Mercer had to admit he was bored. Ever since he started to impersonate Captain Shu and the marine officer James Shepard all his time was spend either doing paperwork, or strolling around the ship.
He watched the soldiers do drills, saw how they made food, even killed time with fishing, but if he didn't do something entertaining soon he was going to sink this floating bathtub. Alex was not an impatient man...well virus, but even he had better things to do with his eternity. He could hardly gather chemicals and machinery in the captain's cabin and start again on his little science projects since it was not something Shu did.
"Captain!" yelled a marine, stopping Mercer as he was about to return to the captain's cabin.
He looked at the saluting soldier "Sir, we have just received an emergency call from the nearby Kenzzan island, it seems they were attacked by pirates."
Finally something to do "Change our course, full speed" I don't want to miss some recreation.
The soldier saluted "Yes sir!"
The trip to the island didn't take long, and soon their ship was in the harbor beside the pirate vessel. The marines were able to quickly dispatched the few pirates that were left to guard the ship.
Since they managed to take control of the vessel - and with that cut off the pirates escape rout, all that was left was the clean up. Soldiers formed a two man line ready to follow any of the captains orders.
Mercer on the other hand took off at full speed into the city. The pirates were his.
As he rushed through the city streets he observed the damage inflicted. Something here didn't make sense. Mercer looked at the destruction that the pirates caused to the small town. Buildings were ransacked, and damaged. People were obviously caught off guard since most were butchered in their homes, even the children were not spared. Now he only had the memories of Shu and Shepard to fall back on but pirates didn't really bother with extermination attacks. They came, took what they wanted and left.
Walking further into the town he saw a large group of pirates dragging or carrying large sacks probably full of spoils. As soon as they saw him they dropped the plundered goods and reached for their weapons, obviously not underestimating a marine captain.
Sadly for them all their bullets and swords were of no use against his powers and the rabble died rather quickly by only using his fists.
"Pathetic" said a voice from behind them.
Mercer turned around and saw a tall man with slick black hair and round glasses. Alex only smirked when he saw that the man had long katana like blades on his gloves. Seems he thought Freddy Kruger was not cool enough.
"I take it you're the captain?" the pirates posture literally screamed authority, not a man who would bow down before someone easily.
The human smirked and pushed up his glasses with the palm of his hand "That would be correct" he said and rushed Mercer, attempting to slice him in half.
Foolish thought Alex as his fingers elongated into claw's ready to return the favor. But as soon as he made the first step to his target his foot collapsed into a hole in the street, trapping his leg in the sewage system and prevented him from dodging the attack as it slice his torso.
Mercer growled as he pulled his leg out from the accursed hole and saw his injury regenerate as efficiently as ever.
"Interesting" said the pirate "are you a logia? I never heard of one with your ability. What fruit did you eat?"
Mercer ignored the man as he rammed his claw's into the earth. Before the pirate could blink a mass of spikes burst from the ground...and missed.
Impossible! At least one should have skewered him!
"Interesting ability you have there. I don't know what fruit you ate but it will not save you" said the pirate, not in the least afraid that he escaped certain death by millimeters.
Alex had no idea who the guy was, and neither did he didn't care. He knew only one thing, and that was that the pirate had to die. They pierced and cut at each other, and much to Mercers frustration none of his attacks connected. Always something came in the way, he tripped, his claws got stuck, he slipped, someone or something fell in his way. The pirates attacks were more successful but they weren't even a threat to his regenerative ability, any slash the man made healed almost instantly. Flexing his claw's he again charged at the Freddy Kruger rip off and had to dodge when an electrical cable seemingly on its own snapped and fell in his path.
Thanks to his reflexes he only received a small shock instead of a full electrical hit.
Somethings wrong here, I'm not that sloppy and coincidences like this don't happen more than once. Alex could only think of one source of supernatural abilities on this world. He watched the man pant from the exertion, unlike him his opponent was very much human, and was suffering from fatigue.
"You ate a devil fruit" Mercer stated, he wasn't 100% certain but there was no way in hell that all the attacks he made failed to even scratch the man.
The pirate smiled "Bravo, most of my opponents never live long enough to figure it out. Indeed I have eaten the Neko Neko no Mi, Model: Black Cat"
Mercer found something strange with that "Wouldn't that make you a zoan?"
The man laughed "Again correct, but unlike normal zoan fruits that increase you physical attributes, my fruit drains my opponents luck. It's irrelevant how strong you are, how powerful your abilities if you can't hit me. But since we are discussing abilities here, what are you? My blades are covered in sea stone but surprisingly they didn't affect you in any way. Care to explain how?"
Instead of answering Mercer exchanged his claw's for his whipfist and tried to grab the human but a marine suddenly dashed between him and his prey. The soldier was about to fire his gun when the whipfist grabbed and dragged him back to Mercer.
