Mercury fell back against the floor, his ass having long gotten tired of being handed to him in such a short time.

"You gonna get back up?" the boy grit his teeth and forced himself up once more, shaky on his feet but determined to at least land another hit on his opponent.

"I'm gonna destroy you old man" he slowly stepped forward, stance rigid and ready.

"And he's gonna break your legs all over again. He may not look it but give him the excuse of 'training' and Tai will beat the shit out of even a cripple" Merc groaned at that tidbit and began to survey the blonde brawler before him.

He was a teacher at Signal now. Out of practice from being away from the field for too long. Mercury wouldn't have been able to tell since he was as strong if not stronger than the stories about the guy made him out to be.

"Qrow lets not get carried away" he chuckled, still a ball of sunshine even whilst in that stance that Mercury just couldn't find a single fault in.

Well he'd just have to make one.

Tai's and Qrow's eyes widened as Mercury just vanished into thin air, the only showing that he'd moved being the kick of dust that inevitably flew.

Mercury brought his leg crashing down from Tai's right, going for the blindside with a fierce axe kick only to have it find the bare wrist of the invincible boxer with a sound-breaking shockwave emanating from the force "Hey, seems Rubes new legs are working pretty well. The other ones would've smashed at just that" Tai replied casually, irritating Mercury further as he spun midair and brought his other leg down to further dent the other mans aura, swinging the other leg in a low arc to meet his ribs under his guard.

The old Qrow whistled as Tai grunted audibly as he soared across the open plains they fought in "Not bad kid, even I struggle landing a hit on Tai in CQC" he chuckled as he saw the triumphant look on Mercury's face "But trust me that it only gets harder with every hit" and like that the boy found himself destroyed in half a second before he had even comprehended what had happened.

He found himself looking straight up as he felt his body surround itself in pain, his aura vanishing at what seemed like the most painful gust of wind he'd ever experienced. He slowly sat up and got to see Tai holding a hand out to help him back up, a kind smile on his face and a fiery movement to his golden hair before it slowly settled back into place "You did good Mercury" he said with genuine proudness in his eyes "But you still have a long way to go so keep up the good work!"

A scoff was heard from Qrow's position against a nearby tree "He landed one hit and then got his ass destroyed by your semblance Tai" he countered easily, looking down at his scroll as he checked the facts "He's down to zero and you're still at 87%. Do you feel like a winner yet kid?" and like that the two silver-haired fighters shared their friendly 'glare-off', only ending once Tai broke out into boisterous laughter.

"You guys get on really great don't ya?" and let it be known that their dismissal was heard all around Patch.

Hopefully Ruby and Yang remained none the wiser to these secret training rendezvous'...


"Rubes! Dad! Uncle Qrow! Freeloader! Foods ready!" and like every other call for food it was met with hastened steps from every direction, everybody practically appearing in their seats like they'd been there the whole time "Where's doofus?" Yang asked the present crew, receiving a shrug from Qrow, a confused, vacant look from Tai and a playful chuckle from Ruby.

"We were both working on some modifications with his legs and he's out to get some of the materials to properly perform them" she explained, "He's been gone a couple hours longer than he should've been to get to the local store but he messaged me via scroll that the store was out so he was having to move to find somewhere else" the elder sister frowned at that.

"I don't like how much time you spend together alone with him..." she admitted in her usual subtle, Yang-ish way of speaking. Ruby just looked back blankly at her, not understanding the insinuation with that introverted way of thinking of hers. "A young single girl alone with a playboy pretty-boy in the secluded forge/basement of her house?" she suggested, now receiving a reaction as Ruby's face lit up bright red.

"Me and Mercury aren't like that!" and like that she was stood once more, her exclamation followed with her hands banging against the table "And he isn't a playboy! He's a nice guy" she continued, now innocently fumbling since all attention was on her for a topic she was just beyond uncomfortable with. Only growing worse since it was amongst her family, overprotective dad included.

