Another chapter. I want to thank everyone who reviewed so far (especially Craz) and NO I do not own A.T.O.M. Do you think I would be here if I did? Exactly.

P.S.: This fic is for Mike, who put up with reading the first chapter. Thank you!

(DIS)ADVANTAGES

Running blindly into a fight without back-up is about the stupidest thing one can do. And I was doing exactly that,literally running in blindly. Losing the advantage of sight, I stopped and closed my eyes, trying to remember what Axel had told me about letting go of the physical.

Flashback

"You guys, this is going to take forever. I'm putting up a time limit. In a span of five minutes, the one who hits the ground last loses. Okay?" King yelled. Even though I had barely heard him, I nodded.

"Come on King, you have to place a bet on one of them." Shark said.

"It seems like a stupid thing to do. They're both pretty good at fighting. Who are you two betting on?" King asked.

"Axel." replied Hawk.

"No way, dude. It's gonna be Lioness. She's Latino-American." came Shark's answer.

"What does that have to do with anything? Besides, Axel's got Jo Lan." Hawk said.

"Dude, have you ever watched a spanish soap opera? The women there have manicures only to attack other woman for their boyfriends. And F.Y.I, Axel won't use Jo Lan on her." Shark told him.

"Shark, I heard that!" I managed to call back to him.

Hawk stared at Shark for some time and then said, "Why won't he use Jo Lan on her? He did when King was training."

"Dude, you are so out of it. It's obvious isn't it." Shark muttered. Hawk got pissed of at the fact that Shark knew something that he didn't.

"Tell me," he whined.

Shark put his hands behind his head and leaned against the wall with a smug look on his face. "He likes her." he said simply. King and Hawk turned to him with raised eyebrows.

"And you know this how?" King asked. Shark chuckled. "I've noticed from the begining." Hawk rolled his eyes. "You and your observations. As if." he said.

"Two more minutes!" King yelled.

I backed up one step to catch my breath. I was dead tired and I could tell Axel was too. Obviously, he could tell the same and he smiled.

"Give up?"

"No way," I mouthed. My muscles screamed the exact opposite. Axel did seem tired, but not as much as I felt. Either that or he was a good actor. I aimed a kick at his waist but he managed to stop it. He backed away and I stared. He was going easy on me! Normally he would have retaliated but know he just backed away. It was either that or he was challenging me into wasting my energy. Neither appealled to me.

"One minute!"

I've got only one chance to do this. I curled up my left hand into a fist and tried to get a punch past him. What with TRIED as the key word, he blocked me. With his hand still around my wrist, he spun me around so that my back was facing him. He streched his leg out and pushed my heel forward so that I lost my balance and fell to the floor. When I had opened my eyes, he was bent over with a smile on his face. From the far side of the room, I heard Hawk yell in triumph and King say that there were 15 more seconds left.

"Game over." Axel mouthed. I tried to use my hands but found out that they were quite useless due to the fact that Axel had both my wrists in his grasp. Thinking fast, I took hold of Axel's wrists, gathered my strength, or what was left of it, and pulled his hands towards me. As I had suspected, he lost his balance and while he was falling, I rolled over and gripped his wrist.

"Ten seconds."

I twisted his arm behind his back and placed a free hand on his shoulderblade. I could feel him trying to break loose, but when my hand was on his shoulderblade, he gave up, knowing that I could easily break his arm.

"Too true,game over." I whispered into his ear just as King had signaled the end. I let go and took a look around. Shark was jumping up and down like a maniac. Hawk looked frustrated and King was just shaking his head. I offered both hands to Axel to pull him up but instead he pulled me down to sit next to him. Instead of just sitting down, I let myself fall further into a laying down position. It was as if the fight we had just had was in a different time and place and that when I had come back, all the side effects just rushed into me. I couldn't catch my breath, my muscles were screaming in pain and a cramp in the left side of my waist had just appeared.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm exausted and I can't feel my hands." I confessed.

"Yeah, sorry about that." he murmured. I turned my head to look at him an saw him with a look of regret in his eyes.

"It's okay. Anyway, I'm the one who came up with the idea in the first place. How come you're not tired?" I asked.

"I am." he answered.

"You sure don't look tired."

"It's about control. You have to make yourself believe that you have to achieve a certain goal, and then...it's hard to explain. It's like some sort of enlightenment. It's a different state of mind. You can recognize which move will give you an advantage,which move will wear you out less. It doesn't have to be a fight against fatigue." he explained

"Meaning?" I pressed on.

"Meaning you can come over any disadvantage you have in battle." he hesitated and then said, "My dad taught me that." I bit my lip feeling sort of guilty for bringing up the subject. He must have noticed, because then he said with a smile on his face, "You have to concentrate hard on it otherwise it won't work."

End of Flashback

Concentrate hard or it won't work. Opening my eyes, I felt better. The smoke seemed to clear up and even though people were running around screaming, I managed to block out all the excessive noise. I raced further into the assuming chaos when I heard a familiar scream. It was as if the scream had pushed me further into the smokey atmosphere. Racing past a blue Puegot I came to a clearing that seemed to radiate its own eerieness. In the smoke I saw a small figure fighting against other, bigger, figures. Taller, more massive and stronger figures.

Hold on Eliza.

Just when I had reached a two metre radius of the battle field, I heard a scream this time longer and followed by a sickening PLOP! I felt as if my heart stopped and my knees buckled.

"Now we'll see if cats really have nine lives," an eerie voice breathed down my neck.