Jim, with her new suit

"Who is it?", Valerie called out. She ran towards the door, blocking it with her body so it couldn't open all the way.

"Um, it's me. Jim. I got your gear!" came the reply.

"Great! Uh, Jim, do you mind passing me the suit through the door?", Valerie asked, extending her hand through the gap in the door, making sure her body was hidden out of sight.

"Sure. But, uh, any reason I can't come in first?", he asked.

"Jim!", she exclaimed, her voice containing a note of scandal. "I need to take off my clothes first so I can put it on!"

"Right. You need to get changed. Of course.", Jim stammered, before passing her a bag through the opening. Valerie sighed in relief as she opened it to find it did, indeed, contain something she could wear. She closed the door and called out. "Sorry Jim, just five minutes. Thanks!"

She quickly emptied the bag's singular content - as she had come to expect at this point, it was a one piece catsuit. It was a dull, matte black in color, a little coarse to the touch. The fabric was thin, absurdly so - it couldn't have been thicker than a tissue. Despite that, it was completely opaque, and surprisingly stretchable. Must be the new prototype material, she thought. She didn't want to keep Jim waiting for too long, so she tied her hair in a bun and quickly put it on. The stretchy fabric made it incredibly easy to put on, and Valerie felt it compressing around her body, perfectly contouring to her shape.

Relieved to be finally clothed again, she opened the door and let Jim in. "How do I look?", she asked, doing a little circular spin so he could check.

"Great! Looks like I got the fit just right - maybe a little tight from the back, but nothing you can't pull off.", he beamed. "Now, we're short on time, so I'll give you the quick version." He pulled out his phone and showed her a diagram.

"This suit is my best work yet. As you no doubt noticed, it's incredibly lightweight and quite stretchy, meaning you will have full flexibility and freedom of movement in the field." Valerie nodded.

"Next, it blocks all light passing through it. Any normal fabric of this thickness would be mostly transparent, but as you can see, it absorbs all light thrown at it." Valerie took another look at the suit, and realized why it looked the way it did. It reflected almost no light. That would come in handy when hiding in the darkness.

"And finally, it's self-repairing. That is, to say, it will put itself back together if damaged - up to a certain point." He moved to the table, where he began to set up something on a tripod.

"Wait", asked Valerie incredulously. "You're saying it can't be damaged at all?"

"Not quite. To be clear, the material is self-repairing, but not self-synthesizing." On seeing Valerie's confused look, he continued. "Look, let's take this piece of paper. When I tear this in two, there's two things that happen. One, structural damage - my previous single sheet of paper is now two sheets. Two, loss of material - a tiny amount of paper has disappeared. This suit can repair the structure, but it can't make new material out of nothing."

Valerie nodded, although she wasn't quite sure she understood the difference. Still, it seemed a positive to her, for her clothing somehow always ended up getting damaged on missions.

"Quick demonstration...", said Jim, but Valerie saw the time and realized she was going to be late for the briefing.

"Sorry Jim, but I have to run.", she interrupted him apologetically.

"Are you sure...", he began to speak, but Valerie was already out of the room.

"I owe you one. See you later!", she said as she dashed out of the room towards the briefing.