J watched with wide eyes as Marcus dragged over the seventh bounty he found. The man was easily fifteen feet tall and built like a small mountain. Marcus dropped the man's ankles when he stopped in front of J and asked, "Can you make a bubble to carry this guy?"
J numbly nodded before he used his wand to start making bubbles. J first created a couple of large bubbles before he carefully linked them together which created a bigger bubble. J then took that bubble and attached it to the man before he repeated the process multiple times. Once he was satisfied, J slowly started connecting all the bubbles together and within ten minutes created a massive bubble. The bubble held the man a couple feet off the ground like Marcus's other bounties and J was able to pull it with ease.
Once that was settled Marcus nodded in satisfaction as he said, "Nice work, let's keep looking."
"You're the boss."
Marcus glanced towards J as they headed towards the next bar before he asked, "How'd you learn how to make bubbles like that?"
J shrugged as he said, "You pick up all kinds of skills when you need to eat."
"You must not have many skills then."
J frowned slightly as he asked, "And what's that supposed to mean?"
Marcus gestured to J's sunken cheeks and slender arms as he said in a joking tone, "It looks like you barely eat, skeletor."
"Skeletor?" J mumbled slightly to themselves before his eyes widened and they said, "Fuck off, I eat just fine."
"Could've fooled me."
J let out a huff as he said, "I eat enough to live, that's all that matters."
Marcus nodded slowly before his observation haki picked up a large group of people who were approaching quickly. Marcus turned in the group's direction but buildings were in the way so he couldn't get a proper visual. After a moment Marcus stepped forward as he said, "Hold back, a large group of people are coming."
J's eyes that were always looking around narrowed as he scanned the area again before he asked, "What are you talking about?"
Marcus pointed towards the buildings blocking their view as he said, "I sense about a hundred angry people approaching from over there."
"Sense? What the hell are you talking about?" J asked as people started pouring out from between the buildings.
J raised an eyebrow and took a second look at Marcus as someone with a captain's hat yelled towards Marcus, "Finally found you, you little shits! You think you can just capture one of my crew members and there won't be consequences?!?"
J instantly stepped back as more pirates flooded out from behind the buildings and the captain stormed towards Marcus. Marcus calmly looked at the man before he pulled out bounty posters and started to leaf through them casually. J on the other hand started to have a panic attack and started to creep backwards slowly as he prepared to run. While J didn't know every pirate with a bounty, they at least knew the ones to avoid and the person approaching them was certainly one of them.
The captain was from the long leg tribe and easily stood over twelve feet tall with a bulky build. While his legs were muscular, it looked a little weird compared to his upper body that was extremely bulky, so bulky in fact that his arms looked tiny in comparison. It would honestly be funny if not for the fact J knew the pirate approaching was a Grandline veteran with a bounty of over three hundred million. While J heavily debated on running Marcus finally found the man's bounty poster and pulled it out as he let out a low whistle.
Marcus quickly glanced from the bounty to the pirate who was only a few dozen feet away before he said, "And here I thought I would only catch some small frys today."
The pirate captain stopped within spitting distance of Marcus as he snarled, "What did you say you little shit?"
Marcus put away the bounty posters and glanced up at the man twice his height as he said, "Damn, you really skipped leg day huh?"
The man's right foot flashed forward faster than J's eyes could keep up and he closed his eyes for only a moment due to the wind it kicked up. When he opened his eyes, J found Marcus calmly standing on the man's outstretched leg with a smirk on his face. The pirate's eyes narrowed as he attempted to flick his leg to throw Marcus off. Marcus for his part kicked off the man's leg at the same time and sent the man stumbling forward only to receive an uppercut from Marcus that sent him into the air.
J watched in wide eyed fascination as Marcus kicked off the air to appear above the man before Marcus's whole body twisted into his next punch. As the captain approached closer to Marcus, his whole body seemed to uncoil as his body twisted downwards with his fist. Time seemed to freeze for a moment as Marcus's fist connected with the man's face before a thunder clap rang out. The next moment J was knocked off his feet as a massive crater appeared before him and shot debris everywhere.
Marcus landed in front of J to block everything for them before he reached down and helped him stand back up. Immediately upon standing up J looked down at the crater and found the pirate captain unconscious with blood pouring out of his mouth. J's mouth opened but couldn't find the words to speak as Marcus turned towards the other pirates. The ones who were still standing and could see Marcus clearly flinched back at his gaze before he said loudly, "Whoever has a bounty step forward."
That statement seemed to lit a fire in the pirates as they all quickly turned around to run in fear. They only managed to take a single step before Marcus blasted every one of them with his conqueror's haki. From the entire crew, only three people didn't pass out but still collapsed to their knees. Marcus didn't waste time and flashed forward and quickly knocked the three men out before he dragged them back to their captain. A quick search later and Marcus found that those three added over two hundred million to the bounty reward he would collect.
J stared at him with wide eyes before Marcus said, "Bubble those four up and let's go turn them in."
