone from a big screen started speaking and he was put back in a wheelchair to be carted off. Was it days or weeks? Months maybe? Learning his new body. Apparently being a cub did make it easier to learn and soon all that show off they did in front of the investors was pup's play! Sure, the batteries in this body didn't last that long, but it was a medical body! He was gonna get a proper one once this tech was proven! That's what the nice doc told him..
Next thing he knew, he was pushed out the back entrance into a bustling city by that doc. A backpack with batteries and chargers and capsules of hormones to keep the body working while gunshots echoed inside the building. When money doesn't speak between corps, then violence does. The first week was scary, trying to figure out how it all works, but luckily during the violent takeover, all the tech ID chips were reassigned to the new corp! Apparently the one in his body would show up as 'High priority medical emergency' when the batteries ran low, but wouldn't pass any more detail. So he'd have to ask and figure out how to get himself plugged and charged. He even figured out how to fake a low battery state! Just gotta be careful cause the backup battery only lasts an hour! The fully automated hotels were his favorite! As soon as the system would see the 'medical emergency' and the corp's name, he'd be assigned VIP access and since there was no detail on what to do in case of emergency, Kit got to get himself any room he wanted and all the treatment he would have wished for! Though, that stopped working in a week or so. The ID chip would still raise an alarm, but it would no longer be high priority. The new corp was cleaning up the IDs and he got downgraded to 'general medical equipment'. All that fancy tech kept him alive and now in the eyes of automated systems it was no more high priority than a smoker's cough. The later weeks were a bit of a blur. Now he knew how to use the charger and the batteries, so it was working out. Didn't need to eat, all he had to do was pop one of those hormone capsules to keep his brain happy and.. well.. he might've gotten addicted to them. It was supposed to last him a few months, but he was out before he realized it. He couldn't get more - it was tech early in development and now with the corp takeover, it might've been fully canceled.
Next thing he knew he was on a surgical table. None of those fancy, sterile corp rooms. A filthy underground Ripperdoc clinic. Somehow he stumbled in all by himself, talking gibberish and pointing at an old magazine showing him on the front page! "A marvel of modern technology!" The Ripperdoc was.. ugh.. nice? Maybe fair would be a better word. Offered Kit some simple upgrades for that ID chip, cause while it was useless in that body, it still had other uses. So out went the chip and in went the automatic charging system, automatic hormone regulator and even access to the network! No wonder pup was invisible to most people with so much stuff projected right into their brains! Pup got a taste of how good the upgrades feel! Next came the legs so he could do courier work for Ripperdoc. He's small and nimble! And as long as he wore clothes, nobody would see that the only flesh part of him was just that ear and some headfluff. He's seen some fully tech fluffs around, but he just couldn't! That was the original part of him along with his brain still in that fishbowl inside his metal skull! Things were starting to work out for Kit. A nice courier job for Ripperdoc, a cozy spot to sleep and a chance to play with upgrades. He was kinda annoyed that he still had to learn things the old way by reading and doing it! Apparently his brain interface wasn't designed for upload so he couldn't use any of the snazzy learning kits. He still managed to pick up some useful skills from some of the regular patients. A bit of hacking here, some basic combat there, a dab of tech 101. He was such a confident pup at one point... and then the Ripperdoc was gone.
The whole clinic was gone, to be exact. In less than an hour, it was like the building was never there to begin with. The corp tracked down the ID chip back to Ripperdoc and made sure there were no traces left. Kit didn't even know if Ripperdoc managed to escape or not. But now with that disappearance, nobody was willing to risk it with this pup. He was now involved in some dangerous business and it was not worth it for anyone. Kit managed to get by, just had to keep a really low profile about where he was from and who did his upgrades. That was until he got spotted by the crazy doc. The crazy doc was an old dog with three AI cores always floating around him. Apparently he was from a colony on a different planet! At least that's why he had a spaceship. Though, calling it a spaceship would be just describing the function and not the looks. The looks - a transport container with some engines kinda stuck to it.
Why did the crazy doc spot Kit? Well, that bit of tech in his head, the "fishbowl" his brain was in, was something that was not on the market. It was designed to keep the brain as is without any actual physical connections to it. The crazy doc wanted it! He didn't care for the brain, just the fishbowl. The doc wasn't completely nuts, surprisingly. Kit would get a brain chip instead - another marvel of technology that manages to squeeze all that soggy electric bacon functionality into a size of a fist and even have most of the standard interface ports on it. With that, pup could use those learning kits! But it was still his brain, the thing that made him him. But then the crazy doc offered something Kit wasn't expecting - the ship and the AI cores. He could go somewhere to start anew, maybe on a better world and he'd have companions that would help him out!
The procedure felt odd, a complete out of body experience! First the transfer to the brain chip, which took what felt like ages, but then he was right there, connected to a simple world interface. He could see and hear and also speak! The sudden horror of being forever stuck in there hit him hard. Just a box! The crazy doc could've just done that or even just shut him down. But no, the crazy doc was crazy but he wasn't evil. Once the fishbowl with the brain was removed, the chip interface was installed and Kit returned back to his body. Now came the hard part - his brain was still alive. It was put asleep but still alive. The hesitation, the worry, the emotions of losing a very tangible part of himself, it was overflowing in him. But he had to take this step if he wanted to live. It was just a press of a button to shut down the life support. The hardest button press of his life. Getting to learn the AI cores got him distracted enough. They were basic public service units, not those fancy things most CEOs keep around them that can instantly hack everything around them. The crazy doc did heavily modify them! One of them had a laser that could cut through steel! For like a second before needing to cool down, but that was still awesome!
Before he set out to the new frontier, he did modify the AI cores just a bit. Their tech was way too advanced for him to understand even with all the learning kits he's been going through! But he bought some tails from the body mod store. He heard stories about magical foxes that grew more tails as they got older and wiser, so he thought it was appropriate. One tail for learning his new body, second tail for taking advantage of it and third one for taking the hard step to live on. The ship didn't quite fly as expected, then again, it was a shipping container with engines on it with some edges smoothed out so it wouldn't be a brick when entering the atmosphere.
The courier job stuck to him. Doing it between worlds or on them. Sometimes he'd get a fun job at a space station because some of the access hatches were not designed for adults. He'd pick up new parts and mod them on himself, despite being a space brick, the ship was well equipped to handle android body modifications. He was a mess of parts, but he was still him. That bit of red headfluff on his head still reminded him that he was still him.
