-Venus POV-
It was late as we had a new case at a Halloween maze. Temp, Booth and I get there as we were walking Booth says, "Now that is an excellent costume. What are you two wearing?" Temp then asks, "What? Now?" "No, not now. To the Jeffersonian Halloween Ball." "What I always wear. Are you going this year?" "I'm the official unofficial FBI liaison to the Jeffersonian- of course I'm going. What about you Blueberry?" I looked at him, "I was busy preparing the Ball that I had Angie get me my costume... So I am not sure what I am going to be this year." "Nice a surprise." We then looked at the Dr. Potoska who is escorting us to the location as he says into the walkie-talkie, "We just passed the Wolfman." "Go straight towards the guillotine and veer left." He then looked at us, "It's a maze. What can I do?"
Temp then asks, "Dr. Potoska, how were the remains discovered?" "A kid passed out." "What killed him?" "The kid didn't die; he just fainted." She then looks at us, "Then why am I here?" I chuckle then say, "Patience you must have, my young Pawdawan." Booth laughs, "Start Wars nice." Dr. Potoska then says, "Well, when Matty fainted, I was here with my own kids. I'm a pediatrician, but I'm also the corner." Booth adds, "Small town." "Yeah, well, Matty revived easily enough. Uh, he's what you call a nervous type kid. But then I saw what it was that made him faint in the first place, and I almost fainted, too because it was a mummy, which I told the sheriff, who called the FBI, who called..." I answer, "Me..." He nods, "And how here we are, lost in this stupid maze looking for the mummy." Booth asks, "A mummy?" "Yeah I do not see a guillotine. What would you call that?" Temp tried, "Oh, um... a cowboy?" I chuckle as Booth says, "No, it's a scarecrow." We then hear the walkie-talkie, "Look, just keep turning to the right, all right? Let me know when you reach the dragon." "Uh, dead end... with teeth." "That's because you turned left at the goblin. You were supposed to turn right."
Booth asks, "Look, when you say a mummy, you mean, uh...?" "Wrapped in bandages, curse of King Tut." Temp then says, "No offense, but I'm not certain a pediatrician is qualified..." "Pediatrician and coroner. See that? Yeah... Okay, we are at the electric chair." "There's an electric chair?" "Hmm." I then say, "Could you just tell him to uh, throw his flashlight up in the air?" "Uhm... Director Dr. Venus requests that you toss your flashlight into the air." "Ten-four." We wait and see the flashlight in the air as Booth says, "Ah! There it is." I nod as Dr. Potoska says, "Oh, let's see if we can get there this way." As we were about to follow him Booth says, "Guys." We look at him as he runs through the stacked hay and gets to the other side as I snicker. We follow behind him and made it to our destination.
Booth then says, "Oh! What do you think, Bones, Blueberry?" Temp starts first, "Well... Ocular contents dry, orbits collapsed, leathery skin... These are actual human remains." "Mummy." I then ask, "How long will it take to get out of this maze?" Booth then says, "Not as long as you might think." He then presses his car keys as we hear it and look at the direction where the car was as he then proceeded to push the hay out of the way. On the other side were other FBI agents as I chuckle.
We sent the mummy back to the lab that night. Next day we get a call that it was from a thrift store as we went to the place. We entered as we spoke to the owner as he says, "Clothes from this ministry were found on a dead body? Well, I'm afraid that happens fairly often." Temp and I were confused as we ask, "Why?" "Because we're a charitable congregation. Homeless people know that we'll provide them what they need." Temp then asks, "Do you, by any chance, remember these specific pieces of clothing?" "This is from your murder victim?" "Mm-hmm." We then hear someone, "Pastor Jonas? Do you have anything like this in red?" "You're looking for something that screams 'Satan,' right?" "Basically. I think we have a pink cape in the back. Maybe we can dye it." Booth then asks, "What kind of church dresses kids like Satanists?" "Let me show you. At Halloween we do a Hell House. Fornication, theft, murder, gambling, usury, sodomy, abortion." Temp asks, "It's kind of horrific, isn't it?" "Well, abandoning the path of righteousness is horrific, Dr. Brennan. This is our way of remaking a pagan holiday- Halloween, into a positive celebration of Christian values. Excellent prostitute, Stephanie."
