Eventually, Sonic reunited with Shadow, the Muscle Rangers, and all those other cats, who were out in the plains. Everyone was having a good time chatting with each other.
"Hey, I can't thank you guys enough for what you did back there!" said Johnny.
"Ain't no thang!" said Sonic. "We're always glad to play hero for folks in need!"
"Yeah!" said Tails. "Sonic & I have saved the world lots of times!"
"Really?" queried Johnny. "Tell me more; I'm all ears!"
Harry was having a conversation with Rotor:
"I've seen a number of technological developments both on and off the set," said Harry, "but what I just saw far surpassed anything I had seen before! Did you create those?"
"Yes, I did!" replied Rotor. "I can't exactly give away all my secrets, but maybe I can give you guys some technical advice for the show! Will you let me?"
"Actually, I think you'd have to talk to the executive producers, but I'm sure they'd be open to suggestions."
Bunnie & Alicia were having a spirited conversation, too:
"Hey, thanks for saving me!" said Alicia.
"Aw, it was nothin'!" said Bunnie. "I'm just happier than a fox in a chicken coop right now!"
"Wow, you've got a real way with words! Maybe you could be a writer for the show someday!"
"Aw, shucks…I'd love to, but I already got a job that needs doin'!"
"Don't worry; the series is still doing well! I'm sure you'll get an opportunity one day!"
"Ya really think so?"
"Sure!"
Sally & the two Amys were also having a lively conversation:
"I'm soooooo glad to meet you!1!" exclaimed Amy Rose. "My name is Amy, too, and I have all your merchandise!"
"Wow…I've never seen anyone as excited as you!" said Amy Sutherland.
"Believe it! Your show is, like, one of the greatest things I've ever seen!"
"You know what I love about your show?" said Sally. "I love the fact that even though you act like a 'valley girl', your character can be surprisingly deep!"
"Like thanks, Sally!" said Ms. Sutherland. "That was totally sweet of you!"
"You're welcome!
"Oh, and guess what else!?" said Amy Rose. "I even wrote my own Muscle Rangers fanfiction!111!"
"You write fanfiction, too!?" exclaimed Amy Sutherland. "Omigosh, that is tooooo funny!"
"Omigosh, no way!1!1! We should totally get together some time!"
"I'd love to, but I've got a busy schedule! I totally won't forget you, Amy!"
"Nor will I, Amy!"
(Well, I'm happy that Ms. Rose has found a passion of her own,) thought Sally, (but I doubt that her writings are very good.)
Suddenly, Antoine cut in and grabbed Amy Sutherland's hand.
"Oh, Mademoiselle Hartman, I am honoring to minally feet you!" exclaimed Antoine, who started to passionately kiss Ms. Sutherland's hand. However, she jerked it away and slapped Antoine.
"Ewwwww, get away from me, you creep!" exclaimed Ms. Sutherland. Turning to Amy Rose, she asked: "What's his problem!?"
"Don't worry about him!" replied Amy Rose. "He's just gaga right now! I think maybe it was from being held hostage. But hey, I can't blame him! I'd sooooo do that to Sonic if I ever went bonkers!1!
Meanwhile, Rouge took an interest in Oliver:
"Hey, nice to meet you, darling! My name's Rouge the Bat, but you can call me Rouge!" She winked at him.
"Nice to meet you," said Oliver. Rouge kissed his hand, while he merely gave her an odd look.
"Say, that show of yours is fantastic!" said Rouge. "Are you free at all?"
"Unfortunately, no. I've got a busy schedule ahead of me."
"Awww…too bad. I was hoping we could go out together! However, if you change your mind, I've got something for you!" Rouge took out a pen & paper from her cleavage, wrote down her phone number, kissed the paper and handed it to Oliver.
"Call me sometime, eh?" Rouge winked at Oliver again. Knuckles was on the sideline, facepalming at Rouge's advances. She took notice of this.
"What!?" said Rouge.
"Ugh…you know he's not gonna go out with you, right?" replied Knuckles.
Rouge's demeanor became more comical:
"Oh, don't be so jealous, Knuckie! I can give my number to whoever I want!"
