The Cube Root

"**The Cube Root**" is the thirty-fourth episode of Justice League Action.

## Summary

When Calculator seizes control of Mister Terrific's T-Spheres and makes off with them, some Justice League help is needed to attempt to retrieve them.

## Story

Firestorm flies towards the Metropolis Museum to attend the opening ceremony for a new science research center. The guest of honor happens to be another member of the Justice League, Mister Terrific. This immodest character tells the attending crowd that the new building will be the home for his own ingenious invention, the 'T-Spheres'. He is already known to Professor Stein who holds a grudge against him for having stolen his own idea of 'S-Cubes' when they were at college together. Firestorm, however, is a big fan and lauds the achievements of Mister Terrific much to the disgust of the Professor.

As Mister T. addresses the crowd, a voice calls out. It is the villain Calculator who declares that he is about to take center stage. He presses a button on his control panel which surprisingly allows him to take control of the T-Spheres and they gather around him. Calculator then sends them to attack Mister Terrific, but the latter uses his athleticism to dodge their shots. Firestorm and Terrific then join together to repulse the spheres and protect the crowd until Calculator leaves, taking the spheres with him. Mister Terrific thanks his colleague for his help and asks after the Professor whose hostile replies Firestorm does not communicate.

Later, using the systems at S.T.A.R. Labs, the two superheroes are still unable to locate the stolen T-Spheres. A sudden power cut all across the city impels them to travel to the power station only to see the spheres shutting down the grid. Terrific assumes this has been done to nullify security systems so that Calculator can help himself to whatever valuables that he wants, and the villain confirms this as he reappears surrounded by the spheres. In the fight that follows, the spheres cause Firestorm to split into the two constituent figures of Ronnie Raymond and Professor Stein, and Ronnie is dragged away before the two can touch and recombine. As Mr. T. explains that his devices have hacked into Firestorm, the separated Professor thinks of a way to trace Ronnie.

In Calculator's hideout, the captive Ronnie is trying to confuse him, but an alarm warns of the approach of a large flying cube. This carries Mister Terrific and the Professor and is made up of a large number of S-Cubes. These are able to follow the trail of the T-Spheres, and Mr. T. takes a cube, reprograms it, and keeps it for himself. The hostile spheres attack and Terrific decoys them away so that Prof. Stein can crash the large cube through the wall of the hideout. As Calculator tries to command a sphere, the Professor throws a piece of rubble at him and starts to climb up behind Ronnie to make physical contact with him. Mister Terrific follows up, pursued by a sphere, but when Calculator presses a button to finish Mr. T., nothing happens. The sphere changes into the cube taken by Terrific and the latter throws it at Calculator, knocking him down, and he is taken captive. Meanwhile, the Professor, up high, jumps down and makes contact with Ronnie, reforming Firestorm in a blaze of fire.

Later, as the villain is taken away by the police, Mister Terrific asks for the Professor's help to reprogram the T-Spheres so that they can no longer be hacked. The latter now admits that the T-Spheres are completely original but the two continue to bicker over their time as roommates.

## Notes

* There isn't much explanation about what T-spheres and S-cubes are, what they do, and why there are so many of them.