Arachno, the Neon Spider
"Maybe one day, I can be like my family's city; all she does is glow, glow, glow..."
General
Name: Hikari Yamashiro
Eye Color: Green
Hair Color: Black
DOB: January 28th
Age: 17
Height: 5’9
Weight: 143 lbs
Appearance
Hikari stands at 5 foot 9 at 143 pounds. Rather tall for his age, he is also slender and athletic. While it might be hard to notice past his bulkier choices in clothing, Hikari is actually quite muscular and in great shape for his height. Hikari has a jet-black mop of medium hair that's usually in the form of a messy bed head and both his eyes are a emerald colored green. Hikari is fair skinned with almond shaped eyes due to his Japanese heritage.
Usually seen with his hands in his pockets, anything otherwise would see Hikari holding a tablet, his phone or using a laptop he tends to carry around with him in a backpack with the prementioned tablet. Being a student in college since he was 16, Hikari is often found wearing a black button-down long sleeve shirt, a red suit vest, a white tie, black slacks and black dress shoes for his classes. But aside from the formalities of class or bussiness, he leaves the business to others.
Hikari always had more of a feel for the comfortable, which translated rather nicely to his clothing choice. Most times, he can be found outside of classes wearing a graphic T-shirt with some sort of reference to an 80's movie, comic or video game on it. A fan of brighter clothing, he almost always wore black with bright and electric forms of green or blue jeans or cargo shorts. Finally, Hikari always made sure to wear a pair of light running shoes with a loud contrasting color to finalize a splash of life to his fit.
When it comes to work, however, Hikari keeps a rather simple viewing on it. All black exo-suit with vibrant neon colors as trimming, top to bottom. Decked out with utility belts and an enhanced web shooter on both his back and wrists, he finished this look with a pair of vivid red running shoes to match. The bright glowing neon lights of his suit can be powered down to his liking whenever he should chose, leaving stealth an easy option (due to wearing practically all black otherwise!)
The perfect look to match the electricity of Neo Tokyo!
Powers & Abilities
• Spider Physiology: Similarly to Peter Parker, Hikari Yamashiro possesses the proportionate powers of a spider, received to him from being fused with a biologically enhanced spider. Hikari's DNA was disassembled and reassembled with the spider's own, triggering numerous changes that granted him superhuman strength, speed, toughened flesh, wall-crawling and more. This resulted into a mutation that granted him an "enhanced chromosome pattern".
• Wall-Crawling: Arachno has the ability to stick to any surface, no matter how rough or slippery. Although this ability is still a bit of a mystery to him, he believes his molecules somehow bond to the surface of whatever he wills. Once he does cling to a surface, nothing can pull him away unless he releases his bond.
• Superhuman Strength: Neon Spider has the proportional strength of a spider. This allows him to lift 10 tons or more (if he's under extreme stress or sufficiently enraged), allowing him to perform even greater levels of strength. Arachno is able to leap multiple stories in a single bound, which is thought to be proportional to a jumping spider.
• Superhuman Jumping: Arachno is able to leap multiple stories in a single bound, which is thought to be proportional to the biologically altered jumping spider he was fused with. In comparison to other Spider-based heroes, Hikari can surprisingly leap higher then most others throughout the Spider-Verse (though, not necessarily dwarfing their jumping ability, either.)
• Enhanced Speed: Spiders, being very fast and agile creatures, give one with spider powers enhanced speed and agility. It is unknown just how fast Arachno can travel, but he has been seen outrunning speeding hover cars.
• Superhuman Stamina: While perhaps not to the extent of other heroes, Neon Spider possesses exceptional stamina. Being capable of holding his breath for minutes at a time, among other things.
• Superhuman Durability: Arachno is able to withstand a lot of damage, most of which would kill any normal human.