I looked at the pastor astonished as Booth asks, "Anyone ever dress like a mummy?" "We've never featured a 'false idol' room, though, now that you mention it, it's not a bad idea." I was confused on this sort of method as Temp says, "Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs endured for almost 4,000 years. Twice the length of Christianity." I elbowed Temp as Booth asks, "Look, any of your kids suddenly disappear?" "No." Temp then ask, "What if the children that you save from abortion grow up to be usurers and sodomites?" I sigh as the Pastor says, "I don't respond to mocking semantics, Dr. Brennan." Booth adds, "Nor do I, but she's serious." I nod, "She really is." "In that case, my serious answer would be that in being given a chance to live a life, the aborted soul will have a multitude of opportunities to repent for their sins and live bathed in the Holy Spirits." Temp nods, "Thank you." Booth asks, "Thank you?" Pastor Jonas nods, "Your welcome." I chuckle at Booth's confusion as we left.
We are in the car as Booth asks Temp, "Does the Pastor guy make you mad?" "No." "He's a fundamentalist." "I appreciate consistency." "What, the consistency of trying to scare kids into Christianity?" "How do we keep kids from smoking? We tell them it gives them cancer." "It does give them cancer." "According to science." "That's all you care about is science." "In the end, even someone who believes in empiricism and science has to take a leap of faith." "What?" "I believe in what I can hear, taste, see, touch and measure. You believe in what you feel. Pastor Jonas believes that God speaks to him through a sacred book." I just watch the conversation amused as Booth says, "I feel like we're on the wrong side of the argument here." He gets a call and checks, "It's Cam." He answers and put's it on speaker, "What's up?" "I really need you to come back." "What's going on?" "I got a couple here, says they think the mummy in the maze is their daughter." "Oh, that'd save us some time on identification." "Their daughter only disappeared last week." I then say, "The remains we found are at least a year old." "Look, I'm great with corpses, but when it cone to loved ones... let's just say there's a reason why I'm not a pediatrician. So if you got a siren, turn it on." "Right." He hangs up as he turns on the sirens.
I was in my office as I let Temp and Booth handle the parents as I do some finalization of the ball, I then get a call from my assistant Jimmy who tells me that they found another mummy. I thank him and have him take care of the rest of the ball. I call Temp and wait for her to answer, "Yes?" "Hey sis, another mummy has been found at Shoreline Amusement Park. I'll see you down soon." I hung up and organized everything that has to do with the ball in one spot for Jimmy to just pick up.
It was already dark as Temp, Booth, and I are heading over to the crime scene as Temp says, "Perhaps the fact that Megan Shaw disappeared from here and there's another mummy here is a coincidence." Booth then says, "Fact, Bones- there are no coincidences in a murder investigation." "You do know the strict definition of a 'fact,' right? It's not the same as a 'funny feeling." I chuckle as Booth says, "Just because somebody says they saw a mummy doesn't mean they actually did." We then hear a lady with a EMT guy, "I know what I saw." "Keep the mask on, please, ma'am." I then ask, "What's wrong with her?" "Anxiety attack. Brought on by this dungeon here. I spent half my time on these calls."
