"The Superhero in the Alley"
[SCENE_BREAK]
[Aerial view of Washinton D.c.]
Voice of a man on the radio: 7:30 right now. Coming up, a recap of a disturbing story-
Man 2: ...the skeletal remains discovered by a group of sixth-grade students in Anacostia.
Woman: The remains have not yet been identified, according to police and there's no word as to wether foul play is suspected.
[Cut to inside the truck of a TV station. The reporter woman appears on a screen. The camera then shift and we can see the woman standing outside the truck]
Reporter woman: Dale, the word most repeated by the young witnesses we spoke to: "horror". As in it looked like a horror movie.
[Sirens wailing]
Voice: Nah we're going to be going for another take.
[Booth and FBI deputy director, Cullen, appears walking out of the alley]
BOOTH: I hate press cases.
CULLEN: Yes sir. More than three cameras show up, some homicide detective kicks it up to his captain who kicks it up to the chief, who kicks it to the F.B.I.-
BOOTH: And you - bang - kick it down to me. Which I thank you for, sir - the opportunity.
[They stop at the crime scene yellow tape]
CULLEN: Booth, I want this closed. I don't want to pick up next Sunday's Post and read "Church kids find mystery corpse dressed for Halloween, F.B.I. remains clueless".
BOOTH: I garantee you won't read that, sir. Okay? I-I'm on it. [Brennan and Zack arrive] Bones.
Reporter woman: A body left to rot-
BRENNAN: Got here as soon as I could.
BOOTH: Yeah. Thanks for coming. I pull you from anything important?
[They walk toward the crime scene]
BRENNAN: A 9,600 year old Caucasoid female skeleton was found in the Kunlun Moutains in China last month. An international investigation is under way. I'm contributing stress marker analysis.
[view of them from above, walking in the alley]
BOOTH: I think you're gonna find this, uh, very interesting too.
[Camera zooms on the dead body. The skeleton seems to be wearing some kind of armor outfit. Brennan approaches.]
BOOTH: Oh...
BRENNAN: What the hell is he wearing? It's lightweight. Composite.
BOOTH: I think it was some kind of sexual bondage suit. And there's that bag. It's full of maggots.
BRENNAN: Looks like cellulose in there, degraded from bodily tissues and decomposing fat.
BOOTH: And maggots.
[Zack takes pictures of the body. Shutter clicking]
ZACK: Tibial plateau fractures and ground disturbance suggest total body impact.
BOOTH: Okay. So did he jump, or was he pushed, Bones?
BRENNAN: That's what we have to figure out. We can take the skeleton in. Give you a report, maybe after next week.
BOOTH: No you don't have to solve the whole case. Just tell me if I'm looking at a murder. Maybe, you know, pull a quick I.D.? [He smiles]
BRENNAN: Don't use your charm smile on me.
BOOTH: What? It's a mark of respect. That's all.
[Jeffersonian Insitute. Zack and Brennan are on the platform, examining the body lying down on one of the tables]
ZACK: Epiphyseal union with the diaphysis on the wrist, knees and ankles suggests the victim was between 14 and 18 years old. 1.6 meters tall, a very slight build suggesting he was at the younger end of the scale.
[Hodgins arrives]
HODGINS: That tracks with the bag. The degraded cellulose we found is a graphic novel.
BRENNAN: A what?
HODGINS: It's a comic book.
ZACK: I never read comic books.
HODGINS: Really? I had you pegged for a graphic novel nut.
ZACK: The face and cranial vault are badly fractured. Blows to the parietal have sent radiating fracture lines between the mid, frontal and anterior temporal buttresses. Why?
HODGINS: Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica.
BRENNAN: Focusing, gentlemen.
ZACK: Conclusion: brutal assault killed him.
BRENNAN: He was dropped...after he was was already dead.
HODGINS: His killer wanted it to look like a suicide.
[Silence]
BRENNAN: Let's get his dentals into the N.C.I.C., see if we can find a match. Zack, call Stockholm and Beijing. Our research data on the other thing is going to be delayed.
[Cut to close-up of the victim files, hold by Brennan. Booth and Brennan are in a car]
BOOTH: It's Warren Granger, age 17.
BRENNAN: 17, small for his age.
BOOTH: Yeah. Well, he was homeschooled. G.E.D. obtained last summer. Mother and stepfather reported him missing form this very block two months ago. Hey, listen. Bones, you know, if you want, uh, sit this part out, hey I know you got some ancient Chinese bones waiting.
BRENNAN: No. I'm on this now.
[Cut to outside of the car, turning down the driveway of Warren's parents house]
BRENNAN: Looks like every other house in the neighbourhood.
BOOTH: EVery family has its secrets, Bones.
[Dog barking]
[Cut to the inside of the house, in Warren's bedroom. Warren's parents, Booth and Brennan are present. Warren's mother picks up a frame and looks at the picture inside]
WARREN'S MOTHER: This was Warren's room. No one's been up here since the detective first looked it over.
WARREN'S STEPFATHER: The news said there was hardly anything left of him.
[Warren's mother sobs and leaves the room]
BOOTH: Can you think of anyone who might have wanted to harm Warren in any way?
WARREN'S STEPFATHER: He was always by himself. No friends. No ennemies. Spent all his time up here with his comic books and toys. [Camera shows comic books drawing plasered on the walls] He was a lonely kid. Died before he even had a life. I really thought he had just run away. [He walks toward the entrance of the room] We tried. Tried to get him out of this place into some kind of real life. I even got him a job at the bowling alley. But... he just spent all his money on this... stuff.
[He leaves]
BOOTH: Unbelievable. [sighs] [He picks up a couple of comic books] It's quite the collection of comic books.