• Enhanced Reflexes and Agility: Along with a spider-sense for most people with spider powers (See Spider-Sense later), the basic reflexes and agility of a person are far enhanced that beyond a normal human's. Arachno's reflexes are significantly enhanced and are currently forty times greater than those of any ordinary human. In combination of his Spider-Sense, his reflexes allow him to dodge any attack, inculding gunfire. Hikari has also been shown to be dodging gunfire using his reflexes without the use of his Spider-Sense.
• Enhanced Balance: People who have spider-powers have an enhanced sense of balance or equilibrium to stand perfectly still on almost any surface, also in helping with the wall-crawling ability. Peter is shown to balance a thin wire with one finger, balance on a moving car, stand and walk or run on walls or bend into certain positions that would normally hurt an average non-powered human.
• Regenerative Healing Factor: Neon Spider has an extremely advanced healing factor, being able to recover from injuries in hours that would take an average human weeks or months.
• Foreign Chemical Resistance: Neon Spider is extremely resistant to things like poisons and other potentially harmful substances. However, he has normal tolerance for alcohol beverages.
• Spider-Sense: Arachno, like Spider-Man and many other Spider-based heroes, possesses a precognitive 'Spider-Sense' that warns him of imminent danger through a tingling or buzzing sensation in the base of his skull that varies in intensity depending on how imminent or particularly dangerous the threat is. Being able to detect anything from flying bullets to tainted meat, and even the well being of others, the sense can identify whether a danger is potential or immediate, how intense a threat it is, what direction it is coming from, how fast it is, etc. this extra sense is also a bit of a mystery. It does, however, seem to be a product of some kind of psychic ability.
• Night Vision: Quickly after gaining his powers, Hikari developed the ability to see in the dark much better than an average human. While not quite perfected, his sight is even possible in a pitch-black room with no light at all! (Well, to an extent...)
• Genius Level Intellect: Hikari is extremely smart, shown to think on his feet while in tight spots and has even created various inventions and upgrades to his suit to help him in a given situation.
• Master Acrobat: Due to his spider-like abilities, Hikari has shown excellent acrobatic skills over the years.
Paraphernalia
• Web-Shooters: After being introduced to his Great Grandfather's Spider-Bracelet (see Origin to read how he got it and who his grandfather was), Hikari invented web-shooters based around the original design of the Spider-Bracelet but with major modifications that allowed him not only to use one on both hands, but to shoot web like a spider does! This included uses such as web swinging, web balls wrapping up bad guys. Dependant on finite Web-Fluid he developed, Hikari developed the shooters to hold eight web cartridges and automatically revolve to a fresh one once his current cartridge is depleted. After soon realizing the dangers of running out of web-fluid, Hikari further upgraded the spinners to warn him once his last cartridge is half-full and a quarter-full, hopefully reminding him to restock on fluid the soonest possible chance he had.
• The Spinneret: Originally starting off as simple web-shooters that allowed him to shoot web-balls and web swing through New York City, Hikari continued to upgrade the shooters to eventually co-exist with an enhancement built into his suit. After activating the programming specified for it in his suit by pressing either shooter three times in quick succession, 'The Spinneret' is an extended upgrade connected at the top of the wrists of the shooters themselves (where the top of his hand meets his wrist), wrapping around his arms and finally connecting back to his suit at either side of his upper back. Once activated, the pressure of his shooters can be amplified and controlled at will, making multiple types of web-shooting possible. Anything from the fine-pressured shots of his power-packing 'Web-Bullets' to hyper-pressure allowing him to shoot webbing fast enough in impressive amounts at even great distances.
Currently, Hikari is working to improve The Spinneret to not only remain connected within the suit, but to perhaps even house or alter his type of webbings.
• Neon Suit: After developing Neo Spider-Bracelets (or Web-Shooters), Hikari moved on to a suit to match his new alias. Deciding to follow the motiff of a Spider, he made a suit that was just as much technology as it was a second skin! Having moved on from a simple 'bug-eyed' mask and hooded jacket with a Spider spray-painted onto it, Hikari soon stole nanotechnology from the highly renown 'Fantastic Five.' This technology would be the clay that would form his Neon Suit.
