Merge:Mercury

Mercury is a mutant in the Marvel Universe, a member of the student body at the Xavier Institute. Her real name is Cessily Kincaid, and she first appeared in New Mutants (volume 2) #2. She is from Portland, Oregon and her parents do not accept her mutancy. She is one of only 27 (technically 30) students to keep her powers post-M-Day and is part of the New X-Men team.

Character history
Cessily Kincaid was raised in Portland, Oregon by her parents Mark and Jill, who, according to DeFilippis, used to dote over her. When Cessily's powers manifested, her parents were disgusted and made her stay indoors so as to hide her mutancy. In responce, she was sent to the Xavier Institute where she befriended Julian Keller and was placed as Laurie Collins' roommate, which led to Cessily not liking Laurie. After the school was rebuilt, she was selected by Emma Frost to be on her Hellions squad.

During that time, she developed a crush on her teammate Wither, but her feelings were not reciprocated.

The Hellions squad won the squad challenge, and during their summer vacation, they travled with Julian to his home. There they encountered the Kingmaker, from whom they each received a trial wish. Cessily's wish was to have her parents accept and love her. However, when the Hellions eventually refused a permanent deal with the Kingmaker, Cessily's parents revered back to normal and Cessily returned to the Institute, defeated.

Soon thereafter, the events of M-Day left only 27 students with their powers, Cessily included, though she would have preferred to lose her powers. The depowered students and staff were sent home. One bus was bombed by anti-mutant religious zealot Reverend William Stryker, and Cessily's former teammate and friend Tag was among those killed. The X-Men held a funeral for those students whose parents would not accept them, and Cessily's anguish was very visible.

All of the remaining students were placed by Emma Frost into an all-out brawl, and the ones deemed to be the best were to be assigned to become a group of in-training X-Men. Cessily made the team and is currently training to become an X-Man.

Powers
Mercury's body is composed of non-toxic mercury, which she can reshape or solidify at will, although she is still inexperienced in shape-shifting. Molecular adhesion power gives her the ability to cling to solid surfaces and move her body at will even without overt locomotive features.

Since her body is not organic, she is one of the few people who can touch Wither without decaying.

Alternate versions

 * In the House of M reality, Cessily was a student at the Karma's New Mutant Leadership Institute, and, unlike her 616 persona, was close with Laurie. When she learned of Prodigy's plan to help Surge find her terrorist father in Japan, she was against going, but then Laurie (a deep cover S.H.I.E.L.D. agent) changed her mind. Once in Japan, the young team found the Project Genesis the terrorists were trying to stop, and Laurie revealed her loyalties, making the Hellions attack the New Mutants. Mercury, however, was immune to pheromones, and pleaded with her friend to stop. When Laurie refused, Cessily was forced to stab her in the abdomen. Afterwards, Mercury joined the survivors in a last-ditch assault on Emperor Sunfire's forces.

Facts

 * Her creators, Christina Weir and Nunzio DeFilippis, state that she is Irish-American.
 * It has also been said by her creators that she can potentially do anything the T-1000 (Terminator 3) can.
 * Cessily's is disappointed about not losing her powers due to M-Day.
 * In her first appearance, she was sixteen-years-old.
 * Mercury was also the name of one of the characters (a speedster) seen in Red Raven Comics (published by Timely Comics, the precursor to Marvel Comics). Various retcons have made it so that Mercury was the Eternal Makkari all along.
 * A previous male character with the same name and powers was introduced as a part of Cerebro's X-Men.