Hasty action, and an ally

Her mind was racing.

The TVA thought they'd gotten her. Part of her felt like she ought to be happy at that - she'd have an easier time evading, with any luck.

But then she thought of the people still trapped in the TVA, despite herself. The people she'd run away from. Okay, she'd made a string of bad decisions, and most of them probably didn't particularly care for her, but they were only there because of her. If they hadn't been pruned yet, they would be almost as soon as her '****' was reported.

Which she shouldn't care about. She'd survived on her own for long enough, she didn't want to go out making friends, even if there was... one person she cared about.

So either she struck at the TVA soon, despite having made no progress whatsoever in finding a weapon or something that she could use, or she let herself lose them and play the long game.

She'd resigned herself to the long game a while ago. Somehow, though, it didn't seem like as easy an option now.

Sylvie stumbled through the portal, still thinking quickly. Almost unconsciously she recognised the feeling of ventilated air, and despaired at the fact it had become so instinctive for her to tell if she was naked inside or outside. Automatically, she crossed one arm across her chest, and looked quickly over her shoulder - she was inside, in the corridor of what looked like an apartment building.

It was dingy, and for now quiet, but it still felt too open. Sylvie hurried forwards, hoping she could see an open door somewhere.

Well, open might be pushing it. Still, she heard a clicking noise from behind one - she did her best to focus on the present, rather than dwelling on the TVA just then. She either had to rush into action, or accept losses, and either way she'd rather think it over in more seclusion than streaking down a hallway.

She quickly pushed the flimsy-even-by-Midgardian-standards door open, to see a blonde at a table with an alarming number of disassembled guns laid out in front of her. She looked up sharply as Sylvie walked in.

Well, the stranger was dressed. Blushing, Sylvie kicked the door closed behind her, and ducked closer - the stranger was immediately on the defensive, but Sylvie just needed a touch to enchant-

It was hard to describe how enchantment felt, sometimes. Often she could visualise what she was doing completely, if she was messing with someone's memories. If she was just implanting a memory, though, it was more of a sense than an image. This was somehow both - it was like there was a net, a set of crimson strands wrapped around the blonde's mind. They were fragile, but they were distracting.

No, not a net. If anything, Sylvie would have likened them to a tangle of puppet-strings; if they pulled, they'd tug the stranger in the opposite direction of any enchantment, so the first thing Sylvie had to do was wave away the strands.

It took a few seconds to long. Once she'd succeeded, the woman had time to pull back before Sylvie had gotten a proper feel for her mind; a step away, though, and the blonde reeled. She adopted a fighting stance almost unconsciously, but didn't lunge. Instead, she was shaking.

"What..."

Sylvie had gotten a vague sense of her. She saw the name 'Yelena,' and had glimpsed a notion of her past, strings of morally dubious and undeniably impressive missions of all sorts, and the distinct feeling there wasn't much love lost between Yelena and her employers.

"I can think," Yelena said. She stared uncertainly at the naked Sylvie. "How did you do that?"

There were a few seconds of silence. Sylvie wasn't sure what she was meant to say to that - okay, the blonde's mind had been strange, but it wasn't like she had enough experience to analyse every individual quirk.

"Thank you," Yelena said. She paused. "Who are you?" She paused again. "Wait. Is this an Avenger thing? They have that psychic person, right? Is that a superhero costume? Not very inconspicuous."

Sylvie flushed, quickly adjusting her arms.

"Not an 'Avenger,'" Sylvie said quickly. "Just a... long story. And does this look like any kind of costume to you?"

"Seen weirder," Yelena said. She shrugged. "Kind of. Actually, not really. Not had a naked woman break into my apartment before."

For a moment, Yelena seemed distracted, as if running some mental comparison of relative strangeness of intruders - face warm, Sylvie quickly lunged. Unsurprisingly, Yelena reacted in a way that probably would have thrown a human opponent; Sylvie wasn't trying to fight her though. She just needed one grab.

Now that the mess of puppet-strings was out the way, her mind was easy enough to enchant - if anything, it was primed for it.

Yelena was wearing a loose, button-up shirt, a jacket, and pants. Then the jacket was thrown over a chair, the shirt pulled up to reveal the lack of a bra, and pants pushed down along with a pair of practical-looking panties.

