Just a story that occurred to me and because I think Clockwork rocks!

Disclaimer: I only own Rachel Stockhart.

Time's Best Friend

Rachel Stockhart sighed as she got home from school. She was so ready to just curl up and watch a good movie or watch her favorite television series, "Danny Phantom".

She remembered when the show first came out and when it was finally released on DVD, she purchased it and had watched almost all of the episodes, immediately liking the ghost called Clockwork. She thought he was really cool and now decided to watch the episode where Clockwork was introduced. She now settled down to watch it.

In the Ghost Zone in another dimension, Clockwork saw the girl and noticed that she was again watching that same episode where he was apparently introduced in the series the humans called "Danny Phantom". While the show made him cringe at times, he could somewhat understand human's humor and now heard the girl sigh.

"Man, I wish Clockwork would be able to use his time powers on those girls and boys at school," she said, laying down and falling asleep.

Clockwork smiled. What better way to get to know this girl than to grant her wish. He now opened a portal to the girl's dimension and disappeared into it.

Rachel woke up the next morning and happily got dressed, since today was a day off for her and she had all sorts of things planned to do. A sudden squealing of tires drew her attention to the front yard where she saw the souped-up Camaro that belonged to one of the bullies. It was an ugly greenish-yellow color with all sorts of custom-made accessories. She sighed.

"What do they want now?" she asked, not noticing that she was being watched. Clockwork frowned and followed her to the porch where she confronted the four bullies.

"What do you want?" she asked, annoyed.

"None of your business, blonde," said one of the boys in a derogatory way, making the others laugh. Rachel grew angry at that and suddenly saw eggs in their hands, with cans of spray paint and silly string.

Rachel tried to run back into the house, but the door was locked and she realized she must have accidently locked it. Berating herself, she pressed her back to the door and braced herself for the oncoming eggs, paint, and silly string.

The bullies had just aimed and fired when all of a sudden, everything froze as Clockwork's staff glowed and he swung his in a sweeping arc, making the eggs, paint, and silly string fly back towards the bullies and placed himself in front of Rachel, although she couldn't see him yet and he then pressed the button on the clock on top of his staff.

Rachel saw a flash of purple and heard the bullies scream. She cautiously looked over the purple-cloaked figure's shoulder and saw the four bullies all covered in egg, paint, and silly string. They looked astonished at the figure in front of Rachel floated towards them, giving them all a hint that he was not a human, but a ghost.

Clockwork came up close to the bullies, who were trying to get the gunk off of themselves, and they saw him approach. The driver stammered as he saw the ghost look at him with an angry look, before smirking evilly at them.

"Boo," he said, already knowing what was going to happen next.

The bullies screamed louder and took off, the driver flooring it in a mad effort to get away, but only ended up drawing the attention of the police who chased them through town.

Clockwork chuckled to himself and turned to find the girl gone, but he knew where she was.

Rachel leaned against the door leading to the backyard, having gotten in after remembering there was a spare key out back. She now decided she better go sit down in the living room and try to figure out what happened.

"Okay, the bullies show up and so does a ghost out of nowhere," she said. "That's impossible. Ghosts aren't real."

"I am real, child."

Rachel jumped and saw the same ghost from before and screamed loudly.

"Go away!" she yelled, her mind in panic mode as she tried to run.

"Time, out," said Clockwork, amused as he watched her suddenly stop in her mad dash to get away and he floated in front of her. "Time, in," he said and she collided with him and fell backwards in surprise. Shaking her head, she quickly scooted back as fast as she could and jumped to her feet, running to her room as Clockwork watched with a smirk.

Rachel quickly locked her door and tried to think. "It can't be," she said. "That ghost is Clockwork?"

She quickly put in the DVD with the episode "The Ultimate Enemy" and saw that the ghost she saw matched Clockwork on the show. She was now really stunned.

"But he's only a cartoon character," she said to herself. "He can't be real."

A chuckle sounded behind her and she shrieked, berating herself for forgetting Clockwork was a ghost and could phase through the walls. She was ready to run again when he spoke.

"What's wrong, Rachel?" he asked, surprising her. "I thought I was your favorite." So saying, he pointed to the television screen where the picture was frozen mid-way, showing his features as a young man.

Rachel just ran, but then heard Clockwork say, "Time, out," and time really slowed down. Rachel could still see things happening and could move her head rapidly, but for the rest of her body, she couldn't move it very fast. It was almost a snail's pace that her body moved, she noticed.

Clockwork whizzed in front of her and saw her face look horrified. He only smiled, as he had an idea to get her to not be afraid. His hands suddenly moved to her sides and began tickling her.

Rachel laughed crazily when she felt the Master of Time's hands tickling her and she tried to move to protect her ticklish spots, but with her arms moving very slowly, she couldn't defend herself from the tickling, which Clockwork speeded up, making her laugh even harder, especially when he started on her stomach.

"PLEASE! STOP!" Rachel managed to say through her laughter, as she felt Clockwork tickle her stomach a bit harder. She squealed as she tried to move, but really couldn't.

"Will you stop running away from me?" Clockwork asked, now tickling her underarms, which really made her shriek with laughter before his hands moved to her shoulder blades and tickled her there, making tears fall from her eyes.

"YES!" she cried out, desperately. "PLEASE!"

Seeing that she was beginning to tire, Clockwork stopped and pressed the button on the top of his staff. "Time, in," he said and she fell to the floor, gasping for breath as she weakly sat on the carpet and felt a familiar arm come around her shoulders to keep her from falling over.

When she finally got her breath back, she looked in amazement at Clockwork who smiled at her. "How is it that you're real?" she asked, puzzled.

"I exist in the dimension you know as 'Danny Phantom'," he said. "After watching you for a while, I decided to come and grant your wish about scaring off those half-minded humans you called 'bullies'."

Rachel now laughed as she remembered how scared the bullies had been. "You can be pretty scary when you're mad, Clockwork," she admitted. "But you're my favorite."

"Why is that?" he asked her, truly curious.

She smiled. "You're not one of Danny's enemies and you also look really cool and we both agree the Observants, or Observers, whatever they are called, are annoying," she said.

Clockwork chuckled at that. "I agree they tend to be pests at times," he said.

After a while longer, Clockwork had to return to his domain, but promised to visit Rachel, as he revealed she was the only friend he had outside of his world.

Rachel hugged Clockwork who hugged her back. "I'll always be your friend, Clockwork," she said and then smiled. "I guess that makes me time's best friend."

Clockwork nodded. "Yes, it does," he said before teleporting away.

Rachel was home celebrating her birthday when suddenly a bright blue light lit up the room and she turned in surprise, her surprise turning to delight when she saw who it was.

"Clockwork!" she exclaimed, hugging him and he returned the hug, chuckling.

"Happy birthday, kiddo," he said and handed her a gift. She opened it and saw it was a beautiful mosaic dolphin necklace. She hugged him again.

"Thank you, Clockwork!" she said happily.

"You're welcome, my friend," he said as he gladly returned the affectionate embrace.

Well, I had a load of fun with this one. Please leave a review!

GoldGuardian2418