Disclaimer- Does it seem like I own DP? If I did, I'd be rich, old, and male!

A Twist in Time

Elizabeth Kaine

There stood the six people, stunned at what they had just heard. Well, five were stunned, the one who wasn't was the one who brought the news. Three of the people, including the one who had brought the seemingly shocking news, were ghosts. The other three, were normal human beings. One of them, happened to be a punk-rocker with green hair that reached her waist and amethyst eyes (me!), another girl stood beside her, only she was a goth girl with short, black hair in a top-knot and the same amethyst eyes. The last normal, human was a dark-skinned boy with turquoise eyes and a red barrette sitting slightly lopsided on his head. The first of the three ghosts was a boy, no older than fourteen, with white hair and glowing green eyes. The next ghost bore a strange resemblance to the first, younger ghost, only with a strange shade of blue-green skin and red eyes, his hair a fiery mess. The last ghost was the strangest of all the people in the group; he wore an expressionless face and a violet cloak. A clock body, a scar on his right eye, and glowing, red eyes topped of his ghostly appearance. The punk girl opened her mouth to say what everyone else was thinking, "You have got to be kidding me!"

... Let me show you how this all started...

Friday, 1:21 PM, September 21st

I stared at the parchment with a hateful stare; I had never made my face so demented looking. The man in front of me was wearing a terrified look that was understandable considering the look I had on my face was absolutely horrifying to anyone who would have laid there eyes on my expression at that moment. The man in front of me happened to be an SRI agent, and the parchment I happened to be holding was the amount of taxes I had yet to pay.

"I absolutely refuse to pay!" I yelled in fury. "I already paid you your frigging taxes, you must have a mistake!" I ran a hand through my punkish, green hair. My angry eyes locked with his nervous green ones.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Kaine, I'm just the agent who counts up the due taxes." He stated miserably, fiddling with his red and white striped tie. He gulped as I leaned into his face. "You must be doing your job wrong!"

"Elizabeth Kaine," He said, more sternly, shocking me slightly at his change of attitude. "I'm sorry, but these taxes MUST be paid, or we'll have to take charge of the situation."

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm still having trouble settling into the good life!" I yelled at him, throwing my hands around to show him I was talking about the trashy apartment I called home. "I'm in my third year of college, I still don't have a good enough job to pay these taxes, and I'm not exactly getting the thickest end of the stick in this world!"

"So you admit that you didn't pay the taxes?" He asked me wryly. Oh, shit! I thought angry at myself for letting that slip. Busted! After a moment of waiting and me not giving the man an answer, he grinned cockily. "So it seems."

I stood from my seat, "I just need a little more time! Just to work up the cash through the pay I get from the book shop, I'll get it in!" I said, diffidently.

After a moment of waiting for his answer, he stood up and gave me a blank look. "Ms. Kaine, the taxes are due when they are due, and not even an SRI agent can change that," He spoke in a dull tone. "I'm sorry, but the money is still due by the end of the month." With that, he left the table and walked out the door. I let my head fall into my hands when I heard the door close quietly.

Darn it, I'm never going to get this paid! I just wish there was some way I could get this done and over with! I obviously couldn't do this on my own. Suddenly the door opened and someone entered my house. I snapped my head up and saw my friend, Robby, sit down on the lazy boy chair. "Hey," he said pleasantly. "I saw you tax man leave the apartment. Was he up here?"

"I don't want to talk about it!" I said into my hands. "Why me?" Robby gave me a dry look, "Why not you?" I glared back at him and ignored the comment. We sat in silence for a little while before he finally spoke up.

"I know what will make you feel better!" He cried out of the blue. I whipped up from my half asleep state and looked questionably at him. He just grinned and said the words that will change both of our lives, forever. "Making fun of stupid shows!"

...What? It does!

I slumped down beside him on the couch and he clicked to the Sci-Fi channel and the third episode of star-treck appeared on screen. We made fun of the next three shows that aired after that (which happened to be an alien watch, Grey's Attonomy, and a discovery thing), before finally getting bored with the channel. "Why don't we make fun of some random cartoon?" I suggested. "I liked watching the mouths of the characters to see if they moved in-sync, so that was one of the main things I usually watched for when we did this to cheer me up.

"Sure," He agreed instantly and flipped up t channel 170, where all the cartoon channels started into a list of ten channels, consisting of two Disney channels, two Nickelodeon channels, and a few others.

