"I wonder if we'll find them here?" Cathleen pondered.
"The kids have lunch for an hour and they usually play outside in the back for a recess to do whatever they want until 1:00," Mother Superior informed Cherry and Cathleen. "Then they go back inside for a couple more hours of studying time and then they're free to do whatever until 5:00 to wash up and get ready for dinner until bedtime at 9:00."
"Strict schedule, huh?" Cathleen asked.
"That's how I used to live... A very long time ago..." Cherry said distantly and mysteriously.
"Now you've mentioned a Mike Mazinsky, but I'm afraid the only Mazinsky I know around here is a boy named Dylan," Mother Superior replied. "He, a lot like the other children, have no background information."
"Hmm... Strange, I don't think Mike has a brother," Cherry remarked. "At least not that I know of."
"You've met Dylan Mazinsky before it seems." Mother Superior said.
"Yeah, he came along with Henry and that girl Eve and Mr. Gold," Cherry replied. "They told us about becoming the Toon Saviors like how Emma became The Savior of Storybrooke during Regina's first curse as The Evil Queen."
"So I see..." Mother Superior nodded.
Hard Luck sighed sadly, still feeling bad about what Sledgehammer said.
"Hey, it's gonna be okay there, buddy," Cathleen soothed the small duck. "I promise you that."
"I think Mr. O'Possum has a point," Hard Luck said. "What's the point of anything?"
"I ask myself that question all the time, but you just sometimes have to stay strong, even when things seem pointless." Cherry stated stoically.
"And I think that Harley would agree with you there." Cathleen added.
"Harley's been with me for as long as I can remember." Hard Luck said softly.
"Yeah, we know," Cherry nodded. "You were left alone in a nest when you hatched with no one else there and he was the first thing you saw and he's taken you in ever since, looking after you like a good friend and your only family."
"Yeah... I hope that he isn't angry with me." Hard Luck pouted.
"I guess he's with the rest of the gang?" Cherry asked.
"Uh-huh," Hard Luck nodded. "I wanted to take him with me, but he wouldn't listen to me... Nobody would. They told me what I was doing was hopeless."
"I just don't get why Storybrooke of all places would you guys end up here," Cherry said. "I mean, when Regina cast The Dark Curse as The Evil Queen, I guess the curse created this place and made everyone forget who they were when they came from The Enchanted Forest, but Cartoon Network people in Storybrooke? It just seems a little weird if you ask me."
"That is strange." Cathleen simply said.
Mother Superior soon came into an office and opened up the file cabinet. Cherry, Cathleen, and Hard Luck sat together and waited as she went to work.
"What're you looking for?" Cherry asked.
"Hopefully... Maybe... Finding something on this Mike Mazinsky..." Mother Superior replied as she checked the files, but didn't find anything. "Hmm... I don't think I can find anything of her in here, dears."
"Okay, that is definitely weird," Cathleen said. "If she's not here, then where could she be?"
"I don't know..." Mother Superior replied. "Are you sure she came from Cartoon Network?"
"Yes!" Cherry and Cathleen told her.
"I'm sorry, dears," Mother Superior frowned and shook her head. "I'm not sure what to tell you."
"So, now what, Cherry?" Cathleen then asked.
"My best guess is to talk to Dylan." Cherry shrugged.
"You should probably come back in about half an hour or so," Mother Superior advised. "The children are having their lunch break and recess time right now."
"Thank you, Mother Superior." Cathleen said.
"You're welcome," Mother Superior replied. "I hope you can succeed in your mission."
"I hope so too." Cherry said softly.
The trio then walked outside, wondering what to do next.
"Well, the first thing we gotta do is keep Hard Luck safe before any of the rest of the WAC gang gets him." Cherry suggested.
"Good idea." Cathleen agreed.
"Do you mind if we go swimming?" Hard Luck asked. "That always clears my head."
"All right, you can go swimming, but not in Regina's pool," Cherry replied. "I think the lake is around here somewhere."
"I think I see someone..." Cathleen said mysteriously.
They soon came to Leaky Lake which came from Cartoon Network and not Storybrooke. Hard Luck beamed as he began to swim around in the lake, looking a bit happier as they tried to take it easy. Cherry just had her feet in the water, not going to swim as she stared off into the distance.
"Hey, Cherry, are you okay?" Cathleen asked as she wore her bathing suit, getting ready to go swimming in the lake.
