Author's Note: I took a fair amount of this verbatim from the real Phantom Planet. However, since it's a TV show, I added the descriptive components; i.e. the non-dialogue parts. I also added original and non-original characters in scenes where they hadn't been before. Anyway, the point is, however obvious it may be: I don't own whatever I quoted. Enjoy!

P.S. I don't usually share the minutiae of my life with readers, but… My mind was just COMPLETELY BLOWN from finding out that the guy who voiced Vlad was the principal in Sabrina the Teenage Witch. (And Salem, the cat in that show, was Norbert the beaver in "The Angry Beavers.") If you liked those shows, too, you understand how completely mind-blown I feel right now! (Also, if you didn't know, Taylor Lautner is Youngblood.)

EPISODE 59—PHANTOM PLANET, PART ONE

In the lifeless rings of Saturn, something was moving. A small robot reminiscent of Star Wars technology was picking up green rocks from a large rock orbiting Saturn, and placing them into a container. It flew towards a spaceship near the asteroid and deposited the container onto a pedestal, where the rocks were moved to an analysis chamber. A red light moved back and forth across the material, which tested positive on the scanner.

"Analysis conclusive!" said a holographic Maddie Fenton. "Asteroid composed entirely of unique anti-ghost element, 'Ectoranium!' The negative effects of which can only be felt by ghosts."

"It will be most effective in making anti-ghost weapons and ease Master's takeover of the Ghost Zone," said a second holographic Maddie.

"And I shall be the one to tell him the good news!" said the first Maddie.

"No. I shall!" the second one stated.

"I shall!"

"Your resolution is far too low and your bandwidth is far too large!"

The first Maddie gasped. "Why, you holographic—!" She pounced on the second Maddie and attacked her.

Meanwhile, above them, a ghost portal blasted into existence, and none other than Vlad Plasmius sailed out, holding a strange rolled-up map and puffing out his chest.

"What a glorious morning!" he exclaimed. "Defeating Frostbite and pilfering the all-powerful Infi-map… again!" He opened the map, and purple projections of doors filled the space around him. "If this keeps up, I should be ruling the galaxy by lunch!"

An energy ray hurtled across space and shattered the top of his helmet. The Specter Speeder flew towards Vlad, containing the five teens of the ghost-fighting team—Danny and Noah in ghost forms, Sam, Tucker, and their newest member, Dash. Danny took a microphone and channeled the frequency into Vlad's helmet. "Kitchen's closed, Plasmius!" he yelled. "Give us back the map!"

Tucker shot Vlad backwards into space with an energy blast from the vehicle while Danny and Noah donned helmets and flew into the closed-off back section of the repaired Speeder. "Let's rock!" Danny joked. Noah threw a palm to his face, but the helmet was in the way.

Sam lifted a fist. "Three… two… one… punch it!"

The side door flew off of the Specter Speeder; Noah laughed to himself momentarily wondering how science would explain a door orbiting Saturn.

Vlad shot energy blasts at both of them. They both dodged, and Danny shouted, "I know you're a lost guy, Vlad, but no map is going to help you find your way!" He charged up an energy ray of his own and fired it; so did Noah. "You need therapy for that!"

Vlad threw up a shield, but the deflected shots blew up an asteroid near him and he was thrown to the side.

Noah tried to shoot fire from his hand, but nothing happened. He stared at his hand until it hit him. "Oh yeah. You need oxygen for fire."

Danny had no such troubles; he lifted his arms and formed an enormous snowball. He shot it at Vlad, still off-balance, who was frozen solid on the impact.

Danny flew up to him and passed an invisible hand into the ice block, pulling out the Infi-map. "Seriously, dude…" The Speeder flew up to him and Noah, merging them back into the ship. Danny stuck his head out and finished: "…Therapy."

Vlad blasted apart his frozen container and pursued the Speeder, firing ray after ray of energy at them. The Speeder swerved by Vlad's satellite, which took the blasts instead. The first few shots did nothing to the hard metallic outer shell, but eventually an energy burst hit the fuel cell, and a flame burst from the hole.

"The fusion reactor!" Vlad exclaimed. "If the flames reach it, it'll explode!"

He flew intangibly into the large orbiting device and boarded an escape vessel as the entire machine shook. "Taking my map, destroying my satellite, mocking my mental health… it's time I finally finished off Danny Phantom once and for all!"

His vessel left the ship and passed through the closing ghost portal through which he'd arrived. The satellite exploded viciously, and the shock waves billowed through space, pushing against the asteroid that Vlad had been studying. Several asteroids were pushed out into space—a few of them larger than any Earthly city—but the largest by far was the Ectoranium asteroid which flew on a direct collision course towards Earth.

Danny reached into his wall with an intangible hand and pulled out his secret diary. Dash smiled, looking on. "That's a clever place to hide a diary."

"Yeah," Danny said. "I've got some interesting stuff in here." He reached in and pulled out a pair of Spooktacles, a Fenton Thermos, an old, dusty map of the Ghost Zone, and a ragged teddy bear. "This is Fuzzy Fenton."

"Wow, he's… so…" Dash scratched his head.

"Dilapidated?" Danny suggested.

"Sure, let's go with that."

"I've had him since I was born. He ought to be."

"Do your parents ever wonder where he went?"

"They threw him out when I was eleven, when his chest got torn open," Danny said. "I rescued him and hid him under my bed. When I got ghost powers, he moved to a safer place." He handed Dash the diary. "Look inside if you want. It's not your normal kid's diary. I actually started it shortly after I got my powers."

Dash flipped a few pages into the front.

Dear Diary,

I have superpowers. No, really. Stop laughing. I—

There was an ink splotch over the entire rest of the page.

"The pen turned intangible while I was writing," Danny explained. "The ink inside the pen didn't. I had to rip out the next twenty-six pages."

Dash chuckled and turned forward a page.

