Early the next morning, Kyle makes his why onto the school bus, trying his best to ignore all the stares of his fellow students, it has been years, but he still hadn’t got used to being stared at, and he might never will. Kyle is unique, at least as far as he could tell, there was nothing else like him, he has the appearance of a 12-year-old german shepherd, but he was not a living being, well… at one point he had been, that was before the accident he had which caused him to become what he now is: a sentient robot, his body made completely out of shining chrome metal, lacking the coloring of a german shepherd, the irises of his eyes made of blue LEDs, he is also able to wag his metal tail. Due to not having a german shepherd coloring, Kyle could easily be mistaking of a wolf-robot, or some other canine with a german shepherd appearance, but since he had been a german shepherd when he was alive, Kyle refers to himself as such.
Kyle had no magic of his own, though he has other talents, like being able to fix any hardware in the academy, which led him to work in the tech department of the academy instead of attending classes, however, the little robot is allowed to attend field trips from time to time.
Today a class is planning to visit the museum of art, history and science, when he heard about this, Kyle got really excited and couldn’t wait to see all those amazing high tech stuff on display.
“Kyle, Kyle, over here,” he then hears a young voice, looking up he sees an 11-year-old cat-boy waving and smiling at him.
“Jordan,” Kyle says, smiling himself and walks up to the young feline.
Jordan is one of Kyle’s few friends, who made Kyle feel accepted, other students were more afraid of him, probably because he was different in more ways than one, he couldn’t blame them though.
“Great to see you, Kyle,” Jordan says, still smiling as Kyle sits down next to him, “I had a feeling you’d be joining us on this trip”.
Kyle chuckles, “great to see you too, Jordan,” he says, “well, when I heard that you and your class were visiting the museum of science, arts and history, I just couldn’t let the opportunity of seeing the most amazing high tech stuff slip away!”
Jordan chuckles, “figures,” he says, he then tilts his head, his expression turning a little serious, “we’ve known each other for a while, so, I couldn’t help but notice that something seems to be bothering you”.
Kyle looks at his friend as the bus continues on its way to the museum, the robotic canine lets out a sigh, “well, I do miss my old life,” he says, “I miss the wind in my fur, the taste of food on my tongue… I… I wish I could have my old life back. I’d do anything!”
Jordan lies a hand on his friend’s shoulder, “listen, Kyle,” he says, “you have to finally let go of your past. I know it’s hard and I understand, but no one can undo what has happened, at least you’re alive, and that is the most important thing”.
“But look at me,” Kyle says, “I am just some wires and circuits, ones and zeros and made of metal! I don’t have a lot of friends, most of the students and people are afraid of me!”
“Hey, don’t pull yourself down,” Jordan says, “ignore those idiots, you are amazing! You are faster, smarter and stronger than anyone at the academy! Do you want to know a secret?”
“Yeah,” Kyle says.
Jordan leans into Kyle and whispers into his ear, “I wish I were like you, my friend!”
Kyle’s eyes widen when he hears this, “you wanna be a robot,” he whispers, “why?”
Jordan grins, “because I think robots are cool,” he says, “I know that I’ll never become a robot! I just want to say that you should be proud of what you are and embrace it! We can’t change who or what we are, except some predator would claim us, other than that, we should be happy that we have our lives to live”.
“I… I guess you are right,” Kyle says, “I guess I really should start embracing who and what I am, now that I think about it and about what you have said… being a sentient robot is pretty cool”.
Jordan smiles, “that’s the spirit,” he says, “now, I know you love to prank people, what do you say we team up and pull some pranks on my classmates and professor,” he then asks with a grin.
“Oh? What exactly do you have in mind,” Kyle asks, sounding interested, he really enjoys pranking people, by pretending to be a toy robot or puppet, then scaring them by suddenly moving on his own.
The rest of the drive the two spent time plotting and planning their evil plans to launch a prank war against the professor and students, laying out plans and strategies to unleash utterly hilarious hell on the whole school.
However, the pair were drawn out of their planning as the bus finally pulled to a stop and the students began to pour out. The pair climb to their paws to follow after the sea of students, coming before a small stone building. The words “Xion City Museum of History, Art and Science” emblazoned in golden lettering across the front of the building.
“Um, Mr. Black?” Jordan calls out, raising his paw, “I thought this was one of the biggest museums in the entire world, but it’s smaller the teacher’s dorms,” He says tentatively.
Mr. Black, an always grumpy looking wolf, chuckles as he turns around to face the students, “well everyone, the simple answer to that is, it’s bigger on the inside,” he says calmly, “I won’t bore you with the details, but basically you’ve got a building the size of our entire school campus, within that little building, anything and everything you could imagine there for you to see”.
