The episode begins at Amy's house, where a gleeful Amy greets everything in it, including her stool, and her plant, which she waters. When she gets to the stand where she keeps her hammer, she suddenly sees that it has gone missing.
At Hedgehog Village, Amy mopes about her missing hammer to Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Sticks. She says that her without her hammer is like Sonic without his speed, and Knuckles says it's also like him without his fists. He suddenly worries that his fists have also gone missing, then Sticks points out that they're on his hands. Knuckles is relieved, then says that he was briefly as useless as Amy without her hammer. Sonic then asks Amy who'd want to steal her hammer just as Dr. Eggman walks in, carrying a bag of groceries. Amy accuses Eggman of stealing her hammer, but Eggman points out that if he wanted a hammer, he'd make his own. He then gets angry at Amy for getting him all worked up when he had such a lovely morning. Sonic then asks Eggman, "So what are you gonna do about it, attack us?", prompting Eggman to do just that with an army of Ball Bots. As Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks battle the Ball Bots, Tails scolds Sonic for putting ideas into Eggman's head. Amy tries to attack a Ball Bot, but is so used to attacking withher hammer, that the Ball Bot passes right by her. As Knuckles destroys the Ball Bot, Amy asks what she's supposed to do with her hands. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Sticks continue destroying the Ball Bots as Amy realizes that Knuckles was right; without her hammer, she's useless. Sonic then glares angrily at Knuckles for upsetting Amy, but Knuckles tells him he can't help being insightful. Sonic then decides that he and Eggman should end the battle quickly, and as he knocks Eggman's Eggmobile away, Eggman tells Sonic that he completely understands.
Later that day, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, and Sticks stop by Amy's house. Sonic tells Amy that her worries are over. Amy is relieved at first, but then Knuckles reveals that while he, Sonic, Tails, and Sticks didn't find her hammer, they did find a crate of miscellaneous hand-to-hand-combat weapons. Sticks points out that every one of them is unregistered, as their serial numbers have been scratched off. Amy tells her friends that while she appreciates her help, she called in a professional. Just then, Vector the Crocodile barges into Amy's house. As he is being filmed by a camera, Vector explains to the viewers that he will begin his investigation of The Case of the Missing Hammer. Sonic asks Vector what he's doing at Amy's house, only for Dixon to cut the take and tell Sonic to be excited for Vector's arrival. Amy explains to Sonic that Vector has a detective show, and that she hired him to help her find her missing hammer. Sonic then asks Vector when he got a reality show, and Vector tells him when he got paid a lot of money to do it as his eyes suddenly turn into dollar signs. Tails sees this and tells Vector that he probably should see an optometrist about that.
Vector is now outside Amy's house as he is being filmed, and explains to the viewers that he is looking for clues. Sonic, trying to prove to Vector that he's perfectly capable of solving the crime on his own, tells the viewers that he's looking for clues as well, and can do so fifty times faster than Vector can. After running around Amy's house, Sonic finds no clues. Vector then points out the footprints right next to him. The footprints lead to a bush, where Vector finds a Meh Burger VIP card. Sonic tells Vector that he's never seen one of those before, and Vector tells him that they're reserved for the cultural elite. He then tells the viewers that he and Sonic have their first clue.
At Meh Burger, Vector tells Sonic that they have to interrogate Dave on the VIP card he found. He suggests that they do the Good Cop, Bad Cop routine, and Sonic volunteers to be the Bad Cop. Vector then tells Sonic that since he's in charge, he always plays the Bad Cop. Dave asks Sonic and Vector if he can help them, and Vector, playing the Bad Cop, asks Dave about the VIP card. Dave tells Vector that he doesn't know what he's talking about, but Sonic, also playing the Bad Cop, tells Dave that Vector may go easy on him, but he's not going to. After Vector trashes the counter, Dave admits to Sonic that the Meh Burger VIP Program is a sham, that they give cards out to disgruntled customers to make them feel special, and that nearly everyone in Hedgehog Village has one. Sonic then tells Dave that he doesn't have one, and Dave admits that somebody has to pay full price to offset the deep discounts the other customers are getting.
