Search the Community

The Throwaways Volume 1: Who Are The Throwaways? * MISSION: Deus Ex Machina [INFILTRATION] Although Geistâ??s largest competition in the race to total superhuman domination is MacOne Enterprises, thatâ??s not to say their hegemony is otherwise unchallenged. While the other companies clambered over one another for a spot in the limelight, one company grew unnoticed and then burst onto the scene. The India based corporation Umbral Limited promised to â??unlock the true potential of the natural world,â? and apparently did exactly that, having expanded into multiple countries in only a year as a power provider and supersoldier creater. Whatever means theyâ??re using to create their supersoldiers would be instrumental to Geistâ??s expansion, so infiltrate their headquarters and unearth their secrets. * The Future â??This is a very simple situation: you have what we need, and we will not stop until weâ??ve extracted every bit of it from you, until you are reduced to nothing but ash! You can not run from us, Lucas Corrigan...â? Now â??Lucas Corriganâ?¦this is a sh*t plan.â? To clarify, her issue was not with Lucas. She and Corrigan had worked a number of missions together, and he was a more than capable leader. And, admittedly, it had not been his plan to trust the shoddy intel Geist uncovered about Umbral Ltd. But there were no Geist operatives around to yell at-- save the stealth transport pilot, and Alice was not eager to crash and die. Not today. So, just for today, she would have to take her frustrations out on her friend. â??Donâ??t blame me, Allison,â? he hissed, zipping up his jacket and flipping the deep hood over his head. Allison rolled her eyes and turned back to their team. Some of the faces were new to her, â??unweathered and untested.â? Lucas had introduced her to that mindset the first time they when on a recruitment mission together. Back then she had laughed, finding the sentiment ridiculous as the gentlemen they had attempted to recruit was a man who had fought, and killed, seven men in hand to hand combat at the same time. You could see his past murders hiding in the creases of his face. But Lucas said it didnâ??t matter. Anything that came before the Throwaways didnâ??t matter. Thereâ??s a difference between making your own mistakes and making Geistâ??s. Encouraging... â??Everybody shut up!â? She barked at the others. â??Our fearless leader, Neutron is gonna give you the attack plan one last time-- shitty as it may be.â? Lucas mimicked the action of gritting his teeth and stepped forward. â??Alright team. Weâ??re here to locate Umbralâ??s so-called clean energy source, whatever or whoever that might be. Once weâ??ve located it, and if it is a viable option, we will bring it back to Geist. If not, we steal what information we can and sabotage the rest. We donâ??t know where the energy source is, so weâ??ll enter on the 20th floor, clearing and searching as we go. Prioritize locating a security layout so weâ??re not blind for too long. Reaper will take us in, and we keep this as quiet as possible. Understand? Good.â? A series of grunted responses came from the unsurprisingly reluctant team, and Kato Aege, a young man codenamed 'Grim Reaper' stepped forward and grinned from ear to ear. â??Hold on tight, friends. You might not enjoy thisâ?¦â? He said with his idiosyncratic sing-song voice. A lovely, equally melodic voice laughed from the corner. Morgana stepped forward and draped her arm around Katoâ??s shoulder. â??Oh, I highly doubt that. I find teleportation to be one of the moreâ?¦ pleasurable means of travel,â? she sang, seemingly winking at every party member at once. Another teammate stepped forward, speaking in a decidedly sterner tone. â??Thatâ??s enough, you two.â? Despite Samuel Pratchettâ??s, codename Canary, short tenure with the Throwaways, his military background made it so he wasnâ??t shy about keeping the others in line. Alice found his loyalty and professionalism a welcome reprieve from the unruly lot she was usually placed in charge of. The less she had to worry about her teammatesâ?? behavior the less she had to worry about her teammates. Period. â??Yes sir!â? Kato mocked, flicking up a facetious salute, and the team was suddenly and abruptly inside of the building. Better still, the disoriented members were standing dead center in a brightly-lit office filled with rows of typing employees. The clattering of keys was a constant, low-level noise thrumming away in the sickly fluorescent light that flooded the vast room, and the team quickly re-oriented themselves, ready for whatever actions would be necessary. â??Reaper!â? Alice scolded, preparing for the sh*tstorm to come. Yet said sh*tstorm never came. The workers continued typing away, completely oblivious to the teamâ??s unexpected, and likely unwelcome presence. Alice and Lucas eyed each other curiously. â??You doing this?â? Lucas questioned. Alice shook her head and cautiously approached one of the employees. She tapped him lightly on the shoulder, but the man continued to ignore her. She shifted her eyes from the man to the computer screen and inhaled sharply. Well sh*tâ?¦ she thought with surprise. She motioned over for Lucas to join her, then pointed to the screen. Lucas sucked in air through his teeth and frowned deeply. â??Well what does that mean?