Naked as charged

"No no no no..." Fern moaned to herself, trying desperately to cover her sudden nudity from the crowd of people gathering around her. She looked sharply at the Superintendent, "This is your fault!"

"No, it was..." the Superintendent replied, but Fern had already turned and dashed back inside the building, so she followed her, to the audible disappointment of their fans.

"Where are you going?" The Superintendent called after Fern, as she proceeded down a ew corridor.

"Where do you think? To get some clothes!" Fern replied. "Aha!" She had walked into a storage room where racks of clothing were waiting to be put out for sale in the shop. She did not see any underwear, but grabbed a pair of jeans and stepped into them.

"That won't work." The Superintendent said, and sure enough as fast as Fern pulled the jeans on, they disintegrated and fell apart into tiny pieces. Fern grumbled and picked up a t-shirt instead, she pulled it over her head but as she straigthened the hem down the shirt broke apart from the neck down so she was holding nothing, and naked still.

"It's a residual charge," the Superintendent explained, "the same **** that destroyed your clothes is still built up in your body."

"So what, I can never wear clothes again?!"

"Not never, but not until we fix the source of this."

"What do you mean, we? I could just hide in here until you sort it."

"Come with me."

The Superintendent took hold of Fern's hand and pulled her out of the room and back to the sales floor, then to a large window where they could look out on the street. There seemed to be a lot more naked women than Fern was used to seeing on the streets of London; a redhaired girl in her early twenties went streaking past, face turned crimson in embarrassment. A brunette who Fern recognised as a regular busker outside was trying to hide her nudity behind her guitar case, backed up against a wall and looking frantically for somewhere to go. A young professional woman was still stood talking intently into her mobile phone, apparently not having realised her suit was gone. More and more women were finding their clothes disappearing suddenly and publically.

"It's going to keep happening." The Superintendent said, "Women everywhere are going to be humiliated and left unable to wear clothes, and I need help to stop it."

"All right." Fern sighed, "I'm in. But... could we get away from the window? People are looking!"

"Oh, right." The Superintendent blushed and the two women backed away, "The good news is, I think there's now enough data to work out the source."