For once, Peter actually had some time to spare from no longer being as mentally overbooked as he had been the last few hours and days. With some of the people and allies closest to him turning against him or losing faith in him gradually, it continued to eat at the back of Peter's brain. The last thing he wanted was for the same thing to happen between him and Otto because God knows he's practically already on thin ice with him as far as attendance and dependability is concerned.
Worse case scenario is him having to make another excuse as to why he was late and then him getting fired again.....like he didn't suffered through that enough from the past five years. If he's lucky, at least he'd get back to doing what he likes best - doing science!
Rushing in through the front door, he's quick to toss the vacuum seal of his suit into his raggedy old backpack before shamelessly throwing it into the bathroom, making sure he'd avoid the toilet. His aim and accuracy had been off since the fight with Li, for the bag barely hit the bowl on the way down. He couldn't keep up with today for much longer and his crankiness was beginning to show as he entered the lab, lab coat and social attire in tow.
No less than a minute and a half later, out comes Otto with some special equipment: a dark green magnetism bodysuit lined with a black polymer, along with round welding goggles. But he also cane along with a big fat smile plastered over his face underneath that grey follicle beard and two coffee mugs.
Hopefully, this meant just as good news as he described earlier.
"Peter, my boy. I-I couldn't have done it without you", he stuttered surprisingly, the sheer joy over what he had accomplished showering him with gratitude. Peter appreciated this fully, but it still left him confused on what he exactly meant. He looked to the back of the lab and noticed the arms were gone.
Vanished.
"Wait, where're the arms?"
The only response he got was the ever familiar fat smile from Otto, as two long mechanical arms, comprised of black polymer slithered out from behind, attached to his lower back via a harness. At the end of each claw were two sets of four sharp claws, the larger of which are tipped yellow and were set for use under normally intended purposes while the much smaller set was used for more precision-intensive actions.
Needless to say, this left Peter utterly dumbfounded. "Oh....my....god....."
"We have done the impossible, Peter."
The left tentacle stretched out, grabbing a bottle of whisky pouring it into their mugs. "These powerful arms are linked to an Intra-Cranial neural network. Neuro-Transmission speeds under a single nanosecond. Faster than signals travel inside the human brain. Never mind to an external prosthesis."
Translation: a result, the arms functioned as if they were part of Otto himself. They possessed superhuman strength and durability, rapid movement, omnidirectional motion and would allow Otto to scale almost any surface. To his credit, it reflected exactly what he planned to achieve with this project on perfecting advanced prosthetic limb technology: they've grown beyond that.
Improved.
Evolved.
Maybe even.....perfected it.
"We did it Peter! We finally did it!", the giddily smile refused to leave Otto as he inches his mug towards Peter. The two shared cheers for this hopefully delightful monumental achievement and needless to say, Peter was still ecstatic how far their collaboration paid off. At this stage, what his Aunt always told him came to pass once again: you help someone, you help everyone.
Today, he had the opportunity of witnessing his kindness and intellect rub off in the best of ways.
"Doc....this is Amazing...."
"No one can take this away from us. Not even Norman. And it wouldn't have happened if not for your work on the neural-web. It was the key to everything! Observe." Having to manually turn himself around while the arms in turn maneuvering around Peter flawlessly with no bumps or bugs or shortages of any kind, the delighted kid inside was left laughing in amazement yet again.
But that smile quickly faded when he saw what Otto meant: the neural interface needed to fully operate the arms and mentally control them was already latched to the back of Otto's neck.
"Wha—wait, it's already on you? Shouldn't we run a few more tests first? There's so much we don't know."
"Nonsense. I already ran some on the neural interface. Take a look at the pad."
He couldn't say no. He just couldn't refuse. But who knows? Peter thought to himself. Maybe Otto has figured it out after all and I'm getting riled up over nothing. Am I cranky again? He was right on one account and wrong on the other.
Turns out he was a little cranky.
Unfortunately, what he found on the tablet past the traditional introduction logo made Peter's heart skip not one, not two, but three beats. Otto had not taken care of the technical infrastructure involving the neural interface, all of which became glaringly obvious from the first stage of diagnostics on the intercranial. There was a Motor Cortex error and yet the puzzle is already completed - incorrectly - so he needed to fix it.
