The Shadow Dragons

Instead of granting wishes, the Dragon Balls produce Black Smoke Shenron, a sinister dragon who mocks Pan's demands and flaunts his superiority. He lights a cigar, levitates the seven balls around himself, and then absorbs them into his body before releasing seven Shadow Dragons across the world. A shimmering aurora fills the sky as the creatures scatter.

King Kai contacts the group telepathically, but Old Kai interrupts with a lecture. He explains that every positive wish ever made with the Dragon Balls generated an equal amount of negative energy. Without a hundred years between wishes for that energy to dissipate naturally, the corruption reached a tipping point and was unleashed as the Shadow Dragons.

Mr. Popo arrives with a warning: a planet called Eros experienced a Shadow Dragon, and shortly afterward, the planet and its entire galaxy vanished. Bulma and Old Kai argue about who is to blame for overusing the Dragon Balls. Bulma shifts responsibility to Dende, then tries to rally the group behind her, but no one takes her side.

In a moment of surprising maturity, Goku accepts full responsibility without argument. He calmly prepares to fix the mess, turning down Gohan's offer to join him. Overconfident after achieving Super Saiyan 4, Goku insists on going alone. His family sends him off with well wishes, and Pan quietly slips away to follow him.

Flying over the devastated landscape, Goku witnesses the destruction the Shadow Dragons have already caused. Each dragon claims a domain matching its elemental nature: Nuova Shenron erupts from a volcano, Eis Shenron coats himself in mountain ice, Rage Shenron descends as lightning into a city, Oceanus Shenron decimates a town with a tornado, Naturon Shenron bursts from the ground, and Haze Shenron pollutes everything within reach.

Goku realizes he can sense the dragons' power but not the Dragon Balls themselves. Pan reveals she has been following him all along and brought Giru, whose built-in Dragon Radar is their only way to track the balls. They locate Haze Shenron terrorizing a village, and Pan charges in with a flying kick. To everyone's surprise, the two-star dragon appears pathetically weak.