"Chess..."

...

"Chess...!"

...

"Chess!"

"Aaaah!"

Chess shoots up to his bum. He finds himself in the main room of the Hall of Axe Lords. Kipo and her friends are there, along with Yumyan as well.

The thing is...why are they looking at him like that?

"Eh?" Chess tilts his head.

"Uh, hey Chess." Benson's the one speaking. "Not to scare you, but something's wrong with your arm."

"Yeah, it's like your a cyborg now," Dave adds on. "Though I don't know any cyborg that's part cat."

What...What did they mean by that? Chess slowly brought both of his hands to his face and immediately sees the difference. It's his left arm that's changed, his right arm remained the same. But his left arm has lost its black color and bleached itself with entire white, bloated, and polygonial.

"AAAHH!" Chess immediately stumbles away as if to get away from his own arm. But the arm followed his fear-stricken commands as it propels himself away with 'kerchunk' sounds emanating with every rushed motion.

Chess didn't even make it 10 feet before his body slams on an unseen table, his head lashing down and smacking his forehead right onto it.

"Oww!" Chess pressed his bruised forehead with both hands.

"Are you okay?" Kipo same to his aid and slowly brought him back up.

"ALERT: PHYSICAL TRAUMA LOCATED WITHIN FRONTAL CRANIAL REGION. REQUESTING MEDICAL ATTENTION."

"Yeah. your arm can talk too through that little symbol on your shoulder." Benson points to it. Chess locates it as he sees a crown symbol on the shoulder plate. "Thing is, it's been talking for a while since you passed out. Something about...parts of your brain being damaged? Are you really okay Chess?"

Chess already knew that he wasn't exactly...mentally fit so to speak. He's known that for a long time. Though the fact that it could talk wasn't surprising to Chess, however. He remembered the chess piece speaking before he blacked out. Though...

"How did the chess piece become a part of my arm?"

"INFORMATION: THIS UNIT HAS INITIATED A MECHANICAL TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM TO SCAN AND PERFORM DIAGNOSES IN ACCORDANCE TO LONG-TERM SEPARATION. APPROXIMATE TIME SEPARATED FROM REGISTRANT IS ELEVEN MONTHS, TWENTY-FOUR DAYS, SEVEN HOURS, AND THREE SECONDS BEFORE REESTABLISHED CONTACT."

"That's quite a mouthful," says Kipo. "But what does this have to do with Chess? We tried removing it before, but it seems like it became a part of his arm."

"Is this really a time to be asking about that? I thought we were heading out to find where that Mega Mute was?" Wolf tries to usher the group.

"Well, at least the arm isn't hurting him or anything," mentions Benson. "The arm seems to be looking out for Chess actually."

"Yeah, one less thing to worry about. Besides, I'm sure it'll be useful somehow." Dave reassures.

"Yeah, you're right." Kipo nods in agreement with his companions. "It doesn't hurt, right?" she asks, just for confirmation.

Chess looks at his arm despite his fear of looking at it. The prosthetic ligament rests by his side. Though...he finds out that he can actually still feel a sense of touch within the metallic arm. Even more, it almost moves as naturally as he would normally as if his arm had always been like that. But...

"Can I remove it?"

"ATTENTION: THIS UNIT CANNOT RECONFIGURE TO DEFAULT FORM. UNDERGOING EXECUTION OF PROTOCOL "ANTI-CHECKMATE."

"Ugh..." looks like he can't remove it after all. Might as well regroup with the other Timbercats.

...He hopes that they won't judge him too harshly for his weird arm.

*  *  *

"ATTENTION: THIS UNIT CANNOT RECONFIGURE TO-"

"ATTENTION: THIS UNIT CANNOT RECONFIGURE-"

"ATTENTION: THIS-"

"ATTENTION-"

"Rrrraaaahhhh!"

The tuxedo cat is NOT liking the fact that he can't get the robot arm off of him. And he hates it even more for reminding him of why. Yes, he knows that it has a reason for why it won't remove itself from his arm...but that doesn't mean he can't try.

As the army of cats move onward, Chess had tried several things in an attempt to remove it. One was trying to pull it off like a really stubborn glove. Another was using the handle of his axe to pry it off. It didn't budge one bit. He did everything short of cutting his own arm off with his axes. Maybe...he should try-

"ALERT: PREEMPTIVE SELF-HARM PROTOCOLS INITIATED."

