Description[]
Fullmetal Alchemist vs. Dragon Ball. From experiments to extraordinary threats.
Introduction[]
Wiz: Father, the Homunculus from the Flask.
Boomstick: Cell, the perfect creation of Doctor Gero.
Wiz: It is said that heroes aren't born but made, and in this scenario, the exact same thing can be said for power hungry villains.
Boomstick: In this case, literally. He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick.
Wiz: And it's our job to analyze their weapons, armour and skills to find out who would win a Death Battle.
Father[]
Wiz: The Law of Equivalent Exchange states that in order for something to be gained, something of equal value must be first given. It was the ambition of one creature to defy this rule and reach a state where all he had to do was take.
Boomstick: They would be able to do that by becoming a thief, and a thief they became. A thief that would go on to steal far more than any other.
Wiz: This thief's name was Father but before then, he was simply the Dwarf in a Glass. In other words, a homunculus.
Boomstick: That's a given, considering that the original ideas of a homunculus is that they need to stay in a jar container to serve as an incubator since they weren't born in a womb.
Wiz: Wait, how do you know that?
Boomstick: Wiki trivia. Anyway, this little dwarf was created in the ancient kingdom of Xerxes with the blood of a nameless slave who the Dwarf would name Van Hohenheim.
- Background
- Age: 400> years
- Height: 6'6
- AKA The Dwarf in the Flask, Philosopher of the East
- Made with Van Hohenheim's blood
- Father of the Homunculus
- Replaced by a psycho-ex-girlfriend in the original anime
Wiz: The Dwarf would become a teacher to his blood donor, teaching him how to read, understand mathematics and to harness the greatest source of power in the world, alchemy. He possessed all this knowledge due to having been made with a tiny fragment of Truth, the source of all knowledge there was.
Boomstick: Word quickly spread to the King of Xerxes of the Dwarf's wisdom and he brought the little guy in for an audience. That was when the Dwarf offered him the chance to become an immortal, all through a little process called "Slaughtering entire towns and villages".
Wiz: All with the goal of creating a giant transmutation circle to reform the ritual. But when the time came for it to be activated, the King discovered he wasn't the recipient of what followed, he was just another ingredient. Along with the entire population of his kingdom save for Hohenheim.
Boomstick: That's right, the little bugger had played everyone for fools and used them to turn him and his buddy Hohenheim into living philosopher stones, granting them immense alchemic power and giving the Dwarf a body in the image of Hohenheim.
Wiz: Who wasn't exactly happy that his people had been trapped inside of him and the deceiver and so parted ways from the Dwarf in fear and disgust. Which suited the homunculus just fine since he had other plans to attend to. In spite of already being one of the two most powerful beings in the world, he wished for more. He wished to become God.
Boomstick: To do that, he helped the development of an entire country with the sole purpose of using it as yet another mass sacrifice, manipulating its peoples and government into creating a second giant Transmutation Circle.
Wiz: With the amount of souls that would be sacrificed for the ritual to attain the Sun's Gate of Truth, Father was dead set on making sure it came to fruition. And unfortunately for those unwitting innocents, stopping him was an uphill battle.
Boomstick: Thanks to being a living Philosopher's Stone, his power over alchemy was almost unmatched.
- Powers and Abilities
- Alchemy
- Manipulation of matter
- Energy projection
- Attack reflection
- Regeneration
- Soul manipulation
- Shapeshifting
- Life creation
- Weather manipulation
- Alchemy
Wiz: Unlike most users of alchemy who need a transmutation circle in order to active their signature alchemy, Father has no such need for these, able to instantly perform alchemy without even moving a muscle.
Boomstick: This means he can manipulate the environment around himself however he likes, such as creating giant structures from stone, turning one state of matter to another and even fixing up broken bones and damaged flesh.
Wiz: He's also capable of manipulation alchemic energy, using it either offensively or defensively in giant blasts or domed shields respectively. And thanks to having all those souls inside of himself, he's able to regenerate from pretty much any form of damage, as a soul is spent in place of him dying from his wounds.
Boomstick: Harming him in the first place is pretty hard, since he can evidently redirect attacks back at their original casters, like he did with Scar's Destruction Alchemy.
