Payback

Sylvie paced for a few minutes, muttering irritably to herself. She was in the SHIELD base, the underground bunker detached from everything and devoid of life, so far beyond the TVA's ability to detect variance.

And she was barefoot, wearing pants and panties that she'd taken from Kate Bishop what felt like ages ago. And that was it. Every time she stepped out into the world, she found herself losing more and more, despite her best efforts. And what had she gained? She had a second TemPad still, but nothing to do with it, and she was no closer to puzzling out how to get back at the TVA.

She had focus, she had a bit more training under her belt, and she knew exactly what she wanted to do.

Which would be enough but see, again, lack of a shirt. Sylvie crouched, scowled, put one TemPad in her pocket, and stared at the other thoughtfully. She needed to start making progress. Ta Lo was a bust, unless she wanted to be tempted by some creepy, manipulative demonic creature again, which left those weird human-like people she'd seen in the past.

She went through a few potential dates, then settled on opening a portal in her TemPad. Keeping it clutched in her hand, and firmly crossing her arms over her exposed chest, Sylvie walked through.

And immediately ended up on a battlefield.

It was the distant past, she knew, relative to when she'd just been anyway. Earth, with a huge walled city behind her, and plains stretching out ahead of her. There was a trimmed-back forest to one side, a dirt-road the other, and abandoned wagons and carts dotted all around. And then there were the monsters.

There were four of them, squat, snarling things that looked like they were made of little beyond muscle fibre, the threads outlining strong limbs and fearsome claws. There was a man flying over one, yellow beams of energy shooting out from his eyes, while a man with light-lines surrounding his fists punched at another. The third was seemingly duelling a blonde woman that Sylvie recognised and instinctly glared at, remembering clearly the fate of her shirt.

Then there was the fourth running straight at her. Sylvie took a step back, eyes wide, only to find her portal closed. Great timing.

She started to back away, quickly; the thing ran for her. She turned, to see a bronze-skinned woman with dark hair behind her - of all things, the woman was picking up handfuls of dirty. The ground was dry though, too dusty to stay in her hands, most of it trickling out her palms.

When the woman threw the dirt though, it seemed as hard and heavy as flecks of metal. Sylvie barely had the tiem to do a double-take, just glad that whatever these monsters were, these people were fighting them.

"I need something more solid," the woman muttered. "This isn't working..."

The woman's eyes settled on Sylvie. Sylvie guessed what was going to happen a moment before it did - it did feel like it figured.

"Now hold on-" Sylvie began.

The woman grabbed Sylvie's thighs. Her grip was firm, and her touch was... alarming. The backs of Sylvie's pants turned to water in a second, and the front fell away in the woman's grasp, light rippling across them. Sylvie barely had time to do more than stare as the woman swung what had once been a garment - it had all the hardness of diamond when it hit the monster.

Meanwhile, Sylvie was left in her panties. She kept one arm over her breasts, but held the other near her waist, fully poised to bat the woman's hand away if she even made a gesture towards taking those too. It barely crossed her mind to wonder about how the pants had turned into some kind of solid weapon.

A moment later, and the flying man zoomed overhead, forcing the monster away. The woman got back up to her feet, smiling gladly.

"Thanks for those," she said. "I needed something solid to transfigure."

Sylvie stared at her incredulously.

"Oh, I'm Sersi," she said. "Are you from the city?"

"Are you-" Sylvie began.

She swallowed. Carefully, she crouched, picking up her TemPads awkwardly. After a few moments of consideration, she lifted them and hugged them both to her chest, glowering at Sersi.

For a moment she debated trying to enchant her - then she remembered how poorly that had gone with Thena. Sersi was clearly the same kind of something as her.

"You should head inside," Sersi said. "It's safer there. We're almost done here though, I'm sure. I'm sure you can replace... huh, those are a really interesting design. Not seen anything like them before."

And now the woman who'd destroyed most of her remaining outfit was staring at her panties. Sylvie blushed, shimmied back a couple of steps, her long legs rubbing against one another as she looked around for some kind of cover.

"Wait, sorry, are you local?" Sersi said. "Most people here don't seem that concerned about modesty, I've found. When I saw your breasts, I assumed-"

"Please don't put it like that," Sylvie said, reddening.

"Oh, sorry," Sersi said, remarkably politely.

Behind Sersi, three of the creatures already seemed to be dead. Thena had dismissed her weapon-construct, and was looking around, while the man had finished beating down his foe. The person that was flying overhead was fighting the creature that had just sprinted towards Sylvie, the first one he'd fought already lying limply on the ground.

What the hell kind of place had she landed in?

Sylvie quickly darted sideways, crouching behind a toppled, empty cart. Sersi looked at her strangely.

"You're a traveller?" Sersi said. "The city's fine, don't worry, we were just dealing with the last of the Deviants. I'm sure they're giving out some kind of garment inside the city."

She smiled, clearly thinking she was being helpful. Sylvie fidgeted, trying to adjust to the renewed feeling of air fizzing against her bare legs, the stolen, dark panties feeling thoroughly inadequate for any kind of modesty. The TemPads dug awkwardly into her chest, almost slipping out of her hands.

Despite herself, she didn't want to let go of either. She had a few ideas for what to do with a spare as it was, and it was better to have more than she needed than less. Whenever she got around to targeting the TVA again...

There was a yowl in the distance as the last 'deviant' was killed. The flying man landed.

"I am not going into the city like this," Sylvie muttered.

