Okay, working on two fics at once probably wasn't my best consideration, but I am going to try to make the best of it so I can continue to provide for you guys! So, after another long stretch of waiting, here's another chapter!

Kira slowly began to wake up, regaining her sense of sight… but she did not open any eyes on her face to do so.

"Woah… why did I fall asleep again…?" Kira said… but her voice seemed… off.

It did not sound any different than it usually did, but instead of coming from her mouth, it sounded like it was coming from inside her head. Also, her eyesight was a bit different; it was like a fisheye effect, allowing her to see her entire washroom… but somehow, it actually worked, and did not feel disorienting like she had seen through a lens or screen.

She lifted her hand to rub her head, and as she was bringing it down… she happened to notice that it was shaped very differently, and was a jet-black color with a sleek, smooth texture.

"Huh?" Kira uttered, looking at both of her hands. "Wh-what is this…?"

She immediately stood up and looked at the mirror… and what she saw nearly made her heart stop. In the mirror… was a female Xenomorph Drone. Kira looked around to confirm her suspicion… and she was indeed the only living being in the bathroom. That Xenomorph… was her.

"Okay, this has gotta be a dream or something… this can't be real..." Kira said to herself.

She went straight to the sink, which she turned on to splash cold water in her face.

"C'mon, wake me up!" she said. "C'mon, Kira… WAKE UP!"

It was no use… what she was doing was not working. She concluded, in that moment, that she was indeed now an alien. Her curiosity was beginning to overcome her confusion, and she began to examine her new body. The first thing she checked out was her tail. It was fairly long, about ten feet, but she was able to keep it in such a position over her shoulder that it did not really get in the way. In fact, it did not feel unnatural; she felt as if she had been born with it.

She next examined her skull. Waving her hand over the carapace portion was obscuring certain areas of her vision, but she could still see just fine, since it was only a small portion of her fisheye field of vision. She could even touch it without it hurting.

"Wow. For once, I can touch my 'eye' without it hurting..." Kira said to herself.

She then examined the more feminine portions of herself. She noticed that her breasts had grown quite a bit, as did her buttocks, giving her some nice curves. She gently fondled her female glands as a satisfied grin spread over her face.

"FINALLY, they're bigger! Now I really DO feel sexy!" Kira said.

Aster had called Kira "sexy" many times before, mainly on the nights the two of them had their… special nights. But just looking at how feminized she had become just made her feel all the less insecure with herself.

She did a final few tests with her new body by flexing her fingers, slow kicks of each leg, and subtly rippling her tail.

"Y'know, this isn't so bad..." Kira said to herself.

In her new body, Kira did not feel inhibited or impaired in any way. She could just feel that she was faster, stronger, more agile, more flexible, and overall better than before. She absolutely loved how firm her new muscles felt, and how slim her torso and limbs were as well.

She felt... perfect.

Kira then left the bathroom to head back downstairs and find Aster, Kai, and Sugarcube.

"Hey, guys! Something totally AWESOME just happened to me! Get ready for a surprise—" Kira stopped speaking as a voice cut her off.

"Kira…? Is that you?" came Kai's voice in her head.

A male Xenomorph Drone had revealed himself, walking from the living room into the foyer.

"Aster? Did you just hear Kai?" Kira asked.

"Aster" let out a confused hiss.

"What do you mean? I'm not Aster! I'm Kai!" came Kai's voice in Kira's head.

Kira stood motionless for a moment. "...Kai? That's YOU?"

The male Drone stood more upright. "Kira!? It happened to you, too?"

"Wait, wait, wait… what's even going on?" Kira asked.

"Hell, I thought you were Sugarcube when I saw you, but when you spoke..." Kai trailed off.

The two pondered for a moment while they thought about their current situation. Nothing had made sense so far… but that was just the thing Kai had been suspecting for a little while now.

"I think this might actually be logical, given what's transpired so far." Kai said.

"What do you mean 'logical'?" Kira asked. "People don't just randomly transform into Xenomorphs!"

At that moment, two individuals, wrapped in blankets, came into the foyer. One was a young man, and the other a young woman.

"Hey… what's going on here?" the young man asked in Aster's voice.

Kira made a hisslike gasp. "Aster? Sugarcube? Is it… you?"

"Yeah..." the human girl answered in Sugarcube's voice.

"No way…" Kira said. "...we SWAPPED SPECIES OR SOMETHING!?"

As a human, Aster was roughly two meters in height, had hair that looked similar to Kai's, but was a chocolate-brown instead of black, and slightly thicker. He also had blue eyes, fair skin, and a fairly thin, but slightly athletic, figure.

Sugarcube had light skin, very long, straight, blonde hair that went down past her shoulders, gray eyes, and a thin figure, and she still had some very nice, subtle-but-sexy curves. She was slightly shorter than Aster.

"I don't know what happened..." Aster said. "...it's like, after you went upstairs, Kira… I started feeling really weird… like everything inside of me was… reshaping… resizing…"

"The same thing happened to me as well!" Sugarcube said.

