Earth again, and a somewhat familiar face

Earth. Again. And more than that, outside; bright red, Sylvie made a dive for the hedges. She was beginning to get a feel for this world, and she wasn't sure she liked it. Clear blue sky, one sun giving off too much heat, and distinctive stone architecture. She knew what the buildings looked like by now, just as she knew she'd been standing on a public pathway.

Pale stone marked out a sidewalk between buildings, lines both sides by grass and bushes and, on the other side, flower-beds. Not wanting to be out in the open, Sylvie crouched on the grass, keeping close behind a bush, one arm crossed over her bare breasts and the other holding onto the hedge to keep her balance.

There were a few people, though they didn't seem to have noticed her arrival; they were a small distance away. Blushing, Sylvie did her best to watch them.

On one hand, she needed to get to people if she wanted to enchant new clothes for herself. On the other, she'd rather do that somewhere less exposed than this. She stayed low, trying to look past the leaves, both ways down the path.

She didn't even have shoes! Not so long ago she'd been confident in a replenished wardrobe, and now she was reduced to these alarmingly tight panties. Sylvie looked down, carefully adjusting them when it felt like they might have slid over her butt a bit; only when she did so did she look at the building behind her.

She'd been used to thinking of those buildings as just blocks, things she could go into if she wanted to, or go out of, but that were mostly just there to use for cover and separate up streets. She wasn't used to Earth's way of building - as such, she hadn't expected windows. Two faces pressed to the glass, eyes wide and mouths open at the mostly-naked blonde crouching on their lawn.

Heat rushed to Sylvie's cheeks. She stumbled, falling forward onto her knees; eyes locked on the window, she scrambled forwards, one arm still over her chest, and her other hand helping her half-crawl onto the path before she quickly got back up to her feet.

Okay, this might be a good time to TemPad - but for all she knew, she'd end up somewhere even more embarrassing. No, there were people here, she had to at least get some clothes so she'd be better prepared for her next destination.

She faltered for a moment, stood up straight, TemPad in one hand and her other arm pressed tightly over her breasts. Her face was red, and each sculpted cheek of her butt could be seen through the dark navy; it contrasted well with the pale skin adjacent to it, really driving home that there was nothing on beside it. They were as modest as underwear could get, travelling half an inch down her thigh and concealing her crotch, but that wasn't much comfort to her just then.

Sylvie started moving, unsteady on her feet as she picked up speed - now, people had noticed her presence. The path wasn't quite as empty as it had been when it had first appeared, a couple casually walking down it, only to see a pantie-clad woman streaking away from them.

Not much seemed to change here. Everything looked similar, the same pale pathways, the same greenery lining them, bushes and spindly trees the only cover. Not that they were much cover; not only were they inadequate for modesty's sake, but they would leave her exposed to the inhabitants of the houses.

She ran a few feet more, and suddenly came upon a road, hearing the louder noise of cars going by. She froze; this path was significantly busier than the one she'd been on. She saw people point, heard comments, laughing, and whirled around, bright red, to sprint back down the way she'd come.

Okay. This was quieter. If she was to have any hope of enchanting an outfit, it would be more likely this direction. There were a couple, there, if she could reach them.

Blushing far more than she had been, Sylvie kept her back to the busier road and ran towards a distant pair of people, breasts threatening to bounce free of her arm with each step.

And then there was a blur in the corner of her eye. Well-aware the TVA was probably due to show up, Sylvie shot a panicked glance that way, and couldn't help but stop as she processed what she saw.

It was Ava. Well, it looked like her, her brown skin completely exposed, black hair trailing behind her; she was nude, and mostly still visible even if the image of her body seemed to blur on occasion, afterimages left in the air. And she was running; she'd just phased through a building, and was hastily making her way across the street, evidently mortified.

Sylvie faltered, staring.

Dimly, she knew what had happened - Ava had mentioned that her phasing had seen her on more than a few naked runs, before she'd gotten hold of a suit that helped stabilize her condition. She must be at some point in the past of their last meeting, and this was one of those such runs.

Still, there was a difference between knowing how something was possible, and seeing an old... friend, suddenly right there in front of her.

Ava wasn't far away. Seeing Sylvie was alone, her sprint from building to building was diverted slightly, heaidng over to the blonde. Sylvie's eyes widened.

"Ava," Sylvie said.

Ava hesitated.

"You know me?" she said.

How was she meant to answer that? Yes, she'd bonded with a future alternate version of her. That was concise, and utterly meaningless to anyone else.

For a moment, she considered talking about Asgard again, the technology that could cure her condition; she could have company again. But, no, that was selfish all over, another variant of Ava wouldn't be the same, and it felt beyond crass to just replace her.

Though at the same time, more headaches for the TVA and more help-

"Whatever," Ava said.

She took a step forwards. It was the strangest feeling; she walked into Sylvie, and then passed through her; Sylvie blinked a couple of times, adjusting her eyes after the momentary blackness. She coughed, as if the air in her lungs had been mixed up, and it took her a couple of seconds to catch her breath.

The sensation was too utterly bizarre to call it anything as mundane as painful. Still, it made her reel; she turned around, half-considering calling out to Ava as she saw the nude woman run into the next building.

And then she realized Ava had taken her panties. Sylvie's eyes went wide.

She must have grabbed them while phasing - made them phase through Sylvie with the rest of her, taking the one garment she could. No one she'd picked Sylvie; it must be nearly impossible to phase-steal any particularly complex outfit. No doubt she was holding out hope for a dress or a long jacket somewhere near her, but in the mean time...

In the mean time Sylvie had just lost her last article of clothing. She was still frozen for a moment, shocked for all manner of reasons; it took her a second to move her TemPad-holding hand in to cover up her core.

And she was so very far from alone. Her blonde hair, still a little damp, fell either side of her blushing face, her eyes wide, and her head turning from side to side as she processed the fact that, not only was the couple she'd been heading towards staring at her, but there were a handful of people who'd followed her from the busier road to better see who was streaking.

Her only modesty was an arm that did nothing to hide the curve and swell of her breasts, and a trembling TemPad clutched between her legs; with people both sides of her, there was nothing covering her firm ass, newly bared to their eyes.

And by the feel of thing, it wouldn't be long before the TVA showed up. Sylvie quickly gave up on her plans to steal anything from her, and flashed her core as she lifted up the TemPad and stabbed in a random coordinate. Anywhere would be less mortifying than here, she was sure.

Stark naked, Sylvie streaked into time and places unknown.