The show that was on was one that I had never heard of, or seen before. "Danny Phantom?" I asked. Rob didn't answer, he actually started to lean towards the edge of the couch a little bit. I grinned, So Robby still hasn't completely grown up. I mused to myself. I locked eyes with the T.V. and stared at a black-haired, blue-eyed boy on the television set. A goth girl appeared on the set, along with a dark-skinned boy in a goofy looking hat. The show seemed a little bit maturer than other shows, and showed a little bit of violence. I realized that the show had started about ten minutes ago, so I had missed out on a few things.

The show ended up being about a half ghost boy named Danny Fenton. I personally, kind of liked the show. It was pretty mature, with the discussion of dating, death, and lots of violence. It was kind of cool. "Hey, Robby," I started, looking over at my friend to see that his eyes were locked with the TV, but it was a little unnerving. He didn't have any kind of expression on his face that i could see and his eyes were a glowing red. I passed it off as a trick of the light and continued with my question. "Do you ever wish you were in a cartoon?" I asked seriously.

He turned his head toward me;his eyes still glowed red and he gave me a blank look. "If I could be in a cartoon, I'd want to be in this one." I looked at him and he nodded. An odd scene came on and I pulled my attention away from Robby for a moment. "Do you wish you were in the cartoon, Liz?" He asked in a drifty voice. I thought a moment, considering what was going on in my life right now, especially what went on today.

"Yes, I want to get away from this entire crisis that's going on and I'm just so sick of dealing with all of this crap right now!" I explained. A grin grew on his face and I gave him a questioning look.

Suddenly, a beautiful woman floated out of the top of Robby's head and raised her arms above her head. Her Hands glowed pink for a moment before making a circle motion around my head with them. "So you have wished it," She started in a dreamy voice. "Then so shall it be." I saw Robby shift from his position on the floor and prop himself up on the floor. Finally realizing what was happening he reached his hand out and called my name. I watched everything around me fade into darkness and the ghost vanish without a trace.

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Robby watched in horror as his best friend disappeared before his eyes. He didn't know where she could have ended up at. The first thing he heard when he had woken up was, "So you have wished it, so shall it be." It kind of freaked him out a little bit... okay, a lot, because the one who had said it was green and floating, like a character off of the show they were watching a little while ago, Danny Phantom. He looked towards the screen to figure it out only to see a girl with green hair lying behind the three stars of the show; they looked like they were in a giant, metal, clock-tower.

Robby soon realized that the green-haired girl behind the TV screen was Elizabeth, and she was stuck in the cartoon!

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"I don't know, maybe Clockwork brought her here," said a voice from above me. I stirred, trying to block the noise from around me. "Dude, she's waking up!"

As if on cue, I opened my eyes. The last thing I expected to see were three cartoons standing above me. "Gah!" I cried out in shock. "How'd you get here?!" The cartoons gave each other confused looks and turned back to me.

"We came here to... um, check up on something," Said the middle teenager, a boy with black hair and blue eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm not sure, some chic came out of my friend's head and did something. I'm not sure of what, though." I explained to them. "What are your names?"

The girl of the group spoke up, "My name's Sam Manson, these are my two best friends, Tucker Foley, and Danny Fenton.What about you?"

"Her name is Elizabeth Kaine," Said a voice from above us. Suddenly a blue-skinned ghost with red eyes appeared above us. "And she is not from this world." I gasped in shock. "How do you know that?"

"I am Clockwork, master of time," Replied the voice. "You have been brought here by a ghost named Desiree, who escaped into your world by the means of my time portal." The ghost explained.

"Couldn't you stop her from getting through there though?" Danny asked the ghost. "Yes, but this girl obviously changes something in your world. So if I were to toy with destiny, I'd do it from a safe distance." Clockwork said in a mysterious way.

"Oh yes, Danny, the reason you came here," Clockwork changed the subject before I could say anything. "He is out, but is in another time period. You must stop him before it's too late."

I felt my face contort into an odd expression. "Who is?" I received four different replies from everyone in the room. "Someone-" No one-" "A villain-" "His older self."

I gasped at the last one, don't forget, I had only seen a little bit of one new episode, so I was in a room filled with more experienced people in the matters of good and evil. I don't want them to end up hurt when I could have done something! "I want to help!"

Three cries of "What?" Followed my response to this new piece of information. "I said I want to help, I'm older, and have been through some tough things in life. I can help you!"

