Story Written & Edited by everyone in the MeruVerse Discord Server
All Characters © Respective Owners


During the summer that they were out of school, Mercury had applied to several colleges and universities, with his knowledge and perfect grade point average he was able to go any college that he wanted. But he wanted someplace that he would also keep close to his friends and not be stuck into some special Ivy League prep school. Mercury always had a hatred for those that think they are better than everyone else simply because they had the money and knowledge. But he had more knowledge in one brain cell than everyone else had in their whole body but thanks to his friend Ben Sullicoot, he was able to get past the genius and be a better person. Mercury had made the joint decision to go to Columbia University with Ben. They both put in applications as soon as they got out of high school and during their summer vacation they got letters in the mail for both of them. Once they both got back from comic con, they learned that both of them had been accepted to Columbia University in New York. It may have been the most aggressive city in the world next to Tokyo but at least it was home. On the day before he went off to college, everyone celebrated the boy’s graduation and admission into college at Ben’s house. Both of his parents and Larz were able to get along greatly, the big sumo wolf was even able to convince them to get lessons in sumo since he looked like he could take down an entire building as such.


Today it was the proverbial baby bird leaving the nest day. In other words, Mercury was about to move out the dojo on the day after 19th birthday. Many tears were shed as his adoptive father Larz really wanted to have Mercury stay local but at the same time knew he had to let Mercury do his own thing. Larz squats down and gave his son a belly full of hugs. “Promise me that you’ll do some video chat with me once a week. You got it? And I’ll be at Madison Square Garden next month for the Ultimate Sumo Tournament, your dad is gonna have to keep his spot in order to stay number one, you know?!” Mercury rubs on Larz’s belly while he looks up to the big wolf. “Don’t worry, Dad Sensei. I’ll be sure to catch your matches and take your sumo classes when you're in town!” The small looks to everyone as some shed tears and some give thumbs up while holding signs congratulating the small rodent on his acceptance into college, he wipes tears from his eyes as being at the dojo was some of the best years of his life. “I’m really gonna miss all of you, I’ll be sure to call.” Ben rolls up the driveway in a private taxi that Larz had hired to take them to the airport to get to college. “Hey, come on Mercury! We don’t want to hit traffic!” Claude carried his brother’s bags to the trunk of the car and helped him get in. “Won’t be the same without you, little brother.” He gives Mercury a fist bump before they start to pull off as everyone was shouting their goodbyes. Ben puts his hand on Mercury’s own in the seat as Mercury was trying to hold back tears. “Don’t worry, Merc. You’ll see them during the holidays. At least we get those, and your dad said he’d be in Madison Square Garden next month.” Mercury held his best friend’s hand and gave a nod of reassurance. “You're right, I’m gonna miss them. But there’s just...I wish....” He gave off a sigh and looked at his photo that he had saved to his phone, it was a picture of his real mother and father. That time they brought him to see his first movie: Iron Man and they even got him the helmet replica. Ben leaned over to look at the photo to see the two adult rodents and quickly understood the weight that had fallen on his friend’s shoulders. “I know I can’t speak for them, dude. However, if they were here...I know they would say that they’d be extremely proud of their son.” Those words were something that anyone would want to hear. Mercury gave his friend a light hug as their ride continued. Once they got to the airport, they had to go through security just like everyone else since it was standard procedure. Once they got boarded, they were in shock at what kind of trip they were going out on, it was a first class. Not just any first class, Larz’s private jet had all the works, massage seats, in flight entertainment however they weren’t allowed to drink so he had all the alcoholic beverages taken off the plane and replaced with juices and soda along with plenty of snacks. “Dang, Mercury. You didn’t tell me that you had us sprung for first class! This is freaking awesome!” Ben couldn’t help but jump right in his seat where the massage chair was and strapped in while the flight attendant came on board. It was a female brunette chipmunk, that had curves and had blue eyeliner with a nice big fluffy tail. “Now boys, this is gonna be a two hour trip, non stop to new york. Please make sure your seats are in the upright position and your seatbelts are securely fastened. Notice that your exits on your right and left are for emergencies only and lifeboats along with parachutes and safety vests are under your seat in case of emergency. Thank you for choosing Eagle Flight and we hope you enjoy your ride.” Ben looked to Mercury as they both turned their heads to each other simultaneously and both exclaimed “DAAAAAAAAMN!!!!” They were just freaking stunned by their flight attendants beauty but did exactly what she said. However their trip would be delayed for a couple of hours due to the sudden downpour and their flight couldn’t take off due to the storm. But that didn’t mean that they had to be bored during it so they managed to pull out both of their switches and get on the plane’s wifi and go against the world in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Ben always had the driving and item skills but Mercury always tried to use science and data analysis to try to plot his moves which cost him a few races. After the storm cleared and the ground team did all the checks and signal to the radio tower that everything was clear before the plane got onto the tarmac and finally took off. It was off to college for the both of them and new adventures for both of them.


