It took them nearly an hour to piece together what she was telling them, Alice had been an orphan living in a group home, and while the people running the home were nice while kids would be kids. "And the day after a nice couple adopts me monsters show up and everything falls apart, and now you want me."
Emma pulls her into a comforting hug while looking at Marcus with misty eyes, while she had not been an orphan and was also an adult, he had saved her as well, she then realizes something and looks around just in time for a wet Zeke to come running into the room and jumping onto the couch and cuddling into Alice's side followed by Cameron with a towel.
Alice took the towel and wrapped it around Zeke trying to dry him off while he tried to lick her tears away, the adults smiled at the heart-warming scene while the terminator watched on impassively, once she was done drying Zeke Alice held the towel and looked around for where she should put it when Cameron stepped forward and took it.
"He was outside doing dog things like marking his territory and sniffing around, he found the swimming pool out back and jumped in." Cameron said as she walked out of the room to put the towel with the rest of the dirty laundry.
Alice looked up at the word swimming pool and had to ask." You have a swimming pool?"
Before either can respond to her question a voice answered. "There is a swimming pool sana behind the house and gym in the basement, I have also let Jessup know that we will be needing food safe for a small k9."
The TV screen flickered on and showed Mia's face causing Alice to look from the screen to Marcus and then back to the screen. "That's Mia an A. I that helps run the house, Mia these are Alice and Zeke please monitor in nanny mode when neither Emma nor I am around."
"Yes, master." Was Mia's reply as the screen went black, Alice pouting about the nanny.
Cameron came back into the room with a warm washcloth gently she cleaned Alice's face from both tears and dog slobber and once she was done, she stepped back. "You need to finish practice the mission is scheduled in three more days, we will also need to gather anything that Alice will need to decorate her room, I have stocked her closet with clothes."
Mia spoke up again after Cameron finished speaking this time just through some hidden speakers not through the TV. "The walls and ceiling can be changed however you wish, just tell me what you want to be done to them and I shall take care of it."
Before either adult could say anything to Mia's last statement Alice called out." Unicorns and rainbows." Causing them to laugh.
Standing up Marcus looked to the two and then lay a glowing hand on Alice's head, after passing on the skills he looked to Emma. "Show her how to use the wardrobe, and no dresses for flight training or if she wears them shorts under. "
Nodding Emma stood still holding Alice while Zeke jumped to the floor and followed them to Alice's room.
Heading out to the car and opening the trunk Marcus grabbed a belt for knives then went to find the girls, when he got to the door he knocked and waited for an answer, Emma opened the door a crack and looked at him, that let him know Alice was in a state of undress he held up the belt, nodding Emma took the belt and shut the door giving him a smile.
Returning to the living room he called out to Alfred, "I'm thinking something Japanese for our next meal." Receiving the usual reply, he nods.
Putting together a plan for training with Alice while waiting for them to come down he doesn't think having Alice in the close fight now is a good idea so he decides that other than knives maybe a bow or even a spear would do for her but that is for later, in his mind she is still too young to have to fight so it will just be practice for now until she grows up.
After a while, Alice came skipping down the stairs spotting him on the couch she ran and jumped on him speaking a mile a minute. "The walls of my room have unicorns and rainbows that move and there is a sky over my bed the clouds move too."
Looking to Emma who shrugs while pointing to the TV she smiles, nodding while giving a smile he looks back to Alice and then begins to outline what he had planned for them when asked Alice said she would like a bow which she could eventually use while flying about, but first they would need to teach her to fly.
Deciding to go back to the empty world for flight training they loaded into the car this time driving straight through the portal Cameron stayed in the car as they eased Alice into getting her new flight skills under control they had to stop once when her wings formed and talked her through how to keep them hidden. As they flew Marcus felt his left wrist heat up and showing the stones he had forgotten about.
Waving off Emma who had noticed him hovering while looking to his wrist when his phone pings a message. 'World claim fulfilled all remaining humans have been placed in a new world while all nuclear facilities shut down and all fissionable materials stored safely, your Merlin stones can now affect this world without limit unlike mission worlds.'