The machine arm grabs his unarmored hand before he could even think about moving it. As much as he's surprised by the voice in the king chess piece, his cheeks flushed in seeing a higher number of eyes on him than usual. His ears lowered, looking down at the floor as they continue their march.

"I wish this thing would just talk in my head than out loud." he thought.

"ADJUSTMENT: REDIRECTING COMMUNICATION TO TEMPORAL LOBE."

. . . .

Ewwwwwww...the arm's attached to his brain somehow.

He sighs; at least it won't be talking out loud now. But...as much as that one thing had been fixed, a new one had taken its place.

"When did Chess get that arm?"

"I don't know how to feel about it."

"Did you hear it talk though? That's kind of weird."

"SHHHH!!!"

Chess shushed them as hard as he could. The eyes of the other Timbercats immediately veer away. At least they're not talking as much.

"Whooaaaaa.....~"

It's Shoelace that approaches him, and it's clear that he's got his eyes on his new arm. "Can I touch it? It looks really cool!"

The tuxedo cat smiles a little. The first kind of praise he's got since the Chess piece stuck to his arm. The small Timbercat pokes and prods the arm without consequence and then giggles right after.

"It's kind of funky isn't it?" says McCutty.

"Mhm." Chess nods.

"Well, I hope that your weird arm will be useful in the upcoming battle." Shoelace notes. "We're about to go to Cactustown, the territory of the Umlaut Snakes. Have you ever been here before?"

Nothing came to mind, so Chess shook his head.

"Huh, weird. You really came from somewhere else if you don't remember being here if that's the case." the small cat summarizes. "Maybe that explains it."

And to be fair, Chess isn't sure if he can disagree with Shoelace. After all, he doesn't remember, so it could be true. Looking around, the traces of an abandoned town in the middle of a desert. That must be Cactustown.

The tuxedo Timbercat couldn't help but look around a bit more to find Kipo and Wolf. Though before he could do anything they head soon head off somewhere despite the number of Timbercats around them. His feet move to try and catch up to them before Yumyan's voice pulls him back.

"Timbercats! Assemble!"

Yumyan's voice rises to a rallying call. Chess sees as all the heads and attentions turn to him. Even he himself is drawn to his voice.

"As you know, we are a proud litter of felines!" the leader of the Timbercats began. "We never lose! Who the ones that fought an army of mega mice, outnumbered and outsized, and yet prevailed!?"

"We are!" the Timbercats cheer.

"And who are the ones who singlehandedly stopped an invasion of fish mutes as they tried to take over the land?!"

"WE ARE!" many cats unsheathe their axes and raise them in unison.

"And who are the cats that fought the Diamond Dogs when they tried to sneak into our land for our resources?!"

"WE ARE!!!" All the Timbercats' cheer themselves in unison. Their leader swaying their hearts in one beat.

"The Umlaut Snakes are not to be taken lightly, just like all our endeavors before them!They may not have paws like us but they can still wrangle you. Now, Timbercats! Axes up, on guard!"

The rest of the Timbercats unsheathe their axes, Chess does the same. Though he notes that the axe in his right hand, the metal hand, is lighter. He almost forgot it's in his hands before the sense of touch reminds him that he's holding it. It made him feel unbalanced, and he's rather upset by this-

"ADJUSTING WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION."

...Huh, it feels balanced now. He's gotta thank the arm later for that.

Still, Chess remains alert as he walks with the group entering Cactustown, the territory of the Umlaut Snakes. It didn't take long for him to hear the sounds of large things slithering by, closing in on them. He could feel the hairs on his back standing up, eyes darting about. And from the shadows cast from the buildings, they came.

Their eyes bloom in the darkness before their long and thick bodies slither from the shadows. Slitted eyes with colors of gemstones focus on them, the electric guitars strapped across their simple bodies. But just like Yumyan stated, they're not to be estimated. Chess quickly sees their height difference by several inches, even at their "standing" posture. Many of the Timbercats began to meow as a form of intimidation. Chess growled and bared his teeth.

