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 61: Mama Bear
 

“YOU HEARD THE door close?” Ewe asked as they got closer.

“Yeah, and one of my robots said the sensor was tripped here…?” Choco replied.

“So, someone’s probably on this floor?” Ewe asked.

“Probably?” she paused, “I looked around, and all I see are NPCs.”

“Why don’t you get back to the roof and stand guard. See if you can’t catch Streaked’s attention and get her to join me. I’ll search this floor.”

“Got it,” Choco told him.

He was walking around while I pretended to do work on the computer screen in front of me. Some sort of TPS report thing was up on the screen, so I worked on typing in the blanks. He’d walked past me and started sniffing, “God, what’s that smell?”

I froze, ‘Shit!’ I thought as he looked at me. I saw a moment of confusion as he tried to figure out why one of the NPCs smelled like they had a dirty diaper. I wasted no time using the concrete and metal below him to form a cocoon tightly around him. I let down my teenage image and revealed myself as Emerald in costume. I called out to the team, “I’ve been discovered! Ewe and I are probably getting into it here.”

I devoted half a second’s magic changing the poopy diaper, just as cracks appeared in the cocoon and he broke out. “I’m going to make you pay for that bitch!”

“I’m sure you are,” I muttered as he began stomping towards me.

I knew from the time I kicked him in the Friar Hall that I wouldn’t be able to make much of a physical attack on him. He was practically invulnerable from injury with the protective telekinetic shell that extended around his body. Worse for me was that his regen rate was among the highest at Bechtel. Add in the superhuman strength he had, and I barely had much of a thought on what to do with him now that my first plan had failed. I was trying to dodge around him when he slapped the snot out of my rear, effectively spanking me and sending me tumbling across the room and into the wall!

“Damnit, that hurt!” I said as I bounced off it and pushed my hair out of my face.

‘Time to test Bechtel’s protections?’ Caireen suggested.

‘What?’

‘They said you can use whatever attacks?’

I grimaced, ‘What if I…?’

‘He’ll be fine…’ she told me.

“You know it’d be really nice if I didn’t have to go this far,” I told him.

“What?” he said as he began rounding on me again.

I sighed and used my freezing spell on him. A moment later, he was standing there as a frozen statue, and I felt guilty at his horrified expression.

Before my conscience could get to me too much, some robots from Choco Chip began crawling in. They had almost spider-like bodies and, as they rushed towards me, made a creepy clicking sound that would come in my nightmares if I ever actually slept! I had nursed from Hannah as close to the match as I could and began shooting the green blasts out that Hannah did. I was happy when I was able to take out ten of them quickly, but the next time I tried, there was nothing left.

“Shit!” I said as a hundred more continued to advance on me. I was getting pinned to the back wall of the offices as they moved and decided to revert to magic. I charged a single blast from about ten small ley lines and aimed just in front of the swarm of killer spiderbots. I found myself knocked off my feet and nearly fell through the hole that formed in the floor! I grabbed onto a piece of metal sticking out from the wall and pulled myself up. Most of the robots had been destroyed; the rest were upside down and half covered in rubble.

“I hate spiders!” I said. For good measure, I fired some flames into the level to make sure the metal in the robots was slagged, and they couldn’t get me from behind!

I carefully made my way around the edge of the room and back to the staircase. Finally, I reached the top and found Choco Chips standing, fighting with Camille. I was about to get involved when Streaked showed up and stood across from me. “How about a fair fight this time?” She taunted me.

I laughed, “What’s fair about this? I’m nearly three feet shorter than you?”

“You cheated yesterday!”

“Umm… were you at another match than I was?” I asked. “I left you nicely contained and just about had the flag when you decided to attack me instead of being smart and going for the flag?” I laughed, “It’s not my fault you’re clumsy. I should tell you I’m not stopping your fall this time.”

She screamed and began moving towards me almost as fast as I could see. I extended my shield a little further and laughed when she tried striking me but gripped a broken hand instead. “What the hell?”

“You know you really should pick on people your own size!” I told her. I fired one of the net spells I’d learned and watched as she barely dodged out of the way. In the process, some sort of water pipe was nicked, and a puddle of water formed at my feet and rapidly flowed toward the roof’s end.

“I’m going to teach you a lesson, little girl!” she screamed and came at me again.

Unfortunately, she did connect with a spell that time, and I felt one of my recently injured ribs bruise again!