â? Lucas wondered. He lightly shoved the employee to his left, then another, and then another. Each time, no response. â??Em, excuse me? Care to share with the class, dears?â? Morgana quipped. Alice turned to the team and squeezed the bridge of her nose. â??Youâ??re not blind, Avalon,â? Alice responded curtly to Morgana, using an abbreviated form of one of Morganaâ??s favorite titles. â??For whatever reason these people arenâ??t responding to external stimuli. Letâ??s use that to our advantage for the moment, but letâ??s also assume that anything could set them off,â? Alice ordered. The team swept over the room, checking the computers for any viable information, but primarily found a sea of logistical information, personal emails and correspondences with other companies. It was as if the employees were on autopilot, suspended in a corporate coma. "It's like they've been brainwashed...co-opted into working for these people..." murmured Canary, running a finger down a carefully-maintained list of names and personal information displayed on one of the many computer screens they were faced with, to the apparent ignorance of the employee using the computer. "One sympathises," sighed Felicia Cole, codenamed 'Danger', as she waved a hand in front of one of their faces, trying to drag any kind of reaction from the corporate zombies in front of them. Once they were sure there was nothing of importance on any of the computers, Alice signalled for the team to leave the room, but as soon as she gripped the doorknob a jolt of electricity shot up her arm and knocked her back. â??Stasis!â? Samuel swooped down to assist Alice. Her entire arm had gone numb, but she'd suffered worse injuries on the job: at least this time she could still use her arm. She looked back to signal for Tomiko, â??Arashi,â? to step forward, when she noticed something terrifying. All of the workers were staring intently at her. The closest employee stood up and surveyed Alice. â??Having trouble, friend?â? Her voice sounded friendly enough, but she was not smiling at Alice, and her eyes remained cold and empty. Alice motioned for Arashi to disarm the door and then engaged the employee again. â??I am indeed. The door malfunctioned,â? Alice said calmly. A small click from behind her indicated that Arashi had opened the door. The army of stares returned to their computers, and the woman in front of Arashi returned to hers as well, without a word. The team poured out into the hallway swiftly, and found themselves in a maze of offices and hallways. â??Oh goodee,â? Morgana groaned, â??This just keeps getting--â? Morganaâ??s sentence was interrupted by a strange noise, like the rushing of air into a vacuum. The others looked back at her, but the space she had been standing in was empty, with nothing but shadow taking her place. The group bunched closely together, scanning the halls in every direction. â??What now, Neutron?â? Samuel questioned. â??Now this is a rescue mission as well,â? Lucas responded without missing a beat. â??Arashi, can you feel the energy source in the building?â? Arashi closed her eyes and concentrated. â??Not very well, boss,â? Arashi said, shaking her head. â??I know itâ??s beneath us, but we need to get closer.â? Lucas turned his attention to Kato. â??Reaper, can you sense Morgana?â? Kato smiled eerily, and then for a moment he became hazy, almost blurry, as if he was an afterimage, before returning to his regular state. His smile was gone. â??Avalon is difficult to track as it is, thanks to her affinity with the Khaos magic, but thereâ??s something else disrupting my abilities. Like Arashi said, itâ??s below us,â? Kato added. Lucas grimaced. â??Fine. Then the plan is the same. Search every room, every floor. Assume everything is a trap. Letâ??s go.â? * OOC: There you have it ladies and gentlemen-- the beginning of the Throwaways! We're trapped at the top of a 20 story building, with who knows what traps standing between us and our goal. Add to that the sudden disappearance of an essential team member, and the possibility that more may too go missing, and we've got quite the beginning to our first mission as a team. So interact, foil some traps, run into some potential super-powered guards (*gasp*) but most of all be creative! This is as much your story as it is ours!

  The Throwaways The Molehill   The World   While the worldâ??s history follows roughly the same chronology as our own, there are a number of differences: the main one being that metahumans have been present and known to the public for three quarters of a century (although they have secretly been in existence throughout human history in various forms), and have been subtly altering major events throughout time ever since.   In the early 1940s, as a way of combatting the rising power of the Nazis during the Second World War, scientists working as part of a clandestine government organisation known only as Project Salvation chemically altered the physiology of a man named James Bishop and enhanced him to superhuman levels: his strength, speed, agility, stamina, reflexes and senses were greatly heightened by the process, and he became the US Armyâ??s number one weapon in the fight against the Nazis. But Project Salvation opened the floodgates, sparking the Super Soldier Race as each country desperately attempted to replicate the success of Bishopâ??s augmentation to varying degrees of success, and the age of Super Combat was upon us. Battles were no longer fought by platoons of men, but by single combatants who could punch through reinforced concrete and leap great distances, and soon ordinary combatants were rendered all but obsolete.   