Carl blinked his eyes open and stared in shock at the void that was in front of him. The endless dark pressed down on him, confusing his senses and giving him a horrible sensation of vertigo and mental oppression.
He tried to close his eyes, but soon found that he had no eyelids. Or at least they were transparent. He also had no solid body. He was a translucent spirit floating in a vast nothingness.
Carl soon discovered that if he stared directly at his own spirit body, it would partially distract him from the oppressive void threatening to spiral his mind into gibbering shock. So he bent his knees up to his chest, wrapped his arms around his legs, and buried his head in his arms to muffle the sight around him.
It was only then that Carl noticed that he didn't really feel anything like he usually would through his skin, but at least he seemed to have a sense of pressure and be be somewhat solid to his own touch. Thankfully his translucent form kept his mind from scarpering off into the wilds of insanity. Carl was relieved he had an anchor of sorts to focus on to ignore the void.
He didn't know how long he remained like that, firmly not thinking of the void he was in while running through his memories and thought about his previous life.
Something finally changed for him in the deep of the void. Words in a strange pearlescent glowing color appeared in front of him.
Carl Smith
'That's me…' Carl sluggishly thought, trying to "wake up" his mind and thought processes.
Would you like to go back to a material world?
'Yes…'
Would you like to play a game?
'Better than the void, I'm sure…'
Would you like to get a body once more?
'Damn straight…'
If so, think the words "I agree".
'I agree…'
He didn't even need to spend time considering it, he was more than willing to accept the offer right away if it meant he could go somewhere away from the void and get a body back.
Suddenly he was sitting in an empty apartment room, still hugging his legs to himself, but he immediately gasped at the sensations of having a body once more! He had forgotten what it felt like, and he stumbled a bit while trying to get to his feet and fell over on his side, but it was all coming back to him quickly.
Laughing a bit hysterically, Carl managed to get to his feet and stared out the window that was right in front of him. He saw a world out there, not the void! It was a cityscape, not that he recognized the city, but it was absolutely beautiful to him!
"What the hell is going on here?!" A voice yelled behind Carl after he spent an unknown amount of time staring out the window.
Carl whipped around a little too quickly and lost his previously hard-won balance and stumbled sideways. He landed against the window he'd been looking out of and came to a stop with his butt against the window sill.
"Who the fuck are you?!" A six foot tall man with brown hair yelled almost in Carl's face from just a few inches away. His breath didn't smell very good, but Carl was amazed to see his first human in so long that he acted on impulse.
"Boop!" Carl poked the man in the nose. He was a few inches shorter than Carl and seemed to have slightly bloodshot eyes, but Carl was just so out of it and the guy looked angry, that he couldn't help the silly gesture. He then began giggling a bit uncontrollably when he felt the resistance of the man's nose on his finger.
'It's real! It's not a hallucination!' Carl exulted in his mind. He felt giddy as a school girl to have a body back and to see the world and other people once more.
Carl naturally recognized even in the middle of his odd actions and giggling that he wasn't exactly running on all his cylinders at the moment, but it seemed he couldn't help himself. It was amazing to be in the world again! To be able to breathe, to touch, to hear!
"The fuck!" The now angry man yelled and swung his fist at Carl, landing a blow on his cheek that knocked him over on his side, as he slid off the window sill.
The small pain of the weak punch worked to break Carl out of the loopy mental cycle he had been stuck in, and he kicked the man in the shin hard when he continued to loom over him threateningly. The kick landed solidly and caused the man to yelp in pain and fall down to the ground, clutching his shin.
Carl hadn't exactly held back on his blow, so he didn't know how badly he'd hurt the asshole. Certainly more than the weak ass punch hurt him, which gave Carl a sense of satisfaction.
"Bitch! You ruined my good mood! I'd finally gotten back to the real world, and you just couldn't let me enjoy the moment, could you!?" Carl snarled as he got to his feet, intent on stomping that asshole a couple more times, when he suddenly froze in place at what he was seeing.
