Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 3 ALIENS

“A new morning has come, a morning of hope,” a prerecorded message sang from the Gantz ball. A tune followed with the music, but I couldn’t place it. 

The others around the ball got up, staring at the orb. “Here we go, one two three!!” It finished. Then words began to appear on the orb. White on black. 

YOUR LIVES HAVE ENDED. 

HOW YOU USE YOUR NEW LIVES

IS ENTIRELY UP TO ME.

THAT’S THE THEORY, ANYWAYS. 

Side characters exclaimed their surprise reading the words. I ignored them. The words on the screen shifted to an image of a small boy with a tall head above his ears. His head ended in what looked like grass. Above his mug shot was the title ‘Onion Alien’. 

There was other useless information about the alien, but I was pretty sure Gantz wrote it to be funny. For instance under Likes he wrote: Onions, Friendship. People exclaimed their surprise yet again as they read it. Questioning if it was a game or something. I waited. Then the sides of the orb shot out. 

Long metal drawer-like extensions formed from the ball, with the curved parts of the orb at the ends of the drawer arms. On the drawers were shelves that held suitcases and futuristic weapons. At the center of the ball was a muscular man. No hair on his body he wore an oxygen mask as he sat inside the orb with his eyes closed. That was Gantz. 

“Alright,” I said. “These are what we use to fight the aliens.” I reached in pulling out a suitcase. It was heavier than I expected. My name was written on the side of it. “Grab your suitcase, inside is a suit of…armor. But futuristic armor. Like a living skin. It will make you stronger, but not invincible.” 

“Woah,” a man with long hair said picking up one of the futuristic guns from the Gantz shelves. It was like a pistol on steroids. The barrel was wide, the gun itself was black, and he stupidly pointed it at someone. 

“Don’t be a fucking jackass,” I hissed. Slapping the barrel away. “Grab your suitcase.” 

The guy gave me a challenging smirk but didn’t fight it. As others moved to grab suitcases and weapons I dropped down opening it up to reveal the Gantz armor. I was about to start disrobing when I looked up to the long haired guy. He was pointing the barrel right at my face. He smirked down at me and pulled the trigger. 

My heart clenched as the click happened. I waited for a few seconds, the guns had a lag before they made heads explode. When I counted to 5 I felt I was safe. I thought you were safe in the Gantz room, but I couldn’t remember. 

“You’re fucking dead,” I said looking at the man. 

“What? It’s not loaded,” the guy said. 

“Like you know that, retard,” I said. He smirked and walked away. Picking up his own suitcase I was going to have to watch them. Then he began disappearing. 

The top of his head wasn’t there anymore. As if he was being erased he began to teleport from the top of his head down. People exclaimed as his head disappeared and arms flailed. “We are teleporting to where we fight the aliens,” I said. Reaching over to Gantz I grabbed my own gun as my vision shifted. 

My eyes had formed at another location. It was dark out. I was in the middle of the street. I looked down to watch as the rest of me materialized. Teleported from the room, first my chest and arms then legs appeared quickly. 

As more people began to materialize around me I dropped down to open my suitcase again. The synthetic skin of the black armor was weird to feel. Disrobing unashamedly, I put it on. It was like trying to put on a leather jumpsuit. My sweat coated body stuck at every part as I pulled the jumpsuit on. 

When I had it finally around me it ballooned out a little then sucked in. Conforming to my body there was just a bulge at my dick, so it at least didn’t show the veins and dickhead. Moving around the suit felt better than I expected. There were small metal discs at the neck, chest, arms, wrists, legs, and ankles. 

The other 2 guys I teleported with were looking at me as I moved around in the suit. I was lucky to have been transferred near the main characters. Kurono and Maasaru. 

“What the hell are you waiting for? Put the suit on,” I barked. They jumped and were quickly disrobing. I looked around but there were only empty streets near us. Some apartment buildings around we were lucky no one was around to watch us change clothes. 

I racked my brain trying to remember what happened. There was some drama between these 2. They were childhood friends and Maasaru looked up to Kei. The main character was supposedly fearless as a kid but he had changed since they stopped being friends. He was wimpier and hesitant. I seemed to remember this first alien hunt became a catalyst for him for the rest of the show. He stepped up and did some pretty impressive fights afterward. Slowly becoming a guy to actually root for instead of roll your eyes at. 

“How do you know all this?” Maasaru asked. The young man was taller than I was, about 6 feet tall he looked pretty badass in the black Gantz armor. 

“I’ve been doing this a while,” I lied. “Come on. We need to look for this alien.” 