But this was only the beginning, and the real metahuman breakthrough came in the 1970s, when a brilliant young scientist named Adam Clarke found himself trapped inside his laboratory as an experimental particle reactor malfunctioned, a freak accident which resulted in Clarke becoming the hero known as Vanquisher, the Invulnerable Man. He was the first truly â??superâ?? superhero, able to fly through the air, shoot beams of light from his eyes and reduce entire buildings to rubble with just a swing of his fist.   If it wasnâ??t for Vanquisher, metahumans as we know them would not even exist. The mutations in his blood, when studied, revealed more about the potential hidden within the human body, and government-funded scientists began work on creating the new breed of super-soldiers, selectively mutating them to create men and women with capabilities to equal Vanquisher, and soon enough new superheroes began appearing across the globe. Suddenly, people with the ability to generate massive quantities of fire or move objects with their minds began helping civilians, fighting crimes and engaging in acts of international heroism.   Naturally, the emergence of more and more superhumans resulted in the forging of alliances, with multiple teams forming across the United States, and eventually spreading across the world. The first, and most well-known team was Stormforce, an esteemed group of powerful metahumans which still exists today, albeit with a much-changed roster of heroes. It is the dream of many to join Stormforce and fight evil with the best superhumans on the face of the planet.   It wasnâ??t too long before the mutations developed included hyper-intelligence, and soon intergalactic spaceflight was not just possible, it was simple. Some of them even discovered other universes existing alongside our own, and eventually they managed to open gateways between these realities, allowing visitors from other worlds to cross over into our own.   But regular Earthbound humans were not ready to let aliens and creatures from other worlds take all the glory, and countless wealthy or just plain bored men and women set themselves up as vigilantes, utilising acrobatics, martial arts and high-tech weaponry to fight crime in their respective cities and neighbourhoods. The most notorious of these was a mysterious figure known only as the Shadow who operated across Patriot City, and was ultimately the first non-powered superhuman ever to join the ranks of Stormforce.    Stormforce   The world's number one superhero team, Stormforce is made up of some of the most powerful superhumans on the planet. While their ranks have changed numerous times over the decades they have been together, their current line up consists of the following members.   Steel Saviour   To the public, the Steel Saviour is one of the greatest heroes around: a mysterious man, clad in a suit of robotic armour that conceals his identity from all who may seek to find out, who helps those in need and has thwarted numerous attacks on his home country by supervillains and non-powered threats alike. He stands for peace and justice, and has vowed to defend not only his country, but also his world from anything that threatens to jeopardise that which he stands for.   He does so not with superpowers, but with advanced technology contained within his armour: wearing it, he can fly, easily punch through solid concrete, and shoot concussive blasts from his hands and eyes. Not only that, but he also has retractable blades hidden in each of the forearms, a small missile launcher mounted on each shoulder and a number of other weapons he keeps to himself. The armour is also wired with state-of-the-art thought control, meaning there is no lag between the man inside the armour thinking of a movement, and the armour making the movement. In short, it makes him the ultimate human weapon, and the world can be thankful that he chooses to use this power for good.   Construct   A young woman from France, Amira Deforest was one of the â??Awesome Sevenâ? heroes who created and supported Maggie Magnificent. At the age of 9, Amira and the other members of the Awesome Seven were struck by an alien meteor rock with unknown origins. It is not known whether the meteor rock granted the girls miraculous new powers or merely unlocked them, but it is known that shortly after they received their powers--which allowed them to give physical form to their thoughts-- they used their powers in tandem to create their very own hero, whom they christened â??Lady Hero.â? Lady Hero and the Awesome Seven were a hit from their inception, launching a number of toy lines and animated series based upon the groupâ??s global crime fighting adventures. This all changed, however, when, during the Awesome Sevenâ??s teenage years, the other six members and numerous friends and family members were mysteriously murdered, leaving Amira alone and imbuing her with additional energy. Despite her loss she valiantly continued the fight against injustice alongside her created hero.   