"YES!" Cheered Dylan, holding a glass of root beer up high above his head. He pulled it down to take a sip, but ended up chugging half of the glass instead. "I finally got the high score! Yes!" He exclaimed. Dylan admired his long, hard work, as in the gaming initials at the top of the high score screen on his TV. After so, he pulled the headgear, that goes to the console, off of his head and tossed it on his bed. He then drank what was left of his root beer and tossed it there as well. Dylan paced over to his GameboxX, one of the newest gaming consoles, and slid the game he'd been playing for so long out of the disc slot. While carefully holding the disc with his index finger, he grabbed the case with his free hand and placed it in there with the familiar click of it popping in. The TV flashed an "INSERT GAME" screen, just begging to be played even more. Instead, he ignored it's silent cries, and pressed the power button. At last having the console off, Dylan sat on his bed with a sigh. He figured he'd been playing video games for too long, but what else was there to do?

When I was 8, on a stormy night, my mother and father got a little too excited over a tension-filled game of 9:00 pm football. I'm not sure what really happened, however, but the ended up with their faces fried by lightning. Yes, they were electrocuted over a little football game. Silly, right? But that incident traumatized me to have a fear of thunderstorms, even to this day a year later. After a lot of tears, blood, and conflict involving the police, I was eventually put with my sick and weary uncle. He lives in a small apartment with 3 other ladies to help care for him, and my uncle thought it would be to crowded for me to live there as well. So he made a deal, allowing him to buy out the apartment next to his for me to live in. He pays all of my bills and gives me money for food and other things, thanks to his disability money, so I can survive. But there isn't much to do here, so to pass the time, I play video games. But even so, I can't seem to fill the void in my heart caused by loss. I try to make the best of it, but what's there to make the best of?

After a bit, his mind began to wander off to strange things, but to his surprise there was a knock on his door. He forced himself to answer, hoping it was nothing bad. "Hello?" He asked upon opening it, only to see a younger lady in a maid-like outfit, one of the ladies who helped his uncle.

"Sup yo." She replied awesomely. She then thrust 3 wads of cash into his hands and continued. "Here's your money for a while. How are you?"

"Uh... thanks." Dylan said, relief filling him that it was only her at the door. But then a question popped into his head. "Hey, is it bad if you talk to yourself unusually often?"

The lady gave him a strange look and replied. "I think you've skipped too much school, kid."

"It was only 2 days..." He sighed. "And I have a reason. I can't go back."

"And whyyy is that?" The lady said in a suspicious tone. She put her hands on her hips with a smirk, waiting for him to continue.

"Well..." Dylan began. "Everyone continues to make fun of me, and my science teacher decided to teach weather this month... I think it'll be best for me to skip out."

"Look kid." She said in a serious voice. "For the bullies, you either have to ignore them or fight back. Running's not an option. And for science... it's been 2 years already!" Her voice got progressively louder. "Haven't you've gotten over that silly fear already? Thunderstorms are NATURAL. They'll happen all the time around you. All I have to say is to get over it."

Dylan felt as if he might cry, so he did the first thing that popped into his head, which was to slam the door on her. After a few seconds, he heard her footsteps trail off down the hall. He slumped down by his door in sadness and dropped the money on the ground as if it was useless. And as of now, it was useless. After that lecture, he was only left with one thought: Does everyone have to judge me by my fears?

I would skip school every day if I could. That place is hell to me. I can't make friends, since everyone is left with the impression that I'm useless. It's as if reality is controlling all of these people like puppets, and I'm the only one who's actually alive... reality must be one hateful person. Now I'm just judged by everything I am. Sure, cream-colored hair and blue eyes are unnatural for guys. Also to miss your parents a little is strange. But has anyone heard of originality? This is the problem of my generation. The're so... judgmental.

Dylan curled up in a ball and let himself drown in his despair. He wanted to get over it. He wanted to be normal. But as obvious as it is, it was too late to change their opinions. After a while of depression, Dylan eventually made his way to his bed. He climbed into it and let slumber shut his eyes, left with the thoughts of his awful generation.

But sometime in the middle of the night, he was awaken from his blank-white dream by a knock on his door. Dylan crawled out of his bed, still half asleep, and drug himself to the door. Upon opening it, he saw nothing but the beige carpet covering the outside hall. Believing it was a prank from some kid at his school due to previous thoughts, he lazily shut the door with a sigh. But when he faced the opposite way, he noticed a mysterious, animal-like shadow in his room. Out of fear, he quickly flicked on the light switch beside him. To his surprise, a wild animal had some how gotten into his room. Dylan could only stare in shock as he saw a Fox sitting in the middle of his floor, staring straight at him.

Dylan was frozen, his hands covering his mouth to prevent screaming. The fox's eyes burned through him like fire, unblinking and non moving. It slowly began to pace towards him, which freaked him out even more. But what freaked Dylan out the most was when it began to rub against him like a cat. All he could do was stare with confusion as it began to lick his hand. Quickly, he pulled his arm away, afraid that it would bite. "W-what kind of fox are you..?!" He stuttered. All it did was look up at him with caring eyes.

