NIne

Riches could get you everything but experience. Harry was not only learning that now in business and martial arts training, he'd learnt it before in science.

When Yelena started training him she noticed Harry had an ability her HYDRA trainer, Taskmaster, was known to possess, photographic reflexes. This newly discovered ability made training with Yelena quick. He learnt all she had to teach, or so he'd thought.

She had more to teach him other than fighting styles and has been proving it to him since. That was the very reason why he was lying down on the training mat, absolutely frustrated.

As he laid there, he thought back to a shocking discovery he made about himself some time ago. When Yelena noticed this ability in him, Harry decided to do some test on himself. The first thing he discovered was that he changed so much since he turned thirteen. And he was not referring to puberty.

A lot changed since he did his last brain scan when he was eight and found out that he was a normal human being with just bit more brain activity, an almost unnatural IQ for a child, and a photographic plus eidetic memory.

He fixed his mental implants when he was ten but he didn't know that their healing effect will have a huge effect on his brain.

He was amazed when his tests had showed him that his brain was evolving. If humans used ten percent of their mental potentials and wizards used twenty five percent, he Harry was using thirteen percent. Coincidentally it's the same number as his age.

What caused this evolution was surprising. Harry found out through more tests that it happens to almost everybody. The more they learn, the more healthy their brain is, and the bigger said brain grows, it start evolving slowly.

Children of the present were turning out to be more intelligent and talented than children of the past. Human population increased by over thirty percent in the past century because humans were evolving and becoming more potent.

There were not unique geniuses running around the world today because tapping into such mental power puts a strain on the imperfect human body. The more they evolve the more they get sick. They start developing different types of mental disorders. Some gets, dyslexia, dyscaculia, ADHD, autism and others. This was the first stage of the disorders though, the next stage includes horrible things like brain tumour, dementia, schizophrenia and psychopathy after this it is brain diseases or death.

All this happen because the human body is not capable of keeping up the brain and could do serious damage to the brain if strained or pressured. Harry's case was different because he had mental implants that kept healing him every step of the way. Now one might wonder why most people who've been cured of these particular mental evolutionary issues didn't continue to evolve like Harry. It's because whatever means they used to cure it, therapeutic or medical, did not cure it permanently. Instead it made it go away for some time. After their recovery the brain goes right back to the start and begin evolving again. This time it'll be slower and less affective. The person may relapse or not.

These mental evolutionary issues were worst for superpowered beings and meta-humans in general, like magicals and humans. Some of them their brain and body had long since evolve past human levels. It would have been easier for them to handle it if the only thing causing their mental evolution was a great increase of intelligence and brain health, but their powers also added to the strain so it was harder for them.

Harry was no longer surprised about why intelligent people like Magneto and Doctor Doom became insane villainous people who loved destruction. He himself would have a certain amount of psychopathy if it weren't for his implants.

His implants will not be able to help forever though. This photographic and adoptive muscle memory abilities were just the beginning of his mental evolution. He predicted already that before he turn fourteen he will become an empath and telepath. With telepathy comes telekinesis sometimes; mind over matter as they say.

How long will his implants be able to keep up with the strain? No matter how quickly he upgrade them they won't be able to manage it.

Realising this he had been forced to look for a solution to it. His imperfect human body was the problem so he had decided to evolve himself. He'd programmed his other implants to take nutritious elements and some drugs he made for enhanced development whenever they enter his body and direct them to the vital and most important parts of his body. As his brain slowly evolved, his body will follow. Already he was seeing some changes.

He now only need two hours of sleep everyday. His eyesight has never been this good because not only can he now see in the night he was beginning to develop some type of owl vision. He saw signs already of early stages of hypermotility. His stamina was also quite impressive now. Before he could use sheer will to fight Yelena for hours but now he was sure that they could go on for days and he won't get tired.

The best effect of his physiological evolution was that it was strengthening his brain also. This was a good thing and he should have done it a long time ago because the stronger and healthier his brain become, the more it's able to shrug off the mental strain.