Whereas originally she could only create a dense, plated, form-fitting armor for herself and sustain flight, she now has the ability to create virtually anything imaginable. When fighting crime she uses this ability to create white, translucent armor capable of stopping a punch from even Magnificent and fights with various constructed weapons or directed energy. Her ability is powerful enough that she has been seen on one occasion to recreate the other members of Stormforce in hard light form, and they operated almost as efficiently as the actual team. Although her ability mainly manifests as white light, when under duress her abilities sometimes shift to other colours of the rainbow, most noticeably yellow. Whether the colour shift is related solely to her emotional state or the strength of her powers is unknown.   Maggie Magnificent   The epitome of a hero, Maggie Magnificent, usually referred to simply as Magnificent by the public, captured the hearts and minds of people worldwide for years. When she debuted alongside the Awesome Seven as Lady Hero, she was immediately a hot commodity. She operated under many names and costumes; each was accompanied by its own limited edition life sized figurine. She was unchallenged in strength and beauty, unrivaled in the number of crimes stopped and lives saved, and unrelenting in her championship of the underrepresented and the disenfranchised. She used the innocent desire of the children who created her, as well as the guiding hands of their friends and families, to improve life worldwide. After the tragic incident which claimed the lives of her extended family, she took her remaining creator, Amira, under her wing and continued their quest to better all mankind.   Unlike the other members of Stormforce, her costume is very fashion minded: a white, shoulderless dress with gold accents, a gold belt, black gloves, exposed black boy shorts with gold outlining, and white and gold open-toed heels. Her fashionable dress and wholesome demeanor belie her immense and fearsome powers. She is actively touted as being one of the, if not the most, powerful super on the planet. She can emit several different wavelengths of energy from her eyes, has enough strength to move a planet, can survive nuclear explosions, and is rumored to possess other, unknown abilities which she has not had cause to use yet.   Pantheon   Where some superhumans are demigods, gods or godlike beings, Pantheon has a singular advantage over all of them: while they are singular gods, she is the physical manifestation of every god, goddess and demigod in the Greek and Roman pantheons, hence her codename. She possesses, among other things, the wisdom of Athena, the speed of Hermes, the rage and fury of Ares and the magic of Hecate. This makes her an incredibly powerful being, but thankfully she has chosen to use her powers for good, standing alongside the heroes she sees as the peers of her deities and keeping the world, and everyone on it, safe.   Pantheon dresses as is appropriate to her power, in a suit of Greco-Roman armour replete with gold leaf, a gem-studded tiara on her head and, unlike a lot of the ancient history-themed superheroes out there, chooses to cover her arms and legs with armour rather than leaving them exposed. Her weapon, known as the Phalanx, is an object formed from pure energy which alters its shape to fit whichever god or goddess Pantheon is best representing at any time: from the Trident of Poseidon to the lightning bolt of Zeus, whatever shape it takes it is nonetheless one of the most powerful weapons in this or any world.   Hart & Sole   A pair of former career criminals, Jack Hartford and Soledad Ramirez once made a decision which caused their lives to take a turn for the bizarre. A chance break-in at a seemingly ordinary New York brownstone led to the pair stumbling across an ancient and powerful magical book named the Palladian Grimoire, and upon reviewing the spoils of their crime and reading out a single sentence from the book, they were accidentally granted vast magic powers: Jack was given dominion over the physical vessel of man and beast, while Soledad was granted power over the realm of the spirit. Along with these powers came a vaster understanding of the world, and the worlds between worlds, and they turned from their life of crime to become superheroes.   For a long time they fought darkness and despair, of both magical and scientific origin, as the magical team known as Hart & Sole, and it wasn't long until they were taken on by Stormforce as their resident experts in magic and the occult.   They both dress in rather ominous fashion, with lightweight enchanted body armour which glows with a faint, ethereal light at all times, underneath long hooded cloaks of deep scarlet which offer them high levels of magical protection as well as the ability to move between realms at will. This means that they frequently move from the physical realm to the spiritual realm in order to communicate with spirits and otherworldly creatures, and can even go as far as summoning these creatures and allowing them to move between realms with them.   