Mercury Black

**Mercury Black** is an antagonist in *RWBY*. He is an associate of Cinder Fall and partner of Emerald Sustrai.

## Statistics

* **Name**: Mercury Black
* **Origin**: RWBY
* **Gender**: Male
* **Age**: 21
* **Birthday**: June 18
* **Classification**: Human
* **Blood Type**: A
* **Height**: 178 cm (5'10.1")
* **Weight**: 69.4 kg (153 lbs)
* **Skin Color**: Light
* **Eye Color**: Gray
* **Hair Color**: Silver
* **Relatives**: Marcus Black (Father, deceased)
* **Alignment**: Bad
* **Status**: Active
* **Class**: **S-Class**
* **Notable Attacks/Techniques**: Dust Bullet, Breaker Spin, Whirlwind Leg
* **Voice Actor**: Hikaru Midorikawa

## Appearance

Mercury appears to be a pale, well-built young man with gray eyes and gray hair, partially slicked back while unkempt at the front. He also wears a slate gray and black two-tone partial-zip jacket, that covers his upper body. He also wears a single notched belt with what appears to be a sash or bandana draped over it. Protecting his arms are sets of rerebraces and vambraces.

He has prosthetic legs that attach part-way up his thighs. These legs are usually hidden, due to him always wearing pants and a pair of shoes. His armor hides what appear to be oddly-shaped scars on the outer sides and backs of both of his arms.

## Personality

In "Best Day Ever", Mercury is shown to be rather care-free and jokes around when in the company of Emerald, whom he makes an effort to annoy. He seems to opt for excitement and action; he dislikes books without pictures and tells Emerald he finds the city boring. However, when it comes to matters at hand, Mercury drops this and focuses himself on the mission. His carefree attitude, however, may occasionally slip out during combat, such as when he taunted Ruby Rose during both their encounters once he got the advantage in their skirmish.

During battle, Mercury displays a sense of seriousness and levelheadedness. Based on his fight with Pyrrha Nikos, he appears to test and gauge his opponent before fully committing to an attack, implying he has a strategic mind. His cunning is later shown once more during his match against Coco Adel and Yatsuhashi Daichi in "Lessons Learned", where he takes advantage of the savanna biome to hide before launching a surprise attack on Coco. He also uses the geyser biome to his advantage, using it to create an opening on Yatsuhashi and defeat him.

Judging from the nonchalant way he talks about killing Tukson, Mercury appears to have no qualms about intimidating others and killing, even light-heartedly joking about it afterwards with Emerald. Although subtle, he also speaks in a derogatory fashion about Tukson even after having murdered him in cold blood. This is probably due to his father's tutelage as he was most likely taught in the ways of assassinations.

He also seems to derive personal enjoyment from the pain of others. Whether this is for his own self-satisfaction or to put his opponents in an unstable state of mind to take advantage of their emotions is unknown. Examples of this are seen in "A Perfect Storm" where he attempts and fails at intimidating Raven Branwen and later in "The More the Merrier" when he condescendingly asks Yang Xiao Long and Ruby if they missed their old 'friends'. Later he tells Yang she 'owes' him an apology for his leg before turning serious for their rematch. This side of his personality is also briefly seen in the same episode, as he smirks proudly when Cinder torments Jaune Arc. However, despite his sadistic streak, he is not incapable of caring for others. He takes on a soothing tone when convincing Emerald to retreat from battle while she grieves over losing Cinder.

In "It's Brawl in the Family", he appears to show genuine concern when spotting Qrow Branwen, knowing he poses as a substantial threat to Cinder's agenda and shows total cooperation in letting her know of all the details he can gather.

"Fall" and "Beginning of the End" demonstrate his acting ability, where he plays a major role in framing Yang Xiao Long; he makes it seem she initially attacks and lands a serious injury on him, when in truth, due to his prosthetic legs, the injury is not as grave as everyone else is led to believe. He is also very compliant with Cinder's orders, allowing himself to remain hidden for the immediate future so as to not jeopardize the plan.

Despite his usual carefree demeanor, in "The Next Step", it is shown that Mercury does not take insults or disrespect well, responding to Watts' insults with an eagerness to attack him until Emerald stops him. This is further shown in "A Perfect Storm" when Raven Branwen rebuffs his attempt at intimidating her. He is usually outspoken, but when he is with Salem's group, he refrains from speaking.

Mercury carries an immense bitterness within him due to his abusive upbringing by his assassin father. This bitterness holds over due to the fact that Marcus used his Semblance to steal Mercury's, which he said would return if Mercury became strong enough, which he proved the moment he killed his father. This turned out to be a lie, and Mercury feels as though he has had to work harder than any other member of Salem's faction due to his stolen Semblance.

## Abilities and Equipment

**Talaria**: Mercury Black's weapons of choice which he uses in tandem with an acrobatic fighting style, emphasizing kicks in combination with his greaves. Mercury's weapon appears to be a large pair of greaves with a firing mechanism built into them, similar to Yang Xiao Long's Ember Celica. They are shown to be able to fire a variety of different projectiles. Some of the projectiles are shown to have guided or target-seeking properties, taking spiraling paths towards their target. By using a fighting style akin to breakdancing or Capoeira, Mercury can fire a veritable storm of these projectiles that can overwhelm an enemy with sheer volume. Some projectiles also appear to create a smoke or steam effect that can be used to distract enemies. He can also use the boots to jump in midair by bringing his legs together and firing his boots simultaneously, boosting him forward and allowing him to achieve temporary flight. This is likely a reference to the Roman god Mercury, known for his speed and ability to fly with his winged sandals.

* **Dust**: Mercury can also control the rounds through Dust use. During his tournament fight, he gathered multiple rounds that spun around him in a manner similar to that of a cyclone surrounding him before the rounds were later unleashed in a devastating flurry. He also possesses marksmanship skills, being able to fire his Dust rounds efficiently despite the barrels being located at the soles of his boots, as shown when he fired a round at Yang before using his cyclone technique during their fight and when he shot Ruby's Scroll out of her hands during their confrontation.
	+ **Dust Bullet**: Mercury kicks forward three times each from a distance, firing a high-powered Dust bullet with each kick.

**Prosthetic Legs**: Mercury has a pair of robotic legs which he acquired at some currently unknown point in time. His prosthetics make-up over most of his leg, including a portion of his thigh and everything below the knee. He usually keeps them concealed under his pants. These robotic legs appear to give him enhanced performance in battle, such as being able to withstand blasts of fire without taking damage. This is most likely why he was able to withstand Yatsuhashi Daichi's strong hit from his weapon during their match and easily recovered. He is also able to very easily repair "injuries" to his legs that would otherwise put a normal human out of commission or require medical attention. His kick-based fighting style, as well as his choice of weapon, are likely intended to take advantage of his prosthetic legs. His prosthetics are capable of firing blasts of air, which he makes great use of in combat.

* **Breaker Spin**: Mercury does a handstand and starts to spin around for a flurry of spinning kicks.
* **Whirlwind Leg**: Mercury performs a strong spinning kick combo while jumping in the air.

## Weaknesses

Cocky

Continual use of his Aura will cause it to decay to the point where he can be left weakened or even incapacitated.