Deep scars

Harper was terrified!

One moment, he was watching the two ladies fight in the ring, the next he felt a massive claw wrap around his mouth from behind him and hurt the two ladies sitting at either of his sides before pulling him away into the bushes. Whatever had him in its clutches was hideous… And scary. She shambled like a buzzard with him in her arms, looking around and skulking while she had him tied up with the lasso of truth she stole from Wonder Woman. Sneaking and avoiding amazons passing by the road it took, the harpy found a secluded place and dropped Harper to the ground while looking him over to make sure the lasso had him bound.

“HE-“

Clutching his mouth before he could scream for help, the monster gave a crooked smile, clutching the lasso with her free hand and spreading her wings to obscure the two from being spotted. Keeping him from moving or escaping, she tilted his face back and forth to get a better look at him.

“Disgusting little parasite. Our queen questioned your two elders but did not see fit to do the same with you.” Sneering, the harpy wrapped a length of the lasso around her talon. “She was WEAK not to do so. But I’M not weak. The lasso does not just demand the truth, it can reveal it, SHARE it. I intend to learn your secrets. You will tell me WHY you are here and what you have planned for my people!”

Giving the lasso a pull, the golden rope glowed a shining luster, and both Harper and Aello sat motionless as she delved into the child’s mind. Her frown turning to a grin as she read his memories. Chuckling a raspy laugh as she found Harper crying when she gave the rope slack. “So… It would seem the women of Men’s world have more sense than I gave them credit for. When your father is dead, perhaps I’ll go looking for your mother to tell…”

Harper bit down at the skin between Aello’s thumb and finger, making the harpy cry out in pain with a screech from her jagged-toothed maw and look to the bite mark on her palm.

“YOU FILTHY LITTLE URCHIN! YOU DARE BITE YOUR SUPERIOR?!” Aello let go of the rope to bring her arm back in preparation to give the child a backhand. What happened instead was a strike to her face so intense, a tooth came loose, and the harpy tumbled back to collide with a wall.

Getting up to her pinions, Aello looked up, clutching at her bleeding lip by her talon to find her princess Diana making a defensive stance with her fists ready, along with Nubia holding the boy in her arms and undoing the lasso of truth. Looking over her shoulder to make sure the boy was unharmed and to see the rest of her amazon sisters arrive in the alley to provide aid, Diana was furious.

“Have you become so cowardly, my sister, that you feel threatened by a CHILD?”

Standing to all fours like some cornered animal, Aello hissed as blood still dripped from her lip, her glassy eyes boring into Diana’s as her wings still stood spread and the collar of black greasy feathers around her outstretched neck and shoulders fluffed out to make her look more intimidating.

“Look at you all, coddling that little creature as if its life was more important then your own, he’s made you all weak… Soft! I am what we SHOULD be; there is TRUE beauty in hatred my sisters, it is not too late for you, you too can become an agent of Athena herself. To become an agent of just…”

“MONSTER!” Screamed Nubia, holding Harper close for his safety while the rest of the amazons joined Diana in defense of the child, bringing their shields and spears to bear while the others at the back recoiled at the sight of their former general. Handing Harper over to one of her sisters, Nubia immediately pulled free a sword from one of her sister’s scabbards and attacked. Her eyes wild with rage as she lunged at her former sister at arms, her blade parried by the monster’s claws again and again as she attacked.

“YOU WOULD HARM A CHILD? A CHILD?! HAVE YOU NO SHAME? HAVE YOU NO HONOUR?! MONSTER! YOU ARE NO LONGER ONE OF MY SISTERS! HOW HAVE I NEVER SEEN THIS OF YOU? THE TRUE YOU WHO WOULD YOU DO THIS? ANSWER ME!”

“ENOUGH! NONE OF YOU ARE WORTHY OF THIS GIFT!” Roared Aello, taking a sweeping slash of her claws across Nubia’s waist, carving grooves into the leather armor but not deep enough to draw blood. Seeing herself surrounded and the rest of the amazons looking to join their general in driving her out, Aello gave a scream that had the amazons step back before the harpy scurried up the wall and took flight with a flap of her wings. Joining much to the horror of the other amazons on the ground MORE harpies who circled overhead like buzzards and made their way back to the woods outside the city.

“The men are being targeted by our afflicted.” Declared Diana, turning to face her sisters who kept their guard up and kept Harper safe. “We must find and protect them, see to my mother and to Alexa, Harper’s father and grandfather are with them.”

Giving a salute and stamp of their spears to the ground, the amazons marched their way out of the alley, leaving Nubia to drop her sword unceremoniously to the ground and bend at the knee to pull the still crying child into her embrace. The mocha skinned warrior was beside herself, her eyes still in shock as she quietly shushed the boy, instinctively cradling him in her arms to calm him as she whispered he would be safe. Gathering the lasso and clipping it to the hip of her belt, Diana approached the two, finding Nubia flinch when Diana brought a hand to her shoulder, and another to the boy’s.

“Are you alright Harper?” Looking up with tears still in his eyes, Harper slowly nodded. “And you Boston?”

The name confused the woman as she looked up to Diana. “Boston? I am Nubia, sister.”

Confused, Diana inspected her sister’s behaviour, finding the ghost was no longer in possession of her. Seeing how shaken she had become, Diana looked down at the lasso and back to the two in front of her. “Nubia, what did you see?”

Looking down to the lasso, Nubia pulled a length of it free and offered it to Harper, the boy looking down at the rope anxiously before Diana and Nubia gestured he would not be harmed. Clutching the lasso, Diana and Nubia clutched their hands over the rope along with him. The series if visions and images that filled their minds made Diana gasp. What she saw was through the eyes of a child hiding under the kitchen table, bearing witness to his father and mother yelling. The woman fiery in her pointing back at the man as she held a duffle bag in her arm and laughed before storming out and slamming the door behind her. The boy did not understand the words she used… But Diana did. As did Nubia.

Olivia, Harper’s mother and Gary’s wife had grown bored of the man, proclaiming she had been cheating on him behind his back, laughing that he had never known, that he never suspected. She declared she wanted nothing more to do with him and left him to pursue her own desires. The vision ending when Gary fell to his knees and turned around in shock to find his son had seen everything.

Letting go of the lasso, Nubia clutched at Harper more tightly, the boy whimpering in her arms as he was **** to relive the memory again. Embracing the two and holding the boy close, Diana joined her sister in consoling the boy’s hidden pain. Hearing his cries dull to a silent whimper, sniffling as he buried his face in Nubia’s shoulder. The two women looking more and more beautiful by the second as their compassion became more evident. Their skin becoming silk smooth and perfect, their eyes vibrant and full of life, their hair flowing longer as their bodies became more and more perfect.

Pulling away and opening her eyes, Diana looked down to Harper with a warm look of understanding, wiping a tear from his eye, then looking up to the skies and back to Harper.

“Let’s go find your father!”