This takes place right after the comic "Arbor Day", which I assume takes place before Superchargers and Imaginators. The timelines for the comics were always pretty loose, but this story takes place before the Sky Eater.

Also this is not a shipping fic, but it just felt weird having Dr. Krankcase venting to himself so he gets someone to talk to. I stick by my statement that Krankcase and Mags are science besties.

Characters: Dr. Krankcase, Buzz, Mags, the other Doom Raiders (mentioned only)

Today was not a fine day for science.

Dr. Krankcase - infamous mad scientist, Doom Raider, inventor of all sorts of creations that have wreaked havoc and mayhem across the Skylands - never felt more humiliated in his long and industrious career as he sat in the cabin of a ship with his hands firmly secured behind his back, his legs chained together, and several sets of weapons, all of them made out of Traptanium, pointed in his direction.

He heaved an overly dramatic sigh, his hat shielding his eyes. This was not how he envisioned how this day would go.

Oh sure, today started out fine. He made himself a nice cup of coffee, had a nice shower, put on his best coat and hat, and then sent a bulldozer and a small army of robots through a magical forest in an attempt at turning the resulting clear-cut land into a wonderful factory, one that would be the envy of every scientist in Skylands.

He wasn't doing anything evil, getting rid of a couple trees. There were plenty of trees in Skylands! He figured the inhabitants there would be thankful that they could contribute to the glorious march of progress! He wasn't asking for much - just land and supplies for his continued experiments.

But no, of course they weren't. Instead, they sent Skylanders after him. How rude of those little woodland creatures.

"I gotta say, this is the first time I've seen so many Skylanders come and pick me up after a failed experiment before." Dr. Krankcase said at last, after sulking in silence for a good portion of the ride. Nothing like a little friendly banter to clear the air and make him feel better about his failure. He fidgeted with his handcuffs to test the stress on them. Traptanium. Of course.He was so sick of Traptanium.

"Usually it's one or two of you sent to take me down, not a whole squadron! I must be making a name for myself if I got the whole Trap Team hanging out with me!"

Twelve sets of eyes watched him. Dr. Krankcase was wrong about the whole Trap Team coming to pick him up from his humiliating predicament - there were a couple members still on missions here and there - but enough of them were there to make sure they didn't lose such a dangerous target. Not one of them said a word, and not one of them cracked a smile. They all just watched him, hands on weapons, waiting for the wrong muscle movement to betray the Doom Raider's actions. The tension was so thick that Krankcase could feel it congealing in the back of his throat.

"Hahahaha...ah..." Only the sound of creaking wood and wind whistling through the cracks in the derelict freighter filled the awkward hole in discussion that followed.

"Of all the Doom Raiders we had to capture, we just had to nab the yappy one…" came a gruff, disinterested voice. The members of the Trap Team - Dr. Krankcase didn't care to learn any of their names - silently moved aside and allowed Buzz, elderly ninja commando and head of security for the Academy, to approach him. Buzz's crutch and wooden peg thudded heavily against the floor as he thumped his way towards the imprisoned villain.

"Hello again, Doom Raider. Seems some of my cadets were able to apprehend another one of your evil schemes." he said with a chuckle.

Buzz gently prodded one of Dr. Krankcase's wooden legs with his crutch (for Buzz did appreciate the technology that went into Krankcase's prosthetics) while the Mabu shot him a scathing look. "So, what were you doing building that factory for, Doom Raider? Trying to build another army for your Queen? Providing lumber for your chef friend or your werewolf amigo?"

Despite the horrible day he was having, Krankcase decided to be helpful. "Well, I'd hate to be the bearer of bad news - and I really do, I just want to make sure everyone has the right information here and well…" Krankcase stopped himself, for while he was talking, every single member of the Trap Team craned their heads back to look at him and none of the expressions he was receiving were very warm. Tough crowd.

"…buuuut I wasn't exactly doing any job for the Doom Raiders while I was trying to build that factory so they're not going to be too concerned that I'm captured," he finished. He cracked a smile, trying to play it cool despite the cold sweat that was beading on his forehead.

"Keep talking, Doom Raider." came Buzz's only reply.

