Sonic and related characters are copyright of either Sega or Archie Comics.

Bionics, Diamond Alpha and Creator's Diamond are my own creations.

Chapter 1: To Join the Bloody Fray

There was a loud thump as the black leather clad fist hit the large trestle table and very slightly creased the map laid upon it. Lien-Da, anthropomorphic Echidna and Kommissar of the Dark Legion screwed her eyes shut and let out a great sigh of exasperation. It was a mess, all of it was. The war that had erupted across the surface of Mobius was spreading like a great cancer, the war between the defending free peoples of the planet and the terrible invaders from what was called the Anti-Mobius, or Moebius, raged on without end.

At first the concerns had been about the Eggman Empire, and all the fighting had gone on thereabouts, but then Scourge the Hedgehog had arrived with his Suppression Squad and an army of his own wicked soldiers and proceeded to wreak havoc across the land. Scourge was Sonic the Hedgehog's evil Anti-Mobius counterpart and was, saying it as blunt as possible, an arrogant and powerful little bastard. He had taken over his own planet in a matter of days, proclaimed himself king, proceeded to attack Mobius on a campaign to make both planets his and so far had claimed much of the land on the continent which the Republic of Acorn resided, and had forced Dr Robotnik underground to rot away in his failure to complete his ultimate plans.

This blasted, blasted war mainly between the Republic and the Moebians was larger in size and ferocity than even the Great War so many years ago. It spread into the east coast of the continent and overseas in the Kingdom of Mercia as well as Downunda. It had somehow caught the Dark Legion in the middle and had whittled them down to the last few dozen soldiers and the last half dozen or so hovercraft transports. They were on the brink of collapse as a faction, and needed nothing short of a miracle to save them. It was not right, to be beaten by such base Mobians as the Republic's forces, or by such foreign and unworthy oppressors as Scourge's army.

Lien-Da stood up from the table and went out into the cold air of the black and starry night presented to her. The Dark Legion's camp was on a small cliff and had a brilliant view of the forests in the valley below it. She ran her hand through her mid-length crimson hair and looked out over the moonlit landscape with her deep, blue, weary looking eyes. All of her fur and hair was red, but she always dressed like a femme fatale, a dominatrix, with a black, almost entirely figure hugging leather body suit which had loose sleeves, a collar and showed off her cleavage. She also had a black belt with a bullwhip coiled and hanging from it, black leather boots and, more recently, black leather gloves.

From inside these gloves, she produced a cigarette and was about to take out the lighter from a belt pouch but stopped short and instead stared at the cigarette in her left hand. She thought about it as she toyed with it in between her fingers. Was it really worth it now? Despite her disregard for life and her desire for power, she had led a physically clean lifestyle, was this crisis worth breaking a lifetime positive habit with a new negative one? She closed her eyes as she thought, then gritted her teeth and threw the cigarette as hard as she could over the cliff edge, her eyes wild with sudden anger.

"Damn it all!" she shouted out to the moon above her. Several of the Dark Legionnaires stopped and turned to look at her with concern and fear simulated on the blank red eyes of their face masks. "What are you all staring at? Get back to work!" She glared menacingly at them all, and they sped on their way. This was all a blasted, sordid mess. Lien-Da rubbed her temples with her index and middle fingers and tried desperately to think of a way out of this, but no option presented itself.

She exhaled sharply and stared at the sky again, hoping to divine some meaning from the stars. After a second though, the stars seemed to be the least interesting thing in the sky. A small purple streak of light had appeared over the moon and was moving in a downward arc towards a massive circular plain at the end of the valley. This plain was connected by four valleys and it was a possible site for a battle. The purple light stopped just between the moon and the plain and hovered there precariously.

It was hard to see but she could just make out that it was a winged figure and as she realised this, there was a slight movement as the figure turned its head to look directly at her. In that instant she could see, impossibly clearly, that the figure's eyes seemed to glow a vibrant shade of blue.