Yang smirked, her playful older sister side beating out her concerned older sister side "Seems like you'd like it if you were like that" she cooed in that teasing tone of hers, once again playing Ruby's emotions in the way just she knew how to elicit those adorable sputtering's and denials. "Has my little sister got a crush?" and whilst it began playful, her features then set in a frown once she considered that "Don't answer that. I'm going to assume the answer is no and I better be right"

The little red reaper sat back down and twiddled her thumbs together as she tried to hide herself in her hood. Yang didn't like that reaction and neither did Tai if the telltale snapping of silverware was any indication. Qrow just scoffed "Looks like daddy just broke another knife and fork" he flicked Tai in the forehead, being one of few who had the balls to mess with an angry Tai "You're so clumsy daddy" he teased.

Tai just exhaled and calmed himself down. He was reading into playful teasing between sisters and that just wasn't right. Plus, Mercury was a good kid, it wouldn't exactly be awful to have him as a son-in-law right?

...

Maybe in about a decade and only when he could trounce both Tai and Qrow in combat would he let them take care of either of his little girls.

The ensuing fight between sisters stopped once the door opened to reveal the man of the hour himself, holding a bag of parts and dust and looking the least bit pleased for whatever reason.

"What's got you so grumpy?" Yang huffed, passing him a glance as she placed the meals before everybody, Tai being the only one who was already digging into it as if he were the child of the group.

Mercury dropped into his seat after lacing the bag aside and sighed "Bumped into somebody, it was... eventful" he left it at that and Tai and Ruby respected the fact that he clearly didn't want to go into detail about it.

"Continue" Yang wasn't so considerate.

The silver-haired fighter gave her a small glare to meet her own, eventually giving up with a sigh when she refused to place the last meal in her hand before him until he gave. "Fine" he didn't like the cocky smirk on her face but he was more than happy to take the meal off her hands for her.

Tai was a damn good cook and Yang was no slouch either. The other two of the family were exempt from that and Mercury had learnt that the hard way when Ruby had energetically cooked him something up in the past to celebrate the completion of his legs.

Even Yang respected his silence on that dark bit of history.

Now that everybody had gathered they began to eat, though all eyes were on him as they waited for him to begin now that he had given his consent to do so (forceful prodding from the blonde bombshell aside).

"Alright so as you probably know I went out to get some of the stuff me and Ruby had been talking about adding to my prosthetics" he saw them all nod and assumed that Ruby had in fact told them as such since he had been late to the table. "So while I was out I found that the local store had most of the parts but didn't stock the right coils for the suspension or the dust we were considering"

Ruby made an 'ah' sound at that, grabbing the attention of the table "We were looking at adding some magnetic dust to the suspension parts to reduce the friction between parts. It'd overall make the whole movement process faster and reduce wear as long as you could refill it at least twice or so a year" she detailed, the Xiao-Long's smiling at the whiz kid of the family whilst Qrow frowned to himself, no doubt wondering whether she too knew of Mercury's true abilities considering her readiness to help him improve his legs to the point where they were almost obviously being used for something far more than your average cripple.

Mercury nodded, grateful for the explanation from the redhead "So I had to find somewhere else, which took me to the ends of Patch and then eventually a quick shuttle over to Vale" he stopped, finding a mixture of gazes ranging from expectancy to interest, some demanding more (Yang) and others willing to hear out whatever he was willing to give (Taiyang and Ruby). The boy inhaled silently, holding it a moment before releasing it once he found his nerves "I ran into some thugs and it escalated quickly"

He saw the looks turn more and more curious so he decided he'd regale them.


Mercury continued to wander down the street, a light hop to his every step as he picked up the pace in order to return to Ruby as soon as he humanly could. He did not want to see those big silver eyes pooling with tears ever again if he could help it.

He had to stop dead in his tracks once he saw that people had began shuffling into a wide berth around a group of thugs dresses in red and black.

What are Junior's men doing here? He thought to himself, realising that it must have been some small time criminal since it was no secret that The Club's Thugs were hardly the best at their line of work. They were the cheap grunts people got to do the lifting and keep up the intimidation factor at best.

