Mercury Black

"So...I get to see some potentially cool stuff, whether it'll be useful or lame, and I go home all while having a full belly with knowledge that can help me?" Mercury Black, teen assassin bully and abused dude, then said while eating some fries. Out of the RWBY cast, Mayden can wonderfully say Mercury is one of the people he heated the least.

Interesting back story. A realistic dude who knows what he's doing. And a decent relationship with Emerald. Shame he's working with a homicidal maniac but eh, everyone has their flaws including him.

"More or less." Mayden gives a non-existent shrug as the lights slowly began turning on. "What you use that information is up to you."

"Cool. Cool." Mercury says as he eats his food while narrowing his eyes. 'Still,' He thought. 'This guy is just gonna let me get potential good knowledge and just let me go? Weird.'

In shows and comics, it'd be the good guys that get this stuff. Here, apparently not. Not that Mercury cared. Still though, he was keeping an eye out just in case.

"Like you can do anything here legless." Mayden then mocked the dude while also abusing his powers to read Mercury's mind.

"Tch. You-" Mercury then looked down. "Hey!"

Along with making those metal legs vanish. Mayden chuckled as he then re-summoned the metal legs making them land a distance away. Mercury growling as he just decided to get them later while cursing Mayden. Might as well see what was on the screen.

The screen showed that it was night time. All seemed normal at first.

Whir!

But for many students in Beacon, it was a nightmare as a massive machine loomed over all. Colored in white and black with a red 'eye' on it. Wielding countless weaponry with incredible armor and looked more than a little fearsome.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Where two students were facing the giant machine, Velvet and Coco, the former watching as her team leader used her own weapon to shoot countless bullets at the thing. Only for the armor to take such weak attacks with ease.

"The Paladins?" That couldn't be right. I mean, yeah thanks to that idiot Roman many of Atlas's toys were taken for Cinder's plans. But Mercury couldn't help but notice that these Paladins seemed more...advanced. Like they were done.

Which means either one of two things.

"Either these are a different set of prototypes...or these are the complete versions." Which may mean that this is the future Mercury is seeing. If so, then he better pay attention to check on what's happening. After all, who knows what the future can hold.

'Not to mention I better keep an eye on those two.' Mercury eyed Velvet and Coco.

"Ooooh." Only for Mayden to speak up. "See something you like?"

"Huh?" Mercury was confused. Suddenly, the image zoomed to Velvet...where the screen turned around to show her rather bountiful behind. Mercury snarled. On one hand, bunny girl was definitely hot with that outfit complimenting her figure. On the other hand, "Bastard!" He didn't like being made fun of.

Mayden chuckled and just watched on with Mercury.

"It wasn't just Coco's gun that didn't work. Even other students like Neptune found their attempts to be futile. "Uh, this is bad." Neptune is quick to point out as he keeps firing.

Coco seemed to realize this to as she then stopped shooting to save her ammo. Then decided on what to do as this method isn't working. "Well, I guess now is a better time than any." The cool girl then looked at her friend and said, "Velvet!"

Velvet suddenly looked more than pleased.

With a big grin, she then asked while making fists, "Really?"

"Just make them count." Coco nods as Velvet then becomes serious.

"Oh." Now that was a look that Mercury knew as confidence. He didn't really bother to know who these brats at Beacon were. However he heard word of Team CFVY, and how they were pretty strong and quite good in general. While they weren't on the list, Mercury decided to see just what Velvet was capable of.

Especially considering her opponents.

Velvet took a few steps forward. Facing not just one, but two Paladins that were ready to rumble. Naturally, other students thought she was crazy.

"What are you doing?!" Like Weiss, who assumed Velvet had a suicide plan. After all, if she and the other students couldn't dent this armor, then what could Velvet do? "She's going to get hurt."

Many agreed with Weiss.

Except for one.

"Just watch." Coco simply told her as her friend got ready.

"Oh I'm watching all right." Mercury paid close attention. Maybe it was time to see if this girl should be on the list, or just another loser to be taken down like so.

