Thirty minutes later the Quinjet is fuelled, loaded and ready. The Pilot was running a few last minute checks as Steve came on board, throttling up the engines "Flight path is set, captain. Our Flight time over the Atlantic will be a little over two hours"
"Thank you. Ok everyone, settle down and strap in. Once we're underway we'll get some maps up and see what new intel the British have sent us"
Wanda sat down with an olive drab munitions box and an ammo belt she'd got from the armoury in her lap.
She fumbled with the big steel catches until she popped the box open, revealing six big silver cylinders.
Vision peered at them with innocent curiosity as Wanda started to load them into the pouches on the belt.
"Interesting. But surely you should be able to create a similar effect with your powers?"
"Not without a lot of concentration, these make it easier"
Natasha sat next to her as she started trying to get the bulky belt to fit
"here, let me help. Military webbing wasn't designed for people with proper hips
"Just crossing Irish airspace Captain, MI5 have given us a new rendezvous point."
Everyone gathers round the screen as the
"Looks like they called us in just in time, the suspects are meeting their buyers"
The screen shows a map of a densely packed urban area, rows of houses in tangled streets. In the middle is labelled a Disused armaments factory in Enfield, London. Coloured Markers around it show the positions of Police, SWAT and Army units ready. Blinking points mark Drones in the air and snipers on nearby rooftops.
"They have eyes on target, they're sending us a video link."
A window opens on the screen, showing grainy static then flickers into a camera view from a drone looking into the factory.
Inside the Factory was mostly empty space, outlines on the concrete floor showing where machines has been. Some large hulking metal devices remained, casting dark shadows in corners of the building.
Large cargo doors had been opened in opposite sides of the building allowing two groups of cars to drive in and park facing each other. Between them was a pile of boxes covered in a tarpaulin and on that impromptu table was arrayed strange shapes of twisted metal
"Bringing up facial recognition. Group one are all in the police database. Michael and Raymond Pearson, London organised crime. Rest are known associates of theirs, experienced muscle.
Group two are all unknown."
The camera zoomed in on them, all well-built Caucasian males. The two who seemed in charge we wearing very expensive suits. Four more in suits and black trench coats, armed with rifles and wearing earpieces. Behind them by the cars were two much larger looking men in military style camouflage fatigues. Unlike their companions they had military helmets with goggles and respirators and the helmet had a flexible connection to armour plates across their shoulders and down their backs.
"Are those Exoskeletons?"
"Looks like some sort of enhancement."
"Police say they're using encrypted radio, it's a SHIELD code but they're not on any SHIELD database"
"That means Hydra"
"We're Just crossing the Welsh coast, ETA eight minutes"
The leaders of the two groups were talking by the table of alien artifacts. The HYDRA agent opened a suitcase, showing it was full of money, then another full of plastic wrapped white blocks
Apparently satisfied, the leader of the Gangsters made a phone call.
Police report a van just entered the cordon, heading for the factory.
The battered old van pulled up in the factory and the side door slid open
Two large thugs drag a man in a dark tracksuit with a bag over his head out and unceremoniously dump him on the floor.
Some sort of ransom pay off?
The gangsters grabbed someone HYDRA?
Could be, but why are they buying the guy with alien tech?
Natasha zoomed the screen in and paled. "That guy is too tall."
"What?"
On the screen they watch as they gangsters pull the figure to its feet and take off the bag.
The Dark Elf pulls itself to its full height, a full head taller than any of the humans. It's angular face with grey white skin and huge totally black eyes perches incongruously on top of the tracksuit it's wearing.,
Grabbing a headset Natasha radios the police "Inspector! This is the Avengers! Pull your men back NOW!"
"Whow. They're buying a live elf?"
"I bet they want it to fix that alien tech for them"
"Please let them be smart enough to not give it a weapon."
"What if they don't know what a weapon looks like"
One of the HYDRA Agents opens a case and shows the Elf its contents, several long dark shards.
The Vision winces. On his forehead the mindstone was glowing bright yellow
He turned to Wanda, asking "do you feel that?" but sees her eyes have rings of scarlet fire. She nods
"Dark matter."
"Those shards are weapons created by the Aeather to kill Thor. Only Mjolnir and Thor's inherent power stopped them shredding him
I can feel they still have traces of live Aetheric energy in them .
On the screen there is an Explosion and the signal is lost
"Just had reports of shots fired!"
