Hiro stared at the sunlight...
...nothing.
He didn't change back!
Words couldn't describe it. How angry he felt... the rage built into him, reaching records that even his processor sensor warned him was unsustainable and could do irrepreable harm. He didn't care though. He pounded the ground with his metallic hand, sending a shock wave of vibration around him, and a small creator on the side walk.
He was upset... "God..." he said. He was going to be stuck like this forever? A monster? Why! God Why!
Hiro got up quickly. He went back to his house, not really sure what else to do. He looked at his computer and sat down. He sighed, already missing Riko when... something very odd happened. His memory was listing a number of programs that were definitely not in his memory before. They were responding to the visual information on the computer.
He stared at pictures on the screen that had been posted, of various fictional digital fairies. As he scanned he was getting some kind of 'compatibility' match... varying between 10% to 95%. There was one in particular he liked, with hair of four braids, each a different colour. It was a SNES-type fairy. As he stared at it, he decided to try the program to see what it would do.
Then he was suddenly looking at 'himself'- as if he was some kind of giant! He looked down and saw the body of the female digital fairy and screamed.
"Holy shi-" He-she exclaimed. This... it was real? She attempted to get back to her own system... and found she could do that with ease. Now he was looking at the picture... it had become a template file, and was stuck in that expression of surprise and shock he only wore a moment ago.
Hiro looked down at himself, glad to see he was... back in his own body. He had to take stock of just what had happened... apparently he was able to take on the form of pictures on the internet? Become some kind of 'digital fairy bitmap?' Not a true digital fairy exactly though... just in 'appearance'. Could this be a way to a more 'normal' appearance, even if only on the internet?
A little eagerly he quickly uploaded a picture of his old self..
...nothing. He was not even getting a compatibility score any more.
He tried activating the program a few times, but all he got was an error 'type mismatch' code. What the hell was going on?
After a little more experimentation, it dawned on his that he could only take the appearance of a female avatar. Not only that, but... something about the program ensured that they would always be extraordinarily beautiful avatars, no matter how crude the drawing was. Indeed the more crude, the more the program seemed to 'compensate' for that, even when he tried to go for certain 'boyish' looking ones, they always had that... something feminine about them.
Hiro spent the next couple of hours experimenting in different forms, building a collection of avatars that were... at least 'reasonable' to him. He didn't have an 'editor', as 'she' was still linked to 'his' body... (this was getting very confusing...)
Somehow, the light had given him a few other curious programs. He tried another, to find that his cybernetic form was... made a little sleeker. Less crude looking, and more... natural. There was a seamlessness, to make it look less like a hodgepodge of man and machine, and a greater elegance in their fusion.
Still... it didn't really look right. He missed being human. He tried the last program- and nearly fell of his chair.
Energy was being used at a very high rate, as a strange light formed around him, changing him...
Now he was human (with pointed ears though)... in reality!. He took on the appearance of the last avatar he became! Hiro looked down... She... she was beautiful. There was no way to explain it. The lovely silver dress, the strange lightness of her skin... It was as if someone had taken the 'perfect' pictures, and translated it into the real world... in a way that would never be unsettling to the eyes. She looked down and around... with confusion as much as curiosity, with the knowledge that this was not permanent... she could switch back and forth simply by the program!
There was a metabolism warning though. Doing this... seemed to take a great deal of energy. Was it holography? It couldn't be... it all felt 'real'. Unless the program was feeding her biological senses that she 'expected'...
she had already spent some time in this form on the internet, and it was not quite as awkward this time... but... maybe she could now go on the internet, and see Riko? A sudden pang of embarrassment though made her realise she would rather not people knew she changed gender on the internet! That.. just felt so wrong! She was a guy and liked being a guy! He should change back and forget about this program-
Suddenly his sister knocked the door. "Hey Big Brother are you-" She gasped. "Who are you!"
Hiro's jaw dropped. "Uh..."
