Marcus ended up buying ten more barrels of rare alcohol before he called it a day and let the guards go. Afterwards he explored a bit more of the city and ate lunch at a nice restaurant before he headed back to his ship. As Marcus relaxed in his hammock he pulled out his den den mushi and made a call.
"Marcus!" A cheerful voice said which made Marcus smile before he asked, "How are you doing Uta?"
"Sore… Training sucks."
Marcus chuckled as he said, "You've never trained under my grandpa… He can make you rethink your life choices."
"Is it really that scary?"
Marcus thought back to his recent training where he almost died and said, "Worse than you can imagine… But it shows solid results so I shouldn't complain."
"So besides training, have you done anything else lately?"
"Dad's been taking us to a few new islands recently. We also clashed with a few pirate crews and I even beat up a few people." Uta said in a proud tone.
"Oh? How strong are you now?"
"I've already reached the fifth level of the training harness and use it everyday." Uta said in a voice that sounded like she wanted to be praised.
"Not bad at all. My brothers can barely use the fifth level now."
"What about you? Are you on the fifth level too?" Uta asked in a curious tone which made Marcus smile before he said, "I've reached the seventh level and can walk around with it."
"What?!? How is that possible?"
"Grandpa put me into fights against a really strong pirate that almost killed me." Marcus said before Uta asked in a deathly cold tone, "He… He did what?"
"You remember that fight I told you about with that fishman?" Marcus asked as he closed his eyes and relaxed more into his hammock.
"Of course I do, how could I forget?"
Marcus nodded slightly to himself before he said, "Well after that fight I realized my strength quickly increased and I asked my grandpa about it… He confirmed my theory about life and death battles and that they can help you grow stronger."
"So he… He let you almost die?" Uta asked in a dangerous tone.
"I'm pretty sure he had everything under control… But I definitely had my life flash before my eyes a few times during those fights."
Uta's voice was tinged with anger as she said, "And you just went along with that shitty old man's ideas? What if you died? I would have become a widow!"
Marcus glanced at the den den mushi that looked like it was about to cry and let out a sigh before he said, "I asked him to do it… But I also trusted him to not let me die."
Marcus narrowed his eyes as he added, "And how the hell would you become a widow? We aren't even married."
"Because we're already married in my heart!"
Marcus was speechless as Uta added, "Also, tell me grandpa's number. I need to give that shitty old man a piece of my mind!"
Marcus immediately decided against that because he was positive that would be a terrible idea. Mainly because he knew Garp wouldn't care, but there was also the chance Garp would care… And he would blame Marcus for everything. Marcus shook his head as he said, "Just forget about it. I asked for the training and it made me stronger, so don't make a big deal out of it."
"But he…" Marcus cut her off as he said, "Did what I asked him to do. If anyone should be blamed it's me."
Uta huffed before she asked, "Then what do you have to say for yourself? Shouldn't you be apologizing to me?"
"For what?"
"For making me worried!" Uta said in an annoyed tone.
"You didn't even know until I just told yo…" Uta cut him off as she said, "That makes it worse!"
"I regret nothing!" Marcus said with a laugh.
"You jerk! Idiot! Stupid!" Uta started to say as she went on for almost a minute with different insults. When she finally finished Marcus smirked to himself as he asked, "Do you feel better?"
"No! I wanna hit your stupid handsome face!" Uta said in an annoyed tone as Marcus imagined her puffing out her cheeks.
"I'm handsome now? When did that happen?"
"Who called you handsome, you idiot?" Uta asked in a flustered tone.
Marcus chuckled as he said, "I'm pretty sure the cute idiot I'm talking to called me handsome."
"Cute?!? You…" Uta started to say before her tone changed back to angry as she said, "Don't bully me you jerk!"
"You bullied me first!"
"Because you made me mad!" Uta said it like it explained everything perfectly.
It took a little while but Marcus calmed Uta down before they practiced a few songs together. Once Marcus hung up with Uta he called Garp and Ace to let them know he was doing alright. The last call he made was to Frank to let him know about the insulation issue on the bridge and the crazy weather he ran into.
By the time Marcus was done with everything it was close to sunset, so he went back to the fancy restaurant with a view to have dinner. After dinner Marcus called it an early night since he planned to leave first thing in the morning.
Much to Marcus's surprise, no one from Baroque Works showed up to talk with him before he left. He noticed one of their ships in the port, but maybe it was because he was basically unknown. It didn't really matter to him though, since if they approached with an offer to join he would have told them no.
Marcus's next trip was to Water Seven and after following Alabasta's cost for half a day the needle on the log pose finally pointed towards the open sea, so Marcus steered the ship towards his next destination. The trip started out almost exactly the same as leaving Twin Cape with weird weather popping up randomly once Alabasta disappeared from view.
