A Bounty Hunter's Tale

Yet another fic by the 'Great and Powerful' Foxfire251

(Yes, that's seriously what I'm calling myself right now.)

Warning: this fanfic has been given a mature rating for violence, adult language, sexual content, blood, use of firearms, use of alcohol and tobacco, death, torture, and murder

Reader descretion is advised.

I do not own any of the characters in Sonic Underground or in the Sonic franchise in general; games, comics, or what have you. I do own the OCs that will be appearing in this fic (You'll know they're OCs when you see them.).

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Chapter one: A hunter is born

"They say a man is known by the company he keeps. That's why they call us hunters. If we are to hunt in packs, then our pack members must be trustworthy and loyal. Otherwise, they're better off dead." -Johnny 'Blitz' Lidner, Bounty Hunter, 2675-2720

"Revenge is like a deadly poison. Once it is ingested, it spreads through a mans heart and soul, turning him cold and cruel. Before long, he is nothing more than a ruthless, malicious monster, so hell-bent on claiming the vengeance he wants so desperately that he would kill anyone who stands in his way. And once he claims it, he has nothing left in his life but pure, vast emptiness." -Talon Prower, 2780-2860

It has been almost twenty-six years since the Hedgehog Siblings' journey to find their mother ended along with Dr. Robotnik's reign of tyranny. Now they're all grown up, with families, and are now the rulers of the kingdom of Mobius. They're now known the world over as heroes, legends, even…

… And yet, no one still knows the reason they were able to fulfill their destiny in the first place.

Why am I saying this?

Because I was there when it all went down, or rather, I was there right from the beginning, dodging laser beams launched from musical instrument-shaped blasters, getting judo'd by a sixteen-year-old girl with pink hair, having plan after plan foiled because of my dumb asshole of a former partner, and getting yelled at for failing for the twelth-hundreth time and being threatened to be sent to the roboticizer. I'm actually surprised I hadn't been roboticized any of all of those times considering how often I failed. Hell, I'm surprised I'm not dead yet. And yet, here I am, sixty-six years old, still alive and still trying to stay off INTERPOL's radar.

I should probably get to the point of all this and tell you my name and my story. Well, alright, here goes…

My name is Sleet. I was a bounty hunter that was feared all across the globe, and ended up being hired by Robotnik to hunt down the three hedgehogs and bring them in to be roboticized.

But there's more to my story than just that. Oh, no, that whole thing was just a single period in my life, and even then, there was more to that story than met the eye as well. But, before I jump ahead to that, let's start at the beginning. Let's start at my childhood…

I was born in a small woodland village known as Birchwood as the youngest of three children to Willow Nocturne, my mother, and Scar Nocturne, my father. I had an older brother, Osiris, and a sister, Lily.

My mother was a very kind, loving woman. She had a shorter muzzle than my father, and had light brown fur that felt warm and soft whenever I hugged her. She also had green eyes which always held kindness and understanding in them.

My father was rugged looking, and looked as though he could wrestle a bear and still have enough strength in him to take on a mountain dragon. He had dark grey fur, amber eyes, and had a long, crescent-shaped scar over his left eye. He claimed he got it from an encounter with a forest raptor, but my mother apparently knew otherwise.

Osiris had a lighter grey fur color than my father, but was still darker than mine, which was a bluish-grey. His eyes were a bright, emerald green like mother's. He also had a more bulkier body frame than I, and and could also run faster than me as well.

And Lily, sweet, innocent Lily. Her fur was a reddish-brown, and her eyes were a bright bluish-green, and had this innocent glow about her. She loved playing dress-up as a child, and often included me in her games, her pertending to be a princess, and me having to either be a evil dragon by dressing me in a dragon costume, or a mermaid princess that she was friends with, dressing me in a mermaid costume that consisted of a sequin scale covered skirt that reached my ankles and a shiny gold scallop bra. I, of course, was always forced into doing this, and absolutely hated every bit of it.