Feeling more sweat building up from his arms and forehead, Peter swapped out the straight circuit for an angled one just above the start, and bypassed the +3 voltage circuit entirely, went right instead, and placed a -2 voltage circuit in the first slot, snaked his way up and left to put a -1 voltage circuit in the next slot. Finally, he angled up to the +5 voltage slot to reach a comfortable voltage of 2.
With the circuit completed correctly, he hoped that would be an easy fix.
The poor fragile homo sapien couldn't have been any more wrong. With the first stage marked as a critical failure, things got a lot worse - another Motor Cortex has problems. The next puzzle was also completed wrong, and required Peter to adjust the voltage again.
"No no no no no, it's worse then I thought."
So he removed all the unbolted panels and this time made a turn upward at the start to ignore the +4 and +2 voltage circuits. Instead, he went up and placed a +5 voltage circuit, then went right to hit the two negative circuits, adding two -1 panels each. Now he could go down and left to the +2 voltage circuit to reach that target voltage of 5.
Stage 2: Critical failure.
Even then, as he reached Stage 3, it was like he was at the point of no return. Nothing was getting any better—The voltage is too high again and the further Peter progressed, the quicker the spike was cascading. Now he was uncertain if he could actually fix this.
But it wouldn't stop him from trying. So he had to go along the right side to use a -2 circuit panel on the right side, before looping back down and left. You also need to avoid the +5 circuit panel, and instead go left around it and place a +4 circuit instead, so that the target reaches a voltage of 5.
Stage 3: Critical failure.
The good news: that's about all he could do.
The bad news: it STILL was not nearly enough to stop what could happen to poor Doctor Octavius. The nasty side effects of the neural interface it was showing ranged from dangerous to deadly to point blank career suicide. Results showing voltage spikes were marginally low as far as technicality but neural errors and personality alternations skyrocketed in percentages. Probability of seizures was as high as 38.7%, short term memory loss as high as 40.4% and long term memory loss as high as 62.3%.
But then there were issues surrounding the frontal lobe edema and limbic degradation: both of which were highlighted in the severe zone under major red, showing a probability percentage rate in the early to late 90%'s. To further hammer the nail in the coffin, it came with a warning.
High risk of mood or personality shift. Discontinue use immediately.
From that instance, Peter knew what was supposed to be this giant first step was a giant misstep. Otto rushed into it, didn't even bother looking back over his errors and further endangered himself in the name of science. Or, more objectively, to justify himself in not feeling like a failure. This act of intellectual desperation had put himself at further risk of his wellbeing than his neurological disorder had ever done previously.
If anything, it already had.
He needed to convince him to remove the interface. He had to talk him out of using those arms......whatever it takes.
"Doc?", he called him out as he was seen turning his attention back to him, prior to drinking down his cup of whisky. "Otto, I-I found some potential problems."
"Everything has problems if you look hard enough. But fortune favors the bold", he confidently assured his assistant as another set of tentacles from the lower back of his harness, slamming against the floor which forced Peter back a few feet. The pure terror of what he had done to Otto quickly came biting at him with the tentacles lifting Otto up off his feet and off the ground.
He looked every bit as monstrous as he did with the first set of claws. "It's time to show the world what we've done."
"Otto, you—you don't understand. The neural web —it—it's spiking your motor neurons. It could be affecting other parts of your brain. Your inhibitions, your mood.....I just think we should run another test to—"
"WE'VE DONE ENOUGH TESTING!" The tone of Otto's voice made Peter's spider sense go off , forcing him back and dropping the pad as the Doc grew back his smile, wider like a mad scientist. If he's had the interface on for more than an hour now, that means the cascaded voltage in the unit on his neck was already warping his brain.
"Don't you see, Parker? For the first time in my life, I don't feel like a failure. I feel like..... ME!"
"Otto, Otto, please listen to me: you....are NOT a failure. You never were. But trust me when I tell you: this discovery, if we don't fix it, could ruin you, permanently damage your mind. Turn you into something you're not. I've been around too many people to know when this takes a turn for the worse. Please....shut them off...."
Otto's sickly grin quietly lowered to a frown, for he quickly began to understand: he didn't sound like himself earlier.
