"Battle of the Boy Bands?" Tails read the title.

Manic perked up. "Wait! Did you just say 'band'?"

Sonia gasped excitedly. "Does that mean we're in it?!"

Sonic widened his eyes. Would his brother and sister really be in this show? If so, he would be really excited considering that they used to rock-and-roll. However...

"It says 'Battle of the Boy Bands'." Knuckles pointed out. "Meaning that you two aren't in it."

"What?!" Manic exclaimed in disbelief.

"That's not fair!" Sonia groused.

"If you were in it," The red echidna began, "It would've said, 'Battle of the Bands'. And that's it."

"Dang it." Sonia pouted, crossing her arms.

The scene began with Soar holding a microphone and staring into a camera. "Breaking news! An epidemic is spreading across the globe: Beaver Fever!"

Manic raised a brow. "Beaver Fever?"

"Guess he's the competition against whoever." Sonia answered.

A crowd watching him on TV warily backed away from the beaver with the bow tie.

On the screen, Soar explained, "I'm not talking about an actual disease, of course. I'm colorfully describing the mania surrounding teen singing sensation, Justin Beaver!"

A picture of a young blue beaver popped up. Then, footage of his concerts played as Soar talked. "Girls everywhere are going gaga for this teen heartthrob! They just can't get enough of him!"

"Oh barf." Carol mumbled.

"Blech." Amy stuck her tongue out, gesturing at the screen. "What in the word do they see in him?"

"Uhhh, he's a singer?" Lilac said, not really understanding why the pinkette was mad by the beaver.

"I meant specifically!"

Knuckles rose a brow at her. "Funny you ask that when you chase after Sonic every other day, going all gaga towards him."

"I am not scrawny, Knux! I'm aerodynamic! There's a difference." The blue speedster protested.

"Is there?"

"Yes!"

"Whatever."

Ignoring the squabble between the two, Amy frowned at Knuckles. "At least I chase after someone I know!" She gestures at the screen once more. "Those girls are going all crazy over a boy they don't know about!"

"He's popular." Cory pointed.

"Sonic's popular too!"

"He's a famous singer." Vector added.

"Sonic's a fabulous hero, who saved countless lives! And he would die trying!" She looked at the blue hedgehog with hope in her eye. "You would die for me right, Sonic?"

Sonic scratched the back of his head, nervously. "Of course I would die for you, Ames. I die for you and all my friends."

"So does this mean you love me?!"

"I love you as a friend, Amy."

"But you love me, right?"

"No I-"

Tears welded into the pink hedgehogs eyes. "Y-You don't love me?"

The blue blue got worried. "No, I love you but I-"

Amy smile appeared again. "You love me?!"

"No, I-I-I..."

Knuckles chuckled. "You walked yourself into that one, Sonic."

"Shut up, Knuckles."

Soar was back on screen, subtly frowning. "And suddenly, dad the anchor bird isn't cool anymore. Well, maybe Justin Beaver will foot the bill for private school instead of buying those golf clubs he really wanted! "

Milla frowned. "Aw, I kinda feel bad for him."

"I don't."

"No one asked you, Spade." Lilac retorted.

Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and Sticks were part of the crowd, watching. The badger wasn't impressed. "Just what this world needs, another cookie cutter pop star forced to us by the man!"

Amy wanted to be impressed, but, "I'm glad that Sticks wasn't fangirling about this Justin guy, but all pop stars aren't that bad..."

"Everything is that bad for Sticks." Shadow replied.

Sonic agreed as the team walked away. "You're right. This Beaver Fever thing is clearly just a marketing ploy to sell substandard music to gullible teenage girls." He scoffed. "Who could possibly fall for it?"

Tails noticed the lack of a certain pink hedgehog, "One of the team members isn't there..."

Amy refused to believe that her twin would stoop that low.

Amy suddenly ran up to them, wearing a Justin shirt and holding similar merchandise. "Isn't Justin great?"

