Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible. She is owned by Disney and Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley. Any original characters shown or mentioned belong to me and cannot be used without permission. Got it?

Maternal Instinct: Spotlight

Chapter 12: Vivian Porter & Mimi- Girl Talk

Vivian stood before the full-length mirror and admired the azure dress she held up in front of her. It was a low cut, spaghetti strap number that fell just past her hips and would have shown off her curves quite nicely. While it did look good, it really wasn't her style. Besides, it was in the big pile of clothes Mimi was currently making her way through.

The blonde scientist let out an assumed chuckle as she placed the dress back on the pile sitting next to her on the waiting bench. When the android suggested that they two of them go out and expand her very limited wardrobe in a bit of female bonding, Vivian was a little unsure of how to respond. She had never really been one for the whole "girl talk" sort of thing and really only had one close friend and that was Oliver. Even her other co-workers she treated just like that; co-workers. So when she came to that realization she figure it wouldn't hurt to have at least one more friend. Especially a female friend she could do the whole "girlfriend" thing with.

Of course, when she thought about how even her female friend was a robot as well it depressed her a bit. So, she tried not to think about it. Although some of the questions Mimi was asking about human nature and all that did make it a little difficult, but still it was fun and actually did feel more like talking to another woman rather than an advanced artificial intelligence in the mold of a woman. She admitted it was a stretch but at least it was something.

"So what do you think of this one?" Mimi's voice called to her.

Vivian turned her head to the fitting room as the android strode out in an…interesting outfit. It was a gold, two piece outfit that consisted of a sleeveless, high collared top that was held shut by one blue, triangle shaped button that looked like it could snap at any second. It was also rather small and showed off all smooth, metal stomach but her pelvis remained covered by a matching pair of gold short shorts that clung rather tightly to her. Two black bands seemed to connect the separate pieces as they disappeared in between the fabric, leading Vivian to believe it might be some type of body thong. She really hoped she was wrong on that account. Mimi's legs were covered mostly by a pair of pale pink, thigh high stockings that ran into white, high-heeled, ankle boots. The whole outfit was topped off by a red jacket handing off her shoulders and tied around her waist to keep it in place and a yellow headband that pushed her hair back a bit so that her purple bangs perfectly framed her round face.

"So?" Mimi asked again.

"Uh…well it's…um…" Vivian hesitated, trying to find the right words. "Well to be honest it's a little…skanky."

"'Skanky'?" the android repeated with a raised eyebrow before searching through her mental dictionary. "Ah. Yeah I suppose that would be bad."

"Yes, it really would. Unless of course you're going to a club."

"So it's acceptable to wear something like this in a dancing club but not in the general public?"

"Pretty much yeah."

Mimi seemed confused by this, but still nodded. "Alright. Perhaps I'll save it for that then. For now I'll go change."

"That'll be for the best," Vivian nodded.

Mimi nodded back before heading back into the Club Banana fitting room and shutting the door. Her head peeked out over the small wooden door as she pulled the outfit off.

"I want to thank you again for coming along with me," she said.

"Oh it's no problem," Vivian replied off-handedly as she picked up a pink top and looked it over. "Though I'm not really sure how much help I'm going to be. Never been big on the whole fashion trend thing."

"Well you'll definitely know more than I will. All I have are references to magazine articles that say what should be in style," she explained as she pulled on another shirt. "I'm not really sure I get it."

"Honestly, I'm not sure if I get it either."

"But you seem to have a nice sense of style from what I've seen."

Vivian blushed a little at the unexpected compliment. "Uh…thanks."

"Welcome. Now maybe you can explain something else to me."

"I'll try."

"Why is it that women feel compelled to wear things that are uncomfortable to try and attract a mate? Like this thing," she asked as she held her hand out over the door with a black thong dangling from her extended finger. "Even I feel uncomfortable in this."

Vivian chuckled a bit at the absurdness of the situation.

"I'm not really sure myself," she admitted with a bemused shake of her head. "All I know is that guys find it 'hot' so some woman who really want to get a guy wear them to try and show off."

"And this works?"

"Sometimes. Though usually it's just for a night."

"So they put up with potentially hours of discomfort for maybe a few minutes of carnal pleasure?"

"Yep."

Again Mimi looked confused. "That doesn't make sense to me."

"Join the club sister."

"Well in any case," the purple haired android said as she stepped out again, "what do you think of this outfit?"

