Kyrie ran at a breakneck pace, making sharp turns through the labyrinthine back alleys of her home town. Her suitcase made it difficult, and she made a mental note never to lug around a 30 pound robot by herself in the future, assuming she had one. She mentally slapped herself. Now wasn't the time to be pessimistic.

"Help!" she screamed, not for the first time in the past few minutes. She couldn't see the mugger anymore, but she was sure he was hot on her trail.

Still, she ran, fast enough that her gym teacher would have been proud. It was a shame she hadn't paid more attention to the direction she was making those turns in, however.

The man stood barring her path, holding a pistol. He was Caucasian, with a shaved head and multiple tattoos spanning his arms. She couldn't help but notice that one of them said "I have a small dick" in Japanese, her first language. The man had asked her to hand over her things, but he had this murderous gleam in his eyes that told her she wouldn't be walking out of the alley even if she did.

She cursed her luck as he raised the pistol to put her in his line of fire. Everything had been going so well. She'd finished her project on time, and she was about to turn 18 in a week! There were so many things she still wanted to do.

"Stop, I'll give you everything. Please!" She pleaded, offering up the briefcase.

The man just grinned. She noticed his eyes were glazed over in an unnatural way.

A sound like the crash of thunder filled the alley, and then the world went dark.

###

Kyrie awoke with a start, clutching her face for bullet holes. It had only been a nightmare. She glanced up at the ceiling fan rotating steadily above, keeping the sunlit room somewhat cool. A deep sigh escaped her lips as she closed her eyes again, annoyed that the dream had ruined her sleep.

It took her a full ten seconds to remember that her room didn't have a ceiling fan. She shot up, feeling immensely heavy. She looked down and noticed she was topless. More importantly, her boobs were gone.

"Whoa, easy there. Easy," a kindly voice said to her left. She covered her chest on instinct. It was an old man with a mustache. "You've been out a couple of days now. Why don't you just relax a second? Get your bearings."

Kyrie forced herself to calm down. What was going on? She wanted to speak but she was afraid of the sound that would come out.

"Let's see what the damage is," he said. "How about your name? Can you tell me your name?"

Just as she was about to speak, the world seemed to freeze and what looked like a dialogue box appeared before her. She waved her hand in front of the man's face, but it seemed like no one as the hell was going on?

The box read "Courier" in yellow letters. She guessed she was supposed to put her name in, but had no idea how. Then, as if it could read her mind, a holographic keyboard appeared before her. She looked at it suspiciously for a moment, and then shrugged. It wasn't like it was any weirder than what had already happened so far. She typed in "Kyrie," not offering her last name as she hadn't been told if it was necessary or not. When she was done, the world unfroze.

"Well, I can't say it's what I'd have picked for you, but if that's your name, then that's your name," he said, which earned him a scowl from her.

"I'm Doc Mitchell, welcome to Goodsprings," he said by way of introduction. "Now I hope you don't mind, but I had to go rooting around there in your noggin to dig all the bits of lead out."

Kyrie's eyes widened. Lead? In her head? What was he talking about?

"I take pride in my needlework, but you'd better tell me if I left something out of place," he said, handing her some strange device. She hesitated for a moment, but then she took it from him. The world froze again, and the monitor on the device showed the face of a man.

"What does he mean, check if he left anything out of-" Kyrie stopped herself misentence, hearing the deep baritone that came out of her throat.

"Oh God," she said, the situation finally dawning upon her. With a trembling, large hand that looked nothing like her own, she reached down to the shorts she was wearing and pulled the waistband just enough for her to take a peek. She immediately let the garter go as she saw it, causing her to bite her lip as immense pain struck the area.

She was a man! And a white man, at that! "Left something out of place," he'd said. How about getting her freaking gender wrong? That was when she remembered the device in her hand. There was a display on the side that read "Male" on top of "Female." It looked like Male was selected. What if-

No, there's no way, she thought, afraid to speak and hear her new voice again. Regardless, she chose the second option anyway, and found her body magically transform before her eyes. A matching sports bra even appeared to cover up her boobs. Or at least, she was pretty sure they were her boobs. They felt different somehow, maybe heavier.

Kyrie wound up spending the next half hour trying the wondrous device out. In the end, she settled for as close as she could to her normal appearance. Well, her normal appearance if she was one cup bigger, had ab lines, and perfectly clear complexion, anyway. She even took a few minutes to go through the hair styles, finding none to her liking. She supposed she could always cut it later. When she was done, the world unfroze again, and she was almost reluctant to give the gadget back to the Doc.

"Well, I got most of it right, anyway. Stuff that mattered," he muttered.

"You gave me a dick!" she protested.

He just shrugged. "Okay. No sense keeping you in bed anymore. Let's see if we can get you on your feet."

The Doc had her walk over to a machine that supposedly tested her physical condition, but it didn't look like any modern medical device she knew of. In fact, the entire place had that Old America feel to it. It was like she'd stepped out of 2015 and into some Cowboy movie.

The Vigor Tester was simple enough. It asked her to place her hand on the knob. She did so, and the world froze for her a third time. This time she paid it no attention. The machine showed her seven attributes, giving a short explanation of what each one did. It had taken her a while to realize it, but this whole setup with the gender swapping and the dialogue boxes reminded her of a video game. Well, that wasn't too bad. She'd played a few of them before she moved on to building robot kits.

She wound up boosting her Intelligence and Charisma to 9, keeping Strength at 6, lowering Perception to 2, and then distributing the rest of the deficit among the others. The Doctor had her go through a psychiatric evaluation and fill out a form for her family history before finally letting her go. He was kind enough to give her a navigation device, an outfit that belonged to his late wife, and free reign to take anything she needed from his house. While she felt like he'd already helped enough, she did take him up on it, sifting around for anything that could be of use before she left.

"Thanks for patching me up, Doc," she said. "And for everything else."

"Don't mention it. It's what I'm here for," he said. "You should talk to Sunny Smiles before you leave town. She can help you learn to fend for yourself in the desert. She'll likely be at the saloon."

With that, Kyrie had a destination, even if it was a close one. She twisted the knob of the front door open and took her first step into the Mojave Wasteland.