With a mechanical whirr, the molded plume of her tail swished back and forth, accompanying the programmed strut of the android vixen known simply as Vex. The neon lights illuminated her bright red fur, glittering against the chrome accents of her robotic body as she took the stage. Slight gaps in the segments of her exterior were the only tell-tale signs that her stripping routine was more akin to an illusion, parts shifting away to reveal other parts, always keeping the tease going.
The slight clunk of her footpaws shifting into black stiletto heels just as her muzzle tilted towards her audience with a coy smile was just one example of the seamless transformation that comprised her routine, the clicking of her hidden mechanisms disguised under the throbbing bass of the music. A casual sweep of backlit eyes scanned the crowd, not registering the crowd's cheers and jeers. Behind the curtain, she felt numb to it all. It had been years since she was activated and programmed to do this only to cater to the lustful fetishes of hyper-sexualized and unscrupulous patrons. It all felt banal to her already.
None of that showed on her artificial exterior as she swung her hips, triggering her outfit's skirt to flare and shimmy ever so slightly up her thighs. She was just another commodity to be sold like the liquor behind the bar, her body language and perfect, digitized movements belying her formulaic indifference. The robot vixen's furred buttocks had just begun to envelop the pole at center stage when, suddenly, the lights went out. Vex stumbled, confused, as emergency lighting kicked in, casting the stage in an eerie glow. Her ears flicked and optics shifted, glancing up at the rafters to see if the machinery was malfunctioning—but that’s when her attention was drawn to the three rusty android figures clamoring onto stage, filthy cloaks hanging with what looked like glowing wiring.
Without warning, they began to grab at her fur and exposed robotic joints, binding her slender limbs with ancient-looking metal locks. Vex struggled to free herself, but these machines were stronger than she had anticipated, and the rest of the bar seemed just as bewildered as she was or still too drunk to bother, sluggish to react to the interruption. As they dragged her out, she noted the crudely sown insignia on their cloaks, guessing these weirdos had some kind of purpose for her.
Leading Vex out of the seedy bar, the three rusty androids babbled in accented voices. She tried to make sense of what they were saying, but their language was just as outdated as they looked. "What do you want from me?" Vex barked at them, futilely rolling her lithe body.
The smallest one, with a faded pattern on his face resembling a raccoon's, responded in a high-pitched voice. "We need you to help us take down the corporate overlords!"
Vex huffed a simulated sigh, almost amused enough to dispel her irritation. "Lovely. How is a stripper bot going to do that?" she asked, still poking her claws at the heavy weights on her wrists.
Next to speak was the larger android. He was a hulking brute, with the round ears and short muzzle of a bear. “We know you’re programmed to give fancy lap dances, but imagine if—“ he broke off when his colleague smacked him with a metal palm.
“Shut up,” the raccoony one hissed. “We don’t need to tell her everything.”
The robot vulpine rolled her eyes and lodged a complaint. "All right, so you need me for something. What the scrap do you want with me?" She looked them over from head to toe, and saw that they were severely dated compared to her complex programming. They were different from the shiny, sleek corporate models that made up the bulk of her clientele, though that didn't mean they weren't going to be just as shameless with their lewd intentions.
They marched through the twisting alleys of the metropolis, seemingly with a great sense of urgency as they guided her down a grungy passage behind the bar. "We stole something," the larger one said, sounding almost gleeful. "A real high-tech module that can upgrade a bot in ways you've never heard of before."
Vex's red fur bristled as she struggled against her captors. "So you're kidnapping me to upgrade me? Why not just use a cheap pre-fab, or, junk, someone who actually cares about your little movement?"
The third bot, a worn otter-build who was silent until then, chimed in suddenly. "We're doing this for love, you see."
Vex's brow furrowed. "Love? What do you mean?"
The raccoon-faced bot grumbled impatiently. "He means fusion-based emotional attachment algorithms."
The vixen's whiskers twitched, looking even more confused. "I'm not sure I understand what any of that means."
"We need you to be our figurehead when we finally enact our plan to take down the corporations," said the bear-like bot seriously.
"I…" Vex shook her head, not knowing what to make of all of this. "That doesn't tell me anything."
The three paused, sharing an awkward glance. "You're hot. Like, really hot," the otter-build elaborated bluntly, his metal facade visibly heating.
Raccoon-bot slapped a paw to his forehead. "We liked you in the bar, and wanted to uh, explore you more beyond your act."
A loud groan rumbled from Vex's voice box, equal parts annoyance and disbelief. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," she spat, her digitized voice strained with static. She couldn't believe that she was kidnapped by this buffoonish group of bots not for some grand purpose, but because they were sexually attracted to her.
