Chapter 03

Danny stared at the program hovering over him with those red eyes gazing down at him, piercing into him with an irritating, and slightly creepy, all knowing look. The words spoken registered slowly in his mind, and Danny jerked away from the program with a startled shout. He slipped off the edge of the raised blocks to crash upon the ground, banging elbow and head hard against the cold, unforgiving floor. When he sat up, he rubbed at his head as he looked around his surroundings. The room was wide and spacious, and the echoing noise that filled it, Danny now realized, sounded like the ticking of a clock. A golden pendulum swung through the center of the room, causing a slight breeze to tug at Danny's white hair with each pass. At the base of the columns supporting the ceiling of the room were statues of cloaked figures holding deadly looking scythes. The whole room was cast in a greenish glow, and Danny reached up to find his visor resting atop his head instead of covering his eyes.

"You have nothing to fear here, young one."

Danny frowned as he snapped his gaze to the program, recalling what gave him such a fright upon waking. Programs manifested humanoid appearances in all manners of designs, and after all the programs and viruses he encountered in the NetZone, this one hardly looked out of the ordinary to Danny. The program wore a purple cloak, but even with the hood raised, it didn't hide his face in shadows. The bluish skin wasn't unusual as Danny saw programs with all kinds of different colors. Skulker was bright green under that tin can of a helmet he wore. A scar ran over his left eye, and Danny briefly wondered how the program came by it. His chest caught Danny by surprised as he watched the swinging pendulum attached to a clock behind what looked like a glass door, giving it the feel of a grandfather clock. The straps of his gloves also bore clocks.

"And who exactly are you? The Watchman?" Danny's brow drew together as climbed to his feet. "And where is this? It's not part of the under level is it? It didn't look there was anything but empty space below the ground level." After another look around the room, his green eyes slipped back toward the program. Danny remained on guard in the presence of the other program, not knowing whether this program was going to attack or not. So far, it looked like not.

"I am Clockwork," the program introduced himself as he leaned on a staff that Danny didn't notice until now. Much like everything else about the program, the top of the staff was decorated with a clock, and if Danny squinted, he thought he could make out a W etched into the top piece surrounding the clock that actually looked similar to a C. Danny had to wonder what exactly was the program's deal with clocks. "And this," Clockwork continued, using one arm to gesture to the room, "is my tower." Above them, a bell rang out what Danny could only guess was the hour.

Danny stared up into the darkness consuming what should be the ceiling. The walls and columns stretched up and up until they could no longer be seen, even the top of the pendulum was obscured by the shadows. "And your tower exists in the under level?" He dropped his gaze back to Clockwork as he frowned at this development. When he fell into the under level, Danny thought for sure he was a goner. It didn't look like there was any coming back from the fall, possibly a worse fate than being erased because he would still be conscious but forever trapped in that dark space.

"My tower exists in a non locatable section of the NetZone, and very few programs are granted access to it," Clockwork explained, watching Danny with his annoying piercing red eyes. "When you fell into the under level, I pulled you free of it." He raised a hand and swung it around, causing various screens to appear encircling them.

"What are these?" Danny spun around, his eyes darting from screen to screen. Each one showed a different location within the NetZone, displaying what the various programs and viruses were doing in each of those locations. "Wait!" Danny stumbled closer to one of them, his eyes growing wide as he stared at himself facing off against Skulker. He watched the ground start crack under his feet before he started running desperately to reach solid ground. "This already happened. So you just display the past?"

Clockwork chuckled at him. "I see all." He came to stand at Danny's side and tapped at the screen a few times. The image on the screen severed into twenty smaller squares, each showing Danny, not one looking identical but all seeming several years older. "These are just a sampling of what you will become ten years from now based on your choices."

"Why do I have red eyes in this one?" Danny pointed at the screen, but the program yanked his hand away before he touch it.

