Walk Me Home
Chapter 13
Perman numbers two, three, and four—who were Booby, Pergirl, and Perboy respectively, have been waiting in the building. Any full on attack to any of the criminals, all who were armed, have already given them a close call that was enough for them to rethink very hard what their next move should be. This was what they were going to tell Perman once he arrived.
The window nearby where they huddled was broken from how the heroes entered the building which they should've thought was too conspicuous for a subtle way in. It gave Perman no trouble at all to spot them right there, landing on his feet, he greeted to them whispering, "Guys, I'm here. Sorry for taking so long..."
"Whatever, Perman," Pergirl said. "What's important is we're all here now."
"Right," Perboy agreed. "Just to give you the heads up with what's happened so far, the criminals have threatened us to not interfere with their plans and at one point, they almost shot one of us."
Perman gasped.
"Which they really did when Booby wanted to try and attack one of them, and he barely escaped," Pergirl said, to which Booby suddenly turned around showing a hole on his cape presumably caused by a bullet.
"Oh my gosh..." Perman said, seeing the damage on the chimp's little blue cape. "These guys are very dangerous indeed! We have to get everyone out of here!"
"We know, but how?" Pergirl asked, Booby prattled probably thinking the same thing.
"Have you guys thought sneaking them out of here by this window?" Perman asked, pointing behind him the huge broken glass.
"We have," Perboy answered. "We just have no way how to do that without getting the crooks' attention."
"I see... I better see for myself what the situation looks like before I suggest a plan," Perman said, slowly walking to the scene of the crime, just outside of the store they're in. "I'll be back, guys!"
"Be careful, Perman," Perboy warned while the others looked worriedly as he exited.
From above where Birdman watched from the ship, he wished the same thing. "Be very careful..."
Perman reached to where the hostage was taking place. People who had visited the place early were forced to stay still or lie down on the ground. There weren't too many of them given that the mall had just opened but they feared for their lives all the same.
He took a look at the criminals which he observed were almost too clean-cut looking to be suspected as criminals for surprisingly, none of them wore any suspicious clothing like hats or coats. What set them all apart from the civilians were the guns on their hands, ready to fire. While they did not look the part, they certainly were dangerous going by what his friends had told him.
"They must've been very sneaky," he whispered to himself. "I wonder how many are they?"
He counted each person he identified as the criminal which was very difficult. If it weren't for the guns, he might've not seen them. Perman counted to himself one, two, three, and so on. There were six of them and he hoped that was all of them he counted. So they were only outnumbered by two persons, he thought. He got that, but he still had to come up with a plan.
"The best I could think of is using a diversion on them," he said to himself. "But how...? What could I use to catch them off guard long enough for us to sneak the people out of here?"
Suddenly he heard one of the men say, "I'm getting all bored just standing here, can I go to the music store and listen to something again?"
The other guy, who seemed to be the boss groaned and replied, "Ugh, fine! But don't take too long, okay!"
Perman saw the guy walking where he was hiding. Wait... where was he hiding, really?
He had forgotten that his hiding spot was where the man had asked to go to, and he nearly panicked when he saw everywhere pictures of idols and their respective materials on records, CDs, and all that. Before he could be spotted, he quickly hid behind a shelf that he first found to swoop behind in.
The minute the guy chose a particular single he played on the CD player, getting a glimpse of the cover art and the artist's name, an invisible light bulb had just appeared over his head. Now he had a way.
The remaining three heroes were still waiting for him when he came back, an enthusiastic look on his face. It must be a good sign, as it prompted Pergirl to ask, "What is it? You got a plan?"
"Yep!" Perman answered. "I found a way to distract the bad guys, but one of us needs to be the bait."
"Really? But who? And...how?" Perboy asked.
"Here's the thing," Perman began, "I saw one of them taking a break at the music store and guess who he was listening to."
All of them quickly realized what Perman was insinuating. Two of them glazed at the only girl in their team.
Upon noticing, her pupils shrunk into pinpoints when everybody was turning their looks to her, letting her know what must be done. She was ultimately against it.
"Wait... You mean he was... and you need me to..." she stammered nervously. "I-I don't wanna do that!"
Booby whined at her, begging for her to go along with it.
"Yeah, what he said," Perboy agreed. "Pergirl, we need you to cooperate. All the people here need to be led to safety."
