Steve strode into the operations room, tucking in his plaid button-down shirt. He'd washed up quickly before getting dressed but was sure he could still smell Natasha on his fingers, feel her skin against his. He felt the tail end of the euphoric glow but took a breathe and focused on the task in hand.
The other Avengers were already sat around the meeting table, Sam and Rhodey in military casual Tshirt and combat pants, Wanda in a loose black dress with her signature red jacket and the Vision looking weirdly out of place as a man in red, green and gold.
Natasha was already on the computers, pulling up information on the big screen. She was bent over the keyboard but gave Steve a quick glance and a knowing smile before returning to typing. She felt like grinning from ear to ear as she imagined him looking at her ass and had to resist the urge to wiggle her hips at him. Oh, he'd probably get all self-righteous and mad at her for doing that and she'd have to grovel and show how sorry she was… an eager little knot of desire twisted in her.
Out of the corner of her eye she caught Wanda turn her head and look at her with a puzzled expression.
Oh, that could be a problem. No time for lust. Natasha calmly kept on calling up maps as she kept her face still and remembered in gruesome excruciating detail the bloody violent death of Pietro Maximoff. Bullets punching through flesh and shattering bone in a spray of blood…
Wanda didn't flinch. Ok, she's feeling emotions not reading thoughts. She'd just have to keep things in check.
Looking over the display Steve asked "So, what have we got?"
Natasha answers "British Intelligence has sent a high priority request, they have a criminal situation with possible extra-terrestrial involvement."
"Do we know what they're up against?"
"They suspect Event Artefacts"
"Which is a polite way of saying?"
On the screen are displayed several twisted dark metal shapes of no discernable purpose.
Natasha explains "Well, After Thor defeated Malekith a lot of Dark Elf technology was scattered all over this area of London" She pulls up a map, circling an area labelled Greenwich - Old Royal Naval College.
Vision leans forward and hesitantly reads "Green Witch?"
Steve corrects him "It's pronounced GREN-itch."
She continues "The area was dangerously unstable after the fight. Malekith attacked during an event known as the Convergence of the Nine Realms, when the barrier between these dimensions was very thin. His plan involved collapsing all those realities into each other to destroy the universe. During this period Dr Foster used a gravimetric field generator to open a series of portals and banish the elves, but a lot of debris, weapons and other artifacts were left behind."
Sam looks at her incredulously "Banish the Evil space elves?"
"Yes, Evil space elves from the Darkness before time, who hate all of creation as being unnatural."
Rhodey shakes his head "Can we call them something other than The Space Elves? Elves? It just sounds weird"
Sam agrees "Definitely, looking for space elf weapons sounds wrong"
Steve nods "we could do with a code name for them. Nat?"
She scrolls through the Asgardian records they have "well, In old Norse and Asgardian they're called the Svart alfar and their realm is called Svartalfheim, literally Dark Elf Home"
"Svart Alfar it is. Let's just go with the phonetic alphabet and call them Sierra Alpha or SA then, safer on open channels"
Sam mutters "And I'd feel a lot less ridiculous"
"You and me both" Rhodey agrees
Nat brings up the SHIELD records. "SHIELD had a clean-up crew gathering all the debris we could find and Dr Selvig helped us hunt down and seal the remaining portals. Once the convergence event was over they mostly closed up but it was months until they declared the area safe for the public. We thought we'd tidied most of it up."
"But it sounds like someone has found something they think is valuable. So, what do we know about them, their weapons and equipment?"
They're less bloodthirsty than the Chitauri we fought in New York, during the fight with Thor they just secured a perimeter around the fight, probably on Malekiths orders. They're smart, fast, well organised and physically they're roughly equal to a low rank Asgardian, so superhumanly strong and tough. They can see without light, in fact light and life seem anathema to them. According to Thor, who's knowledgeable but not exactly good at explaining things to Humans they exist outside of time, which may make them immortal.
Technology wise they've very advanced. They have Ships capable of interstellar travel, the propulsion seems to be some sort of gravity drive and the Power plant is a singularity, an artificial black hole that generates the gravity. They can go invisible to hide from sight and even get past Asgardian sensors.