Smiling he raises his hand and snaps the fingers of his left hand a wave cascades with him at the center all around them all the cars disappear, and the roads fix themselves as the wave spreads out, snapping his fingers against large piles of what looks like paper form on the ground below him, dropping to the ground he lay his hand on the piles. "Well, that worked so now we won't need to worry about money."
Emma and Alice watched all of this happening with wide eyes, then flew to him to see what was going on he told them that they would have money for mission worlds, and he also told them that all the cars in a two hundred-mile radius had been put in an out of the way place and the fuel that was in them had been put into containers back in the town where they could get to it for the car that Cameron was driving.
"Well now that the financial part is taken care of let's get back to the flying practice Alice is doing well so far now, we need to get a speed test done for her to see how fast she can get, and I can see why no dresses," Emma said while looking at Alice who was hovering not far away upside-down while holding a piece of rope, she had found somewhere for Zeke to play tug-o-war, and this caused her to laugh.
After letting her play a bit more they got back into the practice where they found Alice could only get up to forty miles an hour but as far as they were concerned that was good enough for now.
After flying for another hour, they landed and got back into the car where Cameron drove them back to the town to fill the tank from the containers that were near the gas station, as they got out of the car a very nasty smell hit their noses looking around Marcus, snaps his fingers again clearing the air as another wave shots out around him. "Rotten meat." He told the girls who nodded.
Once the tank was full, they got into the car and drove through the portal that opened in front of them, getting back to the house and stepping through the door that now had a doggy door for Zeke they went to the living room where Emma pointed to the now shelved and sorted movies, telling Alice to pick something for them to watch while waiting for dinner.
Picking a cartoon putting it in the DVD player and sitting on the couch she was immediately drawn into the movie, just as the credits were starting to run, they were informed dinner was ready, and entering the dining room they found the table set with a traditional Japanese evening meal.
Alice was elated with what she found as she sat and took a set of chopsticks and gave the traditional 'itadakimasu' before pulling her bowl of rice and then picking out what she wanted from the assorted foods in front of her while the adults smiled at her before following her and began eating, Zeke sat under the table looking for the scraps that Alice somehow 'accidentally' dropped now and then much to their amusement.
After dinner they went back to the living room where Emma put on the second Harry Potter movie, before the opening credits even started Alfred had set out a small tray of tea and snacks, which caused Marcus to realize that he had forgotten to get some soft drinks, he waved Cameron over and whispered for her to remind him when they return to the zombie world to gather up some for Alice to have her favorites.
After the movie Marcus lifted the sleeping Alice off of the couch took her to her room and lay her on the bed as Emma lifted the covers, leaving the room so Emma could help the sleepy girl into pajamas, hitting the lights in the bathroom next to Alice's room he went into the master bedroom then bath striping off he took a shower in boxers he crawled into bed and watched as Emma striped and pull on a nightshirt assuming she would shower in the morning.
"We can work on fighting tomorrow and see about getting Alice a small but functional bow to practice with, I'm thinking that once we get ready for the mission, I'll set it up where we adopted Alice while in Japan on vacation, we had been visiting family friends every year and found her grew close to her, so we decided to adopt her." He told her as she lay her head on his chest.
Emma did her best to hug him while tilting her head up to kiss his cheek before laying her head down again. "She will love that, and I think it's a good idea, so how are we going to go about with the mission anyway the request says they need someone to replace Diggory in the triwiz because he fell from his broom during quidditch, and will be in an induced coma until he is healed."
Kissing the top of her head he answered her. "We will have to choose to be seventh years so we are going to de-age to at least eighteen, which will give us the magic and memories of going to Hogwarts until N.E.W.T.s year and Alice will have been going to a Japanese magic school I guess I'll have to look over the description of the world, we can plan after we know how the world is set up."
Nodding she snuggles closer to him as he reaches the bedside switch, he turns off the lights and closes his eyes to sleep.
The next morning Marcus found himself being used a pillow from both sides, sighing as he came fully awake, he lifted his head to find Emma draped over him the same way she had been when they fell to sleep while Alice lay on his other arm with her back against his side with Zeke at the foot of the bed looking to him with a doggy smile.