Amy held her head in her hands, wondering why every single beaver in that dimension loved to make things worse. The beaver with a bow tie, Dave, and now Justin! Did those buck-teeth make them so insecure that they took their anger out on other people?!

"I'm surprised she's all gaga for him considering she basically has another skinny blue-furred rodent as a boyfriend."

"Watch it, Fiona."

Amy's smile was a little too wide. "When I listened to his first song 'Girl, I like you', I wasn't sure if Justin was actually talking about me, but then, his next song was titled 'Yes, I'm actually talking about you', and I like totally freaked out!"

Please don't let the entire episode be like this, Spade thought before frowning. "She's crazier than normal."

Carol nodded. "She's worse than Sticks right now, and that's saying a lot..."

Sticks was concerned. "How can you allow yourself to become a pawn of the corporate fat cats?"

Amy wasn't bothered at all. "Before you judge, just listen to one track! I don't want to overhype it-" She threw her things into the air, hysterically giggling. "-but he's the greatest entertainer who ever lived! "

Gong covered his ears to avoid damage from her screeching. "Someone needs to turn her off immediately. She can't produce those sounds if she's unconscious."

Lilac understood why he was saying it but, doing so would hurt-"

"Use chloroform. She may struggle, but the process is painless." Shadow suggested.

Now in Amy's shack, music filled the air.

"Girl, it's time that I told you about my serious condition."

Amy was giddy while the rest looked like they would rather be anywhere else.

"I can't stop thinking about you, had to call a physician."

While Amy danced, Sonic groaned and turned off the boombox. "That was terrible. "

Tails' whole body was cringing. "You can say that again! Was that seriously him singing?"

Scourge scrunged his nose in disgust.. "You could've told me that someone was raking their nails on a chalkboard to background music, and I would've believed you."

Sonia shook her head in disbelief. "Everyone is addicted to that?" She and her brother could make better music than that.

"People actually pay money to listen to that monstrosity?" Manic questioned.

Fiona scoffed. "Apparently..."

Knuckles shuddered. "I finally have a soundtrack for my nightmares."

Knuckles agreed wholeheartedly.

"I..." Sticks thought for a second before bouncing in her seat. "Love it!"

"What?!" echoed around the room.

"That so-called 'music' has to be unnaturally affecting them." Scourge retorted.

"There is no other reason why she would listen to something equivalent to a blazing pile of shit." Rosy cursed

Sonic slowly blinked. "I don't want to say you two are right, but you're not wrong...?"

Anti-Tails rolled his eyes. "They are right."

Amy smiled. "I knew that I could rely on Sticks to be the voice of reason!"

"I'm surprised that their whole world didn't collapse upon itself at that statement," Eggman uttered.

"That would technically be impossible." Torque nodded. "But I agree."

Tails wasn't on the same wavelength. "We're through the looking glass here, people. White is black, and black is white..."

"Took the words right out of my mouth..." Lilac tapped his chin, pondering. "Something is seriously wrong here."

If Eggman figured out that his twin was the cause of it, he wouldn't be surprised.

The pinkette couldn't keep still. "Wait until you hear the rest of the album!" She laughed, and Sticks joined in with her. It was loud and high-pitched.

Everyone hastily covered their ears.

Sonic groaned. "I'd rather have the air horn than this!"

"If I've ever sounded like that, I'm so so sorry..." Amy whined.

"Technically, you did when you tried to put that rock monster to sleep."

"Thanks for the reminder, Knuckles."

"No problem."

"At least her singing was better than the badgers'." Shadow grumbled.

"Hey Sticks, you're still on for rock climbing tomorrow?" Sonic asked.

"Uh, sure, whatever."

Then the girls went back to squealing.

Everyone felt a headache coming on.

"This is absolute torture." Eggman hissed.

Scourge growled. "They're gonna blow up our damn out eardrums."

Later on, the boys were walking into the badger's burrow. "Hello, Sticks?" Sonic called out, Knuckles and Tails trailing him. "You ready to go?"

