Archive of Our Own ^beta

ive literally been thinking on how to format this for like months and im just now deciding to wing it. spike rant theory, everyone

ok lets just start with why spike is an abnormal “ability” altogether.

• first of all, chase cant remember what happened while spike was out 
• chase has like the strongest supercomputer for a brain. he has literally digital files for all of his memories and can literally replay them back with his creepy ass usb fingers
• when he comes to after spike, he cant remember anything that happened. its like his brain just completely shut down during the time he was spike which just obviously just further implies that hes not the one in control 
• second of all, chase just flat out cant control him 
• unlike his other abilities which he can master in a very short time (laser bow).
• its very easy to manipulate spike into coming out and chase cant even recognize when hes being manipulated and by the time he does, if he even does, spikes already out.
• they all literally did glitch tests before the first day of school and chase only had a problem with his commando app 
• third of all, HIS CREATOR CANT EVEN FIGURE OUT HOW TO CONTROL HIM
• in the episode spike vs spikette in season 4, chase tries to learn how to control it by triggering kates commando app and when douglas arrives at the scene, HE DOESNT KNOW WHAT TO DO EITHER. like youre telling me the dude that found out how to get bree her bionics back FROM SCRATCH doesnt know about an app he designed around the same time, and possibly even later?
• also, in order to put down kates commando app, douglas has to temporarily give bree one AND HE BARELY HAS CONTROL OVER THAT ONE TOO, SHE JUST DOES WHATEVER SHE WANTS
• fourth of all, the inconsistencies with the personalities of the two main spike apps 
• ok so what literally happened is that douglas gave krane his technology if krane gave him money to fund his research
• every single bionic ability the kids have somehow started from douglas. now krane couldve built off of them but the basis is still there
• one of those, was the commando app. now i believe that krane worked on developing a commando app on his own which became what kate has in season 4 but the pure inconsistency with the way they act and how theyre activated makes it hard to believe that its a fully ready-to-go app as opposed to all of the other abilities that are like adam, bree, and chase’s that the bionic students have, but are still at least a bit more consistent
• but there is obviously a touch of krane’s influence on their powers like for example lexis superspeed being slightly different than brees and sebastians laser bo being a different shape and even color than chases BUT THE COMMANDO APP IS JUST A DIFFERENT BUILD
• also lexi and sebastians bionics were made to appear more threatening but spikette has an overbearing mama bear personality?? like that makes no sense its definitely a less developed app and krane messed it up even more
• fifth of all, davenport invented a bionic inhibitor thing that doesnt even work on him 
• IT LITERALLY MAKES HIM STRONGER?? AS IF HES THE OPPOSITE OF A BIONIC ABILITY??? YKNOW???? LIKE A GLITCH?????
• sixth of all, spike has his own abilities are you fucking kidding me
• spike has both super strength AND CAN OVERPOWER ADAM as well as some sort of vocal manipulation but they both obviously go away when hes deactivated
• seventh of all, its the only ability that psychologically controls someone
• NOT A SINGLE ABILITY THAT ANY OF THEM HAVE EFFECTS ANY OF THEM THE WAY THE COMMANDO APP DOES. NONE OF THEIR BIONICS INTERFERE WITH THEIR LITERAL FREE WILL EXCEPT. WHEN. THEY. GLITCH.
• he also seems to be self conscious, like he calls himself spike too, he KNOWS hes not chase

ok so. my theory regarding spike. 

so what i think happened is somewhere around the time spike was first created and davenport took adam, bree, and chase from douglas, douglas had just developed the first version of the commando app, like a rough draft or something. 

in the avalanche episode in season 2 douglas says to chase “you were the last one, by the time, i got to you, i learned how to build in a capacity for upgrades. but my brother took you away before i could finish”

PAY ATTENTION TO THE WORDING, PEOPLE. BEFORE HE COULD FINISH. HE HAD ALREADY STARTED GIVING CHASE THE CAPACITY FOR THE UPGRADES. ADAM HAS SUPER STRENGTH AND BREE HAS VOCAL MANIPULATION. SPIKE HAS BOTH. BY DEFAULT, CHASE HAS BOTH. SPIKE IS THE INCOMPLETE CAPACITY FOR THE UPGRADES. it could be like a “last resort” thing where when everything else fails, spike comes out and chase is like this super soldier. chase also easily has more abilities than adam and bree showing that douglas couldve tried making him more powerful.

