Guest: Of course! It was either Dionysus or Hestia (goddess of hearth, home and family, among others). The only reason why I didn't go for Hestia was a critical action that plot-wise couldn't happen if he was Hestia's champion. But I also immensely enjoy the humor behind Mick being the champion of the god of alcohol. Thanks for the review!
Crete is a beautiful island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. The sun shone brightly on the blue waves that collided with the golden beaches. The trees waved gently in the wind and the Legends could not help but feel like they had entered this picture-perfect landscape that could rival Aruba's, where they could spend some time vacationing.
Unfortunately, they did not come to go to the beach and get a tan. They had come for the next Greek mythological monster that was terrorizing the peaceful town of Matala. This town was located in the center south of the island and overlooked the Bay of Mesara, a rather nice tourist destination.
In 671, however, the town may not have been such a big amount of tourism. The people were left alone to enjoy the natural beauty of their environment. Matala itself was a small village, after all, and easily sustained itself from fishing and trading with many merchants from all over the island and from across the seas. The land was rocky and not perfect for farming, though they tried. With the coming of a Fugitive, the town would have been decimated if it weren't for the Legends stepping in.
The beach was beautiful and deserted, and there were no tall buildings anywhere. Matala was bustling – the Legends had arrived before the Fugitives had. It could be plural today, as Nate suspected they would be up against the Furies.
The Legends were dressed for battle and avoided this town altogether. Instead of staying at the beach, they walked away from the ocean, towards the rolling hills of Crete. If the Furies were coming from anywhere, Nate reasoned, they weren't going to come from the seas.
And so, they walked to the hills and waited.
"Where are they?" Mick asked rather impatiently.
"They'll be here," Nate said, hoping to soothe Mick's passion for arson a little longer. The last thing they wanted to do was to accidentally burn the sparse and dry vegetation of Crete to the ground. Even with a clear sky, they could not see it.
"I'll go look for them," Wally suggested. Before he sped off, however, he looked at his captain as if to ask for permission. Sara nodded and Wally ran away. Not even three seconds later, he was back, creating a giant dust cloud.
"They're coming our way," Wally confirmed. The wait was coming to an end.
Their screeching could be heard even from this far. The Legends turned their heads to the left, to the horrific sounds. Three little dots in the air slowly grew bigger. Their Fugitives had found them. Nate's face widened in realization when they were close enough to recognize distinct features.
"I was wrong," he said in a shocked manner. "They're not Furies."
"Then what are they?" Mick asked, aiming his gun at the Fugitives in anticipation of their arrival.
"Harpies," Nate responded, a frown on his face. "They are vicious, cruel, and violent."
"Why can't we just come across Pegasus or something?" Ray asked in desperation. Where are all the good Greek Fugitives? Why didn't they ever find those? Though, thinking back to the murderous unicorn, the Pegasus may as well be just as bloodthirsty as its horned counterpart.
"How do we know he's not evil, too?" Nate wondered out loud in response to Ray's question. This prompted some of the Legends, such as Zari, Mick, and Nora, to give him weird looks.
"He?" Zari asked.
"What?" Nate replied, turning his head to her. "Pegasus is a boy."
"Guys…" Sara said, her eyes on the sky. This was not the best time to discuss the gender of winged horses – not when the Harpies were flying closer and closer towards the Legends.
After the Chimera, they had thought they'd understand all of the crazy creatures Greek mythology contained. Somehow, it always became worse with the next Fugitive. The Caledonian Boar had been thrice as big as a normal boar; the Minotaur had human legs while all other limbs and the head were from a bull; the Chimera managed to combine a lion with a viper and a goat. But the Harpies were something else.
These three creatures were a little bigger than humans were. Their wings spanned four yards in total and they had a feathered tail, as well as typical bird legs and paws and claws. The other half – the main body and head – was human. The bird elements disappeared above their belly button. The three female birds displayed all elements that could be expected from a woman, including a human face, long straight auburn hair, and breasts. You'd think that last part would be the most distracting feature, but the bird-like elements were more eye-catching than the female features. On top of that, they screeched so loudly that the Legends had to cover their ears when they were close.
"Look, sisters!" the middle Harpy shouted. "More toys!" They flew in circles above their prey, ready to attack at any moment.
"They talk?" Wally said, completely bewildered. He had spoken loud enough for the Harpies to hear him. The three reacted as if Wally had offended them with his statement – and he had.
"They talk? Who do they think we are!" the middle one, named Aello, yelled. Her sisters nodded in agreement.
"Yes, we talk!" The Harpy on the left, Ocypete, shouted.
"How impolite," Celaeno, the Harpy on the right, commented and she shook her head disapprovingly.
"This is so weird," Zari then said. Greek mythological creatures, that was all good and well, but when they started to talk and comment on how impolite they were for not assuming they were capable of talking in the first place, that was crazy, plain and simple.
"True," Nate said. "I'm going to try something." He stepped away from the group, abandoning the safety in numbers to single himself out.
