Here's the next chapter. I've opened my account to the public, but I only have them open for reviews and questions about my fics (and other stuff if valid). I will read all e-mails, but I can't reply unless they're questions…that is if it's valid. Anywho, I'll start. (P.S.: My e-mail's also open for any good Yami/Shizuka(Serenity) fics that aren't under my profile already).

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Fox, Yugioh, or Star Wars, but I do own a few characters and the crap that I own.

Encounter

Chapter 8

Loss of sanity

It's been a month ever since 'Bandit' Keith Howard attacked the Wheelers, but almost everything has been starting to calm down. Ever since that happened, Joey's been watching Serenity more closely just in case something like that would happen again. Serenity doesn't seem to like this because Joey was overprotective enough, but what Joey's been doing now isn't right. So far, Serenity hasn't seen Lisa outside of school much anymore, nor does Serenity get a chance to at least live a little. As Serenity was moping on the couch, someone knocked on the door. Joey, who has a baseball bat in his right hand, slightly opened the door and looked to see who it was.

"Who is it?" Joey asked.

"Joey, it's me," Mai answered.

Joey then opened the door so that Mai could come in. As she came in, she saw Serenity sitting on the couch with a depressed look in her eyes. It's quite obvious that Serenity hasn't been out much lately. Mai looked at Joey and couldn't tell if he's crazy or if he's just being overprotective like usual.

"Joey, what's wrong with her?" Mai asked.

"I don't know. If I knew, then I'd try to help," Joey said.

With that, Serenity got up and started to walk to the door. Joey looked over as she was opening the door, but hesitated and grabbed for her shoulder.

"Serenity, where're you goin'?" Joey asked.

"I've had enough of sitting in here like this!" Serenity said.

The way it looked, she was actually quite mad, but the way she was wasn't out of ordinary anger. This was more of an anger that was developed over time, which was the cause of what Joey was doing. Joey stared at her, wondering what she was thinking.

"Why are you going out?" Joey asked. "I said that you shouldn't go out without someone to go with."

"Well I had enough of sitting around in here," Serenity said.

"Serenity, I can't let the same thing happen to you too!"

"Well I don't care. I'd rather take that risk than to sit in here and have no life whatsoever!"

"Serenity…"

"I have to go out and see my friends!"

"You can see them in-"

"Joey, I can't just see them in school. How am I suppose to get a life if I can't see friends?"

Serenity tried to walk out the door, but Joey grabbed Serenity by the shoulder, which was enough to hold Serenity down. She tried to struggle out of it, but she's no match against Joey. He then began to yell something at her, which gave her a negative feeling.

"SERENITY, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT KIND OF CRAP I HAVE TO TAKE JUST TO WATCH OVER YOU!"

With that, Serenity started to get tears in her eyes. They're not from sympathy, but from her own anger; causing her to get deeper negative feelings about Joey. She wheeled around and struck Joey in the face with a closed fist; something that no one would see from her. Joey stumbled a bit, but as he recovered Serenity was nowhere to be found.

"Just great; now Serenity's out there with maniacs!" Joey cussed.

"Would you just shut the hell up?" Mai yelled.

With that, Mai slapped Joey in the face to get him back to his senses as he cocked his head from the slap. Joey turned back to face Mai, who wasn't looking too happy about what he did to Serenity.

"Don't you see what you're doing to her?" Mai yelled in his face. "You're holding her back from having a future."

"What…have I done?"

Joey ran to the window to see if he could see her; unfortunately, he can't see her anywhere near by, let alone how there's a downpour now. As he was about to go, he realized that by the time he could find her, it'd be too late to reason with her.

While all of that was happening back in the apartment, Serenity was long gone from the apartment, trying to find out where to go from here. She thought of going to the Moto's residents, but she'd end up back with Joey. She doesn't want to do anything more with her brother, but she doesn't have a place to go. She decided to try to find out where the Kaiba Mansion is, but no one was around to help. She knew that Mokuba would help her, but with Seto there, it'd be harder to even get in.

The only thing she could do was keep walking in the cold rain kept pouring on her while she wore clothes not fit for this weather. The only thing she had on was the yellow sleeved pink zip up shirt as she also wore her shorts that have leggings that only go half way down her thighs. She kept treading along through the heavy rain as it kept pouring gallon after gallon of water onto her head. She began to feel numb in her legs as well as her arms and hands. She stopped for a minute to try to warm herself up, but nothing would work since she has nothing on her that would keep her warm.

She saw some girls coming out of an alley; all of them wearing leather jackets and leather pants with black hair. They all saw her and went over to her like they were expecting something from her.

"Well, a little girl like you shouldn't be out here in the rain."

"What do you think we should do with her, Yura?"

"I think we should 'help' her," Yura said.

Serenity assumed that Yura was the leader just by her attitude. She could tell because they all looked almost alike, but Yura's the only one who doesn't look the same. She has the same leather attires on, but she also has green hair instead of black.

"It's…not like you care," Serenity said.

"Oh we care, but only for your goods," Yura sneered.

As the girl said that, Serenity felt a chill down her spine. She didn't want to get involved in another gang fight; she also felt that Joey was probably right about what he said earlier. The girls began to close in on her, leaving Serenity little room to escape. Because she was numb, she could barely move as well. All seven girls were smirking as they were punching their fists into their palms or cracking their knuckles. One of the girls grabbed Serenity's shoulder, but Serenity tried to shake that off. Instead of hesitating, she tried to swing her elbow into her captor, but completely missed. Serenity also realized that the girl was nowhere near her. She saw Yura drop down in front of her and jab a punch into her stomach. Serenity began to curl up, feeling the effects of the punch. It didn't matter whether or not Serenity could find a way around, but what Yura did wasn't humanly possible.

