The sun was dipping low behind the rooftops, casting long golden shadows across the quiet neighborhood. Gabriel gripped his handlebars, eyes fixed ahead as the warm breeze stirred the leaves of the old mango tree where he had parked earlier.
"Okay na 'to…" he muttered under his breath. (This should be good enough...)His hand brushed the side pocket of his worn-out bag. The black card was still there—its smooth surface now displaying something odd. The twin gears in the center were faintly glowing, and right below them, in sharp letters, it now read:
ACTIVE USER DETECTED.
He didn't know what it meant, and honestly, he didn't want to think too hard about it. What mattered now was getting to Mr. Reyes's shop. He pedaled off, tires crunching softly against the gravel.
A figure emerged silently from behind a gate down the street.
Wyn watched him go, expression unreadable behind his thin-rimmed glasses. He adjusted his backpack and started following at a safe distance, quiet as a shadow.
"He's off again," Wyn whispered.He leaned briefly on a lamppost, tracking Gabriel's path."Where's he going now?" he mumbled. "Sobra talagang weird 'tong taong 'to… parang may tinatagong mission." (This guy is seriously weird... it's like he's hiding some secret mission.)He smirked and tailed behind.
Gabriel turned into a small alleyway that led toward the quieter part of town. The houses were more spread apart here, older and shabbier, but familiar. He recognized the clatter of tools before he even saw the gate—Mr. Reyes's place.
He rolled toward the rusted iron fence, the same gate where the old man had first stopped him.
But just as Gabriel was about to step inside—
POOF.
The air shimmered around him—like heat rising off pavement—and in a blink, he vanished.
Wyn froze.
"What the—?!" He rushed to the spot. "Gabriel?!"
He looked left and right, blinking rapidly. Nothing. Just the breeze. No bikes. No footsteps. The entire stretch of the alley felt like it swallowed Gabriel whole.
"Hoy…" he muttered. "Did I just witness a magic trick?"He stared at the ground where Gabriel had just stood, dumbfounded."…Ano 'to, teleportation?!" (What is this, teleportation?!)
Meanwhile…
Gabriel stumbled forward as if pushed through a thin curtain of air. He blinked. Everything looked... different. The sky had a faint violet tint. The tools in Mr. Reyes's yard were floating slightly—floating.
"What the heck—?"
Mr. Reyes stood nearby, arms crossed, smiling like he'd been waiting.
"Welcome back," he said, nodding. "You've been activated, right?"
"H-ha?" Gabriel stepped back. "Activated? Ano po 'yun?" (What do you mean by activated?)
Mr. Reyes chuckled, gesturing toward the bike propped on a metal frame in the center of the shop.
"Don't think too hard about it. You'll understand soon enough. But first..." He patted the seat of the bicycle. "Let's repair Phantom."
Gabriel's eyes widened."Phantom?""The bike," Mr. Reyes said, smiling like it was the most normal thing in the world. "That's its name."
As Gabriel walked slowly toward the glowing frame of the bike, a chill crawled up his spine—not from fear, but a strange sense of… awakening. Like something long forgotten was starting to stir.
And outside, unseen from the other side of that invisible wall, Wyn stared hard at the empty space.