"What about mine?!" she exclaimed. "I'm getting myself involved with probably the scariest criminals we have to face. They're gonna do something to me, I know it!"
"Pergirl, calm down!" Perman said. "I promise, they won't do anything because our mission will be successful before they even know we foiled them. And they're gonna be locked away for a very long time."
Pergirl shuffled her feet, still thinking to herself that something could go awry with that plan. She was scared for herself and everyone around her. She still imagined that recent moment before Perman came in when a gunshot was heard and nearly hit Booby. It was a very narrow brush with something fatal.
"Please, Pergirl?" Perman begged. "For the people? We need to get them all out of here."
She looked up to see Perman looking at him with those eyes, and he had his hands holding hers. He was very serious with this plan, she thought. What seemed like forever, took several minutes for her to finally concede. Right then, the plan was in motion.
The guy who had previously excused himself, walked back to where he was posted and he was with the gang again, gun in hand. "Heh, I'm back boss," he said with a grin.
The boss simply looked at him for a second before turning his head with a scoff, to which the guy frowned and just forgot about it.
With most of the men's backs turned, nobody noticed a pretty young lady casually walking by to where they stood. A girl in a pink dress and a yellow hairband strolled through, acting as naive as possible. Perman popped out for a second just to tell her whom she was supposed to entice.
"It's that guy over there, just a few steps away from you," he whispered. "Only let them see you but not all the people. Do it carefully."
"Got it," she whispered back.
She wasn't sure how she's going to do it. She had to wing it, resulting in a very basic way of getting the guy's attention with a 'psst' which she had to do a few times more for the man to turn around.
At first, the man turned around annoyed and went back looking forward. Then his eyes popped realizing the face he had just seen. He rubbed his eyes to see if it wasn't just a hallucination. He looked back again, and there she was still.
Knowing full well who that was, he stuttered her name. "H-Hoshino...Sumire...!"
Sumire, who was trying to hide how scared she was from doing the task, shushed the man and beckoned him to come closer, and said softly, "Call your other guys, too... Um, follow me." Then she ran off.
"What the... hey, wait a minute!"
"What are you blathering about back there?!" asked one of the men.
"Look!" he said, pointing to a girl running away.
"Hey, someone's trying to escape!" a man who started to aim cried.
"Don't!" he cried. "It's Hoshino Sumire!"
All the guys exchanged confused looks. Hoshino Sumire? Here? They have not seen her at all. One of them twirled a finger to his head, implying something was wrong with him upstairs.
"She said we should follow her!" he added.
"Huh! What for?" the boss asked impatiently.
"I don't know, but I'm gonna go!"
"Hey, come back here!" the boss called to the man who was now running after the girl, but had ignored him. Grunting, he said to his men, "Come on, help me after that confuddled nut!"
Perman, Booby, and Perboy heard the command and they saw from their respective hiding places, the men going after a guy that had fallen for Sumire's ploy. They smiled to themselves seeing that the plan was going much better than they expected.
"Pergirl's doing a fantastic job!" Perboy said.
Booby gave a thumbs-up.
"I know. I can't believe it's actually working!" Perman said. "Anyway, let's go now before they come back."
Meanwhile, the people noticed the men's sudden disappearance. Those who lay on the ground brought their heads up and looked around. Later, many of them were mumbling to themselves, wondering what was happening now.
All of a sudden, the arrival of certain masked and caped individuals had perked up the terrified atmosphere brought by the men who threatened them.
One cried, "Look, it's Perman—"
Perman had to hush them all immediately, lest the commotion would cause the criminals come running back. "Everybody, shh!" he told them all, softly. "Me and my friends are busting you all out of here. But we have to be very careful."
"Listen everybody," Perboy said, "a broken window by the right will be our way out. We will lead you right there."
"And we have to do it as quickly and as quietly as possible, so they won't notice," Perman added. "We have no time to lose!" he then said to the others. "Guys, start gathering people."
Perboy and Booby nodded, proceeding to lead the trapped people to the said exit.
It was not that difficult having to lead the visitors out of the mall, but as for the employees, there were already many of them, hence the crowd was beginning to grow and noise was coming from their footsteps and some of the people who began chatting either with each other or to themselves.
Perman flew above them, pushing them on to walk faster but quieter. It was almost impossible.
