Chapter 18

As Markus made his exit, he made sure to stop by the base of the stairs and collect his crates of fruit. He hadn't checked to see if he'd managed to snag Doflamingo's Devil Fruit or not, he could check later. With his crates in hand, he made his way to the outside of the walls surrounding the bay. Once he arrived, he canceled his Lightning Armor and looked for a safe spot to tuck his crates in. He knew a few Devil Fruit users would end up dying during this war so he planned to take his chances on snagging some of their Devil Fruits.

Once the crates were hidden, he jumped to the top of the wall and sat down to observe the start of the war. He wasn't planning to participate much just yet. His goal was to mess with Sengoku until the old man was apoplectic. Markus was surprised by what he saw. The Whitebeard Pirates were dominating against the Marines. Then again, with what Markus had done, the Marine's morale was low while the pirate's morale was soaring to the point it almost made them high!

Even so, it wasn't as if the pirates were crushing the Marines effortlessly. The weaker members serving under the commanders were suffering casualties from random bullets and the assault of the Vice Admirals. It was a little surprising that the Admirals hadn't jumped into the fray immediately. After listening to Sengoku giving commands, he understood why. They were still going to attempt their original plan. The Admirals needed to stay back and draw the pirates into the bay to deal with them all at once.

Markus was impressed with Sengoku being able to hold back his rage to attempt to complete the plan. He wasn't going to let Sengoku succeed, but he was still impressed none the less. When Oars Jr. appeared on the scene, Markus decided the giant would make an excellent distraction for what he had planned. Oars Jr. was drawing a ton of attention and making a ton of noise as he trudged toward Ace on the execution platform. Markus gave Oars Jr. a thumbs up from behind and leaped off of the wall.

As he landed on the ground, Markus looked over the water and focused his attention on a Marine ship hiding in the distance. Aboard that ship were many marines, Sentomaru, and twenty Pacifista's. They were his next targets. He hadn't looked at the two Pacifista's he'd already claimed but he wasn't against claiming more materials for use later! It was also a big expenditure for the Marines to lose. Taking out those twenty Pacifistas was equal to taking out twenty battleships!

Markus transformed into a streak of lightning and flew through the air to land on the deck of the Marine ship. His arrival surprised the Marines guarding the ship. Before they could understand what was happening, a powerful wave of Dominators Haki rippled out of Markus and knocked all of them unconscious. The only ones to remain conscious were Sentomaru and the Pacifista hiding within the ship. Markus could hear Sentomaru shouting from below the deck asking what had happened. Markus didn't bother answering him.

With his footwork activated, Markus became practically invisible while running into the ship. One moment he was on the deck of the ship, the next his fist was connecting with the back of Sentomaru's head. The force of the blow sent Sentomaru flying through the air until he collided with the wooden wall of the ship and created a crater with his unconscious body. Markus couldn't have him contacting Kizaru or Sengoku.

The Pacifista nearby began to move as they recognized a threat. It was all for naught though. Markus could handle them as if they were babies back on Sabaody, now he was even stronger and faster. His body flashed through the room. Every time he appeared for a brief instant, a high amperage blast of electricity would strike the head of a Pacifista and destroy the human brain contained within. In seconds, all twenty Pacifista were fried while Markus stood in the middle of their bodies.

Sentomaru groaned as his eyes slowly opened, "What... happened?"

He looked around and saw Markus standing in the middle of a pile of Pacifista's, "YOU! What did you do?!"

Markus smirked at Sentomaru, then ignored him to store the Pacifista bodies inside of his inventory. Sentomaru was still dizzy from the blow to his head and watched, helpless, as Markus took every last Pacifista under his command. As they disappeared one by one, Sentomaru started to panic, "No! Stop! You can't do that! Uncle will be mad at me!"

Sentomaru referred to Kizaru as his uncle. Markus didn't know if they were really related or not and he didn't care. Once the last Pacifista was safely tucked away inside of his inventory, he turned to face Sentomaru once again, "Time to go back to sleep. I can't have you informing Kizaru or the others about what happened here."

