Problem Child 10

Dad turned off the car in the top level of the parking garage where they were set to meet Captain Marvel. He had brought her to the same place yesterday and handed her off to one of her own clones.

‘I hope they don’t talk.’

She played with the end of her ponytail and resisted the urge to flick it against her mouth. She was too old for that. Even if the sensory input would be enjoyable, and no one would think it was developmentally inappropriate behavior from a child of her perceived appearance.

Marvel touched down gracefully, cape fluttering up behind him as his landing kicked up a gust of air. How did that even work?

“Hi, Mr. Marvel,” Dad said. He shot off a sloppy salute, eyes crinkling with some private joke. “Been a long time.” He shut the car door behind Aiko as she scrambled down to the ground. Her little white Batman-issued boots scraped on the concrete.

Okay, time to shut that down immediately. Aiko rolled out the car door, jamming her mask on at the last second. She grabbed Captain Marvel by the hand. “We gotta go, there’s crime to fight.” She tugged on him. He was immovable, the big lug. They needed to leave the area immediately, before Marvel could out her deception.

Captain laughed back, a cheesy haha sound. “I’ve missed Aiko,” he said. “I guess I got used to having a patrol partner.”

Aw, man. That would be hard to spin. 

Dad blinked. He looked at Aiko. She looked back at him as guilelessly as possible. “Well, I’m off to go call your mother,” Dad said mildly. Her blood ran cold. It was the scariest threat possible. Captain Marvel didn’t notice anything at all, bidding him goodbye and taking Aiko with him when he lifted off the ground.

Her stomach writhed into a tight ball of misery, but she kept her game face on. Maybe they wouldn’t realize she’d lied to them and met up with her own clone here the last four nights they’d driven her out. She could maybe convince them that it was an unfunny joke from Marvel…

And maybe pigs would fly too. She was fucked. She let out a big sigh to release all her negative energy and find inner peace.

“This is my stay of execution,” Aiko said to the evening air, serene. She was resigned to it. “I get one night. Is there anything fun to do?” 

“Uh.” Marvel slightly tightened his grip on her, as if he thought she might try to leap to her death. “There’s a disappearance that I want to look into.” 

She tensed. Fuck. Had he already figured out that Sivana had disappeared under suspicious circumstances? 

‘I might not be very subtle!’

Well. She was an elementary school student. Aiko sighed. “Yeah?” She prompted unenthusiastically. Might as well have everyone mad at her at once. She got ready for the disappointment.

“Yeah, the herpetologist from Fawcett zoo has been kidnapped. His office was like, ransacked,” Marvel mused. “It was really weird. The guy isn’t rich or important and there’s nothing going on in relation to his work right now. He doesn’t have a good life insurance policy, so it probably wasn’t his wife. My best guess is that, if it’s super villain related, it’s Herkimer. If it’s not that, it might be a random crime.” 

The relief was incredible. This wasn’t her fault at all. Aiko let out a shaky breath. But, like, what was that name? And what was a herpetologist? Pet- pet as in animals? Well, obviously, if the guy worked at a zoo. That wasn’t helpful. She tried the easier question. “…Herkimer?” 

Marvel made a sound of confusion. “Oh, right, I left him off the presentation because he’s been like, mostly reformed lately. He’s a crocodile guy, about a foot taller than me, wears a very expensive tailored suit all the time.”

“….I saw him last week,” Aiko said. Hmm. She had given him some helpful feedback on his criminal aspirations. This kidnapping might indirectly be her fault.

Marvel jerked to a stop midair. “Are you okay!” He yelled, way too loud. 

Aiko squirmed in his grip. “Are we almost there?” She complained. “And of course I’m fine! He didn’t touch me.” She hesitated. Successfully. He didn’t succeed in hitting her. She decided not to bother Marvel with that information. It would just make him nervous. “I did see him outside of the zoo. We talked a little. But he uh…. He just jumped down into the sewer and left,” she hedged. It was true, if falling was the same as jumping. They were pretty close. “I got the impression he was an environmentalist activist. He was concerned about the living conditions for the zoo crocodiles.”