When the students enter the museum their eyes widen in shock and amazement at the size of the inside, “you weren’t kidding, sir,” Kyle says, “this place is huge!”
Mr. Black chuckles, “told you,” he says, “now, hurry along and have fun! We’ll meet back here in… let’s say… five hours!”
The students immediately dash off in every direction, “Kyle, do you mind if we’d head to the dinosaurs first,” Jordan asks.
“Um… honestly, I would rather check out the science and tech exhibit, if you don’t mind,” Kyle says.
Jordan chuckles, “figures,” he says, “okay, let’s each check out our most favorite exhibits solo first, then meet back here and head together to the next, what do you say?”
Kyle smiles, “sounds good to me, Jordan,” he says, so the two part ways, walking off in different directions.
The german shepherd robot walks along a long hallway, then up some stairs, following signs that say “Science and tech exhibit”, until he finally reaches the exhibit, and his eyes widen when he steps into the room. Rows upon rows of robots in every form, shape and size, some looking like normal working or maintenance robots, others looking like him and others that look more industrial.
Kyle rubs one of his arms as he walks along the rows of robots, feeling as though he had arrived in the paradise of science and tech. He also notices that he seems to be the only one in the exhibit, but he doesn’t care, at least he could enjoy some peace and quiet while admiring all the bots. As he walks along the rows of robots, he notices a few empty pedestals, Kyle chuckles as he imagines himself standing on one of those pedestals, no one would realize it was him, he’d look just like any other robot in the room.
“Oh my, what do we have here,” he then hears a voice behind him, “are you lost, little robot?”
Kyle turns around to see a dalmatian with a big smile on his face walking up to him, “um… I’m not really a robot,” he says, sounding a little nervous, “I’m a sentient: boys mind in a robot body”.
“I see,” the dalmatian says, “whoever made that there body of yours, he or she did one fantastic job, if I do say so myself. Do you have a name, little one?”
Kyle nods, “ya, my name is Kyle, sir,” he says.
The dalmatian chuckles, “no need to be formal, Kyle,” he says, “you can call me Nora,” he adds, tapping at his name badge.
“You work here,” Kyle asks.
“I get around,” Nora chuckles, “I am the caretaker of this museum, my job is to make sure all the exhibits are clean and all objects on display are in best shape. I take a lot of pride in my work”.
“Damn, must be tiring,” Kyle says, “taking care of all these exhibits by yourself”.
“I don’t mind,” Nora says, still smiling, “I enjoy what I do, and the pay is good. What would you say if I’d give you a private tour of this exhibit?”
“That… that would be cool,” Kyle says, “but… but I don’t wanna keep you from doing your job”.
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m on my break and have nothing to do anyway,” Nora says, “it would be my pleasure to show you around and explain a few things. I know quite a bit about all the exhibits, this exhibit is by far my favorite, robots and anything technical I find very fascinating”.
Kyle smiles, “then sure, I’d love a tour,” he says.
“Perfect,” Nora says, clapping his hands and wagging his tail, “then let’s start”.
What follows is a whirlwind of information, as Nora explains every detail of every robot on display, Kyle is so heavily bombarded that his system is unable to keep up with all the information, which causes the young sentient’s process-system to run slower than usual. It’s to much that Kyle can feel his memory banks struggle as they try to keep up with the continuous flow of information he is receiving.
Nora seems to notice that the little bot seems to be struggling, as he notices Kyle’s eyes seem to dim and then blink back on a few times, “oh? Is your battery running low, lad? Do you need a recharge,” he asks, “we have a station right here that we use to charge some of the display models when we put on shows for kids. We could charge you right up,” he adds.
Does he need a recharge? Kyle tries to remember when he last charged himself, but his memory banks are still dealing with the influx of information he had received, preventing the little dog-bot from accessing his files. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt,” he says, “I seem to be running a little slow. Would it take long? I’d really want to continue to look at everything, besides, I need to meet up with my friend Jordan soon to check out the other exhibits”.
“Oh, don’t you worry, Kyle,” Nora says, patting the bot’s head as he begins to lead him over to a computer which has a small pedestal set up next to it, “we’ll have you all done up in no time. Just climb up onto this pedestal and I’ll get started on fixing and charging you up immediately. You don’t have to worry about anything”.
Kyle slowly nods his head, yeah, that was right, he doesn’t need to worry about anything. He grins widely as he climbs up onto the pedestal, turning around to look at Nora, he is just getting some basic maintenance and a power boost. If something is making his memory and system lag, well, that needed to be dealt with asap, “I’m already, Nora,” Kyle says cheerfully, “go ahead and jack in!”
