Chapter Text
Goku was dead.
Dying from a heart disease only a few years following the battle with Frieza on Namek, the Z fighters were left in disarray.
And that's when the Androids arrived. Within hours, they completely obliterated what remained of the Z fighters, except for two young men;
Son Gohan, and Trunks Briefs. Gohan took Trunks under his wing, training him up over several years to beat back the android threat.
And then Gohan died. Looking over his dead body was Trunks who, so overwhelmed by sadness and rage, tapped into the Super Saiyan transformation and killed both Android 17 and 18.
Years after, Trunks procured a cure for Goku's heart virus, and with the threat gone Trunks set out for Bulma's time machine. He went back to three years before the Android's arrival and warned everyone about what was to come, as well as giving Goku a cure for his eventual heart virus.
Knowing nothing would be made better in his own timeline, but at least carrying the hope that their timeline would not be as bad, Trunks returned to his timeline.
And then Trunks DIED. Promptly after returning to his future, he was ambushed and killed by none other than Dr. Gero of the Red Ribbon army's greatest creation…
CELL.
Created from the cells of Goku, Vegeta, and the rest of the Z fighters, Cell was Dr. Gero's final hate-letter to Goku for everything he'd done to him. Not long after Cell was created, his infantile form looking not too different from an oversized cockroach, the Androids turned on Dr. Gero and killed him.
Cell's desire was to be the greatest, to be perfect, and to do so he had to assimilate his brethren. There was one problem, though; the Androids in this time were all dead. So what did he do?
He took Trunks’ time machine, and went back to the present.
Key info:
- Height: around 7’0
- Belongs in Kamen Rider with all that bug-man stuff
- Ego larger than Mt. Fuji
- Incredibly intelligent
- Owes most of his fanbase to DBZ Abridged
- Mascot of the GOAT DevilArtemis
At minimum, imperfect Cell is stronger than Androids 16-20, since he's Gero's ultimate creation. The Androids themselves should be stronger than Frieza, who was casually busting planets like they were nothing. In Bardock's special episode, we see King Vegeta destroy three planets just by raising his hand, and Frieza was hundreds of thousands of times above his level!
Upon returning to the past, Cell was confronted by Piccolo and Android 17, whom he easily overpowered despite Piccolo absolutely styling on him.
Cell absorbed android 17 with his tail and upgraded to his second form. Now looking more man than insect, he was a lot more… tactful than in his first one. His upgraded tact was his greatest asset; in his battle against Vegeta he was able to use the Saiyan's natural battle instinct to convince him to stop fighting and let him absorb android 18; he had Saiyan DNA in him, so he knew how battle-hungry they were.
And so, with that clever manipulation, Cell was allowed to absorb android 18 and become…
PERFECT CELL.
In this form, he was stronger than anyone who had come before, and any of the Z fighters. He easily beat Vegeta and left where they'd fought. Later, he declared on television that he was hosting “The Cell games”, a tournament welcoming any number of challengers from the world, but if they all failed to defeat him he would blow the planet up.
Cell had developed an ego; he believed himself to be the strongest alive and before destroying the planet he wanted everyone to know that and fear that fact.
The Z fighters all stepped up to face Cell, but none were enough to beat him. Hell, before fighting Gohan, Goku literally gave Cell a senzu bean! Talk about tough love.
Being composed of the Cells of the Z fighters, Cell could do absolutely anything they could, including Ki attacks like the kamehameha, instant transmission, and more! He could even use Frieza's planet busting death beam attack, a condensed purple beam fired out of the tip of an outstretched index finger.
Cell wasn't just a copycat, though; he could undergo mitosis and create clones of himself, clones that were just as powerful as him, and even procreate! He pumped out a bunch of Cell Jr's, small, blue versions of Perfect Cell that almost rivalled Cell himself in strength!
Most of all, though, was his regeneration; as long as even one cell remained of his body, Cell could fully regenerate his form like no damage had ever been done to him. This was demonstrated when Cell, after getting beat up by SSJ2 Gohan a bunch, spat out Android 18, inflated and literally self-destructed! He aimed to destroy the planet with this, though a sacrifice from Goku made sure the attack happened in Otherworld, rather than Earth.
And guess what? Cell came back from literally killing himself! His zenkai boost from self-destructing was so great, that he'd amassed enough Ki to destroy the solar system!
Let's take a look at that statement, since the Solar system in dragon ball is quite different to our own. A quote from a guidebook explains just what the solar system in Dragon Ball is:
"The Universe is the Space that extends infinitely and embraces all Forms that exist in the World. In the Universe, there are Nebulae containing countless Stars and Galaxies containing countless Nebulae. Each Galaxy has its own God. Earth resides in the Solar System, a Galactic Nebula at the Edge of the Northern Galaxy." - Daizenshuu 7, Page 44
From this quote, we can infer that Dragon Ball's solar system isn't contained in a nebula, but literally is a nebula. Nebulae are part of the matter that exists in space between Star Systems. They often span dozens of light years in diameter and contain thousands of Stars. Assuming that the solar system is as large as the Orion Nebula, for Cell to destroy the Dragon Ball solar system, it would require 6.061e+58 Joules of Kinetic energy.
That's about 1.45×10^49 tons of TNT, 6.06×10^35 times stronger than the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs!
After self destructing, Cell came back with a vengeance, killing a lot of the present Z fighters, including a different timeline's version of Trunks, and going effectively Super Saiyan, gold aura and all!
This wasn't even the strongest Cell got to, by the way; when transforming into Perfect Cell, in Dragon Ball Kai: Episode 79 the Namekians on New Namek noted they felt an immense, evil power that couldn't just destroy Earth…
But the whole universe.
According to the Daizenshuu guidebook, the universe in dragon ball is infinite in size. So, Cell could destroy an infinite sized universe in a finite amount of time; this would give Cell not just light-speed, but infinite speed.
All of these factors went into giving Cell an even bigger ego than he already had, to the point that even when Gohan still fought, and clashed his beam with Cell's, he did not fret. Lightning appeared in his gold aura, too, as if he was going super saiyan 2 like Gohan had.
His advantage didn't last long, though; the one thing that always seems to overpower these egotistical villains right as they're on the cusp of winning is the power of friendship, or love, or whatever. Empowered by the Z fighters cheering him on and memories of his father, Gohan's kamehameha overpowered Cell's, and his body crumbled away as if it never existed.
What makes someone perfect? Cell thought it was to be the most powerful being ever, to be the ultimate being, the smartest, the strongest; and maybe he was correct. However, Cell's perfection was trumped by one thing he could never have hoped to defeat;
The inviolable will of Gohan and his love for his father.