Wiz: That's only the tip of the iceberg regarding Father's abilities. As it turns out, he essentially usurped the role of the Earth itself in giving the energy to use alchemy in his new kingdom of Amestris, meaning that if a alchemist not with him attempts to use their alchemy on him, he can turn it off. Whilst it doesn't work on all forms of alchemy, it's still a game breaker in the world of Fullmetal Alchemist.
Boomstick: He's also responsible for the creation of seven other homunculi, affectionately themed after the seven deadly sins since each one of them was based on a particular emption of Father's. It was his belief that if he got rid of them, he would become far more efficient in achieving his goals. And as a trade-off, his children got all sorts of unique powers. Makes me wonder if I should try that.
Popup: Father has never shown to possess the same powers as his children unless he has absorbed them.
Wiz: What? Spawning progeny of yourself to remove your emotional flaws?
Boomstick: Exactly! Here I go! Hrrrrrrrrrr....!
(Splut)
Boomstick: Well...I think I got fear out of me. Since you know what can get scared out of ya...
Wiz: Oh my god...
Boomstick: Speaking of which, Father was actually able to become one. With combat alchemists serving as catalysts and over 50 million souls as a sacrifice, Father was able to absorb the Sun's Gate of Truth, gaining power equal to that of a star's.
Wiz: With his newfound godhood, Father's already ludicrous alchemic power skyrocketed, to the point of being able to manipulate the weather, create planets, mold horrifically living beings and even generate a miniature sun in the palm of his hand, which meant it would have been producing energy worth about 13 gigatons of TNT (Iwandesu).
- Feats
- Cultivated an entire country just to sacrifice it
- Obtained the Gates of Truth of the Sun and Earth
- Created a miniature sun
- Resisted Scar's destruction alchemy
- Destroyed a large portion of a building
- Defeated Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, Van Hohenheim
Boomstick: It makes him feat of blowing away part of a massive building pale in comparison. Oh, and you know how he literally reached out to pull the power of the Sun's Gate of Truth into himself? Well this involved him sending out massive tendrils towards the gate itself, which he was clearly controlling.
Wiz: As this was in his giant form, we compared his size to that of Amestris' to get the distance between him and the Gate. With a likely timeframe of two seconds that would mean those tendrils would have had to move at 5 times the speed of light to reach their destination.
Boomstick: Too bad for Father however, he didn't get to enjoy being a god for long. Turns out for as long as he had been planning his mass sacrifice, Hohenheim had been putting his own plan into motion by making his own massive transmutation circle.
Wiz: This enabled him to release all 50 million souls that Father had absorbed and without that key ingrediant, Father's body couldn't handle his power, sending it in flux. Even as he worked to absorb other souls to compensate, in the end, he was undone by one of his own children and by one of Hohenheim's.
Boomstick: Once his body got broken down to nothing, he got an audience with the Big G himself, to proceeded to send him back to the vast nothingness he came from.
Wiz: This was where Father's biggest failing was brought to light. As demonstrated by the blankness of his own Gate of Truth, Father may have known a lot thanks to his artificial existence but he never truly learned anything. Only ever taking and using others for his own gain.
Boomstick: But in all honesty, when it came to doing just that, there was no-one better than the Father of the Homunculi, the Philosopher of the East, the Dwarf in the Flask.
Cell[]
Wiz: The brilliant Doctor Gero was a scientist for the Red Ribbon Army, on top of being one of their key founders, working to develop their many different weapons.
Boomstick: Weapons that his own son would wield as a soldier of the RR Army. Yet for all his genius, Gero never took into account that his kid could one day lose his life. Because of, you know, being in an army?
Wiz: Sure enough, Gero's son was felled by an enemy bullet and if that wasn't enough, the Red Ribbon Army, the result of his life's work, was deduced to practically nothing by the efforts of a young boy with a monkey tail; Son Goku.
Boomstick: None to happy, Gero dedicated himself to create the ultimate fighting machines in order to bring Goku down as revenge.
Wiz: Thus came into existence the Androids. Who kind of had a non-indicative name considering they were actually cyborgs but hey, it was his project so he gets naming rights. That's a scientific community rule.
