8:51 AM, March 7, 14012 AD

Rail Canyon, United Federation of Mobius

Sonic skidded to a stop, dragging his heels against the granite that made up the floor of the canyon. A few feet ahead of him, Shadow was holding his Emerald out in front of him, trying to detect the exact location of the powerful gem they were attempting to find. A few feet behind him, Silver was coming to a stop, floating down steadily from the air, resting his flying abilities after a long and exhausting journey. Finally, about a hundred feet behind them all, Jonas reached a stop, panting.

"How do you move that fast?" Jonas called out between tired breaths. "A bit faster and I'd say you were running at the speed of sound!"

"We're not that fast," Silver replied. "Only half that speed."

Jonas' feet started to wobble with exhaustion and surprise, but he found a boulder to sit down on before he collapsed.

Shadow heard a roaring noise about two hundred feet up. He looked skyward, and so did the other three members of the group. They saw a strange metal object fly overhead, carrying two glowing objects. It slowed to a glide, then to a stop as it landed on a nearby pillar of rock. Even Jonas, who had only been introduced to the objects a few hours ago, recognized what they were.

"It's got two Emeralds!" he exclaimed.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," Sonic sarcastically replied. "The question is, how do we get up there and grab them?"

Sonic's question did not go unanswered. Silver took flight, spinning his quills and glowing with a bluish aura as he rose up. He noticed that the aircraft carrying the two emeralds was actually a humanoid robot, not much bigger than himself. The robot was similar in appearance to a hedgehog, with similar proportions and the same eye setup. The robot's head and torso were covered in gleaming golden armor, and so were its hands and shins. Its fingers were long and jointed, with small knife-like piercing devices at the ends. Its feet were toeless and smooth, giving the appearance of short boots. Silver recognized the robot immediately. It was one he had hoped to never see again.

"Metal Super!" Silver exclaimed. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be deactivated and locked in a stasis tube!"

"Who?" Jonas asked Shadow.

"Metal Super Sonic. He was built by an evil scientist to resemble Sonic, and he has all of Sonic's powers, and then some. Fortunately for us, he's not as clever as a true hedgehog, and that allowed us to defeat him last time," Shadow explained.

"Ah, Silver. Sonic. Shadow. It's been a long time," Metal Super said. Jonas was surprised that the robot could speak.

"What do you want?" asked Sonic. "Why are you taking the Emeralds?"

"I want revenge on you and your pathetic technology-retarded civilization," Metal Super replied. "Especially you three, for locking me up in that tube. I was stuck doing nothing but playing Sonic 3 with Silver Sonic II! Do you have any idea how hard it is to beat him in two-player mode?"

"You deserved it," replied Silver.

"Enough! I shall obliterate all of… wait a minute. Who's the fourth guy? Weren't there only three of you last time?"

"I came here to help these hedgehogs in the hunt for the Emeralds, and I'm not giving up without a fight." Jonas replied. He raised his Emerald.

"Jonas, be careful around him," Sonic told him. "We don't even know if you can use Chaos Control yet."

"Enough of this banter," Metal Super interrupted. You have four Emeralds, and I want them. I'm prepared to fight you all for them."

"You're on!" all three hedgehogs replied at once. Immediately, Silver started hovering and put his fists up, Shadow raised his Chaos Emerald, and Sonic crouched down and extended his razor-sharp quills. Jonas, not sure how much he could help, raised his Chaos Emerald.

Metal Super and the others were off in a flash. The battle became a high-speed, high-tech blur as Metal Super used telekinesis to throw boulders at the hedgehogs, Sonic struck Metal again and again with his spines, Shadow hit Metal over and over with energy blasts from his Emerald, and more. Jonas decided that he might as well do something, so he raised his Emerald, concentrated on the spot right behind the robot, and thought to himself, Chaos Control.

