CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE: THE PRANK WAR HAS COMMENCED !

7x04

━━━━━━

        "DOES ANYONE REMEMBER THIS PICTURE?" Garcia had put a picture on screen that a Casey had immediately recognized from the day of a school shooting in Boise. It had been everywhere on the news ten years ago. She was only fourteen going on fifteen when that happened.

"Hotch and I were there," Rossi spoke aloud. "That's Principal Doug Givens. We had to drag him to safety." Emily spoke up next. "High school bombing in Boise, right?"

"School shooter and school bomber," JJ confirmed. "A kid named Randy Slade shot three students and then set off an IED in the cafeteria via cell phone, killing himself and 13 kids total, but not before posting all of his plans online. It was one of those "where were you?" events. My whole campus was glued to the TV." JJ explained.

"I remember the day of. Gideon got me out of school early." Casey adds. "Last night, Principal Givens was killed by a bomb modeled exactly like the old one." Garcia tells the team.

"It feels like the unsub wants to attack the man who kept the school together after the bomb. It's a pretty symbolic target." Morgan stated.

"And this week is the 10th anniversary of the massacre. And today is the first day of a 4-day event to commemorate the bombing at the school." Garcia says. "Except commemorating, it isn't enough for this unsub." Emily says. "No. He wants to relive it." Hotch confirms.

The team flew on the jet to Boise and Hotch separated Casey, JJ and Reid together to check out the crime scene in Principal Givens' home. Once they entered, it was already a bloodbath.

"So, the unsub has to be tied to the school somehow, right?" JJ assumes. "Current student, alumni, family member who lost someone?"

"It could be a Slade groupie celebrating his hero." Reid suggests. "He taped nails to the exterior of the bomb, specifically to rip open flesh." Casey pointed out. "That's a sadistic detail of Slade's the unsub copied." Reid added.

"Except he tricked Givens into blowing himself up. A groupie probably wouldn't show that much self-control." JJ says. "But someone with an ax to grind against the principal would. Maybe he's a surrogate for the tormenters in high school he can't punish. Who were yours?" Reid asks, looking towards JJ and Casey.

"The girls that wanted my boyfriend at the time. Middle school bullies... you name it." Casey said, getting an eerie flashback to her high school days. "JJ?"

JJ shrugs, "I don't even remember." Casey and Reid exchange a look and Reid thinks: "You don't even remember? Wait, were you one of the mean girls?" JJ turns around and furrows her eye wins. "No." She says.

"Valedictorian, soccer scholarship, corn-fed, but still a size zero. I think that you might have been a mean girl." Reid predicts and Casey looks over at the woman with raised eyebrows. "JJ, you gonna let him talk to you like that?" She asked and JJ shakes her head, "I was actually one of the nice girls, even to guys like you." JJ tells.

"Guys like me?" Reid asks. "Reid, you are a genius, then and now. You're classified as a nerd." Casey says. "I'll have you know that my social standing increased once I started winning at basketball."

JJ and Casey give one another a look of disbelief. "Oh, yeah, you played basketball?" JJ asked. "I didn't play. I coached basketball. I broke down the opposing team's shooting strategy." Reid says.

"Is that why Morgan kicked you out of the pool last week?" JJ asked. "Yeah, it took him three rounds to realize I was hustling him." Reid answers and Casey chuckles. "Oh, you guys and your stupid prank war. You dragged me into it, by the way, thank you very much."

Reid furrows his brows. "How'd I drag you into it?"

"By association, Morgan kicked me out of the pool, too!"

━━━━━━

Soon enough, another murder had occurred. Emily, Morgan, Rossi and Hotch arrived at Randy Slade's home to speak to his brother and his brother had mistakenly confirmed that his brother had made a list of his targets and it was hidden in a book somewhere.

JJ, Reid and Casey arrived at the crime scene with the police. JJ had called Hotch to deliver the news of the murder. "You're on speaker, JJ." Hotch answered. "So we might have another one." JJ says. "Might?" Hotch asked.

