CELL
Home Planet: Earth
Race: Organic Artificial Human
Fusions: None; Absorbs Artificial Humans 17 and 18 temporarily, though.
Appearances: Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT

Cell is first introduced midway through the Artificial Human saga. He's another Artificial Human of Dr. Gero's creation, but he's an Artificial Human like no other. After Dr. Gero died, his computer continued work on Cell, and years later, Cell was completed. His mission was to absorb Artificial Humans 17 and 18 and become the strongest being ever created.

Cell was created using the cells of the greatest fighters in the world. He's got cells from Goku, Piccolo, Vegeta, and many others, and he also knows their techniques - and when Freeza came to Earth, he got some of those cells, too. So, you'd think Cell would be the pinnacle of strength, speed, and overall fighting ability, wouldn't you? Well, he is. At least for a while.

When Cell first shows up, he starts draining the life out of humans. No one survives after seeing him though, so it's always some sort of unexplained phenomenon. After Piccolo rejoined with Kami, he came back down to Earth, and was the first Z Senshi to face off against Cell. At the time, he was the only one who had a chance against Cell, but using the Taiyo-ken technique, Cell escaped.

Now that we've got his entry to the show done, let's talk about Cell himself. When Cell first comes on the scene, he's 27 years old. He arrives via time machine, and as if you were getting confused enough by timelines as it was, Cell is actually from a third timeline. When Cell first emerged from Dr. Gero's lab, he found a world in ruins. No one was left, and Artificial Humans 17 and 18 were no where to be found. How could he attain his perfect form? He came across a boy named Trunks, who had a time machine. He easily killed Trunks and stole the time machine, but he was too large to get inside. He de-evolved to a larval stage, got in the vehicle, and went back in time.

After arriving in the present timeline, Cell has to develop for about four years. He's in a cocoon-type shell for those four years, and eventually, he's ready. Shortly after Cell finishes developing, his time machine is discovered. Bulma tells Trunks about it and they go off to investigate it. They find an old, rusty time machine, it's not in good shape, but it belongs to Trunks, beyond a shadow of a doubt. They don't know where it could have come from, but Trunks knows that Mirai Bulma only made one time machine, and besides that, his engraving of the word "Hope!!!" is left on the side.

This is about the time when the people in the cities begin disappearing, and Cell begins to wreak havoc on the world. He goes about, sucking the life out of large groups of people at a time, and when he finally gets his chance to absorb the other Artificial Humans, no force in existence, not heaven nor hell would deny him his goal.

He arrives at the site of the battle between Piccolo and Artificial Human 17. Number 17 takes a few shots at him, he's unsuccessful, Piccolo interferes, and has his neck broken. Everyone actually fears Piccolo dead as his ki disappears, but he survives - narrowly. After Piccolo's out of the way, a short battle between 17 and Cell takes place, but it's no contest. Just as 17 is about to be absorbed, the silent warrior, Artificial Human 16 steps forward. Number 16 and Cell fight it out for a while, but eventually, Cell manages to absorb Number 17 an Number 16 can no longer provide any real challenge. Tenshinhan steps up and fires off some Shin Kikohou's in order to delay Cell while the Artificial Humans escape, and escape they do.

Finally, Ten runs out of energy and collapses. Just as Cell prepares to kill him, Son Goku arrives and takes him and Piccolo away via Shunkan Idou. Cell sets off to find Number 18.

During his search, he runs into Vegeta, who has just emerged from the Room of Spirit and Time. He becomes the first character to go Ultimate Super Saiya-jin Stage 2 and whomps Cell's ass for a while. When Cell starts talking about how much stronger he'll be when he becomes Perfect, Vegeta really can't resist, and lets him look for Number 18.

Trunks will have nothing of that though, and after removing Vegeta from the equation, Trunks takes on Cell. Eventually, a Taiyo-ken allows Cell to simply ignore Trunks and Kuririn and stroll on over to the temporarily blind Number 18. Finally, Cell has reached Perfection.

Vegeta is no longer a match for him, but gives it a shot anyway and could have won with an incredible Final Flash if not for Cell's regenerative ability. Vegeta's knocked out and rescued by Kuririn while Trunks takes on Cell. Trunks seems to be doing all right in Ultimate Super Saiya-jin Stage 3, a level never reached by Vegeta, but Cell eventually reveals that he could easily defeat Trunks if he wanted to. His Saiya-jin cells, however, desire stronger opponents. Although he's stronger than Trunks and Vegeta, he's impressed by their drastic, near-instantaneous improvement, and asks Trunks if he could get much stronger if given more time. Trunks replies that he could, and Cell announces the Cell Game, a Tenkaichi Budokai-like tournament to take place in ten days. The Cell Game would pit Cell against whoever wanted to fight him, and it would just keep going until Cell was defeated or there were no more contestants. If Cell wins, he kills everyone. If he loses, he...doesn't.

After leaving Trunks, Cell borrows a television station to announce Cell's Game. Nine days of worldwide fear follow as the Z Senshi train, both in the Room of Spirit and Time and on the Earth. Finally, the Cell Game begins.

The first contestants are followers of Mr. Satan, followed by Satan himself. All lose pretty badly. FInally, Son Goku steps up. He and Cell seem to be doing pretty well for a while and look about equal, but as Goku's energy begins to run low, Cell's doesn't. Finally, Goku throws in the towel and names Cell's next opponent. To everyone's amazement, he announces, "It's your turn, Gohan."

No one has confidence in Gohan except Goku, but Gohan gives it a shot anyway. He's stronger than anyone else thought and actually seems to do pretty well until Cell decides to use his full speed, at which point the disparity between them becomes quite apparent. Gohan realizes that Goku wanted him to unleash his hidden power, and that's why he chose Gohan. Gohan tells Cell this, and Cell becomes interested, so he does his best to bring out this power. He sends out Cell Juniors, miniature Cells, to go fight the Z Senshi on the hill. This doesn't quite do it. Number 16, who came to the Cell Game and was destroyed earlier, has his still-functional head thrown to Gohan. He gives a small speech, then the head is smashed. That's about all Gohan can take and he becomes the first character to reach Super Saiya-jin 2.

Gohan easily takes care of the Cell Juniors, then cripples Cell himself with two punches. Cell spits out Number 18 and plays his trump card, self destruction. Son Goku realizes there's no other chance. He says goodbye and teleports Cell to Kaiousama's planet. Cell explodes and they're all killed.

However, one of Cell's cells survives and regenerates his entire body. He receives a tremendous power upgrade and now holds a Perfect form without Number 18, and is even stronger than before. Vegeta attacks him after he kills Trunks and gets beaten up. Gohan's arm is shredded while protecting Vegeta from what would be a killing ki blast. Cell powers up a final Kamehameha to fire against the seriously injured Gohan. Goku contacts Gohan telepathically via Kaiousama and urges Gohan to fight back, even though Gohan thinks it's all over. Gohan fires his own Kamehameha and the blasts collide. After a long battle, Gohan's Kamehameha finally overtakes Cell's and Cell is completely destroyed, down to the very last cell.

That's not all we have to hear from Cell, though. In Hell, he's quite the troublemaker alongside Freeza, King Cold, and the Ginyu Tokusentai. Cell and the others are put in their place by Son Goku and Paikuhan (mostly Paikuhan), though. At the end of the Majin Buu saga, he and Freeza watch the battle with Buu from Hell, and in DBGT, he and Freeza fight Goku when he gets trapped in Hell during the Super 17 ordeal.

However, as should probably be expected, Cell as a major force in the DBZ universe is more or less non-existent after his death.

Written by Dash