He felt, saw, and immediately grabbed a bottle of water that'd have hit him in the chest if not of his new evolution rate. He sat up and emptied the bottle down his throat as Yelena took a seat beside him. He could feel his implants get to work on transferring the elements in the water to the vital parts of his body.

"You caught that well, almost like you knew it was coming," she said and her eyes stared into his searchingly. "I know that it's not my business but I can't help but ask if there's anything wrong with you. Don't try denying it. You've become so tall in a month that you are now six foot and some inches. You are becoming so muscular that you will soon be able to give Captain America a run for his money. And the way your intelligence is improving everyday is more than frightening. You created a teleportation device that utilises artificial wormhole just by watching Sirius apparate. The other day you upgraded your Taskbots that by next year they will be done renovating and rebuilding Figgs estate."

"I'm usually the one who love repeating my own achievements but if you want to be my herald, please go on." Harry told her with a grin.

"Don't try to brush aside my inquires with your jokes, Harry. Something is clearly wrong or right, however you want to see it. But this is not normal and could be dangerous for you. I discussed this with Sirius and he said magicals grew up faster than non-magicals. He believes you must still have a bit of magic left inside you." She sighed when Harry laughed, finding amusement in Sirius's theory. All magicals believe that all extraordinary things happened because of magic. "Stop laughing! I'm seriously concerned right now. I know you stole AIM's computerised files and I know they were working on the bioelectrical enhancement Extremis serum. I Don't want to assume but it seems to me that you may or may not have perfected the Extremis. Or is this something else you made like many have attempted since Captain America."

Harry frowned. "Using other people's work is a shortcut I see as cheating, you must know that by now." He gave her a hard stare and nodded when she didn't look away. "Even if I work on all AIM's uncompleted projects, Extremis will never be one I'll use on myself. I don't want superpowers. There are billions of ways to get one or more but I don't. I want to show the world that a normal person could be greater than any superpowered being."

"This is an accident isn't it." Yelena was not asking. Harry noticed that she was piecing things together. "Something happened."

"I'm evolving, Yelena. I'm changing."

She gave him a stare. It was not wide-eyed but just as expressive. "What caused it."

"This is what happens to almost every human being, their mind evolve. Their body is unable to handle it so they end up developing mental illnesses and disorders. I have found a way to solve this issue. My body now evolve along with my mind so that I'll not go the way others went. My mind evolve on its own and my implants use the foods and drugs I take to upgrade my body. It's slow, it's natural, it's evolution." Harry said that last part to lighten the tensed atmosphere.

"Are you sure you are fine, truly?" Yelena queried and received a nod from Harry. "This is good then. Soon people will look at you and see the future. Non-superpowered humans will be encouraged by this and will stop this their growing campaign against mutants and mutates. Now tell me, your natural abilities must be evolving too. Is that not a superpower?"

"Vision is superpower if you look at it from a hydra's perspective, hearing too if you are a salamander," Harry pointed out. "My senses will evolve with me to become mighty things like empathy, precognition, clairvoyance, and many other things. My normal healing properties might even become tissue regeneration. I won't call this superpowers, just natural abilities."

"If you say it's safe then I will have to believe you," Yelena said. Harry could see that she was still worried but it was to a lesser extent.

"So you were concerned for me," he teased, cupping her chin. "Whatever did I do to become so important to you, my White Angel?"

She was still and quite tensed. It made Harry wonder if he overdid it. "Your evolution is making you bolder it seems, Potter. Good for you. Don't just get too big for your breeches," she finally replied.

"That will be nice won't it. Being too big for my breeches," Harry retorted gently.

"Someone is feeling naughty, hmmm," Yelena said, grinning as her Russian accent came on.

Harry moved closer, his hand remained on her face. "And a girl is being given permission to get naughty too."

Yelena rolled her eyes. She looked away for a time and looked back at him, a smirk plastered on her face. "Are you sure?"