Dear Diary,

Sam changed the lunch menu to be ultra-recyclo-vegetarian.

"I remember that!" Dash laughed. "That was horrible."

Unfortunately, this angered some sort of lunch ghost. What the heck? Why is there a Lunch Lady ghost who can control meat? How many ghosts are there in the world? And why are they not all as forward as this one was? I mean, if these ghosts were here all the time, it seems like they would be noticed by the news. I guess it all has to do with the Fenton Portal, huh. It's a curse and a blessing that gave me my powers.

"This page is what I wanted to show you," Danny said, reaching around and flipping forward a couple dozen pages. "It's… kind of embarrassing, but you asked me if I'd ever suspected I was gay or bi. So…"

It was maybe two-thirds of the way through the diary, and the writing only went three-quarters through. Dash scanned the page carefully.

Dear Diary…

I finally got the hang of that duplication trick. I can make myself into two clones! I'm going for more, soon, but it's kind of a strain on my powers, and I was wiped out yesterday after I practiced for just ten minutes.

So… This is something I've been worrying about. I think Sam and I might be getting closer. But I don't know that for sure. And I don't know if I want to. I mean, she's great and all, but we've just been really good friends for a long time. Sometimes I think of her as almost as much of a sister as Jazz. And sometimes I think I really like her! But I've been looking at other girls too, and it worries me whenever I look at them, because, well, I have no idea of how good of a kisser I am. I wish there was an easy way to

"The writing stops there because I had a sudden realization," Danny said. "Turn to the next page."

Dear Diary,

I just realized how I could find out, but… it's kind of weird. No, it's really weird. But for some reason I really wanted to. To find out how good of a kisser I am. Um… I duplicated myself and practiced kissing on myself. I mean, that's not really THAT gay. We all touch our lips all the time! It's not gay when I lick my lips. It's not gay when my top lip touches my bottom one. So… yeah, I made a clone and we kissed. I think I'm pretty good, actually. It's a little bit intuitive. I just closed my eyes and imagined I was kissing Sam. It was really odd, though, because there was two of me, so I was kind of imagining two Sams. Anyway, it felt good to me, so I think I'm good at it.

I'm a little concerned about how much I liked it, though. I kissed myself for almost half an hour.

"That's pretty much the only hint I had to myself," Danny said, trying to rub the warmth of the back of his neck as Dash looked up. "Until you started describing what happened with Luster and… I started imagining it and getting a little… excited."

"That's really interesting," Dash said. He shook with restrained laughter. "And kind of hot, I gotta admit."

"I did it more after that," Danny said. "I just didn't write it in my diary. I kept telling myself it was because I needed practice. But I get it now… I secretly enjoyed it. Especially when I transformed in one of my clones and then it was like my human half was making out with my ghost half."

"That's awesome," Dash said, grinning. "I wish I could do that."

"You wish you could make out with my ghost half?" Danny asked, raising an eyebrow. "Well, good news. You can!"

"Ha," Dash said. "I see what you did there."

"I know what you meant to say," Danny said, sliding an arm over Dash's shoulder. "I just turned it into what I wanted to say."

"Nice," Dash said. "Danny… Go ghost."

"Of course," Danny said, smiling softly with his sky-blue eyes, which quickly turned grass-green as he transformed.

Dash leaned towards him and kissed. Danny returned it excitedly, moving his hands up Dash's back and breathing in sharply through his nose. They stayed together for a good ten seconds, and then Danny lifted both of them into the air and hovered slightly above the bed. Danny's lips felt Dash's go into a smile.

They stopped only when there was a knock on the door. Danny brought Dash down to the bed and turned back human. Dash stood up and moved to a chair as Danny placed all his items back in the wall; they were secret, even from Sam and Tucker. But since he'd been going out with Dash for a month now, he figured it was okay to tell secrets. Dash revealed to Danny that he watched the romance channel with Pooky, his little dog, so Danny felt like revealing something back in return.

Danny transformed human again and opened the door to see his mother standing there. She had been about to knock again. When she saw Dash, she smiled and waved at him. "Dinner's ready in an hour," she said. "Dash, can you stay over?"

"Sorry, Mrs. Fenton," Dash said. "I got relatives coming. I would have loved to stay, though."

"Dash," Maddie said seriously, folding her arms in together. "You know you're welcome around here any time, right?"

Dash grinned and nodded. "Yeah, I know. Thank you."

"All right," she said, more lightheartedly. "I'm glad. This is your second home if you want. I'll see you when you go. Have fun!"

She closed the door softly behind her, and Danny turned to Dash. "She feels bad that you're keeping me secret from your parents."

"Yeah, I know," Dash said. "But… I can't tell them yet."

"Believe me," Danny said. "I understand about keeping secrets from parents."

"Right. Haha…" He looked at his watch. "How did you tell your parents?"

Danny shrugged. "It just sort of came up one day after you left. My parents have always suspected that I was keeping a secret of some kind, and they asked me if it was that I was gay. It was actually really convenient to be able to pass this off as having been the secret I was keeping from them."

"That is good," Dash said. "Well… I gotta go not tell my parents. Walk me out?"

"Of course!" Danny got up and held out his hand; Dash took it, and they walked towards the door.

"I love spending time with you, Fenton," Dash said. "I really do. But it's kind of hard to insist on seeing you. I hope you understand?"

"I understand," Danny said. "But always remember… If you ever want to have me over, I could be invisible for you."

"That's true," Dash said, smiling. "You can sneak past my parents and visit me any time you want."

"That's one of my job benefits," Danny said, winking.

They reached the door, and Dash took his jacket from the coat hanger and slipped it on. "Have a good one, Fenton," he said, and kissed Danny again briefly. He stepped out the door into the warm June afternoon.

"So Dash hasn't told his parents yet," Sam said, biting into a veggie burger.

"Well… no," Danny said. "He doesn't have to when his boyfriend can go invisible."

