Note: The following fic was inspired in part by the movies 'Rat Race' and 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World'. However, it's been a while since I've seen either one so while there will be similarities, this fic will be different for the most part. Also, I'd been wanting to do a Street Fighter fic and figured the time was just right. ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own Street Fighter or any of its characters.

The Chosen Ones

Conventions existed the world over to accomodate the rabid series of fans who shared a common interest. Movies, video games, and comics just to name a few saw countless fanboys and fangirls cosplaying and meeting their idols. Fighting had grown in popularity in recent years helped in no small part by the World Warrior Tournament. So it was no surprise that a Fighter's Convention was eventually organized. The first of a planned series of conventions was held in Los Angeles and scheduled many of the popular fighters to appear and sign autographs. The fans of course, came in droves.

Friends and rivals Ken and Ryu were currently in the midst of meeting said fans. Ryu, in particular, didn't care for such events as he preferred not to be in a big crowds, plus it was eating up valuable training time. Ken, however, ate up the attention he got and literally had to drag his buddy to the convention.

"Isn't this great, Ryu? Look at all these hotties that came to see me!" Ken said, absolutely beaming.

"Yeah sure," Ryu replied with a complete lack of enthusiasm. "Say, aren't you married?"

Ken quickly shushed his friend. "Come on man, just let me enjoy myself! Are you trying to scare all the chicks away?"

"What? You're married?" One of the brunettes exclaimed.

"You cheating pervert!" A woman with dark hair said.

"I'm not trying to cheat!" Ken protested. "I'm just trying to admire that sweet ass of yours!"

The blonde fighter suddenly found himself surrounded and he could do nothing but curl into a ball as he got whacked with purses.

Ryu rolled his eyes and reached through the crowd of women to pull Ken to safety.

Elsewhere, another friend and rival duo were walking their way through the crowded masses. Well, one of them was walking and the other was skipping along happily as if she were hooked on sugar.

Karin Kanzuki sighed as she trudged through the convention accompanied by her hyperactive schoolmate, Sakura. Karin, like Ryu, was talked into going and was exhausted from signing autographs and taking pictures. Sakura for some reason had signed twice as many autographs as Karin yet was still hopping about with boundless energy.

"Yay! Isn't this fun, Karin?"

Karin glared irritably at her classmate. "Yeah, REAL fun! I signed dozens of signatures and have nothing to show for it!" she complained. "You know what I should have done? I should have CHARGED people to get my autograph! A prestigous fighter like me shouldn't have to throw myself at the mercy of the crowd for countless hours on end!"

"You're such a sour puss!" Sakura said, giggling. "Besides, I had more people in my line and you don't see me complaining!"

"Yeah, what the hell was up with that?" Karin asked angrily. "I'm just as popular if not more so than you are!"

"Well, I don't know about that," Sakura shrugged.

"Oh that does it! Next time I am definitely charging people for my signature! Are you with me, Sakura? Sakura?" Karin stopped walking and noticed her schoolmate was no where in sight. She looked left then right and finally turned around to see Sakura taking pictures with a group of five guys. Karin clenched her fists and grinded her teeth together in anger. "Damn it! Why the hell don't I ever get hit on? This is such bull-"

"Wow, Karin Kanzuki!" A random passerby exclaimed. "You're my favori-"

"GO AWAY!"

Meanwhile, popular Interpol agent and fighter Chun Li was in the midst of signing pictures for what appeared to be the longest line at the convention. As the first female competitor to take part in the tournament, this was both a benefit as well as a curse. Actually, it was more of a curse at the moment.

Just as she thought she signed for the last of the people in line, a few more came up to take their places. "This is a lot more stressful than I anticipated," she muttered.

"Sucks to be you then."

Chun Li turned to see Guile standing a few feet away eating a bag of potato chips. "Do I sense jealously in your tone?" she asked amusingly.

"Oh please, you can keep all the adoring public. I'll just stand here and chill without a care in the world," the military fighter said nonchalantly.

"Probably because you can't attract any attention," Chun said under her breath.

"What was that?" Guile crushed the bag of chips. "Well, you're probably pissed because your people couldn't find Bison to save your asses!"

"That's what you think, flattop."

"All right, that's it! You wanna go, bitch?"

"Don't insult Chun Li, you steriod freak!" a fan said.

Guile grabbed the smaller guy and slammed him backwards through the table. "Who else wants some? I'll take on all you, bitches!"

Ten people tackled the military man while Chun Li simply stood up and wiped some dust off. "I'm glad you showed up, Guile. I'll just leave the adoring public to you." She walked away from the chaos whistling all the while.

