Perfect Cell

Cell begins as a bio-engineered creation of Dr. Gero, grown in secret inside a subterranean laboratory. His genetic template includes DNA from Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Frieza, and King Cold, granting him enormous potential and the ability to grow stronger through battle and absorption. He is designed with a singular purpose: reach his Perfect form. However, the Cell of the main timeline never matures—Trunks destroys both Gero and the lab. Instead, Cell originates in an alternate future timeline, where he completes his long incubation undisturbed.

In that alternate future, Cell emerges from his tank fully grown, immediately kills Future Trunks and steals his time machine. To do so, he sheds his skin and reduces his body to larval form so he can fit inside the machine. He travels to the past—four years before Androids 17 and 18 awaken—to hunt them down so he can absorb them and achieve perfection.

Arriving in the past timeline, Cell hides underground and begins feeding on humans with his tail—draining their life energy to grow from an imperfect, larva-humanoid creature into his first mature form. His feeding frenzy leaves behind drained husks and causes Ki-signatures to vanish, alerting Piccolo and the others. Piccolo confronts him after fusing with Kami, forcing Cell to reveal his origin story and plan.

Needing more power, Cell escapes and continues absorbing civilians to boost his strength. The Z-Fighters hunt him relentlessly, but he remains elusive due to his stolen techniques—Taiyoken, Kamehameha, regeneration, and the ability to hide his Ki. While Goku trains in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and Trunks/Vegeta finish their first session inside it, Cell relentlessly pursues Android 17 and 18, knowing absorbing them is the only way to evolve.

Cell eventually locates them on an isolated island, where Android 16, 17, and 18 are hiding. Imperfect Cell engages them in a brutal fight. He is completely outclassed by 16’s raw power until Android 17 becomes distracted. Cell lunges, absorbs 17, and transforms into Semi-Perfect Cell, dramatically increasing his strength and confidence.

Now obsessed with absorbing 18, Cell hunts her relentlessly. Vegeta arrives from the Time Chamber in his new “Ascended Saiyan” state and effortlessly dominates Semi-Perfect Cell. Craving the challenge of Vegeta’s strength, Cell manipulates him—promising a far greater battle if allowed to complete his evolution. Vegeta’s pride blinds him, and he agrees to let Cell absorb 18. Trunks attempts to stop it but is blocked by Vegeta.

Cell seizes his chance, catches 18 despite her attempts to escape, and absorbs her. His body erupts in light, muscle mass shifts, and his Ki erupts with blinding force. And thus, Cell achieves his final transformation:

Perfect Cell, Dr. Gero’s ultimate creation, completed at last.

Appearance: Cell becomes fully humanoid in his Perfect form gained from absorbing Android 18, complete with a normal nose and mouth. His irises become pink. His tail has been completely retracted, only the stinger remaining. This form is somewhat shorter and lighter than the previous one, being 7 feet in height. His wings have grown back, but he retains the shoe-like feet and upward-pointing horns with the black ball-like section from Semi-Perfect form. Purple stripes now run down each side of his face, similar to those of Frieza in his first three forms. He now sports light green with dark green spots on his body with the upper torso sporting black sections on the chest and shoulders.

Personality: Cell has an original personality engineered by Gero's computer to combine the character traits of his genetic constituents which would be most useful for a perfect weapon. Because his genetic composition includes DNA from Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo, he is aware of their weaknesses and is therefore able to exploit them in battle. Cell is completely single-minded in the pursuit of his goals and is very cautious, sneaky, cunning, knowledgeable, and calculating in achieving his main goal of perfection. Upon reaching his first transformation, he becomes far more brash and impulsive in his actions, relying less on strategy and more on brute force, often becoming clouded and losing his ability to think rationally when things don't go his way.

After absorbing No. 18 and becoming perfect, Cell becomes significantly more arrogant and narcissistic in this form, due to the massive increase in power. After attaining the perfect form, he had long desired, Cell admitted to Trunks that he had found himself with no other purpose, even killing Goku, which was Dr. Gero's intended purpose for Cell, did not seem to satisfy him. Like Goku, he just wanted to fight to enjoy it. Thus, he saw his Cell Games as the opportunity to discover a new purpose; to test his new-found power. This could also be attributed by his own vanity.

In this form, Cell gains Frieza's polite mannerisms (though without the snide sarcasm) and ruthlessly sadistic personality, relishing in seeing people terrified, as he admitted to Future Trunks when he revealed his intention for the Cell Games. This was further shown in the anime, while waiting for the Cell Games, he chose to terrorize the people of Earth simply for his own amusement. Akira Toriyama himself surmised that the concept behind the Cell Games may have been influenced by King Piccolo's cells which makes sense as King Piccolo also enjoyed terrorizing the people of Earth in a similar manner and both broadcasted their evil intentions on television just to instill fear into Earth's population. Thus, he possesses the villainous traits from King Piccolo, Vegeta, and Frieza.

Much like Goku, Cell seems to take on a carefree and laid-back attitude, not losing any form of his composure until he was faced with the prospect of a being stronger than him. Cell has adopted Goku's, as well as Vegeta's, desire to battle strong opponents, which was another purpose of the Cell Games. The fact that prior to facing Super Saiyan 2 Gohan, Cell still chose to hold back his full power, Cell was willing to handicap himself in order to challenge his own limits. Despite this, however, if Cell finds that his opponents were not adequate challenges, he will not hesitate to finish the battle quickly or discontinue it, reflecting his arrogance. Before fighting Gohan, Cell saw Goku as the only worthy opponent and displayed excitement when fighting him. Cell even expressed discontent and outrage when Goku had decided to forfeit his battle against Cell.

