2. My Time With The Marines Part One

Story Start Marine Schooner 8723's Top Deck

"Alright son, let's see if we can't figure out your devil fruit's ability." Carson said, standing next to Bourne with a few curious off duty Marines watching even as the rest of the ship's crew kept it moving along its patrol route. Even as I looked past Carson to the starboard stern the small island they had found me on was shrinking into the distance thanks to the good wind we had caught.

Shaking my head from that, I focused back on the doctor and asked "So how do we do this?"

"Well, given how Logias and Zoans are transformation types, we'll be focusing first on trying to shift body parts. Hopefully, even with how small of a percentage of fruits fall into those two categories, you are in fact one of them because Paramecias are an eccentric bunch and the testing might have to become a bit convoluted." Carson said, frowning at the end.

"Here's hoping. So what, do I just picture my body changing to som-WOAH!" I hadn't actually meant to activate my devil fruit ability as I was talking, but the mere thought had initiated the change and I wound up lying flat on the deck from the abrupt shift in body type and thus center of gravity.

Bourne and the rest of the Marines around me all let out collective blinks of surprise as the redhead said "Well, that was easier than I thought it would be. What is he?"

"Hm, yes, surprisingly easy. I guess even though his mind didn't remember the fruit's ability his body still did." Carson hypothesized as he walked over on his crutches. Borne followed him and first helped Carson lower himself into a sitting position then helped me stand up to my new two feet and seven inches height. Carson meanwhile hummed to himself and said "As for what he is, it seems like he's either an Ancient Zoan or a Pokemon Zoan, I don't recognize the species though." Looking up at the Marines who had come closer, he said "Could one of you lads bring us a mirror? There's a slim chance that our friend may know."

"Right away doctor." One of the Marines said with a nod.

As he took off at a quick run, Carson shook his head and said "I know that most people love Satoshi Tajiri for his creation but I'm pretty sure all of the World Government and Marine higher ups hated him the day the first Pokemon Devil Fruit was discovered."

"I'm sorry?" I asked completely lost.

Carson looked down at me and said "Best anyone can figure, Pokemon Devil Fruits weren't actually around before about twenty four years ago, when the Pokemon franchise was first created. But now, every time there's a new 'generation' there's apparently a new set of Devil Fruits to match."

"What the, how does that even work?!" I asked, completely gob smacked. Seriously, how could someone making a series about super powered monsters somehow MAKE fruits that turned people into super powered monsters?!

Carson shrugged and said "Devil Fruits lad, who knows how they work, conventional science certainly doesn't."

"And the World Government let this guy KEEP MAKING MORE?!" I asked incredulously. Seriously, the number of Pokemon created seemed like something they'd want to try to stop from increasing. Yet given what my new body was he was obviously allowed to continue. Or maybe he just did so in secret and kept all of the new generation designs stuck in a safe somewhere.

Carson scratched at the point where his nose met his right cheek for a moment as he said "Well, they obviously hate anybody else getting their hands on them but any Marine lucky enough to acquire one is almost automatically made Captain after the first year of having it, provided they show a proficiency in using it of course. And even those at Captain or a higher rank already can look forward to a promotion after that adjustment period. I hear that the World Government has a similar protocol in place for similar agents."

"Right, right, the WG and Marines would want that kind of fire power for themselves." I muttered to myself. I then had a thought and I blinked as I asked "Hang on, aren't there Water Type Pokemon? Are they even a viable option with the hammer aspect of being a Devil Fruit user?"

"They are, but they have to be in full Zoan mode otherwise the effects are just the same as any other Devil Fruit user and they can't change back until they are fully out of the water. That's pretty much the rule of thumb for any aquatic Zoan out there, if you aren't one hundred percent animal you sink like a cannon ball." Carson said.

"I see." I muttered, glad to have that clarified by an in universe source. It was a rather hot question back home after all.

At that point, the Marine that had gone off to fetch a mirror came back with one of those square foot hang-able mirrors with suckers on the back and handed it to Carson as he said "Here you are Doctor."

"Thanks Lad." Carson said before he turned the mirror towards me and said "Well son, do you recognize what ya are?"

"As a matter of fact, I do doc, and you were right on both counts. I am both a Pokemon and an Ancient. The Royal Heir Pokemon, Tyrunt. A dinosaur from LONG ago according to Pokemon lore." I said, looking over my body. There was no point in pretending to be ignorant, not after that slip I made asking about Water Types. But back to my new body: Bipedal but with my body held parallel to the ground and mostly a dark brown, my legs had three white claws with the top of the legs having two bars of padding for protection. My short arms ended in two sharp claws and there was an orange spike on my short tail. A white ruff separated my large head from my body which held two orang horns on top, a large mouth, and to finish things off eyes positioned sideways on my head but set in a way to still allow me to see directly forward.

"Guess we can count ourselves lucky that his artificial amnesia doesn't cover general knowledge about fictional creatures." Bourne mused with a wry smile.

