Name: R.A.S.A. (Robotic Assistance/Service Animal) Gender: None, default pronouns "it" but will acknowledge any other pronoun. Story: R.A.S.A. was created as an artificial service animal for people who were allergic to real animals. (hold on LMT)

Engineers and designers gave it a cute and modern appearance to appeal to many people. It was to be programmed in a revolutionary way, using the brain maps of cats and dogs to create a realistic imitation. Of course, this backfired horribly.

The FIGHT-or-flight instincts were amplified, turning the machine both timid and violent. Thankfully, it didn't do much damage, the only hard parts of the creature being the charger, the screen, and the bony inner structure. But where there is failure, there is opportunity. One of the engineers had this wonderful idea of weaponizing the design. Said engineer also neglected to inform anyone about his decision, due to the fact that at that point, the machine was set to be scrapped anyway.

A small time later, the project was rebooted in the hope that R.A.S.A. was still salvageable. It was recovered from the trash. After the programmers tried putting in a few fixes, R.A.S.A. was booted up. It seemed fine. It was interacting better, and they put in heightened intelligence in the hopes that it could learn to reason. Then it came the time for them to power it off. R.A.S.A panicked and discovered it's "upgrades," effectively injuring and/or killing its makers and escaping the facility.

It now wanders, hunted by the authorities and recharging itself whenever it can. Its AI programming allowed it to learn, to form something of a consciousness. Unfortunately, due to the fact that it is being actively hunted by humans, it now sees them as a threat. Usually, it flees but if it is cornered or if it panics, it can wreak havoc.