BRENNAN: Hodgins said that the cellulose mass was a graphic novel. He sent it to Angela for analysis and recovery.
BOOTH: Sweet.
BRENNAN: Sweet?
BOOTH: [Holding one of the comic books] This is Batman number 127, featuring the hammer of the Thor. This is worth about 300 bucks.
BRENNAN: Booth, are you a nerd?
BOOTH: First of all, you mean "geek". And no, I'm not. Okay? It's quite normal for an American male to read comic books.
BRENNAN: I find it hard to believe you have anything in common with Warren Granger.
BOOTH: Oh, you mean isolated with an inner secret life? No. I'd say you were more like Warren.
[Brennan's cell phone buzzes. She picks it up and read the message]
BRENNAN: Zack discovered some significant hairline parry fractures on the right and left ulnae.
[Booth picks up a plastic bag bearing the inscription Karma Comics]
BRENNAN: That's arms.
BOOTH: I know ulna means forearm. I pay attention. I also know that parry fracture means that the kid fought back, Bones.
BRENNAN: Small stature, a geek, and he fought back.
BOOTH: Yeah. He also got thrown from a roof.
[Brennan checks on the computer]
BRENNAN: There's nothing but games on here. There's no journal, there's no documents, nothing personal. What did he do at his desk? I mean, there's light. The rug's worn. He used this area for something. [She sits down at the desk] What was it?
BOOTH: Probably were he read his comic books.
[Brennan takes out a sheet of paper from a drawer, places it on the desk and starts scribbling on it with a pencil. Marks from the desk appears.]
BRENNAN: I think Warren sat here and wrote longhand... with a ballpoint pen.
BOOTH: That's pretty retro for a geek. Hmmm. Well, at least we know where he got the idea for a costume. [He drops a comic book on the desk] Citizen 14.
BRENNAN: [Grabs the comic book entitled Citizen 14] Superhero.
[OPENING CREDITS]
[At the Jeffersonian Institute, Angela's office. Images of the comic book found with Warren's body are displayed on the computer screen]
ANGELA: Hodgins dried out and separated the pages. I digitized them an ajusted for ink seepage.
BRENNAN: [looking at the computer screen] Was this printed commercially?
ANGELA: No. It's a prototype. It's handmade.
BRENNAN: That's what he was writing at his desk.
BOOTH: A comic book starring himself.
GOODMAN: A shy adolescent young man renders himself as a superhero.
BOOTH: Alone in that room all the time. Maybe Warren got consummed by his own fantasy.
BRENNAN: Do you think he was actually out fighting crime?
BOOTH: Well, the boy got beaten to a pulp by wearing his superhero outfit in the heaviest crime area of D.C., Bones.
GOODMAN: As you know, being a writer yourself, Dr. Brennan, Warren Granger's comic book could be infused with his real-life fears and conflicts.
BRENNAN: Especially in the case of an adolescent writer.
BOOTH: Can you retrieve any more of this?
ANGELA: Yeah, sure.
BRENNAN: Fine. What's our next step?
BOOTH: Oh, we'll go see if Warren had any friends his mother didn't know about.
[Cut to a street, showing the exterior of the Karma Comics store in the background. The camera zooms on Booth and Brennan inside the store as they're talking to the owner]
ELLIS: Wait a minute. Warren Granger was the skeleton corpse those kids found?
BOOTH: Yeah. Sounds like you were close.
ELLIS: How long was he laying there all dead like that?
BRENNAN: Well, for a while.
BOOTH: How well did you know Warren, Mr. Ellis?
[Inside the store]
ELLIS: He came in here all the time. You know, he, uh, knew his stuff. He was a nice kid. Really nice guy.
BOOTH: Something you're not telling us?
ELLIS: What do you mean?
BOOTH: You seem a little nervous.
ELLIS: Well, you just told me that someone I-I know is this rotting skeletal corpse that's been all over the news. [Thumping above] What do you expect?
BRENNAN: [Looking up] There a party upstairs?
ELLIS: Oh, it's the, uh Doomsday Group. I rent it out thursday nights. [Rock muffled] Hey, wait. Um, Warren was actually one of them.
BOOTH: Oh. Well, you know, that's a handy thing to remember. Anything else you forgot to mention to me?
ELLIS: No, that's- that's it I think.
[Cut to room upstairs; loud music is playing. Brennan enters, next followed by Booth and Ellis. A bunch of guys, wearing costume, seem to be arguing]
Guy 1: Can't take that away.
Guy 2: We can't keep breaking out 20-sided-
Guy 1: [Noticing Brennan] Excuse me. This is a private function. So good-bye.
BRENNAN: Go ahead. Don't let me stop you fr- What are you doing exactly?
BOOTH: [Chuckles] Guys, this is actually a real live woman. Something you don't see often.
Guy 1: And like I said, this is a private function. So-
ELLIS: It's the F.B.I. Just turn it off for a minute. Please.
[The girl turns off the music]
Guy 3: F.B.I.?
Guy 1: I'm Yasutani the Terrible. I speak for this clan.
[Booth and Brennan exchange a look]
BOOTH: Okay. Well, we- we'd like to ask you a few questions if you're not too, uh, busy.
BRENNAN: The costume, the social awkwardness, the active fantasy life. The victim would fit right into the subgrouping.
BOOTH: Okay. Hey, uh, Mister, uh, "Yakitori the Horrible", what's your real name?
Guy 1: Jeremy Kuznetsky.
BRENNAN: Do any of you people know Warren Granger?
Girl: Something happened to Warren, didn't it?
ELLIS: Warren's dead. He was murdered.
BOOTH: No. I never said anything about him being murdered. Neither did the press.
