Shay Daniels (Earth-505)

Template:NV Characters*I believe that everybody can be a hero. But sometimes, it doesn't always roll that way.*

* **Tarantula (Shay Daniels)**.

The quippy, awkward, pop-culture-loving nerd that is **Shay Daniels** is better known to the general public as The Death-Defying, High-Flying, Awe-Inducing Amazing **Tarantula**. Born to a father who wasn't present and a caring mother, Jennifer Daniels, Shay was raised by Jennifer and later, his stepfather, Patrick Knight who had a son of his other, Jordan Knight. On his fifteenth birthday, Shay was eaten alive by a giant prehistoric spider that he would later learn to be called a Zinchari, a member of a race of prehistoric spiders that survived. He would go on to develop abilities and with the help of Mademoiselle Carver, don a costume to become **Tarantula**.

Throughout his superhero career, he has gained many allies such as The Slingers (a team he helped form), Evan Edwards of The Future Foundation, The Starks, and various others. However, it hasn't always just been A-List Heroes. Shay has gone on to fight several villains such as Tombstone, The Empire, Calypso, Fin Fang Foom, The Tinkerer, Manhunter, and so many others. Sadly, in a freak accident, Flask, one of his villains, accidentally drowned his girlfriend at the time, Alexis May which affected him deeply.

More recently, Shay has discovered that there is another Tarantula named Gia Montaño. He gifted her his blessing to be Tarantula and felt more at peace with his life thereafter. However, his life was dismantled once more when he was encountered by an old friend of his from high school named Selena Carter and her younger sister, Ren Carter. Before they could get a moment to speak, he and all other members of The Slingers and Evan Edwards were arrested (in costume) for the bombing of Southside Chicago.

## **History**

### **Early Life**

When Shay was born, his father wasn’t present at the hospital and after a few days, his mother called the police while inside the hospital. A missing person case was opened but it was never talked about again to Shay and he didn't know much about his real father nor did he ever bother to ask. He was born and raised in Clark County. It wasn’t until he turned 5 that his mother found another man named Patrick Knight, a former military officer and current Sheriff. Not long after his mother and Patrick fell in love which introduced Shay to Jordan Knight, Patrick’s son. The pair soon became good friends, even considered each other brothers before their parents were married. When Shay turned ten and Jordan turned 13, Patrick and Jennifer got married on a rooftop in downtown Spring Valley and had their honeymoon in South Africa where Jennifer spent time with her distant cousins. Jordan and Shay were left with a babysitter who Shay had a crush on.

### Dark Fantasy Origins

With Shay entering high school, now at the age of 14, Jordan wanted to throw a party for him and introduce his Junior Year friends to Shay. Jordan picked a random spot in the desert and invited all of his friends which was seemingly the entirety of Spring Valley High and while the party was being set up, Jordan got into his car and drove back to his house to pick up Shay. Their parents, who were in it, blindfolded him and handed him off to Jordan who helped him into the car. The pair laughed and talked while Jordan drove, reaching the desert but the unthinkable happened.

A student from Spring Valley High had become intoxicated and got behind the wheel of his truck, driving wildly throughout the dark and barren desert. Jordan and Shay were moving in the opposite direction until the drunk driver took a hard turn, T-Boning right into Jordan’s car, flipping the vehicle over while sending the drunk driver through his windshield, killing him when his head touched the sand. Jordan was unconscious while Shay was still blindfolded and unable to remove the blindfold due to him losing feeling in his arms but he heard it, the small thudding of someone walking but a low hiss with it. Shay, believing it to be a rattlesnake, froze in place and acted as if he was also unconscious but his blindfold began to slowly be removed by something large and hairy. Out of fear and hesitation, he slowly opened his eyes to see a giant light brown spider. He screamed but was dragged out from the car onto the desert floor then got thrown into a dune by one of its huge arms and finally, eaten alive. The last thing he saw was the hair of the giant spider, it was brown but with dark green stripes.

He woke up to the sunlight beaming down his face, alone in the desert while naked and nowhere near the crash site or the party. Shay got himself up and began to wander the desert until his eyes started to burn immensely and he soon passed out again. The next time he would open his eyes would be in his room at his house with a hospital band on his wrist. Jordan and a few of Shay's friends entered the room where the brothers hugged because both believed each other to be dead but once Shay’s eyes adjusted, they began to burn again. Jordan handed him a pair of sunglasses and informed him that the doctors believed that his eyes had been burned by the sun permanently thus resulting in sensitivity to light forever. Shay didn’t mind and even made a joke that he looked good in sunglasses. The brothers talked but Shay left out the part about the giant spider, then their parents walked into the room and smothered Shay with hugs and conversations, Jordan included. Shay began to cry due to his optical photosensitivity but he retold the joke he told to Jordan which made their mother and father laugh. The family is all together again and happy.

#### **Welcome To High School, Mr. Daniels**

Three months later, Shay was admitted to Spring Valley High as a freshman with his brother being a junior. It was relatively normal until he began to see things and small talons protruded from his fingertips, tearing pieces of paper and his clothes. Unsure what to do, he immediately left the school and went to a nearby building where he accidentally began to scale it but without his talons, much to his surprise. He soon passed out from shock after throwing up profusely on a bird's nest, though he soon woke up a few hours later. Still unclear on what to do, he made his way to a person he deeply trusted, a veterinarian that everyone in Spring Valley knew, the town nicknamed her Mademoiselle Carver. Rumor had it that she was psychic, a rumor that Shay believed in which is why he trusted her so much.

Shay arrived at the Mademoiselle’s vet’s office in a panic because he had seemingly just run there from the school in less than two minutes. It usually takes an hour on foot, fifteen minutes driving and when he got to her, he immediately began to explain everything. He left no detail out which was odd because he could never explain things in such vivid detail before, this all came as a surprise to Mademoiselle because she had a vision of this event but it wasn’t supposed to be Shay. She explained her vision to Shay after sitting him down, the vision had the same events occur but who was supposed to be eaten was Jordan but Jordan was supposed to truly die, not come back as Shay has. This only confused Shay even further because not only did it confirm that Mademoiselle was a psychic but it also confirmed that what happened was real. This caused Shay to have a massive panic attack which he passed out from, Mademoiselle hooked him up to an IV for the next couple of hours until he woke up.

Shay woke up to Mademoiselle checking on him, the sun had gone down but Mademoiselle assured Shay that she had called his parents with a cover story that he had begun working for her. She then explained that with the powers he has now, he has begun working for her and she would work with him. Shay agreed with the deal and she began to explain what the giant spider was, that it was something from the old world when humans were cavemen but the spider race didn’t seem to be normal. They grew to freakish levels and began to evolve, some cavemen called it magic while others claimed it were the spider-gods that made it so. Shay grew confused by the story and Mademoiselle explained further that if the giant spider wanted Shay dead, he wouldn’t have walked out of that desert alive which means either it or something else wanted him to be alive. After the story, Mademoiselle took Shay outside and asked him to try a series of tests to see if he had any other abilities in his arsenal. Shay did everything from wall-crawling to lifting cars which all proved to be superhuman traits to Mademoiselle. She congratulated him on his newfound powers and asked him what he was going to do with them. Shay didn’t have an answer but she replied with something that always stuck with him: “Don't start nothin', won't be nothin'.”

Shay took that to heart, believing that he should do something to help Spring Valley so he donned a black and red biker jacket. While Shay went out into the night for the first time, Mademoiselle had another vision of seemingly the future. It was a dark one, one filled with heroes but they were standing over a body. More specifically, the body of Shay in a black and red biker jacket underneath a tree with his mask off and a smile on his face. This shook Mademoiselle to her core not because it was a brutal scene but because of how eerily peaceful it was. Thus, she neglected to tell Shay out of fear of how he would react to this and continued to be his voice of reason and guide through his time as a superhero.

