The horrible battle with Frieza was just the beginning. The lesson our heroes learn as they begin to train for the future that Trunks predicted. As the three years pass, the warriors train in their respective areas for the coming of the androids in 3 years.
      In the mountains Son Gokou, Son Gohan, and Piccolo train vigorously paying special attention to raising Gohan's power. At Capsule Corp. Vegeta trains in a space capsule at 300x normal earth gravity, with the constant obsession to become stronger than Son Gokou. While the others (Yamcha, Tenshinhan, and Chaozu) train in a feeble effort to even keep up with the others when the Androids arrive.

Three years then pass, the training vigorously continues, so enters the Android Saga....

When the day finally arrives, Son Gokou, Gohan, and Piccolo fly to the island that Trunk's said the androids would appear on. As they arrive they encounter Kuririn and the others waiting for them. To their surprise Bulma has a son! That's right, it's Trunks! Before they know it the Androids begin to attack, the team rushes into the town below to track down the dastardly duo. The two Androids continue the rampage through the town, when they get their eyes on Yamcha. As he spots the Androids, Yamcha's screams are silenced by #20 stealing his Ki! Gokou and the others sense Yamcha's distress and go to help him, but before they could reach his location, Gokou arrives and gives #20 a welcome punch in the jaw. After deciding the city was not suitable fighting grounds, they fly off.

The Androids ask to stop at a nearby Mountain range. Piccolo sees it as the androids' advantage for fighting because they can hide in the mountain trails if they lose the battle. Son Gokou and #19 battle first. Gokou has the advantage, but doesn't do too well even in Super Saiyan level. Yamcha is revived with a Senzu seed. He tells that the androids have the ability to absorb Ki. Son Gohan, Kuririn, and Yamcha then go to warn their comrades of this factor. #19 absorbs part of Gokou's energy through Gokou's Kamehameha technique before he is warned of the androids' ability. Gokou suddenly suffers from his heart failure and collapses. #19 beats Son Gokou around and then begins to absorb the remains of his Ki.

Vegeta leaps in to save Gokou, telling that it will be he who will be the one to defeat Kakarotto. To everyone's surprise, Vegeta powers up into a Super Saiyan as well. He tells how during training, he discovered that he training methods were not going to be good enough to defeat Gokou, so during his frustration he no longer cared about being the best or beating Gokou, the act that unlocked his hidden power. Yamcha goes and takes Son Gokou back to Master Roshi's place to recover. Vegeta beats #19 and purposely lets him steal some of his energy. During the battle Vegeta uses his Big Bang Attack for the first time which easily finishes #19. #20 watches and realizes how he miscalculated the power levels of the Z Warriors. Thinking that he will lose to Vegeta, #20 runs away. Vegeta demands a Senzu seed to restore his energy and then pursuits after his target. Everyone joins in the chase after the scared android.

Trunks returns from the future and looks for the Z Warriors. Seeing the destroyed head of #19, he realizes that the Z Warriors were fighting the wrong androids. #20 sees that he's been surrounded and makes a move to absorb Piccolo's energy. Son Gohan comes and saves him, and Piccolo is restored back to full energy with a Senzu. #20 is surrounded again and is about to be killed. Trunks also arrives to the scene, telling that #19 and #20 are not the ones that will terrorize the future. Bulma flies in with baby Trunks and Yajirobe. #20 (Dr. Gero) shatters the ship with a fireball to create a diversion for escape.

Trunks rescues his mother and his baby self. Bulma tells the identity of the android she saw. #20 is really Dr. Gero, who created #19 to which he used in turn to make himself into an android. Trunks tells that #19 and #20 are the wrong set of androids to fight. #17 and #18 are the real targets, but are not yet awaken. Son Gohan carries Bulma, baby Trunks, and Yajirobe to fly back home. Everyone else flies off to destroy Dr. Gero's lab before #17 and #18 can be unleashed. Dr. Gero realizes this plan and also races towards his lab.

Dr. Gero, knowing the hidden location of his lab, gets to it faster than the Z Warriors. The Z Warriors catch up, but by the time they reach the lab #17 and #18 have already been released. Everyone watches the androids. #17 and #18 make a mess of their creator's laboratory and then #17 slices Dr. Gero's head off before crushing it. #17 and #18 also head to the pod of another android and release him, Android #16. Finally, they head to face the Z Warriors. In a remote area, #17 and #18 easily beat Tenshinhan, Piccolo, Trunks, and Vegeta. #16 refuses to fight, telling that he was created to destroy Son Gokou only. Kuririn, too scared to fight, watches the horror. The androids head to Kuririn and tell him that the Z Warriors are not dead yet. They confess that everything is a game, and that they'll be glad to fight their enemies again once they get stronger. So begins the Non Perfect Cell Saga.

