Harry Potter: The Rise of the Technomancers
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. If you believe that I do, please send me all your cash and check yourself into your nearest mental health center, thanks :)
Chapter 12: The Birth of Magitek Industries and the Reign of Bob the Wizard
Mika shook her head. What a strange guy, she thought to herself. But cute, she added with a grin.
Walking back to the living room where the others were looking around, more with their fingers than with their eyes, Mika said, "Hey guys, don't touch anything ok, Evan hinted this place is warded pretty thoroughly." she could confirm that as she felt the magical pressure while walking up to his apartment.
"Aw," said Satoru, who was poking around in Harry's cooler, "But he's got such cool stuff, take a look at this," he said pulling up cooler, "A preservation cabinet for storing food! Haven't seen one like this in a long time. Can't believe they still use them here."
Mika shook her head and walked over to Hitomi, who was checking out Harry's books on the far wall of the room, "Find anything interesting?"
Hitomi was holding a heavy tome and looking very interested in the contents.
"What's that Hitomi?" Mika asked.
Looking up she offered the book to Mika who discovered it was a technical diagram of a muggle electronic device. Turning the book over, she read the cover, A Guide to Muggle Electronics: the Myth Revealed. Strange, she thought to herself. Why would a European wizard be looking at muggle electronics. They didn't even work in their homes or magical districts who's warding prevented any electronics from working. It was more common in Japan and America as there as a melding of muggle and Wizarding worlds, but the stark separation between the muggle and Wizarding worlds here prevented that integration.
"Huh," she commented to herself, "he sure is a strange Wizard."
"Ooh!" Mika heard, "English Muggle television is so cool,"
Moving over to the sitting room, Mika saw Satoru and Saya sitting on a couch, drinking butterbeers, and, of all things, watching a totally functioning muggle television set.
Mika's jaw dropped. How could that be? Muggle electronics do not work with magic, especially in environments with such strong wardings as Evan's. And she had confirmed the wardings as well. She could feel them and they were very strong. But how?
"How could that be?" she asked the others, "I felt the wards, this shouldn't be possible."
"Maybe the wards aren't as strong as you thought?" Hitomi offered, walking into the room, the large tome still under her arm, and sat next to Satoru.
Shaking her head, Mika answered, "I don't think so. I felt at least four layers. That would be enough to fry every electronic circuit inside. I was actually surprised at how compact the wards were, but even though, it's still strong enough to destroy the circuitry. I wonder how-"
She was cut off as she heard Kenji's shout, "Mika! Guys you've got to see this!"
They looked at each other in confusion as some shame, they were poking around someone's house without their permission after he invited them in after all, and quickly made their way over to one of the rooms. It was a larger room with excellent lighting and an exhaust system that carried fumes away. Originally, Mika thought it was a potions lab, but after taking a look at the walls, the equipment, and the spare parts, she realized it was an electronics' workshop. Soldering irons, silver solder, spare parts, open and half finished projects, spools of wire and sheets of strange translucent metal, and even a complete cellular phone sitting on one of the benches that Kenji was looking at.
"Wow," was their response to the room.
Satoru commented, "This guy really is a strange wizard. Wonder what he's doing with all this muggle junk?"
Mika was wondering the same thing too when Kenji interrupted, "It's not junk Sats. You felt the wards didn't you, at least four layers, compact and very strong. Any electronics would have blown up from all the magical activity, but you saw the TV didn't you? And these here, they're completely fine. Look at this," he said, picking up the phone.
Flipping it on, he ran through the options. It functioned like a normal phone with none of the malfunctions you would expect in an even minutely magical environment.
"This is incredible," Mika said, fiddling with the phone, "you mean, he figured out how to make electronics work in a magical environment?"
Kenji nodded, excitement filling the air, "I think so. Do you think he'd be willing to start up a company? Or to be willing to sell that patents? I would love to get in on this. This could make us all millionaires!"
The others nodded dumbly.
Although just as surprised and amazed at the discovery by their strange new British friend, she was suspicious. Why would, completely out of the blue, he invite strangers up to where he lived, invite them in, lock up personal items, but forget to lock up his secret research, and then leave them here unsupervised? She knew Evan wasn't stupid. There must be more to this than meets the eye, she thought to herself, sinking into thought.
They would have to talk to Evan when he returned.
