Emily examined the head piece in the woman's hands. Most of the left part above the ear was missing and half of it's face was broken leaving only a sad memento of an eye-camera as a reminder of its original full-robot look. The headpiece was clearly ruined beyond repair, but something in it was still appealing to Emily.
"Let me try it" She nodded, pushing her head through the opening and fitting the remaining parts to the best of her ability.
Just as she finished fitting it, she could feel the transformation beginning. Emily stood completely still, unable and afraid to move. Her body started to fuse and dissolve - that was the best expression Emily could find for the feeling. Her muscles and bones faded away, fused with machinery and electronic circuits. The changes went from her legs up in the order that she put the costume on. As her legs were finished, something clicked into place and she could finally stand for the first time on the balls of her feet without support. This entire time she was taking caution not to trip over, but now she could finally stand at full height again (actually, a good head taller then she was before) and feel completely comfortable even on Stiletto heels as if she was standing barefoot. In fact, she really was standing barefoot in a sense, keeping in mind that she was not wearing the boots any more, but it was how her legs were designed to be.
The changes went further up and Emily hold her breath once more as the transparent section started to change... change... change... and... And nothing happened. Worried and confused, she cautiously touched the chameleon fabric, but her hand went right through! She could not believe her eyes, or rather her eye as the other one was covered by an eye patch-like costume piece at the time. She almost wanted to life the blind and get a better look to ensure she survived this, but was so afraid of what was yet to come that judged it better not to experiment too much yet.
Now that her abdomen was missing, the top and bottom parts were only connected with exposed hydraulics which still left quite a bit of empty space, and her transformation continued. The other hand changed into a mechanical appendage just like the first one and Emily had to carefully readjust her balance for the first time as her human spine started crumbling under the increasing weight, but quickly found herself with a flexible segmented whip-like structure instead. It felt even easier to operate the body now as the spinal cord's functions were overtaken by programming. The globes went in place just perfectly, and Emily leaned just a few millimetres more backwards into a more comfortable position, but also to get a better a view and, most importantly, give a better view.
The part that was to come worried her the most. Emily just started to regret her impulsive decision to get the head piece on despite its heavy damage. She considered taking it off for a second, but she knew it was too late to back off. If undamaged suit could do that to her body, she couldn't even begin to imagine what the damaged one could do if things went wrong. She was tense as the progress reached her head and she felt a strange feeling of someone popping her eye out with a finger and then screwing it back in, but this time like a TV screen in HD. Emily let out a sigh of relief. It was a shame she didn't have the camera for the other eye - having electronic vision was more fun than she thought. Calming down and curious again, she played a bit with, zooming in and out on various things as the computer identified objects for her and outlined them right in her field of vision. As she focused on a painting in front of her, she noticed for the first time how strange it was too look at the same thing with both a camera and a human eye, her field of vision clearly consisting of two integrated, but distinct halves, stunningly detailed and versatile in the middle, but getting more pixelated to the left and blurry to the right. As she quickly went through the settings, Emily found out she could change her vision sensitivity, depth, resolution and pretty much any parameter she wanted.
It was at this moment that fear suddenly overwhelmed Emily again. She was so distracted with the new toys that she completely forgot the rest of the transformation was not visible to her, but probably happening about now. She expected some discomfort or strange intruding sensations as she had before, but absolutely nothing happened and that was what made her worry. Shouldn't she loose consciousness or at least feel dizzy? Emily turned around once more and looked in the mirror. Most of her face was still intact with just her left eye missing and the camera now so deep in the empty eye socket that it was clearly not an eye patch. She could also see the very top and back of her skull now covered with a transparent plastic. She clearly did not remember anything like that in the original design. Her right half, where the helmet had a crack, had the remnants of her brain visible through the plastic, encased in a jar within her reinforced metal skull and submerged in an occasionally bubbling green liquid, with just a few wires coming out at the bottom and a large tube going from the back of the brain capsule, curling around her neck, and into her upper torso from the front. However, the left side, on the other hand, looked far more like a computer by now. In fact, Emily realized that it really was a computer with no biological tissue at all!
She zoomed in on the reflection with her camera and inspected in awe the alien technology. She still couldn't believe the transformation was over and she didn't even notice. How long was she thinking with a computer? What was her programming? Was she supposed to have these thoughts? And these too? As Emily drowned in the endless loops of philosophy, the lights in her computer started to flash faster and she heard the cooling systems in the back of her head switching on. It was fascinating to almost see her own brain at work!
"This is no ordinary computer" The lady explained, noticing the mix of emotions on Emily's yet mostly human face. "It has the most advanced software that can function just like a human brain. It will also make it easier for you to operate even such a complex body without as much as thinking what you want to do..." She paused for a moment "It was dangerous though. You were lucky the costume adapted to the damage somehow. Are you ok?"
"I... have never felt better in my life!" Emily examined her robotic body in awe, taking a few careful steps and flexing her arms. "I always wanted to know how would a computer see the world. Turns out it's not that different from humans! I didn't even notice a thing when I changed! And this body is amazing!" She finally satisfied her narcissistic urges and turned around, facing the shopkeeper. "Wow. I am like a female Robocop!" She slowly raised her hand as if she had a gun in it and pointed it at the woman, mimicking her childhood hero.
"Glad to hear you like it, dear" The shopkeeper smiled "Just do bear in mind that if a problem appears, it might be better to consult a mechanic first. Also, do be careful with your human parts. The transformation may have gone smoothly, but there might be some negative feedback from your original body. Don't worry too much about this right now, but just keep an eye out to make sure everything has fused properly, especially your face and brain. Your computer has backup and auto-repair functions, but it cannot repair organic components so you will have to do it manually"
"Jeez, don't worry so much!"