Disclaimer: I don't own Gantz

'No way' that was the first thought that crossed Albert's mind. 'There's no way a simple black sphere is the reason I'm in this room'. Said room wasn't too big, it looked like a medium sized dinning room without any furnitures and with 2 doors.

He opened his mouth to ask another question but just at that moment a red laser-like ray of light appeared from the sphere.

"Uh? What's this?" Albert managed to say, surprise and confusion almost making impossible to open his mouth.

"That's how you arrived to this room. In fact, that's how all of us arrived here. Transported you could say..." Another of the people answered, this time a middle-aged, brunette woman, her height about 1'60 meters.

"That's ridiculous! There's no way something like that can exist!"

"Well, look it with your own eyes, they won't lie" the woman said with a smirk on his lips.

It was true. That laser or whatever, was creating a person from the nothing. Some seconds later, most of the body was created, revealing a black teen about 13 or 14 years old. Finally, his head was done and the red light disappeared.

" Hmmm... this time is a little boy..." said aloud the man that talked with Albert. He was blond and taller than the woman.

"Is this heaven?" asked the boy with a shaken voice, scanning the room with a surprised look.

The reaction from the people in the room was various: some snorted, one of them laughed and only one answered the question, the same man that answered Albert's questions.

"No, and before you ask, you are still alive. However, we are stuck on this room"

"Alive are we? Are you sure about this?" Those questions were made by the man that Albert recognized as the plane's passenger, an old business man, about 60 years old who was wearing an expensive suit.

" Will you shut up, old man? You have said this at least one hundred of times. If we can hear our own breaths and feel our hearts beating, definitively we are alive" was the answer from the last person on the room, a guy in his early 20 said. Most of clothes were a little torn apart and he also had some piercing on his lips and his eyebrows.

"But I can remember my death. I was on that plane, the pilot told us to button our belts and then we crashed..."

"I also was on that plane" Albert interrupted the talk, impatient to get answers.

" So that makes two killed in that plane crash. Maybe we should introduce ourselves so we can see a pattern on our deaths and guess why are we here" the woman suggested.

"I'll start, my name is Gloria. My age? Well a woman's age it's a secret so I won't tell you, but I died in a car crash" that introduction made Albert sweat-drop a little 'What's with her age? Nevermind...'

"I guess the next is me. My name is George and, like I said before, I was on that plane when it crashed" the next one was the old businessman. " If I'm not wrong this young man was also in that plane" said the man, pointing Albert.

"Uh... Oh yes, my name is Albert, Al if you want, and I was also in that plane. By the way, I'm 18 years old and..." He was going to add something more but a shout from the teen interrupted him

"Wait a moment! What do you mean we're still alive? How did I got here?" the boy was almost in a crisis, his eyes wavering around the room, searching for something that, surely, was not there.

"Hey, hey, there's no need to get nervous. Crying won't help you and for now we are stuck in this room" said Gloria, trying to calm down the boy. "About your questions, we already said that we are alive. And that sphere was what sent you here. Now, would you like to introduce yourself?"

"O-okay...My name is Walter. While I was at home, suddenly it started to burn, and I found myself trapped in the fire"

"Ok, my turn" Said the man on his 30's. "My name is Tom and I died because I fell from an 8th floor" Turning around, he pointed the only one that still had not introduced himself:

"Now if you please..."

"I'm John. 24 years old" He didn't wanted to say anything more and that caused an uncomfortable silence.

"Well now that we know each others, we should try to find out why are we here. Personally, I think this is some kind of joke or something like that" proposed George

"And how would you explain the way we got here? And that all of us died but we are alive right now?" asked Tom, not really convinced with that idea.

"Probably the person or people trying to make fun of us managed to snake some drugs on our food so he could made us think we died" replied George, trying to convince him and all of them

Al, however wasn't convinced. What George said could be true, but there were too many questions unanswered.

