A diamond hidden within the gray line

Chapter 104: A scarf's legend and arrival at the gate of the abyss.

-Narration/15 minutes later-

After max got his uniform and his holster on, he also took his iPod with him, believing that, for some unexplained reason, it could help him in some way. He also took his wand with him thinking that he could use it as a backup plan, and hope it wasn't as bad as nate made it out to be while he held on to his helmet and made sure to take his starlight saber with him knowing that at least that wasn't embed with magical means.

After that, it didn't take long for everyone to scramble to get in the helicopter as it flew off towards the direction of the metro kingdom, except for kamek, whose whereabouts were unknown at the moment while max looked out the window as the cloudy sky felt a bit ominous. Most of the koopalimgs were actually excited to finally be onboard the very helicopter max had used to get around but max did notice that wendy looked almost panicked as she was texting whoever it was but he didn't wanna bother with asking, not when he felt a sense of foreboding pandemonium of indescribable horror that only got stronger. "I still don't know why we all gotta go.." Lemmy says nervously. "Yeah, that text made it sound as if the metro kingdom is haunted or something." Junior said with a yawn, making it clear that he was bored to the point that falling asleep might actually help him.

Junior of course, had no idea what was happening.

"You can feel free to stay in the helicopter if you want." Mike offered as bowser scoffed. Iggy decided to tinker with max's mask while muttering how beat up it is. Tyson on the other hand, noticed through max's aura that he was hiding something. "You have something on your mind?" Tyson asked him, who immediately knew that tyson sensed his aura and couldn't hide that. "When i first got that letter, i came close to just..walking away." Max replied which quickly got bowser's attention. "WALK AWAY?" Morton yelled which earned him a rough nudge by roy that signaled him to shut up.

"Why walk away? You knew that there was no turning back..." Tyson asked. "I wanted to find my mom just to see if what the letter said was true. At that time, i had just barely survived against candymaker for a second time, which hardly helped at all. But then..i met someone who helped me keep going. I don't even know where he came from, and he helped me to at least realize that walking away was no option." Max explained. "I just..i just wish i could see that pokemon with the red scarf again..." Max says before sighing, but he never imagined the reaction both mike and tyson were about to have which caught everyone, even marx, off guard.

"Red scarf...no way...YOU SAW HIM?!" Mike says before suddenly yelling. "Impossible..the legendary explorer..." Tyson became wide-eyed while bowser looked on in confusion and a bit of impatience while the koopalings simply looked confused except for wendy who is still on her phone texting and looked even more panicked than before which max quickly noted.

"Any one of you two wanna clue me in? Who is this 'legendary explorer'?" Bowser asks, becoming more on the annoyed side of curious. "In the pokemon kingdom, we knew him as amphy. He wasn't a legendary pokemon by any means, but his accomplishments were definitely legendary. My dad talked about him so many times..." Mike answers. "He was known for his charismatic attitude that drove others to keep going, and his scarf..he had that ever since he was young and even went as far as to call it his lucky scarf considering that he almost always managed to make it out unscathed while wearing it." Tyson sighed after saying this, his voice nearly breaking with emotion. Meanwhile, while everyone aside from wendy looked at tyson oddly, marx was the only one that looked confused.

-Marx pov-

Amphy? Now, i have never seen this guy before and perhaps i should have been around max a bit more and could have met this amphy person, but..why does that name bring me a sense of..relief? It's almost as if this guy knew that his arrival changed things for the better without even so much as directly doing anything! Well, i suppose in a verbal sense he did, but still! I also can't help but wonder what would've happened if he talked with me...