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 43: Spaghetti

I GROANED A minute later as the helmet was pulled off, and the lights around me blinded me. I blinked, looked at the lab I had been in the whole time, and momentarily wondered how long I’d been in the simulation. “Well, little girl, it seems like we have some work to do,” Tigress said as she continued disconnecting me from the simulator.

“What…?”

“Happened?” She finished, “You died from a point-blank gunshot wound to the head.”

I gulped, “what did I do wrong?”

“More like, what did you do right? There wasn’t much,” she said condescendingly. “But we’ll get to that in a moment. First, let’s get you out of the sim suit so we can clean it for when you come back on Friday.”

I just let myself go and was manipulated out of the suit that definitely needed a diaper. Eventually, Tigress had me cleaned up, dressed me in a clean diaper and costume, and then carried me to another room with a large screen that took up most of the wall.

“Well, it was a pretty standard first run there,” Dr. Bolt said as she walked in. “I think we all make pretty big mistakes our first time in the simulators.”

“But if that had been real life?”

“Yes, you would have been dead or worse,” Tigress said.

“Little blunt today, Tigress?” Dr. Bolt asked with a shake of her head, “Okay, let’s go through the footage before Tigress has to get you back to your family.’”

I would have thought I would be told I did okay for the first part of the sim, but clearly, I’d made mistakes there, too, in my efforts to pretend to be a regular baby. Apparently, I sent dozens of signals that didn’t match with a year-and-a-half-old baby. Tigress and Dr. Bolt picked on every random thing I had done that was out of character! When I reached the point where the man was going for my diaper, they paused the film.

“You made the ultimate mistake in these next few moments,” Tigress stated.

“Like…?”

“Identifying yourself was necessary by law as an FBI agent, that’s true, but the second there was a single twitch, you should have pulled the trigger. Then you made the biggest rookie mistake of all time by not taking the safety off. You must practice drawing your weapons and un-safing them simultaneously so you automatically react and can shoot. That is the kind of mistake that will get you killed just like it did you today.” Tigress chastised me, and I felt even shorter than I already was.

“You did a great job of using your magic; why didn’t you put a shield up as soon as you pushed them away? I know from the footage I saw from last night you can do that?” Dr. Bolt asked.

“I don’t know,” I confessed, feeling like I was the ultimate dunce.

They both nodded at me, “And this is why simulators are so valuable, Emerald,” Tigress stated calmly, “so that you can make these mistakes and not die learning them.”

 
 

THERE WAS ANOTHER half-hour or so of picking my performance in the simulator apart before we left for the hotel to meet up with Camille’s family. The really odd thing during the rest of the debrief was realizing that while it felt like hours had passed in the simulator, it had only been about a half-hour total in real-time. When I asked about that, I was told it was a Dr. Bolt device, and I was better off for my own mental stability to not ask.

Just before we arrived at the hotel, Tigress had me change out of my costume and back into an ordinary outfit. At the same time, she turned on whatever field emitter she had to hide her own oddities. I was carried in the infant carrier by Tigress going inside the hotel. Camille was waiting in the lobby, “Sofia!” She said as she unbuckled me and plucked me from inside the carrier. She hugged me, “I missed you!”

“You missed a lot,” I whispered to her ear.

“I’ll see you on Friday?” Tigress asked her.

“Yes, please, if you can sit for her again while we go shopping, it would be very helpful!” She tickled my side, “Wave bye-bye,” and waved my arm at her.

I sighed but stayed quiet and played along as she carried me to the elevator and back to our room. It was about 4:30 in the afternoon then. “Where’s Cassidy?” I asked her when we were inside.

“Taking a nap, like you probably should be doing,” she said with a light touch to my nose as she sat down on the couch while facing me towards her on her knee.

I shrugged, “Do you have my phone? I’d like to call Hannah?”

“Aww… do you miss her?”

I squirmed under her glance but nodded, “I’m sure she’s going even more stir-crazy than me, though.”

She went over to the suitcases, dug out my phone, and handed it to me. “Make it short; I need to change you and get you ready for din din.”

I stuck my tongue out at her and then decided I would facetime Hannah instead of just calling her. So I went into the app and dialed her thinking it might take a moment for her to answer; instead, it was like she immediately pressed accept. “Oh my God, you’re alright!!!”

Hannah was in tears as she spoke to me, and I realized I should have called her much sooner. “I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner; last night wasn’t good, and I’ve been… busy today,” I told her.

She sighed, “I shouldn’t be so emotional like this,” she wiped tears away from her eyes, “but I’ve never been more nervous… Between the problems that I’m having and you being away?”

I nodded with tears in my eyes, “I miss you too!”

“I saw the news… and I was so worried!” But then, she said in a mother’s voice, “Why didn’t you call me?”

I felt three inches tall when I said, “I didn’t want to worry you. I figured you had enough on your plate… plus it was late by the time we wrapped stuff up and were back at the hotel.”

“Still, you should have called me!”

“I promise I will call in the future?” I said. “If you’re this bad, I guess I should call my mom and dad… they’re probably even more annoyed…?”

