ARC

This article is about the fictional organization. For the eponymous blog, see ARC (blog).

ARC, or Anomaly Research and Combat, is an organization devoted to researching the Fears and UXPs and stopping their influence wherever possible, as well as combating their servants. It has funding and protection from the American government, but it isn't a governmental organization in its own right, and its funding is often limited due to the existence of STAB making it somewhat redundant in the eyes of the government. ARC has one main branch for each inhabited continent, with different branches from each main branch for each major region within a given continent. Different regional branches each have a collective of different teams. Teams are positioned near one another to ensure that everyone in a regional branch is informed and safe.

ARC is often mistrusted by Runners; while it does try to help them, Runners rarely trust authority figures, and members of ARC sometimes allow Fears, UXPs, and servants to do damage, whether through an inability to stop them, to set up later plans, or to research their abilities and level of knowledge. Sometimes this is done by individual ARC members, in which case they will usually be reprimanded or punished by their higher-ups, but sometimes it is intended by the higher-ups themselves. The secrecy and misdirection employed by ARC is also a common reason for Runners to distrust them, though its members believe their tactics to be in the public's best interest.

ARC was founded by Niles Blake, a former FBI agent with a son named Virgil and a wife named Mary. Blake had worked alongside his wife, but after her death at the hands of Timberwolves, he transferred co-ownership of the group to his son. ARC has two members who respond directly to the Blakes, these being Killian Xavier and his partner, Yvette Boucher. The two had hopes of taking over ARC after Niles' death, and resent Virgil's birth, though they are all too aware that they cannot make this obvious. They have instead settled for being the heads of internal security, though they are notorious for their ruthless efficiency.