A/N: Yay! I was waiting a long time to finally post this and here it is. A fresh new CWACOM fanfic that has nothing to do with my other CWACOM fanfics. I first want to thank Qille for agreeing to Beta-read this fanfic (thank you!). And I want to thank everyone who will be reading this fanfic (thanks guys!) Now I just want to say I hope to make this one as good as the others and I really hope everyone likes it! Read, review and tell me how you like it so far =)

PART 1

17 years ago… 1992…

The sky was storming up.

The clouds were swallowing up the sky into darkness. Everything was getting dark as night and even the air was becoming like piercing cold needles on exposed skin. The coldness that stung the air was soon overpowered by the howling wind that ripped along like a beast. The wind tore at trees and blew away anything as light as a garbage can standing on the street.

The ocean itself was a raging monster that lapped at the shore and overflowed the chaotic streets. Its teal waters clawed at the screaming people; who really didn't know where the storm had come from. But everyone was going insane.

These were the citizens of Swallow Falls. They had lived near the ocean for the longest time, and never had it acted up like this before.

Some of the people running around were quite known to many. There was Tim Lockwood; who was running home to his wife and son, who was only 5 years old at the time. There was Grace McHale; who was the mother of Brent. Her husband was running around somewhere else. He was the Mayor of the town back then and was trying to reassure people that everything was going to be okay.

There was a man named Joe Towne; who kept crying out 'I had a dream like this once!'

Some short Italian 23 year old guy (who had moved into the town from Italy) was screaming that the ocean water was ruining his perfect hair.

Something must have stirred up in the sky, because it began to pour. Rain was coming down quick and was drenching the citizens even more. It was causing a flood to splash around in the streets, as the ocean water mixed with the rain water. Those who couldn't get shelter were standing atop cars or scrambling up streetlamps.

"Mom!" came a child's howl through the rain. It was a boy with long blond hair and wide blue-green eyes. Holding his hand was a girl at least a year younger than him. She must have been the boy's sister. The water was up to her chest and up to the boy's waist.

"MOM!" the boy shouted through the rain and his sister was now beginning to cry. There was no sound of their mother. He knew she was around. He had seen her earlier.

The water was rushing around quicker and by now people had no way out. The boy was lifted up and saved from the water. Before his sister could have been saved, the water swept her away.

After the flood, there was no sign of the boy's parents. They had just vanished. Other than them, the boy's sister had gone too. No one knew what happened to them. The boy was left to live with the 23 year old Italian.

Unfortunately, seven years later in 1999, another terrible storm similar to the one in 1992 hit Swallow Falls. More people vanished and it was a mystery to where they ended up.

Other mysterious things began to happen in Swallow Falls after that and no one knew what or who caused them. There was also someone or something that was keeping the town upright and out of trouble. And this defiantly wasn't the Mayor's doings. He only caused the trouble.

xxx

If you packed your bags now and said you were headed over to ChewandSwallow, people would just shake their heads at you. Why? Well, The Great Food Storm that passed across the world happened a month ago. The whole world hated ChewandSwallow for it and the tourist rate flew downward by a lot for the little town.

The cleanup that followed after was long and tedious. Citizens walked around with garbage bags and giant black government helicopters hovered over the town and collected the food in giant nets. No one really knew where they were taking the food or what would happen to it.

But what bothered the citizens of ChewandSwallow was how much money they had to pay those people who had come to help clean up the food. Not only did they have to pay for that, but the town had gone pretty short on money after a lot of money went into building Sardine Land. They still had to pay back the company that was hired to build it. Plus when money was loaned from the bank to build ChewandSwallow, it had never been paid back.

The total amount of money they had to pay back was one that ended with a couple of zeros at the end. The number was up in the high millions. This scared the citizens of ChewandSwallow. They would never be able to pay back a sum like that.

They were all ready to point fingers at Mayor Shelbourne. He was the one who used up all the money. Except he wasn't there to do anything. He couldn't pay anything back. Why? He was dead. It was said he had drowned out at sea.

So now the town was in serious trouble.