Boomstick: Still, kind of erroneous considering that Gero's ultimate creation wasn't even robotic in any sense. In fact, it was biologically grown.
Wiz: Combining DNA from some of the most powerful fighters together into a single organism, that of the Saiyan's, Z-Fighters and Frieza's family, Gero created the android who would become known as Cell. Unfortunately, he couldn't live around to witness his creation, considering he had to take several years to grow to maturity. And by the time he was, the means to attain his perfect form and kill Goku had long since passed, one way or another.
- Background
- Age: 17
- Height: 7'
- Created by Dr. Gero
- Made with the DNA of other fighters
- Came from the original Android future
- Sung 'Suddenly' and 'My Way'
Boomstick: So he got a time machine from Trunks, went back in time and waited until the androids were activated. And because he was there, that means the future he came from happened again with the surviving androids being even stronger. Time travel, am I right?
Wiz: But Cell was back in the past where the means to fulfilling his purposes was in sight; Android's 17 and 18.
Boomstick: So, being the thirsty bitch he was, he went on a rampage, absorbing people into his biomass to increase his power to the point where no-one would be able to stop him. And eventually, once getting enough meals and through some sneakiness, he got what he wanted; perfection.
Wiz: From his Imperfect to his Semi-Perfect to his Perfect form, Cell soared to ever-higher realms of power. And ironically, in spite of being an artificial being, this means he could still harness the awesome power of Ki.
- Powers and Techniques**
- Ki manipulation
- Flight
- Instant Transmission
- Regeneration
- Kamehameha
- Solar Kamehameha
- Death Beam
- Special Beam Cannon
- Solar Flare
- Multi-Form
- Psycho Crash
- Perfect Barrier
- Destructo Disk
- Ultimate Wave
Boomstick: He can use it to fly, fire out blasts of the stuff and use it to increase his physical abilities and defenses.
Wiz: And being comprised of the DNA of the world's most powerful warriors, Cell naturally has access to nearly all of their techniques.
Boomstick: He's got Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon, Krillin's Destructo Disk, and of course, the Kamehameha, used by pretty much everybody who's a Z-Fighter.
Popup: Cell has also claimed to be capable of using the Spirit Bomb.
Wiz: There's even a variation that's outright named a planet-destroying variation, although honestly, that's underselling Cell's power. Which we'll get to in a minute considering we have more techniques of Cell's we need to get through.
Boomstick: The Perfect Barrier is a shield of destructive energy he projects around himself and Ultimate Wave is yet another beam attack. And when he wants to get into sculpting, he uses Psycho Crush.
Wiz: The same technique he used to create the arena for his Cell Games; by levitating a mass of earth, he sliced it into perfect cubes with telekinesis.
Boomstick: And unlike in TFS canon, he got it perfectly right on the first try. No green squares or anything.
Wiz: Of course, Cell has more than just attacks or arena making abilities at his disposal. From Tien, he got his Multi-Form, which is pretty much making solid copies of himself to gang up on his opponents all by himself. He also has the Solar Flare for blinding opponents and eventually learned Goku's Instant Transmission, so now he's able to pop around to wherever he wants.
Boomstick: And from Piccolo, he got the ability to regenerate from pretty much anything. Even if there's the tiniest bit of his remaining, he'll eventually regrow himself good as new.
Wiz: Not just good as new, but better than ever. Thanks to his Saiyan DNA...
Boomstick: Thanks Dads.
Wiz:...upon regenerating from his own self-destruct, his power got a massive boost, as per the benefit of being a Saiyan, propelling him to a form beyond even his Perfect one. He was now...
Boomstick: Perfect-er Cell.
Wiz: Okay, tone it down. And that is not an attempt to continue quoting TFS, I genuinely mean it. As Super Perfect Cell, his power got to a level where he was able to perform the Solar Kamehameha.
Boomstick: Does that make it green? Like he is?
Wiz: No, it means it packs enough power to literally wipe out the entire solar system.
Boomstick: But I live here!
Wiz: You're not going to stop aren't you?
Boomstick: Nope. Just like Cell.
