Project Enerjak: Reborn

Project Enerjak: Reborn was a project created by Dr. Finitevus. Its intention was to use the Master Emerald to give an echidna under Finitevus's control the power of Enerjak so he could "cleanse" all life on Mobius due to the "corrupt" beliefs and actions of its people.

Conception
After he lost his sanity, Dr. Finitevus escaped from Albion to join the Dark Legion so he could examine the original Enerjak's body and gather more information for Project Enerjak: Reborn. He also used the opportunity to see if Dimitri's descendant, Lien-Da, could be the next Enerjak, but deemed her too difficult to control. He later managed to capture most of the Brotherhood of Guardians and Moritori Rex for his studies after the former battled the forces of the Eggman Empire. When Finitevus was done analysing them, he threw them all into the Twilight Cage for the irony of it. All his research on this family was instrumental for the project in determining who should be the next Enerjak and how to grant that candidate the power that could destroy all the people on Mobius that Finitevus thought had to be "cleansed." (StH: #94, #139, #182, #183 SU #9)

Obtaining the Master Emerald
With all the information he needed obtained, Finitevus faked being captured by Hunter and being sent to the Egg Grape Chambers, only to free Remington instead as a potential subject for Enerjak. He later took on Scourge the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat as his lackeys to help him rescue the Destructix and obtain data from the Alpha 100 Series mechanoid, Isaac. Rouge turned traitor, however, sabotaged a stockpile of ancient nuclear missiles that Finitevus found, and stole one of his Warp Rings to escape. The ring was soon retrieved, though, and Rouge was replaced by Scourge's girlfriend, Fiona Fox. (StH: #140, #141, #161, #165, #169, #172, #183)

Now that he had the muscle and all the information he needed, Finitevus then set about gaining the Master Emerald to power Enerjak. To do this, Finitevus gained the trust of the gem's guardian, Locke, by keeping the Master Emerald out of the clutches of A.D.A.M., Dr. Eggman's "son." He later returned to Angel Island with the Destructix and had them foil a dingo attack on Echidnaopolis. Finitevus then brought out Dimitri, who he had told would be Enerjak again to continue his life, who informed Locke of Finitevus reforming. Finitevus then provided Locke with a Warp Ring that would lead him to supposedly where the Brotherhood of Guardians would be. Locke took the ring and left Finitevus in charge of protecting the Master Emerald, just as the doctor had anticipated. Scourge later informed Finitevus that Dimitri had fled from as he no longer trusted him, but Finitevus had anticipated this as well and was practically jolly at the news. (StH: #169, #171, #177)

The New Enerjak
After convincing the warring Flame and Frost Legions to call a truce, Finitevus had Scourge and the Destructix attack and capture Knuckles the Echidna due to his link to the Chaos Force being stronger then Remington's, and thus being a better candidate as Enerjak. He had told the leaders of the two legions, Lien-Da and Remington respectively, that Dr. Eggman had wiped out ninety per cent of the echidna race. Upon hearing this, Knuckles raced towards the Master Emerald with the intent of using its power to stop Eggman. But Finitevus had counted on this and had placed a hex on the emerald that could only be broken through a sacrifice. The hex gave Knuckles all the power he wanted, but also put him completely under Finitevus's control and transformed him into the new Enerjak. The two Grandmasters then realized that they had been betrayed and formed an alliance of their own to stop this new threat. (StH: #180, #181, #184)

