After they looted the pirates ship and took everything of value, along with some food and a few other things. Marcus had them scuttle the thing, since it was in pretty bad shape. Afterwards, Marcus and the others got the ship underway again and set a new course. While Marcus had an island he wanted to visit already, he knew they didn’t have a marine presence so he decided to head to an island with a marine base first. It would add about a week to the journey to the original island, but it couldn’t be helped.

After Marcus arrived in the galley later to eat dinner, he turned to Zoe and the other girls before he asked, “So do any of you want to learn how to properly fight?”

“I do.” Zoe said immediately before the other girls started to nod in agreement.

“If that's the case, I want all of you to get up early tomorrow and meet me on the main deck at sunrise.” Marcus said as he glanced over each of them for a moment. After they all agreed, Marcus focused on his meal before he called it a night.

Early the next morning instead of taking over the helm, Marcus waited on the deck as he watched the slowly brightening sky. As the sun started to peek at the edge of the horizon, Zoe led all the women onto the deck. All of them looked a little tired and half asleep, but otherwise they were all standing in a line as they waited for Marcus.

Marcus glanced over them all for a moment before he said, “If you wanna learn how to fight and defend yourself… The first thing you're gonna need is stamina.”

All the girls looked a little confused before Zoe asked, “How is stamina gonna help us?”

“Stamina is one of the things that will help you train harder and longer than normal. It will also help you stay alive in a longer, drawn out fight.” Marcus said before he pointed at one of the nets leading to the top of the main mast and said, “I want all of you to climb to the top of that net ten times.”

All the women looked towards the top of the net before one of them asked, “Ten times?”

“Yup. Now get to it. I expect all of you to be done before breakfast, which should be in an hour.”

It looked like some of the women were going to argue or say something when Zoe walked over to the netting and started to climb it. The other women watched for a few moments before they also joined Zoe and slowly started to climb to the top. Marcus watched them for about a minute before he walked up to the helm deck and greeted Sabo as he said, “I can take over for you, if you want to grab breakfast.”

Sabo nodded as he handed the helm over to Marcus before he turned his attention to the women who were about a quarter way up the net and asked, “That’s pretty light for training, isn’t it? Shouldn’t you have at least given them a training harness?”

Marcus smirked as he said, “I don't want to scare them all off on the first day with grandpa's style of training. Besides, I plan to gradually increase the difficulty so they work up to what we do.”

Sabo rubbed the back of his head with a slightly embarrassed smile as he said, “I'm so used to grandpa's training, I kinda forgot that it's actually kinda crazy what we do.”

“Pretty much. Even that old man, Zephyr, said grandpa's training was too much.” Marcus said with a smile as he remembered Zephyr yelling at Garp about his training methods after he tried to make the recruits on the training island do them.

After Sabo went below deck to eat breakfast, Marcus pulled out his compass and adjusted the helm slightly before he turned his attention to his trainees. Marcus chose the task for three reasons, the first being it would give him a good gauge of their strength. The second reason being, it would give him an idea of how coordinated they were. The last reason was testing their resolve. If they didn’t have the will power to push themselves to finish something like this, he wasn’t sure if they would make it through any of the feature training.

Marcus watched them over the next hour as they slowly climbed to netting repeatedly. There were a handful of times that one of the women would fumble or miss a hold and almost fall. But fortunately none of them fell completely off and the women around them helped them to recover each time. By the time breakfast was ready and Sabo came back to take over the helm, all the women barely finished the task. They were laid out on the deck, covered in sweat, while their hands had some rope burns and blisters.

Marcus looked them over for a moment before he said, “Good job, you all did better than I expected.”

Zoe and the other glanced at Marcus who smiled and said, “Go wash up real quick in the bathroom and then come eat breakfast in the galley.”

After breakfast, Marcus led them out onto the deck again where he said, “Your next task is simple. I want you to run around the entire ship's deck.”

Marcus pointed towards the bow and said, “You will start here and run to the bow before you turn around and run to the aft on top of the helm’s deck. Circle around the helm and run back to the bow passing by here to count as one lap.”

Marcus glanced over all the women before he asked, “Any questions?”

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“How many laps do you want us to run?” One of the women asked.

“However many you can do. You can jog or even walk if you get too tired, but don’t stop until you can’t move your legs anymore.”

“You can’t be serious.” A woman asked with a frown.

“This is to help you build up stamina. The best way to do that is to push yourself to the limit. It’s also meant to test your commitment. All of you said you wanted to get stronger and learn how to fight, then prove it to me and yourself.” Marcus said before he crossed his arms over his chest and said, “Otherwise, don’t waste my time.”