Harry had been having a good time at Bart's Butterbeer Imporium, one of the new dives that had sprung up during his year away from the Alley.
He had called up Shari for a chat and had fun talking. Her father's business was doing so well thanks to the dancing hall that they had expanded the common room as well as the guest rooms to accommodate the greater influx of people.
They had kept a warm relationship. After their night of passion, they decided to remain friends, but Shari knew well enough that Harry was not going to settle down with an innkeeper's daughter. Harry was a man of destiny and a man of action, he would not be Harry unless he was off hunting Moldyshorts and saving the wizarding world. She had enjoyed teaching Harry the beauty of a woman's body and the pleasure two people could have together, but friendship was all he could give her and she would enjoy his friendship as she enjoyed him.
Catching a look at his digital wrist watch, a new invention of his that would not blow up the second it came into contact with a magical field like most electronic wrist watches, he got up, kissed Shari good bye, and walked back. He had been gone for four hours and he thought it should have been enough for his new guests to snoop around sufficiently to discover his new electronic marvels.
Pulling out a sickle, he paid the guard at the public floo and went back to Crown Street. Walking through the bar and waving to Tiny, who was at the bar talking to one of his girls, Harry ascended the stairs to his apartment and walked in. He was immediately bombarded by questions from his new guests, especially Kenji.
"Evan! I'm so glad you're back. I'm sorry but I saw a few of your gadgets," Kenji said, excitement filling his eyes.
"Gadgets?" Harry replied, in mock puzzlement.
"You know, your electronics that work on magic! I've never seen anything like it before!" the excitable young man exclaimed.
"You-You saw that did you?" Harry said, defensively and smiled inwardly to himself. He didn't want them to realize it was all a set up, but he did want them to get the impression that he was interested.
Kenji nodded and continued, "Yes, I'm sorry Evan, but I saw a light in one of your rooms and I saw all this electronic equipment not fried by the magic around the place. We felt your wards while walking in and I was amazed that they were even intact. When I figured out they worked, I just couldn't believe it."
Harry nodded and took in the faces around him. Hitomi and Saya were looking at him in awe, Satoru was looking at him and seeing profits, Kenji looked like he wanted Harry to explain everything, but Mika was different. Clearly the brains in the operation, Harry could see that she had figured out he was setting them up, but kept it too herself. A large smile plastered on her face with a knowing glint in her eyes.
"We were wondering if you had any business plans or if you needed someone to help you with your research. I would love to be in on this if just to learn how you did it, and if you are going into business, Mika and Satoru were tops in their years as business majors at Tokyo University. They'd be excellent to have on your side," Kenji said, barely stopping to catch a breath.
Harry pretended to be lost in thought. This was exactly what he was going for. Hitomi had said she had huge contacts in the muggle and wizarding economy of Japan, Sats and Miks were both excellent in business, and Saya and Kenji were strong in magic and charms and innovative enough to see the benefits of such systems. This was headed exactly in the direction he had hoped.
"I don't know," he said, pretending to be conflicted, "I'm just starting right now. I haven't got any contacts here, and-" Harry was interrupted.
"My father owns a chain of electronics stores Evan," Hitomi offered, "and I've got a lot of contacts with suppliers, many of them international."
"Well we still need a command structure, a way to manufacture them, and a method of advertising and building contacts," he said.
Satoru answered, "It's your invention Evan, we would all work under you, Hitomi has a large amount of electronics factories that would be able to augment their line to create magical items, and Mika was top in her class for Business management and corporate quality management. She would be perfect for the job."
Harry pretended to give it thought, then asked something that he wanted to know, "It sounds like an excellent plan, but I have very little capital to start. We need investors and someone that might give us a starter loan."
It was Mika who solved this problem, "My father is the co-owner of a large utilities company in Japan. He can supply us with a starter loan and investors to start," she offered, understanding the entire scheme.
Harry scrunched his face in thought. He waited for a full five minutes, watching them sweat, then said,
"Sounds good, when do we start?"
The cheers around the room resounded as they hugged each other and then pulled Harry into a group hug. This was going to be fun, he thought to himself.
Several days later, they found themselves sitting in his living room drinking butterbeers, a drink that the two Japanese guys had grown to enjoy greatly.
