Author's Note:

This story is the connecting point between my other three stories 'Martial Artists in Spira', 'Chaos Scream' and 'Intergalactic Bounty Hunter Shinji'. If you want to follow the whole story, please read it in the correct order.

If you want to know what happened before Ranma came here, please read 'Martial Artists in Spira' first.

Right after Ranma vanished from the cliff in Spira, where he had said goodbye to Akane and his friends, he appeared outside a huge building that was floating on a big chunk of rocks in the middle of outer space.

Ranma looked up as far as he could see, but still couldn't see the top of this enormous skyscraper. There was nothing else around here, only this floating rock with the building.

"Ranma," Bahamut said with a proud voice. "Inside this building are the Esper Headquarters."

"Wow," Ranma muttered. "Does every Esper live there?"

'Noooo,' Carbuncle replied. 'This is just our working place. Our real home is much more comfortable. But we Esper work efficiently, and a nice landscape would only distract us from our work.'

"Right," Bahamut nodded. "Well, let's get inside. I bet the big boss is impatiently awaiting your arrival."

"What?" Ranma shouted in surprise. "I thought you were the king of the Espers."

Bahamut chuckled. "I AM the king of the dragons, true... and once, I even was the boss, when our company still was young... But later, my son, Bahamut Zero, took over the company and turned it into something much bigger... Well, my son isn't the boss anymore, but you see, that was a very, very long time ago."

"And... how are you gonna enter the building?" Ranma asked. He looked at the double doors. They were impressive, but not as big as a creature like Bahamut.

The black dragon chuckled. "Like this." And when he walked towards the doors, they suddenly grew in size. He could easily grab the doorknob and enter. A loud assortment of different voices came from inside.

Carbuncle floated towards the door, and it shrunk down to child-size. 'You coming, Ranma? The boss is waiting.'

Ranma scratched his head and followed his Esper friend. And when he approached the door, it grew back to its original size.

Inside, he saw the same mass of different creatures as Nodoka had seen on her first visit in here. Bahamut waved while he waded through the crowd, after a trail of larger creatures that were approaching a lift especially made for big beings as themselves. "Later, you two. I have to take a look at my office... I bet there is a big pile of letters on my desk that no one has answered while I was away. Well, it had only been a few 100 years... Well, see ya!" And he followed the colossal form of a Minotaur into the lift.

Carbuncle lead Ranma into the human-sized lift at the other end of the hall. 'Come, the boss' office is at the main floor.'

Ranma got into the cabin, careful not to step on some moogles. Carbuncle floated up to the buttons and pressed onto the number 100.

Slowly, the elevator began moving. Not many other Espers were entering, only a few moogles with letters.

Ranma got impatient. "Can't this thing move a little faster?"

Carbuncle shrugged. 'Sure.' He pressed a button that read 'Turbodrive' and held onto a handle that was attached to the wall. 'Hold on tight, Ranma,' he said.

And suddenly, the whole lift shot upwards like a missile. Ranma's body got thrown onto the cabin's floor forcefully, while the moogles had to be careful not to lose their letters.

BING! The door opened.

Carbuncle floated outside, followed by a slightly flattened Ranma. 'Here we are, Ranma... the top floor!'

It was nothing spectacular, really. It was just a short hall leading towards a big, crescent-shaped room. A big desk was standing in the middle of the room, and behind it, another door was leading to the main office of the building.

Carbuncle floated up to the gorgeous woman that sat behind the desk. 'Hello, honey,' he said. 'I'm home!'

The Esper woman smiled and scooped the little imp up into a big hug. "Bunky! I missed you! Smooch!" And she gave him a big kiss.

Carbuncle giggled as she released him. 'I'm happy to see you too, hon.' He gestured towards Ranma. 'Darling, that is my new master, Ranma Saotome, who saved Spira from Sin. Ranma, this is my wife: Siren! The most beautiful Esper that ever lived - and the secretary of the boss.'

"You charmer," Siren giggled. "I'm still not sure if Shiva deserves that title more than me."

Carbuncle coughed. 'Well, I'm not going to argue with Ifrit about that... but you know my opinion. Um, honey... we're here to see the boss. He knows we're coming, right?"

"I'll ask him, sweetheart... just a moment!" She pressed a button on her communication system and said: "Carbuncle and Ranma Saotome are here to see you, sir."

"Excellent," a pleasant voice answered. "Send them in!"

She smiled. "You heard him, he's waiting for you. Go inside!"

'Thanks, Siren! Come on, Ranma!"

Siren raised a brow. "What, no goodbye-kiss?"

'Um, sure thing, honey...' He floated over to her and gave her another kiss. 'Later...'

Ranma smirked as they walked towards the back door. "Hey, you got really lucky, guy..." He sighed. "But when I think about Akane... I think I'm a lucky man, too..."

They entered the next room. 'Hello, big boss!'

Ranma looked around in astonishment. This room really was something.

And then his gaze fell onto the person in front of him... and he gasped. It was...

"Goku?" Ranma gasped in surprise. "B-b-but how can you be here? You're just an Anime character!"