His movements woke Emma who lifted her head and looked over his chest seeing Alice she smiled sadly." She had a nightmare."
Nodding he lay his head back on the pillow, curling his arm to cradle Alice, he lifted her and scooted out from under Emma and the covers while putting Alice next to her. "I need to use the bathroom."
After taking care of his morning business and dressing her left the bathroom to find the girls still curled up and Zeke had joined them mostly laying on his pillow
Leaving the room, he went downstairs to find Cameron coming out of the rom he found to be the laundry with a load of towels. "I saw that Alice was not in her room I'm assuming that she is in the master room?"
"Nightmare." Was all he said as he stepped to the side so Cameron could finish her errands.
Nodding she went to put the towels away. "Alfred will begin breakfast soon."
"Alright, while we are eating go down to the RV and see if there is a cooler in it I can't remember if there was one or not, we will be taking lunch with us today instead of coming back to the house." He said just before she disappeared up the stairs.
Entering the dining room, he found Alfred setting out plates and an assortment of syrups. "Pancakes with American bacon and eggs this morning master."
"We will be taking lunch with us today so if you can put together something that can be eaten cold, Cameron will look for a cooler, if she finds one, I'll have her bring it to you to put the food in."
After speaking he went to leave when he realized they didn't need a cooler they could just use the RVs fridge without having to come back up to the house he felt like banging his head on the wall. Turning he called out to Alfred letting him know to stock the fridge of the RV while they were out, he then went to find Cameron and let her know she didn't need to look for a cooler.
While he was sitting down to go over the plans again Emma came down the stairs her hair still damp from the shower with a still sleepy Alice dressed at her side, they sat on each side of him with Alice laying her head on his lap while Zeke sat at her feet, ten minutes later Alfred told them breakfast was ready which woke Alice right away causing the adults to laugh.
After eating they stayed at the table sipping on their drinks while Zeke found a spoonful of eggs next to Alices seat which he cleaned up fast, once through with their drinks they left the house for training, Cameron was already in the car and waiting by the time they left the house.
Once through the portal Marcus gave them the plan where Cameron would follow as best as she could while they would fly around and take out targets either from rang or close combat while trying to infuse the light into the weapons.
"Try and find an electronics store while you follow us, we will grab a cell for Alice, I was playing with the phone and found a way to link cell phones in a limited fashion to my company phone." He told Cameron.
Emma mock pouted while looking at him, then she asks with a faux whine in her voice. "What about me I could use a phone too."
Failing to catch that she is just having him on he sighs and nods while shrugging then agrees to help her look for a cellphone for her as well, he hadn't thought to get her one because she always had his company phone if he didn't have it himself.
Looking around to get a lay of the land when he saw a school building not far from where they were deciding that they would go there first to see if they could find a useful bow for Alice in the archery clubs that most Japanese schools had.
It took them about thirty minutes to get to the school, between fighting the zombies and teaching Alice how to make needles out of light that she could throw at the zombies and save the throwing knives, Cameron had taken up a pole that she would hit the zombies with to save bullets, for some reason she had Zeke laying on her heard as she moved through the streets, he barely moved.
Once at the school they searched it all the while taking out more undead as they went they did find a few living locked in rooms or closets some barely sane and others just hungry and or exhausted, explaining how the zombies hunt by sound and that hitting the head would stop them, after telling the newest person they found how to survive they found the archery supplies and Alice went through the bows finding one that was just about right, finding a quiver as well they loaded it and another few with arrows.
Once they were ready to move along again Cameron carried the spare arrows, it took Alice almost thirty minutes to get a handle on the bow and arrow, once she had it her shots never missed every now and then the arrows would flash with light as they hit.
After another hour they all had infusing light into their weapons of choice so the rest of the time they were just taking out zombies when suddenly there was a bright flash in the sky drawing their attention, realizing that the nuke had been used, looking to Cameron with concern she explains that she was hardened against emp's.
The loud booming of the bomb going off overhead had the focus of the zombies and they all turned in the direction and shambled off in that direction, deciding to take a break for a time Marcus flew off and found a store a few miles from the school that was empty.