As cute as it was, Dylan reached for the door, knowing that it wasn't safe to keep a wild animal in an apartment. But as soon as he made contact with the doorknob, It jumped up at him in rage, obviously showing a sign that it did not want to leave. "Ow!" Dylan exclaimed, stepping away. "Did you just bite me? I think it's bleeding... oww..." He rubbed his injured arm in pain. His attention was quickly driven back to the fox as it gave a curious whine. It began to rub against him once more and gave him a look as if it was sorry.

"You are one weird fox..." Dylan mumbled, still slightly in shock. But with sudden realization, he facepalmed and said "Aaannd I'm still talking out loud to myself." He noticed the pain in his arm had subsided a bit, and he felt too awake to go back to sleep, so he decided to do the most normal thing he does, which is play video games. Cautiously, he stepped around the fox, hoping not to make any contact as he made his way to his GameboxX. He pressed the power button, followed by popping a disc out of it's case and into the slot. Even as he was drawn into the pixelated light of the TV, the fact that there was a fox in his home still gnawed at the back of his mind. For good measure, he glanced back at it, only to see it licking up a glass of root beer. "How did you get that?" Dylan asked in a confused voice. The wild animal looked up and licked the root beer foam off of it's lips.

Dylan watched it in wonder if he'd hit his head or something, but the game's voice interrupted his thought, yelling CHOOSE YOUR PLAYER throughout his home. He quickly focused back on his virtual world, picking out the character he always picked and pressed start. The fox watched from the distance as he pressed multiple buttons, and twitched his ears at the 8bit soundtrack. It paced over towards the TV as if it was being drawn to it, and was soon sitting right next to Dylan. Neither of them noticed, however, since the neon lighting of the game commanded their attention. But after a bit, Dylan was surprised to hear the game's voice call out to him again, yelling PLAYER TWO HAS JOINED! Looking over, he saw the fox easily managing the simple 2 buttoned, single joystick-ed controller. He watched, sure that he was hallucinating, as it defeated 27 enemy attackers in a row, a combo he couldn't possible reach. Realizing that he was loosing heath, however, Dylan focused back on the game, and the two both blasted through the stars until 2:00 am.

Around that time, Dylan finally felt drowsiness seep back into him. Once they both reached the final save point, he pressed the power button on the GameboxX, as tempting as it was to continue to the next level. But to his surprise, he heard the familiar pittering of the rain on his window. His eyes drove him to staring out the window, into the towering, dark clouds covering the deep blue, early morning sky. Watching as the rain drenched the city beyond his window, he wondered if it will become clear by the time he wakes up once more. But a bright strike of lightning lit up the city, causing Dylan's wonders to turn into nightmares. Thunder boomed seconds later, causing the fox's ears to perk up. It did like Dylan and looked out the window, noticing a second strike of lightning dancing among the clouds. The fox knew what to do... it knew it was time. It's attention snapped back to the GameboxX. By pressing the power button and sliding out the disc, the TV screen was left with nothing but an INSERT GAME screen. Having done it's part right, the fox looked behind it's shoulder to see Dylan, curled up in a ball, slowly rocking back and forth in the corner of the room, wearing a panicked, fearful face.

Noticing the wild animal's eyes pointing towards him, he glanced back with eyes wide with fright. It gave a nod, signing for him to come. But Dylan's eyes only got bigger as he noticed how close it was to the TV. "W...what are you doing?!" He asked in a shrill voice. "Get away from that...! Get away!" He began to breath heavily, hoping the fox would do what he asked. But instead, it only gave another nod. In another shrill voice, Dylan cried "Do you want to die?! G-get away from that! YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!" His eyes began twitching, angered that the fox wouldn't listen, but scared that it would get electrocuted at the same time. Instead of listening to his pleas, however, it's eyes continued to stare into him, not budging an inch. Dylan realized that it wasn't going to move, and began hoping it didn't die. But he then remembered how smart that fox was, and decided to trust him this time.

Forcing his fears away, he inched closer and closer to the fox, following it's commands instead of vise-versa. Soon, he was side by side with it, still confused as to what it wanted. But then a wild thought crosses his mind.

This fox wants to kill me! It all makes sense, it fooled me into trust, and came in for the kill now, while I'm vulnerable... But then why is he sitting next to me? Is he sacrificing himself or something? Or... am I wrong? I don't know... maybe I'm just going crazy. Besides, what fox does this anyway? I think I might've hit my head or something...

Dylan took one last confused glance at the fox, and it glanced back with gleaming eyes.

One bright bold of lightning struck down upon Earth, followed by 2 inhabitants getting absorbed into a gaming console.

Dylan awoke with a start, wondering how long he'd been out. Glancing to his left, he saw the same fox that was haunting him and caused him to be here. Noticing that he was not at his home, he quickly sat up and began to investigate his surroundings.

