Chapter 18

After he stepped out into the street, he started to draw some looks from a few women. Despite only being sixteen, he looked older and more mature. He brushed his black hair back and looked around with his gray eyes while smiling. The commotion should begin soon. He walked around looking for the execution platform, with some directions it didn't take him long to find it. He arrived just in time to see Alvida knocking a policeman down on the ground. Markus whistled when he laid his eyes on Alvida.

She had changed significantly since he first met her. All of the fat on her body was completely gone. She was now a tall and slender woman with curvaceous hips and a buxom chest. She was such a beauty that even women found her beautiful to look at. Wavy long black hair, bright black eyes, and ruby red lips. She was stunning. Markus pulled his hood up and moved closer to eavesdrop on the conversation.

As he got closer he heard Alvida calling up to Luffy on the execution platform, "I could never forget you though. After all, you were the first to ever hit my beautiful face."

As he listened, Markus noticed there was something a little off with Alvida as she talked to Luffy. Though Alvida wanted to kill Luffy in the anime, he remembered her doing it in a somewhat flirty and teasing fashion. But right now, the tone of her voice sounded like restrained fury. She glared up at Luffy and Markus could see the hatred in her eyes. It was not what he had expected and he wondered if the change was his fault.

Alvida continued in her restrained fury, "How would you repay me if you ruined the face he fell in love with at first sight?!"

Markus nodded, yup, totally his fault. Luffy glared down at Alvida, "Shut up! You're annoying! Who are you anyway!?"

Alvida spread her arms wide and addressed the crowd, "Tell me, who is the most beautiful woman on the seas?!"

The love-struck crowd immediately shouted, "You are!"

Alvida turned back to Luffy, "I am the most beautiful woman on the sea!"

Before she could continue she was interrupted by a group of police running out of the crowd and surrounding her. The leader called out, "Freeze! You're under arrest for harming a police officer!" He then turned to yell at Luffy, "And you on the execution stand! GET DOWN FROM THERE!"

From there, things escalated as a nearby fountain was blown up. The explosion leveled the entire police force and sent a huge piece flying at Alvida. She didn't move an inch, she had no reason to. Instead of impacting her as a flying object should, it slid right off of her and flew to the side. The sight shocked everyone, even Luffy. Alvida just smiled and looked into the crowd, "My my, wasn't that dangerous?"

From the crowd, a man with a conspicuous red nose poking out from beneath a hood that hid all of his other features spoke, "My apologies. But with such smooth skin, you should, of course, be unharmed my lovely Lady Alvida."

Markus chuckled lightly as he watched the exchange between a confused Luffy and a delusional Alvida who thought the only thing that changed after she ate her Devil Fruit was losing her freckles. After a short back and forth, Alvida cut to the chase, "In any case, I've teamed up with this man to defeat you and find my man! He should be traveling with you. Give him to me!"

After she spoke the man 'hiding' in the cloak, threw his cloak off while exclaiming, "Ever since I was blasted away, I tenaciously fought my way back to my crew all for the purpose of killing you!"

Luffy just deadpanned, "Oh, it's Buggy."

Buggy's crewmen pulled out guns and prevented the civilians from running away. As Luffy watched, Kabaji fell down from the sky and slammed a wooden restraint around Luffy, locking him down on the execution platform. Buggy laughed and shouted, "Now we will have your public execution! You should consider it an honor to die where the pirate king did!"

As Markus watched the events unfolding he picked up something with his Observation Haki and grinned. He turned to look over his shoulder at Nami, Usopp, Zoro, and Sanji all meeting up at the edge of the square. Markus turned back to watch the commotion happening with a small smile. Buggy and Luffy were being stupid while Buggy's crew caused chaos by firing their weapons. Markus's attention shifted from them to a group of marines nearby. Among them was the first Logia Devil Fruit user that Luffy would meet. Smoker would make an excellent example of how weak Luffy was against logia users currently. It would also be a good chance for Markus to show Luffy how good Armament Haki was.

Markus just stood among the panicking people watching events unfold. Zoro and Sanji revealed themselves and made their way to the execution platform while flattening the pirates in their path. He watched everything from Luffy's proclamation that he would be the pirate king to his apology to Zoro and Sanji because he thought he was about to die. Markus had his revolver in his hand and aimed at Buggy's head, just in case. It turned out to be unnecessary.

