While he may not be the most powerful villain in the Dragon Ball universe compared to the likes of Buu, Zamasu, and Black Frieza, Cell is easily the scariest due entirely to how he hunts and kills his victims–which makes the fact that he stole his greatest power from one of Dragon Ball’s most committed heroes so tragically ironic.
Cell is what’s known as a bio-android who was created by the former Red Ribbon Army scientist Dr. Gero. Upon his introduction, Cell is presented as a giant bug-like creature who was highly intelligent, incredibly powerful, and wildly sinister. Cell's first appearance showed him standing off against Piccolo who stood in horror before this chitinous creature as Cell used his deadly tail to drain the life out of a person begging desperately for his life. From that moment on, readers knew that Cell was a malevolent force that wouldn’t go down easily, but one that had to be stopped nonetheless. Unfortunately, one of those heroes who vowed to stop him accidentally gave him the means to his villainous success.
In Dragon Ball chapter 371 by Akira Toriyama, Cell is still in his imperfect form as he has yet to absorb either Android 17 or 18. At this point in the series, Cell’s entire mission is to absorb those two Androids, as doing so will unlock his perfect form–making him nearly impossible to defeat. The way Cell absorbs the two powerful Dragon Ball Androids is by opening up the end of his tail and swallowing the Androids whole like some kind of hellish python. This means that, if Cell’s tail were to be removed, he wouldn’t be able to assimilate the Androids, and therefore wouldn’t be able to become unstoppable. However, because of one hero, that possibility was taken entirely off the table.
Cell Stole His Greatest Power from the Dragon Ball Hero: Piccolo
In this issue, Android 16 does exactly what he should do while fighting Cell to ensure that he can’t absorb his siblings: he rips off the villain’s tail. While the Androids believed they won at this moment, Cell quickly proves how wrong they are by immediately regrowing his tail while seeming completely unfazed by the whole attack. Most, if not all, of Cell’s powers were derived from previously existing Dragon Ball characters who had their DNA stolen by a tiny robot developed by Dr. Gero, which then uploaded those stolen cells into the supercomputer growing Cell. This means that, upon his birth, Cell had a fraction of the power from Vegeta, Goku, and–most notably here–Piccolo. Piccolo has the power to regrow his limbs at will, so when Dr. Gero’s tiny robot stole his DNA, Cell gained that power as well–a power that gave him the edge he needed to unlock his most powerful form.
If Piccolo’s DNA didn’t run through Cell’s bio-synthetic veins, then Cell would never have been able to transform out of his imperfect form. Piccolo’s power to regrow his limbs is the only thing that allowed Cell to absorb Androids 17 and 18 after Android 16 ripped his tail off in this chapter–meaning Piccolo is inadvertently responsible for all the death and destruction caused by Perfect Cell as Piccolo effectively gave Dragon Ball’s scariest villain his greatest power.