~authors note~

so this is my first fanfiction published here so be nice, I don't think there's many things you might need to watch out for except for swears which is the third word so yeah, it's obviously got those, but there might be a small kinda torturey scene later but not a graphic one, and probably no smut, depending on where this ends up... (and obviously it ends up stony because why not)

My dad fucked me up real bad. You've all heard stories before, abusive fathers, neglected, blah blah blah. But seriously, your dad being the cause of a genetic mutation that stops you from doing a hell of a lot of things? Its a new one. And who would have thought it? The great Tony Stark, the genius, billionaire, world famous Tony Stark, has a condition that means he can't survive in the dark. I don't know what he did. The test records were lost. But he was messing around with genetic modification, trying to create humans that were stronger, probably. Just another weapon. I've looked, and I'm pretty sure I've got plant DNA in there somewhere, which means that if I don't have light, my body starts to shut down. I don't know how it works, and I don't know why Howard did it, but I have tested and it is incredibly, excruciatingly painful to be in the dark.

The other test subjects had it worse, though. He must have promised the pregnant mothers a lot of money for their unborn children to have an untested drug pumped into them. Some of them got animal genes, others plants. I don't know the specifics. There was one though, one I managed to get the records for. They had been injected with a cow gene, Howard was trying to get more muscle or something. When they were born, they looked regular, just a large baby. It was the most promising of all the test subjects at the time. But, when it got to about three months old, it's form started to change. There were pictures. It was disgustingly ugly, the face twisted and it was clear that it had trouble breathing. Its back became hunched and, as hoped, it grew more muscle than an ordinary human. However, its legs were too weak and it had brittle bones, meaning it couldn't move anywhere. The child died before it had reached six months.

I was the last test subject in Howard's cruel experiment. My mother told him she was pregnant, then he injected me with the serum without her knowing. I don't know how he did it, but she found out eventually, and I'm pretty sure she set fire to all his records, making sure he never did an experiment like this again. I grew up normal in appearance, with my mother trying to convince herself that when I coughed blood every night, it was because of an abnormally bad fear of the dark. I don't know how she did that, and I don't know how I even got through my childhood without dying. However, that was the past, and now I'm here. Part of the Avengers, and hey, it's great! But still, no one knows of my condition. I have to have precautions in the tower, where we all live now. My floor has huge windows and the balcony, and inside there are huge lights hidden away in case of emergencies. The lights in the tower are on constantly, even though natural light definitely is better for me.

I don't get much sleep.