"I'm just not sure what to do here," Cherry said softly. "I know Emma's had her troubles here when she first came here, but I feel lost on what to do. I just feel hopeless."
"Don't say that," Cathleen replied. "We can't give up."
"I'm not giving up, I'm just taking a break." Cherry replied.
"As long as you don't quit, you're not much of a quitter from what I've seen." Cathleen said as Hard Luck happily splashed about.
"Yeah, except for maybe college." Cherry crossed her arms with a smirk.
Cathleen just rolled her eyes before smirking back.
"Wheeee!" Hard Luck laughed as he began to have fun and be happy again. "This sure is a lot of fun!"
"Well, I'm glad at least one of us is happy." Cherry said to him.
"Yeah, this is the funnest time I've had in a long time!" Hard Luck beamed.
"Well, I hope that it lasts then," Cherry nodded. "If I know this town, things can change quickly, especially with what's going on with you guys from Cartoon Network, whether or not you got your own show or hosted Cartoon Cartoon Fridays or not."
"Cherry, who do you think the Fallen Leader is?" Cathleen then asked. "Any guesses?"
"Well, that's the complicated thing," Cherry said. "There's everyone here in Storybrooke and those from Cartoon Network."
"Do you have any guesses on who though?" Cathleen asked.
"My prime suspect from Storybrooke is Dr. Whale," Cherry narrowed her eyes. "We tried dating once and it ended horribly. I don't wanna talk about it, but after I found out about my special powers from the other side, he's been more or less my punching bag."
"My prime suspect is that it could be a villain from Cartoon Network." Cathleen replied.
"You wanna be more specific?" Cherry asked as Hard Luck splashed around. "One of the darker ones maybe... Like Katz or Aku?"
"Yeah." Cathleen then nodded.
"I just don't know." Cherry shrugged.
"People mentioned Ursula and Facilier..." Cathleen said.
"Those would be my parents..." Cherry narrowed her eyes dangerously. "And I know that my mother wouldn't hurt people that I care about since I'm her precious little pearl."
"And what about your dad?" Cathleen asked. "Though I never knew your parents would end up being those two."
"It's a long story," Cherry replied as she crossed her arms. "Besides, I don't know much about him, but he's on the darker, other side of life."
"Oh, I guess that makes sense." Cathleen said.
Hard Luck continued to swim happily and unknown to him, someone was swimming under the water, very close to him.
"I wish Sherlock Holmes was in Storybrooke," Cherry sulked as she splashed her feet in the water, though she sat on the riverbank. "I bet he could help us. I'm honestly shocked that he wasn't."
Hard Luck soon poked his head out of the water and spat some out. "Are you sure you don't wanna come in, Miss Cherry?" he then asked. "The water's great."
"Thanks, Hard Luck, but I'm fine," Cherry told him. "I just have too much on my mind right now."
"I hate to see any of my friends being upset." Hard Luck replied.
"I'll be fine," Cherry said. "I'm glad you're feeling better though."
"It's all thanks to you girls," Hard Luck replied. "I hope we can get more of the What a Cartoon gang on our side."
Cathleen was about to say something until she then suddenly sniffed the air and smelled something. "Hey, guys; I think we got a problem," she then warned them. "I smell someone coming."
"Where is it coming from?" Cherry asked.
"It's coming from underwater!" Cathleen warned.
"You smell something underwater?" Cherry asked.
"This is no time for jokes." Cathleen rolled her eyes.
"All right, let's see here..." Cherry said as she climbed up and over and walked off.
"You can't run away!" Cathleen called out before she saw what Cherry was doing. "Oh."
Cherry soon ran right back and jumped into the water, growing a mermaid tail and soon looked around under the water. She then saw something with glowing eyes swimming toward them. "Crap!" she then yelped before she came back up to the surface and looked back at Cathleen. "Get Hard Luck! Hurry!"
"What? What is it?" Cathleen asked.
"There's something down there!" Cherry replied.
"What is it?" Cathleen asked.
"I don't know and I'm not gonna find out!" Cherry told her before giving her Hard Luck. "C'mon, we gotta get out of here!"
"But we were having fun in the water." Hard Luck pouted.
"I SAID MOVE IT!" Cherry urged.
"This does sound serious." Cathleen said as they moved Hard Luck away and out of the water.
