Phoenix Rising

A/N: I do not own anything belonging to DC

CHAPTER 2

Kirra sat up in her new metal framed bed and blinked at Dick who was sitting at the foot of it he grinned at her and pet Jett who'd moved to greet him, "Morning Kirra, Jett."

The pyro blinked and bit her lower lip nervously and mumbled a quiet, "Good morning…"

Dick smiled widely at her, his blue eyes sparkling with excitement, "Bruce got all your papers signed last night, Welcome to the Wayne family." A smile grew on Kirra's face and a strong sense of accomplishment flooded Dick. "What do you want to do today? It's Friday so Bruce let me skip school to help you get settled in, he won't be able to get you enrolled in my school until next semester so you're free till after spring break."

Kirra nodded slowly a little over whelmed by the sudden influx of information. "I- I don't know…" she paused and cuddled Jett to her petite torso, "I don't want to accidently hurt anyone…"

Dick stared at her wide eyed then smiled, "training it is, I'll let you get dressed and then we'll go find Bruce. Try to wear your least flammable clothes…" Kirra nodded with a serious expression and got up to dig through her numerous bags of clothing. She picked what she wanted and disappeared into her bathroom.

About five minutes later she reappeared in black leather shorts, a fitted midriff top made out of a dark slightly metallic material, black leather fingerless gloves, her wild hair tied into a high pony tail and barefoot. "I don't think any of my shoes would hold up…"

"That's fine you probably won't need them, I think Bruce ordered you some though." Kirra nodded and Dick smiled at her, he grabbed the older girl's gloved hand and led her from the room.

Kirra looked around at all the gymnast equipment in slight awe, "Okay so I think we should start with physical training and then cool down with meditation." Kirra nodded and Dick led her to a platform off to the side of the room, like a boxing ring without sides. He took a steady position and looked at his sister, "okay come at me."

Kirra looked at him like he was crazy, "W-what?"

Dick sighed at her and straightened his posture looking at the slightly taller girl, "Come at me, attack me, no powers, no reptile, i need to get a feel for your natural abilities so I know how to train you." Kirra bit her lip but nodded and tried to take a steady stance.

Dick moved back into position and motioned her onward, before he realized she'd moved she swung out in a clear miss at his head and then dropped to sweep his feet just as he realized the diversion. Next he knew he was looking up at Kirra's confused and worried face from his back. "I'm sorry!" She bit her lip and offered her hand; Dick took it and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet.

"How did you…?"

Kirra shrugged, "I dunno, my body just reacted... like on instinct."

Dick grinned at her, "we'll come back to this later I want Bruce's opinion before we continue on combat skills. For now I'm going to teach you some other skills, things that you'll use with me and Batman."

He put her through hell for the next few hours, testing her flexibility, speed, adaptability. All of which were remarkably good, he would do a move such as a running backflip off a wall and ask her to mimic it. Kirra would make a few failed attempts then ask him to do it again, he would and she would watch his every movement down to muscle flexes with intense amber eyes. Then successfully copy the exact trick multiple times, much to his surprise.

The rest of their training went well even the startling moment when she had attached herself to the wall with her reptilian claws when she'd mis-stepped during a trick. It was interesting to learn that she could climb walls and she practiced that for a while as well.

It was only an hour before dinner when the two teens finally settled into meditation poses, across from each other on the sparing platform. "You need to breathe deeply and let your mind wander, think calmly and rationally, think about your feelings and emotions and the fire, how do you feel when things start to heat up, are there triggers, can you control the heat, Can you turn it off?" Dick watched her as she followed his instructions, her face going blank; her tattoos glowed lightly as she processed his questions.

He felt the temperature in the room rise just slightly and he knelt in front of her, "Kirra what are you thinking?"

"I- I was angry, or upset w-when I burned things. I don't know h-how to stop it… the first two times I passed out and the l-last time Bruce snapped me out of it." Dick nodded to himself mostly since Kirra's eyes were closed in meditation.

