A very short middle aged man in a captain's coat greeted the ship as he said, “I'm Captain Madison, commander of B-3. Please state your business for being here.”

Marcus glanced over the side of the ship to look at Madison before he said, “We came to turn in some pirates and collect their bounties.”

Madison nodded as he asked, “How many?”

“Thirty six.”

Madison turned to one of his men and said something which made the man run off before he turned back and asked, “Do you want us to come aboard and collect them?”

“No, we'll bring them down to you.”

Madison and his men stayed on the dock and watched as Marcus and the others slowly marched their prisoners down the gangplank. Once they were finished, more of Madison's men came to collect and process the pirates. Madison oversaw everything at the start but as they were finishing up he approached Marcus.

Marcus's first impression of the man was spot on as the man stood about four and a half feet tall. While he was a good foot taller then Marcus, Marcus was a kid and had a lot of room left to grow. Madison glanced over Marcus and the others before he said, “I'll need to see your captain before I can turn over the bounties.”

“That would be me.” Marcus said which made Madison frown. After a few moments he asked, “Is there an adult on your ship?”

“No, just us.”

Madison’s frown deepened before he asked, “Why are you kids sailing around on a ship with a group of captured pirates and where are your parents? Actually how did you even find these pirates in the first place and who captured them for you?”

While Marcus expected something like this might happen. He really didn't wanna deal with it. They would definitely need to find someone older that could be used as a front man next time. But since they were already here, Marcus focused on Madison as he said, “We captured them ourselves. As for where our parents are… Do you have a den den mushi I can use to call them?”

“Here, you can use my personal one.” Madison said, still frowning as he handed Marcus a small den den mushi.

As Marcus dialed a number he asked, “By the way, do you know who Monkey D. Garp is?”

“Of course I know who the marine hero is, he is the pride of East Blue! I even met him once.” Madison said as his chest puffed out a little.

“I see, that will make this easier.” Marcus said as he nodded his head.

“What are you talking about?” Madison asked as he cocked an eyebrow right as the den den mushi connected and a man said, “Vice Admiral Garp speaking.”

“Hey grandpa, it's Marcus.”

“Marcus!? Where the hell are you and why aren’t you returning my calls?”

“My den den mushi is seasick and hasn’t been working… As for where I’m at? That’s why I called you, I'm at a marine base and currently trying to collect some pirate bounties but the base commander is giving me a hard time.” Marcus said as he glanced at the base commander whose mouth dropped open.

“Eh? Didn’t I tell those idiots to let you and your brothers collect bounties?”

“That was the Goa Kingdom marine base, this base is near the Calm Belt.”

“Oh, well let me talk to whoever’s in charge.”

Marcus glanced at Madison again as he said, “He can hear you, grandpa.”

Madison stood up a little straighter as he said, “This is Captain Madison speaking.”

“Madison? Madison... Oh, you're that little runt who runs B-3, right?”

Madison was almost glowing when Garp called him a runt and said, “That’s correct sir.”

“Don't give my grandsons a hard time and give them the bounties they collected.”

“Yes sir. You can count on me.” Madison said as he saluted the den den mushi before he moved away to talk to his subordinates.

“Good… Wait a second…” Garp said before he stopped talking for a few moments and as Marcus saw the den den mushi start to snarl in anger he hung it up.

Madison was busy as he grabbed the bounties for the boys and didn't notice what happened but Ace and Sabo did. As they started to snicker, Marcus shot them a look and whispered, “Grandpa might call back and ask them to detain us… Go get the ship ready to leave.”

As Ace and the others went to get the ship ready, Madison turned back around with a sack of money a subordinate gave him and said, “Here you go, this is a little over eleven million belly for all the pirates you captured.”

Marcus accepted the bag with a smile and handed back the den den mushi before he said, “Captain Madison it's been a pleasure.”

Madison noticed the others starting to untie so of the lines and asked, “Oh, are you kids planning to leave already? Don't you need to resupply?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Marcus shook his head as he said, “We are fully stocked still and should make it to our destination with ease.”

“If that's the case, I hope you kids have a safe journey.”

Marcus smirked as he said, “Thanks.”

Marcus hurried to help everyone get the ship ready to leave and within a few minutes or so they were already pulling away from the dock. As that happened Madison's den den mushi rang and he quickly picked it up as he said, “Moshi moshi, Captain Madison here.”

“Madison, are my grandsons still there?”

“They just pulled away from the dock sir.” Madison said as he glanced towards the ship a few hundred feet away.

“Those damn brats… Where are they going? Did they say?”

“I overheard them talking about Loguetown and the ship is currently heading in that direction.” Madison said as he watched the ship get further away.

“Loguetown uh? Those stupid brats, just you wait till I get my hands on you.” Garp said to himself before he hung up and left Madison slightly confused.

Back on the ship Luffy excitedly said, “I can’t wait to get to Loguetown. I wanna see where the pirate king was executed!”

“We aren't going to Loguetown, I have a different destination in mind.” Marcus said as he glanced back towards the island that was slowly getting smaller.

