Problem Child DELETED SCENES 2/3

The damn thing was that Aiko did fall asleep on the plane. She didn’t mean to! The room was dark and the cushion beneath her was soft. Mercy pulled a warm, heavy blanket over Aiko. The airplane was humming.

The last thing she remembered was listening to that engine white noise, wondering how long it would take for them to takeoff.

She realized her error the instant she woke, which was when she was being lifted in an adult’s arms. Aiko went stiff, aghast. Then she relaxed again, cursing her error. She didn’t open her eyes even as soft swaying told her that they were walking, probably to leave the plane.

Then she inhaled–

‘Mom. Mom is carrying me.’

She weighed factors. Should she pretend to be asleep anyway? If they were alone, it might be a valuable chance to share intel.

“Eyes closed, sweetie,” Mom said, very quiet. “Ssh.” That answered that question. “Mm. Does your friend know where you are?”

Aiko’s friend? She had to mean Marvel. She was hoping for a rescue.

‘Good idea. Much better to risk communicating this than for her to think she’s alone and try to launch an escape.’

Aiko nodded slightly. She wanted to reassure her Mom, to tell her more. But she trusted Mom’s risk assessment.

A moment later, she heard a heel click behind them. Mercy? A flight attendant? She didn’t know. Aiko controlled her breathing to a slow, peaceful rate, and tried to figure out what was going on around. They were going down the stairs now, so they must have arrived. She extended her hearing– there were still night insects calling and cold air on her face, so it hadn’t been too long on the plane. But… She concentrated on the city sounds and didn’t find as many of them as she would have liked. There was electric humming nearby. The faint tick of a crosswalk, but no one walking in it. 

City limits, then. Probably near DC to be accessible for Luthor, but not close enough for an escape on foot to be easy or for screams to be heard.

There was an electronic beep. Had Mercy scanned a security pass? There was a whoosh of air that probably indicated a door slid open. The air around Aiko instantly changed in quality from fresh air to dry sterility that made her nose itch. It was warmer, at least. 

“This way.” A female voice directed quietly, calmly. It was not Mercy. Interested, Aiko tried to focus on the footsteps. Whoever they were, they had slow, steady breathing and light steps. Were they just small, or were they athletic like Mercy? The sounds of heels were dulled by some kind of… probably a carpet. The thin, sad kind in hotel hallways, Aiko thought. Not like her mom’s living room carpet.

Oh. Shit. Mom didn’t know yet that people had walked on it in their shoes. 

That wasn’t good. It was already better to confess to crimes as early as possible with Mom. She hated hiding things a lot more than she hated mistakes.

Aiko groaned and stretched, pretending to wake up for the first time. She blinked gummy eyes open and immediately made eye contact with her Mom.

Mom quickly looked forward to where she was walking, but the moment of contact was still reassuring. 

“Mom,” Aiko said. Then she had to stop to yawn. She tried to cover it but her hands were bundled up in the blankets, so all she could do was aim her face into her Mom’s chest to keep from showing the world her teeth.

“Yes, baby?” Mom adjusted her grip on Aiko’s legs, probably compensating for the changed weight distribution.

“I didn’t take my shoes off,” Aiko confessed glumly. “I walked on the carpet.” 

‘If I tell her now, when we are in mortal danger, she is a lot less likely to be mad by the time we get out. It’ll be old news.’

Mom huffed out a surprised laugh. “Thank you for admitting it.” Her voice was choked up.

The other woman laughed as well. It was surprisingly pleasant, coming from a villain. Aiko took the opportunity to look over and see who it was. She made eye contact with a pretty Black woman in a suit. She had a very smooth, elegant gait that marked her as a fighter or a dancer. Maybe both. Aiko widened her eyes. “Who’s that?” They were walking down a fairly wide, elegant hallway. There were frequent pedestals with art on them– busts or statuettes, snarling animals. Huh. That might be useful for kawarimi.

“That’s Miss Taya,” Mom said smoothly while Aiko was still mentally marking what looked to be her size. Her control wasn’t sophisticated enough in this body to switch with something very big or very small, but that panther might be about Aiko’s weight. “She… Say hello.”

“Hello, Miss Taya,” Aiko parroted. A name, that was good, Robin could–

Her blood ran ice cold. Where was her backpack? Was the phone still recording? Had someone discovered it? That would be… really bad, honestly. If it was separate from her– she couldn’t act too eager to get it back. It might be suspicious enough to make someone check inside, if they hadn’t already. Oh, holy shit. She cursed herself again for falling asleep. That was so stupid. Tears of frustration welled up. She was so tired of this little body! 

“Aww, honey.” Miss Taya sounded genuinely sympathetic. “You’re sleepy, aren’t you?” They passed another statue across from a closed door– good, that was perfect, Aiko noted, tactical even in her misery. That must be her room, and there was a statue she could kawarimi with if she needed to without opening a door.

Aiko took the out and nodded. She turned her face towards Mom to hide it so that she didn’t have to act. 

They turned into the room. “This will be Aiko’s bedroom, while your family is staying with us,” Miss Taya said calmly. A light flicked on. Mom winced. “Your pajamas are in your bag, right Aiko?”

Her–

Aiko sat up, nearly toppling over as her Mom lowered her onto a bed. “Yes.” She opened her eyes fully, scanning the room– 

Her bag was hanging over one of Mom’s shoulders. Oh, thank fuck. She itched to have it back in her hands.

