Max?
Max, you there?
- [Match Striking] - [Gasps]
You're late, kid.
- You get lost? - Sorry. I had to wait till my mom took off.
It's way past his bedtime, Max.
He's not cut out for this.
Cut out for what?
Oh, there's more here than just trees.
Before you can find out what,
I gotta know that you're not gonna tell anyone about this place.
I won't. I swear.
It's a vow, Tony. Don't make it if you're gonna break it.
I won't break it, man. Not ever.
No matter what?
Even if someone dies tonight?
[Car Approaching]
[Siren Wails]
Anthony Reed.
- Got any outstanding warrants? - No, of course not.
Well, I'm gonna have to check it out for myself. So, put your hands on the vehicle.
- Look, I was just taking a walk. - Uh-huh.
Right past all those big no trespassing signs?
Now you just stand there for a minute.
Come on, man. I didn't do anything.
I wish I had a nickel for every time I had to drag you kids out of these woods.
It'd be a lot of nickels. Do you have any calls from dispatch?
[Policeman Screams]
Sir?
[Woman Over Radio] Dispatch to Foster. I didn't copy your last transmission.
Officer?
Dispatch to Foster, do you copy?
Deputy Foster, this is Dispatch. Do you copy?
Deputy Foster, sir, what's your 20?
[Elevator Bell Dings]
Oh. There you are. Heavy traffic?
Slow going. Let's just say I had ample time to read the police report you faxed me.
Thoughtfully provided by the local authorities, even though it doesn't tell the whole story.
A sheriff's deputy is slain during a routine patrol.
It's a tragic occurrence, but I don't see the mystery here, Mulder.
Except said that the deputy was beaten to death by an invisible assailant.
Yes, but that's according to the young man who's accused of his murder.
One Tony Reed, and I'm guessing wrongfully accused.
He's an A student, moved here a few months ago from Philadelphia.
He's never been in trouble in his life.
Tell me you've got more than S.A.T. Scores to show that Tony Reed didn't commit this crime.
Maybe. Take a look at the body.
The former Deputy Ronald Foster.
As you can see, the report doesn't quite do it justice.
Oh, my God. It looks like he was hit with a sledgehammer.
Police flashlight.
One blow.
Damage to the maxilla facial bones and the cranium...
is consistent with a blunt force trauma, but...
I'd say that Tony eats his Wheaties.
Check out the back of his head.
[Gasps]
His eyeglasses.
Penetrated to the back of his skull.
Babe Ruth couldn't hit this hard, let alone a high school sophomore.
Well, maybe if he was under the influence of P.C.P. Or some kind of stimulant.
- No, his tox screen came back negative. - Well, even so,
I mean, stress and fear may have triggered an adrenalin response which is known to...
enable feats of near super human strength.
Agent Mulder? How long you plannin' on bein'down here?
Sheriff Harden, this is my partner, Agent Scully.
How long you plan on bein' down here?
I'd like Ron left in peace. I don't know what there is to see anyway.
- We got the kid who did it. - Sheriff, we don't mean to second-guess you.
- We're just hoping to be of some assistance. - Well, I don't need it.
I got the murder weapon with bloody fingerprints,
and once the state crime lab matches that up with Tony Reed, it's open and shut.
- Well, uh, we're done here, right? - Mm-hmm.
But, Sheriff Harden, you won't mind if I talk to Tony Reed, do you?
I mean, it won't hurt your case. And if he did do it, you'll wanna know why.
What?
Well, Tony, this must be your lucky day for visitors.
- This is Agent Scully with the F.B. I... - I'm not talkin' anymore, okay?
Well, that might make things worse.
They seem pretty bad already.
In your statement, you say that Deputy Foster stopped you.
But you don't say why.
Come on. You were cruisin', right?
I mean, a small town like this, you're not exactly livin' la vida loca.
I know. I grew up in Dullsville too. Nothing to do but drive and park.
How long ago was that? Look.
Don't you think I know what you're doing?
You're like the tenth cop who's come in here trying to relate to me till I confess.
