Amy chuckled as she danced around her house, saying good morning to everyday things. "Good morning, world. Good morning, chair. Good morning, plant." She twirled over to where she kept her hammer, patting its now empty space. "Good morning, hammer!"

Wait.

Empty space?

Amy's green eyes widened with shock as she scanned the spot where her hammer was supposed to be. "Hammer? Hammer! HAMMER!" She screamed, causing a flock of birds to fly off.

Later, Amy was still upset about the loss of her hammer. She clearly showed it as she walked with the gang through town that same day. Penny glanced at Amy in sympathy as the pink hedgehog fretted about her prized posession being missing. "I can't believe my hammer's gone. It's... it's who I am! It's like Sonic without his speed."

Knuckles nodded. "Or me without my fists." He thought for a moment and shrieked in fright. "Aah! Where are they?"

Sticks glared at him. "They're on your hands."

Knuckles glanced at his fists and sighed in relief. "Oh, thank goodness. For a moment there, I was as useless as Amy without her hammer."

Sonic frowned in confusion. "Who would want to steal you hammer anyway?"

"That is something to think about." Penny frowned. "I mean, there could be a lot of reasons to steal Amy's hammer, but..."

She was interrupted by whistling. The gang turned around to see Eggman walking up with a bag of vegetables. "Good morning, Losers!"

Amy glared at him threateningly. "Eggman, you stole my hammer!"

Eggman glared back. "If I wanted a hammer, I'd make one myself." He growled in annoyance. "I was having such a lovely morning, and now I got all worked up."

Sonic smirked at Eggman. " So, what are you gonna do about it, attack us?"

And just like that, Eggman launched an attack on the gang. Penny let out a yell as she smashed a robot with her staff. Tails smirked at Sonic. " What are you gonna do about it, attack us? Nice calling, Sonic."

Amy had been so used to battling with her hammer that she tried attacking the robot, but realized she didn't have her hammer this time. She let out a yell as she fell to the ground.

"Amy!" Penny cried, smashing a bot and running over to the pink hedgehog's aid. "You okay?"

Amy nodded. She glanced at her hands, which looked like they were curled around something. She groaned. "What am I supposed to do with my hands?!"

Penny sighed. She wished she could comfort the pink hedgehog, but she never had anything precious stolen from her like that. I mean, if you count Bea, then fine, but it was nothing compared to a lost hammer, and Penny confirmed that when she glanced at Amy's sad expression.

The two turned to see the rest of the gang finishing the fight, and Amy glanced at her hands with a sad sigh. " Knuckles was right, I am useless!" She ran off, crying.

"Knuckles..." Penny growled at him. Sure, he didn't know what he was saying about him being useless, but still, he shouldn't talk like that around Amy...

Knuckles glanced down at the human girl. "What? I can't help that I'm insightful."

Sonic sighed and turned to Eggman, preparing for a spin attack. "Well, I guess I need to deal with this. Sorry Egghead, need to make this a quick one." He curled up in a ball and slammed his body against Eggman's mobile, and the doctor flew off, screaming, "I completely understand!"

Penny sat down next to Amy, trying to comfort the pink hedgehog while the rest of the guys looked for weapons the girl could use as a substitute until they found her hammer. The door to Amy's house opened, and Penny and Amy glanced up to see the gang hauling in a box of weapons.

Sonic grinned at her. "Amy, your worries are over."

Knuckles nodded. "We didn't find your hammer. But we did find this crate of hand-to-hand combat weapons."

Sticks grinned. "And the best part is, they're all unregistered with a serial number scratched off."

"What's so great about that?" Penny asked Sticks, confused. Sticks grumbled, not answering her.

Amy glanced at the gang with a grateful expression. "I appreciate your help everyone. But I called it professional."

"Who?" Penny asked curiously.

The door slammed open and Penny jumped in Sonic's arms, completely startled by the sudden entrance. She and Sonic glanced at the door to see a green crocodile with yellow eyes, black sports jacket, and a gold chain around his neck. Amy looked super happy to see him, while Penny was having a hard time figuring out what all the excitement was about this croc.

The croc grinned at them, his hands on his hips. "In this matter, some would call tragically a small hobble, I, Vector the Detector will begin my investigation of 'The Case of the Missing Hammer'."

Sonic glanced at Vector in surprise. "Vector? What are you doing here?"

"CUT!"