He was standing in an apartment room with white walls and a wood floor. And on one side of the room, to Carl's right, there was a big black ball. It stood in a small depression on the floor, and it was about four feet tall. And it was a familiar sight to him, despite not having actually seen anything like it in real life.
"Well, shit. Apparently whatever it was that got me out of the void sent me to the Gantz world," Carl muttered.
"What's your problem, asshole?!"
Carl looked down at the loudly cursing man who was glaring up at him while scrambling backwards on his butt to get away from Carl. He bemusedly shook his head at how quickly the man had turned from attack mode to escape mode after Carl had kicked him.
The noisy dude continued yelling at Carl from a safer distance, but Carl ignored most of what he said. As long as he wasn't actively punching or attacking him, Carl didn't really care about the douchebag who punched him. It was natural for Carl to retaliate after being kicked, he didn't know what the douchebag thought he was proving.
"So not worth my time," Carl muttered as he turned away from the Douche, as Carl labeled him in his mind, and looked back at the Gantz ball sitting there all… "Well, no one can really call this little picture of a huge black ball made what appears to be metal sitting in an empty apartment 'innocent looking'," Carl sarcastically said.
Carl suddenly peered down at his body and saw that he at least had on gym shorts and a t-shirt, so he wasn't naked. It was good that he didn't appear from the void naked.
"What are you mumbling about, there, asshole?!"
Carl looked back at the only other dude in the room with him and frowned, which caused the guy to back up another foot. He looked back at the Gantz ball for a moment in thought, before returning his gaze to the guy that was testing his shin to see what kind of damage Carl did while pretending that he hadn't just backed down like a coward after realizing he could and would be hurt in a fight between the two of them.
Carl shook his head after a brief moment of thought and gave up on the idea of explaining their situation to him. Douche was such a...self-absorbed and un-self-aware person that he thought his punch to Carl's face was totally justified, but that Carl's kick to his leg had been unprovoked violence. Carl wasn't going to bother talking to him, and wouldn't be all that disappointed if he didn't survive this Gantz summoning thing that was going on. Carl decided that he would save his explanations for when someone else arrived in the room with them.
"Whatever, Douche. Just sit there in your corner and leave me alone," Carl idly said to him and turned back around to the window to check on something.
He tried to flip the lock on the window so he could open it and breathe in the fresh air, but it was a no-go. Just like in the source material for the show, there was some kind of force field that prevented him from touching any of the exits while a team was being summoned for a mission.
He put his hand against wall and didn't feel like he was actually touching the wall. He leaned his head over close to peer at where his hand rested against the wall and saw that there seemed to be a thin invisible barrier just millimeters from the wall, preventing him from touching it as well. Presumably the force field was there so no one could tear down the wall in order to escape when they should be waiting for this "game" to begin.
Carl ignored the muttered bitching of the Douche despite keeping one eye on him to make sure he didn't try to cold clock him when he wasn't paying attention. He walked over to the Gantz ball in his bare feet.
He spent a moment to enjoy the physical sensation of his bare feet against he wood floor. It was something he hadn't felt for so long in the void. Even if he was filled with a sense of trepidation for what was coming due to the Gantz ball, he still enjoyed the physical sensations while he could.
Placing his hand on the Gantz ball, Carl noted the smooth and slightly warm metallic feel of it while he was running his hand over it to find any kinds of buttons or seams. After finding nothing that would indicate any opening or method of interacting with the Gantz ball, and determining that he couldn't push the ball to roll it around, he shrugged and turned back to the nearest wall with the intent of checking to see if the force field extended throughout the whole room.
He didn't expect there to be any place that was missing coverage of the force field, but he preferred not to assume. It was like when he used to arrive outside the classroom and saw his fellow students loitering around.
Like the other students, Carl would assume that the door was locked or they would all go in, but he would still spend that few seconds needed to test the handle himself. Even if the other students audibly snickered and laughed at him, he would test it out because quite a few times he would discover that the door was not actually locked at all.
