All notes will be at the end of the chapter 

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It was late at night in Max's basement. Max Catch and Danny Luxio were both having a sleepover that night. Y'know, like two guys do in their mid 20's. 

"So you're telling me there's a way to go into the TV and enter the videogame? What, are you high? That's impossible bro," Max said, quite certain that his best friend was pulling his leg. 

"I'm being honest! I read about it in xxGamerzMagasinexx like a week ago," Danny retorted. (And yes, it is spelled like that.) 

"You still read that kids crap? So you're both high AND twelve," Max would have flipped his hair then if he had anything longer than a mock buzz cut. 

"Are you seriously being like this right now?" The shorter redhead was this close to punching the taller brunette out. Danny could feel his ears turning red with frustration. 

"And you believe something you read in some kids book. How would you even get in there, just jump in like you're on a high dive?" Max laughed in his friends face. It was really too ridiculous to believe. 

"I'm tellin' ya! You really can go in there! And what if there's some hot babes in the TV world?" Max seemed to contemplate what he was going to say next. 

"Have you even been in there yourself?" An eyebrow raised and Danny paused. 

"Nah, not yet. I was waiting for you so we could try it out together. It'd be too dangerous to go alone y'know," Danny took a step back, hoping that Max would get out of his face. Max took another step forward. 

"So if I just pushed you in right now, it would work?" Danny gulped. This was not how he was expecting this conversation to go. 

"I-I," another gulp from the redhead. "I don't think so? I think it has to be a voluntary jump in?" Max took another step closer until Danny's body was pressed squarely against his 50 inch TV. 

"Well," Max put his hands on Danny's shoulders. "Why don't we find out?" 

And with a shove hard enough to normally knock the TV over, Danny's body was swallowed up by the television behind him. 

Max blinked. 

Once, twice, three times. Then rubbed his eyes. Then blinked again. 

"Oh shit, did it actually work?" Max tapped his pointer finger against the screen. Nothing. He tried gently pushing the screen. Still nothing. He banged his fist lightly against the screen. Also nothing. 

"Do you think it has something to do with the force of the body against the screen?" Max asked to no one in particular. This time, he tried punching the TV screen. 

All of a sudden, his fist was enveloped by the light of the TV and it felt like someone was physically dragging him by his arm into the world on the other side. 

And that is exactly what happened. 

When Max blinked next, he was sitting flat on his ass in the middle of a green field. The sun was shining down gently and there was a slight cooling breeze. The birds were gently chirping and there was a man screaming somewhere far away. 

It was a very peaceful scene. Except for the man screaming. That could be done with. 

It seemed like it was getting closer and closer too. 

Max decided now was a good time to close his eyes and brace for whatever was about to kill him. 

"maaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAX!" The voice was screaming his name! Not how he envisioned that to happen but it was an interesting change. 

Wait what? 

"MAXWELL SMITH! THAT IS NOT HOW YOU TREAT YOUR BEST FRIEND!" Danny was almost shouting in his ear with how loud he's being. 

"You wanted to find out if it really worked, right? Call it me doing you a favor," Max rested his hands behind his head and moved to lay down. 

"I'M CALLING IT RUDE IS WHAT I'M CALLING IT!" Danny was still screaming like he was being chased by something. 

"Dude, chill. I guess that stupid magazine was right after all," Max opened one eye to look at his redheaded friend. 

"Yeah??? And you didn't believe me??? The betrayal stings," Danny was tapping his foot impatiently at Max's side. 

"Okay listen, do you know how farfetched that sounds? A world inside a TV? Sounds so possible, like I'm totally gonna get stuck in my TV with no way to get out in sight! What a smart idea!" Max ended his tirade in a valley girl accent for emphasis on how ridiculous this sounded. 

Danny had to admit, it was quite ridiculous. 

"Yeah yeah whatever. At least I was right," the redhead triumphantly puffed out his chest. 

"Right. Now how do you suppose we leave, wise guy?" Danny had to blink. He wasn't sure. He only read that there was a way to get in, not a way out. Uh oh. 

"About that... We may be trapped in here for a while..." Max moved one of his hands out from under his head and facepalmed. Hard. 

"And who's fault is that?" 

"Uh, yours because you pushed me in here?" Danny stated matter of factly. Yeah, he was right. That doesn't mean Max wanted to admit it at all. 

"Whatever bro, let's look for a way out of here," Max got up and started walking in a direction. Danny looked at him in disbelief and blinked. 

"The fuck do you think you're going?" Danny chased after him as quickly as he could. 

"Anywhere to find some kind of town or civilization," Max kept walking while Danny caught up with him. 

"Fat chance you know where that is," Danny rolled his eyes. 

"If I keep walking far enough in some direction I'll find something," the brunette said. 

A sudden flash of light and a diamond pattern appeared in front of the two. 

