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.
 
 
Caution: While this chapter does not go over any lines in my opinion, it does skirt close to issues that may affect some readers. Violence is also contained within this chapter, reader discretion is advised.
 
 

Chapter 53: Solid

THE NEXT WEEK at the daycare passed by without anything significant happening - just more boring time spent pretending to be a helpless baby. In Caireen’s world, I had watched several attempts at breaching the wall. Still, I was proud that nothing Camulus and his forces had tried had even scratched it so far! Our special forces groups had been reinforced with another hundred men. They continued to keep the enemy honest by attacking the rear flank. I figured Camulus had to be getting desperate for a new plan with the reports of his dwindling supplies and deserters. Still, at that point, no apparent changes were made.

On my second Tuesday at daycare, I overheard a conversation that Sally and Amy would be out for some state training they had to do. Kate would be reinforced with a couple other workers from other daycare rooms. The glare I got during a diaper change that day was followed with, “So help me if you have a blowout tomorrow…?” I’d just cooed and giggled but wondered if this wasn’t the opportunity that they had been waiting for to get access to me.

Through the Bureau, we’d determined that Sally and Amy seemed completely innocent. However, Kate had a sealed juvenile rap sheet that the Bureau had to fight to access. She’d been involved in some drugs and theft by the time she was thirteen and was a runaway who was trafficked as an underage prostitute while she was fourteen and fifteen. Another theft and drug charge had been pled down in exchange for testimony on the traffickers. As a result, if anyone searched her records, she was clean. She had been a victim, and I felt terrible for her, but I had a bad feeling that the abused might have been all the more willing to become the abuser.

Hannah had let the Bureau know that we thought something might happen today. Still, since they’d already been on standby, nothing was really different. I was checked in like normal, but Kate placed me in a crib instead of putting me on the floor to play.

“Why are you putting her in the crib already?” A girl I hadn’t met before asked.

“Oh, I’m supposed to take her to therapy with the therapist in an hour. I figure maybe a nap beforehand will help her out. Can you get a bottle warmed up for her? She can be a real baby about needing it warmed up first!”

“That was a terrible pun,” the girl giggled. She seemed to be about Kate’s age.

‘Therapy?’ I asked. ‘I don’t go to therapy…?’

‘This might be it,’ Caireen agreed with me.

Clearly, this all stunk to high heaven, and I began taking inventory of my resources. The weapon I’d been given by Doctor Bolt was effectively in a magical holster only I could get to. The magic lines in this town weren’t quite as strong as around Bechtel, but I had access to a decent smaller vein of manna to use.

A bottle was brought over by the new girl who had asked about me, “She’s such an adorable baby! Don’t you just want to take them home with you each day?”

“Not that one! She had the blowout of the century last week… Twice! It was soooo disgusting!”

The girl picked me up and said, “This cutie? Aww…” she stuck the bottle in my mouth and cradled me in her arms. “She couldn’t help it!”

Sensing something was up, I pretended to relax and sleep as I emptied the bottle. The new girl was gentle, and I felt comfortable in her arms. ‘I hope she’s not involved,’ I thought. ‘She’s a lot sweeter than Kate!’

I pretended to sleep for a half-hour before Kate said, “You two are good for a few minutes while I run her to her therapist, right?”

“We got this, Kate!” the man said.

“Yep, we do better without you anyway!”

I intentionally pretended to sleep as she slipped a pacifier into my mouth. I stayed still as she carried me down the hallway. A door was pressed, and I could feel the cold air outside as she left the daycare and went to the next shopping center unit.

I bounced a bit with each of her steps and wondered exactly what I was being carried into. Doctor Bolt had used the specs of the videos that had been found as a reference – so I hoped the room would be expected, but I had no clue. Finally, I decided to act like I was waking up a bit and started to fuss.

“Shh… It’s okay little one.” Kate cooed at me, “We’ll get this over with soon, and you’ll be back with your mommy. You’ll never even remember this when you’re older!”