“He… the sewer?” Marvel sounded baffled. “Okay, I guess I can see that. But oh man, that’s disappointing.” He heaved a sigh as he started to descend on the familiar area around Fawcett’s zoo. “I thought he was doing better. My goal is always to rehabilitate my villains, you know? Although maybe we can reach him. He’s coming from the right place.”

“…ahuh,” Aiko said. Maybe it came off a bit shifty. Hard to say.

‘Should I tell him about the plan to feed people to the crocodiles?’

“Everyone deserves a chance to change and be better, do better,” he continued passionately. “I know that probably sounds silly, but I don’t want to be judged by my worst moments.” 

Ugh. Grossly sentimental. She squirmed.

“I told Herkimer that his plan to release the crocodiles was too thoughtless,” Aiko said, because she really needed that topic to end. “I told him that I didn’t think they would do well on the streets of Fawcett and that he needed to put more thought into making it safe for them outside of the zoo.” 

“…do they want to leave the zoo?” Captain Marvel, bless him, mostly sounded curious. 

“I don’t know,” she admitted thoughtfully. “If they were unhappy there, he might know better than we do. How many crocodiles are there at the zoo? Do you think he’s friends with them all? Do they all have suits?”

“I’m pretty sure they don’t have suits.” Marvel opened the metal gates with one hand. They both stepped inside the zoo grounds. “I don’t think the other two things are easily answerable or relevant right now.”

“They might be relevant later,” Aiko muttered to herself resentfully.

Even though the zoo was closed for the night, the buildings were lit up. Marvel strode confidently down cobblestone paths without even gawking at the loose peacocks on the grass. Aiko craned her head as they passed to look at a giant wrought iron statue of a hippo overlooking a fountain. 

“This place is cool,” she observed. 

“You should see the petting zoo!” Marvel chirped. “They have goats!” 

Goats? You could pet goats?

Aiko gasped involuntarily, hands flying up to her face. She instantly scowled about the loss of control, but at least Marvel was oblivious. He was clinically oblivious, which was undoubtedly the source of most of his personal pain. It had to have upsides. 

Hopefully one day there would also be upsides for him, but that wasn’t really her concern as she followed him to an office. This one hadn’t been ransacked. A bronze nameplate above the door read “Dr. Ehlos”.

A tired-looking lady of around 60 years old looked up from her desk when they entered. She took off her dark-rimmed glasses to rub at her face with a palm. “Captain,” she said. She glanced over at Aiko without giving the slightest hint of surprise that there was a small child in the zoo after hours. “Thank you for looking into this. I had a look at the logs from the night. It seems that Dr. Fraggier had a pager ring, supposedly from security.” She leaned back a little in her wooden chair with a creak.

“But it wasn’t from security,” Captain Obvious said, nodding. He crossed his big muscle arms and then immediately uncrossed them to rest his hands on his hips in a more heroic posture.

Aiko exchanged a look with Dr. Ehlos.

“That’s correct.” The doctor tapped the notebook on her desk with a pen. “Security confirms that they didn’t send it, but Dr. Fraggier did go to their night desk while they were doing rounds last night.”

“And no one saw anything?” Captain pressed.

Dr. Ehlos shook her head and put down her pen. “I found some security footage that might help you.” She stood up and gestured for them to follow her down what seemed to be some kind of service tunnel. It smelled damp and like some kind of fishy pellets. Aiko was last, so she let her nose crinkle in disgust and tried to avoid breathing while they walked. She stole glances through cloudy windows. Was that the back of an enclosure? What animals were near here? The monitoring window was a little too high for her line of eyesight. She squinted and tried to get a little taller by straightening her back and going on her tippy toes as they passed the last window. She saw some greenery and cement, which was a disappointing result. 

“Oh, here?”

Aiko hustled to catch up to where the tall people were standing in front of an enormous monitor.