"But it's still kind of sad."

"To be honest, I'm surprised his parents haven't figured it out," Tucker said.

"What?" Danny said. "Don't tell me you knew he was gay. No one did!"

"Well, I mean, really," Sam argued as Noah sat down beside them with his tray. "He does have a dog named Pooky, with whom he watches the romance channel."

"And he has a stock of rainbow-colored teddy bears," Tucker pointed out.

"And he's a football quarterback, so he specializes in sweaty male physical contact," Sam added.

"And balls," Tucker continued.

"And finding open men," Noah suggested.

Danny laughed and had to stop eating for a moment. "You guys are awful."

"We try," Tucker said.

Danny glanced over his shoulder at the popular table, where Dash still sat, talking with all his friends. Dash glanced back, too, but made sure not to look for too long.

"I just wish we could sit together at lunch," Danny said, twirling his fork in his peas. "It sucks that he can't be himself at school."

"Strictly speaking, he probably could be," Sam said. "Gary's out, and he's not bullied."

"Yeah, but Dash is worried about losing his friends," Danny countered. "And being teased in the locker room."

"Football season's over," Noah said. "If he said something now, the reaction would be bound to die down before the next season."

"And he doesn't want his parents to accidentally find out," Danny argued.

"We get it," Sam said. "Trust us, we understand. We're just giving reasons why it could be very soon that he can tell anyone."

"How do you think his parents would feel about it, anyway?" Tucker asked.

"I don't know," Danny said. "They seem… nice enough. But they're… really, really, really overprotective. His mom is a little smothering, too. And they just want their son to fit in and be happy. Which, being gay, he might be… you know, targeted."

"Okay," Noah said, "but like, overprotective how?"

Danny shifted nervously in his seat. "Well… they're overprotective for the same reason that Dash was such a bully and had so many problems."

"What?" Noah said, and all three audience members to Danny's story leaned forward. "What do you mean?"

"Dash… had a brother," Danny said.

"He had a brother?" Sam asked. Her eyes softened into sadness. "He… had a brother?"

"Yeah," Danny said, speaking softly and staring down at the table sadly. "He had a younger brother. When he was seven and Dash was eight… Dash's parents… had a huge fight… and Dash's brother… was really upset, and he… grabbed the keys to the car, told Dash 'I'm going out to sea,' and drove off with the car. At the age of seven."

When nobody commented, Danny continued, his eyes filling up a little with tears. "He drove the car into the lake."

"Oh my god," Sam said. "That's… so sad… I didn't… Oh my god, that's awful."

"A couple bystanders saw it happen," Danny sniffed. "Apparently the door was still swinging open, and one of them heard him shout part of a sentence: 'setting sail,' before it went into the water. Someone tried to swim under to help him, but the impact had…" He paused. "Dash's parents are really overprotective now… and Dash became more aggressive around others and more reclusive and childlike when by himself."

"I can't believe no one ever knew that," Tucker said. "That's horrible… I feel so bad for him…"

"I wonder what Dash would have been like if his childhood wasn't scarred like that," Danny mumbled at the table. "He's great around me now. He might've been like that forever." He looked back up at his friends' heartbroken faces. "They returned the body, and the kid's favorite stuffed animal, named Polly. Dash kept it in his room for a while, but he said one day it was just gone from its place on the shelf, and neither he nor his parents had any idea where it went. He still gets sad when he remembers that it got lost."

Danny's ghost sense went off suddenly; so did Noah's. They both looked around, and then both of them used their powers to split off an invisible clone.

"I AM TECHNUS! MASTER OF ALL THINGS WITH CIRCUITS, WIRES, AND CONSTANT INFURIATING ERROR MESSAGES!"

Why is the Casper High Cafeteria so popular with ghosts? Danny wondered.

As Technus flew into the cafeteria, raising his hands and abducting everyone's personal electronics, Danny's ghost clone turned visible.

"Hey, Technut!" he shouted. "You don't want Dash's. He's got T-Mobile!" He fired an energy ray at Technus's head.

Technus built the cellphones and PDAs into a wall in front of him, which absorbed the energy and fired it back. Danny caught it in a ball and neutralized it. "You've got a few new tricks!"

"I am constantly upgrading!" Technus said, grinning. "Try this on for size—"

But Danny never learned what Technus had for him to try on for size. Two red, spinning metal disks came out of nowhere and struck Technus in the back. He cried out in pain and fell to the ground on his hands and knees.

"Take it, Download!"

A girl in her teens, in a red and black jumpsuit with metal fringes and with a large red ponytail, was standing in the doorway. She had a white "V" on her shirt. Another teen in the same style jumpsuit rode into the cafeteria on a skateboard. He wore a backwards gray cap, sported freckles, and had a white "D" on his chest, presumably standing for "Download." A bigger, long-haired blond teen with the same build as Dash popped into view behind him with a white "T" on his shirt.

"Um," Sam said. "Who are they?"

"I don't know," Tucker said, "but those are the coolest jumpsuits I've ever seen!"

Danny glared at him, and Tucker backed up. "I mean, other than yours. Black is very… slimming."

"Adolescents! How dare you?" Technus bellowed. "And another thing! The high-tech look is my bit!"

The one the girl had called "Download" pulled up to a stop on his skateboard and held up his wrist; up popped a gray square that shot a beam of red light at Technus. When it struck the monologuing ghost, he was sucked into the device like what happened in the Fenton Thermos or Noah's necklace.

"Ghost guy gone," Download said smugly. "Area safe. Have a righteous day."

Then they struck poses and yelled, "MASTERS' BLASTERS STOP DISASTERS!"

"Masters' Blasters?" Noah asked, raising an eyebrow.

The girl stood up straight again and pressed a button on her wrist, then held it up. A projection flowed into the air above her wrist—like a T.V. screen had suddenly formed in the air. Vlad Masters' face appeared in the screen, and he started to talk.