"Oh. Well, that's okay, I can bring you something out," Sersi said.

"Wait, really?" Sylvie said. She blinked. That was more considerate than she was used to.

"I mean, it is kind of my fault that you lost those clothes," Sersi said. "That really is an interesting design though."

"Stop looking at my underwear!" Sylvie said, blushing.

Sylvie crouched lower, unable to ignore the fact that far, far more of her skin was exposed more than covered. With just the scrap of dark fabric around the crotch, it was hard not to feel like she was already naked.

Red-faced, she looked over the abandoned cart to the other gathered figures: the men were moving towards the city while the blonde, Thena as Sylvie recognised her from her last encounter, was waving to them and walking away.

"I saw a spring in those woods! I'll join you in an hour, I need to unwind after that," Thena called.

Sylvie's eyes narrowed. Okay, she'd lost a lot of clothes recently (a lot of clothes) but the memory of Thena cutting her shirt off was very fresh in her mind.

"Sersi, come on! Wait, have you found someone?" one of the men called over. Sersi glanced back.

"Oh, yes, just a human," Sersi said. Sylvie bit her tongue. "I was just going to get her something from the city."

"He'd better not come over here," Sylvie muttered, squirming.

Still, Sylvie watched Thena walked over to the forest, thoughtful.

"Hello, um, I don't know your name," Sersi said. "Do you want to wait here? I'll be out in a minute?"

"Er, sure," Sylvie said. "You go to the city."

"Will do," Sersi said. She paused, following Sylvie's gaze. "Oh, that's Thena. I wouldn't interrupt her when she's bathing if I were you."

Sylvie, carefully, didn't respond. It didn't take a genius to work out what a warrior wanted with a spring after a battle - she'd seen more than a few on Asgard after all. Apparently, in these times, private baths didn't exist yet.

As Sersi walked away, Sylvie peered out, and when it looked like the three strange beings were in the city, she darted over to the next toppled wagon. A few things seemed to have been abandoned when the monsters attacked - Sylvie hit behind them, conscious of the figures watching from the top of the city's walls.

Sersi seemed remarkably nice. Still, if she had a choice of what clothes she wanted, she'd pick the outfit that let her get **** on the crazy lady with a magic sword. Keeping low, Sylvie darted to the next bit of cover, face hot.

The woods weren't too far away. Still, there was no way she was just going to start walking around in full view. She kept the assorted obstacles between her and the city walls as best she could, and hatsily shot forwards again - she passed closer by the body of a Deviant before finally making it to the brink of the trees. Only there did she stand up straighter, fumbling a TemPad and quickly trying to grab it again, and hurried behind the trees.

She'd pushed her way past a couple of dozen branches before she stopped and looked back, catching her breath. Okay. Quieter spot.

Reluctantly, she dropped her arms, a TemPad in each hand. This was definitely starting to be unwieldy - still, she'd have a solution soon enough. Slowly, Sylvie crept forwards, listening for the distant sound of splashing.

When she heard it, she moved slower still. There was a trickle of water, and a splash again: Sylvie dropped low, crawling carefully and navigating fallen branches to avoid making a sound.

As expected, she came upon a spring. There was a dead Deviant impaled on a tree on the far side - and in the still water, Thena was bathing, washing off the grime and sweat of the battle. She was nude, the tips of her blonde hair clinging to her bare back, unconsciously flexing her arms as she rubbed them up and down with water.

To the side of the spring was a fairly sleek set of white and gold armour, resilient yet folded up like little more than fabric. Sylvie grinned to herself.

In a way, it was nice to be goddess of mischief again. It was also even nicer to get a little payback, even if this variant of Thena had never met her before. Sylvie carefully crawled closer, and stuck an arm out of the bush, trying to ignore how the leaves tickled against her bare sides and bare back. She leaned forwards, straining to reach the outfit.

As she leant forwards, her knee snapped a branch. Immediately, Thena turned around, a slight flush spreading across her haughty face.

"Is someone there?" she called, crossing her arms over her admittedly impressive breasts. Her eyes went to her clothes - and to Sylvie's arm. "You!"

Sylvie quickly grabbed the outfit and pulled it back behind the push. Already Thena was striding towards her, summoning the outline of a sword and shield, brimming with power even with little but water and lines of light to cover herself with, splashing generously with each step. There was an undeniable blush on her face.

Hastily, Sylvie fumbled with a TemPad, opening a portal back to the SHIELD base before Thena reached the edge of the spring; Sylvie hugged the stolen armour to her chest, threw one TemPad through the portal, then hastily stumbled through as the splashing grew louder.

The portal closed behind her, sparing her the simultaneously alluring and terrifying sight of a stark naked, heavily armed Thena bearing down on her. Sighing with relief, Sylvie sat up-

And felt Thena's armour dissolve to flecks of light in her arms. She stared disbelievingly at it.

Some kind of pseudo-magical construct? Different time and place, maybe, severing the connection. Sylvie stared, and swallowed. She should've stayed with Sersi. Instead...

Instead she'd sent Thena streaking back to the city, and probably the TVA. Sylvie paused, then smiled to herself; well, there were some upsides at least.

Still, her latest failure definitely made her grimace. She didn't seem to be having much luck when it came to those... people: nothing they had seemed to be any use to her, whatever technology they might or might not use. Not even their clothes worked for her.

Sylvie shifted. Two TemPads, and a pair of panties. It was feeling less and less like something to work with.