The Powers of a Chemical Queen

One big problem with Karen's powers - one that I haven't worked around yet - is that they really aren't explained very well.  At worst, this leads to what I call "Superman creep", where the envelope just keeps getting pushed and pushed until the character can pretty much do anything.

As Seanbaby put it in his hilariously funny "Super Friends" page:

"The Super Friends always forgot they had powers, but with Superman it was different. It wasn't like when Hawkman forgot he could fly, or when Wonder Dog forgot to pee on the mailman. Those guys could do one thing each. Superman had at least 150 powers, and the writers were making up two or three more every episode. If a script called for it, Superman would leak paste out of his ears that can control the weather. His fingernails might cure cancer and create food, he may never remember."

The same problem happened with Chemical King in the old Legion.  In order to really understand what "the power to control chemical reactions" entails, you need at least a bachelor's degree in chemistry.  Most people don't have that and certainly Jim Shooter didn't have it and most comic book writers didn't have it.  So poor old Condo Arlik was criminally underused until the writers decided the best way to use the character was to have him die for a noble cause.

I like to think of myself as a reasonably intelligent person - as the Second Doctor would say, I can arrive at wrong conclusions, but can get there with authority.  Even there, I get no help.

Basically, here's the short version:

a) everything has atoms
b) atoms have things called electrons which are sort of energy fields
c) these energy fields like to interlock with other energy fields in different ways

Note that a chemical reaction doesn't touch the innards of an atom, the nucleus.  If you can change the innards of an atom, you have a nuclear reaction, not a chemical reaction. So we don't have to worry about a person with the power to control chemical reactions being able to create mini-Hiroshimas.  (And even providing the energy boost to crack open the nuclei of atoms requires a lot of energy.)

It gets more complicated with chemical reactions.  There's something call chemical bonding energy.  Some chemical reactions require energy.  If you want to turn water into hydrogen and oxygen, you can do it in a high school chemistry lab - but you'll require a battery because you have to dump energy from some outside source into the reaction to make it happen.  Other chemical reactions give off some energy in the form of heat.

Furthermore, there's also the speed of the reaction that's important.  Like TNT.  It's not that the reaction that makes dynamite gives off heat, but that it gives off heat so fast and violently and releases all of its energy all at once that makes it so volatile.  Gasoline actually gives off more energy than TNT does, but it gives it out nice and slow, relatively speaking.

So you have to deal with

a) does the reaction require energy to take place? 
b) does the reaction give off energy when it takes place?
c) what is the speed and force at which the reaction takes place?

I've sort of developed a primitive model for her powers as a result of the above.

* For all of her potential, her powers are pretty much mundane.  There are a few things that she can do.

Oxidization:  It's the most common chemical reaction, known as rust, which breaks down the integrity of metal.  The rate of oxidation is hard to predict, because a) one can treat metals in all sorts of ways to retard oxidation ("stainless steel") and b) some metals, like gold, are naturally resistant.

My guess is that if the object is small enough, Alchemist can oxidize it fairly easy.  Even a standard pair of handcuffs won't be a match for Karen because she'll simply oxidize one of the links and boom!  Locks take a little while longer because they are thick cast metal.  Steel beams?  That depends (see below).

Digestion:  She can launch an attack on an opponent based on the naturally occuring reactions in the digestive system - stomach acids.  This won't kill the opponent except at "max power" but will give a severe case of bloating, belching, heartburn, etc.  It can even disorient metahumans enough for Karen to get the advantage of them.

Bullets:  She can attack a handgun so that the chemical reaction which propels a bullet fizzles out.  Sometimes, the bullet will go off but with so little force that it's more of a nuisance and sometimes the bullet will just go dud.  She could probably disable a dozen or so handgun wielding opponents at once.

An automatic weapon?  She would probably have to focus her entire power on the one weapon to disable it.

A rifle?  Forget it.  Even if she reduces the force of the reaction, a rifle bullet travels so fast as to be deadly even if she reduces the "kick".

Batteries:  Batteries are just little containers where chemical reactions are going off.  Alchemist can change the rate of those reactions.  It only takes a little bit of change to completely ruin anything battery operated.  (Or, given the caveats below, blow one up.)

Gasoline:   I haven't figure out how that would work, but Karen could probably put a few knocks in your engine.  (Or save some gas money on her motorcycle.)

Human body chemistry (unknown):  Her power works on her own body as well and in a very efficient way.  Initially, the power working was very inefficient and adversely affected her brain chemistry, a case of a metahuman handicap, until her power could stabilize itself. 

This worked until Daria, when her power first kicked in at Lawndale High School and reached out telepathically to the entire student body, interacted with Karen's mind.  Daria's power was so diffuse that she could hear everyone else's thoughts but no one else could hear hers.  Unfortunately for Karen, even a tiny bit of psychic energy was enough to completely throw off the rebuilding process, and caused a "setback" that resulted in a hospitalization.

Now that Karen's brain has matured and adapted to her powers, she's picked up a few bonuses.

a) Partial Recall:  her short term memory bank is very powerful at forming memories.  She can retain information for up to three days at a virtually photographic level.  Unfortunately, her long term memory power is underdeveloped and she doesn't have the Total Recall that Jodie has.

b) Increased strength/endurance.  While Karen isn't substantially stronger than a typical athlete of her age, she is beyond normal strength enough to be noticable.  She wouldn't be able to bend steel bars or even be as strong as Sandi Griffin is when using "triple strength" but she has an advantage over most human beings.

c) Overclock.  Karen has the power to "overclock".  This power, when used, is pretty awesome but it has a duration of about five seconds and causes severe weakness (basically, sick with 103 degree flu weakness until you can get into a nice bath).  At its highest levels, it could probably break through steel or stun Tom Sloane when Tom has his full invulnerability switched on.  This generally allows Karen to escape a trap, but after that she's immediately forced to flee as she's in no condition to fight for about a day afterward.

Wild card:  Wild card is the power that allows me to explain weird shit that other people write.  Basically, Karen has a mental "chemistry calculator" that gives her an innate understanding of chemistry without necessarily needing to be conscious of the details.

Furthermore, this power acts as a circuitbreaker.  It keeps her from creating exothermic reactions that could get out of hand. 

The basic rule:  the more energy a reaction requires or gives off, and the more uncontrolled the result?  The circuit-breaker kicks in.  Theoretically, Karen could create "Super Dynamite" if she has some dynamite.  But the circuit-breaker says, "No, you don't get super dynamite.  This would be very, very bad indeed."

The circuit-breaker, however, doesn't work 100 percent of the time.  Every now and then, you get a "bonus" power, when some really unexpected shit happens.  (This is how I explain to myself shit that I don't believe could happen.)

Anyway, I propose this as a writing guide.  Let's not get Superman creep here.