The trip to Punk Hazard finished faster than Marcus expected with his ship. While slower than his small boat, it was still fast compared to normal ships. It also helped that someone was powering it for the entire journey day and night. It was mostly Yamato who went five days without rest the first time and after a one day of forced rest, jumped back on and didn't stop till they arrived at the island after nine days at sea.
During the trip itself, they didn't run into anyone at sea and the islands they found were by passed for speed. While Yamato complained a little about not stopping on those islands, Marcus promised they would visit any island they encountered once some things were taken care of. But for now, speed was more important than adventure if he wanted to make it back home in time for Ace and Sabo's departure event.
When they finally spotted the island it was just after noon and they'd just finished lunch. Yamato never left her spot and ate while she powered and controlled the ship. She was also the one to notice the island first and called out, "Island dead ahead!"
Marcus and the others were all in the galley as they helped clean up, so it took them a moment to come out to look. Marcus appeared first drying his hands with a towel as he glanced at the tiny black dot in the distance. He studied it and the eternal pose they were using before he stepped in front of the helm and changed course slightly. As the needle stayed focused on that black dot Marcus said, "I think that's our destination."
"Really? What's the island like?"
"Besides the advanced research base, it's a pretty normal tropical island. There's a few cool spots to visit around the island, but nothing really special. Honestly the research base is more interesting, they have a lot of things you won't be able to see anywhere else in the world."
Yamato's eyes lit up and she started to pedal faster as she said, "Like what?!?"
Marcus adjusted the course again to aim directly at the dot as he said, "Most of it would be hard to explain properly, but I'm positive you'll be amazed by most of it… And if we're lucky, I'm gonna take a few things we can use as upgrades for the next ship."
"What kind of upgrades?" Uta asked as she moved next to Yamato and grabbed a spy glass to look at the island with.
As the ship picked up a little more speed from Yamato's enthusiasm, Marcus also used a spy glass as he said, "Whatever we can get away with taking. Mostly quality of life upgrades like a better refrigerator and sound equipment for when we start playing concerts. But I'll gladly take anything that's useful and won't take up a ton of space."
Both of them couldn't see much using the spy glass for now, so they put them away before they went back to the kitchen to finish cleaning. About half an hour later Yamato called out to them again as she called out, "A marine ship is coming towards us from the island!"
Marcus was the first to appear again as he quickly grabbed a spy glass to take a closer look. The other girls also stepped onto the bridge as Marcus said, "We should be fine, they're probably just coming to warn us away from the island…"
"Do we need to fight them?"
Marcus shook his head slightly as he put away the spy glass and said, "No, I'm technically allowed here… Kinda…"
Marcus let out a slightly nervous chuckle as he said, "Vegapunk did tell me to come back and visit. So it should be fine, I think..."
Yamato cracked her knuckles as she said in an excited tone, "Well I'm fine with fighting them if we have to."
"We won't be fighting them, worst case I'll call Vegapunk to get us clearance."
Yamato let out a disappointed sigh and her shoulders slumped slightly but she kept peddling as she said, "That's boring."
"Don't worry, battle junkie, we can have a proper spar tomorrow. For now, slow down, we aren't in a rush."
"Great!" Yamato said in excitement as Marcus focused back on the approaching ship.
With their speed combined with that of the approaching ship, it didn't take long for them to close the distance. Marcus ordered Yamato to stop powering the ship as he adjusted the main sail to slow the ship down. As the two ships came within a few hundred yards of each other, a loud speaker from the marine ship called out, "Unknown ship, you are trespassing in a restricted area. Please lower your sails, come to a stop and prepare to be boarded. If you do not, your actions will be considered hostile and you will be fired upon. This is your only warning, you have ten seconds to comply."
Marcus and the others easily lowered the sails and tied them off in moments before the ship slowed down, only carried by the sea current. The marine ship easily cleared the distance in a few minutes before a couple lines were tossed over which Marcus and the others caught and tied off. As soon as the two ships were tied together, a man in a lieutenant's coat jumped down from the other ship and landed gently on the deck of Marcus's ship.