Powered by a hybrid opto-electronic computer and using super conducting, Hikari was able to form a suit of similar design to his incidental prototype that he could tweak and modify as time went on through said nanotechnology. Stored in a seemingly normal belt he wore, he need only activate it to summon the suit over his body. Originally taking to the form of a skin-tight suit, he further modified it to replicate a hooded scarf and cargo-pants-like bottoms to 'help him feel less naked.' Topped with shoes designed to match the latest style in running shoes, his new suit woulld be trimmed in amplified light that matched the neons that surged all throughout Neo Tokyo. In his mind, the Neon Spider would breathe the same life Neo Tokyo offered.
The Neon Suit is highly reinforced, able to take laser fire without being lethal, paining him at most. The suit also furthers his defenses, absorbing a majority of the shock of minor physical attacks (though, powerful enemies such as Kingpin can overpower the suit with ease). The special make-up of the suit actually makes all footsteps silent, leaving Arachno practically invisible in the darkness when choosing to turn off the neon lighting of his eyes, inner-hood and red trimming of his suit. Due to the powering of the suit, it is self-sufficient and never runs out of energy (unless forcefully drained or overpowered by an outside force).
• Utility Belt: Arachno keeps a utility belt to hold a plethora of technology for him to use on the fly, such as web cartridges and tracers. The belt is programmed to detect the positioning of his hands and be able to shoot equipment of choice from it to either hand on voice command.
• Spider-Bytes: Hikari creates small Spider-Tracers that he can throw and stick to people. These tracers release a signal at such a high frequency that only Arachno and Akuma are able to track an untampered one. Hikari joked that he managed to make the tracers on such minimal programming that it "took no more than a few bytes of specific information...collectively, a Spider-Byte!"
• Cell Phone: After bought the newest and most updated cell phone on the market by his mother at the age of 12, this would soon turn into the young genius' first and most personal project. Always tinkering and working on the touchscreen device, he's more than blown by the technology offered and turned a mere cellphone into essentially a digital frontier in his pocket. Able to project images, show holograms, jack into nearly any form of technology and even manage/program his suit on the fly, Hikari's trusty 'palm-pilot' is an essential tool in day to day activity, both in and out of suit!
Personality
Hikari is a quiet storm hidden behind sarcastic humor, waiting to be pushed to the edge on a bad day after being birthed by the evils he’s faced since he was 15.
Normally, most anyone could look at him and see the good kid he aims to be. In school, good grades, took to his responsibilities articulately and managed to have a social life, to boot! But under the surface, Hikari felt a looming feeling of loneliness. Most times, anything from a casual social gathering with friends or classmates to an important political soirée were somewhat of awkward interactions for him. He had no problem blending in with the every man, but between his intelligence and his sense of justice, he felt as though he didn't quite belong with fellow teenagers. Hikari found the current state of the "normal" society to be less than favorable, even going as far as calling humans "sheep" to other allies on a regular basis. From time-to-time, he's admitted to being wrong about the occasional good person, but rarely did he feel he could find someone he could trust as neither a follower or corrupt. After being shown the worlds true colors by his greatest adversary, Hikari fights every day between what he’s starting to believe as the truth and hope that it can all be changed...
Hikari is almost always the snarky goofball, tending to be silly and crack jokes at the wrong times outside of most of his responsibilities. A true kid at heart, he believes all people should tend to the inner child within them and keep a sense of innocence lost in becoming an adult. Enough so, that's he's been called a "man-child" before, which never fails to bring a smirk to his face. Make him mad, however, and his carefree joking attitude soon washes way to the planted seed of anger that dwells beneath the surface, left by his greatest enemy: The Green Goblin.
Likely his greatness weakness, his gentle bloodlust for the blunt evils of the world tend to keep Hikari from remembering the bigger picture when face-to-face with the guilty. With every new gruesome experience, he finds himself slipping deeper and deeper into a loss of hope for humanity. In the words of his best friend,
"My father has shown him the truth: people proving day-by-day just how inhuman humanity is becoming...and I think it's taking a toll on him."
