Android 16

"You two made too much noise. You scared the birds away."

- #16 to his brother and sister Android 16 is one of the androids created by Dr. Gero with a peaceful disposition and a hero from Dragon Ball Z.

Activation
Though Dr. Gero built Android 16, he did not complete his programming and thus never activated him, fearing what he might do something like destroy Androids 17 and 18. But after Gero, with the Z-Fighters hot on his heels, activated 17 and 18, 18 became interested by the dormant 16. She wanted to activate him and Gero commanded her to stop, only to get killed by 17. Future Trunks arrived and tried to stop 17 and 18 as they were activating 16 with his Buster Cannon attack, but it did nothing. The android trio set out to find and kill Goku as their programming dictated. They were quickly confronted by Vegeta and 17 and 18 tried to get 16 to fight him, wanting to see his abilities. However he refused due to being more interested in watching a group of birds nearby and 18 stepped up to fight Vegeta instead. Future Trunks, Piccolo, Krillin, and Tien Shinhan arrived to help Vegeta and 17 asked 16 if he wanted to join in. 16 refused again as 17 accepted and when the fight was over, 16 was saddened when the birds flew away due to the noises from the battle.

Fighting Cell
16 left with 17 and 18 to find Goku and eventually arrived at Kame House where Piccolo agreed to fight 17 on a nearby island. However the fight was interrupted by Cell, who had grown strong enough that he believed he could absorb 17 and 18, who managed to fight Piccolo off and went after 17. 16 intervened and stated that he was roughly equal to Cell in terms of strength and speed, so he would be the one to stop him. The two battled and 16 managed to rip Cell’s tail off, hoping to leave him unable to absorb 17 and 18. But when the bio android regenerated his tail, 16 decided to take more drastic measures and removed his hands, revealing cannons within his arms. He fired them at Cell, unleashing an enormous blast on him, but he managed to survive and snuck up on 17, successfully absorbing him. Cell transformed into his Semi-Perfect form and proved much stronger than 16, easily dealing with his attacks and badly damaging him. With Tien’s help, 16 tried to get 18 to safety only to be followed by Cell. However Vegeta and Future Trunks arrived, having trained in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, and the two androids watched as Vegeta managed to easily take on Cell. However Vegeta let the android absorb 18 as well and attain his Perfect form and 16 could only watch Vegeta fight him. At first he thought the Saiyan could win but upon seeing Cell’s true power, he said everyone was doomed. After Cell defeated Vegeta and Trunks, before leaving to organize his Cell Games, 16 approached Krillin. The android told him that he wanted to help fight Cell, but he needed repairs. While Future Trunks didn’t trust 16 since he was an android, Krillin calmed him down and brought 16 to Capsule Corp where Bulma and her father repaired him. During these repairs, Bulma found a bomb inside the android, most likely intended to be used against Goku and not wanting to take any chances, removed it (which will later Bulma will regret).

Cell Games
After his repairs were completed, 16 went to the Cell Games, arriving shortly before the Z-Fighters. He thanked Krillin for helping him get repaired and introduced himself to Goku. 16 then watched Goku fight Cell, before eventually making his move to take out Cell himself. As he was fighting Gohan, 16 grabbed the bio-android from behind, intending to use his self-destruct to destroy them both, not realizing Bulma had taken it out. When 16 realized that it had been disabled, Cell blasted him to pieces with only his head remaining intact. He had Mr. Satan throw him over to Gohan and encouraged him to let loose his anger so as to protect everyone. But after Cell crushed 16’s head, finally destroying him, Gohan became so enraged that he finally transformed into a Super Saiyan 2. It is unknown if 16 was brought back by the wish the Z-Fighters made on the Dragon Balls to bring back everyone killed by Cell and fix the damage caused by the Cell Games.

Personality
16’s most notable trait is his usually peaceful nature to the point that he preferred interacting with nature as opposed to listen to Dr. Gero’s orders. He talks very little and is the only person who has stated that 17 and 18 aren’t actually evil. Though 16 doesn’t like fighting, he will immediately engage anyone who poses a threat to the peace of the planet.

Abilities
16 is the most powerful of the androids of his series, which may be because he was created without any human traits. Being an android, he has superhuman strength, speed, and durability and endless endurance and energy. 16 can fly and fire energy blasts and has a device built into his eyes that allow him to locate and gauge energy signatures. 16 also has a pair of cannons built into his arms that can fire extremely powerful energy blasts and to use them, he removes his hands, tucking them under his armpits. 16 can fire his hand like a missile and has a powerful self-destruct device inside his body, which was deactivated by Bulma.

Trivia

 * 16 has a number of similarities to the Terminator, he is a robot designed to look like a hulking human and created to relentlessly hunt down and kill someone. 16 even looks and sounds like Arnold Schwarzenagger.
 * 16 actually appeared in the anime before the manga.
 * He wore a Capsule Corp logo instead of a Red Ribbon logo on his back after Bulma and Dr. Brief repaired him.