"Nate, wait—" Sara began. She wanted to grab him to pull him closer to the group again, but she could not reach him. He only took a couple of steps to the sides, but it had the intended effect: the Harpies now watched him with a hungry look in their eyes.
"Oh, Harpies, why are you doing this?" Nate shouted in the hopes that the Harpies would answer.
"Is the human talking to us?" Celaeno asked her sisters in disbelief. They were just as shocked as she was – humans usually did not talk back.
"Yes, he is," Nate responded. He straightened his back as he kept his eyes on the sky, a determined look on his face and with good hope that this little plan of his would work.
"I know who you are," Nate then said. "I know you are tasked with collecting and carrying people to where they must be. You carry those who murder their relatives to the Furies so they can be brought to justice. You steal the evil people from this world and bring them to Tartarus. You steal the food from King Phineus' plate – from under his nose – as a punishment for his bad deeds."
Nate quickly glanced at the group. Amaya shot him a confused look and other Legends were surprised to hear the last item. Nate had expected that his friends would have no idea what he was talking about. Maybe they should have read more Greek myths. This way, they would have been better prepared for this situation.
"Why are creatures, such as yourselves, concerned with these people?" Nate asked. "They are not evil nor have they ever done anything wrong." For the sake of his argument, Nate hoped he was right.
"They are human," Aello emphasized the last word.
"They will eventually do something wrong," Celaeno added.
"We will take them to Tartarus in advance," Ocypete concluded.
Nate frowned at them. "But you don't do that." The Harpies don't usually take people to prevent evil deeds from happening. Their jobs description doesn't include terrorizing and killing innocent people. On the other hand, this was the first creature Nate could ask why they were doing what they were doing. It was best to hear them out.
"Says who?" Ocypete asked in an accusatory tone.
"Classic writers got it all wrong," Aello said as she shook her head in disgust. The movement knocked her off-balance for only a second.
"Periboea understands us," Celaeno nodded with the utmost confidence.
Now, that piece of information was interesting. "You know the Giantess?" Nate asked them.
"She brought us here!" Aello exclaimed with glee.
"She told us all about the sinners she had met in Tartarus," Celaeno said.
Ocypete tilted her head and stared at the Legends. "You have done a lot of bad things yourselves."
"No, Nate quickly said, "no, we did not." He shook his head in the hopes of distracting the Harpies from the fact that half of their crew have broken laws in the past. Yet this pleading was in vain.
"We see the evil you have done," Celaeno said. She and her sisters circled down towards the Legends.
"We know what you desperately try to hide from us," Aello said.
"You are no better than those humans are," Ocypete finished. From that moment onwards, all the Legends would hear from the Harpies were their screeches and screaming.
"Uh-oh," Nate said. His conversation hadn't had the wished effect; they weren't going to pass up on free violence now it was presented to them. At least Nate had tried to talk them out of it.
"Get ready," Sara said, pulling out her batons. The other Legends mentally prepared for the fight against the Harpies and scattered, so they would not be one big target for the three killing machines. Nate turned his skin to Steel and remained on that spot – if he was not mistaken, Celaeno seemed to still be specifically eyeing him.
The Harpies descended separately, each choosing different groups to target. They screeched during the descent to deafen them, which could make the first blow more effective. Celaeno did not, in fact, target Nate, but went after Zari and Sara instead. Ocypete did plan on tearing Nate to shreds, as well as Amaya and Mick. The last Harpy, Aello, chose to fight Wally, Ray, and Nora.
Wally was already circling around when Aello came down, while Ray lifted off to meet Aello in the middle. Nora would've done something, too, if it weren't for Ray seeking a confrontation with the Harpy and flying in Nora's way – she did not want to accidentally shoot him down. Aello and Ray did not collide into one another, but Ray shot his energy blasts at her from a close range and tried punching her as well. However, Aello was rather nimble and dodged most of the blast and punches. Unlike the Atom, she did manage to injure her opponent. Her sharp claws tare down the suit's metal casing and damaged it enough to disable most of the suit's functions, including the thrusters that kept Ray in the air.
Before Ray fully understood what was happening, he already plummeted to the Earth with little energy to save himself. Nora's quick thinking and use of telekinesis saved his life; as she reached her hands to the sky to catch him. It had not been enough to carry him, but it was enough to slow him down. Ray didn't land softly, but at least she broke his fall.
While all of that was going on, Wally had been running around, speeding and gathering kinetic energy. He stopped and threw that energy, in the form of a lightning bolt, towards Aello. This attack was so quick that the Harpy could not evade it. It hit her in her chest and stunned Aello, who crashed into the earth. Her claws twitched from the energy running through her – she was still alive, but she wouldn't be an immediate threat anymore.
Whereas Aello had the bad luck to have to face a speedster, Celaeno believed to have the easier targets: two female humans, who may be easy to beat. That mindset quickly changed when one of these humans called on the winds and made her descent a hundred times harder. The winds threw her around, pushed her higher to the sky, may even throw her on the ground if she wasn't careful.