Columbia University seemed to be the perfect setting for the both of them where they could both get degrees in what they wanted but for Mercury it was kind of a double edged sword. As soon as he got there most of the students didn’t want to really be near him not only because he was a know-it-all but also because he was tiny. Some of the sports teams even stepped on his tail so much that he had to start learning how to block out pain in his mind. It was working but only so much until they shoved him inside a locker while Ben was taking a different class. One of the football receivers shouted to the locker. “Hey Brainy! If you’re so smart, try to get out the locker!” Mercury was pounding against the locker but he couldn’t make a dent. “I’m not Harry Houdini you assholes! OPEN THIS DOOR!!” He was pounding for about an hour and that would mean he was late for his next class until another student came in after the pounding had stopped but heard just long enough to identify the locker. The person came to open the locker by using his keen wolf ears to figure out the combo, making the mouse tumble out of the locker and onto the floor hitting his head against the lockers across from where he was. “Ow!!” The wolf came to help Mercury up off the floor and brush him off, “Hey...I’m sorry those guys pushed you in there, if I had known that I would have come to let you out. Are you okay?” Mercury rubbed the back of his head where he got a bump and shook his head. “I’m fine...who the heck are you?” The figure in the silhouette cleared up as Mercury was getting vision back into his eyes from hitting his head so hard. It was a massive 6’1” wolf with 275lbs of wolf, even with how tall he was, he certainly looked hefty, in which case he was more bottom heavy than he was muscled. Needless to say, he looked nothing like the other guys. “I’m Fang Vermillion, it’s nice to meet the smartest guy in the whole school. But seriously, those other guys...I’m not like them.” Mercury starts to grab an ice pack from his in locker freezer and starts to place it on the back of his head while wincing in pain. “Well you did let me out of the locker, so I owe you a thank you.” Fang just put back on his clothes, wearing black jeans with a red stripe going down the outer side of the legs, but those pants were tight as they couldn’t really go up all the way around his massive set of thighs and big rump. Fang then puts on a tight gray muscle shirt that really shows off his toned upper body which Mercury wished he’d have but unfortunately he remembers working out in Larz’s gym back at the dojo but he was always having trouble lifting weights which is why he’d wait until the place was completely empty before lifting weights. “Hey, we got the next class in 10 minutes and it looks like we got a new professor for it. How about I walk you there?” Mercury looks down with half shut eyes and a blank expression of suspicion on his face. “You’re not just saying that to shove me back into a locker at the first moment again, are you?” Fang shakes his head with his long hair wrapped up whipping around. “No! Like I said, I’m not like them, besides...if I did want you in the locker, I’d left you there by now.” Mercury nods and puts his ice pack back into his locker and grabs his backpack, starting to walk with the huge wolf down the halls while they were in between classes.


