The aristocratically dressed Balseraph surveyed the
scene.
The
laboratory had been one of Vaputech's unheralded, mundane, boring enclaves on
the corporeal plane. There were no
baroque machines or bubbling vats here: just a set of chemistry stations and an
impressive amount of computer power.
But it had done valuable work in adapting highly toxic chemicals for
more-or-less safe homeowner use, which made its current incarnation as a
carmine-splashed shambles especially frustrating to the Baron. His staff noted this frustration, and
redoubled their preliminary investigation.
Determining the authors of this outrage was not
difficult. The attackers had led their
usual calling card all over the lab: a hundred wolf-like predators grinned
manically at him from every flat surface.
The ones branded into the foreheads of the deceased staffers were
especially galling. His hands tightened
on his walking stick (not an affectation, alas)...
Voices came behind him.
"Ah -" barked the first voice.
"- Baron Sparky -" purred the
second voice.
"- we had hoped that you would have
arrived by now," spoke the two voices in unison.
Sparky was careful not to let any annoyance creep
into his own voice as he turned to - emphatically not glare at the two
neat men standing behind him. He nodded
politely to both.
"Mr. Alpu." The larger man touched his cap.
"Mr. Beytu." The shorter man gave the appearance of a bow
without actually bowing. "I thank
the Game for informing Vaputech so quickly of this outrage."
"But of course -"
"- for, after all -"
"- was it not your people -"
"- who had been the source -"
"- of such great iniquity?"
Sparky was very careful not to snarl. "We do not take responsibility for
this!" His stick waved irritably
at the room. "You know that those
who did this are Renegade! Vaputech has
cast them out into the outer darkness!
They are declared outlaws..."
The Balseraph had chosen this moment to dramatically
smash the largest 'calling card' with the point of his cane. Unfortunately for all but three of the
demons surveying the site, said dramatic moment was enhanced by the fifty
pounds of explosive (and forty pounds of nails) set off by the pressure sensor
mounted just underneath.
When the smoke cleared, Sparky and the
representatives of Asmodeus were the only ones remaining standing (or alive,
for that matter). The Baron had been
protected by the activation of his personal, guaranteed bug-free force field:
Mr. Alpu and Mr. Beytu... had obviously made their own arrangements.
Sparky ignored the sudden smoke and flames as he
finished his sentence. "... to be
dealt with as wolves are." The
Baron wasn't sure, but there might have been grudging approval in the other two
demons' eyes at the sang-froid as he limped to a new exit.
Behind him came a comment, silken in its mockery.
"Or, at least -"
" - dealt with as coyotes are."
Sparky turned in barely restrained fury. Mr. Alpu and Mr. Beytu's neat, merciless
smiles were unapologetic.
"Just our little joke."
Not everyone appreciates the job that Sparky
does. Indeed, there are those who
consider his task to be a calculated insult and intolerable imposition on a
great and noble Prince. Certain demons
have recently leaped to the next obvious step and formed a secret society to
rectify the situation. This quietly
worries a large number of the Horde.
After all, only a madman could object to the idea of keeping any sort of
brake on Vapula.
If only they were incompetent madmen...
Freeing the Genius Archangel from his numerous (and apparently unnoticed)
restrictions. Causing the fall of
Sparky is also a popular goal, but not necessarily a universal one. Some members of ACME think that Vapula
himself should be the one to finally dispose of the Baron.
Generally, there are two main 'factions' to
ACME. One group wishes to solve the
Matter of Vapula by destroying (loudly) anything that could be remotely
considered a restriction of him; the second group is smaller, saner and
reluctantly aware that most of the rest of Creation is vehemently and
inexplicably against this sort of thing from ever, ever happening. The second group is possibly even more
worrying than the first: instead of breaking Vapula's supposed chains, they try
to engender situations where the aforementioned chains are obviously a
hindrance.
This disagreement on tactics and strategy makes
sitting on ACME hard, since there's no predictable behavior patterns. The two groups do not exactly talk to each
other, either: Factions would love to add ACME to their spheres of influence,
assuming of course that they haven't already.
This is one organization that takes the cell system
seriously: Sparky shows no reluctance whatsoever in ferreting out members of
ACME by all means foul and... well, fouler. As far as anyone knows, membership is usually limited to Servitors
of Technology. Some demons of other
Words have been caught in ACME operations, but never in enough numbers to
support any sort of collusion between ACME and other Hellish organizations.
ACME is devilishly hard to suppress, not least
because many of its members are apparently members in goo - sorry, 'favorable' - standing with Technology. This being Hell, there is of course no such
thing as 'being above suspicion' ... but there certainly is the condition of
'being far too well connected to accuse without prior and incontrovertible
proof'. Sparky and the Game keep
netting a steady supply of low-level operatives, and sometimes a mid-level one,
but the higher-ups remain elusive. The
fact that Sparky is not himself an idiot, and thus is unwilling to give the
Game full access to Vaputech, is probably not helping the situation, either.
Generally, ACME has access to whatever they can
steal from Vaputech. This hardly cheers
anyone up, given that nobody actually knows precisely just what Vaputech has
available in the first place. It does
mean that there is no such thing as uniformity in weapons, defenses and
equipment among individual ACME cells, which is something. Whether this is something good or something
bad depends on whether a particular cell has the keys to the WMD locker.
Surely you jest.
As a rule, the Host declines to metaphorically juggle with flaming
chainsaws over a gasoline pit, which is what encouraging an organization that
wants to make Vapula even less predictable would most likely
accomplish. Even Michael has his limits
in what he'd do to destabilize the Horde, and supporting ACME is nicely over
the line.
Probably.
See above.
No rational demon (and many irrational ones) would want to aid ACME in
their avowed task. Well, except for any
Servitors of Dark Humor that would find the situation funny. Or any Servitors of Death interested in
seeing Tartarus implode on general principles.
Or Servitors of Factions practicing their art, or Servitors of Theft
looking to get access to the really fun toys, or Servitors of the War ditto, or
Servitors of Fate just doing what they're told...
You get the idea.
It's certain, however, that the Game is very, very
interested in shutting down this secret society. Unfortunately, Sparky can't quite trust them. The Baron knows damn well that the Game will
try to use the opportunity to load yet more sleeper agents and blackmail gatherers
into Technology: even if Vapula hasn't seemed to notice and/or care about ACME
itself, he isn't that unworldly.
Sparky has problems: if he lets the Game get in too deep, Vapula will
notice and almost certainly go looking for a new administrative assistant. But if he doesn't, ACME may actually succeed
in getting the Genius Archangel to really cut loose. In short,
Sparky is balanced on a knife on this one.
As usual.