More often than not that kind of situation always started with one student who loitered outside the classroom instead of going in for whatever reason, and then when more students arrived they would assume the door was locked since one of them was waiting outside instead of going inside. Then more would come and reinforce the impression the new arrivals had that the door was locked and no one would try the handle.
Of course that scenario only occasionally happened to Carl. More often than not the door was actually locked, but Carl didn't like to assume, even if some people mocked him for his apparently "brainless" actions of not being able to figure out the situation with a look.
'Better to be a curious ape than a mindless sheep,' Carl had thought once upon a time.
So now that he was in this situation where he "knew" what was going on from the show he'd seen so long ago, Carl wasn't willing to just assume everything was the same.
He continued to check the walls and doors of the entire apartment, finding that the force field really did cover every surface. He then spent a moment to inspect the ceiling to see if it extended up there as well, and it surely did.
Carl's quick inspection didn't take long as he continued moving along the wall, but the amount of mumbling curses that came from the Douche he had to ignore was beginning to annoy him again. While he was around the corner in the entryway of the apartment where the door to the outside was blocked off, and while he was out of sight of the Douche, Carl considered attacking the Douche again to convince him to shut his mouth from now on.
That was when a loud thumping noise and more loud curses that weren't aimed his way sounded in the air. Turning the corner to see what was going on, Carl was treated to the sight of the Douche sprawled on the floor and back peddling away from a figure that was being teleported in.
The sight in front of him didn't surprise Carl, since it seemed to be straight out of the show. He did feel a bit of momentary unease at the squickiness of what he was seeing, though.
There were three rings of bright blue light at three different heights that were in the process of teleporting someone in.
The top ring started at the top of the person's head and was moving downwards, exposing more of the person's head as it continued downward. But there was a gap of empty air below the blue ring and a cross section of the person's body was seen there.
Below the top blue ring, there was apparently empty air until the second blue ring that had begun mid-chest and was moving down while teleporting the person's body in. It gave a perfect view of the cross-section right at the top of the person's beating heart.
The third blue ring started at what seemed to be the top of their legs, showing a cross section of the bones, muscles, and blood vessels.
The squicky view of the body's cross-section that was causing the douche bag to freak out so much was quite a sight. Looking closer, Carl could even see the blood flowing in the man's veins.
It wasn't spurting out of the exposed insides at all, though, despite the apparent cross-section. The rings of blue light were acting more as a window to see everything before the teleport was complete. The man was all still in one piece, just some of him was visible in one location, while some of him was still visible in his last location. Presumably.
Carl noted that the new guy that was being teleported in seemed to be frozen in place and unaware of what was happening to him while he was being teleported. If this world Carl had been dropped into was anything at all like the show, then the man and the Douche that attacked him earlier had actually died before being snatched and revived by the Gantz ball in order to come here for this "game".
Carl knew that he himself had died previously. That's how he had been stuck in the void in the first place for so very long. But he was pretty sure the Gantz ball's technology couldn't have reached out into the void to grab him, so there was that other entity that had dropped him off here after getting his consent to be part of this…whatever it was.
While the new guy was being teleported in, Carl casually leaned back against the wall and watched the rest of the show. Once the new guy was completely teleported in, Carl finally noticed he was wearing a business suit.
Suit gasped while opening his eyes and looking around frantically while clutching at his stomach desperately, looking for a wound was what it looked like to Carl. It took Suit some time to slow his rapid breathing and actual look around him.
"Where am I? I'm…fine? I'm not stabbed anymore? Who are you people?" The newcomer, a 5'10" male with blonde hair asked frantically.
"How the hell should I know what's going on? Who the fuck are you anyway!?" The douche in the corner belligerently asked, now that he had presumably recovered from his freak out at seeing the teleportation earlier.
Carl eyed the two, Suit and Douche, that were yammering at each other and concluded that they weren't likely to attack him, so long as he didn't turn his back and give them a free hit. So he turned back to the inspection of the apartment and continued his tactile inspection up and down, from one side to the other. He didn't particularly care to participate in the "What's going on?" game of twenty questions that Douche and Suit were engaging in, since no actual answers were being given.
