Chapter Two

Cherise (usually called Cherish by her father) was a young girl of nine years with skin tanned from playing outside a lot and cinnamon brown eyes. Her shoulder length reddish brown was always in a tight braid and her outfit was light blue overall jeans, a gray t-shirt, and pink tennis shoes. At this moment she was standing by a set of stairs that led from the street down to a basement apartment of an abandoned building. Down there was her favorite bouncy ball that was big enough to fit in the palm of her hand, had many colors swirl around, and glowed in the dark. It had gotten away from her when she was bouncing while walking around on her block as her usual form of play. It bounced off a rock on the sidewalk, making it go at an angle and down the stairs she was now at.

Chewing slight on the tip of her index finger, the young girl contemplated going down the stairs to get it or abandoning as a lost cause. She really didn't want to lose the ball, because her dad had gotten it for her as a special surprise. But going down alone to get it would mean testing her luck against being able to actually walk way and with it in hand.

See the problem she faced was that the basement apartment was the hideout of her neighborhood bully, Darren. Nobody was allowed to come anywhere near the place with out his special permission. Anyone foolish enough to do so would earn themselves great injury starting from Indian rub burns for first warnings leading up to broke bones for multiple warnings.

In the end Cherise decided that it would be safer if she just wait for her dad to come home. That way she would have someone big to protect her as she went to gather up the lost toy. Of course this plan had to do with luck too. Luck that the ball would still be there, not discovered by Darren or his gang and added to their crate full of other toys they have swiped from kids he's bullied.

But as young girl went to leave for home, the boy she feared most was heading her way from his own place with his two favorite minions following behind him. All three boys had their arms crammed with balloons fill with something liquid. Cherise had an idea of what was in them, but didn't want to stick around to find out if she was right. Instead she dashed behind a wall of garbage cans that were near the stairs and held her breath so they would have no clue of her being there. She also hoped that they wouldn't use the trashcans as target practice before going down to their hideout.

Luck was on her side, for the three boys were in too much of a hurry to get into their hideout. Once the door was shut and locked, Cherise ventured out of her hiding spot. At first she complained about her luck on Darren not being there, cause if she knew she would have gotten her ball back. But then she happy about her good fortune that he didn't know it was even there, because that would mean there was chance she could get it back with her dad.

As she was about to leave to sit on the stoop of her building to wait for her dad to come home from work, like she's everyday, Cherise heard voices that didn't sound familiar.

"What are you going to do with those?" One voice cried.

"What do you think?" Said a voice belong to one of the twin boys that ran with Darren.

"I wanna go home." Another voice sobbed.

"Shuddup." Darren said before there was a splat sound to be heard.

"Ack." The first unrecognized voice gagged. "It's paint."

"Well ain't we the smart one." Darren joshed crudely.

Suddenly a bunch of splats came echoing out of the building. Acry of 'stop' came with each one, but the boys just laughed and continued doing what was making the splat sound.

Wondering who the two latest victims were, Cherise slipped down a couple of steps to where there was a window and peeked in. Her eyes grew wide when saw a couple of humanoid boy size turtles chained to a pipe and being pelt with paint filled balloons. One wearing a purple mask was trying his best to shield the one wearing an orange mask. But still the two were getting equally drenched in paint.

For a moment Cherise's mind raced with a couple of questions. Who were those guys? Where did they come from? Where were their parents? What could she do to help them?

But the only question she could think up answers for was the last one, about helping them. At first she thought about running over to Darren's house and getting his mom. She was the only person who truly scared the bully. However Cherise realized that if she did get his mom, the humanoid turtles would be in bigger trouble than they were already in. Seeing something that bizarre might make his mom allow them to continue what they were doing or that she might call the cops on them.

Looking at how hurt and scared the two young turtles were, Cherise knew she could let that happen. If she were in their spot (which she actually had been minus being chained to a wall) she would have wanted someone to help her without getting her into anymore trouble. So the next idea the young girl had was to get her dad. With his open mind, Cherise knew that the young turtles would be in good hands.

But to get her dad, Cherise had to run home and call him from work. So without wasting another minute, the young girl dashed from the stair. As quick as she could she ran down the street, counting off the house as she went long. "4…3…2…1!" Reaching her building she rushed up three flights of stairs to where her apartment was.

"Cherise you know better than to run." A woman in her mid forties with skin covered in mud bellowed as the young girl as she ran down hall. She had black hair with white going across the top of her head, showing that the woman was dying her hair to hide its true color. The woman also had bluish eyes and was dress in a bathrobe, because she was about to take a bath.

"Sorry Mrs. Sway." Cherise yelled behind her. "But I have to make a call."

Mrs. Sway was a woman that babysat Cherise while her father was at work. Really all the elder woman did was just checked in on the young girl while she was in the apartment and made sure that Cherise checked in with her before going anywhere. With help like that, the young girl was better off on her own.

At her door Cherise ran inside and raced over to the phone. She flipped through the Rolodex to find her dad's work number. The phone rang a couple of times before someone picked up.