If you didn't do it, it's all the more reason to clear it up.
Everything I know... is in my statement.
Okay, but bear with us, 'cause we're old and stupid.
How long was it between the time you heard the scream...
to the time that you found Deputy Foster?
Tony, you're not likely to get a fairer hearing than this.
Maybe ten, fifteen seconds.
You didn't see anyone near the patrol car? You didn't hear anything?
And you're still gonna stick with your story...
that you were the only one there, is that right?
Uh...
I wanna go back to my cell.
Sixteen years old and his life is over unless he starts tellin' the truth.
If you really think he's guilty, why don't you ask yourself this:
Why wouldn't he make up a more plausible cover story?
Why didn't he say that a pickup full of hillbillies...
drove by and clobbered the deputy and ran away?
I'm not saying he's guilty.
I'm inclined to agree that Tony Reed did not commit murder.
But I think that he saw the person who did, and he may be covering up for it.
I'm not sure there was a person to see. I think there was a force at work here.
- What kind of force? - Some kind of territorial or spiritual entity maybe.
Poltergeists have long been associated with violent acts like this,
and they tend to manifest around young people.
They seem to be drawn to the turmoil of adolescence.
Mulder, rather than spirits,
can we at least start with Tony's friends?
Please, just... for me?
I think there's one person in particular I'd like to talk to.
[Man] Let's wrap it up, people.
Two-minute warnin'.
There goes half your grade, Max.
- You missed the midterm. - Not if I take it right now.
- In one minute? - Oh, I've been studying.
I don't care who your father is.
You fail my test, it sticks.
I guess I better ace it then, huh?
Take your seat, young man.
- Piece of cake. - It is when you mark 'em at random.
Go ahead. Check it.
Maybe I got more goin' on than people know.
[Bell Ringing]
Chastity Raines? I'm Agent Scully. This is Agent Mulder. We're with the F.B.I.
- I remember you. - Chastity, what did you and Tony talk about this morning?
- He didn't kill that cop. - How can you be so sure?
- Tony just doesn't have it in him. - Do you?
Were you there when it happened?
Look, I gotta go.
Do you realize that Tony could go to prison for the rest of his life for this?
Chastity, if you know something, now's the time to mention it.
- Unless they got a warrant, you don't have to say nothin'. - Wow. You must be her lawyer.
Let's go.
Butting into our investigation. I wonder what your father, the sheriff, would think.
- How do you know who my dad is? - You got the same last name.
Oh, you're good.
We're done here. Come on, babe.
You must've been a Betty back in the day.
- A Betty? - Back in the day.
[Cell Phone Ringing]
Scully.
What about the murder weapon?
All I know is we put the flashlight in here and now it's gone.
It's like it just disappeared into thin air.
- How many people have access to this evidence room? - Only me and the dozen deputies.
What does the tape show?
That no unauthorized persons came in and no one went anywhere near this locker.
- Was this here before? - I don't know.
Can we take a look at the surveillance tape?
[Sheriff] You can see that the flashlight was properly secured.
It's not like we're runnin'some kind of half-assed operation here.
No one's saying that you are, Sheriff.
Here's when the state police showed up to take it to the crime lab.
There's me goin'to get it.
We opened up the locker, and it's gone.
I maybe, uh, didn't give you all the warmest welcome, but if you have any ideas.
- May I? - I watched it a dozen times.
- Could there be a malfunction with the V.C. R? - I don't see how.
Plus, there's no gap in the time code.
The murder weapon was the only hard evidence we had.
Without it, we got no case.
You know what I gotta do now?
I gotta call Ron Foster's widow and tell her that I gotta turn his killer loose.
Scully, check this out.
- What am I supposed to be seeing? - Here it comes.
Now you see it.
One more frame. Now you don't.
What do you make of that, Scully? Take another look.
Now it's here.
Now it's not.
Are you ready to be straight with me?
Leave me alone, Mom. Would you just leave me alone.
I'm tired!
This isn't like a bad report card, Anthony. A man is dead.
I told you, I didn't do it!
