The three watched the small turtle walk across the ceiling.

"Ok, I can transfer powers between species without causing any physical changes," Merlin said. "Looks like I can give you Spiderman type powers."

"We haven't seen him make any webs yet," Hit-Girl pointed out, adjusting her purple wig so it wouldn't fall off.

"He's a turtle, he doesn't know he can," Merlin replied, "but I can sense the power and he's physically unchanged."

"I can't believe this," Kick-Ass said, removing his mask. "This is all so incredible."

Merlin grinned. "Ready to gain some spider powers?"

"Don't we have to get him down first?" Hit-Girl asked.

"He's in range," Merlin assured her.

"Sure, hit me," she said.

Merlin tapped her on the nose. "Boop." He took note of how much cheaper it was to copy powers rather than create new ones.

"Ok, how do I do this?" she asked.

"It's pretty much a willpower thing," Merlin said. "It's not an always on power, you have to will it to activate."

"Like those visualization exercises in the magic book," she said with a nod. "Hey, Ass," she said with a grin.

"What?" he replied before noting the look on her face. "Now, hold on-" he began.

"Catch," Hit-Girl said, flicking her hand towards him and launching a ball of white fluid that nailed him in the chest and spread out to glue his left arm to his side.

"Fuck me it worked!" she exclaimed with a grin.

Kick-Ass struggled against it and slowly managed to tear his arm free. "Not as strong as Spiderman's webs, but not bad."

"You can bench how much again?" Merlin asked with a grin.

"Yeah," Kick-Ass replied, "I forgot about that."

Hit-Girl chuckled. "Only you."

Merlin tilted his head as he felt the touch of a familiar mind. "Hold on, I got a call coming in."

"Please tell me this stuff dissolves like Spiderman's does," Kick-Ass begged, "otherwise it's going to take forever to get off my costume."

"I'm in a superhero lair, let me check," Merlin said to the air in front of himself. "You guys mind if I bring a friend over?"

"You realize you're talking to the air, right?" Hit-Girl asked, while Kick-Ass struggled to clean her webbing off his costume.

"She's contacting me via Trump, an enchanted playing card designed to allow contact between realities," Merlin explained.

"I'd call bullshit, but I've already seen half a dozen impossible things today," Hit-Girl said. "Sure, bring her on over."

"Come on through, Karen," Merlin said, extending a hand.

Lines appeared in the air in front of Merlin, swiftly sketching out the form of a young girl before filling it with color until between one heartbeat and the next he was holding the hand of a living breathing person.

Karen let go of his hand, slid a playing card into a leather case and put it in a pouch on her belt. She was dressed in well-worn camo with her full kit.

"Hey, you're dressed this time," Merlin said cheerfully.

"The gang found a studio and have decided to make their own movies," Karen explained. "I said I'd rather visit you and Kenny insisted I carry a full load out."

Hit-Girl examined the younger girl and her weapons with interest. "What kind of rifle is that?"

"Pulse rifle," Karen replied. "Wanna see it?"

"Fuck yeah!" Hit-Girl said eagerly.

"Don't test it indoors unless this place is disposable," Karen warned, passing the strap over her head so she could hand over the weapon.

Hit-Girl examined it with a professional's eye. "You take good care of this baby."

"I've scored over a dozen kills with it," Karen said proudly, "including two infiltrators."

Hit-Girl took off her mask and wig. "Mindy McCready," she said, offering her hand.

"Karen McCormick," Karen replied shaking her hand.

Mindy yawned. "Excuse me."

"Acquiring her morph?" Merlin asked.

"She reminds me of Bebe when she's on a mission," Karen explained.

"Did I miss something?" Mindy asked.

"Watch this," Karen said and closed her eyes, her hair getting lighter and her form slowly shifting until she looked like a younger version of Mindy.

"You aren't a werewolf, you are a full on shapeshifter," Kick-Ass realized.

"Look how cute I was," Mindy said unphased. "I could have got away with murder!"

"And you did," Kick-Ass reminded her, "many times."