The class they had both had was a chemistry lecture hall filled with many students but the teacher had yet to arrive. Fang chose to sit behind Mercury wanting to talk with the mouse even more after class. This was the only period in which he and Ben were separated as Ben had culinary classes that he took this period. Mercury took out his laptop as he wanted to make sure he was ready. Everyone heard large footsteps coming towards the lecture hall, preparing for an earthquake but it was a large rather tubby and heavy blue duck of a large 10ft and standing at 1400lbs. He was officially the largest guy at the college, possibly in the world. Wearing a large set of dark grey dress pants with a pair of black strap overall pants. Tucked in those pants was a tight blue dress shirt, finished off with a tie that had a sequence of stars. “My apologies for being late, traffic was a nightmare. Good Afternoon my ducklings! I am Professor Flint Webber and I will be your chemistry and biology teacher for the foreseeable future?” Fang raised his hand and Flint pointed to him. “Profesor, what happened to Dr. Maggie?” The blue duck set down his briefcase on the desk while setting up the projector, but not without answering the question. “Dr. Maggie has been accepted at a teaching post overseas and will not be returning as she told me that it was something that needed to be done. She asked me to extend the best wishes for each and every one of you. Told me you were the best and brightest students she had ever taught.” The class murmurs some as they didn’t know that Dr. Maggie was going overseas to teach at another school and it was a shock to them. “Class! I know you will all miss Dr. Maggie and I will not take her place in your hearts. But I can assure you that this class will still be at the top of its game, but we won’t make it boring.” He manages to pull out some materials and different chemicals but it was all closely related to something anyone could find in a soda. “Now then, how many of you want to make a soda that would make you belch on command!?” The whole lecture hall let out a cheer that went into the adjacent ones as they wouldn’t be able to do this on any type of basis so having fun was a plus for them. “Well alright, I thought this would be how I’d make my first impression on you all, so by all means…let’s crack some freaking eggs.” Flint took the time to point out all of the elements of making the best carbonated soda through power points and went around to each student making sure they don’t over do or under do it. Each student had the choice of making their own flavor of soda in their two liter bottle, some just went wild with it and their soda didn’t come out like they’d want it to but thanks to Flint’s ingenuity he helped them to recover. Mercury on the other hand was being very meticulous about his own brew of soda, wanting to mix the perfect blend along with the taste of cherries since it reminded him of Cheerwine. As they were wiring down to the last 25 minutes of the lecture hall they were signaled to stop. “Alright class, time to stop. I’ll need everyone to pour a 6oz cup of your soda with your name on it and bring it to my desk. I will taste every single one for consistency, texture, test and most of all...power!” Everyone got up in a single file line and placed their cups on his desk as he put ice cubes into each soda blend and was testing them out one by one. Some of the students were murmuring about whether or not the gas build up would make him bust out of his dress shirt. Mercury’s was by far the most powerful since it made some of Flint’s papers fly, but the cherry flavor was a bit weak. Professor Webber got Fang’s drink and it was balanced for both flavor and power more to the point it was a good perfect mix of sourness and blue raspberry. “Well everyone, I think we have a good soda maker in the class. Oh there was a hidden reward too...the student who made the best blend would be getting automatic 100s on their scores for the month. And everyone the winner is...FANG VERMILLION!!” Everyone turns and claps for Fang which only increased in volume as the wolf just blushed beet red, the femboy wolf never had this much attention before and it felt good. “Fang, my boy. You have made the best blend of soda that I could get my taste buds, you are good to go for the month!” Fang gets up and bows while he rubs the back of his head. “Gee, thanks Professor Webber.” The large professor let them talk and do as they please for the rest of the class while some of the students drank their sodas while talking and chatting. Some of them, just goofing off until the bell rang at which point Professor Webber dismisses them Fang walks out with Mercury but the duck calls the mouse back in. Fang places his hand on Mercury’s shoulder reassuring him. “Hey I’ll wait for you out here okay?” Mercury went back to see Professor Webber as the massive duck sat back down in his chair. “Mercury, the dean wanted me to give you a permit so you can use the school’s lab since your GPA is without flaws and he says you have a bright future ahead of you. I could tell you for myself that you have potential, and I saw that today, even if your stuff was a little on the flat side.” The duck laughs making his belly jostle and gurgle loudly, he pulls his drawer out and gives Mercury a card that would put him in lab Alpha 1! That was the college’s most prestigious and well funded lab. “Professor Webber, I promise you won’t regret letting me be a part of your lab crew.” Mercury walks out and jumps up clicking his heels. Fang caught this as soon as he turned around, seeing the mouse all happy. “Hey, you look like you just got a hot date. What happened?” Mercury whips out his lab card, with a massive grin on his face. “I got my Alpha 1 lab card, it means I can work on my own projects while contributing to the school’s own path! That means I can work on THAT project.” Fang cocks an eyebrow at what the project could be. “You gonna tell me what that would be?” Mercury quickly puts the card back in his backpack while walking down the hall with Fang. “I’ll tell you when I know it is green to go. Right now since it is the end of the day, I was gonna meet up with Ben so we can play some Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.” Fang’s ears perked up since he played it too and he was a champion. “Hey, why don’t I play with you guys? I got a good track record at beating opponents! And if enough of us play with people online we could do an 8 person battle royale.” Mercury thought that would be a good idea since it was usually just him and Ben teaming up against others before the two were the last opponents and had to go against each other. “Alright, let’s do that...come up to our dorm room in 20 minutes and we’ll all play.” Flint overhears nintendo games and peaks out the room, hearing their whole conversation go down and he rubs his hands together like he was plotting something. “Oh goodie, more lambs to my smashing slaughter.”