Again Vivian was taken aback by the outfit. It certainly covered more than the last one but still seemed a little odd for everyday wear. It was basically a white, button up shirt with a blue blazer over top of it and a light blue skirt that stopped just past her hips. A pair of black shoes and white, knee high socks completed the look. It was a lot simpler and did look good but it seemed more like something a Japanese schoolgirl would wear.

"I don't know," she mused, holding a hand to her chin.

"What? What's wrong with it?" Mimi asked, looking at herself in the mirror.

"It's just…you're not in any private or Japanese schools."

"So?"

"So that's the kind of look you have on now. And if you're not enrolled in one of those it seems…well…more like some kind of sexual fetish."

"But…again isn't that kind of the point of clothes? I mean, I know the actual point is to keep people protected from the elements, but isn't fashion suppose to be provocative? At least woman's fashion is supposed to be. From what I've read."

"Yes and no. I mean you can still be provocative but still have some class about you."

"And this doesn't say that?"

"Not really."

Mimi sighed. "Well poop. Back to the drawing board I guess."

"Or at least the fitting room," Vivian smirked.

The metal woman chuckled a bit as she stepped back into the private room. Like before she continued to talk as she switched into another outfit.

"So let me get this straight, the point is to try to be provocative but not be skanky?" she asked from the other side of the door.

"Well that's not the whole point, but that's pretty much it, yeah," Vivian agreed.

"How can you tell the difference?"

"That's…a little harder to answer cause it's all a matter of personal perspective."

"So what's your perspective?"

"I'm really not sure if I should be the one to discussing this with. Like I said before, I'm not really one for fashion. Usually I'm just wearing a lab coat and whatever's clean on underneath it."

"But all the men in the department say you look 'hot'. That has to count for something, doesn't it?"

"That's a completely different thing."

"How so?"

"Cause at work I'm trying to get the guy's attention more on my brains than my body," Vivian grumbled as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"So then you try to dress in a way that wouldn't be provocative?"

"Yes!"

"Isn't that a style choice?"

The blonde scientist blink in surprise of the rather keen observation. An embarrassed rosy glow came to her cheeks when she realized Mimi was absolutely right.

"Okay you got me on that one," she confessed with a slight sigh. "It's just that at work I want to portray a different side of myself than when I'm out in public or by myself. That's why I dress more professionally at work."

"And why you dress the way you're dressed now when you're out like this?"

Vivian glanced at herself in the full-length mirror and really seemed to notice the blue tube top and black miniskirt she was wearing for the first time. She had other outfits of course, but she liked wearing this out because it did turn so many guys' heads. Again she was just amazed at how accurate the android was at making such observations.

"Yeah, I guess it is," she replied. "I guess that's just my way of showing the duality of human nature. We want to be seen one way in certain environments and another way in others. At work I like to be taken seriously as a competent scientist and when I'm out…well I like to show off my killer bod."

She giggled a bit at her self-indulgence while Mimi looked rather perplexed by the whole situation. She was sure there was something funny in that statement she just wasn't sure what it was. Shaking it off she pulled back the door and stepped out to reveal her latest outfit.

"So how about this one?" she asked, holding her arms out to the sides.

This time Vivian's head snapped back in complete shock at perhaps the gaudiest outfit Mimi had picked out so far. It was a white kimono with a red trim that crossed over her right breast and continued down all the way down to her ankles where the material stopped. It was held closed by a wide red belt with four buttons in the shape of a square in front. A slit ran from just beneath the belt to her ankle and showed off her right leg while the sleeves feel to just above her wrists. The outfit's most outstanding, and horrifying, feature were two large shoulder pads that hung a good foot off her shoulders. How they were even attached to the outfit, Vivian couldn't say. As if their mere presence wasn't bad enough the muted orange color and purple trim made them stand out even more. Vivian covered her gaping mouth as she tried to think of something to say.

"Where…where did you even get that?!" she finally blurted out.

"Over there," Mimi said casually as she pointed over Vivian's shoulder.

The startled woman turned to find a section of clothing labeled, "Fashions of the Far East" in a small corner of the clothing store.

"Oh," she remarked, feeling a bit stupid. "How did I miss that?"

"I dunno," Mimi shrugged, causing the shoulder pads to bounce a bit.

"OK, you have to take that off!"

"Really?" the purple haired robot replied as she examined herself in the mirror. "I think it looks kinda cool."

"Trust me, it doesn't. It just looks ridiculous."

