Mercury Black

Mercury Black  is an associate of Cinder Fall and partner of Emerald Sustrai.

Appearance
In Mercury's first appearance in Black and White, he was shown to be a pale, well-built man with gray eyes and hair, partially slicked back while unkempt at the front. He also wears a gray and black two-tone partial-zip jacket, that covers his upper body.

Mercury's appearance did not change much in Volume 2, though his hair and eyes are now a silvery-gray. A not-so-noticeable change is his style of belt. In his first appearance, he appears to be wearing two belts, one crossing the other. He now wears a single notched belt with what appears to be a sash or bandana draped over it. It is unclear whether his rerebraces are attached to his jacket.

In the Volume 2 Opening, he is seen fighting with greaves similar in design to Yang Xiao Long's Ember Celica.

While at Beacon Academy, in what seems to be a disguise, Mercury wears a dark gray outfit with a long-sleeved collared top, black pants and a white armband.

Personality
In Best Day Ever, Mercury is shown to be rather care-free and jokes around when in the company of Emerald, whom he makes an effort to annoy. He sees to opt for excitement and action, as he dislikes books without pictures, and tells Emerald that he finds the city boring. However, when it comes to matters at hand, Mercury drops this, focusing himself on the mission.

During battle, Mercury displays a sense of seriousness and levelheadedness. Based on his fight with Pyrrha Nikos, he appears to test and gauge his opponent before fully committing to an attack, implying that he has a strategic mind.

Judging from the nonchalant way he talked about killing Tukson, Mercury appears to have no qualms about killing, even light-heartedly joking about it afterwards with Emerald.

Abilities
Based on his fight with Pyrrha in Volume 2, Mercury is shown to be a very acrobatic and agile fighter who relies on quickly overpowering his opponent with complex kicks that imply a near-mastery of martial arts that resemble Tae Kwon Do. He was even able to outmaneuver and disarm Pyrrha, although he forfeits as soon as he discovers her Semblance, since all he wanted was to find out about her abilities and likely doesn't want her to find out too much about his own. Such combat style was also briefly seen during a fight with Yang in the Volume 2 Opening.

Mercury is very observant, as he notices Pyrrha using her polarity to interfere with his kicks.

He also wields a set of greaves that have a firing mechanism built into them similar to Ember Celica. He is shown using them briefly in the Volume 2 Opening, which shows that they operate the same way Ember Celica does.

During his and Emerald's brief skirmish with Tukson, Mercury is shown using his greaves for a spilt second with the sound of a gunshot going off, implying that he delivered the deathblow to Tukson himself, with the use of his weapon.

Trivia

 * Mercury seems to be based off the Roman mythological figure of the same name. Hermes is his Greek counterpart.
 * Mercury's symbol, a winged boot, as well as his weapons, may be an allusion to the winged sandals of the mythological Mercury.
 * His colors are black, gray, and silver, likely to give off the tones of the element Mercury.
 * Both Mercury and Emerald lacked 3D models in Volume One, using 2D still image sprites instead.
 * Mercury's last name, Black, was originally suggested by his voice actor J.J. Castillo.