AWOL & Astros
At the Sonny Carter Training Facility in Houston, Texas, we pick up the story at the moment where the Hotel Transylvania party had just took the plunge into the facility's pool in order to complete the anti-gravity test section of their training. While that was going on, the govt. representative had just gotten word from General Koker that the freighter that was flying Frank into Houston had just arrived and that his squad would have it (the box that is) moved over to Sonny Carter in order to meet up with the others. With this though, an interesting scenario came about. Since the other members of the Hotel Transylvania party were already well into their AsCan training, Frank was going to be basically starting all the way down at ground zero with a lot of catching up to do. He also knew that it wouldn't be fair for the others to basically start over as well. So, he figured out a plan to balance this; but before the beans were spilled, he had to wait for the others to resurface from the pool after their anti-gravity test.
Speaking of, let's go check on how they're holding up so far. Underwater, the Hotel Transylvania party each had a different reaction in these current conditions. Dracula is perhaps the most obvious here, since he's not exactly a huge fan of being underwater. Why? Well…let's just say he got involved in a few instances where he got sent into the pool unwillingly; first at his own hotel and recently at the one they stayed at back in LA. As for the others, they were holding up well considering the circumstances. It was almost like when they were having fun in the two aforementioned pools, but only this time; it wasn't fun and games. They actually had to do some simple tasks like simulating spacewalks along with handling a few items & tools like if they were actually in outer space. Of course, this would only be applied in some instances like flying up for NASA or if they were doing an ISS related mission. But in this particular case with the kind of spacecraft they'll be traveling on, that won't be the case. Although, it never hurts to know this stuff & material just in case they need it. You'll never know when it could come in handy for them.
Fast forward a few minutes later, we find the Hotel Transylvania party doing pretty much what you'd expect in a pool like swimming around along with trying to recreate poses & stunts that'd be impossible on the surface, perfect way to practice anti-gravity conditions. The only exception here was Dracula…who was making a break for the surface since he had no interest in such festivities right now for reasons aforementioned. Upon reaching the surface of the pool, he was greeted by the govt. representative with a surprised look.
"You're back this soon?" The govt. representative asked upon seeing him. "I assume you're not a fan of being underwater."
"Yeah, what gave that away?" The count replied while taking off the suit's helmet.
"Nothing, nothing." The govt. representative said while checking his watch. "Oh, I did get some good news though while you guys were down there."
"Does it involve Frank?" Dracula asked.
"It does." The govt. representative replied affirmatively. "Just got a call from the guys back at Ellington and they told me that the plane shipping him over finally got here; And ahead of schedule to boot."
This caused Dracula to produce a smile.
"That's great to hear!" He said. "I'm sure the others will be thrilled as well to hear that."
Then, as if right on cue, Mavis & the others resurfaced from beneath the pool.
"There you are, dad." The vampiress said upon seeing him. "We were wondering where you were down here."
She then noticed that her dad had a smile on his face while staring at the govt. representative.
"So…what did we miss up here?" She asked.
"Well." Dracula began. "He just told me that Frank had just got here, and early to boot."
The others produced a grin upon hearing this.
"Also, I figured that this would be a great opportunity for you guys to take a break for a bit." The govt. representative said. "It'd give you guys some time to reconnect before we continue further with the training."
We now fast forward a couple of hours to a nearby Hampton Inn. It wasn't too far away from Sonny Carter, only about a 10 minute or so drive. For the Hotel Transylvania party, it was quite a difference from the Marriott they stayed in during their vacation in LA (in both amenities & luxury). Because of the size of the party (in terms of heads), they had to be split up in two different rooms. Luckily though, the two rooms were connected so they could all be within close proximity. Mavis, Johnny & Dracula got one room while the others got the other one. Speaking of, we find Dracula & his friends situated in the breakfast café conversing on the recent happenings. For Frank, he was quite amazed upon hearing what the others have gone through so far (and chuckled a bit upon hearing about Dracula's ride in the centrifuge).
"…So…yeah. That's what happened." Dracula said while recalling that particular event.
"That must've been a lot of fun." Frank replied. "Guess I missed quite a bit."
"Oh, don't worry. I bet they'll have you do the same stuff." Griffin said. "And it ain't no walk in the park either."
