Chapter 28

Silence.

Everyone was too shocked at the ridiculously high bounty on Markus's wanted poster. Even the members of the Franky family were silent despite knowing about it beforehand. The silence didn't last more than a few seconds before every member of the Strawhats shouted at once.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!"

Luffy gave Markus and envious look. He thought he'd finally caught up but Markus had blown by him once again and not by just a small margin either. Zoro remained stoic but a bit of sweat could be seen on his forehead. Robin looked concerned and worried over what such a huge bounty would mean for them. Chopper and Nami were still too shocked to feel or say anything else. Sanji was still too distraught over his terrible bounty picture to continue to react to Markus's bounty.

Markus just scratched the back of his head, "Well, what can I say? I'm awesome?"

That comment instantly earned him a thorough scolding from the majority of the crew. He just grinned happily. Still, even he was surprised at how high his bounty had become. He expected it to go up a fair amount but he'd estimated it wouldn't exceed half a billion Belly. Hitting over one billion was definitely a shock. He felt it was justified though. Everything he'd shown off before and at Enies Lobby along with declaring his full name to the world would definitely have an impact. It even had an impact on his system.

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Your class has changed to World's Enemy (1.25b).

You are now an enemy of the entire World Government. The entire world will now take notice of you, beware.

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After everyone recovered from their shock, the Strawhat crew returned inside of the building to gather their stuff. They wanted to move on the new ship and would probably need to leave soon since all of their bounties had skyrocketed, especially Markus's. None of them would admit it but they were all a little worried about what kind of trouble his bounty might bring them. Markus wasn't too worried though. The only people he had left to fear were the true powerhouses of the world and maybe a few hidden experts, everyone else was just fodder.

Markus followed everyone as they went down to the shipwreck island section of the city. A place filled with... well... shipwrecks. Sitting on the ocean was something large covered in a giant canvas to hide it from view. The remaining leaders of Galley-La and Iceburg were resting on the ground when they arrived. All of them had worked their asses off to get the ship done as fast as they could.

Luffy called out for Franky but he'd already left. Iceburg was the one to reveal the ship to them. The new ship was huge compared to the Going Merry yet shared a similar design. Markus couldn't help comparing the two in his mind. In his experience, most of the ships he'd seen all looked pretty similar with only the size and decorations really being distinct. His Cigarette Boat was one of the few truly unique boats to exist.

Everyone was excited to see the ship and wanted to see different sections and features of the ship first. Everyone quickly scrambled onto the ship to explore. Markus had to admit that the ship was amazing. Though... it also reminded him of a kid's playground. The deck was covered in grass and there was even a slide that went from the upper deck to the lower deck. Chopper sliding down it didn't improve the image of it being a playground in his mind.

Markus found a room to temporarily claim as his and set down his 'stuff'. It was time for him to make a getaway! Something exceedingly disturbing was about to happen and as emotional and pivotal the scene was, he had no intention of sticking around! He could already hear the commotion of Franky yelling at his family to give him his pants back. Markus felt a shudder run down his spine and quickly found Luffy, "Hey, I need to get something from the city. If you need to, don't worry about me and set sail. I'll catch up in no time."

Luffy looked confused but nodded. Markus was definitely the strongest and could find them anytime he wanted. Markus nodded in return and vanished in a burst of sparks. He was NOT going to stick around to see 'Little Franky'!!

The next instant, Markus was in front of the little rundown shop he'd visited about a week ago. His ship should be done or close to it. He was excited to see the results. He quickly fattened his face with Seimei Kikan and started knocking on the door loudly. He knew the old man was inside and was quickly greeted with cursing, "Go away dammit! I'm not buying! If it's you annoying kids again I'm gonna string you up by your toes and pelt you with tomatoes!"

Markus tilted his head in confusion at that last line but shrugged it off and shouted, "It's me, you old bastard!"

Markus heard scrambling and glass bottles falling on the floor as the old man came to the door and opened it violently, "Who're you calling an old bastard you young bastard!"