"It's just, well y'know…" One of his feet began scratching the floor idly. Two Trap Team members instantly pointed their weapons at it. His wooden legs were considered a weapon after all. "-we've been kinda having a lot of setbacks, what with that whole Kaos thing and that whole bungled attempt at capturing the Academy - those costumes were Wolfgang's idea by the way, I just wanted to send an Evilikin army at your gates - we've been kinda going our separate ways. I haven't talked to the others in a while. Should've left a forwarding address."

That surprised Buzz. A thoughtful noise escaped his lips as he rubbed his chin and digested this new intel. Dr. Krankcase's rigid fake smile slowly morphed into a pained grimace, realizing he might've said too much.

"Are you saying that the Doom Raiders have...disbanded?" Buzz asked.

Dr. Krankcase gave a noncommittal shrug, hard to do when both of his hands were cuffed behind his back. "I'm just saying, if you want the others, you know as much about their whereabouts as I do."

With a grunt, Buzz gently leaned forward on his crutch until his head was level with Dr. Krankcase's and stared the Doom Raider in the eyes with his one working eyeball. The green scientist shrank back involuntarily under his gaze. "Well then, I'll be honest with you. I was planning on using ya as bait, maybe draw out a couple more Doom Raiders, capture them as well, throw the lot of ya in various well-guarded holding cells stationed at various defense bases, and then cook me and my fellow compadres some celebratory chili. Instead, I have to make other plans since it'll just be you."

The scientist remained silent - he was still too glum to interject with a goo pun - but he watched as Buzz ran sausage-shaped fingers running through his raggedy beard until a grin lit up his face.

"But luckily, I know of just the place I can put you..."

Dr. Krankcase had predicted many places he was going to go after Buzz said that to him - some dark crypt in the Underlands, a heavily guarded fortress with tighter security than the Mabu Defense Force bases he was used to, a pit filled with starving Chompies - but he did not expect the ship to suddenly pull up at Skylands Academy, the beacon of light and hope in all of Skylands.

Despite himself, Krankcase managed a quiet "Woooow..." as they flew around the island. Up close, the castle-esque school, practically glistening with magic, looked almost ephemeral even in this land of infinite possibility, and Krankcase had to admit, it had something about it that looked more beautiful than even the Golden Queen's largest treasure hoard.

He also didn't expect the ship to fly underneath the Academy itself, steering itself away from all the bright, happy activities taking place in the courtyard, and dock itself at a hidden entrance tucked underneath the floating island. Nor did he expect to find himself to be dragged through corridor after darkened corridor winding through the belly of the island until he ended up in a dark, dimly lit dungeon with Traptanium bars.

Beyond the brief questioning that Dr. Krankcase had with Buzz involving this unexpected arrangement ("Why did you build a dungeon in your Academy?" "Just in case one of my cadets found a Doom Raider tearing down a forest." "Point made and taken."), his imprisonment in a cell happened without any pomp or circumstance. Buzz shoved him through the door, told him not to get too comfortable since they were still rebuilding Cloudcracker Prison (Krankcase felt his blood turn cold when he heard that name mentioned again), and then walked away. There wasn't even a guard present - the Skylanders figured that the Traptanium would be enough to hold him - leaving him alone with his thoughts.

The scientist's mind was racing as he scanned his cell. There was a bed, a toilet, a small table, and two novels (Trolls in Love and Gone With The Sky) as the only pieces of furniture. The Traptanium bars, translucent but already turning a shade of yellow as they synced up with his body's natural element, lightly thrummed with magic. With a grimace, he skittered away from the bars and pressed himself against the back of his cell.

"Hmm..." he muttered to himself, pursing his lips. Calculations and plans were already forming in his head as he gently dragged a glove across a rock wall and stared at it, examined it as close as he could without any magnifying equipment, while two of his wooden legs started poking random spots, testing the build of his cell. Soon the only sounds that filled the small dungeon of the Academy was the scritching and poking of his legs as he already started piecing together a plan.