"Damn, We're going in hot"
Steve starts rattling off orders "Ok. We pair up, cover each other. Sam and Rhodey, you are our air cover. Fly us a perimeter as we go in and scan, see if you can tell what's going on. Got to make sure we're not blindsided. then come in hard.
Wanda, vision, you go in on the ground from the side. Disarm and disable if you can, beware alien tech.
Widow, you're with me. We land the jet here and go in the front, I'll draw their fire , you get to cover and try and take out the SA.
"Yes Sir!" Natasha opens her weapons locker and pulls out a bulky looking rifle. Time for the Big guns, as this could turn into a nightmare of a fire fight; Multiple targets, both human and alien, both at long distances and in confined spaces.
Her gun was a light machine gun, stripped down and reworked by SHIELD weapon-smiths to make it lighter and more accurate. The shorter barrel made it more manoeuvrable in tight spaces, the folding steel stock and optic scope meant she could snipe fairly well and it had a reflex sight on top for controlled rapid fire.
She slotted an outsized 100 round curved magazine into the side. From the locker she took a combat harness already loaded up with two more of the large magazines and put it on.
Rhodey turns to Sam and points to the two machine pistols on Sam's hips. "maybe you should ask her for some more firepower?"
Sam lowers the ramp at the rear of the QuinJet "Just because you're a flying tank. You're blunt force, I'm finesse." He says and jumps, wings snapping open as he dives
Rhodey closes his visor and dives after him "Damn right. I'm Maximum Force! Shock and Awe!" His repulsors ignite and Warmachine rockets after the Falcon.
The quinjet starts to decelerate and circle. Vision and Wanda stand arm in arm for a moment then silently vanish down through the floor as the Vision phases them through solid matter .
Steve checks his helmet and shield then glances at Natasha. She nods that she's ready to fight in answer to his unspoken question . Even before the ramp hits the ground they're both moving, jumping down and running at full speed for the factory doors. Steve hits the door full force with his shoulder, smashing the old painted wood planks and tearing it off its sliding rail. As it falls he keeps moving, Natasha following him in only a few steps behind, gun raised and ready.
Inside is a cacophony of gunfire and smoke, a three way battle between Hydra, Gangsters and the Alfar raging around the burning remains of the cars. Strangely several of the gangsters and HYDRA thugs seemed to be defending the Elf?
Steve heads straight for the Svart Alfar, shield raised. It was working intently with the debris on the table, assembling and repairing something. It'd already put on several pieces of salvaged armour and its eerie face mask with round black eyes snaps up. Inhumanly fast it grabs up a rifle and fires.
Steve is running hard with his shield raised in from of him and the purple-red bolt of plasma hits dead centre.
It's like being hit by an express train, suddenly slamming him backward. Pain flares in his arm and chest, all the air is knocked from his lungs
Natasha cries out "Steve!" as he is hit and flies backward then her face sets in murderous intensity. In one smooth motion she fires a long burst at the Elf as she crosses to Steve, who's already getting shakily to his feet.
The bullets rattle across its chest and face but hardly phase it, even without the armour its alien flesh is near bulletproof. But then a lucky hit cracks an eye lens and another draws blood; it winces and ducks in sudden panic.
Steve gets up into a crouch "I'm ok. My Shield took the hit, that's why there's a target on it"
Natasha is down on one knee next to him, keeping up a withering cover fire. She'd drawn blood and was going to get more. The first clip clicks empty and she smoothly ejects it and slaps in the second. The bullets she was using were Widow specials she'd had the SHEILD armourers make for her unofficially, each had a sliver of some high density material in the core – things she'd found in the archives of items SHIELD had salvaged over the years, repurposed space ship wreckage and killer android parts, with some tungsten carbine and depleted uranium thrown in, even silver just in case. She wishes she knew which had hurt it.
Steve toggles his radio "Warmachine, the fight is in the South west corner. Hit them!"
Natasha shoves at him "Move ! Move!" If the Elf thinks like her it knows they're a big threat and have direct fire weapons, it'll use an indirect weapon if it has one. They need to move to the flank FAST.
Sure enough, something dark trailing a red glow comes flying through the air. It hits where they had been standing and explodes with a pulse of dark light then implodes into a swirling vortex
Then the ceiling over the fire fight explodes inward under a rain of cluster munitions, showering roof tile and girders. War-machine drops in on a pillar of glowing blue fire, both arm weapons raised as his missile launcher fires another volley that splits into a scatter of thunderous flashes and concussions.