It was 3:30pm and Ben had gotten out of cooking class late since he had to help the class clean up since one of the students had a tomato sauce splatter that nearly stained the room. “Sorry I’m late!! I had to help with an unexpected clean up!” Mercury hands Ben his lucky controller while Fang took up the bean bag chair, “Well let’s get this party started, I already put us in a room and some guy just entered in on his own. We are playing on stock and this guy is running Falco, his username is Bright Blue Moon. I’m gonna crush him with Mega Man.” Fang thinks about who to pick and he goes with Toon Link while Ben picks Squidling from Splatoon 2.” The screen counted down as everyone loaded in since they were on X-FI, the fastest internet in the world. 3...2….1...GO!!! The mode was stock battle and everyone was and they were playing with the school’s discord on mode and it was an 8 person stock battle with Falco giving everyone a hard time, he looked like he knew just about everything but no one was given an inch, a couple of the others got knocked out the game. Mercury was getting his ass handed to him and tried to save himself using the final smash as he finally got everyone in the mix taking out 4 players with the Mega Buster from all the Mega Men. Falco came in at the last second and hit Mega Man with the super hammer after the final smash, knocking Mega Man off the board. “PLAYER 1...DEFEATED!” Mercury dropped his controller, growling. “WHAT!?” Fang was next to get blasted out. “PLAYER 2...DEFEATED! Fang pouts at the screen with his bottom lip. “Come on man!” Before they would even catch on with what was happening, it came down to the last second but Ben was finally out! “GAME!! FALCO WINS!!” They all had to ask simultaneously. “WHO IS THIS BRIGHT BLUE MOON!!??”

The discord beeped as a video call was coming in the room and it was a face no one could have seen. It was a face no one could have seen coming. “You all may be my students in the classroom and I the teacher, but here in Smash?? I AM THE KING!!” He was laughing his ass off as his belly busted out of his shirt from all the food he had eaten and laughing making the big piece of clothing come undone. Fang, Mercury and Ben looked at each other before looking back at their devices. “Professor Webber is the Bright Blue Moon!?” Flint gave a wink at his webcam and a thumbs up. “That’s riiiight!” He then turned off the discord cam and went back to voice. Ben was in shock that they lost to someone who teaches their classes. “Dude...we just got our asses handed to us by our chemistry teacher…”

Fang made a proposal for them to get some dinner and they all shut off the game. “I think I am going to need a snack after that.” Mercury agrees with a dumbfounded look on his face. “Webber is the Bright Blue Moon? And he just beat us at our own game!! If I wasn’t under drinking age...I’d have to drink that off but I’ll settle for pizza.” Ben pats on Mercury’s shoulder and gives it a rub with Fang doing the same for the other shoulder in kind. “Don’t worry, bro. We’ll get him next time.” Mercury nods and they all head out to the local pizzeria called the Marinara Managerie once they got there, they started to order some pizza and did some talking about strategizing and talking about how they were going to take down the Blue Moon. Low and behold their professor walks in wearing a t-shirt with Falco throwing his reflector out saying 'Hands off my prey!' along with a pair of breathable shorts, letting his size move a bit more freely than his work attire. “Hey there, if these aren't 3 of my best students and the only ones to ever really give me a challenge as far as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate goes.” Ben scoots over to give the big duck some room while Fang scoots himself a bit closer to Mercury. Fang speaks up first since Mercury was a bit too nervous. “Come on, Professor, we're just here to have some pizza and probably talk about some Pokemon which we might go on a journey to catch.” The big blue duck waves both of his hands in the air to try to clear the air. “Hey, I’m not here to gloat or rub it in, I’m just here to eat with my best and brightest students and I paid for the buffet so you guys can eat