Author's Note: Okay, I know this chapter is rather short, and not really well-planned out, but my creative juices have been hampered lately by the fact that I've been sick all week. I may have to take a few days off to recuperate before starting Chapter 5. Bleh.
ALL PATHS CROSSING
A Sailor Moon / Street Fighter Crossover Fanfiction
By Kasumi Todoh
Chapter 4
Answers and Questions
Sailor Mars looked Ryu and Ken over, and then got into her fireball-throwing pose, with her two index fingers together and pointed at them. "All right, who are you two, why are you here, and what do you want with us?"
"I believe a better question would be, who are you?" Ryu replied.
"Yeah, we'd kinda like to know who exactly we just rescued," Ken added.
Venus put her hand on Mars's arm. "Hey, lay off, Mars. They did just save our lives, you know."
Mars looked at Venus and hesitated for a minute, and then slowly put her arms down.
"Why don't we start by hearing your names first," Sailor Moon said, "and then we'll tell you ours."
Ken sighed. "Fine. Ken Masters. Nice to meet you."
"I'm Ryu."
"Ryu and Ken," Venus said dreamily.
"What lovely names," added Jupiter.
Mars sighed. "Don't mind them."
"All right," Ken said, "now just who are you girls?" Then he added, "Going to a costume party, or are you in a play?"
Sailor Moon stepped forward. "We're known as the Sailor Senshi. I'm Sailor Moon, and these are Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Venus." She pointed to each of the other Senshi respectively, before adding, "Mercury's the smart one, Venus and Jupiter are the lovesick ones, and Mars is the grouchy one."
"Hey!" snarled Mars. "Be quiet, Meatball-Head!"
"Don't call me that!"
"Meatball-Head! Meatball-Head!"
"Stop it!"
Ryu and Ken exchanged glances. "Wow, they're worse than us when we argue," Ken said with a smile.
"Oh, just ignore them," advised Mercury. "This happens a lot. You get used to it after a while. Now, don't get us wrong. We really appreciated what you did back there. But no one else has ever helped us out like that before. I guess I'm rather curious as to why you would."
Ken shrugged. "You looked like you needed help. It just seemed like the right thing to do."
"How heroic," Jupiter sighed.
"And how come you didn't seem too surprised about seeing Sailor Moon reduce that monster to dust with her sceptre?" Venus added, and then clapped a hand over her mouth, realizing that she may have said too much.
"Actually, I did have a few questions about that," Ken replied. "But then again, Ryu and I have seen some fairly weird things in our lifetime, too, so we're usually not surprised by much."
Suddenly Sailor Moon noticed something. "Heyyyyy," she said, cutting short her argument with Mars, and pointing at Ryu. "That's the headband and gloves that I saw on that girl."
"Huh?" asked Ryu.
But Sailor Moon wasn't listening. "Mercury, take a look. It's the same headband and gloves that the girl I crashed into was wearing. Sakura! Why didn't I see it before?"
"You mean the girl on my mini-computer, Sailor Moon?" Mercury asked. "Another one of the four?"
"Kasugano Sakura?" said Ryu. "I actually know her quite well."
"You do?" Sailor Moon, Mercury and Mars all chorused.
Ryu nodded. "We've met a few times. She considers herself to be a very big fan of my work." He couldn't help but smile at the thought of the perky aspiring martial artist.
"Ryu gets more fans than I do," Ken added. "Doesn't seem fair sometimes."
They were suddenly interrupted by several loud groans. Everyone turned to see the other shoppers starting to get up. Now that they had regained consciousness, along with all the energy that was stolen from them by the Fire Bug, the people seemed none the worse for wear.
"Well, our work here seems to be done," Ryu said. "Let's go, Ken. We really should be getting back to our training."
Ken nodded. He looked back at the Senshi and bowed to them politely. "It was nice meeting you girls."
Then they both started to leave.
"We can't let them go," Mercury whispered to the other Senshi. "We might never see them again, and we need their help to defeat this new evil."
Mars groaned. "Do we have to? I think those two are just a couple of show-offs."
Jupiter and Venus were begging now too. "Don't let them leave! We might never meet two hotter guys!"
"Mercury's right, Mars," added Sailor Moon, softly. "We have to trust them, or we'll never get along."
"Oh, fine!" Mars rolled her eyes, but ran after them anyway. "Um, hey! Wait!"
Ryu and Ken both stopped and turned around to face Mars, who was now grinning.
"We . . . kinda can't save the planet without you two," she said.
"Save the planet?" Ryu repeated. "What are you talking about?"
The Senshi exchanged glances. Sailor Moon was the first to speak.
"I think we'd better tell them everything."