Mercury Black

**Mercury Black** was an antagonist in *RWBBY*. He is a former associate of Cinder Fall and the partner of Emerald Sustrai. His weapons of choice are Talaria, a pair of dual ranged shotgun boots.

He made his first appearance in "Black and White" of Volume 1. In "Midnight", he becomes a member of Salem's Inner Circle. Then in "Risk" he and Emerald escape and join Ruby Rose and her group.

## Mercury Black

### Nickname

* Merc (by Emerald and Gea)
* Mr. Black (by Tyrian)

## Traits

### Height

5'10" (1.78 meters, Volumes 1-6)

6'2" (1.88 meters, Volume 8-Current)

## Professional Status

### Previous Affiliation

Salem's Inner Circle

Cinder's Faction

### Previous Team

Cinder's Team

* Cinder
* Neopolitan
* Emerald

## Appearance

In Mercury's first appearance in "Black and White", he is shown to be a pale, young man with gray eyes and gray hair, partially slicked back while unkempt at the front. *The World of RWBBY: The Official Companion* describes Mercury as a "skinny guy" and is stated to be in the age range of a Huntsman Academy student.

He has prosthetic legs that attach part-way up his thighs. These legs are usually hidden from view due to him wearing pants and a pair of shoes. Mercury possesses an athletic yet slim physique measuring 178cm tall (5'10") when he first arrives at Beacon Academy, which later on further develops to 188cm tall (6'2").

## Classic Outfit (Volumes 2-6)

Mercury's appearance does not change much leading into Volume 2. Mercury 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 a set of rerebraces and vambraces.

## Haven Uniform

While at Beacon Academy, Mercury wears the Haven Academyuniform, which consists of a dark gray outfit with a long-sleeved collared top, black pants, and a white armband.

## Flashback

n "Beginning of the End", he was first seen wearing his signature zip jacket with the collar zipped all the way up, minus his armor. His pants were dark orange and he wore a pair of black boots.

## Atlas Attire (Volume 8-Present)

As of Volume 8, his attire has changed to a blue zipped up top to the neck with an orange trim, covered with a gunmetal gray, double breasted leather zippered biker jacket with his sigil across the left side of his torso. He is also wearing gray vambraces that extend up to his biceps atop black fingerless gloves. Mercury also has black pants with zipper lines along the thigh, and wears an orange keychain hanging down his belt which reads "M80-495". His hair has also received more definition, with the bangs that cover the right side of his face being proportionally smaller and more defined. He's also apparently gotten somewhat taller, going from 5'10 to 6'2.

## Personality

In "Best Day Ever", Mercury is shown to be rather care-free and jokes around when in the company of Emerald Sustrai, who 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 displays a sense of seriousness and levelheadedness. However, his carefree attitude may occasionally slip out during combat, such as when he taunted Ruby Rose during both their encounters once he got the advantage. Based on his fight with Pyrrha Nikos, he appears to test and gauge his opponent before fully committing to an attack, showing he has a strategic mind and cunning.

Mercury also seems to derive personal enjoyment from the pain of others, showing no qualms about intimidating and killing others, even light-heartedly joking about it afterward with Emerald. Although subtle, he also speaks in a derogatory fashion about Tukson even after having murdered him in cold blood.

Though Mercury has many bad qualities there are actually good parts about him. This is mainly seen after he meets Gea Belladonna. He starts to care about people more and once they form a relationship he will pretty much do anything for her. He very gently talks her out of committing suicide and he helps her face tough challenges by telling her he'll always be by her side which shows that good can be brought out of him.

Despite his usual carefree demeanor, in "The Next Step", it is shown that Mercury does not take insults or disrespect well, responding to Arthur Watts' insults with an eagerness to attack him until Emerald stops him. He is usually outspoken, but when he is with Salem's Inner Circle, he refrains from speaking. This was shown again in "Lost" when he lashed out at and attacked Tyrian Callows when the latter mocked him for being a child that feels like a "big bad man" and correctly assuming all Mercury knows in life are pain and violence, condescendingly calling his life "such a tragedy". Unlike Emerald, Mercury also realizes that Cinder Fall never truly cared for him and that in the end, their relationship was purely business. Despite this, he was very compliant with her orders.

