EPISODE 55—LOVE GAMES

"You stole that book?"

"Relax, Sam, it's just from the scummy Ghost Writer guy who trapped me in that story," Danny said.

"But that was because you destroyed his first Christmas poem," Sam said. "Danny… I'm getting tired of always criticizing you. But you've been so… so criticizable lately! Freeing that blood-sucking ghost Hemozoa. Trying to go face that Voromni monster when you clearly had no chance. And now you've turned into a common thief!"

"I'm just borrowing it!" Danny said. "Believe me, I'll return it before the Ghost Writer gets back from Walker's prison. I don't want him to find out I stole from him and then have him trap me in another story. But the Ghost Writer's library had so much amazing stuff on the world of ghosts! And half-ghosts! This could really help me figure out my powers more! Did you know that there's been a total of sixteen known half-ghosts in chronicled history?"

"Sixteen?" Tucker said. "Jeez. That's more than I would have thought. Anyone we know?"

"Well, there's me and Vlad. Then there's Wardback—he was the first known half-ghost ever. But they don't even know his real name. Then they have a couple more names: Harold Smith, Iko Prasad, Noah Fontaine, Tia Jimenez, …um, two crazy-looking names, Xu Keidong, and three more names that I think I'd need several years to practice before I could get them right… Uma Thornton… okay, I'll give this one a go: Srinivasa Ramanujan… and Megan Wright. None of them live in North America right now except for Vlad and me. And out of those sixteen, six of them are alive right now. …Well, half-alive." He stopped to think for a moment. "Wait a minute… They don't have my 'cousin' Danielle in here."

"Well, that makes sense," Sam said. "She's really recent, isn't she?"

"Yeah, and the Ghost Writer's been in Walker's jail since then," Danny said, feeling slightly guilty. "But look at what else there is! Up until the seven half-ghosts who are alive today, all of them died within two years of severe ecto-acne. And I know Vlad had that, but I never did. I wonder if it had something to do with how the powers were obtained. Maybe they got their powers and ended up really unstable."

"What else is there?" Tucker asked.

"I like this one," Danny said. "All half-ghosts are, for some unknown reason, able to control one element out of the following list, which could be incomplete if there are others that simply haven't surfaced: earth, water, wind, fire, ice, electricity, metal, and plant matter. A woman whose name is unpronounceable got the power to control plant matter but was pursued and… um, destroyed by minions of the plant ghost Undergrowth, who sensed a challenge to his domain. It also says here that if a half-ghost has contact with extreme forces of elements, those elements will leave traces of control, though unstable and difficult to handle, often regulated by emotion. Like when Vortex gave me weather powers! That was wind, water, fire, AND electricity."

"Fire?" Tucker queried.

"I heated up a room really bad," Danny said.

"What about Wardback?" Sam questioned.

"I was wondering that, too," Danny said. "There's a whole separate chapter on him. Wardback apparently has power of unknown definition and bounds. His 'element' appears to be backwardness, but since this is crazy hard to put words to, he is left out of the half-ghost category in most literature. Which also makes sense, because he said he doesn't even know if he is half-ghost; he might just be able to mimic a human really well."

"All right, I admit, this is worth taking a look at," Sam said.

"And so is that!" Tucker laughed, pointing to the distance.

Danny looked around. He'd seen the entire world overtaken by a storm, seen Amity Park turned into a complete jungle, and witnessed his entire world as if he was the only one without ghost powers—but this, by far, was the weirdest thing he'd ever seen.

Star, the marginally attractive girl who often was seen orbiting around Paulina, was sitting down to eat lunch with Mikey, the extremely geeky boy who was seen stuffed in his own locker more times than not. Actually, they weren't even eating lunch. They were just staring at each other and sighing.

The entire cafeteria noticed almost instantly. Everybody in the room was staring at Star and Mikey, but they were so entranced by each other that they didn't care. And then, they leaned over the table towards each other and kissed.

The collective gasp echoed several times around the walls. Even the lunch lady dropped her ladle and stared in disbelief.

Mikey and Star put a bite of food in their mouths, and then continued to gaze into each others' eyes, and sighed again.

"What on Earth happened there?" Tucker asked. "Did he do her math homework for the rest of high school or something?"

"Hey, sometimes it just happens without warning," Sam said.

"Not to me," Tucker said, his shoulders slumping.

"Cheer up," Danny said. "If it helps, I could overshadow a girl and have her schedule a date with you."

"Not funny, Danny," Tucker said, and he put his arms on the table and put his head face-down on them. "This table smells funky. I hope nobody threw up on it."

"And it's comments like that which scare away all chances of romance," Sam said, smiling.

Paulina walked by them towards the popular table, but suddenly stopped when she saw Tucker with his head on the table. Her eyes widened a little bit, and to Danny and Sam's complete and utter shock, she sat down right next to Tucker and rubbed his back.

"What's wrong, cutie pie?" she said.

"I said, not funny, Danny," Tucker sighed, his words muffled in his arm.

"Danny?" Paulina said. "Who's Danny?"

"Hey!" Danny said.

"Him?" Paulina laughed. "I'm only interested in you, Tucker."

Tucker looked up, and his eyes bugged out when he saw Danny sitting across the table, clearly not overshadowing Paulina.

"Paulina?" Tucker said.

"Yes, angel?" Paulina cooed, stroking his chin.

