Chapter 18
The hearse exited from the underground tunnel and drove off into the haunted forest at rapid speed.
"Okay, so where am I going?" asked Griffin, behind the wheel.
"The tower," Dracula replied with determination in his voice, "Before Ericka's gone forever! And then, we must take her back to the human world!"
But Murray remembered something important as he asked worriedly, "But what about the sun?"
"Yeah Drac,I mean how we know which way Ericka went",Eunice question.
Dracula looked outside, noticing a faint sunlight through the heavy clouds and the shadows of the closely gathered trees. Murray had a point.
"I don't know," Dracula said, determined not to let the sun get in his way, "I'll just have to roll."
"He just rolls," Wayne grumbled, "Rollability."
As they drove through the forest, Dracula explained his plan to the others, "So we follow their footprints until they run out. Then that's where you come in, Wayne."
"Me?" the werewolf said surprised.
"There!" the vampire yelled as his sharp vision spotted something on the ground, an item he recognized too well. "Yes," he smiled widely, "I knew something would fall out of that basket." He picked up the item, Ericka's paintbrush, and instructed his werewolf friend, "Work your magic."
"Wait, you want me to track the smell?" he said, "No, no, no, my sniffing and tracking days are way behind me. Do you how many diapers I've changed? How many number twos have destroyed this thing?" He pointed to his poor nose, but then smiled as he added, "But-"
Wayne gave a high pitched whistle, inaudible to average ears but only audible to canine ears. The Drac Pack and Eunice suddenly heard far off high pitched puppy howls that got closer and closer until the ravaging pack of werewolf pups were seen running through the forest. The pups swarmed the area on a rampage while Dracula backed up. They were so out of control they shook at the hearse, one of them even tried to scare the Drac Pack and Eunice inside by growling at them.
"Sit!" Wayne instructed, but none of them listened, even as he took the paintbrush from Dracula. "Smell. I said 'smell'!" Two of his pups started sniffing at his rear end. "Not me, the paintbrush! The paintbrush!"
"Do any of your kids still respect you!" Dracula questioned sarcastically.
"Mm, give me second." Wayne said as he thought for a second and then realized something, "Oh, yeah. Winnie! Front and center!"
The pack of wolf pups abruptly stopped their roughhousing to let Winnie, a little wolf girl wearing a pink tunic with a skull on it and sucking a binky, through and stand in front of their dad, and resumed their play fighting. Winnie spat out her binky and took a deep whiff of Ericka's paintbrush.
"She was taken by an old woman, but she doesn't look old but she's getting old," she said and then sniffed again, "They went on a long walk through the forest to a tall tower place, where she cries now," she sniffed again as her father and the vampire exchanged looks, "The old woman used the magic of her hair to get pretty, and now she's keeping pretty Ericka tied up in the tower forever."
"We have to find that tower, she's in trouble I know it!" Dracula cried worriedly, fear in his eyes.
"The old woman had a pot of hazel nut soup cooking," Winnie continued and sniffed one last time, "It's Ericka's favorite meal."
"Okay. Thank you, cutie," Dracula spoke sweetly to the little werewolf girl and then sternly yelled to her rowdy brothers, "Now all of you, go back to your mother!"
The wolf pups did as they were told, including Winnie.
Swiftly Dracula returned to the hearse, and they drove off again, now entering the human forest, with the sun's rays out. Dracula's friends grew worried for their friend, who was looking deeply worried himself.
"SHEEP!" Dracula shouted as he spotted a lone sheep blocking the road.
Griffin quickly turned the wheel in panic, narrowly avoided hitting the sheep. But the hearse drove far off the roar crashing down an unpaved steep hill. Somehow he managed to find the road again on a small mountain freeway, but not without Murray almost falling out and Frank and Eunice had to pull the mummy back in.
"Whoo! High-Five!" Griffin cheered enthusiastically. "Don't leave me hanging."
The others screamed and freaked out as they spotted a whole flock of sheep up ahead and Dracula shouted, "LOTS OF SHEEP!"