Harry sensed the maliciousness behind the smirk but gave it no heed. He'd later wish he paid more attention to his growing empathetic powers. "I'm sure no one can stop you from doing anything."

"That is indeed true," she said, leaning forward. Like a snake her head sprang up to headbutt him.

He fell down with a cracked nose. If it was a normal human that did that he may not have felt it. White Angel's durability was on another level and far different from a normal person's. This was proven by his bleeding nose.

"Get up. If you have the energy to be horny then you certain have the energy to train," Yelena said sweetly.

Harry got up quickly to avoid a kick she sent his way. "What more training? I have perfected all the known fighting styles in the world. All I need now is experience. You pummeling me won't get me that."

Yelena stood back with a thoughtful look. "You are right. I can barely keep up with you nowadays. What you need now to progress in your training is not something I can help you with."

"What is it?" Harry asked as he felt his implants taking care of his nose injury. They obviously were due for an upgrade if they took this long to heal him. That was something he was going to put his focus on throughout the rest of the day.

"I think you are ready to take things to the field," Yelena informed him, her bright smile matching the one her words evoked on his face. "Active Field Duty. You have been ready for it for a week now."

Harry smiled at the opportunity this will bring. The thrill, the action. This might birth a new phase of his life. A phase he was ready for.

~Break~

In a small town-like space in Richmond, right near the River Thames, a great development was going on. Robots stood around printing machines, printing building parts room by room. Other robots were picking up these parts of buildings like wings and hallways and putting them together as if they were Legos. Like this a skyscraper was built and arranged in just five hours. Hundreds of robots were doing the same all over. Hundreds of building and streets were already built and hundreds more were being built.

On the rooftop of one the finished buildings, stood the young genius Harry Potter, his bodyguard, his godfather and his two lawyers.

"This is the strangest and yet the most impressive thing I've ever seen," Sirius Black expressed, staring at the robots as they assembled buildings.

It was a great show of loyalty to their boss that Everett Ross and Janice Lincoln did not look bothered by the presence of the alleged mass murderer. Then again it might be because Harry gave them a dossier about the magical world just the previous day. If this dossier contained information about Sirius's innocence then that information did not get there by mistake.

"I am seeing it and still can't believe it," Janice said. "When they spoke of your genius they underated your capabilities, Mr Potter. I'm glad I took the job when you offered."

Harry smiled at the praise, welcoming it. He didn't do much to upgrade the Taskbots. He only just made their body extra flexible by replacing their steel parts with a flexible metal he created. Then he created a new programme which he added to their software package. This programme was a watered down version of his photographic and adoptive muscle memories. He made them mimics. Anything they watch someone create, they could create too.

Even he did not expect this amazing efficient competence from them when he upgraded them and built the printing machines that were using.

"I am glad we were able to evacuate the people who lived here peacefully," Ross said.

Harry could not help snorting. Evacuating everyone that lived in the estate had been anything from peaceful. It had taken three whole months and he'd had to sell some of his Potter Fibre to a few big companies so that he'd be able to pay the occupants of the estate. Some still sued him, but according to Ross it was a peaceful venture because he didn't draw the attention of the media and the government. It would have been difficult and might have taken years if Harry was not willing to bribe the occupants and if he lacked friends in high places.

Even this massive renovation would have caught the eyes of certain people if Harry didn't have a massive hologram obscuring everything.

In the three months it had taken to send all those people away, Harry finished setting up the headquarters of his future businesses.

The headquarters was in the street he bought from the Figgs in West London. With the Mayor's permission the street was fenced and closed off to the public then the businesses and individuals living there were bought off, bribed, and paid handsomely. After that Harry used his hologram to hide things and set his Taskbots loose on the street. The buildings were complete and job recruitment was ongoing. His lawyers came to meet him here today to submit to him the registration certificates for the companies.

Ross handed over the bulk of files he held to Harry. "These are the certificates. From tax to registration to licences, this is everything."