That night at Amy's house, Amy and Sticks are practicing fighting each other with sticks, when Sonic returns. Amy asks Sonic how things went with Vector, letting herself off guard and allowing Sticks to hit her with her stick. Sonic admits to Amy that they reached a dead end, much to Amy's disappointment. Tails then tells Amy that TV should be able to take her mind off her missing hammer, and turns it on for her. On the TV is The Comedy Chimp Show, where Justin Beaver tells Comedy Chimp that he's in a signing competition show, where he, the wife of an aging rock star, and some guy he's never heard of harshly criticize regular people and crush their dreams. Comedy Chimp tells Justin that the show sounds great, and so does anesthesia-free surgery. After he jokes about sharp butter knives, and his TV pulling its own plug, an irritated Justin runs away. Wolf Sidekick tries to make a joke, but Comedy Chimp stops him.
The next day, Comedy Chimp's studio is blocked off with police tape, and signs of Comedy Chimp have been smashed up with hammers. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks come to the crime scene, and come to the conclusion that whoever smashed the signs must really hate Comedy Chimp. Amy recognizes the marks as being from her hammer, which makes Sticks ask her if her hammer suddenly became sentient and hates hacky comedy. Vector is also there, and tells Sticks that his money's on Justin Beaver. After Comedy Chimp upstaged him last night, Justin must have gone bananas, meaning he's the prime suspect as to who stole Amy's hammer. Sonic tells Vector that he's still missing one important thing; any evidence pointing to Justin. Vector tells Sonic that he's aware, and is why he's proposing a stakeout.
That night, outside Justin's house, Sonic and Vector hide out in a bush. Sonic complains about how they've been waiting all day, and how stakeouts on TV are never like the one they're going through, as they usually see the suspect after two lines of dialogue. Vector tells Sonic that real life isn't like TV. Just then, Vector sees and hears Justin leaving his house, and he signals Sonic and his camera crew to follow him. They follow Justin to the library, where he gives the secret knock and Fastidious Beaver lets him in. Sonic then suspects that Justin and Fastidious must be in some kind of beaver conspiracy, and he and Vector barge into the library. Vector tells Justin that the jig is up, but is suprised to see Mrs. Vandersnout, Zooey, and Lady Goat along with him and Fastidious. Vector comes to the conclusion that Justin is taking hostages, but Mrs. Vandersnout informs him that they're not hostages, they're a book club, and that they meet at the library every night. Sonic asks Justin if that's true, and Justin tells him that he can't let his fanbase know about him enjoying fine literature, or he'd be shunned. After reading through a dictionary, Sonic believes that Justin is innocent. Vector comes to the same conclusion, and figures that if Justin was at the library last night, he wasn't the one who smashed up the signs of Comedy Chimp. Dixon then tells Vector not to give up, and that tomorrow, they'll go back to the original crime scene for another clue.
The next day, Vector, his camera crew, and Sonic return to Amy's house, and Dixon tells Vector that he found a clue. The clue is a pie with the middle missing. Vector comes to the conclusion that whoever stole Amy's hammer must have eaten that pie. Sonic then asks Vector who would eat a pie from the middle. Vector tells Sonic that he doesn't know, but he did come up with an idea on how to find the suspect.
In the next scene, a pie festival is set up, and Sonic asks Vector if that really is his idea. Vector tells Sonic that all they have to do is see who eats their pie from the middle out. Unfortunately, every villager who attends the festival eats their pie the same way.
That night, Sonic scolds Vector for his pie festival idea leading them nowhere. Vector then tells Sonic that at least he came up with an idea. After the two insult each other, they watch The Comedy Chimp Show, where Comedy Chimp tells Wolf that he didn't see him at the Pie Festival, and since he didn't want him to miss out, he tosses a pie at his face. After Wolf removes the pie, the middle becomes missing. Suddenly, Vector comes to another conclusion.
The next morning, at Comedy Chimp's studio, Vector adds up the clues; the Meh Burger VIP Card, the grudge against Comedy Chimp, and being continuously hit in the face with pies. Knuckles incorrectly guesses that the Old Monkey stole Amy's hammer, but Vector tells him that the real culprit is somebody with a hackbeat comedy routine who could utilize an oversized hammer like Amy's. He accuses Wolferton T. Sidekick (A.K.A. Wolf) of stealing Amy's hammer, then finds Amy's hammer in the prop chest. Amy is so happy to see her hammer again, that she hugs Vector. Sonic is jealous of Vector for solving the case, and as the police arrest Wolf, Wolf tells them that the only thing he stole was a joke about airplane food, and that he didn't steal Amy's hammer. Amy thanks Vector for finding her hammer, and tells him that her hammer is one of a kind. Suddenly, Vector begins to become suspicious.
Later that day, Dixon congratulates Vector for solving the case, but Vector tells him that what Amy said has been making him suspicious. Amy told him that her hammer was one of a kind, and he questions why Wolf would steal something so easily recognizable for a comedy routine. Dixon assures Vector to calm down, as he caught the thief.