"Oh yeah," Mindy said with a bright smile. "Good times." She turned to Kick-Ass. "Introduce yourself," she ordered.

"Dave Lizewski," he said, offering a hand.

"Karen," she replied looking at the hand covered by white sticky material curiously and making no move to touch it.

"It's Mindy's fault," Dave said, embarrassed.

"How bad did you tease him?" Karen joked, borrowing some of her brother's sense of humor.

Mindy burst out laughing while Dave groaned.

"It's webbing," Merlin explained. "I'm working on turning them into Spiderman."

"Heroes?" Karen asked with a smile, recalling her guardian angel Mysterion, who turned out to be her big brother in disguise.

"Abso-fucking-lutely," Mindy said proudly.

"Let me grab a costume," Karen said with a bright smile as she closed her eyes and reached out into shadow.

Merlin held a finger to his lips so they would keep quiet while Karen worked.

Slowly a dark mist, almost like smoke, formed in front of Karen, centered on her hands it got thicker and thicker until suddenly condensing into a smaller copy of Hit-Girl's outfit in white and pink.

"Excellent work, Karen," Merlin complimented her. "Were you going for that color combination or did you want me to change it?"

"I like white and pink," Karen said, hair turning pink to match the outfit, "and this way they'll see me coming and underestimate me. Afterwards the blood will be plainly visible and make them even more afraid."

Hit-Girl was giggling evilly. "We are going to have so much fun!"

"Can I get a new costume?" Dave asked Merlin, giving up on removing all the web fluid.

"Green and yellow, right?" Merlin asked.

"Yes, please," Dave said politely.

"Sure," Merlin said copying what Karen had done and taking his time to find a bit better version of what Dave was wearing. "Here," he said, handing a garment bag and black suitcase to him.

"Thank you," Dave said, taking off his webbing covered gloves and sticking them to the chest of his costume before accepting them. "I'll go change now."

"Help me with this," Karen asked Merlin, as Dave entered his side of the locker room to change.

"Sure," Merlin said, helping Karen get out of her gear, as she stripped so she could put on her new outfit.

"Not exactly modest are you," Mindy said, amused as Merlin helped her figure out how to put on her costume.

"Ain't no room for modesty on the battlefield," Karen quoted Leo, doing a decent job of imitating his voice. "Besides," she grinned, "it's not my bits I'm flashing."

Mindy laughed.

"Add a little to the chest," Merlin said, "curve it to fit the armor. You want it to be snug, so it doesn't shift as you move."

"I know how to fit armor," Karen said, "though fitting myself to armor is new."

"You're doing great," he assured her, stepping back to see how she looked.

Mindy laughed evilly. "Oh my fucking god, you look so cute and innocent, they are going to shit themselves when you cut loose!"

"Should I bring my pulse rifle?" Karen asked.

"Probably best not to use that in city," Merlin said, "if you need it, I'll summon one for you."

"I always keep a grenade with me for good luck," Mindy said, "but I rarely have to use it."

"My grenades are a bit much for anything less than an armored unit," Karen said thoughtfully.

"Most of what you're going to run into is armed thugs, you probably won't even see anyone wearing a vest," Merlin said. "You're going for injure and terrorize rather than kill."

"Kill enough of them and the rest will be terrorized," Karen suggested, while searching her gear for lighter weapons.

"You are the little sister I always wanted," Mindy said with a bright smile.

"Am I wearing this right?" Kick-Ass asked as he came out of the locker room.

Mindy's jaw dropped.

Kick-Ass' new costume was form fitting in a way the wetsuit he'd been wearing hadn't been, it was a deep forest green and the yellow piping was instead a dark orange, there were armored sections over vital areas and striking surfaces on the arms and legs, that seemed to emphasize the muscles beneath them.

"And what's with the button on the tonfas?" he asked holding up his favorite weapons.

"You've got it on right," Merlin assured him, "and the tonfas absorb kinetic energy, which they discharge as electrical energy. The button switches the modes they are in."

