The Black Knight (A Mercury Black Story: Part I)

Chapter 7

"Get up, Zuri," a voice said, waking me from my slumber. I opened my eyes and lifted my head to see that Mercury was standing over me, already dressed and ready to go. I looked at the alarm clock he had in his room, my eyes taking in that it was only six a.m. But then again, we had that mission that Marcus wanted us to go on today, and we needed to ask around other Dust shops to see if there were any other robberies.
"Okay, okay, I'm up, I'm up," I said, crawling out of Mercury's bed. I stretched my arms out and got off the bed, looking up at my best friend as he was reloading his gun for today's mission. "Feeling better today?"
"A lot better, actually. It helps that somebody knows about me and my dad now. It honestly sucked, you know, because I felt like I had to protect you from him, but now that you know and have Crystal Mayhem, I don't have to protect you as much."
"Mercury, you didn't have to protect me, you know that I can myself to an extent."
"Zuri, you almost died last night. If I wasn't for me being there, you wouldn't have gotten that shot off to freeze Adam in that ice."
"And we're both alive aren't we," I gritted my teeth, my blood boiling a little bit.
"Well, yes, but I'm saying you need more training with your weapon so you know everything about it. Your sword has dust in it, correct? It's not just the arrows?" he asked as I walked past him into my room to grab my clothes before getting into the shower.
"Yeah, it does," I said walking into the bathroom. I turned around to look at my best friend, my hand placed on the door.
"Then figure out how it works. Zuri, you have one of the most powerful weapons out there, even powerful than mine. Be the fighter your parents' were." I nodded and closed the door, locking it behind me so that I could think in peace. I stripped down and stepped into the freezing water, shivering as I scrubbed myself down, thinking of what Mercury said about my weapon. I guess I should start using the dust in my sword, at least practice with it. He was right though, about how I could be one of the most powerful fighters out there, with my father being an assassin and my mother being at the top of her class at Beacon when she attend when she was my age. I sighed, turning off the water, and dried myself off, placing my white towel in the hamper. I looked at myself in the mirror, my creamy pale skin without any scratches or bruises, all of them landing on Mercury's skin. I knew that my aura was stronger than Mercury's, but even still, I should have obtained some scars. What he didn't know though, is that I also obtained my mother's semblance of healing when the murderer's attacked that night. In other words, I was a rare case.
I changed quickly and stepped out of the bathroom, Mercury leaning against the wall with Crystal Mayhem and my quiver in his hands.
"Ready to go?" he asked as he handed me my weapon.
"As ready as we can be," I said smiling. He smirked as we walked towards the door leading to the outside. As I looked around the kitchen, I noticed that Marcus was not sitting in his usual chair having his morning coffee. I sigh as Mercury turned back to look at me, scowling at the empty chair.
"Forget him," he said, "We have a mission to do. We need to leave."
"You're right, let's go." We walked out the door into the cool summer air as Mercury shut the door behind us. I looked behind me as he released the door handle, giving me a reassuring smile. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in close, as we stood there for a few minutes enjoying each other's company. We let go and walked down the path to the city, traveling through the woods we know so well.
"Hey," Mercury said while we trekked, "Thanks for staying with me last night, it... it really helped."
"No problem, Mercury," I said, "Besides, you would've done the same for me."
"Yeah, you got a good point there."
"So," I said as we stepped over a broken tree, "Who exactly are we looking for? I know that he's a part of the White Fang, but I don't believe that it's Adam. Marcus wouldn't be that stupid, right?"
"No, it's not Adam, it's a man named Roman Torchwick. He's been stealing Dust from shops in the city for a while, and apparently this is his last stop until he goes to Vale. I have no clue what deal he made with my dad, but apparently it wasn't good, so Dad want's him dead."
"Shouldn't be that hard right, I mean, he's not a good fighter or anything?" I asked as we finally got to the entrance to the city. Mercury laughed and shook his hand, placing his hands in his pockets.
"No, he's not, we can easily take him. Now c'mon, is better to scout if we're on the roofs."
I nodded and followed Mercury as we started to climb a fire ladder to the top of a building that is close to a Dust shop. We sat up the top as Mercury watched for any unusual activity, or the guy that we were looking for.  After around twenty minutes of watching, I stood up and took out Crystal Mayhem. I watched as Mercury looked back as I was filling my sword with Dust crystals.
"What are you doing?" he asked as I finished placing my last Dust crystal. I looked back at my friend as I looked at my blade.
"You told me to work on my Dust abilities with Mayhem, so that's what I'm doing," I said as I got ready to activate a power from my sword. I raised my sword above my head, facing the blade downwards as Mercury got up and sprinted towards me, grabbing my hand before I brought the blade down.
"Yes, but not now. Later, when we're not on a mission, okay? We don't want people to see us and wonder what we're up too."
"I guess you have a point there," I said as I placed Mayhem back in its sheath, "But when? Are we going to fight someone soon?"
"Hey! Get that Dust right away! Boss is going to be angry if we don't!" a unfamiliar voice called out below. We rushed to the edge of the building, with the light that was starting to come out, a man in a hat appeared followed by black suited men in red ties and sunglasses. Mercury and I looked at each other and nodded, this was the guy we wanted. We watched as he broke into the shop, his men starting to collect Dust and crystals. If it were up to me, we would charge in there right now and kill the guy, but Mercury is usually the leader on all of these operations.
"When do we go?" I whispered, "Can we go now and get it over with?"
"No, you know that," he said, watching carefully, "Just stay still for now, I'll tell you when we can go, okay? Just calm down, okay?"
"Okay," I said, bringing my hand to grip the hilt of my sword, "His robberies don't last long anyway, do they?"
"No, they don't," Mercury answered, looking at me, "In a few minutes, Zuri, be patient. Once he gets in one of the alleys, we'll attack and grab the Dust."
"Alright, Mercury," I said as we watched the man in the hat come out of the store. I got ready to jump as he dashed in one of the alleys. "Now?"
"Now, let's go," he said as we took off after him, "I'll get in front of him, get behind him and trap him in!"
"Got it!" I shouted as we jumped down, Mercury running ahead, I stayed back for a little bit until I ran after him, turning the ally way to see the Mercury was in front of the man. I transformed my sword right away into the bow and pulled out an ice arrow to trap him right away to give Mercury an easier time. I loaded the arrow, lining up my shot, and letting go... leading to a misfire. Roman looked at me as soon as let go of the arrow and dodged the attack, leaving Mercury to almost being cased in ice. Lucky for me, though, Mercury back flipped out of the before the ice could hit him.
"Mercury!"
            "Zuri, watch out!" my best friend shouted to me just before Roman hit me in the face with his cane.