"You couldn't find the time to digitalize them and send them to me," Harry whined as he took the seven inches high certificates in one hand and began flipping through them.

"I assumed you will have an easier way of converting them to computer file format," he said with an unapologetic smile.

Sirius moved forward to read the files over Harry's shoulders. "What names did you finally pick for them?" He asked.

Janice answered the question. "Empire Holdings and its subsidiaries. The subsidiaries are Imperial Technologies, Dynast Enterprise, Hadrian Pharmaceuticals and Potter Industries."

"So much. I thought you were just starting two, one for technologies and the other for drugs," Sirius queried.

"There are two more," Harry added. "Both are operating companies. I wanted to add a shipping company but they convinced me to just make it a part of Potter industries."

"How will you be able to handle the workload though," Sirius asked seriously. "I am the heir of House Black, well Lord now, but when I was the heir I was forced to sit with my grandfather as he ran the family businesses. He had only few hours of rest everyday and House Black was not even the House with the most businesses, just the richest."

"Acturus Black clearly did not know the meaning of delegation. I'll have executives, directors, and managers running things for me," Harry told Sirius as he stopped going through the files. He looked at Ross. "Unlike Acturus Black, I understand delegation, that is why I'm appointing you, Everett Kenneth Ross, as the acting president and COO of Empire holdings."

Ross gave him a look of surprised bewilderment. It looked so alien on him that Janice laughed and Yelena smiled.

"I don't know what to say, sir," Ross admitted when he dropped his awkward look.

"Say yes then," Harry prompted. "You are qualified for the job because you have experience from your work with the UN. That might have been governmental and not corporate but it does not really matter."

"I accept," Ross accepted. "I promise I won't fail you. You won't regret this, sir."

"Good," Harry said with joy. "I feel glad to know I'll have you by my side as my empire start expanding. Janice, you are going to remain my private lawyer and will be taking up the position of my personal assistant. You might be brash and temperamental but what matters is that I have a certain level of trust in you and your abilities."

"I'm glad to remain under your employ, sir," she said in a joking manner.

Harry gave her a nod. "Helena," he addressed his chief security officer, "you will submit a budget of things you need to increase my security. And I'll be there when you interview each recruit when it's time for recruitment."

"Said budget is already waiting for you in your email. I've been thinking of broadening your sucurity for a while now in preparation for your entrance into the business world," Yelena in her Helena disguise said. Harry was the only one she wanted to trust with her true identity. He didn't object to this because he had no right to and was not interested in doing so. "I have several people in mind already for recruitment."

"That is something I'm looking forward to," Harry told her. Yelena had an impressive resume. KGB assassin, SHIELD agent, HYDRA agent, and AIM councilwoman. She must have met all kind of people in her line of work so Harry was interested in seeing the ones she'd choose to recruit for his personal security. "Sirius, you will be in charge of our covert operations and espionage bureau. Helena will guide you and show you the ropes but you will be the Director of Empire's Management of Paramount Intelligence and Regulated Espionage Services. I hope I can trust you to do this work seriously."

"I will do it seriously," Sirius promised. "When I'm on duty you won't hear any serious-Sirius jokes from me. And I'm happy you didn't pick a name like Empire's Great General Security Service. Director of EMPIRES is way better than Director of EGGSS."

Janice laughed at that and Ross shared a smile with Harry, knowing that Harry's first choice of name had been Empire's Department of General Intelligence and Security Services. EDGISS just never sounded right and now it sounded too similar to Sirius's EGGSS.

"Your first job as director will be creating a security department, General Bureau of Security and Investigation." Harry ordered. "After that you are free to carry on as you see fit but I and Helena will continue to review your work."

"You have given us all these tasks, sir, but what will you be doing aside overseeing our work and spending hours in your labs?" Janice asked in curiosity.

"I'm going to turn this place into my playground," Harry giddily announced. "This is going to be a micro city. This is going to be my Empire City."