Long Past Dawn

"Well? That means what?" Superman says again, a slight twinkle in his eye.

"Nothing sir. It means nothing." I say trying not to stutter and stand up straighter even though it only gets me to his shoulder. How tall is he?!

"Ok then." He says to me before turning to Batman, "How many more are coming?"

"With you here, four."

"Great. Now question, who's the kid?"

Yet again all of them turn to me. Oh come on you three should already know but I wouldn't dare say that to any of their faces. "I'm Dawn Amor, age 13, sir."

"Batman, you brought me out here for a kid? At midnight?"

"Trust me you'll want to stay and see."

'What are you arguing for now?' A voice seems to say in my head as I whip around to see who it is, no way I'm going crazy here. Suddenly a translucent green humanoid thing seems to come straight through the statue in front of me and I'm about ready to put myself in the loony bin before I realize that it's the Martian Manhunter and not my rapidly dropping sanity.

I look over and see that both Wonderwoman and Superman have a twinkle of laughter in their eyes from my reaction. I'm soooo glad me questioning my mental stability is amusing, you can hear the sarcasm in that, right?

I'm about done with heroes, even if they are my favorites, I'm done.

Suddenly a green light illuminates the spot of the park we're at and I look up to see two people flying over to us. Well to be more specific one of them is floating while the other is on a platform coming out of the others ring. I immediately recognize the two and go into another burst of inner fangirling, the two are none other than Green Lantern and Aquaman.

Oh my god, this is so cool! I can die happy now, surrounded by my favorite heroes, ah this is a dream come true.

The two land and look at me then around at the others, questions in their eyes.

"Who's the kid?" Green Lantern finally says.

I'm a teenager, not a kid! Why are you calling me a kid?! Ah, but they're my favorite heroes! The struggle is real here!

"My name is Dawn Amor, age 13, sir," I say for the nth time tonight.

"I... see."

The silence is killing me! You call each other friends and colleagues? Then talk about something, goddamnit! You guys are killing awkward people like me!

After a while, I can hear footsteps on the path and all I can think is, who else is there to come?

A man in a mask and green clothes rounds the corner and waves to the group, I vaguely see a quiver and bow slung over his shoulder. Within a minute, with what I can calculate of his experience, he could kill me, faster if his arrows are specially barbed. The heroes are trained but that doesn't guarantee that they'll protect me.

Wait, what? What am I thinking? Specially barbed? Calculate his experience? What the hell am I thinking?

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late. It's just that I can't fly like some of you." Good, he knows them, he's not a threat then.

Wait, what threat? What is with all of this stuff?

Why would the Green Arrow be a threat? I'm so confused.

Batman cuts into my thoughts and says, "Now that we're all here. Let's go."

Wait, we're moving! Again! I was hardly able to keep up with you last time!

Superman, Wonderwoman, and Martian Manhunter all lift into the air and follow Batman as he leads the way. Green Lantern forms another platform with his ring and Aquaman, Flash and Green Arrow get on before he gives me a questioning look, "Are you getting on or what?"

"N-no thank you, sir."

He just shrugs and takes off but waits a moment to make sure I'm following, I don't know if I should feel touched or not that he's making sure I don't run away.

I think back to when I was flying before, it all started when I said fly, so maybe I just have to think and the wings will appear. Might as well give it a shot. Fly!

The familiar feeling washes over me and the crystal-like objects float together to gift me a pair of wings. I quickly jump up into the air and start flying after Green Lantern. My wings beating a familiar pattern that I feel like I've never felt before but at the same time feels like I've heard it my whole life.

I speed up to try and close the distance between the others and me and just at the thought I suddenly speed up so that I'm right next to Green Lantern, man these powers are scary.

Everyone looks over at me, alarmed to see me flying with wings.

"Hey! How are you doing that?!" Flash yells to me, his face a mixture of wanting to try, alarm and curiosity.

"I don't have a clue!!" I yell back to me over the wind.

***

The flight lasted maybe ten minutes before we get to an old, abandoned warehouse at the edge of the city, the warehouse's walls are littered with graffiti, the gang type not the type you see around the art district.

Everyone walks into the warehouse like it's the most normal thing you do at midnight on a new moon. Mom, Charlie, I'm starting to question my life questions.

I scamper after them and into the warehouse, as soon as I step through the door I have to do a double-take, it looks like I just walked onto the set of a sci-fi movie. And not one of those low budget 1980 ones that mom and Charlie seem to love either.

Everyone seems to be seated around a huge meeting table in the center of the place and being the awkward outsider that I am I sorta just hang out behind them as I listen in on what every they're talking about; spoiler alert it's me.