Against his better judgement he decided to tail them, see what was going down. Nothing more, nothing less. He couldn't afford to be recognised and any of these men who'd worked with Junior for an extended period of time may just remember him since he had passed through for information a couple times in the past.

He was broken from his thoughts when the group eventually came across a small time store farther down the street. 'From Dust to Dust' he noted idly. The head of the squad, betrayed by the red ring and playing card tucked around the rim of his hat stepped forward and gestured the crew to follow him inside and Mercury could only grimace.

'They're under Roman's orders aren't they?' And it was no secret to him that Cinder was still using Roman for this part of the plan, though honestly he wondered if she'd changed anything around now that she knew Mercury was on the loose and more than likely out for blood.

He wondered if she'd laugh at the scene of him idly getting along with the small-time family in Patch before using them as hostages to have him willingly walk to his own execution.

Right before she cut them down before him and then took him out after the appropriate amount of torture had been dealt.

He shook off the thoughts and saw that the thugs were now bullying and terrorising the store owner and the few customers. They look scared; horrified even. And why wouldn't they? Grown men were shaking guns, swords and axes in their face with at least some knowledge on how to use them.

Weeks ago Mercury would've been stopping them and then showing them how it was truly done; the biggest monster amongst them.

But now his thoughts went to Ruby and Yang and what they would do in this situation...

"Well I want to be a hero like dad and... and like my mom" he had scoffed at the time and asked the reaper just why she'd go down such a path "Because I want to make the world a better place; people call me naïve but I know the dangers. It doesn't deter me, it just reminds me there's still work to be done" and she'd shut him up with that. The girl was the real deal and he had to grudgingly admit it.

"Well i'm a big sister" he hadn't got it at the time but Yang apparently felt obligated to enlighten "People lose family to the Grimm and I couldn't imagine losing anybody more from mine. If you never want to lose then you'll try harder and harder until you're strong enough to never have to" and then she'd punched him in the arm, the first hit she'd managed to land on him even if it had been in a distracted state.

It fucking hurt.

He shut his eyes and sighed to himself "I can't believe i'm doing this"

"Hey!" all eyes turned to him as he entered the store, pulling his collar up a little more to hide the lower section of his face. "Come on, all at once so I can get out of here already"

The thugs shared a look before scowling and running at him with shocking lack of skill or even unison.

Merc rolled his eyes as he brought his leg up and stabbed it forward into the first mans gut, instantly seeing the guys aura flicker to nothing. 'Shit, these guys are real frail, should definitely pull my hits a little more'. He dodged a swing and then another, jumping to dodge a bullet from a third attacker and lashing both legs out in opposite directions to boot the other two right in their chest and jaw to send them sprawling. The one having being hit in the chest began struggling to regain his bearings before a heel slammed into his forehead with just enough delicacy to not screw him up something fierce.

Another salvo of bullets hit his previous location and the speedster zoomed in at him with unmatched ferocity and guile, not even having been noticed until the man had two metal calves wrapped around his throat, the weight of the boy being swung about to send the thug into the ceiling only to bounce back down onto an outstretched leg to diminish what little aura remained.

"The only thing you guys have is a sharp stick and an unlocked aura" he said with a sneer, now grabbing the leader by the collar and slamming him into a wall, grey eyes glaring into the red of his lenses. "Get out of here and get out of your line of work while you're at it or you'll regret it" he spat out, recoiling his leg once he felt the warmth spreading throughout the other mans pants.

Grown man and he fucking pisses himself...

One boot to the temple and Mercury was finally done with his easiest job to date. Well, hardly a job if he didn't get paid...

"Th-thank you mister!" came from a voice to his right, a group of huddled civilians now beginning to surround him with nothing but grateful smiles written upon their faces. He turned to the little boy who'd spoken to him and gave the boy a small smirk.

"No problem kid, Hunter's job right?" and the kid only grinned back with that stupid excuse for growing teeth and yet Mercury couldn't help but think to himself that maybe this job did pay in its own way.

