Calvin Lucien stands at the end of a dusty
table in an abandoned warehouse. In the shadows across from him sit several
hidden figures. The warehouse is falling apart, but is suitable
for the meeting Calvin has requested with the heads of the Chaos Insurgency. He has completed numerous missions for the
organization and each one has been successful; now he is proposing one final mission. Calvin Lucien takes a tattered journal out
of his bag and slides it across the table to the figures sitting in the shadows. “It’s a journal with details on the habits
of each of the thirteen Foundation Overseers,” he says. There is silence from the other end of the
table. A hand reaches out and grabs the journal;
the pages begin to turn. “The new models indicate an anomalous catastrophe
is imminent, not even the Foundation can stop it. The only way to save the world is to kill
the Overseers,” There are whispers from across the table as Calvin continues. “The proliferation of anomalies in the world
are the fault of the Overseers. They have been meddling with reality, if business
continues as usual we might not make it out of the 2020s. We need to act now.” The whispering from the shadows resumes, this
time with what seems to be a little more urgency. One of the voices asks the question on everyone’s
mind, “How do you plan to kill the Overseers? They have a deal with death, they are immortal.” Calvin smiles and takes out a small vial from
his jacket pocket. “With this,” he says. There is silence from the shadows.The journal
slides back across the table and comes to a stop right in front of Calvin. A deep voice from the shadows says, “do
it.” Calvin Lucien gathers his team; the codename
given to the group is “Killsquad.” He informs them they have been cleared to
take out the Overseers. It will be the most dangerous mission they’ve
ever been on, and even if successful, they probably won't make it out alive. But, the team is loyal, they set out to confront
the Thirteenth Overseer. This has to be their first stop because without
eliminating O5-13, nothing else will matter. It is this Overseer who has a deal with Death;
a deal that protects all of the Foundation Overseers from dying. If that deal can be broken, and O5-13 can
be eliminated, then Calvin Lucien and his team will have a shot at eradicating the other
Overseers. If the deal with Death cannot be broken, all
is lost. The team boards a ship at the tip of South
America and sails towards the frozen waters of Antarctica. The Killsquad is made up of Calvin and three
others. They sit in the galley preparing for the mission
ahead. Anthony Wright is a battle hardened soldier
who sits at one end of the table. His face is covered with scars. No one can remember when he first joined the
Insurgency because it was so long ago. Next to him is Olivia Torres. She is an anarchist who was recruited into
the Insurgency after she was liberated from a Foundation site during a raid. Adam Ivanov sits staring into his computer
screen, he is testing different gadgets that might be of use on the mission. He pushes his glasses up the bridge of his
nose and strikes the “enter” key. A long line of code begins to scroll across
the screen. A siren begins to sound, informing the crew
to make their way to the main deck. When they surface from the bowels of the ship
they see something in the distance. It is a giant black tower rising from the
depths of the ocean like an evil iceberg. Waves crash over the side of the railings,
drenching the deck and crew with frigid water. Calvin looks at the jagged rocks along the
shore of the tower. There is no way to safely dock; there is only
one way onto the island. They know what needs to be done. Anthony waits for the next wave, then opens
the throttle to full. The ship is carried toward the island on the
crest of the wave. The hull is impaled on the rocks surrounding
the tower sending everything flying towards the front of the boat. “See, that wasn’t so bad,” Calvin says
to his team as he bandages a gash on his head. Knowing what lays ahead Calvin orders his
team to wait on the ship while he makes his own deal with death. He enters the dark structure and is greeted
by a corpse. The corpse speaks to him, ejecting dust from
its lungs with every word; its breath smells like decaying flesh. Death has inhabited the body of Dr. Felix
Carter, the Thirteenth Overseer. Calvin is prepared though thanks to the notes
in the journal he possesses. Without hesitating, he takes out a small bottle
of liquid from his pocket and lunges at the corpse. He grabs it by the neck, tilts the head back,
and pours liquid down what is left of the throat of Felix Carter. The corpse reanimates into the living Dr.