Temp then says, "You know it's not real, right? You're overreacting to an excessive amount of stimuli." The lady tried to take off the mask as the EMT says, "Keep the mask in place, ma'am." Temp adds, "Plus, you should lose some weight." I looked at Temp with wide eyes and elbowed her a bit as the EMT says, "Uh... ma'am?" Booth adds, "Bones, a little compassion." The woman then says, "I'm not overreacting. There's a dead body in there." The EMT adds, "1,000 of them, to be exact." "There's a real one. I'm a nurse. Trust me. I know a dead body when I see one." I then ask, "Did you see anything?" The EMT shakes his head, "Not much time for that. Just went in, got her, got her out. Right." I nod as Booth pulls down the ladies mask and asks, "What did you see?" "A corpse. Past the killer clown." I looked at her wide eyes and eyed Booth knowing he is scared of clowns as he asks, "Clown?" The EMT then asks him, "You okay?" "Yeah." Temp also notices, "You sure?" "Sure." "Come on."
I let Temp and Booth in front of me as we made it to the maze scaring sort of thing. I don't like these sort of things as it is scary but could also trigger some episodes for me. I'm the type to not show my fear, but I am a bit touchy which gives me away. Just don't try to scare me if you want to get injured. I just call it a reflex. I decided to go up front with Booth as we hold onto each other as I was used more as a shield for Booth. We walked up to a clown as Booth moves me in front of it as he looks straight at it as I look at Temp coming. She then asks, "What's wrong?" Booth gasps loudly getting scared as he shakes me a bit. We then hear the phone ringing as he then says, "Um... the phone rang. It's Cam on the phone. It's ringing." Temp then says, "Coulrophobia." Booth was confused, "Uh...?" I explained, "The fear of clowns. Coulrophobia." Temp adds, "It may explain why you shot that clown last year."
Booth looked at her as I moved away to no longer be used as a shield or be shaken. "Look, I have no problems with clowns. I can stand right here. See?" Temp nods with her arms crossed, "Uh-huh." "And the phone." "Booth..." We look at her as I ask, "What does she say, "ID and date of disappearance of our maze victim... Wow!" Temp asks, "What wow?" "More coincidences. Uh... Thanks." He hangs up and says, "The maze victim disappeared from here. So we just go right past the clown. I can walk right past the clown, like she said. Just right..." The clown moved turning making Booth scream and jump away quickly as I also reacted and fearfully punched the mechanic doll making it break and fall to the ground. Temp quickly grabbed me pulling me away as we kept on walking as we make it into another category as Temp says, "Torture dungeon. Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
I chuckle at Temp as Booth says, "Yeah. Okay. Clowns, scary. Not you." We then hear a recorded screaming as Booth says, "Oh, gee. You're kidding me, right?" He walks up to a manikin that is tied to a chair. "Oh, look at the eye, huh? It's a Ping-Pong ball." I am walking next to Temp holding onto her hand as she did not mind as we walked up to a body laying there as she then says, "Not this one." Booth then asks, "How do you know?" I then speak looking at the body, "Human remains, Ranger. It's sort of our specialty. This here is a dead person."
Temp and I make it back to the lab as we are on the platform as Temp says, "Judith Evans, age 16, our victim from the Dungeon of 1,000 Corpses." I was looking at the X-rays with Zack as he says, "I've identified stress fractures to both tibias, as well as tears to the medial collateral and anterior cruciate ligaments in both knees." I then say, "Catcher's knee." Cam then says, "There's nothing in the bio about Judith Evans being a baseball player." I shake my head, "She is not. Look at the compressions to vertebrae C1 through C7 indicate that her neck was bent facing down. But forced." Cam nods, "I am not liking the picture that's forming inside of my head. Phalanges cracked, and her fingernails shredded, her head forced that way, her knees jammed up against her chest. Do we think Judith Evans was buried alive?"
