"Chaika that's a horrible idea. Rex rules over all of Avalon territory, your hangar is so small, how would you fit both Rex and Morgan into your home?" Marcela said offending you.
"If she offered Marcela, and you all don't have a plan, I'll take the offer, even if her hangar is small, as long as it keeps Morgan out of the elements I could care less." You say expressing your disagreement with Marcela.
The little I-153 gets a second wind as she jumps up and leads you to her home, a small humble hangar.
"This is nice Chaika, cozy, Morgan, can you enter?" You say as you look back to Morgan who had enough room to get in and find Chaika's sofa.
"Yea, I'm ok. I'm just going to crash here if it's ok with you two." Morgan said as she laid on the couch and near instantly passed out.
"What about you Rex? Where would you sleep?" Chaika asked.
"Well next to Morgan." You say as there's a slight bit of disappointment on Chaika's face.
"She's my daughter, in a really bizarre way. Since she crashed on the couch, I'll join her, and Chaika, don't be so disappointed. You're hosting the ruler of the Avalon Territory for the night." You say making her smile.
You lie awake next to Morgan, thinking of Thunderbolt. You wonder how disappointed she'd be when you return having left her behind to do this mission. You hope she'd understand why you left, as this was rather pressing, but all you can do right now is lie awake and try to sleep.
"Dad." Morgan said very quietly.
"I'm still awake Morgan, what do you need?" You say just as quiet.
"Are you thinking of Thunderbolt?" she asked
"Yea, I am." You say
"Me too. I hope she's ok." Morgan said as you smile in the dark, as you're both concerned about her.
"She should be, she's tough. She knows when to hold her own Morgan. She'll be alright until we get back." You say hopefully comforting Morgan.
"Yea, but you worry too much dad. You need to sleep. You know I'll keep you safe." Morgan said as she attempted to snuggle up to you.
"Alright, just try not to crush me." You say as you're finally able to close your eyes and sleep.
 
0830 hrs. Chaika's hangar, Rugido.
"Morning you two, I thought you'd be sleeping forever." Chaika said as you woke up on the floor from Morgan pushing you off the couch.
"I probably would have. If Morgan didn't wake me." you say as you rub your arm from falling off the couch.
"Well, shouldn't we be getting breakfast?" Chaika asked.
"Yes, Morgan and I should eat before we go back home. You're welcome to come out to Avalon's Shadow any time for that overhaul Chaika." you say as Morgan allows you to ride on her back as you leave Chaika's hangar.
"She's a little clingy." Morgan said subconsciously to you.
"Yea, I noticed. I'd just hate to crush her feelings, I'll let Thunderbolt do that." You say the same way Morgan told you.
"That's not a good way to do that dad. You should tell her before we go." Morgan said as she turned to stare at you for a second.
"Ok I'll tell her." you say knowing you couldn't take that stare.
Morgan carried you to the same cafe you ate at last night, for breakfast.
As the two of you eat, the Mig-25 was out and looking for you.
"I lookings for human. He shorter than all us." Skybreaker said as you just shook your head and continued to eat.
"Shouldn't you acknowledge her?" Morgan asked as you shrug.
"If she's looking for a human, I'm the only one here, and I can't be that hard to spot, I mean come on, I'm wearing a green flight suit." You say as you look over your shoulder to see the MiG-25 searching for you among the other cafes.
Chaika managed to track you down, and you prepared to upset her for a short while.
"Oh Skybreaker's not drunk today. Wonder why." Chaika said as you just smile.
"Maybe it had to do with what I told her yesterday, either that, or she drank way too much last night." You say slightly avoiding the topic and hoping that Chaika would bring it up not you.
"Oh, so why are you two going back to Avalon's Shadow so soon?" Chaika asked setting you up
"I got to go back to Thunderbolt, she's probably pretty mad at me for leaving her with a bunch of ponies. Even then, Morgan's home is there, so is mine." You say hoping she got the hint.
"There is small human." Skybreaker said as you now stare skyward and try not to take offense to her calling you small.
"Yes, what can I do for you?" You say through your teeth with a very fake smile on your face.
"I is apologizing for last night. If knew you were here, would not have been drunk." Skybreaker said as you're still holding the fake smile.
"It's quite alright, not like I haven't dealt with drunken ponies before Skybreaker, You're not the first one to walk up to me drunk." You say allowing her some comfort in the fact Ivan beat her to the punch.
"Who was first?" Skybreaker asked.
"An IL-2 named Ivan, first day I met him, he was near comatose from drinking." you say as Ivan was blackout drunk that day.
"Da, so how long you staying in Rugido?" Skybreaker asked.
"Whenever Morgan's ready to carry me back to Avalon's Shadow, then it's back home for me." You say as you look to Morgan for assistance
"You're on your own here. Don't dig the hole you already dug any deeper." Morgan said to you via the link and left you to fend for yourself.
"So not very long?" Skybreaker asked and you nod.
"Yea, not very long. I should be back in Avalon's Shadow in case more gryphons show up after this latest escapade with them." You say as you're managing to figure out your loopholes to avoid being stuck in Rugido for longer than you want.
"Oh that's right, you represent all of us don't you?" Chaika said as you nod.
"Yes, I do. I'd hate to think what they would do if they couldn't find me in Avalon's Shadow." You say making your excuse more concrete to leave.
"Let's get going, before you're missed back home." Morgan said as she stood up and walked towards the runway with you right behind her.
"Right, let's go home Morgan." You say as she lets you climb up onto her and into the cockpit.
"Rex, what about us?" Chaika said as she motioned to herself and Skybreaker.
"Morgan and I will be fine, stay here." You say as you finally slide into Morgan's cockpit and let her go home.
 
