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 30: Invitations

AT THE END of the class, Cate carried me to the dorm and passed me off to Hannah, who immediately hugged me. We both called our parents before sitting down and working on our homework. I used the computer to begin drawing up some sketches of costumes for the two of us.

For me, I started to sketch out an idea with the dress I’d had my picture taken in, but in purple with tiny green emerald stones on it. I simplified the skirts so they would be easier to fight in when needed. I made the dress shorter, like a normal baby’s dress with that typical bell shape. I figured bloomers were necessary and white tights could be the basis for covering my legs with some armor. They said we should have masks, but I wondered if a pacifier covering my mouth would be enough? So I sketched out a pacifier with a giant emerald in the middle of it and a guard that continued up under my nose and covered the bottom half of my face. I thought maybe I could get one of the kids I’d overheard talking about building stuff to make a gadget that would help me maintain my breathing through it even.

“That looks cute!” Hannah said. “Why don’t you make it with the onesie built-in instead of the bloomers?”

“The tights should keep my diaper up?” I asked hesitantly.

“I guess. I think it would still be easier to build it or make it one piece like a swimsuit you step into from the top?”

She bounced ideas off of me for about a half hour while I messed with the computer software developed just for this. I finally asked, “What about yours?”

Hannah shrugged, “I really don’t know…?”

“Hey, I never saw your GEID yesterday; what’s your codename?”

She blushed, “I couldn’t really think of one… So, I started thinking about some things I learned about my powers. She told you yesterday that you can knock out electronics or people’s nervous systems?”

I nodded, “Yeah, she said it was a lighter version of yours?”

She nodded, “I can limit my power to do it too, and I knocked out a bunch of computers that they let me try it on.”

“Huh, that’s really cool!”

She smiled, “I guess… Anyway, since you’re the Emerald Baby, I thought about Emerald Mommy… but that would be a little weird,” she laughed nervously. “There are already a few other Emerald codenames out there, so it’ll get crowded soon… So that’s when I remembered EMP - for ElectroMagnetic Pulse, and came up with Emped.”

“It works!” I smiled at her. “Of course, I might have to talk about how that imp messed things up for everyone…?”

With that, she came over and started tickling me mercilessly. “Stop it,” I told her after a while. Finally, she sat up and held me.

“You made me wet more!” I told her while sticking my tongue out.

“Like you wouldn’t have anyway?” She teased. She picked me up and quickly changed my diaper before saying, “It’s getting late, Sofia. Why don’t you finish up on my costume tomorrow? You probably have some other homework?”

I groaned, “Yeah.”

She hugged me before setting me back down in my little desk chair. I eventually got tired of sitting in it and splayed my calculus book and the three problems I had left on the floor. Fortunately for me, I was able to knock them out pretty quickly.

I had just started skimming through the Magic chapter we were supposed to be on when there was a knock on the door. Hannah opened the door, “Oh, hi guys, what’s up?”

Camille, Volango, Knag, and Esmie came in. Camille saw me lying on my stomach, staring at her, and apparently couldn’t help herself. She came, sat down on the floor, and dragged me into her lap. “I was kind of doing homework,” I told her, a little annoyed.

She tickled me, “We’ll leave you to it in a moment.”

I hated the forced giggle I made before she squeezed me. “You do realize I’m not a doll, right?”

She laughed, “Really?” Then, she tickled me for a few more moments while everyone watched me giggle.

I grunted when she finally stopped and asked, “What are you all up to?”

“Well, we wanted to see how your first day went?” Lizi asked.

“We’re never going to catch up in some of these classes,” Hannah moaned.

I nodded, “I have like four hours of homework left and probably should have gone to bed two hours ago?”

“Anything we can do?” Esmie asked.

I shrugged, “I think it’s just a matter of getting the time in. We have two more days until the weekend and Thanksgiving Break begins. I’m hoping we can get caught up then…?”

“Same,” Hannah said morosely.

“Well, we’ll ask what we were going to ask then quickly. Apparently, you will be asked to do the Cube this term?” Camille asked from behind me.

“I think so,” I told her.

“Well, your best bet for training for them is always to be on a team. Would you be up to join our team?”

“Just you all on it?” Hannah asked.

Esmie answered, “Maybe Hailey will join too, but she’s got another team trying to get her to join too. So she said it depends on whether you join us or not. She thinks she could help the other team more if you do.”

I looked at Hannah, and we basically communicated without talking for a moment. Then, finally, Caireen nudged in, ‘Do it; they’re a good match for you two.’

I shrugged, and Hannah nodded, “Okay,” we said simultaneously.

“Great!!!” Camille said as she squeezed me tight.

“Not a doll…?” I reminded her.

In response, she tickled me mercilessly again. Then, she suddenly stopped saying, “I guess I should let you two get back to your homework.”

As quickly as they came, they were gone. I looked at Hannah, “This place will never be boring…?”

