Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, or any of its associated characters and lore.

[A]

An Atomizing Appearance

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Chapter One

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Dark Legion Warehouse, Twilight Cage

A pocket dimension that would make any new arrival think of a black nebula that stretches on forever, the Twilight Cage had long been a prison to the technocratic echidnas of the Dark Legion for what felt like over a hundred years to them, but to their home planet of Mobius in the main universe, they had been trapped for almost four hundred years. While they had occasionally escaped to continue their conflict of ideals and vendettas with the citizens of Echidnaopolis and the Guardians who defended the Floating Island on which the city originated from, the Dark Legion was forced back to the Cage every time.

Of course, to Kommissar Lien-Da, the Legion's overall second in command at the age of seventeen, the fourth time they were thwarted in successfully returning to Mobius was the most insulting, considering that, instead of facing defeat at the hands of a Guardian, the Legion was withdrawn under the orders of its own Grandmaster, Luger, and all out of a vain hope it would save his own wife from an unforeseen death that ultimately did claim her, even when they were back in the Cage.

While Lien-Da did empathize with Luger's plight when she was only a child, that time had long since passed, and to make it worse, the Grandmaster had made too many poor decisions to ever make himself sympathetic in her eyes ever again. The Dark Legion should have successfully escaped the Cage and taken Echidnaopolis and then Mobius itself as their own a long time ago, but Luger had neglected his responsibilities to both his people and his family using grief and then new love as excuses which Lien-Da and a few others could no longer tolerate.

Thankfully for the future of the Dark Legion, Lien-Da, and her brother in the organization's engineering team, were given permission by, in their eyes, a more ambitious and bolder person than the failure his very successor turned out to be to remove the problem at its source. Which was why Lien-Da was perched on top of a crate with a very large weapon holstered over her left arm and aimed straight at the purple-furred, solemn echidna cataloguing supplies on his own.

Smirking broadly at her unaware target, Lien-Da was tempted to call out to Luger and tell him how much she among others had come to despise the disappointment he allowed himself to become, but thought against it as assassinations were not meant to be so dramatic. Pressing the trigger, Lien-Da's weapon then fired a beam of atomic energy straight at the unwitting Grandmaster, and his entire body vanished into nothingness.

Her work complete, Lien-Da only had two words to say about the death of the Dark Legion's most mediocre leader. "Goodbye, Father."

Before she could share the news with her brother and properly celebrate their own ascension to leadership, Lien-Da was surprised to see the atomizer she carried about to burst over her. In a panic, she then threw it the ground, but it was too late to escape the sudden blast it turned into. The resulting explosion consumed Lien-Da and she felt nothing as everything changed around her.

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Doctor Ivo Robotnik's Headquarters, Robotropolis, Northamer, Planet Mobius, 3235 P.X.E.

Having undertaken an infiltration mission into Robotropolis alongside Sally Acorn in order to destroy an antimatter machine of Doctor Ivo Robotnik's that was rumored to be in development, Sonic the Hedgehog of the Knothole Freedom Fighters quickly found himself ensnared just as the Overlander tyrant had planned. Attempting to escape, however, Sonic accidentally tripped himself as a bomb he brought with him into Robotnik's headquarters exploded within reach of the unworkable antimatter machine, wrecking the entire room and knocking Sonic out cold.

Slowly regaining consciousness, Sonic awoke coughing up smoke among the debris. "Yeesh," the blue Mobian hedgehog exclaimed to himself as he slowly stood back up, then added, "Leave it to Robotnik to disregard any resemblance of a no smoking policy in his own base of operations!"

Before he could comprehend his own survival from the explosion, though, Sonic heard a second person groan loudly, which drew his attention to his right, where he saw someone he did not expect to see. Slowly rising from the floor, was a red furred, female echidna slightly older than Sonic himself.

While Sonic only knew of Knuckles the Echidna who lived on the Floating Island as its lone Guardian, the girl before him was different in terms of being clothed in a blue, militaristic uniform with a gold trim, white gloves, and a brown belt with a triangular buckle. In addition, while her left foremost dreadlock was a fully cybernetic replacement of a biological body part, the rest of her dreadlocks were decorated with either crisscrossing white stripes, or small metal plates and rings.

