"You're…. human? But I thought…"

"Close, but only half right," Danny miserably answered as he got to his feet.

"You're human… and a ghost?" Robin repeated. "I've seen one or the other, but this is a new one."

Danny was confused; he could tell from his tone that Robin was skeptical and interested but, "Um, how come you're not freaking out?"

Robin crossed his arms and actually smiled. "My best friends are either an alien, a half-robot, human one minute and a lion or a dinosaur or a hawk or a tapir the next, and… actually, I'm still not sure just what Raven is. I wouldn't have been so freaked out yesterday if I hadn't had a recent…" He frowned as he searched for the correct word and stiffened up like he was about to get a shot. "… traumatic experience with a ghost." Danny was about to say something, but Robin turned around and kept talking as he walked over to his bike. "I suppose you'll tell me that you're lucky if you only have one every day, so I can't talk, but trust me, I mean more than what I say." He righted his motorcycle and leaned over as if inspecting for damages.

"Well, you're deep," said Danny. "And perceptive."

"It's the mask," said Robin, still not looking at him. "People are more at their ease and easier to read when they can't see that I'm reading them."

"Who taught you that?"

Robin stood still and appeared to be in deep thought, as apparent as possible when one couldn't see his eyes. "My father," he answered in a slow undertone.

"You had to think about that?"

Robin hurriedly turned back to his vehicle. "You did your good deed, you saved me. Why are you still here?" he whispered bitterly.

"Well, now that you mention it," answered Danny, coming closer and crossing his arms, "There is something I'd like to know."

Robin put a hand to his forehead. "Oh, great. How long is it gonna take me to fix that?" Then he acknowledged Danny, in his standard mature, occupied, dignified voice. "I don't talk to strangers."

His whole unflappable-overly-mysterious routine was getting on Danny's nerves. "Hey, you know my darkest, innermost secret!" Robin finally looked at him, just as he uncontrollably turned intangible and back again. Guess Jazz Super Psychologist was right, thought Danny. Lying makes you nervous.

Robin couldn't stop himself from gawking. If there was one emotion that he ever felt more powerfully than rage, it was curiosity. His mentor had honed and nurtured his investigative, probing side as much as his persistent side to make him a great detective. "What'd you do that for?"

"I didn't. It just, you know, happens!"

"You can't control your powers?"

"Not all the time. What are you staring at?"

"Sorry. I just…" Robin tried to ignore the memories that had gently risen to the surface of the last person he'd known who couldn't control her powers, and the sympathy he felt for this kid. Of course, the more you deny your feelings, the stronger they get. Robin sighed; there was no use denying what he wanted to know. "If you don't mind, what did this to you?"

"Freak lab accident," Danny answered with contempt at the memory of the moment that had turned his life upside down. "There's an explosion, I pass out, I wake up with snow white hair and glowing green eyes."

"I should've guessed. I've got to admit, I'm impressed. I can't believe that you can't control it, and you've still managed to keep this a secret from your friends, your parents…"

"Well, it's not easy when your parents are professional ghost hunters. Wait a minute. How'd you know…"

"It's a secret? Been there, done that… a long time ago."

"Actually, my two best friends do know. Not that I had a choice. Wait a minute, again!" The more Danny talked to Robin, the more confused he got. "You're running away, and you're not worried about anyone getting suspicious if nobody knows you're a superhero?"

"I said that I've done the secret-identity thing. I used to have two lives and two names, just like yours. Now, I live and work fulltime with my friends, the Teen Titans." Seeing another question coming, Robin took a deep breath and continued. "My parents both died years ago. My guardian was the one who taught me the secrets of the superhero trade. Then we had a falling out; I thought I could handle the life, but he didn't, so I had to set off on my own."

"Uh…" Danny was stunned. He felt bad for just assuming that Robin operated the way he did. He never would have guessed all this about him. "I thought you didn't like to talk?"

"Like you said, I do know your innermost secret. But I don't know your name."

"Danny. Danny Phantom when there's a ghost around. By the way…"

"I don't know a thing," said Robin, putting up his hand, in the style of taking an oath.

"Thanks," Danny sighed with relief. "The last thing I want is for anyone to know anything."

"Guess I was wrong about this town. Action-packed enough to need a vigilante, apparently."

"I wish." Robin got the wrong impression about him, too, but, like Robin, he really did not want to go into details.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Okay," he steeled himself. "It's like this: Everyone else in town is only in danger if they get caught in the cross-fire."

Robin was, indeed, perceptive enough to understand. "I get it. They're all out to get you, and other chaos happens of its own accord. Know the feeling." Robin didn't like where the conversation was heading. He picked up and shouldered his pack to make his damaged bike lighter to push.

"Where're you going?"

"Look at this thing. Doesn't look like I'm going anywhere for at least a few hours."