"Greetings, students! I hope you've enjoyed this presentation of Amity Park's newest teen ghost-fighting team: Masters' Blasters! As mayor, I provided city funding for this top-notch troop. Equipped with the latest teen technology, they're going to stop ghosts and succeed where Danny Phantom has so obviously failed!"

"Teen ghost-fighters?" Sam reiterated.

"Teen technology?" Tucker restated.

"Where Danny Phantom has so obviously failed?" Danny repeated, frowning.

Vlad put on a smug smile on the recording. "My plan is very simple. Out with the old, and in with the new. And the old should give up now if he knows what's good for him." The projection receded into the girl's wrist.

The cafeteria was silent for a moment. Then the silence was broken by a sharp derisive laugh from Dash.

"What's that for?" asked the scrawny kid named Download, stepping on the end of his skateboard and shouldering his ecto-gun.

"Waitwaitwait. Who are you?" Dash asked, putting his hand over his eyes.

"I'm Vid," said the girl with the red ponytail. She seemed to be the leader. "This here is Thrash—" she pointed to the bigger guy— "and that's Download."

"Nice names," Dash said. "And—tell me this isn't what you're thinking. You're thinking you're going to replace Danny Phantom?"

"Well, yes," the girl said, putting her hands to her hips. "We're the new sheriffs in town. We're up-to-date, we're what's happening, and we're taking it from here."

"Danny Phantom's lost his touch," Download said, pointing at the white-haired ghost floating above Danny Fenton's table. Noah's clone was still remaining invisible, watching.

Dash snickered. "Screw that!" he bellowed, and the entire cafeteria turned towards him. "Danny Phantom is, always was, and always will be better than you are, ever were, or ever will be!"

A cheer resonated throughout the cafeteria, and the Masters' Blasters backed up. Thrash raised a hand, and the cheering subsided. "I suppose, then," he said in a scratchy, "cool teen" voice, "you didn't notice our demonstration just now? Taking down, in seconds, the ghost that Danny Phantom had made no progress against?"

The human Noah leaned over to the human Danny and whispered something in his ear. Danny's eyes lit up, and he grinned and nodded to Noah.

"Brilliant," he whispered back. "Any time you're ready!"

"Danny Phantom forever!" Dash shouted, giving a thumbs-up towards the Danny in the air. Another cheer broke out.

The Masters' Blasters smirked and turned to walk out, but suddenly, a blast came from the other end of the cafeteria.

They turned and charged weapons as Noah's ghost clone sailed into the room. He had been keeping himself completely secret during his entire stay—this was the first time anybody had ever seen Noah's ghost form except for Danny's crew and Vlad.

"I hear there's a new ghost-fighting team in town!" Noah roared, acting a perfect ghost villain. "Let's see how they stand up against me!"

Thrash fired a ghost net from his wrist device; Noah threw up a wall of flame that burned the net into ashes. Then he fired a cannon of flame that scorched the ground in between the cafeteria tables until it made contact with Thrash and knocked him back out the door.

Noah then began firing energy blasts at the cafeteria walls and destroying tables as kids ran out of the cafeteria. Vid shot her energy gun, and Download whipped out a pistol that fired intense energy rays. Noah simply split himself into two and flew to either side, confusing the pair of teen ghost-fighters long enough so that he had time to fire a burning ball of energy from both of his ghost halves, exploding under Vid and Download and knocking them backwards into the burned cafeteria wall.

Danny was impressed by how much Noah had progressed in battle. He flew up to Noah and yelled, "Hey, kid! What's your problem?"

"What's your problem, you prepubescent stuck-up fashion disaster?" Noah called back. "Why're ya such a goody-two-shoes? Team up with me and we could take over the entire world. You're as powerful as I am—we'd be powerful enough! What's stopping you? Your juvenile moral sense? What's morality compared to world domination?"

"Sorry, punk," Danny said, "but I don't do world domination. And you're not going to, either!"

"Try and stop me!" Noah jeered, firing his signature fireball.

Danny parted the flame with a wave of cold energy that struck Noah and sent him spiraling in a block of ice to the floor. He shattered on impact with the ground, staggered to his feet and multiplied, then continued to fire energy rays at Danny.

Danny threw a shielding orb over himself. Their human halves were discussing battle strategies below, and thus Noah knew what Danny was about to do. Danny's ghost half rushed towards Noah with the energy sphere around him.

Noah phased into the ground just before impact, but nobody noticed due to the explosion resulting from the impact that Danny's orb of energy had on the side of the cafeteria. A cloud of dust billowed out, and when it cleared, Danny was standing there alone, slapping the cap onto a Fenton Thermos and giving a thumbs-up.

Vid, Thrash, and Download sneaked quietly out, greatly irritated, while cheering teens swarmed Danny Phantom. Dash was in the front, and he lifted Danny up and tossed him up and down, shouting, "I knew you were better than those pretentious nobodies!" he yelled.

When the kids finally dispersed, Danny Phantom flew away, fading into nothingness when he was out of sight. Danny Fenton remained, secretly high-fiving Noah.

Dash walked up to them, looking around to make sure no one was eyeing him suspiciously for talking to Danny. He winked. "That was awesome, guys," he said. "That was seriously ingenious."

"You can thank Noah," Danny said, bumping him with an elbow. "It was his idea!"

Noah's shoulders slumped. "But… I guess I can't really be a hero anymore, huh."

"What do you mean?" Dash asked.

"I've just made myself out to be a total villain," he replied.

"Oh, who cares?" Danny said. "You can still do awesome things. Heck, everybody used to think I was evil, but I still kept fighting ghosts."

Noah shrugged. "Maybe."

"And you can invent stuff like nobody's business," Sam said. "You could beat the pants off of ghosts without even using your ghost powers!"

