Chapter Text
Act 1: Creation and escape
Igor Robotnik sat at his computer, going over a vast and numerous amount of data for G.U.N. His work would be considered boring to many, but simple in design. He was in charge of several bio projects the group had been working on, including a somewhat cyborg robot version of Shadow dubbed Project Onyx. As he was going over the data points, running a hand through his messy red hair as his blue eyes stared at the screen in front of him, he noticed something… interesting. It was an old file, one that dated back to his grandfather’s time. He definitely had the clearance to look at it, so he did. In the file was a photocopied piece of Gerald Robotnik’s journal, detailing a failsafe protocol embedded into Shadow’s DNA in case black doom should ever return to the planet like he did a few years ago. It was fascinating. The black arms were a primarily male dominated race, and there was genetic coding for a female black arms ‘Queen’.
Details indicated that the first offspring that Shadow had naturally or was created would be female to facilitate a rare mutation of the Black Arms DNA…. and once Shadow met that female, the protocol would delete itself from his DNA. This was lightyears ahead of anything Igor was capable of, and the permanently twenty year old scientist had been learning for a good half of 50 years. But Shadow… that brought back some happy memories. The result of an affair, Igor was sent to live up on the ark with his half sister Maria and Grandfather Gerald as a baby to avoid this scandal from reaching the populace. Then the ARK Incident happened, and well… Igor was spared, but used as G.U.N. 's guinea pig in their new ‘Super Soldier’ Program, which bombed by the way, but it left him permanently a young man that would never age and the skills to take down some of his half cousin Ivo’s own creations. In order to keep him quiet about the failed project, he was given a job working for the very people that hurt him… and well he wasn’t about to say no to a cushy job and full benefits.
The thought of making a living creature using Shadow’s DNA like this intrigued him, but nahhhhh….. He had too much respect for Shadow to do something like that….
As he prepared to close the file, an official notice popped up on his computer. It was from the higher ups at G.U.N.. God, what did they want now?
When he opened the important notice, the first thing he saw was the word TERMINATION in all caps. Uh oh, that wasn’t right… it shouldn’t be…. This means that the higher ups either went back on their word, or they didn’t care about Igor spilling the beans on their top secret and failed program anymore, or the new brass had no idea about the deal and terminated him because they had no idea why he was on staff.
Igor sighs, cursing to himself as he turns around and starts to pack up his things, including all his black arms research. Couldn’t let that fall into the wrong hands. As he does so, his screen displays the Eggman logo before a video feed of the cousin he had never met appears on screen.
“Ahhhh, Igor.”
“MOTHERFUCKING CHRIST!”
He just about jumps at the sound coming from his computer monitor, whirling around to see his cousin Ivo on his monitor.
“What the hell?” He takes his glasses off to look at the screen more closely to see if this was some kind of joke, but nope, this was actually real. He had tried to stay away from his dad’s family for a very good reason, and that reason only doubled when Ivo went into the world domination business. Now his cousin was here, contacting him.
“What do you want, Ivo?” He sounds exasperated already. Ready to be done with this and find a new job.
“I just happened to hear through the grapevine that you got fired. Such a shame, that. The world clearly misunderstands the genius our family brings to the table.”
Igor’s eyes narrow. “How did you find out that fast? I barely got the notice and not only three seconds later you contacted me. Is this your doing?”
Eggman holds up his hands in mock surrender. “Easy now Igor, I have bugs all over G.U.N. 's network. Something like this wouldn’t escape my notice. Which is why I'm here… To offer you the opportunity of a lifetime! To work with ME, in a new project I'm trying to get off the ground, you see… I’m not very good with…. Organic things, like creating completely new life for example. I excel at the mechanical side of things, but you, Igor… you followed in Grandfather’s footsteps and have become a brilliant biochemist and geneticist in your own right. With my labs and your biochemical mastery, we could make something truly extraordinary! I’ll of course pay you for your services, I wouldn't want you to do something this complex for free after all.”
This makes Igor pause, unsure if he should take the offer. On one hand, it was practically free money. One little gig with his cousin and he would go off the grid and vanish. Maybe taking a new identity in the process. The offer was tempting. Igor had never created something of that scale before, but he knew he was capable of it. He lets out a sigh. Teaming up with his evil cousin once didn’t sound so bad… at least he wasn’t going to do anything that would make Shadow mad at him… he hoped.
“Alright… fine. I’m in. Where should I rendezvous with you?”
Eggman’s smile turns almost sinister as he sends coordinates to Igor’s personal phone. “Meet me here. I’ll have Metal Sonic escort you in.”
“Alrighty, I’ll see you there.”
Eggman cuts off the communication, his smile widening to one of maniacal proportions. His plan had worked without a hitch. All it took was some hacking to send that notice of termination to his cousin, and while Igor had been wary about it, he took the bait hook, line and sinker. He looks to where two DNA samples lay on a table. A black Quill from Shadow, and a container of Sonic's blood, kept stable for all these years. The DNA of Shadow the Hedgehog, and Sonic the Hedgehog. His master plan was coming along smoothly, and with Igor’s help, he would have something…. Or some ONE that could rival his nemesis, and maybe. Just maybe defeat that damn blue menace for good.