There was sudden and searing pain in Lien-Da's forehead and she fell to her knees and as a deluge of images and feelings cascaded into her mind and flew in front of her eyes. Light of many colours, gripping darkness, gunfire, shouting, silence, cold, warmth, a warm touch, blood, sorrow, war, peace, hate, love, and a constant echoing scream of rage, yelling a name that reverberated through her mind into her very soul.

"DIABOLUS!"

She snapped out of it and found two Legionnaires kneeling down beside her and seeing what the problem with their Kommissar was. "I'm fine, just get away from me" the two soldiers jumped back and stood to attention. Then they all watched the still glowing figure hovering in the darkness. She felt a strange tingling in her soul as she placed her gaze back over it. She couldn't get rid of that feeling, and neither did she know what it meant yet.

It was still watching her for a moment, but then turned away and began to dance a golden lined pattern in the night air and in the centre of the plain below it. From high in the atmosphere, several golden streaks spiralled and rocketed downwards and formed the ethereal skeleton of a massive tower or spire. The lines grew wider and brighter, spinning faster and faster in the circle pattern they had traced out. Then there was a great flash of multicoloured light which should have been blinding yet all of the Dark Legion could stare directly at it with no ill effects. The flare seemed to linger for an eternity, and when it had cleared it had been replaced by a massive black shadow in the night sky, cutting the moon's image in two. The shadow reached for the high atmosphere and the top was barely in sight.

The little glowing figure spun around the tower once, and then the shadow glowed once again at the edges in 7 very familiar colours; the colours of the Chaos Emeralds. Then the colours were all but gone, and the shadow captured Lien-Da's entire vision. The hovering, glowing purple figure seemed to look at where the Dark Legion's camp was one last time, and then flew in another great arc upwards to what seemed the impossibly high summit of the tower and vanished as it reached its destination.

In just under 2 minutes, the greatest spectacle and mystery in Lien-Da's life had just played out in front of her without pause. Perhaps this was supposed to be some new form of weapon on behalf of one of the opposing factions, or maybe even the miracle she had just prayed in her mind for. Whatever it was, the winged figure that had brought it here was important, she just knew it. She knew that it had some answers to what was happening here, and come the morning, she was going to find out what...

The strange lights of inter-dimensional transport ways were like a weave of colours and patterns and lights in great tunnels, and they entranced Bionics as he flew past them impossibly fast and yet seemingly slowly, the great multicoloured light that was his Battle Spire was distant from him and he could see that light getting smaller.

He knew that they had reached their destination; the Spire had stopped and was waiting to be guided in. So he let his mind's eye fall over the land upon the surface of Mobius where the Spire could make berth. As he thought about the place, he felt a distortion of his environment and then... He was gripped by the sudden cold, crisp air of night time. He eyes traced the landscape that lay before him; he turned to see a moon bathing his form in its reflected white glow.

He flew down to get a closer look. He saw the land he was looking for, and it was just as he had seen it: A massive basin or plain, 1 mile across on all sides and linked to four large canyons, each one roughly 90 degrees apart from each other. The plain was large enough to accommodate his Spire, and the outer defensive wall with the Flak Towers, while still providing a huge amount of space to move troops and other such things outside of the defences.

Perfect Bionics thought to himself. Suddenly a small alarm began to blip in the Head-up Display of his artificial eyes, and he turned to face the direction his warning indicated. He was staring down one of the valleys to a point where two small river basins became one larger one, and at this intersection there was a low cliff, and on the low cliff were tents, lights, soldiers, vehicles and a single figure standing towards the edge. He zoomed in to see that this figure was in fact a scarlet female Echidna, wearing black leather and looking straight at him.

As his eye met hers (which, he noted to his surprise, were the same shade of blue as his) his mind filled with a sudden rush of images, some were beautiful, some were terrible, all came in a great rush and all were backed by a voice, his voice, screaming out Diabolus' name. As suddenly as the vision had started, it had ended and left a cold shiver running down his spine. He knew that the Echidna had just seen everything he had, and that really troubled him. He had never encountered this before in his life but he would bet his Desert Eagle that he knew what this meant.

This kind of connection was only ever supposed to happen with one kind of person to a god, or so he had been told: One with whom they were reported to form some kind of historical bond with. He couldn't be sure about this, but this Echidna was important to the greater plans of things. The images must have been sent by the Great Creator, and they must have been sent for a reason. Maybe, just maybe it was supposed to be some kind of emotional connection.