They wore body armour and face masks capable of stopping most mundane weapons and carried rifle like weapons that use a gravity pulse to compress and accelerate a bolt of high energy plasma that's very accurate and hits really hard. We have reports of a single shot demolishing a four foot thick stone pillar.
They all carried close combat weapons of some sort, mostly swords or knives, but we don't know if they were enhanced in any way. Best to avoid getting stabbed just in case.
They also have Gravity weapons capable of the Manipulation of mass, similar to Thor's hammer. Instead of explosive grenades they had implosive Point gravity sources, basically short lived black hole grenades. So treat everything Alien as potentially extremely dangerous.
"So, what's the play?"
"We go in covertly, subdue when we can, use force if you have to. If they have alien weapons and use them, put them down fast. We can't let them use any of these weapons but don't want civilian casualties, so keep your more powerful stuff precise"
"Sounds like some of this stuff would one shot a tank."
"That's why they called us in."
"We really need to stop them getting a shot off. Rhodey, does your suit pack any area effect munitions?"
"I've a missile pod that can take flash/bang concussion sub-munitions."
"Good. Wanda, how has your throwing practise gone?"
"I still have bruises from Natasha's baseball cannon!"
Steve turns to Natasha, surprised "you actually got the pitching machine?"
Natasha grins proudly "after a few false starts she can reliably deflect three at a time"
"Sounds good. Wanda, draw some stun grenades from the armoury for this mission."
"OK everyone, suit up and get ready, the Quinjet is being prepped and we leave in 30."
"Natasha, if you could hang back a moment?"
She turns and waits as the others head out, Wanda leading Vision to make sure he uses the door, Sam and Rhodey comparing power to weight ratios and flight aerodynamics.
When they're gone she closes and locks the door. Steve switches the room cameras off and sets the computer monitoring mode to Privacy.
"I've been thinking.." she starts to say, then Steve has grabbed hold of her and pulled her to him. He stops her gasp of surprise with a kiss that she returns with ardour, wrapping her arms round his neck
"I wanted to do that all briefing." He grins and picks her up easily, sitting her on the edge of the table. She wraps her legs round his waist
"Hell, I wanted to just pin you down to the table and ravish you right here"
"well, we do have 28 minutes and counting" she offers, tugging the zip of her top down to her navel
"I know. It's tempting, but" he lets the comment trail off
She sighs "yeah, there's always a but"
Steve nods his head towards the living quarters "We're sharing a base with a robot man who doesn't understand boundaries and who can walk through walls"
Natasha leans closer "And a young witch who can sense emotions and read minds"
Steve's eyes go wide. That's going to be a real problem…
She adds "Plus two guys who usually wear million dollar combat suits with state of the art sensors"
He nods "So I was thinking we need a bit of privacy"
"Definitely, I'm a bit of a screamer"
"Oh really?" he runs his fingertip along her lower lip "That's good to know. So I need to get a gag for you?"
She rubs the growing bulge in his pants and whispers into his ear "Oh, promises, promises, Sir. Seems I've awoken a mighty monster. Will you make me scream for you?"
"You'll find out, I'll make sure of it." He takes her hands and holds them at her sides. "But I was thinking we need to get out and about more. So, as official head of the Avengers training program I'm putting you in charge of Espionage training. I want you to teach the team the basics."
"Ok, they could do with some common sense. But what does that mean for us?"
"I've put myself down for an advanced course and field work, pencilled in for a few days a month but with a Quinjet tasked for travel so you can pick any city in the world and we'll have a weekend away."
"That sounds remarkably like an abuse of power."
"Hardly, think of it as a working trip with evening benefits. I figure we're owed it"
"So I get to take you on an all-expenses paid tour of the spy world?"
"yes, You can show me the ropes."
"Was that a pun?"
"Isn't that a part of spy training?"
"Tony showed you his complete James Bond film library, didn't he?"
"Indeed he did. Anyway, dust off in 25." He lifts her off the table and sends her on her way with a playful slap on her ass. "Go get your gear, Think about somewhere we can go for useful field work and some private time."
"Yes sir!" and she heads for the door, mind already full of ideas