The only good thing that had come out of the Great Food Incident was that they didn't have to eat sardines anymore. Restaurants, cafés and supermarkets popped up. Crops were grown from seeds taken from the giant food. With the help of Flint Lockwood, the crops grew to normal sizes.

No food was shipped in from the states or other countries. Everything was made and grown in ChewandSwallow.

Right now at 7:15 am, inside the town's supermarket, Flint Lockwood and Brent McHale were riding shopping carts down the empty aisles. They would start at the end of the aisle and after a running start, jump into the carts as quick as possible and speed down the aisle. At the end they'd crash into either the wall or some shelf.

Brent McHale worked at the supermarket. He usually came in at 7:00 am to unlock the doors. Then at 7:30, Tim Lockwood; who was the supermarket's manager, would come in. The actual place opened at 8:00.

This morning, Brent and Flint decided to go shopping cart racing. And the only time they could do that was if they got there really early in the morning

"Flint! Watch this!" Brent called to Flint.

Flint Lockwood was the genius of the town. He had crazy spiked brown hair and purplish-blue eyes. He was pretty skinny for his age compared to Brent, but was still strong enough to lift something as heavy as a car engine.

Other than his looks, he was extremely clever and had a big imagination. With both combined he invented the zaniest inventions, such as Spray-On-Shoes, Ratbirds, a Flying Car and the FLDSMDFR. He was the inventor of the town and was always seen wearing his most prized possession: his white lab coat.

Brent McHale had gelled up blonde hair and wide blue-green eyes. He used to be the town's star when the Baby Brent's Sardine Company was still around.

Brent used to live with Mayor Shelbourne, and that turned him into a pretty malicious person. Now that Shelbourne was dead, Brent had transformed into this whole new person.

The Sardine Company had shut down and now he was just a normal citizen. But he still wore his light blue tracksuit, which he had worn back in the days of his stardom. Recently he was seen walking around in a chicken suit. When the Ratbirds had eaten away the upper half, he finally realized he had to get some clothes.

"Look out for the—" Flint began to cry out, but it was too late. Brent smashed into a canned corn pyramid and cans flew everywhere.

Sitting in the cart, Brent covered his head as the cans rained down on top of him and filled the cart. Once silence filled the place, he lifted his blonde head and looked around with wide eyes.

"Uh oh…" he replied rather quietly and glanced at Flint.

Flint laughed and watched Brent try to get out of the shopping cart, but it flipped over and Brent face-planted the floor with a thud.

When Brent lifted his face, Flint laughed louder.

Usually, Flint didn't hang out with Brent or do crazy things like go shopping cart aisle racing. But it was Brent trying to get Flint to stop worrying about Sam.

Sam had to leave for New York the very next day after the Great Food Incident because they were calling her back to the Weather News Network. At first she thought about not going back and just getting a job in ChewandSwallow, but the WNN was giving her a big project to work on and an even bigger role.

"I'll come to visit, Flint," Sam said in a quiet voice, "I promise."

The two sat on top of a giant marshmallow as night fell over the tired town. Tonight the sky was clear without any heated purple clouds clashing and roaring about. A fresh blanket of stars sighed with relief as they danced across the sky and the moon glowed a beautiful gentle white glow.

"I-I hope so." Flint nodded slowly.

After the kiss near the docks, he would blush every time he looked over at Sam. She would just smile warmly. The good thing that came out of that kiss was that she was much nicer to him and the two weren't so awkward around each other.

"And Flint, you will NOT become all miserable and upset when I leave. I'll make sure Brent takes care of that." She smiled at him.

Flint had just sighed. He already felt just like that.

Just when he got himself a girlfriend, she was already heading back. He wished she could just stay a few more days. Just a few.

Slowly, he reached out and took her hand. It was soft and a little too warm. He could feel the sweat covering it in a thin layer. But he didn't care. All he wanted to hold her hand for now.

When he turned to glance at her to see her expression, she leaned in and gently kissed him on the lips. A slow blush spread across his face and he smiled a bit.