The Saiyan warrior smirked. "Well, that was the idea of King Kai, after I finished my battle against Buu. He told my story to a fellow Kai, and he was so excited when he heard my adventures, that King Kai made them into an Anime and Manga series - at least in the universes where Saiyans don't exist." He grinned. "But I was pretty surprised when I saw how many fans I had. But what surprised me even more was that Vegeta has nearly as much fans as I."

Ranma scratched his head. "But... what are you doing here? Aren't you dead? I mean... after you defeated Buu..."

"Yeah, well, things got pretty boring after that. The tournaments of the Kais just weren't as exciting as they used to be. But then King Kai told me about a special tournament, held in this world: The King of Espers Cup! The winner would be the leader of the Esper realm. Well, not really their king, more like their 'big boss'. The Espers were stronger than any warrior I fought before, so I decided to take part in this tournament. My opponents were pretty tough, especially that dragon, Bahamut, and that spiky-haired warrior called Cloud." He grinned again. "But in the end, I defeated the former boss, Bahamut Zero... I was the champion... and I became the boss. Pretty cool, huh?"

"I guess so..." mumbled Ranma. He still couldn't believe that he was talking to Son Goku, the legendary hero of the Anime series Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z.

Goku jumped over the little wall that was between the stone ground Ranma was standing on and the grass field on which he just did his training exercises. "So, you're the leader of the new hero squad, eh? Well, I gotta say: It was pretty sweet how you toasted that Sin monster. And I like how you stand up for your friends."

"Leader?" Ranma looked at Carbuncle. "You didn't tell me I was going to be the leader."

'Well, originally, I didn't know. But when the boss saw your true powers in the first fight against Vegnagun, he was very impressed. So he decided to make you the leader of your future team.'

Ranma sighed. "Well, I'm not used to being a leader, but I will do my best."

Goku grinned and patted the pig-tailed hero on his back... so hard that he fell over. "That's what I wanted to hear. You and your squad will be the major defensive force of the surrounding worlds, I'm sure of it."

"What do I have to do before I can go back to Spira - or Nerima? I mean, I told Akane it would take several years, but..."

"Well, you and your team members have to be trained under our coaches. The standard education time of apprentice heroes is two or three years. And when you learned how to work as a team, you will get your first mission. Afterwards, you can call yourselves true 'Defenders of the Universe'."

"Um, okay, but who are my teammates? And are they all here already?"

Goku made a cocky stance. "All right! Time for you to meet your first teammate!"

He pulled out a small device that looked like a cell phone and said: "Siren, you can call in the next guest."

"Right away, sir," Carbuncles wife responded.

Goku put away the cell phone. "You'll like this fighter, Ranma. I think the two of you will get along just fine."

The door opened.

Ranma's first impression was that the humanoid animal that approached him had black fur. But while the female hedgehog walked up to him, Ranma could see that he was wrong: Her fur wasn't exactly black, but a deep green. She also had some purple stripes on her head.

She extended a hand and smiled. "I am Pluto, called the 'Ultimate Life Form'... First Version!"

Ranma blinked, then grinned and accepted the handshake. "Hi there! The name's Ranma Saotome, martial artist and summoner."

"I take it you must be one of my new team members," Pluto said coolly while striding through the room. "And who's this cute lil' guy?" she asked while admiring Carbuncle's floating form.

Ranma laughed. "His name is 'Bunky', and he's married."

"Aw, what a bummer," she said in a playful voice. "He really is cute."

'It's 'Carbuncle', you hear?' Carbuncle snorted angrily. 'Only Siren may call me that.'

Ranma grinned. "Whatever you say, 'Bunky'!"

Goku laughed. "Well, I think that's enough. Pluto, why don't you show Ranma some of your abilities?"

Pluto smirked. "Sure thing, big boss!" She held out a hand and aimed for one of the training dummies situated on Goku's training grounds.

A purple shimmering ball of energy appeared before her hand, about the size of a small melon.

"Chaos Scream," the dark green hedgehog shouted, and tossed the ball towards the target. The training dummy flew apart in a shower of splinters.

Pluto rubbed her hands. "How's that?"

Ranma whistled. "Not too bad... but check this out!" He cupped his hands and formed a ball of ki, surrounded by a magical fire aura. "Magical Moko Takabisha: Flame Sphere!" And another training dummy went down in flames.

"Hey, hold it, Ranma! At that rate, we won't have enough dummies for training left."

'I thought YOU are the one that breaks most of them,' Carbuncle pointed out.

Goku grinned. "You have a point... but enough about me! All right, you two! Come along, and I'll bring you to your new quarters."

While they were leaving the room, Pluto had to think about something.

'Strange how things turned out,' she pondered. 'In my previous life, I would have tried anything possible to avert these turns of events... but now that I'm an 'Ultimate Lifeform', my view of life isn't exactly the same...'

And her thoughts went back to that day, when a floating light changed everything about her role in life...

Author's Note:

Now the story continues with Pluto's adventures. Please read 'Chaos Scream' next. The next chapter of 'Ranma's inter-dimensional team of heroes' will continue at the point after Pluto's story is being told.