P. Power - Knight of the Realm

Tor wasn't a master strategist, but that made sense to him. It would even explain why the Wards would have been framed for all those attacks. If, of course, it was a frame at all.

Tor was expecting them to bring drinks, or possibly snacks to help them pass the time. Instead the women all moved suddenly, nearly as one, pulling force lances and pointing them at the group in front of them. Letting his mind range forth, he felt for the fields they had on. Several things popped into focus for him nearly instantly.

First, the force lances weren't very good quality. Oh, military grade, with strong fields on them, but the old kind that would only work for a few moments at a time and drained the user of personal energy. The second thing was that none of these people had a shield on at all, but all of his friends did.

Already turned on too. Tor stepped forward, holding up the small basket with the two pies in it.

“We come bearing gifts?” He spoke quietly, but with a smile.

“Get down!” The women started yelling loudly, voices going sharp. They looked more military now, the weapons did it, not the uniforms, which looked a little silly, red and brown shirts and pants, far too warm for the weather. These three didn't have temperature equalizers so damp spots showed under their arms. Then again he didn't either right now, so he could hardly feel superior about it. He was probably ruining the silk.

They started activating the weapons, which did nothing to the visitors, but shoved furniture back into the walls suddenly, making loud noises.

Standing in the same place Tor held his expression calm and shook his head.

“Really! Pie. We have pie!” His voice was a little desperate. Tor didn't know what anyone else had brought to the party, but anything would work on these women. Possibly lethally. The man with them looked terrified and hugged the wall, a tactic that would have worked better if he hadn't ended up nearly right behind the people being attacked. When Tor looked around everyone else had something in their hands, David Derring stood in front of Varley, two weapons pointed, getting ready to make the women stop. Just force lances, but ones Tor had made, which meant powerful and unending. He could hit these women for hours if he wanted and never even breathe hard.

“Stop!” Tor said suddenly, moving to stand in front of the attackers, shielding them with his body, which was only a psychological barrier at best. They were all nearly six foot tall, and too spread out for it to really work.

“They don't have shields on. I don't know why their attacking, but they can't hurt us with the weapons they have, so… You know, let's not, if it's all the same? I'm sure we can deal with this like reasonable people.” Well, that didn't seem to be happening really, reason not being the plan it seemed, but Kolb nodded.

“Stand down.” He told them all quietly. “Ladies, if you would please place your weapons away, we'll gladly do the same.”

It seemed to dawn on the women that they both weren't being very effective, except for in trashing the room, and that no one had responded to them violently at all yet. They all set their weapons down on the floor slowly, which wasn't what they'd been asked to do, but worked well enough for the moment.

Holly ran into the room then, looking frantic, she had a good force lance in her hand and a full shield on. That made sense, having had access to thousands of the things. She started to spray the room, sending furniture flying, some stopped when it hit people, but other pieces went straight for the ladies that had attacked them. The vulnerable ones.

Jumping wildly Tor slapped at a low table that came towards the red-headed and round faced woman, stopping it in the air when the shielded pie basket hit it.

The pies!

“Stop! We’re going to ruin the pie!” He yelled again, pulling the basket towards him fearing they'd been crushed.

Countess Printer stared at him for a moment and went pale.

“Tor…” She said simply and dropped the weapon she held to the floor.

A second later she followed it.

What did you do when a tall, thin, Countess goes to her knees in a room full of people? Tor didn't know, three things ran through his mind almost at once, the first was to help her up. That made some sense, after all, she was a Countess. Ticking her off could not be a good plan. The second was that in this position Tor was actually taller than she was, by over a foot.

Heh. Shorty.

It was the third thing was the one he said, not really knowing where it came from, it just kind of popped out. “All right dog-girl, what the hell have you been doing with my underwear?” He crossed his arms and tapped his right foot, basket dangling from his right hand.

Her people all stiffened and so did she at first, for nearly half a minute. Finally she blinked and started to chuckle which turned into a full laugh, hard enough to bring tears to her eyes. After a minute she blinked and wiped at her eyes.

“God Tor, I thought you were blind and out of commission, I should have known that something as trivial as being permanently blind wouldn't stop you. I saw your eyes though, and they were cooked white, just solid. How…” She stared at him, but didn't stand yet.

“Fixed it. Imagine my surprise when I woke up and found my clothes and toothbrush gone. I had to borrow these and given how new they are, and that they actually fit, I kind of think they might have looked better on Varley. Anyway, we can deal with that in a few minutes, now, stop being silly and come give us all hugs. I brought some of your friends here to see you.”

Rising slowly, she walked over and gave him a hug, then one to everyone else, though she paused at David. He had to reintroduce himself to her, since she didn't recognize the giant in front of her as the little boy she'd met once or twice before. He got a hug though. While she was doing this, Trice started messing with the box, her back turned to the room. When she turned she held a small brown bunny in her arms.

She grinned.

“One armed girl with a bunny and pie, if that doesn't say we come in peace, then you've probably lost it, yeah?” Cutely the little rabbit popped it's head up then, pink nose twitching and looked directly at Holly. After a few seconds it ducked back deeper into the crook of Trice’s right arm.

Looking in the basket Tor shrugged.

“One and a half pies, if we can count something that smooshed as a pie. Maybe a fruit pudding? Well, it should taste about the same. Peach strawberry? We heard you liked it.” Tor smiled and tried to look like everything was all right and that four women, all bigger than he was and generally well armed, hadn't just tried to beat him up. When had people attacking him become so common place? Tor wasn't even shaking. The bunny was, so he even had something to compare to.

Steady as a rock. Weird.

They moved to another room, that somehow hadn't been trashed already, meaning that these people didn't always greet their friends like this. Either that or they didn't get a lot of guests. Other people probably got served drinks and told they looked nice. Not that he did, but it would have been good to hear anyway. Well, the one guy had seemed all right at least, though he still acted like he didn't know what to expect. Really, who could blame him? They ate the pie from bowls, Holly apologizing for not having any frozen cream, because it was just too hard to get ice in this time of year.

That earned her a snort from Tor.

“You have about a hundred temperature plates capable of making ice. You just need an insulated box to put it in. If you let me see my trunks I can set one up for you, maybe a few, if you want…” Tor really wanted to climb into his own clothing and steal away one of the personal equalizing amulets. They could set up some temperature control plates for the house too, while they were at it he let her know, by way of a bribe to let him have his things. Everyone else in the room stared at him. Well, that wasn't exactly true. His friends didn't, not even Petra.