Ciona and Cien-Se 1
The biologist Cien-Se is bored of her work for the government, but a golden oppurtunity comes her way. Will she make a deal with the devil and join the Company?
This is a collab between myself and {bsky silenciotheartist} Brought to Heel is their AU.
This is a _Sonic the Hedgehog _fanfiction. All characters are copyright their respective owners and are written as above the age of 18.
Consider checking out my Linktree.
In the world of government research, there is nothing new under Solaris. After Dr. Eggman's reign of tyranny, years of red tape have left all official governmental channels of scientific work neutered and toothless.
Cien-Se had dedicated some time to studying biology, making herself quite the name in her school for the strange thesis she wrote. However, the world around her changed when she entered the workforce as a government researcher, and rules and regulations she had not had while in college kept her from pursuing her goals.
Because no one wants to challenge The Companys and the illegal black market research of the criminal underworld, the echidna scientist was left with a contract she couldn’t break to make redundant pills for old geezers for little money.
She had become a slave to her job, forced to squeeze the most use out of the least amount of funding money. Each pill she made cheaper and more efficient made her feel less like she had done anything to push the boundaries of the medical world and the world at large.
One of those many routine days, when she was just on the cusp of cheapening another weight loss pill, the doctor receives a call.
“I’ve read your thesis, doctor. You gots some good stuff here,” says the woman on the other end, her praise laced with a slight hint of cruelty.
“Who is this?” inquires the echidna. She sits in her modest laboratory, wearing her lab coat, gloves, and boots. The place is so claustrophobic and stuffed full of useless old tools.
“Consider me a prospective investor in your work,” the voice responds. “One that might have good use of that brain o’ years. After all, your ideas on the marriage of cybernetics and genetics show initiative, especially in pushing the biological model beyond the standard Mobian form. Imagine the kinds of supermen you can make from that”
Cien-Se leans back, crossing one leg over the other. “So, you have read my paper.”
“Oh yeah. Reverse-engineering the roboticizer on your own, despite the risk to your academic and professional career, is nothing short of inspiring. But it reads like the work of a woman who keeps her most interesting work close to her chest, waitin’ for the perfect opportunity to let it all out.”
Cien-Se frowns, “and you’re saying you’re that oppurtunity.”
“Of course I am, toots. Now listen—open the door, and we can talk business.”
The purple echidna glances at the doorway, the phone having just clicked off. She blinks and pushes herself out of her chair, adjusting her lab coat as she heads towards the entrance. She takes a deep breath, disengages the lock, and opens the door.
Standing on the other side is a taller Mobian hedgehog, concealed in mystery. Her eyes are covered in sunglasses and the white quills that drape over her face. Her arms and legs are cybernetic. She dresses in a white suit, her arms at her sides, staring down through a bandaged face toward Cien-Se.
“So nice ta’ finally meetcha,’ the mystery hedgehog says, stepping inside, her heels relatively high, clicking on the ground, making her hips sway.
Cien-Se gulps—only the most upper echelon of people would ever deign to wear heels so high and to strut their stuff so blatantly. “I wasn’t aware I got the attention of someone so important, miss…”
“Please,” the mystery hedgehog says, stroking a mechanical hand along the screen of Cien-Se’s central computer. She shakes her head when she reads the data compiled there. “If you know how important I am, surely you should know who I am, right?”
Cien-Se breathes deeply through her nose, pulling her glasses off her face and rubbing her eyes. “The White Hedgehog—I’ve heard of you, but I thought you were merely a rumor—a figurehead or even a mascot created by the Company's board of directors. Why have a CEO who could be fallible when one could just invent a virtual creation?”
“Why, indeed,” says the White Hedgehog. “Probably because with me around, I can do whatever the fuck I want and get shit done—shit like buying out this little humdrum business you got.
Cien-Se replaces her glasses, blinking as she looks to the woman before her. “You can’t be serious.
Picking up Cien-Se’s datapad, the White Hedgehog tosses the device to her. “See for yourself, Doctor.”
Cien-Se grasps it, nearly dropping the thing, but accessing her email. Scrolling through the chain of confusing exchanges, she gasps when she realizes it’s true. The recent transfer of the facility and its assets, including the employees, has been sent to the White Hedgehog’s Company.
“Now then,” the White Hedgehog says, leaning against the computer desk, crossing one leg over the other, her hands on the edge of the desk, pushing her flatish chest out slightly, “Tell me exactly what you’ve been dreamin’ of workin’ on, messing with roboticizers, studying biology, all that freaky shit?
Cien-Se sniffs, standing tall, hands behind her back. “No matter what advancements we have in cybernetics, they cannot compare to the pure one-to-one conversion of animal tissue to the Robian form.
“You don’t say?” asks the CEO, lifting her arm and looking at the back of her hand. “Even better than the shit I got going on?”
“Miles better,” Cien-Se says. “I’m sorry to say.”
“Don’t be sorry if you promise results,” the White Hedgehog says, giving Cien-Se the finger gun. “What else you thinkin’?”
“Well, my people in the past, during a great and terrible war, used their mix of robotics and genetics to create terrible monsters known as Mutates.”
“And why should I care about such things?” asks the CEO, arms folded under her chest, accenting the smallish shape with authority.
“Because,” says Cien-Se, pushing her glasses up, making them shine in the room's light, “If one can make monsters, one can make gods.”