They stopped in their tracks at the abundance of Justin cups, banners, flags, pictures, and other merch scattered around the place.

"Yeah, if she didn't need a therapist before, she definitely needs one now." Spade gazed at all of the stuff, slightly creeped out.

Milla nodded in agreement. "Obsessing over one person is unhealthy."

Amy chose not to comment.

Knuckles frowned. "What happened in here?"

Sticks suddenly ran up to them, startling the trio. "I turned my burrow into a totes adorbs tribute to Justin!"

"Somebody please help her."

"Oh..." Sonic put a hand on his hip, eyes wide. "Is that what's going on here?"

"Sticks! Sticks!" Amy, still wearing a Justin shirt, sprinted into the home with energetic waves. She stopped in front of the badger. "You're not gonna believe it! Justin Beaver is in town, and he's doing a signing at the music shop right now!" They screeched.

Everyone covered their ears from the sound.

"The music has to be doing something to them!" Manic exclaimed. "Those sounds they are making are so unnatural!"

Amy continued, "And, he'll be performing a concert at village center this weekend!" They screeched again, causing the boys to cover their ears.

"You really need to stop doing that," Sonic groused.

"I honestly would have slapped them at this point just to shut them up."

"We all know you would, Shads."

"I would've just ripped their mouths off."

"...Okay, that's a little brutal, Scourge."

"Exactly."

Overly giddy, Sticks asked, "What should we wear?"

"I was thinking about wearing the one outfit that I own!"

"Me too!"

They squealed before running off.

Disregarding the mind-numbing shrieks, Amy huffed. "She better burn that by the end of this. Everything about this beaver needs to be erased, and black does not flatter her at all."

Sonic rolled his eyes, addressing Knuckles and Tails, "I can understand Amy fangirling out, but Sticks? There's something fishy about this Beaver Fever..." He tapped his chin. "We need to investigate."

"Please do..." Knuckles sighed.

The scene changed to the village center where there was a long line of girls waiting at a booth. Team Sonic was watching from afar.

A ferret with a red checkered hat and glasses was speaking over soft music. "I hope you ladies are ready because here he is! The boy who'd sweep you off your feet if he didn't have such tiny little arms, your favorite global pop phenomenon: Justin Beaver!"

The teenage beaver walked out of a building, waving to everyone. The women went crazy as he sat at the booth with a wink.

Sonic winced, wanting to curl into himself to escape this horror. "How is no one deaf because of that?!"

"Apparently those women had gained the power to scream without losing their vocal cords." Neera stated.

Justin signed a piece of paper and held it out to a female fox. "You're the only fan I care about." He did the same for a purple bandicoot with a red bandana. "You're the only fan I care about." And for Lady Walrus as well. "You're the only fan I care about."

Tails frowned. "There's definitely something up with his music because they shouldn't fall for that."

"Shouldn't is the key word there," Knuckles grumbled. "Think it's some kind of mind control?"

"It has to be!" Amy yelled. "Otherwise, the whole village really needs professional help."

Sonic glanced over to the doctor. "Do you think that its your double workin' behind the scenes, Eggy?"

Eggman was rubbing his temples. "I hope not because this plan is completely atrocious. I wouldn't stoop so low to use substandard musicians to control people. I would do it myself without the screeching!"

The heroes released a relieved sigh.

Sonic gave him a thumbs up. "Thanks for having standards, Egghead."

Of course. What was the point in ruling the world if you're deaf?

She put a hand on her forehead. "Be my baby!" And collapsed to the ground.

Carol blinked. "Doesn't she have a child?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Cory answered with a disappointed frown.

The hat-wearing ferret sighed. "Just step over her." Then he muttered to himself, "We're not selling enough merch." He yelled at a cat dj-ing off to the side, "Turn up the track!"

He did. The females screamed and hastily bought more CDs, shouting all the while.

"That proves it!" Tails miraculously yelled over the noise. "The music's making them all bonkers!"