#### **Wiped Out!**

With Shay going out more and more at night to save lives, Mademoiselle believed that he needed more than what he was just using, which was nothing. She wanted him to have a proper costume and the tools that he would need to succeed. With Shay already good at creating things, the pair got together one night and after copious amounts of coffee and loud arguing, they created his suit. A red and black jacket that was lightweight and easy to move around in with a pair of jeans and boots, and gloves to match the jacket. His mask was a simple red mask with lenses on it that were made out of the same material as his sunglasses. Then, Shay got to work on a new idea, skipping school the next day. He locked himself in his room and started to build on something that Mademoiselle said in a conversation about spiders as a whole, he created Web-Shooters. Not going for stylish or aesthetic but more of a practical view on them, the overall design came out big but functional as they could revolve on his wrists by double-tapping the trigger button. This was for when a web cartridge was empty, so he could make them revolve to one of the other six on the web shooter itself, he soon realized that he would need many more spares so he found his stepfather’s old military pouches and redesigned them, making a belt.

The hardest part was creating a formula for the webs due to him not knowing much about chemistry or science to do it, so he outreached. He presented the web shooters and belt to Mademoiselle who was surprised and intrigued by his intelligence but was equally stumped by his request for the web formula so she began working on the formula while Shay began to install soles into the feet part of the suit to protect his feet. Surprisingly, she was done before he was and the hardest part was making the web formula compatible with the web-shooters and after many failed attempts and a web explosion, the web-shooters were working just as intended. Shay donned his costume with the web-shooters and belt, pulling down the mask over his face, and declared himself to be Tarantula.

He went out into the night, fighting crime while people took pictures, and recorded videos, and Shay returned home at 6 am, passing out on his bed after hiding his new costume. Shay awoke in the afternoon to find his brother freaking out about the fact that Las Vegas has its very own superhero, Tarantula. He would go on many adventures during this time period, experience loss, and explore the meaning behind what it meant to be a superhero. Through trials and tribulations, he would keep pressing forward, believing that he was making a change. It was here that he met a new friend however who helped him out of this dark place named Tyler Price.

### **Everybody Wants To Rule The World**

A man named Alonzo Harris began to buy property in Las Vegas, more specifically on The Strip but did not use his name nor any name, just a mysterious buyer. Alonzo did not reveal himself until a month after owning half of The Strip, throwing an extravagant party at his most recent purchase, The MGM Grand. He introduced himself with his name but told everyone to call him by his former alias when he was a boxer, Tombstone, which everyone happily agreed to since it was his money they were spending on booze and slot machines. This was all told to Shay by his brother, Jordan who was in attendance after recently turning 18 and all of this came to a head when Tombstone came by Spring Valley High to be a public speaker for the entire school. The entire time Tombstone spoke, he stared directly at Shay with some of his words even sounding like a threat but that’s when Shay began to see small red lines around Tombstone which confused him, and then the lines became larger and more intense while Shay could not take his eyes off of Tombstone no matter how hard he tried. A small noise began to creep into his ears and it all went quiet and the lines disappeared for a brief moment only to come back in full force, the noise screaming in his ears as Tombstone said.

“As my pops used to say. Don’t start nothin’, won’t be nothin’.”

Then the bell rang for everyone to go home, and students, as well as the facility, began to leave except for Tombstone and Shay who were still trapped in a gaze. Tombstone asked if Shay wanted to change into his “work clothes” and Shay, having already pieced together that Tombstone knew he was Tarantula, said no and pulled his hood over his head which prompted Tombstone to pull out a pair of brass knuckles. Shay put his belt over his chest sideways and put on his web shooters and the two men engaged in a fight in the gymnasium. The fight lasted for hours, leaving both men bloody and Tombstone gave up, throwing his brass knuckles down in front of Shay. He told him that Shay would be seeing a lot more of him from now on, then challenged him to try and stop him. Angry at this, Shay swung off to Mademoiselle’s and spoke to her, telling her the events that occurred.

She stopped him and told him that she knew she had a vision about this very situation happening and told him to be careful around Tombstone, that everything may not be what it seems. He agreed but brought up what he saw and heard so Mademoiselle began a basic eye exam on Shay, only to find that Shay could see incredibly far but this didn’t explain the lines he saw so Mademoiselle had an idea. She asked him to concentrate on his vision solely which he did, he focused on her and began to see purple lines. He described it to her and she immediately knew what it was, becoming even more impressed with Shay’s abilities. She told him that those are pheromones and because of his vision, he could see them and that his eyes weren’t burnt by the sun but rather evolved to the point that they are sensitive to natural light because his vision adapted to see other things. She turned off the light to demonstrate and told him to take off his sunglasses and much to his surprise, he could see clearly in total and complete darkness. Mademoiselle told him to use this to his advantage the next time he squared off with Tombstone but before their conversation could go any further, he got a call from his father and swung home. While he swung home, Mademoiselle sat down and began to try to reach another vision of Shay but all she got once more was his bloody death under a tree but in a more familiar area, his gated community park.

Arriving home, he entered his house only for his eyes to be directed at a man sitting on their couch with his mother. The man gave off the same red pheromones from the gymnasium which caused Shay's anxiety to spike, revealing the man to be Tombstone. Shay's mother, Jennifer was about to introduce them only for Tombstone to speak up and say that they had already met after his speech at the school and Shay forced himself to shake Tombstone’s hand, giving it a tight squeeze, one would break a normal person’s hand. He leaned into Tombstone’s ear and began to speak of a threat until another red pheromone floated past his eye, directing his eyesight to the side to see a red dot on his shoulder from an unseeable sniper. Thus began the night from Hell. Tombstone had dinner with Shay's family, even revealing that he was an old flame of his mother's but that fact went over his head seeing as how an enemy was breaking bread with him. The night soon ended and Shay walked Tombstone to his car where Tombstone told him that this will be a long game played between the two of them then left, leaving Shay underneath a stoplight with unparalleled rage. This was the last time Tombstone messed with Shay for a while as he went into the winter part of his fall semester.

### **Shay’s Homecoming**

With life seemingly returning to normal, Shay began to focus on his heroics and school more and unfortunately was unaware that a girl was trying to ask him to Homecoming or that Jordan had submitted his name for Homecoming King. His second job was consuming but he enjoyed it, it made him feel like he was making a difference but that all came to a stop when Mademoiselle took his suit and web shooters. Angry and confused, he began to argue with her but her point was valid, she was worried that Shay was beginning to lose sight of what’s important in his life currently which was school, friends, and girlfriends, and even asked him when was the last time he went on a date to which he replied never. That he had moved from Alexis emotionally but not physically. Thus began a deal between the two, if Shay went to Homecoming with a date, he would get his suit back.

Reluctantly agreeing, he left and had to walk back home due to him not having his web shooters anymore. The next morning, the same girl who kept building up the confidence to ask him to Homecoming finally did, and without an excuse such as there is a robbery downtown or a shootout on The Strip, he agreed and she revealed her name to be Nubia Jefferson. The pair hit it off quite well during the months before Homecoming, even beginning a relationship and soon, Homecoming came. While Nubia got ready, Shay was at Mademoiselle's to talk to her about the deal but she revealed interesting news. Since Tarantula hadn’t been seen for months, two very new heroes had appeared to protect Clark County which confused Shay because he didn’t understand but she told him that he inspired them to do it. Just after she finished speaking, the two young heroes walked out from the other room, Hornet and Prodigy, who both took off their masks. Hornet was a man named Charles “Ray” Thomas, a freshman at Clark High while his sister, Jessica Thomas was his woman in the chair and is the one who designed his suit while Ray built it, both protecting Paradise. While Prodigy worked at CSN, protecting Henderson, named Jackson Pierce who gained superpowers in a freak accident in the science building of CSN but didn’t remember his past. Mademoiselle had visions of both of them, reaching out to them through her mind and inviting them here for a large-scale situation.