Velvet then held out her hand...where suddenly a quick flash could be seen and out of thin air, a transparent yet glowing scythe appeared. Not just any scythe though, Crescent Rose and one Velvet grabbed.

The Paladin wasn't impressed, and got ready to kill the faunus. Charging up it's blaster, it then shot out a burst of electricity. One that could kill people or hurt them badly if making full contact. As such, it was slightly surprised when it found no body at all.

Not that it could be surprised further as Velvet, now in the air, grinned as she then used her unique copied weapon to attack the Paladin with lethal strikes. All landed true with velvet landing in style with a pose that would match and make Ruby Rose proud.

Yet Velvet wasn't done yet.

For her scythe vanished and from there it was replaced with Weiss Schnee's own rapier weapon.

"Whaaat?" Mercury said in slight surprise but also being impressed. His jaw slightly dropping.

A gloved hand came and fixed that.

"No drooling punk, just keep watching/." Mayden said while also looking. He liked it when Velvet was a badass.

The Paladin, having had enough games, instantly extended it's arm to punch Velvet across the school and over the moon. Twisting itself to gain momentum and ready to slam that metal into aura protected flesh.

Instead, Velvet raised her new copied weapon and utilized one of the many effects Weiss Schnee uses. Particularly, a shield that protected her while causing backlash on the Paladin as it stumbled from it's failed blow. Then, not backing down, Velvet backflipped and positioned herself like Weiss would and attacked the Paladin.

Before the mechanical menace could even do anything, suddenly with Yang Xia Long's own gauntlets Velvet punched the dread machine away. Where once Velvet landed again, like she did before with Weiss somehow mimicked the copied weapon's functions and shot at the Paladin.

It wasn't enough though as the machine tried to punch her, so Velvet positioned herself and summoned Blake's weapon and used it to grab onto the spinning bot. Then twirled around it and tied it up as Blake's weapon would, where once she stopped and landed, Velvet simply pulled hard pressing the Paladin's legs together.

The bot fell onto the ground as it was unable to stand up properly. The second Paladin tried to attack her but with trained and homed instinct Velvet just swung her weapon that slashed off the second Paladin's own arm. Where the Paladin then got a face full of Gambol Shroud in the face destroying its ability to function properly.

Velvet quickly attacks with Coco's machine gun with bullets. Then just as fast changed her weapon to Sun;s staff as the slowly advancing (and breaking down) Paladin tried to punch her only for Velvet to block it with said staff. All while using that block to send herself upward and use Nora's hammer to destroy it's second arm.

The first Paladin was slowly getting up however while Velvet landed on her damaged prey. It stared at her, clearly ready to kill her where Velvet responded by summoning Penny Polendina's own blades from her back thanks to her own weapon, and used them to first sever the second Paladin's legs off.

Once the second collapsed, Velvet made a ring out of her blades and then had them spin to create a laser beam that destroyed the second Paladin.

Too bad the first finally got up and punched her straight in the face, ruining her moment as she was sent away.

"Ouch." Mercury winces.

"Yep." Mayden agrees. "She was doing so good to. Being awesome and all. But overall pointless as well."

"What do you mean by that?" Mercury then asked. "She actually looked pretty cool."

"Yeah, and wasting time." Mayden scoffed. "Don't be mistaken, she went badass there. But the gauntlets, Coco's mini gun, even the Rapier and Ruby's scythe did nothing but distract or slow them down and did nothing really."

That was true. It was Blake's weapon alongside Penny's that did the real damage. Nothing else. Still, Mercury did know one thing.

"She's earned a spot on the list." That Velvet needed to be dealt with. Because she was certainly no joke. Not only could she summon other students weapons, but even somehow copied their moves like she was them. Still, while she was going to be killed Mercury can admit to respecting her fighting style, even if he would never say it aloud.

Leaning back, Mercury then wondered one thing. "How will she escape this now?"

After Velvet was punched away, Coco looked frightened for her friend as she saw her injured. Then angered as she raised her weapon and fired at the Paladin. Sadly, like before, it did nothing at all.