Cherry's waist glowed and she soon had her legs again and they soon got away from the lake just at the nick of time. The creature in the water was shown to be a certain alligator with an orange shirt, though his eyes looked blood red all around as he snarled. He looked more aggressive than a regular cartoon alligator, especially the one that Hard Luck had known for his whole life and he snarled, splashing the water in dismay.
Eventually, Cherry, Cathleen, and Hard Luck made it back into town.
"So what's the plan now, Cherry?" Cathleen asked.
"I guess we'll just get something from Granny's Diner and think more of who could've done this," Cherry shrugged. "Maybe a Storybrooke villain's teaming up with some Cartoon Network villains."
"I guess that's possible too," Cathleen replied. "What villains do you know around here?"
"Well... Regina when she was The Evil Queen, plus there's Zelena who's her sister and The Wicked Witch of the West, Hades from The Underworld when he took Killian AKA Captain Hook-" Cherry began.
"Captain Hook! Maybe he did it!" Cathleen suggested.
"No, he's a good guy around here," Cherry shook her head. "Peter Pan's the real villain of Neverland."
"Peter Pan?" Cathleen asked as she couldn't believe that statement.
"Trust me, you don't wanna cross that kid," Cherry replied. "This world really changes your childhood perspective on things. Also The Snow Queen... Maybe Mr. Hyde..." she then paused thoughtfully.
"I just can't believe Ursula and Dr. Facilier are your parents," Cathleen said. "What's next? I'm Ruby's long-lost sister or something?"
"Hey, with Henry's family tree, I believe anything," Cherry rolled her eyes. "Don't get me started on that."
Hard Luck shivered nervously.
"You okay?" Cherry asked.
"All this talk about bad guys is giving me the heebie-jeebies," Hard Luck frowned. "I hope we don't run into any."
"Oh... Don't worry," Cathleen said as she pet the duck. "We'll keep you nice and safe. Cherry won't let anything happen to you."
"Yeah... I'll think of something... Eventually," Cherry said softly. "Gosh, this must be what it was like to be Emma when she was The Savior of Storybrooke. There's just gotta be some way to round up all of the classic characters and get their memories back."
"And that's what Emma did in Storybrooke?" Cathleen guessed.
"Oh, yeah, but it took a lot of trial and error," Cherry nodded. "Believe me, it was not easy for her. There was a lot going on for her." she then told Cathleen the story of the legendary woman known as Emma Swan who was Storybrooke's savior, the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming AKA Mary Margaret Blanchard and David Nolan in this world and how Henry found her and brought her to town since he was her biological son and how she broke Regina's curse as The Evil Queen and restored everybody's memories that had been frozen in time for 28 years.
Meanwhile, at a top-secret location...
"Those girls are getting good... Real good..." A dark and mysterious figure said, hiding behind a set of monitors. "They already found Hard Luck Duck and somehow he's been restored to his proper self... Agent Sledgehammer O'Possum was able to run free, but nothing changed for him, at least nto yet... We'll have to fix that."
"What should we do, Boss?" Yuckie Duck asked with a shrug.
"We'll just have to keep trying and get them out of town," The figure, The Fallen Leader, replied in a dark and grave voice. "Especially to get what you want the most: to be remembered and go down in cartoon history."
"Duh... Didn't we have a chance at that ourselves?" Junior the bear asked as he stood with George.
"Sure... Back in the 1940's before Cartoon Network even existed and you were reimagined like that stupid dog-like dinosaur from that modern Stone Age family," The Fallen Leader snorted. "But even you couldn't save yourselves from being brought back in 1995 with gross-out humor or slapstick comedy that makes The Looney Tunes look like something on PBS Kids or Nick Jr when people could be watching something like Ren & Stimpy on Nickelodeon."
"At least we got a Christmas special which is more than we can say for most of youse." George bragged.
George and Junior soon laughed together until The Fallen Leader whacked them on the head with a mallet.