"I got this one!" Wayne said excitedly.
The werewolf was out of the car in a flash as his friends watched in horrified expressions as Wayne devoured the whole herd in two seconds, was then back in the hearse and belched a tuft of wool out.
"Ooh!" he breathed after his big 'meal.'
All of his friends, still kept their horrified faces at the road where the herd of sheep once stood, then turned and gave him disgusted glares.
"What?" Wayne said as though it was nothing, "Now there's no sheep in the road. Let's go."
"That was pretty sick, man," Murray said bitterly, voicing the others' feelings.
"You eat lamb chops; it's the same thing!" Wayne replied in annoyance, "We don't have time for this! Come on, let's move it!"
The Drac Pack resumed driving down the road as fast as the old hearse could go, but for Dracula it wasn't nearly fast enough, which just frustrated him more as his determination to find and save Ericka from that despicable Gothel grew more and more like a building volcano readying to explode.
Before they got further down the road and deeper into the woods, Bela swooped out from nowhere and nearly crashed into the car. It startled Griffin and the passengers inside so badly that the invisible man swerved violently in rapid circles as he stomped on the brakes to stop the hearse, only to then crash the front into a large rock embedded in the ground. Fortunately, the crash was light and no one was really hurt, just disoriented.
Dracula flew out of the car like a shadow with an angry scowl on his face as he faced Bela, who landed in front of the terrified monsters and mocked at them, "Well, well, well, the traitorous son of Vlad and his rejects!"
"Hello, Bela," Dracula growled with a clear sneering disdain for the bat crony, "It's been a while. Not long enough for my tastes."
"For once I agree," Bela yelled in a roughened raspy voice with clear near equal disdain, "And it sickens me to say it."
"What the world are you doing here, anyway?" Dracula demanded, "I thought you'd be spending the rest of eternity wallowing in sleep in my father's cave."
Bela snorted as he mocked back with his signature yelling, "And I never would've taken you for a lover of humans, softy. Time has made you weak, and that so-called hotel of yours is proof of it."
Dracula growled as his jaw clenched tightly, his eyes glowed a sharp red, and his fists tightened. He was not in the mood nor did he have to time to trade insults and bantering with with this abysmal nuisance of a monster.
"Go back to the hole you crawled out of, Bela," Dracula growled at him, "I don't have time to deal with your trouble mongering complaint"
The rest of the Drac Pack joined their friend's side and stood defiantly before Bela, showing they supported Dracula and weren't going to back down.
But Bela and Agro smirked maliciously as they said smugly, "Then maybe this will change your mind."
From behind their back they revealed in his claws and his hands a struggling Winnie and Eunice . The Drac Pack gasped in shock, Dracula even lost the red glow from his eyes, Wayne and Frank most of all at seeing his only daughter and Frank's new wife in danger.
"Winnie,Eunice !" Wayne and Frank yelled with fatherly fear and concern as they tried to run to them , but Dracula held them back for their safety.
It was even at this moment Vlad had caught up to them in bat form and his eyes widened at what he witnessed his lead Bat Crony doing.
Bela laughed maniacally as he threatened, "Do anything and the little lady and mutt gets it!"
Winnie and Eunice bravely struggled to get free of their captor as she yelled, "Let us go!"
Bela and Agro brought their noses to their noses as he yelled back at them, "Stop squirming!"
"Let them go, Bela and Agro!" Dracula boldly ordered the crony, "Why are you doing this? Monsters shouldn't threaten other monsters!"
"Because this is WRONG!" Bela and Agro shouted like it should have been obvious, and shrugged, "Just like it's wrong to pander with the enemy! Why don't you get that!? And why don't you get humans DON'T belong with monsters!"
"YOU'RE wrong!" Winnie and Eunice bravely yelled in defense of Uncle Drac's/ sister in law's new love, whom even they had adored.