JEREMY: Well, obviously, if you're the F.B.I., he was murdered. You guys don't investigate people getting hit by a bus.
BOOTH: Hey when's the last time any of you have seen Warren?
JEREMY: A couple months ago when he left.
BRENNAN: Left?
JEREMY: Citizen 14 was one of us. Until he went psycho and bugged out. Called us all posers.
Guy 3: Pathetic fantasists.
BRENNAN: Uh, was he wearing his, um, outfit?
JEREMY: His identity. Yeah.
BRENNAN: Why do you wear these identities?
Guy 3: For the game.
BOOTH: How serious do you take the game?
JEREMY: It's only fun if you take it seriously.
BRENNAN: You always play here?
Guy 2: You know, "play" is not exactly the right verb. Okay?
JEREMY: [Talking over guy 2] Don't even try to explain it to them.
Girl: Shut up! Who cares? Didn't you hear? Warren't is dead!
Guy 2: It's okay, Minnow!
BOOTH: What's you name?
Girl: Blue Minnow.
BOOTH: Okay, guys. When I ask your names, I want the ones that your parents gave you.
Girl: Abigail Zealy. Citizen 14 was my partner.
BRENNAN: Is that what you call Warren? Citizen 14?
ABIGAIL: Citizen 14 was my partner. Warren was my friend.
JEREMY: He was a little more than that.
[Abigail gets up and leaves abruptly]
ELLIS: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
[Cut to the street, view of the car then inside the car]
BRENNAN: I don't like to judge an entire subculture, but those people gave me the creeps.
BOOTH: That's because they are creepy. What I mean is those kids at the store weren't your good old harmless "tutor you in math" geeks. They were the, uh, you know, "set the school on fire" geeks. Dark nerds. Columbine nerds.
BRENNAN: Columbine? You think Yasutani the Terrible's actually capable of murders?
BOOTH: I think, you know, they get high, you know, they play these games, they lose their grip in reality. And, you know, they start to believe they are these characters.
BRENNAN: You mean like Warren out fighting crime.
BOOTH: You know, hey, maybe Warren and that guy, uh, the leader, "Yasuhama"-
BRENNAN: Yasutani the Terrible.
BOOTH: Yeah. Yasutani the Terrible. Maybe- Maybe him and that guy, you know, they got into this, uh, you know, magic fight, and uh, it became real.
BRENNAN: So you're saying it wasn't Warren who was murdered. It was his character, Citizen 14.
BOOTH: They're so delusional they don't even know that they've committed a crime.
BRENNAN: I'll get Hodgins to see if there's any signs of drug use in Warren's hair.
[Cut to the Jeffersonian, Angela's office. She's looking at the computer screen where Warren's comic book is still displayed]
ANGELA: Oh, I managed to get some of the text back from this panel. Cheerful little tyke.
GOODMAN: Writer was in pain. And I don't think it was purely the adolescent angst of the outsider. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it wasn't mere psychological pain. He's afraid of actual physical death.
[Footsteps approaching. Brennan and Booth enter]
ANGELA: Can you really pull all that information from a comic book?
GOODMAN: Absolutely. All writers reveal more of themselves than they intend on every page.
BOOTH: You know I gotta tell you, I never bought all that English 101 stuff. Sometimes a river is just a river.
BRENNAN: All due respect, but my writing, for example, is pure fiction.
GOODMAN: Dr.Brennan, I fear you reveal much more of your worldview in your writing than you realize.
BRENNAN: Such as?
GOODMAN: Such as "Archaeologists make good administrators because they enjoy tedium".
ANGELA: Such as "Artists are doomed to a life of loneliness because they aren't able to think beyond instant gratification".
BOOTH: Such as, you know, F.B.I. guys are hot, and Angela here wants to have s*x with me.
ANGELA: Yeah.
BRENNAN, looking uncomfortable: Well, all I'm suggesting is that while Mr.Goodman goes through Warren's writing we should concentrate on the hypotheses that are congruent with forensic evidence. I'm going to take another look at Warren Granger's remains. [She leaves the room]
[Cut to the platform, Warren's body is still on one of the table]
ZACK: In the last 24 hours, I've read several dozen comic books and graphic novels.
BRENNAN: Did Hodgins find any sign of drug use?
ZACK: No. They're quite interesting. The graphic novels esppecially.
BRENNAN: After you clean the bones, look for scoring on the occipital condyle and the inferior nuchal line.
ZACK: They're bascically a retelling of the Greek myths with all the superheroes standing in for Hercules. Half god, half human.
BRENNAN: [Examining the remains closely] Okay. Be very careful here. X-ray shows fragmentation of the... cervical vertebrae consistent with sharp force trauma.
ZACK: Invulnerability, superstrenght, heightened senses, telekinesis... I would love to have some of those powers.
BRENNAN: Why?
ZACK: I- I don't really know. Is it an odd desire?
BRENNAN: Why fantasize? You're smart.
ZACK: In some ways my intelligence is a handicap. Well, for one thing, I'm weird. For another, I tend to make people feel stupid, and they resent me for it.
BRENNAN: I suspect it's the same for superpowers. [She pauses and looks at Zack] The victim was stabbed here at the base of the spine. The spinal cord was severed. That's what killed him.
ZACK: I'll clean the bones and try to match a weapon to the damage done.
BRENNAN: Which will make you a real hero in a real world.
[she starts leaving]
[Cut to Angela's office; comic book pages on the computer screen, showing a blond woman surrounded by a radiant blue light]
GOODMAN: In this restored panel from the second and finale volume of Citizen 14, we begin to see a female presence- beautiful, etheral- which he call the Opalescence.
