Dimitri

Dimitri (also known as Enerjak) was originally Knuckles the Echidna's nemesis in the fictional universe of the Sonic the Hedgehog comics. However, in later issues his role as an antagonist comes to an end, as his previously villainous intentions for domination are replaced by more noble desires, such as reunifying the Dark Legion founded by his descendants with Echidna society.

Originally, Dimitri wore the dreadlocks of his species in braids and wore a scientist's lab coat. While in his Enerjak persona, Dimitri wore a ceremonial outfit created for ancient Echidna generals. It consisted of a golden faceplate, skirt, breastplate, and various bands of gold around the elbows, wrists, fingers, knees, and ankles. The rest of the outfit was blue, the rest of the helmet including a red gem in the forehead and openings that allowed the dreadlocks to stick out. When removed, his faceplate revealed the face of Dimitri, untouched by centuries of aging.

Upon losing his powers at the hands of Mammoth Mogul, Dimitri became an aged, wrinkled shadow of his former self; near death, his existence was perpetuated through the use of cybernetic implants, creating a metallic form composed of asymmetrical steel-gray components. His limbs include a three-fingered right hand, a left hand with standard fingers, a right foot with two toes and an elongated heel, and a left foot resembling a metal boot. Dimitri's right eye is a standard implant shared by several other characters, while his left eye is triangular; both eyes are red. In this form, he has only a small fraction of organic body visible, including his silver ring-adorned dreadlocks, his right leg above the knee, and his neck. Later, this body was immobilized and had to be mounted atop a flat, table-like surface with life support systems built in. Eventually, his situation deteriorated to the point where Dimitri was reduced to his cyborg head, contained within a floating glass orb as seen in Light Mobius and issues following #171, though the explanation for this transformation is different for each situation.

Early Life
The great-grandson of Jordann and Kayla-La, the two Echidnas who originally came up with the plan to lift Echidnaopolis off the surface of Mobius to avoid the oncoming White Comet - Dimitri and his brother Edmund were leading scientific minds in their time. The brothers devised a means to restore the Floating Island to Mobius' surface using Dimitri's creation, the Chaos Syphon, to slowly drain the power of the 12 Chaos Emeralds which held the island afloat, until it landed back in its original site on the planet surface. Before they would deliver their plan to the Echidna Council, Dimitri and Edmund confronted Menthor, the High Councilor (and the ancestor of future High Councilor Pravda) in an attempt to gain his support. However, Menthor realized that if the plan went through, Dimitri would be considered a hero, and this could upset his own plans and ambitions, thus he denounced the plan as "heresy" and denied the brothers' petition. Enraged by this, Dimitri decided to take actions into his own hands. Using the Chaos Syphon, the powers of 11 out of the 12 Chaos Emeralds were slowly drained, but an unforeseen effect occurred; the power of the Emeralds was sent into Dimitri.

Enerjak
The result was an insane, super-powered, virtually omnipotent Echidna with a massive superiority complex and no compunctions about harming others. Using his powers, Enerjak created Necropolis, the dark twin city to Echidnaopolis. However, Edmund, who had sympathized with the Council's decision and simply accepted it, was forced to take action against his brother. With the help of the fire ants, which ate through Necropolis' foundations and buried Enerjak, Edmund put an end to the threat of his brother. He then took his son Steppenwolf and Dimitri's son Menniker away from the ruins.

Despite being buried, Enerjak was still alive, and used a form of telepathy to communicate with his son, who visited the burial site frequently. Enerjak convinced him to follow in his footsteps and finish what he had started. Menniker went on to create the Dark Legion with the aims of restoring technology into Echidna society and returning their city to the surface of Mobius. While two Dark Legionnaires did kill Edmund, the first ever Guardian, his son Steppenwolf replaced him. After being trained by the fire ant Christopheles, Steppenwolf used his Chaos powers to transport the entire Dark Legion to the Twilight Zone.

Meanwhile, in the depths of the ruins, which came to be called Mount Fate, Enerjak's knowledge and insanity grew. It was during this period that he actually took his name, that of a legendary evil. All the while, he remained unaware that Edmund's bloodline, which lived in the Brotherhood of Guardians over the generations following his late brother, was continuing.