There was an effect, but not one that he had expected. Instead of teleporting, a beam of white light shot straight up from the Emerald, reaching as far up as Jonas could see. The beam intensified rapidly, and a shockwave of energy similar to the one that sent him to this dimension shot out from the Emerald. The blast rapidly approached the battling hedgehogs, organic and robotic alike.

"He used Chaos Control!" exclaimed Silver. "RUN!" He took off flying.

"Get back here, you…" yelled Metal Super. But it was too late. The blast of energy had already hit him, sending him crashing down to the ground from the top of the pillar. When he hit, he stopped moving and his eyes went black.

Sonic and Shadow emerged from the boulder they were hiding behind.

"How did you do that?" Sonic asked Jonas.

"I don't know, but I've seen that blast before. It looked similar to a smaller version of the one I saw back in my own world," Jonas replied.

"It was the Chaos Emerald of Power Scream," Shadow stated. "Its unique power is unleashing a shockwave of energy that spreads Chaos Control over a wide area."

"So that's the one we gave him," said Sonic.

Jonas heard a rushing noise behind him. He wheeled his head around to see what it as. To his surprise, Metal Super was floating above the ground and rising steadily into the air. He pointed this out to the others. Sonic and Shadow looked up in shock. Metal Super was now a humanoid mass of dark energy with glowing yellow eyes.

"The First Evil," Sonic realized with shock.

"But how could it disguise itself as that robot?" Jonas asked.

"The First can change its form to look like any dead person," Shadow replied. "Apparently, it can do the same for deactivated robots."

"Bravo," the First said in a sinister voice. "You've discovered who I am. But that does not change the fact that I need those Emeralds. And you will give them to me."

"Never!" Jonas yelled. He had seen far worse things in his memories.

"In that case, I will take them." The First raised the two Emeralds it possessed and mumbled, "Chaos Control." Three of the Emeralds that the hedgehogs possessed teleported out of their grasp and into the First's. The First raised the Emeralds triumphantly, only to realize that there were only five, and the sixth had not been captured.

"Where's my sixth emerald?" exclaimed the First. It looked down to see that Jonas still had it. "How did you keep it from me? No matter." It raised the Emeralds again, trying to teleport Jonas' emerald over, but raised his own Emerald and shouted, "Chaos Control!" A blast of energy from the Chaos Emerald of Power Scream knocked the First Evil back. It landed on top of a nearby stalagmite and then teleported away.

"Phew. I thought he'd never go away," stated Sonic.

"It may have left us, but it took all but one Emerald," Shadow said. "If it gets eight Emeralds before we do, it'll be unstoppable!"

A whooshing noise above the heads of the group signaled the arrival of Silver. He flew over the wall of the canyon, then descended and dropped down next to Sonic.

"Hey, guys," Silver said. "So, what did I miss?"

12:56 AM, November 17, 2661

The Annex room

The Giver was exhausted. He had recently performed the most powerful—and dangerous—memory transfer of his life. He, along with the machine known as the Processor that regulated memory transfer, had sent almost all of his memories out into the Community to be Received by the population, leaving only one of each type of memory. Even as he finished the transfer, though, he knew something had gone wrong. There was a lot of energy flowing out there, but he could sense that most of it was not his own. There was something else that was Giving to the population, and he was afraid to find out what it was.

"Hello, Giver."

The Giver whipped his head around to see a strange being hovering in the air behind him. It was a strange, hedgehog-like creature with glowing yellow eyes, surrounded by a purple aura. It almost seemed to be made of dark energy itself.

"Now, old man, tell me," it said in a harsh, sinister voice, "where is the boy called Jonas?"

TO BE CONTINUED

In the next exciting chapter of the Processor, you will see and learn some exciting things as the final battle with the First Evil starts up, including:

*Super Sonic

*Dark Super Shadow

*The First Evil's true form

*The mysterious hedgehog from chapters 1-3's name and origins

*And whether our heroes actually have a chance at beating the ultimate evil.