A diamond hidden within the gray line

Chapter 77: Marx's warning, subject change and a unexpected reunion.

"You..actually beat them..?" Larry asked, bewildered at what max just said before bowser laughed heartily. "ATTA BOY!! You showed them who's boss!" Bowser says with pride in his voice. "Of course he did! No one meesses with us! Especially max!" Junior chimed in, but the celebration is short lived the moment marx finally spoke.

"Hehehe...i hate to burst your bubble, buuuut...candymaker was never beaten." Marx said after a creepy giggle. "W-what..? But.." Larry started to tremble, silently cursing the fact that this is frightening him. "And just what could YOU possibly know?!" Bowser says to marx angrily.

"Oh, i know more than you think...you see...candymaker has a purpose to fulfill....and they will stop at nothing to achieve it. Of course...the only way they can be stopped is..uh..by some unknown force that makes them stop." Marx explains, though even he hadn't a clue as to what the unknown force is that can stop candymaker. "Oh, ok. So..you're saying they could be anywhere?!" Ludwig demanded. "Great.." Mike mutters.

"Oh..no. You say that as if candymaker is the stalker type who follows your every move....you see..all i know, is that something, or perhaps someone has control over them...if it wasn't for them...candymaker would be unstoppable. They will never rest, they will never tire until max figures out the only way to truly beat them." Marx explains, which made max grunt in annoyance. "And let me guess...you won't be telling me what that is, right?" Max asked as he is finally able to sit up.

"Ah, you know me so well! And just like candymaker, i too, have a purpose to fulfill, but...unlike candymaker, mine is..different." Marx says in a jovial tone before sounding forlorn as he sighs. "Um..care to explain your purpose..?" Lemmy asked. "That's for me to know...for now." Marx answers with a smile, but max could see right through it as well as sense his aura. Strange as he aura felt to him, he could tell that there was...a immense loneliness emanating in his aura.

-Max pov-

I don't know how long marx has lived at the dollhouse, nor do i know if he ever seen anyone else there aside from candymaker and whoever he saw when he first woke up, but...i can't imagine the loneliness marx must've felt...sure, i experienced the same thing, but in the same way as marx? Probably not...

-Bowser pov-

Hmph..as annoying as marx can be, and as agitated as i am to know that candymaker isn't destroyed, it's obvious that he's got a motive that's nowhere near candymaker's motive. He's lucky he knew about max...

-Narration-

"Can we just talk about what happened with whoever max and mike encountered BEFORE candymaker showed up?!" Junior demanded, hating how depressing this moment has become. "Yeah, i wanna know about THAT!" Morton commented quickly. "Heh..for starters, max scared all three of them after he put that mask on." Mike says with a chuckle. "Oh, this i gotta hear." Bowser says with an amused chuckle. Unbeknownst to mike, bowser and the others however, max could sense a..familiar aura, but chose to ignore it for now.

-Max pov-

Hm..someone else is here, which should be enough for me to be prepared but..they ain't threatening. I'll deal with them after this..especially since this aura feels...familiar....

-Narration-

Max is finally able to stand up, which amazed mike after he witnessed what happened. "You're still standing after that?!" Roy asked in amazement, wondering if he's just as durable. "Yeah..at least i wasn't wthrown by my neck this time..." Max mutters, taking a quick glance at where the door to the morgue once stood. "C'mon, c'mon! What happened?!" Iggy asked excitedly.

"Max insisted that he deal with it himself, but before he did, we managed to hear that the magishadow are also in the mushroom kingdom once we got close enough to hear them." Mike explained, which is met by bowser scoffing. "That's not good..." Kamek says, deeply concerned that it's not just the koopa kingdom and the darklands being affected by the magishadow.

-Kamek pov-

This is not good...it leaves me to wonder if all kingdoms will see them...if so, then something must be done.

-Tyson pov-

Though i doubt that the pokemon kingdom will see them, that doesn't mean my home will not be spared from this threat. For now, i do not think the magishadow know where our kingdom is...but i don't think that will last long.

-Narration-

"Ok, that's definitely bad, but what happened when max did meet them?" Ludwig asked, increasingly curious about what happened. "He put that mask on, and that breathing thing the mask did, along with the fact that he made it look as if he was going to attack them scared them so badly to the point that one of them actually ended up pissing themselves.." Mike couldn't help but start laughing after that. He could no longer hold it in.

Then bowser started laughing, and so did the koopalings and junior while tyson simple chuckled and marx, for the first time, laughed without it sounding creepy. "Heh..they thought dad was somehow involved, and i made them realize he wasn't. And.." Max trailed off, seeing the same black hooded figure he saw before just standing there close the doorless morgue. "By the way..." Max began to say before pulling his gun out of gun holster and points it right at the figure which alarmed everyone except for Tyson since they had no idea who max is point it at.

"I CAN SEE YOU OVER THERE! GET YER ASS OVER HERE!!" Max yells out. His eyes showed intensity, but he ultimately remained cautious due to the fact that this figure had a familiar aura, and it was tyson who first saw who max is pointing at. "Magishadow..." He utters while bowser looked at the figure with a hostile glare. "HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE?! FUCK, WHY CAN'T THE FUCKING GUARDS DO THEIR FUCKING JOBS?!" He roars, agitated that the koopatrol didn't catch this guy while the koopalings were on their toes and kamek was about to cast a spell towards them. "Woah now...is that how you greet the man who made sure max came into your life through a simple voice massage?" The figure asked nonchalantly. The figure stood at 6'2 and didn't even bother to p their hands up which irked bowser, and even more so when he mentioned that he's the one who left the massage on bowser's phone.

"And you...wow...i hardly recognize you, max...." The figure says in surprised tone and takes the hooded part of his robe off of his head to reveal a face max hasn't seen for over a year while he lowers his gun. "...Nate?" Max utters, while the koopalings and junior looked flabbergasted. "Woah..that guy's a human..." Morton says, who couldn't believe a human could be almost as tall as max. "Yeah? No shit, professor motormouth." Roy hissed at morton in annoyance which made morton grumble in response.

Nate, the man who max saw as his stepdad, has appeared before max and his new family while marx floated towards the man curiously. The questions on max's mind at this very moment, is how did nate get here? And...why is he here?

For him, this is a reunion that max never thought would happen any time soon.