Hope woke with a banging headache. Clutching her head she slowly began to push herself off the hard pavement into a sitting position.
She started to slowly open her eyes and found she was in an alley. Turning toward the main road she gasped in shock. Cars. Hope could see cars speeding down the road. And people- so many people just going about their daily lives without fear of the future that will see their extinction.
In awe of this new place, Hope began to stand up- her headache forgotten by this amazing city that was so full of life and prospects.
"Nate, look how amazing this place is! When is this exactly…." She drifted into silence as she turned around to find an empty alley.
"Nate?! Dad?" Hope's voice began to get louder as she ran further into the alley to still find no sign of her father.
'Dad, where are you?' She thought in her head to try and get her father to find her. Hope ran out of the alley into the busy main street. She turned around quicker and quicker deciding which direction to go until she got dizzy. She raised a hand to her forehead and immediately bought it down when she felt blood. Hope groaned, she must have fell and cut it during the time travelling.
Hope began to think about where her father may be and felt the tears stream down her face. It would be impossible to find him in a city this big, if they were in their own time then it may be possible but in this new city full of strangers….. it was a task that could take months.
"Honey, are you okay? Oh my goodness! You're bleeding!" A lady approached Hope and noticed the cut on her forehead too which resulted in Hope quickly being taken into the woman's arms.
"I've lost my dad…. Please help me find him" Hope sobbed into the lady's coat.
"Don't you worry sweetheart. I'm taking you to the hospital for that nasty cut and we'll tell them about your father too" The woman said comfortingly.
"Thank you" Hope said while wiping her eyes. She wasn't used to strangers being nice to her. Having an interaction with someone that wasn't Nate was rare for her in the future but she supposed that in this time it would be hard to go a few hours without having a conversation with someone.
The woman flagged down a bright yellow car that stopped and let the two get in. Before Hope knew it she was being helped out and into a hospital where she was guided to a bed and asked about what happened to her head by a lady in uniform.
"I-I fell" Hope said. She didn't like lying but supposed that it wasn't a complete lie. After a few more 'white lies' she was having her head sown up by a nurse.
After this Hope was told to wait on the bed while the nurse sorted some things out. Hope could see the nurse speaking with some men in another uniform that had just arrived.
The nurse began speaking to them although Hope couldn't make out what was said, the two men however kept looking in the direction of the booth that Hope was in and she knew something was wrong.
Panicking she jumped off the bed she'd been sitting on, she had to leave now. Playing casual she left the booth and walked around the reception desk on the opposite side that the nurse was speaking to the men.
Trying to remain as calm as possible she strode out the front door and into the afternoon sunshine. Once she was out the door she sprinted around the corner and didn't stop till she was a few blocks from the hospital.
Hope sighed, she was all alone in a big city that she wouldn't recognise for years. Her attention was directed to a news stand. She cautiously walked over to it and grabbed the first newspaper she saw searching for a date. '1973, I'm in the fricking 70s' Hope thought. She didn't know much about the 70s, there was some sort of war going on and that was all she could remember…. Her life had always had more important things to worry about than history lessons.
Suddenly she spotted a familiar face. 'It's him' Hope thought and ran across the semi-busy road to be directly in his path.
"Hey, I need your help" Hope exclaimed to the tall, dark haired man.
"Not interested, Kid" the man growled as if he was half animal and carried on walking past.
"But, Logan! I need-"Before she could finish her sentence she was thrown against the nearest wall as she grabbed onto the wrist that was attached to the hand around her neck.
"How the hell do you know my name" Logan said while crouching so his face was directly in front of Hope's.
As Hope was struggling for breath she realised her mistake. They hadn't met yet. To Logan, Hope was just a creepy stranger who somehow knew his name, and for someone with a past like his he would be more suspicious than most.
"W-we-we haven't met yet….. Pl-please put me down" Hope barely gasped out before she was released but stopped from running anywhere by the towering figure still growling at her.
"What the hell do you mean we haven't met yet? How do you know my name kid?" Logan asked again while getting even closer to Hope's face.
Logan or Wolverine was always a scary person to Hope. One of her earliest memories was of their first meeting when an argument between Nathan and him and woken the little girl from her slumber. She had gotten up from the pile of blankets they used as beds and crept into the next room where the noise was coming from. Hope remembered being terrified of this man with metal claws coming from his hands who was threatening her daddy, her cries and whimpers had distracted their attention and the fight was soon forgotten, but Hope would never fully trust anyone that had hurt her Dad.
She was bought back to the present with a hard shove into the wall.
"You best start talking, who sent you? Was it Stryker?" Logan was getting more and more aggressive and Hope couldn't think of any answer that would make the situation better.
"HEY! Leave her alone!" Hope heard the shout and was relieved by the familiarity of the voice.
Before she could register what was happening, Logan was shoved onto the ground by a very angry Nathan who proceeded to punch the growling man in the face.
When Nathan got up there was no time for a reunion, he quickly grabbed Hope's hand and started sprinting down the long road and weaving in and out of little alleys until Cable was sure they were no longer being followed.
"Dad! Where were you? I've been looking everywhere!" Hope exclaimed as she ran to her father for a hug.
"I woke up in some alleyway, you must have let go or something and ended up a couple of blocks away…. I've been trying to track where you were all day but my powers are weaker." Cable explained while hugging Hope tightly.
"Well, where are we going now? I'm guessing you have a plan?" Hope questioned her father while looking up at him.
"We go and find the Professor."