Stuck In The Box: Keep The Faith

Chapter 3: Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

Tony woke up to the piercing bright lights and before he knew it, he was surrounded by familiar and unfamiliar faces. "What happened? Where am I?" Tony managed to squeak out. Miyagi was chirping in the background but Curt didn't want Tony to freak out upon seeing it so he hid it. "You're in a lab, being experimented on because you were an alien hybrid like us and you were in a coma for 5 months now," Curt said. "What what?" Tony asked. Before he knew it, he was panicking. "Oh shoot, the heart monitor," Nick said, upon hearing the beeping. "Tony, let the ventilator breathe for you, everything is alright, you were in a coma after being sick for a long time," Roger said, attempting to calm Tony down even though he was already traumatised by the trach.

"What ventilator?" Tony asked as soon as he managed to calm down. Roger then pointed at his neck where the trach scar is to show where the ventilator was. Tony looked down at his neck and realised he had a tracheostomy so that the ventilator could help him breathe. He tried to take it out before Roger slapped his hand down. "You shouldn't touch that, it's helping you," Roger said. "So, what day is it today?" Tony asked. "Currently have no idea because we're in the basement but I'm sure it's already February 1985, we're no longer in 1984 anymore," Curt said. "Wait what? Have I been sleeping for a long time?" Tony asked. "Yup, in about 5 months," Andy said. "Great, can't believe I've been dead for so long. Hey, I'm sorry about bullying all of you and stuff, I just don't want to be a misfit because of my powers," Tony said.

"It's okay, we forgave you a long time ago," Curt said. "You sure we forgave him?" John asked. "Hey, past is past, it's no longer 1984 and we're better people now," Curt said. "Hey, we're all misfits here so you're no longer alone, in fact, you should join us," Kim said. "Join you guys? No way," Tony said. "Hey, there's a new head bully named Morrissey and he bullies people who are different," Paul said. "Like how different?" Tony asked. "People who are homosexual and/or queer, Jewish people, people of colour like Rog who is Mexican and pretty much, almost everything," Curt said. "Wow, I mean, he's a lot worse than I was, but I'm also questioning my sexuality as well," Tony said. "I feel you, Tony, but at least I found Marc now," Paul said. "Same, and then I met Nick," Simon said.

Tony then glanced at Nick for a bit only to notice that he's on oxygen. "Nick, what happened to you?" Tony asked. "Oh, err, I have tachycardia and asthma, along with that, I've been lacking blood oxygen so yeah," Nick explained, not wanting to tell Tony that he overused his powers and that the beta blockers were the cause of his asthma. "Last time I checked, you never had asthma, I thought only John did if I can recall," Tony said. "I think you should tell Tony about how you overused your powers and that beta blockers actually killed you," Simon said. "But do I trust him? No, no I don't, after how he treated me in the past," Nick stubbornly said. "But you gotta understand that he's changed ever since, well, he 'died,'" Curt said. Nick remained silent for a while before he decided to tell Tony what happened.

"Well?" Tony asked in concern. "So a few months ago, December 1984, the entire school became zombies except us. There was a poisonous gas leak. We didn't know it at the time so in order for me to know, I used my bilocation powers and made my clone implant the small cameras I made in engineering class in order for me to know where the others were going. But I overused that power and my heart was beating very fast, faster than normal. I was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome and because I was lacking oxygen, I needed to be on oxygen," Nick explained. "Where's the part where you got asthma?" Tony asked. "About a week after that, I was supposedly given endopril, a medication to regulate heartbeat for enhanced individuals like alien-hybrids, but the tablet versions weren't done and those were normal human beta-blockers. That's the cause of my asthma," Nick said.

"Wow, I did miss out on a lot," Tony said. "Yeah, so much chaos was happening while you were asleep," Richard said. "I know and it's crazy," Tony said. "Crazy indeed," Andy said. The Wild Boys sat and talked for a while whilst waiting for their doctors. But what they didn't know is that someone was looking for them whilst the doctors were away. Meanwhile in a lab, Dr Hayley is demonstrating the alien DNA and the certain drugs alien hybrids can take. "Okay Dr Chen, so this is the vial of alien DNA, I have some in my lab but it seems like there's a hole stack here. If the Illuminati is against my dad's work having alien DNA being one of them, why is there a stack?" Dr Hayley said. "They're being hypocrites at that point, I mean, they're kidnapping kids just to put that in for I dunno what purpose," Dr Chen said.