“Bitch!” I swore!

She smirked, and we traded a few other blows before she connected with my butt, still sore from Ewe, and knocked me to the ground. I was thrown ten feet from the impact and bounced off a wall in the middle of the roof!

I shakily stood back up and stared her down.

Streaked gave me a menacing glare and then began charging.

I noted then that the water from the pipe was getting deeper, and she was sloshing through it. Then, I had a thought and smirked as I used a freezing spell on the water. She had just hit her top speed when I dodged out of the way and watched her skate right off the roof!

“Son of a….!” I heard her scream.

I smirked at that. Camille was still dealing with Choco Chips, so I decided to help her and used one of the net spells on her. She cooperated and went down in a heap. I was walking toward the flag when suddenly I heard a scream and felt myself knocked over. Somehow my shield spell failed as a hand rapidly ripped my diaper off and repeatedly smacked my naked butt! ‘She’s spanking me?!?!?’ I screamed since it hurt after already being bruised from Ewe and Streaked’s first blow!!!

Suddenly another scream came from behind whoever had grabbed me.

My left arm hurt as I stood up and realized midway down my forearm was bent ninety degrees from the direction it should be! The bone was just poking through the skin! Tears filled my eyes, but I refused to cry out loud as I tried to assess what the hell had happened? My eyes took in the scene of Hannah nearby looking pissed and a very blackened and singed-looking Streaked. Esmie arrived right then, picked up the flag, and flew off to end the round. A buzzer sounded, and Hannah quickly helped me re-tape the diaper.

“Don’t you ever do that to Emerald again!” Hannah said as we passed by Streaked. She looked seriously injured, but I decided I no longer cared.

Camille came over and, in Sora’s voice, said, “Let me take care of that arm.”

She performed a spell, and my arm instantly sent pain down the nerves as it moved the bones back to where they should have been and then knitted everything back together. It was down to a dull throb afterward, but it still wasn’t pleasant!

We were just getting ready to head down the stairs when a crew of ten medics ran up to look at Streaked. Halfway down the steps, my jaw dropped as one of the most famous costumed heroines, Lady Fulvia, stopped us. “Emerald, can you unfreeze Ewe?”

I sighed but nodded. I followed the legendary heroine back onto the level where his face was frozen in terror like a cross between a gargoyle statue and Han Solo… I performed the counter spell that Caireen had taught me recently and watched him thaw and gasp a deep breath in shock.

“You!” He said, starting to come towards me before Lady Fulvia stopped him.

“Do you need to be in my office so I can give you detention in the containment labs for the next semester?” she said quietly.

“No, Ma’am,” he said. Only when he replied did I realize that Lady Fulvia and Mrs. Hensley were one and the same!

“Go see the medics and get looked at,” she told him.

“Babysitters, I expect your team in the debriefing room in ten minutes!” She hissed at us.

“Yes, Ma’am,” I said, along with the other two.

We made our way to the entrance and found our other three teammates waiting.

“What’s wrong with you three?” Beth asked, “We destroyed them!”

I sighed, “I think we’re in trouble…?”

“For what?”

“I’m not actually completely sure,” Camille answered.

“Probably for Hannah and me going overboard?” I suggested.

“Wait to discuss the exercise until you are in the briefing room,” Gunny told us, meeting us in the doorway.

Gunny, Giddings, Captain Tilling, and a still-costumed Mrs. Hensley sat down across from us, giving Hannah and me, in particular, very scary glares. I gulped, wondered how much trouble I was in, and nervously fidgeted. Of course, the wet diaper on my butt wasn’t helping either!

“Let’s discuss this exercise!” Mrs. Hensley said in a cold voice that made my stomach turn more. I was grateful for the pacifier mask I wore then as I found myself nervously nursing on the nipple. They showed a video feed of the battle, and I learned that Hannah and Beth had engaged Monotone. Eventually, some sort of explosive round from Beth’s sniper rifle did him in while Hannah had been distracting him from the other side. Before that, Camille, Hannah, and Esmie pitched in to get Paved into that bubble I had seen. I was really impressed!

The camera view then flipped to me in my teenage form. “And what was this?” Hensley asked me, “You’re supposed to be masked at all times!”

“That’s not my normal face, so it is a mask?” I said hesitantly.

She mulled that over, “I suppose that’s right. But, since when can you look like a normal teenager?”

“A week or so ago?”