this also isnt the first time douglas has tried to combine all of their abilities. so, lets say the commando app wasnt working the way it was intended to (obviously), douglas made this other thing where adam, bree, and chase could combine their powers and make this one big energy charge or something which they used in their battle against krane in rise of the secret soldiers. however, its still not as good as the commando app also its never been tested which just shows that douglas basically had a backup plan for everything in case the commando app wasnt working.

also, its literally called the fucking commando app. remember that before davenport, adam, bree, and chase were supposed to be war making weapons. soldiers. in army slang, commando is a soldier whos specially trained to carry out raids. if you think about it, combining all of adam, bree, and chases abilities would literally make the perfect soldier for raids and who had all of their abilities?? CAPTAIN EYEBROWS. MARCUS. 

im gonna need yall to put your faves’ prides away for this one and think with me for a second. marcus is the perfect raid soldier. hes adam, bree, and chase if they were used for their intended purpose and lets be honest, pre end of the show upgrade, he could beat all of them and HAS taken them down. the only thing that stopped marcus was when a building collapsed on him, so not even one of them physically took him out.

until. 

UNTIL.

DANIEL.

STAY WITH ME HERE, WHAT IS DANIELS MAIN FUCKING POWER?? POWER REPLICATION. THE NEXT BEST THING NEXT TO WHATEVER TF SPIKE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE. DANIEL BLOWS UP MARCUS IN SEASON FOUR. MARCUS. MET. HIS. MATCH.

JUST LIKE WHAT????

JUST LIKE SPIKETTE HAD TO MEET HER MATCH, WHEN DOUGLAS HAD TO GIVE BREE THE COMMANDO APP. THE ONLY THING THAT CAN STOP THIS DAMN APP IS IF YOU PAIR IT WITH ITSELF. ignore perry beating spike in season 2 i fully believe that was just added in there for shits and giggles.

so basically the timeline goes like this.

first, the commando app is developed to be a capacity upgrade for chase. next, davenport takes them away but daniel is still with douglas. douglas obviously wants to get him to a foster family as soon as possible so he can stay off the grid for a while so he doesnt continue pursuing total power to one bionic and gives daniel the next best thing, power replication. then, years down the line, douglas creates marcus, presumably with some money left over from davenport industries. he has time. hes able to make marcus have all of their powers at his leisure. adam, bree, and chase cant match that but then marcus dies. now, douglas is flat out broke and he finds krane and starts working with him. krane gives him money in exchange for bionics and its all peace and love from then on. 

UNTIL ITS NOT.

krane is a fucking madman. he cant achieve all of adam, bree, and chases abilities at once like the commando app possibly couldve, so he starts implementing himself with bionics one by one. somewhere down the line, he starts putting these abilities into kids and twisting the bionics to match him (lexis different super speed trail and sebastians different shape and color laser bo).

he knows about the commando app, douglas shared literally everything with him but marcus is dead so he obviously didnt work out and power replication isnt as good. so he tries to make his own.

he fails because hes a dumbass and instead makes some stupid alternate version of the original commando app that…is activated…by motherly love…

smart move bro.

also, keep in mind that the commando app is given to the “weaker” characters. in the episode spike vs spikette, douglas literally says that the beauty of the commando app is that its owner is someone who appears unthreatening and then BOOM commando app gets activated and they just fuck shit up.

now remember what davenport said in literally the first episode. he describes to leo and tasha the kids’ abilities and also why they have them. adam is tall so he gets strength, bree is agile so she gets speed, and chase is literally just a nerd so he gets smarts. he doesnt have any physical advantage. hes is the supposedly weak link, hes been told that literally throughout the whole show. he also doesnt have any offensive abilities so what does he get? the commando app. the failed capacity upgrade.

if all of that wasnt proof enough, when spike is activated in season three with sabrina, the activation thingy literally says “app v2.1 beta.” BETA. LITERALLY SHORT FOR BETA TEST.  A LITERAL. FUCKING. ROUGH. DRAFT. and then kates commando app says “app v3.1 beta” LIKE ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? THIS PROVES THAT KRANE DEVELOPED HIS OWN VERSION AND IN THE SAME EPISODE WHEN CHASES GETS ACTIVATED, IT STILL SAYS V2.1 BETA.

also douglas said himself that krane wanted to make sure no one could control his creations if he wasnt around to control them. the doomsday virus was gonna destroy everyone who had the triton app. douglas said that krane was an egomaniac so if he developed his own version of anything, he wouldnt want anyone else to get a hold of it.

so what does this mean? tldr, spike is a failed app which is why hes basically more of a glitch than he is a bionic ability.