"You have no need to know what lays in your future." Clockwork waved a hand, and the various screens disappeared. "In knowing, you could change the course of time. I merely wanted to demonstrate the means in which I rescued you from your doomed fate. I opened a portal from here, reached into the under level, and pulled you here to safety."

"But why?" Danny's brow furrowed as he tried to understand what this program wanted from him or why it would want to save him. "You could have just left me there."

"But you're the great Phantom." Clockwork smirked at him. "I've witnessed everything you've done since you were granted these abilities. And there is still much good you can accomplish, but for that, you need to be free of the under level."

Danny frowned as his gaze lowered to the white gloves he wore in this digital form. "Skulker's grown a lot stronger since I last fought him." He raised his head to stare at Clockwork. "But I don't think I've gotten any stronger. How can I beat the viruses if they keep surpassing me in strength? I can't even really put a stop to them. They keep coming back."

"Strength isn't always everything." Clockwork tapped the end of his staff against the side of Danny's head. "You'll learn there's still a lot more to what you are than what you've seen so far. I believe there is someone that may be able to help you far better than I."

"Someone better than a program that apparently knows the whole of time?" Danny lifted an eyebrow at the program.

"Which is why I know he'll be a better teacher." Clockwork held out a hand toward Danny.

"Who exactly designed your program?" Danny grabbed hold of Clockwork's wrist while the program's hand closed around his wrist. "I didn't think it would be possible for someone to code a program that can see events into the future or create a portion of the NetZone that can't be accessed."

Clockwork smirked as he twisted Danny's arm to the left. Closing his eyes, Danny shuddered at the surge of data being transferred to him. He didn't think he would ever get used to this mode of information sharing. It made his body tingle as the data packets entered his digital structure, filing away into his mental database. When the transfer completed, Clockwork turned Danny's arm back to the right then released his hold.

"I was not created," Clockwork answered while Danny stared at his white gloved hand, flexing his fingers like he usually did after a data transfer. "I merely came into existence when the NetZone was created. A glitch, if you will. I've existed since the very beginning. This place," he looked around at his home, "was not designed by the humans, which is why it can't be found by users at random."

Danny lifted his gaze back to Clockwork. "What if I need to speak with you again?"

The smirk remained on Clockwork's face. "Then I will find you."

Clockwork raised a hand, conjuring up a screen large enough for Danny to step through it. Inside the screen was a hallway made up of ones and zeros, reminding Danny of the binary coding that he failed to learn in his computer science class. For someone partially made up of digital coding, Danny's knowledge was greatly lacking. Thinking of that, Danny wondered if it might wise for him to finally tell Tucker what happened to him four years ago. Maybe with Tucker's help, he could learn how to get stronger to battle the viruses. Dropping his gaze back to his hand, Danny wondered who exactly Clockwork wanted him to meet to be his teacher.

"I do believe you've dallied here long enough," Clockwork said as he placed a hand on Danny's shoulders. "Didn't you have some users to meet for some sort of school function?"

Danny blinked then his eyes grew wider. "Oh no! How long was I out?" His hands went to his head, fingers threading through white hair. "Dash is going to kill me if I'm late!" Danny darted toward the portal then paused just inside it to turn back to Clockwork. "I guess this is goodbye," he said uncertainly as he frowned at the program, or whatever Clockwork was exactly.

"Until time allows us to meet again." Clockwork smiled in a knowing way, like he knew the precise moment they would meet again, and if he could see what lay in the future, Danny guessed he probably did know.

With a nod, Danny turned back to the portal and jogged through tunnel of binary code. On the other side, he came out near an access portal. Bringing down his visor, Danny checked his location on the map and blinked in surprise to find that he was close to Dash's house. His gaze drifted back to the portal, that already closed by that time, as he realized Clockwork probably picked this location for Danny's convenience. Passing through the access point, he glanced around quickly to make sure no one was around to spot him. He arrived in a back alleyway between rows of a houses, and he ducked quickly behind a dumpster to get out of view. With a sigh and hoping he wasn't spotted, Danny reverted back to his human self, his digital form turning blocky and fuzzy before blinking out of existence and leaving behind a normal looking teenager.