"Yeah!" Tucker agreed. "Just think of the powers as an added bonus for pranks and free movies."

"Thanks, guys," Noah said and finally smiled a bit. "And besides… I'll probably be going home for the next school year. So I can be a hero there!"

"That's the spirit," Danny said. "Come on, guys, let's head to class."

Dash peeked around; nobody was watching. "Hey buddy," he whispered. "Invisible kiss?"

Danny nodded and split off an invisible clone; he pecked Dash on the lips and then they both went their separate ways to class.

For the next few days, Danny Phantom and the Masters' Blasters crew went head-to-head. It looked like Vlad was letting loose more ghosts than usual so that the Masters' Blasters could make a statement. When the Masters' Blasters captured the Fright Knight, Danny did a number on Prince Aragon; when they got Johnny 13 and his shadow, Danny got the better of Spectra and Bertrand; when they beat Desiree, Danny defeated Skulker. Danny didn't know what he'd do without Noah; along with supplying crucial anti-ghost devices, Noah also gave the impression that Danny had the upper hand by defeating the Masters' Blasters a couple times, only to be "captured" by Danny again. And even though Vlad knew exactly what Danny was doing, the mayor still couldn't do anything about it—for if he revealed Noah's secret identity, they would reveal Vlad's.

Vlad definitely did, however, attempt to retaliate. On one occasion, the Masters' Blasters burst into Fenton Works, claiming they had evidence that Jack and Maddie were harboring a ghost fugitive. However, upon scanning the entire household—including Danny and Noah—they had no such readings, and were forced to let the Fentons go. Once again, this wouldn't have been possible without Noah, whose necklace masked the ghost aura that he and Danny gave off.

When Jazz and Danny picked up their parents, they were laughing it off. "Thanks for getting us out of jail, kids," Maddie said. "I knew there must have been some sort of mistake."

"I was never worried," Jack proclaimed. "I was this close to tunneling us out of there with my trusty ice cream spoon!" He held up a spoon. "But then they… um… served ice cream, so, well… you know…"

Maddie smiled. "Well, back to work on the new and improved Ghost Portal. Come on, kids." They drove back home and went down to the lab as a family.

Danny's parents had been reworking the Ghost Portal. It actually looked like it did when Danny got his powers.

Jazz stroked her chin as she stared into it. "Um… You don't suppose, if I went in there and did whatever you did…"

Danny laughed. "Um… I don't know. Good question, though." He thought about it for a moment. "I don't know if it would work, though… I mean… if it were that easy to get superpowers…"

"I'm not willing to risk my life on it, of course," Jazz said. "I've already got what I need to be happy: a dedication to studying. I'll leave the super-villain battles to you, little brother." She kissed him on the cheek and walked back up.

Sam, Tucker, and Dash walked down to the lab as Jack and Maddie walked upstairs for a meal and a break. "Wow," Dash said, looking at the ghost portal. "Looks like your folks are moving right along."

"They can work fast when they want to," Danny said. He laughed and added, "And when my mom takes charge of the project."

Dash twirled his necklace around his finger—Noah had given necklaces to all six of the core of the team (himself, Danny, Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and Dash) as a precaution. He looked into the depths of the portal. "How did your parents do this, anyway?"

"Apparently they'd been trying since college," Danny said. "And they almost did it back then, too. Except that I think the other ingredients in the diet cola threw it off."

"In the what?"

"And it gave Vlad a hideous case of ecto-acne," Danny laughed. "You should have seen his face!"

An energy beam swept across the room and struck Danny; another one followed shortly after and knocked Noah off his feet. Vlad sailed into the room in his ghost form and snarled, "Having a laugh at my expense, are you?"

Danny and Noah both transformed, and each stood defiantly in front of their peers. "What's wrong with you?" Danny shouted.

"I've come to finish you two off once and for all," Vlad said decidedly. He continued to attack.

Danny and Noah fought back easily; Danny deflected the attacks while Noah lunged upward over the shield and blasted a fireball into Vlad's chest; he staggered backwards and breathed heavily.

"You're really challenging us both—together—on home turf?" Danny shouted. "You're losing it, aren't you?"

"When I said, 'out with the old and in with the new,' I didn't expect the old to cheat its way out of a loss," Vlad said. "And you of all people should know that when someone cheats… I AM THE SORT OF PERSON TO IMMEDIATELY CHEAT BACK!"

Suddenly Danny and Noah both felt invisible hands on their collar; Vlad had made invisible clones. How could they not have seen that coming? Stupid!

Vlad tossed them both back into the Fenton Portal. When they struck the ground and tumbled to a stop far inside the machine, they saw another Vlad clone standing inside, which promptly punched the ON button and vanished.

The portal glowed green and electricity surged through it. In the instant before anything happened, Danny suddenly had the presence of mind to know that there was one thing he could do.

He blasted Noah with a ball of energy, the explosion of which sent Noah flying out of the portal; he landed outside it just as the machine exploded with energy and Danny was struck with an intense pain. The ghostly half of his DNA was stripped off; his white hair turned black. The portal exploded, and everything else faded away in his vision.

When Danny opened his eyes, Dash and Noah were standing above him, both struggling back what looked like the slight urge to tear up. Noah stumbled back and sat down on the floor against the wall when he saw Danny awake, and he looked up at the lab ceiling, trying to let the tears soak back into his eyes. Dash picked up Danny and held him close and tight; Danny's weak arms came and hooked around Dash's waist.

"How long have I been out?" Danny mumbled to Dash.

"A couple hours."

Danny looked around. "What… happened to Vlad?"

Noah sniffled. "Gone. And not coming back."

"What happened?"

"I… I almost… killed him."

There was a silence as Sam, Tucker, and Jazz exchanged nervous glances. Danny stared at Noah, waiting for him to continue.