Cell's power level is 2.5-3.25 Billion

Abilities: Flight - The ability to fly without the use of ki.

Kamehameha - A powerful Ki blast fired with two hands after concentrating a large amount of Ki. Inherited from Goku.

Regeneration - The ability to regrow certain body parts or cells that have been dismembered or destroyed and replace them with brand new cells, or simply regrouping all of their separated parts back together. Unlike Piccolo, Cell requires very little energy to regenerate.

Special Beam Cannon - The move is performed by touching the index and middle fingers of one hand to the forehead and charging enough ki to attack. Its speed changes to the power level of the user performing the move. When ready, the fingers are extended forward, and two thin energy beams are unleashed from the fingers. One remains straight while the other coils around the straight beam. The resulting beam is quite powerful, drilling through most targets, and exploding on the ones it can't.

Ultimate Blitz - As he says something sounding like "Overheat!", Cell releases a massive energy wave out of his palm and holds it toward his opponent, inflicting damage to the opponent.

Instant Transmission - A technique for traveling long distances instantly. This action is usually accompanied by the user placing his index and middle fingers on his forehead to help him concentrate, though if extra time is taken the technique can be performed without this aid.

Ultimate Wave - Cell creates a vast, green energy sphere that, upon contacting with the ground, produces a powerful shockwave that travels in both directions from where it hits, inflicting great damage.

Time to Die - Cell slaps his opponent away, leaving them unconscious on the ground, completely helpless. He then fires an incredibly powerful Finger Beam at them, dealing massive damage.

Bear Hug - The user's arms are wrapped around the opponent, with the opponent's arms sometimes pinned to their body. The user's hands are locked around the opponent, who is held tightly to the user's chest. Although intended to be a torture hold, it can also be used as a restraining technique to pin an opponent long enough for their allies to attack.

Backslap - Cell swings his right arm to deliver a quick chop and send his opponent flying.

Birthing Cell Juniors - Cell creates Cell Juniors through cellular mitosis.

Psycho Crash - The user grabs their target with Telekinesis, lifting it with the raise of a hand. The user then waves their other hand through the air to cut it with invisible slashes of ki.

Perfect Barrier - Perfect Cell curls his arms and legs together as he charges a purple aura around his body. He then brings them apart and expels a giant barrier around his body, capable of blocking certain attacks, similar to the Super Explosive Wave.

Earth-Destroying Kamehameha - First, Perfect Cell cups his hands to his side and charges a Super Kamehameha. Then, he charges it with much more energy than usual. Lastly, he fires the beam in the form of a humongous energy wave, inflicting an enormous amount of damage.

Spirit Bomb - Users of the Spirit Bomb gather huge amounts of energy from all chosen surrounding life forms and inanimate objects to conduct that energy into a massive sphere of astounding destructive power.

Perfect Shot - Cell fires an incredibly powerful finger beam at them, dealing massive damage.

Full Power Death Beam - The user extends his index finger forward and fires a Death Beam that is slightly bigger and more powerful than the original.

Death Beam - To perform the technique, the user extends his right arm and fires a small, thin, very fast and concentrated laser-like beam of ki from his index finger, which barrels down and pierces through the opponent. The user is able to fire the attack very quickly, while maintaining precise aim.

All Clear - First, Cell raises his left hand in the air and charges his energy enough to completely shroud the hand. Cell then fires the attack by turning in a complete circle while swinging his hand, creating many powerful explosions to his surroundings and inflicting a huge amount of damage.

Solar Flare - The user places their hands close to the center of their face with the fingers spread toward their eyes. The user then calls out the name of the technique, which provokes a white light to fire out and blind everything watching except the user, since they are projecting the light. This technique is defensive rather than offensive and is mainly used as way to gain the upper hand, or in order to make hasty retreat, or to set up for a more complicated attack without fear of interruption. Inherited from Tien Shinhan.

Solar Kamehameha - First, Cell stores up an immense amount of energy as he prepares a Super Kamehameha. He then brings his hands forward and fires a blast that Cell claims has enough power to wipe out the entirety of Earth's Solar System.

Big Bang Attack - In order to perform it, Cell extends his arm, opens his palm and turns his hand up right. He then condenses his ki in his palm and launches a ki blast that proceeds to detonate in a massive explosion.

Negative Power Rain - Cell punches and kicks his opponent into the air, then fires nine energy blasts down at them.

Galick Gun - To utilize it, Cell curls his fingers and places both his hands together at chest level facing the same direction (so that the palm of one hand is on the back of the other). Then, once enough ki is gathered, he thrusts both hands forward to fire a powerful blast of energy. The result is a powerful, huge, fuchsia-colored ki beam that emanates from his hands and body.

Cell Jr. is an offspring of Cell. They were asexually produced from Cell's tail, through cellular mitosis. They have a power level of around 1 billion. They can use Special Beam Cannon, Kamehameha, and Tri Beam.

Tri-Beam – This technique is performed by gathering energy, forming a vaguely diamond-shape "tunnel" with the hand's by keeping the fingers on each hand together, overlapping the index finger on the one hand with the pinky of the other hand, and overlapping the thumbs. The object being focused on gets zoomed in on and visualized inside that diamond, then the user shouts "Tri-Beam, ha!" while releasing the large yellow beam from the hands.