Hartley Rathaway

**Hartley Rathaway**, self-styled as **Pied Piper**, is the son of Rachel and Osgood Rathaway, a former member of the Central City Symphony and a member of The Rouges. After being affected by highly advanced sonic technology and gaining the ability to hear/scream at superhuman levels, he decided to become a villain which made him an enemy of The Flash.

However, after his first encounter with the flash, Hartley became a recruit for Leonard Snart team also known as the Rogues. After his first mission with his team, he decided to give up his life of crime and went into hiding.

## Biography

#### Early life

Hartley was a child prodigy and son to Rachel and Osgood Rathaway. He was set to eventually take over the family business, Rathaway Industries, founded by his father. However, when he came out as gay to his parents, they threw him out and cut off all ties to him.

#### Time as a musician

At some point after his parents disowned him, Hartley became a musician for the Central City Symphony. However, after he gained contact with a highly Advanced Sonic device, he lost the ability to hear and became deaf. He also considered this a benefit for him because he obtained the ability to hear and scream at superhuman levels.

#### Pied Piper

Three years later, Hartley uses his new gained powers to wreak havoc on Central City. The destruction caused attention to the Scarlet Speedster also known as The Flash.

After his defeat by flash, Hartley was recruited to join the Rogues by Leonard Snart.

After his first mission with his team, he decided to give up his life of crime and went into hiding.

## Powers and abilities

### Powers

* **Meta-human physiology:** After Hartley was hit by the sonic tech, this altered his DNA and supercharged his cells, augmenting his physiology to enhance his ears and Vocal Cords.
	+ **Superhuman hearing:** After surviving the explosion, Hartley gained the power of superhuman hearing. It allows him to hear far better than a normal human. He is also able to hear radio waves and distinguish their frequencies.
	+ **Sonic scream:** Hartley is able to emit sonic screams with the same, if not greater, power, intensity and frequency of his gauntlets.

### Abilities

* **Genius-level intellect/Expert tactician:** Hartley is a genius of the highest caliber.
	+ **Computer specialist/Expert computer hacker:** Hartley is a capable computer hacker
	+ **Master engineer:** Hartley is skilled enough in engineering to make a pair of sonic gloves from scratch.

### Weaknesses

* **Deafness:** Because Hartley's hearing is so powerful, he can be overwhelmed by even the most basic sounds. Due to this weakness, he is forced to wear a device in his ear to limit the sounds he hears for the rest of his life.

## Equipment

* **Hearing aids:** Hartley's implanted hearing aids double as smaller sonic devices, capable of emitting bursts of sonic vibrations once removed. However, he needs them in order to stand even the slightest of sounds, and as such removing them is difficult and induces tremendous pain.
* **Sonic gloves:** Hartley possessed a pair of gloves that were able to emit sonic vibrations. At their lowest setting they could shatter glass, while at their highest setting they could bring down an entire office building. The setting of the gloves is not necessarily correlated to their frequency and is more likely to have been in relation with the range or amplitude of the sonic beam. Hartley would have to find the natural frequency for an object to bring it down, each object being of a different natural frequency.

## Appearances

### *The Flash*

#### Season 1

* Sound & the furious
* The Gauntlet
* THAWNE

## Behind the scenes

* In the DC comics, Hartley Rathaway is the supervillain (who was later reformed) known as Pied Piper. In the *New 52* reboot of *The Flash* comics, he was also romantically tied to David Singh.
* Hartley's sound-emitting gloves and his hearing problems coming from an accident (the comic version was born with them) make him similar to the *Batman Beyond* villain Shriek. Comic-verse Pied Piper has the power of music with hypnotic powers and was born deaf, acquiring superhearing from his hearing aids.