Nico Rosberg // Seraphim

Nico liked mornings the best.

Before the streets filled, before the signs around came to life, before the world came alive and remembered that it was busy and it was loud. There was some something merciful in those quiet hours- like the city was willing to forget, just for sometime, that he used to be someone else.

Just a man now. No wings, no swords, no God. Not Seraphim.

Just Nico.

He didn't walk with purpose anymore, not really. Ever since he'd retired his schedule had become... looser, and he found himself assigning tasks to himself just to keep him from going insane. Going from the adrenaline rush of the hero life to... stillness. So many years and it still hasn't died yet; and old habits die hard, he still found himself slipping into some of them from time to time, like they'd been ingrained into his very being. He still scanned rooftops for a bit too long while walking outside, catalogued the twitch of the barista's jaw when he went out to drink coffee, noted the movements of the birds in the sky.

This time, it is* the sudden movements of the birds that alert him.

He's just out on a normal walk- and he sees pigeons almost shoot out from an alley. Their flight is erratic, unnatural.. It's still the early hours of the morning; and there's barely any people on the streets, a few people jogging, some on walks like him. No one bats an eye. But Nico? He knows the signs of danger, and his pace quickens, body almost carrying him to the right way.

He runs, and his lungs hate him for it. He feels the air change, morph into something so wrong and alien. The familiar dread pools in his gut again- from

And then he sees it.

The tear in reality- the rift- bloomed in the backlot of a tram station. Rifts by itself were bad, but what was even worse was what was climbing out of it- a long, thing something that emerges. Jagged light that felt like it bent wrong and fractal limbs and it moves like it's learning how to exist. The first thing it tastes is fear, and Nico knows that from experience. In his first encounter against one of these his hands had been trembling so hard that he could barely form a proper construct.

In all technicality this should be the safest place for a rift to emerge: early morning without anyone in sight, and someone to alert authorities before it all goes to shift. He expects the rift entity to turn towards him- but it cocks its head another way, a sharp movement, one which startles him. On the ground, a ball rolls towards the rift, and gets instantly vaporized as the entity makes contact with it.

There's a kid. There's a fucking kid there. There's a few dumpsters right ahead- he can't see them, but he assumes they're there.

Suddenly, Nico's hands feel cold. There's not much he can do in this situation- he's a sitting duck himself. He can barely use any powers, and to top that off, there's a kid who's probably already brain dead by now if they've looked into the rift. The entity is looking directly at the spot where he suspects the child to be- when someone pops up from behind there.

A civilian. Nico's heart jumps as they wave. "We're okay! There's a boy here!" They point down to the place right below. "Please, get this thing away!"

The entity roars, irritated by the disturbance in the environment. "Shut up and get down!" Nico yells, heart racing in his chest as he tries to think of any way to take care of this current predicament. No heroes would be out on patrol this early, and even if they were, local heroes aren't even equipped to take care of rifts...

The entity's head snaps towards him, and it growls again, an unnatural sound that makes his ears hurt. Nico notes the development with satisfaction. "Well, c'mon then!" He snarls, feet planting in a crack in the pavement, baiting himself for the entity.

It lunges towards him. It moves wrong- it looks like a nightmare and its appendages skitter along the ground like it's learning how to walk- but Nico has faced these before, him and Lewis. Granted, back then he had power comparable to a God-

It's moving nearer. Nico holds his position and prepares to jump, and it swipes.

Experience in the field is hard to just forget, and his brain calculates in a split second to move out of the way. He jumps to the side and he feels the heat off its skin as a finger (?) grazes his cheek, cutting a deep gash along it.

He hisses in pain as he lands a few feet away from the entity, and from the corner of his eye he can feel the blood from his face drip on to the white of his hoodie, blooming his side a solid red. No, it wouldn't work this way... there's only so much he could jump around and avoid and buy time powerless and weaponless. Plus, he's been out of hero work for a long time. He can't hold out that long. His eyes drift to the pulsing rift right behind him. He can feel the pull. He remembers that time, so many years back, the rift that had sucked the energy out of him. A whole year to recover. Retirement right after. Doctors had said that if he'd tried to pull out more energy his body would simply give up on him.

And if he doesn't do anything now, he'll die anyway. Him, and two other people right in front of him, this entire block at the very least, if reinforcements didn't get there fast.

Fuck it all, honestly.

For the first time in more than a decade, he stretches his hand out to borrow energy. From the rift, no less, something so unimaginable that the last time he'd done it he'd nearly died from the feedback. But something is changed this time around, and it works. He feels the moment the raw energy enters his system- his hand feels like it's on fire. A familiar, welcome pain. The entity gets hooked almost immediately at the sudden surge of power; and that is the opening for the civvies stuck behind the dumpster.

"RUN!" He yells at them, and without hesitation the other person herds the boy out of there. The entity reacts to the sudden movement and growls at them; but Nico doesn't doubt his call for a second- a golden yellow cord forms in his hand that wraps around the entity, effectively binding it in place. It turns back towards him and blindly lunges again- and again, he barely makes it without getting sliced like a kebab. He notes that the boy has run off- the other civilian is still there. He doesn't know if they're really fucking stupid or not, but at least someone can call for help. He fishes out his phone from his pocket while trying to keep the entity bound to one position and throws it at them.

"Press the power button thrice, should connect you to—fuck!"

The cord around the entity slips as it thrashes wildly, and Nico lurches forward to restrain it again. The surge of borrowed energy is wild, volatile, hungry. It tears through his muscles like lightning through paper, but he doesn’t stop. Can’t. The civilian has already grabbed the phone, eyes wide but focused, doing exactly as told. He sees them duck behind a wall as the emergency ping goes through, and then he’s on his own again, face-to-face with something born from a universe that never should have touched theirs. He feels the metallic tang of blood in his mouth as he feels a nosebleed come on.

He can't hold it.

And then, at the corner of his eye he catches the world split apart again, shadows converging as a figure walks out, and a shadowy tendril shoots out to slam the entity against the opposite wall. The hero walks out, face set in a glare. The light reflects off his black and navy hero armor.

Apex- Max Verstappen- Invicta's top hero.

"Late as ever," Nico mutters under his breath, lips bloody and split into a crooked grin. "Funny, I thought my alert linked to Ascension."

"You’re welcome," Max shoots back, already charging forward. "They're probably coming. I'm just the fastest option to get here."

It’s brutal, messy, precise. Max takes over completely- he slams the entity back against the rift and Nico has to actually put his hands against his ears to block out the terrible way it keeps shrieking as it burns out against its own energy. Max closes the rift- quite literally- pulling it together with his shadows. Nico can do nothing but watch.

For a long moment, it’s just the sound of wind and the crackling edges of a dying rift.

Max looks over, assessing Nico with a glance. “You’re bleeding all over yourself.”

"Happens," Nico groans, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. Now that the rift is closed and the source of his energy gone he feels the toll it takes on his body.

Max hovers around awkwardly, before just choosing to dip. "Ascension's gonna be here in a bit, right? Hold on for sometime," he says, giving an awkward pat on his shoulder before the shadows envelope him, and he's gone.

Nico turns, finally, to the civilian. Now that the danger's passed they've stepped forward again, eyes flicking from his wound to the scorched concrete beneath their feet.

"Hey," he breathes out, slow, like it just occurred to him that he’s allowed to breathe now.,"You stayed." His voice is softer than before, hoarse around the edges.

He pauses, swallowing thickly, fingers twitching from the aftershocks of power. "I... that kid’s alive because of you. And probably me too. So—thank you."