Markus grinned as he looked at the bald old man. He looked a little haggard from his work but there was a smile on his face that screamed of his satisfaction. The old man didn't say anything and stepped out of his shop to close and lock the door. He started to walk away and Markus followed him in silence.

They walked for a good twenty minutes, during which Garp had arrived and began to attack the new ship. Franky had also joined them as the shipwright. Markus was happy about that. Usopp had also arrived and apologized, earning himself his place back on the crew. Markus let them do what they wanted, his boat would catch up to them in no time, even after they used the Coup De Burst to jump a solid kilometer away from Garp. They were still well within the range of his Observation Haki. They would be for a while longer but he needed to hurry up.

The old man finally arrived at a rundown building attached to a dock. Markus couldn't help wondering if everything the old man owned was in disrepair like this place and his shop? It didn't matter. The old man opened the door to the building and led Markus inside. Once he stepped through the doorway, Markus could see his new boat sitting in the water.

Markus grinned from ear to ear when he saw the boat. Long, sleek, low-profile, and screaming 'fast!', that was his first impression. The boat was at least fifty feet from bow to stern and a good fifteen feet at the widest. The cockpit was located far to the back near the motors and Jet Dials. However, he couldn't see them at the moment, they seemed to be tucked into the interior somehow. The boat was currently painted in a screaming red color with bright orange flames on the bow. Markus didn't mind it but he couldn't help asking, "Why flames?"

The old man smirked, "Cuz it's faster than the flames of hell!"

Markus scratched his head, "But... I'm lightning, not fire."

"Shut up, kid."

Markus couldn't argue with that so he hopped into the cockpit and looked around. The boat had a steering wheel as he'd drawn with Nami as well as a lever on the side to control the throttle. He didn't want the Jet Dials to all be 'on' or 'off' all at once, instead, he designed a crude linkage system that would activate more dials as he pushed the throttle forward. For the electric motors, he could just control their speed by controlling his electrical output.

After looking over the cockpit, he opened the cabin door and stepped inside of the bow. He looked around and nodded in approval. It had all the necessities. A kitchen, two beds, a bathroom, and a couch. All of which were as small as necessary to fit within the cabin. There wasn't much free space but that was alright, he could keep most of his stuff inside of his inventory anyway.

As he examined the interior, the old man hopped onboard and opened a hatch in the cockpit. Markus walked over to examine it and whistled at what he saw. He'd given the old man a very crude and basic electric motor and expected something similar to be built inside of his ship. What he saw did not look crude or basic at all. Two bright gleaming cylinders that looked like over-exaggerated electric motors rested within the space. Their axles went through the ship and connected to two large props in the water.

The old man grinned broadly, "That model you gave me was shit. I talked to an old buddy of mine and we came up with this." He glared at Markus, "It was a bitch to test but they should be powerful. We barely got them to run with the power we could generate on our own."

Markus ran his hand over the outer casing of the motor and looked at the old man, "How'd you do it?"

The old man shrugged, "I remembered what ya said about magnets so we worked on finding a few and used them in the design." The old man's eyes narrowed, "By the way, before ya can take off in this thing, you owe me another twenty-five million!"

Markus didn't argue and dropped another twenty-five million on the dock. Fifty million for this ship was a bargain in his opinion. Once that was done, he asked, "What about the Jet Dials?"

The old man grimaced, "Those? Blasted things are crazy! Where'd you find something so insane?"

Markus shrugged, "Sky Island."

The old man looked unconvinced, "Fine, don't tell me. Anyway." He closed the motor compartment and walked over to the captains chair, "To use the dials ya just uses these switches." He pointed to them as he talked, "I broke them up into two groups like you wanted. This switch rotates between each group, this switch lifts and exposes the unused dials to the wind so they can recharge. Just flip it back when you're done and they'll go back into the hull. That's it."

The old man opened a compartment that contained a thin book, "All the details to run everything are there."

He closed the compartment and got off of the boat, "Now, get the hell out and don't come back... Unless ya got another interesting ship design!"