She undressed brusquely, it not quite occurring to her what she was doing until she'd stepped out of her boots, and kicked them away. By then, Sylvie had picked up the discarded shirt, and was close to getting to Yelena's pants, when Yelena's mind suddenly caught up with reality and she yelped.

"Hey! That is not fair!" Yelena said.

She went a rather impressive shade of red. Yelena crossed an arm over her breasts, her other hand flailing a little, leaving exposed a strip of blonde between her legs. Her body had an impressive few curves for how firm it was, though she didn't exactly seem thrilled to have it all bared.

Yelena lunged as if to grab her clothes back; Sylvie grabbed her wrist, managing another quick enchantment. A second later, and the blonde moved back, both of her hands now on her head, revealing every inch of her body despite herself.

Sylvie took advantage of the quiet few seconds to pull on Yelena's shirt, and her panties and pants, sighing in reliefthat she'd finally succeeded this time. Meanwhile, Yelena blushed furiously, squirming for a few moments before the temporary enchantment waned and she could drop her arms again.

That time, Yelena didn't lunge, perhaps sensing that it might not be hugely successful. Instead she crossed her arms tightly over her chest, and sidestepped quickly to stand behind a chair, face red.

"Okay. Not an Avenger," Yelena conceded. "Probably. Just a psychic clothes-stealer."

"If you were stuck streaking around everywhere, and you had the ability to mind control people into giving you their outfits, wouldn't you?" Sylvie said.

Yelena paused. She pouted, ****.

"Still rude," Yelena said.

She paused again.

"Though if this is the price for..." Yelena began.

Her voice trailed off. She looked at Sylvie, then looked back over her bare shoulder, as if working out how to best navigate her apartment. She probably had more clothes here.

Sylvie paused, turning a few thoughts over in her head. She'd glimpsed more of Yelena's mind, then - a spy-slash-assassin, a secretive group that used chemical conditioning on its agents to keep them obedient, and undeniably experienced with infiltration.

Maybe it was just the momentary desperation, the urgency of what the TVA might be doing just then, but Sylvie paused.

Yelena turned to quickly dart out of the room, presumably to another where a wardrobe waited.

"Wait," Sylvie said.

Yelena ignored her. Sylvie quickly reached out, a quick enchantment stopping Yelena from leaving the room. Sylvie's eyes dipped downwards, before she cleared her throat and turned Yelena around.

"It really is very annoying when you do that," Yelena said.

"Wait," Sylvie said again. "I... think it might be better if you didn't get dressed immediately."

"I disagree," Yelena said pointedly.

"I undid that brainwashing you were under," Sylvie said. "You could pay me back."

"Nothing personal, I'm not really into any-"

"Not like that," Sylvie said quickly. "You're a spy. I need a spy."

There was a pause.

"You break into my place, take my clothes, and ask for my help?" Yelena said.

Sylvie hesitated.

"Nothing personal," Sylvie said. "Needed to go somewhere."

"Huh. Now I see why people aren't happy when I use that excuse on them," Yelena said. She flushed.

"There's a group that controls the timeline," Sylvie said. "I need to infiltrate them. Well, I need to shut them down, but infiltrating is the first step. The sooner the better."

"Timeline?" Yelena echoed. "You probably want my sister."

Sylvie remember a vague flicker of a slightly familiar redhead in Yelena's memory. She hesitated.

"I don't really get much choice in who I meet," Sylvie said. "Are you in?"

She could see the gears turning in Yelena's head. Okay, Yelena likely didn't care about her or her cause, at least not beyond some vague sense of gratitude for the whole freedom thing - but she was curious, and it wasn't like she had many other places to go. By the sound of it, her former employers might not be happy with her newfound freedom. Any escape was good.

Yelena fidgeted.

Undercover at the TVA had... potential. She'd need to get the outfit off of a TVA agent, of course, but it was at least easy enough to draw in one of them. She could wear that, then she just had to pose as someone bringing in a variant.

Any kind of variant might have done, Sylvie supposed. But if she wanted to think about Ava and the others, there was one particular sort of variant she could bring in...

"So," Yelena said. "You don't want me to dress, so that I can put on an appropriate uniform to blend in?"

Sylvie cleared her throat. "Er. Not exactly."