Over the next day and a half, Marcus didn't even run into another ship until just after lunch. While Marcus was cruising at top speed he noticed two ships slightly to starboard on the horizon. He initially planned to ignore them but the sound of cannon fire caught his attention, so he changed course to see what was going on. As he approached the ships he used his spyglass to get a better idea of what was going on.
One ship was a merchant vessel flying Alabasta colors and the other one was a pirate ship that was chasing after them. With a better picture of the situation, Marcus headed to intercept the pirate ship. With his ship it took less than fifteen minutes for him to draw close to both ships and for the pirates to fire on him.
With his ship's speed and size it wasn't hard to dodge a few cannon blasts before he reefed his sail. His ship was only fifty feet from the rear of the pirate ship at this point so he left the bridge and used geppo to land on their deck. Not all of the pirates noticed him, but those who did turned to attack before they were sent flying. As those pirates crashed into other people the whole deck took notice of Marcus.
Marcus glanced over everyone for a moment and cracked his knuckles before he asked, "Do you guys wanna do this the easy way or the hard way?"
A tall thin man near the helm pointed at Marcus as he said, "Kill him quickly, we still need to catch our target!"
"Hard way it is." Marcus said with a smile before he turned into a blur.
Pirates started flying all across the deck into each other or the railing, masts and walls. Marcus was like a ghost as he swept through the entire crew and within ten minutes he was the only person still standing. After Marcus reefed the sails, he headed back to his ship and pulled it alongside the pirate ship before he tied it off. By that point the merchant ship had already pulled away and didn't plan on stopping.
Marcus watched them leave and almost thought about chasing them himself since he didn't want to deal with these pirates. If he wanted to turn them in for a bounty it would just slow him down. With those thoughts in mind, Marcus moved over to the captain who was knocked out and smacked him around a bit to wake him up. When the captain woke up Marcus tossed him to the deck and said, "Wake up some of your crew and then go collect all your treasure for me if you don't want to be turned over to the marines."
"Fuck you!" The pirate captain said before he spit towards Marcus.
Marcus disappeared from view before the captain went flying with a handful of his teeth flying from his mouth. Marcus grabbed another pirate who was passed out on the ground and woke him up the same way. He didn't argue and quickly woke up a few more people to help him as they opened the main cargo hatch. A few more people were then woken up before they headed into the hold and started sending up treasure.
While they weren't the richest pirates he ever looted, they still had a decent amount of valuables. It took almost an hour to transfer all the gold, jewels and other luxury items they had that Marcus wanted. They still had a bunch of other stuff, but Marcus wasn't interested in it so he left it. After he knocked out everyone again, he took the captain and two other people with decent bounties. He tied them all together and then placed them on the canvas deck in front of his bridge.
Once they were secure and he was sure they wouldn't be able to escape or fall off the ship, he disconnected from the pirate ship and pulled away. After he was a certain distance away he made some food and ate before he checked his log pose and continued his journey. His three prisoners woke up and started struggling against their ropes at some point. But Marcus ignored them and didn't stop peddling until well into the next day.
At that point he paused to make another meal and take a break from pedaling. As for the pirates, he didn't worry about them. A few days without food wouldn't kill them and they could easily drink the rain and snow that fell on them. The next two days passed quickly as Marcus focused only on speed again and thankfully didn't run into more ships until he was close to Water Seven. Most of them were merchant ships, but a few of them were pirates. Even though they were pirates, since they weren't attacking anyone Marcus left them alone.
When he finally reached Water Seven itself and its massive gates loomed over his ship, he took a moment to appreciate its unique design. It was still years before it was seen in the series and more of the original island was still present. Marcus headed towards one of the first docks he found and after securing his ship he found the dock master and asked, "Excuse me, do you happen to know if there's a marine base or bounty station on the island?"
The older man shook his head as he said, "No there isn't. But marine ships stop by about once a week and dock by gate one on the opposite side of the island."
Marcus glanced up at the massive gate that led higher into the island with the number four on it before he said, "Alright, thanks for the information!"
Marcus handed the man some money before he took his ship and quickly made his way around the island. When he came into view of gate one, Marcus spotted another dock and five marine ships currently docked there. The marines were in the process of loading supplies when Marcus reached the dock and tied off his ship. After he unstrapped his 'cargo' from the canvas deck, he forced them to stand and marched them towards the marines.
Some of them glanced towards him but continued working as he led the three pirates towards the largest ship. Once there he called out to one of the marines and asked, "Who do I talk to about turning in bounties?"
One of the marines who was directing the others stepped forward and said, "The captain handles bounty claims, I'll go grab them."
The marine quickly headed into the ship and a few minutes later returned with a couple of other people. Leading them was a woman Marcus was very familiar with even though they've never met in person. And behind her was someone Marcus knew who paused for a moment before they asked, "Marcus? What are you doing in the Grandline?"