"I'm sorry, but I don't think you've been through this kind of stuff before," Danny stated in a feeble attempt to keep me from going. "The guy is a ghost!"

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, "Well, so are you! Well, kinda..." I trailed off when the teenagers gasped. "How much more do you know?!" Danny cried nervously.

I blushed, "Not much about you, if that's what you mean," I said, my mind drifting to what could have happened in past episodes. My past seemed so unimportant compared to what these kids have been through.

"Well," Clockwork spoke up. "If you're going to help, you're going to need these." Clockwork opened his free hand to reveal four medallions.

"Time medallions!" Danny explained. "They can keep us from being effected by time!" I made an 'O' shape with my mouth and slipped it over my head. It was shaped like a gear with a C and a W on it.

"Cool."

"You had better go now," Clockwork said. "He's destroying a city right now." Danny put a determined look on his face and grabbed his two friends hands while transforming into his alter-ego. That will never cease to amaze me... I thought to myself.

He then proceeded to pull his friends through the large portal in the wall that showed a city falling in ruins, but not the one causing the catastrophe. I took another look at the time ghost before smiling my thanks and hopping through the portal.

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Robby couldn't believe what he had just seen. His best friend since the third-grade had just agreed to stop an evil fictional character! Unlike his friend, he had seen every episode of the show and knew who Danny's future self was. Dan Phantom, as most fans referred to him, had to be the most powerful and evil being on the planet!

"God Liz, you can be so stupid sometimes!" Robby cried out in frustration as he ran to the phone. Okay, I'm going to need a phone book. Robby thought to himself, desperately. He just hoped that he wasn't the only one that could see Elizabeth on the TV.

"Finally!" He cried as he dialed the number. The phone rang, the Phone rang again. It rang a third time before someone finally answered the call. "Hello, Nickelodeon studios, how may I help you?"

"I need to speak with Butch Hartman please."

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The first thing I noticed was the fact that the building I was supposed to land on was a pile of rubble and debris. I looked wildly around for the person that caused the mess. "Danny?" I called out quietly, looking for either him, or his friends.

I crept slowly to the part of the wall that was still standing and checked to see if the coast was clear. Not seeing anything in front of me I began to slowly creep around it. I suddenly felt a pair of arms encircle my waist and cover my mouth. I struggled a little bit until I heard Danny's voice.

"Quiet," He demanded sharply. "It's just me, my older self is over there." He said, pointing to a cluster of buildings. Danny let his arms fall from the unmoving embrace and I sighed in relief that I was safe. The feeling vanished quickly when I saw a man with pale, blue-green skin, crimson eyes, and white, flamed hair step out from behind a building.

He wore a spandex suit that was torn in some places, showing off his muscular build. He grinned as he destroyed the building he stood beside. The town really had a huge number done on it because of the man, ghost, whatever he was, before us. The piece of knowledge only made me hate him even more.

"That's him?" I asked Danny, slightly scared. I felt him nod in confirmation and twirl me around to face him. He grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me to a spot near the half wall where Sam and Tucker were sitting. "I saw him, and he can do some pretty bad damage."

Sam put a dull look on her face, "Tell us something we don't know!" I gave her a look and continued. "What happened last time you all met up with him?"

"I trapped him in a Fenton Thermos and basically imprisoned the guy in Clockwork's tower for about half of a year," Danny stated.

"We may be able to use this one against him. Why did you turn evil?" Danny began to look uncomfortable and eyed Sam and Tucker. "I turned evil because my entire family, Sam, and Tucker all died in a restaurant explosion."

"So, his emotions basically drove him insane?" I asked. "Not entirely..." Danny plunged into an explanation of how his arch nemesis, Vlad Masters, whom was also half ghost, accidentally combined their ghost halves and Danny being the dominate half, went on a rampage with no emotions what-so-ever.

"But that doesn't make sense!" I said, desperate to understand the situation. "His emotions wouldn't be trapped with his body, they'd be in his mind!" The teenagers seemed to think this over before Danny's eyes lit up.

"You're right!" he stated. "He has his emotions!" Sam then continued for him. "They're just buried under anger and hatred!" Tucker got really excited at that point. "I think that what we need to beat him is to remind him of his past! Dude, this is totally going to work!"

I would have remarked, but I couldn't help but feel a little bit unnerved for some reason. "Guys, we'd better start. I have a really weird feeling about all of this..."

