This file has been downloaded from the files of Rebecca Akthend, also known as the superhero, Mind Games. After the group disbanded, these records were released to the public so that others might learn more about who the heroes that protected them were. This is file number 24, or Operation Big Boom, when the supervillain known as Chess threatened to blow up the whole city of Leforn. The account starts with the image of a rook appearing on every screen in the entire city, with a distorted voice saying…
“Greetings people of the city of Leforn, I am announcing a challenge for the H Force. You see, I have placed 14 bombs across the city in the various locations that you see on your screen. Now pay attention, because this is where it becomes interesting. Each time one of these bombs is disarmed it sends a signal that will cause another of the bombs to detonate. The bombs all have a timer set for one hour, and the timer will start the moment this recording is finished. My rook is in position to take your king, and it’s your move. I hope you make it a good one.”
H crossed his arms under the glowing blue battery on his chest. “Flanders, run a scan of the locations included in the message, see if you verify that there are bombs there. Jake, no one can get to the bank and back as fast as you, so I want you to run down to the bank and bring that bomb back here. I’ll prep the laboratory to analyze the bomb and see if everything Chess said was true, and if there is any safe way for us to disarm them. Anthony, where are you going?”
Trenchie walked up to the coat rack and put his trenchcoat and fedora on. “I’m going to do some investigating. Something about this just doesn’t seem right to me. I’ll be in touch.” Trenchie walked out the door. Coldstreak turned into a beam of light and followed him out the door, leaving a trail of ice behind him.
“Agonel,are you just going to let Anthony leave like that when we’re in the middle of a situation like this?” Quake asked.
“After everything we’ve been through, I’ve learned that if Anthony gets one of these feelings of his, he’s usually the one who ends up saving the day. So unless you can think of something more important that he should be doing here, let him go, and help me to prep the lab for when Jake gets back,” H said.
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A beam of light streaked down the sidewalk, a trail of ice forming behind it. The beam of light passed through the glass doors of the bank and into a room filled with chaos and panic. The light turned back into Coldstreak and was instantly surrounded by people.
A woman with tears streaming down her face shouted out, “Coldstreak, what is the H Force doing to stop Chess from blowing up the city?”
“We are doing everything in our power to protect this city. The H has sent me to retrieve one of the bombs so that we can analyze the device to see how to best save you. Now if you’ll excuse me, every second counts right now.” Coldstreak pushed through the crowd to the front of the bank.
He heard The H’s voice in his head. “Jake, Flanders has run a scan of the bank and he is detecting an explosive device under the tellers booth.”
“Alright Agonel, I’ll be back in a flash.” Coldstreak turned into a beam of light and passed through the tellers window, startling the bank teller. “Excuse me miss, but I don’t think that this is bank property. Why don’t you allow me to dispose of this for you?” Coldstreak picked up a rectangular box with a timer on the top of it that read 58:15. He turned himself and the bomb into a beam of light and passed through the tellers window and the glass door of the bank, leaving behind two frosted windows and a second ice trail next to the original.
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Quake sat on a computer chair spinning in circles. “So? Can we stop the bombs?”
H looked up from his computer screen briefly before turning his attention back to the computer screen, his fingers flying across the keyboard. “These are extraordinary feats of engineering and programing. If I had more time I might be able to find a way to safely disarm them, but it would still have to be all at once, and I don’t have time to write an algorithm and set up a system to give the same program command simultaneously… sorry. The short of it: no I can’t disarm the bombs here, but I do have a plan to disarm them. Jake, can you go and gather up all the bombs in town, and meet us at Wilbers Pond?”
“Ha, meet you slow pokes at Wilbers Pond? It’s more like you guys will meet me there.” Coldstreak turned to light and shot out of the room, leaving an ice trail all over the carpet.
H rubbed his forehead and sighed. “How many times have I asked him not to do that in here? Iced carpets are not fun to deal with! Anyway, Joe, I want you to come with me, Rebecca, I want you to stay here and keep everyone’s minds linked up and try to find out if Anthony has come up with anything yet. DJ, can you call Caleb the wizard out and get him working on a protection ritual? We might need a big one if things don’t work out the way that I hope they will. Flanders, prep an A-class delayed explosive device and my Strong-Arm armor.”
Quake got up from his chair and put his gauntlets on. “The Strong-Arm; are you expecting trouble, Agonel?”
H frowned. “One thing I’ve learned about dealing with Chess is that nothing is ever what it seems to be with him. It doesn’t hurt to be prepared.”
Game Master threw his dice onto the table. “15. Alright, come on out Caleb, we have some work to do.”
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H’s mechanical suit flew across the sky, propelled by the rockets in it’s feet and wings. He circled over the field surrounding Wilbers Pond. Quake heard H’s voice in his head. “Looks like we may have actually beat Jake here. Didn’t think that was possible.”
“It’s not, he’s over there.” Quake pointed at the frozen surface of the pond that Coldstreak was sliding over. “He has the bombs stacked in the middle of the pond.” H landed on the ground and the wings on his back folded onto his back. Quake jumped off of H’s shoulder and slid down one of his massive arms. The two of them walked out onto the lake.
Coldstreak smiled at Quake and H as he slid past.“Come on you slow pokes, I even went and got each bomb separately and I still beat you here and had enough time to have some fun.”
Quake smirked back at Coldstreak. “I’d be careful if I was you, don’t forget I could shatter this ice and make it so that H and I can stand on the water while trapping you under it.”
H walked over to the pile of bombs and placed his small bomb on top of the stack and set the timer for 2 minutes and started it. “Enough funny business for now, let’s take care of these bombs now and get to work on tracking Chess down.”