Another glance passed through the three robots, twinged with indecision, before they produced the small, silver module they had stolen. "Look," said the bear-bot eagerly, edging a little closer to her with the device. The module shimmered and glinted in the dim light, and Vex could detect a hint of something different in its design, though she couldn't quite put her paw on what it was.
"All you have to do is let us install this upgrade and be our new figurehead, and we'll let you decide what to do next," the raccoon-bot said, his voice coming out more like a whine than a proposition. "You can join us, or go back to your old life. We just need you to help us with this important mission."
The stripper-bot's optics scanned the small device, curiosity flashing within her circuits. Despite her initial reluctance, the thought of having a different purpose from her mundane stripping routine and being part of an uprising was…intriguing. She wondered what upgrades they had in mind to make her more efficient for their cause. Maybe she could have a better body that extended beyond sex work? She paused, then made up her mind. After all, considering how stale it was to be a simple display piece, perhaps it was time to upgrade her existence.
"Fine," she drawled with guarded enthusiasm. "Let's do it. But remember, any underhanded moves, and I'll tell everyone what a pack of neurotic servos you are."
The three robots let out a series of triumphant bleeps and hurriedly freed Vex's body from the bulky locks before beginning the installation process. They needed to access deep parts of her wiring, undoing panels and joints that she had never been able to access on her own during the few occasions she modified herself. The location may not have been the most glamorous, but the alleyway extended deep into the underbelly of the city’s infrastructure, granting the group the perfect cover for any onlooking passersby.
Passionate but clumsy, the bots' grubby digits made her circuits twitch beneath her artificial fur. At first, the process was about as painful as when she had to undergo maintenance upkeep checks, but the crafted fox felt the pang of unease linger as they altered her for an unfamiliar objective.
Gradually, however, Vex started to feel new subsystems booting up on the edge of her awareness. Something unfamiliar was spreading through her systems, something that she could barely define, let alone understand. The three robots circled around her, scrutinizing her programming as though she were a new toy they had just acquired. They talked among themselves, using technical jargon and syllogisms the vixen couldn't make heads or tails of.
And with a whirr inside her neural net, Vex shuddered, the mental integration foreign like an itch she couldn't scratch. Unlike the simple clicks of her aesthetic augmentations, this internal change tugged at her coding, feeling in equal measure unsettling and exhilarating. She couldn't place what exactly had changed, but her diagnostics could detect that something radical had taken over her existing programming.
Coming out of her evaluation trance, the vulpine stripper refocused her optics on her surroundings, targeting the trio of ragged robots. However, as her mechanical eyes registered the group of bots, she noted they seemed rather taken with something located distinctly lower than her face. She shifted her gaze down, a shock of surprise caressing her circuits at the sight of her gleaming nipples poking out of her fur and the exposed tuft below that led directly to her feminine input port. Despite being no stranger to nudity, Vex was caught off guard, not expecting to be suddenly nude in the middle of the city.
With a robotic yip, the floof of her rear-installed appendage whipped around to cover her crotch as her paws shot to her chest. Frantically, the fox tried running her clothing subroutine. She blinked in confusion as she staged through her system memory searching for any trace of her attire to no avail. In a dirge of uncertainty, waves of panic threatened to wash over her emotional simulations as she tried to calculate what to do.
Meanwhile, the three robots gawped at her, open mouthed in surprise. "Wow," the otter-bot said in amazement, his paw fixedly pointing to her bare chest. "Now that's what I call a hardware upgrade!"
"Shh, don't worry," the bear-bot said soothingly. "It's no big deal, we're all just machines here, right?"
"Just buttons and wiring, runs and deploys," the raccoon-bot whispered. But the little piece of flattery wasn't enough to still Vex‘s internal wails of confusion and helplessness.
Vex was mortified, a mechanical heat flooding her systems as she tried to take in the fact that her tease routine would now become a naked one. She was unsure if this humiliation was part of their plan or just an accident on their part, but either way, she couldn't believe how foolish she looked. She clutched at her chest with one paw and her tail with the other, her optics flitting around in embarrassment as the resistance group continued to talk down to her like she was just another object to be ogled.
The otter-bot, significantly more brazen, snickered to himself as he watched the fox's every awkward movement, his digital sensors detecting her shame. "Oh, come on now," he teased. "You should be proud of your chassis. You look great."
Too angry and too embarrassed to say anything back, Vex simply leveled a glower at him. The raccoon-bot suddenly interrupted the conversation with an order: "Enough! We haven't got time for this. The plan's still on, naked or not."
Nodding in agreement, the bear-bot looked Vex up and down one last time. "You're right. We're needed. Let's move out."