"Am I seeing things, or are these really the people that trapped in a weak prison for eight months?" Said a deep voice from the side of us. I jerked my head over to see Danny's future self. He grinned, showing off sharp teeth. He looked towards me and his grin grew wider. "It seems we have a new member of Team Phantom in our midst." I suddenly felt another pair of arms wrap around me, but unlike the first, these were muscular and cool (in a temperate way!). I yelped in surprise and he merged with the other him behind me.

"Elizabeth!" Cried the three in unison. His cocky smile grew when he heard that they knew me.

"Your friend here is my new piece of leverage against you." I scoffed and rolled my eyes in annoyance.

"You make me sound like a piece of meat!" I yelled at the man. I saw danny slap his head out of the corner of my eye. Obviously the eviler version of Danny didn't like to be back-talked.

"That's because you are, and I don't think you'd want to be a cooked one!" My glare remained the same, hateful stare as he dropped me on the ground in front of him with a loud thump. "Hey!"

I watched in fear as he powered up an ecto-blast and pointed it at my head. He held a sinister grin on his face. "Now-" He started, but was interrupted by a voice echoing all around. "-TIME OUT!!!"

The wind completely froze around us, the rubble in the air held it's position and the few remaining plants remained leaning with the now still wind. But none of us were stilled, not even Dan, whom didn't have a time medallion!

Clockwork appeared above us, holding his golden stave in both of his hands. "Dan," he said in a calm voice. "You must be pretty glad that you have your freedom," Clockwork said in a calm voice. "You won't be enjoying it for much longer if you don't cooperate."

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Robby grabbed his coat off of the couch, trying to relax. He had seen it all coming, when Dan snuck up behind Liz and taking hold of her waist. He couldn't do anything to stop it, and it scared him. This was reality to his friend. After informing Nickelodeon about what had happened, they thought he was insane. At least he had gotten Butch Hartman's number before they had asked.

That was about half an hour ago, he had called the creator of THE DANNY PHANTOM TV show! But under the circumstances, Robby had no reason to be excited. It took little convincing on Butch's part, all he had to do was turn on the TV to see an episode that he didn't make unfold. The man was absolutely amazed.

Butch was arriving at Nickelodeon studios soon, and Robby was meeting him there. Finally, he was prepared to leave the TV screen and go meet the creator to sort the mess out. The last thing he heard on the TV before he left was, "Why shouldn't I kill her?" It was hard to leave his friend's fate unknown, but he knew it had to be done in order to save her.

He grabbed his car-keys and raced down to his car and to the air-port.

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I shifted uncomfortably on the ground. Dan still had the charged ecto-blast aimed at my head, and it scared me. Clockwork's unexpected arrival stopped him, but I didn't know for how long that would last. "Dan," he said in a calm voice. "You must be pretty glad that you have your freedom, you won't be enjoying it for much longer if you don't cooperate."

I eyed the two carefully, looking for any slips in their hard expressions. I knew Clockwork wouldn't slip, he's probably had a lot of practice at this. I wasn't too sure about Dan though, he seemed stubborn, but being locked up in a thermos for about a year does something to you!

"What do you want?" He demanded through clenched teeth, letting the ecto-blast leave his hand. I was a little bit relieved that he was smart enough to let the ecto-blast down in font of Clockwork, but still eyed him wearily. Clockwork smiled knowingly at the "request."

"You won't be able to do any damage, for an entire month, or I will send you to a dimension that will force you to become a nothing, slowly and painfully," Clockwork explained. I knew exactly what this meant, and if Dan valued his after-life as much as I thought he did, I was going to be a smart-ass about his punishment. "So, does this mean my brains will remain INSIDE my head?" I asked with a childish smirk on my face.

Clockwork glowered at me, "You know very well what it means." I pumped a fist in the air and smiled at the very ticked off Dan.

"So I'm not going to be able to do any damage to people, places, or anything at all?!" Dan yelled in fury. I just watched him, completely free of any stress.

"Yes, and these four will be watching you!" Clockwork said the statement so quickly and clearly that I felt a head-rush. We all remained quiet for a few moments. Utter silence followed after fully processing the statement. Finally comprehending the situation, I said for the world to hear, "You have GOT to be kidding me!!!"

So what do you think? Like? no? Good? Bad? Tell me please! I need constructive criticism!

Elyn