"Yumyan Hammerpaw." A particular Umlaut Snake stands above the rest. A deep brown set of scales with a cyan diamond pattern on its body. Its underbelly is a brighter yellow, same with its eyes with their magenta slitted eyes. This snake in particular is addressing their leader.

"Cotton." says Yumyan.

"You have a lot of nerve walking in on our territory with your own two feet, and with all that noise waking us up. It's daylight you know!" says the snake.

Another snake beside her mentions something else in a tired bemoan. "I was dreaming about toast.

Chess felt the serious attitude drain from his body. Snakes can dream of toast?

But his distraction is further distracted as he hears something else, the sound of hissing from both cats and snakes alike. Chess notices one hissing at him and retaliates.

"Rrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhh!"

The Umlaut Snake looks confused and surprised that a cat would make such noise. Chess believes he won that one and grins as the snake rolls their eyes. However, a certain human suddenly walks between the two and Chess realizes that's Kipo.

"Heeeey, nice...hiss off." Chess can tell she sounds nervous, trying to diffuse the tension. "Listen, maybe you could let us pass through your territory just this once...?"

The entire time she was talking, the snake rears its head over her own, towering over her. With the distance closed, the human eventually fell to the ground from the snake just staring down at her.

"We'll actually be very quiet from now on." Kipo continues to suggest in a small quiet voice.

Cotton looks directly at Yumyan, the slitted stare filled with disgust. "Now you're keeping humans and fleas? You cats truly are disgusting."

The leader of the Timbercats wasted no chance to bare his fangs once more and yowl in defense.

"Ladies..."

Cotton eyes at the supine Kipo, who laughs nervously.

"Let's eat this buffet!"

In the blink of an eye the snake lunges down to try and bite the human, but a blur of blue and dark brown comes to her rescue. It is Wolf, rolling in and grabbing Kipo as they tumble away.

And before Chess knew it, everyone else started flying too. Chess's hands gripped even tighter as all his attention focused on what was in front of him. A snake comes barreling towards him but he swings with his right, the axe cracking at the head. Despite the sharp edge, the axe barely left a dent. Umlaut Snake scales are natural armor for them.

The snake hisses and lunges at him once more, but Chess uses his armored hand, the left hand, to swing next. The snake veers away from him, and Chess could feel the axe dig into the floor. He pulls it out, but in facing the Umlaut snake he notices that it looks bug-eyed. He looks where it's looking and sees that there's a sizeable fissure right where the axe had landed. The snake looks at him, and Chess realizes the power in the armored arm. His mouth stretches to a toothy grin as he hollers and chases after the snake.

"RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

"Ohgodohgodohgod! Someone help me out here!" The snake calls for help.

However, none have come. And that meant it's just him and the snake. The snake slithers faster, but Chess's feet move just as fast. He found himself closing in, but suddenly he feels a force slamming into his side.

"Ugh!"

"Die death noodle!"

That voice came from Molly, who had just tackled one of the Snakes. Chess just happened to be in the way as he's sent tumbling to the floor again. The tuxedo cat preps himself up to assist, but soon heard one of the snakes mention something.

"Umlaut Snakes, push them to the Glamorynth!"

Chess did not like the sound of that, the many snakes and their guitars starting to close in on them. Though as he blocked and shoved away a snake attack, Chess found Kipo and her posse sneaking away through a gap between two buildings. But with how things are now, he can't go with them. The distance is simply too far away. His whiskers can feel the other fur of the Timbercats huddling together, and he realizes he's losing his chance of escape every second. If he's going to save the Timbercats, he has to live...

And that means escaping.

"RRRRAAAAAAHHH!!!"

The tuxedo cat charged to the nearest snake, his armored arm stretching out as the snake notices him and lunges forward. With axes in hand, he blocks the fangs from inching towards. But he notices their strength is equal, neither budging.

"ADJUSTING STRENGTH FUNCTION."

"Wha-"

The force needed to push the snake to the side suddenly became a lot easier, the lengthy body of the serpent thrown to the side as Chess takes his chance and makes his way to the nearest building gap. The shifting of sands warn him of the other snakes closing on him, and his legs propel him as fast as they can. The building gap was close, he just needed a second, one last second-

"Ryaah!"