I looked at her, and then around the room in the new building she passed through. There was a long hallway, and we were soon in a large open workshop with garage doors on one side. One wall was painted with a whimsical nursery background, with a crib and a changing table against it. High-quality cameras sat waiting beside it, and I felt my nerves growing. Several other sections of the space looked like nightmare doctor offices and butcher shops…

“Kate! This baby is a great find! How long do we have?” a man innocently dressed in a green polo and tan slacks asked.

“She’s in therapy right now, so I’d say an hour?”

“You said she’s still not talking, right?”

“Just babble and mama, pretty much.” She confirmed and bounced me. “So, where do you want her?”

“For her first time, we’ll just do her in the nursery scene.”

“You need me?”

“Not immediately; we’ll probably do a breastfeeding zoom-in with you once she’s screaming.”

I felt Kate shudder underneath me, and I wondered how willingly involved she was. Then, as she sat me down, another man came in, and my stomach clenched when I saw who it was.

Maponus was dressed like some sort of innocent father in a shirt and pants. Jacob Wells, his real name, looked me over like I was a piece of meat, and my skin crawled. I wondered if he would figure out who I was, but he said, “Well done, Kate! You found me a fine baby here! This is going to be fun today! We’ll make lots of money!”

“Glad you’re happy...” Kate said, some guilt creeping into her voice.

“Go ahead and set her down on the changing table. I think we’ll start here… What do you think, Ian?” He asked the other guy.

“Sure, we have enough scenes pulling babies out of their cribs. Just getting right into it this time will appease our fans.”

I looked around nervously at Kate as she sat me on the changing table. A strap was there, but they didn’t move to use it. “Now, we’re going to call her…. Laney for this.” He said. “That way, your mommy won’t know it’s you!” he said patronizingly. When he pulled out a massive fake phallus, I decided it was about time to move. “We’ll get you all ready to be a big girl here!”

“You ready, Ian?”

“Three… Two… One… Action…” He said.

“Let’s get you something better to suck on that’s better than that pacifier Laney,” He said as he approached me.

I heard myself internally decide, ‘Now!’ and went into motion. I activated my shield and used a light spell to temporarily blind the three like a flashbang. Then, in one quick movement, I jumped off the table and away from Maponus. I pulled out my weapon and pointed it at him, “FBI FREEZE!!!!”

Ian and Kate seemed to be fully bound by the spell I’d used, but Maponus shrugged his way free of the attack and started laughing. He began to perform a counterspell of his own, and I fired three rounds at him. But, much to my dismay, they just bounced off a shield he had created. Suddenly all of my senses went blank!

I couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t smell, couldn’t feel anything!

Caireen urged me to launch an expansive attack. I quickly threw up a stone wall in front of me while simultaneously sending a jet of purple energy out in a one-eighty-degree arc. I must have hit him because my senses came back. “Bitch!” he complained.

I pulled down my wall and tried a blast directly at him, but he did something to dissipate it.

“Who the hell are you?!?!” He screamed as he sent a wave of metal knives at me.

I blocked and said, “Emerald Baby at your service,” activated my mental reset button for my appearance, and belatedly put on my costume.

He gawked at me, and his voice changed, “You!!!! My father wants you dead!”

He renewed his attack by using magic to fling a hundred knives my way! I moved to block them with a wall of stone while sending four small ley lines worth of a blast at him. I missed one of the knives and cried out as it sliced through my upper left arm!

“Damnit!” I cried out.

I let the wall fall down and saw that he had blocked my spell, but it looked like it had taken out a lot of him. I felt blood on my arm and hoped my healing would start soon!

“You should give up now; let me have my fun, and then I’ll put you out of your misery! It’ll be better than my father getting to you.”

I felt Caireen’s anger flare up worse than I’d seen, and just before I lost my senses again, she reinforced me as I fired an ice spell at him. My vision began going black again for a second, but it lifted nearly instantaneously. Then, I watched in horror as his limbs became covered in ice crystals. In slow motion, they crept up to his face. As it neared his head, he tried one more attempt to get free. I blasted him with another five shots of my pistol and saw him crumble into glass shards like in the old terminator movie.

I hoped I wouldn’t get in trouble for hiding evidence or something. Still, I activated the same fire spell I’d used with Rosemerta to incinerate his body just as the other agents finally decided to show up!