The Z Warriors suspect the Androids of coming to Son Gokou's house to kill him and move Gokou to the Kame House. On the journey, Bulma contacts the crew and tells our the discovery of an abandoned time machine much like Trunks', but Trunks has his machine a capsule with him. He tells that Bulma only made one capsule in the future, and Trunks and Gohan fly in to investigate. Nearly, the shell of a creature hatched not too long ago is discovered. In a nearby town, the mysterious creature is absorbing everyone. Piccolo sees that the only way to defeat the Androids would be to power up dramatically, and decides to fuse back with Kami-sama. Kami-sama, god of the earth, watches an enemy unlike any other attack Gingertown. Victims are completely consumed, and no one is spared. Kami-sama tells Piccolo that the earth does not need a god now, but a super powered being. The two fuse with Piccolo as the base, and the two become one again. Piccolo flies to the town with the strange evil being who is absorbing everyone. All the inhabitants of the town have vanished and only empty clothing remain. The being hatched from the time machine shows itself. The two begin to duke it out. Cell holds Piccolo captive and absorbs an arm. Piccolo breaks free and demands to know more about his opponent before he loses his life to it. Cell yields to what he believes to be Piccolo's final wish before he absorbs him. It introduces itself as Cell, the greatest of Dr. Gero's creations. When Trunks returned to the future and killed #17 and #18 of that time, Cell killed Trunks and stole his time machine to return to the past where the Androids were still alive. Cell reveals about how Dr. Gero abandoned the project on him but left the computer on to develop him on its own. In order to reach perfect form, he needed the beings of two figures crucial to the power up, #17 and #18. As newly hatched, he needed energy. That is why he has been absorbing people. Piccolo laughs and tells that he won't let Cell reach perfect form. Then, he tears off his useless limb and regenerates his arm. The two fight again, but Cell escapes the town to enter other parts of the city, where he contiues to kill for energy. Piccolo and his comrades hunt for Cell before it is too late... The Androids are heading for Gokou's house via car and trashing any unlucky cities they pass by. When they finally reach Gokou's house, they find it abandoned and then slowly travel to Kame's House, thinking the whole process of "hunt and kill Son Gokou" a game. Gokou recovers from his illness and, hearing everything while asleep, prepares to join in fighting. He teleports for Gohan and then to Vegeta and Trunks' location, telling of a place where they can train for one year in one day. Everyone goes to Sky Palace and enter the Room of Spirit and Time, where time passes by slower. Only two people can train at a time in the room. Vegeta and Trunks enter first. After devouring many civilians, Cell grows strong enough to face the Androids and head for them. The Androids reached the Kame House. The Non-Saiyan Z Warriors are there and Piccolo stalls. Piccolo and the Androids fly to a nearly island and battles #17 while the remaining Androids watch. As the two fight, Cell reaches them. Cell easily beats Piccolo and heads for #17. Android 17 knows nothing about Cell and attempts to bully him, but Cell also easily beats the android. Before Cell is able to absorb #17, Android 16 joins the fight. # 16 overwhelms Cell. Cell becomes buried in a pile of rubble, but emerges atop #17 and absorbs him. Cell changes into his Non-Perfect form. Cell becomes stronger than 16 and shatters him. Then, he heads for #18 and devours her, reaching Perfect Form.

Meanwhile...

The training in the Room of Spirit and Time is complete and the Saiyan warriors emerge stronger than ever. The parts of Android 16 are gathered and Bulma rebuilds him to fight as a Z Warrior. Everyone is ready to face Cell again. So begins the most important fight of DBZ to date, the deadly Cell Games

