Chapter 2: Introductions

If there was one thing Mercury loved about Beacon Academy, it was the food.

As one of the most prestigious training academies in all of Remnant, its cafeterias were stocked with the finest and freshest produce from nearby farms. Students never went to class hungry, stuffed full of high-quality food.

Lunch period, besides the end of each class, was the period most looked forward to by students for this reason.

After the sparring class with Goodwitch, Cinder and her posse had headed to the cafeteria to both refill themselves as well as to discuss their plans. While she and Emerald had gone off to socialize with the other females, after getting their food of course, Mercury was left to his own devices.

After filling his tray with steak, pasta, and a glass of cola, he went off to find a seat amongst the jam-packed cafeteria. Students were shouting, throwing food at one another, and generally having a good time. "Of course they abandon me… going off to talk with those other girls, typical of Cinder." Mercury grumbled under his breath, his heels clicking on the marble tiles.

As he walked past the second row of tables, he heard a splatter followed by a loud yell. Looking around in shock, he saw teams RWBY and JNPR at a table, the orange-haired girl, Nora Valkyrie, was it, having just thrown a cream pie into the white-haired girl, Weiss's face. Pie crumbs and whipped cream were currently dripping off her face as she stared in shock.

"Whoops! Sorry!" Nora shouted, before Weiss clenched her fists and tried to lunge at her, but Ruby and Yang held her back. "Well then…" Mercury said before shaking his head. These were future Hunters and Huntresses! Were they really supposed to behave like this? The silver-haired young man was about to leave and find another seat before Pyrrha noticed him.

"Hello! Mercury, was it? It seems like you're lost. Why don't you come and sit with us? We have plenty of room here!" The crimson-haired beauty shouted, waving at him with a slender arm. Mercury felt his face flush up as soon as he heard her speak. Pyrrha Nikos had a pleasant voice, he had to admit.

"I'm fine, I'll just…" He tried to say, but Pyrrha shook her head. "Come on! I insist!" She cried. Mercury sighed before striding over. "Thanks!" He said, plopping himself right beside the blond-haired dunce and Pyrrha, who gave him a kind smile.

"Welcome to Beacon, Mercury. I have to admit, your strength and technique is admirable. You're one of the few I know who could actually hold their own against me!" Pyrrha said. Mercury waved a hand absentmindedly. "You're pretty damn strong yourself, you know. I would have lost if the fight had continued." "A blatant lie…." He thought.

"Well, I forgot to introduce you to the rest of my team. This is Jaune (the blond-haired boy waved), this is Nora, and this is Ren." She finished, pointing to a black-haired boy with a pink streak in his hair, who gave Mercury a simple nod in acknowledgement. Mercury raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

"And this is team RWBY! This is Ruby Rose, Blake Belladonna, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long." Pyrrha continued, pointing to the four girls sitting on the opposite side of the table. Ruby waved happily at Mercury, while Weiss simply scoffed and went back to examining her nails. Blake gave Mercury a quick glance before returning back to her book, and Yang gave him a wide grin in response.

"Glad to meet you all. Now, I've got to ask a question. How did you deflect my kick during our sparring session?" He asked, genuinely curious as to how she managed to move his foot mid-execution (and for Cinder to use, of course). Pyrrha raised an eyebrow in response. For such a skilled student, Mercury lacked some basic knowledge about Hunters and Huntresses in general.

"It's my Semblance, of course. I have the ability to manipulate and move metal objects, the power of polarity. I could see that your boots were made out of some sort of metal, so of course I took advantage of that." She said as she raised a teacup to her lips. Mercury nodded in response. So her Semblance was polarity, interesting…

"What's your Semblance, Mercury?" Pyrrha asked, putting her teacup down and smiling at him. Mercury felt his cheeks heat up in response. He couldn't get the nagging feeling out of his mind that he knew her from somewhere… He shook it off, before responding, "My Semblance? It's nothing special. I can alter the weight of my feet, yet I can still freely move them about freely. I could make them as heavy as concrete blocks to augment the force of my kicks, or as light as a feather so I can jump higher and run faster." He responded.

Pyrrha nodded, fascinated. "That's quite a Semblance you've got there." She said. Mercury nodded in response, shoving a piece of steak into his mouth. Silence permeated the table as everyone finished their food. Mercury looked down at his Scroll when his plate was empty, seeing that the lunch period wasn't even half over yet. By now Nora and Yang were involved in some kind of wrestling match, while Blake and Ren were quietly discussing their books.

Jaune and Ruby, meanwhile, were browsing through their Scrolls and giggling at something on the screen, while Weiss sat beside them, angrily talking to someone on her Scroll, leaving Pyrrha and Mercury as the only ones who were free. The silver-haired man looked around, trying to catch sight of Cinder or Emerald, but saw no sign of them.

He eventually turned back to Pyrrha, who was glancing at the laughing Jaune with a look of longing and sorrow in her eyes. Mercury suddenly felt a pang of jealously erupt in his heart. Why was she looking at the blond dunce like that? From what he had seen of Jaune, the blond idiot was hopeless in battle without the help of his team.

Just as Pyrrha let out a sad sigh, Mercury abruptly stood up. "Pyrrha, will you care to accompany me on a walk, maybe show me around the campus?" He asked. Pyrrha's face brightened, happy to get out of the situation. "Of course!" She smiled as she stood up. "Alright Jaune, I'll be taking Mercury here on a little tour the campus. We'll be back soon!" She said as she and Mercury left the cafeteria.

"Alright Pyrrha!" He shouted, before Ruby showed him another image on her Scroll and he once again burst into laughter.

"Alright then, where do you want to go first Mercury?" Pyrrha asked him as soon as they went outside, the scorching sun hitting them right in the face.

"Hmm… how about that tower over there." He said, pointing to Ozpin's office. She nodded in response and walked off, motioning him to follow her.

"Pyrrha… I have to ask her where that name is from…" Mercury thought as he followed her, ignoring the ringing of his Scroll.

Cinder would have to wait.