XXXII

Sherlock wasn't quite sure what shocked him most. The sudden presence of Peggy and his brother or the violent way the girl ripped the hypodermic needle out of his hand. She threw it at the wall, not even flinching as it shattered on contact. "Have you lost your damn mind, Rookie?"

"It's not what it looks like," Sherlock defended impatiently.

"Oh, I'm sure it isn't," Mycroft assured sardonically. Sherlock rolled his eyes.

"I was testing a formula from one of Peggy's notebooks. Thought it might help against…" He mentally kicked himself as his sentence trailed off, unable to use Loki's name just yet. The agent in question rolled her eyes.

"A: you should not be going through my notebooks, let alone testing anything in them. B: Bullshit." Peggy took to pacing, her angry gaze burning through him. "Even in this state you aren't stupid enough to test that super soldier formula of mine." The younger Holmes failed to suppress a smirk as the Elder shot her a confused look.

"What is an English Ma-"

"Doesn't matter, Mycroft." Peggy quickly cut off. "What matters is that everyone is wrong about Loki." Sherlock groaned.

"You shouldn't let emotion-"

"Cloud my judgement? Yeah, ain't happening, unlike you." Peggy began to rummage through her backpack. "Loki is working with Moriarty but I don't think it's to get revenge on the Avengers," she explained as she set up her laptop. Mycroft, who had been suspiciously silent during the exchange, gave his brother a surprised look.

"The English Major is expectantly observant." She shot him a glare that would've wilted most, but Mycroft simply ignored her. Sherlock smirked, trying to imagine what Mycroft's reaction would be when he discovered she was an undercover SHIELD agent. "Apparently, your immortal beloved slipped a message into his latest break-in."

"He's telling the truth, Rookie," Peggy explained, as if in response to Sherlock rolling his eyes. She slid her laptop to him. "Here." He tried to ignore the sudden pang in his heart at the sight of Loki, the only man he'd even consider admitting love for, next to his mortal enemy. "Watch his eyes."

"I highly doubt that-" But before Sherlock could finish his counter-argument, his eyes locked onto Loki's. Peggy had the same clip on repeat and every time it played through, the pattern to the god's blinking became more obvious. Not taking his eyes off Loki, Sherlock began to scramble for a pen and paper. Peggy slid the objects to him, clearly prepared. "Stone… Vision…?" he slowly read as he translated. "The android?" The disappointed shock that crossed Mycroft's face told him he was correct.

"Yup," Peggy confirmed. "Turns out…" She tapped a few keys and brought up new footage. In this clip (which seemed to take place before Loki and Moriarty's break-in) Tony Stark was speaking to the android Vision. Judging by their gestures, Sherlock deduced that they were discussing the glowing stone in Vision's forehead. "A very valuable weapon had been at that base the day before."

"You think this is what they're after then?" Sherlock asked. "The Vision?"

"More like the Infinity Stone in his forehead," Peggy explained as she shut down her computer. "The same on Loki used in the Battle of New York."

"Naturally we'll provide our very best to handle this matter," Mycroft offered, watching Peggy text with a satisfying of incredulousness in his eyes. "Surely, Loki is hoping to recover his weapon of choice and I doubt a consulting detective and a highly underqualified university student could properly handle these two troublemakers on their own." The elder Holmes brother's pompous smirk was returned with mischievous ones from the younger Holmes and the "highly underqualified" agent.

"Oh, that won't be necessary, Mr. Holmes," Peggy assured in a professional tone, texting someone. "The situation is about to be well under control."

"I certainly admire your confidence, Miss Stark. However…"

"I mean this is no longer your jurisdiction," she interrupted, the smirk never leaving her face while Mycroft's melted. Sherlock suspected that she was well aware of Mycroft's indignant confusion without looking up from her phone.

"Then who's jurisdiction does this fall under? Surely, you don't have access to-" Mycroft was abruptly cut off by Agent Stark flashing out her badge.

"Allow me to reintroduce myself, Mycroft Holmes. Peggy Stark." She tucked the badge back into her back pocket, grinning like a Cheshire Cat. "SHIELD agent. And supervising officer to your lil brother over here." By some miracle, Mycroft's eyes managed to grow wider, almost to the size of dinner plates. "Come on, Rookie. Coulson's got a quinjet heading our way."

***Burdened With Glorious Deductions***

Hunting down a god who might not actually be evil and a criminal master mind was hardly the worst or the scariest thing Peggy had ever done. Nonetheless, the young agent felt the familiar butterflies as she carefully bounced the heavy metal box in her hands. Perhaps it was the fact she was holding an infinity stone that was causing the invading nerves rather than her ultimate quarry. She found herself envious of Sherlock, who seemed to finally have collected his cool about the situation. The consulting detective was calmly discussing something with John, whom he had asked (not really) to join them. "Are we ready for this, boys?" she asked as John slipped something into his pocket.

"Any reason we shouldn't be?" Sherlock asked.

"Well, we are about to hand an alien weapon of mass destruction to two criminal masterminds," she explained, handing him the box. "It's technically not something we should approach lightly."

"You do remember this is Sherlock Holmes you're talking to, right?" John asked. Peggy giggled.

"You've got a point there."

"So do we even know where we're supposed to meet Loki and Moriarty? Where they are?" John asked.

"We will soon," Sherlock answered, texting on his phone. "I just sent out a tweet that's sure to get Moriarty's attention."

"With as big a boner as he has for you that shouldn't be too hard." Peggy couldn't help but smirk at the disgust and shock that crossed John's face. Sherlock's only indication that he heard her was to raise an eyebrow. "Am I wrong?"

"I would really rather not think about that," was John's only rebuttal. She turned to Sherlock, who seemed intently focused on his phone.

"You sure you're ready for this, Rookie?" The detective's hands flew up in exasperation.

"Why does everyone keep asking me that? I am perfectly fine."

"You're also one hell of a good liar." Sherlock gave her a confused look. She shrugged. "When you're trying to be stoic, you're at your best at lying." Sherlock's face didn't change but Peggy caught a flicker of shock in his normally icy eyes. She hadn't expected him to really react much which only proved her point. "After all, we are going after your fiancé who may or may not have turned evil." He shot her a confused glance, one eyebrow shooting back up.

"You're the one who convinced us that Loki wasn't on Moriarty's side."

"And I still believe that. With all my wittle heart."

"But you think he may still have an ulterior motive."

"He's the God of Chaos. You can never be certain what's going on in his head. You two wouldn't have snuck those guns into your coats if you didn't agree." Sherlock and John exchanged very satisfying confused looks. Sherlock opened his mouth but Peggy interrupted him. "Yeah, I know. 'It's for Moriarty.' That's the only reason May hasn't confiscated them yet." If either John or Sherlock had some kind of rebuttal, it was cut off by a cheery beep from Sherlock's phone. He glance at it and rolled his eyes.

"How predictable of him."