Okay, time for yet another chapter. I've been actively trying to get a new, more flexible job, and I think something might have just panned through. This could very well be the breakthrough I need in order to start putting out chapters sooner. Hopefully, if all goes according to plan, I'll be more active on the site! So, hope you all like the new chapter!

Once night had fallen, Kira, Aster, Kai, and Sugarcube came out of hiding and began to sneak around the building through the air ducts and structure spaces filled with scaffolding. From what they had become aware of, Meyers was downstairs guarding the Virax supercomputer, and Baldwin was at the front entrance to the building.

The two escaped prisoners had assumed that the foursome left the building, and were standing guard just in case they would come back.

The four heroes continued to sneak around in a way that they would avoid being detected by the motion sensors that could alert their adversaries.

"I just wonder where all the WY staff are?" Kira asked.

"I assume Meyers must've programmed Virax in such a way that the virtual people are avoiding this building, just so nothing could stop him from doing… whatever it is he wants with us." Kai answered.

"Yeah, but… what does he want with us?" Aster asked.

"I still haven't figured that out yet..." Kai said.

The four had crawled through a wide, durable air duct directly above the lobby, where they saw Baldwin take a seat in an armchair he had just finished hauling right in front of a television he moved into the room. He then promptly sat in the chair and switched on the TV with the remote. From how Meyers built the system, the virtual televisions would take in data from airings in the real world, and play them back in the virtual world.

"Okay, so all we gotta do is wait for Baldwin to fall asleep, and then we'll sneak down and steal the Superkey from him." Kai said. "Hopefully, he'll be falling asleep soon; it's midnight."

Kira shifted her head a bit to get a better look.

"...I just can't wait to finally give Meyers some retribution myself!" she said.

They watched as Baldwin scrolled through the channels, waiting for him to hopefully fall asleep.

(XXXX)

Quite a bit of time had passed, and Baldwin was still not relenting. He had not even lowered his arm holding the remote, continuing to surf the channels.

"...He's been changing the channel for ten minutes now!" Sugarcube whispered.

"Well… maybe there's nothing good on right now?" Kai suggested.

All of them simply sighed.

"Let's just hope he gets bored with the show or something..." Kira said. "...hopefully, he does, given how slow I feel his heartbeat and brainwaves are becoming..."

(XXXX)

It took a little while later, but Baldwin was snoring with his eyes closed, but the TV was still on. Kai was peering down at him, utilizing his Xenomorph instincts for greater directional focus.

"...I think he's finally asleep, Kira." Kai said, turning to his friend.

However… Kira herself was now asleep, it seemed.

"Kira?" Kai said, just before nudging her shoulder. "Ki-ra?"

"...Huh…? GAH!" Kira telepathically shrieked, just before she started clawing at the air. "Gimmethatkey!"

The remaining three looked at her curiously, Aster and Sugarcube having woken up from a nap of their own.

"...Ngh… just resting my eyes..." Kira said.

"But you don't HAVE eyes." Aster pointed out.

Kira sighed. "You know what I mean, Aster..."

"So, now might be the perfect chance!" Kai said. "One of us is gonna have to sneak down there and take the Superkey from Baldwin! From what I can see… it's around his neck."

"Okay, but… which of us can do it?" Sugarcube asked.

"I think it would be a job… for a Xeno!" Kai concluded.

"What, so..." Kira began. "...you're gonna go down there and swipe the Key?"

"Not me, Kira… but you." Kai said.

"What!?" Kira said, surprised. "Why do I have to do it!?"

"Because, from what I've researched, female Xenomorphs are more agile, and naturally better with stealth." Kai said.

Kira pondered anxiously about how she was going to pull this off without getting caught.

"I know you can do it, Kira. You've got the right physique and mindset, from what I noticed during our last confrontation with Meyers." Aster said.

Kira sighed. "Okay… I'll sneak down there and get it from him."

And so it was decided. Kira began to climb out of the ventilation duct and make her way across, using her Xenomorph grip to cling to the sides of it. Her tail gave her added stability and balance by wrapping it around the duct.

Kira was able to get over to a part where she could slide straight down, but she had to do it fairly slow in order to avoid making any noise. She made her way down the vertical part of the duct firefighter-style, descending gradually into the lobby area. Baldwin was still asleep, snoring quite loudly.

Wouldn't be surprised if he had sleep apnea… Kira said.

She made her way to the floor, and walked over to the lounge area of the lobby on all fours in a similar fashion to Gollum from Lord of the Rings, just to avoid making noise. Now would come the tricky part: getting the Superkey from Baldwin without waking him. Kira could see it around his neck, but it was on an elastic band that resembled a choker. Applying any tugging force to it might make him wake up.