It's just that what you say happened doesn't make sense.
There's gotta be more to it.
Well, there isn't. Okay?
Are those kids involved in this? That boy Max?
No.
- Mom, they're the only friends I have here. - You're done seein' 'em.
- You don't even know them. - I do know them. I was your age once.
Tony, we came here to get a fresh start,
get away from them bad schools, the wrong crowd.
You are doing so well here.
How would you know? You're never around.
You think it's my dream to work two jobs?
I'm doin' it for you, Tony.
I just wanna get some sleep. That's all I want.
You got a chance at a good life,
a real future.
We didn't come all this way so you could throw it away.
[Tapping On Window]
Listen to that, man. This car's got guts.
- Sort of like you that way. - Whose car is this, Max?
Chastity told you to shut up and sit tight and things would be fine.
- You did that. It tells me a lot. - Everything's not fine.
We're in a stolen car, a cop is dead.
Calm down, man. He'd been snoopin' around. He had to go.
What do you mean, He had to go? What happened out there?
You gotta learn not to ask so many questions.
Slow the hell down, man! You're freakin' me out!
You ain't seen nothin' yet.
- [Tires Screeching] - Max, look out!
[Gasps]
I'm gonna make you one of us.
But I call the shots. Always remember that.
Hey, Chuck.
Sorry to make you trek over here for what's probably a glitch.
- What'd you come up with? - Nothing but eye strain at first.
Then I ran it through my imaging software.
I'm here to tell you, it's not a glitch. It's what the camera saw.
Buckle up, Scully. I believe Chuck is about to take us on a ride through the paranormal.
Yes and no. Initially, I was thinking spectral manifestation.
But with spirit activity, you'd expect to see light streaks, auras,
atmospheric disturbances, translucent figures.
Whatever this is, it's not a ghost.
Especially since ghost don't go around leaving synthetic polymers in their wake.
That's what the gunk on the floor turned out to be.
Huh. I dig a mystery with layers.
Chuck, I get the feeling you don't know what the hell this is.
I cross-referenced the shape's silhouette...
against every organic and inorganic object in the Library of Congress database.
The closest match was a Soviet Akula class submarine.
I think we can rule that out.
And then there's this weirdness.
- My enhancement brought up this dark edge... - [Mulder] Mm-hmm.
Around the anomaly.
- A shadow. - It fit with the lighting in the room.
- The problem is it can't be throwing a shadow unless... - Unless it's a solid object.
Which is impossible because it only appears for a single frame.
One-thirtieth of a second.
You know what? Maybe, uh, SCAG can give us a clearer picture.
- SCAG? - Spectrographic Color Attribute Generator.
I'm beta testing it forJ.P.L.
It's still in the tweaking phase, but the basic idea is...
I assign known color values...
onto the black-and-white image.
Then SCAG assigns chromatic values throughout the frame,
in effect making an educated guess at, uh,
what all the colors might be.
It still needs fine tuning.
What?
You recognize these colors, Scully?
- Hey, Tony. - Everyone's looking at me like I'm a criminal.
I'm not. I heard you took a ride.
What was that? How did he do it?
You'll find out.
Maybe you were right... about me not bein' cut out for this.
It's a little late for second thoughts.
You tryin' to move in on my girl?
- [Bell Ringing] - Saved by the bell.
Hey, you wanna stare at someone? Stare at me.
Well, class.
I graded your midterms.
Save for a few of you, the news is not good.
Mr. Pembleton.
What happened?
Welcome back, Mr. Reed.
Expect to make up the test tomorrow.
Mr. Harden, you're here on time for a change.
What's this?
- Self-explanatory, isn't it? - I got every answer right.
- Not because you knew the material. - You sayin' I cheated? How?
I have no idea how.
But you did. And I won't tolerate it.
[Man] Back to business, people.
- [Door Opens, Closes] - Mr. Guider?
How do I tell Max that I want out?
I wish I could help you, Tony.
I can't even help myself.
[Boy] Babbit!
[Screams]
[Screaming]
[Girl] Oh, my God!
