Problem Child 2

“Princess Aiko!” Daddy snatched her up. Her crayons rolled away. Aiko giggled and let him, then shrieked and squirmed when he tickled her. “It's time to go see the child therapist! Yay, child therapist!” 

“Yay!” Aiko shouted along with him, getting hyped up because Dad was hyped up. Things were great now! Mom and Dad paid so much attention to her! So did other adults, who wanted to hear her thoughts and about how she was going to grow up to kill Superman and avenge her bike. 

“Child therapy for everyone!” Mom picked up Nathan’s hands and danced him around the kitchen. He bounced up and down, less sure than everyone else about how fun therapy really was but happy to be included. The family bundled into their new car, which had four normal unbroken windows and the government bought for them! They were getting so much cool stuff now, and Aiko had the vague, proud suspicion that it was because of her.

Good timing too, since that robot butt smushed the old house and all their stuff in it. 

Today Daddy and Aiko went to talk to Miss Miranda together while Mommy and Nathan went to talk to Dr. Hartmann.

Miss Miranda liked to talk philosophy. 

“So, you think that Superman and other heroes have more responsibility for the harm their actions cause, because they’re capable of more than other people.” Miss Miranda summarized. Daddy bounced Aiko on his knees.

“Morally, yeah,” Aiko agreed, a little bored. “If you have the capacity to cause mass destruction then you are obligated to be competent enough not to do it by accident.”

Miss Miranda nodded, taking that in. “That makes a lot of sense,” she agreed. “It was really sad that Superman bumped into the robot and that got your house and bicycle smashed. I bet it made you mad.”

“Oh, I was furious, Miranda,” Aiko agreed. She sat up a little taller because Dad was scratching at her scalp. Mm. That was good. She pushed against his hand like a cat.

“I would be mad too!” Miss Miranda flashed her perfect white teeth at them. “It reminds me of when someone bumped into me outside the grocery store. I dropped my bag and my eggs broke.”

Aiko just looked at her, politely waiting for Miss Miranda to finish her thought. 

“I was mad when that happened. I wanted to yell at him,” she confided. She made an exaggerated face. “He broke my eggs! You can’t fix an egg.”

‘Yeah, but they’re just eggs’, Aiko thought. She kept her face clear of how unimpressed she was by Miss Miranda’s petty struggles. She didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

“But then he apologized.” Miss Miranda made a face. “He offered to buy me more eggs. I thought that was fair. And anyway, he didn’t do it on purpose.”

That seemed like an appropriate way to manage that situation. Aiko nodded, bored while waiting for the conversation to turn back to her. 

“If Superman apologized and bought a new bike, would you forgive him?”

Aiko made a face. “He hasn’t apologized,” she said.

Miss Miranda glanced up to make eye contact with Dad. Aiko turned her face up to see what was going on, but she must have missed the interaction. 

She felt a flash of irritation and suspicion. She wasn't dumb. They were hiding something. Had Superman tried to reach out to her? If he had, she deserved to know.

“No, but if he did. How would you feel?”

“It’s irrelevant.” Aiko sighed. “He’s incompetent.”

Dad snorted and then froze guiltily. He was trying to hide that he found her campaign against him funny.

“Hmm.” Miss Miranda tilted her face to the side. “Is he really? Most people really like him. He’s helped a lot of people.”

“The President doesn’t like him.” Aiko crossed her arms and fixed her most stubborn face on Miss Miranda. “If the leader of the free world mistrusts him, he is not beyond riticism.”

“Cri-” Miss Miranda cut herself off. “I see. That’s true. President Luther doesn’t trust Superman, because he doesn’t know Superman’s personal information. You want to be a vigilante when you grow up, right?”

“Yes.”

“...When you do, do you think everyone has the right to know your real name and face?” Miss Miranda pushed.

“No, they shouldn’t know anything about me,” Aiko agreed. “I assume I’ll make some controversial decisions and Nathan doesn’t know how to take care of himself. He hurt his heart this week.”

Dad sighed. She could feel his chest move.

“How did he do that?” Miss Miranda got that tiny line between her eyebrows.

“He ate a butterfly on a dare and then he got overwhelmed by the realization that he ended a life.” Bored, Aiko tried to get up off the couch, but Dad kept her in place. 

Miss Miranda nodded solemnly. Aiko caught it in the corner of her eye. “It’s important to preserve life, isn’t it?”

Aiko pursed her lips. She didn’t answer. It would offend the civilian sensibilities of the grownups in the room.

“Princess.” Daddy bounced her. “Everyone who is great thinks that. For example, your favorite hero definitely believes in the sanctity of life!”

Aiko made a face. Dad didn’t know anything about celebrities.

“Thank you for talking with me today.” Miss Miranda glanced at the clock. “Aiko, before our next session, can you think about something for me?”

Aiko nodded. It was the only option.

“Can you think about a time that you accidentally did something that made someone else sad or mad?” Miss Miranda suggested. “Let’s talk about that next time.”

Aiko pursed her lips. “Miss Miranda, I do everything with intention.”

Both adults laughed. “You can probably think of something if you try,” Dad said. “Thank you so much, Miranda. I’ll see you next week.”

Aiko heaved a sigh and then worked up the determination to say a polite goodbye. 

Mom and Nathan weren't done, so they went to the library. They had been spending a lot of time there, now that the twins were being homeschooled. “Dad, I want to look up dinosaur facts,” Aiko demanded. 