Serenity then saw someone coming around the corner hooded in a brown cloak as that person was carrying a bag of groceries. The person turned around to see who what was going on, but didn't leave. Instead, the person dropped the groceries and began to run towards the gang.

"SERENITY, HANG ON!"

As she heard that, Serenity could recognize the voice.

"Lisa, it's you."

Lisa took her hood and cloak all off as she was wearing some different attire compared to the attire that Serenity has seen. Lisa was wearing a judo like uniform, but with more of a very light tan color as the outer attire is more vest like, as well as a shirt of that same color underneath it. Unlike normal judo suits, this one has a tighter fit than others. As Lisa was approaching them, she jumped at them as she was curling her legs as well as turning to her side. She thrust her legs in a drop kick at Yura, but Lisa hit nothing but air at the time. Lisa landed and then scrambled to her feet just to see the gang surrounding both Serenity and Lisa. Serenity couldn't do much but stay down as her legs were completely numb from the cold weather. Lisa stood her stance, confident that she could fight all of them. Yura then came out of nowhere and stood there.

"You know, we aren't just normal street fightin' gangsters," Yura said.

"Your point?" Lisa asked.

"My point is that we know both Judo and Ninjitsu. We're known as the Ninjitsu Brigade."

As Yura said that, Lisa began to feel a chill down her spine. She has experience over Karate, Kung Fu, and various other martial arts, but never against anyone with Ninjitsu.

"Damn it; this'll take more effort than ever," Lisa thought.

One of the girls charged in at Lisa, but she jumped up and spun around and simultaneously did a back kick like formation. She successfully hit the charging girl, but didn't expect a strike from the other side as she was tackled down to the ground. Lisa got back up, but wasn't ready to see that Yura was charging in at Lisa. Lisa tried to use a standing drop kick, but the only thing that she could do was hit air. Serenity tried to get up, but because of her legs, she couldn't do too much but sit there. Lisa scrambled back up and saw Yura charging at her again. Lisa then tried to throw a right hand, which failed. Yura began to twist Lisa's arm in a way that forced her to face towards the ground. Lisa was still keeping her vertical base up, but nothing would help.

"You Tae-Kwon-Do freaks can't beat the power of Ninjitsu," Yura commented.

"Well…at least…I don't…have to be…dishonorable…about fighting," Lisa managed to say.

With that comment, Yura drove her elbow into Lisa's forearm in a way that would've broken her arm. Lisa collapsed to the ground, holding her arm as the pain was unbearable. Serenity was trying to crawl to Lisa, but was stopped by Yura, who stepped in the way. Serenity tried to back off, but because of her numb legs, she couldn't run. Yura then grabbed Serenity by the arm and began to drag her away as the other six female gangsters began to stomp on Lisa, who couldn't do much but curl herself up.

"You'll get your share of pain so don't worry about your friend," Yura said.

Serenity couldn't do much since her arms were also numb as well as the pain that's still sitting in her stomach. Yura threw her up against a building complex as she held Serenity by the throat.

"What will it be; a quick death or a slow and painful one?" Yura mocked.

Serenity's eyes were beginning to fill up with tears as she was now realizing what kind of chaos still runs around this world. Yura brought her fist up and had it back ready to throw a punch at her.

"Okay, then it will be a slow one!" Yura said.

Yura threw a punch at her as Serenity shut her eyes for the pain that was about to come. A couple seconds passed, but Serenity didn't feel a hand around her neck. Instead, she felt the hard ground that was soaked from the continuous rainfall that is still occurring. She opened her eyes to see someone else standing there, holding Yura's wrist. She saw a hand that had open finger tan leather gloves on, but the hands didn't belong to a human, they belong to a cornerian. Yura was looking in the direction of the source, so Serenity did so as well. To her surprise, she saw Fox having a firm grip on Yura's wrist.

"Well, well; if it isn't the Ninjitsu brigade," Fox commented.

"Why you…"

Yura tried to throw a punch, but Fox dodged it and attempted to use an over the shoulders throw. Yura was able to land and do one of her own. Fox used the wall to his advantage to run off of it and let loose Yura's wrist. Fox stood out there as Falco was already apprehending the other six. Falco saw Fox standing there with the leader, so he tried to go and help him. Fox motioned him to stay there and help Lisa. Serenity managed to crawl out of there and out in the open. Falco went over to help her up, but Lisa already staggered.

"Hey, you okay?" Lisa asked.

"Yeah, but what about you?"

Lisa looked at her arm, which wasn't broken. Fortunately for Lisa, she was able to brace for that in time. Lisa looked back at Serenity with a reassuring smile.

"Oh, this is nothing."

"That's good to here, but what's Ninjitsu?"

"Ninjitsu is a technique used long ago. On Corneria, Ninjitsu is a deadly technique meant for assassinations. When Ninjitsu and Jujitsu meets, they'd pretty much cancel each other out."

"So…you're saying that they'll end up in a stalemate?"

"We'll just have to see."

As Fox was standing there in a fighting stance, Yura was also ready for anything that Fox throws at her. Fox is also prepared with a few additional tricks up his sleeve. Fox then made only one comment.

"So which would win this time; Ninjitsu or Jujitsu?"