There was a massive roar of thunder as a huge bolt of lightning fell down from the sky and struck Buggy and the execution platform. It was as if the heavens themselves were supporting Luffy. Immediately after, rain began to pour down from the sky. Luffy collected his hat from the ground and gave a cheeky grin and laugh, "Looks like I survived! How Lucky!"

Everyone was shocked and stupefied at the miracle. Even Markus was a little shocked by what he'd seen. In the middle of everyone's shock, a group of marines appeared while shouting, "Surround the square! Corner all the pirates!"

Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji immediately took off. Markus chuckled and quickly followed behind them. Zoro happened to look back and saw Markus chasing them, as he was about to stop and turn around to fight, Markus pulled his hood down and grinned. Zoro didn't stop running but immediately began to shout, "You! If you were that close why didn't you try to save Luffy?!"

Markus gave Zoro a serious look, "I only just got there before the lightning struck. Before I could even pull out my gun it was too late. Luffy is just lucky he's made of rubber or that bolt would have fried him too!"

Markus regulated his speed to stick directly behind Luffy. As they ran, Marines chased them from behind. They didn't stop though, Nami wanted them to get to the ship as soon as possible. However, someone stood in their way and called out Zoro. He stopped to fight her, Tashigi, the woman that looked like a clone of Kuina, his childhood friend and rival. Markus could remember their interactions from the show and manga, he hoped they would end up together in the future. They would make such a good couple!

The three remaining members continued to run until they saw someone standing in the road in front of them. Smoker! Smoker was a tall man who wore a jacket with no shirt and always had more than one cigar in his mouth. Considering the Devil Fruit he had, it was fitting. Even his white hair matched the white smoke clouds of his ability. Luffy yelled out, "Who're you?!"

Smoker puffed on his cigars as he replied, "The name's Smoker, captain of the marine headquarters. AND I WON'T LET YOU SAIL AWAY FROM HERE STRAWHAT LUFFY!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Smoker extended his arms. They both turned into billowing clouds of smoke and wrapped firmly around Luffy preventing him from moving. Markus and Sanji kept running at Smoker. Sanji spun through the air and swung his feet at Smoker's head. Smoker had the same arrogance that most Logia Devil Fruit users had. He didn't fear the kick and let it hit his head uselessly. All it did was cause his head to break apart into smoke before reforming, "I don't have time for runts."

Before he could attack Sanji, Markus arrived in front of him and cocked his arm back. Smoker just looked bored, "It's useless runt."

Markus said nothing and threw his first forward while coating it in still invisible Armament Haki. Smoker made no attempt to dodge or brace himself, fully confident that he was invincible. How wrong he was. With his training on the way to Loguetown, Markus had leveled up his Armament Haki to seventeen and gained a bonus of +85% to his damage, add in the bonus from his brawling and his damage was on a whole new level. His fist firmly slammed into Smoker's stomach and dug in deep. Smoker's mouth fell open in shock and pain, his cigars falling to the ground.

His smoke faded as his whole body reformed. He wrapped his arms around his stomach and stumbled a few steps back with his eyes bulging. He tried to talk but all he managed to do was cough up a thick wad of blood. Markus held his fist up and smirked at Smoker, "I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of me kicking your ass."

Luffy threw his fists up in the air and screamed, "Awesome!"

Sanji just looked shocked. His kick had been completely useless yet Markus's fist had been perfectly effective. Markus turned to the two of them, "Run! We need to get out of here before more come!"

Smoker lifted his hand to try to stop them, but it had been so long since he'd last been hurt that he was having trouble recovering. The three of them took off and ran for the Going Merry. As they ran Zoro caught up and shouted, "Run faster! A big ass storm is coming!!"

The four arrived at the ship just in time to get scolded by Nami for taking too long. Once the entire crew was on board they set sail. Rain poured down while waves crashed against the ship. Markus looked back at the receding island and spotted a tall dark figure looking in their direction. Aside from his height, there wasn't much that could be made out but Markus knew who it was. His name was Dragon, Monkey D. Dragon, the father of Luffy. In his memories, Markus remembered reading discussions on what Dragon's true strength might have been. Some believed that the storm and subsequent lightning that saved Luffy were conjured by Dragon. The prevailing theory he remembered was that Dragon had a Devil Fruit related to weather. No one knew for sure and it wasn't any clearer now. However, Markus was pretty certain that Dragon was staring directly at him.

A little while after their departure from Loguetown a lighthouse could be seen in the darkness caused by the storm and rain. Nami looked at the light shining from the lighthouse, "The entrance to the Grand Line is just up ahead of that light." She turned to look at Luffy, "So, what shall we do?"