Luffy grabbed Marcus by the shoulder and shook him as he said, “But you just said we were going to Loguetown! I wanna go see where the pirate king was executed!”

“I said that, so if grandpa called back, they would tell him what they heard. We can go there later, but not yet.” Marcus said as he turned back to check their current course.

“But I wanna.” Luffy was cut off as Marcus punched him over the head and knocked him to the deck.

Marcus glanced down at Luffy as he asked, “Do you wanna get caught by grandpa and go back home? Or do you want to keep sailing around and having fun?”

Luffy sat up and rubbed the bump on his head as he said, “I wanna keep having fun.”

“That’s what I thought… Now go up to the crows nest and keep watch.”

Luffy grumbled to himself but followed Marcus’s order as everyone else focused on trimming the sails. After an hour or so and about half an hour after Marcus could no longer see the island with his spyglass. He started to turn the ship in a new direction as he called out, “Trim the sails!”

Over the next five hours or so, Marcus changed the course of the ship to their next destination. While he could have made a direct line for it at first, he wanted to make sure he didn’t accidentally go back towards the marine base. He wasn’t sure if they had a ship or not, but by changing course a few times he was hoping they wouldn’t run into it if they did. Once he was satisfied he traded with Ace and headed below deck to eat a late lunch.

The next couple days passed in relative peace as they sailed to the next island Marcus wanted to visit. Since the area they were in was near the Calm Belt and no islands were around, they didn’t see any other ships as they traveled. Marcus and the others kept themselves busy with training each day, but they never pushed it too far. It was just in case they ran into pirates and needed to fight. While the training wasn’t intense, the sparring was another matter at least for Kuina and Zoro.

Marcus would train both of them for about five hours a day in swordsmanship. About three hours was spent helping them improve their forms and the last two hours was used for sparring. During the spars Marcus used his overwhelming skill to train both of them at the same time and would constantly target their weak points. Both Kuina and Zoro flourished under the intense training method and their improvements were clearly visible after each session.

After seven days out at sea and never seeing another vessel, a black dot finally appeared far off in the distance. It was far to port and if it wasn’t for Sabo being in the crows nest, they might have missed it because he was the only person besides Marcus with a working spyglass. Since Luffy would get his hands on them and break them. Marcus took out his own spyglass to take a look but from the distance couldn’t tell what it was. With the hope that it might be a pirate ship, Marcus turned the ship as he called out, “Trim the sails, let's go check out whatever that is!”

“I hope it’s pirates!” Luffy said as he pumped his fists in the air and Zoro nodded in agreement.

About ten minutes after the ship changed course Sabo called out from the crows nest, “Looks like it’s just a rock in the middle of the sea!”

As Luffy started to complain about it not being pirates, Marcus asked, “Should we check it out anyways, since we’re here?”

Sabo studied it a little more with his spyglass before he said, “It honestly just looks like a rock.”

Marcus pulled out his own spyglass to study it before he thought the same thing as Sabo. With that in mind he started to turn the ship when Sabo yelled out, “Wait! I think I see someone on the rock!”

Marcus and everyone else turned to look at the black dot in the distance before Sabo said, “Yeah, I can see someone!”

Marcus pulled out his own spyglass and looked towards the rock and after a moment he saw what Sabo was talking about. It was still too far away to really tell it was a person, but someone was using something to reflect light towards the ship and signal them. Marcus kept a steady course for another ten minutes or so before Sabo said, “I can definitely see two people on the rock!”

Marcus locked the wheel before he pulled out his spyglass again and almost dropped it in shock. Through his spyglass he saw two people, a man and a kid. While it was still too far to make proper details, he could easily tell one of them was a kid and the other person was an adult. And Marcus had a damn good idea who both of them were, but was surprised to find them here. While Marcus knew the backstory of Luffy’s crew, he didn’t know when things happened.

As they got closer to the rock, Marcus was able to get a better look at both of them and was positive it was Sanji and Zeff. He placed his spyglass away and said, “Kuina! Go start preparing some soup, they both look like they’ve been starving.”

Kuina wasted no time as she went towards the kitchen and Marcus adjusted course a little to not run right into the rock. Another ten minutes passed before Marcus yelled out, “Start furling the sails!”

The ship started to slow down as it got closer to the rock with most of its sails furled and once they were a hundred feet from the rock, Marcus turned the ship away from the wind. As the ship slowed to a stop Marcus said, “Furl the last sail, drop anchor and prepare the tender.”

Ace and the others quickly followed orders and within five minutes or so Marcus was rowing towards the rock alone in the tender. While the boat was big enough that a couple more of them could easily join him, he wasn’t sure how much treasure Zeff had and didn’t want to make more than one trip. With him he carried a water skin and two loaves of bread. While it wasn’t much, it would help and he didn’t want them to eat too much at first since it wasn’t good for people in their situation.

Marcus arrived at the rock and found a spot he could tie his boat off too before he climbed up to the top of it where he found Zeff and Sanji waiting. Seeing them in person compared to what he remembered from the manga was startling to say the least. Both of them were mostly skin and bones and to see it in person made his stomach churn so he said the only thing that came to his mind, “You guys both look like zombies.”