Meanwhile, back in San Santos, at the offices of Sorin Brands, a meeting was being held. Heading up this meeting were Hank Sorin & Sheldon Leib, executive producers for Super Changin' Muscle Rangers. Hank Sorin was clean-shaven and had short hair, while Sheldon Leib had feathered hair & a beard.
"So, what's the status on our investigations?" asked Sorin.
"Well sir," replied one of the employees, "we haven't found anything on the kidnappers yet, and neither have the police."
"Damn it, Robinson," said Sorin, "we've gotta find 'em soon! We've got one of the hottest programs in Columbia right now, and if we don't find our stars, we're sunk!"
"Hank, if I may," said Leib, "the police are doing everything in their power to find them. You know that as well as I do!"
"Well, who the heck kidnaps the stars of the hottest TV program in Columbia and gets away with it!?" asked Sorin.
Before his question could be answered, Bokkun flew into the room. Bokkun was a small black robot with two horns on his head and a jetpack on his back.
"Message for you from Dr. Eggman!" said Bokkun, who activated a small yellow TV he was carrying. The image of Robotnik popped up on the screen.
"Greetings, Misters Sorin & Leib," said Robotnik. "My name is Dr. Ivo Robotnik, but you may also call me Dr. Eggman! As the supreme ruler of the world, I just wanted to inform you that your precious little Muscle Rangers are safe with me! Heheheheheheheheh!" The camera panned and focused on the Muscle Rangers stars, still bound by their force fields.
Everyone was shocked when they saw this.
"Damn you!" exclaimed Sorin, who shook his fists at the television, "When I get my hands on you, I'm gonna…"
"Hank, it's a pre-recorded message!" said Leib, who put his hand on Sorin's arm. "Let's hear the rest of it."
Sorin calmed down.
"Now," continued Robotnik, "I am a reasonable man, and I am most willing to return your pitiful little stars to you…on one condition: Deliver me a ransom of 500 million Mobiums in five days. I believe that's roughly equal to 500 million Columbian dollars, is it not?"
Everyone was astonished by the price
"WHAT!? 500 MILLION DOLLARS!?" shouted Sorin. "That's impossible!"
"Hank…" said Leib.
Sorin calmed down again, while Robotnik continued his message.
"If you fail to deliver the ransom by that time, or if you attempt anything funny, I shall have those wretched primadonnas roboticized! Just in case you think I'm not serious, allow me to show you the results of this wondrous little process!"
The camera focused on Wes Westinghouse, former anchorman for Mobius State News, who was now roboticized.
"IN TODAY'S NEWS, ROBOTNIK IS THE GREATEST," said Wes. "ALL HAIL THE SUPREME GLORIOUS LEADER, DR. ROBOTNIK."
Everyone was also shocked by the sight of this.
"Oh, don't worry," continued Robotnik, "I have more subjects where he came from! Muhahahahahahaha!" This time, the camera panned over to Shadow, Rouge, Amy & Antoine, who were all encased in plexiglass tubes, trying in vain to escape.
"Gentlemen, you have five days to think it over," said Robotnik. "I trust you will come to a decision by then, will you not?"
Upon the conclusion of the message, the TV exploded. Nobody was hurt, but everybody was covered in soot. Bokkun had a good laugh and went away.
"That's it, I've had enough of this!" exclaimed Sorin.
"What do we do now, sir?" asked another employee.
"Peterson, get my hover unit ready," ordered Sorin. "We're going to Mobius!"
"Mobius? What for?" asked Leib.
"I know exactly what I'm going over there for. Come on, Sheldon!"
Back in Mobius, Sonic, Tails and the other Freedom Fighters were heading for Eggopolis. Unlike the others, they were more cautious, so they made it into the city itself with hardly a problem and were well on their way to Robotnik's lair. Suddenly…
"Hedgehog alert! Priority one! Surrender!" They found themselves surrounded by SWATbots.