She laughed and said, “Ten more minutes on your homework, then I’m going to give you a bath, and we’re going to go to bed. There’s no way we can catch up in a week.”

I sighed and agreed. I quickly used my new ability to recall things I’d read. I could visualize it all and decided I could probably quickly skim through all required reading in that period if I trusted it. When I finished the last book, Hannah said, “You know, just staring at the pictures won’t help, right?”

I smiled at her and handed her the book I had just finished the section out of. “Here, read along with me. I closed my eyes and began reading from the top of that page and kept going word for word for a few paragraphs.”

“That is so not fair, Sofia!”

I shrugged, “At least if I’m stuck in diapers, I can study faster!”

She picked me up, pulled my school uniform off, and wrapped me in a towel before carrying me and a caddy full of baby soap stuff down the hallway to the bathroom. Sadly, I had a too-quick bath before she diapered me and took me to the rocking chair to nurse me.

Apparently, it’s a good thing for Hannah that I just go on autopilot when I’m nursing because I was asleep within two minutes!

 

I WOKE UP with Caireen cleaning me up from a diaper change and saying, “How about a bath this morning?”

I smiled, and she took me down the hallway to a room that had anachronous clawfoot tubs there that was empty. I watched her do a quick spell that filled the tub with water and bubbles. Then, as she sat me down, she asked, “Want to learn a neat trick?”

I sleepily looked up at her and nodded. I watched her do a straightforward spell to turn a bubble pink. I giggled and smiled, “Cool!”

“You try!” she suggested.

I pointed at a larger bubble and did the same spell, but I thought purple would be better! Soon, I had a rainbow of bubbles in the tub as she washed my body and hair. I would watch them explode and turn the water underneath them that color. I couldn’t help myself; I was having fun! Eventually, I noticed I was hungry, “Breakfast?” I asked her.

She smiled and carried me down the hallway to a small sitting room where I had once met my parents. She sat me in a waiting highchair, placed a bib on me, then proceeded to feed me a bowl of oatmeal. I made faces a bit, but she just tapped me on the nose and kept feeding me. By the time she was done, I had squirmed a bit at the misses she had made that were on my face. “Let’s take care of that,” she said while using the bib to wipe my face.

I figured she would take the bib off, but instead, she left it on as she picked me up, walked to a small armchair, and proceeded to nurse me. I couldn’t help but feel content as she did so.

“Okay, Sofia, it’s time to start training you on more combat magic,” she said as she pushed me back onto her knee, looking at her.

I nodded, “Probably smart.”

She looked pained, “Sofia, I wasn’t totally honest with you and Hannah yesterday. Our kingdom is very powerful. Alone, we should be able to hold out against Camulus and any other henchmen he comes up with, but if he coerces multiple kingdoms to start helping him…?”

I shrugged, “We’ll find a way, Caireen,” I told her with a smile and leaned in to hug her.

She sighed, “I hope you’re right, little one.”

With that, she carried me down the hall to the staircase and wound her way below the first floor. “How far down does this go?” I nervously asked.

“About another fifty feet.”

“There are so many weird things with this castle,” I told her.

“Well, just because it seems like we’re in the nineteenth century doesn’t mean we are Sofia.” She kissed my head lightly and squeezed as she came to a landing at the bottom. We traveled briefly down a corridor that felt like a dungeon before opening the door to a large room with a vast circle in the middle.

Somehow, I knew that this kind of circle would not be one I could defeat easily, and I shuddered.

“You really are powerful enough to break out if needed,” she reassured me. “But, do not worry, baby, I would never keep you indefinitely in a circle!”

She carefully sat me inside the circle, and I instantly could feel the walls. I doubted her words of breaking through this circle, but I trusted her nonetheless. For the next several hours, with only a break for a diaper change, she taught me how to use my magic to send fireballs, wind, and even solid objects flying around.

“This is like being the Avatar…” I joked.

She laughed at me, “you know, some of those TV shows you’ve watched before are quite funny. Especially when they make it seem so easy to teach most.”

“What do you mean? You just taught me all of that?”

She shook her head, “I just re-taught you all of that. You still have some access to my memories when we’re here. I can’t sense your thoughts, nor can you sense mine here, but we can access our shared memories.”

“Huh…” I said.

She continued teaching the lesson for a bit after that before saying, “Sofia, that will be enough for today. Come on out of the circle.”

“Umm…” I said.

“You can get out on your own; just think about it for a second.”

For ten minutes, I sat there thinking about how to do it. I felt myself squatting down just as I thought I had a solution. I groaned! ‘No time like the present,’ I told myself, trying to ignore my disgusting mess. I pulled in the magic I had access to, found the little points of failure, and pressed at them all at once. With that, the circle disappeared on the floor in a blaze of green fire and vanished.

Caireen picked me up and said, “Good job, Princess! Let’s go get this stinky baby all nice and clean!”

