Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Reluctant Reunion ❯ Someone Who Understands ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: All Sonic Team characters are owned by Sonic. Deacon Sparks is owned by me, JerseyDevil.

 

Chapter 1: Someone Who Understands

 

Setting: Two Years After the Prologue

 

Shadow spent the next two years as a loner, which reflected his true personality. He rarely spoke to anybody and drifted from town to town. This was not the fresh start that Shadow had in mind but it was good enough for him.

 

One foggy night, Shadow wandered into the Chemical Plant Zone. For him, this was just a routine stop in one town before he wandered off into another one. However, little did Shadow know that this would not just another stop. Shadow walked into the city before he was confronted by a weasel and a racoon who came in from a nearby alley.

 

“Give us your wallet and we promise not to hurt you,” said the weasel. Shadow stared at both of them and barked, “How about you two clowns leave and I promise not to kill you?” The weasel pulled out a knife and slashed at Shadow in a downward motion. Shadow easily sidestepped the attack and kicked him in the face. Shadow then charged toward the weasel and spindashed into his stomach, sending the weasel into a brick wall.

 

However, Shadow did not notice that the beaver had a pistol. Shadow turned around and saw the pistol aimed at his head. Shadow smirked and said, “You're kidding, right? I can see it in your eyes that you aren't gonna shoot me.” The beaver placed his finger on the trigger and just when he was about to pull, another gunshot was fired from the other side of the alley. The shot sent the gun flying into the air and on a ledge that was several stories above the beaver. The beaver and Shadow both looked toward where the shot was fired from to see who fired. Emerging from the fog was a yellow porcupine with a royal-blue diamond-shaped birthmark around his right eye and blue tips on his quills. He had green eyes, a brown muzzle and chest, wearing blue gloves and shoes and a belt and had a sterling silver earing in his right ear.

 

The porcupine put his M-9 pistol away and spread his arms. This caused all of the lights in the alleyway to burn out. He pulled his arms into his chest and screamed, “THUNDER BLAST!” A sphere filled with electrical energy was fired toward the beaver and knocked him unconscious. The porcupine walked over to the beaver and checked his pulse. He was relieved to see that there was still a pulse.

 

“Good, he's not dead,” the porcupine said after checking the pulse. This remark struck Shadow as odd, but he decided to stay quiet about it. The porcupine looked over to Shadow and inquired, “Are you alright there?”

 

Shadow scoffed at his remark and responded in a cold manner, “I was fine beforehand. I didn't need you to save me. I was just fine by myself.” The yellow porcupine gave Shadow and weird look as he picked up the beaver's body and placed it over his shoulder.

 

“How about a 'Hey, thanks! You saved my ass back there',” said the porcupine in a sarcastic tone. Shadow gave him a dirty look and replied, “I'm not really in a thankful move. By the way, why the hell would you want that guy to live? By the look in your eyes when you fired that attack, it seemed like you wanted to fry him. And who are you anyway?”

 

The porcupine responded, “Well, my name's Deacon Sparks, but just call me Deak. I'm a bounty hunter and this bastard right here is one of the most notorious muggers in this whole Chemical Plant Zone and he has a 50,000 Mobium bounty on him. If a fugitive dies, the bounty on his ass dies with him as well. So anyway, if you want a place to stay, you can rest up at my place.”

 

Shadow mulled over Deak's offer for a minute and made a decision. He let out a sigh and said, “I'll accept your offer but don't think that makes us buddies. I'm leaving this place first thing in the mourning.”

 

Deak made his way toward the end of the alleyway in which he entered and motioned for Shadow to follow him and he did. “I just need to get this bum down to the police station and collect my reward. Then I'll show you my place.” When Shadow followed, Deak was able to get a good look at the hedgehog he saw. After examining his face, he recognized the identity of the one he saved.

 

“You're Shadow the Hedgehog! You were all over the news a few years ago,” said Deak with a hint of excitement.

 

“At least I won't have to tell him my life story,” Shadow thought to himself. They made their way down the street to the police station so Deak could collect his reward for capturing the raccoon. Shadow then became curious about Deak and who he was.

 

“So, Deak,...what is your life story?” inquired Shadow.