"If you ask me, we should beat this asshole up and demand answers! He was here when I arrived!"
'Well, I suppose it was too much to ask, to be ignored by Douche,' Carl mockingly thought as he fully turned around to stare steadily at said Douche, preparing himself in case he wanted to get physical again. Carl didn't mind kicking his ass in round two if Douche asked for it.
"Just because I was the first to be teleported in doesn't mean I'm the cause of you being here. And if you want another ass-kicking, I don't mind obliging you." Carl flatly stated. When he saw that Douche wasn't going to try anything, he halfway turned back to inspecting the walls with his hands while keeping an eye on the troublemaker.
"What are you doing?" Suit asked Carl while watching him moving along the wall.
"There's some kind of force field that prevented me from opening the window. And I noticed it was coating the walls as well, so I'm looking to see if it's covering the whole room, so I can hopefully find an exit so I can leave this room. It's not like you two are such stellar company that I'd stick around if I didn't have to."
At Carl's explanation, he was amused to see Douche curse and rush to a window to try to open it. Suit also rushed to a door and found that the force field was keeping him from opening it.
Carl was nearly done with his inspection when a fourth person began teleporting in. Taking a break to watch the process once more, Carl noted that it appeared to be a female this time being teleported in.
Once the top blue ring got past her face, Carl saw that it was a teenage girl that was being teleported in. Carl stayed to watch the complete teleport, since he was still suffering from having spent time in the void and watching the process of a person being teleported was interesting.
But once the girl "woke up", she immediately started off a new round of babbling questions that no one had answers to.
Well, Carl had answers. But after a brief and serious thought about his situation here, he had decided to keep those answers to himself.
Turning another corner opposite the entry hall, Carl found himself looking at a kitchen and a hallway. Carl could still faintly hear the excited voices of the others in the main living room while he explored the new place. He discovered that the appliances worked just fine. The stove had gas and lit up when Carl turned the knob. The fridge had power and was actually stocked with food.
"Odd," Carl muttered as he stared at the fridge full of groceries. With a shrug he let the door close and wandered off to the next hallway, inspecting the walls as he went. He discovered a laundry room, a bathroom, and two bedrooms, as well as a closet with a vacuum cleaner, broom, dustpan, and mop and bucket.
Nothing inside the apartment was blocked off by the force field except for the outside walls, the floor, and the ceiling.
When Carl returned to the living room he saw there was a fifth member of their group. It was a 12 year old boy that was huddling in the corner with the teen aged girl with the suit standing in front of them while Douche was stomping around and ranting like the jerk he was.
"Alright, that's enough!" Carl suddenly yelled at the douche, causing him to pause and glare at him. "We're all in the same situation, so sit down and shut up!"
A sixth figure began teleporting in while Carl was yelling at Douche, catching everyone's attention as they stared at the very tall figure being teleported in. He was at least half a foot taller than Carl was, about 6'8", and he found himself hoping that the guy was a reasonable sort and not a complete ass like Douche was.
"What's going on here? How am I alive?" Big Guy steadily asked after waking up from the teleport. Carl spent a moment to be grateful that the big guy was at least calm.
"No one knows what's going on," Carl answered, preempting a rant from Douche "But we're all being teleported in here, and there's some barrier keeping us inside, for whatever reason."
"I was just in a car accident, and I'm pretty sure I died." Big Guy felt his neck cautiously, testing out that it was working properly.
"I was stabbed by a junkie who was robbing me," Suit explained as he rubbed his stomach.
"I fell off my apartment roof." Young Boy said.
"I drowned in a boating accident," Carl made up on the spot. It was as good as any death, and better than slipping in the shower.
Teen Girl and Douche didn't add anything to the conversation about their deaths, but everyone could see they had their own story of dying from the way they were reacting.
"So what's with the big black ball?" Big Guy asked, moving over to it. "And is this thing the reason I'm alive again?"