Carson hummed with narrowed eyes and said "Well Pokemon HAS been around for longer than he's been alive, it probably fell into the 'Background World Knowledge' category. And it's likely that the person who assaulted him was unaware of just what type of Devil Fruit he was and so didn't think specifically targeting the knowledge with his own fruit's powers was relevant." Carson's eyes went slightly distant as he seemed to go on a mental tangent before he shook his head and said "Right, back to testing. Lad, does Tyrunt have an evolution?"

"Yeeeah." I said, warily eyeing Carson and doing my absolute best to not think about turning into almost six hundred pounds of dinomon with the Marines clustered so closely around my decidedly much smaller pre evolution form.

Bourne, sweet ignorant Bourne, out and out smirked as she asked "Think you can turn into it?"

"Grk!" I bit out through grit teeth, screwing my eyes shut as I actively fought to not transform. I even begun muttering "Stay Small" through my gritted teeth over and over like a mantra.

"Lass, I don't think that's a good idea." Carson said, hastily scrabbling to get back to his feet, one of the other Marines helping even as the others wisely started backing the hell away from me.

"Oh come on, how much bigger could he get with just one evolution?" Bourne asked.

"You clearly haven't seen the info for the Magikarp-Gyrados or Wailmer-Wailord evolutionary lines. By the way, the answer is very much bigger." One of the Marines said as they eyed me.

"Lad, will you grow big enough to put the ship in danger?" Carson asked cautiously.

"Will the ship be able to handle six hundred pounds appearing out of nowhere?" I asked, actually sweating from my focus of not changing.

"Yes, but do your best to shift slowly." Carson said, stressing the last word.

Now reasonably sure I wouldn't put a hole in both the top deck and the hull of the relatively small ship, I let go of much of my focus in not changing and instead put my focus on controlling how fast I transformed instead. White light enveloped my body and I slowly began growing, going from a parallel to the ground two foot seven to a standing upright with a natural ninety degree curving neck and a much longer tail. When the light faded it showed that my brown skin had turned a dark red with orange stripes, the three claws on each foot was joined by one on the back of my feet, the ruffle around my neck had grown MUCH larger, an action repeated by the spikes on my tail while the two on the top of my head were now a solid crown of five spikes. Oh, and I now had a white beard on the underside of my powerful jaws.

"Okay, so apparently he can get a LOT bigger." Bourne admitted.

I let out a chuckle at that before I gave into the sudden urge I had and threw my head upwards and let out a roar announcing my presence to all in the general area.

"Why do I suddenly feel like saying 'Hail to the King Baby'?" Bourne asked with a tilted head.

"You aren't the only one." One of the Marines around us said, a few others nodding in agreement.

I snickered at that and said "Considering Tyrantrum is known as the "Despot Pokemon" and was pretty much invincible in its time, it sounds oddly fitting."

Carson hummed and said "Well, just remember that despite your devil fruit you are only human and don't try to take over a country and we should be good."

"Oh no worries on that front doctor. I wouldn't want to rule a country if you gave me a billion Beris." I let out a not quite theatrical shudder and said "Good lord, the paperwork that job would require."

That had everyone in hearing range cackling for a few minutes.

Once everyone had settled down, Carson said "Alright I think that's all of the testing we can do for now. Testing out what Attacks you can do will have to wait until we get on land and I can get a proper list of what moves you should be able to do from Headquarters. Turn back to human if you'd please."

Nodding, I shrunk back down to my much less massive human form. Stretching my arms upward with a grunt, I brought them back down and asked "So now what?"

"That's up to you lad, we're still a few days out from base, so long as you stay out of people's way I don't think anyone would mind you entertaining yourself." Carson said as he began making his way back to his domain.

I cocked my head as I watched the doc leave before I glanced at Bourne and gestured around and asked "I don't suppose you'd be willing to show me the basics of how to sail one of these things for an hour or two?

"I think I can get away with that." Bourne said with an easy smile.

Time Skip: Three Days Later

8723 pulled into the docks of Marine Base 52 on Richon Island twenty minutes after noon. As the Marines began walking down the gangplank with plans on heading to the mess hall to get a good meal, they passed the base commander, a man I recognized as the Unovan Water type gym leader Marlon, wearing a Marine coat across his shoulders to go along with the goggles around his neck and his blue pants with white stripes and fins at the ankles. He was standing to the side of the gangplank with crossed arms and a calm stare as he watched the men now under his jurisdiction move into his base.

As I followed the Schooner's captain off of his ship, Marlon eyed me and said "So this is the young man from your report Commander?"

"Yes sir." The Commander said with a nod.

Marlon hummed and said "You've decided to call yourself Tac, right kid?"

"Yes sir." I said with a nod.

"Follow me Tac. Commander, I want you in my office at Fifteen Hundred Hours to report on your voyage." Marlon said, turning and walking away.

"Yes sir." The Commander acknowledged before going after his men.