- Feats
- Required planet-busting attacks to be hurt
- Regenerated from his own self-destruct
- Dodged Future Trunk's attacks
- Absorbed Androids 17 and 18
- Played on Vegeta's pride
- Defeated Piccolo, Android 16, Vegeta
Wiz: The bio-android's rampage had the dubious dishonor of terrifying the whole world. When you're first form alone killed hundreds if not thousands of people in a feeding frenzy, an infamous profile is the first thing you're probably going to get.
Boomstick: Even the most powerful fighters around were scared of him. Not to surprising considering that his Perfect form outputted so much Ki, Krillin's Destructo Disk, which is capable of slicing through planet busters, shattered against his skin. And even when he got hurt by attacks like the Final Flash and Goku's Instant Kamehameha, he patched up from them no problem.
Wiz: Cell's own Kamehameha is an incredibly fast attack. In fact, it was able to reach outer space at over 600 times the speed of light (Kepekley23). Goku was only able to avoid it by using his Instant Transmission.
Boomstick: Earth's army, the Z-Fighters, hell, even the Super Saiyans were put through the ringer trying to bring Cell down. In fact, it required Goku to do something he had never done before; let someone else fight instead of him.
Wiz: Although it wasn't exactly a father of the year move to put his son Gohan up to finally putting Cell down, it ended up paying off. Even with the aforementioned boost in power brought on by his surviving of his own self-destruct, in the end Gohan was able to overpower and completely atomize Cell. Guess his power wasn't as perfect as he had thought.
Boomstick: But if there's one thing he did perfectly, it was being an absolutely perfect terror to all those on Earth.
Interlude[]
Wiz: Alright the combatants are set, time to end this debate once and for all.
Boomstick: It's time for a Death Battle!
The Battle[]
Setting: The Cell Games Arena
Cell stood in the middle of his arena, his back turned to the Homunculus, with the power of the Sun's Gate, who stood on the outskirts of the stone ground.
Cell: I really shouldn't have made this an open invitation. Too many nameless fools are taking up my valuable time.
Father: A fool am I? Would a fool have attained the power of a god?
Cell: I wouldn't say so. After all, I'm still standing here. If you want to prove me wrong, step into my arena.
He turned around to smirk at Father, who merely spread his arms out.
Father: No need to. I'll crush you like the buy you are right now.
FIGHT!
His body cackled with alchemic energy and the entire arena was suddenly changed, morphing so that it curled in on itself, engulf Cell in a shell of stone until it was compressed it breaking point. Father observed his handiwork of the now spherical arena before frowning as it shook before getting blown away by Cell using his Perfect Barrier.
Cell: Now you little twerp, that wasn't very nice.
With the Perfect Barrier still in effect, Cell zoomed towards Father, who conjured up his own dome of energy around himself to guard against the android's attack. As the two shields thus grinded against each other, Cell's pushed Father's back across the desert, leaving a massive trench until they smashed into a massive rock formation. As Father, in his barrier, was pushed against the rocky surface, he commanded winding offshoots of rock to shoot out from it and punched through Cell's Perfect Barrier straight towards him. Although a good deal of them vaporized before they could get to him, some of them survived long enough for him to save to punch them apart. With Cell distracted, Father lifted a pillar of stone beneath his feet to carry him into the air. He thrusted his hand out and from it came a massive blast of energy that was able to fully break through Cell's Perfect Barrier, strike the android and blast him deep into the ground. As soon as it has subsided, Cell retaliated with a Death Beam that zipped upwards and nailed Father through the forehead.
Cell: Gotcha!
His triumph was short lived however when the hole instantly healed up and Father fixed him with a murderous glare. Another blast came from his hand towards Cell, who flew out of the crater to avoid being hit a second time. He flew backwards, sliding back on the ground upon landing as he charged up a Kamehameha. He unleashed it with a yell, and Father dispelled the pillar he stood on to drop below the attack. Upon landing, he sent out a surge of alchemic energy to generate a spiked pillar of earth to shoot up and strike Cell in the chest, piercing him straight through. Even with blood coming out the corner of his mouth however Cell smirked as his regeneration kicked in. The closing wound broke the stone spear that made it and the android dashed towards the Homunculus, his fist pulled back. Father responded to the punch with one of his own, resulting in both artificial beings striking each other in the face. Not only was their a physical clash, there was also an energy based one, as Cell's Ki and Father's alchemic energy collided in an unseen struggle and as a result an explosion ripped out between the two, sending them both flying away. It was only a short distance however and Father and Cell sprung back at each other immediately after, punching out rapidly. Their respective series of punches either got blocked, parried or where outright successful. Father surprised Cell with a showing of acrobatics by leaping into the air over his kick. Cell quickly jumped up after him, also avoiding the ground beneath him exploding due to Father's alchemy. Once catching up to Father in the air, Cell swung his leg out and kicked Father with enough force to embed him in the ground, the Homunculus lifting himself up without moving a muscle. Cell dropped down in front of him and charged up a Kamehameha, unleashing it at the same time Father fired an energy blast from in front of himself. The two opposing energy forms struggled against the other before Cell poured more Ki into his attack, overwhelmed Father's energy blast and blew away his upper body.