Sonic and Penny turned over to see Vixen walking in, his arms folded behind his back. He gave the team a displeased glance. "No no no, you're excited that Vector's here."

"I am?" Penny mumbled. "If you ask me, I'm more confused than excited."

Amy turned to Sonic and Penny. "Sonic, Penny, have you seen his show? He'll find my hammer for sure."

Sonic turned to Vector. "When did you get a reality show?"

Vector grinned at them, and Penny swore she saw dollar signs in his eyes as he spoke. "When they paid me big time TV do-re-mi."

Tails glanced at Vector with worry. "You should probably see an optometrist about that."

Pretty soon, Vector stood outside of Amy's house, the camera men at his side. Penny watched with Sonic as the detective started the "Case of the Missing Hammer". Vector turned to the cameramen. " I'm here outside the vic's domicile, looking for clues."

Sonic must've been feeling jealous, because the blue hedgehog sped over and spoke quickly. "I'm looking for clues, too! And I can do it 50 times faster than Vector!" He zoomed around the house and stopped, shrugging. " Nope, nothing, that criminal mastermind left no trace."

Vector raised his eyes and glanced at the ground. "Yeah, no trace. Except these footprints."

Penny followed his gaze to the ground, where footprints were visible. Penny frowned suspiciously. She, Sonic, and Vector followed them until they came across a Meh Burger VIP card.

Penny raised her eyes. "A Meh Burger VIP card?"

Sonic shared the same look of confusion. " I've never seen one of those before."

Vector tossed the card and caught it with a smirk. "They're reserved for the cultural elite. We have our first clue."

They moved the scene to Meh Burger. Vector glanced down at Sonic and Penny as he rested on the counter. " We're gonna need this palooka to name names. And unlike these soft drink cups, he ain't gonna spill easy. Time for the old good cop bad cop routine."

"I love that game!" Penny smirked. Sonic nodded, eager. "I'll play bad cop!"

Vector glanced at him. "This is my clambake, and I always play bad cop."

Dave walked up, looking bored as ever. "Could I take your order?"

Vector held up the card with a frown. "What's the skinny on this VIP card?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Dave responded. And thanks to that response, Vector slapped Dave with the card and Sonic grabbed his shirt and pulled him forward, causing the Meh Burger boy to cry out and Penny to wince as the hedgehog glared threateningly at him. "My partner wants to go easy on you. He believes your little fairy tale, but something smells rotten to me."

"It's Meh Burger!" Dave wheezed, his eyes wide. "That's just how it smells."

Vector knocked over some things off the counter, and Dave's eyes widened. "Okay, I admit it! The Meh Burger VIP program is a sham! We just give cards out to disgruntled costumers to make them feel special. Nearly everyone in town's got one."

"Everyone?" Penny frowned. "Sonic and I don't have one."

"She's right." Sonic said, glaring at him.

"Well somebody's gotta pay full price to offset the steep discounts everyone else is getting.."

So yeah, it seemed that Dave was innocent. Penny sighed and glanced at Sonic. "How are we going to tell Amy?"

"We'll think of something," Sonic said reassuringly, wrapping an arm around the girl. They walked to Amy's shack and opened the door, where Amy was sparing with Sticks with some of the spare weapons they collected for her.

At the sound of Sonic and Penny walking towards her, Amy looked up with a smile. "How'd it go with Vector?" She let out a yelp as Sticks accidentally banged her head with her bo staff, and she glared at the badger, who shrunk away quickly.

"Um...Um..." Penny stuttered, a little afraid of Amy's fiery temper. Thankfully, Sonic saved her. "Dead end."

Amy slumped over, moaning.

Tails glanced up from the couch with a smile, remote in hand. " Maybe a TV break will take your mind off things."

Amy grumbled and took a seat next to Tails, who switched the channel to the Comedy Chimp show, where Justin Beaver was talking about his new carrier. " It's a singing competition show, where I, along with the wife of an aging rock star, and some guy you've never heard of, harshly criticize regular people and crush their dreams."

Comedy Chimp grinned. "Sounds great! You know what else sounds great? Surgery without anesthesia!"

Laughter played in the back ground.

Comedy Chimp continued. "I mean, I've used butter knives that weren't that dull."

More laughter.

" I tried watching that show last night. My TV pulled the plug on itself!"

Even more laughter.

Completely annoyed, Justin hopped off the couch and ran off.

