Marcus spent over a week without interacting with almost anyone else as he ate and trained in the gym. Vegapunk was busy in his lab with the Mera Mera no Mi and basically didn't seem to leave his lab at all. It wasn't until Sentomaru, Vegapunk's bodyguard who looked like a sumo wrestler showed up, that Marcus finally talked to someone.
He showed up in the gym one day while Marcus was working out and asked, "Huh? Aren't you that kid who was brain dead?"
Marcus racked the weights he was curling before he said, "I got better."
Sentomaru frowned slightly as he studied Marcus for a few moments before he asked, "So why are you still here? Is Dr. Vegapunk keeping an eye on you while you recover?"
"I've pretty much recovered, I'm just freeloading food and the gym equipment while I wait for him to finish something for me." Marcus said as he studied Sentomaru for a few moments before he asked, "You look strong, you wanna spar?"
Sentomaru frowned as he proudly said, "I have no idea how strong you are, but I have the tightest defense that no one can break! It's why I was assigned to be Dr. Vegapunk's bodyguard."
"So you're saying you don't want to fight a kid half your age?"
"I didn't say that!" Sentomaru said as he crossed his arms over his chest before he added, "Besides, it's not nice to beat up little kids."
"Oh, so you are scared of losing." Marcus said as he slowly nodded his head.
"I wouldn't lose to you!"
"Then prove it, let's go outside to the island and spar then." Marcus said as he pointed towards the hallway that led to one of the exits.
"There is a fighting ring right over there, why would we need to go outside?"
Marcus started walking towards the exit as he said, "We would probably break something if we fought in here."
Sentomaru frowned but reluctantly followed Marcus down the hallway towards the exit. Neither of them spoke as they walked and once outside Marcus led them over a mile away from the lab before he said, "This should be far enough."
Sentomaru glanced around the small clearing of trees before he shrugged and raised his arms in front of himself. His palms were out facing towards Marcus as he bent his legs into a horse stance. Marcus took up a boxer's stance of his own and started to throw out some punches as he loosened his arms up. After a few moments Marcus shared a glance with Sentomaru before they both nodded towards each other.
The next second Marcus disappeared as the ground beneath his feet exploded and Sentomaru's eyes widened before his right palm moved to block an attack. It sounded like a massive gong was rung as Marcus's fist struck Sentomaru's palm. Sentomaru widened his eyes even more as he was pushed back almost an inch from the blow. But Marcus wasn't done as he disappeared again and punched Sentomaru on his left side this time only to be blocked again.
The next few minutes Marcus repeatedly attacked Sentomaru without stopping as he tested his defenses. In the middle of one of his attacks he finally said, "You really do have a good defense, I see no real weakness."
"I told you, I have the world's tightest defense!"
"Maybe, but that just makes me want to try and break past it even more!" Marcus said in an excited tone as he pushed himself to move faster and punch even harder.
Sentomaru instantly felt the pressure as his observation haki was barely keeping up and Marcus's hits felt a lot heavier. Some hits landed with enough power to even force him to step back. Sentomaru was completely on the defensive for almost half an hour as Marcus relentlessly attacked non-stop. It wasn't until Marcus paused for a moment to power up another attack that Sentomaru decided to retaliate.
As Marcus threw out a right hook towards him, Sentomaru shifted slightly and threw his palm forward towards Marcus as he said, "Ashigara Dokkoi!"
Sentomaru's palm never even made contact with Marcus's fist before he was sent flying away flipping through the air by the haki shockwave. The attack rattled his bones and knocked the wind from his lungs before he slammed into a tree and then passed through it. Marcus hit a few more things before coming to a stop as he sucked in a ragged breath.
Sentomaru frowned as he sensed how far Marcus traveled and wondered if he might have over did it. That was the case until he heard a wild and unrestrained laugh that came from Marcus on the ground. Marcus slowly stood up and cracked his neck before the ground exploded around him sending debris flying high in the air. A second later a haki infused fist slammed into Sentomaru's palm and caused him to stagger backwards since he wasn't prepared.
Sentomaru's eyes widened again as he asked, "You can use haki!?!"
"Yeah, so what? You can use it too."
Marcus started to exchange haki infused attacks with Sentomaru who shot back, "But you're still a kid, you shouldn't be able to use haiku yet. Much less even know what it is!"
"It's just haki, even my little brother knows how to use it and he's an idiot."
Marcus and Sentomaru traded blows over and over again with no clear winner in the exchange before Sentomaru shifted his weight again and yelled out, "Ashigara Dokkoi!"
Marcus was in mid air as the attack came towards him, but instead of taking it head on he dodged it with geppo. Part of the shockwave still hit him, but he guarded himself with haki so it didn't affect him like last time. Sentomaru's eyes widened as Marcus shot under his extended arm and struck him in the belly. But Marcus only found himself punching a haki coated iron wall instead. While Sentomaru looked overweight, apparently his belly was almost solid muscle.
As Marcus retreated from a retaliatory strike, Sentomaru said, "Impressive, you managed to slip past my outer defense. But that only happened because your ability to use one of the six styles threw me off."
