Number 7

Two years passed.

"Hey bro, don't you think that one group is getting a little too big for their britches? I mean, they've even come all the way to our city. Shouldn't they just stay in their own turf?"

"Yeah, yer right about that one."

A group of men sat at a small card table, huddled together in a room filled with dim lighting.

Each of the men focused intensely on their hands, however their casual conversation contradicted the seriousness of whatever gambit they were performing.

"What do ya think? Should we gather the men and show those buffoons their places?", one asked as he threw down a card.

"Damn straight.", another responded. "We can't have anyone disrespectin' the name of Hammerhead."

Each of these men wore biker coats, and tailored onto their backs was the ferocious symbol of a hammerhead shark.

The men all seemed to nod in agreement as another discarded a card, not looking at one another as they did so.

"What was that crew called again? It was something that sounded real weak. Rodents or something?", one asked as he drew a card, fixing it into his hand.

"Street rats.", one answered.

"Hah! What a weak name. A bunch of little rats are gonna come after our territory? Pfft. I say we show ‘em just who they're messing with."

"Damn right, bro."

"Should we head out right now?"

"I heard that their forces are making moves as we speak. We can probably catch ‘em by surprise if we attack ‘em without giving ‘em time to react."

"Heh... I like your plan, bro."

"As expected. No wonder you've been able to survive in this world for so long."

The men all stood up from the table, slapping down their cards without a second thought as bloodthirsty grins drew themselves across their faces.

The men grabbed their weapons which lay at their sides - spiked bats and brass knuckles, knives and pistols, weapons of all sorts.

"Let's move out."

However as soon as the men stood up to leave the room, the door opened on it's own.

And inside the room walked a single girl.

The men were stunned for a moment in confusion, watching with dumbfounded expressions as this expressionless girl casually strode into the room.

She wore a blank expression with a ragged dress - something which resembled a sheet that had been stitched together after it was fetched out of the trash just to cover herself.

The girl was thin beyond belief, her skin covered in veins and not a single layer of fat on her exposed arms.

Her navy blue hair was long and unkempt, as if she had never cut it in her life.

And as she walked into the room, her steps were completely silent, not making a single sound as she walked forth.

"Hey kid. Who the hell let you in here? Are you the bastard daughter of one of those whores? Shit... I better have a word with ‘em later. Get out of here before I-"

"A hammerhead shark will often use its head to pin down its prey... allowing them to attack it without mercy. Only after incapacitating it's prey by removing it's ability to fight back will it attack."

With these words, the men were silenced as irritation grew on their expressions, quickly turning to anger as the man lashed out.

"Hey. Did you just interrupt me?"

Grabbing the girl by the throat, the man lifted the child up into the air as he pinned her to a wall, waving for the other boys to surround him.

"They tend to use their speed to efficiently hunt down prey... catching the smaller fish off guard and finishing the job before its prey even knows what happened."

"Somebody shut this girl up."

"Sure bro. But... it's just a girl..."

"I said shut her up."

Smash!

The man laid a fist into the girl, drawing blood which covered his brass knuckles as he looked down upon his subordinate with a fearless expression.

"Or I'll do it myself."

"I... I understand, bro!"

Picking up a wooden bat, one of the lackeys lifted it as he whacked the girl's side, causing her to spit up a volley of blood.

"Cough... but... hurgh... the hammerhead doesn't usually find itself faced with prey that poses a threat to it."

The girl made this statement as the man looked at her, and his expression turned to shock as he witnessed something far beyond his belief.

"You... you're just a little girl... how the hell are you not crying in pain right now? Who..."

The girl was smiling.

A demented, evil smile, filled with a horrible sadism unlike anything the man could ever imagine.

"On the other hand... a rat will find itself in all forms of danger, consistently fleeing and scrounging at the deepest pits of filth in order to survive."

"Hit her again.", the man panted.

Slam!

The bat was smashed across the girl's head as the weapon broke in two, leaving blood dripping all over the floor.

"Ugh! Hah... heh... pfft..."

Spitting out another volley of blood, the girl was now covered in bruises and drenched in the red fluid.

The man stepped back, shuddering as her expression remained unwavering, her cold eyes filled with nothing more than pure apathy.

"When a rat finds itself faced with an enemy... It is weak. So terribly weak that running is almost always its only option. If a rat is to fight a cat it will lose immediately. If a rat becomes greedy and falls into a human trap, it will die. However..."

The man let go of the girl, dropping her to the floor as she landed on her feet - not even trembling as she landed without tripping.

"There are two advantages which rats hold above all. The first... is their resistance to disease. Because they live in filth... they carry those diseases and spread them to all corners of the cities that they infest... spreading their illness to all others who try to fight them. And the second advantage that the rats have..."

It was then that the door burst open, and inside the room flooded a mass of four year olds.

Each of them held a small knife, and they quickly surrounded the five men without effort.

"HEY!!! What the hell do these kids think they're doing!?"

"Are they trying to play in the adult world!? What the fuck do you take us for!? We'll kill every single one of ya!"

The men shouted out, however as soon as they did so they realized something.