Origin
Coming soon!
Villains
Green Goblin
Kento Nakayama is the head of his own business tycoon in Neo Tokyo, Japan: Nakayama Industries. A very secretive man, a select few workers have seen him, let alone civilians. Having come up under a rather wealthy family, the entirety of his father’s modest company went to him at a young age when an ‘accident’ befell both his parents. From then on, Kento used his money and resources to build his repertoire: Martial Arts skills, Ninja techniques in stealth and combat, poisons, weaponry, you name it.
Growing to fester deep underground like most filth, this man used his resources to take over an ancient group and become their leader. And even after, used THEIR resources to develop a serum to give him power inaccessible to mortal men.
Now, with modern technology, ancient knowledge and after drinking a nearly magical concoction, this man rules the public above ground and commands the darkest of characters in the underground with a new alias given to him after ascending to someone above mere mortal men. He was...
The Green Goblin: Leader of The Hand...
Akuma
After some time with his newly developed power, Green Goblin decides to have a heir to his legacy. With his newfound strength, his plan was to bear a child that would inherit at least part of his own power and could perhaps even be AMPLIFIED by the same concoction that made him as powerful (and psychotic) as he was.
After being particular in searching for the prime host for his child, Nakayama found the perfect candidate in an intelligent woman from the United States and very skillfully trapped the tourist in his web. Soon after she bore him his son, she was....disposed of. The boy, named Matthew upon his birth by his mother, was raised by his psychopathic father to essentially be the perfect murderous weapon. It was during this time that Matthew met and befriended Hikari, meeting him in school and quickly becoming the best of friends. To Matthew's surprise, Hikari seemed to be someone who truly liked him for him and not what he could offer; a sentiment he had never known, even from his own father. In the midst of acting as a simple child in school, all his free time would be used training and studying true education under his father. But before Goblin could truly fine-tune his son in preparation of the serum, Matthew fell in agony during a training session. Screaming out in pain as he covered his eyes with both hands, it had turned out that Kento's own power had turned against him and handicapped his son.
Disgusted, finding no further use from him and deciding the poor boy below being killed, Kento left his son to fend for himself in the streets as an orphan. But not too long after, Matthew was found and adopted by a man who swore to make good of the life that had nearly been robbed of him. It was by this time that Matthew had realized that his father was successful in passing down his power— and even new ones—but at a cost. An assassin by his own right, Matthew's new adoptive father would not only complete his martial arts training— teaching Matthew to coincide this handicap along with his powers as a weapon— but prepare him so in the day that he might finally have the opportunity to exact revenge on his father, Matthew would know that there was a choice.
That he could make the choice.
But by the time Hikari had become Arachno/Neon Spider, he had lost all contact with Matthew. That was, until soon after a few encounters with The Green Goblin. For during one encounter, an assassin appeared, impressively able to not only go hand-to-hand with the Goblin, but do so while dealing with Arachno as well! Impressing both the hero and the villain alike, the Goblin managed to escape but only after learning that this new assailant was his son, now known simply as Akuma. Walking the fine line of both hero and villain, Arachno learned that this assassin was his best friend, Matthew Nakayama, who now used his heightened physical prowess passed down from his father and mastered Superhuman Sensory System to bypass his blindness. While also an ally to Arachno, Hikari is often weary of Akuma due to his brutality and not seeing eye-to-eye with Neon Spider's aim to keep deaths to a minimum, which often times pins the best friends against each other. Matthew Nakayama above all else now chases revenge against his father and swears to put an end to any unrepenting criminals in his path by any means necessacary.
Kraven The Panther
Wakanda was always a renowned country, heavily respected by the few that knew of its existence. A leader in technologies and intelligence, allies appreciated them and enemies feared them.
That all changed in the fate of a single battle.