He quickly glanced over Marcus and the others as he started to frown before he said to himself, "Just some kids?"
Whatever he was thinking about didn't stop him from doing his job as he quickly asked, "Is this everyone on the ship?"
"Yup, but we're not trespassing. We're here to visit Vegapunk about a research project." Marcus said as he pulled out the eternal pose for Punk Hazard and showed it to the man.
At the mention of Vegapunk and seeing the eternal pose in Marcus's hand, the man's eyes widened a tiny bit before he said, "I wasn't given any information about visitors being expected today… I'll need to confirm your identities and authorization before anything else."
"Just call Sentomaru or Vegapunk and tell them Monkey D. Marcus is visiting."
The man's eyes widened again at the name but said nothing as he pulled out a snail and dialed a number. The snail started to ring and after six rings the man frowned slightly as he mumbled, "Again?"
After a few more rings someone finally picked up the line and said in a slow, lazy tone, "Moooshi moooshi, Borsalino here-ne."
"Vice Admiral Kizaru, we stopped a boat full of kids headed towards the island. One of them claims they are here to visit Dr. Vegapunk. I am calling to confirm if he is expecting anyone, are you still with him sir?"
A different voice replies a moment later, "I wasn't expecting anyone today…Did they give you a name?"
"Oldman, it's Marcus. I came back to visit."
"Marcus?!? Why'd you come back so soon? Is something wrong with the boat?" Vegapunk asked which caused the marine holding the snail to stand straighter.
"Not that I can tell, but me and my friends are heading to Paradise. Since Punk Hazard was along the way I figured we would visit."
"Oh, well then come to the island and we can catch up. I'm also interested in how well that little boat worked for you, I'll check it out while you're here."
"Thanks oldman, I'll see you soon." Marcus said before he hung up the snail the marine was holding.
Marcus smiled at the man as he asked, "Are we good to go or do you still want to search our ship."
"No, you're free to land on the island. Give me and my men a couple minutes and we will escort you to the island."
Marcus smirked slightly as he said, "Sure, if you think your ship can keep up."
"Our ship is one of the fastest in the entire marine fleet!" The man said with a hint of pride before he glanced at Marcus's much smaller ship and single mast as he added, "Don't worry, we won't use our full speed, so we can escort you properly."
"Okay."
The man helped untie the ships before he easily jumped back onto his vessel. From the deck he glanced down and said, "You can move ahead while we turn around and catch up."
Marcus smirked slightly as he glanced at Yamato and said, "Maybe we should show them what a fast ship really looks like."
"I was thinking the same thing."
"Yeah! Let's show them what the fastest ship on the Grandline looks like!" Uta said in a proud tone as Baby 5 and Jasmine nodded in agreement.
As the marine ship pulled away to turn around, Uta and the others quickly raised the main sail and adjusted it. As the sail filled up and the ship started to move, Yamato jumped back on the bike and started to pedal. Within a few moments the boat started to rise from the water and before the other ship even fully started its turn, Marcus's ship was already reaching max speed. As the marine ship started its slow turn, Marcus waved back at them and shouted, "See you on the island!"
The lieutenant's eyes widened as he watched the ship pulling away with incredible speed before he commanded, "Full sail, don't let them get away!"
As the crew moved to follow his command, a woman in a lieutenant's jacket stopped next to him and asked, "Aren't we supposed to be escorting them? Why did you make it sound like we are chasing them?"
The man pointed towards the ship that was quickly getting smaller as he said, "We can't escort them properly if they're too far away."
The woman glanced towards the ship in the distance and let out a giggle before she asked, "Are you really trying to compete with some kids?"
"Yes! I told them this was one of the fleet's fastest ships, I refuse to believe that a little single mast ship is faster."
