Hartley Rathaway (Arrowverse)

Hartley Rathaway is an expert in psychoacoustics and sonic vibrations who used to work for S.T.A.R. Labs. He was fired by Harrison Wells for trying to stop him from activating the Particle Accelerator, and came back as the Pied Piper seeking revenge, wanting to kill The Flash for believing that Wells replaced him with the new pupil.

History

Pre-Crisis

Wells' Favorite Protege

A child prodigy and the son of the wealthy Rachel and Osgood Rathaway, he was set to claim his family business, Rathaway Industries, but misfortune first struck him after his parents rejected his homosexuality and kicked him out, which led him to met Harrison Wells, who hired him at S.T.A.R. Labs, becoming his mentor and himself becoming the favored protege. Good with his mentor, but condescending towards co-workers, creating very few if any friends, alienating Cisco Ramon for his Star Wars T-shirt and Wells' favor of him.

Losing His Job And Gaining Powers

Realizing the particle accelerator they'd been working on could explode, Wells didn't listen and fired him to avoid interference and blackmailed him to silence. His prediction came to fruition, just like Wells planned, which augmented his hearing to superhuman levels, which also gave him overwhelming pain. He created

Post-Crisis

Hurting a Lover

Years in the past, The Flash used his lightning bolt to hit the Pied Piper's Band of Merry Men during one of the clashes between him and Pied Piper but harmed Roderick Smith, his right-hand, instead of him. Roderick was being held in an energy containment unit in Mercury Labs--it was the only thing keeping him from completely disintegrating as an effect of the shock between Flash's lightning and the vibrational force of his weapon, the result was a thermogenic blast capable of rendering him unstable at a molecular level. That was why Hartley hated Flash so much in this new timeline, but he blamed himself more than anyone for putting the weapon in Roderick's hands.

Reconciling with Team Flash

At the present time, Team Flash swore to solve Roderick's problem so Pied Pier assisted them in defeating Godspeed V, discovering in the clash the way to save Roderick. Among attempts to cure Roderick's condition, Barry realized that he was not only Hartley's right-hand man, but also the love of his life.^[1]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Unique Physiology
- Enhanced Hearing
- Healing
- Sonic Scream
  - Flight

Abilities

Genius Level Intellect
- Tactical Analysis
- Science
  - Physics
- Gadgetry
- Multilingualism: Hartley is fluent in Spanish, French, Latin, and Japanese beyond his native English and one other language.
Deception
Leadership
Thievery

Other Characteristics

Oversensitive Hearing: After the Particle Accelerator explosion, Rathaway didn't become a metahuman but, instead, gained a hypersensitivity to the noise around him, always hearing a high pitched shriek. However, he can also distinguish radio frequencies.
- Technological Reliability: Rathaway developed a pair of hearing aids that allowed him to hear normally, but removing the gear would immediately bring the ringing back, almost incapacitating him from the pain.

Paraphernalia

Weapons

Sonic Gloves: As the Pied Piper, Hartley has a set of dark gloves with green lights that he manipulates like the keys of a flute and can emit sonic waves that are able to break glass or even destroy an entire office building.
- Sound Manipulation

Notes

This version of the character is exclusive to the continuity of the television series The Flash and is an adaptation of Pied Piper. The original character was created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino and first appeared in The Flash #106.
Pied Piper is portrayed by Andy Mientus.