That was as far as he got however as he heard a whistling in the air, turning with practiced precision and his heel finding the projectile before it even had time to impact him, sending the it smashing out the window to detonate in an enormous shower of fireworks above them.

He'd acted on impulse and just stopped an explosive round and it was only now that he realised something.

That was meant to ignite the store's dust supply, and that was undoubtedly a round from Roman's Melodic Cudgel.

He even saw the criminal retreating into the alleyways in the distance and grimaced.

Now he had to worry about somebody else potentially having seen him...


"After that the cops came around and I answered some questions before they sent me on my way" he finished, having to have omitted a decent portion of that story relating to his past and identity, giving them what they needed to know relative to the Mercury they now knew.

He was met with looks of wonder from the little red reaper and a smirk from the blonde vixen.

"Yang if i'm not mistaken you almost look pleased with me" he teased with a smirk not unlike her own whenever she happened to mess with Ruby. This was met with a sputtered denial and a small light pink dusting on her cheeks to Mercury's surprise.

"Yeah, you did a good thing there" she said honestly, a serious look in those lilac eyes of hers "But from what I heard you took out a group of thugs with just your kicks" he had to suppress a grimace at the grin spreading across her features "You know how to fight don't you Mercury?" she cooed, eliciting a begrudging nod from the silverette "That settles it. Dad? Uncle Qrow?" she turned to the two older men who looked back at her expectantly "Could you book us a room at Signal so that I can kick his ass in front of the whole school?" she asked with that terrifyingly sweet smile of hers.

Qrow just gulped and looked away but daddy had to simply shudder, grin and bear it all "S-sure honey..!" he gave Merc an apologetic look and it was almost sad that Mercury understood all too well and forgave him in an instant.

Yang walked up and punched the boy in the arm "You deflected a stray dust round" she acknowledged "You'd better at least get me to try" her eyes softened for a moment Never lie to me about anything like this again" she blinked rapidly "I mean us!" she punched him harder this time with a blush "Shut up!" and stormed out.

Mercury simply sighed and gave Ruby a playful roll of the eyes, eliciting a giggle from the girl.

He dropped his cutlery on his plate once he'd finished, last to do so from having been the last to arrive as well as not having fully recovered his appetite yet. He gestured his head to Ruby, pointing towards the basement "Want to see if we can get those parts working?" she nodded enthusiastically and he grinned back at her "Badass" he headed over to the door and was about to open it-

"You two have fun down there!" Yang cooed from the next room, Ruby now as red as the cloak she was hiding her face in as they moved into the forge.

"Come on kid" he laughed, ruffling her hair fondly as they began to get to work.

Just another day in paradise...


Tai turned to Qrow with a surprisingly serious look in his eyes "What do you think?"

The older Reaper just nodded solemnly "It's too coincidental if it isn't him" he pulled out his scroll "Ozpin only invites the best to that academy; he can see potential like no other" the message on the scroll read that Ozpin had apparently found somebody he wanted in his academy and Qrow could only relate it to the story he had heard from his new protégé.

The blonde man sighed "I can't see him taking it" he frowned "I mean he refused your offer to be your apprentice even..." Qrow grimaced at that reminder.

"He's a good kid but he doesn't see it even himself. He has a past" his friend glanced over at him with an annoyed look, a look rarely associated with the kind-hearted Hunter.

"You keep saying that but you're so vague!" he gripped Qrow's collar but received nothing but a blank look in return "What do you know that I don't Qrow?! I care about that kid, he's been pulled through the rough like we couldn't even fathom and you're just going to hold out on me?!" he shoved him away and Qrow just looked downtrodden.

"Do you think he'd ever appreciate you knowing what he doesn't even want me knowing? It isn't my place to tell. It isn't even my place to know Tai" the lion of Team STRQ winced at that.

"No..."

Qrow walked forward and put an arm on his oldest friends shoulder "Trust him Tai. He sees a father in you and he'll let you know eventually I know it" he received a grateful nod and Qrow took the chance to leave, heading to his room with no diversions.