"One of the North Valley alumni was killed in her motel room. No bomb or gun this time." Casey announced. "Looks like he used his bare hands." JJ says. "You got a name?" Hotch asked. "Chelsea Grant." Reid tells.

They had found that list and Chelsea's name was on it. Reid and Casey had decided to stay to show Hotch the crime scene when he arrived. "The unsub crushed Chelsea's throat so she couldn't scream, then he pulverized her ribs, sending fragments of bone into her heart." Reid explained.

"Principal Givens was high-profile. Chelsea wasn't. Right now the only thing connecting them is they're both on the kill list." Hotch says, looking around. "A list that Brandon kept secret for ten years." Reid adds.

"But he was in custody when it happened. How did the unsub get the exact same list?" Casey asked. "We ruled out a partner, but not conclusively." Hotch tells. "Slade made every part of his plan public. It doesn't make sense that he would hide a partner." Reid says. "But if he didn't want to share the credit. And this weekend is the partner's best chance to claim it." Casey added.

The team had delivered their profile and as they did, Morgan walked up to Casey with a can of soda in his hands. "You seemed like you needed a drink." Morgan says and Casey shrugs it off, "Oh, thank you."

As Reid was beginning to say his piece of the profile, Casey opened up the can of soda and it began to spritz everywhere. It got on her shirt and face and everything. Everyone turned over to Casey and she wiped her face and looked straight at Morgan, who was stifling his laughter. Reid carried on and Casey glared are Morgan. Oh, he was going to get it.

Emily had decided to meet with the alumni to talk to them. Garcia had decided to speak with Hotch, JJ, Reid and Casey about the list. "So, as you can see from your board there, this kill list is weirdly similar to high school. Group one is like the popular kids-- prom court, football team, Dean's list. The Heathers, if you will."

"Kids in Slade's social circle." Casey points out. "What about number two?" JJ asks. "Uh, mm-hmm, that would be the kids from the other side of the tracks, 180-degree difference, kids this close to getting kicked out -- stoners, burnouts, mental cases. Chelsea Grant is on this list." Garcia explains.

"Maybe Slade targeted them because they disgusted him?" JJ asks and Reid's cell beeps in his pocket and he ignores the call. "But they didn't threaten Slade's sense of superiority. He wouldn't have even cared about them." Hotch says. "All right, well, maybe the partner put them on the list. They'd be closer to his social status than Slade's." JJ says.

"Why would the--" Reid's cell began to buzz again and he was getting annoyed with it as he ignored the call. "I'm so sorry. Why would the unsub list kids that he fit in with?"

"Apparently, that's how this clique worked. The kids in it were meaner to each other than kids on the outside. Garcia, separate out all the kids who got into trouble regularly. Then eliminate the names that the partner put on the list. Now, who's left that came to the memorial?" Hotch asks.

"Right, whoever made the list wouldn't put their name on it. Uh..." There's a pause from Garcia. "Sir, I think-- I think I've got him."

Garcia had found a man named Lewis Ramsey. He was also the last person to see Chelsea. He fit the profile, but he wasn't the unsub. Jerry Holtz, one of the victims that Emily spoke to, had been the next one killed. Emily told the team that it felt like he was making part of his story up but she wasn't sure about it.

After checking out the crime scene, Reid had come up with the conclusion that the unsub could not feel pain. And he was about to explain it. "There's a medical condition called pain asymbolia, where patients register harmful stimuli without being bothered by it. They've been documented holding their hand over an open flame because their brain doesn't send pain signals to the central nervous system." Reid explained.

"Sounds pretty rare. You sure the unsub has it?" Rossi asks. "The crime scenes prove it," Reid says. "This unsub displayed an unusual level of savagery towards his victims. And consider this-- he smashed through a glass display case, but there were not cuts on Jerry. That means he most likely punched through it as a show of force. Now, the only way the human body could withstand that level of pain is if he couldn't feel it at all."

"It must take a major toll on someone's emotional development." Rossi said as Reid's cell began to buzz again. "Dude, who keeps calling you?" Casey whispers to Reid. "I don't know." Reid said and he soon continued on.