"I am NOT!" Bela shouted back at her, "I'm holding you two hostage, and me and my crew are gonna tear your human hugging hotel to shreds! And then I'm gonna kill that human white bitch you like so much... Dracula!"
"You can't, I won't let you!" Dracula retorted defiantly, strong feelings of fear rose within him at the threat of loosing his home, the sanctuary he built for all his friends, their families, and most important of all in Martha's memory, for the entire hotel was a shrine to her. That same fear grew at the very thought of Bela threatening his beloved Ericka.
"Really? And why not?" Bela further mocked.
"Because..." Winnie answered bravely, if now a bit fearfully.
"Because why?"
"Because it'll make Uncle Drac sad."
"Oooh, sad," Bela mocked with a squeak, "And what are you gonna do about it?"
"I don't know, but I'll make you sorry!" Winnie claimed bravely.
But Bela wasn't buying it as he began to insult her, "You know why you don't know? Cause you're just a WEAK... LITTLE... BRAT AND LADY! You're ALL weak, and there's nothing you can do to stop me and my crew! AH-HAH-HAH-HAAHH!"
Winnie and Eunice then bravely bit down hard on Bela's hand. The bat crony let out a cry of pain and suddenly threw them far and hard to the ground. They rolled across the ground as they whimpered in pain, it made the Drac Pack gasp with shock.
"Winnie,Eunice!" Wayne and Frank cried as they ran to their fallen little girls , holding them in safety and reassurance as they whimpered and sobbed quietly in pain, but smiled at her daddy and her husband as the rest of the Drac Pack looked on in concern.
"Hah-hah-hahhh!" Bela and Agro laughed maniacally again, "And I'm gonna do worse to that weak human girl! I'll tear her flesh from her bones and drink her blood! And whatever is so special about her hair, I'll tear it all from her skull!"
Dracula slowly looked back at Bela and Agro with a angered scowl as something snapped inside of him at the very thought of any harm coming to Ericka, and after witnessing what Bela and Agro had done to Winnie and Eunice . His eyes turned red again as his jaw tightened and his hands clenched into fists. A strong gust of wind spread in a circle from his very being as he levitated a few feet off of the ground, causing his long black cape to flutter and billow behind him. His friends backed away slowly from him, knowing what he was going to do, as a deep growl vibrated in the vampire's throat and his fangs extended longer.
Suddenly, Dracula unleashed the loudest and most powerful roar of righteous fury, "RAAAWWRRR!" and it send a surprised Bela flying for many meters back crashing through shrubs and tree trunks; even the strongest, sturdiest trees bent back at the power of his roar as leaves flew off in the air and bird were sent flying, and animals fleeing in fear for a few miles at the power of his roar.
Bela finally crashed into a large tree trunk and shook away any lingering disorientation as he growled in frustration, yet he felt invigorated at the thought of finally having a real fight. He suddenly unleashed his own powerful roar, carried by the wind to Vlad's cave as it called the remaining Bat Cronies slumbering inside. Dozens of red eyes opened as the roar echoed throughout the vast chamber. A large swarm of Bat Cronies flew out from the large cave with chitters and cries as they followed the call back on the air and heeded their leader's summon.
Are they okay?" Murray asked as he and the others, save for a still floating Dracula as he breathed heavily from adrenaline, ran up to Wayne as he cradled Winnie.
"They're going to be okay, but we need to get them back to the hotel," Wayne said.
"I'm okay, Daddy," Winnie assured her father as he carried her to the hearse, then released a sudden growl as she noticed Bela get back up.
The lead Bat Crony threw a large boulder at the Drac Pack in retaliation, but from the air Dracula flew at the big rock and punched it to rubble and dust, then transformed in bat form and flew at Bela like a missile. He sent the bat crony flying back again as the vampire punched him hard in the face. The Drac Pack watched in awe and cheered encouragements for their friend.
Seemingly faster than grease lightening, Dracula back elbowed Bela in his face, then gave him rapid one-two punches; finally as he did a loop-de-loop he delivered a powerful upper blow to Bela's jaw and it made a few small teeth fall out and again Bela flew back at the punch.
