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.

---

---

 

---

 
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 44: Warnings

“WELL, PRINCESS, I think it’s time for you to come with us!” I could feel a mental suggestion along with the words, but I was able to shake them off.

“No, my mommy told me never to go with strangers,” I told him. Meanwhile, activating a spell to switch my costume into place and putting a shield around myself and another around Camille’s family. Meanwhile, the dining room alternated between frozen people who didn’t have the sense to run and those charging out the doors, trampling each other while screaming their heads off.

“But I’m not a stranger; I’m your future husband,” he said with a disturbing grin.

“No fucking way,” I heard Camille say next to me. “That’s just sick.”

“Camille!” I heard her mom involuntarily scold her.

I used that moment to go ahead and draw the gun I had been given by Dr. Bolt out and remembered to click off the safety simultaneously. “Maponus, I’m an FBI agent. You and Rosemerta are under arrest.”

Rosemerta took that moment to laugh and began to start an attack. I just calmly landed six shots of the higher caliber in her chest while simultaneously launching a freezing spell on her again. Her face looked shocked as the six rounds hit her center mass and must have at least hurt a bit. At the same time, her face froze into a pained expression that I hoped signaled her being out of the fight.

“Can’t you learn new tricks?” Maponus sneered at me.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” I said to him. “Now freeze!”

“No, I don’t think so…” He said with a hand movement directed at Rosemerta. She unfroze before my eyes, and he launched himself towards me. I didn’t hesitate before sending five rounds into his chest and two into his head. Sadly, he had put up a shield, and they just ricocheted harmlessly off of him.

Just before he got to me, I saw a shape come out of the corner that threw a punch straight into his jaw. He and the object crashed over a table as I saw Camille’s family rightfully pick that moment to slip out a back door. Tigress stood up shortly then, and I barely had a chance to fire another five rounds into Rosemerta when she was going after her. Camille engaged her with a spell to cage her in ice.

My anger and Caireen’s rose to the surface then, and suddenly I felt a connection with her unlike any I’d felt yet! We were truly one as we wove a spell of fire and launched it straight at the frozen Rosemerta. The massive heat and fire combined with the ice spell Camille had used caused a colossal burst of steam and then a concussive wave that knocked everyone else down! I watched with a grim smile as I saw every ounce of the vile creature burn to ash.

I smiled for a second before something hit me hard! I felt a sudden wave of pain, and the lights went out!

 
 

WHEN I CAME to, I rubbed my eyes and found I had a pacifier in my mouth. I sucked it nervously and looked around to see I was in my carrier. I tried moving, but the straps held me down. Someone noticed, though, and I saw Camille, “You’re awake!” she said in her avatar’s voice.

“I guess…” I responded as I put together we were in a vehicle. “What happened?”

“We’ll talk about that after we debrief,” she told me.

“Not now?” I asked.

“It’s standard procedure, so you don’t mix up your stories,” I heard a voice that I realized was Tigresses. Her head moved into view for a moment, “How are you feeling?”

“Like a freight train hit me?” I shuddered, “I’ve got a headache… I haven’t had one since I emerged. I got hit hard?”

“Yes, you did,” Camille’s mom said somewhere out of sight. “Tigress said they could look at you at their headquarters and thought getting you out of there was better.”

I noticed that I was thirsty, “Do you have one of my bottles?” I turned to look at Camille.

She smiled, “We did save your bag again. We probably should have you keep a spare in your storage space.”

I nodded but held out my hands as she quickly warmed a bottle and handed it to me. I sucked down the contents in record time and was still pretty thirsty. Camille’s mom noticed before anyone else, “Camille, you might want to get her another… she probably needs Pedialyte or something instead…?”

Camille took my empty bottle and looked at it for a moment before performing a couple spells and returning it to me filled with a pink liquid that I made a face at. “What is it?”

“Mom said Pedialyte, so here’s something that should be similar,” she told me with a smile. “Strawberry flavored?”

I took a tentative suckle and decided it was okay. The taste wasn’t phenomenal, but I kept nursing it anyway. We must have been stuck in traffic because we weren’t moving very quickly. Only after I’d been nursing that bottle for ten minutes did I figure out Camille had used some auto-refilling spell on it. I pulled it from my lips and realized it was still full!