Cell turned his attack off and smirked at the smoldering remains of Father. He straightened up, put his hands on his hips and rolled his eyes.
Cell: Come on now, I know you're not done yet. So why don't you stop stalling and keep me entertained for a little while-
Faster than the android has accounted for, Father's upper body regenerated and his hand shot out to clamp onto his face. Activating his alchemy, Father scrambled Cell's insides, causing the latter immense pain and making blood erupt from his mouth.
Father: Careful insect. Your hubris is showing.
With his power, Father conjured up a storm, from which a bolt of lightning shot down and directly struck Cell as he stumbled back whilst clutching his chest. He yelled in pain before releasing a burst of Ki to rid himself of the current, summoning up a Destructo Disk. He hurled it at Father with a yell whilst the Homunculus conjured up a sphere of black energy and launched it at Cell.
The Destructo Disk sliced through Father's sphere, the two halves falling down and exploding against the ground to kick up a dust cloud that obscured Cell whilst his Disk was caught by Father in the palm of his open hand. Peering into the smoke to see an outline of the android, Father deflected the Destructo Disk towards it master and sliced off his head, only for it to unnaturally vanish.
Cell: Don't feel bad, Krillin never hits anything with it either.
Father whipped around at the sound of the voices behind him and turned to see three Cells behind him. Having obviously used Multi Form, the trio of Cells launched themselves at Father and began throwing multiple punches at him. The homunculus' shield popped up to defend him against the onslaught, him in question watching them with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face before commanding the shield to expand and push the Cells away. They landed at three different points in a triangular formation around their opponent and all unleashed a Special Beam Cannon. Acting quickly, Cell used alchemy to make reflective pipes rise out of the ground so that each beam filtered into one before coming out another end, straight back towards the Cells. The beams blasted two of them to nothingness but the remaining Cell was able to use instant transmission to teleport out of the way of his redirected attack and appear behind Father. The kick he swung out struggled against the barrier, producing arcs of electricity, before breaking through but not before Father was able to summon to hand a miniature sun, which he shoved out to press against Cell's still swinging leg. The power of the mini-sun burned through Cell's leg and he collapsed to the ground, clutching at his cauterized leg.
Cell: Ah shit! What is that?
Father: This is the power of what I call God itself.
Father then raised the mini-sun up into the air and fuelled it with even more energy to turn it into a massive flaming orb.
Cell: OH SHIT!
Father pulled backwards, letting the sun drop onto Cell and burn away at his body, leaving the android screaming violently before the star exploded in a blast visible from space that left a crater as big as the Grand Canyon. Father turned away almost immediately from the damage he wrought, ready to go on his way. However, he sensed something that made him turn around and he watched, in shock, as Cell regenerated from a tiny fragment of himself.
Father: How...how could an insect come back from the power of God?
Cell: It's simple really...
A massive boost in power now surging through him, Cell began charging up a Kamehameha.
Cell: It's because not even a god is perfect compared to me!
He unleashed a powerful Kamehameha straight at the Homunculus, who readied himself with whatever counter had left. But unfortunately, he felt a stagnation of energy and he winced, setting him up for the energy blast to wash over him. He roared as he felt it burn him, his soul-consuming regeneration working overdrive to keep him alive. But it was running out, so Father glared against the energy pelting him and sent out coils of energy to wrap around Cell as he kept firing the energy wave, beginning the process of taking his soul.