Although Sonic felt he should have been just as suspicious as he was surprised and concerned of this new echidna, his concern ultimately won out as he approached her and asked, "Hey, are you okay?"

At that moment, the young echidna woman's bleary blue eyes widened in alert at both hearing Sonic's voice and, from what Sonic could tell by looking at her expression, the unfamiliarity of their location. Eventually, even as her head kept looking all over the place, she responded by saying, "Who said that?"

"What," Sonic replied, confused at how the echidna apparently overlooked him, prompting him to wave his arms frantically while exclaiming, "I'm right in front of you!" As he did that, however, Sonic soon realized that not even he could see his arms, legs, and torso. "What kind of strangeness is going on here," he asked more to himself than the echidna.

The echidna girl in question was getting more unnerved at the occurring situation, but then, Sonic noticed her adopting an analytical look before she said, "Wait, I see you now."

"You do," Sonic responded with some relief, even though he was curious on why he could not see himself still.

Taking a moment to adjust herself, the echidna replied, "I have internal cybernetic implants in both of my eyes and ears, which allow me to see and hear you on the right frequency." Empowered, she then raised her arm and inputted her hand literally through where Sonic was standing in front of her, much to the hedgehog's surprise. "I see," the echidna said to herself before asking Sonic, "Did you get coated in antimatter in some manner?"

It was then that Sonic felt his eyes widen in realization as he said, "Of course! Sally said that Robotnik's antimatter machine would've turned his robots invisible. When it exploded, it made me invisible and unsolid!"

The echidna showed a small smirk at Sonic's deductive skills before adding, "Not to mention inaudible as well. If I didn't have such implants in my ears, I wouldn't understand you at all."

Sonic returned the expression as he commented, "Fair enough, good looking." It was then, however, that he felt prompted to get back on track as he asked the echidna, "Still, who are you, and where did you come from? I don't think you work for Robotnik, even with the cyborg thing you've got going, but I don't remember seeing you here when I got trapped by the fat guy."

Taking a moment to register Sonic's words, the calculating echidna soon exhaled before answering, "I could ask similar questions to you yourself, but seeing as you asked first, I might as well introduce myself. You may refer to me as Lien-Da."

Sonic felt a look of confusion form on his invisible face as he asked to confirm, "You mean you're Lien the Echidna, like how I'm Sonic the Hedgehog, right?"

Lien-Da could not restrain a scoff at that, but nonetheless explained, "No, Sonic. We echidnas have a unique naming structure compared to most Mobian cultures where the female contains a certain suffix which they inherit from their mothers and pass on to their daughters. My mother," her face hardened a bit before she amended, "my real mother was named Merin-Da, and as her only daughter, I inherited the Da suffix from her."

Although a bit surprised at Lien-Da's sudden frostiness when she mentioned her family, Sonic forced himself to say, "That's interesting." Shaking his head, he then added, "Anyway, maybe we can better swap stories at a different place from here? I don't know if you know this, but Robotropolis is not exactly a safe place for flesh and blood Mobians."

He then moved his body to carry Lien-Da in his arms only to see them phase through her body. Then seeing the young woman's unimpressed expression, Sonic smiled sheepishly as he said, "Sorry. I was going to carry you back to my home village, but I just remembered that I'm not solid at the moment."

Lien-Da rolled her eyes at Sonic's explanation before saying, "The proper word for that is intangible, but that's not the point. Lead the way, tour guide."

"Right," was all Sonic could say to that as he began to lead the echidna out of the building.

While Sonic supposed that Lien-Da had her reasons for her present attitude, that did not mean he was going to get used to it immediately.

[A]

Outside the city limits of Robotropolis

As Sonic led Lien-Da stealthily through the technologically advanced, yet polluted and grim in atmosphere, city he referred to as Robotropolis, she took the time to survey her location with begrudging respect for how a non-echidna, even an Overlander as Sonic described Doctor Robotnik to be, could create such an urbanized fortress and factory mixed together in just ten Mobius years, regardless of it already constructed in the form of Mobotropolis before the Doctor's rise to power.

