Hard Luck went to the kitchen and saw Sledgehammer in the cage and he climbed up to the cage and tapped on it. The pink possum poked his head out, snarling, though a bit groggily as he still looked pretty tired from what happened between him and Granny earlier.
"Hiya, Mr. Sledgehammer!" Hard Luck smiled. "Lovely day, isn't it?"
"Kid? How'd you get out?" Sledgehammer narrowed his eyes. "The Fallen Leader is not going to like this."
"Yeah, well, I'm not sure if I'm gonna stick around this mean 'ol Fallen Leader anymore and I don't think you should either," Hard Luck shook his head. "There's some nice ladies who helped us before. They helped me against that nasty old fox who tried to cook me for breakfast and when you were freezing cold while trying to avoid Ethel the mailman who you thought was gonna hurt ya 'til you decided to befriend her."
"That's old news, kid, move on," Sledgehammer snorted. "This is what the Fallen Leader was warnin' us about. We had our chance back in 1995 and lost it when those bigger and better Cartoon Stars took our place for us and now look where it got us. They deserve to have their memories taken away."
"Mr. Sledgehammer, you shouldn't say stuff like that," Hard Luck frowned. "I know it was rough on some of us and some lucky ones made it out, why, the Eds didn't even start out on What a Cartoon!"
"Ya had to remind me about that," Sledgehammer scoffed and rolled his eyes. "What a Cartoon is where we all started after the Hanna-Barbera tribe helped make Cartoon Network slowly and surely become what it is today before developing into Boomerang as a retirement home like Nostalgia Acres for them and the other cancelled classics or The Cartoon Heavens for folks like Bugs Bunny and Toot Braunstein."
"Betty Boop." Hard Luck corrected.
"What?" Sledgehammer scoffed.
"Betty Boop came first, Toot Braunstein came from Comedy Central for that series Drawn Together." Hard Luck clarified.
"Yeah... Well... Whatever! Same difference!" Sledgehammer snorted and rolled his eyes. "Anyway, it's time for some people to grow up. You can't spend your whole life supporting cartoons like some washed-up kid who never grew up. The 90's and early 2000's are over and some people gotta realize that. It's too late to change anything now."
"But it's not too late for us, Mr. Sledgehammer," Hard Luck said as he grabbed the bars of the cage, looking the pink possum in the eyes. "We can still be happy, even if things looked bleak for us if we didn't get picked up for a whole series."
"Ah... Get outta here, ya Huey, Dewey, and Louie sound-alike," Sledgehammer snorted. "I can tell you're gonna need a new lesson from The Fallen Leader if you ever come back to our hideout again. I mean, Harley's there waitin' for ya~" he then added with a toothy grin.
"I've changed and so can you," Hard Luck insisted. "I won't give up and I won't give up on those girls either. You can trust them."
"If we could trust them, then how come no one remembers who we are all over the place?" Sledgehammer narrowed his eyes. "They only care about The Powerpuff Girls and those Ed boys and Billy and Mandy or Courage the Cowardly Dog and Scooby-Doo... Good lord, Scooby-Doo! They might as well had called it The Scooby-Doo Network with the movies, shows, and cartoons that meddling dog had, not to mention the copycats of The Chan Clan, Goober and the Ghost Chasers, and Josie and the Pussycats!"
"Doesn't it at least matter that some people remember us?" Hard Luck insisted softly. "Yes, it's not as much fun as everybody knowing us, whether they love us or hate us from Scooby to Scrappy-Doo, but isn't that better than no one knowing us at all?"
"It's hopeless, kid," Sledgehammer snorted. "I ain't helpin' ya if ya ain't gonna help the cause. The Fallen Leader ain't gonna be happy 'bout ya ditchin' on us like this."
"Well, if you're gonna be like that, then I hope The Fallen Leader fails," Hard Luck narrowed his eyes. "You are so stubborn, Mr. Sledgehammer! I thought you'd at least change for me!"
