Book Theory

Superpowers with the Roberts: corruption or medical condition? (BC Duology)

*listening to New York, New York by Frank Sinatra*

*humming along with the song*

Nothing like a good healthy walk in a city like King City. No place like it. Wonder if there's a neighboring city called Queen City. Then there might be some competition between the two. Ya never know.

*a super fight just takes place in the area I'm in*

Oh come on!! One day of peaceful walking and this has to *bleep* happen! Just my luck.

.....

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the first theory. This was nagging at me since I was thinking about Charlie after reading DudeFortunate's theory on his powers. I was thinking about said theory and the line in one of peneloperaywrites great books in the Big City Trilogy, featuring our favorite hothead with breathtaking powers of shock absorption, pyrokinesis (fire powers in a fancy geek word) and other powers with no other introductions or spoilers to his abilities. Yes, ladies and gentlemen. King City's very own Coal Evan Samuel Maximus Black, aka the Flaming Spark! And we're mainly gonna talk about his BFF, Charlie Roberts, aka Glitch. Specifically, his family genetics.

In the final book, Big City Trouble (as if it hadn't had enough trouble already), Gust talks to Coal after Gust's secret identity was exposed to the heroes present at the hospital fight where a tragedy happened there 10 years ago in the series's timeline with Coal and Gust. He gives a syringe with a weird liquid in it, tells Coal to remove Charlie's powers permanently and said it's for his own good. Spoiler alert: Gust turns out to be Charlie's dad, who disappeared when ol' Charlie boy was a kid. He explains why he disappeared and placed a permanent power disabler in his son before Sparky here used his superfluous spark that can recharge other superheroes' powers and effectively cancel out the power disabler in Charlie. In the explanation that Gust gave out to Coal, one part was the overall truth and I paraphrase from that part of the dialogue, he said "the Roberts' and the supergene don't mix well."

Why is that? How is that even be possible?That's what I'm here to find out.

I've been thinking about how could superpowers make someone turn over to the dark side, even though that someone wants to be a superhero. Then I thought about how it could affect the brain chemistry if the superpowers was crossing vital wires in the brain to cause such a fascinating but dangerous condition for Charlie and his dad.

One hypothesis is inhibitions. Thing about inhibitions, they are what keeps us from making bad and questionable choices and thrashing at each other's throats at the very second someone annoys us (or in Gust's case, commit crimes and piss off the police). In neuroscience and psychology, the neural inhibitors at a high level are what helps us make hard decisions when faced with a certain choice. With the superpowers that are active within Charlie and his dad, it couldn't make Charlie evil immediately whenever he uses his powers. But he inherited the curse from his dad, so it had to be a genetic disorder inside their DNA that would have superpowers interfere with the neurological inhibitors within the brain chemistry.

In the genetics of Charlie and his family, this particular gene that turns any family member evil via superpowers must've been dormant in their systems long before superheroes and super-villains showed up. And when a Roberts develops superpowers and is using their powers excessively, that's when the interesting stuff happens. The D-gene ('D' for dark) in a Roberts actives when the superpowers become active within the physiology and neural systems of their bodies. Then it slowly prevents the inhibitors' job to keep Charlie the good man he is and making good choices before the inhibitors are completely switched off.

But the inhibitors can't be the only thing making a superhero turn evil like Charlie and Gust. Superheroes save lives through empathy and compassion. So I did some neuroscience research related to this topic and I found something fascinating.

Apparently, the part of our brain that carries the capacity for compassion and empathy is called the right supramarginal gryus. I know it's a mouthful to say, but that's what it's called so I'll shorten it to RSMG. I've read on a website about the RSMG and the neuroscience of empathy that said empathy and compassion is not always born for certain individuals. Empathy and compassion can be trained, whether you're a kid, a middle aged adult or an elderly person. But if the RSMG is disabled upon birth and will not become active, you've got a psychopath on your hands.

So with the D-gene negating the inhibitors and the RSMG in the brain chemistry of Charlie and his dad, that will be how they slowly become evil. When I got close to the end of Big City Trouble, Charlie became evil and fights with his best friend, Coal. So Coal has no choice but to put a permanent power disabler to turn Charlie back to his original self, which is what he would've wanted to do in the first place and Coal could never bring it upon himself to do make his BFF an average Joe again.

So having superpowers, is it bad for Charlie and his dad because it will corrupt them or is it just an allergy/medical condition to superpowers in a bad way? That's for you to decide.

But hey, that's just a theory. A BOOK THEORY. And... that's the last page, folks.

THEORY END.

Well, that took a while to figure out. I hope you have enjoyed the theory I've made here. Any questions can be answered through comments and I'll answer them as soon as I can.

Now, onto the next theory...