Chapter 2: Team Matchmakers

In the festival, Sally is showing Sonic and his friends the fun it has. The group can see that many people are starting to gather, and lines are begin to form at the food stations and rides.

Cream happily says, "This place is so pretty."

"Chao chao," Cheese says.

"I know, I love the Mobotropolis Festival. The is the third year since we defeated Robotnik, or Eggman whatever he wants to call himself," Sally says.

" Hmm, Why does he name himself Eggman?" Maria asks.

"No one knows, I can't believe that you're related to him. You're more kinder than he is," Sally says.

"You're right about that. Then again, I don't know much about him. I lived on ARK practically my entire life so I don't see my relatives down on earth Other than that he became an evil scientist bent on taking over the planet," Maria replies.

Amy steps in, "Don't worry about him, we're here to have fun."

"I guess. I'm still a little nervous about being around this big crowd," Maria says.

"Maria the last thing you need to worry about is the festival. You're going to have fun, especially now that you're with friends," Sally says.

"She's right, there are ride, food, and performances, and games. We're going to have a wonderful time," Cream happily says.

"Okay," Maria says.

Sonic says, "Then let's go have fun."

Sally and the others begin to run to the festival.

Maria grabs Shadow by the hand, "Come on Shadow, let's go."

The gang run off into the festival to have some fun. They first go on one of the roller coasters. Amy makes sure to sit with Sonic, much to his dismay. Maria and Shadow sit together. Cream and Cheese take another car. Sally and Tails are at the back. The roller coaster goes up the hill, and down super fast making everyone scream in excitement. After that, they go on the spinning cups, each of them going in a par. Follow that, they go on the merry go round. Maria is holding a big smile on her face for the fun she is having.

After going on a few more rides, they play a few games. They stop at a booth bottle knocking game. Shadow knocks all of them down, and wins a prize. It's a stuffed choa, and gives it to Maria. Amy slams the hammer on the strong man game so hard that it knocks the bell off of it. Sonic and Tails start laughing because Amy sometimes forgets her strength. They continue to play a few games until it's already an hour past noon.

After that, the gang are at the one of the food courts getting some lunch Sonic and Tails are eating a large plate of chilli dogs. Amy and Sally roll their eyes in reply as they and the others enjoy their own lunch.

Maria smiles, "I enjoy the festival so far, so what do we do next?"

"There are still many rides and games we hadn't try yet, and there are a few shows as well," Sally says.

"I think it sounds fun," Maria says.

She turns to Shadow, "Wouldn't that be fun?"

"Yeah. I guess," Shadow answers.

The two look at each other with redness on their cheeks. Everyone else notice this.

Sally whispers to Amy, "You know, I never seen this side of Shadow before. He seems to act different with Maria around."

"I know. I think those two have something special towards each other. I wonder if there's romance in their future," Amy says.

"I think you're right," Sally says.

The two girls giggle in reply.

Suddenly, they hear a familiar voice, "Well if it isn't our old pal Sonic and our other buddies."

The others turn to see Victor green crocodile, Charmy the young bumble bee, and Espio the purple chameleon.

Sonic groans, "Hi Victor, Charmy, Espio. You decided to come here too."

"Wouldn't miss it. We decided to take a break from our work and take some time off," Vector.

"Yeah. We love going to festival," Charmy says.

Vector notices the new girl, "And it looks like Shadow has a new friend with him."

"Hello, my name is Maria," Maria introduces herself.

Charmy flies to her, "It's nice to meet you, Maria. You're very pretty."

"Thank you," Maria shyly replies.

"You see Shadow and Maria are actually old friends. She was a human who died and came back to life and is now living with us and as a hedgehog. She and Shadow are like best friends to each other. Not to mention, they lived on Space Colony Ark their whole lives." Sonic says.

"You don't say?" Vector asks.

"It's true," Maria answers.

"I see. I also see that you looking a bit chummy with Shadow, despite of how aggressive he can be," Vector says.

Shadow then gives Vector a vicious glare. Vector and his friends flinch at the sight of it.

Maria shows a calm smile, "Don't worry, I'm sure Shadow will warm up a little better soon."

"Whatever," Shadow replies.

He then looks at Maria with a calm smile, and Maria smiles back at him. Vector can see the two and has an idea.

Vector asks, "So Maria, how is your friendship with Shadow?"

"Well, shadow and I have been friends the ARK for a long time. He makes everyday special for me. We also wished of going to the planet together. Sadly, he had to bo on his own. Btu now, Shadow and I are living on Mobius together. Shadow is always by my side when when I was in trouble."

Now Vector is sure about his idea, and says, "Well, it's nice seeing you guys and hope we catch up later. Come on guys."

Vector walks away with Charm and Espio behind him.

"Those guys can be weird sometimes," Sonic says.

"You can say that again," Tails says.

"More like annoying," Shadow replies.

"Oh, I don't think they're so bad," Maria says.

Shadow turns to Maria, "You're kidding right."

What the two hedgehogs aren't aware of is that Vecote and his crew are spying on them.

"Well, what do you know. Now I know what's going on. Shadow may be distant, serious and aggressive, but he actually has a soft side" Vector says.

"You lost me," Charmy replies.

"Shadow has a crush on his old friend Maria. He came here because he wants to be with her, and I'll bet Shadow is on a date with her, going on romantic rides, seeing a show, going to the firework show, and gaze at the stars," Vector says.

They continue to listen in on the conversation.

"So Shadow, what do you want to do?" Maria asks.

"I'm not sure," Shadow answers.

"That's okay. We can walk around and decide as we go along," Maria happily says.