Doctor Braddock   A charismatic hero with the charm and tenacity of the adventuring science heroes of old radio shows, the figure known throughout the cosmos as Doctor Braddock (and sometimes simply as, the Doctor) is a well-respected and awe-inspiring member of both the science and hero communities. Once a brilliant but angry youth with intimacy issues, his powers were the only thing that distinguished him from the billions of humans wallowing in self-pity worlwide. Indeed, it was these powers that earned him the attention of a certain organization who put the young man through numerous life-threatening situtations and forced him to come to terms with his anger. Managing to survive through his trials, and no longer burdened with his seething rage, he was able to turn his attentions to the world of science and technology. Barely two years after his job transition he became a leading scientist and a reknown mechanical engineer whose many inventions haved solved countless world issues.   Doctor Braddockâ??s wields the miraculous ability to manipulate spacetime. In his youth he primarily used this power to open wormholes in space to transport himself from place to place. These wormholes were originally massive, energy-consuming and slow forming, but after years of practice he can instantaneously create and travel through these wormholes either to another location of his choosing anywhere on Earth or in an alternate dimension. Additionally, he can increase or decrease the gravity in an area or on a target, can create multiple wormholes to absorb and redirect attacks, and is even rumoured to have the ability to travel through time, although that is largely speculatory. His abilities seem to be knowledge based; as his understanding of his ability develops, the stronger he becomes. In battle he also utlizes a myriad of inventions including a directed-energy weapon, a deployable anti-matter shield and weaponized scalpels, which have also been enchanted by Hart & Sole. Costume wise, he dresses like a cross between a doctor and an adventurer. A red photographer's vest filled with seemingly bottomless pockets covers a plain white t-shirt with the letters D and B slightly overlapping diagonally on the chest and tan, flexible cargo pants constructed from his own patented metamaterials, and brown hiking boots.   Valhalla   Named after the Norse legend of an afterlife for those who die in combat, Valhalla is a vast skybase from which Stormforce operate. From their vantage point in the clouds, the team is able to monitor much of the activity on the ground, and quickly identify any potential extra-terrestrial threats that may emerge from outside our own galaxy. The base is fitted with separate chambers for every member of the team, as well as an extensive gym and training area, a number of laboratories equipped for various types of research and development, and many more secrets besides.   Powered with revolutionary repulsor technology, the station requires comparatively little power to operate, and is able to change location to combat threats across the globe swiftly and decisively. Some detractors of the team view the constant presence of Valhalla and, by extension, Stormforce themselves, as a violation of privacy and even a potential threat to their wellbeing; however, the overwhelming majority of people see it as a necessity with the increasing proliference of superhuman threats across the planet.   Nobody knows for sure how the team came into ownership of such a huge and expensive complex, but many believe that it is something to do with MacOne Enterprises, a large corporation with many ties to the superhuman community.   Geist Industries   Founded in the early 1920s by a German-American named Franklin Geist, the company that would go on to become Geist Industries began life as a medical supply company providing valuable support to hospitals and medical professionals in the wake of the First World War, a venture which turned out to be rather profitable. A century later, and Geist Industires is a vast multinational corporation with fingers in many different pies, from biological and chemical weapons technology to news publication and television broadcasting.   Having been handed down through multiple generations of the Geist family over that time, the current CEO of Geist Industries is a reclusive, enigmatic figure known to the public only as 'Mr M', who delegates all public duties to various of his subordinates and is rarely, if ever, seen out in public. Regardless of his demeanour, though, he is without a single doubt one of the most powerful and influential men in the world, and he has revolutionised Geist's involvement in a new and very important area: superhumans.   As vocal supporters of superhumans and superhuman causes since the days of Project Salvation, Geist have, in recent years, pumped a large amount of money into the study and support of superhumans, recognising their existence as the most important scientific breakthrough in history, to great effect and profit.   There is, however, another company with much greater stock in the future of the superhuman community: MacOne Enterprises.   