It was a brief struggle to see who would fall first. But ultimately, with an addition pouring of power, Cell's Kamehameha finally dislodged Father's footing along with finally burning through his reservoir of addition souls, leaving him completely mortal and his power unusable. His skin pale, eyes blank and mouth open in a silent scream, Father's body was subjected to Psycho Crush by Cell, which sliced his entire body to minuscule pieces.
This wasn't all Cell did, as he also cut up new parts for a new arena, setting them down other Father's tiny remains before standing in the middle of it.
Cell: Seriously. No more open invitations.
KO!
Outcome[]
Boomstick: If surprise challengers really rub Cell the wrong way that much, then Devil Artemis should probably find a new gimmick for his animations. Like doing ours.
Wiz: In spite of concluding factors here common for a matchup featuring a Dragon Ball character, there were a few esoteric factors that meant Father could have pulled off the win sometimes. Sometimes, like how he could have potentially reflected Cell's own attacks back at him or even stolen his soul. Remember, Cell's presence in the afterlife means he definitely possesses one.
Boomstick: But those tools to victory relied on Father being able to feasible outmuscle or even just outpace him, with the chances of those happening slim to none. Comparing Father's tendrils reaching out to the Sun's Gate of Truth and Cell's Kamehameha speed, the bio-android was well over 120 times faster than Father was.
Wiz: In terms of power, upon attaining that of which he called God, Father possessed the proportional strength of a star. Yet Cell, upon receiving a boost in strength to his highest state, was able to completely destroy the solar system. Even then, considering Gohan was able to match him with Super Saiyan 2, which boosts his power by two times, before Cell's revival allowed him even footing, the gap in power still would have been too great for Father even if we didn't use Super Perfect Cell.
Boomstick: And since Ki is also equal to durability, that means Father's star level power wouldn't have been able to completely disintegrate him and bypass the green guy's regeneration. But whilst we're on the subject of regeneration, since Father uses souls from an Philosopher's Stone to recover from damage rather than using something like a healing factor, Cell wasn't putting him down straight away.
Wiz: Well actually, maybe he could've. Don't forget, Father isn't powered by a Philosopher's Stone so much as he is one himself, or at least his whole container form is one. After it was turned extremely brittle by Greed and punched through by Edward, all his souls came spewing out, his body too damaged to keep them all contained. Even without a weakening agent to use on Father's body, Cell could likely do the same with raw strength alone. Or even use raw strength alone to just whittle down Father's collection in the first place.
Boomstick: This presented two unique issues for Father. Each time he recovered with souls, those souls got spent, and he needs a certain number of them in order to use his God powers. As they got whittled down, he'd find it harder and harder to, and it's likely all his other abilities would also cost those vital souls. Meaning that with Cell's superior speed and strength, he'd bring Father down to breaking point where his body could no longer process his power, getting weaker and weaker until he was basically helpless. After all, that's why the lower level Ed was able to pummel him even before Greed turned him to lead.
Wiz: Whilst most times we would say someone with Father's kind of regeneration could outlast their opponent, that's only if they had something that could be outlasted. Cell's physicality was great enough to withstand his own Ki attacks, and he could always just repower himself. So in the long run, Cell's strength, speed and durability, both regeneration and toughness based, were Perfectly suited to bringing down the Father of the Homunculi.
Boomstick: Hey, don't you take away my role of making puns Wiz. I won't let it go any Father.
Wiz: The winner is Cell.
Next Time[]
Rulers of the underworld
Are gamblers for your souls
Trivia[]
- Connections: Both are artificially created beings who seek immense power by absorbing others, including a key source of power (the Gate of the Sun and Androids 18/17 respectively). Both also spawned numerous other entities (the Homunculi and Cell Jrs) and where created by highly intelligent individuals who themselves became artificial entities. Both were also slain by the sons of their archenemies (Hohenheim's son Edward Elric and Son Goku's son Gohan, respectively), DNA were used in their creations and are responsible for setting up unique landscapes (the Cell Game arena and a country-spanning sacrifice circle).
- Animation Style: 2D.
- OST Idea: 'Perfect Exchange', referring to Cell's goal of becoming perfect and the Alchemy law of equivalent exchange.