Dawn Granger/Dove

[Vex]

Born the eldest daughter to Maria and Louis Granger, Dawn’s childhood was anything but idyllic. Her Father was a drunk, abusive to his children and his wife. Dawn took the brunt of it when it came to the girls, always stepping in when Holly would find herself in her Father’s crosshairs. When she was 17 she finally left home, taking her sister with her with little protest from either parent. And, while working, she put herself through art school and saw to it that Holly at least finished secondary school. She learned to love her Mother from a distance, the woman refusing to leave her husband, and so Dawn learned quickly, and early, how important boundaries and self-advocating were.

It was on one of those boundary-filled lunches with her Mom that the winds of change first began to blow in her direction. The two were crossing a street when, seemingly out of nowhere, two men hurriedly pulled them to the curb and out of the path of the getaway car being pursued by several patrol cars. They introduced themselves as Hank and Don, brothers with winning smiles that instantly caught Dawn’s eye. She saw Hank only twice more, both times over drinks (one in the evening and the other the following morning) before the man would seemingly disappear from her life, taking with him all the chemistry that Dawn had felt that seemed to scream that he’d be the catalyst for change in her world.

Dawn continued to work, to dance, to provide for Holly until her sister left for her own pursuits. and only once she was on her own did Dawn finally truly go after what she longed for: a career as a dancer. Once it was only her that needed to live off of cup of noodles and tap water she was fine to live the life of a starving artist. She landed a position in a popular company in London, was working her way toward the principal role….and then the change that she’d sense all those months before when she met Hank Hall came to fruition. She was on a train with her mother when men in masks, brandishing machetes began threatening passengers and claiming they planned to blow up the train. Why it was that moment her Mother’s maternal instincts kicked in, Dawn will never know. But she threw herself at the men.

Dawn, unwilling to stand by and watch as yet more men beat on her Mother, leapt into the fray and as soon as she did something incredible overcame her. suddenly, her appearance changed. Where she once had been wearing high-waisted leggings and a loose crop top was a white and blue bodysuit. Her reflexes, her strength, and her ability to defend against the attackers was otherworldly, as though her body knew exactly what it needed in order to bring about the quickest peaceful resolution. Dawn, now in the form of Dove the Avatar of Peace, dispatched the terrorists, though not without sustaining injuries.

She fled the train and watched as, miraculously, her body healed itself in a fraction of the time it should have been. And once the wound was restored the suit, the avatar, it all faded. Just like that, with no explanation as to what had caused it, she was Dawn Granger again. There wasn’t an answer as to what she should do, or how she should go on with her life, and so she went home, turned off her phone and kept it off for a week. She went back to the studio, back to the company, and it happened again three days later when she was downtown at the time that a gas main leaked and an explosion started a terrible fire on the block. Instincts took over again, she made her way into the smoke and the flames to save those inside. And one again…as soon as her body was recovered…she was Dawn again.

And so her life as Dove began. The name came to her in a number of dreams and for a couple of years she stayed in London, doing what she could to keep people safe and administer peace to those that would prefer chaos. It was mostly small potatoes, little things that really only made life easier for people in ways that first responders could. A greater purpose drove her to Gotham. She’s only been in the dark city for a short time, Dawn Granger making her way to auditions for a number of dance companies and Dove waiting for chaos to call forth the avatar of Peace.

[Author]

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