“Yes, you should! Your mom texted me earlier asking if I’d heard from you. So why didn’t you answer your phone?”

“Um duh… pretending to be a baby… I don’t exactly look like I should be using a cell phone that’s not a fake toy.”

“Oh,” she said. “Sorry… It’s just...”

“I know, I get it. How are you doing with your problems?”

“I’ve been getting better with fewer of those green discharges. They had to move me to an electrically shielded room for the first day. Today I seem to be getting better. I’m apparently a bit of a copyist if I’m attacked with something… At least, that’s what they think might be the problem? Our bond together is confusing at best for the doctors.”

“Yeah…”

“Sofia, are you almost done?” Camille asked, “Cassidy is waking up.”

I sighed, “I need to go, Hannah. I’ll try and call when we get done with Thanksgiving stuff tomorrow. Have a Happy Thanksgiving… I wish you could be here!”

“You too, Sofia, be safe. I love you!”

I started at the words but replied, “I love you too,” and hung up.

The tears in my eyes were filling rapidly as Camille presented me with a bottle I nursed safely in her arms. ‘I really need to call my parents.’

‘I bet we can get some time to do that after dinner. Just let Camille know…’ Caireen told me.

‘Yeah… I wonder if there’s any way we could get me back for Christmas now that Camille’s father got us immunity?’

‘I don’t know, Sofia. You still have angry EPC and Sanguis Primum people back there.’

I stayed silent in my head and soothed myself by nursing the bottle. Before I was ready for it, I was sucking empty air, and Camille was burping me. I belched and found myself having a diaper change on the bed before she dressed me in a pretty dark green dress that would have looked fine in court at Camille’s castle. “Where did you get this dress?” I asked her quietly when Cassidy was distracted.

“Mom bought it today while we were shopping. She thought it would look good on you,” she smiled at me, “I think she was right. I would look better if you didn’t have the artificial hair color you have for this trip.”

I nodded, “My red hair would look much better with this… oh well,” I sighed. Cassidy came in, and a pacifier was stuffed in my mouth before I was strapped into the carrier again. She had seen some of what I could do the night before, but they were still pretending I was just a baby in front of her in the hopes that she would forget.

Camille carried me downstairs to where her aunt’s limo was again waiting. I couldn’t ask aloud where we were going, but Camille told me, “We’re going to go meet your aunty at a restaurant!”

I sighed and sat quietly, sucking on my pacifier while the vehicle drove through traffic. I was surprised that it seemed lighter than I expected in New York City. Soon enough, we pulled to the side of the street, and my carrier was unhooked from the car, and I again swung at Camille’s side. Apparently, her aunt had made reservations at a very upscale restaurant. Everyone I saw from my seat was dressed to the nines! I quickly felt glares again towards the unwanted baby from the Maitre’D. Still, we were led to a large circular table with two highchairs sat, alternating other regular chairs. Camille’s mom sat with Cassidy to her left and me to her right. Camille sat next to me on the right after she unbound me from the carrier and placed a Velcro bib around my neck.

Looking around at the table, I saw that this restaurant must have been about as expensive as you could go! I could see three forks on the left side of each place setting for the ‘adults’ and several spoons and knives on the right. A very ornate plate sat in the middle of the place settings. I was surprised that no menu was brought to the table beyond a wine menu that Camille’s aunt quickly glanced at and ordered.

“What’s for dinner?” Camille asked.

“This is a five-course set that the chef puts together, special each night,” Camille’s aunt responded.

I could tell that Camille felt just a little out of place here, too, from how she fidgeted a little in her chair. I took a moment and looked down at my highchair and noticed it seemed made of magnificent wood. ‘Mahogany?’ I wondered. Surprisingly, throughout the first three courses, Camille and her mom were brought a separate plate for Cassidy and me to be fed from. For the next hour, I played the good baby by taking the offered bites and enduring the cooing from a waitress and a couple women guests that would pass by. I hated the long wait between bites, but I was happy to have the same meal as the grownups!

Throughout the meal, I listened in moderate horror as her aunt talked about yesterday. “Can you believe that there’s some Mergent running around pretending to be a baby?” she said at one point. “I mean, that’s so low and crazy… and sick!” she said to Camille’s dad.

“I don’t think they probably have a lot of choice in it…” he started to say.

“Really? I mean… can you imagine if Cassidy had one of those monsters pretending to be in daycare with her?”

“Umm… you do realize I’m one of those monsters, right?” Camille said pointedly, not hiding her disdain for her aunt’s statement.

“Yes, I know you are by law, dear, but you’re really just a witch. You’re not some weird deviant pretending to be a baby for god knows what reason…” her aunt said.

“I rather doubt…” her dad had started to reply when I felt an internal warning something terrible was going to happen. Sure enough, I leaned forward in the highchair just soon enough to miss getting hit with a piece of a dish with spaghetti plastered to it. I turned and realized it had been flung at me after a table was destroyed nearby.

“Seriously?” I asked. I pushed the button on the belt on the highchair and backflipped out of it. In front of me were Maponus and Rosemerta!

 
 

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