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Harry Potter looked at the paper held in his hand. He was supposed to feel excited, he was supposed to feel like he had achieved something breathtaking. Rather he felt emotionally weak, sad and a bit angry.
It looked like the work of a twisted fate-changing being that the day he receive his latest doctorate degree his alleged dead parents walk back into his life only to abandon him again because he lacks something thought their lives revolved around.
He might not have magic but his accomplishments spoke for themselves. He'd always been aware of the fact that his parent were indeed alive and had dropped him off at his aunt's like yesterday's trash. He knew because he had a strange memory. From the day he was born till now, every single moments, he remembered the visuals, the audios, the smells, the tastes and everything.
His eidetic memory was not the only strange thing about him though. When he was just a baby and Voldemort tried offing him, after he attacked his home on Halloween night when he'd been left all alone with dear uncle Peter, his magic was lost due to a backlash from the killing curse but he gained something else, Voldemort soul.
Not his entire soul, anyway, just a fraction of it. The soul could have taken over Harry's magic-less body but the the magic in the soul ran out after succeeding in trying to stop the young body from breaking apart from the backlask. The small soul merged with Harry's as a last act of magical defiance. Harry lost his magic but he gained something that helped him greatly in all his thirteen years of existence, all the memories of Tom Marvolo Riddle. With his eidetic memory each one was and could be recalled perfectly.
After he was dumped with Petunia and her charming family it didn't take long for him to be enrolled into the local school. He burned through classes at a rate that could make a Hyperspace engine look slow. At the age of six he was done with Highschool. Tom Riddle’s memories served him well, but let it not be said that his own intelligence didn't play a huge part in his education. Tom Riddle never attended Highschool or college. Tom's memories only have him a boost and made education quicker for him.
At the age of nine he received his doctorate in physics. It was his first. At the age of eleven he had his fourth, biochemistry. After then he moved on to teach in Oxford for two years. He resigned to focus on furthering his studies and learning engineering.
His thirteenth year now in life he began studying genetics and astrophysics and then he receives his doctorate in mechanical engineering only for his parents to spoil the day by appearing in his condo in West London.
They gave excuses, asked questions about him having witnessed strange phenomenons, rudely cast spells on his then dump him back at the Dursleys and tell him not to leave for his own good.
In his mother's words, ‘ You are too young to be living on your own, I don't even know where you got the money. And young man stop lying to me about having finished college.’
Harry sighed and folded the document in his hand, making sure not to squeeze it. Thankfully the Dursleys were not home to ruin his day even more.
He stood up from the chair he'd sitting on for the past hour and made his way out of the sitting room. James Potter had been kind enough to use his magic to break into someone's house house.
He stepped out of the house and began walking through privet drive. The street was exactly how he'd left it. Same houses, sane colours, same background. Distasteful and somewhat monochroic.
He stopped a cab and was glad he had his wallet with him. The cab took him to the nearest subway station and from there he took a train to London. He had to stop another cab again after leaving the train.
It was already evening by the time he got to his rented condominium. He opened the door that he didn't have the chance to lock when he was rudely kidnapped by his parents and dropped off in Surrey.
He dropped his certificate on the tv stand and sat down on a chair in his barely furnished sitting room. He was a young boy who had no need for extravagance.
As his head touched the headrest he felt a disturbing quiet around him. It took him moments to realise that he felt a presence in his house.
Let's this don't be these bloody magicals again or I swear I'm going...
He paused his thoughts when someone who was dressed like a bee keeper stepped out of his dining room holding a futuristic handheld device, with which as it was held and pointed at him, Harry guessed might be a weapon of some sort.
“I don't think you are animal control, are you?” Harry asked.
From behind the bee keeper guy two more, dressed exactly like him, stepped forward. Both held something Harry recognised, automatic rifles. It looked like something straight out of Stark facility.
“Now I'm confused. Are you animal control or did I accidentally announce that I'm hosting a costume party?” Harry wondered aloud while inside he was beginning to become nervous. He didn't need to be the smartest person in the UK to know something was wrong or about to become so. He was the smartest person in the UK though and he knew that something was extremely wrong and things could get worse soon enough.
“Professor Potter, sorry for the inconvenience,” the first bee keeper guy said. His voice was boring, everything about him was boring but Harry tried not to get distracted by this. Boring people too could be dangerous.
