Painful Memories

"Hey Beacon, how was the training exercise?" inquired the gate operator as Beacon and his reptilian charge returned to the city sized station that was the base of operations for the Organization. Gila was still wearing an active image inducer so still looked human.

"It was interrupted by a teachable moment I'm afraid. Four villains pretending to be from a costume party came in while we were having lunch. Naturally their presence contaminated how effectively Gila blended in, but it did show her another way to disappear."

The gate operator chuckled," maybe next time you should take her to a science fiction convention so she can practice that?"

"I've asked him to take me to one several times," Gila stated, turning off the voice modifier mid sentence so that the last words were in her normal, raspy voice. "But both he and my instructor keep saying I should familiarize myself with how a dominant culture operates before I can explore a subculture."

"Pity," he said as they went through decontamination. "You'd be a cinch to win the costume contest."

"She has to learn how to function as a normal human before she can pretend to be a human in a costume," Beacon stated as he cast a stern look at both the gate operator and Gila. "She barely passes as a tourist under normal circumstances and her tail would raise questions at a convention that she doesn't know how to answer yet."

"You're her father alright," the operator said with a chuckle as he double checked the decon readouts. "OK, you're clean. Please turn in the modifier and image inducer."

"Gladly," Gila said as she deactivated and removed the watch-like device. Instantly her human guise disappeared to reveal her reptile form. Her clothes remained unchanged save for the tail hole in her pants and the shades designed for a reptilian face. She then took of the voice modifier pendent and handed both over to him. "I like the voice modifier, but the inducer chafes my scales."

The operator chuckled as he cleaned his glasses on the lapel of his uniform. "We often get that complaint with these rentals because they're designed for any humanoid." The devices disappeared into their special containers. "Once you become a full time field agent you get a designer model."

"Anything else you need?" Beacon inquired politely.

"Nope. You're clear to go."

"Thank you Steve. See you later." They exchanged waves and walked out.

Once outside, Gila took some time to bask in the station's artificial afternoon sun. Taking off her jacket to expose as much skin as possible to its light. Outside the protective sphere was the chaos of the space between realities, often referred to as the Inbetween, but inside it looked like a city built to accommodate numerous space faring races. Most of those races needed open spaces for physical and psychological reasons.

"Are you finished?" Beacon asked with amusement after a couple minutes of watching her sunbath.

She opened her eyes and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry Father. I know it's an artificial sun, but I just don't feel at home until I feel it."

"I understand," he said as she slung the jacket over her shoulder and they walked down the steps of the gate building to mingle with the crowd. Despite the Organization's policy of maintaining a low profile, the gate buildings were as busy as any other transport station. There were always resources being imported and exported to and from farms and factories. Which were set up in dimensions where interference wasn't a concern for one reason or another. Not to mention the people coming and going from the various worlds either for business or pleasure.

"Father. You said you would explain your reaction to those people we saw at McDonalds."

"I was hoping you would forget to ask," Beacon replied with a heavy sigh.

Gila often drew strength from her adopted father's casual self control. Seeing him so clearly upset by this subject unnerved her, but she had to know.

"Let's find a seat in the park and I'll tell you," he finally said.

The park, like so many of the features that made the station livable, served multiple functions. It provided a good portion of the station's oxygen, and a scenic retreat from the stresses inherent in almost every city. They found a secluded bench and he began his tale.

"The four we saw were members of a super villain organization in that reality known as the Legion. The two known as Star Sapphire and Evil Star, were once members of a subversive group within this organization, and my closest friends. In fact, it was because of them that I became a member of the Organization."

"You mean they recruited you?"

He gave her an embarrassed smile. "More like an accidental kidnapping, but that is an entirely different story."

"If they were your friends, how did they become part of this group you mentioned?"

"They, and several others, were seduced by Jack, a charismatic leader who secretly wanted to use this organization for inter-dimensional conquest. I'm sad to say that I was also a part of this group."

"You Father?"