"I'm not jealous! I'm just being realistic!"
"Don't deny it; I know when you're being jealous!"
"Grrrrrrrr…SHUT UP!"
Oliver couldn't help but laugh at the whole thing. Knuckles went over to him and said: "What, you think this is funny!?"
"Sorry, couldn't help it, man!" said Oliver.
Of course, Shadow was elated to see his idol, Manny Taylor, so much so that he actually bowed before the guy.
"Oh Walt, I cannot tell you what an honor this is!" said Shadow. "To me, you're more than a hero; you're a brother! For many years now, I have been without a friend or family, and for the first time in my life, I have found a guiding light! Thank you so very much!"
"Yo, little man, you can get up now!" said Manny.
"Yes, my master." Shadow did so.
"'Master'!?" Manny laughed. "Man, you must be some kind of crazy!"
"No, I'm deeply serious. You have given me hope, and for that, I owe you my eternal gratitude. Why, I believe it was you who said, 'Every pain ends with hope, and every madness ends with enlightenment', was it not? Such a truth has never been spoken by anyone!"
"Look, homey, it's just a TV show, all right? I'm real happy for you and all, but there's more to life than TV, know what I'm sayin'?"
Shadow was astonished.
"Walt…what are you talking about?"
"And stop callin' me Walt! The name's Manny, see?"
"No…I can't be hearing this! What kind of blasphemy is that!?"
"Hey, I ain't tryin' to blow your lid or nothin', but I think you need to see a shrink, homeboy!"
Shadow whispered to himself: "No…this isn't real! How could he betray me!? This is impossible!" Then, he fell to his knees, threw his hands up in the air and screamed:
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOO!"
Sonic & the others looked over at Shadow. After a few moments, the Ultimate Life form calmed down and stood up.
"By the way, would you happen to have any apple strudel or Swiss rolls?" asked Shadow.
"Naw, man!" replied Manny. "I ain't no catering service!"
Shadow fell to his knees and threw his hands up in the air again.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOO!"
Manny turned to Sonic, who was standing nearby.
"Hey man, what's wrong with this dude?" asked Manny.
"Ah, don't worry about him!" said Sonic. "He's been on a bad trip since he was a kid!"
Shadow got to his knees and confronted Sonic.
"SHUT UP! Just shut up, Faker!" said Shadow.
"Hey, cool it, man!" said Sonic. "I just saved your bacon back there!"
"No! I've had enough of you! You took the one pastime that I ever enjoyed and crushed it! Crushed it like an unworthy mass of space rock! Did you ever stop to think about why I've hated you, Sonic? Because every time I try to accomplish something worthy, you always interfere with me! I don't even know how those other wretched creatures can consider themselves your friends, you arrogant fodder, but it makes me sick! Now, I'm going to…"
"Hey, look over there!" cried Sally.
A hover unit came in from the horizon and landed near everybody. Out stepped Hank Sorin & Sheldon Leib.
"All right," said Sorin, "tell Dr. Robotnik we've got…wait, where is he!?"
"Hey, everything's mellow, man!" replied Sonic. "We got your stars back, so if you were gonna fork over a ransom or somethin', don't worry!"
"Wait, who are you supposed to be, kid!?"
"Hank," said Leib, "I think these are the people who rescued our stars."
"They are!?" said Sorin. "Excellent! Excellent! I owe you a debt of gratitude! Name's Sorin, Hank Sorin, President & Founder of Sorin Entertainment! This is my partner, Sheldon Leib!"
"My name's Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog, leader of the Knothole Freedom Fighters! This here's my best buddy, Tails!"
"Excellent!" said Sorin. "Glad to meet ya kids!" Both duos shook hands with each other. Sonic introduced the rest of the gang, and everybody shook hands. Well…everybody except Shadow. The rest of Sonic's friends expressed their love for the TV show.
After the rounds of gratitude, Sonic said, "Well, it was neato, but I gotta get truckin'. Smell ya later!" Sonic was about to go when Sally grabbed his arm.
"Wait…did you perhaps have something to say?" asked Sally in a wily tone of voice.
