Finding The Way Back (A Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts Fanfiction)

[4] Activation and A New Journey Begins

"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...