"Aw, bummer!" exclaimed Sonic. "I was hopin' for a surprise early birthday party!"
"Silence!" ordered one of the SWATbots. "Surrender now or be terminated!"
"I dunno, I'm gonna have to think about this for a bit." Sonic turned to his friends: "What do ya think, guys?"
"I'm not sure, either," said Tails
"Well, we have to do something!" said Sally.
"Hey, enough talkin'!" exclaimed Knuckles. "We gotta do something or we're toast!"
"What will it be?" demanded the SWATbot leader.
"Hey, give us a sec, will ya?" asked Sonic. He & his friends huddled together and discussed their current predicament. After a few moments, they broke the huddle.
"OK," said Sonic, "we…uh…think fast!"
Suddenly, Sonic hit a SWATbot with a surprise Spin Dash! His friends took advantage of the SWATbots' momentary surprise to attack them. Tails used a claw hammer, Sally used her computer NICOLE to shoot lasers, Rotor used a pipe wrench, and the rest of the gang used their bare hands.
Having made short work of the SWATbots, they proceeded further to Robotnik's lair, when suddenly, they were met by a group of Hover Bots & Buzz Bombers. They had a rather tough time with this group, so they just dodged whatever they could and crushed the rest.
They finally made it to Robotnik's lair, only to get attacked by more badniks. Luckily, Sonic & co. ducked into a ventilation shaft and lost them.
"NICOLE, search for any life signs belonging to the Muscle Rangers actors!" said Sally.
"Searching…" said NICOLE. "Location found." The location in question was on a different floor, but not excessively far away.
"All right, let's roll!" said Sonic.
While Sonic & his crew had been busy trying to save the Muscle Rangers stars, the stars were being forced to play one of Robotnik's sick & twisted games: Dressed up in their Muscle Rangers costumes, they were acting out a scene from a Super Changin' Muscle Rangers episode that the evil Doctor had written, while some floating cameras filmed it. In this scene, they were surrounded by a few badniks in what appeared to be a snowy mountain backdrop.
"Oh no!" exclaimed Harry/David. "They got us! I don't think we'll live to see the end of July…" Suddenly, he broke character and turned to Robotnik: "Do you really mean that?"
"OF COURSE I MEAN THAT!" shouted Robotnik. "Now, take it from the top and get it right this time, pea-brain!"
"Do you really think you want to say 'July' over the snow?" asked Harry. "Isn't that the fun of it?"
"Just shut up and do the scene like you're supposed to!"
"Look, Mr. Eggman…"
"THAT'S 'DR. EGGMAN'! I didn't go to evil engineering school to be called 'Mister'!"
"…Sorry, Dr. Eggman…I think it's so nice that…that we're in a snowy mountain and we say 'end of July'…"
"And one more thing:" interrupted Robotnik, "I'm sorry, but…"
"Yes, always!" Harry interrupted right back.
"GRRRR…DON'T INTERRUPT!" Robotnik calmed down a little. "Now, could you emphasize the 'end' a bit? 'END of July'?"
"Aw, come on!" exclaimed Johnny. "Even I know that doesn't make any sense!"
"You stay out of this!" said Robotnik.
"He's right," said Harry, "There's just no way that one can say an English sentence like that and emphasize 'end'! It's statistically impossible!"
"I DON'T CARE!" shouted Robotnik. "Do it or else you're going into the Roboticizer!"
"Hey man, get me a jury and show me how you can say 'end' like that and I'll bake a cake for you!" retorted Johnny. The other Muscle Rangers stars laughed at his wisecracking.
"I said stay OUT!" shouted Robotnik. "I will have no more of this tomfoolery from you!"
"Dr. Eggman, if I may," said Harry. "I would just like to take a look at the script again. Please?"
"*Sigh*…very well. But make it fast! If you waste any more of my time, you'll all be roboticized! I shall not have to make myself any clearer than this!"
