Disclaimer: I don't own A.T.O.M. and never will. Unfortunately. But I do own the idea of this fic and the new characters I introduced.

A/N: Sorry for the long delay, guys, I just have huge piles of homework to do. Enjoy!

This story is set in season 2, somewhere after episode 6 or 7. A teenage student from Landmark City University gets captured by Lee and the Mu-team… Accidentally! Let the madness begin!

Hostage.

Chapter Four.

Thick darkness turned into green and yellow blur, as Sophie's heavy eyelids slowly opened. She quickly shut them tightly and then opened again.

Ah, that's better.

Her vision focused. The first thing she saw were cells. Yes, six-sided bright green cells. It took Sophie a few more seconds to realize that she was lying on something quite soft. The girl blinked a few more times, before slowly rising up.

'Damn it, my head!' she thought with irritation, rubbing the back of her head as it ached when she rose. The girl looked around.

She was lying on a sofa in a vast sphere-like hall. The walls were all made of the cells of green and yellow and it seemed that light itself was coming from these cells, since the room was full of light, but there were no evident sources of it present. There were no windows or lamps, just a door on the very far side of the room.

'Where am I? And how did I get here?' Sophie thought. She tried to sit up a little straighter, but a sudden pain in her left shoulder stopped her. Sophie looked at her shoulder and slowly memories began to flood back to her head.

She remembered how she woke up at night from the strange sounds, how she and Krista went to the University's main building to investigate, how they found Lee, Mu-team and Alpha Teens in the University's lab, how Krista then led them to the roof, where they saw a helicopter, how Lee and everyone then came to the roof… She remembered a big fight and how she and Krista tried to escape, but someone was shooting at them, Krista was in the way and Sophie pushed her so she wouldn't get hit, then… Then there was a sharp pain in shoulder and for a moment she felt herself flying backwards, and then there was nothing…

'I wonder what happened to Krista…' Sophie thought with concern.

"Aah, woken up, I see?" said a voice. Sophie snapped her head in the direction of the voice.

Janus Lee was standing in the doorway of the hall. With messy hair, strange, a little devilish, smile gracing his lips, he was once again in the jumpsuit Sophie had seen him in at the University, his red glasses on. Sophie never knew why, but she somehow was not surprised to see him.

A lot of questions were running through Sophie's head as she saw the man in front of her. Like where was she? How did she get here? And how long had she been out? She decided to start with latter.

"How long have I been here?" she asked, her voice calm, her tone even.

Lee's eyes widened a fraction. He was surprised at the girl's calm and cool attitude. It was like she didn't know who he was, like she had never been told that he was the most dangerous man in the city now.

"We brought you here several hours ago," he answered in the same silky tone, "So who are you, may I require?"

Sophie looked up at Lee, although the reason for the question was pretty much obvious, she somehow didn't see it coming. When she processed what Lee had just asked her, a striking thought occurred to her.

'He does not remember me.'

For some unknown reason, Sophie felt a wave of joy at that idea. She felt that the fact gave her at least some advantage over the man in front of her: he didn't know that she had met with him before, talked to him.

"Sophie Olin," she finally answered.

"You work at Landmark City University, Mrs.Olin?" Lee asked walking further into the hall.

'Ms.Olin? Working?!' the words rang in Sophie's head. 'Wait a minute… He doesn't know I'm only seventeen! Way to go! Another one for me!'

"Yes… I suppose you could say that," Sophie looked at her knees, then turned her eyes back to her captor. There was a shot pause, then Sophie stood up slowly, afraid that something else except for her shoulder would start aching. She took out her cell phone, for she somehow expected it to be useless. She was right.

"The signal's dead," she observed quietly, putting the phone on a small table near the couch, "We must be very far from Landmark. Or something else is shutting done the signal."

Lee narrowed hi eyes again. The girl was really strange: anyone else in such a situation would be panicking to the unknown extent by now.

"Both," he answered, "We are in the mountain area not far from Landmark."

Sophie was surprised and this time she didn't bother to disguise it. For several moments she looked at Lee, and then slumped back onto the couch in defeat.

"Well… Look's like that's it. Either I'm dead, or I'll spend the rest of my life here," there was a tone of bitter laughter in her voice. The words surprised Lee.

"Now why would you say that?" he asked her.

She looked up at him and laughed, the beautiful sounds filling the hall.

"The whole city is looking for your hideout, Mr.Lee, and you just told of its whereabouts to a girl you've met for the first time in your life!" Sophie said, smiling widely.

'Although "the first time" part is not quite true,' Sophie added mentally.

"It's pretty obvious, that either you're going to keep me here as a prisoner or hostage or you're about to kill me," Sophie's tone remained as light as ever and she kept smiling. Of course, deep in her soul she was terribly afraid, since she realized the danger she was in, but she dearly hoped that there was at least something left in the man in front of her from the Janus Lee she had been talking to less than six months ago. So, she decided to do everything possible to impress the man.

And she was quite successful so far, as Lee was now unable to suppress or even hide his surprise.

"So you know me?" he confirmed. Sophie merely nodded, and Lee continued sounding, to his own irritation, even more surprised, "And still you're not aghast at the perspective of what might happen to you?"

Sophie chuckled.

"And what's the point of panicking? It's not going to help me," she answered, still smiling.

'She's so calm… Too calm,' Lee thought.

Silence fell for several moments.

"So…" Sophie finally spoke after several moments, looking up at Lee, "What IS going to happen to me?"