"SILENCE!" The Fallen Leader glared. "I can't believe this is my so-called crew... A sickeningly cute little duckling with a gator bodyguard, a sadistic Schandenfruede enjoying rodent, two rejects from The Golden Age of Animation that got chewed up and then thrown up with an ugly art style that's making your original creator roll in his grave 15 years later, a rat with a fly for his only friend, two stupid fat cats who Top Cat wouldn't even wanna befriend, some astronaut jerk and his robot friend, a land-living shark that would make Jabberjaw and Kenny the Shark on Discovery Kids blush with a lynx buddy, some Canadian mounted mutt, a disgusting and revolting duck that Duckman himself would be ashamed of, a bird and a worm, not to mention a psycho pizza delivery boy who lost his shit just because he didn't get a tip for his pizza delivery?!" The list then went on and on. "I could go on about this forever, but you're all forgotten about and has-beens for a reason! And for what? To be replaced by a brainless muscleman who tries and fails to pick up women, an annoyingly fat bovine and a short-tempered cock of the block, a toddler genius, a cowardly dog, and three babies with superpowers!"
"You seem to be exaggerating a bit, Boss." A blonde boy with a red baseball cap said.
"SHUT UP!" The Fallen Leader hissed. "Why don't you do something useful and get in a fight with your sister or turn down your grandfather's oxygen or something? Apparently that's all you're good at!"
The boy winced a bit and stepped back.
"This world is very complicated, especially since we were sent here where I was sure we would see the last of those meddling adventure girls or Toon Saviors as they're called now," The Fallen Leader scowled. "We need to run them out of town and give up."
"How do we make them give up?" A blue male poodle, better known as Shake, soon asked as he shivered a bit nervously. "I-I-I mean... That emo girl seems to know everybody even though her tomboy friend doesn't know much about this Storybrooke."
"Yes, I'm aware..." The Fallen Leader replied before smirking. "That's why we gotta mess with their trust."
"Mess with their trust?" A short moose asked. "Eh, what do ya mean by that exactly?"
"Well, even though the emo girl knows everyone here well originally from this stupid town, we'll get the two girls to split up and leave town," The Fallen Leader informed while still smirking. "Who does the emo girl trust the most in this town?"
The What a Cartoon group looked at each other, looking like they were trying to think, though their leader asked them a rhetorical question.
"That old Granny lady?" Zeek the pig guessed.
"That librarian?" A nervous orange cat named Flinch guessed.
"CHICKENS?!" A fatter white possum named Podunk guessed.
"No, no, no, you simpletons!" The Fallen Leader growled and face-palmed. "Must I do everything myself?!"
The group smiled nervously and warily from the anger and wrath.
"Luckily I was able to swipe this when I had the chance so I can use magic in this world of magic too," The Fallen Leader replied while clutching a grayish silver book with golden clasps. "This ultimate Book of Spells~"
"Where'd you get that, Boss?" A redheaded girl in a red and yellow striped shirt asked.
"That fool Gold's pawnshop," The Fallen Leader smirked while opening the book with glowing fingertips. "Swiped it when his new intern Eddy wasn't lookin' and was too busy trying to woo that Nazz girl when he was supposed to be doing inventory in the backroom. With this, no one will see or know who I am in Storybrooke."
And then suddenly, there was an ancient Latin spell spoken to demonstrate what spell would be used and then... POOF! A puff of purple smoke soon cast all over The Fallen Leader and soon, in place was a black-haired girl with green eyes in a black and yellow jumpsuit with her hair tied into a ponytail with blue and white sneakers.
"Whoa! Who are you supposed to be?" Pizza Boy asked with wide eyes. "And can I have your phone number?~"
"It's me, dingus," The girl scoffed and whacked him in the face with the spell book before taking out a backpack and putting it in there. "But in this form, you may know me as Erin Miguzi. I'll infiltrate Storybrooke City in this form to corrupt and manipulate Ross and Butler to run them out of town so that they can't break the spell and save the Cartoon Network characters~" she then added with a dark grin on her face.
"Oh..." The What a Cartoon group merely blinked.
"And later on, I'll play with their trust a little and do something super dark and sinister tonight before coming back to you guys with the official spell book created by Rumplestiltskin and once owned by The Queen of Hearts," Erin continued fiendishly. "And luckily for me, no one really remembers Erin either since Miguzi died out in 2007."
"Before the big alien invasion?" Luther asked.
"Yes, you idiot, before the big alien invasion," Erin nodded before going out a secret door, going straight for Storybrooke City. "I just hope you numbskulls are smart enough to remember who I am by the time I come back."
The What a Cartoon gang wished their Fallen Leader good luck in the manipulation plan. It was going to be interesting, that's for sure. Will The Fallen Leader succeed or will Cherry and Cathleen catch on? I suppose we'll find out what happens after the next chapter...