I, on the other hand, was very small and frail as a child. My bluish-grey fur was often ruffled because I refused to comb it, my clothes often never fit me, as they were hand-me-downs, and were either too big when they were once Osiris', or too tight when they were Lily's. I never wore socks unless it was winter, I hated baths, but was often coaxed into taking them by having bubbles put in the bathwater, I still slept with my favorite blanket that I had since I was a young pup, and had a weak bladder sometimes, and ended up having accidents until I was about nine.

I had very few friends growing up, and was often very lonely. However, I did share a very special bond with my father. He would often take me into the woods and teach me how to hunt and fish. Those days were days well spent.

However, that all changed one fatefull day, when I was about thirteen years old. It was evening, and and snow was falling from the sky in large flakes. My mother and Lily were sitting near the fireplace, knitting new scarves for me and Osiris, who was sitting at the dinner table, studying for a test he would be taking in school later, and I was laying on the floor, playing with my plastic army men, renenacting a battle of my imagination's own design. My father was sitting on the couch, sharpening a hunting knife he kept on him most of the time when there was a loud knock on the door. Everyone looked up from what they were doing as father went over to the door and answered it.

Outside was a mobian fox, looked to be about in his thirties, greyish orange fur covering his body, hazel eyes, short black hair, a goatee, and wore a winter jacket, and had a hunting rifle slung over his back.

"Scar." He said, "There's something I need to tell you." My father looked to us, then to his friend. By the look on his face, I knew it had to be something for his ears only. Confirming my theory he the said to my mother, "Honey, would you mind taking the kids upstairs for a moment?" She looked at him for a moment, but without another word she nodded, then ushered me and my two siblings upstairs to her bedroom. I, on the other hand, went to my room to play with my trainset.

I was entertained by it for about a minute, but then got bored, and decided to go listen in on my father, seeing what was so important that me, mother and my brother and sister couldn't know about. I stood near the corner next to the stairs and quietly listened.

"You can't be serious!" Said my father, sounding incredibly concerned, "He broke out?!" The fox nodded. "Yeah. Turns out Dragunov had some friends that were once members of the Muthalandic Red Army. And now he's out causing shit again." My father tapped his fingers on the dinner table, then made a fist and pounded it. "DAMN!" He shouted, "I should've killed him when I had the chance." "I hear you shot his eye out," The fox responded, "He's probably very pissed-off about that. He won't just want revenge on you… He'll want to ruin you." My father took a few deep breaths, then said, "Alright. Roald, here's what I want you to do. I want you to gather Pete and Tavish and inform them of the situation. Then, I want you to grab the gear and the RV and meet me here. " Roald narrowed his eyes at my father. "You have a plan?" He asked. Father nodded. "I'm gonna finish what I started sixteen years ago and kill him. The longer he's out, the closer he is to coming up with a plan to kill me or my family." "Speaking of which," Roald retorted cooly, "What're you gonna tell them?" My father looked away for a moment, I could've sworn he looked in my direction, then said, "I'll think of something. Now go." Roald nodded, then stood back up, slinging the rifle back on his shoulder, stepping out into the cold once more. He turned back only once to say, "Take care, Scar." Then he left, closing the door behind him. I then ran back to my room, closing the door and pertending to be playing with my Action Commando figures. I heard my father go to my mother's room first. I heard what sounded like talking, but soon turned into what sounded like her yelling at him. Then came the faint sound of a brief argument, then silence. Then, after about a minute, my father left my mother's room and entered mine. "Artemis." He said, looking down at me, "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Yes, that was my real name; Artemis Nocturne. I didn't go by the name of Sleet until much later in my life.

But, anyways, getting back to the story…

I nodded, then set my action figures down and sat on the side of my bed, my father taking a seat next to me. "Artemis…" He began with a sigh, "I'm going away for a bit." My eyes widened in sudden astonishment. "Why?" I asked. He sighed again, then said, "There's really bad person out there that wants to hurt us, and I'm going to go…" he paused for a moment, looking into my innocent-looking eyes. 'To go kill him.' I knew now that's what he wanted to tell me, but I was still a bit young, so he lied and finished his sentence with, "… To go put him straight." "When will you come back?" I asked. He looked at me for a moment, his eyes meeting mine, than answered with, "I don't know yet. It might be a while. So, while I'm gone, I want you to do whatever your mother tells you to do, alright?" I nodded. He then embraced me in a warm hug. When he let go, he then said, "Alright, I gotta go pack, so if you'll excuse me." He then walked out of my room and into his and mother's.