I looked over at her, “Does this go bad?”

She shrugged, “Not with the spells I put on it.”

“A never-ending bottle… kind of cool.”

I stuck it back in my mouth and nursed it slowly until we finally reached the Liberty Watch’s headquarters again. Camille picked up my carrier, and I just lay still as I swung from her arms. I was glad she had me facing marginally forward while she did so, though I was pretty sure I would be sick otherwise! Whatever was in the bottle seemed to be helping my headache to subside some. I almost felt like myself when they were in the lower basement with everyone.

Camille sat the carrier down on a counter and loosened the straps from me. I made arms to get out, but she just pushed me down, “Let’s change that diaper first,” she told me.

I blushed and realized I had messed it and had again tuned it entirely out!

She pulled my tights down and my dress up before changing where I lay in the carrier. She made some faces as she cleaned me up, got me dressed, and sat me on my feet at a long table. I blushed as I realized the entire room had its eyes on me. Camille’s mom was missing, but her dad was present, along with Agent Caruthers and Agent Sanders. Several costumed superheroes that I vaguely recognized as some of the members of the Liberty Watch were also there. ‘I’m trying to get used to this… but all of them watched me get my diaper changed…?’ I groaned to Caireen.

She gave me a mental hug and said, ‘it’s okay!’

The talking around the room continued for a few moments before Dr. Bolt began speaking, “If you could all find a seat? We’ll begin this debriefing?”

Camille picked me up and placed me on her lap as she sat down, giving me a reassuring hug while she turned me toward the group.

“Since everyone may not know everyone here, let me introduce myself, and we’ll go around the table. I’m Doctor Bolt, leader of the Liberty Watch,” she said with a smile.

Next to her, a man said, “I’m Manic.” He was wearing a suit of black armor with gold trim, and I vaguely remembered him having some sort of magnetic powers.

The others went down the line, a large woman named Tonnage, another woman named Rummage, and the latest heartthrob superhero Neptune, dressed in his faux Roman armor. Agent Caruthers and Agent Sanders introduced themselves before Camille introduced herself as Sora and me as Emerald Baby. Her dad rounded out the group.

“Okay, now that we have the pleasantries out of the way, what the hell happened tonight?” Agent Caruthers asked me.

I shrugged, “We had gone out to eat with Sora’s aunt for dinner. I was playing the good baby and ignoring some anti-Mergent comments from her when I was nearly decapitated by a flying plate of spaghetti. I hopped up to defend myself and found Rosemerta and Maponus standing there. After that, it’s mostly a blur of a fight to me. I managed to perform a spell on Rosemerta that I hoped finished her off for good here… but after that, I must have blacked out.”

“What do you have to add, Sora?”

I listened as Camille filled in some gaps about everything. She had her own battle with Maponus, which was joined by Tigress. Right when I finished Rosemerta, I was knocked out when Maponus flung a table that caught me by surprise. I was unconscious as the two of them fought him for another minute, and he decided to retreat. After making sure I was alright, they booked it out of there and came to their headquarters.

“I can’t believe they made another attempt so soon!” Camille’s dad said. “Any ideas where to find this man?”

Agent Sanders nodded, “Pretty sure we’ll find him when Emerald goes undercover.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea at this point?” Camille asked.

“It doesn’t matter if it is or not; it’s what’s got to happen. I won’t let innocent children be abused if I can help it.” I replied.

Questions were asked of the others who had been there, too, to clarify the story. This went on for a long while before the topic moved to whether we should be immediately escorted back to Bechtel. Finally, they decided it would be something to think about for the next day, and it would just be best to head back to the hotel for the night.

I was placed back into the carrier with a pacifier and put back in my original dress. Camille carried me by the handle, and we found her mom holding Cassidy in her lap in the lobby area. Both were fast asleep, and I could see that Cassidy had wet her pants to the point her Pull-Up leaked. I used a quick spell to dry her dress and her mom before Camille woke her up. “Thanks,” she whispered as she rubbed her mom’s shoulder.

“Mom?” She said, “We’re done; we’re going to the hotel now?”