I looked away not really wanting to think or imagine the scene that I have witnessed so many times in the past. Hodgins the comes over to us, "I, uh, I have another bad image of how Stella Higgins died. Spiders." Temp and I asks in different tones, "Spiders?" I was a bit more frightful, "Spiders?!" Hodgin nods, "Tarantulas, to be specific." Cam asks, "Poisonous spiders?" "That's a common misconception, though the lack of poison doesn't make the bite any less painful." He puts up an image as we watch, "This is an uticating hair from the Theraphosinae family." Zack adds, "It appears to be barbed." Yeah. It's very irritating. Hey, little-known fact: tarantula hair was the main ingredient in itching powder for decades." I nod not very pleased with the new fact as Zack asks, "Is there any correlation between these hairs and the fact that Stella Higgins scratched herself so badly, and pulled out her own hair?" Cam adds, "She's bitten all over. There had to be dozens of tarantulas on her so, yeah, there's a correlation."
Hodgin then says, "I was operating under the assumption that the mysterious spore was transported by the tarantula, but I was wrong." Temp asks, "How do you know?" "Because there's no tarantula hairs on Judith Evans, but plenty of spores and particulates. She has carcinogenic dibenzopyrene isomers, asbestos, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, manganese and barium. And steel dust." Cam asks, "Which adds up to...?" Zack says, "Internal combustion engines." Hodgins says "Traffic. Except for the steel dust. I have no clue about the steel dust." Cam adds, "Well, Stella's tox results show chloroform, ephedrine, theophylline, cylondine and methamphetamine; Judith's remains show trace evidences of the same compounds, but in different concentrations."
I add, "Ephedrine is synthetic adrenaline. Most of those are heavy stimulants." Zack adds, "Their metabolisms would race. Heart rates would accelerate dangerously." Cam then says, "Spiders. Live burial. Drug-induced panic... Is our murderer literally scaring girls to death?" Temp and I went to the FBI headquarters as Booth was going to interrogate the grim reaper that we say at the maze and other attraction. I stood at the other side of the interrogation room looking through the window. I watch as Booth takes out a photo and slams it down in front of the guy. "Registered sex offender. He was present at two places where the remains of young girls were found." He shrugs, "Coincidence."
Temp adds, "Statistically improbable." Booth adds, "Scientifically improbable but, in the real world, impossible." Temp takes out two pictures of the victims as she asks, "Do you recognize these two girls?" "Man, every girl that comes in there talks to me. I don't remember them." "Why does every girl talk to you?" "Cause I'm cute, scary." I cringed a bit when he said that as Booth says, "Yeah, you do pretty well with the teenage girls, don't you, Gregory? You get them all tingly? All right, that sex offender thing? It's a joke, man. Look it up. I got drunk, and I took a leak in a public fountain."
Temp nods, "Yeah. We did look it up. There was a group of schoolgirls on the other side of that fountain." "Four times you've been caught with your pants down, all around teenage girls. Coincidence? Two years ago, you told this girl's sister that she took off with some guy." Temp asks, "Do you remember her?" "Yeah, sure. It's the girl that disappeared." Booth adds, "The thing about you guys- you're all the same. You sniff each other out. Who was the guy?" Temp then says, "Judith Evans disappeared October 24, two years ago. Stella Higgins, one year ago, a week before Halloween." "So?" "So, Megan Shaw vanished from the same place." Booth adds, "You can see the common element here, can't you, Gregg? You." "Coincidence." Temp adds, "There are no coincidences in a murder investigation." "Well, it's got nothing to do with me." I watched as Booth smacks him on the head. I chuckled a bit as Greg said, "Ow! Geez, you can't... Did you see that?"
Booth smacks his head down again and grabs his collar, "Hey! Meg Shaw was 14 years old. Understand me? Who was the guy?!" Out of nowhere Temp punched him in the face as I jumped a bit, surprised that she did that. "Oh!" Booth turned to her, "Good shot, Bones." "Thanks." "There was no guy! It was Lola." Booth asks, "Lola? The girl with the piercings?" "Yeah." "What the hell were you doing with her?" "It's not what you think. The girls come with me, maybe we get it on a little... Lola likes that." Temp asks, "Your girlfriend likes to see you with little girls?" "She likes to interrupt. You know, maybe smack them around a little." Booth asks, "Smack around?" "Yeah. It gets Lola hot. For us. For later. Sometimes, maybe she goes a little too far."
