"Sorry, Danny. I ran the symbol through every database I could think of. No clue anywhere," Tucker updated his friend through his computer screen.

"Me neither," Sam added from her screen. "And considering how my dad has stock in every business on the planet and a few space stations, I probably checked even more sources."

Danny picked the badge up from off his desk. He had called Tucker and Sam for, so far only futile, help figuring out where it could have come from. "I don't get it. It's like someone's trying to tell me I'm being watched, but why be so obvious if you're gonna be so secretive?"

"Could be reverse psychology," Sam suggested. "The more cryptic they make things, the deeper you dig, and walk into the trap much faster."

"Ri-i-ight," Tucker said, trying not to laugh.

"Hey," Sam struck back, "You've seen enough espionage-mafia movies to know that when the masked bad guy jumps the spy, puts a knife to his throat, and says 'Stay out of my way!', that's the last thing he expects him to do."

"Exactly," said Tucker. "It would take a true criminal mastermind to go to all that trouble."

"And Danny's made his share of enemies," Sam pointed out.

"Yeah, crazy ghosts who want to hypnotize every teenager in the world into buying their CDs or to trash the city with boxes," Tucker retorted. "You don't know a rich, creepy crook with connections to the underworld, do you, Danny?"

Danny pulled out the most neutral answer he could think of. "Well, what do you think? What was that?" He'd just heard noises right outside his bedroom window, like footsteps on the wall. It couldn't have been an invisible ghost because he wasn't sensing anything. The tapping and bumping got louder until he saw someone hanging from a rope outside.

"What the heck…"

"Danny, what's going on?" Sam asked.

"I'll get back to you on that." Danny left the computer on but turned the monitor off before going to meet Robin at the window. "Are you crazy or what? What in the world do you think… you're… doing?" Danny's voice trailed off as he first took in the strange scene of a boy hanging from his roof by a hook and a cable.

"I get around like this all the time," Robin answered plainly, keeping a grip on the cable attached to his belt with one hand. "If you couldn't fly, I'd recommend it."

"How did you know where I live?"

"You told me your parents study ghosts and that you got your powers from a lab accident. I added the two up and remembered this place. I thought it looked like it was owned by unorthodox scientists," Robin explained.

"And you didn't notice the front door, how?" Danny asked.

"You could explain why a stranger in a mask and cape with a utility belt full of weapons showed up on your doorstep?" Robin said, sarcastically.

"Good point."

"So, can I come in, or what?"

"What are you doing here, anyway?" asked Danny.

"You have a computer?"

"Sure, but…"

"I though I was pretty prepared, but a computer was one thing I couldn't pack even if I'd thought of it," Robin responded. "I think I've made a discovery, but I can't be sure yet. And since making acquaintances wasn't exactly a priority…"

Danny pondered for a minute and then smiled knowingly. "You've come to the right place." He opened the window all the way. "Come on in, but keep quiet. Good thing my sister's the only one home." Robin somersaulted in with a subconscious flourish. "Where did you get those moves?" Danny asked as he went back to his computer. "You must have been a circus star in a past life, if I believed in past lives."

"Me neither. Just so happens my parents were circus stars in this life," Robin answered with a commendably steady yet still-troubled voice. Danny, remembering their conversation earlier, didn't say anything. He turned the computer screen back on.

Sam spoke first. "What was that all about?"

Tucker was the first to notice Robin. "Hey, what are you doing there?"

"He can explain when you both come over here," said Danny. "Something's come up that sounds like your area of expertise, Tuck."

"I'm there," said Sam, logging off.

"On my way," said Tucker, following suit.

"You're going to help me? Just like that?" Robin wondered out loud.

"You tell us exactly what's going on, and sure," Danny answered.

"You wouldn't understand," Robin sighed angrily. "Even I don't understand."

"Try your best."

"I have. I swear, you'll never hear of anything like it. The more my friends get involved, the worse things just get. Don't expect me to tell strangers anything."

"What is it with you and secrets?" Danny asked.

