Problem Child 7

On the second day of Aiko’s self-assigned mission to protect Marvel's interests and secret identity, she followed up on the Monster Society of Evil. She’d burnt the bodies, but there was still only so much time before Dr. Sivana’s allies would notice the radio silence. Aiko had to work fast.

The tough call was whether to go after the bulk of the enemies at the weird school institution, or to go after the head of the organization by taking out Mister Mind. 

The rats might scatter before she could trap them. But Aiko went for the leader. Her decision was made by just how weird the guy had been in sending mind controlled civilians after Marvel. She was honestly concerned as to how poor gentle Marvel would deal with that without her. He had a soft heart for civilian casualties, because he was a good guy. She couldn’t allow that to be used against him. 

Mister Mind, literal evil worm, was at the headquarters of the Monster Society of Evil, and he was an absolute pushover when he didn’t have an army of mind controlled civilians. Aiko punched some sort of sentient monkey man into unconsciousness and then flicked Mister Mind into paste before he could get too far into whining about how Marvel’s predecessor had ruined his life. “L,” she said, to the green smear that was left. She rolled her eyes at the aborted monologue. What did that have to do with her? 

Neat. With that taken care of, Aiko turned to her other errands. 

Aiko opened the hotel door where she had left Georgia after breakfast and made eye contact with a Gotham vigilante who was entering via the window. They both paused. He drew a weapon.

“Hey,” Aiko said, friendly, and flipped the light on. She nodded to Georgia. “Careful, she attacked her sister, that’s why she’s in timeout.” Georgia had earned herself tied hands, since she kept trying to fight. The other siblings were smarter. They probably didn’t realize what Aiko had done when she’d marked them with Hiraishin, but they’d stayed where she left them.

The older boy tilted his head at her dangerously. He said nothing. He had a knife pointed at her. It was shaped like a little bat. It was probably made of the same thing as her little lightning bolt knife. Adorable.

“That’s Georgia Sivana,” Aiko explained. She shut the hotel door and started unzipping the bag she brought Georgia’s dinner in. She nodded to the hero. “Hey, do you know anything about child therapy?” She waved a hand in a broad circular gesture. “The whole family has a really weird complex going on, she and Jr and convinced they’re essentially unlovable hideous beasts whose only value is what their intellect can do for evil.”

Georgia wailed a little behind her gag. 

“You’re fine,” Aiko encouraged. “If you’re really that insecure when you grow up still, you can get a nose job and Invisalign. You’ll look fine.” She paused and pursed her lips. “You could probably start that now, actually,” Aiko realized. She was old enough, right?

Georgia blinked at her. Her mouth moved behind the gag. Aiko reached up to untie it. 

“Do you really think so?” Georgia sniffled. 

Aiko shrugged. “There’s nothing wrong with your bone structure, actually your cheekbones are great, and you’ve got clear skin— honestly, if you wanna be pretty we can make that happen.” She straightened Georgia’s glasses. They were severely cracked. Hmm, she’d need new ones, or maybe contacts. “But you have to fuck soooo far away from Marvel, forever. That’s the deal. Or I will come back and murder you.” She tweaked Georgia’s nose to emphasize the promise.

“Tt.” The Batman friend touched his ear. What was his name? Aiko strained to remember. She knew this. It was super famous. “Clear. Speaking with the victim now.” Then he scowled at them, focusing on Georgia. He cocked his head like a bird, examining the details of her face. Georgia squirmed under the assessment. After a few moments he pronounced. “Aesthetically, there is nothing significantly wrong with you. Would you renounce evil in exchange for orthodontic alignment and a conventionally attractive nose?”

“You think so?” It came out barely above a whisper. Georgia nodded rapidly, eyes becoming wide and adoring. “Yes, Robin.” She ducked her head shyly.

ROBIN. That was it.

“Very well. You will wait in silence.” Robin withdrew the sturdiest looking phone she’d ever seen in her life from a pocket. It was, of course, in the same colors as his uniform. Aiko held in a snort.

Georgia breathed heavily and watched Robin like she wanted to cling to him.

Aiko privately thought Georgia’s resolve was weak but she said nothing. It was what she wanted, anyway. And it wasn’t her fault; it was a pretty predictable result of the weird sibling comparisons and hierarchy that Dr. Butthead had engineered to manipulate his kids. He’d given everything to his pretty kids and made the younger ones constantly strive to be worth anything in comparison. Georgia was riddled with insecurity.

‘If I can manipulate Robin into helping, he might have a solution for Jr as well. Beautia is easy, she just needs to be provided legitimate employment and she’ll stay on the straight and narrow. She’s an adult anyway. But I don’t know about the other twin. I’m not that good with people anyway.”

She clasped her hands together and smiled pleasantly while Robin misappropriated a horrifying amount of money from somewhere and set up recurring appointments for Georgia at “the most reputable cosmetic orthodontist and child psychiatrist in the city.” 