"What if I added a sword?"

"No! Just no!"

"But-"

"Mimi, please, for both out sakes."

"Alright, fine," she sided and walked back into the fitting room with slumped shoulders.

As she disrobed and searched for another outfit to try on, another question popped into her head.

"Hey can I ask you something else?" she asked, a bit sheepishly.

"Of course."

"I get that part of fashion is to attract a mate but how do you know if you're attracted to someone?"

"Again with the difficult questions," Vivian muttered.

"What was that?"

"Oh…nothing," the blonde waved it off. "Now as for how you can tell when you're attracted to someone…well that's kind hard to describe. You get kinda nervous and fidgety, your stomach gets a bit queasy and your hands start to get real sweaty."

Mimi stared at her for a second.

"You just described symptoms of the flu," she remarked flatly.

"Yeah I guess I did," Vivian returned with a slight chuckle. "But really that's kind what if feels like. Getting a little sick, but in a good way."

Mimi stared again. "I don't get it."

"Like I said, it's hard to describe."

"Then how can I know if I'm experiencing it? I mean I'm designed to emulate human emotions but how can I be sure if I'm doing that if I don't know what they really are?"

"Aaah, see now you're asking about the very basics of A.I. How can we as humans program a machine to feel our emotions when so many of them defy description? We can write in lines of codes about what we think love and attraction and sadness and happiness are but the actual emotions themselves are so hard to put into words. So the problem becomes trying to figure out how define them in such a way that the A.I., in this cause you, would be able to accurately express these emotions.

"The irony in all this being that if we did get the emotions duplicated as closely as possible then you really wouldn't know it was happening when it was because humans ourselves aren't aware that we're experiencing those emotions when we actually experience them. So if you do yourself attracted to someone you might not even know it at the time."

Vivian let out a slight breath after spouting her bit of techno babble and looked up to find Mimi once again just staring blanking at her and not saying anything. After a few more seconds of silence, the android's head finally twitched a bit while her face scrunched up.

"I think I just blew out a few circuits on that one," she muttered, causing Vivian to laugh again.

"Yeah I know it's really complicated. Just don't worry about it, I'm sure you'll figure it out if it does happen."

"Right. Well for now tell me what you think of this outfit."

The outfit she came out wearing this time was by far the most tone down of the recent batch. In fact it might even be called "normal". She had on a white, long sleeved shirt that hung rather loosely off her and would have revealed her midriff if not for the tighter black shirt she wore underneath it. They were matched perfectly by the white skirt and black leggings that made up the rest of the outfit, topped off with a pair of white ankle boots similar to the ones on the first outfit Mimi tried on. The only thing Vivian had a real issue with was the orange headband wrapped around Mimi's forehead.

"It's good but I'd lose the headband," Vivian suggested.

"Really?" Mimi asked, looking at herself in the mirror. "I kinda like it."

"Trust me those went out in the '80s."

"Well isn't the retro look in?"

"Not that in."

"Alright, alright," Mimi sighed, slipping the headband off. "But the rest look okay?"

Vivian looked her up and down again real quick. "Yeah I'd say it looks nice."

"Well glad I finally found one we can agree on. So…what should I try next?" she asked, looking at the pile of remaining clothes.

To answer her question, Vivian took a step forward and picked up the azure dress she had tried on earlier.

"Here, try this one," she recommended, holding the dress out to her friend.

"Are you sure?" Mimi asked, inspecting the dress.

"Trust me."

"Alright."

Mimi took another trip into the fitting room and quickly swapped outfits. She smoothed out the hem of the dress as she stepped out and looked at herself in the mirror. The dress was clingy and showed off the curves of her body. Despite covering up more than the first outfit she tried on, it somehow felt like she was more exposed. It felt a little odd but also kind of good. She had feeling she could definitely "turn heads" as it were in this dress.

"I like it!" she exclaimed happily.

"I had a feeling you would," Vivian smiled. "By the way, this is what I meant by being provocative and classy."

"I see," Mimi mused as she turned around and checked out the back of the dress. "Definitely do like that."

"It is a good feeling when you get it down right, isn't it?"

"Yep," the purple haired fembot remarked then look again at the pile of clothes. "So what else would do that?"