He tried to walk her past the computers towards the reading section with soft carpet anyway. “Wouldn't it be nice to look at a storybook?” He cajoled.

Aiko dug her heels in. “You can do that. And you can see me there.” She pointed at the child's computer. 

Dad hesitated. “10 minutes of screen time,” he said. “And don't leave there except to come to me. Understand?” 

“I got it.” Aiko dashed off and signed in as a guest, which seemed silly to her. She opened a tab and laboriously typed “DINOSauE facts” into the search bar. She glanced at her Dad. He made eye contact and a thumbs up. She gave a thumbs up back.

Then she opened up a second tab and started searching “Supermn sorry.” 

She found a whole bunch of news articles and clicked on one, frowning hard. Did that mean that he was sorry for ruining her bike? 

It was hard to tell. 

Aiko struggled with the headline, and then with the body. Before too long, she gave up. The words were just too hard. She wasn't very literate. She was 6, alright?. The pictures, though! She didn't know there were pictures!

She scrolled all the way down to the bottom of the article, clicked on the comment box, and typed “thats me!!! :)))”. She hit enter.

“Aiko.”

She jumped and closed the tab. Then she looked over at Dad.

He was frowning as he walked over. Oh no. His Dad senses had alerted him. She clicked on the first dinosaur article, heart thudding. He rounded the computer - and visibly relaxed when he saw her screen. 

“Want to find a dinosaur book?” Dad offered. 

Aiko jumped up. “Yes!” She whisper-shouted. Distract! Distract! “Let's go, let's gooooOoooO!” She tugged Dad away by his hand. 

Somewhere Else

“Alice Uzaki.” A slideshow clicked to show the next point of order. It was a young face, cropped from a personal photo.

Clark shrank back in his chair as a few members stifled giggles in their fists. He had not forgotten that day. It had the distinction of being the most memorable fight with Lex with no fatalities. 

Batman was merciless. “6 years old, moved into witness protection about half a year ago. Known as Aiko by her family, presumably a nickname after her grandmother of the same name.” 

Hal put his hand down. 

“Third generation immigrant family from Japan. Metahuman with varied powers of an unknown source, nothing reported in her family. In danger from Lex Luther and others as a result of her public… debut.” He clicked the slideshow to display the now infamous news helicopter still of Superman dodging robot shrapnel while he tried to rescue her from Lex’s deathbot. “She needs to be tested to find the source of her powers, but her parents will not consent, so that’ll have to wait until she’s old enough to decide on her own. Her stated goal is to become a vigilante-”

“That figures,” Barry said. Clark rubbed at his jawline, waiting for the punchline-

“And to kill Superman for smashing her purple birthday bicycle with streamers on the handlebars,” Bruce finished in an especially dry tone that meant he was enjoying this a lot. “It’s important to note that she customized it with stickers and glitter gel handlebar covers. It was an important bicycle that you destroyed, Clark.”

He sighed heavily. “I did not destroy her bicycle,” Clark defended himself. “That was Lex Luther's robot-” 

“Which you knocked off balance. Don't be a pedant.” Diana put her chin on her hand. “If her parents won't consent to testing, is there really anything that we can do?” 

‘It’s not pedantry, it’s just true. Besides, I went on the news and apologized. I’m not sure what else I’m meant to do.’

Bruce pursed his lips, but pointedly clicked on to the image of the 6 year old breathing a stream of fire and Superman doing a barrel roll to avoid it. He had been trying to get close enough to extract her from the danger zone. “She’s on the agenda because the child psychologists are …concerned. The expert opinion is that we can select someone trusted to mentor her and help her become more stable and understand the importance of working as a team, or…”

“Or we roll the dice,” Barry finished. “Yeah, I don’t want to deal with her in ten years.” He pointed at the news footage still. “I don’t think she needs her superpowers trained. They seem to be pretty instinctual. We need someone with social skills and morality.”

“Someone who is flame resistant…” Oliver said under his breath. “Have I ever mentioned my flammability?”

“Coward,” Diana said just as quietly, but she was probably joking. “Is there anyone who she admires? It would be easiest to borrow goodwill by sending a hero who she is a fan of.”

Batman went so still that Clark felt dread in his stomach. This was another punchline. Bruce had been eagerly waiting for that question. He delivered his answer in a deadpan. “Etrigan. She has all his merchandise. In fact, the glitter stickers on her bike were of him, and placed the day of the incident.”

‘...He has merchandise? Who is selling that?’

There was an appalled silence.

“Not it,” Hal said. “I don’t think I can provide enough regular contact for this… level of issue. Making her feel low priority or abandoned would probably be worse than no intervention.”

“Not you, and not Clark,” Diana said. He felt a wave of gratefulness that he didn’t have to bow out. It felt a bit low, considering he was partly responsible for the situation. But he really doubted she would react well to him. “Captain Marvel, how about you?”

He jumped in his seat. “M-me? Oh, I don’t know that I’m qualified.” 

Clark tilted his head to the side and thought about Captain’s Marvel’s skillset and general imperviousness to damage. He also had a lot of presence and an impeccable moral fiber. “I think that you would do a great job,” he reassured.

“Captain Marvel was my top candidate based upon skillset,” Bruce said, perfectly neutral.

The man himself looked around the table, looking something like a trapped animal. “I… Uh, if you really think I’m the best option…”

“Good, it’s settled.”