"OK here we are. Two double Meh Burgers with extra pickles." Dave announced, carrying a tray to the counter.

Sonic grinned at Tails and Penny. "Boy, I love Meh Burger. There's something about their mediocre food that really makes my stomach rumble."

"It's their juicy meet that makes my mouth water." Penny sighed in agreement. "I can't wait to have the daily burger."

A rumble soon came from outside, and Tails' eyes widened. "Is it safe to assume that that conveniently timed event wasn't you?"

"Well it wasn't only me." Sonic said. "We better find out what caused it."

"Agreed." Penny nodded in determination, and quickly ran after Sonic and Tails. They made it just in time to see Obliterator Bot dodge towards them, throwing a boulder at them. Sonic, Tails ,and Penny quickly dodged it.

"Wanna throw me at its face?" Sonic asked, grinning at Tails and Penny. The two grinned back.

"More than anything!" Tails said.

Tails and Penny both deployed their Enerbeams and gave them to Sonic. With Tails' help, Penny began twirling Sonic in the air. The hedgehog did a homecoming attack at the robot, smashing its head off.

"CUT!"

"Cut?" Penny asked in confusion. She turned towards Eggman to see him wearing a movie hat and a loudspeaker in his hand. He kicked it at Sonic, who dodged it.

" I'm used to you ruining my plans, schemes, weapons, fortresses, confidence and robots, but now you've gone too far!"

"Huh?" Penny hummed in confusion. Sonic shared the same confusion as he stared at Eggman. "What's that, Egghead?"

"That robot wasn't supposed to be destroyed in this scene." Eggman said, not answering Sonic's question. "Now I'm gonna have to rewrite the entire second act. Orbot, script!"

Orbot handed Eggman a script, and the doctor read it. Sonic raised his eyes. " Are you making a movie?"

"Not a movie." Eggman said. "The movie, and there may be a way to save the shot you ruined. How'd you like to play Sonic the Hedgehog in my film?"

Sonic shook his head. "No way."

"He's an irritating character who constantly annoys me. It's the role you were born to play!"

"As if Sonic would join you!" Penny hissed.

Tails nodded in agreement. "Come on, Egghead. We all know this movie thing is just a ruse to distract us from some evil plan."

"No," Eggman said. "It's a film. Something totally new. It's not a drama. It's not a documentary. It's somewhere in between, sort of like brunch."

"Yeah. And they both have rotten eggs on the menu. Sorry, not interested. " Sonic grabbed Penny's hand and walked away, followed closely by Tails.

"You know, you could encourage me once in a while." Eggman grumbled, crossing his arms.

Later, Penny snuggled next to Sonic, watching something on the TV. Amy stormed in, annoyance on her face. "Do you have any idea what's going on outside?"

" Judging by your outrage, I'd guess someone's having fun." Sonic hummed.

"Eggman is making a movie."

"We know that, Amy." Penny sighed.

Sonic nodded. "He wanted me to be in it. But I turned him down."

" He found someone else to play you."

"Wait." Penny turned to Amy, her eyes wide. "What?"

She and Sonic shared a look and hurried after Amy. They made it to the scene where Eggman was filming and noticed Dave standing there lazily in a Sonic costume.

" Duh... Maybe if I'd knock down enough robots, then chili dogs will fly out." Dave said flatly.

"That does not sound like something Sonic would say." Penny mumbled, and the blue hedgehog nodded in agreement.

"CUT!"

The gang turned to Eggman, who walked up to Dave. "Good, but remember, you're Sonic the Hedgehog, so make it louder and stupider."

At that, Sonic, Penny, and Amy glanced at Eggman, frowning.

"Let's go again in three, two, one." Eggman said, snapping a movie clipboard.

Dave raised his arms, looking bored out of his mind. " Dargh, dargh, dargh."

Eggman flew up to Dave in his mobile. "What's this? Sonic the Hedgehog causing trouble yet again? I'll make quick work of that menace."

"CUT!"

Penny winced, covering her ears as Sonic burst into the loudspeaker, sounding pretty annoyed. Eggman growled and flew over. "Hey! Only I say cut!"

Sonic stared at Eggman in annoyance. " This film is a joke! You cast Dave the Intern as me?"

"You turned down the part."

"Because I knew you'd get it wrong!"

"Tell you what. If you agree to play you, I'll let you have creative input on your character."