Going to get the others he led them to the store where they found some drinks, they also pound a kiosk stall that had several hundred cell phones laying all around the floor still in their boxes shrugging and finding a large bag he gathers up most of them, leaving the store he opens a portal and steps through with the others following him their hands filled with bags of drinks and other kinds of snack foods that Alice seem to like, Zeke even had what looked like a bone in his mouth.
Tossing the bag of phones into the back seat he sees the others loading he other stuff in the RV other than a few drinks they had put onto the table, exiting the RV Emma has a small basket while Alice has plates, after eating a couple sandwiches they let the food settle before going back to taking out the undead.
They spent two more days fighting and training their skills Alice amazed them several time as she loosed arrows filled with light, one time the arrow went through the head of several zombies dropping them to the ground another arrow exploded in light sweeping through a mob of zombies whom all dropped to the ground.
Even Alice was shocked with the exploding arrow Emma ran to her and swept her into a hug while laughing while Marcus just stood gaping at the pile of fallen zombies then at Alice, after thinking for a few seconds he held out his hand and focused until a ball of light and then compressed it, once it was the size of a marble he threw it toward another group hitting one in the chest the light bloomed out felling more.
Each night before and after dinner they watched the other Harry Potter movies, now that it in the night before they would be taking their first mission Marcus and Emma sat Alice down and explained that they would all be going to live in another world for a time that could be as short as a few months or as long as a few years, they wouldn't know until the mission was over.
"You know those movies that we have been watching?" Marcus ask the girl cuddled into Emma.
At her nod he goes on to tell her more. "We will be going into that world, but it will be different, Emma and I will be getting younger, we will be at least eighteen years old."
Emma hugged Alice just a bit more tightly. "You will not be getting older nor younger, we plan for you to be our adopted daughter in that world, that's if you want us to do it like that."
Alice nodded rapidly with tears in her eyes. "I would like that."
Marcus lay a hand on her head and smiled at her. "Okay we will do that, now I need to explain a bit more about hat world."
Taking out his phone and laying it on the coffee table while calling out to Mia. "Connect to the phone and show the selected mission on the screen."
'Harry Potter; Mission Triwizard Champion need two hundred pts' Objective's Cedric Diggory will be unable to participate in the Triwizard and no other of age witch or wizard from Hogwarts come close to being what is needed. Your mission is to enter the Triwizard tournament and ensure that Harry survives, the ritual must happen so if you arrive with Harry at the graveyard, you must not interfere, once Riddel is out of the cauldron you may attack and aid Harry in escaping if needed, you will enter the world just after Harry's third year ends. You may choose your blood status 'we recommend half-blood for ties to a family of your choice.'
Once you chose your blood-status you will need to choose electives
Optional side objectives- enter a summer school in Japan the school is in time dilation allowing students to learn magic while also keeping up their non-magical studies during normal school time, during summer times the school accepts students from other nations, if done early enough a person can study till mastery of their choices.
Memories will be given to you and your companions to aid in blinding in and not stumble through while on mission-
The list of options went on for a long time until finally they got to the portion where they could chose their set up, while selecting several options such as they each having Gringotts accounts each filled with a hundred thousand galleons each, the funds were drawn from his universal wallet saving them twenty points.
Marcus chose to be half-blood related to the Blacks.
Emma also took half -blood choosing to be distantly related to the Prince family so that if she chose to she could take u the headship of the family taking it from Snape if she chose to do so.
Alice also chose to be half-blood, but an orphan adopted by Marcus and Emma, she would have no claims to any family because she chose a branch family in her option.
For a home they chose a flat in Diagon alley because most of their time would be spent at Hogwarts.
Marcus and Emma chose Runes and arithmancy for the Hogwarts electives, while they all chose full courses for the summer school, so that by the time they were at Hogwarts they wouldn't have to work all that hard after waking in the world.
Zeke would become a breed of krup that wouldn't be out of place in the non-magical world.
Marcus chose a barn owl while Emma chose a cat
Marcus for a laugh chose a wand made of elm and phoenix feather, while Emma chose a holy and dragon heart string, Alice picked a wand of cherry and serpent dragon tail scale fibers.
