Merus reached the locomotive just in time to find the driver and his assistant tied up inside.
The Macareni Gang, however, was nowhere to be seen.
"They bailed out halfway through the tunnel," the driver explained as Merus freed them. "Must've had a ship waiting for them."
"And they took some of the Blue Aurum with them," his assistant added.
Merus looked toward the sky and quickly spotted a small spacecraft accelerating away from Planet Jung.
Inside, Pasta was already celebrating.
"See you later, Galactic Patrol idiots!"
His escape lasted until the ship slammed into something in open air and stopped so violently that all three Macareni siblings were thrown forward against the canopy.
When they peeled themselves away from the glass, Goku was floating directly in front of the ship with one hand pressed against its nose.
"You're not getting away." One of Pasta's siblings recoiled.
"Another Galactic Patrolman?!"
"He caught up to a spaceship by himself!"
Goku ignored their panic and called down toward Merus.
"Hey, Merus! I caught them!"
"Thank you, Goku."
Vegeta had been watching Merus instead, and something in the Angel's hand immediately caught his attention.
It looked suspiciously like a component from the criminals' getaway ship.
So much for not using Angel power.
Merus could claim all he wanted that he was restricting himself to mortal abilities, but Vegeta was fairly certain he had not seen an ordinary Galactic Patrol technique capable of stealing machinery out of a moving spacecraft from that distance.
Whatever Merus had done, the case was over.
The Macareni Gang were handcuffed and locked inside the detention compartment of the patrol ship, while the people of Planet Jung thanked Merus for recovering the stolen cargo.
Once they were back in space, Jaco marched over to the prisoners with all the swagger of someone who had personally defeated them.
"You three should feel honored. You were captured by the Galactic Patrol's finest!"
Goku glanced at him.
"You didn't do anything."
Jaco's triumphant pose lost some of its force.
Vegeta had already stopped caring about the robbery.
"When are we going after Moro?"
"We still don't know exactly where he is," Merus replied. "For now, we wait for the reconnaissance teams to report back."
His tone became more serious.
"And don't underestimate him when we do find him. Moro's power has no fixed ceiling. The more energy he obtains, the stronger he becomes."
Goku's interest sharpened.
"So he can just keep getting stronger?"
Before Merus could elaborate, Irico called from the controls.
"We've got something!"
Everyone crowded closer as new information appeared on the monitor.
"A reconnaissance unit found Moro," Irico said. "He's moving through Sector KT40. He hasn't made it very far from the prison yet."
Goku immediately looked at Jaco.
"Which direction is that?"
Jaco pointed through the viewport.
"Roughly that way."
"Okay. Let me see."
Goku focused on the indicated region of space.
Jaco watched him with growing confusion.
"What exactly are you doing?"
Vegeta had seen this ability enough times that nothing about it surprised him anymore.
"Kakarot is a Supreme Kai apprentice. Give him the direction and he can look across an enormous distance."
Jaco whipped around.
"Since when is Goku a Supreme Kai apprentice?!"
Vegeta gave him a dismissive look.
"I'm a God of Destruction apprentice. Try to keep up."
And that was only half of what Jaco did not know.
The man standing beside them as an ordinary Galactic Patrol officer was an Angel.
Compared to that, Goku and Vegeta's divine apprenticeships were hardly the strangest secret aboard the ship.
Goku's vision swept across the distant sector until he found a lone figure aboard another spacecraft.
Moro looked every bit as ancient as Merus had described. Dark blue skin stretched across an aged frame, enormous curved horns rose from his head, and a thick white beard hung beneath eyes so red that he looked as though he had not slept in centuries.
Goku studied him for only a moment.
Moro's eyes suddenly shifted.
They turned directly toward him.
Goku cut off the technique at once.
"What the heck?"
Vegeta immediately picked up on his unease.
"You found him?"
"I did, but… he noticed me."
Vegeta had been preparing to look for himself.
"He noticed you from that distance?"
"Don't try it yet. I don't understand how he did it, but the second I looked at him, it felt like he looked straight back."
That was enough to make Vegeta reconsider.
If Moro could detect someone observing him across interstellar distances, then Merus had not exaggerated his abilities after all.
"What about his ki? How strong is he?"
"That's the weird part. It isn't."
Vegeta expected the explanation to involve God ki.
"So he has divine energy? Something like Zamasu?"
"No." Goku searched for a way to describe what he had sensed. "His ki itself doesn't feel that powerful. It's just… horrible."
Jaco did not like where this was going.
"Horrible how?"
Goku's expression had lost its usual excitement.
"It feels like I'm sensing thousands and thousands of people screaming at the same time."
That description made considerably more sense to Merus.
"Moro consumes the life energy of entire planets and turns it into his own power. What Goku sensed wasn't simply Moro's ki. It was the accumulated energy of the lives he has taken."
Even Vegeta's expression tightened at that.
"So all of those lives are still part of his energy."
"In a sense. It's also one of the reasons Moro has survived for so long."
Goku tried to imagine the scale involved.
"How many people has he killed?"
"You're thinking too small. With Moro, the number is better measured in planets."
Jaco suddenly seemed much happier that Goku and Vegeta were taking this assignment.
Goku thought of the Gods of Destruction.
"So kind of like when Beerus destroys planets?"
"Don't compare the two," Vegeta snapped. "A God of Destruction removes worlds as part of the balance of the universe. Most targets are already useless or marked for destruction. Moro devours inhabited planets to feed himself."
Goku remembered Ken explaining something similar long ago.