MacOne Enterprises   A relatively new company in comparison to Geist Industries, MacOne Enterprises was founded in the early 1930s by Gregory MacTaggart, a genius engineer and entrepreneur who made a name for himself and his company by providing high-end weapons tech to both those involved in Project Salvation, as well as the conventional military. Many people say it was MacTaggart's technology which helped win the Second World War, although generally the praise is shared with the soldiers of Project Salvation themselves.   Since then, MacOne Enterprises has gone from strength to strength, growing to become a company to rival Geist Industries, with divisions focused not only on weapons technology, but also civil engineering, clean energy initiatives and charitable causes among many others.   However, their greatest success was the accidental creation of Vanquisher in one of their own laboratories, and the very notion of 'superheroes' has been indellibly linked with MacOne Enterprises in the public consciousness ever since. They continue to back superhumans not only with research and financial support, but also by supplying them with the latest technology to assist them in doing their vital work for the safety of the world.   In the late 1990s, Gregory MacTaggart passed away peacefully, controversially leaving control of the company to his youngest son Alexander rather than his eldest Nicholas: since his meteoric rise to power, Alexander has brought the company great success and profit at the expense of alienating his brother and sisters, who are no longer associated with MacOne Enterprises. A much more public figure than the elusive Mr M, Alexander MacTaggart has a reputation as something of a playboy, flaunting his considerable wealth and power in public while utilising his canny engineering and business skills to bring forth great things for the company behind closed doors.   Task Force Delta-Echo, aka 'The Throwaways'   Behind the public facade of unwavering superhuman support, Geist Industries conceals a network of far more sinister undertakings where superhumans are concerned. From genetic and biological experimentation to studies into the synthesization and weaponization of superpowers, Geist have been dabbling in the dark underbelly of the superhuman community for quite some time.   The latest in a long line of such endeavours is Task Force Delta-Echo, informally known as 'The Throwaways': a team of superhuman convicts coerced into monitoring and policing the world's superhuman community, with violent and sometimes deadly results. The project is currently under the joint supervision of Tyler Reins and Esfir Veselov, two Geist executives who hav a storied history with the superhuman community and with Geist Industries itself; but who are committed to making the world a safer place by controlling what they see to be rogue elements within the world of the superhuman.   Each member of the Throwaways is shackled with a piece of Geist technology which, if they disobey an order or attempt to attack a Geist executive, will activate and kill them. Each device is uniquely designed for each member of the team, and made to overcome their superhuman abilities in a variety of creative and disturbing manners, and has both an automatic trigger and one controlled by Reins. Generally the members of the team are recruited from prisons and other such situations: Reins believes that, if offered a choice between working for the Task Force and being imprisoned, most will choose the former, even if they do remain unaware of the more deadly elements of the arrangement.   As a strictly off-the-books endeavour, the Task Force operates out of a vast underground base known only as 'The Molehill', formed of a complex system of intertwining and overlapping tunnels connecting up large individual rooms and containing small chambers for each member of the team, training areas and meeting rooms, and has been highly developed to operate with a skeleton staff so as to minimize the number of people who are aware of the Task Force's existence.   Discuss   This is the place to discuss any thoughts, concerns, queries or questions you might have about The Throwaways - leave your responses below and I'll do my best to get back to you as soon as possible!   I'll also be updating this thread with new information as it comes to light, so remember to keep checking back!

  The Throwaways Redux   Presented by DeLarge and Orcus   ---   "You join me here at Patriot City Federal Bank, where members of super-team Stormforce have just thwarted an attempt at grand larceny by an as-yet unidentified group of criminals."   The young female reporter smiled broadly into the camera in the somewhat genuine, yet entirely false way that only a news reporter could, standing her ground in front of a swarm of civilians crowding around the camera, jostling for a glimpse of their favourite heroes.   "The robbery was foiled just a few minutes ago by the Steel Saviour..."   The image cut to footage of a figure covered head-to-toe in shiny silver armour bristling with weapons, floating a few feet off the ground in front of the giant doors to the bank.   "...along with Construct, the youngest member of the team..."   