Basel stared at Peter and stopped in his tracks. "Peter Parker? What are you doing here?"
"I don't want to hurt you," Basel warned, "so get out of the way."
Peter shook his head, his expression grave. "Basel, don't you feel it? Your emotions are completely out of whack right now. You almost just murdered someone!"
"There's nothing wrong with me. I feel better than I ever have," Basel said, glancing at the whimpering thug with a ruthless tone. "This guy threatened to hurt my family. I'm not letting him walk away from that."
"I'm sorry! Please, forgive me... I was wrong!" The thug, drenched in cold sweat and gasping in pain, pleaded brokenly. "I was just... just talking big... I didn't actually mean to do anything!"
Peter looked at the thug's pathetic state and turned back to Basel. "He's learned his lesson. Do you really have to kill him? How are you going to deal with it when the police show up at your door?"
Basel cooled down slightly, restraining the savage impulses raging in his mind. He canceled his transformation and spat at the thug, "I'll let you go this once. But if I ever find out you've stepped a single foot near my family... I won't let you off as easy as I did today. I'll make sure there's nothing left of you to bury."
Clutching his mangled right hand, the thug nodded frantically. "I understand! We'll never show our faces in this neighborhood again!"
He had been seconds away from having his skull crushed by Basel's iron flail. All his bravado had evaporated; he just wanted to escape with his life.
Seeing the once-formidable thug trembling and submissive brought Basel a sense of dark satisfaction. He let out a soft snort and nodded. "Beat it!"
The thugs scrambled away, crawling and stumbling, desperate to put as much distance between themselves and Basel as possible.
"Basel, what was that? That form you took... what happened?" Peter asked curiously.
Basel held up the Violence Memory for Peter to see. "It's this. A Gaia Memory. It gave me this power."
"Where did you get it?"
Basel smiled, a look of reminiscence on his face. "A while ago, I was taking a long detour home to avoid those guys. I ran into a mysterious man in black who sold me this Gaia Memory. He told me it would give me the power to change my life. It looks like he wasn't lying."
Peter felt a growing sense of unease. "Since you started using this... Gaia Memory... have you noticed any changes in yourself?"
Basel looked puzzled. "What kind of changes?"
Peter's voice turned serious. "I feel like ever since you started using this thing, you've changed in a way I can't quite put into words. It gives me a bad feeling."
Basel laughed and shook his head. "I have changed, but it's not a bad thing. I used to be weak and cowardly. I let everyone walk all over me. But now, it's different. Neither the school bullies nor these street punks can touch me anymore."
"Regardless," Peter warned, "you should be careful. Try not to use that memory to transform so much. We don't know where it came from or what it does to the user. It might be better to hand it over to the police."
Basel's expression soured. "This Gaia Memory belongs to me. I'm not giving it to anyone. I am never going back to those days of being bullied."
Peter frowned. He could sense that Basel's personality and temperament were becoming unstable. He considered that perhaps the sudden acquisition of power, combined with years of repressed frustration, was simply boiling over. Seeing Basel become agitated, Peter dropped the subject of the Gaia Memory for the moment, only telling him to be cautious.
"Don't worry about it. I don't feel any bad side effects from the Gaia Memory," Basel said dismissively. "If anything, I feel completely refreshed, mind and body."
"At least no one died," Jessica whispered from a distance, patting her chest in relief. "But it looks like Peter Parker has gained some special abilities too. The way he moved to save that thug... those weren't the reflexes of a normal person."
"Luke, what are you thinking?" Jessica turned to see Luke Cage deep in thought. When he didn't respond, she gave him a light shove.
"I'm wondering if the Gaia Memories have a direct psychological effect on the user," Luke said, snapping back to reality. "Basel's personality right now is the complete opposite of the intel we gathered on him. He seemed to have uncontrollable violent urges—he was a hair's breadth away from murder."
"Affecting personality? Really? I haven't felt anything like that," Jessica said, surprised. She thought for a moment. "The Punisher used one, and he didn't seem different... well, actually, he's always been pretty merciless, so that's a bad example. Danny Rand uses one too, and he seems fine."
As for the Purple Man, he was already a sociopath, and they hadn't had much contact with Dix, who became the Anomalocaris Dopant, so there wasn't enough data there.
"Have you noticed a pattern?" Luke's eyes sharpened. "You, the Punisher, and Danny Rand—none of you use the Gaia Memories directly. You use them through devices—interfaces like the Drivers."
Jessica's expression shifted. It was true; her lack of side effects might be thanks to the Earth Driver.
"If the Memories really do influence the user, then Basel's sudden personality shift makes perfect sense," Luke continued. "But we can't change it unless we take the Memory from him. And at the end of the day, this is still just a theory."
"If your theory is right," Luke added heavily, "the influence on Basel will only deepen over time. His personality will likely become increasingly violent. Given the power he holds, he could become a massive danger to himself and everyone around him."
Jessica's face turned grim. "If that's the case, the danger posed by these Gaia Memories is much bigger than we thought. What should we do?"
"Maybe we can use Basel to verify the impact of Gaia Memories on their users," Luke suggested meaningfully.
"So, we keep tracking him?" Jessica asked.
"Yes," Luke nodded. "If Basel loses control because of the Memory, we'll be there to stop him before things get too out of hand."
(End of Chapter)