Excuse me, please. Thank you.
Just stay back.
I'll show you my theory if you show me yours.
Based on the eyewitness accounts of the students I spoke to,
at this moment I'd have to say that I don't have one.
What about for these globs of goo?
- The ones we found in the evidence room? - Yeah.
I'm guessing Max Harden could tell us how they got there.
You think Max did this? Based on what?
I spoke to a few students myself. Apparently Max was angry at Mr. Babbit...
because he failed him on his midterm exam, so he had motive.
Well, he may have had motive, but he didn't have opportunity.
There was nobody here who saw him even go near the victim.
Maybe he didn't need to. I pulled his records.
Rising attendance and discipline problems the last few months. But look at this transcript.
As his behavior was getting worse, his grades were going through the roof.
- This kid has changed, Scully. - He's a teenager. Everything about him is changing.
His body and his brain chemistry is in a state of unparalleled upheaval,
plus there's peer pressure and-and substance abuse.
Any one of these factors could alter his behavior radically.
What if it's given him a kind of psychokinetic or paranormal ability...
that allows him to exert force over a victim without ever laying a finger on him?
- That's your theory? - Yes, it is.
Soon to be proven as soon as I get Max in for questioning.
- Agent, you needed to speak to Sheriff Harden? - Yeah.
- I want to talk to him about his son. - He's with him now.
They're taking him to the emergency room. Max just collapsed in the parking lot.
You hear about Max? Is he okay?
- Where are you going? - Tony, the less you know, the better, all right?
What, no candy, no flowers?
[Sheriff] My deputy told me you were comin'and why.
So you can just turn around. Whatever happened at that school, my son didn't do it.
Sheriff, we'd like to ask your son a few questions, if that's okay.
The boy's sick. The doctors can't even say what's wrong with him.
Max could tell them. You know why you collapsed, don't you, Max?
Yeah. Too much teen spirit.
You think? Smells like murder to me.
Who do you think you're talkin'to here?
Yeah, it's not like you got a damned thing on me.
You got a problem with authority figures, don't you, Max?
If I wasted Babbit, then how did I do it? Am I like Carrie or somethin'?
I used some kind of mental powers?
No, somethin'else. You figured out a way to tap into something that gives you super powers.
Came in handy with Babbit and Deputy Foster.
Man, you're whistlin' Dixie.
High temperature and heart rate.
Low blood sugar. Electrolytes show acidosis.
All these symptoms are consistent with extreme exertion and withdrawal.
Withdrawal? From what?
The rush. I think whatever it is that gives you the power to rearrange furniture...
and turn a flashlight into a battering ram also gives you quite a buzz.
Well, if I can do all that, what's stoppin' me from doin' it to you?
I don't know.
Maybe the effect's worn off.
Maybe you need another fix.
As soon as I blow out of here, I'll be sure to get one.
That's not gonna happen any time soon.
Your condition's getting worse.
And we're not gonna be able to help you unless you can tell us what's going on.
Boy, is any of this true?
- No. - You better pray I don't find out it is.
Sir? Can we have a word outside?
He's not a bad kid. He just needs discipline.
If your son is in trouble, I'm sure you'd want to know about it.
With that in mind, we'd like permission to search your house.
You're not getting it.
I'm not ready to jump on a bandwagon and call my boy a murderer.
There's some, uh, test results missing from Max's chart.
I think we should track 'em down.
Thanks.
Hot off the presses.
Anything interesting?
- This can't be right. - What is it?
Oh, my God.
What?
Evidence of cerebral lesions from repeated concussions.
Arthritis in the spine and major joints.
Stress fractures.
Numerous muscle and...
- and ligament micro-tears. - What would cause this?
In a teenager? I can't even imagine.
This is the kind of thing that you'd see in someone who's crashed race cars...
or played pro football for 15 years.
Whatever Max is doing, it's killing him.
I think I'm starting to get it.
[Beeping]
- I thought I saw a young lady come in here. - I wish.
Max Harden's personal effects.
Yeah.
This is it. Those globs we found...
this is where they came from.