"Me?" replied Sonic. "Nah! I've said everything I gotta say! I am up, over and gone!" He tried leaving again, but Sally's grip held firm.
"Come on, Sonic! Don't be shy!"
Sonic resigned and said to Johnny, "Yo, Johnny, I gotta confess…"
"What is it, Sonic?"
"…I was never a big fan of Muscle Rangers. In fact, I was angry at it because it got my show cancelled! See…I used to have this one cartoon, I dunno if ya caught it, but it was on Saturday mornings and a buncha people loved it, ya dig? I was also angry at my friends 'cause they kept raggin' on me about Muscle Rangers. Really, the only reason I saved you guys is because I cared about bein' a hero and doin' the right thing. Plus, I couldn't stand to see Robuttnik succeeding again, ya dig? I hope you ain't mad at me or nothin'."
"Sonic, it's all right; I'm not mad! In fact, I'm a big fan of that cartoon of yours and I was sad when they cancelled it. Maybe I can make it up to you…" Johnny turned away and called out: "Mr. Sorin! Mr. Leib!"
The two executives came over.
"Yes, what is it, my boy?" asked Sorin.
"Hey, you think you could have Sonic & Tails guest star on the show, sir?"
Sonic & Tails swooned.
"Gee, I don't know, Johnny," replied Sorin. "We're not just looking for any ol' Mickey the Mope to be on our show…"
"Hank, this could be a big opportunity for us!" said Leib. "I've heard about Sonic & Tails before, and they're supposed to be big heroes in real life! Besides, think of the merchandising opportunities!"
Sorin thought it over for a few moments.
"Well…all right," replied Sorin. "I'll let these two wiseguys guest star in one episode!"
"Really!?" exclaimed Sonic & Tails.
"Far out!" said Sonic.
"Thank you, mister!" said Tails.
A few days later, Sonic & Tails were back in Knothole, watching Super Changin' Muscle Rangers together. True to Sorin's word, the two got to guest star in an episode:
"Thanks, Sonic!" said Johnny Lee.
"Ain't no thang!" said TV Sonic. "Gotta juice!" He & TV Tails both ran off into the sunset.
Then, the real Sonic spoke up:
"You were right, Tails! This show's right up my alley! Heck, I think that was one of my favorite episodes, too!"
"Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it, Sonic!" said Tails. "I sure enjoyed piloting a real Vord, too! Wouldn't it be cool if your Uncle Chuck saw that?"
Sonic's cheery mood evaporated.
"Yeah…really cool," said Sonic. "Ah well, I'll rescue him someday. In the meantime, I'm just glad I have you!"
"Thanks, Sonic!" The two gave each other a friendly hug, renewing Sonic's mood.
After their hug was finished, Rotor walked in.
"Hey, how's it going?" asked Rotor.
"We're fine," said Tails.
"Yeah, copacetic!" said Sonic.
"OK then. Have a good time!" Rotor was about to walk away when Sonic spoke up:
"Rote, I've been thinkin'…"
"Yes, Sonic?"
"Those Vords really kicked butt! How come ya didn't build 'em earlier? I mean, if we used those more often, we could've crushed Robuttnik by now!"
"Uh…well, there's a problem with that…" said Rotor
"Uh-oh…"
"According to Serek's Law on Energy Consumption," said Tails, "fuel consumption increases depending on how many powered appendages a vehicle has and whether or not it has the capacity for metamorphosis…"
"All right, ALL RIGHT!" exclaimed Sonic. "So they sucked down a lot of gas! Big deal!"
"Not gasoline," said Rotor. "They were actually powered by a rare crystal alloy of tricobalt & handwavium."
"Well couldn't ya just use the flippin' Chaos Emeralds!?"
"I'm sorry, man, but we didn't have all the Chaos Emeralds on hand!"
Sonic threw his hands up in exasperation.
"Oh, brother! Ah…I guess I didn't need 'em anyways. I mean, I got this far without one of those giant robots, right?"
"Yeah," said Tails. "and we've already beaten Robotnik using simpler machines!"
"Right on!" said Sonic. "We're just too good!" And on that note, Sonic & Tails continued to enjoy their Super Changin' Muscle Rangers marathon.