“I’ll be back in just a couple minutes. Why don’t you put your daughter to bed?” Miss Taya said to Mom.

She genuinely seemed nice to Aiko, but Mom nodded with the same tight-lipped expression she had had around Mr. Luthor. “Thank you.” She was a shadow of her usually cheerful self as the interloper gave them a pleasant smile and closed the door behind her.

“Mom,” Aiko started urgently.

“No bedtime story tonight,” Mom cut her off. They didn’t do bedtime stories, so it obviously was a coded order to hush. She kissed Aiko on the forehead and then straightened. She hoisted the backpack off her shoulder and started to zip it open. “I’ll-”

“Don’t-”

They stopped talking at the same time, making eye contact. Aiko gave her mom a hopeful smile. Mom closed her eyes for a millisecond, clearly praying to a higher power, and then pretended that she had not just seen a knife in her elementary schooler’s backpack. 

‘It came from Batman. Surely even Mom has to be fine with it.’

But there, uh. There was a reason that she hadn’t shown that off at home.

Aiko heaved a big, defeated sigh. Shit. Mom was going to take her knives.

“Here’s your jammies,” Mom said, a note in her voice that said they would have words about this later. She zipped back up the knife compartment and handed over a set of purple shorts and t-shirt with scalloped edges. 

‘Maybe if I come up with a really good use for the knife here, Mom will accept that it’s essential equipment,’ Aiko thought. Outloud, she said, “Thanks,” and took the clothes.

She changed. Mom tucked her into bed, hand shaking and gaze hard. Miss Taya came back, knocked at the door, and gestured for Mom to follow her. Mom stood with obvious reluctance. “Have a good night,” she said.

“Goodnight, Mom,” Aiko said, instead of lying that she would sleep well. She was not going to sleep. She was going to follow them. “Goodnight, Miss Taya.” She watched through one half-closed eye as they turned off the light in her room and then both of the adults left. 

A lock clicked in her door. Something new started humming.

‘...How paranoid is Mr. Luthor?’ Aiko had to wonder. ‘Is that a security system for my room?’

This was incredibly irritating.

She didn’t wait long to follow the adults. Aiko slipped out from under the covers silently and perked her ears for any reaction, some distant alarm. Nothing. She changed back into her other clothes, the dark underclothes that went with her superhero outfit, and then put her hair up in a ponytail. The only rubber hairband she had with her did have a bright yellow and fluffy bauble, but at least it wasn’t one of the plastic ones that clacked. She put on all the weapons she had with her, but concealed them from at least a brief visual check by hiding them underneath her oversized sleep shirt. She rolled up the sleeves of her black undershirt until they were hidden under the big sleepshirt. At first glance, it should pass as pajamas.

In silence, she crossed her room and felt for the statue she had noticed before. It wasn’t as easy as a line-of-sight switch, but she managed the switch without a wobble. She balanced for a moment on the pedestal and then carefully walked up onto the ceiling to creep as subtly as possible towards the sounds of her Mom’s steps. Good thing she clomped and stomped so much, it was easy to hear in the mostly empty building. 

There were weird round things on the ceiling periodically that probably housed cameras. Aiko did her best to skirt them. They probably were aimed low enough that she could stay out of the frame as long as she didn’t get too close to the camera. 

As she reached an intersection, she took the chance to look around. She was obviously coming from the entrance. To the left, the hallway ended shortly in an intimidating metal door. Ahead, it stretched into the distance with the same red carpet and ostentatious artwork. 

Mom had gone to the right. The carpet underfoot had changed. It was still red in tone, but with a subtle pattern worked through it. She could see the backs of the two women as Miss Taya opened a door and ushered Mom inside.

Her question as to Miss Taya’s complicity was answered when the woman locked it shut and then turned back around. Aiko froze in place on the ceiling. Shit.

Luckily for her, Miss Taya didn’t look up. Aiko let the woman pass and get quite a bit of distance before she dared move again.

She mentally marked the spot where her Mom was. It was tempting to grab her and go, but– she didn’t know enough yet. So she followed Miss Taya across the building, through a lobby where the building opened up. That sucked. She spidered her way up the walls quickly, heart pounding all the way up in her ears as she avoided cameras and tried to move fast enough to keep up despite her much less efficient route. She kept track of her target, just barely, and followed her to a lounge. Aiko slipped inside just in time and crept up to watch from high. Miss Taya took a seat on a sofa, where Mr. Luthor was already waiting. They were looking at security cameras.

Oh, fuck. Aiko hoped that she had done a good enough job. Would Mr. Luthor pretend he didn’t know she was there, at first? 

He didn’t look at her, instead swishing his new glass around. “What a good night,” he said to Miss Taya.

“Yes, sir,” she agreed. “As you say.” It was impossible to tell if she cared or not. “It seems that Mercy has finished with the Father.”

Aiko followed Miss Taya’s gaze to the right monitor, breath frozen in her chest. There was movement on screen as Mercy Graves left what looked like… a hospital room. Oh. Fuck, Dad was hurt. She could see a person on a bed briefly, before Mercy turned off the light. 

“Very good.” Lex threw back the last of his drink and swallowed. It was loud in the otherwise silent room. “Why don’t you join us?”

Aiko had a sinking feeling. But she waited, just in case he meant someone else. 

Miss Taya froze. She started looking around. Left, right– and then up, to make eye contact. “Young lady, didn’t your mother put you to bed?” Her lips pulled slightly into a smile.