“Wait a minute!” Giddings said, clearly thinking back, “You two were at the Winter Ball together?”

I blushed and saw Hannah do the same.

“I’m going to need to meet with you later, Emerald, to discuss if this has any implications on changes we need to make,” Hensley stated pointedly.

“It shouldn’t. It’s not real… but let me know when?”

“Okay, moving on,” Tilling said, clearing his throat, “I honestly thought it was an innovative tactic. We’ve seen students try to blend in before, but the mask rule usually means everyone catches onto them. So it was impressive that you made it almost all the way to the target unnoticed.”

“Except for one poopy diaper, I might have made it all the way!” I complained.

Hannah leaned over and hugged me, “Poop happens!”

I sighed, “Anyway?”

“Okay, this situation with Ewe here has me seriously concerned, Emerald. What exactly did you do to him?” Hensley asked with her eyes seeming to peer into my soul.

“I couldn’t do anything else physically to him… his shield is impenetrable, right?”

“A large enough tank round makes it through,” Beth told me.

“Oh… Well, I didn’t have one of those, so I froze Ewe.”

“Like frozen temperature-wise?” Gunny asked.

“I think if you measured, he would have been just a bit over zero degrees Kelvin?”

“Emerald, that sounds like a lethal spell…?” Hensley said.

“It would be if I didn’t undo it,” I agreed.

“I have concerns about this spell being used on other students again. Therefore, unless your life is in danger, you cannot use it on another student at Bechtel!” Mrs. Hensley said.

“Yes, Ma’am, I’ll try and learn something else.”

“Let’s see, you moved straight onto Choco Chip’s robots then. So you used Hannah’s EMP blasts there?”

“I’ve been using my copyist skill to make them for a while?” I said, “It was in my testing results.”

Gunny nodded, “The next blast you did… That was fairly impressive.”

“Good thing you were the last planned match of the night!” Giddings said.

“Why?”

“Because it will take the team all night to fix that damage! If someone had been under there? And then the use of the flames?”

“I really don’t like spiders,” I told her. “I would have felt justified blowing up the whole building to kill those things!”

Esmie giggled next to me until Camille elbowed her.

Hensley sighed, “the rooftop fight?”

We discussed my part and the use of the ice to let Streaked take herself out. “You made a huge mistake there,” Gunny told me.

I nodded, “I didn’t confirm she was down…?”

“Correct, you can’t take risks like that!”

He moved on, ripping into Camille for some things with her fight. Sora stepped in after a while and argued before begrudgingly getting out of the way.

Eventually, Hensley said, “Well… the final thing we need to discuss. Emped, this blast you used… We are retesting you after the break because I want to know the real limit of your powers. I think they’ve grown from your GEID tests.” She rubbed her eyes with fatigue. “Look, Emped, Emerald, if you ever use those powers to that level again on students, I’m going to have to issue severe consequences, up to expulsion.”

Camille, Beth, Lizi, and Esmie all sucked in a loud breath, “You can’t do that!” I heard almost in unison from them.

“They didn’t start anything and only used a limited amount of the force they have!” Camille finished.

“I don’t care if you think that, ladies, you’re on notice, you two. We’re lucky that both were able to receive treatment quickly. Emped, you especially need to be careful of those blasts. Emerald, you could probably take out much more if you chose to. So you two have to be very careful!”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Hannah and I said together.

We eventually got free of the briefing and went back to Trident. Hannah and I took a shower together and then a long bath together. There were no thoughts of my teenage form, just comfort from a baby and a mommy. When we made it into our pajamas, the other girls dragged us to the theater room for an end of finals party. The other students couldn’t care less about the reaming we received from Hensley, instead raving about how epic that match was! As I prepared to nurse from Hannah later, she said, “Sofia?”

“Yes?”

“If Streaked ever did try and hurt you again… I honestly would do what I did again in a heartbeat.”

I smiled at her, “I don’t think we’ll ever have that problem again. But don’t let your mama bear mode get you in more trouble!”

She hugged me, “Nothing would stop me if that had been real!”

I nodded, “I wouldn’t hold back if it was you either.”

She cuddled me in her lap for a bit and then exposed her breast. I latched on and internally celebrated, having survived our first short semester at Bechtel!

 
 

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! We’re coming to the home stretch of this tale. The last chapter will be posted late on Tuesday, and the Epilogue on Thrusday. 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!

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