However, Kira knew that she had a bit of a biological advantage here. For one thing, her fingers could spread out far wider than a human's, which could allow her to stretch the band around his neck outward so that it stops touching him completely. And then, she could simply slip it off over his head. But… there was a problem.

Baldwin was slumped over sideways, preventing this from being a viable method for removing the Superkey flash drive.

...I guess I'll have to cut it off his neck. Thank God I have claws as a Xeno. Kira thought.

With that, she approached the sleeping man until she was hovering right over him. The sound of his snoring was drowning out the white noise of the ventilation. She had to carefully lift the jumpdrive off of his neck by prying the elastic band out wide, and cutting it away.

Kira immediately got to work, trying to insert the tips of her fingers into the band around Baldwin's neck. She lightly grazed his skin, causing him to tense his neck a little bit, but he remained asleep. The Xenofied girl was becoming fairly tense at this point.

She had managed to spread the band out wide enough to get it away from his neck, and now came the matter of using one of her claws to slice it. Regardless, she was sweating bullets and was doing her best to keep her breath under control. Her heart was racing, and her hands were shaking a bit. Regardless, she was able to start making a small notch into the edge of the elastic band on the Superkey.

Kira's sweat drop fell onto Baldwin's face. He began to stir a little bit, and slightly opened his eyes to see her. Kira froze in shock... but Baldwin just smiled dreamily, his eyes shifting down a bit to get a glimpse of her… chest and curves.

"...Ahh... a sexy goddess..." he said, just before closing his eyes again.

Baldwin had seen Kira, but did not actually wake up. So, it seemed like he really did not care about what had just happened. She took advantage of this, and cut the key off completely. Then, she carefully pulled it away so as not to stir the sleeping man any further.

Once she had it, Kira made a break for the air duct, back the exact way she had descended into the room. Once again, because she was a Xenomorph, she had the ability to climb up with relative ease.

"You got it! Awesome, Kira!" Kai said.

"Yeah, that was pretty resourceful, what you did!" Aster remarked.

"Thanks." Kira said. "Now, we should probably head for the supercomputer?"

"Not yet. Meyers could still be guarding it; we'll need to wait for him to leave before we make our getaway from the virtual world." Kai said.

Kira sighed. "More waiting…? Seriously?"

Kai shrugged. "I'm afraid so, Kira. But, as they say… all good things to those who wait." he said.

(XXXX)

The following morning, Baldwin awoke to see that the TV appeared to have turned off by itself. He assumed that there might have been a timer or something that enabled it to do this, but he did not care about it at the moment.

He simply stood from the sofa, and went into the nearby bathroom. Standing in front of the mirror, he turned on a sink faucet and splashed water into his face to wake himself up… but upon looking at himself in the mirror once his attention was heightened, he noticed something wrong...

"Ah...!" Baldwin said, prying down the collar of his T-shirt to look at his neck. "...the Superkey! Where'd it go!?"

He tried to think about what he recalled last night.

"Wait... oh no! Last night, that dream... that goddess I saw..." he began, just as his eyes went wide in realization. "...that wasn't no goddess... it was that Sykes girl as a Xeno! It was really happening!"

Baldwin hung his head down and sigh in an annoyed way.

"She must've come in without setting off the sensors somehow and took it..." he said.

This made him thoroughly worried. He knew Meyers would be angry that he lost the jumpdrive, as no copy of it had been created apparently. Regardless… if Meyers discovers that the two children and their Xeno mates have escaped from Virax… he would be in a world of suffering.

Letting out a sigh of regret, he pulled out his phone and punched in Meyers' speed-dial number. After a moment, there was an answer.

"What is it, Baldwin?" Came Meyers' voice.

"Meyers..." Baldwin began. "...I've got some bad news. I've lost the Superkey."

There was silence on the line for a moment. "What...? THE SUPERKEY!?"

"Yes, the Superkey!" Baldwin said. "I think that Sykes girl stole it!

"WHY DID YOU LEAVE IT UNATTENDED!?" Dr. Meyers shouted.

"I don't know!" Baldwin replied. "I was sleeping! I think she snuck into the lobby and nicked it!"

"Ugh, you IDIOT!" Meyers shouted. "What were you even thinking, falling asleep without making it difficult to get!?"

Baldwin groaned in frustration. "I don't know! I'm just stupid-stupid-stupid!"

"Well, in any case, we cannot wait for long! We need to find those four before they escape the system! Only then will we both have our salvation!" Meyers proclaimed.

"Okay, I'll be down there in a minute." Baldwin said.

Immediately after he hung up, he made his way into the basement of the complex. He was more worried about what Meyers was going to do to him than their improvised plan of capturing their quarries.

Well, soon the action should really start to pick up, now that they have an actual way out of the Virax virtual world! So, hopefully with the next chapter, we'll have several questions out of the way that I'm sure have had many of you scratching your heads. So, adiós for now! Keep holding on...