'There's bound to be a weak point somewhere in one of these walls, a possible point of stress where I can apply enough pressure and break my way out of here. Maybe there's a room on the other side of one of the walls. I'll do it in the darkest hour when everyone's asleep. Then it's just a simple matter of scaling the walls, finding a spare airship lying around, somehow battling my way through a horde of Skylanders while keeping all five of my legs in one piece-'

"WELL HOWDY-DOO, KRANKCASE!"

"MAGS!?" Krankcase croaked in surprise and turned away from the rock wall, not expecting a friend from Inventor's School to suddenly appear on the staircase. His eyes quickly darted to the candles that were burning in the dungeon and he was dismayed to find that they had melted far more than he expected. 'Oh geez was I really staring at a wall for over an hour...'

Mags, main inventor and architect at Skylands Academy, looked to be in very good spirits despite the fact that she was talking to a well-known criminal. He couldn't help but marvel at how little she changed in the years since he last saw her. She aged really well - probably on account of the whole "being a vampire" thing - and looked just as she had back in school, purple skin and all, beyond the fact that she now only had one visible fang instead of two.

The only thing that changed was her clothes - she was now wearing a hat that looked like she took an ancient wood stove and molded it into headgear and she now carried an impressive staff topped with a gear in one hand. Dr. Krankcase felt a pang of jealousy; he knew a Technomancer Staff when he saw one and they usually awarded those to heroes of science after a feat of great technological skill. In her other hand, she was carrying a simple coffee mug, and she made sure to walk down the stairs carefully to keep her drink from spilling.

"How'd ya like your cell? Designed it meself. Wasn't expecting it to hold an old friend, otherwise I would've made it more elaborate and given you better books!" Mags said as she tapped the Traptanium with her Technomancer staff.

"Old friend..." he repeated under his breath in confusion - nobody called him a friend in years - before he finally collected his trains of thought. Staring at a wall for too long did that to you, I suppose. "Hey wait a second, what are you doing down here? Did Buzz send you?" he asked, instantly on the defense. He assumed that all the Trap Team operatives knew about his past and could see an old friend from college as an easily exploited weak point.

"Pffffffft, Buzz doesn't even know I'm down here, but I do forgive ya for being mighty suspicious of me. But if he did send me, he probably wouldn't want me to give ya THIS-"

And with those words, she immediately shoved the white mug into his hand. The imprisoned scientist made a yelp of surprise and jumped back, taken aback by the sudden warmth flooding his gloves, but he managed not to drop it. He stared down at it, both eyebrows raised in alarm.

"What...what is it..." he said as he watched small white shapes bob through solid black liquid. Mags invented some weird things even back in college and already he was sure this was a terrible new invention, ready to tear a hole in the space-time continuum.

"It's hot cocoa! Ya seemed a little frazzled when they brought ya here. Dunno, seemed like a nice gesture." She said, leaning against her staff, the very picture of friendliness.

"Is there anything in it, like a truth serum or some sort of slow-acting poison?" he asked suspiciously, not letting his body relax for even a moment.

"Well, there's a little bit o' nutmeg in it..." she admitted while she watched him gently prod one of the floating marshmallows with a curious finger. "-but honestly, if I wanted ta get information out of ya, I wouldn't go the poison route. I'd go the hypnotism route, seeing as I'm a vampire."

The reminder that he was in the company of a member of the Undead made him tense up a bit, his legs bunching up like a frightened mechanical spider, which caused Mags to burst into uproarious laughter.

"Relax, Cranberry!" she hooted, using an old nickname they used back when they were in grad school. "I'm down here because I want to be down here! Call me crazy - and you wouldn't be the first ta do so if ya did - but I don't think yer so far gone down the path of evil that ya wouldn't enjoy a little friendly conversation. Especially if yer stayin' with us a while."

If this was a trap meant to gather information from him for the Skylanders, Krankcase concluded, it was a really good one, because he found himself relaxing out of his defensive stance. His legs slowly unbunched from each other and slowly clattered into something that was a close facsimile of a sitting position. He still stared at the mug rather than drinking from it, however.

"Haven't seen you in a while, Cranberry! Great to see you!" Mags started, an instant whirlwind of bubbly delight. "Man, I can't even remember the last time we talked! Why, it feels like the last time I've seen ya was..."