The next day, anxious villagers stood outside Comedy Chimp's studio, whispering among themselves. A cop waved his hand, ushering them out. "Move it along, nothing to see here!" He glanced over the duck tape to see the busted picture of Comedy Chimp and his eyes widened. "Whoa, look at that, someone just smashed up this Comedy Chimp sign!" He hurried after everyone, trying to get them to come back.

Penny winced at the sight of the busted painting. "Man, oh, man, someone really must hate Comedy Chimp."

Beside her, Amy gasped excitedly. "Those marks are from my hammer!"

"So your hammer's become senton and hates tangy comedy?" Sticks asked.

"That's one theory." Vector hummed, glancing back at the gang before looking at the painting. "But my money's on Justin Beaver. After Comedy Chimp clowned him last night, the guy must've gone bananas! Which means, he's the jocko who stole this tomato's hammer."

Sonic frowned. "That's all well and good, Vector, but you're still missing one thing...any evidence at all?"

Vector smirked, putting his hands to his hips. "That's why I propose...a stakeout!"

Later that night, Penny soon found herself creamed in between Vector and Sonic, eyeing Justin's house suspiciously. Sonic groaned in annoyance. "We've been waiting all day. Stakeouts are never like this on TV, there's usually two lines of dialogue and then they see their guy."

Vector lowered his binoculars and glared at him. "Well, life is not TV."

"Touché." Penny chuckled.

The door suddenly opened, drawing the attention of the three bickering partners. There stood Justin, looking left and right, pretty suspicious you would say. The beaver quickly ran off, and Vector signaled his camera crew to follow them. Penny let out a tired yawn and hurried after Sonic.

The gang made it to the library, hiding behind a wall. Penny and the others watched as Fastidious opened the door, allowing Justin in. Sonic narrowed his eyes. "There must be some kind of beaver conspiracy!"

Vector burst open the library door, followed by Sonic and Penny. "The jig is up, Justin!" Vector gasped in horror at people surrounding the table Justin was sitting on. "He's taking hostages!"

"No, looks more like a book club." Penny said with an eye roll. Mrs. Vandersnout glared at Vector. "We're not hostages, we're a book club! We meet here every night!"

"I knew it!" Penny muttered.

"A-book club?" Sonic asked, not leaving his fighting stance.

I've gotta keep it on the clear destrins." Justin whispered, his eyes wide. "Cause if my vapid fan base discover that I enjoy fine literature, they'd shun me!"

"Makes sense." Penny nodded at Justin. "Don't worry, you're secret's safe with me."

Sonic hummed, glancing from the dictionary. "Guess vocabulary checks out!"

"And so does his alibi!" Vector said, turning to his camera crew. "If he was here last night, he ain't the palooka that smashed that Comedy Chimp sign!"

"Well, keep your chins up!" Dixon smiled. "Tomorrow we'll go back to the original crime scene, see if we can't find another clue..."

"Yeah, I need to get to bed anyway..." Penny moaned, leaning heavily over Sonic's shoulder.

The next day, Vector, Sonic, Penny, and the cameramen met outside Amy's home.

"Vector, I found something!" Dixon announced. Vector ran over and narrowed his eyes at what laid before them...

An empty pie crust along with binoculars.

"This must've been the point! He was chewing down on this pie while waiting to catch that doll's hammer!"

Sonic raised his eyes at the pie, holding it. "But who eats a pie from the middle?"

"Curious..." Penny hummed, frowning and crossing her arms.

"I don't know." Vector said. "But while you were flabbing your gums, I formulated a foolproof plan to find out!"

"A pie festival?" Sonic muttered.

Penny, Sonic, and Vector were all standing beside a table of pies. Sonic wasn't sure if this was going to work, but Vector had faith in his plan.

"Now, all we gotta do is see which one of these jokers eats their pie...from the middle out!" Vector smirked.

Later, everyone ate the pie, but no one ate the pie from the middle. Vector moaned and slumped off, followed by Penny and Sonic. The girl stayed quiet, trying to think of what might have happened to Amy's hammer, and who would've stolen it.

Sonic broke the silence, glaring at Vector. "Great idea, Vector, that pie festival was a bust! The only thing we learned is that our villagers ignored tip jars."

"I didn't see you coming up with anything, fur ball!" Vector snapped.

