Firestorm attends the opening of a new science building in Metropolis University, with Professor Stein being eager to see who the guest of honor is. To Stein's dismay, the guest of honor turns out to be none other than Dr. Michael Holt AKA Mr. Terrific, who is quick to show off his technologically-advanced T-spheres and dedicate the building as the "Mr. Terrific Research Center". While the gathered audience and Ronnie Raymond are in awe over Mr. Terrific, Stein is all too vocal in his revulsion for the ingenious superhero and bitterly demands he and Ronnie leave. When Ronnie inquires about Stein's sudden change in attitude, Stein begins to explain that he and Michael Holt were college roommates during the time when Stein was a grad student and Holt was a fourteen-year-old child prodigy. Before he can explain further, the ceremony is interrupted by the supervillain Calculator, who uses his suit's technology to hack Mr. Terrific's T-spheres and set them loose on the crowd. Though Terrific and Firestorm are able to prevent any civilian casualties, they are unable to stop Calculator from escaping by flying away on the hacked T-spheres. The two heroes summarily agree to work together to stop Calculator, though Stien is not at all happy about this arrangement.
Tropes:
- The Ace: Mister Terrific, who is described by Ronnie Raymond as not only an Olympic-level athlete, a master martial artist, a scientific genius with multiple doctorates in the fields of engineering, physics, law, etc. (And a notable Chick Magnet based on the reactions of some female audience members at the beginning of the episode.)
- Adaptational Badass: Calculator has always been more a planner than a fighter, but here he's able to hack Mister Terrific's T-Spheres and use them to not only fight him into a corner, but to separate Firestorm back into Ronnie and Prof. Stein!
- Berserk Button: The normally level-headed Martin Stein gets extremely angered easily whenever Mr. Terrific is mentioned. Mainly due to Terrific's ego (and Terrific's Freudian Excuse) and "assumed intellectual property theft" (stealing his ideas for S-cubes and remaking them into his T-spheres).
- Badass Normal: Mister Terrific, who is able to hold his ground in a fight even without his T-Spheres.
- Brought Down to Normal: The Calculator uses the hacked T-spheres to separate Firestorm into Ronnie Raymond and Professor Stein. Once Calculator takes Ronnie to keep Firestorm from reappearing, it's up to Mr. Terrific and Stein to stop him and save Ronnie.
- Freudian Excuse: Mister Terrific has a massive ego—something Martin Stein (his old college roommate) keeps reminding others of. Mister Terrific says it's actually a defense mechanism that was a result of rooming with Stein, who Terrific says was the smartest person on campus and constantly criticized him.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Due to Mr. Terrific being The Ace, Professor Stein being The Resenter and the Calculator an Enemy Mine, especially after he kidnapped Ronnie to keep Firestorm from appearing again.
- The Resenter: The main reason behind Professor Stein's scathing contempt for Mr. Terrific is due to the former's belief that Terrific's design for his T-spheres were based on the design for his own, similar invention, the S-cubes. Terrific counters that Stein couldn't take the fact they both were working, independently, on the same concept. (Of course, there were OTHER things Terrific did as Michael Holt, prodigy and roommate, that angered Stein as well...the dirty dishes, the car hair, the burping and the firecrackers—which Stein claimed he hadn't forgotten about.)
- Humble Pie: When the S-cubes get taken out by the T-spheres, Stein admits, "I guess my S-cubes were no match for your T-spheres, after all." As well as indeed, the T-spheres were original, after all.