"It sounds like your Pyrokenetic powers are specifically linked to emotions. You learn how to control your emotions and you learn your first level of control. Later on we might be able to figure out just how to tap into them without you needing to get pissed off." Dick laughed and Kirra blinked open her amber eyes. "Okay think about something that upsets you and try to summon some fire to your hands."

Kirra looked confused, "Like what?"

Dick blinked and tapped a finger to his lips in thought. "Ahh! Think about someone Lizard-napping Jett." Kirra's eyes darkened at the thought and heated sparks danced between her cupped palms, a small fire sparked and then grew into a fist sized ball of flame, Dick decided that was a good point to end that exercise before things inevitably got out of hand. "Kirra," She didn't respond and her claws grew out as a hiss escaped her throat, "Kirra!" The girl blinked and stared at her adoptive brother in surprise. "You did it, now we just have to work on you not getting lost in your emotions." Kirra blinked down at the fire ball cupped in her hands and focused on the feelings the fire gave her. She felt strong, powerful, and safe. This was a good thing, she focused on the idea of the flame getting smaller and bigger, for a moment the ball flickered at her in an almost stubborn manner before shrinking and then growing to a slightly larger ball than it had been originally, she smiled at her success before moving on to temperature with similar results.

At dinner that night Dick was practically buzzing with excitement, "Bruce she's unbelievable! She has fantastic muscle memory, she's fast and flexible, and she put me on my back on instinct based fighting alone." Kirra blushed under Dick's praise and poked at her mashed potatoes. "We even tried some meditation to get her in touch with her powers and that went great too… I'm starting to think she's just a natural."

Kirra blinked as an image flashed in her mind, soft music and a wall of mirrors. "I think I might have been a dancer…" Bruce and Dick both looked at her, confusion filtering in their expressions before understanding kicked in.

Dick nodded, "That would explain the flexibility."

"And the muscle memory." Bruce added. "I'll work with the both of you tomorrow. For now let's finish dinner, Batman and Robin have patrol tonight." the two teens nodded at their guardian and Alfred smiled as he switched dinner plates for dessert.

Four months later

Kirra whoop loudly as she raced Dick from their rooms to the dining room, half for fun and half in mock training, She came to the main stair case and leapt them entirely tucking and rolling as she hit the ground a dog sized Jett at her heels and Dick staring down at her from the top of the stair case. "You're nuts! I can believe you just jumped the entire thing…"

Kirra smirked up at him, "You know what else I'm gonna do? Win our race!" She turned and took off down the corridor leading to the kitchen and dining area her currently black hair flying behind her, she turned the final corner and slammed into something with a loud 'oof'. The fake ravenette blinked and looked up at Bruce who had managed to keep them both stable. She grinned, "Mornin'"

Bruce smiled back, "Who won this morning, Kirra's eyes widened and she glanced over her shoulder to see Dick nearly on top of them, she spun out of Bruce's loose grip and took off around him and through the doors to the dining room and smacked a hand on the table just as her brother appeared in the door frame.

Kirra punched the air and whooped again while Dick pouted at her. Bruce chuckled at the teens and sat in his seat. He was extremely pleased with the remarkable progress Kirra had made in just a few months; she seemed to absorb things like a sponge. The teens joined their guardian at the table and Kirra set Jett's breakfast dish on the floor for him. "Kirra, Dick and I have a surprise for you."

Kirra looked up from her eggs curiosity painting her face, "Wha-?" she questioned through a mouthful causing Dick to roll his eyes and Bruce to sigh.

Bruce pulled a dark wrapped package from beneath his chair and passed it to her over the table. Kirra stared at the package in utter confusion for a long moment, before a thought occurred to her. She tore into the paper and slowly revealed a kohl colored, hooded cloak, the inside had a silvery sheen showing its heat proofing and it was lined with hidden pockets, beneath that was a delicate black communicator. She blinked at her adopted family, "Seriously?!"

Bruce nodded and Dick grinned, "I think you're good enough to start going on patrols with us." A huge grin spread across Kirra's face and she shared a secret smirk with Dick. They had both been looking forward to this.