"Well, the heroes need to hurry the hell up and fix the problem because I can only take so much!" Scourge would without a doubt cross dimensions and deal with it himself if need be. There would be smashed CDs and broken stereos if he got involved. And also dead bodies.

Sonic narrowed his eyes. "Whatever's going on, that guy's behind it."

The boys went to approach the booth, but a large hippo slid in their way. He held out a halting hand. "Music industry professionals only."

Knuckles heavily exhaled. "And...there it is."

"I mean..." Tails didn't understand why girls could get stuff signed while the boys had to be actual musicians to approach the booth, but he digressed. "I know that I don't have any rhythm or know how to carry a tune, but maybe my twin can?"

Sonic understood where the kit was coming from. "Yeah, maybe those three starting a group won't be so bad. My double can dance, the other Tails might have some talent, and the other Knuckles..."

Knuckles gave him a level stare. "Don't tell me that you think he can sing or dance to save his life."

As long as Amy's twin didn't start singing, she was down for this. "He might surprise you, Knuckles!"

"He can't read."

"Yeah, well..."

Knuckles scoffed. "Don't worry, I got this!" He pulled a trumpet out of nowhere and began to play it...badly. The hippo didn't look impressed.

Knuckles' expression screamed I told you so. "This is going to be a disaster."

Tails glanced at Sonic and whispered, "How are we gonna convince this guy we're in the music biz?"

Sonic smirked. "I know just what to do."

Sonic felt a little better at how sure his twin was. "This'll work out, guys! Did you hear how confident he sounded? They have to know something we don't!"

Shadow braced himself for what's to come. "Confidence doesn't mean anything. You can be confident all you want, but you can't."

"Not with that attitude."

"Whatever performance they do cannot be worse than the demonic screeches those females make," Neera said.

Gong nodded in agreement. "I would rather listen to the echidna's terrible trumpet than them."

Knuckles sighed. "I guess you're right."

"Of course I am."

The trio were now in Sonic's shack. He exclaimed, "We'll form our very own boy band!"

Tails rose a brow. "Did you really have to bring us all the way down here to finish that sentence?"

"Reaching new levels of annoyance, I'm not surprised," Spade murmured.

"I think it's great idea!" Sonia admitted. The thought of her brother and his friends being in making their own bands was terrific.

Manic grinned. "Time to rock-and-roll!"

"A boy band?" Knuckles questioned. "We'll lose our street cred! What about our machismo?" Then he hummed, smiling. "Hm...cheese-mo."

Knuckles resisted the urge to facepalm. "Just why..."

Sonic didn't look happy about it either. "I know, but if we wanna find out what's going on with the girls, we're going to have to man up."

"Define 'man up'." Cory said.

Tails wasn't completely on board just yet. "And by 'man up', you mean rehearse a choreographed dance routine in matching sequined outfits?"

Knuckles raised a brow. "They have to wear matching outfits too?"

"In order to catch the attention of those brainless consumer zombies, yes." Eggman answered.

"Exactly!" Sonic affirmed. "It's gonna take a lot of hard work, so we better get started."

The very next scene was them dancing perfectly in sync wearing matching white outfits and microphones. Sonic ended up sliding on his knees when the song ended.

"Huh." Sonic hadn't thought that it would be a disaster, but it was better than expected. "They aren't half bad! Even your twin, Knux!"

Knuckles reluctantly agreed, but, "Half bad still doesn't mean that I want to watch it."

"We do!" Sonia, Manic, Amy and Milla were completely invested at this point. The other Tails was amazing, the other Knuckles was...Knuckles, and the other Sonic knew exactly what he was doing.

Sonic smiled. "And it looked easy enough to do, too!" He glanced at Tails and Knuckles. "Hey, maybe we could-"

"No." Knuckles immediately shut that idea out.

Tails wasn't for it either. "I can't sing or dance."

"You can learn!"

Sonic was impressed with himself. "That was way easier than I thought."

Behind him, Tails brought up, "Now, we just have to pick a name!"

Tails furrowed his brow. "Is Team Sonic not a good enough name?"