The eyes of each and every one of these children, dressed in nothing more than rags, were completely void of life.

"AGH!!"

Mere instants after surrounding the men, they began to plunge their knives into the legs and sides of the men, who struggled to swing their weapons at the vast number of opponents that attacked them at such a strange angle.

"YOU LITTLE SHITS!!"

"WE'LL KILL YOU ALL!!"

The men shouted this out as they frantically swung their weapons, taking out one kid at a time as they blasted them with their bats.

Children were sent flying, and a brutal mess followed as the children were taken out bit by bit.

"What the fuck is wrong with these kids!?"

"Why the hell won't they go down!?"

Yet like zombies, they continued to rise from the dead, and among the children only the ones who had been killed stopped moving.

"Aim for their heads! Smash ‘em clean off and they won't get up!", one man shouted.

However all the while, the girl stood watching this mess.

Surrounded by his own men who were wounded all over, the man who seemed to be the leader turned around as he looked down on this girl, glaring at her directly into those icy eyes.

"Who the hell are you?"

"We're street rats.", the girl responded. "Brother told me that there was a cocky group that might attack us... and that we should always be the first to attack. And there is only one way that a rat can defeat a shark."

"Shut up."

Swinging his fist at the girl, the man was swiftly dodged as he stumbled forward, tripped up by the girl whose motions were as fluid as a dancer.

"Wha-"

"The only way a rat can defeat larger prey... is by overwhelming them with numbers... and injecting them with wounds and diseases so that they slowly lose any ability to fight back. It is by tearing our enemies apart one piece of flesh at a time... that we can fight."

"You... so many kids have died already...", the man said as he scrambled to get up, dusting himself off. "How the fuck can you just throw your comrades away attacking us adults like this? Do you think this is some sort of game!?", the man bellowed.

"No.", the girl responded calmly as she slipped out her own knife. "I don't believe this is a game. But perhaps you do. And because you looked down on us, thinking things like 'they're only children, they can't fight back.', you now find yourself in this situation."

The man then felt his throat clench up as the girl rushed towards him with motions that he couldn't understand.

She was so unpredictable, her small and fragile body able to turn at angles which he never would have believed were possible for a human.

"What do you know about our world!? HAH!? You can try and cut us with those things... but we're not gonna just lie down and die, you know. You're nothing more than a child who has found a toy that you shouldn't have picked up in the first place!", the man shouted as he twisted and turned himself, trying to get a read of what the girl was attempting to do.

"Is that so?", the girl stated as the man let off a fist, amply dodging his punch as she had done before, flipping back without a care. "But even if that is the case... I was given an ORDER by my older brother. And when my brother tells me to do something... I do it. Because if I don't..."

It was at that moment that the girl rushed forth, sliding on the ground as she slid right underneath the legs of the man.

And in that instant, looking down in shock as the girl did this, the man felt a horrid pain as the knife was thrusted into his groin.

"AGH!!!"

The man fell down, screaming in pain as the girl stood up, approaching him from behind as she grabbed his throat.

"Then I will truly be nothing more than a filthy rat."

Crack!

The man's head was snapped in that instant under a grip which should have been impossible from such a frail girl, leaving his mouth foaming as he fell to the ground.

Looking up from this scene, the girl found that the other four men were on the ground, laced in wounds as the children furiously stabbed at them without mercy.

Eyes were gouged out, and the horrid screams were enough to cause nightmares for years to come.

Then, bending over, the girl began to rummage through the pockets of the man known as the leader.

She took out a cell phone, scrolling through it as she pulled up the contacts with a nod.

"Five men down. They managed to kill three of us, and injure eight more. But that should be an acceptable trade off. After all..."

As she clicked on one of the contacts, the girl began a call immediately as she dialed someone labeled "Big Boss".

"We'll be gaining an entire army to replace them."

----

"Sir, profits have been dwindling recently."

"What do you mean?"

Sitting in a luxurious office as he took a puff of a cigar was a man whose face was littered with scars.

His long black hair flowed down his head, tied up behind him in a manner which was typical of someone involved in professional criminal affairs.

"Well... those street rats keep on encroaching on our territory. What are your orders? Should we gather up all the heads or should we let each head deal with their own territory?"

The henchman looked to his boss with an eagerness to get out into the field, however the large man sitting at his desk put out his cigar with a bored expression.

"They won't be a problem. If my men can't handle those fools on their own in their own lands... then they have no place in Hammerhead."

"Understood."

The servant turned around to leave, however it was as he did so that the ringing of a cell phone filled the room.

Pulling out his phone from his pocket, the boss glanced at the one calling, confirming that it was one of his subordinates before answering.

"What is it? You know that you should only be calling me in emergencies. Has something happened? Or maybe you've landed on an opportunity that I need to be involved in?"

[Oh... it's an emergency alright.]

The voice which spoke in response from the cellphone caused the man to widen his eyes in concern as a frown came across his expression.

"Who the hell is this?", he spouted.

For the voice was that of a young girl.

[Wouldn't you like to know? However, that information shouldn't be revealed yet. Come to where this man typically resides, and you'll find out why I'm calling you. That is all.]

