Richard stepped back as he finally broke the hinges of an old rusty door, letting it fall into the darkness beyond with a loud bang. What his flashlight revealed through the collective dust of a thousand years seemed to have once been a residence of some sort. The remains of furnishings littered the floor and, much to his horror, the petrified bones of some horribly mutated creature lie on the opposite end of the room, next to a window and the remains of a desk. Stepping through the threshold, and ignoring whatever the fuck that thing was, Richard set about his usual routine of picking though the remains for anything useful. He quickly realized upon breaking open several containers that there was nothing to be found. Still, something about those bones made him uneasy. Perhaps it spoke to some degree of how the world ended up in its current state. Richard thought of this distant, ancient world, once full of life. That was a world he never knew. He grew up beneath a sky scorched by the wars of long ago, fought over reasons long forgotten. His world was a world of ghastly, steel towers standing against an unending wind. Outside of this place was an endless desert with winds strong enough to strip flesh from bone. What lie beyond that was anyone's guess. As for the skeleton, he thought, maybe such creatures brought the old world to its end. Richard shuddered to think what that "thing" may have once looked like.
As he turned to leave and ponder over the creature elsewhere, something caught his eye. Looking back at the remains, he noticed something clutched between its arms. Though he dread getting any closer to "it" he could not pass up the opportunity for good loot. Casting his fear aside, Richard crept toward the bones and reached down towards the object. The fingers of the creature collapsed upon retrieval of the thing it held, a small grey box with no markings and a single cord extending from the back towards the remains of an old computer. Richard looked it over with increasing curiosity. While it didn't look extraordinary, the fact that this creature was clinging to it so dearly made him wonder if it held some value. Prying it from the computer, he stashed it away in his bag to be brought back with him to his place of residence on the outskirts of the steel forest.
Having traversed though the remains of the dead city for well over an hour, Richard finally returned to his home, a bunker buried under an old pile of metal and concrete. The wind tore at his clothes as he pried open the heavy steel door and stepped inside, making sure to close it behind him again. Inside, down a set of stairs, was his living area. It was a large room filled with dim lighting and a wide variety of junk strewn about. His pride and joy, a large, pre-war computer terminal, dominated the left side of the chamber while the other half was dedicated to various necessities, particularly medical needs. In one corner, and the source of much of the room's lighting, was a work station where Richard spent much of his time restoring old world technology. One such device in particular was a project left over by his late father. It was a pre-war android. Though many of its parts were missing, the more critical components were intact. It was this that occupied most of his time.
Dropping his bag amidst a pile of old parts, Richard pulled off his mask and much of his overcoat. He breathed an exasperated sigh as he glanced in an old mirror nearby. The face staring back was terribly worn with age and caked with dirt. A pair of old, grey eyes, once much sharper than they were now, looked for a moment before turning their attention to the bag at his feet. With some excitement, Richard fished out the small, grey box from before. As expected, the connection port at the end of the cord was unusable, having succumbed to extensive rust. Luckily, he happened to have a supply of spares piled behind some chairs. After 30 minutes or so, Richard had successfully replaced the connector and excitedly began plugging it into the computer terminal.
He let out a small shout of joy as the word "Chronivac 4.0" flashed on the screen. Hot damn it worked. As he watched, further text appeared, seemingly explaining the machine's purpose.
"Hello and welcome to the latest piece of hardware from Chronivac Industries, the world-wide leaders of genetic research and development. What lies before you is the pinnacle of genetic engineering, a device with the ability to transform the world around you and yourself into any form you desire. Whether you wish to transform into an animal, inanimate object, or something in between, the Chronivac 4.0 can make it happen. With version 4.0 comes the new ability to manipulate targets other than the user. Simply select a person, animal, or inanimate object and you can transform it in just the same way you may transform yourself. "
At the bottom of the page, in abnormally small print, read a particularly ominous disclaimer, "Chronivac Industries is not responsible for damage caused by the misuse of our products including but not limited to permanent mutations, death, alterations beyond the physical limits of reality, or apocalyptic events."
Richard sat and thought this over for a long time. He had a hard time believing the claim that this machine could transform anything around it. Surely such a feat was impossible. Then again, he had no way of knowing what the pre-war world was truly capable of as few records existed of it. Thinking this through, Richard glanced back at the android behind him. An idea sprang forth. Perhaps, if this thing was to be believed, he could bring it back to life. Maybe then he wouldn't be so alone anymore. His only human contact throughout his whole life had been with his mother and father . The man had said a tribe of people once lived deep within the ruins but left long ago into the wasteland beyond, seeking a better life. The old man and his wife almost left with them but his wife was pregnant at the time and could not make the long journey. As a result, they were left alone in the dead city to raise Richard on their own. It had been many years since Richard's father died and he still longed for some form of companionship, even if it was just an artificial intelligence. Turning back towards the terminal, he managed, with some difficulty, to select the android behind him. An intuitive interface popped up, with the, rather incomplete, android shown in a box on the left. Cracking his fingers, Richard began clicking away.