In Shay’s absence, Hornet and Prodigy teamed up once to seek out a disturbance in Henderson but once the duo arrived, they saw the entire district of Henderson overrun by large lizard-like people. Though it took all night, the duo combated the lizards but Hornet placed a camera tracker on one of them. Ray handed Shay his phone to show him that the lizards had taken residence underneath a structure of some kind while Jackson then explained that he took a body back to his apartment for observation and determined that the lizards were aliens. Shay frowned when he saw the video footage and realized where the lizards set up camp. It was right underneath Spring Valley High School. Nubia arrived at the school and entered the gymnasium where Homecoming was being held, engaging in the festivities but now and then would send Shay a text with each hour becoming increasingly more worried about her boyfriend. On the other side of town, a young man entered Mademoiselle’s Vet Office, speaking with a wisp and declaring that he knew about the lizards. Shay equipped his web-shooters but Mademoiselle stopped him, explaining that she read his mind and that he is an ally which Hornet and Prodigy confirmed.

The kid explained what the lizards were. That they were in fact aliens but they had come from a planet full of them and they only wanted peace, that the incident in Henderson was them going out for food. Shay then asked how did he know so much to which the kid revealed that he was one of them but a hybrid. His mother was an archeologist in the 80s and stumbled upon the race, eventually over time became married to the race’s king and gave birth to him. Ray asked why isn’t he older to which the kid replied that something about Earth’s atmosphere forces his race to age slower, the kid finally gave his name which was Jack. Jack explained that his race just wants to go back home and the only way to go back is through a spaceship they have been building for hundreds of years underneath Spring Valley High. Mademoiselle explained to Shay that they were all there because of Shay's heroics then pushed him to lead this ragtag team of heroes which he reluctantly agreed to. Shay devised a plan, that he would distract the people at Homecoming while Ray, Jackson, and Jack convince the lizards to move the spaceship to a non-populated part of the school. The group agreed and Mademoiselle attempted to hand him his suit back but Shay smiled and told her that he hadn’t gone to homecoming yet.

The group went off to their missions and Shay arrived at the gymnasium where he saw Nubia who embraced him. Thinking quickly on his feet, he saw that a couple of his friends were playing live music on the stage but their singer wasn’t there so Shay got up on stage much to the surprise of Nubia and his friends. His friends looked at him confused but he told them that he was going to sing and then asked them if they knew how to play a song. While that was going on, Hornet, Prodigy, and Jack reached the basement of the school and began to talk to the lizard race, explaining that they wanted to help get them back to their homeworld and the lizards agreed. The race of lizards and the heroes began to move in the night, attempting to not draw attention to themselves while back up top, Shay began to sing Can’t Take My Eyes Off You surprisingly extremely well. So well in fact that people who weren’t even inside the dance came in which cleared all the hallways, security guards included. Shay pulled Nubia onstage and began to sing to her while dancing like Heath Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About You, all of this coming as a big surprise to Jordan who never even heard Shay sing before and he loudly and proudly cheered his brother on.

Even Hornet began to sing along which caused Prodigy to look at him confused to which Hornet cleared his throat and apologized. Prodigy soon sang as well and Hornet looked at him and Prodigy told him that it was infectious. Shay sang louder to get more people’s attention but the principal didn’t want the song he was singing to be played at his Homecoming and began to chase Shay as the security guards didn’t want to. The principal chased Shay throughout the gymnasium until he got to the top of the bleachers where the principal slipped on a napkin which the crowd laughed at and Shay saw Hornet from the entrance of the gym, giving him a thumbs up and telling him to sing louder to mask the sound of the spaceship taking off. Winking at Nubia, he changed the song to a rap song and a mosh pit started which caused enough noise to nullify the spaceship taking off and the lizard race successfully left planet Earth, with Jack deciding to stay behind to help protect Clark County. Jack was soon adopted by Mademoiselle and to end the night, Shay joined the band, forming Guessing Tomorrow then kissed Nubia in front of her house.

### **The Masked Vigilantes Known As The Slingers**

The rest of sophomore and part of junior year for Shay was spent saving Clark County and having frequent team-ups with Hornet and Prodigy, even training Jack, who evolved into having an ebony lizard skin transformation, to become the lizard hero named Dusk who protected the district of Winchester. Shay played multiple live shows with Guessing Tomorrow, in fact, they opened for Fall Out Boy at The Railhead in Winchester and released multiple independent albums that sold well. One night in the second semester of his junior year, Mademoiselle called a meeting at her vet office to inform the group of theirs of a vision she had recently but didn’t know what to say about it. She explained that she saw an army of heroes with the four people in the room in the front of the army, seemingly leading it. Shay immediately agreed while Jackson was on the fence about it but Shay convinced both Hornet and Prodigy by talking about the last few months of team-ups, bringing up events where they all worked well together. Then the group began to think of names and it was Jack who came up with The Slingers because of an old band that came out in the ’80s to which the group agreed, much to the joy of Mademoiselle but little did they know, Las Vegas would need The Slingers soon.

Shay’s brother Jordan began his tenure with his dream job of being a cop for the LVMPD, inheriting his father’s sense of duty. The job was interesting and exciting for Jordan but he had a deep hatred for the vigilantes that “protected” Clark County in his mind. So for months, he put in good work and quickly raised the ranks, and once he became the youngest detective in the entire department’s history, he convinced the captain of the police force to create a task force to hunt down these vigilantes. Jordan held a press conference to inform the citizens of Clark County that every masked hero will be brought to justice and placed a bounty on each of their heads. Hornet’s was $10,000, Prodigy’s was $20,000, Dusk’s was $40,000, and the main vigilante known widely and the most loved, Tarantula’s bounty was $100,000. This brought the worst of criminals to the surface, all trying to take down the heroes, now wanted criminals. The first hero to be hunted after was Hornet, a man named Techno who appeared with the ability to communicate with machines and their fight took place in Henderson and Hornet won but lost his suit in the process. Thus rendering him benched for a few months to create a new suit but a few nights later, Prodigy was attacked by a man named Thunderstruck who could control electricity which was Prodigy’s only weakness. Prodigy was brought in and Thunderstruck gained his bounty, disappearing soon after. Shay had Dusk move in with Mademoiselle to keep him safe while he planned to break Prodigy out of prison.

Arriving home to devise a plan, a defeated Jordan sat on his bed with his detective badge out and Shay’s web shooters in his hands. An argument broke out between the brothers with Shay asking him why he was going through his room. Jordan replied that he’s always noticed that Shay was missing at family dinners so he followed him one night and saw that he never went to the Vet office but simply disappeared. The argument continued to the point that Shay yelled at Jordan that he was Tarantula to which Jordan told him to show him. Shay stood vertically on the wall and backflipped off of it, which prompted Jordan to take out his handcuffs, staring at Shay which made him grit his teeth. The pair engaged in a fight which ended quickly with Shay webbing Jordan’s hands together and jumping out of his window, leaving his brother alone in his room. With his home compromised, he turned to the only person he could trust and knocked on Mademoiselle's door.

The next morning, Shay woke up to his pheromone readings going haywire and a massive headache which prompted him to don his Tarantula suit and for Dusk to turn into his lizard form. Jordan’s voice was heard from outside declaring that the house was surrounded and Shay didn’t go outside until he heard the voice of his parents. Then a third voice, a gruff voice that he knew all too well, the voice of Tombstone. Mademoiselle begged Shay not to go out there but he did anyway with a frown. Not only was the building surrounded but news vans and reporters stood out, talking about the vigilante taskforce that Tombstone funded in collaboration with the LVMPD. Shay stared at his brother who had a gun trained on him, the brothers locked eyes and then Shay turned his head to the side, looking at Dusk who was still inside the house behind Mademoiselle. He looked back at his brother, parents, and Tombstone and shouted that if he turned himself in, the city of Las Vegas will be forced to release Prodigy and remove the bounty on Dusk and dismantle the task force, personally promising that there won’t be any more costumed heroes in Las Vegas. The captain reluctantly agreed after a talk with Jordan, Shay was soon arrested on live television in front of the whole world and put inside of a squad car but his mask was not removed, much to his surprise. It was revealed that most of the cops on the force and even in the department didn’t enjoy or like the idea of chasing down The Slingers. So out of pure respect for Tarantula, they didn’t remove the mask and booked him under the name, Tarantula and it was revealed they did the same for Prodigy who they soon released.