Danny suddenly remembered the disk that had gotten him so anxious earlier. "Look, before you skip town, there's something I think you should know."

Robin's impatience suddenly outgrew his civility. He gave himself leave to vent as long as he kept his tone down. "Listen, this isn't my way. This was just going to be a pit stop for a bite to eat. I stop, I leave. I don't make friends. I don't exchange names. I don't stay. I have a project I've been delaying for way too long. Nothing can hold me up. This is why I hit the road in the first place; it's the only place where I can guarantee I'll be alone. As far as you're concerned, I was never here."

"But…"

"I was never here." Robin willed himself not to groan at the pain in his sore, bruised arms a she started pushing his bike away.

"Geez, why was I so concerned?" Danny said to himself as he headed home in the opposite direction. Robin may have a mask, but Danny also knew how to keep secrets and cover things up. He didn't said that because he was angry (mildly frustrated with inquisitiveness would be more accurate), but because he realized he didn't need to inform Robin of anything. "He knows."

Miles away, two shadowy figures stood across from each other, negotiating in a paradox of a room with the design and architecture of a medieval castle but full of computers, monitors, satellites, and other technology of the twenty-first century. A man with white hair, dressed in a fine-looking suit, was closely examining a cracked metal badge emblazoned with a single letter 'R'. "I will admit, he's… talented. But I hardly find him so interesting. He's so…" He seemed to be looking for a way around saying the word for those he had such contempt for. "… human."

"Appearances can be deceiving," said the masked voice of ice, opposite him. "It's his stamina, his perseverance, his fearlessness, his solidarity that make him so strong. Never judge a hero by his powers."

His companion began speaking about a completely different subject, no introduction or closure necessary. "His potential is as infinite as mine. With my experience and his skills, I could give him the world! But he'd rather risk his life every day to anonymously protect this world! I make his secret even more endangered, provide him with the perfect opponent to train him, but he's too 'noble', too 'valiant' to change!"

The two began pacing around in concentration and suppressed rage as the masked plotter took over. "Every time, I come so close to breaking him. He always resists, always escapes, never winning but never losing. I cannot kill him. I cannot convince him. I will never rest until I do. He will be mine."

"Twenty years ago, I learned that I no longer had to lack anything ever again. Nothing that I want will escape my grasp, even the Packers, eventually! And I don't want him because he's the only thing standing between me and the love of my life. He thinks he's won, that he's beyond my control and my power! He has to learn that no one can say no to me!" His rage finally boiled over; there was only one way to release it. The man blinked as he was engulfed in light and emerged in a completely different form, pale with glowing red eyes. "But what can you do for me?"

"You have already told me your latest plan," answered his masked guest as they reconverged, face to face. "I can get past this unexpected obstacle much better than your clumsy henchmen. And you can get in to the most secure facility in the world for me and fetch me the one thing that will make me impossible to reject."

"This whole plan depends on your charity case remaining in Amity Park and the two of them staying in contact. From what I've seen, he does not plan to stay long."

"There is about to be a change of plans. I can arrange that."

"Then we have a deal."

Robin worked as fast as he could in his nook in the park, tuning the R-Cycle up to perfection. As interesting as it was to meet a ghost, as exciting as a town this turned out to be, as depressing as it was to think of a kid who had to keep his night life a secret even at home, nothing could shake his craving for answers and a victory, his mania for facing his arch nemesis. All he wanted, all he cared about, all that mattered anymore was Slade. Robin was at the point where he was so consumed, there was no room, time, or energy to be ashamed of himself.

"This is taking too long!" he growled as he threw down a screwdriver in his fever. "I've got to get out of here now! I've got to get going I've wasted too much time already I can't take this anymore What am I going to do now What am I going to do" he ranted on and on as he pulled his hair, threw harmless sharp-edged disks as hard as he could, and punched the tree out of pique. At the height of his frenzy, he unsheathed his bow staff and started beating it with all his might. Who knows how long he could have gone on if he hadn't gotten beat over the head so hard he fell to his knees.

Robin took a deep breath and looked at what had fallen on the ground from above him. He gasped; he'd been expecting it for so long, but expecting even more never to be satisfied. The sight filled him with so much adrenaline, it took him half-a-second to decide what to do next. He punctured through the lens of the wireless camera with his staff, tucked them both in his belt, and ran off for help.

Danny's thoughts might not have been uncontrollably focused on his stalker like Robin, but he still looked over his shoulder every five minutes, jumped at every loud noise, and looked out every window and opened door of a room whenever he entered, just like he had for days. Only that day's math homework was able to distract him enough for someone to throw something through his closed window without him noticing until after the fact.

He almost went ghost at the sound of the breaking glass, but kept it to a scream. Just as he was about to chide himself for panicking over a baseball, he spotted the round, metal badge on his floor. "This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder," he said as he picked up and turned it over. It was emblazoned with a single letter 'S'.