"Well let's see…"

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After another hour or so of trying on various outfits, Vivian and Mimi finally made their way out of Club Banana and back out onto the street to walk back to the Space Center. Being that the Center was a few blocks away, it would be a rather long walk, made a little harder by the full bags of clothes hanging off each of their arms, but the day was so nice that it hardly seemed like a chore at all. In fact, Vivian rather liked finally being out of the lab and enjoying the clear air and sunshine. She really wasn't sure why she spent so much time cooped up in the lab anyway. Honestly, what could be the harm of going outside every once and awhile?

"Come here bitch!" a voice called out from shadows.

Vivian let out a scream as a hand roughly grabbed her arm and yanked her into the alleyway behind her and Mimi, causing her to drop the bag of clothes in her hand.

"Vivian!" Mimi shouted as she spun around to see her friend disappearing around the corner.

"You too!" another voice shouted as someone grabbed her as well.

The man yanked on her arm as well but she barely budged.

"What the hell?" he muttered as he stared at her in amazement.

Mimi ignored him and peered into the alley to find the other man pointing a gun at Vivian. Judging by the distance between the mugger and the blonde scientist, she knew that even she couldn't move fast enough to keep Vivian from being fatally shot. At least not without the speed enhancer the body originally had which she really wished was still working right now. Deciding discretion was called for at the moment, she dropped her bags and stepped forward with the mugger as he pulled on her arm again to make it seem like he was throwing her around as well. She really took the opportunity to place herself in between them and Vivian. Once in position she stood still and waited for them to make the next move.

"Alright, now you two give us all the money you got on ya!" the first mugger demanded, point his pistol at both of them now.

"You, you sure this is a good idea Snake?" the second mugger whispered to the other one. "There's something weird about the purple haired girl."

"Just shut up and let me handle this," Snake remarked.

"I'd listen to him if I were you," Mimi advised. "You really don't want to do this."

"Maybe what I want to do is but a bullet right in your pretty little head!"

"Won't do you any good."

"Look I said shut up!"

That's it; keep him talking, Mimi thought.

She used her distraction to assess the situation a little more closely. Despite seeming to be a little dim, the muggers were at least smart enough to cover up their faces with hooded sweatshirts and sunglasses. While that helped concealed their identities, it also had to make it harder for them to see in the dim light of the alley. It was a fact she could play to her advantage if she could get the chance. She was sure she could provoke them into shooting her and judging by the guns they where using, that caliber of bullet would do little more than scratch her paint job as they bounce off her. The problem was, it would be hard to tell which way they would bounce so they was still the risk that they could hit Vivian or another person walking nearby.

Still, she had to think of something to do. At the very least keep them talking until either she could think of something or Vivian would discretely call the police.

"Look, why don't you boys just run along before you make this any worse on yourselves," she suggested as she took a step forward.

"Alright freako just back off, give us what ya and your friend got there and no one gets hurt," the second mugger threatened.

"Funny I was just about to say the same thing to you," she said with a slight smirk.

"We're not playing around here. Just give us what you got and we'll go."

"I think you should just go ahead and get out of here before something bad happens to you."

"I'd listen to the lady," a voice said from above.

While the muggers spun around and stared panic stricken at the streets in front of them, Mimi followed the actual source of the voice up to a man floating above them. He was dressed in a tight fitting white uniform with a picture of a white knight chess piece emblazoned on his chest. A long, white cape gently bellowed behind him in the wind as he hovered above the group. A mask completely covered his face save for his blue eyes, which were some of the most fascinating eyes Mimi had ever seen. She knew she should have taken the unexpected distraction as the moment she needed to take the criminals down, but there was really only one thing she could think of at the moment:

Wow!

As she stared up rather absently at the flying man, she felt a little…odd. She couldn't quite place her finger on it but it almost felt like there was something wrong with her systems. She could feel something jolting through her but couldn't tell what it was. Idly she wondered if this was the nervousness Vivian mentioned when she tried to explain physical attraction. She didn't have too much time to dwell on it though as she finally remembered the two criminals in front of her who were still looking around in confusion.

"Look up," she told them as she still stared at the strange new comer.

They took her advice and slowly turned their heads upwards. Upon seeing the white clad figure floating there their surprise quickly turned to fear at the unusual sight before them. Their hands began to shake as they tried to raise their guns to intimidate him, though they both suspected it was a futile effort. This feeling was verified when he wagged an index finger just before pointing it at them and firing two small beams of energy that knocked the guns out of their hands. They were about to run away but before they could, Mimi finally came to her senses and raised her fists above their heads and brought them down hard. Not hard enough to do any serious damage of course, but enough to knock them out. They let out two soft groans as they fell unconscious to the pavement.