For almost a year and a half, Shay wasn’t transferred to a faculty but stayed at the county jail while crime ran rampant throughout the streets of Clark County, even Tombstone began to do questionable things. Shay was still passing his classes because Hornet was doing his homework for him and turning it in. Sadly, Nubia broke up with him. She could not be with someone who had lied to her about something big. While Shay understood this, he was deeply affected by it but his life would fall apart completely one night in his senior year. One morning while Shay was playing cards with the guard on watch, a special code came across the radio which meant a supervillain had begun to destroy the city and it was calling all available officers to the scene. Leaving Shay inside of his cell, only for his brother to come up to the door with a set of keys.

### **The Attack On Las Vegas**

Jordan unlocked the cell and apologized to Shay, handing him his web shooters and belt. Shay stared at Jordan while putting on his gear and Jordan asked for his forgiveness then told him that a man had kidnapped their mother three nights ago but had proved she was alive today. Shay told him that there was no forgiving this and jumped out of the window, swinging to The Strip. When he arrived, Hornet, Prodigy, and Dusk were already fighting the supervillains due to them receiving the news before Shay did and he joined in the fight. The fight waged on until Tarantula and Hornet got a moment to themselves where Hornet explained who the villains were. He gained this information recently from his sister who was compiling a database on them. Hornet explained that it was a team that consisted of five members, each somehow being related to Tombstone, though two disappeared when Shay appeared.

There was an unknown factor, however. A man using a glider named Hobgoblin was terrorizing the city. Nobody knew who he was and why he joined up with Tombstone. The next villain was a man named Jefferson Jackson, a friend to Tombstone who went into the Special Forces Black Ops Division and specialized in infiltration, his codename was Trickster due to how he had the uncanny ability to morph himself into anyone and everyone with masks. He came stateside and joined Tombstone’s empire, helping him with business deals and effectively-becoming his right-hand man. Flask was a special project conducted underneath The MGM Grand in an attempt to artificially make a mutant, the product was Magma. Hornet revealed that the last member of the team was Tombstone himself, declaring that the team is called The Empire to which Shay made a wisecrack about Star Wars. Hornet directed Shay, Prodigy, and Dusk to fight the remaining three villains while Shay called Mademoiselle.

When she answered, he begged her to tell him about a vision of his mother and she did which revealed that Jennifer was with Hobgoblin but there was something else. Jordan had tracked down Hobgoblin and found him, engaging in a fight with him, and Shay high-tailed it to their location, only to find Jordan under siege by pumpkin bombs. Shay fought Hobgoblin viciously on a street called Violet Hill, with both parties landing kill shots in but due to their powers, they always managed to get back up, until Tengu threw a punch so hard that it dropped Shay to the ground, disorienting him. In a split moment, he saw red lines coming from Hobgoblin as the madman threw a pumpkin bomb up at a clock tower and Shay soon realized why. Jordan and Jennifer were up there but were trapped with no way down. Shay tried to get to his feet but because of the hit, he stumbled around but what made him clear was the explosion that happened when the pumpkin bomb hit the tower. His eyes widened when he heard the screams which prompted him to jump there as Hobgoblin flew away quickly. Shay fought through the fire and got both of their bodies, jumping back down to the street as Jordan died on the way down but Jennifer survived with only some burns due to Jordan acting fast to save her life. That night, while Jennifer accepted her son as Tarantula and told him she was proud of him, the two wept over the body of Jordan. Hornet and Prodigy arrived too late, only to see the clock tower burning and Shay holding both his brother's lifeless body in his arms, crying into the night. Police sirens rang and Prodigy pulled Shay away from his body as the police arrived but the heroes were gone and as the group attempted to regroup, Shay had disappeared. Prodigy confused as to where he could’ve gone, Hornet knew exactly where he went, speaking while pointing at The Stratosphere Tower.

#### **The End Isn’t Near, It’s Here**

Shay arrived at the top of The Stratosphere Tower, beating Hobgoblin to it and the pair engaged in a fight that caused the city to stop and watch. With each punch, blast, and stab that hit him, Shay grew angrier which prompted a new ability. His hands began to radiate heat which he then used his talons to dig into the body of Hobgoblin, melting down some of the bones in his body. His fighting style was different than usual which threw off Hobgoblin’s data that he had gathered and even Mademoiselle had a vision of Shay killing him. She called Prodigy and told him to keep Shay from killing Hobgoblin and he flew up there, attempting to stop Shay but he was lost in a blind rage. Shay broke Hobgoblin not only mentally but physically, he taunted him with sadistic jokes and broke bones in his body while verbally keeping count and telling him what he broke. It was here that Shay tore off the mask of Hobgoblin and it was Tyler, one of his best friends. Distraught and in pain, Shay stared at his demented and crazy friend. All Tyler kept repeating in his craziness was "here's not here".

Just as Shay made Hobgoblin a paraplegic, Prodigy stopped Shay in the middle of it and brought up Jordan and told him that this isn’t what she wouldn’t have wanted. Shay, while holding a completely terrified and mentally gone Tyler, broke down in tears and tossed him to Prodigy as he jumped off the tower, disappearing into the night (to find out what happened to Tyler Price for him to become Tengu, read his character wiki here or read The Spectacular Tarantula Vol 1). Thus, all but two members of The Empire were captured and Shay arrived at the vet's office and stripped down to his underwear. Mademoiselle approached him quietly and watched as he dumped all of his gear into a bag. He turned to her with tears in his eyes and cried into her, he cried until there was nothing left and he soon drifted away in her arms...

When Shay woke the next morning, he walked into the main room to find a black coffee with a note sitting neatly on top of it. The note read, “Everyone goes through a crucible, Shay. Be something greater, more mature. -Mademoiselle.” He thought about it for many hours, until finally donning his costume again. He put on normal clothes over it, walking out into the world towards his house where he saw all of his stuff, packed into bags and another note on it stating that his parents couldn’t live under the same roof as a superhero. With a heavy heart, he took his stuff to the vet’s office where Mademoiselle arrived with a set of keys to an apartment under his name. Shay asked if she had a vision about this too and she replied that it was just a matter of connecting the dots, after this, she helped him move into his apartment.

#### **Between Villains: A Brief Interlude**

Over the next year, Shay became a full-time vet assistant while continuing his superhero activities. He buried his web-shooters with Jordan along with his formula associated with it but didn’t go to either of the funerals. The Slingers met only a few times, and soon he left The Slingers and left Hornet in charge of the group. The last Shay heard about The Slingers was that they moved to Carson City to become their defenders after an incident with aliens from Mars invading that city and cryptids going to war with them. This left Shay alone in Clark County but that’s not what he needed as he became obsessed with finding the remaining Empire members. He didn’t enroll in UNLV as he intended but instead continued to balance work and superheroing much to Mademoiselle's dislike while he became increasingly more estranged from his parents. To make more money on the side, he revived Guessing Tomorrow and began to do live shows around Clark County.

He coped with the loss of his girlfriend and brother by being a superhero, and by moving forward with his life. He worked at arm's length with the police department and refused to reveal any information about The Empire. During this time, Tyler was released from prison and with the help of Tombstone, he was able to walk again and donned the Tengu mantle once more but hadn’t revealed himself to the world yet. Jordan's death hurt but it only reminded him of what he learned when Alexis died. That he can't save everybody and that no matter how hard he tries or how hard he loves someone, in the end, he's still so lonely.

### **Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off**

Months passed and he was seemingly getting better in terms of his mental health, even finally putting a scholarship that was granted to him to good use and enrolling into UNLV, in hopes of becoming a veterinarian. It had seemed like he found a balance between superheroing, studies, and being Shay Daniels which surprised Mademoiselle but she implored him to keep it up. Everything was looking up Shay until one day while he was walking on campus, an old black and red Mercury slowly crept into the parking space that was in front of him and a beautiful woman stepped out of it. She approached him and introduced herself as Veronica Meyers, a freshman at UNLV (She lied) to which Shay introduced himself and they spoke for a bit but she soon left after shaking his hand again. When he looked down at his hand, a note was in his palm of it that had her phone number on it.