all the pizza that you want.” Ben was curious as to why their science teacher was about to treat them to pizza. “Why do this? Why come here and treat us?” The pizza came all around with all of their unique toppings in mind, with everyone starting to dig in. Flint drinks his soda and explains. “I wanted to apologize for my outburst after the game on Discord. It wasn’t really kosher of me to do all that.” Mercury finishes his first slice of the pizza and wipes off his mouth. “I think we should be able to let this slide if you could teach us how not to get eliminated, we are also trying to go into a team tournament. Maybe you could help us??” Flint smiles with his tail feathers wiggling. “I’d be honored to teach you the ways of the master.” They all busted out laughing at it and they spent the rest of the evening talking about strategy and about their lives and what they want to do to help improve the world.


After dinner was completed and everyone was stuffed like a tick everyone went their own ways, Ben decided to go practice some more equations for a quiz he has the next morning while Flint has to go over some lesson plans. Fang and Mercury walked back to the dorms together. “Um...Mercury, there’s something I have to really say.” Mercury pauses and turns to Fang, straightening his own hair. “Uh y-yeah...what is it?” Fang blushes and holds Mercury’s right hand while they were in front of the fountain near the campus. “I can’t explain but I really have a good feeling about you. I really want to be more than just another friend for you, if you aren’t into you know--” Mercury was a bit off guard by it but understood the offer right before the wolf comes in to kiss him on the lips as the fountain goes off and Mercury just leans up into the kiss while Fang picks him up off the ground so he doesn’t have to stand on his tip toes, the kiss went on for a full 2 minutes before he sets the mouse back down. “Hehe, I’m willing to give this a shot...I’ll uh...be seeing you, Fang.” He walks away with Fang skipping away all happy. Mercury made it back to his dorm entryway when his cell phone rang. It was a blocked number. His mind went numb when he saw that, knowing full well that there was only one blocked number he had… and much to his curiosity and fear, he answered it. “So...you got yourself your first kiss. Not how I imagined it but it looked sweet nonetheless. How are you doing, young Mercury?” Mercury’s heart started to pound as he knew the voice from the night his parents were killed. He tried to hit the trace button on his phone that he installed but the woman on the phone laughed a bit. “Oh dear, if you’re trying to trace my call you are wasting your time. I’ve encrypted this call with every algorithm imaginable...you won’t know where I am and you won’t see me coming.” Mercury shudders and puts the phone back to his right ear. “Madam Omnia...why can’t you just leave me alone? You took my parents, what more do you want?” Madam Omnia turns to her monitors with several spotters watching Mercury from several angles. “Oh dear, I can’t leave you alone, you may be the smartest one of your generation and I won’t let that knowledge go to waste on a population that uses it for frivolous endeavors...and I will do anything to make the world in my image...one free of crime, one where everyone thinks and acts as one. But for now I’ll let you have your college days and after you prove to everyone that you are the brightest one on campus...that’s when I’ll come for you. Trust me, this time...no one can save you.” The phone goes dead, at first Mercury thought she hung up, but when he looked to the phone he saw that it had been infected with some kind of malware that attacked it so aggressively that it nearly caused the phone to explode in his hand, leaving him to drop the phone with his hand slightly burnt from the sudden burst of energy the phone gave off. The mouse retreated back to his dorm room as fast as he could and locked the door, hiding in his closet. Shaking and crying as he knew the worst was yet to come and he needed to act fast before Madam Omnia got exactly what she wanted. She wanted all the knowledge he possessed, and she would stop at nothing to get to him for her own purposes.