So, Harry and the others took off their helmets and grabbed their scripts and started reading them over silently. It wasn't long before Harry spoke up again:
"Dr. Eggman, I don't think you know what we're up against! See, about this line: 'Great, now what are we to be doing next?', well…see…it may be grammatically correct, but it's tough on the ear, you know?"
"Look, you imbecile, if you'll just emphasize 'are'…"
"But you can't emphasize 'are'!" said Johnny. "That's like wanting to emphasize 'end' before July!"
"WELL, YOU'RE EMPHASIZING IT ANYWAY!"
At this point, Johnny had enough and threw his script down on the floor. Everyone else followed suit.
"Man, you're losin' you're head!" exclaimed Johnny. "I wouldn't direct anybody like this in Shakespeare! Impossible! Meaningless!" He & the rest of the Muscle Rangers stars started to walk away.
"HALT!" exclaimed Robotnik. "Guards, seize them! Place them in the Roboticizer!"
Suddenly, Snively came running over.
"Sir! Sir! We have a problem!" said Snively.
"Of course we have a problem!" said Robotnik. "Our actors are refusing to cooperate! Now go away, Snively!"
"No, that's not what I was talking about!"
"Then what!?"
"We have some intruders! I tried to warn you earlier, but you told me not to disturb you and I got very confused!"
Robotnik threw his hands up in the air.
"WHAT!? Where are they now, Snively!?"
"They're…"
Suddenly, Sonic & his team jumped down through one of the air vents and into the arena where all this was taking place.
"All right, get your flabby mitts off of those dudes before we bust you up!" said Sonic.
"Ah, I should've known it was you, Hedgehog!" said Robotnik. "After them!"
The SWATbots who were holding the Muscle Rangers hostage disregarded their captives and went for Sonic's team instead. They made pretty short work of those guys, but it wasn't enough. Soon, they were surrounded by a whole legion of SWATbots & Buzz Bombers.
"You're surrounded, you miserable mammals!" said Robotnik. "There's no way out!"
"Hey, is that any way to give a guy a surprise party!?" retorted Sonic.
"Sonic, we need Dinovord power, now!" said Rotor.
"OK then!" Sonic raised his right fist, which had a mysterious ring on it. "Gotta juice!"
Nothing happened.
"No Sonic, that's not it!" said Rotor.
"Oh…right." Sonic tried again. "Go Go Gadget Ring!"
Still nothing.
"Enough fooling around!" said Robotnik. "Come along!"
Sally nudged Sonic with her elbow.
"Sonic, you're supposed to say the name of the Vord, remember!?"
"Right…I knew that!" Sonic was about to raise his fist again, but he paused and asked: "Uhh…what was my Vord again?"
The badniks were slowly closing in on the group.
"Ugh…" Sally facepalmed. "It's the raptor, Sonic."
"Oh yeah, I remember now!" exclaimed Sonic. "It's changin' time!" He and the rest of the group raised their fists.
"RaptorVord!" said Sonic.
"Pterodactyl!" said Tails.
"Allosaurus!" said Sally.
"RhinoVord!" said Knuckles.
"StegoVord!" said Bunnie.
"Polar bear!" said Rotor.
Everyone was now dressed up in color-coded Muscle Rangers outfits (minus the helmets). A few moments later, their respective Vords came crashing through the walls of the arena.
"What!?" exclaimed Robotnik.
"All right, let's rock & roll!" exclaimed Sonic. Everyone jumped into the cockpits of their Vords.
"Sonic here, ready to rock!"
"This is Tails, I'm nominal!"
"Knuckles is here, and I'm gonna crush 'em!"
"Bunnie here, let's start this rodeo!"
"Rotor reporting, all systems go!"
"Let's do this!" said Sally.
With their Vords powered up, the team was ready to go. Er…almost.
"Hey, how do ya control this thing!?" asked Sonic.