On second thought, maybe it was a good idea that they weren't taking the musical route. Amy tisked. "Of course not! The name has to be showier and more eye-catching so you'll get noticed!"

"I'm sure that anything with Sonic in the name would grab attention." Knuckles mumbled.

The speedster checked his communicator/watch. "Well, we still got a little montage time left."

Anti-Tails raised a brow. "Montage time?"

Music started playing as Sonic crumpled up a sheet of paper and tossed it in the trash. A hanging clock showed time whizzing by. Knuckles perked up like he had an idea, but then he slumped because he actually didn't.

Another piece of paper was thrown in the trash. Tails was writing an equation on a chalk board, but he shook his head and erased part of it.

"Is it really that hard?" Lilac asked.

"It's an art!" Amy retorted. "Everything has to be perfect!"

"Aren't you bein' a little dramatic?"

"No!"

More paper went in the trash, it filling up. Calendar pages were constantly floating down now.

Torque was confused. "Are months really going by?"

The music cut when Sonic yelled, "Knuckles, stop tearing pages off that calendar!"

Knuckles whirled around, pages in hand. "Okay, fine!"

"I guess that answers that."

The blue hedgehog gestured to the papers on the table. "We're supposed to be thinking of band names!"

Knuckles frowned in thought. "I was saving this name for if I ever formed a band, but how about..." He grinned. "Dude-itude?"

"Lame." Carol called out.

"That's too awesome sounding," Sonic opposed. "It needs to be something soft and inoffensive. Something like..."

Tails chimed in. "Dreamboat Express?"

"Ew..." they all groaned before Sonic smiled. "It's perfect!"

"How did he even come up with that?" Silver asked, curious.

"He just put random words together." Blaze sighed.

Wearing the outfits again, the boys walked back to the village center.

The hippo was still there. "Music industry professionals only."

"We are music industry professionals," Sonic argued. "We're Justin's opening act!"

They did the dance again, this time adding little vocals that went to the beat of the music.

Manic wasn't as enthusiastic anymore. "Uh, they should've just stuck with the dancing."

Sonia nodded. "They're off-key, sorta out of synch, and it's not working."

The hippo wasn't swayed, shaking his head.

Knuckles sighed. "I guess that this is the end of Dreamboat Express."

"Dreamboat Express?" The hippo lit up. "With a name like that, you gotta be professionals." He unhooked a red rope blocking off most of the stage set and props.

"So a group can be complete garbage, but still make it big time because of their name?" Knuckles nodded, his sarcasm palpable. "No arguments there."

The team crept behind a large cardboard cutout, peeking around it at the ferret from before.

"There he is," Sonic whispered. "Now to find out his evil scheme..."

The cat the ferret was talking to read off a piece of paper. "Your three o'clock got moved to six o'clock, your six o'clock got moved to four o'clock-"

Eggman shook his head at the complexity. "All of that seems extremely unnecessary."

"Like all of your plans?" Shadow retorted.

"I guess it makes sense that he wouldn't conveniently reveal his evil scheme the exact moment we happen to be listening," Tails mused logically.

The ferret then said, "Shifting gears completely, how's our evil scheme coming along?"

Amy laughed at their luck. "It's like he wanted the team to find him out!"

Tails smiled. "The luck balance of the universe works in mysterious ways!"

"Looking good!" The cat grinned. "Tonight, Justin will debut his new single which has fifty percent more mind control."

"Perfect!" The ferret chirped. "Any female within a five mile radius will be turned into a mindless consumer zombie, and I'll be reaping the profits!" He let out an evil laugh.

"Wait..." Amy just now realized the absence of a particular egg-shaped human. "So Eggman isn't behind this plan, then? Will he show up at all this episode?"

"He will now since you brought him up," Eggman grumbled with a glare. "Though I would appreciate taking a break from his failures."

"We all deserve a break from him." Fiona remarked.

Team Sonic ducked down behind the cardboard. They were oblivious of the workers carrying it away.