Nora nods, before moving over to the computer and picking up an ethernet cord, then moving behind Kyle and sliding it into the port on the back of Kyle’s head.
Kyle’s body goes rigid when the cable slides home and accesses his system, immediately an influx of data begins to flow into the robot’s brain, practically sweeping up Kyle’s human mind, the data comes in so fast, that Kyle is unable to keep up with it, by the time he made sense of one piece of data, ten more were already there, shouting for his attention.
“Don’t you worry, little bot,” Nora says, his form seeming to weaver, “I’ll get you all good and proper,” the dalmatian smiles as his form continues to alter, changing from a dalmatian to that of a black and white fox, the letters of the name tag on his chest seem to rearrange themselves until instead of “Nora” it now read “Aron”. Aron grins, “we’ll get you in your proper place in just a few minutes, I promise,” he says cheerfully, as he begins tapping away at the keyboard of the computer, accessing Kyle’s memory files.
Kyle blinks when he feels something access his data banks, “um… sir, some-something’s up,” he says, his voice slow, almost sounding slurred. Once again his body goes rigid as he feels as though something had been “twisted” in his mind, almost as if someone had flicked a switch, where is he? How did he get here? What had he been doing?
“There we go, good little bot,” Aron says, “just let all of that nasty and useless stuff go, you’ll look so beautiful on display,” he continues cheerfully, clapping his hands and wagging his bushy tail, as he watches a bar on the computer screen slowly fill. The fox is currently downloading Kyle’s human mind onto a flash drive, while uploading the bot’s new and improved programming, after all, what sort of machine needed to think for itself? That’s just silly!
Kyle shudders as thoughts and memories begin to come to the fore of his mind, he… he belongs to the museum, is that it? He is a display model for a new maintenance bot, one specialized in fixing any hardware and making sure that a company had no issues with their computer system and software. And yet, as those memories and thoughts fill his mind, Kyle feels other memories fade away, his school, his friends, his family… all of those things being safely backed up on the flash drive, before being deleted from his memory.
“And there we are,” Aron says proudly as the bar finishes filling, and a message appearing, “download and upload successful! Flash drive can be disconnected,” the fox extracts the tiny flash drive, which contains Kyle’s human mind and memories, and stuffs it into one of his pant’s pockets. Now, just a smidge more work, and his new Robot will be ready for display, Aron taps at the keyboard, bringing up a new prompt, before clicking it, activating the system reset of the machine in front of him, to reset him, Kyle, back to factory settings.
Kyl… no, KyL-3 slowly blinked as his system reactivates after a restart, his eyes slowly scanning the room, before landing on the fox in front of him. The machine standing completely still, awaiting input of the fur before him.
“Machine, please tell me your designation and purpose,” Aron says gently, wanting to confirm that the new robot is ready to fulfill its new role.
“Model KyL-3, maintenance unit. Purpose… permanent display model for Xion City Museum of Arts, History and Science,” the robot drones, all emotion and warmth, that once had filled its voice… gone, “awaiting orders for placement!”
Aron nods, satisfied, “good, good, come along little unit,” he says, reaching back and disconnecting the ethernet cable from the robot’s head, “let’s get you set up”. Aron says happily as he gently grasps the dog’s paw, leading him off through the ranks of machines to one of the empty pedestals set among some of the most cutting edge models currently out on the market, “here you are little bot, please assume display posture on your pedestal.”
KyL-3 gives a nod of understanding as he climbs up into the display case and to his waiting pedestal, he then turns to face the fox, his arms at his side, and an almost blank smile on his muzzle as he stands ramrod straight.
Aron nods his head, looking the dog-bot up and down, “good, very good little bot. Unit, engage system locks and shut down,” he says, after making sure that he’d been posed correctly. Aron smiles as he watches the eyes of the robot dim before color of the robot’s blue irises vanishes entirely. The fox steps over into the display as he circles the shutdown machine, examining him with an eye before nodding, conjuring a cloth and starts to polish the metal, whistling a cheery tune as he works on making his newest exhibit the best it could be. “Welcome to the collection my little one, I’ll take such good care of you,” he says happily as he pats the cold metal of the little bot’s muzzle.
One of Aron’s ears twitch as he hears laughter echoing through the museum. Oh, it seems he’s going to have a busy today, so many beautiful displays to fill, so very little time. He claps his hands as he nods his head to the bot, patting his head before sauntering off, his form shimmering into a canine as his name tag reverts back to read “Nora”, as he heads to greet his next project.
In this chapter, a young german shepherd sentient robot is on his way to the museum, excited to see the tech and science exhibit, little does he know: he'll become a part of that exhibit!
