Enerjak I

The first Enerjak was Dimitri the Echidna, a scientist from Angel Island who, together with his brother Edmund, sought to return Angel Island to the surface by using their Chaos Syphon machine to drain energy from the island's twelve Chaos Emeralds and safely cause the landmass to descend. Echidnaopolis officials rejected the plan, and an enraged Dimitri used the Chaos Syphon without authorization. Due to a malfunction, the device destroyed eleven of the Emeralds and transferred their energies into Dimitri, thus creating the nearly omnipotent being that called itself Enerjak. Maddened by the power flowing through his body, Enerjak briefly attempted to conquer Angel Island. He was stopped by his brother, who was helped by the Fire Ants which ate the foundations of his citadel, causing it to collapse and bury him. The burial site became known as Mount Fate.

Despite being buried, Enerjak surived. He reached out to his son Menniker, using a form of telepathy. Menniker then went on to forge the Dark Legion, a technocratic group of Echidnas who wished to follow in Dimitri's example and restore Angel Island to its original landsite, as well as restoring technology into Echidna society, which was banned after Dimitri's use of the Chaos Syphon. The Dark Legion, while successfully killing Edmund, were hurled into the Twilight Zone by Edmund's son Steppenwolf. They continued to thrive, each new generation of Dimitri's bloodline taking command.

Over the centuries, in the depths of the ruins, Enerjak's knowledge and insanity grew. It was during this period that he actually took his name, that of the legendary evil. All the while, he remained unaware that Edmund's bloodline, which lived on in the Brotherhood of Guardians over the generations, was continuing. Eventually escaping from his prison, Enerjak did battle with his the great descendant of his late brother and his distant nephew, Knuckles the Echidna and his friends the Chaotix, brainwashing the latter into attacking the former. Rather than simply use his limitless power on his great nephew, Enerjak took a sort of sadistic pleasure in pitting him against his own friends. When this failed, he decided to use only his sheer strength in hand-to-hand combat with Knuckles. This proved to be his downfall, as it bought Knuckles' father Locke enough time to launch Enerjak's citadel into space with him still on it.

Enerjak did not stay gone long, as he was rescued and brought back to Mobius by Mammoth Mogul, where he took command of the Dark Legion from Dimitri's great-great grandson Kragok. Before he would do anything however, he took immediate steps to ensure his enemies would not stop him a third time. He immediately transported Archimedes and his grandfather Deo Volente into a small device which acted like a prison, preventing them from teleporting around and warning Knuckles of his return; then he set his sights on Knuckles himself. He first offered him the chance to accept Enerjak as his master and serve as his underling. When Knuckles refused, he forced him to endure numerous hardships, including teleporting him to the bottom of the ocean, as well as sending him to the tip of the planet's atmosphere. When his final offer to join him was declined, Enerjak literally took Knuckles apart, atom by atom. His descendant survived solely due to divine intervention by the Ancient Walkers, who had prophesied that Knuckles had a destiny yet to be fulfilled and thus saved him from destruction.

Believing the Guardian to be dead, he launched an attack against Echidnaopolis and the Dingoes. As the battle began, Enerjak seemed calm, protecting his hovercraft from enemy fire using his powers to create a force field around them. Although the combined might of the Dingoes and the Echidna Security Team at first was effective against the Dark Legion forces, Enerjak used his powers to disable their weapons with an electromagnetic pulse. He then ordered the city to surrender, but while giving his speech was caught off guard by the arrival of Mammoth Mogul. Using the power of the Sword of Acorns, Mogul drained the power of the eleven Emeralds from Enerjak, and the persona disappeared to leave a decrepit Dimitri in its place, thus ending Enerjak's reign.