Later that night, Shay would call her and strike up a conversation with her but was halted when she said that she was waiting for him to ask her out on a date. The duo laughed about it and Shay finally asked her to which she simply said a time and a place, tomorrow night at 9. The phone call ended shortly thereafter and with that, Shay jumped out of his apartment window and began his nightly patrol while thinking of this young woman. Across town, Mademoiselle reached for the phone to check on Shay but stopped, having a troubling vision. The area around a park nearby was set ablaze with a woman standing in front of what looked like Shay but in costume and badly wounded, screaming something but it was inaudible. The vision was so powerful that Mademoiselle’s nose bled and soon passed out, luckily a customer was inside her office and took her to the hospital. A few moments later, Shay arrived at the hospital as quickly as he could when Doctor Zana called him but Mademoiselle was uncontrollable, shouting, “Beware the woman of fire!” Shay stayed with her for the entire night.

The next morning, Shay came into the room with coffee and Mademoiselle was awake with a more sane headspace. The two talked about what had happened and that she was worried about Shay, explaining that maybe he should call The Slingers back to Clark County to defend in his place so that he could take a break. Not wanting to worry Mademoiselle anymore, he jokingly told her Tarantula was no more, stepping away to call Ray. A few moments later, Shay returned to Mademoiselle’s room only to find that Veronica was there with her which confused and surprised Shay but Mademoiselle invited him to sit down to which she explained it to him. She told Shay that Veronica was her goddaughter to which Shay asked if Veronica could see visions too and they both laughed with Veronica saying no. She would kiss Shay’s cheek and whisper in his ear that she would see him later that night. He chuckled but Mademoiselle pointed at Shay when Veronica left and told him to be careful of that one, she is not as nice as she seems and that there was always a dark feeling when it came to Veronica and her parents. Worried and confused, Shay left the hospital with more questions than answers so he took this time to walk home rather than suit up.

That night while Shay was getting ready for his date with Veronica, somebody had snuck into his apartment while he was there but Shay soon left the apartment and the person began to go through his things until they found his brother’s badge and took it, leaving just as quiet as they entered. Shay arrived at the date but was surprised to find that Ray, Jackson, and Veronica were all laughing together and as Shay approached, Ray and Jackson quickly hugged him and then proceeded to leave after they realized that it was a date between Shay and Veronica. The pair broke off and went to play mini-golf but across town at Woodlawn Cemetery, the person who broke into his apartment placed Jordan’s detective badge on his grave and walked away after muttering something. A few moments passed and it began to rain then a horrific sight was produced from the grave. Jordan clawed out from his casket, his hands slamming down on the muddied dirt and when his head climbed out for air, he screamed so loud that the birds left and that it fell deathly silent. Shay’s vision turned black and the only thing he could see was when his head jerked towards the cemetery and crimson red dots of pheromones were released towards him, giving him a massive headache, this being all-new for Shay. When Veronica asked what was wrong, Shay could only reply that something was coming and that nobody was going to be safe.

#### **The Secret Origin Of Shay Daniels**

Shay quickly ran to Mademoiselle after his date and explained to her what happened but Mademoiselle simply lowered her head in shame and fear to which he confronted her. He explained that he always knew that she was hiding something but he never asked because he loved her but now he needed to know. She shouted at him that he was her son, that his parents weren’t there for him and never were, that she kept him clothed and cared for and patched him up from this crusade of trying to help people, that no matter what happened Shay was her son. He smiled and cupped her cheeks, telling her that he is her son and that she was more than enough for him but told her that he needed to know everything. She kissed his head and told him to sit down, it was going to be a long story. She would go on to explain her past which also explained the present. Mademoiselle Carver’s real name was Andra Jackson and was born in New Orleans in 1927 into a family of people that were considered precognitions and some practitioners of magic but Andra was born with the ability to see the future but with a twist. Her visions are only accurate for those she has grown a bond with, a deep bond but another rich family came to visit one day, the eldest of the family planned to marry Andra’s older sister but secretly, became enthralled with Andra thus beginning their secret affair. Though one night as the young man left her room, Andra had a troubling vision of him killing her older sister. Many months later, this vision would come to pass.

On the day of their wedding, the older sister was brought down the aisle towards the man but when she arrived in front of him, he pulled her close and stabbed her in the side with blood dripping down onto her white dress. Andra reached out but was stopped by her father and the man’s eyes glowed red, beginning to take her life force energy from her older sister. Their mother, who had arrived late, attacked the man with magic which caused him to stop but it was too late, Andra’s sister was murdered by the man. The man fled but vowed to come back, not just for Andra but for the rest of the family and anyone else related to the Zinchari. A few weeks later after mourning their sister, Andra asked her mother what the Zinchari were and her mother told her everything. The Zinchari are a species of peace-keeping giant spiders from the prehistoric age that survived the meteor crash that killed the dinosaurs by burrowing deep into the Earth but subsequently when they emerged from the Earth, they were in the desert and so to adapt, they blended in with their surroundings and the leader, Zanzibar’tegore, or known to humans as Barr, decreed that they should stay underground out of fear of what the human race would do to them. Though a young, bright and curious Zinchari wanted to go to the surface and did, Barr’s worst fears came true as the body was found, drained of everything that made the Zinchari unique. The life force was drained from the young Zinchari and the man responsible was named Thannis, brother of Jennix, the same man that murdered Andra’s sister but it was unbeknownst to her family until the night of the wedding. Zanzibar’tegore declared that nobody is allowed up to the surface anymore, stating that everything they would need, the Earth would provide. Though a group of rogue Zinchari would go up now and then to terrorize the humans and disappear when the sun rose.

With this newfound information, Andra was granted permission to find the Zinchari and was soon taken to Las Vegas where she was taken deep into the Earth by her mother and was introduced to Zanzibar’tegore who spoke to her within her mind. Barr explained their culture to her and their history which was eye-opening to Andra but was sworn to secrecy by Barr. Time passed and she was soon accepted into their own and granted something that had kept them alive for centuries, slowed aging. She gained this ability after she was found helping the younglings and so, she bounced her time between the Zinchari and the world above it but eventually, she met a man whom she fell in love with and though it was forbidden to be with someone out of fear of the Zinchari secret to be exposed, she left him but unbeknownst to everyone, she was pregnant with a child. She would bring the man down to meet the Zinchari and they all loved him for his open-mindedness but this was against Zinchari law. The man agreed to never tell anyone or talk about what he learned but asked if he could use them for ideas due to him being a scientist and the Zinchari agreed but the man also told them that he would not test them or send people to search for them. He left soon after but Zanzibar’tegore loved Andra too much to banish her so as a compromise, Andra gave the baby to a family that wanted a child but the husband was sterile and so Andra changed the entire family’s memories to make them believe that they had the child and was not given to them. Zinchari and Andra both agreed that they would not tell Shay about his father, which is an aspect of the story she left out while telling her son. She periodically sent clothes and various other things to the child’s family and eventually opened her vet office in Clark County, becoming Mademoiselle Carver but soon enough the family that killed her sister found her and have been watching her ever since. Zanzibar’tegore and Mademoiselle made a pact that when the child became of age, he would be introduced to the Zinchari but what Barr didn’t tell Mademoiselle was that the child was a part of a larger prophecy. Many years later, a disagreement occurred between Zanzibar’tegore and his right-hand man, T’archzedar who was a fierce warrior that trained the younglings in their ways of fighting. T’archzedar believed that the boy should be killed before he started the prophecy but Zanzibar’tegore disagreed but later that night, he snuck out and found the boy in the desert and ate him but something went wrong. Mademoiselle had bestowed upon the child’s body an invisible totem to keep him alive as a one-time use and when T’archzedar ate him, the totem activated which caused the child to be revived and T’archzedar to throw him up, quickly leaving the scene but this would have unforeseen consequences. The child’s name was Shay and he had developed abilities, becoming the first hybrid of their species.