A kid wearing a jumpsuit that looked straight out of the 90's appeared that seemed to be cut at the midriff but held together by belt buckles of some material. They also had a pair of sunglasses on their head and looked generally unamused. They had some kind of tech setup around them, like a computer screen and a keyboard of some kind. 

"Tor menk, nal wareis, eleisin te kitoren. Eleisin marsen," they seemed to say... Something into some kind of earpiece. The two men stared at this new person in utter confusion. The mystery person looked at the two in front of them and sighed. 

"Or maybe they don't speak melìth. You aren't from here. You need to get out," the person put a hand on their hip and grabbed a strand of their hair in their fingers. 

"You speak English?" Danny asked and the mystery person stared at him like he had six heads. 

"Uh, duh?" They said and went back to twirling their hair in their fingers. 

"...Cool. Okay. So how do we get out of here?" Max asked. 

"You die," they said so casually like it was nothing. Both men gulped. 

"Wait really? The only way out of here is to... Die?" Danny asked after a moment of silence. 

"I just said that," they had a really dark sense of humor if they thought this was a way to make them or anyone really laugh. 

"You weren't kidding, okay. And that would mean we just die in the videogame, right?" Once again, that incredulous look was back on the strangers face. 

"...No," they said and were starting to get annoyed. 

"Wait wait wait wait, so we'd have to die for REAL?" Max asked, his voice cracking. 

"Are you dumb or something? That's what I said, isn't it?" The blonde shook their head and shifted their weight from leg to leg. 

"You're not joking," Max whispered and clutched his left arm with his right hand. Danny's whole body went tense. 

"So the easiest thing would be to eliminate you. That's just what I'm about to do," they reached out their left hand and a weapon materialized in it. It looked almost like a gun made of lines of code? "Say your last goodbyes before-" A ding sound rang out from their computer setup. "Oh?" Their eyebrow raised and their weapon dematerialized just as quickly as it had appeared. 

The two men were shaking in place, holding each other with their eyes closed tight. They were expecting some kind of blast but noticed nothing came. So they opened their eyes. 

They didn't see a look of joy on the strangers face but they didn't see any of the annoyance from before. 

"It looks like I found something more worthwhile than killing you both," they disappeared then teleported behind Max. "You're coming with me. Say bye-bye to your little boyfriend here." The weird stranger materialized some chains made of code to wrap around Max, freezing him in place. It almost seemed like Max lost his soul, his eyes reflecting the lines of code wrapped around his body instead of the normal deep brown. 

"Goodbye, Daniel," a more robotic voice was pulled from Max's lungs instead of his own. 

"Good boy. Now, let's go," the two disappeared in a flash of light, the same way the stranger appeared. 

Danny finally shook out of his near death trance, barely registering anything besides that Max had now left his side. 

And once he had registered it, he started bawling. 

"MAAAAAAAAAAAAX! You can't leave me again like this!!!" Danny dropped to his knees, wailing to no one in particular. He grabbed his face in his hands and let himself sob for a while. 

Then someone tapped on his shoulder. 

When Danny looked up, he saw a person wearing a mask. It covered their whole face. It looked kind of like somewhat of a demon, carved out of a dark colored wood and painted with bright colors. Danny jumped and scooted further away from whoever or WHATEVER this new creature in front of him was. 

A long, wispy arm moved from its place at this strange characters side. Watching every slight movement with wary eyes, his green eyes watched the figure point out to the right. The redhead tried to make eye contact with this stranger but all he saw was two bright white dots staring back at him in place of where eyes should be. 

Slowly nodding, Danny pushed himself off the ground and stood up. He thanked the wisp by bowing his head towards them. In return, the mysterious figure bowed deeply and vanished into thin air. 

Now sporting a pair of wide eyes, Danny started making his way in the direction the wisp pointed in. Armed with the general knowledge of getting somewhere but no idea how long it would take to get there, his legs moved him in hopes he'd find something helpful eventually. 

And after a certain point, that's exactly what he found. 

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The first chapter is done! Oh my goodness, I am having so much fun with this so far. Writing and fleshing out these characters is going pretty well and I'm very excited! 

Some details about each: 

Max Catch (Maxwell Smith): 25, male, no clue what weapon he wields yet. Brunette, brown eyes, 5 foot 10. Human. 

Danny Luxio (Daniel McLaughlin): 24, male, no clue what weapon he wields yet. Redhead, green eyes, very Irish, 5 foot 7. Human. 

Apathy: Non-binary, 17, wields code to their will. Able to create multiple weapons out of code and provide support using their advanced computer setup. Not from this time period or planet. Who knows where they're really from? Not even their friends know. 5 foot 1, blonde, blue eyes. Dressed like they're from some sort of 70's or 80's music video. Human?

Mysterious Figure: ?????? 7 foot even. Wisp/spirit. Not much is known about the wisps or spirits. The only recorded research of them in recent history is they seem to become visible only to those in extreme distress. 

And that's it for chapter 1! 

Look out for chapter 2 soon!