"Dash ran up to Vlad and punched him hard in the head," Noah went on. "And then when I realized what had happened… I saw you lying in the destroyed portal motionless and… I thought he'd killed you. I… didn't know when to stop. I was just so angry. I burned him, hard, and then I started physically attacking him, and I think I broke several of his ribs, if ghosts have those." He swallowed and continued. "Jazz had to tackle me to get me to stop. He was coughing blood when he flew out."

Holy crap.

"I'm sorry," Noah said.

"Hey, don't be like that," Danny said. "If he'd killed you, I would have killed him, too." He tried to smile.

It was Noah's turn to stare now. "Your hair…"

"What?" Danny ran his fingers through his hair—had it been burnt off again like what had happened with Vulcrex? …No, his hair was still the same length.

"You can't feel it," Noah said. "You need a mirror."

"What happened?"

Jazz pulled out a little mirror, and Danny glanced inside it. "Whoa," he said, feeling it and rustling it. It was still only a little more than half the length he usually had it, due to the burning it experienced last month, but the length wasn't what was interesting about it now. His hair had a white streak in it that ran like a wreath around his hair; as far as he could see with the hand-mirror, it looked like it was in the middle of every strand of hair; not at the tips or roots.

"My ghost powers," Danny murmured. "Does this mean…"

"I think they're gone," Dash said, tears running down both cheeks.

Danny looked over at the portal; it was utterly ruined. He closed his eyes, tried to breathe normally, and started to think about what this really meant for him.

He could still fight ghosts. Sam and Tucker did, and they didn't have powers. But there was no more walking through walls, or overshadowing people to get out of trouble, or flying when he was late in getting somewhere, or…

He felt tears welling up behind his closed eyes. Dash sniffed and saw the tears; he picked Danny up in his arms, and hugged him tight.

Danny let a few silent tears roll down his face; somehow, even though his closest friends and sister were right next to him, it felt good to have a small, silent cry on his boyfriend's shoulder. He sighed deeply, and Dash pulled himself back for a moment with his hands on Danny's shoulders to look into his eyes.

"I'll stand by you," Dash said. "It doesn't matter to me what percentage of ghost you are. And I know we'll find some way to get your powers back."

"I don't know if that can be done," Danny said honestly. "But… thank you for offering to try." He leaned up and locked lips with Dash; his chest hurt slightly from the explosion inside the Fenton Portal, and as Dash ran his hands along Danny's back, he felt slight holes in his charred shirt.

When Dash pulled away, another thought came to Danny's mind. "Dash… if I was really out for a couple hours… you were supposed to be home for your mom's meatloaf night by dinner."

"I called my parents and told them one of my friends was hurt," Dash said. "They understood."

"Why am I not in the hospital?" Danny wondered aloud to anyone.

"Mom and Dad said you would be fine," Jazz answered. "I think they were worried that it would be legally their fault. But you were really just unconscious… we knew you were going to wake up. The real problem… we couldn't tell them."

"My ghost powers, you mean," Danny said. "Er… my ex-ghost-powers." He sighed again. "I guess Vlad won, then."

"No," Noah said, standing up angrily. "NO. That disgusting amalgamation of trash is not going to win. We are still going to outdo them! I'll… I'll dress up as you! I'll clone myself and dress one up, and I'll beat myself! And I'll do everything that you do!" His voice was shaking and growing in volume. "Vlad is not going to win! Not after a dirty, conniving trick like that! I'll reveal him to the world! What does it matter if everyone knows our secrets? Your powers are gone, and I don't care if anyone knows about me!"

Danny didn't want to say no—he was flattered that Noah was so indignant on his behalf. Yet at the same time, he didn't want to say yes. Vlad deserved everyone to know his secret. But it wasn't going to be easy to reveal that. Vlad would just clone himself and wreak havoc on the town, and then Mayor Vlad would save the day, and it would be clear that they were two separate entities.

"Hold off on that," Danny said. "We're going to need evidence if we want to reveal him."

"I'll give everyone evidence!" Noah screamed. "I'll take down the techno redcoats, easily, and I'll disable them completely. Then, I swear to God, I'll start to kill him, and he'll have to defend himself once he realizes I'm fully prepared to burn his face off! And then everyone will know!"

"But you'll make yourself the enemy," Danny said. "Especially if Vlad reveals you back. Noah, I know this is awful—trust me, it's me that it happened to—but we have to be rational about this."

Noah nodded and sat back down; Danny could see his brain still whirring, trying to figure a foolproof way to ruin Vlad.

"I admire how calm you are," Jazz said. "Are you feeling okay, besides…?"

"I'm fine," Danny said. "Dash, you should get home. You could probably still make dinner, right?"

Dash checked his watch. "Yeah. I guess I could. But…"

"I'm okay," Danny said. "Really. I'm fine. You can see me some other time."

Dash nodded slowly. "Walk me out? …Can you walk?"

Danny struggled himself into a standing position, and was able to support himself. "Yeah," he said. "But you'll need to help me with the stairs."

"Can do," Dash said. "Come on, bud."

Dash helped Danny hobble up the stairs, one hand holding one of Danny's and the other on Danny's hip. They reached the top of the stairs and walked into the hallway, and approached the door.

"Thanks, Dash," Danny said. "I'll… see you again soon."

"You too, Danny," Dash said, and delivered another quick kiss. He turned to approach the door at the end of the hallway, but froze.

Two people had been walking outside the window, but had stopped and stared in shock at Dash and Danny when they kissed. They pressed themselves against the window with mouths agape. The woman had short red hair and freckles; she was unfamiliar, but the man looked like an older version of Dash.

"Oh, God," Dash whispered, shrinking and backing down the hallway.

"Has Danny come down yet?" Tucker asked as he walked back into the Fenton's house after a stop back home.

Noah shook his head and glanced up at the stairway.