If the rodents had been that bad at stealth, Eggman would have taken over the world ages ago.

"Mind control..." Sonic began. "That explains it."

The ferret instantly noticed them and pointed. "Intruders! Get them!"

Next was a chase scene with the heroes running away from, chasing, and slowly backing into the stage crew. They scared each other off.

"Did they forget that my twin is the fastest thing alive and that Tails could fly?"

The kit assumed so. "They were panicking, so I give them a pass."

Knuckles scoffed. He wasn't scared of anything. His twin however...

At Amy's shack, the pinkette wasn't enthused at all.

Spade groaned. Them again. "Prepare your ears."

"Mind control? That's preposterous! Justin would never do that!" She clasped her hands together. "He and I have a special bond."

"Us too!" Sticks declared. "He even wrote a song only about me! It's called, 'Every single girl I've ever met'."

"It's like arguing with a brick wall!" Amy knew that they were being mind controlled, but this still was ridiculous!

"But it's true!" Knuckles tried to argue. "Justin's producer conveniently revealed the whole scheme right in front of us!" He chuckled. "Talk about lazy writing."

"Lazy writing?" Sonic repeated, confused. "What in the world is he talking about?

Knuckles gave him a pointed look. "It came out of my twin's mouth. Are you really questioning it at this point?"

"But it seems different this time! Look how smug he is about it!"

"It's obviously a weird joke about how easy it was to find out the truth, Faker." Shadow cut in, tired of this conversation. "Let it go."

"Sor-ry for asking!" The blue blur huffed.

Amy wasn't persuaded. "Trust us, guys. We're not under mind control!" She looked at Sticks. "Let's get to that concert so we can spend our life savings on Justin Beaver merchandise!"

They screamed as they left the room.

"Don't worry." Tails crossed his arms, confident in his idea. "I know just what to do!"

Tails quietly cheered as the ringing in his ears slowly but surely went away.

"He always has a plan, guaranteed," Knuckles said, cursing the strength of feminine vocal cords.

The scene switched to Tails' workshop. The kit was working on something on a table. "Since the mind control is embedded in Justin's music track, there must be an opposite sound frequency that could counter it. We just need to find it." He held up his invention. "Thus, the Measure-o-meter!"

"Cool invention!" Milla said.

"Thanks." Tails replied, smiling.

"Though, the name could use some."

Tails wasn't gonna argue with that.

Sonic smirked. "It's fun to bring people a long way to finish a sentence, isn't it?"

Tails nodded. "It really is!"

"Sonic had been fine with waiting all that time?"

"Of course, Knux! He knows how great it feels!"

It was now nighttime, and the Justin Beaver stage was set up. A large crowd of girls filled up the floor space.

The whole room filled with dread.

An announcer boomed overhead. "And now, here he is, the nocturnal semi-aquatic rodent of your dreams: Justin Beaver!"

The crowd cheered as the lights flashed on, revealing the popstar.

Team Sonic watched before sneaking off to the side.

Tails examined his invention. "In order for me to calibrate the Measure-o-meter, we need to get on that stage without being seen."

Amy was skeptical. "With those outfits? There's no way."

"And with how loud this concert's going to be, they have to be right there on stage?" Knuckles questioned.

"Hey, you there!" The same hippo from earlier called out to them. They whirled around only for the bodyguard to gesture backstage. "The show's starting! The opening act needs to be on that stage!" The trio whistled innocently as they passed him. The hippo smiled. "Man, I'm good at my job. What would they do without me?"

"He's going to get fired immediately after this is over."

Everyone agreed with Shadow's statement.

Standing on the side of the stage now, Sonic asked Tails, "Has your Measure-o-meter discovered the counter-frequency?"

Tails frowned. "Not yet. We have to stall Justin!"

The boys ran up to the pop star, causing Justin to eye them warily. "Who are you?"

The team posed, and Sonic answered, "Dreamboat Express!" He groaned. "Ugh, I hate that name." Louder now, he pointed at the beaver. "And we challenge you to a sing-off!"

