Futile
By diav

Genre: Friendship/Romance
Rating: T
Characters: Kim Possible, Shego
Story Type: Drabble/one-shot
Summary: AU. Teenage girls and video games.
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from the Kim Possible series.

"Resistance is futile, redsaviour! You cannot stop me this time!"

"Let's see about that, greenglow! I'm sure I can work through this hiccup."

GAME OVER.

"Aw, man," said the redhead to her headset.

"I won fair and square" was the response. "You owe me a coffee."

The redhead sighed as she logged off the server. "Name the time and place."

It was a weird sort of friendship that developed through a mutual love of video games. Since she had nothing better to do - she was an A student, after all - Kim had decided to stop by a local Internet cafe one afternoon and was introduced to the world of massive multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPG, for short). It was this one particular game, Conquest, that garnered her attention for the next few months to come. She had fallen in love with this game - it was about conquering territories and making sure you built a colony that could survive an opponent's attempts to take it over.

It was one afternoon where she was online, minding her own business in the web world, when some goons decided to team up against her. 'greenglow' had helped her out by fighting in the battle and didn't ask her for anything in return. Perhaps it was that the player had a hidden agenda, but there was none.

Both were surprised that the other was female - after all, what would high school girls do on a boring afternoon? Surely they would go shop instead of play games, but no, the two got along just fine online for the months that followed.

It was one day that greenglow had brought it up to Kim that they had been teamed up together for a while now, each having levelled up sufficiently to be each other's opponent.

"Why don't we see who's better at this game?"

"Why do you want to make things competitive?" Kim had found herself asking.

"Because this game is all about competition," laughed greenglow's player. Her name was Shego, Kim was told. It seemed like an odd sort of name for a fellow teenager, but she never asked questions. They had gotten along with each other wonderfully: they balanced each other out. Where Kim lacked defense, Shego would come in with a strong offense to keep away players that had tried to conquer their colonies. Even their team name was "The Crimson Knights." Online, they were inseparable: they made plans out of their schedules to play only when the other was online. Kim never asked much about Shego's offline activities, but she knew enough that Shego was about to graduate high school soon, and thereby 'graduating' the game, hence this challenge.

What she thought would be on her side turned out to be the opposite: Kim had levelled up enough to fend of attackers on her own, but knowing Shego's offensive stance, she knew she had no chance halfway through.

"Do you want to bet on anything?" asked Shego. Her voice through the headset was tinny, but Kim knew that maybe it was finally time that Shego wanted something from her (gold? ammunition? building supplies?) in return for the help provided when she first started the game.

"What could we bet on? You're going to stop playing the game once you graduate, so I can't really offer you gold or anything..."

"I could give you stuff if you win? Does that sound fair?"

"Sure... but what would you want if you won?"

"How about... we... meet offline for once? Go for coffee or something?"

Kim had hesitated in answering, knowing of the dangers with mingling with Internet 'strangers' offline. But she felt that Shego was honest with her in their random conversations while playing. Besides, Shego was only three years older than her - what harm could she do if they met in a public place like a coffee shop?

"Sure."

And so, Kim found herself standing outside the quaint Italian cafe near her high school. It was public enough for people to walk by and notice any commotions that might occur, but also quiet enough for people to appreciate the coffee and the atmosphere.

She pushed the door open and walked in. Shego had told her to look for someone with black hair and a green t-shirt. She walked toward the girl sitting near the counter. She tilted her head and furrowed her brow as she walked closer. The girl seemed familiar.

"Hi... greenglow?" Kim was more or less fixated on the girl's face now. She knew she had seen her somewhere before.

The girl blinked in surprise as she pushed her glasses up her nose. "Redsaviour?"

Kim nodded.

Shego made a gesture for her to sit down. "Huh, this is... strange and funny."

"Why's that?"

"Well, one, we're meeting offline, and two, we go to the same school."

Kim stared.

"You're a sophomore, right? You walked right into me one day and managed to make all my books and notes fall to the ground."

"Oh... OH! I remember that... I'm sorry."

Shego shrugged. "What do you want? It's on me... never mind what I said earlier about you owing me a coffee."

Kim ordered a latte as she fidgeted in her seat. "I knew you looked familiar when I walked in, but..."

"It's a strange, yet small world, huh?" Shego took a sip of her coffee and offered the redhead a plate of biscotti. "Honestly, I thought you wouldn't show... and that would've been a shame."

"I... thought about not coming."

"What made you change your mind?"

"I'm not sure."

To that, Shego merely sipped on her coffee as the barista handed Kim her latte.

"You're really quitting the game?" asked Kim.

"I have to prep for college applications," sighed Shego. "I was going to tell you sooner but... I guess we both had too much fun as a team."

Kim laughed. "Yeah. I don't want the team to be broken up though."

Shego put down her cup and thought for a moment. "We don't have to be broken up? I mean, we practically go to school together, why don't we hang out offline more? I think we get along fine."

Kim tilted her head in thought. "I'm a boring person offl-"

"-As am I. That doesn't mean we'd be boring together, right? But if you don't want to, I understand. I guess I wanted to meet with you once offline since we've been playing Conquest for a while."

"You helped me out when I just started, so it's the least I can do."

Shego laughed. "Meeting up with strangers from the Internet, especially a game, isn't always the best idea."

"It isn't, but I guess this isn't too bad."

Shego nodded.

"What are you planning to study in college?"

Shego pushed her glasses up her nose again. "I'm thinking maybe child development."

"Cool... So that's like psychology but with kids?"

"Something like that. Maybe it'll make me understand my brothers more," laughed the older teen.

"You have brothers?"

"Yep, four, actually. Two older and younger twins."

"Whoa."

"Hmm?"

"I have younger twin brothers too."

"Whoa."

"Yeah. They're only ten but they're so annoying."

"Haha, yeah, I guess they can be annoying. Mine are eleven, so I guess that's close enough."

"What about your older brothers?"

"The oldest is almost done college and the other is in his sophomore year."

"Ah... That must be strange, to sort of be the middle child."

Shego shrugged. "It's not too bad, I guess. What's it like for you to be the oldest?"

"I don't know. My family isn't your normal kind family." Noticing Shego's confused look, Kim clarified, "My mom's a brain surgeon and my dad is a rocket scientist."

"Interesting combination," laughed Shego. "You and your brothers must be very smart."

"That's what everyone thinks, but I'm average, I guess."

"More than just average at Conquest," winked Shego.

"Nah, you're better at it than I am."

"I've been playing longer, that's all."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Why 'greenglow'?"

"I first started out with a Mage character that shot out green orbs. The nickname stuck even though I've changed avatars several times."

"Oh."

"What about you?"

"Red for my hair and I guess I thought the game was something in which I could be a-" Kim suddenly blushed.

"-A hero," finished Shego. She was smiling. "That's cute and true though."

"But, in the end, you ended up saving my colony."

Shego shrugged. "It's all in a day's work of being a well-equipped character." She looked at her watch. "I have to get home and help my mom with the twins since it's almost dinner time."

"Ok, I should go home too."

"This wasn't so bad."

Kim nodded and offered Shego her hand to shake. "It was fun meeting you."

"If you want, we could do this again?" asked Shego hopefully.

Kim nodded. "Sure, that'd be great."