 

Deak took a sign and started to answer, “Well...alright, Shadow, I'll tell you. I was born and raised in this city. When I was four, I was wandering along the chemical plant that's right outside the city area. My dad worked there and I was visiting. I was walking on a steel pipe and I slipped on some liquid and I fell in this pool of a gooey, purple liquid. This liquid was actually a chemical compound which granted me these electrical powers. However, they also caused an infection in my body and the doctors had to amputate my hands to prevent the infection from spreading...”

 

“Wait a second, Deak. How could doctors amputate your hands if they are right here?” interrupted Shadow as he pointed to Deak's hands.

 

Deak sighed and reluctantly took off his blue gloves and revealed his robotic hands, which were hidden underneath his gloves. Deak continued with his story.

 

“The doctors brought in this scientist who said he wanted to try an experiment on me. He said that he would give me new robotic hands to replace the ones that I had lost in the accident. The operation was a success. But being a cyborg plus having a birthmark on your face doesn't exactly get you to be well-liked around here. People call you 'weird' or 'freak' and it just gets to ya. I got into a ton of fights with jackasses who thought they were so god damn funny when the called me names. I was usually the one laughing after I kicked their asses and had them crying to their mommies. This got me kicked out of a lot of schools. One time, I beat this kid into a coma and I was put in this group house for 'juvenile delinquents'. I was like 'to hell with this' and ran away after a few months. My parents had already kicked me out of the house by then so I left the Chemical Plant Zone to live in Station Square.”

 

Shadow thought that maybe this yellow porcupine was someone who could actually understand how he felt on this inside, different, and what it is like to be considered a freak or someone who is dangerous by everyone. Shadow listened on to Deak's story.

 

“When I arrived in the city, I realized that I would need to make money so I started out as a thief. I would break into house or pickpocket people. Then after a while, I discovered the occupation of being a bounty hunter and I immediately went into that line of work. It made me very wealthy since there are some huge bounties out there for those creeps who do some sick shit. But after the tragedy in Station Square (AN: Perfect Chaos destroying Station Square in Sonic Adventure), I was left with nothing so I came here about four years ago and I regained everything.”

 

Shadow asked, “So how old are you now?” Deak and Shadow had arrived at the police station. He opened the door and proceeded inside. Deak answered, “22.” After about an hour, the yellow porcupine had collected his reward of $20,000.

 

“Have you patched things up with your parents?” inquired Shadow.

 

Deak let out a deep breath and replied, “Hell no! My parents kicked me out of the house and onto the streets just because they couldn't understand the pain that I was going through. The first thing I did after moving to Station Square was changing my last name to Sparks, you can probably guess why, so my parents couldn't track me down. I also couldn't stand to share their last name.”

 

Shadow and Deak remained quiet and until they reached Deak's place, which was actually a small warehouse. They went inside and there was an immense amount of creatures who were just laying around the place. The entire room had a smell of smoke and booze in it, so it was apparent what they had been doing.

 

Deak made his way into the back of the warehouse and opened a door which led to a small hallway with three doors. Deak made his way to the one at the end of the hallway and open it, leading Shadow in. In the room, there was a television, a small wooden table in front of it and a couch that was across the room from the television. He pushed the table to wall and pulled out the couch into a bed. The wooden table was actually a large box as Deak opened it a pulled out a blue blanked and tossed it on the bed.

 

“It ain't much but it's all I have on such short notice,” said Deak. Shadow responded, “That's alright. This will do nicely.” Shadow just felt lucky that he wouldn't half to sleep on the ground this night.

 

As Deak started to go out the door, Shadow grabbed his arm and said, “You know what, Deak, I don't think you're a freak. For all it matters, you're okay in my book.” Deak flashed a Shadow a small smile and said in a low voice, “Thanks, you can stay as long as you want to. Good Night.” The yellow porcupine made his way out of the room. Shortly afterwards, Shadow climbed into bed and drifted into a deep slumber.

 

The next morning, Shadow woke up to find Deak standing in the doorway in front of him. Shadow woke up and followed Deak into the hallway.

 

“So, when are you going to be leaving, Shadow? You're leaving today, right?” asked Deak. He thought about his answer for a second and how Deak seemed to understand how he felt and what seemed to trouble him. Shadow then said, “I think I'll stay another day or two.”

 

Deak smiled and said, “Nice, I can show around this place.”

 

So, one night became a day or two...

 

And a day or two became a week...

 

And a week became a month...

 

And before he knew it, Shadow had spent eight months in the Chemical Plant Zone with Deak.