Area 11, Abandoned Base

The Britannian students felt like their limbs were gonna fall off, either that or their ears were going to explode.

Lelouch, Shirley, and Milly just went through a crash-course in gun training mentored by Kallen and Suzaku. However, in order to avoid getting noticed by either authorities or any random passers-by (if any), the training took place in the firing range located below the base's main facility. There weren't any earmuffs or earplugs lying around so everyone had to grit thier teeth and flinch with each shot fired.

"Ow..." Lelouch moaned around lunch time.

"Quit complaining Lelouch," Kallen ordered, "you did volunteer for this you know."

"Don't be too hard on them," said Suzaku, sitting next to Nunnally and across from Lelouch, "even soldiers prefer not to go below ground or through tunnels due to the noise level."

"On the more positive side of things," Milly somewhat whimpered, resting one of her ears against the cool metal of the table, "Shirley got all of her shots to hit the target somehow and Lelouch even got a mark on the bullseye."

"Unfortunately," said Cysgod, "we don't have very much time. It is generally advised for soldiers to have at least a week of basic arms training before doing anything else; and anything else usually involves anything except combat. That and we still need to come up with some war machines."

"Again, we have my Glasgow and Suzaku's Lancelot?" Kallen pointed out. "I mean, all that we're going to do is to prevent Japan from falling to this Daemon guy right?"

"Defense is always harder than offense," Cysgod replied simply, "I will tell you that I have done both against Occulta and I find that the best defense is a preemptive offense. That being said, we can't do that. We are litterally out-manned and out-gunned; not to mention Clovis and the Britannian military will probably want to cut our throats rather than shake our hands."

"But what about us?" asked Shirley, still sounding tired out.

"Yeah," Milly added weakly, "we can vouch for Kallen and the others being good guys." Cysgod rolled his eyes.

"Take my word on this, the only reason that Clovis isn't dead yet is because Daemon doesn't see him as a threat. And he happens to be correct. His royal majesty Clovis is a moron who would react according to fear rather than reason. Also, since we're on the topic of reason, the Britannian Royal family has a long track record of being unreasonable."

It wasn't long afterward that the remaining number came in after sorting through more of the crates and storage spaces.

"Goodness," Tamaki said, sounding short of breath, "you'd expect searching through an abandoned base to be the least tiring thing you could do. But I'm exhausted from doing just that. Searching through crates!"

"Did any of you find some machines, or at least the parts?" Cysgod inquired.

"Negative," said Oghi, "as I said, the base was abandoned following the introduction of the Knightmare frame. There wouldn't be much to begin with."

"Damn it, I was hoping for at least something."

"Do you even have experience piloting a Knightmare?" asked Nagata.

"I operated something big and bulky," Cysgod answered, "but not a Knightmare, no. And truth be told-" he lowered his head in shame, "I was only capable of operating that machine for only a minute and ended up crashing it." Most everyone winced, prompting Cysgod to suddenly wave a dismissive hand. "Relax, it all worked out. For one thing: I crashed into the side of a building that Daemon owned."

"How was that a good thing?" Inoue questioned, "you still crashed! Chances are you damaged that machine beyond repair, forcing you to take an alternate course of action...or am I wrong?"

"No, you're correct, the machine was broken beyond repair. But that made everything worth all the more while. For one thing, it wasn't my machine to begin with."

There was a long silence after this as everyone slowly realized what Cysgod was saying. Tamaki then broke the silence.

"You mean it was-"

"-Daemon's, uh-huh."

"In any case," Lelouch interjected, "how do you intend to find some more Knightmares for the fight against the UMNE?" Cysgod shrugged.

"Apart from pure darn luck; insanely good and impossibly unrealistic fortune."

"Hey guys!" , a worried expression on his face, "we may have a problem."

"What kind of problem?" asked Oghi.

"There's a couple of trucks approaching. They're all black with red and white insignia's on the cabin doors." Cysgod suddenly perked up at this. He jumped to his feet and rushed out the door before anyone else could even say any thing.

There were four trucks to be exact, all-black semis with black trailers; even the windows were tainted. The only color on the vehicles stemmed from the symbols emblazoned on both sides of the driver's cabin. A white circle with a blood-red "F" with two feathered wings, above which was a smaller circle (yellow with a "$" marking) and "Bo Co Ga Ge Lu" in gothic letters.

Cysgod recognized them immediately and stepped out into the open as the trucks approached, cautiously holding part of his coat back so that his holstered revolver was visible. The trucks lined up on the far side of the clearing and parked before a passenger door opened and a young man dressed in dark gray slacks, shoes, dinner jacket, and white button-up collared shirt. The young man raised a hand and called out in a mix of Italian, English, and Irish.

"Buona giornata Alchemist, we have a delivery for you on behalf of our padrino, ceannaire aghaidh óg. He sends his regards." Cysgod looked the kid up and down.

"You're one of the Facinus, aren't you?" he said with an almost interrogating tone, "what could Alex probably want from me at this point?"

"Petrone doesn't want you Alchemist," the Facinus footman replied. "Besides, you should know that we live by the creeds of silenzio and atremo. If there's something we want, then we don't dare ask for them directly."

"Fine, but can you at least tell me what you are doing here for your dear Godfather?"

"This." He put his thumb and pointer-finger in his mouth and blew a sharp whistle. A series of sharp cracks and loud clanking noises and the trucks detached themselves from the trailers and began to turn around. "Our máistir informs us that you over-paid him from last time. Our Don isn't usually impressed by generosity; he frowns upon it, calling it: l'inganno di animali, deceit of animals. But your generosity had no ulterior motive. It was pure and voluntary."

"What do you mean by that?" Cysgod inquired, "I needed something, your Godfather had it, so I had to pay for it. I wouldn't exactly call that: charity."

"As I said: you over-paid."

"Really? Truthfully I was afraid I under-paid your boss by accident."

"Proving his point, though in a different fashion then what you'd expect." He then made circular motion with his hand and got back into the truck he rode in on. "Do us a favor alchemist. Give that utopian bastard hell for us! We can't fight him, so you're gonna have to fight him for us." With that, the Facinus member closed the cabin door and the trucks went off, leaving the trailers behind.

"What the heck was that about?" Lelouch asked as he, Suzaku, and Oghi jogged up to Cysgod, who was now examining one of the trailers.

"I'm not sure," Cysgod replied, sounding cautious, "those guys were from the Facinus."

"That kid?" said a surprised Oghi, "he had to be in his mid-teens at least!"

"And our dear Alex Powers was only 16 when he founded the Facinus."

"And when was that?" inquired Lelouch, causing Cysgod to pause before answering.

"I'm not entirely sure, to tell you the truth. Crossing back-and-forth through different planes of existence kind of distorts one's sense of time."

"Nevermind that," said Oghi, "just what did those kids drop off?"

"I have a hunch," Cysgod said, his hand now resting on a latch on the side of the first trailer, "but I wouldn't press luck considering that this is the Facinus we're dealing with." With that, he promptly undid the latch and the others took a couple steps back as the side of the trailer fell open.

At the sight of the contents Lelouch and Suzaku's mouths' dropped open, Oghi whistled, and Cysgod frowned.

"I knew it."

"Knightmare frames!" Lelouch breathed, "four of them; one for each trailer."

"You had me worried there for a second Cysgod," Oghi laughed, "the Facinus guys just up and gave us some more Kightmares that we needed for the next attack!"

"Not exactly," said Cysgod, picking up a clipboard laying on the floor of the trailer and handing it out so the others could read the message attached to it.

SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED
INSTRUCTIONS NOT INCLUDED

"...crap."