Tucker began to sweat. "Play it cool," he muttered to himself. Then, as if he couldn't control a spasm, he held up his PDA. He was about to shoot off some random fact about its memory space when he stopped the words in his throat.

"Ooh, that's cool," Paulina said, staring at the PDA. "You should show me closer sometime!"

"Is she toying with him?" Sam whispered to Danny. "Making fun of him?"

"I don't know," Danny said.

Dash stampeded over to the table and gawked at Paulina holding Tucker's hand. "Paulina!" he shouted. "What are you doing, fraternizing with the enemy?"

Paulina stared at Tucker's eyes. "I… I don't know," she said. "Something just came over me."

"You're not really going to bring Foley to the popular table, are you?" whined Dash.

Paulina looked over at Danny and Sam. "No," she said, turning back to Dash and smiling. "I think I'll stay here. Any friend of Tucker's is a friend of mine!" She flashed a smile at Sam.

"This is definitely faked," Sam said.

Danny frowned. "Sam… look around…"

There were at least eight more unlikely pairs suddenly rushing across the cafeteria and falling into each others' arms. Lester and Valerie rushed at each other and hugged tightly—that was the weirdest, but there were a good number of other pairs that Danny didn't know but whom he had never seen together before.

"Look at this," Danny said. "This doesn't seem… natural."

"Look at what?" Sam said with a dreamy voice. "All I can look at is Kwan."

"What?" Danny shouted, whipping around. Kwan was rushing towards them, and Sam leapt up and met him halfway. They stopped right in front of each other and stared, and then they both clasped each others' hands between them and smiled.

As Danny was about to overshadow Kwan and leave him in the dumpster outside the school, he got his explanation: his ghost sense went off and he felt a shiver course through him.

He darted out the door, smacking directly into Mr. Lancer's chest. "S-Sorry, Mr. Lancer. Gotta go to the bathroom—"

"Romeo and Juliet!" Mr. Lancer shouted. "What in the name of Lord Byron is going on in this room?"

"I need to be going in a different room," Danny answered and scurried around Lancer and out.

He jumped into the bathroom and transformed, then flew out, invisible. "A love ghost?" he whispered to himself. "That's a little clichéd, but all right. I wonder how many ghosts there are that I haven't met."

He flew back into the cafeteria, but remained invisible, looking around. "Where is this ghost?" he muttered.

For a while, he continued to search; he ended up not needing to go to class anyway, because the rest of the school day was a complete failure. Half of the kids in the school refused to go to classes apart from their new partners, and the teachers could not force them, as hard as they tried. And even after they gave up, everybody was too obsessed with each other to even go home. Tucker and Paulina looked like Siamese twins, they were so close. Danny had to find a way to make sure he wouldn't fall under the spell, and also discover where this ghost was hiding…

The Spooktacles! He still had that invention of his father's, back home. He had to hurry and grab it before this got too out of hand… before anyone did something they'd really regret. While he was there, he could grab the Fenton Phones—if the spell was sound-based, he could avoid it. Being a ghost protected him from most spells, though.

He decided to get out quick, before he was affected, and he flew back to his home to grab the devices that would help him hunt this love ghost.

He'd stealthily snuck into his room and grabbed the devices, and returned to the school, scanning every area he could think of, remaining invisible. He realized he probably looked really strange, with the Fenton Phones sticking out of his ears and the Spooktacles on his eyes. Good thing he was invisible, and good thing everyone in the area was making out too viciously to notice.

He turned down a hallway and noticed, through his glasses, a soft pink glow coming from around the corner on the other end of the hall. The few couples holding each other in the hallway didn't notice the whoosh of air above them as the invisible Danny jetted off to investigate.

He reached the end of the hallway and turned, and his ghost sense went off. There was a boy, a little older than Danny, readying a bow and arrow in a pose reminiscent of Cupid. He had solid red skin and hair and was glowing pink; his wings were a pure white and he had on a purple toga. His bow, arrows, and quiver seemed to be made of swirling colors—red, white, and pink were racing along the surface of the weapon like nothing Danny had ever seen. And the tip of the bow was pointed directly at Mr. Lancer, who was having a discussion with Ms. Tetzlaff on what to do about the current situation.

Danny cleared his throat loudly, remaining invisible. Mr. Lancer and Ms. Tetzlaff looked over nervously, and then walked swiftly away from the area; the boy tossed back a mane of pure red hair and lowered his bow, then turned his head slowly, but remained completely silent. He stopped turning his head before Danny could see his face, but his ear waggled in the air slightly as he listened for Danny to speak again.

Danny took off the Spooktacles for a moment; when he did so, there was absolutely no sign of the ghost in front of him. Either the ghost had been remaining invisible this whole time, or he was naturally invisible.

"What do you think you're doing?" Danny asked, putting the Spooktacles back on so he could see.

The ghost tilted his head a little further.

"Yes, you," Danny said. "Floating in front of the gym with your bow and arrow."

"You can see me?" The ghost suddenly whipped around, revealing his face. It was an unremarkable sixteen- or seventeen-year-old boy's face, except for one thing: His eyes were clouded over white while the rest of his body and his hair were the same solid red. He appeared to be blind.

"Yeah," Danny said. "Can you… see me?"

The ghost laughed and waved a hand in front of his face. "I see nothing as you see it. But I see the lust that burns within you. I can sense where you are standing."