“FBI!!!!” They called out.

“IT’S ME, EMERALD. I’M AN AGENT, DON’T SHOOT!” I called out.

“Holy shit!!! What the hell happened in here?” One of the agents asked. “Did you kill someone?”

“Sorry, the suspect, code-named Maponus, refused to go down without a fight,” I said and turned to look up at Kate. She and the other guy Ian were still locked up inside their tendrilled cages.

“What happened to these guys?”

“Those are my restraints. I’ll remove them if you’re ready to cuff and subdue them.”

I watched as three men apiece pointed their rifles at each, while another cuffed them and kicked them to the ground as soon as I released the cages. Finally, I walked over to the man and said, “You are a piece of shit, and I hope you rot in prison. We’ll have to ensure the other inmates know you like babies.” I looked up at the agent holding his arms, “Get this despicable piece of filth out of my face.”

Agent Sanders appeared right then, “Agent Emerald, are you okay?” He said nervously, looking at my arm.

It was mostly healed, with just a red spot remaining, “He got me good if it took this long to heal!” I said aloud, “I’ll be fine in about ten more minutes. Can you let Agent Emped know to come?”

“Already here,” Hannah said, coming in her costume through the door. She moved to pick me up, but I stopped her.

“Good, I’ll need you in a minute. Umm… Agent Sanders?” I said.

“Yes?” he replied.

I motioned for him to move over to the side with me, “Look, I’m pretty sure it’s just Kate, Ian, and Maponus who were involved. But another employee or two could be involved? Can we question Kate somewhere? I think if she was given the right incentive, she’d talk. I have this… feeling that while she’s not innocent, she may not have been involved in this completely of her free will?”

He nodded, “We need to use the local PD for their holding cells anyway. I’m sure they’ll lend us a room. Are you doing the questioning?”

“With Emped’s help. She’ll be able to help us feel if she’s telling the truth.”

“Fair enough,” he looked at me, “The daycare will probably notice her being gone?”

“Maybe keep all of the rest of the employees there for now? Call and have the parents pick up their kids? I don’t think there are any other Mergents to worry about.”

“Sure as hell, hope not! If this is the damage we expect when you fight? What did you two do in here?” He asked, pointing around at the destruction. The concrete floor was torn apart, and large chunks spread throughout the room. Glass had been blown out of the few windows. The only things still intact were the cameras and pieces of baby furniture. I watched as techs began coming inside to collect evidence.

“He didn’t want to come quietly?” I suggested. “Make sure your techs get the footage off the cameras and don’t release that of the fight if you can. Or at least blur my features.”

“You didn’t look like yourself at all before.”

“I know, but do you want everyone to know you have a secret baby agent?”

He nodded, “Okay.”

I put my hands up to Hannah, who carried me out to her car. A spare diaper was found, and I was mercifully changed.

“You hungry?” She asked.

“Starving,” I said, feeling exhausted.

“I have some baby food; you want that?”

I glared at her, “Can we please just stop at Mcdonald’s? I need three double hamburger meals to make up for that slop I’ve been eating. It’s been torture watching you eat regular food!”

“Come on, it couldn’t have been that bad…?”

“That chicken? It definitely was! You heard about the blowout from that jar… but let me tell you!”

I animatedly began talking for the first time in this world after not quite two weeks of baby babbling. She went through the drive-thru and got my meals. As we pulled up to the PDs parking lot and handed me the food, she said, “Make sure you don’t overeat… I still have these things, you know!”

“After the burgers!”

“Will you still be hungry?”

“Haven’t you been pumping at lunch…?”

She sighed, “Okay, burgers first.”

She left the car running and jumped into the back seat next to me, and watched me eat the stack of burgers. My small mouth meant I couldn’t eat them that quickly, but I rushed to scarf them down in about fifteen minutes while relishing the return of a full mouth of teeth. When I was done, she grabbed me and put me on her breasts. As I finished her second one, I felt really bloated, “Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten that much…?”

“If you get sick, you’re going back to eating chicken baby food.”

“If you mention that stuff, then I will be sick!”

 
 

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