"Secrets are power," Robin answered. "If you spent one minute in a room with the greatest villain and the greatest hero I've ever known, you'd know that. Since you have a secret the rest of the world knows nothing about, I bet there's a secret your friends know nothing about, either, right?"

"Is that a bad thing?" Danny asked, nervously.

"Bad? I just wish I'd done that when I had the chance," Robin said. If only I hadn't gone to Cyborg the first time I fought Slade, he thought, not for the first time. If only they'd never known. I never would have pulled it off. I couldn't hide Red X from Starfire.

Completely unaware that his masked guest was in deep thought, Danny asked, "Can you at least tell me if you know anything about this?" He took the badge out from his pocket.

As soon as he saw the symbol of his arch enemy, Robin felt the impulse to seize it and smash it with his bare hand, like he dreamed of doing to the man's mask. Instead, he gasped, shivered, gritted his teeth, and stared and stared without saying anything, hardly breathing.

Even with the window to his soul hidden, his cold, suppressed rage spoke voluminously more than any hysterical outburst. "I'll rephrase that," said Danny. "Will you tell me where this came from?"

"His name is Slade," Robin hissed. "That's everything I know."

"He's after you, isn't he?" Danny continued, rather more frightened now. "You're running for your life, aren't you?"

"I wish," Robin replied in the same wrathful monotone.

"Hey, since for once you're not in a hurry, there's something you might want to see."

"I knew it." They were the first words Robin had said since sitting down at Danny's computer to view his biggest fan's latest work. "He's here."

"Who is this guy anyway?" Danny dared to say. Deferentially waiting for a reaction from Robin was like watching the timer on an atomic bomb.

Saying "I don't want to talk about it" felt more powerful than "I wish I knew".

A knock on his door made Danny jump and gasp. "Feeling edgy about something?" Robin asked.

"Only my sister catching you hiding in my room," Danny whispered, mockingly.

"Good thing it's just us, then," Tucker said as he and Sam came in.

"Finally," said Danny. "Okay, Robin, Tucker's the one you need to talk to here."

"Fill me in," Tucker said.

Robin produced the camera he'd found. "A wireless video camera. Someone's been spying on me, everywhere I go, every hour of the day and night. Find out what he knows, and where he is," he explained, as he handed it over.

"You can do that?" Danny wondered.

"It's just a matter of following the upload signal and hacking into the system to view the files, providing the connection hasn't been broken," Sam condescendingly but good-naturedly explained, receiving two blank stares back. "I know more than you give me credit for. Don't act like you don't know it."

"When you're done..." Tucker said as he connected his PDA and the camera to the computer and went to work.

"You're still sore about the video game thing, huh?" Sam suggested.

"Do not disturb a hacker at work," Tucker replied.

"I'm still sore about that video game thing," said Danny.

"Don't ask," Sam said to Robin. "Show them some mercy."

Robin, however, was too engrossed even to give the standard "Yeah, sure". "So, you think you can do it?"

"Unless you're looking for five different spies, not really," answered Tucker. "The movie's being broadcast to different receivers."

"Decoy digital trails," Robin summed it up.

"The good news is," Tucker continued, "I can connect to them. We can see whatever he recorded."

"Do it," Robin answered instantly.

But all four of them got quite a surprise. Two clicks of a mouse later, they were watching a video in the park, not of Robin, but of…

"Danny?" Sam was the first to speak.

"I thought you said…" Danny began.

"I did," Robin interrupted him. "I thought for sure…" He was too confused to finish.

Tucker found a menu and scrolled through a few segments. Every one was of Danny fighting a different ghost, some that the friends hadn't seen for months. Some of the best moments, where he took a particularly hard hit or made an exceptionally good move or attack, froze or turned blurry, as if someone had watched that part one too many times over and over again. The camera couldn't have been motion sensitive, since it didn't follow innocent bystanders, but it kept a perfect eye on Danny.

"Wait a minute," Sam jumped in. Danny had been in his ghost mode, alone, on screen, when a powerful red blast knocked him away. The camera followed him and was soon framing him facing against someone in a red, protective jumpsuit riding a Silver Surfer-style flying board. "She look familiar to you?"

