Leonardo loved a lot of things. His mom, friends, food, etc. But he adored games. His favorite game was hide and seek. Their hide and seek games weren’t limited to just one area. When they played, the entire hotel was their playground. Big Mama limited their matches to just one a week and to give the staff a heads up before they started playing.

He used to be found right away so he was seeker a lot. He grew a special set of skills, skills that let him find whoever he set himself on finding. Most of these skills were taught to him by his friends and Gus helped him hone them to perfection. Despite his flawless seeker record, he was a terrible hider.

He and his crew were playing a hide and seek game right now. Leonardo found a spot in a closet under his mother’s coat. He buried his face into his frog to stifle his giggling. His sister in arms was the first seeker. So he tried to be as quiet as possible.

“And the wolf said, “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house down!”

The closet was ripped open and Suzie jumped on top of Leo, tickling him mercilessly.

“Suzanne, sweetheart, do let him out of the closet before your barrage of tickles.”

“Okay Mum!”

Leo was allowed to crawl out of the closet but as soon as he started to run away, Suzie began tickling him again.

“N-no! Suzie!”

Leo could barely talk between giggles. She eventually let him up and let him calm down before they started the hunt for the others. They both had cloaking broaches pinned to their chests. It was daytime and they had their two human friends playing with them. April was a great hider and Nathanial just liked to hang out with his friends.

Leo’s older human disguise was adorable. He had light brown hair, dark purple clip-on earrings on both ears, black shorts with light blue stripes running up the sides of his legs, a matching light blue shirt, and two streaks on his curly brown hair were dyed bright red. (Big Mama was more than pleased about that.)

Suzie had dark brown skin, dark gray, almost black hair, a bright lilac shirt and maroon leggings. No one wore shoes or socks during their hide and seek matches. Socks muffle movement too much and shoes make too much noise when running (especially Leo’s light up sketchers) so shoes and socks were banned. Besides, the floors were cleaned on the hour every hour, so they never had to worry about trash.

“Alright Leo. Wanna team up, or split up?”

“We’ll find more people if we split, but you have me! The greatest seeker of the Grand Nexus as your teammate! Follow me! See you soon Mom!”

The eight year old and twelve year old team raced down the halls looking in premarked rooms. The found April and Nate in the kitchen while the cooks lectured them on kitchen safety. They tried hiding under the counters, but scared the head chef. Their Dad had to take them to a “supervised visitation” as April called it, so they had to leave soon anyway.

Leon made sure to give them cool lunch boxes with cute pineapple and coconut themes. They had yummy egg salad salad sandwiches with cut up pineapple and pretzels. He and Suzie ate the same things while they continued their hunt and brought some extra lunch boxes for when they found the others.

“Leo, how’re your Spanish lessons going with Bone Man?”

“Heh heh heh!”

Leo gained a playfully smug face.

“I know small words and phrases! Tio Hueso is super cool and H.J has a super cool phone! Tio’s also teaching me how to make pizza! He puts pineapple on pizza! Is there anything more glorious?!”

Suzie laughed at Leo’s dramatics as they stepped off the elevator. They both froze in fear, dropping their half eaten sandwiches. All the bodyguard Big Mama had assigned to the floor they were on were all either dead or beaten into unconsciousness. Three humans or disguised yokai had weapons and were seriously out of breath.

Suzie and Leo were absolutely terrified. Leo could feel himself starting to cry and Suzie slowly pushed him behind her. She started backing them into the still open elevator, but it closed and went up. The ding it made alerted the bad guys of their presence.

“Kids? I ain’t killing kids Mack!”

“We don’t have to Robin. That’s Nexus’s brat.”

“Run Leo!”

Leo grabbed Suzie’s wrist and bolted to the left. They didn’t get far. They were both lifted by the backs of their shirts as they both kicked and screamed.

“Dude, shut them up!”

Something hard and metal-ly slammed into the side of Leo’s head and he could feel himself being shoved into a bag before passing out.

<~>

“For the last time, freak! Start talking! Are there more of you?!”

Leo woke up on a very cold, dirt floor. There was a gross rusty bracelet around his ankle with a chain attached to the wall. He turned his head and saw Suzie. He was horrified at her state of being. Her cloaking broach was gone, she wore a dog’s muzzle that was far too tight, her clothes were blood, and two of the men were beating her with a metal bat.

The third guy leaned against a support pillar, watching them. Leo knew where they were. He explored the unfinished basement with Shika and April a few weeks ago on his seventh birthday. His mom told him that it was dangerous and to never come here again. Leo was really scared.