#### **Closer**

Shay was confused but not hurt and he just held Mademoiselle tightly, calling her mother and they had a moment where they just cried to each other but then Veronica came into the room, asking if she told him yet and Mademoiselle laughed and nodded, then Veronica hugged Shay and soon left after a sweet conversation. Mademoiselle pulled Shay aside and asked if she knew about him being Tarantula and he told her that Veronica could never know. Across town, Jordan made his way to his parent’s house and knocked, which surprised Jennifer and Patrick but they hugged him and brought him in. Though across the street, the same figure was watching then turned away. A few days later, Shay got a call from his mother and he answered it coldly but when she said that Jordan was alive, Shay hung up and ran from his apartment in Paradise to North Las Vegas and pounded on the door, almost breaking it. Patrick answered the door and Shay pushed him to the side, stomping into the house while shouting where is Jordan but stopped when he walked into the living room where Jordan stood up slowly as did his adoptive mother. He grabbed Jordan’s shirt and lifted him, slamming him against the wall that caused the wall to have a hole where Jordan’s back was, shouting at him that he mourned him, that he died in his arms the same way Alexis did then asked why he came back and Alexis didn’t. Jordan tried to say something else but Shay just punched the wall, leaving a hole in it as blood dripped from his knuckles. Jordan put his hands on Shay’s shoulders and told him that he didn’t know why he climbed out of his casket and that he was sorry about Alexis. Shay buried his head in Jordan’s chest, breaking down as Jordan just hugged him tightly and cried with him.

The next few hours were painful for Shay for the fact that Jordan detailed out his death and his return but Shay soon left, going back to Mademoiselle’s house and explained everything to her but just as they spoke, the office was blown up but Shay grabbed Mademoiselle and used his body as a shield to save her life, taking her into a closet that wasn’t part of the explosion then dashed out of the closet in his costume but saw a woman with long white hair, which Shay made a joke about, stating that it wasn’t Christmas and called her Jack Frost. She laughed and said she liked this one then introduced herself as the sister of Jennix and called her Morlun but it was here that the fight started with Shay throwing the first punch. After a few moments of fighting, Veronica showed up and attacked her with magic which surprised Shay but she called him Tarantula, reminding him that she didn’t know that it was him under the mask. The pair fought Morlun from North Las Vegas to The Strip with Shay’s suit being virtually destroyed and Veronica being knocked out, leaving only Morlun and Shay left to fight. The pair fought aggressively and violently to the point that each hit caused the ground to shake but Morlun hit Shay too hard which launched him into a building. It was here that Morlun explained that he was only here for the Zinchari and that when she found them, she would kill them all which triggered something in Shay that made his blood boil but she called him something, she called him The Unexpected. The fight continued with Shay hitting her with everything he had, landing an uppercut that hit her so hard that it sent her flying into the desert, only for Shay to follow with his mask torn in half. When he arrived, the fight continued but Morlun weakened from this hit but something extraordinary happened. Zanzibar’tegore rose from the ground and towered over Shay and Morlun and more Zinchari came from the Earth to help Shay win this fight. Barr threw Morlun into the air and the fight continued until Shay realized that she couldn’t be killed by how hard they were attacking her. Shay told the Zinchari to pull her apart limb by limb and to separate the pieces amongst them to which Zanzibar’tegore instructed his soldiers to do and they did.

Shay explained to Zanzibar’tegore the situation after everything had calmed down, telling him that Mademoiselle told him everything and Barr only smiled, telling him telepathically that it was okay and that he had a home with the Zinchari whenever he needed it. Barr told him one last thing before he turned to leave and it was that he loved him but Shay stopped him, asking him if it was alright that he was using his powers for good and Barr told him that they were proud of him and to never change. With that, Barr left with his clan and kept the pieces of Morlun away from each other and Shay just watched as they left, soon returning to Mademoiselle and explaining everything to her. She laughed and nodded, stating that Barr always had a way with words but Shay jumped in and said that he wanted to do something to honor the Zinchari. That he wanted to keep going and reminded himself of the adage that has helped him. Don't start nothin', won't be nothin'. And thus, created his first real suit.

### **Fight The Feeling**

Shay was happy, which was an odd sentence for him to say. Everything was looking up, his grades were improving as he was in his second year of college. He had moved on from Veronica, Las Vegas had moved from Morlun, and finally fully rebuilt from The Attack on Las Vegas. The city was bustling again and it was all thanks to Tarantula and The Slingers. His life was better than ever but it got weirder than usual whenever a young woman strolled into town. Shay had gotten home from Mademoiselle’s when he saw the woman sitting on his couch and watching cartoons. He asked her who she was but she stated that he needed to update his DVD collection, stating that the third season of Legend of Korra was pretty good. Shay rebutted by stating that people only remember the first two seasons and the woman nodded in agreement. She introduced herself as Maria Stark and explained that she knew all about him. He scoffed and asked why she was interested in a UNLV med student but then she projected a video of Shay in costume stopping a mugging, asking if he was The Spider-Man but Shay looked at her confused, walking past her. He stated that the superhero’s name was Tarantula and he had no idea what she was talking about. It was here that Maria chucked a piece of bread at Shay, hitting him in the chest. He smiled goofily and shrugged which then made Maria chuck her phone at his face which he then caught after his pheromone reading went off.

She asked how did it work, the eye color change which made Shay frown at her, realizing the gig is up. He asked what she was doing here and she threw up a peace sign, stating that she just wanted to keep the peace between states. She continued by stating that there was another one just like him in Chicago. He was confused and asked for proof to which she projected another video of a young woman catching a thrown bus overhead. He watched deeply and even replayed it. Maria closed it and Shay told her that he needed to see somebody about this. She turned around for a second, asking if she could come with but by the time she tired around, Shay was gone and his street clothes were at her feet. With Shay, he had traveled to the desert outside of the city and gained an audience with the ZInchari, specifically Bar who was just as surprised. Shay asked if anybody else had gone through the same process he had but Barr stated that nobody had until he existed so anything is possible. Shay sighed, upset that there were no answers and he looked up at Barr. He told him thanks and then stated that he had to go to Chicago. After a brief phone call with Ray, he had discovered where Maria checked in and Shay snuck into the MGM Grand’s penthouse suite. He kicked his feet up on the couch and flipped through the hotel channels until Maria arrived shortly thereafter. Shay, in costume, asked her why she picked the penthouse for two days and Maria stated that she liked the space. Shay chimed in, stating that she was also rich and Maria reiterated that she was rich. He told her that they could be in Chicago for one day, then he has to be back in Vegas. She rolled her eyes and told him that Vegas can survive without for a while, they have The Slingers. Within the next hour, Shay and Maria were on a Stark Private Jet, bound for Chicago. Maria asked Shay about Tarantula, about why he puts on the long johns. He told her that people needed help but Maria dug deeper, asking him what drove him to do this. She asked if it was dead parents or a friend or if he lived with an aunt but Shay told her that it was none of that. He smiled and looked at his mask then told her that whenever he got his powers, he saw that Vegas needed help so he did what he could. No dead parents, friends, or otherwise in his origin. Maria stared at Shay for a while and internalized that he might be just a good person and among the best heroes, she’s met so far.

They landed in Chicago and checked into their hotel room as Maria was hacking security cameras to see where Gia was that night. It landed on an alleyway where a break-in was happening to a nearby bank. Maria gave Shay the location and told him that he should get used to the taller buildings and Shay nodded, jumping out of the window. He was surprisingly faster with the taller buildings but he landed on a nearby rooftop to watch the young woman at work. Maria called Shay and told him that he should get down there to help her but he smiled, telling her that she has it. One guy started to get away and cut into an alley with Maria stating that Shay couldn’t possibly hit that guy from where he was. Shay aimed his web shooter and fired a web ball with a note attached to it. It was sent flying and it webbed the guy to a wall with the note resting neatly on his chest. Maria was stunned because Shay had just fired an accurate web-ball three blocks away. He told Maria that he would see her soon and then hung up the phone, watching the young woman pick up the note and look around confused. He jumped off the rooftop shortly thereafter.