"What about all of them?" J asked as he pointed towards all the other knocked out pirates.
Marcus shrugged as he said, "Even if they have a bounty, it would be a hassle to transport them all. Better to just let them get caught by the marines since they won't have their heavy hitters to protect them anymore."
J hesitantly glanced over at the pirates for a few moments before he asked, "Mind if I claim them, since you don't want them?"
"Do whatever you want, just make it quick."
J nodded before he ran over to a nearby tree root and started to make bubbles. He quickly made enough to carry the pirate captain and the others Marcus knocked out personally before he made another twenty bubbles. After getting Marcus's bounties together J asked, "Can I borrow those bounty posters?"
Marcus handed over the bounty posters and J quickly flipped through them before he pulled out a few posters. J then handed the rest back to Marcus before he quickly ran over to the group of pirates and started searching. It took almost half an hour, but J found the five other pirates in the crew with bounty posters. They didn't add up to that much, a little more than fifty million, but J happily collected them before he followed Marcus to the marine base.
J happily hummed a little tune as they walked which caused Marcus to unconsciously hum along. J quickly noticed and stopped from embarrassment after a moment but Marcus didn't and after a while started humming a new tune. J listened to it for a little while before he asked in his slightly gruff tone, "What song is that?"
Even though it technically wasn't his song, no one else in the world should know that so Marcus boldly claimed, "Just a new song I'm working on called, Big Iron."
"Big iron?"
Marcus nodded as he patted his sword as he said, "It's the song about hunting a bounty with a trusted weapon."
"But I haven't seen you use your sword at all…"
Marcus chuckled as he said, "If I used my sword it wouldn't be half as fun."
J frowned slightly before he said, "You're weird."
Marcus let out a full belly laugh similar to Garp before he said, "Thanks, I appreciate the compliment."
"It wasn't a compliment…"
Marcus and J fell into silence after that and unluckily for Marcus didn't run into any more pirates before they reached the marine base. As they approached the main gate they attracted a large group of marines with the collection of pirates in bubbles behind them. One of the gate guards stepped forward after a few moments before he loudly called, "Halt, state your purpose."
Marcus pointed over his shoulder as he said, "We're here to turn in bounties."
The guard glanced at all the pirates hovering in bubbles for a few moments before he said, "Umm… Give me a minute."
The guard quickly ran behind the gate and after he disappeared more marines stopped to see what was going on. After a couple minutes a pretty large crowd had gathered together whispering to each other and made J nervous as he asked, "Is this normal?"
"Maybe… I normally don't turn in this many at once unless I catch them with my brothers."
J's eyes kept glancing around at the growing crowd as he asked, "Is there a chance we might run into an issue?"
"Depends if the base commander is corrupt or not, but this close to HQ I doubt it…"
Before J could reply a commanding voice roared, "Stop rubbernecking and get back to work!"
The large group of marines quickly scattered and as they dispersed a group of people stepped out from behind the gate. The original guard took back his position as two people approached Marcus and J. One of them was someone Marcus never met before but knew of, while the other wore a big smile on their face when their eyes landed on Marcus.
The man in the lead was at least two feet shorter than the younger man behind him. But Marcus could feel through haki that the muscular man with reddish brown hair and large sideburns was strong. He had a broad chin with an x shaped scar on it and his sharp blue eyes were focused on Marcus. Currently without his distinctive clothing from the manga, X Drake was dressed in a pretty normal marine uniform with an open collar, no hat and his coat freely hanging from his shoulders.
The younger man behind him was someone Marcus knew well and when they locked eyes Marcus smirked before he said, "You've gotten stronger since the last time I saw you."
"So have you…"
"You know this boy, Nicholas?" Drake asked as he stopped before Marcus.
Nicholas nodded as he said, "Yes Commodore Drake, this is Monkey D. Marcus. Marcus, this is Commodore Drake."
Drake's eyes widened the tiniest bit as he studied Marcus and stuck out his hand while he said, "It's good to meet you… Nicholas has mentioned you a few times."
Nicholas wore an embarrassed smile as he rubbed the back of his head before he said, "Only once or twice…"
"More like every time you train."
Marcus chuckled at that which caused Nicholas to turn away before Marcus pointed at J as he said, "This is J. J, this is Commodore Drake and that is… Oh, Captain Nicholas. Congratulations on the promotion."
"Thanks, it just happened a few months ago." Nicholas said as he reached over and shook Marcus hand as he gave a friendly nod towards J.
Drake glanced over at the pirates as Marcus and Nicholas shook hands before he asked, "These all your bounties?"
Marcus pointed towards the largest group as he said, "Those are mine, the rest our J's."
Drake nodded before he said, "Alright, then come in and let's get them processed."
Drake turned around as he glanced at Nicholas and said, "You can take the rest of the day and the next couple days off to catch up with your friend."
Nicholas snapped a salute and a large smile covered his face as he said, "Thank you, sir!"