“The other freak bastard is awake.”

“About damn time.”

Leo started crying as he noticed his cloaking broach was on the floor a couple feet away from him in pieces. The man that leaned against the pillar blew a stream of smoke in his face. Leo started coughing and crying harder.

The Smoke Man had a dark brown ponytail. Bat Guy wore gold (probably fake) sunglasses and had a toothpick in his mouth, and Sandwich Guy was super fat. Sandwich Guy had grease and food stained white (or now gray?) shirt.

Smoke Man stayed kneeling at Leo’s height, preventing the Bat Guy from getting closer. He had sympathy in his eyes and put out his cigarette, opting to pull a gun from his sleeveless leather coat.

“Hey bud. Me and my friends here got a few questions for you. And you’re gonna answer them, do we understand each other?”

“Don’t tell them anything Leo!”

“Shut that freak up Mack!”

Bat Guy threw a loose brick at Suzie and a crunch from her arm made him throw up on Smoke Man’s chest. He was kicked into the wall face first. Blood gushed from his nose and he faintly heard Suzie screaming at them and growling.

“I-I want my M-Mommy…”

“Too bad, so sad. I want my questions answered, but we don’t get what we want, no do we?!”

Bat Guy was screaming in Leo’s tear and blood covered face as he reared up to hit him with his bat. Movement behind caught Leo’s fading attention. Purplish web gunk pinned all three men to the ground as familiar arms encased him.

“M-Mommy?”

“My baby, don’t worry. Mama’s got you.”

<~<~>~>

Big Mama was getting ready for her weekly mother-son dinner with Leo. He was a little late today, so she was starting to get worried. She decided to walk down the halls to see if her rambunctious little blueberry had gotten sidetracked.

“Big Mama!”

“Jack? Daniel? Shika? What are you three doing?”

“Have you seen Leo and Suzie?! We can’t find them and they never came to find us!”

“Kids, go to your apartments and lock the doors. If your parents aren’t there, call them and tell them I said to go home. Say a code black has happened. Am I clear?”

They all nodded and ran off. Big Mama put the entire hotel on lockdown. No one goes in, and no one goes out. She used a new device her scientists were working on called “Portal Pellets” and used one to go to the security room. Rosa, a yokai with hundreds of eyes, was tied up in the corner with rope and duct tape.

“Rosa, tell me who’s done this.”

“Three men. They killed the fleet of new security on the fifth floor and kidnapped Young Mater Leonardo and young miss Suzie. They took them to the basement.”

<~>

Big Mama quickly helped Rosa from her bindings and threw another pellet to get to the basement. She was in her true yokai form and was out for blood the moment she saw the children. Suzie was chained to a wall like a mere animal and her baby was crying, calling out for her, covered in blood.

She made short work of the three men. Two of them, a morbidly obese man and a mullet wearing punk were human, but the third was half yokai; a mix of human and fire yokai. She told Suzie to look away and killed all three. They’re graves will be under her hotel until they’re bones rotted away.

Suzie, despite the beating she took, was more worried about Leonardo. As soon as Big Mama released her from the shackles, she fussed over Leonardo and refused to leave his side. He was passed out in her arms and they both had to go to Mrs. Davies anywhizzle, so Big Mama said nothing. She did however text Abigail to bring her husband to the medical room.

Conjoined to Maria and Amanda’s room was a large hospital-like room with four beds and all necessary medical supplies for any and all occasions. Maria did not think she would have to treat two children for injuries they should’ve never been subjected to, and she hoped to never have to do it again.

She couldn’t have any children herself, but she saw the resident children at the hotel as her nieces and nephews so her heart broke with every bruise and gash. .

Suzie was beaten badly with a blunt instrument (a metal bat), had sustained slight internal bleeding, small cuts on and around her snout from where a muzzle had been forced on her, her arm was broken in two places, and a major concussion. Still, she remained conscious and refused to leave Leo alone; even Abigail and David were unable to drag her away. Maria ended up putting her under with a local anesthetic.

Leonardo wasn’t as bad, but was still injured. A major concussion, a wide V-shaped gashed on the right side of his head that was caked with dirt and dried blood, little knicks in his left ankle from a metal cuff, minor smoke inhalation, and slightly dehydrated.

Big Mama wanted to kill those men several times over for what they’ve done. She didn’t even know why they were here and why they took the kids! Suzie’s gone radio silent and refuses to speak to anyone. Leonardo told her what he could, but some of the memories were too fuzzy for him to remember.

As long as Leonardo and Suzie were alive and well physically, the mental trauma could wait for another day, or until they’ve healed.

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