"Who are you, and why are you attacking us?" Danny asked.

"Attacking?" the ghost cried, pressing a hand over his heart. "Never attacking! I'm just doing what I love!" He flipped his hand around in the air and a rose bloomed from his hand, which he then twirled around in his fingers. "I am Luster. The ghost of love. Don't you find my work just lovely?" He brought the rose up to his mouth and bit off the head, chewing it delightedly.

Danny backed away in the air slightly. "Not really," Danny said. "You might scar these kids forever."

Luster smiled and flipped himself upside-down in the air; his hair turned from red to a fluorescent orange. "No. When they wake up from this spell, they'll not remember a thing. Don't you worry." He turned himself sideways, still staring at Danny, and his hair flickered to a deep violet. "I'm just keeping this up for enough time for me to enjoy myself. I do ever so love watching these foolish kids fall helplessly over each other from a lust they cannot control… falling in love with the most unlikely of people. I simply love it! Why don't you?" He turned himself sideways the other way, and his hair streaked into a pure white. "And of course, the more lovin' that's going on, the more arrows I can draw from the humans' hearts when they fall asleep." He pointed to a couple that was on the ground, sleeping in each others' arms. He descended until he was just above them, and then thrust his arms each into their chests. Both of them shrieked and woke up, thrashing in pain, until Luster ripped his arms out and their limbs fell limply to the ground; they were breathing heavily and turning pale. Luster rose back up into the air with a strand of light in each hand, which formed themselves into arrows with heart-shaped tips and deposited themselves into his quiver.

Danny fought against a gag reflex that was coming on. "That was… horrible!" he blurted. "Horrible and disgusting! You hurt those kids!" His fist tightened and burned with green smoke.

"It's for the greater good," Luster said. "They'll recover in a few hours or so, and they'll have helped to spread love around the world! Isn't that lovely?" He laughed and revolved in midair cartwheels. Then he stopped right-side up and tightened his own fists. His hair snapped in a nonexistent breeze and flashed into black. "And if you try to stop this magnificent undertaking, you're going to descend to their level. I see you have some feelings for the Goth girl that I paired up with the Asian jock. If you have a problem with that… well then, let's just see how much of a problem you have making love to the cacti growing in the school greenhouse."

Danny backed away. "I can see you," Danny said. "There's no sneaking up on me."

"How are you seeing me, anyway?" Luster asked, stroking his chin. His hair became a shining green. "One cannot see love, and love cannot see its targets."

"Go back to the Shakespeare play you came from or I'm going to kick you into the history books," Danny growled.

With a lightning-quick move, Luster whipped out an arrow, strung it, and fired. Danny pressed himself against the ceiling to dodge.

The arrow split into five as it flew. One stayed on target, and four of them tilted slightly to the left, the right, upwards, and downwards. They spread out, covering a large area. This made Danny a little nervous; Luster didn't have to be exact when he fired.

Luster notched another arrow and fired immediately. Danny phased through the ceiling, then flew forward so that he would appear behind Luster.

He was about to phase through again when his trained senses alerted him to a presence emerging behind him. He whipped around and threw up a shield of energy as Luster shot through the floor and another arrow whistled through the air. It split into five arrows again, and when they struck the shield, they were not stopped. The arrows slowly penetrated the shield; Danny hit the floor as the arrows melted through the shield in about a second; when the arrows had passed completely through, they regained their previous rapid pace, then dissolved into the air after passing him. He phased through the floor again to escape the next array of shots.

"Wow!" came a yell from below as Danny passed into the hall. "It's Danny Phantom!"

Danny looked down and saw Dash Baxter waving at him. "Wow," Dash said. "I was going to ask you if you saw the weird stuff that's been going on in the school, but you look a little weirder. What's with the headgear?"

"Invisible ghost," Danny replied, looking around at all sides.

Dash frowned. "Aren't they supposed to be?"

Danny thought for a moment. "True," he said. "You haven't fallen in love with anyone yet?"

Dash glared. "Hey!" he said. "I'm waiting for the right person."

"No, I mean…" Danny kept glancing everywhere. "You haven't been affected by the love ghost yet."

"That's a weird way of putting it."

"There's a ghost in the school that's making everyone fall in love!" Danny yelled. "I'd get out of here if I were you!"

"Oh," Dash said. "Um… gotcha." He turned and ran.

Danny caught a glimpse of pink out of the corner of his eye, and he threw up another shield to slow any of the arrows. But Luster didn't fire, just folded his arms and tilted his head. His hair was still the jet-black color it had taken on when he got angry.

"Who was that boy who just left?" asked Luster.

"Why do you care?" Danny asked, tensing himself but letting the shield go down for now.

Luster smiled and twitched with restrained laughter.

"What's so funny?" Danny asked.

"I know something you don't know," Luster said. He turned upside down again and his hair radiated as a light yellow.

"I don't care," Danny said. "Why can't you go terrorize the Ghost Zone?"

"These people are so happy," Luster said, waving his hand and producing another rose. "Why do you say terrorize?"

"Because if you hadn't been making them fall in love, they wouldn't have chosen to fall in love with those people," Danny said. "You're forcing them against their will!"

"I'm changing their will," Luster said. "They want to be in love. They ever so do." He bit the head off the rose again and cast the thorn-studded stem aside.

"That's still not right!" Danny shouted. "You can't decide who falls in love with who."