Images of a young woman clad in a suit of pearlescent white armour that appeared to be made of nothing more than light appeared in the report, a bubble of bright white energy emerging from her outstretched hand and containing the prone forms of several criminals.   "...and the great American hero Magnificent."   A spectacular figure appeared on-screen, wearing a fashionable white-and-black costume and a broad, gleaming smile as she waved to the crowd assembled in front of her, receiving a deafening cheer and rapturous applause in return.   The footage cut back to the reporter, whose smile had somehow expanded even further as the crowd exploded into noise and chaos behind her.   "And here to comment on today's events is none other than the Steel Saviour, leader of Stormforce," she said, and the armour-clad man stepped into the frame, his superior size dwarfing the petite reporter and his metal helmet giving him a cold and emotionless, but stoic and powerful air.   "Steel Saviour, on behalf of all citizens of Patriot City, I'd like to thank you for your services here today. We owe you and the rest of Stormforce a great debt."   "Thank you, Jessica," replied the Steel Saviour, his voice deep and resonant, but electronically distorted through his helmet, "But we are only doing our duty as American citizens. With power like ours, it would be irresponsible of us to sit back and do nothing..."   The image paused on the screen, and a well-built man in a smart black suit stepped in front of the large monitor, the light from the projection casting an eery shadow across his handsome, slightly scarred face.   "And there, ladies and gentlemen, is our problem," he said, gesturing to the screen behind him, "With power like theirs..."   "I don't understand, Mr Reins," said one of the figures seated in front of the screen and the man, a middle-aged woman in a sharp power suit, "These people are heroes, they make our city, our world, in fact, safer."   "Do they?" replied Mr Reins, "In the years since these...superheroes appeared in our lives, haven't we had more large-scale incidents across the globe than ever before? Haven't there been more attacks on American soil by super-powered terrorists than we ever imagined when they first came into our collective consciousness? These people, these men and women we have silently elected to maintain order and peace around the world, they are heroes, of course they are. But they are powerful, more powerful than anything we could have imagined, and in the words of the great Lord Acton..."   "Mr Reins, are you going somewhere with this?" asked another of the figures seated around the large conference table, "We do have other things to be doing with our time..."   "Power," Mr Reins interrupted, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. These people have absolute power, and how long is it goinge before that power corrupts them absolutely? Is there a police force, or even a military in any nation in the world that could stand up to the power of Magnificent, should she choose to turn on us?"   A murmur rounded the darkened room, and Mr Reins allowed himself the smallest of smiles as he felt the power dynamic in the room shift in his favour.   "No," he said, breaking through the murmur, "There is not. What we are proposing is a contingency, to use what we have at our disposal to our advantage should the superheroes of this world turn on us. They will remain a secret, their existence erased from our records and known only to those with the highest possible security clearance."   "If you're talking about what I think you're talking about, Reins..." growled a heavyset older man in an ill-fitting black suit, before being cut off by Reins' response.   "A black ops team, composed entirely of superhuman convicts we currently have in our custody. Off the record, no liability, maximum security. All we need is the board's approval," he finished with a grin which highlighted a small scar on the right side of his face.   "Suppose we did approve this, Mr Reins," asked the female board member who had spoken up earlier, "Do we have any guarantee that these activities will never be traced back to Geist Industries? Setting up a kill-team opposing the nation's defenders would reflect very poorly on the company."   "We have every guarantee. All the details are in these files, take your time to look through them, but I'm sure you won't be disappointed," he said, sliding a bunch of files across the table towards the board members, who picked them up and began leafing through them.   "Task Force Delta-Echo?" one of the board members asked, noticing the label on the front cover of the document.   "That's the official designation, yes," replied Reins, "But downstairs we tend to call them by another name."   "Oh yes? And what might that be?" asked the board member, and Reins grinned again.   "We call them the Throwaways."   ---   Background   Welcome to The Throwaways, brought to you as part of the ongoing OB Relaunch. Some of the older members of the 'Boards may remember the original Throwaways from a few years ago, but this will be a very different beast.   We will be playing the roles of the Throwaways, superhuman convicts in the custody of the powerful multinational corporation Geist Industries forced to monitor and police the world's superhuman community, including both supervillains and superheroes. Geist will have powerful and influential ways in which to control us, and defying them will most likely result in your death.   