As soon as Altair appeared in the ruined building, he started looking around, checking if he could spot any cameras. But it was already dawn and with the sunlight filtering through the holes and cracks, he could not make out if there were any camera's light.
He had a worried look on his face seeing that he could not spot anything.
He thought he was feeling pain in his healed arm and it kept spasming because of this. The truth was that he was just feeling phantom pain and even the spasms were subconsciously made by himself.
*step*
Altair suddenly heard a noise of someone stepping on the rubble and quickly turned around in its direction.
There was a man in a dark red suit like Ronald's and he was standing right at the spot Altair appeared when he did a Sling to this place.
It was James, he looked at Altair and started talking. "We need to-."
But then he stopped when he saw Altair's restored arm and then had a slightly surprised expression on his face as he asked.
"How did you heal your arm?"
If Altair still had any doubts, then that question was enough to let him know that this person most likely worked with Ronald.
Altair quickly stood up from his leaning position and took on an apprehensive stance and at this moment James said with his hand in a pausing gesture.
"No before that, stay where you are. I'm not here to hurt you."
James also said. /"Yes, I found him."/ So Altair knew he was talking to someone else.
He had no intention of waiting here to be ganged up on so he vanished from his spot before James could act.
"Damn it~." James said in annoyance as he took out a small spray bottle from below his overcoat.
He ran towards Altair's previous spot and started spraying in the air. The twisted air became more visible and he stretched his hand towards it.
The next moment, he also vanished from the place.
.
In the middle of a burnt down forest, Altair emerged out of the air and looked around him, mostly up.
He saw another man appearing out of the air, up in the sky. He was dressed similarly to James and Ronald, a formal dark red suit with an overcoat.
As soon as this man appeared he started falling straight down as if diving in an upright position but he seemed undisturbed by this. He just kept his hands in his pockets even as the wind flapped his overcoat upwards.
As soon as Altair saw the man in the same outfit as Ronald and James, he took off running into the forest.
James soon appeared from there and as soon as he did David said. "That way." Pointing in the direction Altair left earlier.
/"Ronald, do you see him?"/ David asked.
\"Check your screens."\ Ronald replied through the earpiece.
Both David and Ronald folded the right sleeve of their overcoat and on the back of their hands appeared screens.
A little bit of manipulation later, and they were looking at a drone's footage of Altair's movements in real-time.
"How is he that fast?" David asked with his head slightly tilted.
"Let's go." James said, and they both vanished.
Further inside the forest, Altair was running with everything he had. Trying to navigate through the burned down trees, which he sometimes had to run over and other times run by. His head was full of questions even as he ran.
He wondered how these people kept tracking him, how many more Slingers they had with them. He knew that they had at least two in their group. Whatever the case was, he had to avoid going to a place he had already been in the past month.
Considering Ronald's words in the house, he had been monitored for a long time; so, for now he was just running while trying to figure something out.
David emerged from the air and placed his hand on Altair's shoulder. "Stay still." He said.
Feeling the palm on his shoulder, Altair who was very sensitive at the moment reflexively slapped the hand away in panic and teleported away.
He was still in the forest and James appeared in front of him saying. "Don't make things difficult."
Again, Altair teleported away, this time a little further but still within their sights. He also had the chance to take a look at them and he saw the screens on the back of their arms.
'Is that how they track me?' He asked himself.
Then he looked at the screens, trying to figure out the direction from which they were recording, and with squinted eyes he looked towards where he assumed the filming device was. He looked only briefly since he still had to be wary of the two before him.
Seeing Altair's actions, James said. "Don't bother, you won't see them." He seemed to have guessed Altair's thoughts.
David was looking at his arm which Altair had just slapped away and he said. "I already wondered seeing how you pulled yourself in the house but… you're quite strong."
Altair was indeed a little stronger than the average person thanks to the added stats, and with his unchanged stature it was not apparent.
Altair thought of James' question about healing his arm and realized. 'They don't seem to know about the System.'
He also looked at James, but the man just like David appeared very casual as he said. "We are here to talk, not harm you."
Altair retorted in anger, almost shouting. "You guys cut my arm!"
"You actually did that to yourself." Said James.
"What?!" Altair asked.
David chimed in. "No one opens more than two Sling gates at once. But somehow, you did two Slings even in that situation. When you tried the third, the already open gates collapsed with your arm going through."
"You're actually lucky that you weren't cut in two instead." James completed.
Then he said. "Why do you think we took the time to discuss with you if we came to harm you? It's just that guy going too far."
"To be fair, you acted quite arrogant when you challenged him." David added.
Altair was not pacified. "He thought he would fry me just for that?!"
David almost let out a sigh before continuing. "About that, it's something about sparing the rod and spoiling the child. If you are taken down when you first show negative traits, you would instinctively hesitate to repeat it. Just think of the whole thing as a test."
"A test?" Altair asked.
James replied. "This whole situation is just a test that went wrong once you did not follow the script."
"Can the two of you take your hands out of your pockets, I don't think it's a good sign with you guys."
David and James exchanged a look, then they removed their hands from their pockets.
Seeing that they were empty, Altair then asked. "What happens now?"
"You come with us." James replied.
"Where to?" Altair asked.
"You can't know that yet." James said.
Altair then asked. "What if I don't want to follow you?"
"Then we take you with us. You lost the right to choose from the moment you saw us, and you were bound to meet us from the moment you choose to be reckless with that ability." James replied again, his voice still as calm as before.