OK, I feel compelled to disclose a few problems with my previous story "Unhappy Birthday": 1) I said that season 3 of Loonakids would have 4 stories but I now have 6 planned; and 2) when I wrote out the lyrics of "Little Bit Longer", I said that the line in the chorus was "every time you smile a little, I feel close" but I recently figured out that it's really "every time you smile or laugh, you glow", so I have to retract that. And then there's a problem with "Undead Mayhem": This scene...

Ace: Wasn't your family there for you when you were changed?

Austin: Actually, I got the full hit so they thought I died. When they found out I had turned into a Vampire, they shunned me from their lives and didn't invite me in. By the time they even considered it, they were dying. Plus, I lost my soul when I went through my change so I would have killed them if they did. I'm glad they left me alone.

Yeah, it's actually supposed to go like this:

Sarah: Wasn't your family there for you when you were turned?

Austin: Sarah, when I tell you this, I want you to stay calm and remember that I wasn't me, I was a filthy, soulless killer demon...I ate them.

Sarah: ...Oh...

So I also have to retract that. Now, on with the story!

Oh, and Luna246, I read your review. Obviously, you didn't read closely enough in the first few stories or just plain didn't read the Loonatics Enchanted Trilogy at all, in which case, you'd know that the triplets' father was human but their mother was a coyote, making Sophie a coyote while Daniella and Wendy are human. NOW, on with the story.

Chapter 3

Kelly was out on the roof again.

Austin came up behind her and sat down on a box. "Penny for your thoughts?"

Kelly smiled. "My dad's alive."

Austin looked at her. After a few seconds, he sighed and got up. "Listen, I know the past 2 months have been hard on you, I know you 2 were close…but we all saw—"

"I saw him last night."

"In a dream?"

"Vision dream. I told Daniella about it and she agrees that he may very well still be out there. There's not a doubt in my mind that he tried to contact me through my powers last night and that he's still alive."

"Then where he is he?"

"Now, see, that part is the hard part." She faced him. "If he really is out there—and I use the term 'if' loosely—then he's on planet Meridian."

"Home of the freak who poisoned the planet to get the Loonakids on his planet so that he could take your power?"

"That plan failed. The guy's dead now. I don't care if there's someone still there, I just know that my dad is there and alive and waiting for me to bring him home and I'm gonna do it. Besides, there's something up there anyway, so we'd all have to go just to save the world."

"He explicitly said there was something up there?"

"Yeah, but—"

"Don't you get it? There's probably someone else who knows about you, someone who wants you dead. So they're luring you to Meridian with a fake vision of Tech so you'll go after him and get yourself killed. I'm not letting that happen to you."

She stared him down. "I don't care. There's a chance that you're wrong, you know. I'm not saying you are, but there's a chance that my father is out there dying and I can't take that risk."

"There's also a chance that he's not and that you're about to deliberately go on a suicide mission and I'll lose you, and I can't take that risk."

Kelly sighed and pushed herself closer to him. "I love you, OK?" He stared at her. "But if my father is out there, he's trying to find me. And even if it isn't him, it's a threat to all of us and not just me so I'd have to go up there anyway to fight it. One way or another, I'm going back to Meridian. And nothing you can say or do is gonna stop me." With that, she walked back into the tower.

2 hours later…

The gang was done setting up the ship to fly to Meridian.

"I can't believe it," said Ryan, sitting on top of the ship, "After 2 months, Kelly finally gets a vision saying Dad's alive?"

"Hey," said Kelly, "Have I ever been wrong before?"

"Well…"

"Don't answer that." She walked off to get the bags while Ryan got off the ship. She picked up a bag, then another, then another…and she toppled over. "Oh, great." She started picking them up. Then her hand met another… She looked at Austin.

"I…just thought I'd help."

She smiled. "You're coming with us, aren't you?"

"I promised your dad I'd protect you. If you're in danger, I'm going."

She smiled again, wider. "And then there's the fact that you promised me you'd protect Gabby and that she's not going."

"Can't Archer watch her?"

"Are we talking about the same Archer?"

"Point taken."

"We're lucky time passes differently on Meridian. We'll be able to leave the kids here with a nanny spell."

"We still have to worry about Archer."

"Right." Kelly got up from the floor and opened a door. "Archer! You're coming with us!"