Assignments   As with the first OB Relaunch RP 'Fistful of Credits', The Throwaways will be run in a different manner to previous RPs. The story will be separated into relatively short 'Assignments', each posted in a separate thread, and once you've created a character you will be allowed to pick and choose which Assignments you participate in: all we ask is that, if you choose to join an Assignment, make sure you can see it through to the end.   Ideally we would like everyone to participate in multiple Assignments over the course of the RP, but if you reach the end of an Assignment and decide you no longer wish to continue playing, you can let us know and we will work with you to create a satisfying resolution for your character. However, you will be permitted to rejoin the RP at a later stage with a new character if you should choose to do so.   The Assignments will be divided into four distinct categories, each of which will involve different approaches and different skill sets. These categories are as follows:   Heist: The team will be given a target item, which they will have to steal from wherever it is currently being kept. Infiltration: Members of the team will be required to infiltrate a group or team and gain valuable information while undercover. Defamation: The team will be assigned to gather or manufacture damning evidence about a superhuman and release it to the public. Assassination: You will be required to kill a superhuman.   After the initial Assignment, you will each be allowed to vote on which Assignment type you would like to participate in next. The most popular choice will then be posted as the next Assignment, and you can choose whether or not to sign up for it.   Obviously, you don't have to participate in every Assignment, but we do encourage players to read each one in case there are important plot or character points introduced which could affect how the rest of the RP progresses.   Backstories   Along with the main Assignment threads, you will also be encouraged to post in the 'Backstories' thread, which will allow you to go into greater detail about your character's life and history: from how they got their superpowers to how they came onto Geist's radar and everything in between, you can use this thread to add more detail and life to your characters that you may not have time for in the Assignments.   Myself and Orcus will also be posting regularly in the Backstories thread to give you more information about the world we will be playing in, and the histories of the various non-player characters that you will encounter as the RP itself progresses. So, as with the Assignment threads, it will only help you to keep up to date with the Backstories thread as we play through the main RP.   Characters   Now we come to the fun part! Here you will be given free reign to create some powerful, outlandish characters to form part of the strangest super-team in the world. Here's an outline of what we're looking for:   Name: Codename: if your character operated under a codename in their career prior to Geist abducting them, let us know what it was Age: this is a world of super-beings, so you could potentially be hundreds of years old Gender: pretty straightforward, tell us whatever gender pronoun your character prefers to be referred to as Height: Weight: Appearance: a picture, preferably a photo or realistic drawing is good, as is a detailed description Speciality: if your character is geared towards a specific Assignment type, for example Heist or Assassination, put it here - if you're good to go regardless of the Assignment type, simply put 'All-Rounder' Superpowers: go into as much detail as you can here - for example, if your character is pyrokinetic, let us know what their power level is like, what can they do with fire, can they generate it or just manipulate it. You are encouraged to be as creative as possible with this part of your sign-up, as we will be going up against some truly otherworldly characters over the course of the RP. Special Skills: anything your character can do that wouldn't be classed as a superpower, for example lock-picking or gymnastic ability Equipment/Weapons: Geist tends to prefer picking up superhumans who rely on their powers rather than any weapons, but if you have a special weapon you desperately want to use then list it here Personality Profile: give us a brief but descriptive example of what your character is like, particularly how they play with others and any specific personality defects they may suffer from Writing Sample: to give us an idea of how your character reacts in a given situation, tell us about how you were 'recruited' for Task Force Delta-Echo - were you forcibly abducted off the streets, did a Geist operative offer you a choice between a lengthy prison sentence and working for them, maybe you even gave yourself up willingly? Whatever the situation, let us know briefly what happened here.   I'll be posting my character profile and the Discussion thread shortly, until then if you have any questions please don't hesitate to PM me and I'll do my best to answer!