Marcus smiled before he used soru to speed up as he almost teleported to the side of Sentomaru as he punched him again. Sentomaru couldn't keep up with the new speed physically, but he easily blocked the attack with haki and his body's natural defense. Sentomaru was forced to go on the defensive again as Marcus teleported around him in a relentless stream of attacks.
While Marcus couldn't land a solid blow against Sentomaru's impressive defense. He was building up a small amount of damage as he tested him out and got used to fighting with haki again. Once Marcus felt comfortable again he finally used internal destruction against Sentomaru but not at full power. He only wanted to test his defenses, not harm him in a serious way.
Marcus slipped underneath Sentomaru's guard with soru and landed a punch on the man's stomach that staggered him. The blow, even though light ended up knocking the air from his lungs and almost caused him to double over. Marcus instantly halted his assault and waited for Sentomaru to recover as he said, "Thanks for the spar, it was nice to get proper exercise."
Sentomaru took about a minute before he finally replied, "You're a little monster, six styles, haki along with its advanced forms… Just who exactly are you?"
"Monkey D. Marcus, musician and bounty hunter. It's nice to meet you." Marcus said as he stuck out his hand.
Sentomaru stuck out his own larger hand and as they shook hands he asked, "Sentomaru, bodyguard for Dr. Vegapunk… Are you related to the marine hero Garp?"
"He's my grandpa, you didn't meet him when I was dropped off?"
Sentomaru shook his head as he said, "I was gone when you first arrived and I never bothered to ask about you. I only knew you were brain dead because Dr. Vegapunk mentioned it one time."
Marcus nodded slightly before he said, "Well thanks for the spar, we'll have to do it again sometime."
Sentomaru glanced around at the over fifty yards of ruined forest before he said, "Sure, I could use the practice…"
Marcus turned towards the base as he asked, "It's about lunch time, you wanna go eat?"
"Sure."
Marcus ended up hanging out with Sentomaru for a few hours before he went back to training. Over the next two weeks Marcus and Sentomaru ended up sparring once a day. Marcus tried to keep his power around Sentomaru's as he practiced fighting with his fists. He still trained with his sword also, but he didn't like fighting weaker people with his sword because it was boring.
It was almost the end of the third week since Sentomaru showed up when Vegapunk came to find Marcus. Marcus was in the middle of training in the gym lifting weights on some futuristic machine Vegapunk invented when the man arrived. His long tongue hanging from his mouth as he said in an excited tone, "Marcus! I've finished what you asked for, come to my lab to see it."
"Just a second." Marcus said as he finished his set before he sat up from the weight bench and stood.
As Marcus moved to follow Vegapunk to his lab, he used a towel to wipe sweat from his forehead as he asked, "So everything went well, you cloned it perfectly this time?"
Vegapunk shook his large head as he said, "No, unfortunately it was still an imperfect clone."
They stepped into Vegapunk's lab as he added, "The power will still be the same, but the flame's colors will be different."
They stopped in front of a special glass container, inside of which rested the Mera Mera no Mi and to weird colored, apple shaped fruits. Marcus glanced over the two apples and frowned before he asked, "Why did you make two of them?"
Vegapunk waved away the apple on the far end that was mostly yellowish white and covered with red and orange circles as he said, "That was the first attempt, it's a true failure."
Vegapunk pointed towards the second apple which was mostly blue with purple and white circles as he said, "This one is only a failure in color, the flames will be mostly blue and white instead of the normal orange and yellow."
"Don't blue and white flames burn hotter than the other colors?"
Vegapunk nodded as he said, "They do indeed, but this is the power of a devil fruit, not standard flames."
Marcus slowly nodded as his eyes were drawn to the defective clone fruit as he asked, "So what's wrong with that one? Why is that one a failure?"
"I can't tell how powerful it is and the flame colors would contain red, orange, yellow and white."
Marcus frowned slightly as he studied the fruit and asked, "Why can't you figure out how powerful it will be?"
"I don't know, every sample I took just wouldn't give an accurate reading so I gave up and made the other one."
Marcus shrugged as he asked, "Weird. Well it doesn't matter, we now have a proper clone to use. Want me to go get my sword so we can do it now?"
"Yes, I'm excited to see if this works properly."
Marcus nodded slightly before he ran off to grab his sword. When he returned Vegapunk was setting up a chamber to contain his sword and the fruit in case something went wrong. Marcus stopped by the devil fruit container with the three fruits inside as he waited. But after a moment his sword started to shake in his hand so he held it up to see what was wrong. The sword tugged his hand as its hilt slammed into the glass and pointed directly at one of the fruits.
Marcus glanced at it and frowned slightly but his sword shook again as it tapped against the thick glass of the container. After a few seconds Marcus said, "Alright, if that's the one you want."
Marcus felt a wave of relief from the sword as it stopped shaking and stared at the defective fruit his sword apparently wanted. With a slight shake of his head he waited for Vegapunk so he could tell him what his sword wanted to do.