ANGELA: A girl he literally can't approach. What if Warren was only... you know, supplying his own masturbatory materials?
GOODMAN: Yes. Lonely adolescent boy. But the story moves beyond that dimension. Here [the camera shows a page of the comic featuring the woman surround by blue and a dark character], we see the idolized female Opalescence cowering before a dark male figure referred to only as the Twisted.
ANGELA: So Citizen 14 wants to rescue the Opalescence from the Twisted. Could this be Warren's mother and stepfather?
GOODMAN: Hmm. There are elements of romantic love. This girl, surrounded by blue.
ANGELA: You know, they did mention that one of those comic book geeks was a blue girl.
GOODMAN: I'd say she's definitely worth questionning.
[Cut to the F.B.I. building, Booth's office. He and Brennan are interrogating Abigail]
BOOTH: Blue Minnow- that's your alter ego.
ABIGAIL: Abigail Zealy is my alter ego.
BOOTH: Did you, Abigail, have a relationship with Warren Granger or did the Blue Minnow have a relationship with Citizen 14?
BRENNAN: Or any combination thereof.
ABIGAIL: Neither. Warren had a girlfriend. At Capital Bowl.
BOOTH: What's the girlfriend's name, Abby?
ABIGAIL: He never told us her name. It was just a physical thing. And- And it was almost over. Warren and I had a connection. He couldn't deny that. Before he disappeared, he gave me his entire Neil Gaiman collection. His favorite work beside his own.
BRENNAN: In his own work he describes a woman known as the Opalescence. Do you believe that's supposed to be you?
[Booth shows Abigail the pages of the comic where the Opalescence appears]
ABIGAIL: What do you think?
BRENNAN: We think it's another girl entirely.
[Abilgail looks disapointed, she looks down]
BOOTH: Does that bother you?
ABIGAIL: Okay. Maybe the others told you I'm obsessed. I know. Because they never got Warren like I did. He was right. They are posers.
BOOTH: But Warren wasn't.
ABIGAIL: Warren believed. He believed in truth. He believed in doing what was right. He was Citizen 14. Citizen 14 is real.
BRENNAN: Warren didn't fit in with the others?
ABIGAIL: I just said. Warren was better. He was a really nice guy.
BOOTH: Were you aware that, uh, Jeremy Kuznetsky and, uh, Kenneth Vert had police records?
[He approaches and hands her the records. She looks at them]
ABIGAIL: Yeah. It's nothing interesting though. It's like vandalism and trespassing. You can't take them seriously.
BRENNAN: What? As criminals?
ABIGAIL: As anything.
BRENNAN: Okay. Well, what would be interesting- as a crime?
ABIGAIL: Something that took courage. Something that meant something.
BOOTH: Like murder?
ABIGAIL: Yeah. Like murder.
[Cut to the lab; Brennan, Booth and Angela are gathered around the "Angelator"]
ANGELA: Warren Granger on the night he died, wearing his costume.
BRENNAN: Okay. Start the sequence. [Images of Warren and the Twisted appears. The latter stabs Warren at the base of his neck] Cause of death was a severed spinal cord. We can rule out Abigail Zealy as the killer.
BOOTH: How do you figure?
BRENNAN: Abigail doesn't have enough strenght to sever Warren's spinal cord with one blow.
BOOTH: What about his stepdad? Or the, uh, other kids at the comic shop?
BRENNAN: Well, the physicality of the murderer is between 5'10" and 6'1"... I'd say yes to them all, depending on the weapon.
[Silence]
ANGELA: What could he have done to make somebody so angry at him?
BRENNAN: Zack's cleaning the bones now. Maybe we'll find something that we've missed.
[Cut to the room when Zack's cleaning the bones. He's sitting down, feet on a table, reading a comic book. Hodgins enters]
HODGINS: What are you reading?
ZACK: I'm doing research.
[Alarm beeping; Zack gets up to go get the clean bones out]
HODGINS: By reading a comic book?
ZACK: Intensely allegorical modern myths.
HODGINS: You're reading Bugs Bunny, man.
ZACK: On the surface, yes, but if you dig deeper the subtext becomes apparent. [He puts on gloves and open the incubator] The conflict is representative of the Darwinian struggle between avians and mammals for dominance.
HODGINS: Based on Bugs giving Daffy Duck a cigar made out of dynamite?
ZACK: Yeah. [Takes a bone out, put it on a tray and brings it to the table near Hodgins. He points at the comic book Hodgins's holding] And then here he explodes. But not really.
HODGINS: [Looking at the bone] You have a problem, my man.
ZACK: What?
HODGINS: Looks like you degraded the bones.
ZACK: [Taking out more bones] Impossible. It's only a 4% peroxide solution.
HODGINS: Then what's that bubbling and pitting on the periosteum?
ZACK: A 4% solution wouldn't cause that.
HODGINS: So, what? It's some kind of systemic deterioration?
ZACK: [Examining the bones more closely under a light] The intertrochanteric crest is almost totally eaten away.
HODGINS: What do you think it is?
ZACK: This kid was sick.
[Cut to Capital Bowl; Booth is wearing is bowling outfit. He and Brennan are looking at the lanes]
BOOTH: You smell that?
BRENNAN: Yes, I do.
BOOTH: You know what that is, Bones?
BRENNAN: Wax, popcorn. Feet, deodorant.
BOOTH: That, is America, Bones.
BRENNAN: Keep your bowling ball in the car?
BOOTH: Oh, you know, I figure we ask a few questions about Warren Granger, maybe bowl a few frames... You know, nothing like a little sport to, uh, take the edge off of-
BRENNAN: This is not a sport.
BOOTH: How do you figure?