Usopp was panicking and being ignored by everyone else. Sanji carried a barrel out and set it down, "Well, this calls for a celebration!" He dropped his heel on the top of the barrel, "To find the all blue!"

Luffy dropped his heel on the top of the barrel, "To become the Pirate King!"

Zoro dropped his heel onto the barrel, "To become the greatest swordsman!"

Nami did the same, "To draw a map of the world!"

Markus followed after her, "To become the strongest man in the world!"

Usopp was the last to follow everyone's example, "T... to become a b... brave warrior of the sea!"

All together, everyone brought their feet down and crushed the barrel beneath their feet. All of them shouted, "We're off to the Grand Line!!"

Everyone gathered inside of the kitchen and sat around a table looking at a map while Nami spoke, "The entrance to the Grand Line, is a mountain."

Everyone but Markus was surprised. Markus chimed in, "It's called reverse mountain. Currents from all four great oceans lead to it and actually go up the mountain. They meet at the top before going back down into the Grand Line."

Nami nodded at what Markus said and pointed to a spot on the map, "Exactly! I had a hard time believing it myself, but the light of guidance from the lighthouse was pointing right at one of the entrances to reverse mountain right here on the red line."

Zoro looked at the map and then asked the obvious question, "Why don't we just sail south?"

Luffy immediately and vehemently said, "No we can't! It' so much cooler using the real entrance!"

Nami smacked Luffy on the back of his head, "That's not the reason!"

Before she could explain further, Usopp called out, "Hey, the storm's gone!"

Nami looked toward Usopp and looked confused, "That can't be. That storm should have led us directly to the entrance..."

Everyone else seemed unconcerned and was even enjoying the clear skies and calm sea. Markus didn't seem to care, though he didn't want to stay in the calm belt for any length of time. Nami immediately began to freak out, "Stop just standing around! Get the oars and row us back into the storm immediately!" Luffy and Usopp tried to question Nami but she just yelled, "SHUT UP AND ROW!"

Sanji being Sanji would do anything Nami said, Markus knew the danger of the Calm Belt, so the two of them went to get the oars while Nami explained things to the others. She didn't get very far before the entire ship began to shake violently. When Markus got back outside he could see that not only were they completely surrounded my massive monsters known as Sea Kings, but they were even on top of one. His shoulders drooped, "Shit."

Markus started passing out the oars while Zoro said, "Alright! As soon as it dives into the ocean we row as hard as we can!"

Everyone agreed and got ready. Before they got the chance, the sea king their ship was on sneezed and sent them flying through the air. Everyone screamed and grabbed whatever they could. Everyone except Usopp who began falling through the air, directly toward the open mouth of a frog-like sea king. Without much suspense, Luffy stretched his arm out and caught Usopp. Shortly after Usopp was pulled back on board, they landed hard on the ocean right back in the storm. Everyone collapsed on the deck of the ship and breathed heavily.

After the brief incident, no one had any complaints about taking reverse mountain to get to the Grand Line. As they sailed closer to the red line they could all see a massive mountain that went straight up into the clouds. Usopp and Sanji manned the rudder while everyone looked ahead. They were heading right for a split in the mountain that had a powerful current flowing directly up it. The current raged like white water rapids and quickly pulled their ship into it. As they entered the angle was slightly off. Nami shouted, "We're off course! Turn a little to the right!!"

Usopp and Sanji pushed on the rudder, trying to get it to turn in the powerful current. They struggled against the might of the water pushing the boat along until there was a loud snap as the rudder control broke! Nami immediately panicked and shouted, "We're gunna crash!"

Luffy wasn't about to let that happen, he leaped out of the boat while inhaling deeply, "Gomu Gomu no Fuusen!"

He blew up into a giant balloon and placed himself between the ship and the wall of the canyon. The ship collided with him and began to squish him. He held on while protecting the ship from crashing into the wall and being badly damaged. As the ship shifted away from the wall, Markus grabbed tightly onto the railing on the ship and extended his hand, "Luffy! Grab my hand!"

Luffy threw his arm out and Markus caught it. With a mighty tug, he pulled Luffy back on board. After he recovered he immediately climbed onto the figurehead and looked at the rapidly approaching top of the mountain. As they crested the top of the mountain everyone was grinning. Luffy laughed and threw his fists in the air, "GRAND LINE HERE WE COME!"