Years later, he returned and confronted the Chaotix, and only with assistance from Knuckles' father Locke, were they able to overcome him, sending him into outer space. Enerjak later returned to lead the Dark Legion, the technocratic organization founded by his son Menniker, taking over from his descendant-and Knuckles' rival-Kragok. However, he later found out that Mammoth Mogul, another Chaos-powered would-be dictator, had orchestrated his return as part of his own master plan. Mogul used the stolen Sword of Acorns to drain the power of the eleven Emeralds from Enerjak. Without his power, Enerjak vanished, leaving behind the frail old form of Dimitri while his conqueror briefly ascended to new heights of power as Master Mogul, only to be defeated by Super Sonic, Hyper Knuckles, Turbo Tails, and a number of other allies. Dimitri avenged, in a roundabout kind of way, as Mogul's powers-including those stolen from Enerjak-were drained and used to create the Master Emerald.

Dimitri Returns
To preserve him, the Dark Legion replaced most of his body with robotic parts. Having his life prolonged, Dimitri was placed in charge of the Dark Legion as their former leader Kragok had been transported to the Twilight Zone with Tobor. In an attempt to gain a political foothold in Echidnapolis, he had the Dark Legion capture and brainwashed the High Councilor Pravda and had him support Benedict-a Dark Legion android-in his place. The plot was ultimately foiled by Knuckles. Later, he transported everyone on Angel Island to the Twilight Zone (where the Dark Legion had once been imprisoned) using the Quantum Beam in order to retake the homeland without resistance or casualties. These effects were reversed however by Chaos Knuckles, who had temporarily aligned himself with the Legion in order to gain insight from Dimitri on how to use his powers. Initially, their plans involved sending Knuckles back in time to change history for the benefit of their race, but the attempted alterations resulted in catastrophe along their own timelines and had no impact on the actual present.

Failing Health and Changing Policies
Shortly after this, Dimitri drastically changed his views, no doubt due to having been stripped of his Chaos powers and slowly regaining his sanity from the Chaos energy induced madness that made him Enerjak in the first place, as well as his realization his life was nearing its end. He tried to put an end to the long standing war between the Legion and the rest of Echidna society by proposing a reunification to the Echidna Council. Lien-Da secretly attempted to use the meeting between Dimitri and the Mitre (the political leader of the Angel Island Echidnas) to her own advantage, and arranged an assassination. The intended target of this assassination, however, was never stated (although some evidence suggests it was Dimitri). Regardless, the assassination was foiled by Lara-Su, Knuckles' daughter from an alternative future. Knuckles himself took a laser bolt aimed at either the Mitre or the Grand Master, it could have been either, given Lien-Da's treacherous nature, and temporarily faked death so as to make sure that Dimitri's new goals were genuine.

When Dimitri's health took a turn for the worse, he was immobilized and connected to a life support machine to keep him alive. Lien-Da assisted him in a plan to convince Knuckles to use his immense powers to give Dimitri new life. Firm in his belief that the Dark Legion must reunify with the rest of Echidna society, he made Lien-Da promise to continue his policies should he die. The plan to use Knuckles' power to save Dimitri failed due to interference from Mammoth Mogul, who tried to steal Knuckles' powers for himself. During the year that Sonic was missing from Mobius, Lien-Da apparently inherited control over the Dark Legion. When last seen, Dimitri was alive (having survived the battle between Knuckles and Mammoth Mogul), but without Knuckles' assistance he had no apparent way to extend his life much further. What with being immobilized, this left him vulnerable to being surplanted by his descendants. Following Sonic's return, Lien-Da stated that Dimitri "is no longer with us".

New Alliances and Hidden Motives
Lien-Da's words are proven false, or else misinformed, as Dr. Finitevus had secretly taken Dimitri's body apart and placed his head in a glass ball in order to preserve his life span. In addition to this, Finitevus kept Dimitri around as he studied the links between the Chaos Force and Dimitri's relatives, such as those of the surviving Brotherhood of Guardians as well as Moritori Rex.

