AN: In my timeline, the events of The Ultimate Enemy happen after the events in Realty Trip, and Reality Trip takes place over Spring Break not the summer.
Prologue: An Unexpected Turn
Clockwork's Tower, Ghost Zone
The ancient Phantom known as Clockwork, watched the screens of his time viewers, bearing silent witness to the chaos on screen. On the screen that held his attention, a young white-haired boy waged battle against a taller man with flaming white hair, a ruined restaurant in the backdrop. As he watched, the boy managed to knock the man into a truck of oil, which then exploded in ghostly blue flames. He had seen this scene come to pass countless times, in many different timelines, so he knew what would happen next; in a moment the man would emerge and the boy would repel him, before barely sealing him away, just in time to see his family caught in the explosion he was trying to prevent.
Then he would halt time, and save them and further endear himself to the child. As he watched his eyes widened as this time stream decided to take a turn he'd never seen before. This one act, this choice, would mark the changing of an age, and the birth of a new power.
March 19th, 1994
Nasty Burger, Amity Park
Danny watched as the blue flames licked the ground around the ruined truck. Sparing a glance at the flames he turned to his family, bound to the canisters of explosive condiments, and flew towards them. Had he watched a moment longer he would have seen the glowing red eyes emerge from the flame, as their owner ripped off the Specter Deflector. As he neared the building, he landed next to his family; he felt something slam into him, before he felt a tearing sensation as his eyes flowed red.
No, shouted Dan's voice in his head, I won't let you save them!
He felt his body begin to move on its own, turning away from his family and rushed out of the building.
NO! he screamed throwing his power against Dan's hold. Throwing every bit of power he could scrape up, his eyes flashed green then back to red, before his right eye turned back to green. His body stopped its movement, as he tried to shove the older Phantom out, and he ran back into the building. A yard away, Dan managed to wrest control away again.
No you fool! shouted Dan, You're to close the elder Phantom tried to force his younger self away, but the conflict for control left his body paralyzed. He watched in horror as the boy's stupidity, left him at ground zero, just as the vats blew. The explosion tore through the child's family, and the fires burned into the boy, throwing him across the street into the still burning remains for the oil truck. Dan feeling the boy's ghost half slip away, tried to leave the body, but the damnable boy stopped him. He could feel the boy do something, and frozen flames danced around the two, cutting off his escape and boring into his ectoplasm. Feeling boy fall unconscious tried once more to flee, but it was too late, the icy flames had already latched onto his ectoplasm. He could only scream in horror as he felt the boy's body burn away knowing his fate, before eternal darkness claimed him.
Fire
Pain
Guilt
Sorrow
Danny's world had been reduced to a burning hell of emotions and pain. He'd failed; failed to stop Dan, to save his family. He'd almost made it, when fate had intervened and torn his victory from him, forcing him to watch as his family was ripped to shreds, feet from him; before he was thrown into the ectoplasmic fires of the truck. He could feel the burning fires, burning away his flesh, tearing him apart, invading his being. And then, he'd felt a frozen numbness overtake his body, its icy chill soothing to his flame wreathed body.
He felt something happening in his body; he felt himself growing stronger, as the icy numbness permeated his body, even as the Ectofire penetrated his very being. He became aware of a horrified presence in the back of his mind, and he realized it was Dan, trying to escape whatever his broken body was doing. When he noticed this, his anger flared, and unknown to him so did the Ectofire. Dan was responsible for this mess. It was his fault; and now he was trying to simply leave? NO! No way in HELL! Drawing on the strange icy-hot powers he could feel invading his body, he slammed it into Dan's presence, solely focused on binding the Phantom where he was, not thinking about what that would mean. Using the last bit of his powers he managed to bind the Phantom, into his body, before succumbing to the darkness.