The main untied the lines holding the boat in place and started walking away. Markus sat in the captain's chair and thought it was really soft and comfortable. He rested his hand on the T-shaped throttle and slowly pulled it backward. He could hear some gears shifting before the distinct sound of a Jet Dial activated. The water beneath the boat began to froth from the expelled air as the ship slowly moved backward out of the dock house and into the open sea.

Once he was free of the dock, he turned the wheel and smiled at how smooth it was. He lined himself up in the general direction Luffy and the others had gone and slowly pushed the throttle forward. The further he pushed it, the further back in his chair momentum pushed him. One Jet Dial was enough to make Nami's waver act like a jet ski, twenty-five Jet Dials was a force to be reckoned with!

By the time the throttle was only a quarter of the way to its maximum, the boat was already blazing across the sea leaving white foam in its wake. He spotted Garp's ship and grinned. He pushed the throttle higher and charged directly toward his ship. He reverted his face to normal to make sure they could recognize him. When they recognized Markus, cannonballs were launched from the ship, personally thrown by Garp. Markus casually turned his steering wheel left and right to dodge the cannonballs with ease. His boat was moving too fast and Garp couldn't predict what direction he would switch to making it difficult to launch his shots with a proper trajectory to intercept Markus.

Markus laughed as the marines on Garp's boat gawked at the speed he was moving at. They'd never seen such a fast boat before and wouldn't believe anyone if they heard it in a story. Once he closed in to a distance of about two hundred feet, Markus waved at Garp who glowered at him. Markus laughed again and slammed the throttle to the maximum. The boat growled violently and took off like a rocket. Everyone's eyes widened as they watched Markus's ship take off and cruise at around 150 miles per hour.

Markus continued to swerve for a while as Garp relentlessly launched cannonballs at him until he was out of Garp's throwing range. Once he was safe and had a good fix on the Thousand Sunny ahead, he switched off the Jet Dials and set them up to recharge. He opened the compartment containing the book on the ship's functions and flipped through it. After reading a bit, he flicked a hidden switch on the throttle to change it from the Jet Dials to the electric motors.

After putting the throttle forward a bit, he looked under the dashboard and saw a metal plate in the shape of a foot on the floorboard. He set his foot on the metal plate and started channeling his electricity into it. He heard a mechanical whine as the electric motors started to work and push the boat forward. It started pretty slow but grew faster and faster as he channeled more power into the ship. Soon, he was going even faster than the Jet Dials on full throttle.

Moving at such high speed had him hydroplaning from one small wave to the next. It was nearly impossible to have any fine control over the boat but it didn't stop him from laughing every time he jumped into the air for a few seconds. He slowly lowered his output to a more manageable level and drove toward the Thousand Sunny. He could hear that the other crew members were starting to get worried about him being away for so long. They thought he might have been captured by Garp.

Soon his small boat was in sight of the Sunny and everyone was shocked to see it, except for Nami. She'd helped him with the basic design after all. As he pulled closer he slowed down to bask in the admiring looks of the crew. Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper had stars in their eyes. Franky looked like he wanted to dissect the boat and discover all its secrets. The others just looked suitably impressed. Markus pulled up and slowly cruised next to the Sunny while waving his hand at everyone, "Told you I would catch up."

Zoro shouted down, "Be faster next time!"

Nami nodded, "We thought Luffy's grandpa had caught you."

Markus laughed, "That old man? Catching me in this?! Impossible! This is the fastest boat on the ocean!"

Franky looked fired up when he heard Markus, as if he'd silently accepted the challenge. Markus cut the power to his boat and walked into the air with Geppo. He quickly stored it with a bright flash of sparks and walked through the air to the deck of the Sunny. He grinned at everyone, "I wanted a toy to go with my power."

All the men nodded in understanding while the women rolled their eyes. Soon a large barrel of booze was brought out and everyone was holding a mug in their hand. Luffy spoke up, "It's time to welcome back Robin and Usopp as well as welcome our new nakama, Franky, and the Thousand Sunny!"

"CHEERS!!!"

Everyone clinked their mugs together and cheered before taking a swig. Soon enough they were having another party to celebrate the good times they had and that were still to come.

"Next stop! FISHMAN ISLAND!!"