Otto knew something was wrong with Peni's design before she finished unfolding it.
He leaned towards the glass separating them and studied the pages covering her side of the table.
"Your power distribution is uneven. The left stabiliser is drawing twice as much as the right."
"I can fix that," Peni said, pushing another page closer. "The neural interface is the problem. It rejects me before the connection starts."
Peni had returned to the detention centre three days after their first visit. This time, she brought a folder filled with SP//dr schematics and enough notes to cover every empty space.
Otto adjusted his glasses.
"Who designed the original interface?"
"My father. At least, I think he did."
"You think?"
"He left partial plans. Most of the files were unfinished, and he wasn't around to explain them."
Her expression warned Otto not to press further.
He did anyway.
"You have been treating these as matching input channels. They are not. One receives instructions. The other interprets them."
Peni looked closer.
"The second channel never activates."
"Because it is waiting for another signal."
"What kind?"
Otto tapped the two pathways leading into the central processor.
"Another mind."
Peni sat back.
"SP//dr only has one pilot."
"One human pilot," Otto corrected. "Your father designed a biological interface. Whatever belongs in the second pathway is alive."
The answer had been hidden in the plans from the beginning. Peni had copied her father's work without understanding why the neural system divided every command between two paths.
"He never told me."
"Perhaps he was waiting until both pilots were ready."
"He wouldn't know whether I was ready. He would have to know me first."
Otto lifted his eyes.
Peni folded the edge of one schematic beneath her thumb.
"He missed birthdays, Christmas and most of the years between them. Aunt May knew when I had exams, when I was ill and when I was pretending I had eaten. My father barely knew what school year I was in."
"Yet you continued his work."
"I continued mine. He left SP//dr unfinished. I'm the one who built it."
Otto glanced at the diagrams.
"Then perhaps finishing it is how you make it yours."
Peni folded her arms.
"You sound like Y/N when he's trying to make somebody seem better than they are."
"That may be the first truly insulting thing you have said to me."
The edge of his mouth almost moved.
Peni did not smile.
"How is he?" Otto asked.
"He joined the festival band. He agreed to play guitar."
"Y/N plays music?"
"He used to. Before Spider-Man kept making him miss rehearsals."
YOU ARE READING
Ultra Responsibility (My Hero Academia X Spider-Man Reader)
FanfictionYou all know the origin story of radioactive bug bites; with great power comes great responsibility. But what if this time it was different? What if you were born with the powers of Spider-Man? After the tragic fate of your loved ones, take the mant...