Carter. Death has been removed from his body by liquid
from the Fountain of Youth that Calvin had acquired on a previous raid on a Foundation
site. Seeing that Dr. Carter is now alive, Calvin
takes out his pistol and shoots the doctor twice, killing him. Calvin picks up the body and throws it into
a bottomless pit at the base of the tower. Dr. Felix Carter’s body disappears from
sight. The Overseers’ deal with death is now broken. They are vulnerable and can be killed at last. Calvin smiles and begins to turn away from
the pit when he comes face to face with Death. She stands with her head cocked to the side
looking at Calvin. “So it is you who has broken the Overseers’
deal with me, Calvin Lucien.” Calvin takes a step back. Why didn’t she stop him from killing Felix
Carter? “Something festers at the heart of the council,”
Death says. “Something that will not die. I thought that, perhaps, if I had a seat at
their table, I could find it, make it die. But I couldn’t. There are things in this world beyond even
my reach, Calvin Lucien.” With that parting thought Death vanishes. The Killsquad contacts the Insurgency for
an evac and then makes their way to Japan where O5-12, also known as The Accountant,
has been working out of Tokyo. He is so proficient in mathematics and probability
that he can actually predict the future. Everything about the Accountant’s life,
down to the number of breaths and steps he takes each day, is predetermined based on
his own statistical models. This poses a problem for Calvin and his team. If The Accountant can see them coming, then
how can they possibly kill him? That night The Accountant steps out of his
car. He looks to the left and spots Adam. He has already predicted this man has hostile
intentions. The Accountant walks directly towards Adam,
and before he can react, throws the Killsquad member to the ground. Then he turns slightly and adjusts his watch
sending a glare directly into the window where Anthony has the Accountant in the sights of
his sniper rifle. Anthony fires, but misses, due to being blinded
by the glare. The Accountant is surprised that he just barely
had time to avoid being shot, normally he would be several steps ahead of anyone trying
to kill him. He turns his head and watches as Olivia helps
Adam up and they run down a nearby alley. The Accountant pursues them and corners the
Killsquad members in the alley. He pulls a gun to shoot Adam, but Olivia tackles
Adam behind a dumpster as the bullet hits the wall directly behind where Adam was standing. The Accountant can’t believe that he missed,
and that he was almost tricked into being captured by the Insurgency team. He senses uncertainty in his assailants actions
and runs away unable to predict exactly what they are planning to do. The Accountant climbs the stairs to a subway
station and boards the last car of the train. It is empty except for one man, Calvin Lucien. The Accountant is dumbfounded. “How are you here?” he screams. “I should have seen this coming!” Calvin stands up. He uses his thumb to flip a coin into the
air. On the way down he grabs it and smacks it
on the back of his opposing hand. Calvin smiles. The team has been making their decisions based
on the flip of a coin which introduced randomness into their actions that even this super advanced
mathematician could not account for. “Tell me where O5-11 is,” demands Calvin. The Accountant pauses, then shakes his head
no. If he’s going to die either way, then why
give any information to the Killsquad. Calvin flips the coin up in the air, catches
it, and looks at it. The coin is face up. Calvin lifts his pistol and shoots The Accountant
in the head. A few nights later Olivia stands on a balcony
outside of an art exhibit overlooking the city of Seattle. Anthony walks up behind her and tells her
that the Foundation is defeated but Olivia doesn’t understand how. “We broke the Overseers deal with death
and killed The Accountant, there is nothing more to do. We can go back to our normal lives” he tells
her. Olivia is skeptical though. What about the Eleventh Overseer? And his ability to… Olivia’s eyes suddenly open wide. She pulls out a knife and stabs it into Anthony’s
heart. The world around her begins to distort and
falls apart. It was a false reality created by O5-11, better
known as The Liar. Olivia wakes up next to Adam in a hotel room. She sits up in bed and rubs her eyes. What a weird dream, she thinks. Then she realizes it wasn’t a dream. She shakes Adam awake. Neither of them have any idea how they ended