"It must be so hard to deal with," Sam said softly. "He lost his individuality and his boyfriend in the same day. Usually you have to trade one for the other…"

"I can't believe Dash's parents reacted like that," Tucker said. "I mean… banning Dash from ever seeing Danny again? What is that going to solve?"

"You can't reason with these people," Sam said in disgust. "No matter what you tell them, there's always a religious reason to counter it. And even using religion on them doesn't work! 'Jesus said to love everyone!' 'Yeah, but not fags! God hates those!'" She kicked a trash can incredibly hard; it dented the ceiling. "If God himself came down and told them to let Dash be, they'd claim it was Satan in disguise!"

"I can't believe they came to check on Danny at the same time Danny was bringing Dash up the stairs," Noah huffed. "Talk about the worst timing ever."

Jazz stood. "I'm going to go up to check on him."

Sam glanced over to her boyfriend, still leaning against a wall and twiddling his thumbs. "Noah… You don't suppose…?"

"What?"

"You don't suppose you could… overshadow…?"

Noah grimaced. "I don't know what that would do to the family. I could… overshadow one of them and maybe start a huge fight. Or I could overshadow both and make a very temporary solution."

"Or you could steal Dash away during some nights," Sam said, snapping her fingers.

Tucker shook his head. "They'd probably check on Dash just for that reason. I wouldn't interfere with this in the ghost way."

"I wonder if they'd have been like this if Dash's brother was still alive," Sam wondered aloud in a mutter. "Why does the world have to be so messed up?"

Maddie walked into the room with clenched fists. "Hello, kids," she said as civilly as she could manage; she looked, though, like she was about to explode. "Danny still upstairs, then…" She stared at them all with an inner fire, the intensity of which eclipsed even her ghost-fighting rage. "I'm going to the Baxters' house."

She walked out swiftly and slammed the front door, hard.

Noah floated overhead silently. He didn't like eavesdropping that much, but this was an exchange he really had to witness.

The front door opened, and when Mrs. Baxter saw who it was standing there, she tried to close the door again.

Maddie stuck her foot in, and wrenched it open with brute strength, easily overpowering the wholly unintimidating ginger housewife standing before her.

"You can get off my property right now," Mrs. Baxter said as menacingly as she could muster.

"I'll get off your property as soon as you get off your son," Maddie shouted. "You are a disgrace to the parenting community!" She was yelling over Mrs. Baxter, not allowing her to speak yet. "I'm not here only because of my son. Absolutely not. When my son's happiness and well-being are put in danger, I'd rage against the source any day. But a parent depriving their only child of the life he wants to live—because people wrote thousands of years ago that an invisible man in the sky didn't LIKE IT?"

"Well, look who's talking about invisible men in the sky!" Mrs. Baxter shouted back. "You're letting your son indulge in a disgrace to the civilized community! I do not allow such barbaric indecencies in my household, nor do I permit those to whom I gave birth to commit such vulgar crimes!"

Maddie raised a hand as if to slap Mrs. Baxter hard across the face, but she restrained herself, and used the hand to jab a pointing finger at Mrs. Baxter's eye. "Now, you listen here, Cindy, and you listen well," she snarled. "It is not up to you to decide what your son's fate is. LET ME FINISH!" She advanced on the younger woman, backing her against the stairs inside. "You did not choose his career for him. You did not choose his gender. You did not choose his favorite color—which hand he writes with—and he did NOT choose his parents, though with the indecencies against humanity that YOU'VE committed, I'd be willing to bet all I have that he wishes he COULD choose his parents—and that he'd choose people who accept him for the way he was born!"

"PEOPLE ARE NOT BORN HOMOSEXUALS!" Mrs. Baxter shrieked. "THEY ARE BORN EVIL, AND AS A PARENT, YOU TOO HAVE A DUTY TO WASH YOUR CHILD FREE OF HIS SINS IN THE NAME OF OUR LORD!"

Maddie walked straight up the stairs past Mrs. Baxter, despite her screams and threatened police calls. She came down hauling Dash by the arm, pushed him out the door, and then turned around and jabbed another finger dangerously close to Mrs. Baxter's face. "I usually restrict myself to tearing ghosts apart molecule by molecule," she hissed. "But you almost made an exception right there. Dash is leaving for his boyfriend's house of his own free will, and I must admit, I'd really love to see you try to take this up with the chief of police and his husband." She slammed the door hard again, took Dash's hand and walked him back. Dash was crying, and he leaned his head against Maddie's shoulder; she patted him softly and lead him down the street.

Noah smiled, admiring Mrs. Fenton more than ever right now. He phased into the Baxter's house to see the aftermath, and saw Mr. Baxter folding his arms and shaking his head slowly. Mrs. Baxter walked over to the phone, ranting. "I am most certainly calling the police! What an arrogant bitch! How dare she suggest she knows what my son needs? I don't care if he's happy on Earth! They'd all change their tunes immediately if they could catch a glimpse of the fires of hell they're going to burn in!"

Fires of hell, eh?

With a flick of his wrist, Noah set the entire perimeter of the room on fire. Mr. and Mrs. Baxter gasped and threw themselves at each others' arms, looking around nervously at the fire. Mrs. Baxter was still clutching the phone, and started to dial it; Noah casually shook a wrist to blow it up and waited to see the reaction.

Mrs. Baxter fainted when the phone burst into flames and disintegrated; she fell to the floor, and Noah didn't care to see a couple hours of attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation from her husband. He put out the fires and flew invisibly out, following Dash and Maddie home.

A knock came on Danny's door. Was it Jazz again? She'd just left ten minutes ago. No, it must have been his mother. "Come in," Danny said. "I told Jazz I wasn't hungry for dinner."

"Don't worry," said the voice Danny was most hoping to hear. "I'm not hungry, either." Dash walked in and sat down on Danny's bed.

Danny sat up and threw himself against Dash. "What are you doing back here?" he asked shakily.

Dash sniffled. "Your mom came to my house… She didn't win the argument; it's impossible to win. She pretty much took me and left."