With them dealt with, Vivian quickly pulled out her cell phone and started to call the police while Mimi continued to stare at the white clad stranger as he gently touched down in front of her. He picked up one of the discarded bags of clothes while she took a few steps closer to him. He seemed surprised by her appearance and she couldn't really blame him. After all, it wasn't everyday someone saw a highly advanced android walking around.

She ignored his surprise though as she took the opportunity to look him over more closely. At this range she could see exactly how tight his outfit was and she found herself wondering how he'd look without it on. She shook her head a bit to clear at that thought as she realized it was vastly inappropriate at the moment. Although from everything she had seen and studied she was built anatomically correct so maybe those thoughts weren't so inappropriate.

But their timing is, she told herself. Get a grip on yourself girl before you embarrass yourself. Start off with something simple.

"Thanks for saving us," she said gently.

He continued to stare at her in silence for a few seconds before it finally seem to register that she was talking.

"I'm sorry, what?" he asked.

"I said, thanks for saving our lives," she repeated, feeling a bit nervous for some reason.

"Oh that's not problem. All in a day's work as they say. Are you sure you and friend are going to be alright Miss…?"

"Mimi. Just Mimi. At least for now."

"And I'm Vivian," the blonde said from where she stood with a cell phone pressed to her ear. "And I'm calling the cops right now."

He nodded. "Good idea. They're out looking for these two so it shouldn't take them long to get here," he said as he looked down at the two unconscious muggers. "They are going to be okay, right?"

"They should wake up with some lumps and really bad headaches but they'll be fine. I made sure to restrain myself," Mimi explained, alternating between looking at the muggers and the superhero. "So…you just go around saving damsels in distress?"

"It's all part of the job," he chuckled. "Speaking of which I should probably get back to it. I'm sure there are some other people out there that need my help."

She was disappointed by that news and knew she did a horrible job at hiding the fact.

"Oh, oh of course," she waved off, trying to act nonchalant. "Can't keep a busy super hero like yourself here all day listening to me ramble on."

"Right," he said unsurely. "So you two are going to be okay, right?"

"Yeah we'll be fine. We'll just wait here for the cops and then be on our way again."

"Fair enough," he remarked as he started to float into the air again. "Well then you ladies stay safe."

She watched as he flew off and even magnified her vision a few times to continue watching him until she finally vanished from even her exceptional view. Despite not having any lungs she was still able to let out a sound that represented a disappointed sigh as she turned back to Vivian who was just clicking off her cell phone.

"The police say they'll be here in a few minutes," Vivian told her.

"That's good," Mimi said rather distantly. "Hey Vivian, you know how we're talking about physical attraction and how I'd figure it out when it happened to me?"

"Yes?" Vivian asked back a bit expectantly.

"Well I think I get it now."

The blonde's eyes widened a bit at the application of that statement and her head turned upward to the spot where the superhero that just saved them had disappeared.

"You mean…him?" she asked, pointing to the sky.

"I think so yeah," Mimi replied with a nod.

"Well…I certainly don't blame you but I wouldn't get your hopes up. It's probably really hard to track him down."

"Yeah, you're probably right," she remarked as she turned around and stared into the sky, a small smile forming on her face. "But it'd certainly be fun try."

The End

Author's Notes: Well I know some of you wanted to know what was up with Vivian and Mimi with their appearance in the last chapter and now you know. And we all know what that's half of!

OK, sorry I couldn't help that one. Anyway, as you can see they spent most of their day discussion the very essence of humanity while trying on clothes. You know, women stuff. Oh I'm gonna get letters on that one I'm sure. Still I hope you guys enjoyed it and found it rather insightful. I had a fun writing it as evidenced by Mimi's various outfits she tried on. In fact all of them, save for the dress, are outfits worn by various anime characters. The common link is they're all outfits worn by characters voiced by the wonderful Wendee Lee who I have in mind as the voice of Mimi.

For a bit of fun you guys could try to figure out exactly whom the outfits belong to. I'll give you two hints, three of the four shows have been on Cartoon Network either in Toonami or Adult Swim and one of the characters Wendee actually took over from another voice actress. That's all you get for now so all you anime geeks out there, try and see if you can pick them all out. Have a grand ole time with it!

In the meantime I hope you leave some good reviews and I'll see you all next time.