So I have a head canon (or rather several related) about people getting powers from the meteorite. Since the show has them swapping powers when their DNA is mixed up, this suggests that the powers are tied to their DNA which is where all this is coming from. First off, people can be divided into 3(4? 5?) categories:
1. First Wave. people who got their full powers on impact. so anyone who manifested almost immediately, which presumably includes the whole team.
2. Late Bloomers. People who got powers later, which has 2 subgroups:
2a. People who’s powers manifest gradually starting after impact. So basically they started out only being able to do small things, or only activate like one or 2 times a day for a few seconds or so. Then they grow stronger over time by themselves until they’re full power.
2b. People who’s powers manifest suddenly due to some sort of trigger. This can be any incident involving extreme or strong emotions. Can be a life or death situation but doesn’t have to be. Can also be triggered by puberty(important for latter)
3.Dormant mutation. These people had their DNA mutated by the meteorite impact but the mutation is completely dormant. It’s possible for it to activate at some point making them a type 2b, but it’s also possible that they themselves may never have any powers.
4. Ancestral activation. Basically the radiation activated dormant genes that were already present in a species. This is most common in species that were more delayed in their evolutions like roadrunners. This is why Rev’s parents have speed. This category can can also overlap with any of the others, in Rev’s case he’s faster than other roadrunners, and also gained his GPS ability. Rip is a rare case of having lost the dormant genes in the evolution process, leaving him the odd one out, however he is still a type 3 and may gain powers in the future with the right trigger, assuming it hasn’t already happened without him noticing (I’m looking at you brain parasite)
5. No mutation/powers. These people are completely normal and were unaffected by the radiation from the meteorite. Almost everyone in this category were on the opposite side of the planet from the impact, though there were still people in their communities affected due to radiated debris that were launched into the atmosphere on impact. This category will disappear over time, and with new generations.
This leads into my second part, where the proximity to the impacts site affects how likely someone is to develop powers/how great the mutation, with closer proximity causing greater mutations. Though like I mentioned in the part 5, atmospheric dust and debris can make it’s way all over the world.
Third is inheritance. Anyone with a mutation has a chance of having kids with powers based on if they have Active powers, Dormant genes, or No Mutation. The chances in increasing order are as follows:
Dormant - No mutation
Dormant - Dormant
Active - No mutation
Dormant -Active
Active - Active (Nearly guaranteed one or more powers)
I imagine power inheritance to be similar to the anime My Hero Acadamia, where you get either one parent’s power, both powers, or some mutation of their powers, with a rare chance at something completely unrelated to their parents. The child can be classified with the same categories as before, with type 1s being powers from birth, and type 2a gradual as they grow up. Also Ancestral powers are inherited separately, they’re either active or inactive and when they develop varies by species.
Anyways I plan to go by this in any of my own fanfics including AUs and such.
