Verpa the chinchilla came across The Orange Orb, an entity which shares life energy with every organism in its region. However, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It turned out that nexi sometimes reorganised themselves, releasing a lot of energy. The Orange Orb sucked Verpa into a vortex. He should have been torn apart, but instead he was fused with the Orb. Verpa’s fur turned salmon. He was paralyzed, floating in the nexus's power field.

Team Sonic detected an energetic anomaly in The Orangery. They went there and found Verpa. Despite the paralysis, the chinchilla could contact them. He warned them not to get near, because they might get hurt. But Sonic, Tails and Knuckles saw that Verpa was suffering and they decided to free him.

The three were too weak to do it by themselves, though. They turned to Master Emerald for help. However, the Emerald Forest's nexus could do nothing about it, because it wasn't able to leave its region. Even if Master Emerald had granted them some of its power, it might have not make it to The Orangery.

Fortunately, Tails came up with a solution. He built four doorknob-shaped devices that could help Verpa control the enormous amount of energy. Sonic gathered all the Chaos Emeralds, went Super and stuck the devices in the chinchilla's head. It worked! The field disappeared and Verpa landed on the ground.

The friends thought Verpa could help them fight Mephiles, who got fused with a similar entity. That's why they checked if the chinchilla had any superpowers. Verpa was asked to remove one of the devices. It really unlocked some powers, like flying, super strength and telekinesis. They weren't powerful at first. Despite that, Tails clearly forbade taking the rest of the gear out.

However, Verpa was so fascinated with his new abilities that he stopped listening to anyone. He did whatever he felt like. The chinchilla was arrogant, he seemed to have forgotten what the enormous power did with him. The only things he couldn't do were leaving The Orangery and time travel.

Verpa removed the second device. That made his powers a lot stronger. Then he also took out the third, which resulted in barely controlling his skills. He could basically destroy a strip of land with just looking at it unknowingly.

However, the maniac craved even more. He managed to collect 7 Chaos Emeralds to become and even more powerful. The Ostoyas sensed what was happening and came to stop Verpa. Fortunately, even without engaging them, the chinchilla couldn't use the Emeralds due to his energy level. The Emeralds rejected Verpa and fused into a creature called Meraldus. The knockback was quite strong and the chinchilla lost his last device. That caused the paralyzing energy field to return. Verpa was helplessly floating again. The power field destroyed Meraldus.

Team Sonic saved the chinchilla one more time. He felt guilty and didn't want to use the powers at all. The friends explained that they need him to fight an enemy as strong as him. They managed to convince Verpa to face the challenge...