Circus of Plunders

"Circus of Plunders" is the twelfth episode in the Sonic Boom television series. It first aired on 24 December 2014 in France and on 7 February 2015 in the United States.

Synopsis
A circus ringmaster captures Sonic and his friends in order to make them performers in his traveling circus.

Characters

 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Amy Rose
 * Sticks the Badger
 * T.W. Barker
 * Doctor Eggman
 * Octopus-bot
 * Stuntbears

Plot
In a desert-like area, Knuckles, Amy and Sticks are on the run when Dr. Eggman burst out of a nearby rock wall and ambushes them in his Octopus-bot. No sooner, Sonic exists the whole and keeps Octopus-bot distracted while Amy and Sticks fight back. Tails then flies in his plane to attack Octopus-bot with his untested laser-guided unbolteriser, confident it will work, but he misses and triggers a rockslide that proves a hindrance to his team. Meanwhile, Octopus-bot knocks Tails' plane out of course, but Sonic puts a stop to the robot by sneaking up from behind and tearing up its wiring. With his robot disabled, Eggman flees in an escape pod.

Tails tries to explain what happened to his unbolteriser, but Knuckles, Amy and Sticks quickly points how his weapon nearly killed them. As Sticks let her paranoia run loose, Sonic tries to defend Tails, but Tails admits his friends are right and files away in his plane, determined not return until he has fixed his unbolteriser. Sonic tries to tell his team to got easy on Tails, but then a road train almost run them over. The driver, revealed to be T.W. Barker, apologizes and introduces himself and his circus, T.W. Barker's circus of wonders, which he owns, much to Team Sonic's amazement. However, Barker tells that most of his performers, except his Stuntbears, have gotten sick from eating bad sushi, so he will not be able to put up a show, which will disappoint the children. Sympatric, Amy volunteers Team Sonic to perform in his circus. Sonic is not big on the idea, but joins once Barker notes the training would be too rigorous for him. Barker quickly puts the circus tent up and Sonic tries contacting Tails to have him join with his communicator, but Tails ignores it as he works on his unbolteriser (and unintentionally ruining Eggman's TV remote in his lair).

At the circus, Barker is assigning Team Sonic their roles in the show. Sonic is given the sphere of fear which he must spin along inside at unparalleled speeds, Knuckles is made a human cannonball, Amy is made a sad clown (much to her dismay) and Sticks becomes an acrobat. Meanwhile, Tails figures out what was wrong with his unbolteriser (which was partially due to a fish). At the same time, the show at Barker's circus has begun and Barker introduces Team Sonic, who manages to put on quite a show. At Eggman's lair, Tails does a successful test with his unbolteriser by destroying Eggman's TV remote again.

Back at the circus, the show is closing for the night. Team Sonic is proud at themselves (though Knuckles is dizzy from his performance) and Sonic tells Bark they should do it again sometimes. Barker agrees to that and imprisons Sonic in the sphere of fear before admitting that his performers actually escaped from him and that he set up this show as a trap to make Team Sonic his new performers. Knuckles is subsequently put into a cage by the stuntbears while Sticks is tricked into another. Sonic tries to escape, but Barker reveals he bought his sphere from Eggman Industries to ensure he could not escape. Barker quickly tricks Amy into a cage as well and summons some Moto Bugs he also ordered to watch them.

Meanwhile, Tails come to Sonic's Shack to tell his team his fixed his unbolteriser, but cannot find them, so he contacts Sonic on his communicator. Sonic informs Tails what Barker has done, so Tails head out to save them. He quickly finds the circus in his plane and tears off the tent where he, after dodging missile fire, uses his unbolteriser to break the cages holding his friends and loosing the sphere of fear, allowing Sonic to roll it. While the others take care of Barker's henchmen, Sonic pursues the ringmaster and traps him in the sphere of fear. Tails receives congratulations from his friends for coming through for them and Team Sonic heads home while leaving Barker behind. Meanwhile, Eggman finishes repairing his TV remote so he can shut off his TV.

Goofs

 * After Tails tears off the circus tent, Sonic is still seen with the interior of the tent in the background when the scene subsequently cuts to him.

Trivia

 * This episode was originally meant to air in the United States on 15 November 2014 as the fourth episode.
 * This episode aired in France as the eleventh episode in the series.
 * This episode was originally called "Circus of Plunder".