THE QUICKSILVER KIDS
(Alternatively, 'Another Time Travel Story: But It's Quicksilver')
Summary: Mercury's worst enemy was boredom. When that boredom decides to turn into a white portal that spits out four kids with silver eyes, and one calls him 'Daddy,' he suddenly wishes he were really fucking bored right now. AKA, the one where Ruby and Mercury's kids are just as much trouble as they were in their youth, and they end up time traveling due to a combination of their semblances. Fun times. Reading 'Wilted' might help you understand this one. Kind of.
AN: This is just a story to write out my Quicksilver children that have been sitting in my notes for two years now. So, this story won't be that long, there probably won't be any more than fifteen chapters or so, and this is more of a funny fic, so try not to take it too seriously! I know this trope is really reallyyyy overused, hence the alternative title. Also, since Wilted is getting so damn tense and depressing, this is my stress relief. I FEEL THINGS TOO OKAY?!
Last thing: POV might jump around a bit between characters in scenes. It's just how I wrote it, my brain is weird, folks.
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It wasn't a particularly eventful evening. After battling a Maiden, things have slowed to a grinding halt. Every mission felt tame. Unexciting. Mercury just went about modifying his legs, ensuring they worked properly, et cetera, et cetera.
Cinder's only had those Fall Maiden powers of her for four months and already she thought she had it completely under control. Of course, Mercury had no intentions to correct her. That would be suicide. But ever since she got that weird, magic mojo, she's been getting cockier by the day, and that spelled disaster for her plans if she kept it up.
Course, he didn't really care either way. This plan fell through? Duck out and move on. If it didn't? Reap the benefits. Not that hard to think about.
He didn't mind the stretches of quiet that stemmed from it. Cinder was planning, Emerald was stuck to her hip, and Roman and Neo were off heisting or something, leaving this little warehouse all to himself. He rolled down his pant legs and put away his tools. Tune up is all done. Perfect time for a nap—
Remnant loved to screw with him. Just as he placed his head on the cool table, a ripping noise seared itself into his brain. He jerked up to see an odd, pulsing, silver orb just across from him, tendrils of black ebbing from the very center. Similar to a portal, almost. White rose petals leaked from it, swirling around the room, around him. Then black, then red, then silver. All four colored petals spit out of the black center of the silver orb, filling the room with a sweet scent.
"What the hell—"
Distant shrieking caused him to jump to his feet. A small figure of white in the very center of the orb grew larger and larger before a girl in a large white cloak was spit out. Mercury kicked the table out of the way to see her, and backed up a pace or two to puzzle the girl out. She was a tiny thing, not as tiny as Neo, but about five-foot-four, with skin as pale as porcelain. As she slowly sat up and rubbed gingerly at her head, he caught sight of the black, unevenly cut hairstyle that faded to silver at the ends, and the doe-eyes she sported. Her torso was covered with a black, high collar, sleeveless shirt with diagonal grey stripes, and a thick white belt held up a frilly black combat skirt with a white underlay. Her hands were encased by black gloves with grey palms, and her tights were a solid grey and ran into black boots with white soles.
Mercury couldn't see a weapon on her beyond the flintlock pistol that sat comfortably in the holster on her belt, but then again, the white cloak covered her almost entirely. As she stumbled blindly to her feet, he found her emblem: a pin of a black rose clipped to her cloak, lined with silver. Hn. She doesn't look tough.
"Owie…" The girl whined as she rubbed at her head gingerly. White rose petals peeled away from her cloak and swirled around her before evaporating in thin air. She looked back at the white, pulsing orb with what he could only identify as disdain. "Well, that didn't work too well…"
"You could say that."
The girl whipped around and gasped as her silver eyes found his steel grey. For a moment, he was thrown off by the intensity within them. Never before had he seen someone with such a pure, metallic eye color like sterling silver. But after the initial intrigue of the rare color, his eyes narrowed at the emotions reflected within her eyes. Nervousness was there, as well as a tinge of fear and a healthy bout of confusion. Recognition was there though. He didn't like that one.
"How…?"
"We know each other, Kid?" Mercury asked gruffly, arms crossed.
She reeled back at the question. A new emotion. Hurt. Another emotion he didn't want to see, but he cared far less about it.
"Summer!"
A male voice bellowed from the other side of what he assumed was a portal. It was distorted and stilted, but the girl, Summer he supposed, recognized it. She whipped back around to the white portal and yelled. "Jet! I'm here!"
