After three more tries, I finally found the mental switch that would let me change perspective from human origami to normal car. It feels weird being a car. Like your body is frozen, but if you wiggle your fingers then your door pops open, or your headlights go on. I had to spend a lot of time just learning how to “roll.” It was learning to walk all over again. Luckily, I’m a fast learner.

As soon as I thought I could drive reasonably safely, I headed out of town. Before I tried turning into a giant robot, I needed to find some privacy.

On the way, I finally let myself face the fact I’d been trying to avoid until now: my human body was gone for good, cooked down for fuel to power this automech. For all I knew, I was burning what was left of my old body to drive myself out of town.

Of course, in this metal I could be ten times the hacker I ever had been in the meat, but that was small comfort. Dammit, if I’d known this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have skipped all those extra slices of chocolate cake!