BRENNAN: There's no physical benefit. So it's really like golf. It's not a sport, it's an activity.
BOOTH: You know, could you please, Bones maybe just for once try not to piss everyone off around you?
[They start walking away from the lanes]
BRENNAN: Yeah. Sorry. Are you good at this... sport?
BOOTH: Well, my average was over 200, less than 2 opens per game. One match I had 211 strikes out of 431 shots. 29 opens in 39 games.
BRENNAN: What does that mean?
BOOTH: Means I won some bowling awards.
BRENNAN: I won the Marshall H. Dixon Award for my paper on George John Romanes and physiological selection.
BOOTH: My God, it's like we lead parallel lives.
[They arrive at the counter]
Man behind the counter: Need shoes?
BOOTH: Yeah. Uh, looking for the manager. [Shows his badge]
Man behind the counter: [Points at his name tag] Ted McGruder. F.B.I, huh?
BOOTH: Yeah. We're, uh, investigating the death of one of your employees.
BRENNAN: Warren Granger.
TED: Warren? When he didn't show up for his last paycheck I thought he just found another job and didn't want to give notice. He was weird like that. Cool kid though.
[The geeks from the comic books store are here]
One of them: Bye, bye, Lucy!
JEREMY: Come on. Don't pout.
[All laughing]
LUCY: Ted, I talked to 'em, but they just keep giving me lip.
TED: Luce, these people are with the F.B.I. They're here about Warren Granger.
LUCY: Warren? What about him?
BRENNAN: He's deceased.
LUCY: Oh, my God. [to Ted] I told you he didn't quit.
TED: I was wrong. [to Booth and Brennan] Th-This is my wife, Lucy.
LUCY: Sorry.
BOOTH: That's okay. How often do those kids come in here?
TED: Those jokers? Weekends mostly. But they used to come in a lot more, but in these crazy costumes. I told them I'd allow it on Halloween, but that's it.
BOOTH: Warren's girlfriend here? We were informed that Warren's girlfriend worked here.
TED: Well, if you ever met Warren, you'd know he's not the girlfriend type of kid.
LUCY: There was a girl who came by to see him sometimes.
[Booth show them a picture of Abigail]
LUCY: Yeah. Yeah. Th-That's her. I-I don't know her name but I don't think Warren was all that glad to see her. If she called he would ask me to tell her that he wasn't here.
[Brennan's cell phone rings]
BRENNAN: [Answering the call] Brennan.
TED: Maybe he was just trying to dodge her.
BOOTH: Excuse me. Just one moment, please. Thanks.
BRENNAN: Okay. Slow down, Zack, and repeat that.
ZACK: [at the lab] Hypercellularity with total effacemenbt of the marrow space. Osteoblasts at 26%.
BRENNAN: Okay. Good work, Zack. Keep working on the weapon I.D. [She hangs up]
BOOTH: I take it we're not gonna be getting any bowling in tonight, huh?
BRENNAN: Zack said that if Warren hadn't been murdered 2 months ago, he'd be dead by now.
[SCENE_BREAK]
[Cut to a room in the F.B.I. building. Booth and Brennan are talking to Warren's parents]
BOOTH: When you said that Warren was sick as a child, you meant leukemia.
WARREN'S MOTHER: Yes. But by the time he was 11, he was in remission.
BRENNAN: The hypercellular activity I saw is only present in advanced cancer cases. He must have been very ill. You didn't notice?
WARREN'S STEPFATHER: We tried to be there for Warren, but he wouldn't let us in. Right when you thought you'd built a bridge of trust, he'd quit on you. He quit trying to face reality.
BOOTH: Maybe your son didn't want you to have to face it. He knew his situation was dire, and he decided to tough it out on his own.
WARREN'S MOTHER: Yes. He saw what it did to me the first time. It's not that he quit. It's that he didn't want me to suffer.
[Cut to the lab]
BRENNAN: You told her that her son didn't tell her about being sick to make her feel better.
BOOTH: Mm-hmm.
BRENNAN: You don't really believe that.
BOOTH: People don't actually do that.
BRENNAN: So you told her to make her feel better?
BOOTH: Right.
BRENNAN: So you just did what you said people don't do. I wonder why he didn't tell his mother.
BOOTH: Well, maybe he was all caught up in the romance of being a dying superhero. You know, adolescent angst, all that.
BRENNAN: What do you really think?
BOOTH: [sighs] The truth is I think the boy was looking to be a man. All on his own without any help. He was doing the best that he could.
BRENNAN: Heroes don't whine about being sick.
BOOTH: Something like that. Poor kid.
[Hodgins, Angela and Goodman walk in]
HODGINS: Do they know about the leukemia?
BRENNAN: No. He kept it a secret.
HODGINS: Tough guy, huh?
BOOTH: You were right on before about the kid knowing he was facing imminent death. This changes motivation.
HODGINS: The killer's motivation?
BOOTH: No. Warren Granger's.
GOODMAN: You think he was emboldened by the knowledge he was going to die.
HODGINS: He went looking for a fight.
ANGELA: He went looking for the Twisted.
BRENNAN: Wait. No. Wait. We are allowing the comic book story to generate too many hypotheses.
HODGINS: I only heard the "go get the bad guy" hypothesis.
GOODMAN: It's too general.
BRENNAN: Yes. Perhaps the Opalescence represented Warren's better nature and the Twisted was a reflection of his darker sexual impulses. A theme I assume is common in teenage fiction. And the drawings- [She pauses]
BOOTH: Hello? Bones?
BRENNAN: The drawings... Warren wrote the comics but there was no evidence in his room that he knew how to draw.
ZACK: Dr.Brennan, I found an extra piece of bone I can't account for.