They had been working on perfecting his inventions. Although a little work was needed as Harry had completed most of it, he still needed someone to critique them, so Saya and Kenji were on it. They had found some minor flaws and had suggested a way to fix them. Saya even suggested an ingenious way to lessen the magical load on the relay crystals by inducing a short ranged com system that could be built into the phones through magical means. The charm work went smoothly as both knew exactly what they were doing.
While Harry and the "think tank" were working on their projects, Hitomi was getting in touch with her contacts through her father. She let him know that there would be a chance to obtain a lot of money for their economy if they would listen to a proposal given by a new company. Her father had promised to get on it. She then started working on her international contacts. She had many American contacts, much to Harry's delight as that was where he wanted to go next, and had used them to persuade several into coming over to Japan for a meeting that would be set up by Seiko Shinji, Mika's father.
Mika and Satoru were whirlwinds of energy. Using international floo, they were able to procure documents from Japan and international copyrights at the patent offices and to secure the technology and theories that Harry had produced. He had signed them under his real name, but sealed it magically so that no one was the wiser. They had also drafted possible plans for infrastructure, human resources, capital expenditure, and projected earnings. Mika was in her element, as she breezed through the information and created a coherent organization within a few days. Satoru was using his contacts to bring in new people that could help with the business side, the manufacturing, and finally the complicated charms that were required to energize the crystals, power sources, and for the protection charms.
It was that night that the entire group was together trying to come up with a name and logo for their company.
"What about Far Sea's Electronics?" said Kenji, "I mean, they come from over-seas, we deal with electronics, seems about right, don't you think."
Mika shook her head, "We need something that's catchy and open, but strong. And we are going to branch out into other areas besides cellular access for wizards. TVs, computers, appliances, even weapons, we're going to need to come up with something that will carry over into those areas."
"Far Seas Industries?" Saya offered.
Harry thought about it and answered, "I like the Industries part, but the Far Seas just seems too…nice. We need something Harder, but not too hard."
"How about Wizard Technologies?" Satoru offered.
Mika rolled her eyes, "Back to that sexist thing again are we. Witches will also use these technologies Sats."
Silence once again.
"Magi Technologies," Hitomi said, brightening.
"No," Harry said, the entire room focusing on him, "MagiTek Industries."
The room nodded, smiles coming to their faces.
"Magitek Industries," Mika said to herself, the word rolling off her tongue, "I like it. Strong, yet not too strong. Innovative. Not biased. It's perfect Evan!"
Harry smiled at the tall Japanese girl, "And I've even picked out a logo for us," he finished pulling out a drawing and placing it on the table in front of everyone who crowded around it.
"It's perfect!" Mika said again, looking at the strange drawing, "Did you come up with this Evan?"
Harry shook his head and explained, "I actually found this emblem in one of my books. It was the ancient sign of the Technomancers, a group of now dead wizards who lived in ancient Greece. They combined muggle innovation with wizarding magic to create weapons of war and implements to better both wizard and human kind. They were wiped out by Alexander the Great though, who saw them as a threat, but the sigil lives on in us, the modern day Technomancers."
Looking down at the emblem, he traced it.
"What does it mean Evan?" Kenji asked.
Smiling, he explained, "now the three components of the sigil are the snake biting its own tail, the sword, and the black circle. The black circle on which the others are laid stands for life and magic, seamless as the void from which we arrived. The snake biting its own tail twisted into a side lying figure eight is a representation of time and magic. Ever will there be magic as time passes on. And the sword is a representation of innovation and mechanics. Combined they are the core of Technomancy, understanding of magic and life, the realization that time is infinite and magic makes it so, and the incorporation of innovation into magic and the prevention of stagnation. Something I wish all wizarding societies followed."
"That is perfect Evan," Saya said, her eyes excited as she was caught up in the moment.
Mika smiled then burst everyone's bubble, "Now, we need to talk about security issues. I don't want Evan to have to obliviate us all for attempting to sell his secrets to anyone."
They looked warily at Harry, who smiled back mischievously.
"So in the spirit of unity and business, I think we should all take blood oaths to secure our new business arrangements. These are imperviused magical contracts that will bind our magic and swear us to secrecy, with the exception that Evan can indicate to whom we can tell, as we will be needing to train others in the spells and knowledge." Pulling out a sheaf of parchments and a very familiar quill that made Harry's hand ache, she continued, "this is a blood quill and will use our own blood to seal the deal." she handed out the parchments and signed her own contract and watched it glow and connect with her. It then flashed and dissipated, confirming the contract. "I've signed the contract, if any of you are unwilling then speak up now and hold your piece."