Danny stood up slowly, his gaze slowly scanning the area as he waited for some cry of surprise to indicate someone had spotted the program entity know as Phantom disappeared behind where a young man appeared seconds later. When nothing happened, he decided that his secret remained safe. Danny started to walk down the alleyway but halted when something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Turning his head toward it, Danny stared at the blink of green showing between the gap of two houses. He rubbed at his eyes, but when he dropped his hands, the green light remained in his vision. Reaching up, he tapped a finger at the air where he saw the light. A greenish screen popped into existence before him, and Danny stumbled back, having not expected anything to happen since that usually only worked when he was in his digital form.

Swallowing thickly, Danny approached the screen and pressed forefinger and thumb to it. When he spread finger and thumb outward, the screen zoomed in on that light. He repeated the process a few more times, zooming through the town until the light grew bigger. Focusing on the light, a dialogue box appeared over the green spot.

"Vlad Masters," Danny mumbled, blinking at the name knowing it from the constant use involving new technology being released. Vlad Masters owned one of the biggest companies in the world, and almost everyone used his products. His operating system was considered the best in the world for computers, and he released top of the line virus protection. Danny frowned at the display screen before him, wondering why it would be showing him the location of this man.

Dropping his gaze to his right hand, Danny remembered the data transfer with Clockwork. Did Clockwork want him to meet with this Vlad Masters person? He frowned at that thought, not wanting to tell his secret to a perfect stranger. He still never even told his best friends! But if this man could help him get stronger and better at fighting the viruses, maybe it was worth a shot to speak with him.

"Ah, the project!" Danny remembered with a jolt as he closed the display screen. That was the whole reason he was in this neighborhood, and if he didn't make it to Dash's house on time, he could expect a sound beating from the jock. Danny jogged out of the alleyway and down the street to Dash's house. When he arrived there, he pressed on the doorbell before leaning against the side of the house next to the door as he caught his breath.

"Took you long enough," Dash grumbled when he opened the door. He looked Danny over and raised an eyebrow at the other man. "You run all the way here?"

"Let's just get this over with," Danny said as he entered the house. "The sooner we get all this done, the sooner you can kick me out of the house."

An odd look passed over Dash's face. "Come on then." He led the way up the stairs to his bedroom.

Danny released a quiet sigh, thankful that the jock at least didn't punch in the face for his grouchy comment. He followed Dash to his bedroom where Danny suspected the other two members of their group waited. It was his first time ever being invited to Dash's house, though he always hoped to be invited to one of the jock's parties. Being a loser, however, Danny never made it on the invitation list. He sighed at that fact, wondering if he would be a loser for all of his life.

When he followed Dash into the bedroom, Danny halted in the doorway as he glanced around the room. It didn't surprise him that Dash wasn't exactly the neatest person in the world. Danny's bedroom was like a disaster zone with the mess he made. Dash was actually a little cleaner, though not by much. The thing that made him freeze was the giant poster of his digital form taped up over the head of Dash's bed. There were smaller photos posted up around it, and Danny felt his mouth dropping open at the sight of them. He didn't even know how Dash could have gotten any of those images of him while he was fighting viruses.

"What's the matter, Fenturd?" Dash demanded, grabbing hold of Danny's arm and dragging him into the bedroom so that he could close the door.

"I just, uh," Danny fumbled for words as he gestured at the pictures, and the three popular teens turned to look at what caught the loser's attention.

"You don't know about the Phantom program?" Kwan asked with a laugh. "Dash is crazy about the guy. A total fan boy." Grinning madly, he ducked out of the way as Dash tried to whack him with a pillow. Danny was glad their attention wasn't on him at that moment as he fought off a blush at the fact that Dash was such a big fan of his. He wondered how Dash would react if he knew who the Phantom program really was.

