Heist on the High Seas [Closed]

Owen understood that he was being scary. He didn’t want that. While at times an officer frightening their soldiers into action was called for, this was not such a moment. Now was the time for cooler heads for better plans. That was what he was taught after all. “Sorry… I shouldn’t have done that.” he said, both to Adrian and the crew that were cleaning up the mess he made.

The crew made a curt grumbling noise to indicate that yes, they very much agreed with him, but Owen had to turn his attention to the task at hand.

Once they were all gathered on the forecastle, Owen turned to talk to them. “At this point of the ship, the wind’s coming up from behind us, so nothing we say can carry over the rest.” he explained. Jimmy understood this immediately, having studied audiophonics quite a lot in his spare time. Therefore whatever they said here could only be heard in the seas ahead of them, which was currently bare.

Owen then turned to face that sea, trying to gather up the words that were boiling in his mind. He wanted to unleash wrath on those pirates for what they had done, but he knew that a rash decision was almost always a poor one. Especially in Recon, when there was usually very little to bring up as backup for a sudden assault. They had to play this carefully. Eventually, he spoke, turning around so his words could be heard to them, rather than be carried forward across the sea.

“In another life, I was a Recon officer.” Owen began. “The eyes, ears and nose of the army of the Digital World Republic. Non-officers were expected to be just that, but as an officer, it was my job to do so much more. Point the eyes in the right direction, know when to be silent when there were things to be heard, know what direction the wind was blowing so we’d pick up the scent of what we needed. In this life, I hoped to never have to go back to doing that, but they took our partners, our companions, my son. Therefore, I intend to use all I have to rescue those they took from us.”

Owen felt more comfortable pacing as he spoke, taking 10 steps forward and backward as he spoke to those he trusted assembled.

“A successful officer knows what their enemy is thinking.” Owen continued. “Right now, those pirates think they snagged a pretty good set of hostages. A human, partnered digimon, people they know have others that care deeply for them and will do anything to get them back, even pay a hefty ransom. But they won’t be careless about it. They know we’re pissed off. They know that we’ll hurt them at the first opportunity, so they’ll arrange something where we can’t hurt them until we’re reunited with those they took from us and they’re safely away.”

The claws of Owen’s feet tapped into the wood as he paced around the forecastle. He wasn’t afraid of being overheard here by other than those present, the wind simply carried his voice forward across the sea.

“We’ll defeat them with what they don’t know about us.” Owen pressed on. “For one thing, none of us used cards. We have those. For another thing, they don’t know how far we can evolve. I for one can evolve to MirageGaogamon, a Mega level, and I could destroy their ship with ease, but I will not do so until we have our loved ones back.”

With that said, Owen turned to the others.

“So then, that’s my cards on the table. How about yours?” he asked, hoping to hear more of what they were capable of. He of course knew that Hawkeye was not at his full power without Kaya, nor was Adrian capable of feats without Shoutmon. He was more curious about Luna as well as Carlos and Gio. However, Jimmy raised an idea.

“Hey, do you have cards, Adrian?” the Musimon asked the human. “And if you do, do you think they could work on Hawkeye?”

Owen’s attention was turned to this, he was interested to hear how this could work. “Yeah… that’d be neat if it could.” he said. “Also, what’s Shoutmon and Dio’s abilities?” he asked Adrian and Carlos. “And, Hawkeye, do you know any talents of Kaya’s that could help them on the inside?”

---

Matty appreciated Shoutmon being there for him like that. It reminded him of… his own father. The one he had just insulted and badmouthed. He at once thought about what it would be like if their positions had changed, if it was Matty up there being the powerful digimon taking care of his son, what would he done differently? He could think of nothing. As he realized this, he began to cry as well.

“Shoutmon… I shouldn’t have said that to dad.” he murmured. “I know he cares about me, god… what have I done?”

Matty knew Owen loved him. He remembered those wonderful nights in Ys just before bedtime when Owen would call up him and Jimmy to sit on his lap as he read them stories from a human fairy tale book. He was patient with them, even pausing the story to discuss what absurdities they had just heard, and chuckling together as they decided it was some silly joke of humanity that they appreciated as digimon, therefore they built up a liking of humans in that way.

“Dad’s a good person… but… would someone still want to help someone after what I said to him?” he asked. "I told him... he just wanted his favourite son Bezil here instead of me and Jimmy."

It felt hard to repeat the words, and he felt his stomach twist in guilt as he repeated it, with all the negative feelings that came along with it - that Matty thought Owen played favourites with his children.

As bad of a situation as this was, there was some comfort to be found now that Owen got back his footing and seemed to take the lead in planning a counter attack. The military background certainly helped too. At any rate, what the gaomon brought up only made sense: their best chance at catching the pirates by surprise was using...well everything they didn't get to use during the ambush really.

"Oh oh!" Gio finally spoke up once Owen began asking the rest about what they could bring to the fight. He seemed to be in a lot higher spirits now that someone was taking control of the situation, too. The dino raised his hand trying to get everyone's attention, before proudly adding, "Dio can go up to Neo Devimon without our help!"

"Yeah but he probably won't risk doing that unless he knows we're up to something, so don't worry, I'm sure he won't do anything reckless before we get close...hopefully...unless they piss him off hard enough." Really he was hoping either Dio would know better, or that he simply forgot about that ability because he was too busy being enraged. Both were equally likely outcomes, really, so they probably didn't have to worry about him accidentally punching a hole into the ship just yet.

"Besides that we got well, an assortment of literal cards. Nothing particularly outlandish but
I'm sure they'd be strong enough to keep them out of the fight for a moment. Also the twins can get up to mega but...I'd advice against it for now, I don't think either of the ships could carry that much weight. Ultimates might just do the trick though, they have enough firepower to sink that ship twice over." He gave a nod, before he asked, "Do we have a more elaborate plan than that or just wing it once we get close enough?"

---

For the most part Dio spent the majority of his time behind bars repeatedly knocking and then kicking a bar after the other, trying to find perhaps a single weakened one that they could use to start an escape. It proved to be a fruitless endeavour of course, but it at least kept him distracted from everything else, if only for a moment. After around five minutes of trying however it became clear his feet would go numb before he could make a dent on their prison, so he eventually gave up and turned his attention back to the rest of the group, all of them still in different levels of distress over their current predicament. One of the worse for wear however seemed to be Matty, who almost seemed to be convinced his previous fight with Owen was enough to warrant child abandonment from his father. At the hands of pirates no less!

The imp shook his head. Damn, is that what having a full family unit was like? Perhaps he actually had gotten somewhat lucky that he never met his father. Or mother. Or anyone blood related for a good deal of his life, really! But even him knew better than to be a tactless idiot and bring any of that up. Didn't stop him from sharing his own take on the situation though.

"Kid, I'll be real: I don't know nearly enough about fatherhood or your dad to say what he would or wouldn't do." He shrugged, walking away from the cell bars and sitting next to Matty. "What I do know is that any family worth it's salt would bury any and all hatchets, disagreements, arguments and what have you immediatelly as soon as something more important came up. Like oh I don't know, someone getting kidnapped, perhaps! And what I can tell about your dad is that he doesn't strike me as the kind of guy to leave any member of his family behind. If he hasn't thought of a way to get you out, then he most certainly will think of one."

"Now both of you chin up, will ya? Nothing makes captors happier than their hostages sinking into depression. So don't give them that satisfaction."