When they saw her choice, they almost whined at how she got a better choice in wand core but that didn't last long.
Once they had the forms filled out to their satisfaction Marcus taped the finalization, choosing to use the points given from the mission and not touching his banked points they chose the best quality wand holsters, cloths and school uniforms trunks and supplies other than books.
Cameron had come into the room while they were filling out the forms and set a trey of drinks and snacks withing arms reach while also putting a bowl of water for Zeke on the floor.
"Okay we will use the portal to get to the mission world tomorrow, Cameron will come with us but while we are at Hogwarts she will come back here because we will only be renting the flat." Marcus said after drinking some tea.
Cameron didn't seem to like that idea, but they didn't know if the magic of Hogwarts would affect her systems and chose not to chance it.
After picking up his phone he went to get up when Emma and Alice lay cellphones on the table, tilting his head for a second, he palmed his forehead then lay his phone over each phone for a few seconds each.
Each phone glowed for a second then it faded when they picked up their phones the girls turned them on and let them go through the normal start up sequence before personalizing the home screens, when he saw that they had a few games on their phones he began trying to find some on his own, but he had no luck, grumbling about that he stuffed the phone into his pocket.
Emma took Alice upstairs for bathtime while Marcus spoke to Alfred about dinner and deciding on Italian, then he went to join Emma in the shower, while he passed Alices bathroom he heard Zeke happily splashing around in the tub while Alice was chattering away to Cameron who was washing her hair.
Once he entered the shower, he kissed Emma on the back of her neck before getting to washing himself and helping Emma with her back paying special attention to her rear causing her to giggle.
A little late for dinner it was a flush couple that sat down to dinner with a pouting little girl waiting for them, Marcus kissed the top of her head as he passed her hoping that it would mollify her somewhat.
After dinner they went to watch a movie before bed letting Alice pick, also hoping this will cheer her up from their being late, she chose a cartoon series of X-men and while watching the show he saw a mutant that had the power that lets him build almost technology he can imagen as long as he had the materials, getting an idea he pulls out his phone and starts to go through it until he notices the show was paused and Alice giving him the stink eye.
Apologizing he puts his phone away and pulls Alice into a side hug while Emma was silently laughing and making a whipping motion, he shakes his head and raises an eyebrow as if asking 'and you are not?' getting a shrug in return as the show starts up again.
After they watched a few episodes, they turned off the tv and as became normal he lifted a sleeping Alice while Emma went ahead and pulled down the covers on her bed and waited for Marcus to lay Alice down, kissing her forehead he stepped out of the room while Emma also kissed her and tucked her in for the night.
Once in the master room he pulls out his phone then looking for what he had thought of before, when he found it and selected it while sitting down on the bed and hit the buy tab causing his head to become fuzzy but nowhere as bad as it was the first time, he bought skills.
Emma walked into the room and seeing him holding his phone she sat beside him and caught him as he wabbled. "So, what did you get this time."
Waving his hand electronic things formed from thin air then waving his hand again the things floated up and swirled, when the stuff stopped swirling four watches fell to the bed. "Technomancy."
Eyeing the watches, her heard snaped to him before grabbing his hand and putting it on her head. "Gimme."
Chuckling he passed the skill over. "I can form stuff using the stones, but you will need to use what you can find or let me make you a pile of things to use, also after we get in mission our knowledge will possibly add to what we can do with that skill, the watches will pair to our phones via blue tooth and Cameron can use one to text they have a holo keyboard."
Emma pounced on the watches looking them over while noticing three look like they were made for girls while the other was a man's, choosing one for herself she took her phone out and aired it to the watch, once done with that she lay them on her bedside table and lay down and waited for him lay own as well so she could get her pillow.
As he lay down, he laughs as Emma immediately snuggles into his side and lay her head on his chest and falls asleep with him not far behind her.
In the morning he woke untangled himself from Emma and Alice and went about his morning routine, after getting dressed via his wardrobe he went outside and looked around for a bit until he felt arms wrap around his waist as a head lay against his shoulder. "Don't know how long it'll be before we will be staying here except holiday breaks."
Kissing her head, he looked out over the island until he feels a small hand take his, looking down he smiles to Alice.