"Idiots." Mercury smirked as he wondered if this is how they'll die.

Meanwhile, Weiss watched this with widened eyes. Observing as Coco was joined by others who tried to help but could do nothing to pierce the armor of the Paladin.

This feeling of being useless soon affected Weiss as she then opened her eyes wide. The students who tried to shoot the Paladin down then saw Weiss move in with her glyphs. Where from behind Weiss, a bigger glyph appeared to her own surprise. The Paladin wasn't as surprised and instead just got ready to finish Velvet off.

Weiss got in front of her to defend Velvet but shut her eyes as the fist came in.

Clang!

Only to hear something else instead of the presumed metal hitting flesh. Opening a single eye, Weiss then looked up to see what happened, and to her shock saw a massive arm coming from her own glyph wielding an equally large sword. One that had defended her.

"Oh come on! Really?!" Mercury yells.

"Hero's. Am I right." Mayden slightly agrees. While he didn't always hate it, it certainly got annoying when the hero gets the cliche effect of gaining a new power just as they're about to die. Happens a lot.

The sword, while defending, then began going on the offense. Where it then started to attack and use it's weapon to deal a fatal blow in one swing. With a single slash from above, the Paladin was cleaved in two.

Weiss, just looking at the arm in slight surprise still at what she had done. Though before she could ponder her new technique, a flash of light caught her attention showing it was Velvet taking a picture with a smile. Though a loud noise made that smile fall as it was the sound of something mechanical and nearby them before the screen went dark.

"Well, that was something." Mercury rolls his eyes before smirking. "Still, I got a bit from this."

"And that is?" Mayden asked yet while all knowing.

"That this is the future." Mercury said with confidence.

"Do explain how you came up with this conclusion then." Mayden may as well hear his answer. Something Mercury was all happy to explain.

"Easy." He began. "First of all, I haven't heard any news of a Paladin attacking Beacon at night. Let aside two. That would have been on the news no matter what." Yeah Mercury missed the first semester and all that considering he arrived with Cinder and Emerald pretty late in the game. But a Paladin attacking the school was a newsworthy feat that would have lasted a long while, not to mention a great scandal for Atlas.

"Not to mention those things looked tougher than the prototypes, meaning they were finished models." The prototype Paladin's were okay and all. Definitely destructive too. But these Paladins were stronger, which meant improvements. Improvements that could only be gained by finishing the analysis of flaws of the prototypes. Meaning these Paladins were made in the future.

"Hehehe. Oh yeah, this will be good intell." Mercury smirked.

"I suppose it is, isn't it." Mayden agreed, though not like this information will be one-hundred percent useful. No doubt Mercury will tell that bitch Cinder of what he saw...but that was it. Not like there were any secrets told, the password to Jinn, who the other Maidens were and so on. Sure Velvet had a target on her back, and maybe Weiss, but they could defend themselves just fine.

Probably.

"Either way, you best be leaving now. I have one more guest to bring here." Then afterward, the viewing of the effects Mayden caused can be seen. OIh, the CHAOS that can potentially happen.

Vvvv. Vvvv. Vvvv.

"?" Alongside annoyance as Mayden checked something on his non-existence G-Mail line and saw a message. A message from someone that wasn't happy with him and what he was doing. Oh no! He's in trouble! What shall he ever- "And block."

He'll deal with this later. For now, he had other matters.

"Not get moving leggy!" Getting rid of Mercury. So using his powers, Mayden had Mercury's legs go back to the teen assassin...and had them kick his booty acroos the theate.

"Son of a-" Where the legs kicked him one last time across the room and into the doorway back to his world. Yawning, Mayden had the legs go after Mercury then got a list. One more character left, and he knew which one to choose. This'll be awesome!

Yep folks, just one more character and we're entering the interlude to see how things just might chang in Remnant. But until then, time for Mayden to bring someone who won't be happy with what they see. Also, Mayden will be forced to see a certain someone. But don't get hopes up he'll get in trouble, cause bastards like Mayden always find a way to escape legal problems of the multiverse.