Dia gasped. She saw that she was in her room in her grand bed. She was glad she didn't wake anyone up. Zack and the toons were still sleeping soundly. Except Lola who just gasped too.
"You dreamed of Bugs getting hit by a missile?" Dia whispered to Lola.
"With your wizard friend in space? Yeah."
Dia checked the time on her clock. "Well, it's about time I got up." She put her glasses on, jumped into her techno jeans and starting walking to the door.
"I'll give you a hand," said Lola as she got out of bed.
"I don't need any more hands," said Dia. "I need a leg or two." She laughed at her joke as they walked out.
"It's five in the morning," yawned Lola, as she was getting the shell-made plates ready on about a dozen rusty crates, acting like an enormous grand table.
"Don't worry," said Dia, as she was making the porridge in a pan over the stove. "Just because I'm still a British mermaid doesn't mean I'm still on English time."
"No, that's not what I meant," said Lola. "I think it's so abusive of your family to treat you this way."
"That's the only reason they adopted me and Nell," Dia told her, pouring the porridge in the bowls. "So we could do servants' work without paying. We never even had pocket money. The only things they ever got me were these glasses."
"Why not just run away?" Lola suggested.
"Where would I go?" asked Dia. "Nobody else would have wanted a mermaid at all. Come to think about it, I haven't seen another mermaid for a long while. I think I might be going extinct."
"Oh, just like your lobster soup yesterday?" laughed the mean voice of Dia's stepmother.
Lola quickly hid inside an empty cupboard, as Dia's stepfamily sat at the table. Dia quickly served them the porridge. Just as she was about to walk away –
"Ew!" snapped the stepfamily.
"Are you trying to poison me, Dia?" yelled her stepbrother.
"Yes, I am," Dia smiled cockily.
"So you want us to starve?" yelled the stepfather.
"Us – the only family who took you in when no one else would have a mermaid?" screamed her stepfather.
"If I'm a rare mermaid," went on Dia, "you should treat me the way you treat your father's grand chair – safe and protected."
"Are you telling us how to raise you?" the stepfather yelled. Then he sighed. "I don't have time for you now. I'm late! I'm going!"
"Me too!" The stepbrother got up and hopped away.
"And you'd better cook something better than this for dinner tonight," warned the stepmother as she hopped out.
"Is the coast clear?" asked Daffy from outside the room.
"Yes," Lola told him, climbing out of the cupboard, who had kept an eye on the mean dolphins the whole time.
Then all the toons came rushing in to eat the porridge.
"This is really g-g-g-g… Excellent" exclaimed Porky. All the toons agreed with him.
Nell hopped to Dia, followed by Zack.
"I saw the whole thing!" Zack exclaimed happily. "You take no nonsense from them! Just like I do with my police buddies."
"Well, seeing you again have given me a lot more confidence," smiled Dia.
"Dia!" yelled the stepfather's voice. "Come down to the port and bring Nell with you!"
Dia sighed. "Come on, Nell."
Nell hopped onto Dia's back as the techno jeans walked them out of the room.
"Come on, guys," Zack cried to the toons.
The toons wondered what was going on but they followed their captain anyway. They went into the elevator and it went down quietly. They saw the dolphins had spotted Chip and were looking at Dia.
"You didn't tell me you had a ship on your own," said the stepfather. "How much did it cost?"
Dia knew there could be no explanation at all. So she just remained silent.
"Well, no matter," said the stepmother. "You and Nell are going to escort us to work on your ship. And hurry!"
Dia and Nell climbed aboard Chip.
"Sorry about this, Chip," said Dia.
"Never mind me," said Chip. "What about the Captain and the toons?"
"Hey, they're the Looney Tunes and the Tiny Toons," said Dia. "If anyone can find a way to catch up with us, it's them. And they don't even need to do it together."
Back in the elevator, the toons looked unsure about what Dia said. "Anyone got any ideas?" asked Daffy.
"A practical but unsatisfying one," said Zack.