While all this was happening, Dimitri had managed to get to the city of New Mobotropolis and had informed the Knothole Freedom Fighters of Enerjak's revival. He was then brought before the Council of Acorn to explain what was happening so they could form a plan, but Dimitri was dissatisfied with their lack of speed. During all this, Sonic the Hedgehog was facing off against Dr. Eggman in his Egg Nautilus and managed to inform the dictator of Enerjak's return. The doctor then agreed to help take down Enerjak (with his own hidden motives) and flew back to New Megaopolis to prepare. Meanwhile, Finitevus was on Angel Island making some last minute preparations when Scourge and Fiona informed him of the Dark Legion reuniting to stop Enerjak and the dingo army under Kage Von Stryker readying to take over the entire island. Finitevus dismissed the idea of the two armies being a threat to Enerjak and continued his work, leaving Scourge and Fiona to lay back and enjoy the show. Later back at New Mobotropolis, Sally Acorn was given permission to lead the Freedom Fighters and had Sonic and Tails travel to Angel Island to find Knuckles while NICOLE sent out a probe to keep an eye on Enerjak. Enerjak, now complete, then headed out to Cavem Canus and threw all its dingo occupants into the Sandopolis Zone and vaporized Kage Von Stryker and his city. He then stripped the combined legions of their cybernetics after they attacked him and teleported those grateful to Albion, along with the residents of Echidnaopolis. Enerjak then teleported himself to New Mobotropolis, where the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix tried to stop him, only to fall down from shock at finding out Enerjak was really Knuckles. (StH: #179, #180, #181)

Knuckles then declared his goals of eliminating the world of technology for a brighter tomorrow, but all his friends were against this and tried to reason with him. Angered by this, Knuckles attempted to show them the good he could bring by ridding Julie-Su of her cybernetics, only for Sonic to jump off of the Tornado and attack him without knowing it was Knuckles. Soon Shadow the Hedgehog from G.U.N. arrives to aid in the fight against Enerjak, but even the combined might of he and all the citizens of New Mobotropolis proves unable to stop Enerjak. Until the Egg Fleet arrives. Eggman fires all the teleporter beams of the Egg Fleet on Enerjak and he is warped away to a specially modified Egg Grape Chamber. Before the Freedom Fighters can think of a plan to save Knuckles, Locke pulls Sonic and Julie-Su away through a Warp Ring to help him retrieve a weapon built by the Brotherhood of Guardians to destroy Enerjak. (StH: #182, #183)

Failure
In New Megaopolis, Eggman oversaw the depletion of Enerjak's energy so it can fuel his next "project" when Snively enters carrying Dimitri. The echidna offers to help remove Enerjak's power, but the doctor insists he has everything under control. And that's when Enerjak awakens and blows up part of the city. Meanwhile, after a brief verbal sparring match between Julie-Su and Locke, the three Mobians must face Scourge, Fiona and the Destructix to get to the weapon in the Grand Conservatory. Just as it seems the three have no chance of beating Finitevus's minions, Archimedes appears out of nowhere and uses his power of breathing fire to make a wall of flame between the heroes of the Destructix. They then enter the conservatory and the Destructix soon catch up with them, only for Sonic himself to destroy the weapon just as he'd planned. In New Megaopolis, Enerjak made quick work of the city, its robots and the Egg Fleet. With his power significantly drained, Enerjak teleports back to the Master Emerald Chamber. Just as Finitevus is about to restore Enerjak's power, Sonic comes flying in and uses the power of the Master Emerald to transform into Super Sonic. A mighty battle followed this and it seemed as if Super Sonic could not hope to win, but Julie-Su, Archimedes and Locke went to confront Finitevus during all this. While Archimedes teleported Finitevus away, Locke stood atop the Master Emerald and gave up his life as the sacrifice needed to break the hex, which reverted Knuckles back to normal and caused the failure of Project Enerjak: Reborn. (StH: #183, #184)

Resolution
Weeks later, one of Helmut Von Stryker's dingo scout teams located the secret laboratory of Dr. Finitevus and recovered a hard-copy of Finitevus's entire project, detailing everything from start to finish. After reading it and realizing Knuckles was never in control of himself, Stryker sent for him and stated that in light of everything that happened they were even and Knuckles was not among the party to be held responsible. Stryker then allowed Knuckles first dibs at going after Finitevus because of how he had been used and gave him the location of the doctor's lab and a guide to the site, secretly hoping they might finish each other off for him. (SU: #9)

Background Information

 * Remington was the original character chosen to be the new Enerjak for the Enerjak Reborn arc. However, writer Ian Flynn decided that Remington would not be familiar to most readers of the comic and too much of the arc would have been directed at explaining his backstory. Thus Knuckles was chosen to be Enerjak.