Not a single one of them moved to leave. They just smiled and started handing around the blood quill. Finally when Harry signed it, he used his Harold James Potter signature and altered it magically to include Evan R Magius, bled into the parchment and signified a bound contract.
Harry stood up and addressed the others, "Congratulations everyone and welcome to Magitek industries."
Early the next morning Harry found himself in a large meeting room of the Tadano Utilities Company in down town Tokyo.
That morning they had gotten up very early to make the commute. Even though they used a portkey to travel most of the way, there were strict limitations on where the wizarding families could go using their forms of travel. Because of this, they had to make a three hour commute into the city and to the meeting. Not a very comfortable way of traveling.
But here he was. His five friends behind him, as he faced an auditorium full of old Japanese men. He had to convince these old timers that his new technologies were the new wave of the future. If he could do this, he would be a billionaire by the time his company went international. Behind him, were some products that the investors would be able to sample with afterwards. Heavy wardings were placed over the premises to ensure that they understood that they would not wilt under magical interference.
"Evan," Mika whispered in his ear as she stood off to his right, "Its time."
Harry nodded once, composed himself, then nodded going through his speech in perfect Japanese.
"Esteemed Businessmen and Investors, you honor us with your presence here this day. We, of Magitek Industries would like to extend our warmest welcomes to you and your associates. We have asked for your presence today to show you the future of the Japanese economy at the top of the world wizarding economy. One that will rival our biggest competitors the French. Too long have we been the lowest denominator, supplying others with luxury goods like fire rat fir, dragon stones, and other commodities that do not reflect our technological and economic advances, but only show us how much the other countries may take advantage of your resources. But today I offer you a way out of the hole we are now in. Today, Wizarding Japan will move into the forefront of world economics with our new stake in Technomancy. Communication, entertainment, protection, we can offer you all these things in even greater proportion than you could achieve with a wand. No more will we use birds and beasts of labor to deliver letters on faded parchment. We will use technology to transfer that information and use it to create ties between all of us today. I beseech you all to examine the articles I have in back of me and to invest in our company, for Magitek Industries will one day be the most powerful corporation it he world and if you do not take this chance you will regret it. Thank you."
Mika nodded and smiled to him, he had done exactly as she told him to do, be firm open and let them know they'll regret it if they did not join them. Although a few looked put off, the rest were milling around the new inventions, looks of shock wonder, and satisfaction on their faces, they would make a killing with their investments.
As Harry looked on, his primary staff came to stand by him. His Chief Business Officer and pretty much the person that would run the company for Harry, Mika stood by him in her conservative business woman's dress. She had been having a very fun time berating the individuals who had overlooked her for jobs because she was a woman. Her chilling demeanor and her single mindedness was blatantly obvious at the number of investors she was able to brow beat into coming with her sheer force of will alone. Several even offered her jobs to which she took pleasure in pointing out that she was the chief officer of a company that would one day become one of, if not, the most successful companies in the world.
His chief Human Resources Officer Satoru stood next to Hitomi, Harry's Corporate Liaison Officer, his arm around her as they talked together. Sats had been incredible in gathering the human resources to put the entire plan together and finding individuals with the charms skills and raw magical talent to pull off the feats of magic required for their business to start.
Lastly Saya and Kenji, his research managers, were milling around in the mass of investors, both Japanese and international, who were tinkering with the different products. Because of the wide distribution of types of products, they had already had to create several sub companies that would take care of the Television distribution, retail of computer products, retail of appliances and several other companies for entertainment, development, and advertisements. They were quickly approaching a status of a Zaibatsu, and Harry was particularly happy, when foreign investors showed interests in buyouts or mergers.
Smiling Harry commented, "Looks like everything is going as planned Miks."
Her cold expression faded as she grinned at him, "Yes it is. We'll have taken over the entire tech industry of Japan in just over two months, and we'll be ready to go international in just over a month. Bryce Perry over there was willing to sell out his electronics factories and companies in order to join us. Even said he would stay on as general manager. He's one of the most successful integrated muggle wizarding tech companies in America. We've got this down Evan, by next year we'll be in every wizarding community on the planet."
As he watched the investors look at all the products and reviewed what Miks just said, all Harry could do was smile evilly.
He was on his way.
AN: There we go...REVIEW!!