Marcus’s words seemed to spark something inside the women as they each turned and started to jog towards the bow of the ship. Marcus smirked after they left before he headed over towards Kuina and Zoro who were waiting for his training. Well before the time lunch rolled around, all the women were wiped out. For the weaker ones it took about an hour or so and for the stronger ones like Zoe it took two hours or so before they collapsed. Marcus checked on each of them and gave them some water before he took them to their cabin to rest.

After a couple hours of rest they all made it in time to eat lunch before Marcus had them climb up the netting again five times before he let them rest for the day. The next few days followed that same routine before they sighted land off in the distance early on the third day. Marcus called off the training and told everyone to rest since they were going to be reaching the island in an hour or two.

Marcus was at the helm of the ship as he guided it towards the island and as they got closer everyone could make out the unique layout of the island. There were rows of builds layered on top of each other as they climbed up the island to a large plateau. On top of the plateau were massive walls along with big power plant looking buildings colored with blue stripes dotting their otherwise grey surface. Marcus took in the sight for a little while before he said, “Furl the main sails!”

After the main sails were furled the ship slowed down a lot and slowly creeped into the harbor, where not long after it reached the dock and the boys furled the rest of the sails before they tossed out lines to some men working the dock. Once the ship was secure and the gangplank was down, Marcus turned to Ace and Sabo and asked, “Who wants to watch the ship for now?”

Sabo shrugged as he said, “I’ll do it.”

Marcus nodded and as he turned to look at Ace and said, “I’ll need your help with.” Marcus was interrupted as Luffy yelled out, “I’m going to find a place to eat!”

Marcus turned just in time to see Luffy stretch his arms out to the railing before he blasted off like a rocket towards the city as he laughed. Marcus turned back to Ace as he said, “Finding Luffy and making sure he doesn’t cause trouble…”

Ace smirked as he said, “That’s too late… He probably crashed into someone's house already.”

Sabo nodded in agreement before he said, “Take some money with you so you can pay for everything.”

Ace nodded and hurried below deck to grab some extra money as Marcus turned towards Kuina and Zoro as he said, “Start getting the prisoners ready for transport and make sure the ropes are still tight.”

Marcus then turned to Zoe and the women who were resting on the deck before he said, “We finally made it to an island. If you give me a little bit, I will give all of you some money and then you’re free to do what you want. I would suggest heading towards the marine base and telling them what happened to you. I am pretty sure they will help you get back to your home island.”

Zoe and the others shared a glance with each other before Zoe stepped forward and asked, “Would it be possible to stay on the ship and travel with everyone for a while longer?”

“All of you want to stay on the ship?” Marcus asked as he glanced over them all as they nodded their heads.

“Why do you want to stay?”

“We don’t really have anything to go back to. Our villages were raised to the ground when the pirates kidnapped us. Plus you said you would train us.” Zoe said as the other women nodded in agreement.

Marcus glanced over all of them for a few moments before he said, “That’s fine with me, but besides training you will all be learning how to help out on the ship from now on.”

As the women all nodded in agreement Marcus said, “Good, then you will help us transport the pirates up to the marine base to collect their bounties. Go help Kuina and Zoro get them ready.”

As Zoe and the others went off to help, Marcus went below deck to the galley to find Zeff and Sanji. Zeff was in the middle of teaching Sanji something when Marcus entered the kitchen and said, “We reached Shells Town and are getting ready to go turn in the pirates.”

Zeff glanced up before he said, “Alright, just give us a few minutes.”

About ten minutes later everyone was on the deck and ready to leave. Marcus glanced over everyone for a moment including Zeff who was now disguised and nodded in satisfaction before he said, “Alright let's move out.”

It took Marcus almost an hour to lead their whole group up the steep streets of Shells Town towards the marine base. Along the way they ran into Ace who had successfully captured Luffy, but not before Luffy had broken two walls, some windows and eaten enough food to feed four people. Luffy wasn’t a giant ball, but he currently had a pretty decent sized belly and waddled like a duck as he walked with a satisfied smile on his face.

At the gate of the marine base they were greeted by some guards who eyed the large group of over fifty people warily before one of them asked, “Who are you and what do you want?”

Marcus stepped forward and pointed at the tied up pirates as he said, “We are a group of bounty hunters and we came to turn in some bounties.”

The marine glanced over the pirates for a moment before he hit a button on the wall next to a speaker. A moment later someone on the other side of the speaker asked, “Go ahead, front gate.”

“This is Sargent Iko. I have a bounty hunter group here that wants to turn in some bounties.”

“Give me a moment and I will inform the commander. You can let them into the courtyard for now.” The speaker box said before the gate clicked and started to open up.

The now named Sargent Iko stepped aside as he said, “The commander will meet you shortly. You can wait inside here for now.”