WARNING: This chapter deals heavily in substance abuse elements. Reader discretion is advised.

Chemistry

Hey. So I'm supposed to tell ya bit about myself, huh? Well what can I say but what you already know? I'm an alchemist. I'm crazy and lovin' it. I'm a master of mixology and don't hesitate to test my potions on myself. Hey, I'm immune to a lot of the effects by now so no harm done right?

You want the real story, huh? You want to know the things about me that no one else knows, right? Eon knows. Eon knows everything about all of us. He knows the sad parts, the bad parts and the parts in the eyes of others that make us anything but heroes. Would you be surprised to know several Skylanders have shady pasts? I bet it does. Did you know I had a shady past? Well you will.

I don't remember too much about my past before… before I lost myself. Who I was or where I came from is lost to me. Eon says something tragic probably brought on the events that changed me and made me forget. I can believe him. I was in a very dark and lonely place for a while.

I've always been a chemist. When I first started it was harmless things. What color would the flames be if I burned this chemical, what kind of reactions would I get if I combined these? How can I make certain things? Then from there it turned… dangerous. I learned to synthesize compounds that could alter behavior and perception. Some of these substances resulted in addiction and caused violent behavioral changes as well as physical alterations due to a mental instability. Right, I'm not supposed to use big words. You know me as that crazy little blue gremlin. I got lazy, I stopped taking care of myself and things happened. I didn't eat and the chemicals I kept feeding myself had some strange effects. I learned to not sleep for days but it started to get pretty scary after the fourth day. I make sure now to go to bed on time every night. I'm not going there again.

Sound familiar? I found myself lost in the nightmare of substance abuse. And worse? I made "product" that was highly desirable by other people that were down and out on their luck. I began to deal all to feed my habit of producing even more product and discovering new ones with fewer side effects. I was obsessed with my work and the high it gave me to use what I made or sell it for profit. That profit was poured right back into my addiction, both in using what I made and making more of it.

I became a loner; I wanted nothing to do with other people and locked myself in my lab for days on end all to meet the demands of my orders and my use. When I would fall behind because I was lost in a binge of my own I had angry addicts pounding on my door. I was forced to leave everything behind and flee to start over several times.

I'm not proud of myself. I'm embarrassed by my past. And having to move so many times only inspired me to create weaponized potions to try an protect myself. Destruction. That was what I became good at it. I would either ruin lives from addiction or give angry persons weapons to use in ways that they themselves determined. I was a supplier of death, destruction and ruined lives.

One day I woke up disgusted with myself and sickened by the mess I lived in. Oh it was a mess. I didn't take trash out; I didn't even put trash in the trash can. I threw it where ever I wanted. My "home" was a cave that I couldn't see the floor to anymore. Broken bottles littered the paper and half eaten food strewn floor. I hurt myself just walking through the garbage. I moved. Again. I set to trying to fix the mess I had made of myself and others. I tried to cure addictions. I cured mine but finding those I had gotten started was a whole other problem. I gave up when their angry loved ones ran me off.

As my mind began to fully clear I found a stranger looking back at me in the mirror. I no longer recognized myself. I was blue? I didn't remember being blue but I also didn't remember what color I was before that. Heh, my eyes did this weird thing where they looked two different directions. It really messed with how I saw things until I got used to it. So after seeing myself for the first time and dealing with a lot of angry people I decided if I can make a potion to cure addiction why not a potion to change me and make me likeable? I was a monster, no gremlin ever looked like me and I bet none ever will.

So uh, yeah. My efforts didn't go as I planned. My potion changed me alright. It made me bigger, crazier and furrier. I was hyper and ran. A lot. I got the urge to scratch up things like a cat. So needless to say my potion failed. But I never stopped trying to right my wrongs. I got in a lot of trouble with people that were expecting more weapons or, um, "toys". I had to work very hard to change things and to this day I still haven't righted everything wrong I did. I can't take away the memories or bring back those that died.

Eon found me when I was trying to set things right. He took me in and helped me. He saw potential in me and made me a Skylander. I tried to refuse, I really did. I told Eon I wasn't the right type of person for the Skylanders. Do you know what he told me? "You are exactly the right type of person for the Skylanders, Pop Fizz." He gave me a new name, I had no name other than "Alchemist" and I liked his new name. "You have strength of character, young gremlin. You did wrong and you have come to terms with it. Now you are trying to set things right no matter how hard it is. You are a Skylander. I will help you understand this and aid you every step of the way through your rehabilitation."

And he did. Everyone I had ever hurt Eon found and then helped me correct the damage. I started to like myself again, to feel better about myself. I was still crazy. Am still crazy but do you want to know a secret? I'm this way to protect myself. If everyone thinks I'm crazy they don't question me. No one will learn about what I did, no one will hate me for it. The Alchemist is gone. There is only Pop Fizz now. And I did manage to make sodas eventually and still chug them like there's no tomorrow. If anyone trusted me enough to try one they'd see there's nothing crazy in them. It's me that makes them crazy after I drink them.

I have to say that when we were banished I thought punishment for what I had done finally caught up to me. I was distraught and blamed myself for the fact it happened to all of the Skylanders. When I met my Portal Master I blubbered like a baby to her. She, like Eon, knows my whole story. Well now you do too I guess. My Portal Master accepted me with a smile and said, "I'll look after you, Pop. I won't let anything happen to you or your friends. We can get through this." And she stayed with me and everyone else. We've been through a lot together, the other Skylanders, me and our Portal Master. I think I finally found a family. Yeah, so maybe I'm that one that every family has but I wouldn't change it for the world.

I'm better now. I use my skills to aid the Skylanders and fight the enemies of the good people that live in Skylands. I'm energetic. I'm positive. I never give up. I'm great fun at parties. I'm going forward, I'll never look back. I like who I am now.

I am a Skylander.