And as he settled onto his bed his thoughts went back to Mercury; the kid who saved civilians from armed robbery at the cost of the identity he so desperately concealed and the Mercury he hid from them; the Mercury that held the Fall Maiden down as she was slowly drained of her life into the husk she now is beneath Beacon Academy.

The man covered his eyes with his arms "I believe you can be saved, please don't betray our trust kid..."


Extra: The Aftermath of the Robbery

Mercury shuffled in his seat for an instant before kicking back on it, overlapping his legs across the table with a downright bored expression.

"...Please remove your feet from the table" Mercury gave Goodwitch a flat look as he slowly complied, withdrawing them and instead turning the chair around to lean forward against what was intended to be the backrest, earning another piercing glare from the beautiful woman across the table.

"You'd be a lot more beautiful if you'd stop trying to kill people with a look" he said idly, the woman not even giving him an inch at that. Smart because he'd take a mile if she did.

Finally the door opened to reveal that Mercury's suspicions had been correct, Goodwitch being the hint once the police had dropped him here telling him that somebody had wanted to meet him.

"Greetings" he began calmly, seating himself down at the opposite end of the table as Goodwitch remained as statuesque as before to his right with her back against the wall, standing as ramrod straight as he had assumed what with that legendary stick up her ass and whatnot. "Do you know I am?" he asked, earning a scoff from Mercury.

"Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon; 'treasured' member of the council and one of the most influential men in all of Vale" Ozpin seemed pleased with the answer "So yes I have connected to social media at least once in my life" Goodwitch was less pleased by the sarcastic response.

Ozpin simply chuckled "It wouldn't be against my predictions to assume that you're not too fond of me, correct?" Mercury said nothing but his lack of denial was enough for the Wizard of Beacon "Do you know why i'm here?" he continued

"So you can send another soldier to their death for your cause" he said without missing a beat, his glare moving to Goodwitch as she stepped forward with a fierce scowl only to halt at Ozpin's raised hand.

"I'm sorry, have you lost friends or family to the work of Hunters?" he asked with an expression of sorrow that only disgusted Mercury further.

"You shouldn't fake sympathy, it's more sickening than being outright apathetic" he countered, seeing that Goodwitch looked as if she were about to pop a blood vessel.

Ozpin simply frowned "Glynda, please leave us some privacy" the woman looked hesitant but eventually obeyed. It was only once the door clicked shut that Ozpin returned his gaze to the boy "What is your name?" Mercury almost smirked at that. He wouldn't be surprised if this was the first time Ozpin had ever run this act without knowing even this much about the forced 'applicant' to his prestigious academy.

No doubt he usually knew everything down to the girls fucking measurements.

"You're thinking something degrading of me aren't you?" he questioned with a humoured smile. The silence permeated and eventually Ozpin with his endless patience saw fit to move on to the next stage even with his lack of details. "I would like to invite you to join my-"

"No" Mercury replied evenly.

Ozpin simply chuckled "You didn't even hear me out"

"I'm not going to be a god damn student learning under people like you"

"Then don't"

Mercury rolled his eyes "That's what I've been trying to do"

"You misunderstand" Ozpin pushed his glasses back and gave a smile "I'd much prefer to employ than educate somebody as capable as yourself" Mercury's eyes widened "Yes? No?"

Mercury gulped and narrowed his eyes harshly, speaking only after a whole minute had cycled by "I have some conditions..."

Ozpin only smirked behind his hands.


Yo! Regent here with another chapter coming your way!

I'm beyond ecstatic with all the interest this story is getting and I only hope that it continues to grow! I want this story to keep on growing to the point in which everybody can hopefully enjoy it.

Well I'll leave you toy our thoughts on what's going to happen next and what's going to become of Mercury with being offered a job at Beacon and as Qrow's assistant.

Looks like everybody wants some of dat Merc work ethic.

Remember to Favourite, Follow and Review if you enjoyed my story. Nothing lets me know that my stories are appreciated as much as hearing it straight from the source through your reviews so I hope to hear from you all soon.

Au Revoir for now readers! ^^