"This is the best idea you guys could come up with to catch up with us?" moaned Dia. "By acting as stowaways?"
"We ain't 'towaways'," said Tweety. "We're 'tolunteers'. All of us, not just this putty tat."
"This is our ship, anyway," pointed out Daffy.
"Besides, your stepbrother's a pop star," added Plucky. "We'll be going to a concert."
"Yeah, a concert that's for like fans of modern pop stars like Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and the Jonas Brothers," pointed out Dia. "You show your faces, no one will notice you at all, especially sea-life creatures who don't watch cartoons."
"What?" exclaimed Plucky.
"Yes, I'm afraid the world has changed since we last saw you guys in 1995," Dia went on.
"Hey, Dia, where did you find this crew?" the stepbrother shouted at her, throwing the plum juice and glasses at the Tiny Toons, who were serving them.
"This is the worst crew ever!" snapped the stepmother. "No wonder they got cancelled after three seasons!"
"Can't we get one good thing here?" snapped the stepfather, who was on a deckchair on the bow. Then a giant bag of gold coins was thrown next to him. "Hey, who threw that?" he yelled to the crew.
"Me, mate," said a charming Australian voice.
The stepfather turned back around and saw a handsome live-action merman with blonde hair and a green tail.
"What do you want?" the stepfather asked.
"Is that enough sunken treasure coins to have your mermaid daughter in marriage?" asked the merman.
The stepfather inspected the coins and grinned at the merman. "Dia! Come here!" he called.
Dia sighed and walked in her techno jeans to her stepfather. Zack and the rest of the toons stopped working and watched her.
"Meet your fiancé," ordered the stepfather.
"Hey, beautiful," said the merman charmingly. "What's your name?"
"My name's Diamond," Dia told him, playing along with the scheme if it was one.
"That's my favourite name," smiled the merman. "Especially if you and I are the last merfolk in the world."
The last merfolk? Dia was getting suspicious. But she still decided to play along. "Well," she said, getting her seductive act on, "I suppose you and I must save the species." She put her arms around the merman.
The toons couldn't believe Dia was falling for the trick.
"Je ne le crois pas!" exclaimed Fifi. "What is Dia doing?"
"Trust her, Fifi," said Zack. "She knows what she's doing."
The merman went in for the kiss and Dia let him.
"What are you doing?" yelled Zack.
Then the merman laughed with his left arm sticking out. Suddenly and strangely, he went fuzzy and standing in his place was John Epic wearing black swim shorts.
"Nice try, John!" snapped Dia. "But even with those techno disguises, you can't fool me. I even knew you're arm pits would be hairy and sweaty."
"Eww!" moaned the toons.
"John!" snapped another voice. It belonged to Jim who just climbed up on deck. "I can't even trust you with the disguises and fake voices!"
"FYI, while everyone was distracted by my act, those Neos have searched the whole ship," John protested.
Out of the kitchen, the Neo Army arrived and walked to the Epic Twins.
"Sir, we have found no trace of the Acme Orb or the blue bunny," the Major reported.
Everyone looked around to see that Buster wasn't around. And Dia couldn't seem to find Nell, either.
"Impossible!" screamed Jim. Then he turned to Zack. "Where is Buster, O'Marrows?"
"You underestimate these toons, Jim," snapped Zack. "And one day they'll get the better of you."
"Yeah, tell that to Bugs Bunny," said Jim. "Oh! Wait. You can't!"
"What do you mean?" yelled Lola angrily.
"I mean your fluffy lover boy's a fluffy lover dodo now!" said Jim. "Along with Eric!"
"You lie!" yelled Dia.
Jim chucked a tiny screen to Zack and he, Dia and the toons saw Eric, Bugs and their puppets friends on the space shuttle they were on. They saw the missile coming up and hitting the shuttle. They were totally upset, especially Lola who burst into tears.
"Why would we give up the Acme Orb if you did this?" asked Zack.
"Because your sorcerer friend isn't here to help you," smiled Jim evilly. "Now where is Buster Bunny?"