Chapter 20
by 
gramana
What's next?
Meanwhile, at the TVA
Mobius M Mobius was having a weird day. Weird even by the standards of the TVA.
He had no active cases. There were only a couple of variants conceivably loose, but experience had taught him that a lot of variants on the run usually didn't last. Any who escaped, they could track by the nexus events they caused; a reset charge would likely have pruned a lot of them that they'd never know were there. And if they weren't causing variance, odds were they'd slipped up somewhere and were in a quietly non-timeline-breaking bottom of a hole somewhere.
The TVA had its busy stretches and quiet stretches, and this was one of the quiet ones. There was rarely more than one variant taken in at a time for processing, and the trials moved swiftly.
So he made his leisurely way around the facilities. He took his cup of coffee, and made his way to his office, passing not too far from the processing rooms through which variants were led and sentenced.
And he almost dropped his coffee.
The path to queue was neatly and clearly delineated by straps connecting various poles, like so many queues. It zig-zagged to allow for itself to be filled to a capacity the TVA had never really known. And, just then, it was totally occupied by stark naked women.
Rather quickly, Mobius made his way around to the courtroom. The carvings and tapestries of the Timekeepers hung high on the wall, and empty benches filled most of the room. A handful of guards were stood around, Judge Renslayer was sat at the front overlooking it all, and stood on a stand in the middle of the room was a woman with slightly curly blonde-brown hair, who was squirming a lot, most likely due to the fact that she, like the women awaiting trial before her, was completely and utterly naked.
"Miss Martinelli," Ravonna said. The woman whimpered. "The court finds you guilty and..."
Her voice trailed off as she saw Mobius. Mobius lifted a hand, apologetically making his way to the front of the room. He nodded in acknowledgement to be beet-red waitress.
"Have you seen the upcoming cases?" Mobius said.
"This is my first one today," Ravonna said. "Why?"
"They're all like this," Mobius said. "Literally, all of them. Whole room full of naked women."
"And your point is?" Ravonna said.
"I think something else is causing this," Mobius said. "Only explanation for so many similar variants. A common factor we should account for, rather than resetting them immediately."
Ravonna paused. She looked up to the defendant, who was biting her lip and still fidgeting, rather obviously embarrassed her her whole situation, and then back to Mobius. She sighed.
"Miss Martinelli," Ravonna said. "You're remanded to Agent Mobius's custody. Help him with his investigations." Her voice dropped again. "I'll send any other streakers your way. You think this is an escaped variant?"
"Seems like it," Mobius said. "Ask someone to keep me posted on active nexus events."
Mobius looked at the list of names before him. Huh. That was a lot. Angie Martinelli, a Valkyrie, Pepper Potts-Stark, Jane Foster, Lady Sif of Asgard, Jessica Jones, General Okoye, Sharon Carter, Ava Starr, Hope Pym, and Gamora.
Cross-referenced with nexus events, and there were a handful of related ones that hadn't seen any obvious variants - Ava's room, not long before Ava had appeared on the other side of the galaxy. A blonde seen by an Aakon ship and a marooned set of Vikings. Mobius considered.
Clearly the blonde was the variant - TVA teams had seen her with a TemPad, briefly. And more often than not, she was naked. Either she'd decided to steal TVA tech to wage a one-woman war against the concept of clothing, or she'd been trying to get dressed for a very long time. Interesting.
Step one was getting more information. The nude variants were being kept in a group cell, watched closely to ensure they didn't hurt each other; thankfully they seemed more concerned with curling up and blushing and trying to pretend this wasn't happening, so there was that at least. Thoughtfully, Mobius waved an assistant over, requesting permission to question some of them individually.
Jessica sat in the simple metal chair, legs pressed together, pulled close to the table, and her arms crossed. Her blush was very noticable on her pale skin, her long, black hair falling over one bare shoulder. Unconsciously, she tugged at it with one hand, as if she could get it low enough to cover her breasts. "So," Mobius said. "Tell me what happened."
"You know what happened," Jessica said, impatient. "Crazy ladies showed up on my doorstep and the blonde ran off with my outfit. Do want that back, by the way."
"Yes, we know the outline," Mobius said. "But you were there. You can tell us more."
Jessica reddened. Mobius waited patiently; she adjusted her position, evidently uncomfortable with the chair pressing against her bare skin.
"She did something," Jessica said, eventually. "Got into my head. One moment I was looking at them, the next I was... somewhere else, and it felt right to strip. And then I was back in the corridor, only my clothes were in her hands, and then your weirdoes showed up. Happy?"
"So what can you tell me?" Mobius said.
Ava glowered at him across the table. She held her breasts in her hands, splaying out her fingers to cover as much of each as possible. Her legs were crossed, and her eyes kept darting around the room.
It was just the two of them in this particular room. The walk from the room where all the nude variants were kept, to this room, however, had been rather more open.
Ava said nothing. Mobius sighed.
"I've heard that a blonde's going up and down the timeline," Mobius said. "What can you tell me about her?"
"She's wonderful," Ava said. "Better than you. And I'm not going to help you catch her."
Mobius eyed her a moment more. Ava's cheeks flushed, but she didn't so much as blink.
"I only saw her for a few seconds," Okoye said. "She took me to another world, to take my uniform. Then she returned me, in front of my sisters-in-arms. I was here soon after."The warrior sat almost demurely, her hands on her lap, one over the other to cover her core. She was less shy of her breasts than most, though the way she sometimes twitched made it clear she wasn't entirely unaffected by her nudity.
"You and your people," Okoye said. "You will stop her?"
"We'll certainly try," Mobius said.