“Well, you are already in so I can't say come in,” Harry stated calmly.
“You have been giving the honour to work among the brightest minds in the world,” the boring man continued talking like Harry never said a word. “AIM have noticed you are a bright mind yourself. You have a great potential and are still young. Your mind can be expanded even more if you come with us. You will be well paid for your services and will love the challenges we place before you.”
It was left unsaid that he wasn't being given a choice. For a moment, just a moment, he thought about showing defiance. Rationality, thankfully, took hold of him. He don't know their capabilities, he don't know if they were just and illegal organisation or a terrorist group. He will dance to their tune for now and gather some info but his time away from the Dursleys gave him a taste of freedom and he was not going to be someone's puppet again. Not for long.
“I don't suppose you will let me lock my door as we are leaving?” Harry asked sincerely.
The AIM agent gave him an incredulous look. The young Potter shrugged and the two AIM lackeys behind the agent moved to his side. They guided him out of his apartment with the agent ahead.
They took the the elevator down to the last floor and followed a door in the backway of the building. Since Harry gained his emancipation and moved into his condo, he'd never been through this way before.
They went crossed the backstreet of the building and walked to a black van. Harry was roughly placed in the van. One of the lackeys stepped in after him and shut the door. The other lackey came in in from the right, trapping Harry in the middle.
“You couldn't even place me near the door so I'd have a view of my home city. That very unkind of you, when we all know this might be the time I see Old London Town again,” Harry admonished them mockingly.
They agent for in behind the wheel and turned back to look at Harry, totally unamused. They stared at each other for a while before Harry broke the silence. “You never gave me your name, Sir Agent.”
“You have been corporative so I'm sorry for having to do this. Understand that I'm just following protocols.”
“That does not sound like a name...” Harry was cut off as an electric energy lurched from the strange weapon the agent never let go of and moved to impact his head.
Harry pretended to be blacked out as the van zoomed off, carrying him to a place unknown.
Lights clouded his vision immediately he opened his eyes. Having been victim to worse that bright waking moments at the hands of his relatives, the young doctor just blinked and sat up. It was good to that he had fooled this AIM people. His implants had been able to make it seem like he was unconscious when he was not. It was a disappointment to see that the doctor they brought to run tests on him was dressed like a bee keeper also.
“Clear bill of health for yong Dr. Potter,” the doctor announced to the empty room.
At least Harry thought so till he heard a voice from the speaker he quickly noticed up on the wall. “Is he ready for the initiation?”
Harry blinked. He could have sworn that it was a terrorist scientific group that abducted him and not a type of cult.
“He is ready. The scans we have taken of his brain show that there will be no negative effect on him during and after the initiation process,” the doctor confirmed as he moved over to look at the screen of a computer in the other side other room.
This place looks like a lab. Just my luck to be used by a scientific cult for an experiment the same day I receive my newest doctorate, he thought.
“Gentlemen,” Harry said aloud so that whoever was talking through the speakers would hear him too. “I was told that had been invited to join some type of science corp. I don't understand now why I'm hearing talks about brain scans and initiations. I don't want to think that I've been deceived.”
“Relax Dr. Potter. The initiation is just a procedure that must be followed by all those who are given the opportunity to work with Advanced Idea Mechanics,” the voice said, its words echoing around the lab.
“And who are you, oh mystery voice,” Harry Potter inquired as he shifted to sit up on the bed. Thankfully it was a bed and not a surgical table.
“You shall find out who I am after the initiation not before. Just be patient Mr. Potter you have a promising future ahead of you. Who knows, you might lead AIM in the future. That's if we here at AIM don't find out how to defeat that meddlesome entity called Death, which I'm certain our great minds are capable,” he went on saying. It was as if he was now talking to himself. “Others have done it so I don't see us having any problem in figuring out the secrets of immortality. Anyway, you will be prepared for the initiation Mr. Potter but first you must go through some tests. We need to see if you have the brain power to work for us here in this facility.”
“Are we talking physical test or medical tests?” Harry questioned jumping to his feet. The doctor moved from the computer to stand by his side and Harry got a chance to really see the computer. It was flat screen with a hardlight holographic keyboard.