1025hrs. somewhere between Rugido and Avalon's Shadow.
"You know we're being followed right?" Morgan said
"I can see that, one fast and the other rather slow. I'm going to guess that our followers are Chaika and Skybreaker." You say as you're now looking at the radar insert in Morgan's field of view.
"What are we going to do about them?" Morgan asked.
"Let them follow us. There's no harm in that is there?" you say hoping Morgan would leave them alone.
"Well, as long as they stay behind me, I'm fine with it." Morgan said as she continued along her flight path back home.
"Alright, they get too nosy, you can dissuade the curious." you say as you attempt to relax on the way home, hoping Thunderbolt wouldn't be too mad at you.
 
1130hrs. Avalon's Shadow.
"Anon where the hell have you been?" Thunderbolt said as Morgan walked back home with you still in the cockpit.
"Where do you think I've been Thunderbolt? I went to take care of a small problem." You say as you climb out of the cockpit to get yelled at properly.
"You could have left a note." Thunderbolt said rather hurt.
"Look, Thunder, I'm sorry. I just had to take care of this. I either made this into a huge problem, or I made it go away. Hoping I made it go away." You say as you're still attempting to cheer her up.
"You can be a jackass sometimes Anon." Thunderbolt said with a little bit of a laugh in her voice.
"Yea, I guess I can be." You say as Morgan forces you to slide off her back.
"So what did you two do?" Thunderbolt asked as Sully walked up with the reconnaissance photos.
"Look what I got. Before and after photos." Sully said as he handed them to Thunderbolt.
You looked at them too, it showed the camp before you got there, and after you left, along with the gryphons flying back to the border of Oslo escorted by the fighters.
"You ran them out again?" Thunderbolt asked.
"Yea, we ran them out. Had to do a little persuading too." Morgan said rather happily.
"You didn't kill them did you?" Thunderbolt asked.
"Well, one may have gotten hit...... Fatally." You say scrunching up your face.
"Anon! You can't do that! It doesn't send the message you want." Thunderbolt said
"Eh oops, guess I'm going to have to deal with the consequences." You say knowing that you're probably screwed at the moment.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Sully, where did they go once they crossed the border?" Thunderbolt said
"They went back to Oslo, I just followed them about ten miles past the border, as that was my turn to head home." Sully said informing you of how much he knew
"Well, looks like we'll know either late today or tomorrow." You say knowing that something you don't want to happen could happen
"So where are the ponies?" you ask as there's a few returning fighters.
"We brought them back to the border. They've been safely escorted back to Equestria." Raptor said
"How far past the border did you go?" You ask wondering if it was just to the border or past it.
"We went 150 mi past the border into Equestria. Handed them off to the royal guard who was waiting for them. Before you ask, they were ponies not gryphons." Raptor said allowing you a little relief.
"Good, that's really good. I'm happy to hear that they are taking the threat as seriously as I am." You say relieved at the news.
"Yes, Celestia herself was there to greet them. She was expecting you to be with us, but, we told her that you were taking care of an issue near Rugido. She seemed to understand that, isn't that right Nora?" Raptor said as Nora's gaze was fixed on the sky behind you, and Morgan's radar readout was popping up in the corner of your vision.
"Three? There were only two following me from Rugido." You say as you've got three ponies from two different directions.
"You were followed?" Thunderbolt and Raptor say confused as to why you'd allow that.
"Well, they're from Rugido, I can't just shoot them down for that, I'm not a huge asshole." You say as you point in the general direction of Chaika and Skybreaker.
"Well, we may or may not have picked up an interceptor who was more than happy to follow us." Lightning said as he popped out of the small fighter group that escorted the ponies out.
"So you were followed too? And you did nothing to dissuade the follower." You say as there's a two sided argument forming between you and the escorts.
"Well at least only one followed all of us. Two followed you and Morgan." Raptor said as you Lightning, Nora and Phantom roll your eyes at her statement.
"Yes, two easy kills for Morgan. A MiG-25 and an I-153. She could dance around them before the MiG could fire a missile, let alone be shocked due to the shielding around her." You say showing your irritation with Raptor.
"Well I.. I... Damn it. I forgot about that." Raptor said as you nod and turn to watch Skybreaker and Chaika land, albeit five minutes apart.