up here, but they know it must be the doing of The Liar. they had planned for this though,
with Calvin having created a contingency plan. They pull out a laptop log in to view the
classified information Calvin left for them. Olivia begins to type but stops halfway through
her password and looks up from the screen. Olivia pulls out the gun that rests under
her pillow and shoots Adam. The false reality created by The Liar falls
apart around her. Olivia comes out of the previous lie and is
sitting across a table from Calvin. She immediately draws her pistol and points
it at Calvin's head. Is it really him? Or just another one of the Liar’s games? Calvin tries to talk Olivia down as she looks
around the room for inconsistencies that might tip her off that this is another lie, but
doesn’t find any. Olivia begins to relax. She tells Calvin that The Liar is trying to
get something from her. Maybe the Journal can tell them what he is
looking for, as long as she still has it. Olivia nods her head and holds out her wrist
where a subdermal chip with a copy of the Journal on it has been placed. Calvin looks at her wrist; the world around
them begins to dissipate as Calvin morphs into the Liar. Olivia wakes up in a hospital where she is
hooked up to an IV. Sitting across from her is a former Insurgency
agent named Sam Biel. He explains to her that he is The Liar. He was forced into becoming a monster by the
Foundation. They had manipulated him, but now he’s tired
of running and can’t do it anymore. She is free to go. Olivia hesitantly unhooks herself from the
IV. She walks out of the hospital room and proceeds
down a fluorescent lit hallway. As she walks away, she hears a gunshot from
the hospital room. As Olivia is in the hospital, Calvin and Adam
walk through a dense forest. They are searching for O5-10. The Journal indicates that the Tenth Overseer’s
identity within the Foundation is The Archivist. Calvin and Adam come upon a small clearing. In the middle of the clearing are two saplings
standing side by side. The void between the saplings shimmers. Calvin walks through the portal, and space
begins to warp and twist around him. His vision finally comes back into focus and
Calvin finds himself in another world. Adam enters the world behind Calvin, practically
knocking him over as he enters through the portal. This is the Wanderer’s Library. But it doesn’t look anything like they expected. Instead of rows of books, the Library is filled
with computer mainframes, humming with the collected knowledge of how to contain anomalies,
a critical backup. As the two look intently at the strange machines,
a figure in a silver robe suddenly steps out of the darkness. It’s tall and thin, and though it’s hood
is pulled down so that they can’t see its face, they can see that it’s hands are covered
in scales that have a slight, emerald tint. It is one of the Librarians. Calvin tells the Librarian that they are seeking
the Archivist, but the Librarian tells them that the Archivist is no longer in the library. She has broken her pact with the Serpent,
and eaten fruit from the forbidden trees. If they want to see her though, the Librarian
can take them to her. Calvin and Adam follow the Librarian down
a long staircase, passing by countless doors filled with books, scrolls, works of art,
an entire universe of knowledge. Eventually they reach the bottom of the stairs
where there stands a giant set of brass doors. Beyond the door, the librarian explains, is
the source of all knowledge. Before Calvin and Adam pass through the doors
though, Calvin turns to the Librarian. “Before we go in, I’d like to make a withdrawal”
he says. The librarian nods, and pulls a silver tube
out of its robe. It hands the tube to Adam and he looks it
over in his hands. He looks up to ask what this is, but the Librarian
has vanished. The doors then open and the two step through. Calvin and Adam feel as if they walk through
the same kind of portal that brought them to the library, and find that they have walked
into a lush green valley with two trees. Sitting underneath one of them is a woman
in a white dress. She is reading a book and eating a piece of
fruit. “Are you the Archivist?” Calvin asks. The woman nods yes and that’s all the confirmation
Calvin needs. He raises his pistol and fires,, but the bullet
passes right through The Archivist as if she wasn’t there. “Do you read?” the Archivist asks Calvin,