BRENNAN: Someone else drew the comic. [She leaves]
ANGELA: [Flipping through the comic book] Stew Ellis.
BOOTH: What about him?
ANGELA: Look. Warren Granger wrote this comic book, but it was drawn by Stew Ellis.
[Cut to the comic book store. Booth is interrogating Ellis again]
ELLIS: Look. I told you I knew Warren from the store, okay? He was a serious investor.
BOOTH: Did he owe you money Stew?
ELLIS: What?
BOOTH: Was it, uh, creative differences or was it you just didn't get enough credit? [He shows Ellis a page of the comic book]
ELLIS: [sighs] No. It was none of that.
BOOTH: Look. Why didn't you tell me you were partners when I asked you earlier?
ELLIS: 'Cause we had a big argument, and I didn't want you to think I had a motive.
BOOTH: Okay. What did you argue about? Abigail Zealy?
ELLIS: No, man. Just merchandising.
BOOTH: You argued about merchandising?
ELLIS: Yeah. Warren thought he deserved 70% for the concept but I think, since I did the actual drawings, I-
BOOTH: Do you have a publisher?
ELLIS: No. And now we never will. Look, if-
[Bell jingles, someone enters the shop. Ellis speaks lower]
ELLIS: If you think that I killed Warren, I'm not that stupid, man.
BOOTH: So who do you think killed Warren?
ELLIS: I- I don't know. Definitely not me, okay?
BOOTH: Well, you know, Stew, as of this moment you're the prime suspect in Warren's murder.
ELLIS: [sighs] Why?
BOOTH: Why? Because you lied about your relationship with Warren. So if I were you, I would think really, really hard if there's anything else you haven't told me.
ELLIS: All right. Abby.
BOOTH: Abby. Triangle.
ELLIS: [nods] Look. I hooked up with her a few times, but she was obsessed with Warren.
BOOTH: So you did argue about her?
ELLIS: No, man. Warren never wanted Abby.
BOOTH: Okay. Maybe it made you jealous that she wanted him?
ELLIS: Dude, Abby's cute in a chick geek kind of way but she's definitely not that kind of Betty you go to the death chamber for.
BOOTH: Okay Stew, you know what? You're just one of those guys who's way too good at lying.
ELLIS: Dude, I'm an artist. What do you want?
[Cut to the lab, close up of bones on the computer screen. Zack and Brennan are around the table where the bones are]
ZACK: I found the extra piece of bone lodged here in the odontoid process of C2. I-I went through all the chipping and damage again but I can't find where it comes from.
BRENNAN: [She sits down and looks at the fragment of bone under a microscope] Well, it's not from the cervical vertebrae.
ZACK: Oh, it's not?
BRENNAN: It's from a long bone. Probably the deltoid process of a humerus.
ZACK: Arm bone?
BRENNAN: I need you to set up the microtome. And get me paraffin and an embedding mold.
ZACK: Are you going to prep your own bone slide?
BRENNAN: Yes.
ZACK: Usually I do that for you.
BRENNAN: This is a tough one, Zack. The piece is small, and I need to make sure there's enough left for a DNA sample.
ZACK: Wait. Warren Granger's are bones are complete. This extra bone fragment didn't come from Warren Granger.
BRENNAN: Warren Granger was the victim of a violent attack. He fought back. It's possible that during that struggle he struck his attacker with the same weapon that was later used to kill him.
ZACK: Which means that piece of bone could've come from his murderer.
[Cut to the bones room at the Jeffersonian Institute; Brennan is prepping the bone fragment]
[Brennan exhales]
[Booth enters the room, whistling]
BOOTH: What are you doing?
BRENNAN: Breathing on the sample dissipates static electricity and makes it easier to cut.
BOOTH: You seem nervous.
BRENNAN: If I get this right I'll be able to tell you the age, s*x and race of Warren Granger's killer.
BOOTH: Stew was the artist.
BRENNAN: Really? You think he killer Warren over artistic differences?
BOOTH: He also had a thing for Abby.
BRENNAN: Wow.
BOOTH: Yeah. For a recluse, Warren Granger- He had his thumb in a lot of pies.
BRENNAN: You said before that Warren reminded you of me. You think I'm just like him, that he hid from life by immersing himself in a fantasy world where he fought crime. And I do the same thing, only I don't have superpowers. I... I have science.
BOOTH: No, Bones. You do fight crime. It's not a fantasy. As far as any normal person is concerned, you do have superpowers.
BRENNAN: You're just saying that to me.
BOOTH: No, I don't do that.
BRENNAN: Yes, you do. You lied to Warren Granger's mother to make her feel better. That seems to be your superpower.
BOOTH: Look. This piece of bone you're analyzing- How did he get lodged in Warren Granger's neck?
BRENNAN: It was deposited by the same weapon that severed his spinal cord.
BOOTH: Doesn't make it the killer's bone.
BRENNAN: Are you thinking a- a separate murder victim?
BOOTH: Opalescense. Uh, the woman he loved.
BRENNAN: I don't think she's dead.
BOOTH: Why?
BRENNAN: This is an arm bone. Has anyone we've seen on this case been favoring her arm?
BOOTH: Not that I've noticed.
BRENNAN: That's because you're not an anthropologist... with superpowers.
BOOTH: Ha. That's good. [Chuckles]
[Cut to Capital Bowl. Brennan and Booth walk toward both Ted and Lucy]
LUCY: Oh. Hello.
TED: Any news about Warren?
BOOTH: We're still in the initial phase of our investigation. Listen Mr. McGruder you didn't happen to keep that, uh, last payroll check for Warren Granger that you told me about?
TED: By law I have to, yeah.