"Hey, what the hell do you-"

The phone cut off as the girl finished her statement, and the dead beeping was the only thing that was left on the other side of the line.

"Who... who was that, boss?"

"Tch... some bastard using a voice changer... hey. We're moving out."

Standing up, the man grabbed his coat off the rack as he cracked his knuckles, placing his fedora on his head as the two filed out together.

"Call up every member of our group. Whoever the hell has the balls to mess with one of our members... well, they must be one tough bastard. But no matter how big their balls are... I'll rip them right off."

----

"Boss, what's going on?"

"Why have you gathered everyone here?"

70 men, all dressed in biker coats with the symbol of a hammerhead shark on their backs had gathered.

Standing before these rowdy men who seemed to be restless for a fight, was none other than the black haired man.

"Why have I gathered everyone here? It's simple."

The man spoke with power, immediately quieting the crowd as he grabbed a lamp post beside him.

Crunch.

With brute strength, the man gripped the post hard enough that it bent to the ground, leaving his handprint imprinted in the creaking metal.

"Somebody thinks they can fuck with us. So we're going to teach them that stepping on our turf was the last mistake they ever made."

As the man turned around with the flutter of his coat, an eruption of cheers burst forth from the crowd.

"Yeah!!"

"Damn right, boss!!"

"Ain't nobody out there who messes with us and lives!!!"

"Hahaha! Let's torture em till they cry for mercy!!"

Brandishing bats and weapons of all sorts, the men smashed the windows of cars and recklessly thrashed the streets as they hopped on their bikes, revving their engines loudly while the sounds of car alarms filled the roadways.

Riding through the streets, the man known as the boss flashed his pearly white teeth as a chaotic smile beamed across him.

"I haven't found someone dumb enough to fight back in a while. This one is mine, boys. I ain't about to let this fight end easily."

----

The men rode through the streets, eventually coming to the back alley where their comrades were stationed.

The man grabbed the door, turning the handle with such strength that the knob broke as he turned it, causing the door to swing open.

"Knock knock. Whoever is home... show yourself. If you don't... then I won't show any mercy."

The man entered with his army behind him, however they all made sure to stay at least four or five feet behind him at all times - ensuring that they didn't get within range of the man.

For they all knew that if they did, they may very well be on the other end of his fists.

The group entered a lounge as they looked around, however there was a strange silence.

'What's going on here?', one man thought.

'It's... too quiet.'

However as they turned the corner into the game room, the men witnessed something horrid.

Blood laced the walls.

Sprayed and splattered endlessly in a chaotic manner, the red fluid tainted almost every section of the room.

"What... the hell happened here?", one man muttered.

"This is..."

[Ahem. Testing, testing. Ah. You seem to have found the scene of the crime. Ah, but they aren't there anymore. Come on down.]

Sitting on a chair was a cell phone.

This cell phone was on a call, and emitting from the phone was the voice of a girl.

"You little coward..."

Grabbing the phone, the man known as the leader spit into it as his voice filled with disgust.

"You sure as hell ain't a man, are you? Hiding from us like a little girl? Hah... as soon as I find you-"

[What's wrong with acting like a little girl?]

This statement caused the man to tilt his head in confusion, however this confusion only lasted a moment before he began to grip the phone with an immense pressure, enough to cause it to creak with pressure as sparks began to fly.

"Where are you, little rat?"

[I already said. Down.]

----

"Bastard is messing with us... thinking he can get away with something like this... he's mocking us."

As he descended the stairs, the man known as the boss slowly grew in irritation.

"Shit, it's so dark!"

"I can't see anything like this! Where are the lights!?"

A couple of the gang members shouted out in complaint, however this was met with the cold words of the leader.

"If you're too scared to come down here then why don't you go wait upstairs?"

With this icy statement, the two men gulped before they continued to follow the man downwards.

'Shit... it really is dark though... what the hell is this person planning?'

As the man came to the bottom of the stairs, there was a shoddy wooden door that led to a cellar.

"Right in here. The bastard is waiting for us... probably with some sort of trap planned. But I've got news for him."

Pulling his fist back, the man grinned as he let out a short chuckle.

"That won't work on me."

Slamming his fist into the door, the entire thing flew off as the man branded his muscle with pride.

Stepping through the mess of shattered wood, the man strutted into the cellar with arrogance, however as soon as he entered his smug grin was wiped clean off of his face.

For sitting before him, with just a single candle to light up the scene, was a little girl.

She sat in a shoddy wooden chair, surrounded by bodies that had been torn apart in a disgusting manner.

Blood covered the girl who wore nothing more than rags, and she sat there without expression as she watched the man enter.

"It looks like you made it.", she murmured without emotion.

Standing up, the girl jumped from one body to another, stepping on the bodies of both men and children without a care in the world.

"I was beginning to think you wouldn't be able to figure it out. Although... I was also considering the possibility that you had run. But wouldn't that have been disgraceful?"

With the slightest smirk, the girl's eyes met the man as he felt an emotion which he had never in his life before experienced.

'What... is this girl?'

"Running away from a little girl, that is."