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 Five.

The iron door slid closed behind Sophie, as she headed towards her bed and literally fell on it, face down.

It was already about a week since she had been taken hostage by the infamous Mr.Lee. Yes, Sophie had already come to calling the room she resided in hers, as she wasn't treated that bad around this place. Of course, the Mu-team were not the friendliest people in the world, but they were tolerable. The good part was that Mr.Lee strictly prohibited them to hurt Sophie in the slightest bit, since she was an important part of his plan to retrieve some disk from the University. Sophie had not managed to find out what the disk was, but she wasn't really upset about it. Instead, every time anyone from the Mu-team tried to say something nasty to her, she usually made fun of the offender, bluntly using the fact that they were not allowed to hurt her.

Mr.Lee himself stayed the same mean and cold persona with frequent outbursts of rage. Sophie watched twice as he scolded the Mu-team for failing the two missions he had given them that week. The clones got beaten by their originals, the Alpha Teens. Sophie was present during those scenes of Lee's fury, but what she felt was quite contradictory: on one hand, she had been afraid that Lee would turn around and literally kill her just because of his blind rage, but on the other hand, she was doing her best not to burst out laughing – the man was really hilarious.

There was, however, one big advantage Sophie possessed at that moment: she had somehow made a deal with Lee that for the upcoming two months, she would stay at his place, but once in a while she would be allowed to go to Landmark accompanied by one of the members of the Mu-team. She was also permitted to choose the specific member and, what Sophie had absolutely not expected, Lee said that she would be provided with all the cash she needs. But Sophie would not be allowed to go somewhere near the University or contact anyone from there.

Sophie was quite content with her position right now.

'It could've been worse. Much worse.'

She could've been thrown in a dark cell and given a bowl of something distantly resembling food once in a while. Conditions she was now in were… Well… Maybe even luxurious.

'A bird in a golden cage…'

Nah, Sophie was not the one to complain, especially not since she was so lucky.

She was actually starting to like the place. A few days ago she stumbled on a greenhouse. It seemed to be endless and it was the only place that was not yellowish-green all around. Sophie started liking spending time in that greenhouse, although she was never interested in flora and fauna before. One day she met Lee there. He seemed to be annoyed ('As much as usual,' Sophie thought mentally rolling her eyes), so Sophie hurried away. But before she left, Lee called after her and asked her what she was doing. She answered him truthfully: She had just accidentally found this place. She complemented him on the beauty of some flowers and then left in a hurry, but she saw him stare at her as she exited the greenhouse.

Although Sophie did her best to keep her cool and indifferent façade, she had been dead frightened when she understood that she was stuck as a hostage. Later on she relaxed a bit, but she had to admit that she did feel some fear towards Mr.Lee, especially since he was almost always in a bad mood. So she tried not to communicate with Lee too often, unless he required her presence, of course. In those cases he would usually send someone form his Mu-team to tell her to come to his lab.

A sliding noise came from the door as it opened. Sophie groaned into her pillow and tore her head away from it.

"What is it?" she said in annoyance and glanced towards the door. To her surprise, Razer was standing in the doorway.

"Razer?" Sophie asked, "What are you doing here? I thought you and the others went to retrieve the disk from the University?"

"We did," Razer answered, "And we got it."

"Really?!" Sophie jumped off the bed, happy to hear the good news, "But that's great!"

"Yeah," Razer answered emotionlessly, "Mr.Lee asked to tell you that he wants to see you right away."

"Thanks," and with that Sohie left 'her' room, quickly heading towards Lee's lab.

Excitement was bubbling inside her. Was the man happy? Well, he should have been. After all, he got what he wanted, right?

Finally, Sophie reached the door to the 'main meeting room', as she called it, and stopped in front of it. She took a deep breath, propped her jacket and made a calm, a little pleasant face. Then she pushed the button on the controller, and the door slid open.

It was hard to tell what was going on from the atmosphere in the hall. Mr.Lee was standing in the centre with his back on the Mu-Team, of which only Razer wasn't present. The Mu-Team members wore their indifferent faces, just like they did most of the time. When Sophie entered, silence fell. After a few seconds, the blond man was the first to break it.

"You've done a good job. Finally! Dismissed," he added curtly, but he most definitely sounded pleased.

When the Mu-Team left, Lee finally turned to face Sophie. To her surprise, he was grinning, but not in the way that made her feel like she was in trouble. On the contrary, Lee WAS happy.

"So…" Sophie was the first to speak, "May I assume that the mission was a success?"

"Yes, it was indeed…" Lee began.

"My congratulations, then!" Sophie smiled sincerely.

"Thanks to the invaluable information you have given us, we managed to retrieve the disk, and now I have all the information I need!" Lee announced, "Looks like you are proving to be most useful to keep around!"

"Well, I'm glad to hear that!" Sophie kept smiling, although a part of her wanted to claw his mismatched eyes out.

'Keep me around?! What am I, a pet?!!'

'No. You're a hostage, and could be dead by now,' Sophie reminded herself once again, sighing mentally. Then she said:

"So… Mr.Lee, I can understand perfectly well that I'm a hostage and is very lucky to still be alive, but still, since I agreed to cooperate willingly…" Sophie did not get the chance to finish.

"Yes, yes, I remember, the deal," Lee said as-a-matter-of-fact-ly. He looked at her and continued: "I will allow you to go to the city, but under two conditions: you must not get close to the University neighborhood or contact anyone you know, AND someone from my Mu-Team will accompany you."

