Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom!
When the twin halos had finished their journeys north and south, respectively, Vlad looked different from before. His hair was black again with that trace of the white streak down the middle. His face was acne-free. However, he had an eerie aura that covered his entire body. He looked down to find himself hovering a couple of inches above the hospital bed.
"What?" he exclaimed, at the same time noticing that his voice had acquired a slight echo. He floated Indian-style above the bed. "Have I become…a ghost?" As soon as he completed the question the halo appeared again. After a process identical to the first, a human Vlad Masters sat a few inches above his bed. He immediately fell back down.
"No, not a ghost," Maddie said, her tone all of a sudden professional. "You can't be a ghost because you didn't die in the accident. Furthermore, you can revert back to you're human form. You're not a ghost, at least not a full ghost."
"What, then, am I half-ghost?"
"It doesn't make any biological sense," Maddie said, more to herself than anyone else. "It's impossible for a person to be half ghost because it would mean that they're half dead. If that's the case, then you're only half alive, Vlad."
"Well, then it's a good thing that I have you, because you complete me and make me feel fully alive." The line, corny though it was, was just romantic enough to cause Maddie to giggle with glee.
After a quick make-out session she broke away, saying, "I'm just going to go back to my room to theorize for a bit. I'll be back soon, Vladdie." She planted a kiss on his forehead and left the room.
Vlad's room had a window that overlooked the entrance to the hospital. He was able to watch Maddie leave the building and walk towards her dorm. Almost as soon as she rounded the corner that took her out of his field of view, he looked in the other direction to see Jack running towards the hospital from the lab. Not noticing Maddie's retreating form, he burst through the front entrance and ran up to Vlad's room.
"V-man, I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is I think that I've got the portal calibrated so that it doesn't release such a huge amount of energy anymore. The bad news is that I'm having trouble breaking through the inerdimensional plane because I don't have the exact coordinates of the spectral dimension that we're looking for. I know that I'll get it eventually, I'm just not sure how much time it'll take."
"It's okay, Jack," Vlad said. "Don't worry about time constraints on this and end up doing a shoddy job just to keep me from waiting. Take as long as you need."
"Thanks, Vladdie, you're the greatest!" Jack said as he bounced out of the room and back to the lab.
As soon as he left, Vlad changed back into his ghost form. He immediately began to float above the bed. Concentrating as hard as he could, he rose up another couple of inches. He sank down again, noticing that it took slightly less energy than his first try. After about fifteen minutes of practice, he was able to float in an upright position. Half an hour later, he had gotten the hang of ascending and descending, as well as lying flat in the air and propelling himself forward. He wasn't quite able to turn just yet.
A few hours passed, and the sun had set, basking the University of Wisconsin campus in pale moonlight. Maddie walked in to find him working on intangibility, first phasing his hand through his bed and then solidifying it.
"You know, for an aspiring ghost hunter, you're taking being part ghost awfully well," she noted.
"What can I say? As much as I would like to spend the rest of my days hunting ghosts, flying is fun!" He turned back into his human form and sat down on his bed. She looked at him oddly for a second.
"okeee…anyway, I just got back from my cooking class, and I decided to bring you something." She held out a basket full of cookies, and he eagerly took one.
"Butter biscuits! SCORE!" Maddie laughed and gave Vlad another cookie. Suddenly, Jack ran into the room.
"Hey guys, I was working on the portal and…cookies? Oh, boy!" He grabbed the basket from Maddie and scarfed the dozen or so cookies down in one massive gulp. "mmm…butter biscuits. Well, see ya soon!" With that, he ran back out of the hospital room.
"What a big, fat, idiot!" Vlad and Maddie exclaimed at the same time. They looked at each other for a second and then turned away, blushing.
"I've been working on my powers for a bit; look at this cool trick!" Vlad said as he morphed into his ghost mode. He put his hands on Maddie's shoulders and turned the pair of them intangible. Then, he put his hand around her waist and carried her up out of the roof of the hospital. He flew her straight up until they could see the entire university in the moonlight.
"Vlad, it's…beautiful!"
"As are you, my dear. Unfortunately, that trick takes a lot out of me, so I'm afraid that we'll have to go back now." He brought himself and Maddie back into the room. Exhausted, Vlad changed back into a human and collapsed on his bed, sound asleep. Maddie walked over to him and kissed him on the forehead. Then she too left the room, went back to her dorm, and sank into her bed.