As time and technology marches forwards, so does crime and the criminals who commit them. Once most stores went high-tech, to a point where cash became almost nonexistent, there were no longer robberies, since there was no physical money to steal. And once malls invested in the auto-consultants, there was limited staff, and limited merchandise left out. The way most stores worked were that you'd request an item, and it'd be brought to you. Appliances, clothes, pretty much everything was procured through that system. Which made shoplifting extremely hard. However, some criminals just don't know when to quit.

Nate was one of those criminals. His specialty was breaking into the new high-tech malls, and instead of lifting merchandise, he'd break into the machines and steal parts, which went for top dollar on the black market, given the proprietary materials used in their creation. It was easy enough to do, first he'd hack their cameras, since they still had humans monitoring them, and load up the previous night's tape, then he'd go in through the vents, emerge in the targeted store, and with everything deactivated for the night, he'd be able to pop open the machines and take what he wanted. Tonight, he was aiming for a motherboard from the Forge Hill Mall. Everything was going off without a hitch...

Nate dropped to the ground and brushed himself off. He looked around the room, it was dark except for ambient lighting.

"Let's see, where's the main system..." Nate pulled out a flashlight and pointed it around.

He spotted a large device with several ports towards the rear of the room, which is where all the smart-tech was housed.

"Jackpot." Nate smiled and reached into his bag for his tools.

He approached the machine, opened a hatch, and started removing parts, when suddenly, there was a spark, and all the lights turned on in the room. Nate froze as metallic appendages emerged from the ports and immediately seized his arms and legs.

"SECURITY SYSTEM ACTIVE: IDENTIFY YOURSELF!" a robotic voice stated.

Nate hadn't planned for this, Forge Hill didn't have a security system as far as his records went. He had to be smart about this.

"Uh... I'm a... customer?" Nate said.

The systems are usually very binary in thinking, so telling it that he was a customer should force it to let him go, and then he could escape and call this night a wash.

"CUSTOMER... ONE MILLIONTH CUSTOMER! CONGRATULATIONS!"

Happy music started to play. Nate struggled against the appendages, but to no avail.

"Uh, thanks?" Nate said.

"SCANNING CUSTOMER FOR PARAMETERS FOR FREE MAKEOVER!"

"I'm not interested, sorry. I just want to go now." Nate said.

The machine ignored him and continued scanning.

"PARAMETERS SET. COMMENCING MAKEOVER."

The arms pulled him out of the central computer room, and out into the mall proper, bringing Nate inside what he recognized as a changing room.

"NAME, PLEASE."

"My name is Nate." he said.

"USER IDENTIFIED AS KATE."

"Wait, no I said Nate!" Nate screamed as the appendages started to strip Nate's clothes off.

Once he was completely naked, Nate was sprayed down by a nozzle from his neck down. He didn't know what he was sprayed with, but it started to burn the longer it sat on his body.

"Get it off! It burns!" Nate screamed.

At this point, the security video would have been watched, and the authorities would have been sent in to deactivate the system and arrest Nate, which would have been preferable to him, but because he hacked the cameras, no one would ever see what happened to him.

A few minutes passed, and the nozzle returned, but spraying cold water onto Nate. As the water washed off the spray, it took with it all of his body hair, leaving Nate within the grasp of the appendages, shivering and wet. But not for long. Another set of appendages arrived and sprayed him with warm air to dry him off, before most of the appendages then retracted, only to return a moment later with several attachments. The first two appeared to be suction cups and immediately seized upon Nate's chest, as he felt immense pressure being exerted onto his skin.

"Agh!" Nate winced.

Another attachment attached itself to Nate's groin and rear.

"Please, no..." Nate whined.

Body modification had become far more popular in recent years than it had ever been, mainly because technology now allowed one to change their body on a whim. Want to get rid of that beer gut? The machine can reshape your fat into muscle! If a woman wanted bigger or smaller breasts, that was possible as well.

In Nate's case, it was changing his body to match a woman of his shape and size. The attachments released and Nate craned his neck down to look at the damage. He had breasts! They weren't overly huge, but given his previous experience hadn't had any size, this was a new feeling for him. His rear had been swelled slightly as well, likely to compensate for the covering that the machine did of his groin.

"Please release me!" Nate begged. "I'm not a woman! I'm a man! I want to be a man!"

"USER REQUEST: I WANT A MAN." the machine stated.

"No, I want to be a..." Nate was interrupted as the arms dragged him into another area of the mall, a lingerie store.

He was once again scanned, and a set of lingerie was placed onto his body, first a black push-up bra to hold his newly acquired breasts, and then a pair of matching panties were slid up his legs.

Nate was losing the ability to struggle as the appendages dragged him through the mall once more into a salon and sat him down in a salon chair with several attachments. Nate smiled as all of the appendages retracted.

"This might be my chance..." he thought.

Nate started to stand up, and started to run, but was immediately re-seized by the arms. The arms settled Nate down in the chair, before placing his hands and feet into the attachments on the arm foot rests. He felt something happening to them, and pressure being applied to his fingers but couldn't see. A metallic mask was placed onto his face, as the hair dryer dome was placed over his hair.

"Mmph! Mmph!" Nate failed to vocalize his protests, for all the good it would do.

He couldn't see what was happening, but he could feel his hair being pulled in every direction under the dryer. Nate squirmed and pulled, but he was held securely, until all the attachments released at once. Before he could find a mirror, the arms grabbed him, lifted him again and dragged him to another area, another changing room, but of the traditional variety, in a clothing store.

Nate didn't have time to look down at himself, because the appendages got to work immediately, pulling Nate into a tight black dress. Two more appendages quickly pierced Nate's ears, while another placed a necklace around his neck and a bracelet on his wrist. Once they seemed satisfied, the appendages placed Nate down into a pair of 3" peep-toe black heels and pulled a mirror down in front of Nate.

Nate was in shock. His hair had been styled into a loose updo that perfectly framed his face, which had been elegantly made up with smoky eyes, plump, kissable lips, and all his blemishes had been removed by the contouring that the machine had done on his face. His fingernails had been extended and were now painted with french tips, same as his toenails, which peeked out from the peep-toe black heels. The little black dress perfectly showed off Nate's new breasts, and accentuated his rear perfectly, though Nate tried to pull the skirt down, unsuccessfully. A black purse was slung over his shoulder. The transformation was staggering, Nate could scarcely believe that it was actually him, but the woman's movements perfectly matched his own.

"ENJOY YOUR NEW LOOK, KATE." the machine said.

As Nate continued to stare at his reflection, the arms grabbed him once more and dropped him by the entrance to the mall. Nate immediately rushed outside, as fast as his heeled feet could take him. Knowing he'd never make it back to his getaway car dressed like he was, he started to walk down the street, hoping to put some distance between him and the mall. Hearing sirens, he ducked into the first building he saw, a trendy bar.

As he looked for a place to sit down, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around, coming face to face with a well-dressed man.

"Hi there, I'm Jason. What's your name?" the man said.

"Uh..." Nate started. "Kate."

"This might be too forward, but would you like to go out on a date with me?" Jason said, holding out his hand.

Nate wanted to tell the guy to shove off, but he had to blend in, at least until he could figure out how to get out of this get up.

"Sure." Nate said, taking Jason's hand. "Lead the way."