"Not one of my proudest moments, but it was educational. He wanted as many smooth talkers on his side as possible, and my friends told him I was one of the best. At the time I had already established myself as a skilled recruiter."

"How did this person convince you to join?"

"The same way I convince people to join the Organization. He offered me something I wanted very badly. Something the Organization couldn't give me without breaking its own laws. Don't ask what it was. I found out later that most of the promises he made were lies." Beacon's eyes closed as the memories resurfaced. "He promised the group that he would use the knowledge and power of the Organization to help all realities. My friends joined because he promised them funding for their research. Evil Star, who once went by the name Evan Starr, was working on a device that would allow the wearer to channel the chaos energy of the Inbetween. His wife Sapphire, who now calls herself Star Sapphire, was working on a way to crystallize that energy. The one gem she was able to create had the unintentional ability to generate energy constructs when she focused her thoughts through it. The Council studied their work and deemed both projects to be too dangerous in the wrong hands. So they were canceled and the prototypes ordered destroyed."

"But, doesn't this station channel that energy?"

"Only as a power source. And even then, the power is channeled, controlled, and converted into the various energies we use by a team of specialists. Now, what my friends had developed could allow an individual to control raw chaos energy, and, with further development, might eventually be powerful enough to create, reshape, or even destroy a reality when used together."

"This charismatic subversive wanted such power?"

"To be honest, I don't know. I do know he talked my friends into using their prototypes themselves. They became addicted to the small amount of chaos energy they could control. When I saw what was happening to them…"

"I'm sorry Father," Gila said as she put a hand on his shoulder which he covered with his own.

"It's OK. Sometimes pain makes us see the truth. Physically they were fine, in fact a side effect of Evan's chaos band was an improved physical form, but there was a noticeable mental change in both of them. Evan became more aggressive and started seeking revenge against the people who had teased him in high school. He also developed a strong interest in fighting. Even going so far as to challenge me to a fight a few times, but he still had enough self control to accept my refusal, and he never struck his wife. Sapphire became secretive and almost paranoid. She still trusted Evan and myself, whom she considered family, but I could tell that both she and Evan were quickly deteriorating and would eventually be a danger to themselves and others. When I told Jack about the changes, he dismissed them as being unimportant. That's when I finally allowed the inconsistencies in his party line to register. Even then it was almost too little too late."

"But it wasn't," Gila stated. "You warned the Council and they were able to defeat him."

"Yes, but only after I nearly lost my life trying to bring my friends back from the brink. Though our police force was, and is, composed of formidable members of many races, they were no match for Jack as long as he had Evan and Sapphire on his side."

Gila was puzzled. "But surely Logan and his squad…"

"Were recruited after this attempted coup," Beacon interrupted. "Heroes and villains with powers were known to the Organization, but we thought we were safe in the inbetween. The Council was arrogant and never considered the possibility that anyone within the organization would gain powers or be coerced into trying to overthrow them." He paused as a thought occurred to him. "Perhaps we were lucky that Jack tried to take over. He could manipulate people, and he had a strong desire for conquest, but he was impatient and a poor strategist, who depended too much on the power of his attacks. Without the powers my friend had developed, Jack's attempt to take control would never have made it to the city square. With Sapphire's energy constructs, and Evan being able to convert chaos energy into any form of energy he wished, they actually made to the entrance of the city's central control room before they were stopped."

Gila was shocked. That room controlled and monitored every system in the city. Including the conversion field generated by the protective sphere. There were other stations throughout the city that served as primary and emergency controls for individual systems, but Central Control could override everything else and its defenses were the best science and magic could provide. "If they were so powerful, what finally stopped them?"

"Me," Beacon stated.

"But, if the police and the defense systems couldn't stop them?"

"Power is not everything Gila. Remember, Evan and Sapphire were the closest thing I had to family within the Organization. When I saw them enter the building I knew I was the only person who could make them see the truth. I still relive that moment in my dreams sometimes. As he spoke, his mind pulled him back to that moment. The moment when he was the only person that stood between his friends, their leader, and the destruction of the Organization as he knew it.