Mr.Lee looked at her for several moments, his eyebrows raised, as if the question took him off guard and he needed time to process it. Meanwhile Sophie smirked.

"Well, I cannot deny the fact that I'm not in the little bit interested in what's going to happen to me," she added sarcastically.

"Hm…" Lee eyed the girl carefully. Of course, he could get rid of her at once and not bother himself with that problem any further, but the girl seemed somewhat interesting to him. She was young, yes, it was apparent from her looks, but he couldn't tell how old she was, since her speech, manners and even facial expressions were so mature.

'She must be around 22 or 23…'

Lee pondered on the question further. On one hand, he could get rid of her and not oblige himself with further problems. But on the other, he could leave her around for a time being, at least just to figure out what formed this stoic appearance of hers.

'Besides, she said she works in Landmark City University. She can be of some use to me if I want to get that disk,' Lee smiled.

Sophie noticed her captor's smile and his pleased expression.

'Well… Here goes nothing,' she thought. Although she never showed it, or rather did her best not to show it, she felt chill running through her, her legs suddenly becoming numb.

"Tell me, Sophie," Lee finally broke the silence, addressing the girl in front of him, "You said you worked in Landmark University?"

"Y-Yes," Sophie did her best to hide the lies. 'I hope he's not going to check,' despite the fact that Sophie was in a life-or-death situation, random jokes kept popping up in her head.

"Do you think you could provide us with some valuable information about it?" Lee continued his inquiry.

Sophie narrowed her eyes.

'So that's what he wants. Whatever he came for, he must've failed to get. And now he supposes that I will be able to help him as a University's "employee". Well, looks like I don't have a choice but to cooperate. Besides, who knows, maybe I'll be successful enough and he'll like me.'

Sophie, despite her extra caution, was never oblivious to what was happening in the University. She has been to its furthest and darkest corners, and she knew pretty much about it. She was also her teachers' favorite, and hence had more access to the University's facilities than any other regular student. At one point, the level of her awareness surpassed that of some of the University's actual employees. Sophie always considered that to be her advantage, but now it seemed to be something much more important. Now that gave her a chance to save her life.

Sophie was quiet for a few moments, as those thoughts formed themselves in her mind. Then she finally answered:

"Depends on how much you already know," she looked at Lee, her expression now completely serious.

It was Lee's turn to narrow his eyes as he looked carefully at the girl, as though contemplating on something.

"Follow me," he said curtly, turning around and heading for the door.

Sophie quickly grabbed her cell phone, put it in her pocket and hurried after Lee. The door slid open in front of them, and the two stepped on inside a long glass corridor with a moving floor. Sophie looked out curiously. They were indeed in mountains and, apparently, in some kind of a cleft. The construction of the building they were in was pretty much peculiar: Large spheres were joint together by long transparent corridors like the one they were in.

'I wonder how he managed to build all of it and why this place hadn't been discovered yet,' Sophie thought. Since she didn't have that much to lose in her current situation, she dared to speak.

"Mr.Lee, can I ask you something?" Lee half turned his head and gave her a leveling look, which Sophie took as a sign to continue.

"How did you manage to arrange this place? I mean it seems that something like this would be quite difficult to construct and would require a large number of people to work on. If so, then why had no one checked on this place so far?"

Lee turned around and looked at the girl, contemplating on whether to answer or not.

"This place is made of hardlight. So basically it was not so hard to create on my own."

Lee decided that since he was not going to let Sophie go any time soon, he might as well tell her.

'And she seems to be quite intelligent,' he continued evaluating his hostage.

"Oh, I see," Sophie was apparently impressed, "So, does that mean that you can create whole buildings- even cities- made of hardlight?"

"Yes…" Lee answered absent mindedly, "Yes, that's true, but I will need more information for further research."

"But that's not the information you were looking for back in the University, is it?" Sophie asked more to herself, than to Lee, gazing outside.

"No, it isn't," Lee answered. He looked at the girl again and watched her. Her expression went from her previous sarcastically-sardonic to sad and nostalgic. It was as if she was recalling something.

Soon Mr.Lee and Sophie reached the next sphere. A door slid open and they entered. Sophie guessed that to be the main part of the whole complex, as there were many screens and computers there. A large table was littered with different papers, maps and drawings. One of those papers was the plan of Landmark City University.

Lee showed the plan to Sophie. Sophie looked at it carefully. At first she was surprised as she briefly studied the plan. Then a surge of happiness and self-contentment overwhelmed her.

"Where did you get those?' Sophie asked surprised, still studying the maps of the University.

"My resources are none of your concern," Lee snapped.

Sophie looked at him, her head still inclined over the maps.

"That's not what I'm asking," she said, "This plan is way too outdated."

The statement had an amazing effect on Lee: his face fell and he looked at the girl as if she had grown a second head.

"WHAT?!!"

Sophie winced at Lee's yell.

"The map is outdated. They made several reconstructions in the last few months," Sophie looked at the plan once again, tapping her chin, "I can't help you get another plan, since it is regarded as qualified information and so the access to it is restricted, but I could tell you a few things that I know my self."

And Sophie started to remember her 'trips' around the University. Sometimes she went around the place on teachers' orders, but usually it was Krista who got her into those 'trips', so Sophie knew the University pretty well.

'Looks like I'll be needed here for some time after all,' Sophie mentally sighed with relief, and went on explaining.

A/N: So, that's it for now! Watch out for next chapter: Sophie decides to torture her captors a little, especially Mr.Lee… He's human after all, and not only that – he is a man. grins evilly So, see you and don't forget to review!