Danny Phantom (c) Butch Hartman

Story (c) Me

Challenge issued by PhantomInvader. Challenge accepted.

"You don't have to do this, man." Tucker told him.

"Danny, look around. No one's going to think less of you if you back out." Sam added.

Danny could barely hear his friends over the blood rushing in his ears. The pounding music in the crowded sushi restaurant did nothing to help, either. Danny looked down at the plate in front of him - a row of five of the hottest spicy tuna rolls in the country. He looked at the boy beside him, Dash Baxter, who had the same challenge on his plate.

Dash glared, and Danny returned the favor.

It started with a dare. Danny had almost had a repeat of last Halloween's incident - except not only did he knock paint over onto Dash's letterman jacket again, but the blue goop had gotten all over Dash's upper body. Tucker had intervened when Dash looked about to give Danny another underwear-eating ultimatum and said what he thought was something that would help.

He had challenged them both to go to The Mix, the sushi restaurant downtown and take the challenge. Eat five of the spiciest tuna rolls in the country in one hour. Whoever finished first won.

Why did he have to accept…?

"All right, boys," the owner of the Restaurant said, putting one hand on each of their shoulders, "you got one hour. Good luck."

Danny took his chopsticks and bravely stuck a roll into his mouth.

He may as well have swallowed a fireball.

The boy nearly choked on the mere heat of it. Barely shoving it down his throat, it felt even worse going down. Looking over at Dash, the jock looked like he was in even more pain than Danny if such was possible. Dash tried, but failed, to hide the pain. He grabbed a glass of cold milk given with it, and the milk hardly managed to do anything.

Danny gave a gasp, drank a little of his own milk, then put the second one in. His face was red, sweat dripping down it like bullets. By this point, he decided to not even look up at Dash and continue. Instead of the heat gradually going away after he ate it, it stuck and felt hot as ever. But he ignored it and ate another one.

He tasted nothing other than spice. He coughed loudly and painfully. He drank more of the milk. His eyes were solely on the rolls, the crowd and his friends' voices drowned out by his own concentration. Time seemed to slow down into an eternity per minute.

Though he had two more to go, it was a miracle he made it that far in the first place. He rested a minute, not that it helped him much. He was wondering what evil could've made those rolls hotter than hell. Hotter than blue fire. Hotter than the sun. "I sure hope my parents don't hear about this. That would be humiliat-"

"GO DANNY!" Even through Danny's blocking off of noise, Jack's loud bellow had managed to break through. He moaned. That was the only thing that could've made this already insane challenge harder. He gently and shakily picked up his glass of milk, and drank, then put it back down. He did his best to conserve it, but already it was only at a fourth of the way full.

He wasn't sure how long it had been. But he stuck out his hand, eyes still tightly closed, and grabbed another roll. As he bit into it, one bite felt like a million fireballs in his mouth. He groaned and took another. Repeated the process two more times, and the fourth was down.

Even though he had fought ghosts and been in pain from attacks sometimes lasting for days even, this was worse than anything he ever felt. All he could ask himself was "Why did I do this?"

But suddenly...there was silence. Not a voice. A thump then resonated from across the table. Barely managing to cracks his eyes open a little, his body shaking, he saw one tuna rolls in Dash's bowl.

And an unconscious Dash on the floor. Some people got up to help Dash, going to call 911 for him. Sam walked up and gently shook Danny's shoulder. "Hey, big guy. If you eat one more, you beat Dash and the challenge. Go for it." she encouraged. Cheers began to erupt once more, Danny's name being chanted. Danny looked to his now empty glass of milk, then grabbed onto the last tuna roll.

His eyes were pained. The roll seemed as if it were mocking him. He put it in his mouth, biting into it. He then tried to shut off his brain and simply eat. One bite. Two bite. Three bite. Four bites and it was over.

Cheers, screams, and whoops escaped the crowd. Sam and Tucker's jaws were agape. Danny really did it. The owner of the restaurant handed the sweating, still-in-pain boy a shirt that said 'Master of the Tuna Fire Challenge' and another glass of milk.

An ambulance finally arrived for Dash and left, the teen still passed out. Danny, while drinking the milk and patting down his face with ice from the kitchen, asked his friends how his parents found out what he was doing. Maddie and Jack came up and answered for him. Jazz had overheard the kids, and then snitched on Danny at home in worries her brother might get in trouble.

Shortly after getting home, Danny wandered into his room and sat down. Until his eyes grew huge and pained and he ran to the bathroom, slamming the door shut.

FIN