Within seconds, another figure was within the swirl of black in the center, growing larger and larger. He assumed it was 'Jet'. Summer backed up quick, and bumped into Mercury by accident. She jumped away as if burned, leaving Mercury mildly annoyed now that fear was overriding all of her other emotions.
Mercury's confusion only doubled when the male voice turned into a teenage boy's body. He looked to be around Mercury's age, but that wasn't what bothered him.
What bothered him was that this kid, Jet, looked like his clone. Only difference was he had more of a tan, was an inch shorter, had silver eyes instead of steel and his hair was black and red instead of silver. He emerged from the portal in a full, black business suit, complete with a red pocket handkerchief, black tie, and what looked to be a symbol of broken red moon embroidered on the handkerchief pocket. Fingerless black gloves covered his palms. An ornate silver strap crossed his torso and held a red sheath of silver arrows to his back.
"Summer!" Jet barked again, rushing over to the small girl. He supposed that they were siblings, with their matching silver eyes. His gloved hands clasped her shoulders and looked her over critically. "You okay?"
"I-I'm okay, b-but—"
Mercury cleared his throat. Jet turned his gaze to him, only to widen his eyes and pull Summer to him, arms protectively surrounding her. He analyzed his surroundings critically, and frowned. He shouted to the portal, "Guys, stay there! Something is really weird!"
"Screw that!"
A third figure began to expand within the orb. Mercury sighed. "Lovely. Another one."
Jet sent him a dirty look. Summer merely shrank farther into Jet's embrace, watching as a feminine figure popped out of the portal. Standing at five-foot-nine, she too had silver eyes (shocker), but also sported silver hair that was held up in a neat bun with messy bangs. She donned a grey kaftan that reached her ankles with tribal, black stripes and a black lace, v-neck collar. She stood on the highest black heels he ever saw, with silver bows on her toes. He imagined without the heels she would stand at least three inches shorter. Pearl stud earrings pierced her ears and a silver necklace of a pearl inside an open clam rested between the crevice of her collar bone. While not as pale as Summer, she wasn't nearly as tan as Jet either, and unlike Jet's hysteric sprint to Summer, this second girl scanned the area calmly, assessed the two siblings clutching to each other, until finally, her eyes landed on Mercury.
"Well." She pressed her lips together in a firm line. "You're… our age."
Mercury arched a brow.
"How did this even happen?!" Summer whined.
Jet rocked her in his arms. "It's okay, Jellybean. No big, we can jump back through. No issue."
"WEEEEEE!"
The second girl spun around. She shouted into the orb, "Eirian, don't you dare—"
Jet sighed as he saw a final figure appear. "Too late. Little Diva wanted in on the fun. Might want to step out of the way, Pearl."
The second girl, Pearl, made two large steps away from the white portal with a worried look. "Look, I don't know much about this stuff, but I don't think Summer's semblance covers—"
"Obviously it doesn't!" Summer chirped worriedly. "But, but we should still be able to jump back through once Eirian gets here—"
"Okay okay, all three of you, shut up," Mercury commanded, his patience wearing thin at this point. It's not every day that a bunch of silver eyed kids opened a portal and showed up at his feet. "If one of you doesn't tell me what's going on in the next ten seconds—"
"What is going on in here?" Cinder asked with undertones of threat as she walked in, closely followed by Emerald. Mercury looked back and shrugged helplessly.
"I was hoping they'd tell me." Mercury nodded his head to the three kids.
"WOOHOO!"
The last figure popped out of the portal with a squeal, distracting everyone. She slid out of the portal on her rear with her legs outstretched. Her momentum ceased once she reached Mercury's feet.
She was even smaller than the Summer girl. Her black and red hair was held up in twin buns with silver ribbons that hung from her hair a good couple feet, and her eyes were shaped similar to Jet's, and were, just like the three others, silver. Black skinny jeans clung to her legs, with red back pockets and a studded black belt that rested lopsided on her hips. A piece of black cloth stuck out of the right side of her jeans, but Mercury couldn't see what the red symbol was from the angle. She wore a red cache-cœur shirt that tucked neatly into her jeans, and ruby red earrings dangled from her ears. The three other kids groaned as the portal snapped shut after it spit the last girl out.
She shook her head with a giggle and a smile, and looked up once she noticed boots were right next to her. Her jovial expression turned innocently curious as she cocked her head to the side and regarded Mercury with a wide stare.
"Daddy, why are you wearing your old clothes?"
Freeze frame. Record scratch.
You're probably wondering how I got into this situation—
"...W-What did you just call me?!"
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Yay! First impressions: which of the kiddo's design do you like the most?
Happy writing to all, and Lonessa out.