"You promise?" Sam asked in a faint whisper.

"I promise." He answered and kissed her back, still blushing.

"Flint!"

Snapping out of his thoughts, Flint looked down at Brent; who was climbing out of the shopping cart. As soon as Brent stumbled to his feet he pressed his finger to his lips and motioned for Flint to listen. Freezing, Flint cupped his hand at his ear and listened closely.

A soft whistle was coming from outside and both of them exchanged horrified expressions. It was Tim. He had come early.

Brent told Flint to clean up the scattered cans, while he jogged outside to distract Tim. Nodding, Flint began to catch cans that were trying to roll away down the aisle. One rolled under a shelf and Flint decided to ignore that one. He picked up the motionless ones and ran back to the display platform to stack them into a pyramid.

He didn't seem to have enough time, because he heard both Brent and Tim enter the store.

"Well I hope nothing was knocked over!" Brent exclaimed in a loud voice and Flint knew that was for him.

The cans would take forever to stack, so he just dumped them all into the shopping cart and then drove the shopping cart away and to the back of the store, where Brent could hopefully deal with them later.

Next, Flint ran around the store to the front doors. He made sure his dad didn't see him. Really, Tim thought Flint was still sound asleep up in his lab.

But Brent did. He turned around and glanced briefly at Flint, before continuing his conversation with Tim.

Flint ran out, hoping that Steve didn't do anything in his lab while he was gone. Because there was a stash of gummy bears hidden, that Flint only promised to use for emergency use. Steve might have sniffed that out…

That could wait. Flint sighed to himself and slipped his hands into his pockets.

The streets of ChewandSwallow were very quiet so early in the morning. Everyone was either sleeping away or some of the older residents were up and already doing things around their houses. Not even the Ratbirds stirred from where they dozed on the rooftops of the buildings down Main Street.

They were the roosters of the town. They were the ones who served as alarm clocks for some people. And it wasn't the sun that made them rouse from their sleep. It was the old clock tower's loud bell that rang every morning only at 8 o'clock. Long ago, when the tower was built atop City Hall, it would ring every hour. Something went wrong and no one ever bothered to fix it.

Flint decided to take a walk down Main Street and enjoy the emptiness.

The morning air was thin and filled with the salty smell of the ocean. Oh the ocean. Flint thought it was beautiful how ChewandSwallow was surrounded by water. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply.

Somewhere a seagull squawked in the distance and after came the crashing of small waves that rolled onto the shore, or splashed against the dock's poles. These sounds tiptoed into his ears and sang out on the inside of him.

Ahead, Flint looked up to see City Hall. It was an old white building that needed a few repairs on the inside. Sadly, no wanted to fix it up. Just like the clock tower.

With this keeping up, soon no one will even care for the town. Things will stay broken and kicked back, only to be forgotten. We need to do something. Fix up the town. Pay up for everything unpaid. Find and elect a good Mayor and most importantly change the town's name back to Swallow Falls.Flint thought and looked up at the gray sky.

He smiled to himself when he pictured the town looking all beautiful and clean again.

xxx

"We must do something about all the problems this town is being pushed into!" a woman wearing a periwinkle business suit replied sternly. Her grayish-blue eyes scanned the small group before her.

"Ugh, you tell us that every single day. I think the point got across by now," a young man said, rolling his eyes from where he sat in a swivel chair. He was tired and could barely keep his eyes open.

The woman closed her eyes for a second and took in a deep breath. Opening them, she looked up at the other man and woman, who sat in the room. Both were alert and seemed to be listening to her. Kinda. The man was watching a fly buzz around the room. The woman had her full attention on her, which was good.

"I know, but this time I'm serious. Mayor Remo Shelbourne has disappeared and the town is without a Mayor." The woman in the business suit shivered at the name.

"Uh, he's dead," the man sitting in the swivel chair snorted and spun around in a circle.

"How the hell do you know?" the woman who had been paying attention gasped.