"I'll have to remember to thank her for that," Danny mumbled against Dash's shoulder. He pulled himself off for a moment. "But I knew there was no way they were going to keep us apart anyway. I know we're fourteen, and there's a lot of our lives still ahead of us… but I really, really love you, Dash."

"I love you, too, Danny," Dash said. The obligatory kiss ensued, and each of them started to slip their hands under each other's shirts. They stayed with lips brushing against each others', breathing together, relaxing together. They leaned back against Danny's pillow holding each other tight, not intending to let go, and they fell asleep.

Danny and Dash wandered downstairs the next morning still holding each other. Danny looked around for the usual few strips of bacon; it wasn't there. "Where's Noah?"

"He stayed over at Sam's last night," Maddie said.

"That boy's a true charmer," Jack said. He turned his thumbs towards his chest and called out to anyone listening, "Just like his old… uncle seventy times removed or something! He's got the Fenton Charmer genes!"

This was, in fact, entirely untrue, but Danny and Noah had agreed not to break that to his parents. It would bring up the question of why Noah was here. The real reason of which was to meet Danny Phantom…

Everything reminded Danny of his lost powers. Especially when his mother came up to him and tousled his hair. "By the way, Danny, I think it's cute what you've done with your hair!"

"Yeah," Jack said. "Kinda reminds me of that band I was in back in the eighties; the Skunk Punks!" He inexplicably produced a newspaper article with a large headline.

Danny read the headline out loud. "'The Skunk Punks Stink?'"

"Yeah, we walked right into that one," Jack admitted.

"I'm glad you're accepting your fashionable side," Maddie said, rubbing his head again. Danny scowled at this misconception that he couldn't refute.

Jazz pushed the Alpha-Bits over to Danny as he sat down. "You all right?"

Dash sat down next to Danny, who smiled. "As long as he's here," Danny said.

Jazz rolled her eyes. "You're so corny. But I'm glad you're okay."

"I wonder if they'll be at school," Dash murmured.

"I wouldn't worry about it," Jazz said, winking. "Noah promised to… scout the premises before school. He'll let you know if there was any parent activity."

Dash nodded joylessly and stirred his cereal, looking more at Danny than his breakfast.

"I won't let them take me away," Dash said. "You know that."

"I know that," Danny said, and he pecked Dash on the cheek and started on his breakfast.

"I'll drive you guys, then," Jazz said. "Are you guys… going to tell anyone else now? Like Kwan?"

"I don't care who knows now," Dash said confidently; Danny smiled slightly. "Especially if it pisses off my parents."

"All right," Jazz said. "Just don't do anything without thinking."

"Jazz, you've tutored me before," Dash replied. "You know that everything I do is without thinking."

They finished their breakfast, and Jazz drove them to school; they both sat in the back seat, gazing into each others' eyes in case they wouldn't see each other for a while. But when they got there, something else grabbed their attention.

Noah was flying towards them, completely visible. There was a pirate ship floating above the school—Youngblood's, it looked like. Noah glanced around to make sure no one was looking, and then landed in the front seat and transformed human.

"The Masters' Blasters are bound to be coming," Noah said. "Youngblood just arrived."

"Youngblood?"

Danny turned to Dash and quickly explained, "Kid ghost who thinks he's a pirate; he's got a skeleton parrot on his shoulder all the time. We fought him when he took all of our parents, teamed up with Ember."

"Oh, yeah," Dash mumbled. He looked pale. "I wish I'd seen him…"

"What? Why?"

"Nothing."

"What should I do?" Noah asked, biting his lip.

"Help Youngblood do whatever he came to do," Danny said. "Just don't let the Masters' Blasters win. I don't care if the school get destroyed in the process." He leaned back further and hooked his hand tighter around Dash's.

Noah laughed. "Well, Vlad did promise to pay for any ghost damages on public property. Youngblood hasn't seen me in this form—he doesn't know who I am. I think I'll go make a pact with him." He transformed back, turned invisible, and sailed out of the car again.

Jazz looked back. "Guys?" She looked freaked out of her mind—and it definitely wasn't like Jazz to take her mind and eyes off of the road like that.

"What?" Danny asked, leaning forward.

Jazz turned up the radio.

"If immediate action is not taken, our entire planet will be completely destroyed."

Danny jumped out of his seat. "WHAT?"

"We estimate we have one week before impact." "The fate of the human race is at stake. One week—use it wisely."

"There's an asteroid," Jazz breathed. "On a direct collision course with Earth." The car was rolling to a stop; she angled it off the side of the road. "One week until impact."

There were sounds of destruction near the school; Youngblood flew away with a bulging sack of stolen goods, with Noah trailing behind him and blocking the attacks from the Masters' Blasters. The pirate ship sailed off into the horizon with haste.

"That can't be possible," Danny said slowly.

Jazz was still looking at the road ahead of her as if she was still driving; her hands were shaking on the wheel. All of their heads were spinning.

Was this the end?

Danny's hand moved back over to Dash's; the two hugged tighter than ever as they looked at the deceivingly cheery blue sky, which could soon be blotted out by the last thing they ever see.

"We can stop it, right?" Dash whispered.

"We'll have to come together as a world," Danny answered. "Not worrying about who's right and who's wrong about God and politics… I hope we can do that."

Vlad smiled in his office and stroked his cat. His bruises and burns were all almost fully mended—he'd always been a quick healer. He assumed it had something to do with being half-ghost.

So the world was going to be destroyed, eh?

Or was it the perfect opportunity to turn everything around, and in one swift move, take everything he'd ever wanted—Maddie included?

He threw his head back in the practiced laugh of an evil genius. With Danny out of the way, he wouldn't even have to worry about dealing with that annoyance. Everything was perfectly in motion.

The cogs had begun to turn, and he was holding the crank.

to be continued…