Suddenly the smile melted off of her face and her back went rigid the instant she remembered.

"I...oh no...wait haha l-let's talk about something else-"

"Oh don't worry Mags, I remember the last time we saw each other too..." Krankcase said with a quick laugh, finally permitting himself to take a sip of the hot cocoa.

"It was at a hospital. After I woke up from a three day coma. After I found out that my legs had been amputated because they were smashed beyond recognition. After I found out I was under house arrest because they ruled in favor of the drow who attacked my workshop and caused my accident in the first place. Because apparently my workshop was illegal-"

Dr. Krankcase stopped himself when he realized that he was shouting. The faint ghost of his anger faintly echoed off the walls as his cheeks flushed with color. 'Well, some friendly conversation that was, Dr. K.' his brain chastised him. 'Sure was great before you ruined it.'

"Don't worry, Mags. I'm over it!" he shouted immediately, trying to salvage the conversation. "I have a much better set of legs now!" he said with a smile on his face and a happy tap of a wooden foot, but the smile felt forced and it did nothing to dissolve the tension in the air. Finally, he sighed and his shoulders slumped. He let an arm dangle across one of the bars as he examined the handiwork of the prison ceiling.

"But I will admit it kinda stings from time to time." Dr. Krankcase admitted, downing a bit more of the hot cocoa as he mused. "According to Dreamcatcher, it's my biggest reoccurring nightmare. She told me she could describe every last detail of my accident. And she demonstrated this once, just to creep me out."

"Well golly, that sure don't sound too friendly..." Mags finally said, nervously fussing with one of her braids.

"Well, that's the thing, Mags. Doom Raiders aren't friendly. We don't give each other hot cocoa with nutmeg. Instead you get yelled at, or some dream creature is reading your thoughts while you sleep, or the threat of being turned to gold or some strange gourmet food is looming over your head..."

He stopped himself, realizing that he was now venting long-pent-up frustrations that he never was able to speak out loud, not to his creations, not to his fellow partners in crime, certainly not to his boss The Golden Queen, and definitely not to any Skylanders. Krankcase dragged a hand over his face and sighed, his five legs sagging.

"Mags...how do you do it." he said in a tiny voice.

"Do what?"

"Y'know. Being nice. Doing good!" It was a simple word - good - but it hung in the air with such potency that it almost seemed like a magic incantation. Krankcase started rubbing the back of his head and his eyes started roaming his cell, as if his own words made him nervous.

"You've invented 87 million things and not one of them caused a mob of angry elves or mutant plants or Skylanders to kick down your door and stop you. And it's not like you don't invent things that are dangerous; you've made things explode!"

"Hey now, sometimes I make things explode 'cause I want them to explode!" Mags interjected, possibly in an attempt to keep the mood light, but it was like a snowball rolling down an icy mountain. The band-aid holding back his frustrations had been ripped off and now Krankcase's feelings were pouring out of his mouth unheeded.

"But that's the thing - no one's hated you for it. No one's wished that you could just rot away in some cell for the rest of your life! People hate me, Mags!" He almost tossed the empty mug against the wall to punctuate his point but the mug had a kitten on it and he felt that shattering Mags' kitchenware would be perceived as rude. "I don't want to go back to prison! I've already been in Cloudcracker for over five years of my life. I'm...never getting that time back."

Fingers traced the top of the mug as he stared at a spot on the wall, not even daring to make eye contact. "You do a lot of thinking while you're in prison - that's all you really can do, really - and at first all I wanted was escape and revenge. All of Skylands had the nerve to imprison ME, Dr. Krankcase!" he said, and when he said his name, he flourished his arms in the traditional mad scientist fashion.

"But then, once you do commit your acts of revenge, once you do take over the small milling towns or make the monsters with the ferocious names like Doom Bloom or Krankenstein or construct the giant vats of goo or build the giant weapon of ultimate doom, you start to wonder...why am I doing this."