Sentomaru's eyes widened a moment before Markus's fist slammed into his face and blasted him through the wall of the ship and into another room. Markus calmly walked through the large hole and searched Sentomaru's unconscious body. He smiled when he found the Den Den Mushi Sentomaru used for communicating with the others. He tucked the Den Den Mushi in his pocket before he picked up Sentomaru and carried him to the deck. He went about putting all of the unconscious marines into lifeboats and launching them. Every few minutes he used his Dominators Haki to knock them back out. He hadn't spent much time leveling it previously but now was as good a time as any.

Once all of the Marines had been removed from the ship and all of their Den Den Mushi's confiscated, Markus stored the entire ship inside of his inventory. Compared to the gold in his inventory, the ship wasn't worth much, but it was still worth something so he planned to disassemble it and sell it. Or maybe use it as crafting materials. Either way, it was yet another financial blow to the Marines.

With the ship safely inside of his inventory, Markus transformed into a bolt of lightning and returned to his spot on the wall to check the progress of the war. Oars Jr was in a fight against the giants of the Marines. He was winning handily but Markus decided to give him a little help. Oars Jr. was a good man, what happened to him in the canon story was pretty depressing. Markus wanted to at least help him out a little.

With his decision made, Markus gripped the sheath of Shodai Kitetsu in his left hand while placing his right on the handle just beneath the tsuba. Lightning wrapped around his body as he combined Lightning Armor with his footwork to push his speed to the extreme. Last he checked, his base Agility sat at 467. With his Lightning Armor, it increased to 1,494. Add on his footwork bonus, just to his speed, and it grew equivalent to a monstrous 6,304. Aside from speed-boosting Devil Fruits like Kizaru's, there probably weren't very many people who could even hope to keep up with him.

Markus blasted off of the wall causing a loud sonic boom as he accelerated. Without the Lightning Armor boosting his perception and reaction times, controlling such a speed would be difficult. However, from his point of view, everything seemed to have slowed down significantly. He currently perceived the world at over three times the speed of a normal person. He rocketed over the surface of the frozen sea leaving a tall plume of ice shards behind him.

Markus's flashy reentrance into the battle didn't go unnoticed. Attacks came at him but they always aimed at where he used to be, not where he currently was. The plume of ice behind him swept past the giants from behind and was followed by bright white streaks of light and screams of pain. Every giant on the side of the marines simultaneously fell to the ground and screamed in agony. Markus swept past each one of them and severed their Achilles tendons with sharp slashes from Shodai. While the giants were falling he retreated and appeared on top of the Moby Dick next to Whitebeard once again.

Whitebeard glanced at Markus before returning his gaze to the ongoing war. Without Kuma, Mingo, or Moria to attack Oars Jr., he was dealing massive amounts of structural damage to the walls as he charged directly at the execution platform and Ace. It was up to the Admirals to stop him as there were very few people who could actually manage him. Aokiji and Kizaru worked together to attack and stop Oars Jr.

While that was happening, Markus looked at Sengoku and decided to give the old man a small heart attack. Like Whitebeard, Sengoku had merely been standing in place and observing the carnage happening below him. Markus wanted to show Sengoku that, unlike Whitebeard, he wasn't as safe as he believed. He retrieved a bullet from his inventory and charged a half-power Railgun. He wasn't planning to kill Sengoku. He had something much worse in mind for him. With a flick of his fingers, Markus launched the Armament Haki coated bullet through the air.

There was the crack of a sonic boom before a streak of red light blew the seagull off of Sengoku's hat and blasted the building behind him into pieces. Sengoku's whole body jolted in shock at the near-death experience. Markus just grinned in Sengoku's direction. His message was clear, 'I can kill you whenever I want.'

It might seem like a waste of energy to coat a bullet in Haki when he just planned to shoot a hat but there was a reason for that. With the power of his current Railgun skill, the bullets launched by it would surpass hypersonic speeds and become heated by passing through the air. If he didn't coat them in Haki, the bullets would quickly reach critical temperature and begin to melt and deform. The deformations could easily mess with the trajectory of his shots causing them to go off target. They could even completely disintegrate. Coating them in Armament Haki increased their resistance and allowed the bullets to travel further without deviation.