Considering Sonic was not yet tangible to carry her and simultaneously demonstrate his superspeed at the moment, Lien-Da opted to have the hedgehog tell her what he knew of Mobius's present situation on their way to the village he called Knothole, and he responded as best he could about how Robotnik had wormed his way into the Kingdom of Acorn's leadership during a previous war between it and the Overland, followed by seizing absolute power through his robotic army and the use of a Roboticizer that molecularly converted Mobians from beings of organic tissue into mechanical workers programmed to serve only Robotnik, which many Freedom Fighters, including Sonic himself, opposed.

While Lien-Da, as a Kommissar of the Dark Legion, did find the existence of such a machine fascinating on a scientific and maybe even philosophical basis, she had no intention of becoming a fully mechanical slave of anyone. However, while listening to Sonic's stories were interesting, and she had decided to let the hedgehog know when the antimatter's inaudible and intangible effects on him were wearing off, Lien-Da had to internally admit to herself that such things were just diversions to the crippling feeling of betrayal in her heart.

'I should never have trusted you, Kragok,' Lien-Da thought bitterly in regard to her twin brother, the one person she ever felt true love for and trust towards since the death of their mother, who had given her the means to terminate their neglectful father and become Grandmasters together, and yet, never really wanted a partner to lead the Legion with. While she was more of a military tactician than a true scientist, it was not hard for Lien-Da to figure out that the experimental atomizer Kragok provided her with was meant to explode upon use.

As for her being on Mobius, she would need a real scientist to confirm her theory, but Lien-Da guessed that the Twilight Cage's special properties, the atomizer itself, the antimatter machine Sonic mentioned, and perhaps his very superspeed were all connected. Lien-Da considered allying with Robotnik to get the rest of the Legion out of the Cage, but thought better of it as it would be suicidal and prideless to do so.

Lost in thought she was, Lien-Da did not notice Sonic trying to get her attention until he placed his invisible yet tangible left hand on her right shoulder. "You okay, Lien," he asked her in concern before adding at her curious expression, "You looked like you wanted to commit murder."

'Murder doesn't even begin to describe what I'm feeling right now,' Lien-Da thought sardonically to herself, but instead said aloud, "It's pronounced 'Lien-Da,' Sonic, not simply 'Lien.' It carries more weight than that."

Sonic merely shrugged at her annoyance as he replied, "What's the big deal? The point is you're a pretty girl with a pretty name."

In spite herself, Lien-Da was amused by Sonic's words. "Ha, I suppose I can allow that much at least." Before the hedgehog could then ask what was on her mind previously, Lien-Da's gaze wandered to their surroundings, noting that they were outside of Robotropolis proper and that past the city's polluted clouds, was a yellow sun shining in the sky.

"Uh, Lien," Sonic ventured with a curious tone of voice.

"What is it," Lien-Da curtly responded.

Sonic showed an apologetic smile as he explained, "Sorry, you just looked pretty happy right then and I kinda sorta ruined it for ya."

Initially surprised, Lien-Da relaxed as they both glanced at the sun and she replied, "What can I say? The sun is nice to look at in a warm kind of way."

"So long as you don't stare too closely at it and for long, though," Sonic commented with a joke.

Snorting, Lien-Da said, "Well, my eyes do have implants to protect me from that kind of harm, just to remind you."

"But a good chunk of your cybernetics are internal rather than exposed like your dreadlock?"

Shrugging with a coy grin, Lien-Da answered, "If a woman is beautiful, she should be allowed for others to know that."

Smirking, Sonic added, "And of course, she'll flaunt it, too."

"It might as well be both a blessing and a curse."

The two shared a laugh at that, and, disregarding her pro-echidna upbringing for a moment, Lien-Da could not help but think that Sonic was not as bad as far as non-echidnas go, and he was the first one she met as well. Their merriment ended, however, when both echidna and hedgehog heard rushing footsteps coming their way and heard a female voice speaking with authority from behind a nearby hill.

"Sonic gave his life for our cause," Sonic and Lien-Da heard the girl say before adding, "Now it's up to us to finish the job!"

Turning to her new acquaintance, Lien-Da saw Sonic shaking his invisible head and smiling with nostalgia as he said, "Same old Sal." His expression then changed to surprise as he added, "Wait, they think I'm dead?"

Before Lien-Da could remind Sonic that his invisibility will wear off soon enough, the two of them then heard the sound of a jet in motion and saw a buzzard-like aircraft zoom towards their area in fast motion from Robotnik's own headquarters.