"Nobody decides anyway," Luster said, spinning himself around in cartwheels. "It just happens. So it's just happening a little sooner!"

Danny groaned and slapped a hand against his face. "You're not going to ever understand, are you," he said. "Fine. I guess I'll have to do this the hard way." He threw his arms back and then forward, and fired an average ray of ecto-energy.

Luster righted himself to take the energy blast standing still, breathing in sharply and grinning. He didn't get knocked backwards at all; in fact, he seemed to enjoy it. He then exhaled sharply, and energy swirled out of him in a ring. He rotated his arms in full circles and then thrust them out at his sides, and the ring blasted out in all directions.

Danny turned intangible, worried about his ecto-shield not being able to stop the blast like it had failed against the arrows. But it turns out he might have wanted to go with the shield anyway… The blast hit him even though he was intangible and came close to knocking the wind out of him. He flipped over backwards in the air, and he halted himself in a fighting stance. "What the heck?"

"Oh, you thought you can put a stopper in love?" Luster said, and he giggled. "That's ridiculous. Don't you read, or watch movies?" He spun around in a midair somersault and kicked another spinning ring of energy at him. Danny formed a shield, but the ring passed directly through the shield without slowing and slammed into him again.

"What's wrong?" Luster teased. "Having as hard a time defeating me as you are deciding your feelings about the Goth girl?" He laughed. "I'll tell you what's going to happen between you and her if you like." He drifted forward.

"I know you're going to lie to me!" Danny shouted. "Get back!"

"Oh, I never lie," Luster said. "She's going to meet someone else soon… very soon. And she's going to fall… head over heels for him!" He spun around in another somersault, head over heels. Then he continued to taunt. "You'll be left in a shadow, despairing, knowing you were inadequate; that others are better. I can sense your broken heart this early, you freak of nature. And shouldn't it have been obvious from the beginning that this would happen? Any feeling she had for you disappeared when you turned into this freak! I'd give up forever on women if I were you. I know for a fact you won't find one!" He laughed and spun around in more circles; his hair flashed back and forth between pink and baby blue.

"I'm going to beat that story right out of you!" Danny roared.

"You don't understand the power of love yet… do you?" Luster asked, slowing to a stop in his circles and stroking his chin. "You can't strike love down with brute force. You can't possibly defeat me in combat, you puerile pseudo-ghost!"

"Don't you know me?" Danny shouted. "I'm the Halfa. I defeated Pariah Dark, the King of All Ghosts. I've even defeated the plant kingdom, and the weather, for God's sake! The weather!"

Luster pursed his lips. "The what? The Halfa? I've never heard of you. But that's cute. Half a human, half a ghost?"

"You've never heard of me?" Danny said, a little bit insulted. He thought he was fairly well-known in the Ghost Zone.

"I haven't been around in a while," Luster said. "I was sulking."

"Sulking?" Danny asked, frowning.

"In my lair deep below the surface of the Ghost Zone," Luster explained. "I vowed to only emerge when someone with great and true love beset me. That person… did not show up, unfortunately," he said, his nostrils flaring. "Someone with horrid and false love did, seeking to use me for his own purposes. And so I decided it was time for a comeback! I came here and have just begun to spread the love."

"Why were you sulking in the first place?" Danny asked, not really intending to listen; he was trying to come up with a plan.

"Because of the vicious and inhumane crimes committed against love," Luster barked, visibly simmering. "The inexpressible grief of millions due to the love they cannot have because of the disgusting and baseless decisions of others."

"What are you talking about?" Danny asked, now actually interested.

"I refer to love between two men, or two women," Luster said. "Perfectly pure. Just as mysterious and wonderful. Spat upon by those who do not understand, or deem themselves better. Their judgment is flawed and unfounded and must vanish from this world."

Danny ground his jaw from side to side, thinking. "Love between… two men? But…"

It wasn't just Luster's hair that turned black this time. His entire body exploded into darkness, and an intense pitch-black aura radiated out of him violently. "BUT WHAT?" he snarled. "YOU IMAGINE YOURSELF ABOVE IT?"

"No, but… I don't…" Danny struggled for words; his thought process was being blocked by constant attack plans.

"I hope you are ready to encounter that class of love firsthand," Luster growled. His hands clenched, and what looked like black fire started to burn around them.

"What?" Danny asked. "I—"

Because of the intense aura of darkness, Danny almost didn't see the arrow being speedily notched, but he noticed it at the last second, as the arrow fired. He turned intangible, realizing too late what a terrible mistake it was—the arrow was bound to hit him anyway.

He was right. The arrow pierced him directly through the chest, and he doubled over in pain, falling out of the sky and hitting the ground. When he rose back up, his body was glowing slightly pink, and he floated down the hall, mindlessly in search of a certain person whom he hoped had not yet left…

Dash was shaking Kwan as the latter jock was embracing Sam Manson tightly. "Buddy!" he cried. "You don't know what you're doing! It's a love ghost, I'm telling you, Danny Phantom said so! You're not really that obsessed with her. Snap out of it or I'm giving away your place at the cool table!"

"Dash?"

Dash turned around and saw Danny Phantom hovering towards him. He no longer had the funky glasses on, but the little ear devices were still in.