"I guess that makes all of us!" Kai chimed in. "I was just laying on the sofa with the ice pack on my leg, and all of a sudden, the pain from my injuries was going away. In fact… the injuries themselves were going away; healing rapidly. And just after that is when my own transformation started. When it was finishing up… I ended up falling asleep."

"Me too!" Sugarcube said.

"Same!" Aster added.

Xeno-Kira walked in front of her humanized lover, examining him. A smile appeared on her face.

"Wow, Aster..." Kira said. "...as a human... you're pretty HOT!"

Aster was checking Kira out himself. "You're not too bad as a Xeno yourself, Kira!"

"As much as I am awestruck over all this… I'm still confused. Why did me and Aster turn into humans, and you and Kira turn into Drones?" Sugarcube asked Kai.

"Because... this isn't the real world." Kai said. "We're in a virtual world!"

The faces of the other three lit up with enlightenment (but Kira, being a Xenomorph, was not nearly as expressive as a human).

"...That would explain why everything made no sense!" Kira said.

"But then… what are we even doing in a virtual world in the first place?" Aster asked.

Kai pondered. "...I don't know exactly, but… I have a feeling Meyers could be behind it." he said.

"And… if the virtual system is THIS complex… with just about everything we know from back home..." Kira said.

"...it could very well be the system we were trying to break into that one night to learn about Project: SUBCON. And with the references to 'Virax' that we saw… I have a feeling that it could very well be the codename of the multi-agent program running this world." Kai finished.

Kira was finally able to put two-and-two together.

"Kai… you don't think..." she said.

Kai nodded. "...We are inside the Virax system."

The four were silent for a moment. All of them exchanged glances as they finally processed what was happening.

"But then... what was with Sam and SORIA knowing nothing about Star and Chase?" Aster asked.

"Well, given that we're trying to keep them hidden from the government, so WY would not be able to get any info about them from any existing database." Kai said.

"Also... why IS everything so strange about the place? It makes it seem like Virax is just a joke world or something." Kira said.

"I think I know what's going on." Kai said. "From the glitch code on various surfaces, random objects appearing and disappearing, the nonsense people are saying, the random Xenomorphs roaming around without any concern being raised… and the fact that we were able to change into different species in a stable manner, free from deformities and negative side-effects. I think the Virax system might have a virus."

"A virus..." Kira repeated.

"Yes." Kai said. "And if we can't figure out how to escape from this mainframe, we could end up having our real brains corrupted if the virtual world fails while we're still inside. It could only be a matter of time at this point..."

"So... what should we do?" Sugarcube asked.

"Well... let's see..." Kai wondered. "...there's gotta be a way we can access the Virax protocol system from inside the virtual world itself... there's gotta be some sort of internal interface..."

"But how are we gonna do that?" Kira asked.

"Well..." Kai began. "...if this supercomputer houses a databank of everything in the real world... every known thing in the real world should exist in Virax. So... if we can find the virtual replica of the Virax supercomputer... we might be able to hack into the real system through the virtual interface!"

If Kira had her eyes, she would have had quite an impressed look. "Do you think it can work...?" she asked.

"With a bit of work, it should..." Kai said. "...people could do it in Minecraft decades ago, so we can do it even easier in today's age!"

"Can't we just do it on a regular computer? Like the one in your office, Kira?" Aster suggested.

Kai shook his elongated head. "No. A regular computer would not have enough processing power to utilize the resources that the virtual replica of the entire planet runs on. We need a large-scale mainframe with enough computing power that will make it capable of handling the multi-agent client. And what better than the actual one that the real computer is modeled after?"

"Sounds like a plan! Let's do it!" Kira said.

"Okay, but..." Sugarcube said, hiking her blanket cover up, which was sliding off. "...could me and Aster get some clothes, first?"

"Yeah... as a human, being naked feels really awkward... and cold." Aster said.

(XXXX)

Meyers and Baldwin were making their way over to Kira's house, which they had managed to locate after looking up an address database.

"Soon, we will be able to see what our work has done, and ensure that they are unable to escape my little world, here!" Meyers said.

"But... was it really a good idea to plug ourselves into your bigass machine? What if we disappear when that virus of yours takes over?" Baldwin asked.

"Oh, that shall not happen!" Meyers said, holding up a jump-drive. "This is the Superkey, which contains the command codes required to access the secured virtual replica of the SUBCON supercomputer! With just this, we can make our escape... right after we manage to obtain sufficient neural codes from one of our guests, here..."

"From all four of 'em?" Baldwin asked.

"Oh, no, no..." Meyers said. "...only from Subject SR-724. As for what I shall do with it... well, that shall be a surprise!"

Baldwin did not ask any more questions. He knew Meyers had a short temper, and became annoyed from being asked so many things, so he figured he would just have to wait and see what was up.

So, now that they are a little more aware of the situation, let's hope they can figure out how to get out of this mess! So, with that being said, thank you all for reading the chapter, and just stay tuned for the next one! Don't expect frequent updates, but don't expect me to never update, either! Keep holding on...