With the news of the stock market crash, I tried my best to act natural and read on my tablet for nearly an hour. Eventually, Mom returned and with the news over, Danny headed upstairs to continue his studies with Dad; after exchanging a few pleasantries with Mom I headed back to my Capsule house.

  When I opened the door, I was greeted by a "Ding" and an "AwA" as the three unnatural lifeforms looked up from their test chess match.

  Joining the party, I sat at the table and started looking up the situation. Seeing me looking at the screen intently as I started searching, Kuramon came over to me, its rge red eye seemed to scream, “What happened?”

  Petting his squishy little purple body “You’re going to have to give me a moment because I think I know what we’re going to have to do today. Hopefully, it's not too bad... yet...”

  It would be expected for prices to start dropping, Danny said it began around the time people first started developing powers, which would drive uncertainty and fear for the future and investments would decrease accordingly. The stock market itself is easy to understand but requires lots of information to master. At any given moment public opinion could change and cause a crash or a rise. With a strong certainty in the future, investments soar, with low certainty they crash. But I think there was something more to this.

  There wasn't a single industry that was left unaffected as I began checking and scrolling through various options and different sites. They were all either deep in the red or had a drastic drop within the st two weeks. It went beyond a bear market; prices were off a cliff everywhere. "It's unnatural..."

  The general public's fears alone wouldn't completely crash the markets, the general populous doesn't have enough capital amongst themselves to achieve something like this... This had to be pnned and coordinated. I sat and started thinking about 'Who' would do such a thing and everything started clicking into pce.

  The who, what and why started to feel obvious. Individuals who could burn several billions without batting an eye, crashing the markets to sweep in and take the benefits ter: Rich Elites. Using vast wealth and personal connections, they come together to control the environment of the stock market or any other market if they so choose. It's not like rules and regutions mattered to them, when they could buy the people in charge of creating and enforcing them.

  And little did these elites care about the average person's life. Our existence meant about as much as an ant to them.

  As for the why… "War?" With just about everyone awakening an ability of some kind their position at the top would be threatened. With all that, it was obvious what was happening, "a pnned market crash created to instigate global instability?"

  Greed really will make people do crazy things… “Fuckers… I didn’t start the fire, But I sure as shit have to put it out now." I’m probably the only one who can. Little did most people realize how much global stability hinges on the stock market and the trade it provides.

  Lost in thought for a moment about how to solve this, I remembered the GME surge from a couple of years ago.

  The groups involved would try their best to not lose too much money. While they have pulled their money out of the markets, they wouldn't pull themselves out of the game entirely. They likely are trying to short most stocks right now to reap the rewards in the future. "Finding out what stocks are being shorted and investing them… No, I don’t have enough money." I only had several grand in my bank account. Not enough to cause a massive loss or gain. I might be able to find some online communities- promising them returns on their investment... I could try, but I’d just sound like a con artist.

  “I’m going to have to do this alone.”

  “awa?” Kuramon seemed to be curious about what I was thinking.

  "Well, not exactly alone." I had an idea. Hacking wasn't a viable option, but if I combined the three of them conquering the stock market might not be a dream.

  Pcing a new drive into Porygon and giving it a set of coordinates, I sent it off to cyberspace through the computer screen.

  “I wonder, is what I’m about to do considered insider trading?” Definitely counts as espionage and probably several other crimes. At the very least I should be able to confirm my suspicions once it returned. Now I needed capital and lots of it.

  I wonder if some Swiss banks would mind me borrowing some?

  “I’d be better off searching for offshore accounts in the middle of nowhere...” Actually, that didn’t sound like something that would be impusible. Hidden secure accounts that weren’t used anymore due to the owner dying but the bank account was never closed. The possibility wasn't zero, just low.

  And that would help with the main priority, anonymity. To protect myself from anyone trying to trace everything back to me. I needed to be able to invest rge amounts without being found directly. Having multiple bank accounts would help with that. I should probably set up some private servers too. As for security, I could have it monitored by two digital monsters or more...

  Fortunately, everything I needed could be found online. Unfortunately, the setup was going to take hours. Even with two of me working on it.

  “Before that,” I turned towards the Beldum whose metallic exterior kept it stoic. “It’s time to teach you how the stock market works.” Teaching it the minimum of buying and selling and some basic math I left Beldum my wallet of 500, some algorithms, and a dream. It would need more teaching, but I could do that while setting up equipment.

