Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 41: Briefings

“HIS NAME HERE is Jacob Wells, but incidentally, his code name is Maponus.”

I fumed, “So he’s the one abusing children?”

“He is at least involved on the planning side of this ring. We’ve only seen him go to the daycare twice in the last year, so we had discounted him as a major player, though.”

“Doesn’t his involvement mean my cover would be blown if I went in now?” I asked.

“Not necessarily? If you can go soon, he might not even be there. He really doesn’t seem to appear around the daycare center that often. You’ve already demonstrated this morning while you were with the Jennings that you can pull off the baby act. My agents couldn’t believe what we had told them!” Caruthers chimed in.

“When do I need to go?”

“Well, we would prefer within the next week…?”

“I’ll miss the finals at school,” I said.

“If the mission goes on long enough for that to be the case, I’ll work with Mrs. Hensley to get you excused or be able to make them up.”

I shrugged, “I’m not sure I’m trained enough - and what if he recognizes me?”

‘I think it’s a risk that those real babies need you to take,’ Caireen said gently. ‘You’re not alone, I’ll be with you, and I’ll bet that Hannah won’t be far either.’

He gave me a blank stare and a bit of a shrug as a response.

I sighed, “I’ll do it - what else do you know?”

We spent two hours reviewing everything about the case. I was shown evidence in the form of video and images that I would probably never be able to get out of my head. They had shown me what they had, so I could be aware if I was being taken to one of the places they had been filming.

“What does Maponus have on his EID?” I asked eventually.

He pushed a couple buttons, and I looked at his EID card on the screen with his picture:

 

EID 66-859382-1382-4
Name: Jacob Calvin Wells
Code Name: Maponus
Birth Date: 5-2-1992
Age: 23 Years
Height: 6’3” Weight: 210lbs
Paradigm: 2, Esens: 3, Magic: 2, Regen: 2
 

“Well, he should be less powerful than I am…?” I said, “The Esens bothers me, though. I’m guessing he’s been using that to help with this?”

“Unknown, we hadn’t even really paid much attention to him before you pointed him out. We thought his involvement was minor - no one believed him to be a big part of this operation.”

“If you want my guess, he’s very involved,” I said aloud. Then quietly to myself, I added, “and now I wonder if he would even wait until I was an adult again…?”

I shuddered and felt Caireen put her arms mentally around me for a hug.

“I certainly hope you have success both here and in your other world,” Caruthers said sympathetically.

“Okay, what now?”

“Now?” He said with a smile, “I think first you probably need a little bit of attention from Tigress, and then she’s going to take you back to the Liberty Watch’s headquarters for some training time.”

I nodded, “Okay, when do I see you again, Agent Sanders?”

“Next Friday, I’ll come to pick you and Agent Emped from school, brief you, and she’ll place you in the daycare on that Monday.”

I nodded, “Okay.”

I jumped off the table and walked out the door once he had opened it for me. I was still capable of opening doors with some minor gymnastics. Still, playing baby the last few days made me hesitant to do it myself. I walked up to Tigress at a table and said, “I’m done. Could you help me in the bathroom first before we go?”

She smiled and said, “Sure!”

 
 

ABOUT AN HOUR later, we arrived at the Emerald Spire, where the Liberty Watch was headquartered. “Hmm… Emerald Spire seems like something I should have been destined to visit,” I joked quietly to Tigress, who carried me on one hip.

“I had thought about that when I heard your code name,” she said with a smile and a light touch of a giant claw to my nose.

The entrance seemed like your average office building. Still, when Tigress briefly held a wristband to the control panel in the elevator, I watched a new set of options appear on a hidden touch panel. She pressed the one that said ‘Headquarters,’ and I felt us begin to move like any regular elevator. Suddenly though, she pressed a ‘halt’ button that was illuminated on the new options.

“Emerald, could I get you to help me with a prank?” she asked.

I smiled, “It depends?”

“Just follow my lead?”

I raised my eyebrows, “I’ll try?”

She squeezed me and smiled before pressing the button to start the elevator back up. When the doors opened, we stepped out into a room that looked like any other office building. Really at first glance, we could have been back in the FBI office we just left. The figure which emerged from one of the offices changed any belief of that, though! She wore a form-fitting sky-blue suit, with a large gun at her side and a gold helmeted head, which helped me see things were far from ordinary!

“Aww, she’s adorable! Who is she?” the figure asked Tigress.

“This is my baby girl,” Tigress said with a squeeze to give me a hint this was what she was talking about.

“Your what?” she asked a little louder, “When? How? Who?”

I decided to play the baby and pointed toward her, “Wook, Mommy Bwoo!”

“That’s right, baby, she’s blue! Can you wave at Doctor Bolt?”

She waved my arm for me at her and said, “Why are you so surprised?”

“When were you even pregnant?!?”

“Well, I am part cat, so I had a much shorter pregnancy. Remember when I was gone for a couple months last fall?”

“Umm… yeah… but…? Who’s the?”

Tigress shrugged, “Some one-night stand after I got done breaking up a robbery last year.”

“But…”

I chose that moment to turn back and forth between them and then put my head against her shoulder as if I was hiding, and she patted my back. “It’s okay; she’s nice!”