Penny quickly got in front of the two, trying to keep Sonic from strangling Vector as he yelled, "WHO ARE YOU CALLING FUR BALL, LEATHER HEAD!"

"Now, Wolfie!"

At the sound of the TV, the gang turned to the TV. Comedy Chimp grinned at him. "I noticed you weren't at the Big Pie Festival today, we didn't want you to miss out, so..." With a mighty heave, Comedy Chimp tossed the pie at Wolfie, and the pie fell, showing that the pie crust stayed put, while the middle of the pie was all over Wolfie.

Vector narrowed his eyes.

The next day...

"Let's look at the clues," Vector said as he, his camera crew, Team Sonic, Wolfie, Comedy Chimp and Dixon stood in the Comedy Chimp studio. Vector continued. "Who has a Meh Burger VIP card, a grudge against Comedy Chimp, and is continuously hit in the face with pies?"

"Old Monkey!" Knuckles cheered.

"No!" Vector said. "The real culprit is somebody with a happy-drop comedy routine who could utilize an oversized hammer." He walked up to a chest and turned to the crowd, his eyes narrowed. "Wolferton T. Sidekick!"

"Hey-oh!" Wolfie grinned, but realized what was happening. "Wait, what?!"

Vector opened the case and pulled out Amy's hammer.

"My hammer!" Amy squealed and darted over to Vector, catching the crock in a hug. The cops grabbed Wolfie and dragged him off. "No, I didn't steal anything!" Wolfie protested. "I'd never do this!"

Amy took the hammer and swung it around, giving Vector her biggest smiles. "Oh, thank you so so so much! Nothing can replace my hammer...it's one of a kind!"

Vector narrowed his eyes.

After that episode of the day, Vector paced around the room, his arms folded behind his back thoughtfully. Dixon smiled at him. "Great job, Vector!"

Vector nodded. "Yeah, but something that scurtch said has been rattling my chin! Her hammer is one of a kind, why would he steal something for his routine that's so easily recognizable?"

Dixon narrowed his eyes at Vector. "Vec, Baby, you did good! You got the guy, let it go!"

Vector frowned. Something still seemed fishy. He walked up to Sonic and Penny's shack and knocked on it. Penny ran to it. "Oh, hi, Vector!" She looked over her shoulder. "Hey, Sonic, Vector's here!"

Sonic walked over, his eyes wide with surprise. "Vector, where's your camera crew?"

"Things got a little dodgy and I'm flying solo." Vector explained. "This thing goes much deeper than I thought. I need your help, mac!"

"Now, back to the conclusion of the Case of the Missing Hammer..."

Vector, Penny, and Sonic grinned at the cameramen. Vector cleared his throat. "Amy's Hammer, found by me. But: Was the wolf really the culprit? Or was he a patsy? With the help of Sonic and Penny, we're about to find out!"

"That's right." Penny said.

Sonic grinned. "All clues pointed to Justin Beaver, But, when he had an alibi, the clues mysteriously shifted to Wolf Sidekick."

"So, who had a grudge Justin, and Wolf Sidekicks' prop chest?"

"We're about to find out." Penny smirked, knocking on the door with Sonic and Vector. Dixon opened the door and narrowed his eyes. "Hey, you're not the pizza guy!"

"There he is!" Penny said, narrowing her eyes. "Dixon was the hammer thief!"

Sonic nodded. "He has a Meh Burger VIP card, as well as a motive to frame Justin Beaver!"

"After his failed singing career, Justin aided Dixon as his manager." Vector said.

"But when Justin's alibi checked out, he had to frame somebody else! As a TV producer, he had acess to the studio, and planted the hammer in Wolf Sidekick's prop chest!"

"What do you got to say for yourself, you mug?" Vector sneered.

Dixon gulped. He tried taking off, but Amy got in his way, her precious hammer in hand. "Pizza's here, Dixon, and it comes with extra justice!"

Dixon let out a yell as the cops handcuffed him and dragged him out.

Penny grinned at Vector. "I gotta say, that was the most fun mystery I've ever been involved with!"

"Looks like we make a pretty good team after all!" Vector grinned at Sonic and Penny. "We nabbed the real crook, and nobody got hurt!"

Well, someone did.

Wolf Sidekick sighed as he glanced outside his cell. "Hello? Do I get a phone call or something? Hey-oh..."

NEXT CHAPTER: WHERE HAVE ALL THE SONICS GONE?