I followed Marlon into the base, more specifically to his office. On the way to moving to one of his windows, he kicked a chair from the wall to rest in front of his desk and said "Sit down kid." As I sat down, Marlon continued looking out of his window towards the sea and said "You know Tac, you've put me in a bit of a bind. We sent your description along with your Devil Fruit out to all Marine bases and vessels in the North Blue hoping our men could find any information about who you are but in the last three days no one has been able to come up with any information on who you are, what you do, or where you come from. And while it may have been a bit of wishful thinking to believe that we could get our answers in only a few days, until we do get that information then legally speaking nothing permanent can be done about you."

Marlon then huffed in amusement and turned back to look at me and said "And then we throw your devil fruit into the mix. Ancient Pokemon Zoan, Tyrunt Line, one of the few Zoans whose evolved form is said to be able to take a shot from a battleship's cannon and still keep fighting like nothing happened. The higher ups in Marineford are practically begging me to get you to agree to going there so that way you can be put on the fast track of advancement. They seem to think that if they're the ones to train you then you could make Lieutenant in a year, Rear Admiral in five."

"That would be one hell of a rise through the ranks sir." I said, blinking in surprise at that. If I was remembering the ranking system for the Marines right then that was eleven ranks in a year, with an additional five in another four.

"Indeed, but personally I think sending you there would be the worst possible choice to choose." Marlon said as he dropped into his chair with a sigh.

"Sir?" I asked with head tilted in confusion.

Marlon pulled out a decanter filled with a light blue liquid and a pair of short glasses. Pouring the drink into both, he capped the decanter and put it away before nudging one of the glasses to the edge of his desk then picked up the other one and began swirling it as he said "The minimal age for Marine enlistment is sixteen, and you look to be a few years older than that. And yet there are no matches of you in any of our records which means that unless you were some dark operative kept off the books you weren't one of us. And while your personal memories are gone, your personality has obviously remained intact. If you didn't want to be a Marine before you were attacked then I doubt you'd like to be one now." Marlon took a sip out of his drink and smirked as he asked "Am I wrong?"

I 'thought' for a moment before I said "No, I don't think you are." Giving a tentative sip of my glass, I was pleasantly surprised to find that while the drink had a kick to it, it didn't seem to be an alcoholic one, instead seeming to be a sharp blend of various fruits and berries only. Taking a more sure sip, I said "As much as I can respect what Marines are supposed to be, the fact that a country has to be a member of the World Government for them to act in their defense, not to mention having to do whatever the Celestial Dragons say makes me think that I would not be able to fit in very well." I then smirked and said "That and something tells me that I'm not good at taking orders I don't like so odds are good I'd be in the brig for half of each year of my career for insubordination."

Marlon snorted at that with a smirk as he said "Yeah, you do seem to come off as someone who can be rather insolent if you don't like something." Sighing as he took another sip of his drink, Marlon leaned back in his chair and asked "So what DO you see yourself being able to do for a living?"

I glanced down at my drink for a moment. When I looked back up, I said "Despite my feelings about the actual operation of the Marines I can agree that they provide a necessary service. Pirates are a massive problem in this world, both for World Government Countries and Non Members, and I apparently have a Zoan Devil Fruit that can both take and hand out a lot of damage. I think it would be irresponsible of me not to use some of that power for good so I think I'll become a bounty hunter, that way I can go where I need to and act in the best way I see fits for each situation."

Marlon studied me for a long moment before he sighed and said "Bounty hunting isn't something you can just pick up and expect success kid. Even with your devil fruit helping you, you have absolutely ZERO training at the moment. No combat experience, no experience in tracking a target down, not to mention absolutely zero resources to your name other than the clothes on your back. Still..." He drew off in thought for a moment before nodding with a smirk and drained his glass and put it on his desk as he said "How about I make a deal with you Tac, you place yourself under my command for two years' time before seeing if you have what it takes to become a bounty hunter and in turn me and my men will do our best to properly train you in how to fight. Plus this way once the two years pass you'll have the funds to buy the gear you'll need for this endeavor including buying a small vessel to travel around in. Sound good?"

He leaned forward and held his hand across his desk. I studied it for a moment thinking before I drained my glass as well and put it on the desk then clapped my hand into his and said "Deal."

Marlon grinned and said "Excellent, welcome to the Marines, as temporary as that membership will be, Seaman Recruit Tac."

END

Author's Notes:

I deeply apologize for how long this one took. Pokemon Sword/Shield came out and playing Sword is an absolute black hole when it comes to spending time on game progression that should have been spent on more 'productive' things.

Anyways, so yes, I'm now a Marine but it won't be for too long. (For you guys at least, less than ten chapters for sure) Because let's face it, I have to start somewhere in this world. Anyways, I hope you like it and hope that you can accept Pokemon Knowledge as widespread in that world enough to fall under World Knowledge and not Personal Knowledge. (It's certainly mainstream enough in OUR world that even someone who hasn't played the games or seen any of the media of it knows what it is) See you guys next time.