His shield protected him, but Tor was ripped off his feet, carrying part of the ground with him, stuck in the shield itself, as a large man in black hit him full force, actually flying, so about three hundred and fifty miles per hour. He had a shield too, since Tor had kind of insisted that no one in the military fly without one. It was to keep them safe, of course.
Turned out to be a brilliant plan now, didn't it?
Tor didn't wait to hit the ground, tapping the back of his left hand with his right as he tumbled through the air. The tricky part was waiting as he fell, until he knew his hand was being raised upward. If he got it wrong he'd power dive into the ground. He rose. It wasn't really upwards, off at an angle instead, but close enough to let him orient himself without dying. The mound of dirt dropped away after a few seconds, the field letting it go as soon as his movement slowed.
Six people, all men, were flying with him, three rushed in as soon as he stabilized and hovered, his body upright for a moment. Tor swept his force lance over them, but nothing happened. So they had good shields? Probably ones he'd made. The newest in the line, that stopped force lances, but let you fly. Even the explosives he had wouldn't do anything to them, he didn't think. Except for the big one, but that would just kill. He'd have to out fly them then.
That was harder to do than it sounded. Whoever these guys were, obviously not regular soldiers, they were good. They worked as a team and after about four minutes managed to force Tor into the ground. That hurt, but not as much as it would have without his shield.
Screw that. They weren't forcing him out of his home. That was a mistake, because it was his. Tor tapped his Not-flyer and rose into the air, if only four inches. In the air those men were faster of course, but they wouldn't be able to do much to him if he stayed among the buildings, he didn't think. He kept blasting the men on the ground and screaming at them to leave as the flying men hovered jockeying for position. No one had even started to head towards the front gate yet.
OK.
Tor took a big breath and moved towards the front. He dug into his inner pants pocket and got one of the explosives out, then, without so much as hesitating, he blasted the right hand side of the front wall. It made a deafening roar and made the wall disappear into dust and pebbles. With a single slow sweeping motion from right to left he destroyed the front half in less than eleven seconds. Everyone froze.
“I said leave. What part of that don't you get? Do it now, or I start killing people. I am done playing games with you.” It was loud, but a growl for all that.
No one moved for a second, but then one man, the captain that had only one shoe now, but two feet, held up his hands and told everyone to move out. Tor moved so that his back was to the front wall of his hut, just under the eaves, so that the flyers couldn't catch him from behind easily. They were still hovering over him, too high up to hear him tell them to leave. He'd have to do something else about them. It took nearly an hour for them to all leave, or at least get out the gate. Some of them tried to take the transports, but Tor only let them have half of them. He personally owned half, he told them all clearly. Major Godfrey owned the other half. Since it was all they were getting they could deal with him for them if they wanted. Tor wasn't making them anymore. Not for the military. Not after the way they'd attacked him in his own home.
They didn't have near enough transports to carry everyone, but Tor didn't care. The flight training base was only about a fifty mile walk. They could follow the river that floated behind the compound to it. They deserved to walk. Maybe it would give them time to reflect on what they'd done? Probably not, people were generally too stupid to realize when they'd messed up, but that was up to them. Their failure to learn from experience wasn't his problem.
Staying hidden was the hard part, since it got boring, but the men hovering didn't move much, watching and waiting for him to make a mistake. It ticked him off. They were using his own devices against him. Finally he shrugged. Tor didn't want to murder anyone, but if they left him no choice, what could he do? He pulled the little metal piece that looked like a poison detector from around his neck and got ready to use it, pointing it up at the flyers and stepping out just as the transport flew into sight. It wasn't one of the ones that had been taken, because those were all out front being loaded. It hovered briefly, then set down just inside the gate, near the open portion of the front wall.
When the side opened, Rolph stepped out, his skin too dark and his hair a deep brown still. He looked like a military man, lacking his long red hair and normal light tan skin tone. Kolb, bald head shining stepped out, followed by Godfrey. They all looked around, their gazes slightly panicked. The one shoe wearing captain, a blond man Tor realized having actually missed that part before being distracted, his left leg still covered in dried blood ran over to them screaming something. This time it didn't sound nearly so manly. Kolb held up a single hand, but the man kept screaming anyway.
Rolph saw him and slowly walked over.
“Alright there Tor?” He asked, stopping about ten feet away. “Why do you have your poison detector out… Crap! Tor…”
Rolph knew what it meant as Tor pointed the device at the flying men and shrugged.
“Their shields are too good for anything else I have, and they won't leave. I'm making the military leave. They attacked me… First they wouldn't let me in to my own home, mocked me and threatened me. I could have let that go, but then they physically attacked me when I managed to make my own door to get in. I don't care if it's reasonable or not, they're going. Then they told me I didn't have a right to ask them to leave! Well, I've got the right for them if they really want it…” Taking a deep breath he pointed at one of the flying men and started to activate the device.
“Stop! God, please Tor, stop. No need to kill them… They'll go, see… They'll go!” He waved at them frantically to move off, but they didn't budge. They probably couldn't tell who the Prince was or even what he wanted really. A large man waving at them right now didn't hold a lot of interest for them it seemed.
“Kolb!” Rolph yelled. “Can you get your people to get them to move off, Tor's going to kill them all if they don't!”
The words weren't even all the way out of the Prince’s mouth when nearly twenty people appeared in the air and told the six military flyers to move on. Tor wanted to be angry at them for not having helped him earlier, but then he'd been the one to set up the chain of command and exclude anyone other than the royal family, hadn't he? Great, he'd handed an incredibly dangerous weapon to people that probably were going to use it against him, or at least attack him, for the second time in his life. He kind of deserved to die, didn't he?
Giving weapons like that to his enemies. Too stupid to live. Duh.
Though, come to think of it, Petra and the others had actually helped him out once that day already. When it had looked like a simple fight between him and a few men. They didn't back off until later, when it would have been them against the military without orders if they tried to help. So, no blaming them, not really. Tor sighed.
At least it worked for now. Kolb's people didn't even hurt them, just flew over calmly and explained, waved to Godfrey who nodded grimly, then they flew off, landing out front with the other men. Tor put the massive death weapon away, but pulled out one of the force lances. He wasn't standing around unarmed. Who knew what these monsters were going to try and do next? He waited while everyone else walked over. Godfrey looked half freaked and half pissed off, but Kolb just tilted his head. Tor grabbed the initiative.
“Your men barred me from my own home and then attacked me Godfrey. You all have to get out. Now. You aren’t welcome here anymore. Not if you’re going to do things like that. I don’t know what kind of orders you gave them, but this…” Tor growled softly. Menacingly.
While holding a better than decent force lance on the man. Ready to use it.
In return Godfrey told him that it was a military base and only the King could tell them they had to leave. Tor tilted his head at the man and then shrugged. He looked at Rolph, hoping for support from his old friend, knowing that it wasn't very likely. The Prince nodded slowly at Tor, agreeing with the Major. It was in his brown eyes, his face.
Well. If the Prince of the freaking realm said it wasn't his house any more, then it wasn't. It wasn't fair. It had been his. He'd built it. Well, his little hut. Others had built the rest, but they'd all said it was his place. A real home to call his own.
Crud. Rolph owned the land it was on and they didn't even have a real contract or anything. He'd said it was all right, but if a royal changed their mind, then it kind of became law. After a fashion at least. There was nothing
