╔ ——————————————— ╗
｡･:*:･ﾟPROLOGUE｡･:*:･ﾟ
"the boy in the lab"
╚ ——————————————— ╝
GRAYSON MORENO HAS been a ghost for fifteen years, five months, thirty-six days and counting.
One could argue that he had not officially met his demise. He still had a heartbeat, and oxygen still filled up his lungs at his will. He could feel the rise in his chest whenever he felt happy, and the crushing weight of the world on his shoulders when he remembered that he could never be a real child ever again. According to nature - the very law of human beings - Gray was alive and well. According to the rest of the world; his family, the government, the sun, he had died a long time ago.
It all started when he was two years old, a mere doe-eyed child in a world filled to the brim with smoke and gunfire. He had been taken from his own home and brought deep underground. An organization that was run beneath the surface of New York city - a pinpoint under the eyes of the mundane, had the bright idea of experimenting using young children to try and genetically manufacture the X-gene. This gene was known commonly as being the trigger of mutant's powers. It took a normal human being and gave them extraordinary abilities, and if they could figure out how to artificially create those powers? They would go down in history.
The organization was known as STYX, although the exact meaning of the acronym was never known. Grayson always thought it was fitting, considering that the river styx was traditionally known as the barrier separating the underworld from the rest of civilization. STYX blocked Gray's abilities to live, trapping him in the land of the dead.
The experiments - in Gray's words - took a fucking long time. In fact, the boy couldn't remember anything from his childhood other than ceaseless poking and prodding, trying to figure out if exposure to radiation or brain-surgery could turn him into a force too powerful to stop.
The worst part? It actually worked.
Gray didn't know exactly what made him the way he was. By the time he was eleven, he had been put through thousands of experiments. He couldn't remember them individually, since when he was a kid he used to characterize them by whether they hurt or not. All he knew was that one day he couldn't move things with his mind, the next he could.
His powers were peculiar to say the least. Telekinesis felt like you were supernaturally rooted to every object around you, and with a wave of your hand you could bend them to your will. Of course, his powers weren't natural, which meant there would be some consequences.
For one: the pain. If he uses his power too long or for a task too large, it would feel like his arms were breaking and his chest was caving in on itself. His very human body wasn't designed to withstand such tremendous force, and as they say, all great things come at a cost.
He escaped when he was eleven years old. In a roundabout way, it was actually confrontation that saved him. The battle of New York City, when a rogue Norse God sent a bunch of aliens to try and destroy the Avengers. All that happened was an explosion went off big enough to disrupt the STYX headquarters, and Gray ran. He ran as far as he could, the sun hitting his face for the first time in years as he found his way back to the surface, debris swirling around him as he crawled out of a manhole cover.
There he was, an emotionally distraught young boy stumbling around New York in the middle of a war. And that was exactly how Tony Stark found him.
Upon first glance, the mighty hero probably thought that Gray was some weird, dirty orphan who tripped and fell into a ditch somewhere. He approached him to ask if he was alright, and then witnessed him smacking a Chitauri soldier out of the air without even touching it.
So he took him in. He brought him back to his tower and tried to teach him how to function as a normal human being. It took a while for trust to spark, but once it did Gray realized that not everyone was out to treat him like a human weapon. Some people actually wanted to help.
But Grayson was a dangerous explosion waiting to happen. He was a grenade with the pin pulled out, a match waiting to be lit. And he would do anything - repeat: anything - for Tony Stark.
So when aliens attack New York yet again, he is ready this time. And after getting sucked into a flying donut to try and help Peter Parker, his future is once again obscured by darkness.
And if his world crumbles, he is determined to act out one last promise. To keep an eye on Peter Parker. Because Gray may be a human engima, but he would be damned if he let Tony Stark's memory fade away.
Even if it means dying in the process.