Tails already felt the secondhand embarrassment coming on. "How about just a dance-off? That should be a good enough distraction, right?"

"Or simply tackle him to the ground," Knuckles supplied.

"That too!"

Amy imagined that not going too well. There might be a couple broken bones involved. "If they did that, they'd be dealing with a horde of mind-controlled rapid fangirls."

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles winced at the visual. There was no getting out of that unscathed.

"Well, let's just hope that the song isn't too cringe-worthy." Carol said.

"It will be."

"I said 'Hope,' Spade."

Behind the curtains, the ferret director glared. "What are they doing here?"

Music blared, and Dreamboat Express began to perform.

Amy and Sonia danced a little in her seat, anxious and excited.

"You should expect the expected, and nothing more! Because you've all heard this song and dance before!" They grooved to the beat. "Our moves are stale, our harmony's bland, and we're just another – woohoo!" They spun in place. "Generic boy band!"

Sonic found himself tapping his foot to the beat. "Okay, okay, they're not bad! It's not perfect, but the lyrics honestly make up for it!"

"Yeah!" Tails was slightly swaying back and forth. "And they look like they're having fun with it too! Even the other Knuckles!"

Knuckles couldn't keep the amusement out of his tone. "It works because they're not taking it seriously. It would be a whole different story if they actually sang a love song."

Lilac bopped her head to the beat. "This is... pretty good actually."

Carol chuckled as she was enjoying the music as well. "You git that right, sister."

Amy fought the urge to squeal. She pictured the boys singing to a soft melody with Sonic looking at her, holding out a hand for her to take and ohmygosh. "This is so amazing!"

Down on the floor, Amy was awed. "Wow! They're pretty good!"

Sticks nodded in agreeance. "I'd love to meet those guys someday!"

Silver blinked in confusion. Did they somehow get amnesia?

Justin took this time to jump into the spotlight, shooing the heroes away. His high voice filled the air. "I've got a bold confession, and I think it's time you knew..." He pointed to the crowd. "I'm into you, specifically girl, and no other girl will do."

Justin's voice violently shattered Amy's daydream, and she gave a thumbs down. "Boo! Get off the stage!"

While Eggman was secretly hoping that this weird torture would end, he almost didn't want it to. With how long they've been watching this episode, he doubted his twin would show up. That would be a first, and hopefully not the last.

He knew the chances were slim. Let him dream.

"He's talking about me!" Amy and Sticks chorused before shouting at each other, "In your face!"

Justin winked, but his performance was interrupted by Team Sonic again.

They marched back onstage, singing, "Yo, yo, yo! We're bringing it weak, and we're bringing it lame! Whatever we can do to keep it all the same! We're focus-tested and radio friendly!"

Tails stepped up, going solo. "The only thing that matters is that we stay trendy!"

Cosmo clapped happily. "Amazing performance, Tails!"

Milla's tails wagged back and forth. "So cool! You could totally do that! Your voice is cute enough to sound good even if it's not perfect!"

Tails scratched his arm, appreciative of the praise and bashful at the same time.

Justin reclaimed the attention, gazing to the audience. "You're unique, you're complex and interesting, girl! And I'm not being hyperbolic!" He gestured to himself. "Let's carve our name into a tree! It's vandalism...but symbolic!"

Amy wanted to gag. There was a such thing as too romantic.

Carol cringed. "This guy is trying way too hard."

And Dreamboat Express was back.

"You should expect the expected, and nothing more because you've all heard this song and dance before! Our phony-baloney image is bland because we're just another – hah! – generic boy band!"

Justin wasn't going to quit. "Those feelings for my special girl... We'll do things you want to do. And take a trip to the place you like. But be home before curfeeeeewww!"

Everyone cringed at the high note, groans echoing in the space.

"Of course he would be the one thing worse than the girls!" Knuckles gritted out.

He held that high note long enough for Tails' invention to start beeping.

"The counter frequency!" Tails scanned the readings. "Of course! I should've known all along!"

