A diamond hidden within the gray line

Chaper 90: Recap, aftermath and the same stare.

Max also felt that his mask was helping him conquer his fears even though he was actually terrified underneath and even started to drop hints about himself after his second mission. He slowly became prideful and truly believed that he had it under control despite the fact that the magishadow were gradually beginning to overwhelm him as well as encountering candymaker two more times.

And each encounter made him become increasingly erratic doing everything he can think of to beat candymaker and failing every attempt.

It also didn't help him when he began to notice that nate's letters were not only shorter. But also looked as if they were being written by shaky hands, and never understood why until on his third to last mission which he immediately called out to nate in complete despair and even more so when he found out what was going on with his mother through that letter. With every letter he received, he gave them to mike and everyone else to read, but insisted to keep this one which immediately caused even bowser to become suspicious of what could possibly be written that was so important, not knowing that max kept it because he believed that he could spare roy from knowing the truth. At that point, max was about to give up when a pokemon with a red scarf on named amphy convinced him to keep going and believed that it will lead to what he called the domino effect, which was enough to motivate max to keep at it even though the letter he just read shook him to the core. It was also that moment when he began to hate wearing his mask. On his second to last mission, he was sent to yoshi's island which marx freaked out and practically screamed like a little fangirl over it.

It was also the only time he had ever took his mask off in front of others after he saved a small handful of orphans and broke down in tears in front of them after making sure no one else was around. They saw that he was just a kid and promised to not say his name but wanted to at least tell people that they saw 'spike' without his mask on. As for marx... it was as if he was on cloud nine and immediately started working on something, promising that it'll be a surprise after they deal with whatever mission is next, but this time..max found no letter which only deepened his despair.

Each time he went home, he would always have a few days or a week and a half if he's lucky, and while max kept a brave face and convinced most people that was ok, those who weren't convinced, especially if they could sense aura became worried about him which caused bowser to order mike to follow max after he noticed that max looked distressed after coming back from yoshi's island which mike agreed to without question.

The last mission fell on halloween of all holidays after a mystery caller invited him to the coconut mall and mentioned that something strange was happening in the local arcade. Marx following closely behind and everything seemed normal to the point that max felt that something was off until the arcade game known as carnevil suddenly came to life thanks to zöhm, who not only set a trap for max after using a random person to call him, and decided to show no mercy to max who is already distracted with despair and guilt and that would have been the end of max if mike hadn't stepped in and snapped him out of it. Marx on the other hand...was actually terrified to the point that he couldn't do much of anything and couldn't even explain why.

While all of this was happening, candymaker appeared a third time, but rather than attack max, they instead attacked zöhm who is in the form of a twisted, horrifying version of tokkentakker for a unknown reason and thanks to candymaker's assistance, they were able to defeat zöhm which infuriated him to no end, and left in hurry vowing to retaliate while candymaker tried to pursue zöhm which gave max, marx and mike the opportunity to escape unseen.

It is now november first, and max and mike are currently sitting in the same helicopter that max got to sit in before he got to see bowser's castle, and mike was not happy with max in the slightest while the sun is just beginning to rise as the sky is partly cloudy.

-Mike pov-

Max is lucky. So FUCKING lucky i was there...even with that mask on, his aura hardly hid that something was wrong. "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?! YOU IDIOT!!! WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST ASK FOR HELP?!" I yelled at max who said nothing as his mask was still on his head while marx...my arceus, i never imagined him to be terrified... "You don't know what i've seen, or what i've done...was that..was that really dad saying that stuff to me..?" Max replies. His voice was heavy with sadness as he asked that. "Max. Max, listen to me..that horrifying version of bowser zöhm created wasn't your dad! Do you really think that he would say all that to you?!" I quickly said to him. I witnessed zöhm, who was in the form of some guy named tokkentakker create this..horrifying version of the big guy who proceeded to verbally attack max, and...let's just say he's lucky i got there in time.

-Narration-

Max had his hand in his right pocket as mike berated him. The 'breathing' his mask was doing wasn't as profound, but was enough to be heard. "Arceus, what has happened to you?! It's like you've become a whole different person! Always insisting that you can handle it on your own when it was obvious that wasn't the case back there. This isn't you! This..-" Mike would've kept talking had max not slowly pulled out the letter and just held it there in his hand. "...What is that?" Mike asked max, who is just sitting there almost motionless. "The letter i kept..." Max answers as mike swiped it from his hand and read it. Mike went from angry with max, to horrified and worried in a matter of seconds as he read it before he looked up at max. "Max...take that stupid thing off..." Mike says to him. He complies, but the moment he took it off, was the moment that even marx looked shocked.

The look in max's eyes...the fact that his face almost looked pale...it was as if max seen the face of death.

"I..i don't know what to tell roy..." Max utters in a near whisper while his voice faltered with raw emotion. "Oh..that look in his eyes...i've...i've seen it before..." Marx mutters which mike heard. "What are you talking about..?" Mike asked as max drifted off. However, in doing so, max felt as if someone or something was..calling out to him. He didn't know why, but he felt the need to heed the call, but he had no idea where it would lead him.