Celaeno eventually made it the ground, about twenty yards away from her targets. She had made it, but the fighting the winds had exhausted her and Sara was running towards her already. Celaeno was barely able to fly at the appropriate height to fight the relentless assassin, who landed more blows on her than Celaeno could deal. Zari told the wind to still keep Celaeno off-balance, and this deadly combo soon made the Harpy surrender to the Legends, unhappy with the fight's results.
In the meantime, Ocypete cautiously descended, considering Mick was trying his best to 'burn the chicken woman'. The nimble Harpy evaded the flames and managed to get a hold of the gun herself. Her claws left major gashes in Mick's hand and she threw the gun far away. Still, with Mick's gun gone, there were two other threats Ocypete had to face: the steel Nate and Amaya, who had called on the spirit of the lion for more strength. Two formidable opponents who were ready for an attack.
Yet, Ocypete had seen how her sisters fared in combat. In hindsight, splitting up had not been the best idea. They should have stayed together. They covered more ground, but they were more vulnerable, too. And she soon noticed that they were extremely vulnerable fighting against these humans, who was abilities that injured them greatly.
Nate and Amaya had expected Ocypete to attack. Instead, she made a risky maneuver, slowly ascending again and allowing them to fight somewhere else. She came down again and violently grabbed a hold of Amaya – those claws dug deep into Amaya's shoulders – before flying away at break-neck speed.
It happened so quickly. There was nothing Nate nor Mick could do while Ocypete fled at a considerable speed with Amaya in her claws, all while the other Legends were only finishing the fight with their Harpies.
"Amaya!" Nate ran after them, knowing full well he could not catch up to them. They disappeared out of sight.
The fights were concluded; the Harpies Aello and Celaeno admitted defeat and were tied up. Now they had to look for Amaya.
They knew the general direction in which Ocypete had carried Amaya. They all generally looked in the sky, hoping the Harpy would circle back, hoping to catch a dark dot in the distance. Still, Amaya was strong and would not give up trying to break free. She had her totem; there is no way she would not win form the Harpy. If Amaya had truly fought Ocypete, where were the screeches? Why didn't she alert them to her current position?
Wally sped across the area at a slower speed than usual, just to make sure he wouldn't accidentally pass her and not notice. He did not stop to tell the others he had not seen her yet – he would point them in the right direction eventually. This did not mean that the Legends themselves did not do anything but stare; they, too, were walking and running around to look for Amaya in the more immediate surroundings.
Nate grew frustrated with every minute – the vegetation did not go any higher than at most their knees. How hard was it to find a person in these plains?
At long last, after what felt like hours under the harsh sun with limited bottles of water (Wally did not always run back to the Waverider to grab some water for the Legends), Nate saw her.
He did not know what happened. He could only guess how she ended up in that position. But she had freed herself from the Harpy – or Ocypete dropped her – and she must have made the fall. The angels at which her arms were laying, the unblinking eyes. It was so unfair to see the totem did not have so much as a scratch and lay fifteen feet away from Amaya, who did not move.
I should call the others.
But he couldn't. Amaya needed help; maybe there was still something he could do.
Nate acted out of denial. He approached her and placed two fingers on her wrist, trying to find a pulse that was now impossible to find. He put his fingers on a different position; maybe he placed them at the wrong spot, that could be the reason why he did not find anything. He repeated the process at least three times before he gave up looking for a pulse.
No. No, this couldn't be happening. He performed CPR on her. One voice in his head said that it was too late, that she's dead – another voice was convinced Nate could still bring her back. She couldn't die here – she needed to go back home.
Wally arrived on the scene after he had warned the other Legends of Amaya's location. He didn't slow down nor stop the CPR. He did not allow himself to rest – if he gave up, it was over (it's already over). Amaya had to make it through. She had to.
"Nate?" Wally must have seen the opened eyes and how they didn't close anymore. Nate didn't like to look at it.
She can't die now. She has a future. She has a husband to return to, she has to have her daughter, a granddaughter, we can't let her die here, she needs to return to Zambesi. She needs to back.
"Nate." He slightly raised his voice and placed a hand on Nate's shoulder. "She's gone."
"No," Nate responded, still in denial. She can't be dead. She can't be, she shouldn't be. She's gonna make it any minute. It'll be fine.
But it wasn't fine.
Ray arrived on the scene as well and he had to help Wally to pull Nate away from her body to stop him from wasting his energy. They didn't let go, not even when Nate tried to get back to Amaya. It would work out, he just needed to do it a little longer.
Then he caught a glimpse of Ray. There were tears in his eye. This image prompted Nate to stop struggling.
"She's gone, Nate," Ray said, "I'm so sorry, but she didn't make it."
Just like that, Nate broke down. The urge to save Amaya melted away and exhausting him hard. He couldn't stop the tears from streaming down his face. He clung to his friends and cried on their shoulders while the other Legends arrived and found the corpse.