"Danny Phantom!" Dash said. "Awesome! This is so cool that I'm totally talking to you!" He bounced up and down on his heels. "Did you lay the beatdown on that love ghost?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Danny said, lowering himself to the ground onto a bench and putting his chin in his hands. "But I really do love hearing you talk…"

"Um… What?" Dash backed up and raised an eyebrow.

"Am I making you uncomfortable?" Danny asked, suddenly all concern. "I'm sorry."

"That's okay," Dash said. "And what do you mean, you didn't know what I was talking about! You said there was a love ghost out there on the run in our school."

"All I can think about is you," Danny said, sighing with sparkling eyes.

"Oh, no," Dash moaned, piecing it together. "Phantom! Dude, snap out of it! You've been hypnotized or something by that ghost!" He ran up to Danny and placed his hands on Danny's shoulders; Danny sighed contentedly and smiled widely. Dash then violently shook Danny around until Danny clutched his head dizzily.

"Are you out of it?" Dash asked.

Danny stood up and stared at Dash a little longer. "Your eyes…" he said. "I never looked at them this much before. They're really pretty."

Dash looked around at all the couples embracing tightly, and he grimaced. "Phantom," he said. "Look around at everyone!"

"Why would I look away from you?"

"Gah! Phantom! Come on! You're better than this!"

"But I don't want to be!" Danny protested.

"We have to help all these people!" Dash begged. "They're under some sort of weird spell or something! By the love ghost!"

"Dash… I think it's time I said it," Danny said, breathing heavily. "Dash, I… I think I love you."

"If you really love me, you'll do something about this!" Dash shouted.

Danny stood up. "Do what? I'll do anything!"

An idea came to Dash. "Hey, that's a good idea," he said. "Good job, ol' brain! I knew I could think of good things every once in a while."

"I think you're brilliant," Danny offered, stepping closer.

Dash stepped back again. "All right, Phantom. Let me throw this out there: I don't love you back." Danny's face paled and he looked absolutely shattered. "But… Um… If you help me do whatever we can to defeat this love ghost… I'll… um… I'll give you a kiss. Okay?"

Danny straightened totally up again with a flash of hope. "I'll give you the best kiss of your life," Danny pledged. "I'll do whatever it takes!"

"You've gotta beat that love ghost!" Dash said. "Come on! Then the spell will snap!" He then added under his breath, "And I won't have to follow through on that offer."

Danny's eyes turned downwards. "That… That sounds a little hard. …What if I don't come back? I can't leave you!" He grabbed the front of Dash's shirt and pulled him close in a tight hug.

Dash pried himself away. "You need to figure something out," Dash said. "And then I'll… well… I'll kiss you. Um… hard."

Danny smiled and stepped back. "I'll try," he said. "For a kiss from you… Anything. Would you like to kiss my ghost half or my human half?"

Dash had been ready to go find the ghost immediately, but that last sentence stopped him. He raised one eyebrow. "What do you… mean by that?"

Danny flashed a grin and transformed. The ring of light appeared at his waist and spread out above and below; where it swept over, it left the signature red and white shirt and blue jeans of Danny Fenton; it swept over his head and turned his eyes blue and hair white. He opened his eyes and grinned wildly at Dash. "I'm really Danny Fenton," he said, and drew himself very close again. "But don't tell anybody."

Dash stared with an open mouth, just gawking at Danny for a full fifteen seconds as Danny hugged him tightly. "N… No… N-No way! F-FENTON?"

"Yep," Danny said, keeping his eyes closed as he hugged Dash and sighed. "I'm only telling you because I know you'll never tell. I love you, Dash. Please… Love me back. Please!"

Dash looked around; all the other couples in the cafeteria were still preoccupied with each other. Nobody else had seen the transformation.

"That… makes so much sense," he realized, whispering his revelations in case there was anyone else paying attention. "You kept hitting on Paulina. And you told her to go out with Danny Fenton. And then—when the ghost pirate ship came—Danny Phantom appeared right as Fenton left! Dude… You're…" He bit his lip. "Fenton, you're a freaking superhero. And nobody knew…" He choked on his last couple words: "You've been… helping us from the sidelines for so long. And I've been so…" He bit his lip and looked down at the black-haired teen still clutching him tightly.

"None of that matters to me, Dash," Danny said. "I love you."

"You said that already," Dash murmured. "My God… Fenton…" He shook his head. "No. We have to focus on taking down this ghost, whoever it is."

"His name is Luster," Danny said, miraculously peeling his arms away from Dash. "And if it means this much to you… I'll do it. I will."

"Good," Dash said. "Thank you. What do you know about him?"

Danny's head felt extremely clear, having lifted that load on his newfound love; his mind spun like a well-oiled machine. "He can't be beaten by brute force," he relayed. "But I have a book with me that has a bunch of information on a lot of different ghosts. I could go to my locker and get it… We'll see if there's anything in there."

"Awesome, Fenton," Dash said. "Perfect." He watched Danny transform back into his ghostly alter-ego, and he flew off through the wall towards where his locker was located.

Dash sighed and sat down. This was too much to comprehend. How was this possible? How did Fenton get superpowers, anyway? His brain was specialized on finding someone to pass a football to, not comprehending that the nerd he whaled on daily was a superhero who now needed his help to catch an elusive love ghost.

Danny flew back into the cafeteria holding the weird glasses from earlier along with a thick book. He landed next to Dash on the bench and laid out the book. "Here," he said, transforming back into his human self.