"Oh boy!" The family beagle, Archer raced in. "Yeah, I'm going to Median with you guys!"

"Meridian."

"Whatever!" Archer raced into the ship with Ryan.

Kelly looked back at Austin. "In case one of us doesn't come back…"

"I'm with you there."

They put their arms around each other and leaned in…

Ryan honked the horn on the ship.

Kelly and Austin separated and walked off to get in the ship and leave.

Meanwhile…

On Meridian…

The old lady was still in the shadows in the forest, now asleep…and dreaming…

In a crystal palace on an older planet Meridian—a beautiful, friendly land at the time—there lived the royal family: the king, queen, and 2 princesses. They were a happy family, but they had their flaws.

The king was the head of the house and the leader of the land. He had his sparkling blue eyes and soft brown hair. He was a very regal, very powerful leader.

The queen was a beautiful bride for the king. She had long brown hair and mesmerizing baby blue eyes. She always wore the finest dresses and justly ruled the kingdom with her husband.

Their eldest daughter was Valentina. She had semi-long brunette hair and bright green eyes (genetics worked differently for Meridians). She was a fair ruler and quite beautiful, a catch for all the suitors.

Their youngest daughter was Elena. She had semi-long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She gentle and kind with her people and an amazing and graceful ruler. She was even prettier than her beautiful sister and was more sought-after by the suitors despite her young age.

Valentina and Elena were good friends as sisters. One night, they were in their beds in their shared rooms.

Valentina sat down on Elena's bed and handed her a pink chain with a green sapphire jewel. "I want you to have this."

"Your favorite necklace?"

"I enchanted it. It's yours now."

Elena put it on and smiled. "I love it."

Valentina smiled.

Elena took off the necklace and put it on her bedside table. "We'd better get some sleep."

Valentina got in her bed and slowly drifted off…

2 years later, an older Valentina and older Elena were fighting in the garden.

"You don't want to do this, Valentina," Elena said.

Valentina knocked her back and took out a dagger. "Don't try that on me. You took my boyfriend, took my kingdom, but you didn't take my power."

Elena grabbed her sister's wrist with her feet and twisted it to knock the dagger from her grasp and across the gardens.

The 2 sisters wrestled until they were at the edge of the mini-forest outside the gardens…and on a cliff over the seas.

Elena looked at the waters below and then at Valentina.

Valentina smiled, mischievously. She started to fight her sister over the cliff…but was interrupted by a surge of almost magic-like power.

An Elf-like lady stood there in a cloak. "Princess Valentina…you are hereby under arrest."

Valentina looked at Elena…

2 weeks later, Valentina was tied to a wall in the Elders' courtroom.

The woman who'd arrested her was pacing in front of her. "…I saw it with my own eyes, Princess Valentina attacked her own sister." She turned around to face Valentina. "The charge has been stated. Would you like to say something?"

"Yeah, but I'm in enough trouble already."

She glared at her. "Fine. Don't speak up for yourself."

"I have nothing to defend. The throne is mine and I'm not gonna let my own sister stand in my way like that…even if I have to kill her."

The woman faced the rest of the courtroom. "I take that as a confession. How do the rest of the Elders feel?"

Pretty much the whole of the "jury" raised their hands.

"Then I hereby sentence Princess Valentina to be stripped of her royal status and banished."

Valentina glared at her…

The old woman woke up.

But the story kept going beyond that:

After Valentina had left the courtroom, Elena had approached the Elder that had just banished her sister. "And what becomes of me? You know she won't heed her sentence."

"I am aware. And the first thing she'll do under her new laws of life will be to come after you."

"So what do I do? I have the royal jewel and her true love, the 2 targets she strives for that resulted in this attack. I'm what both targets have in common. Which means this wasn't the end of her assault."

"Then you are not safe here."

"Where else is there I can live?"

The Elder lady considered this… "There is one place."

Elena stared at her.

And it was a good thing Valentina had been banished to the Dark Forests and Elena taken from the planet. For less than a year later, their world was caught in a great battle that ultimately destroyed them and left only 3 survivors…

3 hours later…

An alarm started going off on the gang's ship.

"What's going on?" Austin asked.

"One of the engines went out again," said Ryan, "We're entering Meridian's atmosphere too fast. We're gonna crash!"

