au where kyle starts studying the nature of the blue plasma in an effort to both understand his own capabilities and find a way to take down mike. thanks to several discreet scans, he’s able to figure out that mike has a higher saturation of plasma in his body. which would explain why he has superpowers that kyle doesn’t— the super-hearing, the freeze vision, the laser eyes.
so why does kyle have superintelligence, when mike doesn’t? it doesn’t make logical sense— kyle has less plasma in him. why would he have something unique when he shares every other power with mike? the mad mask only has traces of plasma in him, so it makes sense that he has a weaker unique power— maybe that’s just what happens when there’s not enough plasma in the body to fuel flight or strength or speed. but mike has the most plasma of all of them— why is he missing a power? why is he so dumb?
kyle’s tearing his hair out, going over his models and notes for the millionth time, when it hits him with icy certainty. mike’s not missing a power. he’s not a dumb do-gooder. he’s been playing the long game this entire time.
and kyle has no idea what that long game is.