" Animal Hospital and Sitters." A woman answered. "We pamper you pets and kept them healthy too."

"Hi Belinda, it's me Cherise." The young girl said.

"Chrissie!" The woman cooed. "How nice of you to call."

Cherise cringed, she hated to be called Chrissie. "Is dad there? I need to talk to him."

"Just a minute I'll patch you to his office." Belinda said.

"Hi Cherish." A man's voice said a couple seconds later.

"Daddy you have to come home quick!" Cherise cried.

"What the matter? Are you in trouble?" The man asked anxiously. "It's Darren isn't it."

"Yes."

"What's he done to you now? Pulled your hair? Dump paint on you? Tried to break something?"

"It's not me that he's hurting. It's someone else and you're not going to believe me if I told you who."

"You can tell me sweet-heart."

"Two human size turtles. They looked like boys, but they're turtles and I don't think they're wearing costumes. Darren has them chained up in his hideout and they'rethrowing paint balloons at them. You got to come home and help them, you just got to."

At first there was silence on the phone before the man spoke up. "Are you sure you saw what you saw?"

"I'm positive." Cherise said with great insistence. "So can you get home? Can you help them? Please say you'll help them."

The man let out a sigh. "You know I can't say know to you and I can't let such abuse happen. I'll be home as soon as I can."

"Ok." Cherise gave a sigh of relief. "I'll be waiting on the stoop for you." She hung up the phone and while she did, she realized something. The fastest her dad ever got home was in half an hour. That was too much time to let the two young turtles suffer such torture from Darren and the twin boys.

Know that she had to do something to get those bullies to stop she ran back down hall and out of the build, ignoring Mrs. Sway along the way. Once she was back at the stairs to the basement apartment, she had to think of something to get Darren away and make sure he stayed away.

A grin came onto the young girl's face as an idea came to her. She knew if you accused him of doing something wrong, he'd tried to prove his innocent by lying his way out of it. All she had to do was call him on something he did and he would get himself in trouble. But this wasa gamble cause if she said the wrong thing, she would get into major trouble. Howevershe also knew that his mother had confiscated all is balloons and paints. So in order for him to get some more, he had to get money from somewhere.

"Darren! Darren!" Cherise cried down.

The door opened quickly. "What do you want?" Darren asked crudely.

"It's your mom." Cherise replied. "I think she's looking for you and she mad."

Darren raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "About what?"

"Something about money and her purse." Cherise told him.

"Snap!" Darren cried. "I didn't think she knew." He pulled his head back into the building. "I got to get home and explain my way out of this. You two go home too. Nobody plays with them without me here."

"Yes sir." The twin boys replied.

All three boys came out of the building and ran up the stairs. "We'll meet back up here later." Darren ordered and then he turned Cherise. "I'll let you off coming here, because you gave me a heads up. But if you ain't out off here, you'll really get it."

"I'm gone." Cherise said before running back for her building.

The young girl sat down on her stoop when she got there and watched as Darren ran up the stair of his place that was right next to hers. He was on the first floor, so the window to his living room faced the stoop. Lucky for her the curtains were open and she was able to watch the whole scene play out.

Darren walked up behind his mom, who was busy dusting something, looking as innocently as a guilty person could. "Mother dear." He said sweetly. "About the money missing from your purse. I know who took it. It was…"

"There's money missing from my purse?" His mom cried and ran off to go check it.

"But…but I thought you knew." Darren followed after her. "It's wasn't much and I didn't…"

"You bought more stuff to torture the other neighborhood children with, didn't you?" His mom bellowed. "What in the world am I going to do with you!" The young boy came running back out into the living room holding his butt in defense to the swat he soon received when his mother came out after him. "I swear, ever since your father left on business you've been nothing but trouble. He and I have been talking you know. Talking about what we're going to do about this rotten behavior of yours. So you better watch you step."

After the woman left the room, Darren spied Cherise and ran over to the window. It took him a while to work open the window, but once he did he stuck his head out and yelled, "You little lair."

"I didn't lie." Cherise replied harmlessly. "I said I think she's looking for you. I didn't say she was."

"You just wait until I get my hands on you." Darren threatened. "You'll never walk again."

"Darren you get away from that window immediately." His mom ordered. "That's it. That's the last straw. I'm calling your father right now and we are going to make plans to send you to boot camp."

"What!" Darren cried. "No, not that."

"Why not?" His mom questioned. "You dress like them already. Might as well send you." She rushed out of the room with the young boy following after her while pleading.

Cherise just had to laugh, this was the first time she ever got back at her neighborhood bully and it kind of felt good. But the nice feeling went away when she thought about the poor turtle boys stuck back at Darren's hideout. How scared they must be right about now.

And while she thought about them, she realized that there was no way her dad could walk down the street with them out in the open. So she ran back up to her apartment, dug out a dark green velvet cape her dad would wear when they dressed up for Renaissance reenactments, and ran back down stairs to wait.


A/N: Bully problem solved. All that's left now is to rescue the turtle boys