Dimitri resurfaced some time later, grudgingly tricked Locke into leaving the Master Emerald and all of Angel island in Dr. Finitevus's trust and that of the Destructix, despite his apparent dislike of Finitevus. There was also a deal between Dimitri and Dr. Finitevus, the latter apparently promising to use the energy contained in the Emerald to restore Dimitri to his status and power as Enerjak in the hopes of crushing the Dingoes and bringing the warring Flame and Frost Legions-one commanded by Lien-Da, the other by a Kragok lookalike who was in fact Kragok's son Remington-back into one group. However, Dimitri changed his mind, having fled from Finitevus and his lieutenant Scourge the Hedgehog and disappeared. Unfortunately, any nobility in this act was negated by Finitevus' intentions to recreate Enerjak with or without Dimitri, especially since the doctor actually hoped that Dimitri would change his mind about becoming Enerjak again.

The former Grand Master's change of heart was made apparent when he arrived in New Mobotropolis in search of Knuckles, with a warning that Enerjak had returned. Unfortunately, Dimitri's news came too late, for Knuckles had already left for Angel Island, unaware of the dangers awaiting him. Realizing he arrived too late, Dimitri went on to inform the Acorn monarchy and the newly created Acorn Council about the history behind Enerjak and why he posed such a threat. Later, Dimitri watched the new Enerjak's rampage through Angel Island, which included ridding the Dark Legion of their cybernetics. Getting more angry and impatient, Dimitri then argued with NICOLE about using the nanites that make up New Mobotropolis as a weapon against Enerjak. But Dimitri then decided that coming to the Freedom Fighters was a mistake and left the city, deciding to "throw in his lot with the more powerful side".

It later turned out that Dimitri went to none other than Dr. Eggman for help. Eggman, however, had already captured Enerjak and sent him to his Egg Grapes. Dimitri tried to convince the doctor that this would be the perfect time to strip Enerjak of his powers, but Eggman thought everything was under control. This was disproven as Enerjak broke free and proceeded to destroy New Megaopolis and the Egg Fleet. Dimitri then suggested to Dr. Eggman and Snively that they get to Eggman's bunker, which they did.

Following the defeat of the new Enerjak, Lien-Da, desperate to restore her power and the Dark Legion to its former state, went to Eggman to form an alliance. She was surprised and shocked to see that Dimitri had already aligned with Eggman and was promised Grandmaster status over the rechristened "Dark Egg Legion". Additionally, Dimitri was provided with bionic tentacles, removing his need to constantly float around.

Sometime later, Sonic, Knuckles, and the Chaotix launched an attack on the partly destroyed New Megaopolis in an attempt to destroy a control tower of Dr. Eggman's. Lien-Da and the Dark Egg Legion troops tried to stop the group, but proved unable to do so. Dimitri decided to step in with a giant, robotic insect-like body that his tentacles had plugged into. He showed up at the battle in a pod of some sort, and took command of the operation from a resentful Lien-Da. Dimitri then told the Dark Egg Legion to not hold back against their foes as Knuckles and the Chaotix looked on, while Sonic left due to the fact that the Suppression Squad were attacking Freedom HQ.

The Chaotix found themselves faced with breaking through the Dark Legion lines. After an exchange of harsh dialogue between Dimitri, Knuckles, Lien-Da and Julie-Su, Dimitri ordered the Dark Egg Legion to open fire, forcing the Chaotix to hide behind cover. However, they soon charged in and proved more than a match for the Dark Egg Legion. With their forces scrambling, Ray, Charmy and Saffron blew up the communications tower, at which point Lien-Da ordered the Legion to withdraw to the inside of the city. Dimitri remained on the scene however, and when Knuckles asked why he was trying to be a general when he was a scientist, Dimitri explained through sarcasm and insult that he was "purposefully weakening the greatest evil this world has ever known from within" before flying off.