“Are you serious? Are there really aliens?” Kei asked. The 2 friends flanked me as we headed down the street. 

“Yeah. Think of us like the Men in Black,” I said. “You know that reference, right?” They nodded. “Good. But instead of worrying about aliens that are interfering with people, we are after all the aliens. Gantz finds them in our area, and sends us to kill them.” 

“Why?” Massaru asked. He was always a timid guy. I might have to do some pushing because he could be useful. 

“No idea,” I said. “Probably because they shouldn’t be here. Either way, don’t underestimate them. They’re really strong. You picked up guns, right?” 

They showed them to me. We all had the same type of short pistol blaster. “Your suits will also make you really strong. But be careful. If you take too much damage they will stop working. And your heads aren’t protected. So be sure to always protect your head.” 

“How do you activate them?” Kei asked. He began to flex and look for buttons. 

“They’re basically an artificial skin. Think about getting stronger and you will…I hope,” I said. Realizing I really didn’t know. I stopped walking. Setting my gun on the ground I jumped in the air. A very pitiful 6 inch vertical leap met me. 

Frowning I crouched on the ground. As I focused I thought about jumping higher and pushed off. The veins in the suit began to bulge and I lifted off. “Holy-” I said flying a good 15 feet in the air. My arms flailing as I tried to stay upright. “Fuuuuck,” I yelled dropping down. Then I was slamming against the pavement on my arms and legs. The suit absorbed the damage, but my head rocked forward. My brain jostling in my skull I became a little dizzy.

Shaking my head I tried to get up but stumbled. Maasaru and Kei ran up to me. “That was awesome,” Kei said. 

“Can we do that too?” Maasaru asked. 

“Yeah,” I replied getting my bearings. My head still spinning I was going to tell them to try it when the small body dropped out of the sky. Just ahead of us Maasaru didn’t hesitate to run to it. 

I stumbled after them, “Wait.” I tried to say, recognizing the form, but they didn’t listen. Maasaru was helping the small boy up. 

“Are you ok?” He asked as the alien got to it’s feet. Bleeding from its mouth the man noticed that it was their target. About 5 feet tall the onion alien had a tall forehead with grass-like hair. Wearing normal clothes it looked like a small child. 

“Don’t move, you’re hurt!” Maasaru yelled at the alien. 

“How is it still alive!” The others from the Gantz room yelled as they ran over to us. The long haired guy was right in front. Apparently they had thrown the alien or something. Only one of them wore the black armor though. The others were in their normal clothes. 

The Onion Alien noticed them and began to run away. “What the hell,” Kei said watching it go. 

“We need to kill it,” I told him. 

“But it didn’t do anything!” Maasaru said from a few feet away as we watched the others chase after it. 

“Doesn’t matter,” I said, beginning to jog after them. Maasaru and Kei followed. “Gantz controls us. He keeps us here till we do the job.” 

“This isn’t right,” Maasaru groaned. 

“We died!” I said. “We should be dead. We all have stuff left undone in our lives. So as thanks for letting us stay alive, we do what Gantz wants.” 

“Sti-” 

“What about your brother?” I asked. That shut him up. “You want to leave him on his own? These aliens could kill us if we drop our guard. This one is weak.” 

“How do you know about my brother?” Maasaru asked.

“I know a little bit about everything,” I said. “Like how you 2 used to be friends.” The men shared a look. “Now get your head out of your asses and back into the game.”

An explosion sounded straight ahead. The 4 men chasing after the alien had fired their guns at it causing a massive explosion. Blowing up a homes wall. The alien stopped running as they yelled and cheered from the explosion. Moving quickly they surrounded the shorter alien. Pointing their guns at it, the alien cowered. 

“No! Don’t!” Maasaru yelled as they pulled the triggers of their guns. 

They stayed like that for a moment, nothing happening. “What the hell?” One exclaimed. 

“They really are just toys,” another said. 

“You lied to us!” Long hair yelled at me as the alien exploded. 

Blood and guts shot out from where the body had been. Covering the men, the wall behind the alien and the street became painted with blood. They yelled in surprise. 

“How…” Maasaru said, walking up to them. “How could you?” 

Recovering quickly long hair said, “Just pull the trigger.” With a smile he pointed at the gun like it was any other day. We walked up closer to them, the pile of the alien’s former body was a mound of goop. Beginning to steam in the cool night air the terrible smell hit me.

“We need to do something,” Maasaru said, turning to me. “Call an am-” 

“It’s dead,” I said sadly. “Move on.” 

“You really think this is TV?” One of the guys asked long hair. 

“It’s gotta be, and we just won,” he said with a smile.  

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