Beyond The Ledges

The Virus

Avian returned to his apartment in Ledgetown, exhausted. He had been at the Stomping arena all day, working hard to earn some stars so he could buy a new TV. He had gotten a score of 5370, so the day was productive yet exhausting.

After his shower, Avian decided to go and deposit his stars at the bank. Might as well do it now, he thought, knowing he had to travel to the other side of the town tomorrow for the Annual Ledgetown meeting. Collecting his stars, he exited the apartment once more.

Ledgetown was a very pleasant place, a small pocket of civilization in a vast area of nothing but overgrown platforms. The usual ledges of Stomped.io were lined with houses, stores, and lights, and there were bridges connecting all of them for the elderly stompers who can't jump far. Luckily, Avian was in his early twenties, so he had a lot of life in him.

When he made it to the bank, Avian deposited the 5370, and as he was turning to leave, he spotted the familiar pale blue color and wavy maroon hair of ^^, one of his friends with a unique name. He bounced over. "Hey! I haven't seen you at the arena lately."

"Yeah, sorry," ^^ replied. "I had to travel to the city to go to my grandma's funeral."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Avian told her, feeling a pang of sympathy rush through his body.

"It's okay," she choked out. "I'll get through it." She rested her head on Avian's shoulder, her hair tickling his nose. Suddenly the doors to the entrance swung open and Chunks came marching in, wheeling a small flatbed full of stars, his orange color gleaming. "Oh, hey guys!"

"Hey Chu-" Avian's greeting was cut off with a hearty sneeze that blew all the stars from Chunks' flatbed everywhere.

"Oh, come on!" Chunks groaned. "That's 8303 stars of pure work that just got blown everywhere!"

"You got a score of 8303?!" Avian and ^^ exclaimed at the same time.

"Yeah, I spent hours in the left corner, beating my own score of 7706 in a nice, hard-earned income, which is strewn everywhere in here!" He rushed around, collecting all his stars. "Thank the Developer no one else is here!"

After Chunks collected all his stars and deposited them at the bank, they all stopped outside to gaze around at the buildings, which glowed in the night sky. They stared in silence for a few minutes before ^^ broke the silence. "I have to go. Bye guys!" She put her head against Avian's for a moment, said goodbye to Chunks, and bounded off to the higher ledges.

"Y'know," Chunks started. "I know it's called Ledgetown, but it looks more like a small city to me."

"Yeah," Avian agreed. "But it's still nothing compared to that city to the west."

"True."

Avian shook his head. "8303," he muttered. "I can't believe it."

"I know, right? My goal was to beat that fork guy's 6514, but I ended up beating my 7706." He glanced at the sky. The moon was shining, casting a blue glow that mixed in perfectly with the harsh yellow lights of the town. "I gotta go," Chunks stated. "Meeting tomorrow." And with that, he leaped off in the opposite direction that ^^ went.

I guess I should go too, Avian thought, and set off for his apartment.

     *     *     *

Avian woke with a start. Realizing he had overslept, he pried himself free from the blankets, which were tangled around him, quickly ate a can of Protein Stars for breakfast, grabbed the bag he always uses to collect his star income, and set off for the arena, only to halt and turn around when he remembered that the Annual Meeting was today. I wonder what the news is.