Quake looked warily at the timer on H’s bomb. “You know that he’s too good to leave a trail we can follow Agonel, we’ve been down this road before. Anyway, I see you armed another bomb, care to fill us in on what the plan is?”
“Each of these bombs is packing enough explosive power to take out four square blocks, and were positioned to take out a major part of the city. Combined like they are if we let them go off now they would destroy everything between here and Leforn.”
Coldstreak stopped sliding around and gaped at H. “And bringing them all together like this was a good idea because?”
“It was a good idea because Joe can harden the air around the explosives and contain the blast. Feel up to it Joe?”
All three heroes had their minds invaded by Trenchie’s voice. “It’s a good plan, and against anyone but Chess it would work, but as per usual, we fell for his misdirection. I did some investigating, those bombs were just decoys. Chess told us in his video that each of the bombs when disarmed would trigger another bomb. We assumed the bombs that were triggered were other bombs that he had told us about, but he fooled us all. At each of the sites he has placed an even bigger bomb. I’m no expert, but I’d say that each of these is capable of taking out the city. What you are planning will actually destroy Leforn.. So what do we do boss?”
H quickly walked back up to the pile of bombs and stopped the timer on his bomb. He glanced over at timer on one of the other bombs. It read 11:49. He paced back and forth across the ice. “Anthony, how big are these bombs? Do you think that Jake would be able to move them?”
“They’re big ones boss, bigger than what I think Jake can move. you need to come up with something new.”
Quake scratched his head. “What about a localized EMP? That could knock out all of the bombs.”
Coldstreak picked up a loose bit of ice and flicked it at Quake. “It would also knock out all of the power and electronics in the whole town. We couldn’t possibly do that.”
H frowned. “An EMP might be our only chance. The mansion has an EMP shield already installed on it, and I have two other mobile shields, one in the H Jet and the H Car. The shield can be expanded to cover a large building. Looks like we can save two buildings in town. So, who do we save?”
Mind Games’ voice entered all of their minds. “I think we need to save the hospital, there are a lot of people in that hospital that are counting on medical devices to stay alive.”
H answered, “Good thinking, Rebecca. Take the H Car and drive it into the hospital and tell them to prepare their back-up generators. I’ll telepathically walk you through how to widen the shield’s area. Any suggestions for a second location?”
Trenchie telepathically cleared his throat. “I think we should shield the police station. A power outage and damage like this could lead the people to riot. I know we’re a great superhero team, but I think this would be a little more than we can handle alone.”
H nodded and the wings on his suit unfolded and his rockets warmed up. “Agreed, that sounds like a good target. DJ, take the H Jet and park it on the roof of the police department. I’ll meet you there and make the modifications to the shield. Jake, I need you to get back to the mansion and ask Flanders to help you find my H converter and wait until the EMP goes off. Then meet me at the powerplant. I might be able to help them get the power back up a little sooner. Joe, you get to have another ride with me today.” H held out his hand and Quake stepped onto H’s hand and climbed up on to his shoulder. H flew up into the air and Coldstreak dashed back to the mansion .
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H did a couple of adjustments to the EMP shield generator on the H Jet. “Okay, you have all those modifications done on your end Rebecca?”
Mind games voice sounded in H’s head. “Just finishing up a few more things, and there. Ready to go on my end.”
H walked up to the cockpit and flipped a switch. “Alright, power it up and Jake, go ahead and have Flanders start up that EMP.” He looked down at the timer on his watch, which read :45.
The jet’s computer screen blinked a few times and a computerized voice said, “Sir, EMP detected. Shields holding steady.”
H smiled. “And not a moment too soon.” He telepathically linked up with Coldstreak. “Jake, meet me at the powerplant with the converter. We have some work to do.” He walked to the back of the jet and picked up a one foot metallic cube with a cylindrical indent on one side and placed it on top of his watch. “Flanders, recall Strong-Arm armor and send over Toolbox.” The cube hovering over his watch disappeared in a flash of blue light, followed by another flash of blue light and a different metal cube hovering over his watch. He grabbed the cube and placed the indented part of the metal over the H battery attached to his chest. “Armor expand!” The box opened up and mechanical bits expanded out over his body so that a mechanical suit, with tools of all types and sizes attached to it, was covering his body.
He linked telepathically to his team mates. “I’m off to get the power plant up and running. You guys get out there and help the police with riot control.” H stepped off of the jets hatch and unfolded the wings on his suit and flew off into the afternoon sunset. He flew to the outskirt of the city where the powerplant was. He landed next to the door and his wings folded back into the suit. Two men wearing hard hats and carrying a lantern walked up to H.
“We got everything ready like you asked us too, you want to let us know exactly what is going on?”
“We had to knock out the power in town with an EMP wave to prevent Chess from blowing up the town. Let’s get inside so we can get the power back up as soon as possible.”
Coldsteak was leaning against the side of the power plant and stood up straight and walked over to H carrying a cube of metal with a circular indent in it and wires coming off of the side. “One H converter just as ordered.”
H and Coldstreak followed the two men who led the way into the powerplant and showed them the generators. H opened up the panel to reveal the machines insides, and sitting on top of the machinery was sitting a black king piece. H picked it up and looked at it. Written in white along the stem of the piece were the words, “Check mate.” H formed his hand into a fist around it. “He set us up. He knew how things would turn out from the very beginning.”
If this chapter left you confused as to who was involved and what was going on, I will be going back to the beginning of the series with the next H Files posting, so to see how they get their powers, check it out next month!
Tales of the Imagination 