"A significant contributor to our sense of empathy is the way we personally experience pain." Morgan says. "And the unsub didn't develop his sense of empathy because it was cut off." Hotch says. "Does every person with asymbolia actually have this?" Casey asks in curiousness.

"Actually, most feel empathy just fine, which makes me think the rest of our profile is still accurate. Loner, invisible, outcast, boiling rage--" Reid's cell buzzed again and this time, it really ticked him off. "Son of a bitch!" He decided to answer as he dug his phone out of his pocket and Morgan held a smug smirk towards him. "Hi! This is Dr. Spencer Reid. I actually can come to the phone right now with a very special message that your mother is--"

"Reid." Hotch scolded and Reid hung the phone up. "Sorry. I'm really sorry. I don't know what got into me. Where were we?"

"I'm going to have Garcia check medical records. What causes asymbolia?" Hotch asks and Reid notices Morgan's face and realizes that he had something to do with why he was getting calls all day and night. Casey had come to realize it, too.

"S-s-severe trauma produces lesions in the insular cortex, usually after a stroke. But this unsub's so young, it's most likely caused by an external factor." Reid says and he keeps looking Morgan's way and he definitely is guilty.

"Like a bomb going off next to him?" Rossi asks.
"Yeah, like a bomb going off next to him." Reid nods, looking at Morgan.
"A very loud and messy... bomb." Casey says, directing her attention to Morgan since she was also getting the brink of the prank war, too.

Hotch walked away and Reid began to collect the files and muttered under his breath: "I will crush you." Morgan looks at Reid. "What?" Reid looks up at him and repeats: "What?" With that, he leaves and Casey rolls her eyes at Morgan. She knew she had to come up with a plan for her redemption prank... and she was going to have Reid join right along with her.

━━━━━━

Luckily, the team had found the unsub and Hotch had to kill him before the unsub could kill him or anyone else. The unsub had been Bob Adams and Jerry Holtz stole his story and he decided to come back and get revenge and to be known.

Casey sat herself next to Reid and Reid was pretending to be asleep and Casey was busy with her book in her hand and their prank on Morgan was about to happen at any moment. Casey knew that it was happened my once Morgan had a confused look on his face and he immediately yanked off his headphones and Reid's screams were heard from the inside of his headphones and Casey began to hide her smirk with her book.

"Okay, kid, that was cute. But that's all you got?" Morgan asked and Reid began to fake snore. Morgan's cell began to ring. Now came Casey's prank. Morgan began to speak as he picked up the cell phone. "Hey, baby gi--"

Reid's screaming was heard from his cell phone and both Casey and Reid had cheeky smiles on their faces. Rossi watched in amusement and Casey chuckled as Morgan shook his head. "Uh-uh. All right, Reid, it's on."

"That last one wasn't Reid." Casey admitted and Morgan looked the girl's way. "Cassandra Willows, you didn't." Morgan shook his head.

"Oh, but I did, Derek Morgan. I did." Casey shut her book. "That's why you also don't mess with the senior class clown graduate." Casey told.

         Morgan raised his brows. "You were a class clown?"

        "Technically, but technically not," Casey said. "I actually mentored the real class clowns. I'm just that good." Casey shrugs and her cell phone begins to ring. "Now that's actually Garcia."

        "Hey, Pen—"

         Suddenly, Reid's screams come up from the opposite side of the phone, scaring Casey silly. Morgan chuckles and Casey looks over at the traitor "sleeping" next to her.
"You dick!" Casey shouts.

        Reid puts on the fake-snore act again. "I know you're not actually sleeping, you don't snore!" Casey tells. "And how do you know that?" Morgan asks.

       "Uh, under the jurisdiction that I've had to share a room with him — multiple times — against my will." Casey says, pointing out the fact that no matter what she's always had to share a room with Reid on cases.

        Morgan shrugs, "Fair point."

hey, lovelies!
i hope you guys liked that
i was really excited for this episode!!
also reid and casey are a top-tier duo🤩
can't wait to demolish it hehehe😈
-mya </3