Speed, Scully. Somehow Max Harden has found a way...
- to move faster than the eye can see. - Mulder.
That would explain how Babbit was killed. It would also explain how a chair and table...
appeared to move on their own with enough force to penetrate a wall.
Force equals mass times acceleration. Isn't that right?
Yes, but it's impossible. The human body isn't designed to move like that.
Exactly. That is... That is why his is falling apart.
Agents, could you...
Max... Max, please don't do this. You can stop.
Sure. Just like you can.
I mean hurting people. Haven't enough people already been hurt?
This is not why I got you out!
- Let's leave here. Let's just go away. - And do what?
Find a place to get some help.
Help for what? This is the best thing that's ever happened to me.
I can't go back to things standin' still.
And neither can you.
Tony, what are you doing here?
You went in that cave, didn't you?
You shouldn't have done that.
It was such a rush... moving fast like that.
I didn't want this for you. How did you find it?
I followed you. I was worried about you.
That's so sweet.
I wish things were different than how they are.
Maybe they can be. With Max in the hospital, we could go to the cops.
He's out.
Oh, my God.
[Door Opens]
Hello?
Boo.
You killed Ron Foster.
Yeah, I did.
Why?
I don't know. You want some great reason?
You little son of a bitch! [Groans]
He thought he was really somethin'.
Always liked to push people around.
Same as Babbit... and same as you.
I'm not afraid of you anymore.
I can't let you do this, Max.
- Take him to O.R. One. - All right.
Yo, Scully.
How bad are his injuries?
It's too soon to tell. He's unconscious and bleeding internally,
apparently from a blow to the abdomen.
Yeah, delivered with this. Max's weapon of choice against cops.
Why would he leave it behind? Do you think he's doing it to taunt the police?
No, I think somebody intervened.
I think that's why the sheriff is still alive and why his gun is missing.
But if he can do what you claim, then... then who could possibly intervene?
The someone who knows exactly how Max does what he does.
And someone who's finally standing up to him.
Tony. How do we find him?
Well, I would guess the source where Max gets his power from.
The woods near where the deputy was killed.
Tony never came clean about what he was doing out there.
Well, maybe that's why the deputy was killed.
Maybe he got too close to the truth.
[Tony] Chastity, we don't have to be doing this.
I told you, I took care of things with Max.
No, you didn't, and you shouldn't have tried.
- He was gonna kill his father. I had to stop him. - He let you.
He was slowing down. Tony, you've slowed down too.
If we don't get back to the cave before Max does, we're history.
- Hurry! - I'll catch up.
Chastity?
Are you okay?
[Max] You're late, kid.
- What did you do to her? - She took a swing at me.
You believe that? You got it all turned around.
[Groans]
Come on, man.
Who do you think you're dealin' with?
All I ever wanted was you to be my friend, Tony.
You stuck a knife in my back.
And now I'm gonna mess you up.
[Screaming]
I'm sorry, Tony.
I can't go back.
[Gun Blast]
Chastity?
[Beeping]
[Footsteps]
Did the U.S.G.S. Show up?
Eighteen geologists and three semis full of gear. They covered every inch of that cave.
- And what'd they come up with? - Nothing.
A little bat guano and above normal magnetic field readings,
but nothing that would cause a physiological effect.
- What'd you expect them to find, Mulder? - I don't know.
A vortex like the one in Oregon.
Gravitational aberrations, unique chemical compositions,
relics that would indicate the cave was a sacred site.
Something. Anything. I don't know.
You and I were both in there, and nothing happened to us. We're still slow-poking around.
What if we're too old?
You said teenagers differ...
from adults chemically and physiologically.
What if whatever's in that cave effects only them?
Well, that's doubtful.
But no more so than any other theory.
I mean, it's worth checking out.
Yeah? Well, we can't.
As of an hour ago, they pumped concrete into the cave,
sealed it for precautionary reasons.
We'll never know.
How's he doin'?
Bruises and muscle strains mostly.
He'll recover. Go back to being a normal kid.
[Child] I made this!