In the natal years after his father T'Chaka passed, T'Challa was a leader that was well-loved by his followers and people. One day, he responded to a sudden report of a warrior periodically slaying innocents until he could speak with the King of Wakanda. This stranger, a previous resident of Wakanda, challenged the King for his throne, declaring that the youth was not fit to bear its power. Against the word of his advisors, T'Challa felt this challenge a necessary victory to prove to his people that he would deal with any potential threat that came their way as a people.
A long and rigorous battle, T'challa was eventually bested by the newcomer and seemingly slain in the ritualistic combat. Upon his victory, the elders and royal family turned against their newly self-proclaimed king. With only Shuri escaping into the countryside, all the elders of the country but one were all slaughtered in a brutal fit of dominance.
The one remaining swore himself to the new king of Wakanda, showing him the source of the Black Panther's power— the Heart-shaped Herb— and the technologies that made his suit. Making minor altercations to the suit to make it his own, the new king explained to his first follower that he had once been a resident of Wakanda and lost his family due to Wakanda's unwillingness to show its strength to the world. Swearing to change the natural order of things, the now-orphaned male left the country and spent his days in the wilds of Africa, surviving only off what nature could offer him. Having slain the greatest animals that the continent could throw his way through his life, he knew they were all to be bested as training toward his final trophy: the Black Panther.
After soon commanding the country and beginning opening itself up to the world, it was in his trip to Japan on business that he would learn of a new beast: the Neon Spider. Pride swelled in his chest, finding the new hero to be worthy after the previous king's passing left him with a longing for a warrior's challenge.
Now, with the Heart-Shaped Herb amplifying his already impressive strengths, the most updated technology and an entire country under his thumb, Neon Spider would be the latest target of....
Kraven The Panther.
Kuduro
Backstory coming soon!
The Octopus
Back story coming soon!
Sasori
Back story coming soon!
Professor Komodo
Back story coming soon!
The Kingpin
A brilliant man coming up in the criminal underground of Japan had met his match once The Hand and their newly appointed leader made their appearance. In an attempt to match this new threat, he puts many big brains to work for him on a serum of his own for power. The serum would make him an unstoppable force, with nothing wanting to be in its path. When offered the idea of a bull by the brains that worked for him, he merely stated,
“Even a bull would find itself 𝚐𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚍 by the horn of the Rhinoceros...”
Off they went to work with the animal DNA in mind. After being rushed by our villain, the big brains created a serum as promised. But due to the rush, they warned of its possible imperfection. He cared not, however, deeming those who fear fate to be weak.
The serum was a success in bulking his size and multiplying his strength one-hundred fold! However, there were some side effects...as skin grayed and hardened, his head malformed and a horn grew in the middle of his face! He had become an anthromophic Rhinoceros! The scientists apologized and swore to do everything in their power to change him back, but the crime-lord dismissed the idea. Contrary to expectation, he saw the transformation a success and congratulated them on their work!
Now, feared as a threat once more in the criminal underground that was Neo Tokyo, his lackies and others moved by fear now refer to him as “𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚁𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚘.” But he was unwavering, feeling as though they only saw the beast that stood in front of them now— they only saw flesh.
He much preferred the name he had garnered just prior to the birth of the Green Goblin. In his mind, that’s who he truly was....
The Kingpin.
Kintsugi
Back story coming soon!
Shadow Cat
Felicia Hardy:The greatest thief in Neo Tokyo. Her skill is so great that many consider her an urban legend around the City of Neon. But as much of a myth as she was, she surely was real. No prize she set her eyes on were out of her claws...not until coming face-to-face with the Neon Spider for the first time. Taking an interest in the hero, she dwindled back and fourth between ally and enemy, aiming to "keep things interesting" between the two of them.
Her history is just as much a mystery to all but her as her goals are. But Neon managed to learn the secret to her skills in the minor bit of origin he managed to dig up through his strange relationship with her.
Now, Felicia Hardy exercises Neo Tokyo as her playground, secretly a Level 7 mutant known as.....
....𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙘𝙖𝙩.