'"Accompany"? What a nice way of saying "prevent you from running away",' Sophie thought sarcastically.

"Understood," she nodded, "But I'd like Tilian to accompany me."

Lee was very surprised to hear that. He knew that Tilian was… Well… The smartest of the Mu-Team, and he knew that Sophie was aware of that. Tilian would be the hardest to run away from. And yet, knowing all that, she chose him.

"All right…" he said slowly, still searching Sophie's face for any sign of her wanting to change her mind, but as no such signs came, Lee turned around and looked at the screens in front of him. Then he spoke again: "You have a credit card, I believe?"

"Yes," Sophie answered, not really getting the point of him asking something like that.

"Well, I'm afraid I can't afford letting you use it…" Lee began, but was interrupted by Sophie.

"…Because if they already know I'm missing, they are keeping an eye on my transactions, and as soon as I use my credit card, they'll know where I am," the girl continued.

"Very good!" Lee smirked. "Now, I'm giving you this credit card, buy whatever you need. The PIN is 9562."

He handed Sophie a credit card. Sophie was very surprised.

"Whatever I need?" she repeated, "Up till how much can that 'whatever I need' cost?"

"Well, I hope $25,000 would be enough for now," Lee answered distractedly.

Sophie nearly choked.

'WHAT?!'

Ok, so maybe she was used to a more or less luxurious life, since her farther was a very successful businessman and she earned herself good grades in University, but she never got more that $500 a month. But fifty times more for just one day of shopping?

'I didn't know that being a hostage pays you off that well,' Sophie joked mentally.

"Thank you!" she said brightly and left to get her jacket… Oh, and Tilian.

A few hours later Sophie Olin entered Landmark City shopping gallery accompanied by a tall figure in a dark coat, hat, gloves and a scarf tied almost all around his face. Sophie was doing her best to ignore the weird glances people were throwing their way.

Sophie had been in this gallery before: it was like a centre with all the expensive Italian clothes. But she never bought more than two items on one occasion, on usually such an occasion occurred once every two months. Now, on the other hand, she had a chance of buying almost a whole wardrobe.

'It would be absolutely perfect if only people stopped looking around that way," Sophie thought, staring bluntly at the woman who stole a surprised glance her way. The staring contest made the woman look away. 'Why did Mr.Lee have to make them so… so… Oh, I don't know… Noticeable!'

Finally they came towards the boutique Sophie wanted to start with.

"Ok," she said, turning around to look at Tilian. "Listen up!"

She pointed her right index finger into his chest, and looked at him with stern expression on her face.

"You don't mess with my nerves, you don't get us thrown out of this shop and you DON'T freak out other customers! Got it? Fine, let's go," she turned around and headed into the shop without waiting for an answer.

"You'd better be careful with what you are saying, girl," Tilian hissed, following her.

"Mr.Lee didn't give me any specific instructions on how to talk to you," Sophie snapped, "On the contrary, I bet he told you NOT to mistreat me."

As only a growl followed, Sophie assumed she was right. The girl smirked. She headed for the stand with different clothes and started picking out different items.

About fifteen minutes later, Sophie was finishing trying on the new clothes. She picked herself several shirts, a sweater, classic black jeans, a belt and matching bag and shoes.

"You know, I'm somehow surprised that Mr.Lee actually kept his word," Sophie mused changing back into her own clothes, "I mean after all he had all the chances of not keeping his word… Well, really, why would he?"

"You're right," answered Tilian, who was standing right outside her changing room like a bodyguard, "But he needs to buy your trust."

A loud 'cling' sound was heard, as the belt slipped out of the girl's hands and fell to the floor.

"What?!"

Sophie marched out of the changing cabin and stared at Tiian.

"What did you just say?" she asked in a deadly quiet tone. Tilian, who realized, too late unfortunately, that he had said something he was not supposed to have said, closed his eyes and lowered his face. Still Sophie continued: "Are you telling me that he let me out and gave all this money to… buy me?!"

"He wants your loyalty and he is trying to earn it by lavishing you with all the money," Tilian finally spoke, realizing that it didn't matter any longer how much more he said, since Sophie had already figured out everything.

Sophie's fists balled.

'That bastard!' her mind screamed. She wanted to punch the wall. 'He thinks he can buy me… Damn it! He wants to BUY me!!!'

Sophie looked at the pile of expensive clothes in the corner of her changing room, enraged. Then, suddenly, a plan started forming itself in Sophie's head. A smirk crept to her face, as she looked at her 'bodyguard'.

"Tilian, have you ever heard a saying 'Be careful what you wish for'?" she asked. Tilian looked at her, confused. He realized that his charge had something on her mind, but he had no idea what it could be.

Meanwhile Sophie took all of the clothes she had tried on previously and gave them back to the lady that worked in the shop and was helping her.

"Thank you," Sophie smiled at the lady, "But I suddenly thought that I need something… a little different in style."

And with that said, Sophie and the shop assistant started their trip around the shop once more. Tilian watched them curiously, wanting to know what Sophie was up to.

An hour later, Sophie and Tilian left the shop, both carrying several packages.

"Ok, next stop is…" Sophie looked around thoughtfully, then noticed what she was looking for, "Perfume and cosmetics. Try to survive that one as well, Tilian. 'Cause I have plans. Big plans."

Sophie smirked and headed for the said shop.

A/N: Sorry, guys, the 'bomb' I promised is not in this chapter, maybe it'll be the next one. But, anyway, please review, I need to know what you think!