"Psh, isn't it obvious? Well it doesn't matter now. The bastard drowned and now we can party. I'll get the beer and food." The man jumped to his feet and, yawning, stumbled out of the room. He already seemed to be slightly drunk.

The woman in the business suit sucked in her breath and was about to call after the man who just left, but stopped herself and went over to some file cabinets in the corner. She pulled a small silver key out of her pocket and stuck it in the cabinet's lock. With a loud click, the cabinet shuffled open.

Inside were files on every single person in ChewandSwallow dating all the way back to when the town was first founded. The woman pulled out a couple of folders and came back to the table. The man who had left came back with a cooler and a box of saltine crackers. He sat between the other man and woman.

Opening the cooler, he pulled out a cold beer and popped it open. Taking a long swing, he turned to glance at the man and woman sitting on either side of him.

"You want one?" The man stuffed his hand into the cooler and pulled out a beer. He offered it to the woman. She pushed his hand away, disgusted.

"I'll take it!" the other man grinned and snatched the beer from the other man's hand.

"Will you two STOP IT? Listen up, or I'll kick you two out!" the woman in the business suit snapped from where she across from them.

She opened the first folder and handed it to the woman sitting across from her. Another folder she handed to the two men. Once the folders were opened, everyone leaned in to see who they were reading about.

The woman; who got the first folder, had gotten Mayor Shelbourne's folder. The two men had opened up Flint Lockwood's folder.

"Okay, were any of Flint's relatives ever town Mayors? I'm thinking of putting Flint on the job." The woman in the business suit asked the two men.

"Flint's great-grandfather was a Mayor. Then after him came some dude, whose name is covered in white-out. After him came that brutal election where Marco McHale, Tim Lockwood and Remo Shelbourne tried running for Mayor. Of course Remo won." One of the men replied and took a long sip from his beer can.

The woman in the business suit scratched her head and then looked over at the other woman, reading Mayor Shelbourne's folder. She asked her if he had any relatives, who were ever leaders of the town.

"Actually no." the woman furrowed her eyebrows.
"Does he have any kids? A wife, perhaps?" the woman in the business suit asked.

"Nope. He's single and no kids. I'm actually not surprised. Oh wait… he was a foster father to Brent McHale and some girl named Laeka Vovkeena. The Laeka girl was only with him for a month and then she disappeared." The woman gasped and looked up at the others.

"Not disappeared. Simply ran away." The woman in the business suit chuckled and looked up at the ceiling.

Everyone in the room stared at her.

"So we can get Flint to become Mayor of the town?" one of the men asked.

"Yes, I suppose." The woman in the business suit smiled.

It got strangely quiet in the room after that. The only sound was the soft noise of crunching crackers and maybe the humming computer in the corner. Speaking of the humming, it seemed to get louder.

Ding!

The computer let out the ding and immediately every head in the room turned to look at it. It was just an email that came in. The woman in the business suit got up to see what the email was, but at the same time the phone on the table rang loudly.

She froze and retraced her steps back to the table. A trembling finger clicked the speaker button. As she did, a loud whispering voice began to speak.

"Hello. Don't bother picking up the phone or even answering. I know you're listening."The voice hissed and no one said anything.

The voice didn't sound familiar at all.

"Listen up. If you want the money and want your town to stay safe, then listen to me. The WMRs have been scheduled to happen soon. The microchips have been hidden. THEY are watching. We are watching too. You have one minute to print out the email you just got or your computer will explode. Starting NOW! 60, 59…"

"Wait, what?" the woman cried.

"56, 55…"

The two men dropped their beers and both raced to the computer to get the printer on.

"48, 47, 46, 45, oh wait I pressed minus 10 second by accident! Oh silly me! 35, 34, 33…"

"Holy f***! The printer is out of paper!" one of the men screamed.

The woman snatched up Mayor Shelbourne's profile file and raced over to stuff it into the printer.

But they were too late. A loud explosion erupted out of the computer.

A/N: *evil smile* at first I didn't want the computer to explode. But I guess my evil self broke out of the closet and decided to explode it. Hope you guys liked that chapter! Happy CWACOM anniversary ^^