While the guys were conversing with each other, they overheard the *ding* from the nearby elevator and the doors opened to reveal both Johnny & Mavis. The two lovebirds were heading for the exit until they were spotted by Dracula and the others.
"So where are you two heading off to?" Griffin was the first to ask.
"We're just…um…heading to the park." Johnny replied with a bit of a nervous tone while having his right arm around Mavis' right shoulder.
"The park…" Dracula responded with a bit of skepticism. "Is there even one around here?"
"There is!" Johnny exclaimed with a grin while pulling a map out of his pocket.
Dracula took the map and looked at it carefully. It took him quite a bit to figure out where was where and whatnot, especially since he (and all the others for that matter) have never been to this area before; even for Johnny boy on his adventures prior to stumbling across Hotel Transylvania to begin with. After spending roughly 5 to 10 minutes studying the map, Dracula gave it back to Johnny and proceeded to address the two lovebirds.
"Alright…" He began. "You two can go."
Johnny & Mavis both smiled upon hearing his approval and proceeded to head out toward the exit.
"BUT!" The vampire boomed, causing both Mavis & Johnny to stop & turn around. "I do have one big favor to ask of both of you."
The two lovebirds motioned Dracula to continue.
"Please, PLEASE be careful out there." Dracula said. "I just don't want anything happening to my little blood orange again after last time."
"We'll be careful dad, promise." Mavis reassured her father.
Johnny simply smiled at Dracula while giving him a thumbs up.
Following that, Mavis used her magic to put on the white windbreaker & white hat she bought from the Santa Monica Pier and the two proceeded out the door.
"I bet they're gonna have a lot of fun out there Drac." Frank called out.
"Besides, the two deserve a bit of time together after what happened back in Hollywood." Griffin added.
The only thing Dracula can do here is nod in agreement with his friends.
(3.5 hours later)
Dracula, Wayne, Griffin, Murray & Frank were still down in the breakfast café, continuing their conversation on what had transpired so far from their time in Houston along with their prior trip in Hollywood. They were also cluing in Frank on the AsCan training so that way, he wouldn't be going into the training regimen cold. Speaking of, the govt. representative had just pulled up to the Hampton Inn in order to meet up with the Hotel Transylvania party to get them ready for the next round of training. He walked through the entrance and didn't have any trouble finding them (then again, a vampire, werewolf, mummy & a floating pair of glasses easily stood out).
"Hello again guys." He called out while preparing himself a cup of coffee.
"Hey there…space dude!" Griffin called out.
"Eh, close enough." The govt. representative replied while waiting for his coffee to be brewed. After a bit, his cup of coffee was ready and he joined the others.
"So…what's next for us?" Dracula asked him.
"Well, we gotta get your friend here up to speed on the stuff we did prior." The govt. representative began. "Then, all of you guys gotta finish the rest of the training. We then head out for New Mexico as soon as that's done."
"When does this all go down again?" Murray asked.
"Pretty much…right now." The govt. representative replied while taking a sip of his coffee afterward. He then noticed something wasn't right.
"What's wrong there?" Wayne asked him. "Coffee ain't great?"
"No, it's actually fine." The govt. representative replied. "I just noticed we're short of two heads here."
"Oh, you must be talking about my daughter & Johnny boy." Dracula responded.
"Do you know where they went off to?" The govt. representative asked. "This ain't a good time to go AWOL."
"They said they were heading to one of the nearby parks." Dracula responded.
"Did they say which one?" The govt. representative asked. "Holly Bay Court, Pecan, Burke Crenshaw -"
"Or it could be this one here." A hotel employee chimed while turning on the TV in the café.
The govt. representative & Hotel Transylvania party stared at the TV while it was projecting a sight like no other; a huge crowd of people making all kinds of noise while waving orange towels. To add to this, there was an occasional train horn that sounded off as well.
"So it's that park, eh." The govt. representative said upon realizing where they were.
We now jump over to Minute Maid Park in downtown Houston. In there, it was quite a ruckus right now. The hometown Houston Astros were currently locked into a hard-nosed battle with one of their biggest rivals, the New York Yankees. The entire stadium was making all kinds of noise while waving orange towels in order to both show support & throw the opponent off their game. Within that crowd, both Mavis & Johnny were joining everyone else by waving their orange towels along with throwing in an occasional cheer or two. We can also see that the two went through an outfit change; Mavis swapping out here usual black shirt for a bright orange Astros jersey along with a navy-blue ballcap with an orange brim. The hat also has a logo consisting of an orange star with a white 'H' in the middle of it. As for Johnny, it wasn't much of a change for him. His usual outfit stayed, but the only new thing was a ballcap that just looked like Mavis'…except the brim was navy blue instead of orange. Oh, and one more thing I'd like to mention. Johnny also got Mavis her own baseball mitt for tonight in case one gets sent their way the good ol' fashioned way.