"What can I say? I'm a disappointment to everybody," Sledgehammer rolled his eyes, turning around and folding his arms. "First it's Cartoon Network, then it'll be Nickelodeon, then I don't know what else. Probably the Disney Channel. I heard of a guy named Shorty McShort Shorts who had a showcase too back in 2006 where only one lucky candidate made it out of a whoppin' 13."
"Didn't Boyz on Da Run get three shorts though?" Hard Luck piped up.
"Yeah, but a fourth and final part was planned until Disney Channel decided to pull the plug on Shorty in May of 2007," Sledgehammer smirked. "Good luck findin' anyone who'll even remember those guys aside from SheZow."
Hard Luck looked very disappointed and soon turned around, bowing his head as a teardrop rolled down his cheek.
"Yeah, get outta here before that old biddy decides to make soup out of ya," Sledgehammer laughed. "You're gonna be in real trouble, kid... I guarantee it~"
Hard Luck then simply waddled away and went to go back to see the girls again.
Meanwhile, the girls were sitting and talking to pass the time during Hard Luck's absence.
"And then Cherry ended up getting us in this school called the St. Vladimir's Academy." Cathleen soon concluded one story they were telling Ruby.
"Ah, yes, I remember that school name," Ruby nodded. "Cherry had an adventurous gap year away from Greendale."
"So it seems," Cathleen said to her friend who sipped her drink. "Even though a lot of kids at that school bullied me for being a Lycan and I had to get my powers taken away from me and earn them back."
"That was just to teach you a lesson and to not rely on your powers all the time," Cherry defended. "Besides if you had your powers, you'd just tear someone to shreds like Mia Rinaldi."
"Ugh, she was the worst of them all," Cathleen groaned and rolled her eyes. "Especially with how she was treating Rose and Lissa."
"I'm sorry, Cathleen, but you shouldn't just rely on using fangs, claws, and your carnivore nature to solve all of your problems." Cherry remarked.
"She's right," Ruby added. "Otherwise it might get you in trouble. Just like I nearly did with Mr. Spencer."
Cathleen merely blinked as she didn't know who that was.
"Albert Spencer is Storybrooke's district attorney," Cherry began to explain to her. "He was King George and he tried to get Ruby run out of town and even killed a man named Billy who was once one of Cinderella's mouse friends and blamed Ruby until David AKA Prince Charming saved her."
"I'm learning so much about this town, I don't know if I can keep up." Cathleen commented.
"You just learn to adapt," Cherry shrugged. "My strategy is that just don't question someone who had a fairy tale past because it's just expected at this point. I'm pretty sure eventually I'm going to meet Count Dracula or Sherlock Holmes."
"That would be quite a tale." Ruby chuckled.
Hard Luck sighed softly as he soon waddled back over.
"What's wrong, little guy?" Cathleen frowned as she looked down at him. "Why do you look so sad?"
"Did Sledgehammer cooperate?" Ruby added.
"No," Hard Luck shook his head. "He just said I'd be in a lot of trouble with The Fallen Leader and that what you guys are doing is hopeless, especially since people have long since forgotten about us in the What a Cartoon gang and have already moved on."
"Well... That's sadly the case for most people," Cherry replied as she held out her hand for him to hop into and he soon did and she placed him down on the table. "Memories tend to fade like the wind and you can either just give into nostalgia and have no way to recapture them and you can just talk about them to help keep them alive."
"What're you saying, Cherry?" Cathleen asked. "Are you giving up?"
"I don't want to, but I don't know what we can do to help restore everyone's memories," Cherry replied. "I see no proof or point in doing so."
"So you're just gonna quit when we have a mission to do?" Cathleen asked. "That's not the Cherry I know."
"Cathleen, I don't know what we're going to do, I just feel stressed that we're drifting further and further away on this case and adventure that it almost feels fruitless," Cherry sighed. "We can keep trying, but where will it get us? Just broken dreams and memories that will eventually mean nothing once we're grown up, then married, and having our own families. It's time to grow up and move on."