Lady Sif had tried to escape. It had taken several agents to recapture the rogue Asgardian; in response, she'd been restrained. The TVA had a few such tools for more unwieldy prisoners; there was a small rectangle for her to stand on, with wheels to allow her to be moved around, and a vertical sheet that supported her back. Straps went from that sheet, around her, to prevent her from attempting **** again. A handle on the back allowed her to be wheeled around. She glowered at Mobius with as much pride as she could muster. Her ankles were each tied separated back, and there were two more loops around her thighs, just over her knees. Another rope under her breasts, around her throat, and one around each wrist.
It was admittedly hard to focus on her face, as opposed to her generous, heaving breasts as she struggled with her bonds, and her exposed core. Mobius cleared his throat.
"You will suffer for the indignities you have visited upon me," Sif said.
"We aren't the ones that stripped you," Mobius said.
Sif's cheeks flamed at the reminder. Mobius smiled.
"What can you tell me about her?" he said.
"She got into my mind," Sif said. She paused. "I have felt such tricks before, though she was gifted. I felt something of her mind for a moment."
Mobius raised his eyebrows. Finally.
"Did you see anything?" Mobius said.
"Nothing that makes sense," Sif said. "She felt... similar to a worm I know."
"And who is that?" Mobius said.
"What is this place?" Jane said. "I was affected by the aether, I heard, but nothing seems to be happening here.""The TVA is a bit beyond all that," Mobius said.
Jane Foster was kneeling behind her chair, having apparently decided to forgo dignity in the name of modesty. Her flushed face peered over the top of the back.
"Anyway, that's all I know," Jane said. "I didn't see those two for that long. Can I go?"
"Afraid not, until we tie all of this up," Mobius said. Jane whimpered. "I do have one more question, though."
"Yes?"
"You've heard of a Loki, haven't you? Tell me about them."
Sharon Carter had been another almost-escapee. She didn't need as extensive a set of bindings as Sif though, and the TVA had settled simply for binding her hands behind her back. She squirmed against them still, nude body fidgeting against the chair.
"I don't like being held prisoner," Sharon said.
"Who does?" Mobius said tiredly. "I have a few questions."
"I get mind-controlled into walking naked into a club," Sharon said. "Picked up and whisked off to whatever black site this is, and paraded around other women and bureaucrats without so much as a blanket, and you have questions?"
"That's about the sum of it," Mobius said. "So, shall we begin?"
"I followed her through a gateway she created. I didn't realize what it was at the time - she didn't see me, she or Ava," Hope said.
She was red-faced, even if Mobius had become rather used to blushing faces after the string of interviews. He made another note, and looked up; he'd started almost taking note of the various ways the women covered up. Hope only used one arm over her breasts, her other covered her core, apparently not trusting the table to do so. She didn't seem to have realized a nipple had snuck into view just over the crook of her elbow.
"So she was working with Ava?" Mobius said.
"They seemed... close," Hope said. if it were possible, she grew even redder. "She seemed to be more experienced though. Er, with this... time travel stuff. Ava seemed newer. And when you arrived then, they split up. I followed her - Sylvie, Ava called her - and when I confronted her, this happened."
Hope gestured with her chin. Mobius nodded.
"So, can I have something to wear now?" Hope said vainly.
Mobius looked over his notes. Okay, some of the variants had been uncooperative - Ava, for reasons that were obvious now. Gamora and Valkyrie had been surly, and Pepper seemed to distrust them because she seemed to have figured out her version of Tony Stark had been pruned. The latter three had been dropped into the TVA's usual time loop cells, replaying the memory of their stripping by Sylvie and capture.
Repitition had a good way of softening people up, and it would keep the memories fresh in their heads. He'd talk to them later.
Ava, he wasn't sure what to do with. A time loop cell probably wouldn't work if her dynamic with Sylvie was what Hope had said. Still, the TVA had kept all the women around (including, of all things, a second almost nude Ava who'd shown up, albeit with nothing to say).
Options, options...
A Loki variant, probably. He marked down a case number, and made a mental note to look back and see which of the menagerie of Lokis it could be. Until then, he made his way to a monitoring station.
"Agent Mobius?" one of the staff said. "We did as you said. There's currently only one notable instance of variance."
"Has it been dealt with?" Mobius said.
"It's complicated," the monitor said. "It's a no-go zone."
Mobius frowned. There were points on the timeline where it just wasn't safe for the TVA to go, moments like a minute either side of Thanos snapping his fingers. The odds of agents accomplishing anything in those narrow windows were minimal. As such, it was usually best to let the danger play out, and sweep up the mess after.
"Which one?" Mobius said. "How long before we can send in a team?"
"A few weeks," the monitor said.
"Weeks?" Mobius said. "How much damage to the timeline can she do before then?"
"Not much," the monitor said. "It's a self-contained event. The actual effect she can have is constrained by the same hex that would stop any TVA operative from doing their duty. Only when it fails can she act as a chaotic element, and when that happens it's safe for us to intervene."
"Okay," Mobius said. That gave them a bit of breathing space. "Where is she located right now?"
"Westview," the monitor said.
Sylvie stumbled through the doorway, trading in one plant-lined pathway for another. She looked around, cheeks burning, seeing that she was far from alone; still, for some reason the sight of a portal through time appeared remarkably uninteresting to the inhabitants. She crouched a little, as though that offered her any modesty, and lifted up the TemPad, intending to carefully open a way out of here with one hand.
Only, instead of a TemPad, she was holding a sponge. Sylvie's eyes widened. She looked up, and saw dozens of eyes focused on her. A yelp escaped her lips, and she dropped the sponge, dropping her hand to again quickly cover her core.
No TemPad. No way out. No clothes. And completely naked in a bizarre town. Mortified, Sylvie turned and hurried down the street, trying to find anywhere she could hide.
And was it just her, or was this town black and white?