No one had an answer for him, and Carl didn't feel like speaking up and sharing his meta-knowledge. After some thought while he was inspecting the apartment, he had decided not to share information with the group.
He was pretty sure that saying anything would simply get him pegged as a conspirator of their kidnappers by everyone there, not to mention he vaguely remembered that the rich and powerful crème of the crop of human society had hi-jacked the Gantz balls to run Death Games for their sick entertainment and profit instead of using them to bolster Humanity's defenses against the alien invasion that was coming.
Or at least that's what Carl vaguely remembered from the show's explanation. And since this thing with the Gantz balls had been turned into a bloody death match and was no doubt being filmed for entertainment and watched by many people, Carl didn't want to tip off the conspirators behind it that he knew what was going on by explaining everything to the group here.
Well, that and Douche had really soured Carl on the idea that they could actually cooperate in the alien hunt that was coming up.
And if the group in charge of the death games thought he was ruining their fun, they could simply have him erased, since they had control over the Gantz balls, apparently.
Carl went to a corner and sat down on the ground to wait for the death game to start while keeping an eye on the people around him. He was trying to remember how big the teams were in the show, and how many more were going to be teleported in, before he gave it up as a lost cause. His memory of the show was a bit spotty and he wasn't even sure if anything here would mirror what he knew of the show.
"But why bring us back to life?" Teen Girl timidly asked when the silence had stretched for a while, before crying out "I want to go home!"
"Shut up you sniveling little bitch!" Douche yelled, showcasing his temper.
"Don't talk to her like that! We're all in the same situation!" Suit immediately retorted, but cringed back when the taller man turned to him and yelled at him.
"Don't tell me what to do!" Douche had his fists balled up and his pulse was visibly pounding in a vein in his forehead.
Carl rolled his eyes but didn't intervene this time. He figured Douche was just being loud and noisy, not actually beating on anyone, so he would let the situation play out.
Big Guy sat down near Carl and silently watched the drama playing out as well, apparently waiting for whatever happened next to happen.
A seventh person began teleporting in, and Carl could see that it was another woman. She was dressed in casual day clothes and an apron, like she had been cooking dinner. He mentally labeled her House Wife.
Carl didn't quite close his eyes, he had to keep alert, but he did his best to ignore the repeat of the 20 question scene that had already happened. The realization they were alive, the questions about what they were doing there, the fear evident and Douche yelling at people because he was a douche that liked to push people around.
The eighth person to be teleported in was a mid twenties guy in gym clothes that looked very strong. Carl labeled him Buff Dude.
The ninth person to be teleported in was an older grey haired man who was short and skinny. Carl decided on the nickname Gandpa.
The tenth person to be teleported in was a middle aged guy in sweats that was very fat. Carl amusedly labeled him Fatty.
'A diverse cast of characters,' Carl thought, looking at the group as a whole.
Just then a honky tonk style piano song began playing from the black Gantz ball. Carl got to his feet and went to what he thought of as the front of the ball that faced the mostly empty room. Soon a tinny voice accompanied the tune coming from the Gantz ball.
A fresh morning has dawned
Causing a sense of hope
To fill your heart with joy!
Look up at the blue sky
Take a deep breath of air
And smell the fragrant breeze.
One, Two, Three, let's go!
By the time the tune had finished everyone had gathered around the Gantz ball, staring at it with curious gazes, wondering what was going to happen next.
Holographic text began appearing on the front of the black ball.
Your old lives are now over.
Your new lives will be used in fighting to protect your Earth.
This is your new existence.
Go eliminate this target now.
"Who the hell are you to tell me what to do!" Douche angrily yelled at the ball, true to form.
"Is this one of those death games, like Battle Royale?" Young Boy asked the group in general. He, House Wife, and Teen Girl were grouped together on the other side of the ball from Douche, apparently seeking emotional support with numbers against the angry douche.
"What's Battle Royale?" Teen Girl asked him.
"It's a manga where a high school class got picked for a death game. They had to kill each other for the entertainment of the country, and only one person could survive in the end. It was really an interesting story!"