The techs in this place existed him so much that he was loosing his nervousness. He'd always liked high techs, they were his joy and hobby. At seven he created his first computer with parts of a television, a cellular phone, a calculator, and an x-ray machine. And when he was ten he sold the patent for a mineral synthetizing machine he created. The Pottertizer, as some idiot in the media later named it, could turn coal to diamond, could turn chemicals to rare minerals. The Pottertizer was a huge help in getting him his doctorates in mineralogy and chemistry. With his knack for inventing high techs it came as no surprise that he was itching to start studying the state of art gadgets of AIM. Still he had the sense to keep being cautious and careful.
“Physical tests are what you are going to be doing. We will test your creative intelligence and see how smart you really are before you are fully initiated,” The bee keeper doctor told him, his blue eyes looking glazed behind his protective goggles.
Huh, so the imperious curse or a mind control like it can now be mimicked with science. Harry of course jad watched documentaries of Word War 2 and HYDRA, he knew that then they used a form of mind control on some people, but all report said that it was a crude electronic device not something this effective. Looking into the man's eyes he felt his nervousness return like a storm.
He shrugged off his worries when he remembered that his mental implants had been programmed to to fight any external changes to his brain waves and mental frequencies.
Harry almost flinched when an order came from the speakers. “Take him to the testing lab, doctor.”
The doctor led him out of his lab and through a series of corridors and hallways, up flights of stairs and till they got to a unique lab. The lab, or rather labs, becsuse it had different sections were amazingly equipped. One was clearly for engineering, all the tools were there even some Harry couldn't afford and others that were sold only in specific countries. He even saw several of his eventions including his Pottertizer. There were hardlight holograms everywhere for his use. The computers in the lab were even more standard than the one he saw in the medical lab before.
The doctor walked away and Harry heard the door close and then he heard the electrical clink of the key card.
There were speakers on the high walls of the lab area, and raised his eyes to them and spoke. He wouldn't be surprised if there were hidden cameras on the loud things. “What test have you prepared for me oh great Mysterious Voice of AIM?” the young scientists asked in a sickeningly sweet voice.
“You have a week to create a high grade weapon, an atomic reactor, a medical serum and a jet engine,” the voice commanded. “It not necessary for them to be new inventions and if by the end of the week you are able to even make one this thing's you will be highly eligible for AIM.”
“A week,” he snorted. “How about forty eight hours.”
Harry could feel the raising of eyebrows though he couldn't see the face. “You are that confident in your skills and capabilities?”
“Oh please, at five I made oxygen with just water, a burner, and a chemical fitter. At six I made tricycle out using parts of an aged motorcycle. When I was seven I combined some common chemical elements to create a replica of a cryogenic energy that iced anything it touched, that was an accident so I will classify it as an accidental achievement.”
“We are well aware of your achievements, Dr. Potter...”
Harry went on, ignoring Mr. Voice in the Shadows. “That cryogenic energy, which could only be found in space before I replicated it, was used to create a cooling system by me when I was eight. At nine I created an energy scanner by creating different types of sensors, including kinetic and atomic particles sensors, and combining them to form a unique scanning device. At ten I created a drug that is currently one of the best painkillers in the world. At eleven...”
“ENOUGH! Get to your test, we will watch and see how much of a child prodigy you are,” the voice ordered and went silent.
“I was just beginning to explain to you how much of a genius I am. It's not my fault if you can't handle my greatness. You won't be the first to find my curriculum vitae stupefying,” Harry muttered stepping into the middle of the lab. “Time to get to work then. Who knew when I envisioned myself as a child Tesla with some sprinkles of Einstein, that I'll be kidnapped by an organisation called AIM with clearly devious aims. Guess I should have seen this coming. Now Potter, get out of the madness you got from the abuse your relatives dealt you, quit the bad puns, and show this mad scientists that you are madder than them when it comes to science.”
He walked to the storage closet that held the protective gears. Sadly it was the same bee keeper gear all AIM workers wore. Harry hesitantly started putting it on.
When it comes to fashion AIM far exceeds the levels magicals on the madometer. Here I thought I'd never get to see people with a worse dress sense than my dear ancestors.
He wore the ugly outfit, that was thankfully made of a strange fabric that he was certain would protect him from the accidents and chaos of labs experiments and inventions. With a resigned state of mind, Dr. Potter went to work.