"What do you think about that laser-like ray of light that transported all of us here? Is that some effect of the drug?" he asked George

"Well, although I don't have any answer for those questions, I can't think another reason why would be here"

"I also don't know why we are here right now, but that doesn't mean that I believe being drugged. In fact, I'm sure all of us were brought here when we were dying and whoever did it must have a really good reason for saving our life"

George, with a smirk on his face tried to argue back what Al had said but before he could open his mouth a voice interrupted him:

"I... I think you are true, Al. Although I don't understand this situation, there must be a reason for being here. I can't comprehend it right now, but..." said Gloria with an insecure voice.

"Don't worry, Gloria. We will get the answer for sure. By the way, how long have you been here?" asked Al, taking a look at the occupants of the room

It was Tom's turn to answer: "Well I'm not sure at what time exactly I got here, but it was a little later than 7 P.M. Anyway, when I arrived that guy was already here" he said, pointing John.

"Would you tell us when did you exactly got here, John?"

"Why should I?" was the only answer they got from him. A tense silence fell over the room, most of its occupants staring at him. However, at the end, John answered sighing:

"First time I checked my watch while being here, it was 6:53 P.M. He wasn't still here" pointed at Tom

"So the first of us got here 1 hour ago, and since then you have been waiting" a nod confirmed his thoughts. "When you said you were stuck, what do you mean? Is the exit door locked?"

"Well, certainly the door can't be opened, but I wouldn't say it's locked. Try opening it, the exit is at the end of corridor" answered Tom, pointing at an opened door.

Following his instructions, he arrived in front of the exit but as soon as he tried to touch the knob, something prevented to do it. It was like there was an invisible wall, not allowing him to touch it. 'That's weird...' he thought, returning to the room.

"So, how was it?" asked Tom with an smile

"It's really weird. Does the same happens with the other doors" Al asked, remembering the other 4 doors in the corridor.

"Yes, it seems the only one we can open it's the one that guides to the corridor"

"And what about that ball? Apart from taking us here, has it done anything else?

"It's been quiet all the time, even when it took us here it hasn't changed a bit" that time was Gloria who answered.

"I want to go with my parents..." murmured Walter at the verge of crying, obviously worried for the situation.

"Don't worry, I'm sure all will be alright. Soon we will be able to get out of here and we will search for your parents" said Gloria, trying to calming him. How they were going to do that was still an enigma.

"So what are we going to do now? Our options are really limited" asked Tom

"Well, as the things are right now, we can only wait. It's possible that more people will get transported here and I'm pretty sure that, sooner or later, we will get the answers we seek" suggested Al. "Anyway, it's not like we can do much more" he recognized.

The following minutes were filled with an uncomfortable silence, all of them just waiting. Their expectations were filled when suddenly a song coming from the ball could be heard:

'A new morning has come, a morning of hope'

"What the hell is that" asked Tom, approaching the sphere

All the other occupants of the room did the same too, giving incredulous looks at the sphere.

'Here we go, one, two, three!'

Then, as suddenly as it started, the song ended and the surface of the ball was filled with text:

'Your lives have ended'
'How you use your new lifes it's entirely up to me'
'That's the theory, anywayds'

'Welcome to G.A.N.T.Z'

"What's all of this about? Our lives are entirely up to a black ball? What kind of joke is this" laughed George. However, he was the only one laughing. Tom and Gloria were obviously puzzled, Walter was, again, almost crying and Al had a suprised look on his face. About John, his face was unexpressive.

"Don't tell me you believe what this ball is telling us!" cried George "It's stupid!"

"Look, I know this is so strange, but for now the only thing that has some meaning is what this ball is telling us" answered Al. "The fact is this ball – or someone that's using this ball – brought us here for some reason, so at least, I'm going to listen what it has to tell us"

That answer caused a snort from George but he felt silent, waiting like the other 5 people on the room and some seconds later the text disappeared and was replaced with more letters and a picture:
'Objective: Gnome Alien'
'Likes: reading'
'Quote: none'

Next to those words, there was a picture of some sort of gnome, his face all green. He also had a green beard an a little pointed ears almost hidden by its long hair.