"It's easy, Sonic! said Rotor. "All you have to do is use the levers & foot pedals to move, remember?"
With that, they were truly ready to go. The Vords proved almost impervious to the SWATbots' laser rifles & the deadly stings of the Buzz Bombers. Off to the side, Shadow, Rouge, Amy, Antoine & the Muscle Rangers stars were cheering them on.
"No! This wasn't meant to happen!" cried Robotnik. "However, I'm not done with them yet! Eheheheheheheheh!"
When the smoke cleared, Sonic's crew was victorious!
"Dy-no-mite!" exclaimed Sonic.
"Yee-haw!" exclaimed Bunnie.
"OK, let's rescue the others and get out of here!" said Rotor.
"Wait a minute, something's wrong here!" said Knuckles. "Where's Robotnik?"
"Uh-oh, I have a bad feeling about this…" said Tails.
Suddenly, the whole arena started to shake. Then, two giant doors slid open, and out came Robotnik, piloting a new version of his Death Egg Robot. This one was largely identical to the one that Sonic had fought a couple of years ago, only now it was dressed up to look more like Lord Vedd, another Muscle Rangers villain.
"I knew it!" said Tails.
"Come on, guys!" said Sonic. "Let's wreck this junk heap!" Sonic & friends tried to attack the Death Egg Robot, but it wasn't much use. The giant mech was nearly impervious to their Vords and swatted them away as if they were mosquitoes.
"Dang it!" exclaimed Sonic. "What do we do now!?"
"Sonic, we should go into Megavord Mode now!" said Rotor. "Switch to Tank Mode first!"
"Thanks for the brain juice! I know just what to do here!"
Sonic & the others said, simultaneously: "POWER UP!" They all hit the large button in the center of their Vords' control panels and joined into a large, tank-like vehicle, except for Tails' PteroVord.
"Switching to battle mode!" said Sonic.
Then, a computerized voice said: "MEGAVORD SEQUENCE HAS BEEN INITIATED", and their vehicle stood up to become a giant robot. When Tails' PteroVord joined up, the computerized voice said: "MEGAVORD ACTIVATED."
"All right!" exclaimed Sonic. "You're goin' down, Robuttnik!"
"We'll see about that!" retorted Robotnik. Then, the next phase of battle began. The Megavord proceeded to beat the crap out of the Death Egg Robot and cause plenty of damage to the arena. However, Robotnik countered by firing missiles from his robot's hand, which dealt quite a bit of damage to the Megavord.
During this phase, the tubes holding Shadow, Rouge, Amy & Antoine were broken by flying debris. Seeing this, Sonic grabbed the radio/PA mic from the control panel and said: "Shadow, if you can hear me, you guys boogie on out of here and take the Muscle Rangers with ya! We'll try to hold Robuttnik off!"
"Right!" replied Shadow. While the Megavord was still fighting, Shadow & his crew slipped away with the Muscle Rangers stars in tow. The Death Egg Robot's attention never strayed.
As for the Megavord, it was still struggling.
"Why won't he croak!?" demanded Sonic.
"There's one last thing we can try," said Rotor. "Power up the Muscle Sword!"
"Oh yeah!" exclaimed Sonic. Thus, with the Muscle Sword spawned, the Megavord could not only block the Death Egg Robot's attacks, but it was better-equipped to take on the giant mech. After a few good swipes, the Death Egg Robot was destroyed. However, Robotnik managed to eject from the machine, unhurt except for his pride.
"I HAAAAAAAAAAAAATE THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT HEDGEHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOG!" shouted Robotnik.
Its mission complete, the Megavord separated into its individual Vords. Sonic & the rest of the honorary Muscle Rangers jumped out.
"Oh yeah!" exclaimed Sonic. "That was waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy past cool!"
"You said it, Sonic!" said Tails.
"Come on, let's go!" said Sally. The group escaped Robotnik's HQ, while the Vords returned to their lair.