Penny raised her hand. "My client will do it. You're gonna need someone to look out for your best interests on this movie. I'll be your manager."

Sonic smiled at the human girl. "Huh... Okay, I'm in. Only because you suggested it."

"I had a feeling that would work," Penny chuckled.

"Excellent. Dave, you're demoted." Eggman said to Dave, and he pointed to Meh Burger. "Back to catering"

"I never stopped doing the catering!" Dave said, and his eyes widened. "Oh no, my enchiladas!"

Penny watched as Dave ran back to Meh Burger and quickly put the fire out. She chuckled.

This was gonna be interesting...

"In this scene, the Giant Robot chases you. You run up that wall, jump off the top, and do that incredibly annoying thing where you turn into a pointy ball and blow up my beloved machine."

Penny frowned as she listened. "I don't like that, it's dangerous."

Sonic and Eggman turned to the human girl. "Yeah? So?"

"My client will definitely not be doing any stunts." Penny said.

"But he has to destroy the robot. I want this to have universal appeal, and one thing everyone can relate to is having their robots destroyed by a meddlesome hedgehog."

"Then hire a stunt man." Penny suggested.

"Fine..." Sonic groaned.

They hired Knuckles to do Sonic's dangerous rolls, and Knuckles grinned at them, all dressed up in a Sonic suit. "And if you need me to do my own stunts, I also have a Knuckles costume."

"ACTION!"

Penny hummed as she watched the scene. Sonic struck a pose, and Eggman called, "Stuntman in!"

Knuckles walked over and took Sonic's place.

"Annd...ACTION!"

Knuckles let out a yell as Obliterator Bot smashed him to the ground, and Penny winced. "I'm actually glad I made the right decision..."

"Cut! Great scene, Sonic! I like the new ending. Let's set up for the next shot people." Eggman called.

Knuckles groaned as the robot lifted off him, and the echidna shook himself a little.

This went on for a while, with Knuckles taking Sonic's place through the most dangerous scenes, and Knuckles got hurt every time. Penny just felt secretly relived that she made the right choice.

Eggman and a couple of his Yes bots watched the videos.

"This footage is absolutely spectacular, isn't it Yes Bots?"

the bots nodded. "Oh yeah."

"Brilliant."

"Done it again."

"hmmm..." Eggman frowned.

Sonic walked over, frowning himself and holding the script. "Yo, Egghead. I've been reading the rest of the script..."

"And?"

" It's confusing. You present yourself as an underdog and an all powerful tyrant which kinda makes no sense."

"I'm a very complex character."

The Yes Bots nodded in agreement. "Absolutely."

"Couldn't agree more."

" I drink motor oil when no-one's watching."

Sonic continued. "But who's gonna believe that an evil scientist with unlimited resources can't defeat a hedgehog?"

The Yes Bots nodded. "Absolutely."

"Totally correct."

Irritated, Eggman teleported yes Bot 3 away with his controller and glared at everyone else. " Anyone else have something to say about my script?"

Penny smiled as she watched Tails work on yet another invention. Their moment was ruined when Sonic stomped in, holding the script with anger on his face. "Eggman is the worst director I've ever worked with!"

Tails and Penny looked at each other, and Tails glanced at Sonic. " You've never worked with another director, so technically he's also the best director you've ever worked with."

"I'm an actor." Sonic pointed out, holding the script with two fingers. " I was being dramatic, but this script is a mess."

"How so?" Penny asked, walking up. Tails followed and took the script. "Let me see..."

He frowned as he flipped through the pages. "Hmm... Well... If he just covers the origin of his mustache in a flashback instead of putting it at the beginning..."

"I didn't even think of that..." Sonic hummed, sharing the same amount of surprise at Tails' smartness.

The fox continued. "This part where you battle Drill Bot could be pretty cool, but it belongs at the end. And he spent too much time on this musical number. Hand me a pen."

"That's insulting..." Penny grumbled. Sonic chuckled and handed Tails a red pen, and the kitsune started rewriting the script.

The next day, Sonic and Penny walked up to Eggman. Penny cleared her throat, and Eggman turned to them. Sonic held the script to him. " Hey, Egghead. Tails, Penny, and I saved your film."

Eggman took the script, read it, and frowned. "What are you talking about? This is dreadful! Sonic would never say that."