Dash twitched and looked around nervously. No one else was paying attention, again. "Fenton, you need to stop doing that," he whispered. "Somebody might see you one of these times!"

The blue eyes never drifted from Dash's face, but they widened. "There are other people in this room…?"

Dash groaned and rolled his eyes. If this had been happening with normal Danny Fenton, without him knowing Danny's secret, he probably would have taken this opportunity to tell Fenton to cross-dress, or put on a dog outfit or something, and then take pictures to put in the yearbook. But he was stunned to think about this… Fenton had put up with this abuse most days, yet he had even saved Dash's life! Despite how horrible he was to Fenton all the time, the kid still did everything he could to help him… and everyone else, of course.

Danny smiled at how close he was to Dash, and then started flipping through the book. "Look," he said, pointing to the list of known half-ghosts. "There's my name! I'm in this book. Isn't that awesome?"

Dash stared at the name next to Danny's. "Vlad Masters?" he gawked. "That can't be referring to the mayor!"

"Oh, it is," Danny said. "He's a half-ghost too. He's my sworn archenemy."

"Wow," Dash said. "Are you serious?"

"That's why he ran for mayor," Danny said. "To make my life miserable. And he almost succeeded, but I ruined his approval ratings by acting like he hit me with the ecto-gun blast."

Dash blinked several times, staring at Danny. "I never knew how much was going on," he said.

"Let's hurry up and find something so we can get to the kissing," Danny said, winking at Dash. Dash attempted a smile back.

Danny flipped to the end of the book, looking for a glossary of some sort. He found nothing, so he flipped to the front and the table of contents. Pages 304 to 977 had information on some of the Ghost Zone's more notable ghosts, so he flipped to 304.

Advancing through the pages, he found some familiar names and some unfamiliar names. Aarosch. Aethri. Allistra. Amorpho. Aragon. Axander. They all began with the letter "A…" Perhaps they were alphabetized.

Danny flipped a large chunk of pages. Riptide. Too far forward. He flipped back; Hotep-Ra. He flipped back a few pages to glance at Hemozoa out of curiosity, settling a question that had been raised in his mind by the Observants a while back when they referred to her as the "Ghost Queen." She was, indeed, the Ghost Queen at one point, wedded to Pariah Dark and possibly the only ghost who, by herself, rivaled Pariah's power—but only in the human world, where flesh and blood were abundant. Elsewhere, she seemed to be fairly helpless, which was why defeating her was so easy in her castle past the Zoan Wall in the Ghost Zone.

He flipped forward a sizable chunk, and finally was around where he wanted to be. Loki. Lomora. Loucziel. Lumandrace. And finally, Luster.

There were no pictures like there were on some of the others. A little side note under the name Luster read, This ghost is invisible to the naked eye, appearing only to the truest of couples—the love of which must be ceremonially bonded.

Danny pointed. "Wow," he said. "I bet I could see him if we got married right now."

A groan followed from Dash. "Just keep reading."

"Can do," Danny said cheerily. He scanned the pages, looking for something that might help him defeat Luster so that he could celebrate his victory with Dash.

The book listed each ghost's known powers. In addition to normal ghost abilities: Not affected by physical blows. Through some unknown means, induces love in whomever he chooses (and making the target love whomever he chooses). Not much information is available on this ghost.

Luster is also hindered by none of the following: Ecto-shields. Ghost shields. Ghost power neutralizers. Ghost-seeking weapons. Advanced tracking devices can locate his position, but his general physical traits are entirely unknown, if they exist at all.

Luster seems to draw more power from those people he casts his spell on: when they fall asleep, something occurs that gives him power, and the victim is left in a highly weakened state for several hours. When victims are finally awakened and released from the spell, they forget all that has happened while Luster was in control.

"Look at that," Danny said, proudly. "I saw that happen; I know what that is. He pulls more of his love arrows out of their hearts when they fall asleep."

"That's good to know," Dash said. "I could try to do something to keep everyone awake while you fight him."

Observations have suggested that Luster is blind, and can only sense a presence by the lusts that burn within their hearts. Masking these inner desires may be the key to avoiding detection and defeating him.

"That's got to be it!" Danny exclaimed, pointing to the line. "That's how we'll do it!"

Dash peered at the description. "That's… interesting… How do we mask your inner desires, then?"

"Maybe we could set up an attacking robot," Danny said.

"Keep reading," Dash said.

Danny scanned the next few lines; it was mainly about historical events which had been influenced by Luster. There was section that lasted four pages about a man named Sextus Tarquinius, son of a Roman king, and his sudden intense love for a woman named Lucretia, the events of which led to the overthrow of the Roman monarchy and the establishment of the Roman Republic. It looked fairly interesting, but he'd look over it later. He continued to scan the book, and finally, he discovered something that could be the deciding factor in their battle.

Two reports have been submitted, the validity of which is unknown, claiming that neither Luster's vision nor his physical form are able to pass through water, and that water weakens him, but fire strengthens him. These reports do match the observations that Luster's abilities have not yet been witnessed in the rain in the human world.

Water? Danny read the line twice more to make sure, and then pointed it out to Dash. Dash nodded. "That's excellent," he said. "Good find, Fenton. Now how do we get you covered in water?"

"I might have an idea," Danny said. "I can conjure ice with my ghostly energy. And the ice is made up of water… so I could probably seal Luster into one room if I was able to use my ice for long enough."