He lowered himself back on the floor, reached up to the back of his neck to shut off the neural interface, shutting off the tentacles making them just hang off, drooping on his back. His face was next to hang down, realizing that all this hard work and effort and hours into a faulty apparatus, that it had all been for nothing.
But there comes Pete again, patting him on the shoulder to comfort him. Yet another instance where his insatiable optimism kept Otto from fully dragging himself down to the dark outs of despair and sadness. "Don't worry. I know we're close."
"I know. We'll, uh....we'll keep at it. I'll....I'll work out some bugs. You go on."
"Are you sure you're alright?"
Otto just nods. "If I just get some rest, maybe things'll blow over soon. Clear my head....and I think you should do the same. I'll call you if I need you. And Peter....."
He calls him over as they stare at each other blankly for a few seconds.
"Thank you for everything."
Peter nodded slightly, still feeling worried for the safety and mental capacity of his good friend but he had faith. So he went on his merry way to leave Otto in solitary, where he knew he'd been safer in. At that point, the smile still shined on through as he trudged over to the table. A plastic paper plate and a few little trinkets off the table later, his head turns, seeing a news update with Mayor Osborn.
He stops in his tracks almost immediately.
The terrorist leader: Martin Li is finally behind bars. When I make a promise to my city I keep it. The people of New York will soon make a decision that could change the course of this fair city forever. So when you're casting your votes for me remember what I've done. We are all safer now than we've ever been.
The temptation to reach back for his neural interface was staggeringly high, for Otto's frown lowered even further with flames of anger were burning in his eyes. However, while the anger stayed, he found it in himself to resist turning it back on. So he was left having to listen to Norman gawk onwards in front of the camera and spew his lies again.
It left him clinching at himself with pent-up fury, all of which became difficult to stomach inside the further he listened to Norman spew more little white lies than Sean Murrey and Todd Howard combined. It was both amazingly boring and aggravating. But the day wasn't far when the light would shine over Norman and expose him for who he truly was.
Otto would make sure of that.
"One day.....one day, you'll have no idea what's gonna come for you and when that time comes, I'll be there to insure that your lies end with your 'legacy'....."
As valued and reserved Otto could be, Norman was once again testing his patience and wasting his time. With these many years of hatred and ugliness boiling up and over to the surface, it didn't look all that promising that he wouldn't snap sooner or later.
Later that very evening didn't look that promising either. For F.E.A.S.T. had officially lost its most important member.
Place didn't feel as energetic or festive as before upon realizing that the one man responsible for helping them all was the center of such negativity and cruelty. Some didn't want to believe it, others chewed up the news quicker than Mysterio's arrest. Regardless, FEAST was left in a mental state of disarray and for good reason. Peter was one of the few light rays of positivity present within the building and it was hard to keep that light flickering as long as Li refused to change his ways.
In fact, that was exactly why Peter decided to stop by: ask May about all that. She was at the fridge grabbing some mustard as she saw her nephew walk into the kitchen.
"Peter."
The manner in which she said that brought his head down.
"Are you.....ok? I don't know if you heard....."
Nothing. No answer.....as if she was ignoring him.
This wasn't the first time in a while he saw May act so....distant. Ever since she realized how ludicrous she was for letting Peter participate in his activities as Spider-Man since the clash with Mysterio. Either Li crushed her spirit that deeply or she was really good at hiding it. "Ok, maybe you have but.....listen, I don't know if you should keep running this place by yourself."
"These people need my help, honey. You should know that better than anyone. If I lose a few hours of sleep, then so be it."
"Just—just tell me have you....heard from Mr. Li since--?"
She stops him right there with a heavy sigh. This normally wouldn't go well for Peter, since instances like this normally spoke directly to him or would be marginally related. In this instance, it would be the latter. "No. I didn't expect to when I found his note. But the Martin I know would NEVER be as vile as....the thing he's become. I will say this though: it did make me worry about Miles", she says as she slowly turns her head over to the cafeteria, her eyes locking onto a vulnerable Miles, curdled up on the floor near the window that lead to the hall outside.
His face and cheeks were drenched in tears and was left rocking in Aaron's arms. It still hurt. After all this time, his fathers death still hurt him and the realization that Li was the man behind the killing and the one in charge of FEAST and nobody told him about it: that was the ultimate betrayal to him. There was no getting him to talk, all he could take was hugs.
Both Aaron and even Ernie were modest enough to offer that to him.