  Even if everything was in the red there were still market fluctuations, there were still small waves on the endless red sea. They were hopefuls attempting to make even a modest gain. But I would have to take it away. Eventually, once all these small waves were collected into a rge one, were they useful.

  Hopefully, after everything is fixed, I can give some back. Or, once the information gets here. With that, we will have enough to start maniputing the markets (using insider information). I could add some posts online anomalously in hopes that even just a few people follow my words. But trying to stop the world from burning requires hundreds of thousands of times the capital (and here I thought I would never need to worry about money again).

  On the left side of the room next to the only square wall in the living area, I started setting up a rge server area complete with four ptops, a VPN server, and a Data server. I even had my Bloodborn helping me connect cable while I searched for parts. I didn’t need to worry about bugs or viruses (Porygon or Kuramon could deal with them). I only needed to worry about being tracked and having enough computing power.

  I quickly realized it would take even longer than I first thought because I had to stop and watch setup videos to figure out what I needed to install and what settings I needed to change. I was trying my best to comprehend all the new information and help Beldum with the stocks. While my Bloodborn was busy executing the new information.

  I was multitasking in more ways than one.

  While I got busy setting up electronics Kuramon had started helping in its own way. First, after watching Beldum struggle in the beginning it created a program that simplified the algorithms making it easier to understand. And whenever I needed to add certain software to the setup it came over and cracked the programs (It took about two seconds...)

  For Beldum, using the new programs, it was quickly developing an understanding of what it was looking at. It even started doing some of the calcutions inside its own head after about an hour, earning back the money it had lost in the beginning.

  With the initial construction nearing completion, I was starting to grow impatient - I couldn’t wait for Porygon to come back. I needed to scan more than what one Porygon could handle. Two more pink and blue eggs were added to the room and hatched. As the finishing touches were completed on the server.

  *BRRINNG!* *DINNG!*

  After the loud announcement of their birth, I gave the two of them the same treatment as the original, having them enter a ptop and start a download. After they finished, they were on par with the original who had been sent off a few hours ago.

  Because I was looking for something specific, I had to spend some time teaching them what it was they needed to look for before they set out with the express purpose of finding bank accounts that hadn’t been moved in over a decade. Preferably on near-dead servers that hadn’t been used in many years.

  While I was sending them out, I noticed Kuramon tag along as the trio made their way into cyberspace. Hopefully, he doesn't cause any problems...

  Most of the day had passed quickly, while I worked myself ragged learning things about computers, I never thought I’d need, with the majority of work done I sat down with my Bloodborn on the couch, both of us giving a heavy sigh.

  Hopefully, I had made it secure enough and bounced the IPs across enough times to prevent anyone from tracing them back. Even if they did trace it back dealing with a Digimon would probably brick their electronics before they could do anything. Now all I needed to do was to wait for the original Porygon to return with the data.

  Checking Beldum’s progress, after losing some of the initial funds while trying to understand the system and after Kuramon created calcution programs to assist in its endeavors, it had made 27 in the time it took me to finish setting things up. Doing so in the buy and sell method it was using with very little gains was quite a success. But it was nowhere near fast enough.

  After a while, it seems to have begun calcuting things inside its head. No longer looking towards the screen for the calcutions. Flicking between the graphs that appeared on the ptop's screen using an old-fashioned mouse I found for it, the eye in its head kept spinning focusing on various stock options.

  I think it liked the mental challenge that came with the calcutions. Or it wanted my approval.

  However, while the Porygon could continue to work indefinitely, Beldum required sleep. As it made specutions for further investment, the blue metallic leg started to slump, hovering lower.

  “You tired?” I asked and it bobbed. “That’s okay,” I said patting its round head. “You've been working hard all day. You can always rest and continue ter; it's going to take some time to sort everything out.” It leaned into my touch pushing me back.

  Holding out the Heavy ball, it returned inside from a beam of red light. Looking at the ball in my hand, “I might need another one”.

  If I had two of them, while one slept the other could continue monitoring investments. Together they could make more complex calcutions before investing, and I might need two of them to evolve into a Metang...

  "I should probably try and figure out how evolution for them is going to work now that they're outside of their home universe..."

  END