seemingly not phased by his attempts to shoot her. “I haven’t had much time recently” Calvin
replied. The Archivist explains that she’s read every
book in the library. The collected knowledge of the universe is
in the books, even one on how to allow bullets to pass through your body. She came here to find the secret to immortality. It’s her job to document everything that
happens in the world, and she can’t do that if she’s dead. She explains that she figured out that the
fruit that the Serpent forbade everyone to eat wasn’t actual fruit, but the knowledge
contained in the library. By having read every book, she had consumed
the fruit. She no longer needed the Serpent, because
she was the Serpent. The Archivist falls to the ground and begins
to writhe around, contorting her body as it starts to change. She begins to elongate as her limbs seemingly
disappear. The next thing Calvin and Adam know, they
are face to face with a giant snake. Calvin dodges as the serpent lunges at him
as Adam stands in the doorway firing at the snake with his pistol, but just like with
the Archivist’s human form, the bullets have no effect. The Serpent coils itself around Calvin and
begins to choke the life from him as Adam can only watch, helpless. Calvin cries out with his last breath “The
tube, Adam! Open the tube!” Adam takes the tube that was given to him
by the Librarian and opens the cap. A long, heavy spear slides out that looks
much too large to have ever fit inside. He drops the tube to the ground and watches
in amazement as it starts to transform, turning into what looks like a large harpoon gun. Adam knows what to do and places the giant
spear into the gun and points it at the Serpent. “You can’t kill me” the giant snake
says, “I’ve eaten from the tree of life!” Adam pulls the trigger and the huge spear
flies through the air, striking the serpent in the head. Adam runs to Calvin and helps him to his feet. They turn to look at the snake, but instead
of the menacing creature, it’s the Archivist once again, pinned against the tree she once
sat under, the spear sticking out of her skull. As the two stand, looking at the Archivist,
a tall, hooded, humanoid figure steps out from behind the tree. It looks similar to the Librarian except its
robe is a greenish color and it wears long black gloves. The creature pulls the spear out of the Archivist,
whose body slumps to the ground, and hands the spear to Calvin. “Who are you?” Calvin asks, but his question is ignored. After a moment, the figure finally speaks. “That spear you now hold is called the Spear
of the Non-Believer, it is an ancient weapon used to kill gods. It is odd that someone in this realm gave
you the spear. Even with it, I am not sure you will be able
to complete your quest Calvin Lucien, but we shall see.” There is a sudden flash of light and Calvin
and Adam find themselves transported back to the forest they had entered The Wanderer’s
Library from. A week later Calvin and Anthony track down
O5-9, who in the council, is known as The Outsider. She isn’t hard to find and it seems as if
she actually wanted to be found. They find her sitting outside of her burnt
down family home. The journal had listed this as her address,
but Calvin doubted that she would be here. At most he hoped to find a clue to her whereabouts,
but here she was, sitting in the ashes of her home. Without turning around The Outsider began
speaking. “The council just used me you know,” she
says. “They took away my academic career, my friends,
and my life. They made me conduct research for them that
compromised everything I stood for, and now here I am, with nothing.” The Outsider lets out a sigh. She asks Calvin if he’s afraid of death. Calvin shakes his head and responds, “no.” The Outsider slumps forward and Calvin walks
around to face her. She is covered in blood. Her eyes move to look up at Calvin. “You’re lying,” she says as she dies
from self inflicted wounds. Calvin and Anthony cross O5-9 off of the list
and head back to the car. As they walk, Anthony says what’s been on
everyones’ mind the last few days. “The easy part is done. It will only get harder from here. We know O5-8 is in his castle, and I’m sure
we can get in, but I’m not sure we’ll make it out alive.” “I know,” replies Calvin. “But if we are going to save the world,
we must eliminate the rest of the Overseers, even if it means sacrificing our own lives.” They get in the car and drive off into the
blood red sunset to pick up the rest of the Killsquad team before their next mission.
