The only Hope

Gerard’s pov:

“Poison! Ghoul! Jet! Kobra! Good to see you motor babies again!”

Dr. D. had this weird way of talking. Even though he wasn’t talking to his audience, he would still use weird names and his exact same voice.

He got up and hugged us. “So, what can I do for you?”

Mikey started talking. “Well first of all we need a new map of Battery City, ours is not up-to-date anymore.”

“Sure, here you go.” Dr. D. walked over to his desk and pushed some stuff aside. He then handed us a piece of paper.

“This will do, come back in four weeks if you need the latest version.” He made his own maps, which I really admired. It took a lot of time and he was taking a huge risk, of course.

“Anything else?” They were all looking at me now.

“Yeah… We need you to do a background check on someone.” I sighed, she didn’t deserve this, but we had to know if we could really trust her. I had talked about it to Ray, Frank and Mikey in the car, while we were waiting for her. They said her sleeping with me was even more of a reason to do a check.

Dr. D. walked over to his desk and got a pen and paper. “Name?”

“Hope.” I gulped. I loved saying her name, but the fact that I was saying it to get a background check made me feel really bad.

“Surname?” Dr.D. asked.

“We don’t know. She won’t tell us.” Well, I hadn’t asked in the past week…

“I can’t really help you if I only have the name ‘Hope’ you know…” Dr. D. sat up. “Is she here with you?”

I nodded. “But she doesn’t know that we’re checking her.” Dr. D. lowered his eyes, he understood.

“Well, do you have more information I could use then?”

“On her sixteenth birthday Korse came to get her. Her father said it was for the best to go with him and she did… Only to discover that Korse wanted a successor from her.” I clenched my fists. I hated thinking about what had happened to her.

“Hold on, hold on.” Dr. D. dropped his pen. “You said she was sixteen?”

I nodded. “Yeah, why?”

“Uhm guys…” I turned around to Mikey. He was pointing at the door.

It was Hope. Everybody was looking at her now.

“How long have you been standing there?” I asked. She looked really angry.

“Long enough to figure out you’re doing a fucking background check on me!” I saw a tear fall from her left eye. She felt betrayed again, I knew it.

“Are you Hope?” Dr. D. asked.

She nodded, wiping away her tear, holding back the others…

Dr. D. got up and started walking towards this filing cabinet. He got out one file and looked through it.

“Hope Davies?” Her eyes widened.

Dr. D. flipped a page. “And… Martin Davies was your father right?”

“He was.” Her voice sounded cold.

“So you know he passed away?” Dr. D. looked up from the file.

She shrugged. “He is not my father, dead or alive.” Wow, she didn’t even care about the fact her father had passed away.

I interrupted both of them. “Why is her file here anyway?” I looked at Dr. D.

“You ask for a background check and now you’re acting all surprised about my file being here? What the hell are you on about!?” I heard Hope yell at me from behind.

“That’s because Dr. D. only keeps files from missions and assignments.” Ray said calmly.

She was quiet now. I guess now she was just as surprised as I was.

“So I was a mission?” I heard her ask. Dr. D. shook his head.

“No, you were a missing person. You went missing the day you turned sixteen.”

“Yeah, no shit Sherlock.” I heard her sneer. “That’s the day Korse came for me. Who reported me missing anyway? My father knew he was coming!”

“Did he say that?” Dr. D. looked straight at her.

“Yeah, he told me that! I remember it like it was yesterday.” I turned to look at her. She was holding back tears again.

“No, I’m pretty sure he didn’t mention the name Korse.” Dr. D. walked over to her. “You know your father was a spy, right?”

“What?” She flinched.

“Well, guess not then…” Frank muttered. “She told us he had just mentioned a man.” He continued.

Dr. D. nodded and showed Hope the file. “Hope, your father was working for me. He got killed by Dracs the day you turned sixteen. And yes, I also remember it as if it were yesterday.” He said. “Because I myself reported you missing.”

I think at that moment all our brains were processing.

Dr. D. continued. “Hope, I was supposed to get you. Not Korse, he got there before me… But believe me, your father never meant for that to happen. The man your father was talking about was me.”

She shook her head in disbelief. God, this was so much for her to take in… I wanted to hug her, but I didn’t. She probably didn’t want to anyway.

“You were trained as a Killjoy and after that I was supposed to get you and hand you over to the Killjoys when the time was right.”

She shook her head even faster and put her hands over her ears. She was still holding back the tears but she couldn’t anymore.

Dr. D. looked worried. She was sobbing now.

“NO!”

She ran outside. I immediately followed her.

Notes