"Please stop this madness!" Scourge hissed. He was reaching his limit.

If the boy hit another note like that again, Shadow was going to lose it. He was glowing red.

Sonic noticed his expression and shrunk back. "Yeah, for all of our sakes."

There was a cut to Sonic shredding an electric guitar. Tails was also holding one, and Knuckles was in the back on the drums.

Sonic loudly laughed. "Yes! This is gonna be good!"

Amy wriggled in her seat. "You look so amazing together!"

"My twin knows how to play the guitar?!" Tails perked up, his grin splitting his face in half. "Awesome!"

"Doesn't know how to read or count, but he can play the drums..." Knuckles wasn't as upset as he should have been. "Makes sense."

"Drop the beat, Tails!" Manic exclaimed.

"Drop that generic phat beat!" Sonic shouted, and the audience cheered.

The ferret gasped. "Not rock and roll!" He ran off.

Knuckles held his drumsticks in the air. "Ladies and uh...ladies! Prepare for the bad boy musical stylings of... Dude-itude! "

Sonic took the lead, strumming and singing as the others backed him up. "You thought we'd never beat the beaver, but now we're here to make you believers! Sonic and crew, rockin' with the chemistry! Crummy boy band music is the enemy!"

"Heck yeah!" Sonia was out of her seat now, dancing. "Down with the boy bands! Down with the boy bands!" Manic chanted along with her, followed by Sonic, Tails, Lilac and Carol.

The speedster turned, his guitar firing a sound wave that knocked Justin over and snapped the crowed out of their mind control trance.

There was boisterous cheering now. Sonic and Tails were out of their seats too. "Down with the boy bands! Down with the boy bands!"

Scourge covered his ears, along with Fiona, Anti-Tails, Shadow, Spade and Eggman. Neera and Gong gave a blank. Everyone else were clapping to the beat.

Amy blinked, looking around. "What happened? Where are we?"

Sticks shrugged. "I don't know, but listen to that sweet guitar solo!"

Sonic and Tails were back-to-back, air guitaring like crazy. Amy and Sonia were pretending that they were hitting drums with their air drum-sticks. Silver smiled and joined in, dancing with them. Blaze shook her head and smiled at the scene.

Lilac, Carol and Milla were jumping up and down as they were enjoying the beat.

Dude-itude continued playing as the audience threw away their Justin Beaver merch.

Justin groaned before standing up. "Your power rock ballad has freed me from the evil spell of mind control!"

"He was under too?!" Lilac asked, still dancing.

Amy, still swaying back and forth, frowns slightly. "Now I kinda feel bad about insulting him..."

"Now I can move into an industry where I won't be exploited by unscrupulous producers!" He smiled. "Hello humiliating reality TV series!"

Theo, Lucy and Andy smiled and couldn't help but join in on the fun.

The ferret director slumped in despair. "I'm ruined...I'm ruined! "

The boys were still having fun on stage. "We're here-" Sonic started.

Tails jumped in. "We're Dude-itude!"

The speedster smirked. "I know you may find us crude and rude! We have to conclude, you'll come unglued, now that you've heard us-"

They all – including Sonic and Tails – sung out, "Dude-itude!"

The episode ended, and the ones standing plopped back down in their seats with unabashed chuckles.

Theo laughed. "Did you guys enjoy that?"

Carol pumped her fist in the air. "Heck yeah it we did!"

Andy chuckled. "Glad to see that you guys enjoy it."

"That ending almost made up for everything that happened earlier!" Sonic said. "I'm thinkin' about going back and playing my guitar!"

"You have a guitar!!" Amy eagerly leaned forward in her chair. "Teach. Me. Please."

Knuckles couldn't help but smirk. "If the rest of the episodes are like the end of this one, I'd be completely fine with it."

Manic grinned. "I'm with ya right there, pal."

Sonia gave a thumbs up and smiled. "That was a good ol' rock-and-roll!"

Lilac nodded. "You know it!"

Lucy giggled and pressed the button to the next episode.