"THIS IS A GREAT IDEA, JOHNNY!" Mavis exclaimed while trying to overcome the continuous crowd roar.
"I KNOW, RIGHT!?" Johnny shouted back. "THIS WAS SOMETHING I WANTED TO TAKE YOU TO DURING THE HOLLYWOOD TRIP, BUT…THE VACATION GOT SIDETRACKED."
"SO…HOW DOES THIS PARTICULAR THING WORK!?" Mavis shouted while pointing toward what's going on on the field.
"BASEBALL IS QUITE SIMPLE." Johnny exclaimed. "IT CONSISTS OF TWO TEAMS WITH NINE PLA -"
He got interrupted with the sound of a bat cracking against a baseball, followed by the crowd getting much louder than before.
"HEADS UP MAVY!" Johnny shouted while pointing upward.
Mavis looked up to see something streaking across the sky and coming straight toward their section. It was nothing but a baseball that just got destroyed by one of the Astros' batters and about to become a souvenir. Using her mitt, she reached out to try to catch the rapidly descending ball. However, she had a bit of competition from a couple of other fans that have the same idea as Mavis along with a slightly higher reach than the female vampiress. This was when Mavis got an idea. When the timing was right, she used her magic to cause the baseball to disappear within a bluish mist; much to the astonishment of Johnny & some of the other fans. Everyone else though was too busy celebrating the go ahead home run to even notice this while a firework explosion was heard along with instances of a train horn.
"HEY MAVIS, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BALL?" Johnny asked her, trying to overcome the pandemonium.
Without saying a word, Mavis once again used her magic to cause the baseball to reappear safely secured in her mitt.
"NICE WORK!" Her boyfriend yelled. "HOW DID YOU DO IT!?"
"I'LL TELL YOU LATER!" Mavis exclaimed.
Following that, she raised her arm high with the baseball secured in her mitt while smiling. The rowdy Astros faithful only got louder in approval upon seeing her with the souvenir on the Jumbotron. This approval only grew louder than that when the two lovebirds engaged in a kiss.
Dracula, the govt. representative, and everyone else in the Hotel Transylvania party all watched this occur on the TV back at the Hampton Inn. Both Dracula & the govt. representative were quite shocked while the others just simply smiled at the sight of Mavis being happy & having a great time with Johnny.
"This should be fun to hear about once those two get back." Griffin said.
"I could say the same thing myself." The govt. representative replied while finishing the last of his cup of coffee. "Don't those two know we've got a schedule to keep?"
Dracula then spoke up on this matter. "I say just let them enjoy themselves. Besides, they deserve some alone time together after that whole fiasco back in Hollywood."
The govt. representative took a few seconds to process all of this before issuing a response.
"Alright, I'll let it slide." He spoke. "Although, I would've liked some form of a heads up prior. It's the proper way to conduct business these days."
Dracula and the others nodded in agreement to this. The govt. representative then turned toward the hotel employee that was working the café area.
"Gonna need another cup of coffee please." He called out. "Decaf, half & half please."
The hotel employee nodded and got to it. The govt. representative then turned toward the Hotel Transylvania party.
"You guys want anything?" He asked while pointing to them.
All of them declined, since they had a few things prior to him showing up.
"Very well then. Let's enjoy the rest of the game on here and then we'll get started."
Author's note: This was quite a chapter to write. I had the idea back in July & started writing this one shortly after publishing the last chapter while on vacation. However, the usual aspects of life (work, general life, etc.) got in the way once more.
Although, we should be seeing the Hotel Transylvania characters get suited up and ready to go to outer space in the next chapter (yes, finally!). Hopefully, you'll stick around to see how their venture to space will pan out.
Also, I'd like to wish everyone on here a Happy Thanksgiving! Hopefully, it's a good one today for you and your families.
That's it for now and I'll see you in the next update.
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