Dimitri soon discovered a complication to his plans, however, when a confrontation between him and Eggman regarding Eggman's failure to create robots to support the Legion but his production of Metal Sonic and Metal Scourge to attack Freedom HQ revealed that Eggman had placed bombs in the Legion's implants. Recognizing that the Legion had no choice but to obey Eggman if they wanted to survive, Dimitri informed Lien-Da of their circumstances, and responded to her outrage and her snide suggestion of turning to Knuckles for help with assurances that he would concoct an alternate plan.

Searching through the Egg Network for anything that might protect the Dark Egg Legion from Dr. Eggman, Dimitri stumbled across Snively's various conversations with Regina F. Later, Dimitri allowed Lien-Da to command the Dark Egg Legion's defense of the Eggdome during the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix attack on the city. Realizing they stood no chance, Dimitri once again asked Eggman if he had any reserve Badnik hordes available, which Eggman replied there weren't. Later, Dimitri went to watch the battle between the Freedom Fighter, Chaotix and the Egg Phoenix with Snively. When Dimitri pointed out to Snively that the Egg Phoenix nearly wiped out the Dark Egg Legion, Snively simply called it "collateral damage" and stated he didn't care. Dimitri quickly explained that he discovered Snively's treasonous plans and relationship with Regina, and that if Snively did not prioritize protecting the Dark Egg Legion he would expose this to Eggman. At this point, Snively offered and alliance, stating "You're an enterprising man, Dimitri. Why tattle on me, when we both can benefit from her arrival?" Dimitri accepted Snively's proposal, and the two continued to scheme behind Eggman's back.

During the combined assault of the Knothole Freedom Fighters and Chaotix, Dimitri told Lien-Da to follow the plan exactly. When Lien-Da commented that Eggman's plan made no sense, Dimitri specified, stating "No, not the doctor's plan. That's madness. I mean the real plan." He then moved to meet Knuckles and Julie-Su during their attack on the Eggdome. When he encountered the two, Dimitri reminded Knuckles that he was one of his last living relatives and that Knuckles had even saved his life once, and asked if he would force Dimitri to move if he did not on his own. When Knuckles bluntly replied "Yes", Dimitri stated his brother Edmund's convictions lived on in Knuckles, and moved. Dimitri then monitored Sonic's movement along with Lien-Da and Snively on a group of monitors. As Sonic approached Dr. Eggman, Snively told Dimitri to wait for him on the Eggdome's landing pad. Dimitri then saluted and did as ordered.

Iron Dominion
Once the Iron Queen seized control of New Megaopolis, Dimitri entered the throne room and requested for a means to be rid of the bombs implanted in his peoples' cybernetics in exchange for their services during the coup d'état. The Iron Queen instead gave Dimitri a case of microchips that would supposedly stop the explosive signal once installed, claiming that Dr. Eggman was too thorough with the implants and the explosives could not be taken out. Dimitri then left the Toom, bitterly disappointed, while realizing he had yet again been betrayed. Following Dr. Eggman's escape, the Iron Queen placed Dimitri in charge of the Eggdome's defenses while she went with her forces to recapture him - a task which he then deferred to Lien-Da while he returned to his lab.

Shortly afterwards Dimitri summoned Lien-Da to his lab, where he informed her that the microchips the Iron Queen gave them not only would make the legion immune to the detonator signal of the explosives in their cybernetics, but that they would also make them vulnerable to her magitek which would enable her to exploit the legion as her mindless slaves. He revealed that he had managed in his spare time to create a single modified chip which could resist the Iron Queens magitek, but that he still needed to upgrade the other chips to provide immunity to the whole legion. When Lien-Da realized she could use this to her advantage, she disabled Dimitri's hover bubble and bionic tendrils, leaving him immobile. After informing him of her plans to use the upgraded chip to control the rest of the Dark Egg Legion, she placed Dimitri in a box. Dimitri pleaded with her not to do this, trying to tell her something about the Iron Queen. Though she soon sealed him away in the box, informing him that his battery would run out within a few months and that he was unlikely to be found.

Dimitri was subsequently discovered by Sonic and Tails with the help of NICOLE during one of their searches of the Eggdome. The two heroes returned Dimitri to New Mobotropolis, where Tails set about giving him an emergency power boost in order to restore his vitality.