Her mom blinked several times as she woke up. Camille’s dad took Cassidy as her mom sleepily stood up, and we headed for the elevator. A blanket appeared from somewhere, covering the carrier, and I sighed. They left it on as I heard some cameras click and questions asked as we entered Tigress’ car. After she finished buckling the seat, Camille pulled the blanket from on top and said to me, “Well, that was an adventure…?”

“Will all of those pictures put them in danger?” I asked her quietly, referring to her family.

She shook her head, “Those reporters don’t know it yet, but all of their pictures will mostly be blurry messes. The only ones that will be okay are the ones with known superheroes in their costumes.”

“That’s a neat trick!” I said with a smile.

“I think so,” she said with a proud smile.

The ride to the hotel was thankfully shorter than the one to get to the headquarters from the restaurant. Somehow, we went into the hotel and upstairs to our rooms without anyone accosting us. Camille had latched my carrier back into the stroller. She pushed me into the room before I immediately noticed a problem. Her expression scared me, and I wasted no time magicking myself out of the harness and doing a front flip to look into our rooms.

Everything inside was overturned, suitcases emptied and strewn about. A message was scrawled on the wall in some dark red liquid that looked eerily like blood.

 
Princess, I am coming for you!!!
YOU AND YOUR KINGDOM WILL BE MINE!
 
I felt a need to vomit right then and barely held it in.

“I guess we know who did this…?” I said sadly. “I’m so sorry for all this trouble,” I looked at her mom and dad.

“Not your fault,” her dad said, coming over and picking me up. “This kind of thing seems to happen around Camille all the time – it’s refreshing to see her not be the main target,” he tried to smile and lighten things up. But, unfortunately, he failed as Cassidy woke up suddenly and screamed…

The next hour was spent with Cassidy sobbing her way back to sleep, Camille’s mom crying, and finally, Agent Caruthers showing up. Eventually, a decision was made to head back to the Watch’s headquarters, where they had a few rooms we could stay in. By the time we were back there, I was exhausted!

“I’m sorry, we don’t have a crib for her…?” Dr. Bolt apologized to Camille’s mom. The room looked like a hotel room with two large king-size beds, a small kitchenette, a living room, and a bathroom.

“I don’t have to sleep in one,” I said to her, “It’s not like I’d even be hurt if I rolled out of bed.”

Caireen voiced her dissent, wanting to create a new crib, but I said ‘no’ solidly enough that she backed off. As a compromise, I found myself in the same bed as Camille, with a pillow and wadded-up blanket blocking the side of the bed opposite her. Camille changed me into a fresh diaper and a pair of my pajamas. “Good thing we just left all of your clothes in your diaper bag,” she told me as she zipped up the footed pajamas.

I nodded, “I wonder if he didn’t even know for certain I was staying there?”

She shook her head, “He had to have been certain to do that much damage.”

I nodded.

“Bottle?”

I nodded again, “Am I going to run out of milk before we get back to Bechtel?”

She laughed, “Even if you drank twice what you’ve been drinking, we wouldn’t run out for a month just with what I brought. Poor Hannah must be pumping all of the time!” She said the last part, kind of sadly.

I nodded, “I think she has to wake up in the night… She hasn’t been waking me up when she does it.”

“Do you think we can just get me back to Bechtel tomorrow? I hate to endanger your family…?”

She hugged me and then positioned me on her lap to give me the warmed bottle, “I don’t think we’re running away from here. Worst case, it’s just Maponus now.” Then, her voice changed, “Your Highness, I know for a fact that Rosemerta is no more here on this plane.” There was a smugness to her voice that made me briefly smile.

I nodded my response silently. Then I began nursing on the bottle, not bothering to take it from Camille’s hand as she gently sang a beautiful lullaby that Caireen recognized as an fairie lullaby.

 
 

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I would really really really appreciate it you would leave one! I do really appreciate the Kudos button, but please consider leaving a comment if you’re reading? Some of you are doing a fine job of commenting, and I really do appreciate it! Please keep up the good work! New commentators are always loved too!!!! I will fully admit to feeling neglected when there’s none…? (Pretty Please? With a cherry on top?!?)

I am now posting this on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday for the remainder of the chapters.

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.