Chess threw one of his axes to keep them at bay for a moment. He didn't hear the weapon hit anything, but the sound of shifting ground stopped for an instant.

And that's all he needed.

The Timber Cat dove right into the gap and fell on his belly. He wastes no time and crawls forth, looking back. The Snakes are angry, seeing that their prey had gotten away. And the gap is simply too small for them.

"Dang it, it slipped through." said the green-scaled snake.

The yellow snake beside them huffs. "Doesn't matter, we gotta lure the others in the Glamorynth. Heh, we'll finally get ourselves a decent meal since the last 8 weeks." To which the two snakes slither off.

He didn't spend any time thinking about what they said as it was clear enough what they intended. He's probably the only one to escape, so he's gotta make his escape count...

But...how is he going to do this alone?

As he picks himself back up he makes his way to the other side of the gap. But just before he slips out the crown on the shoulder pad of his armored arm lights up.

"ATTENTION: CHESS PIECE DETECTED. DISTANCE ESTIMATE IS THIRTY METERS SOUTHWEST OF LOCATION."

Chess knew enough about directions to know what the arm is talking about. Though why did it tell him now? And what is the "chess piece" that it's talking about? It's not referring to the actual game piece, is it? How is that even going to help him??

"OBTAINING CHESS PIECE WILL ESTABLISH CODENAME: BOARD GAME. TO ENSURE COMPANION STATUS OF DESIGNATED "FRIENDS" REMAINS ACTIVE, NOTED CHESS PIECE MUST BE OBTAINED FOR SUPPORT IN PERSONAL MISSION OBJECTIVE."

...not a single word from that made any sense. But what he did understand is that if he collects the piece right now he'll be able to help the Timbercats escape the Glamorynth. Well, now he has the means to help out. His ears pick up the sound of a strumming electrical guitar as his heart races. It's those snakes from earlier, their leader. He can't go out yet, he'll get spotted. He gets down on his belly and simply listens to the slithering and the voices of the snakes.

He hears Cotton's voice as she stopped playing her guitar. "Ugh, that sounded off."

"Maybe it should go..." followed by a strum of another guitar.

"Yeah, now that's good hunting music."

The cat felt his hair stand on end as he could feel the snakes come closer, and his eyes made contact with brown and orange scales that slide past him as they continued playing their music. Chess let out a sigh of relief and finally looks out of the gap. No one else seems to be searching at the moment so he should look for that Chess Piece. The arm said that it's located thirty meters southwest, so it must be in that brown abandoned building. Some kind of bar. But the fleeting sight of the snake tails entering the bar made his skin crawl. If the Chess Piece is in there, so are they.

But his friends will be eaten if he hesitates, so Chess stells himself and crouch-snuck his way to one of the broken glass windows of the bar. From what he can hear, the two snakes seem to be unsatisfied about something, but the sound of another voice yells in a warcry. The voice...it must be Wolf, that friend of Kipo's.

"Oh honey, you know how much venom I got coursing through my veins?" Cotton sounds rather smug.

"It feels rather nice actually." Cotton's friend compliments indirectly.

Chess took a peek over to see that Wolf is taking on the two snakes alone, a rather insane idea. Wolf had gotten a chair that was lying around and leaps forward before smashing it against Cotton's face. The snake in question remained unfazed. They're letting her hit them and they barely flinched.

"Tingly, haven't felt like this since my twenty-first shedding." Cotton's friend bathes in whatever poison that Wolf stung her with.

It's still a bad idea for Wolf to face the two snakes on her own, even if they aren't doing anything to her right now. Plus...he'd feel bad for not helping her, so the tuxedo cat hopped over the window hole and charged forth with his remaining axe in his right hand.

"Yyyaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!"

"Huh?" Cotton's friend slowly turns to him, to which he has already leapt with his axe swinging downward.

The wood beneath splinters apart from the impact of his swing, to which he pivots and throws swing after swing at the orange and teal snake who lazily jerks out of the way of the axe.

"Jeez man, killing the vibe the venom's giving me." said the snake, a bit annoyed but still basking in the effects of the poison. "Where'd you come from anyway? I thought all you hairball makers were sent to the Glamorynth?"

"Must've slipped through." Cotton casually veers away from a stab to the eye from Wolf's stinger weapon.