"She?" Robin said, in complete shock. He was so sure this had been the breakthrough he'd been searching for. How could a hidden video camera at the spot where he was staying been there to spy on someone else!

"Valerie," Danny confirmed, totally aghast but still unaware of what they had really found.

"But that happened…" Tucker started.

"Weeks ago, exactly," Sam finished. "How old are these recordings?"

"This is one of the last ones, and the date looks right for when you first found out about her," said Tucker. He suddenly smiled and put his hand to his chin in concentration. "Wait a minute. Wasn't that when you guys…"

"Oh, no!" Sam and Danny realized it a split second too late, not until after Valerie chased Danny right underneath the camera next to Sam, and the two of them, with nowhere to run and no time to think, did the least suspicious thing that a teenaged boy and girl would do in park.

Danny was too humiliated to say or do anything but unconsciously turn invisible. Poor Sam, who would've given her life to do the same, could only cover her eyes and scream at the top of her lungs as Robin jumped back in complete confusion and Tucker laughed like he never had before.

"Dreams do come true!" Tucker gasped. "Looks nothing like I imagined it."

"Show's over!" Danny yelled furiously as he ripped the camera, cord and all, out from his computer.

"Fine," Tucker said as he calmed down. He disconnected his PDA and waved it back and forth. "I transferred all the data anyway."

"I'd hurt you if I thought I had the self-control not to kill you in the process," Sam growled, clenching her fists.

Danny stared at Robin, the outsider, who knew nothing about the circumstances or the developments since then. "I don't even want to know," he assured him, putting his hands up. But even he couldn't help smiling and saying, "The hero and the sidekick? Could you be more obvious?"

"It's not like that!" the two of them yelled in desperation. "And we're not his sidekicks!" Sam added for good measure.

"We're not?" Tucker asked, genuinely taken aback.

"Who's responsible for this, Tucker?" Sam angrily demanded. She was in such a volcanic temper, Danny almost expected her to turn into a ghost dragon like the one time she'd accidentally worn a cursed amulet.

"I told you, there's no way to find out," Tucker said, without the least hint of a joke. He hadn't meant to move into such dangerous territory.

"Danny, who did this? Who's spying on you? Who would want to videotape you?"

"Uh…" Danny tried to stall. He could only think of one answer, but he couldn't bear to let them know.

"Think," Sam insisted. "You think Valerie did this? Your parents after they found out the school was haunted? Come on, who would do this?"

"I… it's not what you think."

"I don't know what to think! What is your deal? What are you hiding?"

Robin couldn't understand why Danny was hesitating. He couldn't have known about this spycam, or he wouldn't have let them go to all this trouble. So what did he have to hide? Robin could only think of one thing, the same thing he wanted to hide. No way. It can't be. What are the chances… It's impossible… ridiculous… Then again, the ghosts around here have been paying a lot of interest in me, and Slade seems to have taken an interest in him…

One way to find out. He grabbed Danny's arm. "Can I talk to you alone for a minute?"

"No, I don't want to talk about this!" Danny answered in exasperation. His secret was on the brink of being exposed, he couldn't think of a viable cover, Sam, a fellow victim, and Tucker, a skeptical genius, were pressing for answers. Now Mr. Mysterious wanted an exclusive?

"Sounds familiar," Robin tried to hint. "Does my 'situation' sound the least familiar to you?"

"Why?" Danny asked, still clueless.

Robin gestured to the camera and disk on the desk. "Looks like we have eerily similar problems here. Someone watching you, and you don't know a thing…"

Danny started to catch on. "Knows everything about you before you know they exist…"

"Obsessed with you…"

"Dedicated to making your life miserable…"

"Will never let you rest…"

"Any time you want to translate for us little people," Tucker interjected.

"And you feel like you can't trust anyone," Robin finished.

The two boys looked at each other and sent a silent confirmation, making one of the most dramatic realizations of their lives. It only took a second of unspoken understanding and sympathy for them to form a special bond. Without even planning it, Danny Phantom and Robin said, "We need to talk."