Mercury carries an immense bitterness within him due to his abusive upbringing by his assassin father, Marcus Black. 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 Inner Circle due to his stolen Semblance. His father abused him physically and emotionally and that he used to constantly beat him up and call it "training" while telling him that he was weak and relying on crutches, making it obvious he suffered a miserable upbringing filled with hate and misery. In the same episode, Tyrian later alludes that the only reason Mercury is on their side is because of Marcus' influence and that he is now too afraid to leave the few things he knows: pain and violence.

Despite his demeanor, Mercury does indeed possess a sense of camaraderie. This is seen in his relationship with Emerald Sustrai, where after Yang had come up with the Relic of Knowledge and assuming Cinder had perished, he had helped an emotionally distraught Emerald to get her back on her feet and escape with him and Hazel when it became apparent that the odds were no longer in their favor.

In "Midnight", Mercury again attempted to get Emerald to understand Cinder's selfishness and lack of genuine care for her after the two returned from disobeying Salem's orders, implying that he was worried for her being potentially dragged down with Cinder and punished by Salem or killed.

In "War", after Emerald goes to Mercury about what she learned concerning Salem's true goal, Mercury tries to dissuade her from going against Salem in order to prevent herself from getting killed. However, after hearing Tyrian casually confirm that Salem's goals are indeed to destroy all of Remnant, he is shown to visibly unnerved. When he too leaves in "Risk" he is very clearly shown staying near Emerald and Gea the whole time due to the fact it was a new environment for him.

## Powers and Abilities

As seen in his fight with Pyrrha Nikos in "Extracurricular", Mercury is shown to be a very acrobatic and agile fighter who relies upon quickly overpowering his opponent with complex kicks that imply a near-mastery of martial arts that resemble Tae-Kwon-Do. He is also capable of a break-dancing style, similar to Capoeira and makes use of Muay Thai as well as shown in the same fight. Despite his focus on kicks, Mercury also uses his hands to grapple, block or redirect enemy attacks.

His experience and skill are aggressive and effective enough to drive even fighters of a high caliber, like Pyrrha, into a defensive position. He possesses great speed which allowed him to outrun and evade the rapid-fire bullets from Coco Adel's weapon Gianduja even at point-blank range. His strength is seen when he makes Yatsuhashi Daichi stagger on his feet and later knocks him out with ease despite the other's towering size and heavy build. Due to his fighting style, Mercury relies on his swift and quick reflexes to counter and block his opponent's attacks as first demonstrated during his fight with Gea Belladonna, altering the course of her punches and using his footwork to raise her fists and kick underneath or around her attacks.

Mercury is also known to be observant, tactical, and analytical; he notices and deduces the capabilities and limits of Pyrrha's Polarity Semblance after she uses it once during their brief fight. He demonstrates his observational skills once more when he tracks down and counters Ruby Rose's movements when using her Semblance in their encounter, an ability so fast none of Team JNPR could stop during their food fight against Team RWBBY in "Best Day Ever".

### Weapon

Mercury's weapon of choice is **Talaria**, a set of boots that are equipped with a firing mechanism built into them similar to Yang Xiao Long's Ember Celica.

### Prosthetic Legs

Mercury has a pair of robotic legs, which he acquired at some currently unknown point in time. His prosthetics make up most of his leg, including a portion of his thigh and everything below the knee. His prosthetics are also quite durable, being able to withstand significant attacks such as the powers of a Maiden.

Mercury's legs emit the faint sound of servos when he walks.

### Espionage

Among Mercury's skills, his talents at information gathering and subterfuge would appear to stem from his training as an assassin. While undercover at Beacon Academy, he strategically spars with Pyrrha Nikos in order to gather information on students' Semblances to aid in the initiation of the Fall of Beacon, being able to put on the convincing facade of a well-meaning - if somewhat cocky - student of Haven Academy.

### Semblance

In "Lost", Mercury reveals that his father stole his Semblance when he unlocked it. His father used his own Semblance to steal Mercury's and claimed that he would give it back when Mercury became stronger. However, Mercury never got his Semblance back despite getting stronger and after killing his father, Mercury still has a chance of retrieving it, since something similar happened to Gea and she was able to get hers back, but an intense level of focus and patience is needed and it's not entirely certain that Mercury is capable of those things.