He arrived back at the hotel but then something happened. Maria was following a story in which Flask had gone crazy on the Chicago docks and Shay asked if she was sure it was Flask but she asked why it wouldn't be. Shay brought up the fact that Flask hadn’t been seen since The Attack on Las Vegas and why would he be in Chicago. The news on the tv reported that Flask had fled from the scene and Shay sighed, telling Maria that he was going to take a shower. As he went into the bathroom, Maria’s phone rang from an unknown number which confused her. She answered and it was the voice of a young woman on the other end but Maria kept her talking so she could find out who it was. Shay came out of the shower and asked Maria who that was but Maria asked him who Gia Montaño was. He stated that if she has her number, then it is probably the girl. Maria went quiet and stared at her computer screen which made Shay ask if she hacked the girl’s phone but before Maria spoke, Shay told her to move. Maria nodded and left the room. Shay got on the phone and introduced himself as Tarantula, telling her that he was behind the note. He asked her if she would like to help him with a problem on the south side docks tomorrow night and she agreed. The following night, Gia was early but Shay was already there and downing coffee. He threw it into the rooftop trash can which got her attention and he walked over to her. He shook her hand and smiled underneath his mask, explaining to her that he tracked Flask to this warehouse where he was meeting up with a crime boss.

Gia nodded and Shay patted her shoulder then jumped off the rooftop. Immediately, the two heroes were spotted and a fight ensued. Shay bounced around the enemies, webbing people to cars and uppercutting people into walls but Gia kicked a man in the face that was coming up behind Shay. It made him smile because it reminded him of an adventure he had with his friend in New York (check that character wiki for the high-flying, death-defying adventure referenced here! -Creator). Flask got pissed off at the fact there were now two Tarantulas so he targeted the newest one but Gia showcased an interesting new ability. She shot electricity from her hands at Flask which stunned him and Shay laughed, cheering on Gia but narrowly dodged a bullet that hit a car’s gas tank. The car blew up and Flask evaporated into water molecules. Gia started to freak out, thinking they killed Flask but Shay calmed her down and told her that the only way to defeat Flask is by blowing him up and he constitutes in a couple of days. She exhaled and composed herself, then the two swung away as the cops arrived.

On a nearby rooftop, Shay asked her why she got into the game and she told him her origin, about how her dad was a villain and her brother hates her. It hit Shay, so much so that he slowly took off his mask. Gia looked at Shay in shock and he smiled goofily, putting his hand out once again. He introduced himself as Shay Daniels and told her about how he became Tarantula. His long and winding tale about his life came to the finish with the moment that he was sitting down next to her. It was quiet. Shay was scared because he didn’t know if she could handle this life, these powers, and the pain that comes with the costume. All she did was smile and he told her something that helped him. He told her Don’t start nothin’, won’t be nothin’. He felt complete. It came full circle but as he got an alert on his phone from The Slingers, he knew that his work would never be over. He grinned and patted her back but used sleight of hand to slip something into her hoodie pocket. Shay told her that the world can sleep easier with two Tarantulas and he jumped off the rooftop, swinging away. In Gia’s hoodie pocket was a gum wrapper with his phone number for whatever she may need and the first rule of the game. “Watch the hands”.
A few days later, Shay arrived back in Vegas and Maria went back to her respective corner of the country. Once more, Shay went back to his apartment and kicked his feet up to continue rewatching Legend of Korra. He was relaxing after it finally sunk in that there were more heroes and he wasn’t the only one anymore, that he could breathe again. Though, as the opening credits came on, his phone went off and it was Jeff, telling him about an immortal dragon going on a rampage on The Strip. Shay laughed and changed into his costume but stopped as he heard the music from Korra. One foot on the window seal, he stared out at the city lights as the sun went down. He jumped out of it as a coffee cup on his desk with the words, happy to serve you on it. Shay Daniels may grow old, get married, and die but he could die knowing that Tarantula lived on through Gia.

## **Personality**

Shay is a selfless and courageous hero that is driven by the lessons taught to him by everyone he has in his life, both good and bad. Mademoiselle Carver taught him that life is precious and his infamous quote started his moral compass. His brother, Jordan Knight, actually pointed out that even though Shay has his flaws regardless of how or why the spider ate him, it was the best thing for him and that he was going to be the best out of all of them. Though his sense of responsibility for Clark County has waxed and waned over the years such as when The Slingers made Clark County their home, Shay slacked off of his heroics because he believed that the city was fine without him. Though reality checked him because he quickly learned after The Slingers made their home in Vegas, the city needed him more than ever.

Underneath all of these jokes though is someone who has suffered great loss and has gone through much trauma but has never dealt with any of it. Oftentimes, he doesn’t even think about the trauma or the loss but is still weighed down by things such as the death of Jordan and Alexis, the revival of Jordan, and being eaten alive by a member of the Zinchari. Never dealing with this trauma left him feeling empty inside for a lot of the time but this void would be filled, even if it was for a little while, by Veronica but she ended up leaving him as well. Though the reveal that Mademoiselle was his mother did make him see a lot of his life in a different light and even start to value his powers more because he knew the full story. For a long time, Shay believed his powers to be only a curse but over time learned to see them as a gift after experiencing an embrace from the city of Las Vegas.

## **Attributes**

### **Powers**

**Zinchari Physiology**: After being eaten by the Zinchari named T’archzedar, Shay was given a second chance in life but it came with a majority of his DNA being changed to that like the Zinchari. Zanzibar’tegore, the leader of the Zinchari explained that even though these are his current abilities, they are likely to mutate to become more powerful and maybe he might even lose some of them due to certain circumstances but even then, Zanzibar’tegore was speaking hypothetically because this was the first time a hybrid existed.