Dracula's friends cheered on as he flew back to them and changed back to his real form in a puff of blue mist and stood triumphantly in front of them. But the victory was short lived as they all then heard a feral cry through the trees, making them freeze in fear and look around the heavily shadowed forest.
"What was that?" Frank asked a bit timidly.
Through the trees, they could see dozens of winged silhouettes flying towards them and they suddenly became dozens of Bat Cronies that landed hard and surrounded the Drac Pack, some even growling or roaring at them in challenge.
Full of a rushing thrill, Dracula made fists as he readied for another fight and smiled as he said eagerly, "Oh, this'll be fun!" and rushed into the fight, while his friends weren't so sure but inspired by his passion it rallied them and they smiled in eagerness for a fight.
With vampire swiftness, Dracula flew at some incoming Bat Cronies as he punched one, then another, and back elbowed another in the air. He then saw more flying at him like a swarm to topple him, but he spun in place on the ground with glowing red eyes and immobilized them all in the air with a pleased look. He glided away proudly several meters away before he snapped his fingers to unfreeze them and the Bat Cronies crashed into each other.
After Wayne gentle placed Winnie into the crashed hearse for safety, he told her to stay even through she said she wanted to help, the rest of the Drac Pack charged forth with battle cries to fight the hoard of Bat Cronies. Frank and Eunice karate chopped one on the head and bashed his face into the ground; Murray sent thick sandstorms flying into their faces and blinding some, then turned into a swarm of beetles and blanketed more cronies. Griffin used his invisibility to take advantage of the cronies by swinging a thick tree branch in the faces of the unsuspecting cronies.
Wayne leaped atop one and chewed at his ear, but the crony seized him by the throat and slammed him to the ground just as two of his friends surrounded the werewolf. Wayne whistled loudly and the cronies suddenly found themselves surrounded by dozens of wolf pups, all growling at them and suddenly being attacked by them; one crony even got engulfed by a cartoonish wave of were pups, while Wayne watched with a proud smug smile on his face.
Having watched the whole time from some nearby tree branches while still in bat form, Vlad felt a mix of strange emotions at what he was witnessing and something in him seemed to transform into a newfound respect for his son, but he was conflicted about his duty to upholding tradition and a pure vampire bloodline. But suddenly it didn't matter as he joined his son, who again was in bat form, and they were back to back as they punched at more Bat Cronies like an unstoppable team.
Father and Son resumed their humanoid forms as Dracula asked with surprise, "Dad, what're you doing here?"
"What does it look like?" Vlad shot back with a smile, "I'm fighting with my son."
"Go, Drac!" Frank shouted as he punched another crony, "Go find Ericka , we'll hold them off here!"
Dracula looked conflicted for a moment, but Vlad nodded at him with a smile before flying off at vampire speed to fend off his own minions. With a swish of his cape, Dracula resumed his bat form and flew off into the forest in search of Ericka's tower, certain it had to be somewhere between his hotel and the Kingdom of Corona. He won't lose another woman he loved to that greedy and selfish Gothel. Never again.
Unknown to Dracula, Bela had seen him fly off and followed him at a short distance with as much stealth as possible, angered to have been beaten to a pulp by Dracula and disgusted by the vampire's devotion to Ericka.
Meanwhile, the rest of the bat cronies had realized their own master was helping the enemy to defeat them, and many had enough sense to flee from the fight and flew off back to the cave with painful whimpers, not wanting to risk their master's wrath any further.
The Drac Pack cheered at this as they watched the remaining bat cronies flee with their tales between their legs. Vlad smiled proudly the most. Before any of the Drac Pack could thank him for his help, Vlad saw with his enhanced vision Bela was trailing Dracula.
With a swish of his cape he transformed into his bat form and began following them. Unfortunately, due to his old age Vlad moved at a slow pace than his younger son, but he knew he had to help Dracula however he could before it was too late.