Sengoku's eyes locked on Markus as his body trembled in a mixture of rage and fear. Mostly rage, especially seeing the smile on Markus's face, but he was old enough and wise enough to recognize fear when he felt it. Just a few inches lower and it wouldn't be his bird that was blown to pieces, it would be his own head. The shot had traveled so fast that he hadn't even had time to register the threat to his life...

As Sengoku was coming to terms with what just happened, there was a loud commotion above everyone as a Marine ship was falling from the sky. Markus looked up at the people screaming loudly as they were falling directly toward the solid ice, among them some faces he recognized both in person and from the anime. Naturally, he instantly recognized his Captain, Luffy, as he was screaming. He also recognized Crocodile, Mr. 3, and Buggy among the crowd.

Among the crowd, he recognized two people from the anime while the rest were basically nameless extras. The first was Emporio Ivankov, better known as Ivan-chan. It wasn't hard to recognize Ivan's face among the rabble, mostly because half of Ivan's body was composed of his... her... face. Ivan was a large man, over fourteen feet tall, with an indigo colored afro and huge eyelashes. Ivan looked like a caricature of Tim Curry in his role as Doctor Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The second individual he recognized from his memories was Jinbe. Jinbe was a nearly eleven-foot tall whale shark fishman that Luffy made friends with inside of Impel Down. Jinbe had a rounded body that was reminiscent of a sumo wrestler but thinking of him as one would be a mistake. He was a true master of Fishman Karate and a powerful warrior both above and below the surface of the sea. As far as Markus could remember, Jinbe always wore a kimono with a cape and a pair of geta on his feet.

Markus paid attention to where they were heading and noticed they were going to crash onto the solid ice. He didn't remember how they fell into water in the canon but since they were heading for solid ice, he decided that he needed to help them survive the fall. Luffy would be perfectly fine, he was rubber, but most of the others would die on impact. To help them out, Markus charged a Lightning Blast and amped up its heat before firing it at the thick ice boring a huge hole through it. If Akainu's much cooler, relatively speaking, magma could melt the ice easily, Markus's lightning did it even easier. There was no comparing the temperatures that their two powers could reach!

After the ship crashed into the water, there was a brief moment of shocked silence as everyone on both sides tried to process what happened. Markus crossed his arms over his chest and waited. He didn't have to wait long as Jinbe rescued Luffy and Buggy from drowning and pulled them onto the deck of the broken ship. Once he regained some strength, Luffy looked around until he spotted the execution platform, "A~~~~~C~~~~~E~~~~!!! I FINALLY FOUND YOU!!!"

"LUFFY!!"

"We're here to save you!!"

Markus enjoyed the scene of brotherly affection while Garp was being yelled at by Sengoku. Yet another trouble maker had appeared at the war and it was Garp's grandkid. It was no wonder Sengoku was infuriated. Markus looked at Whitebeard and grinned, "Looks like my idiot captain arrived. Now the real show begins."

Whitebeard chuckled but Markus's words intrigued him so his eyes drifted over to take a glance at Luffy. As he did, Crocodile came flying across the frozen water and appeared behind Whitebeard. If Crocodile was being honest with himself, he had trouble choosing who to try to ambush. In front of him were two people he despised. He decided on the one he considered to be the 'bigger' threat of the two and the one the had a grudge against longer, Whitebeard.

Crocodile swung his Hook at Whitebeard while Whitebeard and Markus didn't move. Neither of them were the least bit intimidated or afraid of Crocodile. Hell, Markus had easily handled Crocodile before he'd even gotten his Devil Fruit. He could smite the crap out of Crocodile now and it would barely be an inconvenience. Neither man needed to act though as Luffy came flying through the air. His body had taken on a red hue and was emitting steam as he used his Gear Second to arrive near-instantly and kick Crocodile's hook out of the way.

Crocodile's sandy body reformed on the figurehead as he looked down at the still wet Luffy, "We had an arrangement, did we not? Why do you defend Whitebeard?"

