Chaper Seven: Hell Hath No Fury


We are all parasites; we humans, the greatest. ~Martin H. Fischer


Harpy was in the middle of a fight with some mobster goons when she received a call from Batman.

"What is it?" she asked as she dodged a punch.

"I have evidence that an Amazon was involved in stealing chemicals from Gotham Biotech." Batman stated over the com-link. Harpy blasted a gun out of the thugs hands.

"No." she stated.

"I haven't even asked you yet." Batman responded dryly. Harpy dodged a crowbar.

"I'm busy putting your training to good use. Ask Hawkgirl to go investigate." Harpy replied as she punched a guy in the face.


A while later, Harpy was responded to an alarm at the Gem Depository. When she arrived she found Wonder Woman with a collapsed Superman. Flash and Green Lantern arrived moments later.

"Hey, what's wrong with the big guy?" Flash asked.

"I found him like this after meeting Aresia." Wonder Woman answered."Who?" Flash questioned.

"One of my Amazon sisters." Diana explained.

"I thought they never let them off the island." Flash commented.

"Where is she?" Harpy inquired.

"She got away. You track her down while I take Superman to the Watchtower." Wonder Woman said before flying off with Superman in her arms.

"So what now?" Flash asked.

"We look for clues." Green Lantern responded as he crouched down and began scanning the area with his ring.

"What? Like fingerprints, matchbooks, self addressed stamped envelopes." Flash suggested.

"No, like this." Green Lantern's scan had picked up an unknown substance. G.L rubbed his finger through it so he could examine it more closely.

Flash got closer so he could look. Harpy moved further away. "I have an idea. Let's not go around touching mysterious substances when we don't know what it was that made our teammate sick." she said.

"Superman's an alien. I mean kryptonite doesn't affect us? Why would this?" Flash reasoned.

"Because "this" is an illness, not a radioactive space rock. For all we know it could turn people into flesh craving monsters!" Harpy snapped.

Flash stared at her for a moment then grinned. "Zombie movie marathon on the horror movie channel?" he inquired.

"I needed something to do during monitor duty." Harpy muttered.

"Zombies aside, Harpy does have a point. We should get this stuff analyzed." Lantern stated.

"And you should wash your hands… with bleach and…" Harpy's attention turned to her other teammate, who was starting to sway on his feet, "Are you alright?" she asked.

"Now that you mention it, I really don't feel so… ugh." Flash collapsed. Harpy caught him before he hit the ground. She cursed under her breath.

"You better get him to the watchtower." she told John. He nodded before taking off with the speedster.

Harpy ran a hand through her hair. "What is going on here?" she said, thinking aloud.


Soon the illness had spread throughout the entire city. Harpy was doing her best to help by getting people out of crashed cars and burning buildings. While doing this she noticed something interesting, only males were being effected by the pathogen.

Harpy wasn't the only hero out in Gotham that night. A couple of times she had spotted Batgirl, Robin, and Nightwing.

Unfortunately despite the psychical conditioning he had received from Batman's training, it wasn't long before Robin had succumb to the illness.

Harpy was cradling the boy wonder in her arms when she was joined by Nightwing.

"It got to him too?" he asked.

"Looks like it." Harpy answered. She noticed that Nightwing was sweating and keeping himself up by leaning against a wall.

"You're not looking to good yourself." she commented.

"I'm fine." Nightwing mumbled before collapsing.

Batgirl showed up and rushed to Nightwing's side. "Can you contact Batman?" she asked.

"Yeah, give me a moment." Harpy responded as she shifted Robin's position in her arms so she could activate her communicator. "Harpy to Batman, come in Batman."

She got an answer, it just wasn't who she was hoping for. "This is J'onn. Batman as been affected by the poison."

"Have you made any breakthroughs combating it?" Harpy asked.

"The only thing I've found so far is that it's an allergen, not a virus." the Martian, answered.

Harpy resisted the urge to curse. "Alright, thanks J'onn. Harpy out." She turned to Batgirl. "Batman's got it to." she informed her.

Batgirl hesitated for a moment. "We better get these two to the Bat cave then." she stated.

"Lead the way." Harpy replied.


At the Bat cave, Harpy and Batgirl had put Nightwing, Robin, and, after finding that the butler had been affected as well, Alfred, into hospital like beds.

"It's says something, that I'm not even surprised that he has all of this medical equipment." Harpy muttered.

"Look kid. I've got to get out of here and track down the psycho responsible for this. Will you be able to take care of them until an antidote can be found?" she asked Batgirl. Batgirl looked hesitant, but nodded anyway. Harpy sighed and pulled out a cell-phone.

"Hey, this thing get's pretty good reception in here." she thought as she dialed a number.

"Who are you calling?" Batgirl inquired.

"My sister. She's a Doctor. It doesn't feel right, leaving you to take care of them by yourself, so I'm going to see if she'll be willing to talk you through this." Harpy explained.

Batgirl frowned. "Won't she be busy with the epidemic?" she questioned.

Harpy shook her head. "She's not anywhere near Gotham right now, so no." The phone was ringing.

"How did you hurt yourself this time?" a feminine voice asked as soon as the ringing stopped.

Harpy twitched in annoyance. "I'm not hurt, Lily. There's an epidemic in Gotham. Some kind of allergen that only affects males. I've got a girl here who I'm going to have to leave alone while I go find the person responsible, which means she'll have to look after her friends on her own and I was wondering if you would talk to her." she explained.

"Alright, I'll do it. But you'll owe me." Lily stated. Harpy handed the phone to Batgirl, then left.


Harpy found Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl trying to stop a helicopter from crashing to the street. Much to everyone's surprise the chopper was stopped by Star Sapphire who used her powers to set it on the roof of a building.