"What the...?" He mumbled in confusion. "Why is everything black? When did this bench get here? ...What did you do?" Dylan looked at the fox, but all it did was tilt it's head to the side as if nothing was wrong. He was about to leave the bench to find an exit, but a distant rumbling sound prevented him. Soon, a bus rolled up in front of him as if he was at some invisible bus stop. A holographic sign appeared by the door, displaying words followed by yes and no buttons.

WILL YOU BOARD THE BUS?

YES?

NO?

Immediately, Dylan thought of how it resembled most of his video games, with the yes/no options. He wondered what would happen if he press no, because he knew what would happen if he pressed yes. But what if something else happened? The fox took notice that Dylan was having a hard time deciding, so it walked over to the bus and looked up at the hologram. Because of amazing technology, the sign slid down the side of the bus to match it's height. Unlike Dylan, it tapped yes with it's nose without even having to give any thought into deciding. The glass door opened; the fox entered like it selected. Dylan quickly followed, not wanting to be alone in a strange place such as where he was.

Inside of the bus, the seats were aligned against the walls like they did years back. The two sat in the seats at the very back without a word. The vehicle drove forward; all was silent for the rest of the ride. After a while, Dylan began to notice that the pitch-black darkness surrounding them began to lighten up, and by the time it was a light grey, he couldn't keep his eyes off of it as if he was expecting something to happen. And something did. The white atmosphere burst into what seemed like a lively city, color bursting in every building. All he could do was stare in shock, not even bothering to wake the fox asleep next to him. The bus drove through half of the city, as if it was showing off all that there was in their town before finally pulling up to a bus stop. Realizing that they were at a stop, Dylan poked the fox a few times to wake it up before they both made their way off of the bus.

"Woah!" Dylan exclaimed. "Look at this place!" He admired how lively and beautiful everything was, believing this was just a dream since no town was this astonishing compared to here. He stood in shock as the fox acted like this was normal.

"Move it, brat!" Someone yelled as they shoved Dylan aside, bringing him back to reality.

"Hey, wait!" He called after him, happy to have found someone.

He turned to face him, his face throbbing with anger. "What do you want?" He grumbled as if he was about to kill him.

Dylan hesitated. "Uh... what town is this?" He asked, a bit frightened by his anger.

"8bit Central, DUMBASS!" He hollered, and stormed off in a fit of rage.

Dylan felt a bit offended by the man, but he was glad to know where he was, at least. However, the name didn't ring a bell. "8bit Central..." He repeated, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't think of a place named as such. He felt a bit scared that he was in a city, alone with a fox, and didn't know his way back. A part of him believed this was only a dream and he could wake up any time now and still be in his bed. But most of him wanted to stay here, away from the bullies and problems of his world and start fresh in this strange city. By the time he decided, he noticed the fox was wandering off and began to follow.

Dylan followed the fox through the city, thinking about how he'd cope with this lively town. He couldn't help but gaze up at the colorful buildings towering over him and smile at the small yet cheerful corner shops. The entire place gave him a warm feeling inside, like he was in a dream world of some sort. He was actually a bit surprised that the fox acted like he'd been here a million times. After a while, the fox stopped it's wandering at a hotel. It glanced over at Dylan who'd stopped as well as if he wanted both of them to go in. Somewhat understanding what it meant, he let it inside followed by himself.

Inside, the place seemed larger than it was on the outside. It was like the exact opposite of the apartments he lived in. The whole room was painted red, white, and gold, with even a diamond chandelier hanging from the ceiling. A voice quickly caught his attention, however.

"Hey, you gonna get a room or something?" The lady at the counter asked. Her long brown hair draped onto the counter, her eye shadow-covered eyelids were half closed, as if she could fall asleep anytime now. She wore a glum look like she didn't even want to work at a hotel, either that or the job was extremely boring.

"Uh... sure." Dylan replied, wondering if that's what the fox wanted. He glanced down at it, and it nodded with approval. "Yes, we would." He corrected himself, trying to act more mature.

The lady sighed. "Ah, yeah... you're room 478..." She dropped the keys to the room on the counter before her. Dylan picked them up, feeling a bit bad for the lady. But before he could go to his room, the lady stopped him. "Don't leave, you have to pay, remember?" She asked while poking the counter, showing a sign that she wanted money.

"Oh yeah..." Dylan said, reaching for his pocket. He couldn't find his money, so he checked his other pocket. Even so, he still couldn't find any. Wondering where he put it, he suddenly remembered he left it all on the floor of his room. Feeling stupid about doing so, he dropped the keys back onto the counter. "Um... sorry, I don't have any money on me right now..."

"No money?" The lady repeated, a bit surprised. "How can you have no money? Where are you from, kid?"

"Uh... Alvelht Town." Dylan answered, wondering why she was so surprised.

"Hmm..." She thought for a moment. "Nope! Never heard of that town before. Since you're a traveler, I'll let you have this room for free... we get so much money anyway no one would notice." She pushed they keys towards him with a smile.

"Really? Thanks!" Dylan cheerfully said, Picking up the keys once more. He then got onto the elevator with the fox to go up to their temporary home.

The lady watched as the elevator climbed upwards. With a smile on her face she sighed with relief.

"So they've finally done it..."