Okay, so, um, wow has it been ages and ages since I've really posted anything at all. Or even really written anything for that matter. There's kind of a lengthy Author's Note that's attached to this first chapter, and I would really appreciate it if you guys would look it over really quickly before you get to the story. I promise you will never see another one of that length again. Well, I promise that you probably won't. I can't control everything, but this first one should take care of it.

Author's Notes:

Have you ever had a really incredible idea and then realized that you weren't quite good enough yet to do it the justice it deserves? Because that is completely what happened with this story. I got the idea for this waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 2005 before The Ultimate Enemy even aired, back when we just had the basic plot and teasers for it. Even after it aired the plot bunny wouldn't leave me alone (although I will say it was more influenced by the episode than it had been originally). I had like 6 or 7 pages worth of notes in a notebook and the plot was complex and good and I was so excited about it, I even had four chapters written up and I just realized that I felt like I wasn't able to do it justice, like I really wanted to, so I promised myself I would work on getting better and come back to it.

But of course, time went on and I did get better, but DP ended and my interest in it mellowed and my mom accidentally threw out the notebook with all my notes in it and it just kind of became that thing I'd think about once in while, maybe reread the chapters I'd already had written and wonder about what could have been.

So flash forward to tens years later (I guess that's kind of ironic given what episode I'm writing about, but whatever) and I start rewatching Danny Phantom because it's on my Hulu and I can. And I'm inspired again and take a pen to paper and rewrite what I can remember about the notes I used to have and fill in the blanks where I can't and it's a little less complex then it used to be, but that's okay because there were probably plot holes big enough to drive a truck through in the other version.

Anyways, this basically came about because I have always been Danny/Sam shipper trash and loved them shamelessly and without end. And I always felt that the writers could have done so much with their relationship and Dan Phantom seeing Sam for the first time again and it would have just been a great way to explore Danny, Sam, and Tucker's past (and again, I'm Danny/Sam shipper trash so my story is pretty much just going to focus on them. With some love for Tucker because, well, he's freaking awesome). There's a note on my profile page that says this story is influenced by the Kim Possible minimovie A Sitch in Time, but it's been ages since I've seen that movie (damn, lol, something else to see if they have on my Hulu) so I couldn't honestly tell you how the original idea was influenced by it or if the newer version (which is really just a cleaned up version of the older one) is still influenced by it. So let's just say maybe.

Last thing (I promise), I do have this story completely planned out, but so far I only have the first chapter written. I was happily surprised by the life that's still in the Phandom (I'm totally going to ignore the joke in there) when I posted Put a Sock On It a few days ago. It's just been so long that I thought for sure the fandom would be dead (again, going to ignore the joke here). Everything seemed to kind of fall into place and I figured it was time for me to write this. So I'm going to post this today (Saturday) just to make sure that this is something people would have interest in reading. It'll probably take me about a week to upload the next chapter so that I have some time to get a head in writing. After that I plan on updating more frequently.

Thanks for taking the time to read this ridiculously long note. It should (hopefully) be the only one you have to read. At least, the only long one.

P.S. I'd like to apologize for the god awful formatting of my last one-shot. It's been so long since I've uploaded anything that I forgot how royally FanFiction screws with the formatting if you just upload a file.

Update 10Oct15: There was just a ridiculous amount of typos in this so I fixed them. Otherwise, not much else has changed.

Chapter 1

"It is not acceptable, Clockwork."

The elderly ghost turns away from the scene before him to face his two visitors, morphing into a young child as he does so. He is unsurprised to find himself face to eyeball with two Observers, dressed only in their long cloaks. He's been expecting them after all; he'd been expecting them since the beginning of time.

"You mean this?" Clockwork, shifting to the form of a young man, turns back to wave at the image playing on the face of his large clock.

A young African American woman flies over what is left of Amity Park and though the scene looks peaceful, her soldier haircut and tense shoulders say otherwise. She lands on a tower and the three ghosts watch as she opens a hatch and checks a computer screen, smiling in approval at what she sees.

"Amity Park is the only place in the human realm that exists in the future!" One of the Observers cries just as the scene zooms out to show the large blue force field that is surrounding the town. "And even that is about to crumble."

As he speaks, the walls of the force field start to shake and the young woman looks up in shock and horror as they slowly start to waver and flicker before finally disappearing completely.

Clockwork chuckles, still keeping his eyes on the scene playing out before him. It's utter chaos now, citizens running for whatever shelter they can find and the African American girl hopping back onto her hover board and taking for the skies. "I was unaware that you cared much for the going ons of the human realm."

The second of Observer crosses his arms and narrows his eye. "We don't. We care about the future of our realm. Of the Ghost Zone. And it seems to us that you should too!"

Now an old man once again, Clockwork ignores his two visitors and raises his staff towards the scene. It glows blue for just a moment before sound suddenly surrounds them and the image grows larger, encompassing most of the wall. "Let's just see, shall we?"

"Hello Valerie." A dark voice chuckles and the woman on screen scowls.

"You!" She hisses venomously, trying to keep her bearing while still searching for the invisible intruder.

"Of course me." The voice replies. "Who else were you expecting?"

"How?" She raises herself up higher, lifting a gun to aim at where she knows the voice is coming from, even if she can't see it. "How did you get passed the ghost shield?"

There's more laughter as a figure phases into existent in front of her, floating just high enough above her to flaunt the advantage he so obviously has. "Like my newest trick?" He taunts, brushing invisible lint off his shoulders. "I call it my ghostly wail." He smirks. "It's new. But incredibly effective."

His opponent just narrows her eyes. "I'm not afraid of you! I wasn't afraid of you as a teenager, I wasn't afraid of you when you tried to destroy everything, and I'm certainly not afraid of you now!"

