Hearing monologue-ing voices may have been rife in the superhero prison, the Vault, but the extra alertness of the guards was in no way feigned when they checked on Diablo's cell. In place of he may've well been chanting an alchemistic spell to break himself free with the elements.

It was about 10.00PM: the guards had just begun their change in shifts for the late night. The one keeping watch on the alchemist began his descent to the ground floor.

"Esteban De Ablo…"

Diablo, distraught, snapped out of a reverie bothering him. Whoever said his full name wasn't some ubiquitous voice in the head that serious mental health patients listened to. "Who calls me by a name I do not want to hear?" he mumbled.

The prison lights were dimming down, some extractor & ventilation fans were turned off. The resulting quiet was perfect - for a little chat between two foes of the FF. With that, sparkles of white filled the whole cell, light reflecting off the thick glass perimeter like diamonds. Soon a familiar face appeared that boasted a vapid smile.

Diablo shivered to a halt, "YOU!" He pointed his finger, freezing it in place, "If not for your masquerading in that cursed Contest, I would not have been rewarded with such SHAME!"

Ronan sensed the riptide of tension in the cell's confinement, "Silence, YOU -" Unexpectedly he cleared his throat, "Forgive me for parading myself in the Contest of Champions. Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud." His sentence held a strange twist.

"I demand that you leave this instant, or I'll -" The alchemist wanted his fury to evaporate; to bore it into the Kree.

"I am here to do you a favour, Diablo…to set you free from this little cage. But no doubt: it comes at a price, my quizzical friend." The Accuser caressed the weapon he always carried.

The alchemist's eyelids fluttered once or twice in his feeling of wonder. "Go on."

"We share common enemies. At least six of them, for that matter. However, I work in small steps conforming to a bigger strategy," Ronan said. A momentary pause preceded his big question, "Would you be interested in a combined effort to capture the Human Torch?"

Meanwhile…

"Annihilus?"

"Check."

"Attuma?"

"I've checked the Atlantean prisons. Check."

"Diablo's the last one. Come on."

Sue & Azula paced their way to the nearest elevator; this was Azula's first visit to the Vault & Sue was more than happy to show her around (& poke fun at the captured baddies whenever there was a chance). Azula passed her eye around the countless glass fibre cells on both the left & right, which practically coated the walls. Each cell was shrouded in warm blue rays of light.

"You really think we'll have that many supervillains to box away?" she questioned, exuding a curiosity.

"Well…we can't know for sure."

The second they stopped in front of the lift doors, an alarm cascade broke through the still air. Every nerve attuned to anticipate sudden events, Sue created a platform for them both to hover on. Then they rose up, surveying storey by storey of the place. They couldn't quite pinpoint the floor with the most commotion, until a panicky guard with iron-grey hair signaled, "Invisible Woman, Blue Dragon! It's Diablo - he has a visitor!" He motioned with a skittery rabbit energy. A loud blast sounded down the corridor…followed by all-too-recognizable cackling.

"We'll take care of it," Sue smiled. Rapidly she trapped the thick dust & smoke emanating from the cell up ahead in a force field, before moving the large bubble aside. "Him AGAIN?" Azula gasped, annoyance & surprise mixing together in her voice.

"We meet again, humans," Ronan looked her in the eye.

Sue stood tough as nails, "What brought you back again so quickly, Ronan?"

"I've come only to 'borrow' a fellow Earth dweller of yours, as I require an accomplice to help me complete a task I have left long unfulfilled."

"What task? No, don't tell me: is it my brother again?" Sue was tempted to slap her forehead.

"You are only half correct," Diablo joined his new acquaintance. His eyes glowed, indicating he'd use his alchemy any minute to stir up trouble. Ronan answered, "You - all six of you - are nothing but a nuisance to the Kree empire! I am driven with every breath…to do nothing but make each of you pay! However, as you were quick to mention the Human Torch…"

"Don't say it," warned Azula.

"Try bringing us down before you get to any one of our teammates," Sue challenged boldly in a tone of steel.

"Very well. I might as well start by destroying you two in advance." The Accuser fired up his staff with the sparks starting to crackle around its tip. "That depends on how you look at it," Azula narrowed her gaze. She next shaped her left fist into a knife & launched. Her blast & Ronan's energy wave cancelled each other out, the bright blue & blinding yellow melting into thin air. The Kree threw his weapon at deadly speed but she was a millisecond early from letting it wheel mid-air into her.

Sue seized the opening to push the alchemist backward using an unseen force wave. The ripples of force had a powerful impact on Diablo, making him lose part of his focus. Out of nowhere his Earth potion chalice appeared, he summoned it to do something nasty...

A rumbling from the earth's belly drummed up into everyone's ears. Sue cringed - the soil was unbelievably cold. It felt like how the smell of earth rose up to meet her on a rainy evening, except it was far worse. Beholding the gigantic fist made out of soil in front of her, she struggled to get up. Diablo chortled louder than ever, given the sudden surge of adrenaline & power he mustered after letting his bored mind eat itself up slowly in the cell. Sue wrapped the shaped soil in a force casing. That was when Azula sprung to take out two birds with a stone.

"Sue, turn it off!" she instructed.

After Sue did what she asked, the Blue Dragon balanced herself on one leg before releasing high-speed twin flames from one fist & her free leg. One stunned Ronan with concussive force while the second blew the soil fist to smithereens. Just then, Sue sent two invisible boomerangs into each villain. As a preparatory move for later, she put a field around them too.

"Let's not waste what time we have left, Diablo. We shall make our exit," Ronan ordered & indirectly admitted defeat.

"The boy is ours, then," the alchemist added.

Sue barked, her hands working to tighten the force field, "Oh, we're far from done, Ronan! Leave our friends & my brother alone. Or else we'll strike back."

"By then, you'd be too short on…time…to save him," the Accuser half whispered. The back of his sleeve flashed green suddenly. Neither of the heroines saw it coming: their opponents making use of Kree technology to whisk themselves out of there. Following a growing light enveloping Ronan & Diablo, only the wreckage of the Earth potion's power remained.

"That was KREE-PY…," disappointment thoroughly overtook Azula.

Sue had mutual feelings, "We need to call Reed." She fingered her waist area, & sighed. Where a belt-like device had once been, she felt no trace of the piece of equipment left on her. The new "Kronotracker" that Reed had completed the same day was now missing. She wondered if he had at least one extra prototype.