A tournament is held to fight Cell in what is known as the "Cell Games". In this "game", if Cell wins he will destroy the earth. Son Gokou and Cell battle to a standstill. The battle gets intense, but Gokou suddenly surrenders and tells Son Gohan to take his place. Gokou gives Cell a senzu bean to make it fair for Cell and Gohan enters the ring. Everyone is shocked at what Gokou did. Son Gohan tells that he understands why his father is making him fight. He tells that whenever he gets angry, he powers up unbelievably. Cell boasts that he wants to see this hidden strength of Gohan's and begins torturing him to make him angry. Son Gokou calmly watches while Gohan is still not angry enough to fight back. Son Gohan is getting beaten badly but Gokou tells his comrades to just watch and wait. #16, a robot, has no "ki" so he can't be sensed. The android silently walks to Cell and puts him into a lock-hold Android 16 tells everyone to clear out because he will ignite the doomsday device that Dr. Gero placed in his creations as a backup plan. Kuririn shouts that it won't work because Bulma removed the bomb when he rebuild the robot. Cell laughs and shatters Android 16 again. Cell grows tired of this and threatens to harm the spectators, Son Gokou, Vegeta, Trunks, Kuririn, Tenshin-han, Yamcha, and Piccolo. Cell flies to Kuririn to steals his bag of senzu beans and heads back to Gohan. He counts seven spectators and, from his tail, spits out seven miniature blue duplicates of himself. The Cell Juniors are born. Gohan watches desperately as the seven little monsters fly towards his comrades. Gokou, too weak to fight after fighting Cell, is unable to fend off the Juniors. The other Z Warriors get beaten as well. Gohan only watches in distress, seeing that it's because of him that Cell afflicted the attacks upon his comrades. In the background, Satan, his disciples, a reporter, and a camera man have been broadcasting the fight. #16's head was thrown in the direction of Satan. The head begins to talk and request that it be brought close to Gohan, telling that this is the only way that the world can be saved. After much reluctance, Satan cowardly carries the head across the battlefield, throws it in front of Gohan, and hides behind a rock again. Android 16's head encourages Gohan to fight. Cell sees the touching scene and splatters the head with a foot. The death of #16 triggers the hidden rage in Gohan and Gohan powers up to Super Saiyan level 2, surpassing the limits of the ordinary Super Saiyan level. Gohan steals the senzu back from Cell and then single-handed kills all Cell Juniors. Gohan heads for Cell and bullies him. Cell powers up to 100% and attacks, but is still unable to defeat Gohan. With a kick in the body, Cell spits Android 18 back out and degrades back into form 2. Seeing no way to win in an even weaker form, Cell activates his self-destruct sequence (the bomb in his body) so that the planet will go with him. To save the Earth, Gokou teleports Cell to Kaio-shin's planet. (*11)Cell explodes and Kaio-shin's tiny planet gets ruined. Gokou, Kaio-shin, Bubbles, and Gregory die at the cost of saving the earth. The Z Warriors stand stunned at what happened, not knowing whether to mourn the loss of Gokou or cheer the victory that the earth has been saved. An unexpected fireball flies out and pierces through Trunks. Trunks dies before he hits the ground. Cell, in perfect form, appears smiling. The Z Warriors must face Cell again, without Gokou. Cell tells that when he exploded, the nucleus of one of his brain cells survived. From the cell, mitosis was possible and he was able to regenerate his entire body. Cell boasts that he was also able to rebuild himself in perfect form, commenting that it may be the work of the Saiyan cells in possesses. Saiya-jins grow stronger each time they reach the brink of death, and likewise with these cells, Cell is now stronger. Vegeta becomes outraged and shoots hundreds of fireballs at Cell. The smoke clears and reveals Cell unscathed. Cell flies over and knocks Vegeta out. Then, he aims a fireball at Vegeta's helpless body and shoots. Gohan intervenes the blast to save Vegeta's life, taking the blast for him. Gohan gets back up with half his body bloody. Cell and Gohan blast Kamehameha blasts at each other and a fireball duel is followed to see who can hold out longer. Cell's fireball begins to overwhelm Gohan's, but Gohan simply tries to hold out without much effort of fighting back. Through Northern Kaiou, Gokou yells to encourage his son. The remaining Z Warriors (Yamcha, Tenshinhan, Kuririn, and Piccolo) shoot fireballs at Cell to try to help Gohan, but Cell's aura blows them away each time. Vegeta wakes back up and flies above Cell, telling himself that it is impossible for low class Saiya-jins (Gokou and Gohan) to be stronger than him, an elite warrior and also Prince of all Saiya-jins. He charges up a fireball and blasts it at Cell. In this distraction, Gokou tells Gohan that now's his chance. Gohan strengthens his fireball and overwhelms Cell, disintegrating the monster in the blast. The Z Warriors cheer over this victory and head to Sky Palace. Vegeta staggers away in disbelief that Gohan is stronger than he. Satan and the news reporters revive back to consciousness. Satan, seeing the area empty, takes advantage and takes credit for killing Cell, taking titles for "The World Champion who saved the world from Cell" and "The Strongest Man in the Universe". As the world parades for Satan, the Z Warriors are in Sky Palace. Dende heals Gohan and Trunks. Android 18 awakens. The Z Warriors threaten to kill her, but Kuririn tells them not to. Android 18 flees. The warriors yell at Kuririn for his decision, but then tease that he has a crush on her. The Dragonballs have been gathered. Three wishes are permitted. A wish is made to remove the bombs in the Androids. Another is made to revive all those killed by Cell. However, Gokou is still dead. Through Kaio-shin, Gokou tells that it is okay. The Z Warriors all reflect on Gokou's life.

Satan emerges a hero. Gohan breaks the news about Son Gokou to his mother. Seven years pass, and Gohan is 16...