Skyline Gang

Chapter 27

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas!

Enjoy the chapter!

The tsunami of darkness died away after almost a full minute. Dude felt the light hit his eyelids once it left. He risked a peek, still holding onto Candi. She was continued to latched onto him like a lifeline. Her fists were clenched on his shirt so tight that her fingernails threatened to rip the fabric. Her form was shaking so much, just barely able to keep herself from crumbling. Dude rubbed her back, trying to calm her down.

"That was unpleasant! So not fabulous at all!" Mimi grimaced.

"Are you all okay?" Dude asked, opening his eyes properly. When he didn't get an answer, he looked around. He felt his heart skip a beat instantly. When the black cloud covered them, Dude felt like he was in a blizzard. He was still shivering a little from the experience. The others however looked far worse than him. They were all trembling, from the chill and fright. They looked drained of their energy too. They were pale, all the colour wiped away from their faces. Even their clothes seemed to have lost a little of their bright colour. Rainbow seemed to be affected as well. He was crouched low to the ground, whimpering a little. "What's wrong?"

"I don't feel too good." Candi muttered, finally pulling away from Dude to have a better look at him. Dude gently placed a hand to her forehead. While he was cold, he felt like she was made of ice. She was absolutely freezing. And her eyes...what were once sparkling bright, seemed to have lost a little of their light.

"I would say, "it was like someone walked over my grave". But that's a gross understatement." Bud muttered, almost looking like he was on the verge of a meltdown. Rainbow could sense the distress. Shakily, he got up and went to comfort Bud.

"I feel fine." Dude muttered out loud.

"Really?" Pip exclaimed, finally having a proper look at Dude.

"A bit cold maybe. But I wasn't affected like you guys." He said, continuing to observe the others. They slowly started to get their colour back, but still seemed wiped out from the experience. Dude didn't understand what was happening. He was almost perfectly unscathed from the black cloud. He was warming up after being cold now. So why did the others have it worse than him? Was it all part of Dawn's challenge? No, it can't be. She can't hurt them. They know this. She knows this. And yet, something felt very, very wrong right now. Maybe it was part of the game? Dawn might have found a loophole or something. Dude probably won't know until he plays the challenge.

"Lucky..." Sprout muttered bitterly. He rubbed his arms to try to get some heat back. He glanced around Dude and Candi. He jumped back a little at what he saw. "What's that? What's that?"

Everyone looked to see what he was staring at. They were met with a puzzling sight. One of the things that stood out the most was that there wasn't just one Shadow Man. It had five other friends. So Dude doesn't have to play alone after all. That was good. He felt like he didn't have this overwhelming pressure anymore. The area that the Shadow Men were standing on had been changed. Instead of concrete, the floor was polished wood. White lines were painted on it. A large rectangle and two slightly rounded areas. One large pole stood at either end of the area. They both held a hoop and backboard. Dude recognised the layout instantly. The others picked it up just as quickly.

"It's a basketball court!" Bud exclaimed. Now it made sense as to why the stage wasn't being used. This wasn't a full sized basketball court, but it was still quite obvious.

"Dude, didn't you say that you play basketball?" Pip asked, remembering her conversation with Dude a couple of days ago.

"Yes! I don't know if-" Dude started, watching the arena closely. He was suddenly spun around, meeting Sprout's excited face.