After breakfast Kirra and Dick were in her room, Dick was sprawled on his sister's bed on his stomach watching her twirl excitedly in her new cloak and front of her full body mirror. "This is gonna be so cool!" Kirra squealed, Dick bit back a crazed giggle.

"You'll get to meet the other hero's soon too, that's the next step."

"You mean I'll get to meet your friends…?" Kirra bit her lip as she felt her insecurities bubble just under her skin.

Dick smiled at her and gently took her wrist, "Don't worry they're gonna love you, Just be your usual crazy self!" Kirra gave a weak imitation of her usual crazed/fanged grin. Dick scowled and tackled her, tickling her, "Not good enough!"

Kirra howled with laughter, she eventually managed to buck her brother off and began to chase him about the room, "You brat!" Dick easily evading her every grab for him.

She caught her break when Jett lazily stuck out his tail and tripped the boy wonder, who then proceeded to face plant on the floor. She couldn't even bring herself to continue her attack at that point, she was laughing too hard.

Kirra bounced excitedly in her seat in the Bat-mobile, Her fiery hair pulled into a high pony tail, she was wearing leather shorts, a heat proofed, fitted Kevlar vest, leather ankle boots and fingerless leather gloves, along with her new hooded cloak. Batman pulled the Bat-mobile into an alleyway in the narrows, and turned to his protégés, "Be careful and check in every hour. You find anything, you immediately contact Robin and or myself."

Kirra nodded, "Yes sir."

The trio plus reptile exited the Bat-mobile and Robin grinned at Kirra, "Good luck Phoenix." She blinked and then they were both gone.

"Jeez that's so cool…" She looked down at Jett who was currently standing hip high next to her. "You ready?" The reptile hissed and flicked his tongue at her bare finger tips. "Me too, let's go." They scaled the side of the alley up to the roof and looked down on the streets, seeing nothing she jumped to the next roof top. They continued like this for a while making their way towards the docks. Phoenix and Jett leapt onto the roof of an old factory. She looked down over the docks and saw a group of bulky, ski-masked men loading crates onto a boat. A grin grew on her face and she watched a large man in a suit standing next to a fancy car overseeing. She clicked the button on her wrist communicator and brought it closer to her face, "Bats, Robin we've got possible mob activity at the docks."

Batman's voice crackled in first, "Sending Robin to help you take care of it. I'm preoccupied with a robbery at the moment."

Phoenix and Robin both responded with an affirmative, "I'll be there in five Nix"

Nearly two months of nothing but drug busts and robberies had Kirra nearly ripping her hair out. She was sitting on a roof top with Robin. "Rob?" the younger teen looked up at the flame haired girl, "Not that beating the tar out of overweight mob flunkies isn't super fun and thrilling and all… but isn't Gotham like known for its crazy Super-villains?" Robin nodded, "Okay sooo it doesn't strike you as odd that we've gone almost two whole months without encountering a single one?"

Robin opens his mouth but doesn't get the chase to respond, Batman appearing just behind the boy wonder, "It is odd. I tracked down one of our regulars, Jonathon Crane, or Scarecrow. We're going to question him; maybe he can shed some light on the lack of super villain activity lately."

The encounter with Crane had gone less then well, it had ended with Kirra getting sprayed with fear toxin and blowing up an abandoned factory in the narrows…

Kirra sighed and curled up in the arm chair in her bedroom, she stared out the balcony window and pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes trying to block out the flashing images of two very familiar mutilated bodies… there was a shadow standing over them but she couldn't see a face only hear cold laughter and glinting metal.

"Kirra?" the red heads eyes snapped open and her amber eyes flicked over to her brothers worried face. "Are you sure you're okay? Do you wanna talk about it, what you saw I mean?"

Kirra smiled weakly at Dick, "No, no really I'm fine. Just a little shaken and really tired." She wouldn't tell him about her recovered memories. Nobody was going to know.

TBC…