"Oh, yeah. Ken told me that before." His attention returned to the distant presence of Moro. "Still, eating entire planets for power… this guy's bad news."
Far away in Sector KT40, Moro remained aboard his own ship, staring toward the region of space where he had felt the strange observation.
Nothing was visible.
That did not matter.
Someone had been watching him.
One of the escaped prisoners traveling with him noticed the change in his expression.
"Something wrong?"
"Someone was looking at me."
Fear immediately entered the man's voice.
"The Galactic Patrol already found us?"
Moro offered no answer. His attention drifted instead across the vast universe beyond the window, where countless populated worlds burned like distant promises.
"So much life has spread while I was imprisoned."
Greed warmed his ancient eyes.
"Well… you were locked away for more than ten million years," his companion said carefully. "A lot changed."
Moro suddenly hunched forward as weakness passed through him.
The prisoner moved closer, though not close enough to risk touching him.
"Are you all right?"
"Searching for life at this distance is already near the limit of what I can manage." Moro's irritation deepened as he felt how little magic remained within him. "My power has barely begun to return."
"We're almost there. Just hold on a little longer."
The weakness vanished beneath Moro's anticipation.
"Good. I've waited long enough."
His companion immediately pushed the engines harder, sending the ship accelerating toward its destination.
Back aboard the Galactic Patrol ship, Jaco studied the route Moro was following.
"There's something I don't understand. Why go into that sector? There shouldn't be any inhabited planets around there."
Goku remembered the region differently.
"I've been there before."
Vegeta turned toward him.
"When?"
"When we went to get Dende."
That was all Vegeta needed.
"New Namek."
"Yeah." Goku's concern immediately deepened. "The Namekians keep their planet hidden. Moro shouldn't have been able to find it easily."
Merus had already reached the same conclusion.
"If his magic has recovered enough to detect life energy across space, hiding the planet would no longer matter."
Goku followed the thought to its obvious end.
"If he found New Namek, then what he wants is—"
A voice came from the detention compartment behind them.
"The magical balls that can grant any wish?"
Pasta wore a smug smile behind the bars, while his siblings looked equally pleased with themselves.
Jaco hurried over.
"You mean the Dragon Balls? How do you know about them?"
"I heard about them in the Galactic Prison. One of the inmates was a deserter from Frieza's army." Pasta leaned comfortably against the wall. "He told us Frieza once went to Namek looking for those balls."
Vegeta's mouth curled in disgust.
"Frieza's leftovers never knew when to keep their mouths shut."
"I didn't care at the time," Pasta continued. "You can't sell some ridiculous legend about wish-granting balls, so I figured it was nonsense."
His smile widened when he saw everyone's reaction.
"But apparently it wasn't."
Jaco immediately regretted revealing anything.
"The deserter was looking for someone strong enough to help him find the Dragon Balls," Pasta added. "If he told us, he definitely would've told Moro. Moro was the strongest prisoner in the entire Galactic Prison."
Vegeta no longer had any doubt.
"He's going to New Namek for the Dragon Balls."
"That's our most likely explanation," Merus agreed.
Goku was already thinking one step ahead.
"What would Moro wish for?"
Pasta answered before anyone else could.
"If it were me? I'd use the first wish to wipe out the entire Galactic Patrol."
Jaco marched toward the cell.
"You shut your mouth!"
Pasta was enjoying himself too much to listen.
"The guy spent ten million years locked up by you people. Imagine how much he hates the Galactic Patrol."
"That's enough from you!"
Jaco slammed the cell shutter closed.
"You're going back to prison, and this time I hope they keep you there for the rest of your life!"
The laughter behind the shutter did little to improve his mood.
Merus turned back toward the navigation display.
If Moro truly intended to use the Dragon Balls, then the situation had just become much more dangerous.
Aboard Moro's ship, the escaped prisoner kept his attention on the controls while trying to remain useful enough that Moro would continue needing him.
"You said your magic started coming back a few years ago, right?"
"Yes. Once enough of it returned, escaping the Galactic Prison was simple."
"I still can't thank you enough for taking me with you."
Moro barely acknowledged the gratitude.
There was something far more important he wanted confirmed.
"This information about the Dragon Balls. You're certain they possess the power you described?"
"They do. They can grant any wish." The man hurried to sweeten the answer. "And the Namekian Dragon Balls grant three wishes."
Moro's smile grew.
"Three."
The prisoner swallowed before reminding him of their agreement.
"Moro… about those wishes. You promised that after you use yours, you'd send me somewhere far away. A frontier planet where neither the Galactic Patrol nor Frieza's army can find me."
"I remember." Moro had no objection to sounding generous when generosity cost him nothing. "I need only one wish. The other two can be yours."
Relief flooded the man's face.
"Thank you! Really, thank you! You're a good man!"
Moro smiled without correcting him.
Peace still covered New Namek.
Inside Grand Elder Moori's home, the One-Star Dragon Ball rested before him while he and two young Namekians offered a quiet prayer.
"The peace we enjoy is a blessing," Moori told the children. "Never forget to be grateful for it, and never take that peace for granted."
The two young Namekians bowed respectfully before following him outside.
Their village was exactly as it should have been.
Farmers tended the land, others worked around their homes, and a few villagers sat together over a board game without the slightest reason to fear the sky above them.
Moori looked fondly at the two children beside him.
"Go on. You can play now."
They hurried into the village, leaving the Grand Elder to watch over a world that had no idea Moro was already coming for it.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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