"Does it look ok?" he asked, sliding the tonfas into their holsters on his belt.

"It looks awesome," Mindy said, recovering from her shock.

"It feels comfortable," he said stretching and bending, not noticing Mindy's wide eyed stare.

"It's one of those futuristic superfiber costumes from a world with super heroes," Merlin explained while Mindy put on her wig and mask to help hide her expression.

"Glad it has a cup," Kick-ass said, "because it feels like I'm wearing nothing at all." He wiggled his rear at Hit-Girl.

She groaned as she realized he was screwing with her. "You ass!"

He just grinned. "This thing looks awesome," he said mirroring Mindy's earlier response.

"Remind me to ask you for a costume later," Hit-girl told Merlin.

"Sure," Merlin replied and gestured towards Kick-Ass. "You now have the same powers as Hit-Girl and I'm about tapped out for the day."

Kick-Ass walked to the wall and slowly climbed up it on all fours. "This is so cool!"

"Such a dork," Hit-Girl said with a laugh.

"What all did you give them?" Karen asked curiously.

"Brute, Regeneration, their blood eats metal, the ability to stick to any surface and webbing creation," Merlin listed off. "Oh, almost forgot, I gave them the basic fitness package first."

"So, all they need now is jumping ability, flexibility, insanely good reflexes, and a danger sense," Karen listed off.

"Brute covers the jumping ability," Merlin said, "but I completely forgot reflexes and flexibility. Not sure how I'm going to get them a spider-sense."

"Copy it from Pudge," Karen suggested.

"Who's Pudge?" Hit-Girl asked while watching Kick-Ass crawl after the turtle on the ceiling.

"Murphy's goldfish," Karen said.

"If you don't mind getting him tomorrow, we can try that," Merlin agreed. "I may have to play with it a little to get it right, but starting off with precognition should make it easy."

"Will you get down here!" Hit-Girl demanded as Kick-Ass hung off the turtle who had withdrawn into its shell and was stuck to the ceiling by the bottom of it.

"Ok," Kick-Ass said dropping to the floor, the twelve foot drop not even phasing him.

"I need weapons," Karen told Merlin, "all my stuff is too heavy to use against unarmed civvies."

"Some of them will be armed," Kick-Ass warned her. "Knives and clubs are common, plus we'll probably run into at least one or two people carrying handguns."

"That's unarmed," Karen said as Merlin handed her a brace of throwing knives that were bright pink and a white staff with multi-colored streamers hanging off the ends of it.

"Are you bulletproof?" Kick-Ass asked curiously.

Karen grinned.

OoOoOoOoOo

"Dealer," Hit-Girl noted, gesturing towards a guy in his early 20's wearing a faded black trench coat with a multicolor beanie on his head who was leaning against an alley wall.

"You guys want to take the front while we circle around to the back of the alley?" Kick-Ass offered.

"Sure," Merlin replied, his face shifting into a partial wolf morph.

"Why gramma, what big eyes you have," Karen joked, getting a laugh before the four split up.

Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl sprinted to get around to the back side of the alley, both of them noting how much faster they were and how much easier it was.

"What the fuck are they doing?" she asked in disbelief as the other two costumed heroes passed cash to the dealer, accepting a couple of small ziplock bags and some rolling papers.

"Hold up," Kick-Ass said, "let's wait till they tell us what they're doing. Maybe they think they need evidence."

"Dude, this is a no brainer, see dealer, beat dealer," Hit-Girl complained.

"They're questioning him," Kick-Ass said with a grin as they watched the guy gesture and tell the pair something which Merlin wrote down.

With a fist bump the two left the dealer and re-joined Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl.

"Why didn't you kick his ass?" Hit-Girl asked.

"Pot dealer," Merlin replied, "might as well fire bomb local bars for carrying alcohol, but we got the address of a crack house and at least two heroin dealers."

Hit-Girl beamed. "A crack house and two heroin dealers? You shouldn't have." She giggled. "I'm so glad I brought my lucky grenade."

Typing by: fyrewolf5

AN: Merry X-mass everybody!