Bionics found himself deep in his own thought again and shook it off. He flew outward and began to trace the pattern required to bring the spire down in the middle of the plain. Once this small ritual was complete, great golden comets flew down and formed the outline for the spire's physical form. Then came the great flash of light, and when it had cleared, the great shadow of the incomprehensible tower loomed over him. The transition was complete. He flapped his wings and began to soar in a circle around the Battle Spire to check that all systems were functioning at standby as needed. He thought about this shocking revelation. Was he really destined to become involved in some way with this Echidna? Emotionally, romantically even? Well, she was pleasing to the eye...

Stop it! He needed to concentrate now. He completed the loop and sent the mental impulse to power up the Spire. It began to glow at the edges with the colours of Chaos Untainted, then the light faded way.

The Battle Spire was at full power, and was ready for him to ascend back to his throne at the very summit. Before he moved, he took one last, concerned look at the camp and the female Echidna, and then flew upwards as fast as he dared to go, up to his Throne of Observation. When at the top he landed in this seat of power and settled back to thinking about this revelation yet again. Whatever these images and feelings meant, she was quite important, and he would have to either seek her out or let her seek him out.

Of course, if she had shared those images, it must have confused her to a point, and she would want answers from him if they met. Well... she was going to try and find him now, Bionics realised, whether he liked it or not...

Back at the camp, Lien-Da lay on her fold-out, metal bed inside her tent stunned beyond words. She was trying to sleep, heavens knew she was trying to sleep, but it was just too much to think about that 'Purple Angel' and the immense tower. She usually thought with cold and ruthless calculation. She was quite a cold individual; she did not see life as particularly valuable, well none but her own life of course.

She had been certain of her desires, of her emotions, of her bitter and quite cruel determination to see the Dark Legion become the supreme Echidna faction with herself as Grandmaster. Now, that mental fortress of absolute certainty was slowly beginning to crack up and crumble. Of course she did care about the Echidnas as a species, and had put her life and the lives of her soldiers on the line for them, but she wanted to see the Dark Legion as dominant.

Damn it, she did have emotions! She wasn't that heartless, but her life had never really been a joyous one to say the least. She had been scheming her way through the Dark Legion for quite a while, going as far as assassination attempts, successful or otherwise. She had for a while held the title of Grandmaster, but then her great ancestor, Dimitri had returned and snatched the role back from under her nose.

She had now returned to playing second fiddle again. She held the rank of Kommissar, the second in command. Nevertheless, she did command respect, fear and authority within the Legion, but it seemed that her ancestor could command more than her. It was his capacity to treat the Dark Legion's soldiers as equals, while she showed them their true positions and placed herself above all the rest that made him somewhat more popular however. It was just so indignant; to be blamed for the recent failures of the legion and have Dimitri take away her chance to redeem herself.

Her concentration was shattered by a Legionnaire who had entered her tent.

"Yes Legionnaire?"

"Kommissar, the Grandmaster requests your presence instantly." Lien-Da sighed and pulled herself up out of the bed. "Alright, I'm going. Get back to your duties."

"At once Kommissar" the Legionnaire stood to attention and marched briskly out into the camp.

When the soldier was gone, she smartened herself up as best she could, and made her way back out into the night air. Now however, there was a slowly growing pale blue band of light appearing on the horizon. There was no need to mobilise. Nevertheless there was a certain buzz in the atmosphere, a sense of great foreboding due to this massive tower, which now was starting to show up in the faint sunlight.

Grandmaster Dimitri was standing, if you could apply normal bodily functions to him, near the edge of the cliff staring out at the tower. There was next to nothing organic left of his physical form. He was, essentially, a robotic head in a glass ball with several strange artificial tentacle-dreadlocks to allow for movement. While both his eyes were mechanical, his left one was extended from its socket and the lens was triangular. His mouth was free to move as normal however, and his teeth seemed unaffected. He turned to stare at his descendant as she approached.

