just breathe ⇒ peter parker

P R O L O G U E

I don't know who my parents are.

I probably knew who they were when I was younger, but five years of being used as an experiment for The Facility made me forget. My childhood from age five to ten was a nightmare of pain and anguish, all so some sick people could say that they created the next superhero.

They gave me powers, the ability to control air, and they taught me how to fight. I was one of The Facility's success stories, if you could call anything that came out of the place a success. Most of the other kids in there died.

They wanted to kill me. They couldn't figure out a way to evolve my abilities, so the lead scientist wanted to cut me open for the last time to see what didn't work, but they never got that chance. SHIELD raided The Facility and made sure that all of the scientists were put in jail and the kids were freed.

My name was found in a file somewhere. A-16, Emerson [____]. No last name, so no family. I was taken in by a SHIELD agent named Danielle Wolff, so my last name became Wolff. Emerson Wolff, age ten.

Danielle was dating this woman named Antonia when she formally adopted me, and the two of them had already been wanting a child. Antonia didn't want a ten year old, she wanted a baby, but Danielle made her choose; Danielle and me or a baby. That was the first time I remembered being wanted by somebody.

Two years after my rescue SHIELD fell, and almost a month later Danielle and Antonia got married and adopted a three year old named Charlotte Wolff-Santos. Another two years later we had to move to New York for Danielle's work, which she secretly told me was SHIELD stuff. They were building back up somehow.

I never liked California anyway, so I didn't care about moving to the suburbs of Queens. Danielle somehow got me into this fancy school, Midtown Science. And everything was perfect for a little while.

But then she got shot.

She told Antonia it was a mugging. I knew it wasn't.

The doctors said that her legs would be paralyzed for life, and that was the only time I've ever seen Danielle cry. Charlotte was only six and even she was affected by Danielle's subtle personality change. She went from always grinning to a tight lipped smile. Her normally vibrant green eyes faded into the eyes of someone who's seen too much. A week after she got her wheelchair I accidentally walked in on her in the bathroom, toppled over on the floor because she didn't want help to use the toilet. She screamed at me when I tried to get her back in the chair.

Three months after I decided I needed to do something to make sure that other families didn't have to go through what my family was going through. Arguments, fake laughter, uncomfortable dinners where the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife. I'd seen Danielle with a pile of pills, about to swallow all of them. Antonia left with Charlotte for a week once, then returned and acted like nothing had happened.

When Spider-Man randomly appeared in the news one night I realized what I had to do. So I created Tempest. Or, I made the costume and spent my nights flying around the city to try to help people, and the media created Tempest. They called me Zephyr at first, but after I accidentally killed a rapist I was renamed. I was nowhere near a gentle breeze.

Danielle told me good job after the rapist was thrown from the roof. I threw up in the shower an hour later.

But I still went out the next night.

And the next.

______

 WELCOME TO MY STORY! Hopefully I will actually continue this, but it all depends on you guys! lmk if you like it so far, and the actual plot will be beginning in the next chapter.