The circus prisoners awoke once again in the wagon cage; wishing all that transpired before had been a dream. Everyone opened their eyes slightly and looked around, Sonic lay on the far left, and Shadow, Silver, and Snake lay on Sonic's left. They didn't know if they'd woken prematurely, so everyone pretended to be asleep.

"Wake up, shitheads!" A familiar voice yelled above them.

Said persons sat up with mostly false fatigue.

Syla O'Malley had a cat-o-nine-tails style spiked whip in one hand, and a key in the other. He wore a belt with multiple weapons, and a pouch on his left side held a pack of syringes.

"Now, I assume you pussy livers know that we didn't bring you here so you could look pretty in a cage. I'm going to get you boys doped up, so you don't try to anything when I release you."

Syla pulled out a syringe, and knelt in front of Snake. "I'm going to enjoy this."

Snake head butted Syla when he brought the syringe to his neck.

Syla jumped back, holding his bleeding nose. "You'll pay for that." He punched Snake hard, knocking him back, and then held him down as he forced the needle into his vein.

Meanwhile Sonic, Shadow, and Silver had been struggling against their restraints. Silver, however, was far weaker than the others.

Then Syla moved on to Silver. He pushed him down with little effort and said, "Don't worry; you don't need as much as they do." He plunged the needle into the hedgehog's arm.

Sonic and Shadow struggled the most, but were defeated all the same.

Syla unlocked their chains once the drugs kicked in, which was not long. They were all groggy at first, so he forced them to their feet. He led them over to another tent connected to the one they were in, where they trained their unwilling talents. Syla had lined them up single file, with Snake in front of him, and pushed them all at once into the open space at the center of the tent.

Snake fell forward and knocked Silver, Shadow, and Sonic into the space domino style.

The four boys lay sprawled on the ground, barely able to stand.

"On your feet, bitches."

They struggled to their feet, and then each of them glared —or tried to— at Syla.

Syla smiled as he caressed the spiked whip. "You are so cute! Thinking you can scare me with mean looks." He teased with mock sweetness. The mockery was then replaced with seriousness. "Now, I want the four of you to get on those balance beams and stuff over there—" he pointed to the left of the open space, where said gymnastic equipment was. "—and practice performing a few stunts. Got it?" He tilted his head to the side with a patronizing expression.

Snake and Shadow huffed, while Sonic and Silver rolled their eyes, before going over to the equipment. Each of them climbed onto a balance beam, pull up stand, or rings.

Silver hopped onto a low balance beam in the back. He held his arms out for balance and started walking to the other side. Sonic and Shadow had chose the rings. However, they differed wildly in their preparation; Sonic attempted vertical flips, while Shadow practiced holding himself off the ground. And Snake had kept busy by doing pull ups beside the rings. After several minutes, the grogginess faded almost entirely, and everyone was doing their own stunts.

Silver did a strange mix of cartwheels and back flips. Sonic was doing some kind of aerial break dancing. Shadow used the entire rig to do various acrobatics. And Snake, well, nobody knows exactly what he was doing; but it wasn't bad to watch.

A loud crack sounded in the tent, accompanied by a scream through gritted teeth. All heads turned toward the source.

Shadow was on his hands and knees, with several of the whip's spikes stuck in his back.

Everyone jumped down from their equipment, shock and anger on all but Snake's face.

Sonic and Silver tried to run to Shadow's aid, but Snake held them back. He bent down and whispered, "Not yet."

Syla stalked over to him while jerking the whip. He crouched behind Shadow and pulled his head back by the quills. "I've never seen such pitiful routines in my life."

"Bet you couldn't do better." Shadow growled.

Syla shoved the hedgehog onto the ground and whipped him in the back of the head. "Just for that, you're suffering will be twice as bad as your friends."

"O'Malley!" Someone screamed.

All heads turned to Conier as he stepped out of the shadows. He looked wildly overconfident and serious, and was dressed in a light blue acrobat suit with yellow stripes on the sides. "Never thought you'd back down from a challenge. How about instead of all this power play, you give the guy a chance to prove himself?"

"Stay out of this, Connor." Syla spat. "This is between me and my 'trainee'."