"Great, so we are supposed to go out and find gnomes! Sure, and what will be later? Fairies? Pfffff" mocked George, raising his voice

"This doesn't seems serious at all" agreed Gloria "Maybe you were right..." she said, looking at George

His answer was lost as soon as 3 drawers appeared from the sphere, two of them at its sides and at its back. The two of the sides contained some sort gunshots and guns, while the drawer of the rear had exactly 6 cases, each of them with their names. It was when Tom approached the cases while the others were taking a look at the weapons that he noticed something shocking:

"Ther-There's a man inside!"

That caused all the attention going to the opens that the appearance of the drawers had created. There was a bald and really white, looking like he had never seen the sun, man in the inside. He was using something that appeared to be a type of artificial breathing.

"Is... is he alive?" asked Walter sounding a little scared

"That's what it seems" answered Al "If he wasn't there is no reason he would need that" he said, pointing the mask that was covering his mouth. However, he was more interested about the weapon so he turned his attention back to the lateral drawers. Both of them had the same weapons, 2 classes of guns and some type of gunshots. He took one of the gunshots. 'Damn, that thing is heavier than I thought, it doesn't seems like a toy. Ok, let's think a little. First, we got here without any apparent reason. Second, this sphere asks us to find that objective and provides us those weapons... to kill that gnome? But this can't be serious, there isn't such things like gnomes in this world. Uhm, maybe there is some extra info on those boxes'
"Hey, can someone lend me the box with my name?" he asked, looking at Gloria, Tom and Walter. They were, apparently poking that man inside the ball. However, as soon as Tom heard him, he took the box and lent it to Albert, who opened it.
Inside of the box there was a black suit:

"Hey, look at this" he said, calling the attention of the others "Should I wear it?"

"It looks cool" admired Walter "Looks like a superhero's suit"

That caused some laughs from Tom and Gloria, as well as a smirk from Al.

"Well, this is getting more weird for moments. I'm starting to think this is some kind of joke. However, joke or not, the one who did this wants us to wear that suit and take those weapons so that's what I'm going to do" he said and tried wear the suit . However, it was some minutes later when he admitted he would need to undress before he could wear it:

"Hey, don't come to the corridor. The suit it's too tight to wear it over normal clothes so I'm going to undress there" he said to the other five people on the room.

It was when he already left that John got closer to the sphere and inspected the weapons, taking two guns, one of each type. Ignoring the rest of the occupants, he proceeded to a detailed examination of both weapons. While he was doing that, Gloria and Tom were having a talk:

"So what do you think about all of this" asked Tom to Gloria

"I don't know. In one hand, we have that laser that transported us here, obviously it's not normal. However, on the other, this is too weird to be real..."

"Yes, I know what do you mean, this is really confusing... But you'll admit that, as Albert has said, joke or not, that suit and those weapons are here for us. And talking about the weapons, I think it's time to take a closer look at them."

After saying that, he approached the guns. One of the two classes was a lot of bigger than the other one, which could be fit in a pocket. The little one also had a screen on its back and some buttons. However, both of them had something in common, they had two triggers. He concentrated his attention on the second one and, after touching some of the buttons, the screen came to life. Taking a look at it he saw something that interested him:

"Hey, take a look on this one. It's an X ray machine or something like that"

"Let me take a look at it" said Gloria "That's funny, why do you think someone would do an X-ray gun?"

"I don't know but it's possible that it does something more. I've not pressed any of the triggers yet since we don't know how does it works"

Then, Albert, wearing the black suit, appeared on the room. The suit adjusted to his skin, something that indicated it was made to allow any movement the wearer would do.

"So, have you noticed any difference from normal clothes?" asked Tom

"Uhm, not apart from the fact that I feel it's easier to move around. However, when I finally got dressed, those buttons changed to yellow. Oh and also I found this on the box" he said, pointing at some type of PDA.

"What's would be that PDA used for?. Have you tested it?"