Hawkgirl, Harpy, and Wonder Woman got into defensive stances as soon as they landed.

"Relax. I'm not here to fight." Star Sapphire said. "In fact I came to warn you." she continued.

"About Aresia?" Diana questioned.

"She's crazy. She wants to wipe out all the men in the world." Star Sapphire explained.

"We noticed." Hawkgirl commented.

"Tell us where she is." Harpy demanded.

"She and Tsukuri are at the air base. But it may already be to late." Star Sapphire answered.


One the way to the airbase Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl told Harpy why Aresia was out to destroy all men. Apparently, She was born in "Man's world". When she was just a girl, she and her mother were forced to flee their homeland from war. On a refugee ship, she was attacked by pirates, who also sank the ship. After drifting aimlessly for days, she washed ashore on Themyscira, where she taken in by Queen Hippolyta, and raised as an Amazon.

"First a war, then pirates, then she's raised to hate all men. I'm surprised she didn't act sooner." Harpy commented.


They arrived hanger where Aresia and Tsukuri had obtained a stealth bomber, just in time to here Aresia say "Good, then there's just one unfinished matter to attend to."

"And it will remain unfinished!" Diana exclaimed as she, Star Sapphire, Hawkgirl, and Harpy flew into the hanger. Diana punched Tsukuri in the jaw, sending her crashing into some metal barrels.

Hawkgirl attacked Aresia with her mace. The blond used her golden bracelets to block the blow, but was still sent reeling.

"What took you?" Aresia asked as she got up. Star Sapphire formed a barrier between Aresia and the female members of the league.

"Forgive our little deception." Star Sapphire said as she joined Aresia.

"Diana, I had Star Sapphire bring you here so I could offer you one last chance to join our noble cause." Aresia explained.

"Noble cause? You think the eliminating the entire human race is a "Noble cause"?" Harpy questioned, while resisting the urge to laugh.

"Not the entire human race just the men." Aresia explained. "Man's world is corrupt and"

"You're so stupid!" Harpy interrupted. "Men are not what's with humanity. It is not men who instill corruption and greed into society. No the problem with humanity is humanity."

"You're wrong. There are no men on Themyscira and it is a paradise." Aresia argued.

Harpy had a malevolent look on her face. "Really now, a paradise. Is there no jealousy? No wanting for anything? No suspicion? No competition?" Aresia didn't answer.

"You would stand against us, your sisters?" she asked instead.

"Yes." Diana answered.

"My sisters aren't here." Harpy thought.

"A pity." as soon as Aresia said this, Star Sapphire took down her barrier and began attacking with laser bolts, which Diana deflected. Tsukuri engaged Hawkgirl. Leaving Harpy to deal with Aresia. Harpy sent fireballs at Aresia, which the blond blocked using her bracelets. Seeing that her current tactic was going no where, Harpy aimed one of her fireballs at a nearby barrel. The resulting explosion knocked Aresia to the floor and disoriented her long enough for Harpy to knock her out. At this point Hawkgirl, and Wonder Woman had incapacitated their respective foes, and, after making sure that there foes were sufficiently restrained, the three began looking for something that would help J'onn find a cure.

While searching they found the Amazon Queen tied up in the plane. They also found a sample of the allergen which Hawkgirl immediately took to the watchtower.

Before Aresia was taken away by the police Hippolyta that she didn't survive the shipwreck on her own; she was rescued by the ship's captain, who brought her to Themyscira before dying of heart failure. Both of them were found by Hippolyta, who buried the captain in an unmarked grave near the beach. The only man buried on Themyscira.

"Why didn't you ever tell me about this?" Aresia demanded.

"I didn't think it was important. I didn't think he was important." The Queen answered.

"Maybe you were wrong." Harpy responded as Aresia was led away.


Before the Queen returned to her island she had a short conversation with Harpy.

"After you sent Hades back to Tartarus, there was something I meant to ask you. But I never got the chance." Hippolyta stated.

"What is it?" Harpy asked.

"Hades brought up your mother, Dahlia, you told him that she died because of her own idiocy. What did you mean by that?" the Queen inquired.

Harpy didn't answer instead she asked her own question. "Why do you care?"

"Dahlia was a friend of mine, before I was given the duty of guarding the gateway to the underworld." Hippolyta explained.

"Twenty-six years ago, my mother fell in love with the man that was to become my father. My father did not return her affection, but instead saw an opportunity. Blinded by her devotion my mother refused to see any of my father's faults. It became apparent that my father had betrayed more people than just my mother, and when those people came for revenge, my mother protected my father, and died." Harpy explained.

"And your father?" Hippolyta pressed.

"What he got was worse than death." Harpy stated.


The next day, Harpy caught up with Batgirl when she was on patrol.

"Can I have my phone back?" she requested.

"I left it in the Bat cave, sorry." Batgirl apologized.

Harpy sighed and turned to leave. Batgirl stopped her. "Wait!" she shouted. Harpy turned to look at her.

"Um, thanks for letting to talk to your sister. She was a big help." she stated.

"You're welcome." Harpy said before flying off.


In the Bat cave. Harpy found Batman working on the computer.

"Batgirl said she left my phone here." Harpy said. Batman pointed to where the phone was sitting without looking away from the screen. Harpy picked it up.

"Great thanks. I'll just be going then." Harpy turned to leave, but Batman's voice stopped her.

"Does Lily know?"

"She's knows I'm Harpy. But if she has any information on the identity of Batman, then she got it on her own." Harpy answered.

"Why did you call her? There isn't much a Doctor can do over the phone." Batman said.

Harpy looked at him and shrugged. "It was more about keeping her calm. People can panic if there friends are in trouble and there's nothing they can do, and I couldn't stay with her so I gave her someone to talk to." she explained.

Batman nodded. Harpy left the cave.


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