"Don't say that, Miss Cherry!" Hard Luck gasped. "I still believe in you!"
"That's very nice of you, Hard Luck, but I'm running out of ideas around here," Cherry said. "One stop we're definitely making though is visiting Mother Superior and the other nuns. Mr. Gold told me that they're taking care of some orphans there and might have information on Mike, Lu, and Og if we're lucky."
"Then I hope that they have information about them." Cathleen said.
"We can only hope," Cherry replied. "Now enough mucking about. Let's try to enjoy our lunch break."
"That's probably for the best," Ruby agreed. "No sense in getting into a big fuss over things before a nice, big meal."
Eventually, the girls and duck had some food together. They were mostly quiet while eating as Cathleen tried to remain brave and confident, trying to persevere since she and Cherry were the Toon Saviors. She knew that they could do this, but it wasn't looking very good on their side.
After lunch, Cherry kept Hard Luck in her pocket and left the diner with Cathleen. Ruby grinned and waved at them, letting them get going as she went to go back inside with Granny to get back to work, and eventually, she would be working with Bubbles and Buttercup. Cherry looked around, trying to memorize where to go and luckily, she saw enough familiar sights to remember where to go as Hard Luck tried not to cry, but only felt very depressed after his talk with Sledgehammer.
"Cheer up, Hard Luck, I'm sure that it'll get better." Cathleen told the young duck.
"I-I guess so..." Hard Luck sighed and pouted. "Why does everything just have to be so difficult?"
"I ask myself that question every day, buddy." Cherry replied as they walked together.
Eventually, they made it over to the building known as Convent of the Sisters of Saint Meissa which wasn't too far away from the library which was where Belle and Velma currently were. They waved at the two on the way inside and soon heard church bells ringing.
"So is this a church or something?" Cathleen asked.
"A convent is a Christian community under monastic vows, especially one of nuns," Cherry explained. "Mother Superior was also The Blue Fairy from Pinocchio who turned him into a real boy."
"So Pinocchio's around here too somewhere?" Cathleen then guessed.
Cherry looked a bit emotionally distant from answering that question before they came up the steps leading up to the front doors. She soon picked up the knocker and banged it a few times to get some attention from the inside world of the building.
Eventually, out came a woman with auburn hair and dark brown eyes soon came out of the building, wearing her uniform. "Yes?" she then asked before seeing the perky goth. "Oh! Cherry... Hello, there."
"Man, everyone knows you in Storybrooke." Cathleen commented to Cherry.
"Like I said, I made quite a difference around here." Cherry said, absently stroking her stomach.
"Cherry, we thought you were gone forever," Mother Superior said to the perky goth. "What can we do to help you?" she then noticed Cathleen. "And who is your friend?"
"This is Cathleen Ross," Cherry introduced. "Our relationship is a very long story, though I'm sure you've noticed some sort of new curse or enchantment in town that involves... People you guys have never seen before in The Enchanted Forest."
"Ah, yes, we have," Mother Superior nodded. "Mr. Gold brought it up at one town council meeting and he said he would find some help from the outside world to take care of it. I suppose he summoned you two?"
"Yeah, he did," Cathleen replied. "He just showed up at my door on my birthday."
"Well, can I help you with something?" Mother Superior asked. "It's about time for the children to have lunch."
"Actually, yes," Cherry said. "We heard that you had some children around here who seemed... Out of the ordinary or something?"
"I'm not sure I know what you mean by that, but you may come inside to see them," Mother Superior replied as she led them inside. "Please come in."
"Maybe this can help us, huh, buddy?" Cathleen asked Hard Luck.
"I guess..." Hard Luck sighed as he just looked very unhappy right now.
"Poor guy," Cathleen frowned. "I hope we can cheer him up soon."
"Yeah, me too." Cherry replied as they went to meet the orphans.