"Not yet, I was going to get some weapons for me." said Al "What are you going to do, will you wear the suit?"

"I'm not sure but since you've said there isn't any difference about normal clothes I guess I won't" considered Tom "Oh, yes, I took a look at those weapons. Those guns" he said, pointing at the X-ray gun "work like an X-ray machine if you press this button, see?"

"And what about the other gun and the gunshots?"

"About the other type of guns, it seems there's just the triggers. I've not taken a look at the gunshots yet, however"

Albert was going to answer back when suddenly a shout from George interrupted him:
"Hey, look, the ball has started a countdown"

An hour countdown could be seen on the surface of the sphere, and a request:
'Please wait'
"Does that means the exit door is open right now?" asked Tom "Let's try it" said Albert, going to the corridor and followed by Gloria, Tom and Walter. They were still on the corridor when a shout claimed their attention:

"Aaaaah! Ah! Help me please"

"That's George's voice!" said Gloria, while hurrying to the room. When they arrived there, they saw just half of George's body, with the other part nowhere to be seen. They also noticed the laser-like light, transporting him.

"Ugh, I guess this is how we are getting out" Al said, obviously a little nervous with the perspective of getting out from that room that way "You should take some weapons, at least, with you. It's a shame we don't have more time, maybe all of us should be wearing the suit" he said.

"Don't worry for that, what could just a simple suit be useful for?" questioned Gloria

"I guess you are right. However, be sure to bring a weapon with you" answered Albert while taking two of the little guns and putting them in the cases on his suit apparently designed for that

"The same goes with you" he said, pointing Walter since John already had those two guns he had taken.

Walter did as he had said and took one of the little guns. However, Gloria had not time to take any weapon since she was the next to be transported:

"Uh, what's this?" she said before her mouth disappeared.

As soon as she disappeared, Albert looked around, asking himself who was the next one. Walter's voice provided the answer he was searching:

"Al, your head..."

"Is it my turn?. Oh well, here we go" He closed his eyes, a little afraid of what was waiting him. Some seconds later, George's voice surprised him.

"You can open your eyes, you have already been transported"

Doing as he told him, he opened his eyes. 'We are outside' was the first thing he noticed. In front of him there was a large building with a sign that indicated it was a library. He also could see Gloria, some meters away looking at her surroundings and trying, he guessed, to know where they were.

"Hey, where are you going?" he shouted as soon as he noticed George walking.

"I'm going home, where do you think I'm going? I got enough of this stupidity"

"Please wait for the other so we can discuss what to do"

A grunt was the only answer he got, but George stopped walking and waiting for the others to get there.

Albert took a look at his surrounding. He was on a square, said library in front of him, and the streetlights were lighted although the sky had a little tint of red, sign that the twilight had been not long ago. Apart from the library, there were some blocks of flats but the closer building he had was the library.

Some minutes later, the remaining room's occupants were transported. First arrived John, followed by Tom, and finally it was Walter's turn. All of them, Albert noticed were armed with a gun, at least.

"Ok, now we are here, what are we going to do" asked Tom.

Author's Notes

Okay, I know this isn't a really long chapter if we consider I've had 2 weeks of time... I wrote 5 times this chapter because I didn't like how it ended all of those times. In fact, I'm not fully satisfied about it now but...

I hope you can understand It's really hard to write in a foreign language, and it's even harder if you try to describe things like the guns from gantz and the suit (I think I just had problems to do it in my first language lol). However, I hope you enjoy it :P

About the reviews:

EvilP and Grave: there are lots of ways to solve this problem. For example, you can say that you got your ticket stolen and, if I'm not wrong, since some airlines companies doesn't asks for identify document.

Kabutokun: The story takes place in USA. I thought it would be interesting to be there since there are a lots of interesting monuments (for destroying... lol).

And thank all of you for your encouragemente.

P.D: on February I'll start my exams. This means that maybe, just maybe, I won't update since March. However, I'll update for sure.