Aiko took his stern word for it and tried not to bounce on her heels too impatiently. 

Georgia practically had stars in her eyes. “Thank you, Robin,” she simpered. “You’re so kind. And handsome.”

Ew. A crush. How gauche. Aiko wrinkled her nose in disgust as Robin finished up and put away his bird phone. But at least it was handled. The bats had money and resources.

‘I should take advantage of that.’

When he was done, Robin turned to her. “The other trafficking victims?” 

Hey. Aiko pursed her lips. She didn’t like that characterization. She wasn’t trafficking anybody. “They’re kidnapping victims,” she corrected primly. Then she shrugged. “Or prisoners of war. Beautia and Jr are in two different hotels.” She took out her little lightning knife and started playing with it.

Robin grunted. “Dr. Sivana?” 

“Indisposed,” Aiko said, at the same time that Georgia tattled, “She killed my Dad and burnt his body.”

Robin looked at her for a long, silent moment. Maybe it was judgmental. Aiko shrugged. “He has been mean to Marvel and knows his secret identity,” she said mildly. She graciously pretended not to see Georgia go even stiffer. Georgia probably also knew his name, of course, and she should be smart enough to take this as a warning. She was getting a carrot, but Aiko had the biggest stick, and she was ready to crack skulls with it.

“Practical,” Robin eventually decided. His voice cracked mid word. 

Aiko honed in on him, looking for what signs of weakness of embarrassment he would let off. There was no reaction whatsoever. 

He had a sort of steady composure that nobly ignored what might have embarrassed a lesser man. 

Aiko was a little impressed by that. She subtly inspected him better, counting his weapons and speculating at what his tools were.

He was a big kid. He had to be at least 13. He also had a sword on him and arms like, twice the size of hers.

Aiko decided he was, unfortunately, cool. “Want to help me talk to the other two?” She offered. She cut through the loose knot she’d kept Georgia’s hands in. 

“Are there not four Sivana children?” Robin asked. 

“Nah, there’s three.” Aiko shrugged. “Bye, Georgia.” She waved over her shoulder on her way out. “Be good.” 

“I will!” Georgia called. Aiko could feel the older girl’s stress levels spike at the reminder. Aiko spared her one last reassuring smile and then she was gone.

Robin was at her heels. “The Riviera Hotel and Blackside Inn?” he confirmed. 

“Yup.” Aiko popped the p. “Brilliant. I only left them there yesterday, your sources are fantastic.” She opened the hallway window and skittered out onto the side of the building.

“I cannot reveal-“

“Yeah, yeah, it was a professional compliment, not a dig for information.” Aiko cut him off with a careless hand wave. She wasn’t born yesterday, jeeze.

Robin followed her out, using tools rather more gracefully than her spider-like cling to the outside of the building. Aiko used her hands and not just her feet, since her chakra control wasn’t that steady at her little age and she didn’t need the embarrassment of falling to her death in front of someone cool. She made a little jump to the adjacent roof and started running. Robin kept up easily. 

His earpiece crackled. Even Aiko’s hearing couldn’t pick up on the other end, but she heard Robin scoff. “Yes, I did,” he said to his teammate. “The victim was troublingly ugly. I have resolved the situation. Cease bothering me.” He turned off his earpiece, but not before Aiko heard a very loud, “whAT?” from the other end.

Aiko tried really hard not to cackle.

Robin didn’t acknowledge that conversation at all.

“I trust that Captain Marvel is unaware of your actions here.” Robin hit the ground silently beside her. He was obviously shortening his strides out of professional courtesy. Wow. What a guy.

Aiko snorted and took a big leap onto the next building just to show she didn’t need him to baby her too much. “He’s too soft for this business,” she said, not unfondly. “I don’t want him to get hurt.”

Robin grunted. “Yes,” he said stiffly, after an extended silence. “I see.” 

She got the feeling he really did see. “You would be a good ninja,” Aiko told him generously. He was quiet and he had knives and everything, he really had the spirit. “Do you wanna learn how to do this?” She felt him focus on her as she made a midair leap to land perpendicular to the rooftop on an air conditioning unit. She held out her hands prettily as if to say “ta da.” 

Robin stopped. His dark eyes glanced between her and the rooftop, checking for a trick that didn’t exist. “…Yes.” 

Cool. New genin for Aiko! She was instantly flooded with the protective warmth that came with having a new baby to protect

“Do you think you’re more like, fire, lightning, air, water, or ground type?” Aiko asked generously. She corrected her orientation and held a hand up to snap and show off a little flame. Then she popped a big water jutsu bubble from her lips to float away into the night. “You could destroy so many enemies that way, very versatile.”

Robin was no longer visibly breathing. “I suspect air.” 

Aiko nodded. “Cool. We can make that work.” 

‘Ha, gottem. He’ll definitely help me with the Sivanas now.’