So a REPO! The Genetic Opera song came on shuffle and i still have Stobotnik brainworms so you know what that means!!!!
Stobotnik repo au!!!
The story starts similarly; widespread organ failure. Robotnik is content to watch humanity crumble; they never gave a shit about him anyway, maybe this is all just karmic retribution. He doesn't consider for a second that he could get sick, because he hardly considers himself human anymore.
And he doesn't get sick.
But Stone does.
One of Stone's organs starts to fail, and as much as Robotnik constantly claims he only keeps Stone around because he's convenient, because he hasn't figured out how to program a Badnik to do everything Stone does, the very real possibility of losing Stone terrifies Robotnik. And he doesn't have time to analyze why because Stone is dying, and he has to fix that.
And he does, because of course he does. If anyone was going to find a solution to this problem, it would be Robotnik, he'd just have to be convinced to find it. And the impending death of the one person who has stuck by his side despite everything is a very strong motivator.
So he invents fully artificial organs. They function just like real organs, and the body won't reject them because they're not made of human tissue. They're robotic. Cybernetic replacements, if you will. And once he gets one in Stone, once the other man is up on his feet and functioning just the same as, if not better than, before, it hits Ivo.
This is how he can have humanity in the palm of his hand.
Who better to rule the world than the one man who saved it?
It wouldn't take much convincing. The powers that be are desperate to stop what is rapidly looking to be an extinction event. They'd accept any terms Robotnik would set forth, because his invention is the only solution that has worked! So when he puts an end to their overflowing gratitude by revealing the catch -- the creation of these artificial organs is going to be very very expensive, you know, and i ask you, who's going to foot the bill? -- of course they'd go along with charging the sick for their own cure. Oh, but he's not a monster, you see! If they can't pay, he'd be more than willing to loan the money!
But he is a monster, and the contract is signed in blood. Default on your loans, and Robotnik Co. will retrieve what is rightfully theirs.
And who better to do the dirty work than a man who was already unwaveringly loyal before Ivo had saved his life? Stone needs no black mail, needs no motivator. Whatever the Doctor wills, he will carry it out with no questions, no complaints. The very heart in his chest belonged to Robotnik metaphorically long before it did literally.
It's not long before word of The Repo Man starts to spread. People are wondering when the other shoe will drop, when they will find out what happens when the contract is breached and someone misses a payment. And then they hear someone's mother's cousin was butchered in the night. Robotnik Co had given him new lungs, but he lost his job and he couldn't afford his payment plan. He defaulted. The next morning, his family found him with his chest torn open, ribs cracked and his artificial lungs missing.
Word spreads rapidly. Humanity has finally learned what happens when you cross Robotnik. Default on your loan, and The Repo Man will reclaim the Doctor's property.
The Repo Man would do anything for the Doctor. You can plead, you can cry, beg, bargain for your life. But nothing you have could ever sway him, because Stone serves one and only one. And if that one wishes for you to be eviscerated with no remorse, then you will be. It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when.
God help you if you can't pay. No one has ever outrun The Repo Man.