"That's a shame," He sighs dramatically as he drops a few inches so that he's floating almost evenly with the ghost hunter. His red eyes narrow and he grins evilly, "Because you really should be."

"Not going to happen, Phantom!" She growls before firing her weapon.

The ray passes through the suddenly intangible ghost harmlessly, but this doesn't seem to bother Valerie as she shifts her foot a few inches and steps down on the hidden switch of her hover board. Jets roar to life on the back of the board and she quickly flies away from the ghost.

"Got to get him away from the town." She mutters to herself. She looks around for a safer place before her gaze settles on what's left on Amity Park's only park. "Guess that'll do." She turns her head and sees that the ghost has lost interest in her, instead choosing to shoot ghost rays sporadically into the crowd of panicking civilians. She grimaces before stopping just long enough to taunt the villain. "Come on, Danny! Catch me if you can."

Phantom growls in rage, his eyes and flame like hair burning brightly in outrage. "Do. Not. Call me that. Ever!" He cries before turning his back on where the citizens are all still desperately trying to run for cover. He lunges after her, but she's already hit the button for her jets and is tearing off through the skies, moving away from him as fast as she possibly can.

"Good." She breathes a sigh of relief as she realizes he's giving chase. "I'm sure he knows what I'm doing, but I don't need to beat him." She frowns. "I don't know if I can beat him. I just need to keep him distracted long enough for Dad to get the ghost shield back up and running.

She lands on the dead grass with a silent thump, her hover board retracting back into her suit. She searches the empty skies above her. "I don't see him," She looks down to study the scanner on her wrist, "but this thing has been locked onto his ecto signature since we were teenagers. And it says he's here in the park. Probably waiting to ambush me." She mutters darkly.

Still, she takes out a small but powerful looking gun and moves ahead slowly. She inches her way around the trunk of a large tree, one of the few that's still standing in the park, even if it is dead like everything else. The light on her scanner is blinking quickly, meaning she's closing in on her target.

"It's useless to hope for the element of surprise." She hoists her gun up as her brows furrow in determination. "But maybe I don't need it."

She rounds the rest of the tree swiftly, pulling the trigger and firing before her opponent has any time to react. He goes down with a shriek of surprise and Valerie's eyes widen as she takes in the sight before.

"You!"

Clockwork waves his staff once again and sound disappears as the image shrinks back down to fit onto the face of the large clock. He turns back to face his visitors, morphing from baby to young man as he does so. "Not what you were hoping to see, I assume."

The Observers narrow their respective eyes at him. "No." One states plainly. "Normally you would be correct. We don't particularly care about the going ons of the human realm."

"But this...this Phantom is not only a threat to their realm. He is a threat to ours. He has unrightfully claimed-"

"He has every right to that claim." Clockwork cuts off the second Observer sharply.

The other ghost shifts nervously for a second before nodding curtly. "Well, regardless, he is a danger and a terror to the ghost zone. He needs to be eliminated."

"But you can't just eliminate Danny Phantom." Clockwork shakes his head, already knowing the Observer's predicament. "Because that would leave a power vacuum that the Ghost Zone is incapable of handling. War would break out and spread everywhere. Including the human realm. There wouldn't even be a safe place for the ghosts who didn't want to fight to hide. The Ghost Zone would crumble even faster in that future."

"Yes." The two Observers agree uneasily.

"And you can't eliminate Danny Fenton," the scene behind Clockwork shifts and it suddenly shows a dark haired, blue eyed boy chatting amiably with his two friends as they walk towards school, "Because otherwise you get this." The scene shifts back to the ghost from before, red eyes and hair blazing against the dark backdrop as he laughs cruelly.

The corners of Clockwork's mouth shift up as he turns to view the scene. "And what, exactly, do you expect me to do about it?"

"Clockwork..." The currently elderly ghost would almost have thought the Observer's were groaning in annoyance if they didn't consider themselves about silly human traits like that.

"Are you telling me," the tug at his lips turns into a full blown smirk as he turns back to face them, now a baby once again, "that you want me to meddle?"

This time, there's no denying the groan of annoyance that both ghosts give. But they must decide that their mission is more important than their annoyance at his gloating because they just look up at him and respond with a single: "Yes."

Clockwork's smile turns almost gleeful as he waves his staff and the image on the clock shifts from the future to the present where Danny Fenton is currently sprawled out on the grass of Amity Park's park with the rest of his class, eyes half open and clearly barely paying any attention to what is going on around him. His female friend jabs him the ribs, trying to get him to pay attention, but he just laughs and pokes her back playfully.

"I think," Clockwork lifts his staff, his change from baby to young man helping him reach the clock face as he gives it a gentle tap. It freezes on the image of Danny and his friend laughing, while the third member of their group is rolling his eyes, not even looking up from his PDA. "That I can figure something out."

"Whatever it is," one Observer mentions as he and his friend finally start to leave, "just be sure to do it quickly. It's only a matter of hours until-"

"Yes, I know!" He snaps in annoyance. "I am the ghost of time, after all." He ushers the two floating eyeballs out the door before returning to where the image of Danny and his friends is still frozen on his clock face.

"It's only a matter how hours for you." He tells both the absent Observers and the boy on the screen. "I, however, have all the time in the world. Now what," He asks himself with an almost cheeky grin, "am I going to do about you, young Daniel?"

Okay! Well that's it for chapter 1. We'll get to Danny, Sam, and Tucker in the next part, I swear. Leave a review if you feel up to it, I'd love to know what you guys think! And sorry about the title. But you can't give me a ghost called Clockwork and not expect a pun. (that's a warning. There will be at least one pun).