Vector comes to Sonic's house, where Sonic is surprised to see him without his camera crew. Vector tells Sonic that he's flying solo today, and the case is going much deeper than he thought. He tells Sonic that he needs his help to find the real thief.
In the final act of Vector's show, Vector tells the viewers that he found Amy's hammer, and asks them if Wolf was the real thief, or just a patsy to the real thief. He then tells the viewers that with Sonic's help, they're about to find out. Sonic then tells the viewers that all clues pointed to Justin Beaver, but when he had an alibi, the clues mysteriously shifted to Wolf. Vector then asks the viewers who had a grudge against Justin and access to Wolf's prop chest. He and Sonic then knock on the front door of Dixon's house, where Dixon was expecting a pizza he ordered. Sonic tells the viewers that Dixon was the real thief, as he had both a Meh Burger VIP card and a motive to frame Justin. Vector then tells the viewers that after Sonic foiled his singing career, Justin fired Dixon as his manager. Sonic then tells the viewers that when Justin's alibi checked out, Dixon had to frame somebody else, and as a TV Producer, he had access to the studio, where he planted Amy's hammer in Wolf's prop chest. Vector asks Dixon what he has to say, and Dixon tries to run away, but Amy, who now has her hammer back, stops him. The police arrest Dixon, and Vector admits to Sonic that they make a pretty good team, as they caught the real thief, and nobody got hurt. Unfortunately for them, despite his innocence being proven, Wolf is still in jail, asking if he at least gets one phone call as the episode ends.
This episode provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: When Amy runs off crying due to feeling useless, Sonic tells Eggman that he has to wrap up the fight with him quickly to provide emotional support, and does so. Eggman, as he's launched off in the distance, yells "I completely understaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand...!"
- Call-Back: Justin Beaver, who appears in "Battle of the Boy Bands" reappears in this episode, and the events of "Battle of the Boy Bands" are referenced.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Vector the Crocodile, whom Morpho had previously morphed into in "Where Have All the Sonics Gone?".
- Detective Mole: The true perpetrator turns out to be, well, not the detective himself, but his assistant and producer.
- Extreme Omnivore: At the pie festival, Knuckles eats a sign.
- Gilligan Cut: At the end of the episode, Vector says that he and Sonic caught the real hammer thief, and nobody got hurt. Cut to Wolf, who is still in jail, despite his innocence being proven.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Played with; when Sonic and Vector come to Meh Burger to interrogate Dave on the VIP Card Vector found, both Sonic and Vector play the Bad Cop.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: When Vector is outside Amy's house, looking for clues, Sonic claims that he can find a clue fifty times faster than Vector can. After running around Amy's house, Sonic finds no clues, but Vector finds a trail of footprints right next to him.
- Money, Dear Boy:Sonic: When did you get a reality show?
Vector: When they started paying me big-time TV dough-re-mi! - Mythology Gag:
- Vector gets dollar-sign Wingding Eyes while talking about how rich he is, similar to how he reacted to Team Chaotix's mysterious customer promising to "pay handsomely" in Sonic Heroes.
- This episode also isn't the first time Amy's hammer has gone missing.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- After Sonic asks Eggman, "So what are you gonna do about it? Attack us?", Eggman does just that, and Tails scolds Sonic for putting that idea into Eggman's head.
- After Amy runs away crying from not being able to attack the Ball Bots, Sonic glares angrily at Knuckles for telling her that she's useless without her hammer.
Knuckles: What? I can't help that I'm insightful! - Pie in the Face: Wolf's schtick on The Comedy Chimp Show. This ultimately gives Dixon the motive to frame him.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Justin Beaver talks like this at the book club, forcing Sonic to consult a dictionary to parse his words as an alibi.
- Spotting the Thread: After "wrapping up" the case, Vector realizes that because Amy's hammer is "one of a kind" it made no sense for Wolf to steal it for his routine because it was easily recognizable as hers. It clues him in that Wolf was a patsy.
- Tempting Fate: After Eggman gets angry at Amy for accusing him of stealing her hammer, Sonic asks him, "So what are you gonna do about it? Attack us?". Cut to Eggman doing just that.
- Villains Out Shopping: When Sonic questions who'd want to steal Amy's hammer, Eggman walks in, carrying a bag of groceries.
- Wingding Eyes: When Vector mentions he got into the TV business for the money, dollar signs appear in his eyes.Tails: You should see an optometrist about that.
