Prologue
Destruction.
Fear.
Chaos.
It filled the air as the screams of innocent people disappeared, leaving only the eerie sound of a fire burning somewhere in the background. The streets were quickly emptied; the one's who managed to survive running back to safety, not caring for anyone but themselves.
On top of a pile of rubble stood a man with blue skin and white hair that looked as though it were aflame. His mouth was twisted up into a grotesque smile as his red eyes glinted dangerously. His gloved hands were placed on his hips as he observed the scene before him like an artist might admire his artwork.
It was almost over. Half of his plan had been executed perfectly, and now all he needed was to carry out the rest. It hadn't even taken that much to drive those stupid humans out of their homes. Had taken even less to kill the ones that tried to fight him. Honestly, the lack of challenge was a bit disappointing, but no matter. Perhaps the second attack would prove to be a little more exciting. This time he had to get through a ghost shield after all.
Without warning, the ghost turned around, eyeing one of the buildings with annoyance marring his face. There was most definitely a sound coming from inside. A loud, high pitched wail that continuously pierced the air without rest..
Wanting to get rid of the bothersome racket he flew into the building, shattering the objects around him simply because he could.
"Ah," The ghost said on spotting the source of the wailing. It was an infant. How cute. "So you were the one giving me that headache, weren't you?" His red eyes seemed to glow brighter, fed with the excitement of what he was about to do. Every step forward seemed to increase the baby's cries and he grinned in satisfaction.
"Sh…" he told the infant, placing a finger gently over its mouth. "Don't cry. It's annoying." His arm moved down until his hand wrapped around the baby's neck. "It'll all be over soon." He began to squeeze, increasing the pressure whenever he felt like it and slowly the infants cries quieted as it's eyes closed shut.
"Much better." He whispered to himself. He wiped his hands on his pants as though he had just touched something disgusting and turned around, walking toward the entrance of the building. The song he hummed echoed throughout the room as he headed towards the green dome that lay a few miles away.
Now was the fun part
Clockwork sighed as he turned away from the scene playing out before him. His face remained passive as always but his mind raced with a million possibilities.
How could this have happened? This shouldn't b epart of the time stream, this man shouldn't exist at all and yet there he was, twenty two years in the future.
There must be something else…some other event that set this off. There was no ghost in existence that was this powerful.
Not for now, anyway.
He turned back to the screen right when the image changed, this time his eyes coming across three teenagers having a conversation.
"My parents could be back any minute." A black haired boy says, a worried look in his blue eyes. "Besides," he continues. "They say it doesn't work anyway."
"Come on, Danny. A Ghost Zone? Aren't you curious?" the female in front of him says, excitement flashing in her eyes. "You gotta check it out." She urges him.
Danny walks closer to the portal, peering inside with fear and curiosity. "You know what? You're right. Who knows what kind of awesome, super cool things exist on the other side of that portal?" Now the fear has gone from his eyes and he pulls a white suit over his clothes, no hesitation at all in his actions.
The female walks closer to him with a frown on her face. She looks at the suit for a moment before ripping off the emblem stuck to the front.
Danny turns to the portal now, his eyes darting from place to place as they take in the detail on the inside of the portal. Without realizing it, his hands graze the wall next to him and only a small click is heard before the sounds of screams replace it.
Electricity pours into the boy's body as light fills the entire room. His friends stand there in shock, not knowing what to do or how to help him.
After what seems like an eternity to the teenagers the light fades away. The smell of burning flesh fills the room as Danny grabs onto the framework of the portal for support, obviously still in pain.
But something has changed. Gone is the human boy with pitch black hair and piercing blue eyes.
Instead, in his place, stands a ghost.
That was how it started. That was the event that kick-started what was to be the destruction of Amity Park. Clockwork had the information. Now all he needed to do was twist it to his advantage. Make it so that this boy never becomes a ghost.
The girl. Samantha Manson. She was the reason for this. It was her encouragement that caused him to go in there and now something had to be done. Harming the girl would be out of line. No matter what her actions she was still innocent but still something had to be done to keep this situation from happening.
Perhaps if the two had never met…
Yes, of course. That was the solution to this problem.
Clockwork glanced up at one of the ticking clocks on his wall before his eyes flicked back toward the screen. This was twelve years from the future. Dan's appearance was twenty two. All he had to do was place Samantha in a different place.
Not a different time period. That would mess up the time stream and possibly cause even more damage. No, he had to put her into a different reality altogether. One where Danny didn't exist. One where ghosts didn't exist. It was the only solution. He would try to keep her life as similar as possible—he held no ill will towards the girl—and she would grow up not knowing the existence of Danny.
The screen that had been blank for a few minutes now cut to yet another image, this time the present. Here, a small baby cried unhappily to an empty room, with no one there to take care of it. Samantha Manson was two years old here.
Yes, this would work. If he took her now she would have no memory of this reality. Plus, Daniel and her had yet to even come into contact with each other.
Satisfied now with his new plan he lifted the hood of his cloak, covering his face as he turned from an adolescent to a child and disappeared, only to reappear once again in a new location. The sound of an infants crying filled his ears as he turned to the source of the noise, smiling kindly at the sight before him. Samantha Manson lay in a cradle, her crying now reduced to small sniffles as she drifted off to sleep. The room looked much too large, filled with only a few pieces of expensive and almost unused furniture.
Slowly, so as not to wake the infant, he reached out his arms and cradled her in them, whispering a soft apology to the parents of this child before he was gone again, this time to a place that no amount of searching from a human would reveal.
I'm back! So I'm actually planning on having this story be multiple chapters despite my thinking that I would be writing oneshots for the rest of my life lol. Just like the oneshot I wrote before I actually haven't edited this at all because I'm lazy but I will be putting more effort into the other chapters. (I just wanted to get something out there) So tell me what you think (I'm open to constructive criticism) and I'll try to get another chapter up as soon as possible :)