From the side the flash of a Yellow beam cuts through the smoke. Over the radio the Visions voice rings out "Captain!, beware! it seems to have reanimated the dead!"
From the smoke a gangster runs straight at them screaming. His eyes and mouth burn with a deep red fire, shards of black glass protruding from its chest from wounds that glow like embers. It's hands are raised to grab and tear but Steve checks it with a shield slam then hammers it down into the ground with the shields edge. Natasha quickly puts a short burst into it as Steve moves on. Make sure they stay down.
From the hole in the ceiling the Falcon swoops in at high speed, flipping mid dive to slam feet first into the Dark Elf. The kick throws it off its feet and the rifle goes flying.
The surviving gangsters have all thrown down their weapons and fled. One of the armoured Hydra soldiers dives at War-machine, grappling him. He rises into the air, shoulder mounted gatling gun firing into the Hydra soldiers helmet but not stopping him. Shouting "Little help here?!" War-machine electrifies his armour, shocking the soldier but not shaking him off
"Oh it!" Wanda shouts, waving her hands in a complex gesture of scarlet threads. The Hydra Soldier cries out, armour fracturing and arms twisting as the threads wrap around him. The plates on his back pull away as Wanda pulls her hands back, exposing glowing orange spheres embedded into the shiny silver of the soldiers' cybernetic spine.
War-machine fires an arm gun into the soldiers' chest, knocking him back. Together Wanda and War-machine threaten the remaining HYDRA agents, who wisely surrender.
The Elf tries to scramble to its feet but a blast from the Vision slams it back into the ground.
Falcon and the Vision stand over it, Falcon with his guns ready "Surrender!"
Tearing off its shattered helmet it screams in rage and frustration at them, then spits some hate filled words in its alien language. It lifts one of the bulkier fragments of debris in one hand, grabbing a grenade from its belt with the other and holds them together.
They don't understand the language but the emotion is clear. Natasha draws a bead on its head then glances at Steve. He shakes his head.
"Back off everyone, I'm guessing that's a bomb".
To the Elf he shows his hands are empty. Speaking calmly "I don't know if you can understand me but put the bomb down and surrender, we won't hurt you"
The Elf hisses a tirade of angry words.
Nat keeps her rifle aim steady "I can take him"
"It's not blown itself up yet, I don't think it wants to die, just get away"
"Where can it go? It won't be popular round here"
"Very true. It wants to go home"
He points at the Elf, then the Sky "Svartalfheim?"
The Elf looks at him, eyes dark and unknowable.
"If you put down the bomb and surrender we will get you back to Svartalfheim, ok?"
"Can we even do that? Thor's off on his Quest somewhere"
"Trust me"
The Elf stands with eerie speed and grace. Still holding its bomb, it looks at Steve and nods "Svartalfheim"
"Ok. Now, I've never done this before, but Thor said this guy can see everything, so…"
Steve walks to the area with the wrecked roof and looks up.
"Heimdall! Can You see me? I know you do not answer to me but I have need of help with a Svart Alfar Thor left on Earth!"
"Will that work? Just shout at the Sky?"
"Thor said Heimdall can see and hear everything in the Nine Realms, but only acts if it involves Asgardians"
Suddenly a bolt of rainbow light slams down from the cloudless sky. Multi coloured energies swirl and a flamboyantly dressed figure walks from the beam, drawing a sword.
"I am Fandral, of the Warriors Three. Heimdall sent me to help defeat the Dark Elves that plague you"
"I am Steve Rogers. There is only one Elf, our prisoner. It has surrendered on promise it will be returned to Svartalfheim, can you take it there?"
"The Dark ones don't surrender; they are trickery and malice incarnate!"
Steve looks over at the battered Elf, still clutching its bomb.
"I think this one is just tired and wants to go home. Can you take it there"
"With Heimdall's help, I can"
"Will you give your word to not harm it unless it tries to do you harm?"
"Very well, you have my word"
Steve looks at the Elf. It pauses, then puts down the big chunk of debris and touches the grenade, which stops glowing, but it keeps it in its hand.
"Good enough. My thanks for your help Fandral"
"My pleasure, it will be a tale for the mead halls!"
With a thunderous flash of colours Both Fandral and the Elf vanish into the Sky.