After hearing of how Dimitri had been left to die, Sally felt he needed to be shown mercy. What remained of his body was installed in a server room within New Mobotropolis' Science Center; his presence was largely kept secret as he recovered. However, he was eventually discovered by Espio the Chameleon, who had ventured into the server room hoping to speak with a distraught NICOLE; having been made the target of public fear and scorn because of Mina's concert, the A.I. had been crying in the server room while Dimitri attempted to comfort her. While Espio was shocked and angry to find the former villain here, Dimitri and NICOLE both tried to explain the situation. Dimitri showed great regret for his past actions, lamenting his current state, and while NICOLE explained that Dimitri had been preparing himself to speak with Knuckles, Dimitri admitted that he actually feared facing him at all. He explained that NICOLE and Espio had displayed something he should have never ignored: the love and support of friends. For the moment, though, he turned back to NICOLE to help her with her problems, and explained that she had grown well beyond being a mere program; he told her that she would need to stand up for herself and face the public's scorn. However, he also said that telling someone else to have courage wasn't the same as actually possessing it; knowing that he would never be "ready," and knowing that given his past actions he had no right, he nonetheless asked Espio to arrange a meeting with Knuckles so that they could finally talk. Feeling he was in no position to deny someone else a second chance, Espio agreed to do so with NICOLE's support.

Espio and NICOLE then approached Knuckles and brought him to speak with Dimitri. Although upset, Knuckles listened as he let Dimitri apologize for all of his past failures and mistakes. After Dimitri's and Knuckles' discussion about the current state of the Legion in Lien-Da's control, Dimitri was then told by Knuckles that he was to be transferred to the remains of Haven and connected to its systems in order to start helping him "fix" their race's situation that he had created. The plan was more than Dimitri had hoped for and he readily complied, happily thanking his distant relative for the chance at redemption.

Personality
Dimitri's personality varied between his two forms. As Enerjak, he was completely insane, making him dangerously unpredictable. Typically for most functionally omnipotent villains, he saw himself as superior to all other living things. Enerjak saw such beings as his playthings, useful only to serve or amuse him. He was also easily angered, and quick to swear revenge.

Upon regaining his sanity, Dimitri became a smoother operator. Other beings remained pawns in his operations, but he was more subtle about how he used them. In addition, he began to desire a more unified existence, from making peace in his own family to reuniting the Echidna people, a goal made difficult by opposition on both sides. As time went on, Dimitri abandoned his goals of world domination, and even became repentant. This is particularly evidenced in Light Mobius, when he clearly laments all the things he did as Grand Master of the Dark Legion, as well as his attempt to unify Echidna society through peace talks with the Mitre; despite the fact that few among the Legion appear to agree with this plan.

Dimitri's goals continue to shift, as he became focused on perpetuating his own existence while aligned with Dr. Finitevus. On the flip side, he later left Finitevus and came to warn Knuckles that Enerjak had returned as a different Echidna despite Dimitri's opportunity to become him again, indicating a more noble change of heart.

Now, he is extremely sorrowful of his past actions and wishes redemption. He has become far more humble and completely swallowed his pride, even called Knuckles "Guardian" and is extremely thankful when Knuckles gave him the chance to redeem himself.

Abilities
While possessed by Enerjak, his abilities are highly varied. While he possessed the power of Chaos, he was functionally omnipotent, and claimed that he could do anything by just thinking of it. Abilities Enerjak displayed included teleportation, telepathy, mind control, levitation, control over matter and energy at a molecular level, electromagnetic pulse generation and super strength.

As a cyborg, Dimitri initially had impressive physical strength, as well as control over electricity. However, his immobilization left him unable to move, which only slightly improved after he took on the form of a floating head. In any of his forms, Dimitri's genius has been a great asset to the Dark Legion.

Relations

 * Jordann and Kayla-La (great-great-grandparents)
 * Byron and Angel-La (parents)
 * Edmund (his twin brother)
 * Menniker (son)
 * All subleaders of the Dark Legion (other relations)
 * Knuckles (great-great-grandnephew)
 * Knecapeon Mace (other great-great-grandnephew)
 * Lara-Su (great-great-great-grandniece)