"Well, if it is a death game, you're the first person I'm coming after!" Douche yelled at Young Boy, causing him to cower and for House Wife and Teen Girl to shrink back as well.
Carl was sick of Douche's attitude, so he stepped forward and kicked the asshole right in the butt, knocking him forward onto his hands and knees.
"I've about had it with you. Shut your yap unless you have anything useful to say."
"Why you…" Douche began yelling, but cut off when he saw that Big Guy and Buff Dude were both staring angrily at him, along with Carl. He shut up and stiffly got to his feet before moving off to the side.
Despite his disdain for Douche, Carl didn't treat him lightly, so he shifted himself so he could keep an eye on Douche while reading the words on the Gantz ball at the same time.
"Your target is the Alien Dog," Carl read the announcement aloud, bringing everyone's attention back to the ball. "Traits: Quick. Likes: Meat. Eliminate the target within two hours."
A picture of a corgi dog with bat ears instead of dog ears appeared in place of the writing.
"So…we're supposed to kill this 'alien dog'?" Buff Dude confusedly asked the group in general.
"That's what it looks like it's telling us, young man," Grandpa replied in a tone of voice that conveyed disbelief.
"I mean, I get that the dog looks weird, but why do we need to kill it? Why not just call animal control to take care of it?" Fatty asked.
Everyone looked at each other, not really knowing what the answer was to that question.
"It says it's an alien…" Suit said, before trailing off in confusion. "Is that for real?"
"Well, we did all get teleported here, so there's some serious future here!" young boy excitedly exclaimed. "Why can't aliens be real?!"
Just then three sides of the black Gantz ball opened up, and racks of some kind extended out. There was equipment loaded on the racks; some handguns, shot guns, and cases with everyone's names on them.
Carl frowned when he didn't see the advanced sci-fi guns that he expected. Instead the racks were filled with normal human guns. He was one of the first to move, despite his confusion, and grabbed the nearest handgun. Carl didn't trust Douche not to threaten him with a gun, not after the way that Carl had humiliated him and with his obvious temper problem, so he made sure he was armed quickly.
The gun Carl grabbed was a six cylinder .45 revolver. After he had the gun in hand and was keeping an eye on the douche to make sure he didn't do anything against him, he felt a bit more reassured.
Carl looked inside the ball and didn't see the unconscious dude with an oxygen mask on his face like he expected after having seen that in the show.
'Another huge difference from what I expected based on the show,' Carl thought concerning the lack of a person inside the Gantz ball, wondering what else was going to be different from the show.
He then looked at the three racks of equipment that extended out of the ball and realized there had to be some space bending technology shenanigans going on there. Just the three racks with equipment alone wouldn't all fit inside the ball, let alone with a full sized body that was shown in the show.
Looking over at Suit, he finally answered the man's question, even if everyone had already forgotten it while they were examining the equipment.
"It looks like whoever or whatever brought us here is very serious about us hunting down this weird dog, alien or no. I suggest we all take this as serious as life and death. We can't really trust whatever brought us here at the moment of our deaths to care about whether we live or die, not when they made the effort to snatch us up at the moment we would have died anyway.
"And look! We've got some cases with our names on them. Maybe it's some good equipment to provide protection or something." Carl grabbed his own case, eager to get a hold of that advanced sci-fi suit that he figured was in the case. He then backed away with the handgun in one hand, keeping an eye on Douche to make sure he didn't try to shoot him when his guard was down.
Thankfully Douche seemed to have already forgotten the earlier fight as he was looking at the case with his own name on it. Everyone was seriously considering Carl's words, but he had no idea how much they would pay attention to the only hint he would give them about the nature of their kidnapping and participation in this hunt.
Carl opened his case and frowned even more when he saw a bullet proof vest, a regular looking jumpsuit, and a pair of boots. There should have been those skin tight black suits that were advanced tech that enhanced their strength, speed, jumping capability, and ability to take a hit, not these mundane clothes.