 

CAIREEN JUST PLAYED with me for a bit before putting me to bed, and then I woke up to a new day again. Life for the next couple of days until the weekend seemed to flow together like endless days. Before I knew it, I was done with my final Friday Martial Arts class. Our evening classes didn’t meet that night, so we had the whole weekend in front of us!

Hannah and I had just gotten into our room to sit down after class when there was a knock on the door. I walked to the door, reached up to pull down on the handle I could just reach, and pulled the door open.

“Hi Sofia!” a smiling Anna said to me.

“Hi, Anna,” I said back to her, “come on in,” I added politely.

“Hannah, right?” she asked as she came in, and I watched her eyes widen at our room.

“Yep, what’s up?” Hannah asked.

“Well, I mentioned this to you a couple of days ago, but Aphrodite would love to have Sofia join us.”

I sighed, “What does that involve?”

“Well, first, you’ll have to come to our meetings every so often. We have one tomorrow at two, for instance.”

I looked at Hannah and shrugged, “Okay, where do we meet you?”

She gave us directions and handed me a form to have my parents sign. “I don’t have to have my parents sign this, though,” I told her.

“What?”

I sighed, “I’m technically eighteen still.” I told her.

“Oh… okay… just bring it tomorrow then. Why did Bechtel put you on the freshman floor then?”

Hannah sighed, “They decided we both needed to start as freshmen here.”

Anna nodded, “You’re not the first that they’ve thought that for. I’ve got a few friends like that, and I’m technically twenty-one, but they didn’t list that on my EID. So how did you manage that?”

“I don’t have a regular EID,” I told her. “Hannah and I both got Government EIDs because our parents work at the labs in Los Alamos.”

“Okay, I’m totally jealous now; that is awesome!”

I shrugged, “It definitely helped us get away from the mob last weekend!”

Anna smiled knowingly, “Well, I better get going; my boyfriend has plans for us.”

“Figures you’re not single,” I winked at her.

She laughed and walked out. She didn’t close the door as she left, and I decided it wasn’t worth bothering. I had just logged onto my email when I felt Camille walk into the room. “Hi Camille,” I said without turning.

“How?” she asked as she came and hugged me.

“Your magic,” I told her simply.

She patted me on the head and asked, “So, what are you two up to?”

“What is there to do?” Hannah asked as I kept looking at my email. There was one from Mrs. Talia Hensley, Headmistress, that I double-clicked on.

 
Good afternoon Sofia,

I have a representative from the Federal Bureau of Investigation that would like to meet with you Saturday if possible. He’s available to meet you at just past noon if you could meet? Please let me know if you’re interested and available tonight if possible.

Mrs. Talia Hensley, Headmistress

 
“Hannah,” I said, getting her attention, “what do you think?”

Hannah knelt down to my level, and I felt Camille join her. “It’s up to you, sweetie,” she said.

Without another word, I replied that we’d be happy to meet with him. “Okay, so diapee change, and then the movie?” Hannah asked.

“Huh?” I said.

“You weren’t paying attention, were you?”

I shook my head. In the end, she re-explained the movie plans downstairs in one of the two mini-theaters. “There’s a movie theater downstairs?” I asked.

She just sighed as she put the second tape on my new diaper. “You’re such a scatterbrain sometimes!” She smiled though and said, “Nightgown tonight?”

I shrugged, and she found a pretty nightgown that she pulled over my head. She grabbed her backpack, carried me down to the elevator, and pressed a button for the basement. We found Camille and several others already there, with just one remaining sofa seat Hannah took. “Does that thumb taste good?” Camille asked me.

I turned red and pulled out a slobbery thumb. Hannah pushed a pacifier in my mouth and said, “Don’t worry about it.”

“What are we watching?” I asked around my pacifier.

“Well, it has to be rated G here for the baby girl,” Hannah teased.

I glared at her.

“Don’t worry, Sofia, we’re just going to watch the latest superhero trash Hollywood put out,” Esmie said.

“You actually watch those?” I asked, a little surprised.

“Why wouldn’t we?” Camille asked where she was seated beside us.

“Well…”

“What are you too good for a bad movie?”

I sighed, “No… but…?” I said before leaning into Hannah. “I give up.”

“Good girl,” came several voices in unison.

The movie was as bad as I expected, even worse now that I had been exposed to real superpowers. However, after a while, I began to appreciate why everyone else wanted to watch it as we jeered the movie and the characters throughout. Towards the end, I found myself actually enjoying it.

“What’s next?” I asked as the credits rolled around.

There were some arguments before a strange anime movie was selected. Unfortunately, while I found myself somewhat intrigued with it, I found myself quickly nodding off too.

 
 

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I’ve gone a few posts without any comments, I would really appreciate it you would leave one! I do really appreciate the Kudos button, but please consider leaving a comment if you’re reading? I will fully admit to feeling neglected when there’s none…? (Pretty Please?)

I will be making an adjustment to my posting schedule and posting Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday 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.