A change of clothes

Sylvie watched. TVA agents did start to look generic after a while, any one could be any other. Identical uniforms, and the same stony expressions.

"Really?" Tony complained. "More break-ins?"

The three TVA agents ignored him. Sylvie crouched, tunic unfortunately riding up as she did; her butt rested, bare, on the backs of her heels. She bit her lip and did her best to stay unnoticed.

Though it was hard not to at least wince when one of the agents spotted the TemPad.

"Found the nexus event," she said. "Someone got careless and left this in the timeline."

"Oh, Renslayer's gonna be pissed," another responded.

"Er, hello?" Tony said. He waved.

They only looked at him when he took a step closer; one of the TVA agents lifted a stick. One of their weapons; Sylvie had seen it before.

"Do we bring him back?" one agent said.

"Does he count as a variant if it's us being here that changed his path?" the other responded. "Usually not, right? I say we bring back the TemPad and reset, normal procedure."

"Got it."

One pulled out a reset charge, carefully setting it up on the floor. Sylvie's attention focused on that; when it detonated, the whole vicinity would be wiped from time. That was what the TVA did. No ripples, no side-effects, from any variants.

But they'd be gone before it detonated. It'd be stupid otherwise. Hopefully she had the time to disarm it - she didn't know its range, or even if she could outrun it.

"I'm standing right here," Tony said.

He took a step closer, evidently not particularly afraid of what looked like just a stick: then it prodded him, and there was just enough time for his eyes to widen in comprehension. The TVA used those for pruning, for cutting variants out of time; as soon as it touched him, he started to fade away until there wasn't even dust left.

Not that it mattered. The same would happen when the reset charge went off, in their minds. The charge was placed, the TemPad taken, and the TVA agents retreated to their portal.

The instant it blinked shut, Sylvie lunged out of concealment, landing on the charge and trying to find any trace of controls of buttons on it. As it whirred, she blindly stabbed at something.

The noise it was making stopped. Sylvie collapsed in relief, catching her breath. She let it drop, glad of the precious moments to herself. It had been a while.

Then she heard the door. Quickly, Sylvie sat up.

"Why are you still out here? Morgan's asleep, I thought..."

There was a redhead standing in the doorway, clad in only underwear, and at that underwear that clearly wasn't worn for the sake of modesty. Something satin and soft, a vivid red with a black lace trim, with only the barest scraps of it the opaque red. It offered a generous view of her breasts, most of the swell of her cleavage exposed, and the lower half hugged her thighs tightly, and the gusset was more see-through black lace, with a slit neatly positioned down the middle.

The redhead saw Sylvie and screamed, looking around wildly for something to hide behind; she settled for grabbing a hat and holding it over her breasts.

"Who are you?!" she yelped.

Before Sylvie could answer, there was the sound of another TVA portal. Sylvie jumped - this was the last thing she needed.

Only one person walked through this time, slightly frustrated.

"Must've been a dud... Oh. Er. Hello?" he said.

Sylvie lunged for his TemPad; she succeeded in knocking it out of his hands, before he swung his pruning stick at her. Wildly, she moved back; the tunic trailed in front of her, loose enough to swing in the air before it fell back onto her. The tip of the pruning stick just brushed it.

All at once, the hard-won garment started to fade away, erased from time. Sylvie gave an indignant yelp, arms drawing back in to hide her breasts and core.

"Do you know how hard it was to get that?" Sylvie said, blushing anew.

As the TVA agent blinked, Sylvie sidestepped past them, able to avoid the stick and knock them out with a hasty enchantment. She half-considered stealing his clothes, but no, the TVA probably had trackers or something. She wanted to avoid contact with them, except for absolutely necessary things like TemPads.

And the redhead was still watching, still flushing herself, hat clutched to her chest.

"What... what..." she stammered.

Sylvie crouched, and stood up to take the new TemPad, and quirked an eyebrow. She looked the redhead up and down.

"Not my first choice," Sylvie said. She sighed. "Though not like I have any choice."

"What?" she said.

"Never mind," Sylvie said.

She carefully programmed coordinates she knew into the TemPad, not wanting to land somewhere out-of-control again. Then she walked over to the redhead, and enchanted her before she could back away. She, Pepper Sylvie learnt, lacked Tony's resistance to mind control; she was strong-minded, but not so strong that a decent command didn't see her dropping the hat and politely handing her lingerie over to Sylvie.

Better than being naked, she told herself, still eyeing the scraps of satin in distaste. She took them in one hand, and opened a portal that she quickly stepped through. Finally, a little privacy, even if she still wasn't as modest as she'd hoped.

A couple of minutes later, and a third TVA portal opened up in the lab, a rather frustrated duo charging through.

"Seriously, why do we keep getting called here?" one said. His eyes fell on Pepper. "Another one?!"