"C-Capt-" the mans words were silenced when Alex consumed him. Taking the rifle he started shooting at his opponent, resulting in every single shot missing. What an irritating ability, and since he isn't even doing anything seems it's a passive ability.
"It seems you understand. With this ability and my upgraded cat claws nobody, not even the Admirals or the Jonko will be able to stop me!"
"I doubt it" said Mercer "but its surprising that a dangerous pirate like you has no wanted poster by now."
The human smiled "That is because I left no witnesses on any of my new raids. And thanks to that there were no pesky navy ships persecuting me again. And I intend to keep it that way, I wont allow my plan to fail because a single navy captain."
The man began to sway back and forth sideways in a fluid manner. Mercer had no idea what the pirate was up to, but the first warning he received about the attack was when long deep cuts already appeared on his body.
Having enough of the human Mercer changed into his armored form, powered up a Critical Pain Devastator and fired it.
The explosion that engulfed the street shattered windows, broke walls and made a large dust cloud cover the area. He waited until the dust settled, but to his rising irritation the man was still standing tired but unharmed.
"Why don't you die!" the pirate hissed, and Alex had to agree with his statement, why wont the annoying monkey die already.
Mercer didn't grace him with a reply thinking over what attack would work against his ability, and much to his frustration he didn't have a clue. He was a scientist not a practitioner of the supernatural, before his arrival in this world luck was a figure of speech and not an actual law of physics that could be exploited.
Then a thought came to him. If those abilities are based on devil fruits, can a person with haki resist them? If the chance of hitting the opponent is somehow linked to his haki then he can't touch this man until he learned to use it.
"Captain!"
Mercer looked at the group of oddly dressed men that were running behind his opponent. Are those cat ears? The group of humans had bizarre cat motifs decorating their heads and if Alex was in a different universe he would be calling it cosplay.
"Captain! There is a marine ship in the harbor blocking the escape route" said a fat man who had the appearance of a white and black cow.
The pirate smirked "No, they are not" he said before pulling out of his pocket a Den Den Mushi "Start operation X."
The minute he spoke those words a huge explosion engulfed the harbor.
"It seems our match will have to be postponed captain. But I have to congratulate you, since I arrived on the Grand Line nobody survived my improved Shakushi" said the human before turning around and retreating with his remaining crew.
Mercer was going to follow but as soon as he made the first step a sinkhole opened up under his feet and he fell down.
When he finally reached the surface he dashed at full speed to the harbor, only to see that he narrowly missed the pirates that were sailing away on their ship.
He glanced to his crew and saw that many were dead or heavily injured, the ship also sustained heavy damage from what appears to be underwater explosives.
"What is the status?"
The marine shook his head "30 dead, 14 injured. The ship sustained heavy damage to its hull, especially the ruder. We managed to patch it up so we didn't take any water but we will have to spend a day or two on repairs and will be restricted to only half our normal speed. We should get the ship as soon as possible to one of our dry docks."
"I see. Well the sooner the better, I have some questions for our superiors, like who that was for starters"So I can rip him piece by piece next time.
Mercer returned to his cabin and took the wanted posters and books that had any reference to devil fruits or former pirate crews. The man said that he was chased by the marines once, so there had to be some information on him.
He left the soldiers to deal with the repairs as he strolled down the beach, going over the papers. But after three hours he concluded that it didn't contain any information on the pirate crew with the cat fetish.
As he stood there watching the sea he kicked a stone in front of him. Alex saw a small black scorpion move from under the rock that he kicked. It was not dangerous for humans, and even less for him so he approached it and before the small creature had the chance to run grabbed it.
He held the small arachnid upside down by its tail, examining its appearance. It had armor, claws and a poisonous stinger on his tail. Nature is truly fascinating thought Mercer before red and black tendrils enveloped and consumed his small meal.
Alex could already feel the new DNA being stored inside his body. It is such a shame to restrict himself only to human cuisine when there is so much in the world that needs sampling. He already found a useful gene of the scorpion. Low metabolic rate and an efficient food storage organ, this allowed him an increase in the maximum amount of biomass he could consume and storage.
It's actually the smallest of natures creations that were the most fascinating. Unlike bears, tigers and what not, that depended on their strength, speed and endurance insect and arachnids were far more likely to have interesting abilities.
A starfish regenerative factor would certainly give him a boost to his passive regeneration. An electric eel was also an interesting life form, the possibility to create his own electricity was useful and very tempting. Not to mention the common fruit fly with its high resistance to radiation.
Well, it's not like I have anything better to do until the ship is repaired. On the good side now he didn't have to impersonate Shepard anymore, he will be listed as MIA.
Mercer decided he will first search the island for any interesting lifeforms, and when no one will be watching he will hunt in the sea.