"Everyone hold onto something!" Ace cried.

Everyone obeyed. The ship "landed" in the middle of a forest. The crash caused a window to cave in, too.

Austin quickly noticed this. "Ah! Quick! The daylight!" He and the others instantly rushed to get him out of the way.

Suddenly, Kelly stopped them. "HOLD IT!"

Austin stopped moving…and noticed that he'd been standing in broad sunlight during that whole scramble with no reaction. "What…" He started looking around to see if he was mistaken and that there was just a different reaction to his Vampire system in this planet's atmosphere…well, apparently, that different reaction was no reaction at all. "OK, why am I not bursting into flames?"

"Guess the sun doesn't affect Vamps here," said Wendy.

"Uh, suns." Kelly pointed out the 2 suns in the sky. "And 3 moons."

"Huh," said Daniella, "I guess one's counteracting the other."

"Off that topic," said Lexi, "Maybe we should be disguising the ship so that no one suspects something's up."

"Right." Austin nodded. "We should probably have Slam push it into that bush and then we can cover it with some old tree parts and Ryan can fix it later. Now where can we find some branches? Oh, look, there's some over there in that patch of sun. I'll get them." He raced over there.

"He's really milking this, isn't he?" asked Kelly.

"Wouldn't you?" asked Daniella, "He's not been able to go into sunlight for the past 200 years."

"Point taken."

"Let's just start looking for Tech," said Sophie, "Or whatever else is here."

The gang quickly hid the ship, making sure it was still in a place where they could find it, and set out to find their missing family member…or the bad guy.

Eventually, they were walking through a very dark forest.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" asked Wendy, "'Cause it seems like we passed that tree a minute ago."

"All these trees look the same, Wend," said Lucy.

"So you see my point."

"Relax," said Daniella, "I've been following the sun."

"Which one?"

Daniella looked at her.

"There's 2! Face it, we're lost!"

"We are not lost! I know just where I'm going!"

"And where is that?"

Daniella started to respond…then realized she had no answer.

Wendy looked at her. "I'm waiting."

Daniella hesitated. "Mm…Kelly! You guys have been here before, why don't you tell us where to look?"

Kelly looked at her. "We spent a lot of our time on this planet trapped in that guy's lair, so…"

"Oh."

Kelly nodded.

"Follow the vibes?"

Kelly sighed. "Fine." She closed her eyes and mixed her Witch's sense with her psychic vibes. "OK, I'm picking up some major power deep in the woods, but…"

Something was watching them behind a tree, its vision of the scene tinted blood red as it flicked its forked tongue out at them.

"…I can't get anything. There's some power interfering…" Her eyes snapped open. "My Ghost Whisperer side is kicking in. There's something undead nearby."

The snake-like creature hid behind the tree. Witches… It slithered off rapidly before they could sense it nearby.

Lexi whirled around to look at the tree, having heard the slither and hiss.

Kelly looked at her. "I heard it, too. …What'd we hear?"

Austin looked around the tree. "There's nothing there. It must be gone."

Kelly shook her head. "I'm still getting that interference. I thought this planet didn't have Ghosts, but my undead powers are still kicking in."

"You sure you're not just smelling blood?" Austin asked.

"Positive."

"'Cause I am."

Kelly looked at him.

Austin sniffed a few times and looked around. He didn't see anything bleeding.

The snake creature was hiding behind a tree even further back into the darkest parts of the woods, feeding off a woodland creature (well, it was a woodland creature of that planet).

"Are you sure you're not smelling us?" asked Duck, "'Cause I'm not about to let you eat me."

"No, it's not human," Austin corrected.

"OK, and you're still smelling it? That's disturbing."

"Hey, I'm trying to help here. Could you not be such a jerk about it?"

"Him not be a jerk?" asked Sarah, "Are we talking about the same Duck?"

"Hey!" Duck snapped, "I am older than you are. Are you not supposed to respect me for that?"

"Oh, trust me, she doesn't need to," said Daniella.

The gang started to get into a fight and accidentally knocked one another down a hill, landing in a heap on the forest floor.

Sophie groaned and slowly started to work her way up. She noticed that someone was holding their hand out for her and took it, letting it help her up. "Thanks, I—" She stopped when she looked at him.

It was Tech.