'Just what is going on here?' Carl thought as he watched the reactions of the people around him as they examined the contents. 'Why isn't there advanced tech here? First the guns and now the clothes and armor.'
Despite his confusion at the differences from the show he'd watched, Carl knew he didn't have much time to prepare. And he didn't want to run around barefoot in just gym clothes while hunting aliens. So he quickly put on the jumpsuit, boots, and bullet proof vest that he got out of his own case.
Looking once more at the equipment on the racks, he spotted a holster for the pistol and clipped that onto his belt and holstered the pistol. He then grabbed several reloads for the revolver and dropped them in his thigh pocket. Carl grabbed up a shotgun for better stopping power and a few dozen shells that went into his other thigh pocket. Lastly he grabbed a night vision head set and settled that onto his head with the goggles raised up out of his eyes. It was night outside the window, so he figured he would need the extra vision capability.
Carl saw that some of the other people were following his example and dressing up in the provided gear. Grandpa, House Wife, and Teen Girl were hesitating and looking like they'd prefer not to change into the clothes and armor, but Small Boy urged them to wear the gear while he was changing. Apparently as a fan of manga, he was quite excited about this development and the possibility of an alien hunt.
"Just put it on and grab a gun!" Young Boy excitedly urged those three, Fatty, and Douche who were not changing. "You'll probably need it if we're hunting aliens! And even if you don't, it won't hurt you to have it!"
His words encouraged those that were hesitating, and they finally grabbed a gun at least, even if they didn't change into the gear provided. Carl saw a one minute timer appear on the Gantz ball and begin counting down.
"It looks like you've got less than a minute to get ready, according to the ball's countdown," Carl informed everyone, which sped up their actions. He was pleased that despite everyone's confusion and disbelief about their situation, they were at least acting better than the group of assholes that he'd seen in the show. Even Douche, who was the biggest asshole of the group, was acting decently now that he had something to focus on.
Carl shook his head as he thought about the group that appeared with the main character of the show in the apartment and how dumb they all were.
'And then a naked girl shows up in the Gantz ball room and one gangsta guy decides to rape her in front of eight other dudes, and only one man among them has the guts to stand up and do something about it.
'And then the main character, who was afraid to stop the gangsta from raping her, whines about how she's not clinging to his horny ass who didn't even save her, when he wanted to take advantage of her just the same as the gangsta guy.
'And then the main character is such a pansy that he can't even shoot an alien when it's standing right in front of him after killing the other assholes. And that's the person I'm supposed to care about in the show? Nah, they all deserved to die.'
Carl shook his head to drive out the memories of the show and got focused on the upcoming action. Obviously his situation and the situation of the whiny bitch in the show weren't the same.
Once the countdown finished, the teleportation started up, one after another. Carl was the first one to start teleporting, though he didn't notice until someone exclaimed and pointed at him. He reached up to touch the top of his head, but his hand went through air. And then his vision abruptly shifted when the blue circle got past his eyes, and he was looking at the dark streets of some neighborhood, somewhere, as his body continued to materialize below him.
He resigned himself to waiting until the teleportation was complete, and looked around his surroundings, trying to get a feel for where this hunt was happening.
He was standing on the corner of a residential street, at night, with sparsely placed street lights illuminating the streets in pools of light, surrounded by darkness.
Once his ears fully appeared with him he could hear the sounds of the neighborhood. The sounds of a loud television was coming from the nearest house. Cars were driving on a main road on the other side of the house. And various night life bugs were making their presence known by their noise.
It looked like a perfectly normal and peaceful suburb that could be anywhere in the country. Thankfully there was no sign of a bat eared corgi dog anywhere near him, since he didn't want to get ganked right from the get-go.
Once Carl was fully teleported, and while Douche was partially teleported, he kept an eye out for anything unusual around them. His nerves were twanging, making him a bit on the jumpy side. It was like he knew danger was nearby but couldn't pinpoint it.
Carl took a deep breath to steady himself. He couldn't let himself freak out. It was just a little alien corgi, right? How bad could it be?