Battery cells are like eggs. Cells come in fixed voltages and capacities. If you need more voltage, you can deal with multiples of the cell voltage. You can't get half an egg, and you can't get half a cell, at least in voltage. Cell capacities do vary, particularly with a supplier like PowerStream that has a great variety of cell sizes available, but voltages don't. All NiCad or NiMH cells are 1.2 volts nominal, lead acid is 2.0 volts nominal and the various lithium technologies are about 3.6 volts per cell. If you need more voltage you have to add them in series, if you need less voltage you need some kind of voltage regulator or DC/DC converter.
If you need more current than a single cell can supply you may need to put cells in parallel. If you need more capacity to give longer run time you may also put cells in parallel.
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