I looked back at her and smiled back at her, and I sensed that the joke had reached its climax as she said, “You don’t mind babysitting her for me the next time we get a call on my shift?”

“Bwoo!” I said again randomly.

There was a long pause while Tigress gave me another squeeze as she apparently felt like she had accomplished her goal. Even with a mask covering the other lady’s face, I could tell the other lady was far beyond confused. In fact, as she removed her helmet, Tigress started giggling.

“Okay, what’s going on here?” the lady asked.

Tigress laughed and squeezed me, “Thanks for playing along, Emerald!”

“What?”

“Doctor Bolt, this is Emerald Baby, the FBI Agent we were asked to help out?” She bounced me lightly on her hip and gave me another squeeze.

The confusion seemed to lift a little, but she asked, “Wait… She’s the Mergent? But she’s a…?”

“Didn’t watch the news last night?” Tigress asked.

“Uh…”

I made the universal, ‘I want down wiggle,’ and Tigress set me on the ground, “I’m Sofia, codename Emerald Baby,” and curtsied to her.

She laughed, “Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Sofia. I’m Doctor Bolt - the leader of this group of loonies!” She said with a smirk and a glare toward Tigress. “I will remember this Tigress!”

“It was worth it!” Tigress chuckled, “Manic, did you get that on video?”

A man in a black suit came around the corner, and I could see he was somehow directing a tiny drone back toward his hand. “Yep! Thanks for warning me of the opportunity!”

Dr. Bolt sighed and looked at me, “Like I said, loonies!”

I smiled, “I’ll probably fit right in with you all then!”

“So, what’s your story? Tigress mentioned that she had been convinced to spend a couple days helping a Mergent agent for the FBI train. Still, she didn’t apparently tell me everything?”

“You want the long story or the short?” I asked.

“Well… enough?”

I nodded, “I was an eighteen-year-old senior getting ready to graduate in Los Alamos, NM, when I emerged a couple weeks ago. Apparently, I was fixated on how my baby sister was spoiled with attention or something when I suddenly emerged and experienced a major burnout. The next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital, and everything and everyone seemed huge!”

“But I’m guessing your emergence wasn’t just shrinking?”

I shook my head, “No, I lost my potty training, and my body has many of the same cravings and needs as a baby.”

“That’s awful,” Manic said sadly.

“Well, it’s not great… Add to that I have an avatar spirit, and you create the perfect situation where I’m definitely loonie enough to fit in with a bunch of loonies!” I said with my most perfect baby smile.

“I think she’s onto us!” Tigress stage whispered to everyone. Everyone laughed at that.

“So why did the FBI ask for us to help train you and equip you?” Dr. Bolt asked.

“Well, it seems my first undercover mission is getting moved up sooner than everyone expected,” I began. “The FBI thinks it’s important they get me into a daycare soon to figure out what’s going on. Also, yesterday one of the suspects was spotted near our battle down at Rockefeller Plaza.”

“How?”

“Damned if I know,” I replied. “My… spirit… takes me to her world each night when I go to bed. In that world, we have an ongoing war versus a king that wants me to marry his son so he can take our kingdom. My spirit… she’s a queen… said absolutely not, even when they offered to age me back to an appropriate age.”

“So that started a war?” Tigress asked.

“He wants her kingdom since I won’t marry him; the only way now is by force. The suspect we saw yesterday looks exactly like his son does. He has the same name, too, for his codename, so we believe he’s an avatar with that spirit.”

“Wow, if you were ten years older, you would have fit right in with my crazy friends that I went to school with…” a new girl said as she walked in. She looked to be in her early twenties but didn’t offer her name right away.

“That’s what I’ve heard,” I nodded.

“Well, now that I know what you’re facing, let’s get you to the range so I can show you what I can come up with for some weapons for you,” Dr. Bolt said.

Tigress, holding me, asked, “Do you need something to drink first?”

I looked at a digital clock on the wall and realized it was already almost three in the afternoon. I pulled my diaper bag out of its holding area and reached for a bottle. I handed it to Tigress, “Any chance you could warm this up for me?”

She laughed, “Sure, baby girl, but only if I get to hold you while you drink it?”

I turned red but smiled and clapped, “I get to cuddle with the kitty!”

Dr. Bolt and Manic laughed, and Tigress groaned, “You’re dangerous to have around here!”

Tigress walked me back through the offices to a full kitchen they had for the heroes to use. She sat me on the ground as she warmed the bottle up the old-fashioned way by microwaving a tub of water, and I got to watch it sit and warm up. ‘This takes forever!’ I groaned.

‘Well, it is easier when it’s fresh…’ Caireen goaded me.

‘I wish Hannah were here,’ I sighed.

As if somehow picking up on my mood, Tigress picked me back up and hugged me, “Who is it, you miss? Camille?”

I shook my head, “It’s kind of a long story…?”

She laughed, “Aren’t they all?”

Dr. Bolt appeared in the room, “I’m going down to the lab. Come on down when you’re done.”

“Okay,” Tigress replied. She looked back down at me, “So, long story? Seems like every Mergent, and definitely, every student at Bechtel, has one.”

I nodded, “Yeah.”

“Well?” she prodded, and I knew I would have to answer.

 
 

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