"The things that used to be fun - like taking over a small town - are now less fun because then you start thinking about how other people hate you because you had that fun. I'm thinking about what I did today and...I feel terrible, Mags." he concluded, and when he locked eyes with his school friend, she could see just how weary he was. There was a pain in his eyes that she never saw in any of his photos printed in any of the magazines that talked about the latest heist the Doom Raiders pulled off.

"That's guilt, Cranberry. You're starting ta feel guilty." Mags said. She reached through the bars and gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder. He wordlessly accepted it. "That little spark of good that's been pushed aside fer years is now telling ya that you've hurt people and you could put your skills to something that doesn't hurt people."

"Oh huh, I was wondering what that was...thought it was just indigestion." he said sarcastically. "I don't know Mags, it's been fun - did enjoy the Minion Monthly interviews and such, as well as building that ultimate weapon and nearly ending all life as we know it - but maybe...maybe-"

He hesitated, as if afraid of what he was going to say next. If he even hinted at this around any of the Doom Raiders, they'd kick him out instantly or turn him into a golden statue for such insolence.

But the other Doom Raiders weren't here.

"...maybe I'm tired of being a bad guy!" he shouted in frustration.

A deep silence settled between the two as the weight of Dr. Krankcase's words, the implication of what he just admitted to her, pressed down on both of them. Mags looked stunned, and all she could manage was a "hot buttered toast" of surprise under her breath at what he said.

"...you sure you didn't put anything in the cocoa?" he added to clear the silence, but he couldn't disguise the smile creeping up on his face.

"Only nutmeg and marshmallows." Mags said with a shrug. "The Skylands Academy is not really in the hypnotism business, despite what I said earlier. It's not really good if we force someone ta be good - they have ta decide ta be good on their own. Eon's better at words than I ever could be but Krankcase...I don't want ta see you go to jail neither. There are better options than you than jail."

"Such as...?" he implored, waving the mug in the air.

"This is a shot in the dark, just me spitballing here, but what if you became a Skylander?" Mags said with a smile.

A couple months ago, Dr. Krankcase would've laughed in her face at the very idea of joining the Skylanders. After all, he was a public enemy, someone who at one point created an ultimate weapon of massive destruction, something that Kaos once used in one of his world domination schemes. But now, after the day he had, after the things he admitted, he wasn't so eager to dismiss it.

"Well, who knows. I feel like there's a better chance of something swooping down and eating every last island in Skylands than me ever becoming a Skylander. But I'll consider it. Certainly sounds better than Cloudcracker." he quipped. He moved as close as he could to Mags until only Traptanium separated them and pointed at her with the kitten mug.

"I'll make a deal with you, Mags. I won't try to escape-" she raised an eyebrow when she heard him admitting that he was planning that in the first place. "-and in return, maybe we'll see about redeeming me, just to see if something that impossible can be done. We could even throw in some of my "friends" the Doom Raiders in the mix. I'm sure some of them can be turned around. Maybe. Not sure..."

"It's a deal." came the other inventor's only reply. Satisfied that their talk went so well - even though she was expecting them to just talk about favorite books and such - she turned to walk away when Krankcase called out for her again.

"Hey Mags, wait a second!"

He stopped himself, at a loss for what to say next. Sorry for venting at you after not talking to you for years? That sure was an emotional breakdown I just had, let's do it again sometime? I wish I wasn't such a wreck? Some sort of goo pun?

He settled for something simple.

"...thanks." Dr. Krankcase said at last, and he extended a hand through the bars.

Not another word was spoken. There was no need to between the two of them. Instead Mags quietly seized his hand and they shook hands as if they sealed a business deal, fellow scientists that saw each other as equals despite the massive difference in employment.

"Take care of yourself, Cranberry." Mags said as she walked up the stairs. He watched the vampire inventor leave, his eyes following her until she ascended past his line of vision. His gloved fingers kept toying with the kitten mug she left behind as he leaned against a wall, his five mechanical legs folded underneath him. Even though he was going to spend the night in this dark jail cell, sealed away from the rest of the world that he had caused so much damage to, a world filled with Mabu and plants and Skylanders that hated him, he couldn't help but grin to himself.

Maybe today wasn't such a bad day after all.