Luffy had no idea the tall old man was Whitebeard, of course, so he looked at Crocodile with a little surprise on his face, "So that guy is Whitebeard, huh? Then you're not touching him! This is the guy Ace really cares about!"

The scene of Luffy confronting Crocodile naturally caught Whitebeard's attention. As the old man looked down at Luffy, he focused on the hat hanging on Luffy's back, "Boy, that straw hat you wear, it bears a strong resemblance to the hat Red Hair once wore..."

Luffy looked over his shoulder and tilted his head up to look at Whitebeard's face. The difference in height between the short Luffy and gigantic Whitebeard was kind of hilarious, "Oh, you know Shanks?! He gave me this hat to look after!"

Markus felt like he was behind ignored. Then again, he was on the opposite side of Whitebeard so Luffy probably couldn't see him. He wondered when he should reveal himself. Whitebeard continued to look down at Luffy, "Are you here to save your brother?"

"That's right!"

"I hope you understand what you're up against, boy. You will simply be throwing your life away!"

To most, it might sound like Whitebeard was disparaging Luffy but the reality was, he knew how weak Luffy was compared to the top tier fighters here. He just wanted to protect Luffy, in his own way. Of course, Luffy was having none of that, "SHUT UP! It's not your job to decide that! I've heard about you! You want to be the Pirate King right?! Well, the one who's going to be the Pirate King is ME!!"

Everyone nearby who could hear Luffy and Whitebeard was completely shocked at how Luffy spoke to the old man. Very very few people would take that kind of attitude with Whitebeard. Even Markus had shown Whitebeard a fair amount of respect. Yet, here was his captain, directly competing with Whitebeard right to his face. Markus supposed that this was the difference between them. Luffy had a dream and the determination to do his all to achieve it. Markus just lived from day to day.

Whitebeard looked down at Luffy, "Well... I'll be damned. You better not get in my way greenhorn!"

"I'll do this however I damn well want! I'm saving Ace myself!"

Before taking off to charge directly toward Ace, Luffy informed Whitebeard about a message he overheard on the Marine ship's Den Den Mushi. The Marines were going to push up Ace's execution time and execute him soon. While Luffy was running full steam ahead, Marco came flying over to Whitebeard and landed near him, "Boss! The Marines received orders to proceed with Ace's execution ahead of schedule!"

"Yea, I know. Just remain calm. Their plan is to make us panic. There's no way they would be so careless and let us overhear their plans... Sengoku is just that kind of man!" Whitebeard turned to look at Markus by his side, "So, that's your captain huh? He didn't even greet you."

Markus laughed, "He probably didn't even notice me. Once he gets fixated on a goal it's practically the only thing in his sight. He might have noticed me if I pulled out some food or something to catch his attention."

As they spoke, Markus spotted one of the women considered to be a top beauty within the One Piece World, 'Black Cage' Hina, a captain in the Marines. Hina really was a beautiful woman with an excellent figure and long pink hair. Sadly, she had the bad habits of smoking and talking about herself in the third person. Her Devil Fruit, the Ori Ori no Mi, allowed her to trap her opponents in iron shackles if they passed through part of her body or the various metal bars she could create. Honestly, it was an excellent Devil Fruit for a Marine to use to capture pirates. Though, it was totally useless against someone like Markus until she could use Armament Haki with it.

Markus watched as Luffy charged ahead and had a relatively easy time doing so. There were only two Shichibukai remaining and one of them was on his side while the other was watching him like a hawk. As Luffy charged forward, Captains, Vice Admirals, and swarms of Elite Marines charged at him. Whitebeard and Markus watched in silence until Whitebeard broke it, "You're not going to go help your captain?"

Markus shrugged, "Luffy would get mad if I interfered. If things look really bad, then I'll help him out. Until then, I've got more wrenches to throw into Sengoku's plans." He looked up at Whitebeard with a wide grin, "I wouldn't worry too much about them. When he starts pulling his Marines back, feel free to charge ahead. I already took out the reinforcements he planned to lock you in the bay with."