BOOTH: You mind digging that up for us? I apologize for the inconvenience.
TED: I guess. It's probably in the file somewhere.
[He leaves]
LUCY: What do you need the paycheck for?
BOOTH: Ah, it's technical.
[Lucy seems to be hurt]
BRENNAN: Mrs. McGruder, what's wrong with your left side?
LUCY: Why would you ask me that?
BRENNAN: I noticed how you held yourself last time I was here. I didn't think anything of it. Though viewed through the current context, I-
LUCY: What is she talking about?
BOOTH: She wants to know how you hurt yourself.
BRENNAN: You walk as though your left ribs are cracked. Also, you favor your left arm.
LUCY: Oh, I, um- I- I... fell on the lanes. They're very slippery.
BRENNAN: Falling would bruise a number of ribs. You're favoring only one or two.
BOOTH: The type of damage done by a fist.
[Lucy looks uncomfortable]
BOOTH: Look. Were you and Warren close?
LUCY: He was a nice kid. A really nice kid.
[Ted comes back with the check.]
TED: Here it is. [Lucy looks very uncomfortable] You two want to bowl a few frames? Got some empty lanes.
BRENNAN: I'll see you in the comic books, buster.
TED: What?
BOOTH: Thanks. I- I'll get this back to you.
[Booth and Brennan walk away from the McGruders]
BOOTH: It's "See you in the funny pages".
BRENNAN: Okay. I took a liberty. Her husband beats her.
BOOTH: Bones. All right. Talk about multiple hypotheses.
BRENNAN: It's a leap, yes, but it was bound to happen, me spending so much time with you. I mean that as a compliment.
BOOTH: Okay. So Warren's former boss is the Twisted, and the boss's wife is the Opalescence.
BRENNAN: Go back and arrest him.
BOOTH: It's not enough. Okay? For that we need something just a little bit more real.
BRENNAN: Evidence.
BOOTH: Cold hard facts, baby.
[They look back at Lucy who quickly looks away; they leave the bowling]
[Zack walk toward the two of them as they come back to the Jeffersonian Institute]
ZACK: Dr. Brennan, based on your histology and the DNA, the bone chip found in Warren Granger's neck came from a Caucasian male, mid-30s.
BOOTH: McGruder. What? Can you get any more specific?
BRENNAN: We need the weapon.
BOOTH: I can get a warrant, search the McGruder house for whatever you want.
BRENNAN: That's the trouble. We don't know exactly what we're looking for.
ZACK: We hit a dead end trying to reverse engineer it from the mark on the neck. Too much damage and fragmentation.
BRENNAN: Wait. You said that in books you could find the real-world version.
BOOTH: Yeah. Well, I mean, if you know you, it's pretty obvious.
BRENNAN: Well, give me an example.
BOOTH: Okay. Well, in your book, your partner's a former Olympic boxer who graduated from Harvard and spoke six different languages. In real life, you got me.
BRENNAN: So what you're saying is that reality falls far, far short of the fictional.
BOOTH: Yeah. Thanks a lot, Bones. [He leaves]
[Cut to Angela's office. Brennan, Booth and Angela are gathered around the "Angelator"]
ANGELA: Warren Granger's spinal cord was severed by something sharp, but not a knife.
BOOTH: Okay. If it wasn't a knife, what was it?
ANGELA: The closest match I could find would be a corkscrew or a Tibetan skull knife but neither of them explain how foreign bone was left lodged in the vertebrae.
BRENNAN: Pull up Citizen 14's weapon thing.
BOOTH: I thought that was a boomerang thing, like a sonic gun.
ANGELA: A laser cutlass. That thing that allowed him to hear through walls.
BRENNAN: we're looking for something that has a drabber, more banal version in the real world.
ANGELA: Well, why would he be killed by his own weapon?
BOOTH: Well, because he probably had it on him the night he decided to confront Ted McGruder.
[Images of Warren's weapons appear]
ANGELA: Citizen 14's arsenal.
BRENNAN: [Pointing at one of the weapon displayed] What's that?
ANGELA: That's his main weapon. It's a three-sided throwing knife that returns to him. But none of them make the wound that resemble the one that severed Warren's spinal cord.
BRENNAN: It's just an idea.
BOOTH: Bones-
BRENNAN: No. I- I fell into the exact thing that I warned you about: developing too many hypotheses not grounded in fact.
BOOTH: No. Bones, I know exactly which drab real-world thing was used to murder Warren Granger.
[Booth and Brennan are in the car]
BOOTH: All this kid wants is to feel like a hero. Suddenly he's facing a damsel in distress.
BRENNAN: Lucy McGruder is 10 years older.
BOOTH: That's not that damsel part that matters. It's the distress that appealed to the kid. You know? I mean, look. It wasn't about the s*x or the romance. It never was.
BRENNAN: He wanted to make a difference in the world before he died. [Pauses, she exchanges a look with Booth] I told you he was more like you than me.
Woman on radio: 22705, Dispatch.
BOOTH: [answers call] 22705.
Woman on radio: Unit sent to suspect's residence reports the domicile is empty.
BOOTH: There's no one there? What the about the wife?
Woman on radio: Negative. Search time is inside the house. It's empty. Signs of flight.
BOOTH: Affirmative, uh, Dispatch.
BRENNAN: What? He beats her, but she takes off with him anyway?
BOOTH: Spousal abuse syndrome. [Radio] Dispatch, 22705.
Woman on radio: Dispatch.
BOOTH: Can you send a backup unit to Capital Bowl, 1123 Sea Bolt?