"YOUR ATTENTION, PLEASE!"

Everyone turned to see a man in a black suit wearing shades standing upon a stage holding a microphone.

"The special drawing for the Fighter's Convention will begin momentarily! You have ten more minutes to enter if you have not done so!" the man announced.

"Hey Ryu, we ought to enter!" Ken commented.

"What's the drawing for, anyway?" Ryu asked.

"I don't know, some special prize of a lifetime or something," Ken put a hand to his chin in thought.

Sakura's eyes practically sparkled at the announcement. "Ooooh! Let's do it, Karin!"

"Why? The odds of winning are slim to no-" Karin suddenly found herself dragged to the stage by the hyperactive schoolgirl.

Numerous other fighers and fans alike scrambled to enter. As all the names were being entered, the mysterious man in black stood off to the side and talked to his employer on his cell.

"Did they enter?" a distorted voice asked.

"Yes sir, just now," the man replied.

"It is imperative that Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, and Guile be the primary ones chosen. But just to make things interesting, assign a total of eight winners. The rest I'll leave to you to decide."

"Yes sir," The man put up his cellphone and walked back out on stage. "All right everyone, the drawing is closed! Now, without further ado, let's choose the eight winners who will receive the prize of a lifetime!"

Everyone held his or her breath as the announcer reached into a box and, through careful manipulation, picked the first four names.

"The first winner is...Ken Masters!"

Ken punched his fist into the air in triumph. "Oh yeah! I can't believe my luck!"

"The second winner is...Guile!"

"Finally, something positive to come out from all this," a bruised Guile muttered.

"Winner number three is...Chun Li!"

All the Li fans in the area cheered deafeningly while the female fighter smiled blushingly.

"The fourth winner is..."

Ryu simply sighed. "With any luck, I won't be a part of this and then I can go back to my trai-"

"...Ryu!"

"Crap."

Ken put an arm around his buddy. "Can you believe it, man? We both got picked!"

"I know," Ryu put his hand to his head.

"And now the final four! The fifth winner is...Sakura Kasugano!"

"YEAH! YEAH! I GOT CHOSEN!" Sakura screamed over the crowd.

"Winner number six is..."

Karin grinned to herself. "I should probably be in the last three!" she said confidently.

"...Makoto!"

The karate girl chopped a table in two out of excitement. "Yah!"

"Winner seven is...Deejay!"

"Aw yeah, that's what I'm talking about mon!" The Jamaican fighter cheered.

"The eighth and final winner is..."

The announcer picked a name at random and paused a moment to raise an eyebrow at the name chosen before addressing the quiet crowd.

"Uh...Dan Hibiki."

"YES! YES! YES! It's only fitting that the strongest fighter here gets chosen!" The pink gi wearing fighter gave himself a thumbs up while everyone stared at him in silence.

Karin's jaw literally hit the floor and one of her eyes began to twitch as she pointed at Dan in disbelief.

"Congratulations! Will the winners come up on stage, please?" The announcer requested.

Sakura joined the rest on stage and minutes later, she returned to her traumatized friend with a paper in hand. "Uh...Karin?" she waved her hand in front of the blonde's eyes.

Karin finally snapped out of it and grabbed Sakura by the shoulders. "Well? What did you get! What did you get!"

"Um...just this."

Karin grabbed the paper and read its contents, "Come to the upstairs office with the 'X' marked on the door. Your opportunity of a lifetime awaits. P.S., you may bring a friend."

"Wow, this is getting really interesting by the minute!" Sakura exclaimed.

Karin stared at her classmate with puppy dog eyes. "W...we're good friends, r-right?"

"Well yeah, I-"

"Th...then I can go with you?"

"Sure, I-"

"GREAT!" This time Karin was the one dragging Sakura around towards the office.

As everyone else headed upstairs, Dan decided to take a quick detour to the restroom. Unbeknownst to him, a shadowy figure was following close behind.

"Ha! Ha! I'm just gonna take a quick tinkle and then I'll be on my way!" Dan laughed confidentally to himself but was suddenly cut short by a brutal roundhouse kick to the side of the head.

SMASH!

Dan was knocked through the restroom wall and landed headfirst into a toilet while his attacker picked up his discarded paper off the ground.

Juri Han read over the contents and smiled to herself. "Hmm, this looks interesting." The glowing eyed assassin paused a moment to regard Dan. "Thanks for the invitation...loser." With that, she headed off towards the office.

Note: The whole eight winner thing was inspired by the fact that there were eight fighters in the original SFII. Talk about retro! Also, despite the ones chosen, you can expect more appearances from the rest of the SF cast. ;)