Back home, Mikey was poking curiously around his brother Jon's room. Their father had been in charge of keeping him out of the way while Jon's mom dealt with their new daughter. But now dad was busy disinfecting the bathroom (why take chances?), and Mikey was on the loose. He was oddly fascinated by a reddish, metallic stone.
"Mikey! You stay out of there! You don't want to catch it too, do you?" His dad showed up at the door, looked a little horrified. "What do you have there?"
"Oh, it's just some rock."
"Well, you'd better get rid of it and wash your hands. Just because we're stuck in quarantine doesn't mean we can't take precautions."
"Stupid quarantine," grumbled Mikey. "I just wish they'd figure something out so they could let us out." Then he threw the stone away and went to wash his hands as directed.
"And so, we've produced large quantities of attenuated virus and it's ready to go into human testing," said Dr. Brittany Marion. And when I say 'we,' I of course mean Mr. Meadows here. His one-of-a-kind change has been a blessing in disguise."
She nodded to the... bottle in the front of the conference room. Biff, once considered a town hero for his exploits as the high school quarterback, would soon surely be celebrated as an even greater hero. It hadn't been an easy trip for him. When he contracted the virus his body had melted away, at first causing his family to fear he'd contracted some new, lethal strain. But when the medical investigators scraped up the residue that remained, they found living cells. Even more amazing, once provided media to grow in, those cells spelled out messages and answered questions. Biff was alive, in the most bizarre new form yet, yet still aware of his surroundings.
But somehow, the virus's magic had also given him uncanny control of his cells' internal processes. And like all the transformed, he still had the virus growing inside some those cells. With Dr. Marion and colleagues in the unfamiliar role of coaches, he slowly learned how to manipulate it, withholding certain of its proteins as it assembled itself, eventually giving rise to an attenuated version that could be used as a vaccine.
A hero indeed. He hadn't discovered a cure. He would never move more than inches at a time without help, much less lead the football team again. But now he could spare countless others and win the town its freedom.
As a side effect, considering the virus's uncanny similarity to rhinoviruses, Biff's vaccine would also prevent the common cold.
Dr. Marion continued. "I've heard back from the ethics board and they agree: it's time for human testing."
