Stuff Of Legend

Chapter 10

        The atmosphere on camp was different. Everyone was taking things seriously, gathering weapons and dressing for the occasion. They all wore black and had the ATLAS seal on the front of their jackets. The seal is an eagle with its wings stretched out, carrying a rhododendron flower in its mouth. The eagle represents that ATLAS was founded in America and the flower is the state flower where the first ATLAS team was founded.

A bus was waiting outside of Bischoff, waiting to take the team to DC. It's only about an hour drive to the city, and the Ondine and Viggo exchange isn't until later in the evening, but they have to be thorough. They're going to arrive early, the two smaller teams getting into position, while the bigger group meets with the DC ATLAS team. In reality, the DC team should be handling this on its own, but King's Valley was the team that got the tip off, so they have the right to the case.

Piper had to stay close to the others in her group. She was thankful that she had Wren and Charlie on her team, she would stick close to them. She had talked to Red some during training sessions, but they weren't the closest of friends. Logan Landor was technically the leader for their small group. Audrey had told Piper that Brannon likes to keep his own small council of allies here. Those are primarily the people who sit with him at meals. Logan is like his right hand man; which Piper finds ridiculous. Logan is a cool guy, but he's also a giant goofball. He's constantly pulling pranks on other members. His whole look is crazy. He's got crazy brown hair and green eyes. He's so silly and Brannon's so serious. She figured Brannon likes him for his ability; enhanced condition. And then there's the other member, Gia Stanton. She's the youngest on this small team; age fifteen. Piper doesn't know much about her, only that her ability is enhanced agility and that she hangs around with a bunch of really annoying tweens.

They all left the camp at around noon. It's the first time Piper is leaving King's Valley since she came here a year ago. Piper has travelled all around the south and has moved up north, but she's constantly stayed clear of DC. It's suicide for known criminals to go there, and while Piper isn't exactly a known criminal, she knows a lot of them that can drag her into hot water

Wren and Piper sat on the ride up together. Piper liked chatting with Wren. They didn't talk about the past or anything, just about random stuff. Piper doesn't have many true friends; she only really has Moon, and now Charlie. She wouldn't mind if Wren wanted to be her friend.

The bus took them to the DC ATLAS headquarters. It was just down the road from the white house. It was very different from Rockwood. This was a big and more up to date building, built out of glass, more along the ATLAS lines Piper was expecting. It's lay out was more like an office building. They didn't live here, apparently. There were housing units across the street.

King's Valley's ATLAS team entered the building and were directed to a large, theatre like room. There, they all sat on one side of the room in rows of chairs while the DC ATLAS group filled in the chairs across from them. There were a lot of them.

"Why doesn't Rockwood have a big ATLAS team?" Piper asked Wren, sitting on her right.

"I don't really know. I think Caldwell is just more selective on who's on the team. Also, I think because DC has a larger institute, parents send their kids there. The DC team is weird. Yeah, they do a lot of missions, but DC doesn't really have a police system, it's just ATLAS. That's why we're always working with them. Our team goes out and tackles large missions. Some even out of state, these guys mainly handle in state situations, or government issued problems." Wren replied. "The guys coming in now, this isn't even like a third of their team and already they have more than us."

Piper could understand why Caldwell would want to be selective on who he lets in. Every day, more and more deviants turn away from ATLAS and use their powers for crueler purposes. They're the reasons deviants always get a bad rap. That and the history of some of the ATLAS teams.