He left the next day, and I hadn't heard of him for almost four months. One day, however, one the very eve of spring, Roald came to visit again, but looked solemn in his expression. He also had a gauze bandage on his left cheek that was stained with a spot of blood. He delivered the news of my father's death to my mother as best as he could, then left because he couldn't bear the thought of who had to be told next. She told me, Osiris and Lily an hour later, giving herself time to regain her composure. When I first found out, I cried for monthes. I did nothing else but cry, in fact.

And yet, I no idea as to what the circumstances of his death actually were.

Two years had passed since then. I was now fifteen, and had grown quite a bit. Life had continued to go on for my family. However, only difference now aside from my father being dead was that Lily had fallen ill about seven monthes earlier. Apperently she had come down with a blood and marrow infection, which was killing her slowly but surely. At the time, there existed an operation that could be done to cure her, but we didn't have the money for it. We had become very poor since my father's death. Osiris, who was now seventeen, took a job at the saw mill, helping to prep logs to be cut into timber, while my mother had us living on Osiris' paychecks, and welfare. Even then it still wasn't a lot.

One bright Autumn day, I was walking through town, going to the store to buy some pain pills for Lily, when I ran into Roald. He didn't notice me at first, as he was talking into a cell phone. "So how much are we talking bountywise?" I heard him say.

"…"

"100 grand? Alive or dead?"

"…"

"Alive, you say? How much is this guy worth dead?"

"…"

"175,000 Rings?! Are you serious?!"

175,000 rings? The operation Lily needed costed about 70,000 alone.

I then realized that whatever Roald was talking about doing on the phone, this could be my chance to not only help my family, but also to prove my worth!

Roald continued his conversation on the phone.

"You're damn right it's a deal! I'll tell my team and we'll get right on it!" After an other pause, he hung up, and had turned around to leave when he saw me standing right there. "Artemis?!" He exclaimed, "How much did you…" "I want in." I said firmly. Roald gave me a funny look. "What?" He asked. "I said I want in!" I repeated. "Why?" Roald asked concerningly, "Why would you want to-" "Because Lily's dying and we need money for her operation!" I told him, "I don't want to have two members of my family dying on me. So whatever job you've been given just now, I want in on it. I only ask 70,000 Rings out of the 175,000 you'll be getting for doing the job." Roald looked at me for a moment, sighed, then said, "Artemis, I know you mean well, and believe me, you really do, but I don't know if you'd even like what…" He paused for a moment as he thought carefully on to explain all this to me. He then said, "I guess I should probably tell you the truth." "The truth?" I asked. Roald nodded. He then led me to the diner in town and explained everything over some hot chocolate. "Artemis…" He began, "Your father was a bounty hunter." I raised an eyebrow in confusion. Seeing this, Roald continued, "Basically, he either kills or turns in criminals and other high value targets for money. He was very good hunter, too. And right now, me and a few of my friends have been offered a very high price for this one target, and we're going to kill him and collect the bounty. And honestly doubt you'd want in on something like this." "I don't care." I said firmly, "All I care about is helping my sister get better. And if that means helping you kill someone for money, then I'll do it in an instant!" Roald eyed me for a while, taking in what I just said. He then replied, "Very well then. I'll go talk it over with Pete, but in the meantime, I want you to make sure it's okay with your mother first. I won't take you with us unless we have her permission first." I nodded.

After I parted ways with Roald, I then went to the store to go buy pain pills like I was supposed to, then ran straight home.

My mother had to let me do this.

It was the only way we could pay for Lily's operation.

However, I didn't even realize the direction this would eventually take me in life.

I didn't have a single clue.

To be continued…