Sonic frowned. "We do the script my way, or I walk!"

"This film must be my vision." Eggman threw the script down and started whining like a child. "Not yours! Mine! Mine, mine, mine! If you know everything, Mr. and Mrs. know-everything then where's your camera, your robots? Neither one of you even has a beret!"

Sonic and Penny glared at Eggman, and walked off.

" I hate that hedgehog." Eggman grumbled as he watched them off.

"I just can't believe that guy..." Penny grumbled as she sat next to Sonic's sunbed. Sonic didn't say anything, but she could easily tell that he was sharing the same annoyance.

Orbot and Cubot rolled up. "Sonic?" Cubot asked.

Sonic frowned at them. " I'm busy."

"What's up?" Penny asked, glancing at the bots with worry. Cubot stared at them with wide eyes. "Please. You gotta stop Dr. Eggman."

"For making a movie?" Sonic asked, not opening his eyes.

Orbot shook his head. " The movie's all a ruse. He's just pretending to film so he can use Drill Bot to drill for Unacquirum under the set."

"What?!" Penny yelped. "That's terrible! Sonic, we've got to help them!"

Sonic frowned, shuffling into a sitting position and glancing at the robots. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Then he's going to use the Unacquirum to build an all-new robot army and throw out all the old ones." Orbot continued.

"Including us!" Cubot said.

" He's going to melt us down and use us for scrap." Orbot said.

"My lifelong dream was to not be melted down and used for scrap." Cubot moaned, clinging to Penny.

Sonic and Penny glanced at each other. Penny gently pried Cubot off her and Sonic grabbed Penny in his arms, and dashed off to Drill Bot, who was drilling in the ground. Sonic and Penny quickly worked together to bring the bot down, and Sonic grinned at Eggman. " So much for your scheme, Egghead!"

"Cut! Terrific! That's a wrap!"

Penny and Sonic stared at each other with open mouths. Sonic turned to Eggman. " Terrific? Penny and I saw through your ruse and foiled your evil plan!"

Eggman snickered. "It wasn't a ruse, Sonic. It was a double ruse."

"Yeah!" Cubot said. "That's approximately... Two ruses. Give or take?"

Eggman scowled at him. "Quiet, you!" He turned to Sonic and Penny. "Thanks for appearing in the last scene of my film." He laughed and flew off, followed by his robots.

"The old double ruse. How did we not see that one coming?" Sonic asked Penny with a sigh.

"I honestly have no idea." Penny shook her head.

Pretty soon, opening night for Eggman's movie came. As being Sonic's manager, Penny stood next to him in the corner, watching the whole thing.

"I can't believe the movie's here!" Penny hummed. "I'm actually curious about it!"

"Honetly, yeah." Sonic hummed, crossing his arms and eyeing the crowd.

Orbot and Cubot rolled up to Eggman, acting as news reporters. Orbot glanced at Eggman. " This film has success written all over it. I think the question on everybody's mind is: what will your next project be?"

Eggman grinned at them. "The plan was always that this would be the first installment of a quadrilogy. That's even better than a trilogy because it's four instead of three."

"What's that, like 8%?" Cubot asked.

"Ooh! There's supporting actor Sonic the Hedgehog with his beautiful and caring manager." Orbot said, pointing to Sonic and Penny, who were writing their autographs for their fans.

Eggman grumbled. "Ignore them! This is my night!"

In the movie theater, everyone chattered excitedly, and Eggman quickly shushed them.

The movie popped up, and Eggman started speaking. "Now that I finally have a mustache, I can embark on my dream of world domination."

At that, everyone burst into laughter. Eggman glared at them. " What?! Stop laughing! I order you to stop!"

The movie Eggman continued. "I can finally fulfill my lifelong evil dream: building my own theme park!"

Everyone laughed again. Eggman growled. "Why aren't they hypnotized?! They're supposed to be hypnotized!"

"In your haste, you forgot to install the movie mind slaver device into the camera." Orbot whispered.

Eggman sighed. "So much for my triple ruse. Okay, everybody out!"

Sonic, Penny, and everyone else left the room, sighing in disappointment, leaving Eggman to enjoy his film.

"This really is quite good. Oh, here's the scene where I watch my movie." Eggman said, popping popcorn into his mouth, a stray tear trailing down his chin.

Next Chapter: Late Fees