"When he heard that the head of F.E.A.S.T was the same person who took his father away from him, he told me he was quitting. I understood but.....Aaron calmed him down and thought of what his father would want. So whatever became of Martin....that's not the one I want to remember."
Peter saw through that wholeheartedly, given he was the one who got Miles this job. Once more, he couldn't help but to contrast the parallel of him to himself, how much would've been different for him he told him that earlier. If Jeff hadn't went down.
If he hadn't let him down.
"So....how are things with MJ?"
And there went Peter's mental defenses again. Changing the topic would do little to help him.
"Oh it's uh.....well, y'know, she's umm......" He hated how this looked. The older demographic side of him knew this constant stuttering immaturity schtick needed to subside, by at least giving a clear, concise answer. "Not good. It's, its complicated."
"Exactly what you said the night you two split."
"I don't need to be reminded at what I've failed at, May. Rough patches might've strengthened you and Bens lifeline but apparently, it's my kryptonite."
"It was his, too. And your fathers."
Now that was an unexpected shift of course correction: bringing his parents into the equation. Given how little he tends to hear about them or talk about them, it was a.....rather nice change of pace. "My parents had rough patches?", he sincerely pokes at, as he proceeds to try and take his mind off the overbooked measures of his day, physically taking care of the rest of the dishes by the sink.
"Of course they did. Everyone does, ESPECIALLY at your age. Are you even honest with MJ?"
"Y--yes. But....she's uh....she's always getting herself into trouble. And I don't know how to keep her safe without putting a leash on her. She's just.....she's pretty reckless and stubborn but at the same time, I can't blame her. Cause I used to be the same. Felt lonely even when I wasn't alone, Uncle Ben got on my case on that more than I would've liked him to. But it did ring true in the end, a lot of what he wanted me to be."
At that point, KAREN's words came back to him: you're a man, not a boy. And a man is exactly what someone like Mary Jane needs. He had already taken to heart what she meant by that but the further he had to elaborate himself on that, the more he wanted to try and protest against the fact because now that he knows why he was in the wrong, that struggling faze with denial refused to pass.
And it made accepting the reality.....hard to stomach despite his promises to get better. "We were both kids who weren't sure about love but wanted to believe it was out there for us."
"And you found it."
"Then how come I still can't see it the way I....thought?"
"Perhaps.....Trust. The problem is trust. Mary Jane doesn't truly know the REAL you. Spider-Man is one thing but Peter Parker is a completely different story. That's what got your parents through theirs. Your father and Ben were so secretive about things and it took him time to confess to me. Your mother learned your father's secret like MJ learned yours. She wanted in his loop and there was hardly any trust. And like your father and Ben, you too, like I said before, have to swallow that Parker pride."
All the more confirmation he needed to fully drop the childish charade. He went back on his own promise to keep MJ in the loop as long as she wanted back when they were younger as long as it meant he had another chance to have somebody to love as well as to not lose them. Peter couldn't help but to feel more ashamed, like he did it to himself.
But that's when that Parker pride needed to be put aside. No more excuses, and this time, he'd mean it.
Hey, turn that up! I need to hear this!
May couldn't help but to roll her eyes, given Ernies temperament rubbed off on her bad today. "It just never ends." She reluctantly turns on the TV in the cafeteria, where the TV displayed yet another news report.
Compared to the other ones before though, this meant different. Aaron, Gloria and many other homeless people saw a report of a truck crash, not far from Brooklyn and to further insinuate matters, it was the same sable truck that had contained both the Devil's Breath and the captured Martin Li.
This caught even Mile's attention, given the man who murdered his father might've gotten away.
A spokesperson for the police has confirmed that this was the truck carrying the device at Grand Central. Captain Yuri Watanabe hasn't released any information----
God was all May could whisper to herself. Last thing she needed was being on the verge of another heart attack from all this carnage. She'd be involved regardless though if her nephew had anything to say about it. Her gut spelling out the obvious, she snaps her head back for a second to notice Peter was gone. Looking back at the news and and to where Peter once was, there was no putting two and two together so late.
May knew there was no putting her foot down and stopping her nephew from swinging off to do more heroics, God knows she tried already. It didn't stop her from worrying, still.
"Peter.....you come back safely to me. That's all I can say."