"And I have an idea, too," Dash said. "I think we might be able to do this if you can find him again."

"I'll start looking right now," Danny said, sliding on the Spooktacles and grinning wildly, transforming back into Danny Phantom. Good thing everyone else continued to ignore him…

"Dash," Danny breathed as they rounded the bend, bringing them to the hall by the main entrance. It was one of the few places in school where there were no couples strewn along the floor. "I see his aura. He's approaching us, coming around the corner."

Dash nodded and stood completely still.

Luster floated into sight holding another rose and spun down the hallway. "How's the new couple?" he cooed. "Aren't you tired? I think you should take a rest, boys…"

"Not a chance," Danny said, pointing at Luster. "You can't see me pointing at you, but I am, because I'm yelling, 'You're going down!'"

Luster frowned. "What's the matter?" he asked. "Should I have shot the other one, too? But it's even more fun when one of you is completely bewildered. …You're not lovey-dovey enough to get out of my way, huh. But I bet with another shot, you will be!"

He strung his bow with extreme agility and fired. Danny hit the floor and yelled, "Dash! Now's the time!"

Dash threw a vial of highly flammable chemicals from the chemistry lab, and it smashed under Luster's feet. On contact with air, the chemicals burst into flame and spread along the floor and to the walls. Luster laughed and raised his hands. "The burning passions of love cannot be doused by fire," he said, holding up his hands and absorbing energy from the fire. "You're making me stronger, you idiots!" He clenched his fists, and the fire spread, consuming more and more of the hallway.

"I think you're wrong about that one," Danny said. "You see, in the lengthy period of time you've been out of the human world, we've had a couple new inventions. One of my new favorites: the smoke alarm and sprinkler system!"

A piercing noise exploded throughout the school; Luster slapped hands against his ears and doubled over as if sick to his stomach, scowling. The fire alarm message went off, reminding everyone to get out of the school calmly and in an orderly fashion, and to not use the elevators; then the sprinkler system activated in response to the smoke, and water poured down from the metal devices on the ceiling. In addition to the water raining down on him, which should theoretically weaken him greatly, it also produced an ear-splitting sound that woke every sleeping couple in the school, leaving Luster unable to refill his quiver.

Luster twitched and convulsed in the air, howling. Danny held his hands in front of him and discharged a large blast of icy power, which struck Luster straight-on, as he was caught unawares. Luster's arms were frozen around his waist and he fell to the ground; the ice block shattered. Danny then blew an icy wind at the flames, which made them retreat and dissipate, but froze Luster mostly solid to the ground.

Danny flew up to Luster with the Fenton Thermos at the ready. "Say goodbye, little love bug," he said, a little too giddy in his victory due to the reward of kissing Dash that came next. His excitement made him careless, and as he prepared to shoot the Thermos, Luster smashed his icy bonds. The love ghost leapt up, pounced behind Danny, then grabbed all five remaining arrows from his quiver and stabbed them with a snarl into Danny's back with his hands, not even bothering to shoot them from his bow.

Danny screamed and his eyes nearly popped out, but then he swiveled around and saw nothing but Dash. Luster hit the ground, completely enervated with no energy or arrows remaining. He laughed bitterly and weakly and started to limp very slowly towards the door that led to the outside.

Danny, his hair and clothes soaked, threw off the Spooktacles and the Fenton Phones and lunged for Dash, knocking him down and to the floor. He lay on top of the bigger boy, focused on nothing but Dash's face, and he leaned in for a kiss. Dash tried to shove Danny's head aside, but Danny grabbed Dash's arms and phased them into the floor, leaving them stuck there so he had free access; he pressed his lips hard against Dash's and hooked his hands behind the jock's head.

Dash kicked his legs, but Danny turned his back half intangible and continued to kiss fiercely. A strange warmth was spreading through Dash's body—a sensation he had not expected—and when Danny passed his fingers through Dash's hair, he shivered all the way down and relaxed slightly.

Danny opened his lips and pressed his tongue gently between Dash's lips, sneaking it slightly through, and then closed his lips again, repeating the process until Dash suddenly took on the same actions. Danny sighed and smiled contentedly as his lips brushed continuously against Dash's and his hands stroked the back of Dash's head.

Dash regained full awareness a second later, realizing what was happening and realizing that he needed to get Danny off of him so he could find Luster. While still vaguely opening and closing his mouth to Danny's will, he strained against the floor that his hands were stuck under. His brute strength and physical training finally paid off for something other than football—his hands, buried shallowly in the ground, ripped up the floor tiles and shoved Danny off of him and into the wall. Danny held his head and then leaped back, but Dash ran and grabbed the Fenton Thermos.

He looked up, and something amazing happened. Suddenly, Luster came into his view, looking exactly as Danny had described him, with his red skin and shifty hair, his pure white wings and purple tunic. But how was this possible? Luster was invisible, and could only be seen—

He could only be seen by couples who had sealed their love with a ceremony. Did it have to be marriage? That kiss—did that serve as the ceremony that allowed him to see Luster? Even if Dash didn't consider himself in love?

It didn't matter. The question was, how was he to beat the ghost that he could now see? He was holding a thermos. He had seen Danny point it at Luster—what was it supposed to do, fire soup at the ghost? But he had treated the thermos part like it was going to be the end of the battle. He ripped the top off and dodged Danny just like he dodged tackles in his games. Then he pointed it at the retreating Luster, and some other force took over.