The woman shook her head slightly but said nothing else as she moved towards the front of the ship. Once there she pulled out a spy glass and studied the ship while it quickly got smaller as it raced towards the island. It took a minute for the marine ship to fully turn around properly, but by that point it was almost under its full speed as the sails pulled tight and groaned under protest. For the next half an hour they chased after Marcus's ship but they never gained on them and the distance also increased each moment. If it wasn't for the fact they were approaching the island, Marcus and the others could have easily slipped away from the chasing marine ship.
When they neared the island, Marcus finally ordered Yamato to slow down as they adjusted the sail. Within moments the speed dropped dramatically and the ship sailed towards the harbor at a more normal pace. On the dock in the distance stood four very distinct people. The first two Marcus was very familiar with since he lived on the island for a while. Vegapunk with his massive forehead and out stretched tongue stood next to Sentomaru who was dressed like a sumo wrestler.
Next to them stood two people, one Marcus knew from the manga but never met. While the other was someone he was very familiar with and would consider a friend. The first person was Vice Admiral Kizaru or Borsalino as he tended to refer to himself. Next to him stood a young man almost even in height who had purple hair with his arms crossed over his chest. Marcus smiled when he saw Nicholas waiting on the dock with the others. When the ship pulled up to the dock and came to a stop, Marcus was the first to jump off the ship while he left the others to tie it off.
Marcus ignored the others and moved straight towards Nicholas with a smile on his face as he said, "Nicholas!"
Nicholas smiled in response as he stepped forward and stretched out his hand while he said, "Marcus, it's good to see you again!"
While Marcus was still shorter than Nicholas, he was taller than the last time they met and the top of his head was just below the other man's shoulders. Marcus reached out for the incoming hand and a smack rang out as he gripped it from below before he pulled it up almost like they were arm wrestling and applied a bit of pressure. Nicholas immediately responded and the two of them started to apply more pressure to the other as their muscles flexed. Marcus's arm slowly started to pressure Nicholas's as Marcus asked, "I thought you got stronger? Don't tell me all you did was paperwork at Marineford?"
"All I did was train with my dad and a few others while you were in a coma… How are you so much stronger?" Nicholas asked in disbelief as Marcus slowly tilted his hand to one side.
"Gramp's said the closer you are to death and survive, the stronger you get. I'm pretty sure I was dead for a little while."
Nicholas's grip slackened and his eyes widened slightly before he reached out and pulled Marcus into a quick one handed hug. After a quick pat on the back he pulled away as he said, "Well I'm glad you're not dead."
"Me too." Marcus said before he glanced over towards the other three men and added, "Why are you with Borsalino?"
Nicholas punched Marcus in the shoulder as he said, "I requested leave to come visit you, but once we got here you were already gone!"
"I had stuff to do, I couldn't be lazy and just hang around here forever."
"You should have told me you were leaving."
Marcus shrugged as he said, "I was in a rush and forgot to call people. Plus you didn't tell me you planned to visit."
"I thought it would be a nice surprise."
"Yeah, no… I don't need any more crazy stalkers just showing up randomly, the two I have are already bad enough."
Nicholas punched Marcus in the shoulder again as he said, "Fuck off."
As they started to laugh Uta appeared next to Marcus's free side and tried to hook her arm around his as she asked, "What are you two talking about?"
Marcus easily dodged out of her grasp before he flicked her forehead and said, "Nothing important."
Afterwards Marcus started introducing everyone to each other before he said, "Yamato, you should spar with Nicholas. I think you two are evenly matched."
"Uh? I wanted to spar with you." Both of them said at the same time before they looked at each other.
Marcus smirked slightly as the two stared at each other before he said, "We can spar together later."
Marcus turned to focus on Kizaru as he said, "I want to spar with Kizaru."
"Oooohhh, just meeting someone and already wanting to fight… You're scary~." Kizaru said in his slow, almost sarcastic way of speaking.
"Sorry, I was raised by my grandpa and the only thing he really taught me was how to fight." Marcus said as he cracked his knuckles.
"Do you want to fight or not?" Marcus asked in a tone that implied whatever the answer was wouldn't matter to him as he stepped closer.