"Holy crud," Sonic exclaimed at the sudden arrival of the aircraft before turning to Lien-Da with concern in his voice. "Robotnik sure knows how and when to drop by unannounced!"

"So I've noticed," Lien-Da commented just as uneasy about their chances of survival as she believed Sonic was.

As the bird-modeled transport hovered over her, Sonic, and what she suspected were Sonic's fellow Freedom Fighters, it did not take long for Lien-Da's sense of fear and helplessness to give way to sheer anger over being weaponless against whatever Robotnik had created. If she had a missile launcher, or even Kragok's atomizer, the oversized construct would be reduced to nothing, and with her trusty whip, Lien-Da would have gladly taken the opportunity to put Robotnik, or whoever else was piloting the flying machine, in their place at her feet.

So lost in her frustrated thoughts, Lien-Da did not notice what was going on around her body until she heard Sonic's suddenly cautious voice, saying, "Uh, Lien?"

"What?"

"Since when could you control electricity, or something?"

Shocked by Sonic's words, Lien-Da finally noticed that her body was indeed generating electricity, especially in the form of whips wielded in both of her hands. 'Looks like the transportation had more side effects than I thought,' she thought to herself in a stumped kind of way before her face then gave way to a savage grin as she swung both electric whips straight at the approaching aircraft, heavily damaging it and forcing it to flee back to Robotropolis.

It did not take long, however, for the plane to crash into the ground, but not before Lien-Da and Sonic saw two Overlanders from a large, overweight one to his smaller, skinnier counterpart escaping and then landing on the ground via parachutes. Exchanging glances with a now visible Sonic, Lien-Da's victorious expression had a smug undertone as she commented, "Well, wasn't that shocking, or what, Sonic?"

Ignoring the fact that he was invisible no longer, Sonic started to laugh with an uproar before he then brought both of his arms on Lien-Da's torso and lifted her up high much to her own surprise and embarrassment. "That was awesome, Lien," he said in good cheer. "I still have a lot of questions about who you are and where you came from, but I definitely know you'll make a great addition to the team!"

"What," was all Lien-Da could say before the both of them saw a Mobian chipmunk leading a two-tailed fox, a walrus, a blond-haired coyote, and a rabbit with a robotic left arm and pair of legs coming straight towards them, their facial expressions both happy at seeing Sonic yet curious upon seeing Lien-Da herself.

"I knew you were still alive, Sonic," the fox boy exclaimed and proceeded to high-five the blue hedgehog. Turning to Lien-Da, though, he uncertainly said, "But who are you, ma'am? I thought that Knuckles guy Sonic and I met on the Floating Island was the only echidna on Mobius."

"No need to worry, Tails," Sonic said to his young friend with assurance in his voice. Gesturing to the female echidna, he then added, "As far as I'm concerned, Lien-Da here is already one of us in spirit at least."

Thinking over her options, Lien-Da decided that perhaps aligning with Sonic's group and learning about the current Guardian would benefit her better than going out on her own in a world she did not know. She would have to keep some things hidden from them in the meantime, but the Kommissar intended to make it work for as long as it could all the same.

Showing a friendly smile to Sonic's friends, Lien-Da told them, "I can imagine that you all have a lot of questions, but as Sonic pointed out to me earlier, your home village would perhaps be a safer place to exchange information than out here. Once we are at your Knothole, though, I will tell you as much as I can about the Dark Legion of my birth."

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I had an interest in the idea of Lien-Da getting sent to Mobius in her teenage years and then bonding with Sonic for a long time, and thankfully, Talyllyn the Iron Warrior on FanFictionNet and I debated on how it would happen and progress, which is what I intend to figure out by writing this.

For those not in touch with Archie Sonic much, this chapter, from Sonic's point of view, starts in the twentieth issue of the comic, and while I originally planned for Lien-Da to have amnesia to help situate herself better with the Knothole Freedom Fighters, I changed my mind for the sake of argument.

Have no fear, though, I will include the Freedom Fighters' reaction to what she tells them about her past as well as a scientific explanation of her new ability, which, for those not in the know, was something she got in canon at the time the Super Genesis Wave was coming upon Archie Sonic.