Ater a time they went back into the house for breakfast which turned out to be a full English again which got a cheer from Emma and an intrigued look from Alice, they ate slowly while thinking over their schedule, just after finishing eating Emma passed the watch to Alice while telling her how to work it.
Cameron came in holding a basket of dirty clothes and passes through to the laundry, after a few minutes she returned receiving a watch for herself and being told how to work it she gives a small smile, once they were ready, they left the house after telling Alfred to see about making pickles, preserves along with jams and jellies.
Driving to the gate they got out of the car and walked through the portal that was different from the normal this one was like the wormholes from stargate instead of the normal window looking portals that they normally used.
The next thing any of them knew they woke up on an airplane just taking off from Japan, when suddenly memories began to flow into their minds while Marcus and Emma's lives filled them with a life growing up together and marring just after the summer break began and spending their summer in Japan like they have done for the last seven summers.
Taking enough schooling that they could file for any mastery if they wanted but they knew they couldn't because the ministry of magic in Britan would through up some kind of fit, so they had the summer school seal their records from Britan but still open to the I.C.W.
This summer though they had also adopted a young orphan named Alice who while was not being bullied she seemed to be ignored by the other students, Bing orphans themselves they got to know her over the summer term in the school and after growing fond of her they filed for and adopted her the paperwork had been finished just before the time dilation of five years was over.
While Alice had been going to the school a year less than they had she had finished almost as much schooling they had taken she would need one more summer to finish out her schooling, but after being adopted by them she wanted to go to school with them in Britan for at least a year.
The memories kept flowing into them until half an hour until the plane landed in London, while still woozy from the memory input they gathered their baggage and went through customs and showing the paperwork over the adoption at the passport window.
After going through all the hoops, they had to they made their way to the exit and found Cameron waiting for them next to a beautiful black Bentley in a modest maid outfit instead of her normal French maid get up that she normally wore.
Piling into the car while Cameron put their luggage into the boot of the car, all three were still working on keeping their minds straight, when Cameron gets into the driver's seat and drove away from the airport their occlumency finally kicked in and began to automatically sort their memories easing their mental strain.
"Oh man next time we just take a drop in option I don't think I can handle another set like that, look at poor Alice." Emma said while pulling a pale Alice into her side, while pulling a handkerchief from her breast pocket and wiped sweat from the girl's brow.
The drive was short, the flat they had rented was just up the street from The Leaky Cauldron and straddled the border of the magical alley and non-magical world so Cameron parked along the street and un loaded their things while the three made it to the smallish living room and collapsed on the couch as their minds finished sorting stuff out with Alice haven fallen asleep as soon as she sat next to Emma on the couch Marcus and Emma not far behind them.
Several hours later they were woken by a taping on the window from the magical side of the flat, looking up Marcus saw a tiny barn owl tapping on the window wanting in, recognizing the owl as his own that he had a friend from Hogwarts watch over while they were in Japan, standing up he opened the window and let the little fella in while noticing a letter tied to his foot.
Taking the letter while the owl whose name he remembered was Burt settled onto the stand near the window, taking a drink of water the owl gave a happy hoot for being back with his human.
Cameron came back into the room after sorting out their items and sat a small blue box that looked like a pet carrier on the coffee table. "Zeke wants out."
Looking at the box he saw that it was indeed a pet carrier and Zeke was looking through the door, tapping the box with a finger he stepped back as it expanded until it was just a bit bigger than Zeke was and stopped, opening the door of the carrier he let Zeke out to explore.
Looking at the letter in his hand he found a Gringotts seal on the back holding the envelope closed, breaking he seal he opened the letter and read the letter finding it was letting them know that they had an appointment in a week to file their marriage with the goblins for records and other such things that the ministry had foisted off onto the goblin nation.
Handing the letter to Emma he went to explore the flat as it will be home for the next month he groaned as he found the small bed and room and then when he found the bathroom, he wanted to kick himself for not just buying a house for them to live in instead of this small place.
Emma after reading the letter followed him to look around and felt the same as he did bout the size of the flat, Alice was still on the couch snuggling Zeke while she wanted to go back to sleep.