"Let's just get on with this," Paulina said impatiently as she sat at the desk. "I still have other homework to do, and I'd rather not waste the whole night working on some silly play for class."

"It's worth a large part of our grade," Dash pointed out as he and Kwan sat at the foot of his bed. "Anyone have an idea for a play? I can't believe we have to perform it for a bunch of little brats." He groaned at the thought.

"Hey, you're the one that suggested we take this class," Kwan reminded. "I believe you said it would be an easy A."

"Don't remind me." Dash glared at his best friend.

"Well, a fairytale might be good," Danny suggested, leaning against the wall for lack of anywhere to sit with Paulina at the desk and Dash and Kwan on the bed. He preferred to keep his distance from the blond jock, just in case. When all three turned their attention on him, Danny shifted uncomfortably under their gazes.

"That's actually not a bad idea," Paulina said as she brought up a document on the computer to start writing out a script. "But which one? There are so many to choose from."

"Something short," Dash suggested, clearly wanting something that they would be able to perform quickly and get out of the way in a hurry.

"What about Little Red Riding Hood?" Kwan offered as he leaned back on his hands. "That shouldn't be too long."

"Yeah, but we wouldn't all be included. It's mostly just Red and the Wolf," Dash argued with a frown.

"Oh! The Three Little Pigs," Danny put in when the thought hit him. "That has four characters."

"I don't want to play a pig." Paulina made a face of disgust at the idea that she might end up as a pig.

"You could be the wolf then," Danny offered, not caring what role he ended up with so long as they chose an idea and got it finished tonight.

"I'm fine with that idea." Kwan shrugged, and all eyes fell onto Dash.

"Whatever," Dash muttered as he looked away, clearly not caring what play got chosen.

With the play picked, they all gathered around Paulina at the desk to help write the script. Danny relaxed a little as they all gave their input on the script and Paulina typed it up. The group meeting didn't go as badly as he expected when he first heard he would be stuck with the three popular students, but he guess the three of them were just as eager to get the play writing done and over with as he was. At the rate they were working, they would be done with the script maybe with an hour or two. Then Danny could go home, which made him smile until he remembered the rest of the homework he had to finish.

DB-KT: Omg, hi~ 8D *hugs* XD Yup! Lancer's a cool adult like that.

XD: I'm happy to see you again! =) I shall have to make some edits along the way while I post then! XD Well, I think I was going to make some minor edits anyway. Haha, yeah. XD;; I only changed the summary from saying network to NetZone. XD;; Yup! Kwan is among the techno geeks~ Look out, Tucker! XD That'll be coming up~ XD His reputation varies from person to person. Some people think Phantom's just another virus that needs to get deleted from the NetZone whereas *gestures at Dash* some think he's like a comic book hero. XD;;; Sam and Tuck will definitely be coming up in the story. =) *copies down that little section and sets it aside for a "what if" type side story* Oh yeah~ I think I remember hearing something like that about "Ring around the Roses."

jeanette9a: Those darn GIW! *shakes a fist at them*

Anon: Why thank you! =)

Guest: I'm glad you liked it! =D Haha, yeah. I think there were quite a few people who felt unsatisfied with the originally ending I wrote for Time Tampering, or at least wanted something extra after it. XD;; I feel much more satisfied with how the second ending came out. Hm, the second example looks weird to me. I tried scanning through books for how they do it, but I couldn't find any parts where there's an interruption in the middle of dialogue like that. But I don't remember ever seeing them capitalize the first word of continued dialogue, unless it was a name or I or something. *scratches head* I can't remember a rule like that. Oh! =D I'm glad~ Haha, originally everything I had written was just Danny's PoV, but I decided it would probably be good to show other PoV's in there too. Plus it gives me the chance to show what else is happening, hint at things to come, show more of the world, etc. XD;; I think the new chapters are really helping with the story. =)