* **Superhuman Strength**: Shay has shown that he can lift well over 50 tons at his peak. He has grabbed and stopped cars and even caught them in mid-air. He’s strong enough to lift a semi-truck over his head with no effort and has stopped a ceiling from caving in inside a house.
* **Superhuman Speed**: Daniels can move faster than any Olympic athlete, being able to keep up with cars that accelerate past 180 mph. His upper-speed limits are unknown but he can move fast enough that it leaves an afterimage of where he once was.
* **Superhuman Agility**: Shay’s equilibrium, agility, and bodily coordination was enhanced to superhuman levels to the point that he can balance on anything and everything, coupled with his wall-crawling ability makes him one of the most agile heroes in his community, allowing him to perform complex stunts and tricks, some of which are not humanly possible.
* **Superhuman Reflexes**: Shay’s reflexes are so enhanced that he can dodge a fury of bullets, incoming cars, punches, and various attacks with ease. This also works hand-in-hand with his accelerated vision.
* **Superhuman Stamina**: Shay’s advanced musculature generates fewer fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of a normal human. At his peak, he can physically exert himself for at least several hours before the build-up of fatigue toxins in his blood begins to impair him.
* **Superhuman Durability**: Shay's body is harder and more resistant to certain types of physical injury than the body of an ordinary human, though he's far from invulnerable. His bodily tissues are conditioned to allow him to withstand great impact forces and he has resisted impacts, such as falling from a height of many stories and being repeatedly struck by a superhumanly strong opponent, that would severely injure or kill a normal human with little to no injury to himself. He once fell off a tower and effortlessly walked to a hospital, where a doctor said that with broken ribs and massive fractures, it was amazing that he could even stand up.
* **Heightened Vision or Accelerated Vision**: Shay's visual acuity is considerably beyond that of a normal human. He can see objects at much greater distances, with perfect clarity, relative to an ordinary human and possesses this same level of clarity at night, enabling him to see in near-complete darkness. What appears as a blur to most people, he can see perfectly. His eyesight mutated further and he eventually learned that he can see the electromagnetic spectrum.
	+ **Pheromone Reading/Spider-Sense**: His eyesight can see pheromones that are released into the air. The negative pheromones given off by somebody or in an area automatically alert his brain and force his eyesight into the direction of the negative pheromones. It acts as an early warning system, a Spider-Sense. This gives him a severe headache the closer the danger gets and the more intense the negative pheromones. A not-so-subtle side effect of this is that his eyes turn neon blue. His early warning system gives a distinct noise in his ears whenever it goes off.
* **Desert Heat**: Having only used this ability during times of high emotion, his hands heat up to temperatures ranging between 2200 degrees to 3000 degrees. During this time, his punches leave searing burn prints, and using his talons, he can penetrate a person's skin, burning the white meat underneath it as well as the bone. It had been theorized that this developed out of evolution, his body adapting to having powers in the desert spawned this, or that whatever giant spider ate him, possessed this ability and it simply was just passed onto him. Though unfortunately, it cannot be used on command and when it is used, it is actively killing Shay because it’s not only his hands that heat but his entire body. Thus, heating his organs and his heart.
* **Accelerated Healing Factor**: Shay's genetically-enhanced metabolism/physiology affords him a self-healing ability that lets him regenerate damaged bodily tissues at a highly-accelerated rate. Injuries such as slashes or puncture wounds can heal completely within a matter of a few minutes.
	+ **Longevity**: Shay ages at an extremely slow rate to his peers. Veronica has confirmed this by stating she has had visions of Shay from the future where he is an older man but still looks to be physically in his prime in the year 3005. This does not mean he is invincible because he can still die but it means that if he didn’t die, he would live a very long time.
* **Retractable Talons**: Shay possesses short, retractable talons at the tips of his fingers and toes. The talons are extremely sharp and coupled with their strength, they are said to be as durable as quartz. They are capable of cutting skin and even killing somebody.
* **Retractable Fangs**: It is unclear when these came about but it was largely assumed that they were granted to him by Zanzibar’tegore after their first encounter. His canine teeth became sharp enough to draw blood but when he tested them before he left, they released a highly potent and fast-acting venom that would shut down the body quickly and painfully which causes paralysis upon immediate injection, ultimately ending in death. The only cure that he and Mademoiselle were able to find was his blood.

### **Abilities**

* **High IQ:** Shay is a highly skilled mechanical engineer, fixing things for people all over Clark County. He had been doing this since he was 10 years old but doesn’t enjoy talking about his intelligence, seeing it as a selfish thing to do. He often creates things and sells them for money which he uses to buy things he needs to be Tarantula.
* **Singing**: A talented singer, a trait inherited from his mother, Shay was in many bands in high school but the one that was and still is the most popular is Guessing Tomorrow. The band still does shows around Clark County but he is very modest about this, saying his singing is horrible. Veronica and The Slingers have described his singing as smokey R&B mixed with a beauty that throws him off whenever he tries to think about it.
* **Adept Combatant**: Despite having no formal training, he wings how he fights using a mixture of all of his abilities to do so. However, over the course of the many years Shay has under his belt as Tarantula, he has gone on to master both his abilities and his combat abilities. He has maximized the grouping of powers and physical combat by way of training with other super-humans that are stronger than him, IE. Prodigy and Evan Edwards.

### **Weaknesses**

* **Optical Photosensitivity**: Due to his heightened vision and how his eyes are more acute than the average human's, he has to wear sunglasses inside and during the day.
* **Sulfur Trioxide**: For some reason when Sulfur Trioxide in a gas form is sprayed on Shay, (depending on the dosage) he will lose his powers for anywhere between 3 hours or an entire day. This was explained by Zanzibar’tegore that which is the primary weakness of the Zinchari, which came from the meteor that killed the dinosaurs.
* **Pheromone Overload**: If too many negative pheromones are in the air, his brain will lose track and effectively blind him as a flash bang would, disorienting his vision for an unspecified amount of time. The longest this has happened was a day.

## **Paraphernalia**

### **Equipment**

* **The Tarantula Suit**: Originally created by Shay and Mademoiselle in order to conceal his identity during his superhero activities, it would under go several changes and modifications. Some being minimal and not worth mentioning to drastic changes that only were meant to combat villains or to stand out. The most recent change was the introduction of Evan Edwards' Unstable Molecules who rebuilt Shay's suit based off of his Chronos 4 Suit.
* **Web-Shooters**: Created by Shay who realized that he needed more than just his powers to help him int he field, his web-shooters are vital to not only him but all Zinchari Avatars across the mutliverse. Shay has even joked about how web-shooters are arguably the most important thing to being Tarantula. Cited in saying, "No webs, organic or homemade, no Tarantula."

## **Notes**

* Shay was 14 years old when he became Tarantula, making him about 21 now.
* He has stated that he has a deep love for Star Wars, somewhat likes Star Trek and is a fan of Lord Of The Rings.
* He has only seen two Harry Potter movies.
* Shay is right-handed.
* The inspiration for the first suit he used to wear came by Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker. He liked the idea of a biker jacket from Hulk Hogan but got it in red and black, then wore black jeans and boots to match like Undertaker would.
* Even though he lives in Las Vegas, he has been a lifelong Brooklyn Nets fan.
* Canonilly, the first villain Shay fought during his early years as Tarantula was Flask.
* Tombstone has a lot of respect for Shay, stating that if Shay was a supervillain, he would be his right hand man.
* Shay typically wears a backpack with all of his clothes in it so that he can change on the fly. It comes in handy. He still does this well into adulthood.
* His band, Guessing Tomorrow has mainly toured in Nevada but the band broke up recently due to the attack on The Strip.
* Hornet has jokingly stated that Tombstone is Shay’s archenemy.
* He’s told Hornet and Prodigy that his favorite thing to do outside of being Tarantula, is to stare at the desert with a cold drink and listen to the music from his childhood.
* He considers all of The Slingers to be his best friends and even though he quit and they moved, he still talks to them almost everyday. Since they returned, Shay has gained an even closer bond to them.
* Shay’s new suit has the same color scheme as that of the Zinchari flag, he did it out of respect for his culture.
* Shay’s full name, Shay J. Daniels, has the same initials of Steve J. Dikto, artist for the original Spider-Man comics. Stay strong, True Believers! - Creator
* Shay and Veronica have a very complicated relationship. He was her first love and vice versa, even though they only went on a couple of dates. Veronica has stated to Jackson that if she could do it over again, she would but change the fact that she left him right when he joined The Defenders. They keep in contact but apparently the Nine Realms and the other dimensions have no cell service.
* Shay has stated that he has spent a total of one grand on sunglasses.
* Shay named all of his suits after songs and/or bands that he throughly enjoys.
	+ His original suit is called Like A Stone which was the first song Guessing Tomorrow ever played.
	+ The second suit he used for a few months is called Obstacle I from Interpol because when he threw together this suit, he heard his brother downstairs playing Guitar Hero: World Tour, specifically this song.
	+ His first body suit was named AKA M80 The Wolf by Portugal, The Man because it was the song that Veronica had on a loop in her car from their date earlier that day.
* Shay has kept a list of people that know his secret identity and the list includes: Mademoiselle Carver, Alexis May, Guy James, Miguel McClain, Emuanel McClain (no relation), Veronica Meyers, Charles Thomas, Jackson Pierce, Jordan Knight, Jennifer Daniels, Patrick Knight, Nubia Jefferson, Maria Stark, Alonzo Harris (Tombstone), Zanzibar’Tegore, T’archzedar, Jacob Zana, Jenna Zana and Morlun.
* The nickname “Space Cowboy” was largely used by Alexis when they were together and later, Veronica who would call him that once but it didn’t feel right so she stuck to “T” after finding out his secret.
* Shay has been known to wear a pair of black Nike Air Max shoes. He has had the same pair since he first got his powers and doesn’t own any other shoes. He even has worn them over his feet while in costume, Hornet described it as his signature style.