A man stood in an alley, a bloodied knife in his hands and looming over the body of a man he had just killed. However, he suddenly felt a chill go down his spine.

He turned around and saw someone clinging to the wall behind him. He man was tall and wore a bodysuit and mask. It was black and red, with a black cobweb pattern extending throughout the red portion. A large white spider emblem with long slender legs was displayed of the torso. The red parts of the outfit took up most of the torso's front and the top of the outfit's sleeves. The sections on the top of the sleeves ended at a point while the gloves were black with red finger. In addition, the boots where red and had the cobweb pattern on them. The mask was completely red and seemed to be where the cobweb patter extending throughout the outfit originated from, along with having holes containing large yellow lenses resembling bug eyes.

"Who-"

"Are ya Sombra?" the man questioned, his voice fairly deep, booming, and monotone.

"No. I'm not." the killer gulped.

'Knife wielder. Murderer. Slight fear in his voice, but the sight of me could just be intimidating him.' the man thought. 'This might not be the murderer I'm looking for, but he's still a murderer.'

"Ya might not be Sombra, but you're still a murderer." he said. "I can't let ya run free."

The man dismounted the wall and landed in front of the killer. He rushed the killer, knocked the knife out of his hands, and then proceeded to snap his neck.

Arachno
Volume 1: A Knife in the Shadows
Prologue: The First Strand in the Web

A week before…

Franklin D Roosevelt High School had decided to send its students on a field trip to a genetics laboratory. A fifteen-year-old boy named Jeremy Isaacson held a good amount of interest, though not many would assume that because of how hard to read he usually was.

Jeremy was a tall, Caucasian boy with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. He wore a grey hoodie, a black T-shirt with thin grey horizontal stripes, blue jeans, and black sneakers. He took his pair of red headphones off his head and rested them on his shoulders.

"So, how're you holding up?" a feminine voice said from behind him.

The person behind him was Raven Rios, someone Jeremy had been friends with since elementary school. She was a Hispanic girl with fairly dark skin and black hair and eyes. She wore a black sleeveless shirt, red plaid skirt that reached to her knees, and red shoes.

"I'm fine." Jeremy said.

"Okay. Just checking to make sure you're fine." Raven said. "I know that crowds aren't your thing."

"Alright. Thanks." Jeremy replied.

Jeremy never did well with loud and/or crowded areas. He had Asperger's Syndrome, a form of Autism, and issues with loud noises or crowds were a common trait with those types of people. Eye contact was a similar issue, in that Jeremy would often initially not look people in the eye and have to adjust his gaze to correct it.

The tour went at a decent pace, but when the group reached the exhibit on spiders, that was when the turning point for Jeremy's life appeared.

"And here, we have two hundred and fifty-two specimens. Each spider was created using the DNA of various different species of spiders. Each one you see is unique." the tour guide explained.

"So, they're like super-spiders?" said a student.

"In a sense, yes."

"You said, two hundred and fifty-two, right? I counted only two hundred and forty-nine." Raven said.

As if on cue, a spider appeared in one of the tanks, having been camouflaged the whole time.

"Now there's only two hundred and fifty."

"One must have gotten out... But don't worry, no species of venomous spiders were used in the creation of these specimens."

The missing spider in question was above Jeremy and descended before eventually landing on the back of his neck and biting. Jeremy briefly and subtly shifted uncomfortably before quickly reaching for the back of his neck to brush the spider off.

The next day…

It was morning and Jeremy was eating breakfast. His father, Arnold Isaacson, was sitting on a couch in the living room and watching the news on TV.

Arnold was a tall Caucasian man with blonde hair and blue eyes, like his son. He was a police officer who worked the night shift and had gotten home from work not too long ago, so he was still in uniform.

"Just last night, a dead body was reported to the police department. Upon examination, the body belongs to a victim of yet another victim of the killer known as 'Sombra.'"

"Another one…" Arnold grumbled. "Elaine's not gonna be happy."

Elaine was Arnold's wife and Ian's mother. She was a detective, and as of late, most of her time was devoted to solving the Sombra case.

"For those of our viewers who don't know, 'Sombra' is a serial killer who has been running rampant in Dallas during the past three weeks. So far, no information has been found regarding the killer's identity. Some have gone so far as to compare Sombra to the serial killer Jack the Ripper."

Jeremy's mind briefly went back to the time he had overheard his mother grumbling about the case and making that same comparison.

"Anyone with information that could lead to the killer's identity being found is urged to come forward to the authorities immediately."

Present day…

The man had landed on a rooftop before taking off his mask, revealing Jeremy's face underneath. That spider bite had somehow given him the powers of a spider and he intended on using it to catch Sombra. After that, he would continue to use his powers to bring order and justice to the city; fighting gangs, stopping robberies, kidnappings, murders, and so on.

Arachno was what he decided to call himself.

And as Arachno, Jeremy would do whatever it took to bring peace to his city.

Alright, what do you guys think so far about this version of the story? Decided to take it into a new direction.

So, for starters, Sombra will be the main antagonist of this volume. This volume will be shorter than the ones that'll follow it, but this one will mostly cover Arachno's origin story of sorts and be centered around the pursuit of a serial killer. The plot is going to be smaller-scale compared to what I have planned for the following volumes, particularly Volume 2.

As for Jeremy's personality, he is going to be a complicated case. He will be one of those characters who believes their actions to be good but don't really understand why they might not entirely be. And he's not going to be an extremely serious and edgy character like Batman is; his autism-induced social awkwardness will provide some humor to his character. But it won't be entirely played for laughs, mind you.

Anyway, I'm actually looking forward to the end of this volume. I have a lot planned for Sombra and I can't wait for you guys to see it.

So, leave a review. Constructive criticism will be accepted. Flames will be used to make s'mores. See ya!