Back to Team Chaotix.

"Look at them, they're both too shy to tell each other how they really feel. I know exactly how that feels," Vector says.

Espio says, "Vector, you're not going to try to get those two together. Remember what happened with Tails and Cosmo?"

"Alright, so we kind of messed up with our plan, but this time we will not fail. We'll help Shadow and repay him by helping him win the heart of this Maria girl," Vector says.

"I don't know. That didn't exactly work out the last time," Charmy says.

"Don't worry, I got sure fire ways to help the two move their relationship forward. Here's the plan," Vector says.

He then whispers to the two about the plan he has in mind for the two. Since this is a festival it will make things more perfect to help make Shadow and Maria's romance along.

They follow Sonic and their friends to the ferris wheel. Amy quickly drags Sonic until the basket with her. Shadow and Maria goes in the other one. Vector has a plan.

Vector says, "Alright here's the plan, when the two get to the top of the ferris wheel, we'll stop the ride and they'll be stuck. That will give them some alone time to give love a helping hand. That will give them enough time, their sparks will come flying. I call it Love Wheel."

The ferris wheel engine turns it on and allow the wheel to go around. Then stops for the next pair. Tails and Sally goes on one, while Cream and Cheese go on the other. Espio who is invisible, turns on the switch causing the ferris wheel to go on and continues until Maria and Shadow are on the top of it.

Maria looks at the view, "Wow! It's a lovely view."

"Yeah," Shadow answers.

Maria and Shadow sit next to each with smile smiles while Vector is spying on the two through the binoculars.

"Look like this relationship is turning out well," Vector says.

"Yeah. This could actually work," Charmy says.

However, on the other basket, Sonic is trying to get away from Amy.

"Come on Sonuc, give me a kiss!" Amy happily screams.

"Amy, cut it out!" Sonic screams.

He then jumps on to the wheel to get away. Sonic sighs in relief. He then turns to see Amy on the top of the wheel too. He begins to run away with his speed with Amy behind him. That's when the wheel spins with everyone on it. Many people are laughing and are having a great time, even Maria.

"Wow! I never knew ferris wheels can go this fast," Maria says.

Shadow looks up, and says, "They're not supposed to."

Maria looks up to see Sonic is trying to run away from Amy.

Shadow brings out his hand, and shouts, "Chaos control!"

That stops the ferris wheel along with Sonic and Amy in place. Hr turns the wheel until they reach the bottom, and put Amy and Sonic on the ground. He then realize everyone from the chaos control. Sonic and Amy feel a bit dizzy. Everyone else is cheering for the fun ride.

"Thanks Shadow," Sonic says.

Shadow sternly stomps towards Sonic, "Serious, you can't stay still for one solid minute. You send the whole wheel spinning."

"Lighten up Shadow, everyone had a great time. Maybe when you lose the attitude, you can be fun as me," Sonic says.

But Shadow gives him a hard blow to the head, "In your dreams, faker."

Maria calmly says, "Oh Shadow."

Still hiding, Team Chaotix can see their plan hasn't work so well.

"Well, that plan didn't quite work as they plan," Charmy says.

"Don't worry, I got another plan," Vector says.

After following the hang, they come to a haunted house. Maria and Shadow walk into the house so they can see what it has.

Vector says, "Alright, here's the plan. Espio and Charmy will go in the haunted house and try to scare Maria enough so she will clutch on to Shadow. Shadow will reassures that everything will be alright. Soon enough, they will walk out holding each other's arms. I call this. Frightful Matchmaker."

In the haunted house, Maria and Shadow are walking down the hall. Maria is feeling a bit nervous that she is holding onto Shadow's arm.

"Maria, are you sure you want to come in here? We can go to a different attraction if you want," Shadow asks.

"Don't um worry, I'll… I'll be fine," Maria nervously answers.

Shadow and Maria continue to walk down the hall, unaware that Espio and Charmy are in the haunted house too. Charmy then creates rattling noises with the fake suit of armor. Meria becomes scared and hold on to Shadow.

Espio then trips Maira so she will fall. Luckily, Shadow is able to catch her.

Charmy and Espio secretly sneak past the two, but Charmy accidentally knock the box over, and almost fall on top of the two hedgehogs. Luckily, they are able to get out of the way.

The two continue to run until they fall through a trapdoor to a slide. They slide down until they are out of the haunted house.

"Well, that was a bit of a fright," Maria says.

Maria looks to see that she is sitting on Shadow and his arms are wrapped around her. The two blush as they look at each other.

Vector looks at the two, "Well, it looks like things are working better than I planned, but their relationship needs a to be pushed more."

After the haunted house, the gang are walking on the sidewalk when someone goes past a mud puddle at fast speed that it cause to splash out. Maria ends up getting splashed by the mud.

"Are you alright Maria?" Shadow asks.

"I think so," Maria answers.

Amy looks at her, "Yeah. But your clothes are dirty."

Maria looks down to see her mother has mud splatters on it.

"Oh dear. And we didn't bring spare clothes with us," Maria says.

"Don't worry, we can go back to the castle. I'm sure I have a few clothes for you to try on," Sally says.

"Oh, but I don't want to be a burden," Maria says.

"Don't worry, I don't mind at all. You guys continue to have fun at the festival and I'll take Maria to change into some new clothes," Sally says.

"Alright, see you later," Sonic says.

Sally takes Maria back to the cartel while Sonic and the others try to enjoy the rest of their time at the festival. What they don't know is that Vector and the rest of Team Chaotix are hiding behind a food stand.

Vector says, "Phase one is complete. Now it's time Operation Alien Rescue."