The tuxedo cat continued swinging, his axe brushing through some of the wooden furniture like nothing. But no matter how many times he swung he still couldn't land a hit on Cotton's compatriot.

"You! Timber Cat! What are you doing here?!" Wolf manages to speak to him as they continue fighting. "I didn't ask for your help!"

"Ggggrrrhhhh!" Chess is indeed listening, but he decided to at least help Wolf.

Chess kept swinging and swinging, slowly guiding the snake's movements to a corner. And even though Wolf is busy with Cotton, she seemed to get an idea of what he's trying to do. Eventually he manages to back the blue and orange snake to a corner, and Wolf pinched Cotton in the same corner. Both are unaware of what is happening.

"Wha-?!"

"Rrraaaaaaahhh!"

"Haaaaaaaaahhh!"

Both the tuxedo cat and human lunge towards the snakes. With their scaled backs at a corner, it would be hard to dodge a pincer attack like that. However, the two snakes immediately duck and slither close to the floor to veer away and reposition.

Now they are the ones cornered.

"Alright, play time's over!"

Cotton's friend's tail zips towards Wolf's ankle and throws her across the room as her face crashes through a bar table wall. Chess felt the full force of the leader of the Umlaut Snake slam him to another wall but he managed to bring his axe up in time to block the fangs from biting down on him. But Cotton's body continues slithering, forcing him to slide across the floor before being pinned down.

"Hey! Cotton!" Chess's eyes looked to see Kipo suddenly come into the scene. Her arms are raised up as if surrendering. But what is she planning to do? "Cotton's friend?"

Both snakes aren't happy at the sight of her, but Kipo kept advancing. "I was listening to your hunting music earlier, and I thought it was really good! I just think it's missing a bit of...something like this?"

In a quick move of hands, Kipo had unstrapped Cotton's guitar and starts strumming. Chess sees the snakes immediately take offense and start circling her. Their fangs are bearing down at her as she continues to play the guitar frantically. Chess's hair stands on end, but he finds himself hesitating on whether to interfere or not.

And then he hears...screaming? And the banging of drums?! What-

Is that Benson and Dave? Are they playing the drum set? When did they get here?!

AND WHY IS IT GETTING SO LOUD?!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

His head feels like it's shaking, eyes darting around to find somewhere to hide. Next to that bar table was a closet door, and he makes a mad dash towards it. He dives right into the darkness of the closet and slams the door behind him. Peace finally came to him, even if the room feels like it's still shaking somewhat.

What were they doing? Was that even music? That was so racketing...

"PLEASE ADVISE: CHESS PIECE IS LOCATED WITHIN PROXIMATE AREA."

Wait, it's here? In this closet? Well, it wasn't where he thought it would be, but he's not gonna complain about that. Even in the darkness, he has some ability to see as he wades through the various cardboard boxes and uncorked bottles. He sifts through some more stuff before his hands touch something metallic yet smooth. Looking down he finds a weird white metal orb amidst the stack of garbage.

"ESTABLISHING CONNECTION..."

Light suddenly flows from the chess pieces. Chess averts his eyes as symbols and words he's never heard of before suddenly flood his mind and eyes and ears. Two voices, almost indistinguishable from one another, are having a conversation at a ludicrous speed. The tuxedo Timber Cat could only watch as his arm and the found chess piece have become pillars of light, the found chess piece now rising from the garbage as the dust collected sloughs off. It floats over to Chess, which he steps back. But he feels his armored arm move on its own, and before he knew it, reaches out. A handle ejects from the base of the chess piece, his bulky fingers clench around the handle as the weight suddenly being felt causes him to stumble as the light fades away.

"CODENAME "BOARD GAME INITIATED. PAWN PIECE, ACTIVE. PAWN PIECE FUNCTIONALITIES AT FULL CAPACITY."

Chess doesn't know how, but he just obtained a chess piece. The pawn piece, specifically. Its image is like that of the expected game piece, but just larger and coming with a seamless handle at the bottom to hold it like a club. Despite its impractical size and shape to be a weapon, it feels lightweight and he could feel his metal-covered fingers clamp down on the weapon like a powerful magnet.

"PERSONAL OBJECTIVE CAN NOW BE OBTAINED. EXECUTE MISSION?"

...of course.