"Please, we're almost there," he said, stifling from yelling at the masses. He guessed that they were beginning to grow impatient.
"To be honest, Perman," Perboy began to speak, "I'm beginning to think about Pergirl, I mean, Sumire. I wonder how she's doing?"
Sumire was still luring the men to wherever she can run to so long as they were far from where their hostage was once taking place. She was slowing down and was getting so tired she had to catch her breath, only to keep running again when she heard the crazed fan gaining on her.
"Miss Sumire, wait!" he cried. "Where are you going now?"
"Boss, this is ridiculous!" one of the men complained, stopping along with the others following behind. "I bet that's not even her. Probably just some fangirl that copies her fashion and hairstyle."
"I agree," a guy said. "Let him do whatever he wants if he ever catches her. Let's just go back!"
"Not until we're all there," the boss said. "I will not tolerate one man being left behind while we take on this operation." And then he ran off.
A visibly annoyed crony pinched the bridge of his nose, and said, "Why do we even bother?" Irritated, the men followed their boss, carrying on the chase.
Meanwhile, the heroes have reached their destination. Everybody was gathered at the broken glass wall.
"Alright, be careful everyone, or else you could get cut by the glass!" Perman said to them. "Only few people at a time."
"Women first," Perboy said. The ladies started shuffling to get out of the building while following Perman's advice to be careful. However, once they were outside, they ran to the side where police have also surrounded that area.
They were surprised to see the people having managed to escape their captors and caused a commotion from the outside which traveled to the mall. The noise that stood out however was the call of the police captain from his megaphone, "The hostages are escaping! The hostages are escaping!"
The three simultaneously held similar surprised expressions. The criminals would certainly hear that.
"Everybody, forget what I said," Perman said, panicking. "Just be careful, but hurry up and run away as soon as you're outside!"
People then did try to speed up. They jumped at the broken glass, and then ran off. It did little improvement.
"Perman, they're not going any faster," Perboy pointed out.
It was true. Many of them just started to gather upfront. Perman was forced to resort to eccentric methods in speeding up their exit.
He grabbed a man from the crowd and threw him outside.
Everybody gasped, including his friends.
Perman was annoyed that everybody had to stop. But it gave him an idea that, while it was crazy, it was the only way. "If you don't get out faster, you'll end up like that guy!"
And people shuffled their way out again.
"Perman, what did you do that—?"
"Perboy, listen," he said, cutting off his question. "The criminals could come at any minute. There's no other choice!"
Perman did the same thing to a random woman he picked up and threw her to the pavement outside. He made sure that they landed safely on their bottoms, so he would not be responsible for any of them getting hurt.
Perboy and Booby gave in and started doing the same thing.
Perboy had picked up first a young woman who he had to apologize to first. "Forgive us, ma'am." And he threw her out the glass.
Booby picked up a fat guy in a suit and threw him out as well.
Among the people who simply got out by carefully maneuvering themselves out of the glass, were also people being flung out of the building, landing a few feet away from them, picking themselves up and ran off with the crowd. It was seen from the outside.
The process went on, and no one was exempt from the method of escape. Not even an old lady, currently in Perman's arms.
"Put me down, you crazy kid!" she said, swinging a cane at him.
He had no time to fight her. "Sorry, granny. It's for your own safety!" he said, as he sent her flying, landing on the cold hard ground.
Numbers of people to throw were getting fewer and fewer. Booby had the last one to throw, a curly-haired guy in glasses, flung out of the window while he let out a nasally scream.
"I believe that's all of them!" Perman said.
"Guys, you did it!" A girl's voice said in their direction.
It was Sumire.
"Sumire, you're back!" Perman said.
"I know, at last!" she said. Then she proceeded to wear her Pergirl uniform again. "Pergirl has returned."
"Nice to see the plan worked," Perboy said. "And you even managed to lose the criminals!"
"I know ri—wait! Was I supposed to...?"
Everybody gave a jaw-dropping reaction. Perman fretfully began, "D-Did you come here while t-they were...?"
Voices, and footsteps that sounded like running, they could hear them coming closer.
A man was calling, "Miss Sumire...! Oh Miss Sumi..." The guy's voice then died down and stopped in his footsteps. "P-Perman...!"
The other men, including the boss, came into view. They halted with a screech and collectively gasped at the sight of the floating, masked and caped figures.
-To be continued-