"Ah, granddaughter, at last you have arrived." His face betrayed no hint of emotion towards her either way.

"Grandmaster" she replied curtly and without a hint of familial acknowledgement. They may be related, he may be her great-great-grandfather, but she was not pleased with him and would not show any amount of compassion just on that basis.

"Come now, can we not conduct ourselves in a more familial way?" Dimitri retorted, feigning emotional hurt.

"I'm afraid not, sir" was the answer he received in turn. He sighed wanly and shook his head. "Fair enough, Kommissar, we need to talk now. I do not think you need me to tell you what about."

"This strange tower, yes I know."

"Indeed, this tower, plus the equally mysterious flying stranger who summoned it here."

Lien-Da crossed her arms and stared at her ancestor with a bland look. "I was planning on going out to it to find out just what it is, and what its purpose is."

"I had gathered that" Dimitri said with a hint of contempt "but we cannot afford to waste more of our already meagre forces on a potential death trap."

"With respect, Grandmaster, this tower could be the key to bringing our Legion back up to strength. I... I had a vision when that figure looked at me."

Dimitri bodily expression as well as his right eye displayed open curiosity now "a vision? What sort of vision?"

The Dark Legion Kommissar's face formed a pained expression as she thought of an appropriate answer. "Well, strange images and sounds. Good things and bad things, war and peace, stuff like that. There was also a voice screaming out a name; 'Diabolus', apart from that I don't know what this all means."

"I'm afraid to say that I have no understanding of this vision either, we will have to wait for the answer to find us. Of course this does not change the fundamental outcome of your wish; you still cannot take more of our troops, or yourself for that matter, and go searching for this stranger when he could be plotting to destroy us all."

Lien-Da straightened up and unfolded her arms before pointing at the immense tower, which now reflected the pale orange of the rising sun. "If this entity, as powerful as we have seen it to be, wanted to destroy us I think it would have done it by now. It has the power to call up this immense tower and set it down at its place of choosing. If it can do that then it could easily destroy us all at a glance, but it hasn't. I think that it may want to help us out and Aurora knows we really need help right now. This is a crisis and it could be our only hope in this, so please, we must go out to the tower and try to make contact."

The two of them stopped and turned around to face the camp. All of the soldiers had now stopped and were now watching the argument as it had heated up. Dimitri looked back at them with a grim expression on his face. "This is a private conversation. All of you get back to work." And the regular bustling sound resumed as the Dark Legion went about its various duties.

The ancient Echidna's cybernetic head then turned on its tentacles and looked back at the tower, reflecting a much deeper shade of orange now. "I suppose... I suppose you are right, Lien-Da. Very well, I shall allow you to search out this 'Purple Angel' and seek his aid. I also allow you to take five soldiers with you, just five mind you. I will not compromise our safety by allowing anymore soldiers than we need to go on this mission."

"Thank you, Grandmaster" Lien-Da nodded sharply and then made her way back into camp. She had her wish. She could seek out this strange character and get some answers from him and, with a bit of luck, his help. She went into the heart of the camp and selected out five soldiers from amongst the ranks which lined up in front of her. Within 5 minutes they were all armed and rappelling down the cliff to try and reach the base of the tower through the thick forest of the valley.

Chapter 1 arrived to you sooner than I had anticipated, but I feel that posting the first few chapters without waiting will help move things along a bit. Point of reference left out from my last post. Bionics is English in terms of accent and way of speaking, and I don't mean cockney or northern (no offence meant to either party), I mean standard English or 'posh' English. I always think of the actor Ralph Fiennes as being Bionics' voice, but that's just me. Note number 2: When Lien-Da hears Bionics scream out "Diabolus" it is supposed to be in capitals and very drawn out over a period of several seconds with each vowel having at least ten of itself. However, for reasons unknown I cannot post the name in this way as instead only the exclamation mark is visible. Just to let you know that it's supposed to be much longer than what is posted.

Now for the 'worm on the hook' part of this, ready... Where will this chapter lead to? What do the images both Bionics and Lien-Da see actually mean? Where will it take them? Keep a whether eye out for the next chapter, where our two protagonists go 'Hunting'.