A blue-white jet of energy burst out of the end of the thermos and wrapped itself around the dripping-wet boy ghost. Luster looked back with a shout as he was sucked towards Dash.

Danny tackled the jock again, slamming him into a seated position against the lockers, and leaned in again just as Luster disappeared into the Fenton Thermos, which rolled against the wall. While his face was still unoccupied, Dash glanced at the thermos and grabbed it, stuffing the cap he was still holding onto the top. He looked up at Danny, whose eyes suddenly became unfocused. The ghost boy collapsed wearily on top of Dash and transformed back into his human form, falling asleep with his head on Dash's shoulder.

Dash smiled, a little bit at the victory and a little bit about the discovery he'd made. The dark-haired boy resting and breathing slowly on top of him was a half-ghost, protecting his friends and neighbors from a constant invasion of malevolent otherworldly creatures, sacrificing his time, health, and grades to combat them.

It was inspiring. Dash stared at Danny's head and without really thinking about what he was doing, he put his hand on Danny's head and let his fingers run through the boy's hair. He took his hand away when he came back to his senses, and stared at Danny, wondering what it was that had caused Luster to choose him of all the people Danny could have loved.

According to what Danny had said during their planning sessions, no one would remember any of this when they woke up. It was just as well that Danny didn't remember his violent assault on Dash's mouth.

Dash wished that he'd forgotten it, too—partly because he saw himself as straight, but partly because he was confused about how to feel. He would take some time to think about it by himself, and he didn't have to worry about anyone else knowing about it or offering help. He'd figure this one out on his own. Why didn't he throw Danny off sooner? He couldn't remember enjoying it—he was pretty sure he didn't—but why else would he have hesitated and reciprocated as much as he did?

Dash was enjoying the warmth of the shared body heat, but it was time to get Fenton off of him before anyone came along. He slid Danny to the side, laying him on his back with his head against the wall, and then took the Fenton Thermos. It would have to go somewhere where Luster wouldn't escape anytime soon… Or, better yet… He left the thermos in Danny's hands, knowing that Danny would probably know what to do with it better than he would.

He left the school and walked to his own house, mulling over the events that had recently taken place. At some point, Danny would probably figure out that Dash knew his secret. But Dash didn't want to tell Danny yet that he knew… because that brought up the question of how he knew, and that in turn brought up several questions about himself that he wanted to answer first.

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were eating lunch together the next day and discussing the weird black-out that everyone had. Not a single person in the school remembered anything; it seemed that all of them, even the teachers, had been under some sort of spell for the entire second half of the school day.

"I vaguely remember fighting a ghost beforehand," Danny said, pressing his thumbs against his temples to try and remember. "I'm pretty sure I discovered the reason that all of you were blacking out… but I just can't remember. And I'm a little scared to find out what's in the Fenton Thermos that I had in my hand when I woke up."

"Do you remember anything in specific?" Sam said. "Anything at all? A person, a sentence you said? Anything?" She shook her head. "I don't. Everything's completely fuzzy for me; I can't grasp onto a strand of any memory from yesterday's school day after lunch."

Danny scratched his hairline next to his ears and sighed.

"I found your book," Sam said. "I think I was the first to stumble across it, thankfully; no one else saw it. It was lying on a cafeteria table, opened to a page on a ghost named Luster."

"Luster?" Danny sat up straight. "That kind of rings a bell." He growled at the sky. "WHY CAN'T I REMEMBER?"

"Calm down, Danny," Sam said. "We'll go through that section of the book later and see if it holds any clues."

Paulina walked past them, the first member in a train that included all the popular kids. Dash was at the back. Paulina was talking to Star, and as they passed the three friends, they heard her ask Star, "Why do I feel like I know what geek tastes like?"

Tucker frowned. "Why do I feel like I know what everything I've ever wanted tastes like?"

Dash was talking to Kwan, but as he passed Danny, he smiled slightly in Danny's direction instead of dumping food on him like usual.

"I'm even more confused by that," Danny said, watching Dash sit down. "What happened yesterday?"

"Must've been some party," Tucker answered, shrugging.

Dash glanced sideways at Danny as he sat down to eat, then returned to his meal, trying to act as normal as possible. He knew Danny's secret, but he wasn't going to tell a soul.

Danny Fenton was Danny Phantom. He had been silently helping all of them from the sidelines for a long, long time, while keeping it a secret. So Dash would silently help Danny from the sidelines, and he would keep it a secret, too. He wasn't used to helping from the sidelines, being the star quarterback of Casper High, but he would try as hard as he could, like Danny Phantom had tried to get rid of all the ghosts in the school and town.

First, he had placed the Fenton Thermos in Danny's hands, so that he would have Luster when he woke up and could dispose of him however Danny Phantom usually took care of the ghosts. Then, he returned the ghost book to Sam Manson's table while she still slept and opened it up to a page on Luster, so that she would notice and tell Danny to look at the page; then they would figure out what had happened. Future missions to help Danny Phantom would probably be much less easy; they might even be dangerous. But nobody said it would be easy! He felt, though, like he would probably grow to love it. His decision to be Danny Phantom's secret sidekick, secret even from Danny Phantom, was easy—it was the only easy part of the whole deal.

If only deciding his deeper feelings was as easy…

-THE END-