Lucas rolled his eyes and glared at the hopeless cause that was Gerhard. He didn’t have an interest in any one of his soon-to-be “teammates”. Gerhard got up and headed towards the door, but before he left, the man apparently wanted to give Lucas an encouraging speech about how he shouldn’t be so hesitant to be less serious, as if he was reading Lucas’ mind or something. The scientist shook his head in disbelief at how dumb his teammates could be. Overall, however, they seemed intelligent in their fields. But the back of his mind said he should consider Gerhard’s advice.<br/><br/>Once Gerhard left, Lucas went to grab some more coffee to prepare for his speech at the briefing. He would leave to go study his notes and let the maintenance crew set up the cafeteria for one of the most important meetings the rebels would ever have. The quality of his speech and the audience’s ability (especially Thea, Gerhard and Dan’s) to understand the plan were the fundamentals of the mission starting off well.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</div><br/><br/>Lucas sat in his room, flipping through the notes for the briefing. He obviously wouldn’t be able to memorize the whole lecture, so he had to summarize a bit. Well, a lot. Still, he’d be able to improvise most of the speech. He just hoped that he wouldn’t stumble in front of everyone. Specifically his new bionic coworkers. Thea and Gerhard would never let him live this down. Dan would probably join them to conform, which he hadn’t done in Lumina, leading to his expulsion. But hey, when was the last time he had cared about what they thought?<br/><br/>Minutes later, Lucas set down the notes and took a power nap. He’d gotten used to falling asleep quickly. He learned from books saved from the flood and snuck out of Lumina that the ideal time for a nap would be thirty minutes. But it ended up being an hour. He was extremely groggy, and he was not in the mood to wash his face in the disgusting water of the headquarters. Instead, he decided to jog in place to get him awake. Not too much, though. Looking sweaty during a presentation could pass as nervous, and he definitely wasn’t nervous. Maybe anxious to get it over with, but positively, absolutely not nervous. Nerves got in the way of doing something you want to do.<br/><br/>Five minutes of jogging in place left him in a stable state to present a strategy to about a hundred and fifty people, so he slipped on and straightened his lab coat and put on his aesthetically pleasing glasses and headed out of the residential tent.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</div><br/><br/>The presentation had started. He glimpsed Gerhard, Thea and Dan exchanging some words with each other. Hmph. Probably some negative words about him. He didn’t care if they hated him -- he wanted the raid on Lumina to succeed. Years of planning led to the beginning of the siege. He knew that basically every other attempt at rebellion was a failure, so the organization took the stealth approach. Although it might be dangerous with four units being a very low number in such a highly protected place, it might be easier to slip by.<br/><br/>He stood at the large board that had a map of what was left of the continent after the Great Inundation, facing what was considered a large crowd nowadays. He read that back before the flood, crowds could be as large as millions of people. What a sight to the speaker.<br/><br/>Lucas watched as the leader of the rebellion stood at a podium, giving them a brief overview of what was going to be discussed. Then, he introduced the strategist and the programmers of the bionic chip. Lucas inhaled quietly as the leader called him, the Head Scientist of the bionic chip up to the stage.<br/><br/>He stood up straight, but in the past two hours, his thoughts had changed. He wasn’t going to give the briefing in a monotonous, boring tone. “Hiya, everyone!” Lucas greeted, smiling brightly. “The bionic chip was a massive project to attempt. We at the lab were not sure if we could complete it without blueprints from the big city itself, but I’m glad we did. Because we can finally get a shot at taking down our common enemy.” With his wide grin still plastered on his face, he continued. “The product of this successful undertaking were four young bionic soldiers. I’d like you to come up on stage with me, please.” He paused, taking a glance at the area where Gerhard, Thea and Dan sat. “Daniel Zuine, Gerhard Surov and Theadora Serfine,” he called out, a loud (well, loud for one hundred fifty people) applause rung out through the whole cafeteria.<br/><br/>“Danny’s bionic abilities are telekinesis and magnetic field manipulation. Gerhard’s enhancements are increased bone density and control of his metabolism, and Thea’s over here is enhanced sight and hearing. Mine is the ability to memorize movements and copy them, as well as having automatic reflexes,” Lucas did a small karate chop and laughter struck the room. He bowed like a student to his sensei before beginning to speak again. “These bionics affect one part of our brain, and the laboratory has programmed each chip intricately so that it will enhance whatever part of the brain we put it in. These will get us through the walls of Lumina, and we will take down Lumina. For the Borderlands,” Lucas announced in a dead serious tone. He stepped off the podium as the crowd applauded. Huh. Went better than he thought it would.<br/><br/>The rest of the presentation, he listened in carefully to the strategist’s master plan and their route, taking mental notes. Once inside, they would have information given to them through a chip planted in an accessory of their choosing. The signal from the Borderlands to Lumina was iffy, however. They would only be able to send short messages.<br/><br/>The presentation was soon over, and the four were pulled aside by the leader.<br/><br/>“Pack your stuff -- you’re leaving right now. Good luck.”