Ranma and all related characters are property of Rumiko Takahashi. Candidate for Goddess is not mine either. I am merely using these characters and storyline for entertainment purposes only.

Pre-chapter Author's Notes: I have seen the series Candidate for Goddess, but haven't seen the actual continuation in the manga series...from what I have heard at least. So I am going to make some assumptions about what happens later and change quite a few things. Also, I will be mostly narrarating from Ranma and the candidates' perspective. You will have to have seen Candidate for Goddess to really get what is happening to the other pilots. However, I am a total Ranma fan, and have read through the whole manga series. This fic starts after Volume 38 a while after the ruined wedding scene. It also starts a little more than a year BEFORE Candidate for Goddess starts.

Update! Spelling and grammar mistakes corrected. I don't have a copy of Microsoft Word, but I managed to bring it to the labs and check through it that way

Candidate Ranma for Goddess

Prologue - Contact

It has been 3 years since the Victim had destroyed the second to last planet. Scout 2352 came into the isolated system expecting the usual desolate, empty system. They were quite surprised at the clear blue of a planet with water and the green that indicated life.

"Scout 2352 reporting! We've found a lively planet, sir!" the officer at the scanner unit said, "Confirmed reports of lots of oxygen and nitrogen. What the..." he stopped his report as his scanners started picking up something in orbit around the planet as they continued getting closer to it. "Sir! Sir! I have satellite activity. Lots of them! I can't believe it! We have a second Zion! It's OURS!"

"Scan population below to determine whether they're human and if affirmative, begin scan for potential candidates at once!" came the immediate reply from GOA HQ.

"Yes sir!" They were new in range of the planet and could indeed determine that, yes, they were indeed human, but they were hardly at all advanced. They were still using chemical rockets to bring the satellites to orbit and were still using radio and other primitive slower-than-light means of communication. Initial scans also indicated there was hardly any readings of the power plants that linked man and machine anywhere on the surface of the planet. They still had to use hydroelectric or fossil fuel based electricity power plants. There were a few nuclear power plants, but they were somewhat unstable compared to what the scientists on GOA could build. They came into far orbit and, making sure they were cloaked in order not to alarm too many people before they were ready, began the full scan that would check each person's capabilities from orbit. This included the initial testing of EX and OE. They expected to be there for a while, so they began converting the little shuttle into a sort of permanent shelter in space, complete with cold sleep capsules. After the second orbit, the powerful computer had already cataloged every person with its own seperate ID. Now came the task of scanning each person. It kept a running update subroutine that would add in those who were born while the scan was taking place. This...was going to take a while...

--

It was approximately 1 year after the beginning of their search when they found him. Compared to what the world's computers identified him as one Saotome Ranma. Strangely, the ground computer also listed a Saotome Ranko (also cross linked as a Tendo Ranko) but it dismissed that as a possible mistake. It had found names before, but no person attached to them. It may have just been a mistake on the ground computers, after all. The computer began its insistent chirp and arose the cold-sleeping inhabitants. They found one! Among the billions of people on Earth, they found their candidate. They immediately started up the reconverted shuttle and began their descent to Earth.

--

Ranma was sick of this. After the ruined wedding it seemed that Akane had lost all interest with continuing what budding relationship they had. She still called him pervert, still malleted him, and still jumped to conclusions without even facing the facts. The other fiancées weren't making it any easier for him. Neither was the male component that ranged around Nerima. Mousse still said that Ranma was hounding Shampoo and attacked on sight. Shampoo was still glomping him and running him over with the Bicycle of Death. Cologne was still calling him Son-in-law, although she seemed to be laying off a bit since Saffron. Ucchan was still trying to hang on as the "Cute fiancée". Kodachi still tried to drug him or kill his girl-half. Kuno was still spouting really bad poetry and trying to kill him, or date his girl-half. Ryouga was still trying to kill him over something that he thought was putting Akane down. And Akane...well, she still malleted him. Couldn't they tell he was beginning to get a bit ticked off? He was beginning to vent some of his frustration off onto his father. Speaking of which, THEY ALSO were making it tougher on him. Both Genma AND Soun. They were still insisting on the marriage. He honestly didn't know how much more of this he could take. So one week ago, he packed his backpack in the dead of the night and left a note saying he was going on a training trip . . . ALONE! It didn't state how long. It didn't state where. It didn't state WHY. THEY ought to know! If THEY didn't, THEY don't deserve his attentions for the moment. He was getting too stressed out. Which is exactly why he's here, far from civilization, and far from anywhere he used to train. Take them a bit longer to find him, he figured. He was training his body, and his soul. He wanted to rest from the stresses of Nerima Life.

As he trained this morning, he felt it at the very edge of his senses. Whatever it was, it was large. And LOUD! And coming this way . . very fast. From the sound of it, it sounded about halfway between a jet engine, or several of them, and a large resonating crystal. It certainly began to unnerve him. It was coming from above. He looked up just in time to see . . . something burst from the clouds.

He didn't know what it was, but it was cloaked. It looked like a giant, clear . . . plane coming through the clouds, but it was too oval shaped to be a plane. It also had too short wings to hold it up. He made out the shape of it as the wispy streams of water vapor parted around its bulk.

How could that thing fly at all with those wings? he wondered.

It seemed like it was going to come to him. It also looked like it was coming down at an angle that was WAY too steep for a plane. However, it was slowing down, it seemed. It was getting into the twilight zone for Ranma. He knew enough about planes and aerodynamics to know that it shouldn't be doing that. And it was also clear. Clearer then anything man-made could be.

He briefly lost sight of it when the last wisps of cloud cover left its edges, as suddenly, it shimmered into view. It landed and a ramp opened on the side.

Alien contact? he wondered. He finally figured it must either be that, or some super-secret government project from the USA. Though why the States would want to land here in Japan at all was beyond him. He decided on the aliens. He hoped they were nice.

A man came into view. Ranma was startled once again. So it MUST be some kind of secret government project. The man looked him up and down.

In a somewhat surprised voice he said, "I thought you'd be a bit younger. Oh well. Mr. Saotome Ranma?"

Ranma jumped and nodded hesitantly. How did this guy know his name? He also looked to be somewhat Japanese. A co-operative government project? But that didn't explain what he was doing here asking for him by name.

"I have one HECK of a proposal for you..."