We were in Booth's office as we walked out as he says, "That girl Lola gets off on inflicting pain." I then ask, "Were you gonna hit her, too?" "No, not with a closed fist." Temp asks, "Why?" "Why? That leaves a mark." We then hear someone calling for Booth, "Agent Booth." "Yeah?" "Spoke with the Shaws. Asked if their daughter had any specific phobias." "Yeah?" "Snakes." "Snakes." "One crawled up out of the drain of her bathtub when she was a child, so since then..." "Okay, that's good. Call all the pet shops, the reptile specialists- I don't know, The World of Snakes- and see who's been buying 'em all up."
I then add, "I don't like snakes either." I shiver thinking about it as Temp asks, "Does Lola strike you as a snake person?" Booth then says, "Look, I'll deal with Lola. You two go back to the lab." Temp then asks, "Why? I won't hit her unless you say so." "Look, I'll do my street thing, you do your lab thing, all right? Together, we catch bad guys. That's good math." I chuckle and add, "And I am the mixture of you both." He nods as the elevator closes.
We are back at the lab as we get up on the platform as everyone is already dressed up except Temp and I as Temp asks Hodgins that is with Cam, "Are you concentrating on the spores?" "Yes, I'm looking at them now." Cam adds, "He's aware of the parameters." I nod as Temp asks, "And the unexplained source of the steel dust?" "What I'd like is to look up from the microscope in about, mm, ten seconds and find myself totally alone and able to concentrate." I chuckle as I start pushing the girls with me at a distance as Hodgins says, "Oh, not nearly far enough. Not even close." I chuckle as we walked farther from him out of ear shot as Temp asks Cam, "Is that your costume?" "Uh, yeah." "It's sexually alluring." "Thank you. I'm Catwoman. The superhero." "Oh." "One of the most powerful female superhero figures."
I chuckle as well as Temp as she says, "I don't think so." I nod as Cam says, "Are you kidding Catwoman?" "Can you fly?" "I have nine lives." "Super strength, supper speed, force people to tell the truth?" "I think I'm pretty fast." "Pretty fast is not super speed." I chuckle and add, "Also Catwoman is not a superhero, she is a vigilante. She is neither good or bad, but that's what makes her cool. She gets to make her own rules." Cam smiles, "Thank you." I nod. We then hear a glove snap as we look at Hodgins as he says, "Hawaii." Cam asks, "Hawaii?" "The spore is Atronecium from the Haleahi nebulae. It's a Hawaiin orchid hybrid." Temp asks, "The victims were mummified in Hawaii?" "How else would Hawaiian pollen get absorbed into the wet lacquer?"
Temp and I were changing as Booth was outside the door as Temp asks him, "Don't you have to put on your costume?" "I already did. I got a profile of the killer from Sweets." I smile still changing, "Nice." Temp then adds, "Don't you mean Dr. Sweets." Booth shrugs, "Well, it's only theory, Bones. I mean, it's what he's best at. I mean, he's only 12." I then add, "Ranger, him and I are the same age." He sighs like he was reliving a moment, "So young, so young... Sweets says the killer is definitely a male." Temp adds, "Gregg is a male." "No, Gregg and Lola work their sick little thing together. Sweets says that the killer works alone and has a respectable blue-collar job. In his public life, he's into saving people, he's unmarried. Oh, he has a police or military background." Temp and I finished changing as we walk out of the door in our costumes as Temp wears her Wonder woman costume. I wear a Roman dress that represents the Goddess Venus as I also wear my gold crown I got two years ago on Christmas.
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DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN "BONES". IT IS OWNED BY JOSEPHSON ENTERTAINMENT, BY HART HANSON. I ONLY CLAIM MY CHARACTER VENUS BRENNAN. I ALSO DON'T OWN ANY OF THE IMAGES. THANK YOU.