"I'd say it's a little more than that, Old Mallard." Conier walked towards him. "You're afraid Mr. Higgins' is getting ready to let you go in your old age. You're afraid that he—" Conier pointed to Shadow. "—is a better acrobat than you. And you won't admit it."

Syla faced Conier with hateful eyes. "I won't admit to an idiot's gossip."

"So why'd you single him out? No one else was doing as good as him. If you were going to pick anyone, you should've picked him." He pointed at Silver. "And if you're so much better, can't you beat him while he's doped up and bleeding anyway?"

Syla went white at that. He whipped around and saw Sonic had helped Shadow to his feet, and Silver and Snake had come over to them. Syla went stone faced, and brought up the whip, aiming to get Shadow and Sonic in one blow.

Conier snatched the whip from Syla. "You won't need that."

Syla glared at the younger acrobat, who gave him a smirk in return.

After a tense silence, Syla said, "fine. I'll accept the challenge."

After Shadow had his cuts cleaned and covered, he and Syla went to another circus tent. This one was much larger, and seemed to be designed for the very business they had in there.

It was mostly open space, with a large mat in the center of the floor. There was gymnastic equipment of various sorts surrounding the mat; and high above them were a trapeze and tight-rope.

Shadow and Syla went straight to the center of the mat. Someone dragged a 4-foot high balance beam into the center, then left as Conier came towards them; Conier got between Syla and Shadow and looked at the gathered circus performers and the other three prisoners.

"Ladies and —well, none of you are gentlemen. Come to think of it no one here is a lady ether—"

"Get on with it twin!" called a brunette in a cat suit identical to Conier's.

"—shut up Cici!" He shouted back. "Anyway, I think you all know that we're here to see Ol'Mallard get served so Mr. Higgins can fire him."

The assembled performers suppressed laughter.

"So, let's get this show on the road. Ol'Mallard, you'll start."

The competitors nodded, never breaking their stares.

"Now back up, both of ya." Syla and Shadow gladly obeyed. "Just to be clear, you get one round, one shot. Impress us." Conier said. "Be ready on 'go'."

Syla stretched his arms and legs, being careful with his right shoulder.

"1…"

He popped his shins and knuckles.

"2…"

He twisted and popped his back.

"3…"

He and Shadow stared each other down.

"GO!"

Syla started his with a cartwheel and some aerials. Then he did a back flip and landed on the balance beam in the center. He began his balance beam stunts with a cartwheel that became an aerial midway, and ended in a flip off the balance beam. Syla then back flipped onto the balance beam, landing on his hands. And then he twisted his legs in the air, and brought them down to jump over them and land on his hands with his legs in the air. He finished by flipping over into a standing position, and bowing to his audience. Unfortunately, his entire routine was less impressive from hiccups caused by his gunshot wound.

Only two of the people that applauded him meant it with enthusiasm.

Conier feigned indifference, "alright, now out with the old and in with the new. You're up, Shadykins!"

Shadow threw an evil look back at Conier as he walked toward the balance beam.

"1…"

Shadow stretched his legs.

"2…"

He popped his neck and back.

"3…..."

He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

"GO!"

Shadow started by jumping onto the balance beam, hands first, and doing a few break dance moves before reverse back bending onto his feet. He back flipped off the balance beam and grabbed onto it, swinging under it. And then he wrapped his legs around the balance beam and flipped his way to the end of it. Shadow climbed down the leg of the balance beam with various twists and flips. He did an aerial to land on the floor, and back flipped over the balance beam. He finished it off by swinging around the balance beam and tossing himself into the air, where he did several different flips and landed with a roll, and hopped up unscathed.

The performers supplied Shadow with an honest, excited applause.

"Now that was a show." Conier said, stepping forward to shake Shadow's hand.

Shadow refused the handshake, giving a simple, "thank you," instead.

Conier shrugged it off and looked at his fellow circus performers. "Well, what'cha think, guys? Who's our winner?"

"Shadow!" They cried.

"As expected." Conier shook his head, smiling. "Now go on back to your friends. And if Ol'Mallard messes with you again, let me know."

For the rest of the day, Shadow and his fellow prisoners did practice routines undisturbed, except for being pulled out of said practice to have the docility drugs re-administered to them.