[Cut to Capital Bowl; the place seems totally empty]
BOOTH: [Whispering] Domestic disturbances are always weird, okay? The woman gets beat on by her husband. The cavalry turns up to save her. You know, you'd think she'd be on the same side as the rescuers, but- [chuckles] sometimes-
BRENNAN: You're saying watch out for the wife.
[Sound of a door opening]
BOOTH: All I'm saying is just stay alert. Okay, Bones?
BRENNAN: Okay.
[We hear voices in the background]
LUCY: Ted, why are we doing this?
TED: Shut up.
[They are behind the counter, Ted is taking the money from the safe]
LUCY: You didn't do anything.
TED: Lucy, I swear to God. If you don't shut up-
LUCY: No. I know you wouldn't hurt Warren.
BOOTH: Of course he would, You see, that's what he does.
[Lucy and Ted turn around as Booth and Brennan enter the room]
BOOTH: He likes to beat up people weaker than him.
TED: We are closed.
BRENNAN: Well, you left your door unlocked. Probably an oversight due to your state of panic.
BOOTH: Yeah. The lights were on. You see, we suspected a robbery. Say, you have a bevel knife?
LUCY: A what?
BRENNAN: It's a triangular three-sided knife.
BOOTH: You know, to clean out bowling ball holes. Say I used to have one back in the day, you wouldn't happen to have on around here, would you?
TED: You need a warrant. You need a warrant to take any of my stuff.
BRENNAN: Lucy, we need a bevel knife.
LUCY: [Looks at Ted] We keep one in here.
TED: Shut up, Lucy!
BOOTH: Why don't you smack her around a little bit there, Ted uh? Keep your woman in line.
[Lucy places a toolbox on the counter. Brennan find the bevel knife and examine it more closely]
[Silence]
BRENNAN: Yeah. This could've done it.
BOOTH: Say, Bones. That, uh, bone chip. Uh, second victim or murderer?
BRENNAN: Well, for Warren's sake, I hope it was the murderer.
BOOTH: Me too.
TED: What are you talking about? Just get out of here.
BRENNAN: It would be his left arm.
LUCY: What?
BRENNAN: Well, Warren was right-handed, so the wound would be on your husband's left arm.
LUCY: Oh my God.
BOOTH: Bones.
[Brennan approaches Ted and hit his upper left arm with her elbow, Ted groans]
LUCY: No!
[Ted keeps on groaning. A blood stain appears on his shirt where Brennan hit him]
BRENNAN: [Pointing at the stain] Right there.
[Ted makes an attempt at hitting Brennan, which she blocks right away. She seizes his arm and throw him over the pool table nearby. Ted groans some more.]
BOOTH: I got him. I got him. I got him. All right. [He handcuffs Ted] Aw, hell, Bones. Looks like you opened up an old wound there. All right let's go. You know what? You're under arrest. I really hate a wife beater. I really do. Almost as much as I hate someone who kills a dying kid.
[They leave]
[Cut to the FBI interrogation room. Booth and Brennan are talking to Lucy]
BOOTH: Warren knew what Ted did to you.
[Lucy nods]
BRENNAN: Did you tell him?
LUCY: I didn't have to. He saw one night. Ted hit me and... Warren- Warren ran away.
BRENNAN: Why didn't you go to the police?
LUCY: Because... it's not all the time, I mean- it- it's when things go bad and he's under a lot of strain. Ted has a bad temper.
BRENNAN: Warren wanted to rescue you.
LUCY: [starts crying] Oh, my God.
BOOTH: He probably just wanted to intimidate your husband, stop him from attacking you.
BRENNAN: Warren stabbed your husband in the arm with the bevel knife.
BOOTH: Ted took the knife away from Warren.
BRENNAN: It wouldn't have been very hard. The boy was... very ill.
BOOTH: After that, it's like you said. Your husband has a bad temper.
[Lucy cries]
[Black Rebel Motorcycle Club ~ Feel it now]
Cut to the lab. Angela is drawing the last page of Warren's comic book: Citizen 14 is victorious with behind him the Twisted in prison.
Cut to the cemetery where the ceremony for Warren is taking place. Stew and Warren's friends are deposing offerings on the casket. Beside Warren's mother is crying. Booth and Brennan are standing a few feets away.
Cut back to Angela, now finishing the drawing of the Opalescence. Back to the cemetery, Booth approaches the casket. He takes off the Sharpshooter medal that was on his suit jacket and places it on the casket. Back to Angela drawing. Back to the cemetery. Booth joins back Brennan, they both turn around and see that Abigail is there, away from the gathering, crying. Angela arrives, she hands the finished comic book over to Brennan who skips through the pages. She smiles, casts a look at Angela and walk over to Lucy to whom she gives the comic. Lucy looks at the last page where is Angela's drawing. Above Citizen 14 and the Twisted behind bar is the Opalescence, arms held out, with the words Thank you. The comic book is now on the casket. Zoom on the last page, zoom on the Opalescence's face then on the words "Thank You". End.
Plan: A: Special Agent Seeley Booth; Q: Who enlists Dr. Temperance Brennan's help? A: a decomposed body; Q: What was found in the alley? A: a local alley; Q: Where was the body found? A: the teen's killer; Q: What does Brennan want to help Booth find? A: only comic books; Q: What did the teenage boy have for friends? A: the lone teenager; Q: Who does Brennan find she has more in common with than she thought? Summary: Special Agent Seeley Booth enlists Dr. Temperance Brennan's help when a decomposed body is found in a local alley and the cause of death is unknown. As Brennan tries to assess if a murder has been committed, the details of the case draw her in deeper, and she's determined to help Booth find the teen's killer. As their investigation reveals the body is that of a teenage boy who had only comic books for friends, Brennan finds she may have more in common with the lone teenager than she though.