More than a Dream

Alex lay in his bed, dreaming.
In his dream, he was in school, but it was not his school. He guessed it was third hour.

         Axle was taking a test. In the middle of the test, however, the classroom door exploded open. In popped in a girl who was strange to Axle, but who Alex recognized as Rachel from school. Rachel ran around the classroom, disrupting the test takers. Rachel grabbed tests from some people, knocked over one kid's desk, and answered the rest of Axle's questions for him, though Axle knew they were wrong.
         Then Rachel ran out the door, laughing. She shut the door behind her, though Axle could tell she never touched it. Her laughter carried throughout the school, for a lot farther than it should have.
         The classroom began arguing over what had just happened, and whose test was whose. Axle's teacher talked to the class. "Sorry about that, everyone. That was the school ghost. She comes around every few years and causes trouble until someone catches her. Every time she does, she will pick on one student in particular, who always ends up being the one who catches her. Now get back to the test."

         The next thing that Alex knew, it was Lunch time. Axle had C lunch. The lunches went up to F, so there were three more lunches to go before it was over. Axle ate his lunch and read his book. He never wanted to talk to people at lunch.
         As Axle was finishing his lunch, he stood up to dump the tray. As soon as he had dumped it, he noticed that all of a sudden, all the other kids had vanished. The tables were all empty, the only thing one one of them being his stuff.
         Even if it had been the end of C lunch, D lunch or E lunch should still be there. But there was no one else there. No one except for the ghost.
         Axle scowled. This was her doing. Axle looked at the clock on the wall. It was the middle of sixth hour. Axle was angry at the ghost for making him miss so much time.
         He began to chase the ghost. She lead him to the kitchen, where the lunch ladies were preparing for some event that afternoon. They had boxes of food that they were preparing, which they were wheeling into the room. They saw Axle chasing the ghost, but they didn't tell either of them to leave. Whenever that ghost was being chased, she always led them here. But they were still upset by the fact that the fight was making their jobs that much worse.
         Axle kept trying to hit the ghost, and he regularly tried to hit the ghost with some of the food boxes. It was tricky business, since the ghost had changed her appearance slightly. And twice, Axle hit one of the lunch ladies with a giant box of Rice Krispie Treats, because she looked similar to the ghost's new appearance.
         After apologizing to the lunch lady, Axle realized that the ghost had left the room. He ran into the hallway, determine to give chase. It took him a bit to find the ghost. But when he did, she was back in the form that Alex recognized as Rachel.
         Axle ran after her. She started to run as well. Axle had almost caught up with her. Then she pulled a Road Runner, and started running way faster than Axle could ever hope to run. He stopped running once Rachel lapped him. There was no way he catch her like this.
          So he began to run the other way. He pulled the old "counter-clockwise" move. And it worked. As the ghost rounded the corner, she saw Axle facing her. She ran around the other way. So did Axle. As he rounded that corner, he saw Rachel screech to a halt in the hallway. The look on her face was one of amusement. She turned around again.
         As Axle rounded the corner he'd just went around, he noticed that not only was he now in an entirely different hallway than the one he'd just been in, he was on the other side of the school. When the ghost turned the corner this time, however, she didn't turn around. She didn't even slow down. She just ran into one of the doorways.
         When Axle followed her through the doorway, he was surprised to find that it was not a hallway, but a classroom. His third-hour classroom, in fact. And the Ghost was there. She had jumped into the arms of Axle's teacher.
         She laughed a laugh that was part nervousness, part embarrassment, and all amusement. "I just trapped myself, didn't I?" she asked, coyly.
         "Yes you did," Axle said, walking up to her, and grabbing her arm. For a ghost, she was surprisingly solid, and warm.
         An announcement went over the intercom. "The ghost has been caught!"
Alex was starting to wake up. He'd heard the intercom announcement, and heard himself say it out of his own mouth. He was talking in his sleep again. He decided to add, "And I'd like to apologize to the lunch ladies for what I did earlier." The last thing Alex heard before he woke up was the teacher saying, "The ghost is fast, and mischievous. But, more importantly, she's stupid."

         As Alex woke up, and was going throughout his day, Axle was confused. Why had he grabbed the ghost's arm? Why had his voice gone over the intercom, apologizing for his actions, when he hadn't said it? And why was he now recognizing this ghost girl as Rachel?
         Rachel laughed at the teacher. "What do you mean I'm stupid? I've outsmarted plenty of students here."
         "Sure, but every time you've been caught, it's because you've run into this classroom, thinking it was a hallway."
         "Well, you keep changing the layout on me."
         "Wait, what?" asked Axle, more confused than earlier. "What's going on here?"
         "Look at your hand," said the teacher. Axle did. To his astonishment, his hand had disappeared into Rachel's arm. "Whoever catches the ghost," the teacher said, "shall merge with her."
         Axle couldn't believe his eyes. From where his arm and Rachel's touched, the distance to her hand kept getting smaller, until her hand was where his arm was. Rachel grabbed his other arm. Her hand disappeared into his arm. His arm grew shorter, until it reached where her arm had sunk in.
         Rachel was suddenly behind him now. She touched her bare feet against his. Their feet began to merge as well. Wait, since when had either of them been barefoot? He looked down and noticed that he wasn't wearing anything. He looked behind him to notice that Rachel wasn't either.
         As he looked at his legs, he noticed that they had changed. Rachel's legs had been absorbed up to his knees, and below his knees, his legs had changed. They had gained muscle tone. His feet didn't look as bad as they had earlier. He looked at his arms. They were shapelier as well. His hand looked stronger. And the hand that had been Rachel's still looked like it was hers, but it looked as strong as his other one.
         Rachel's breasts started to be absorbed when they touched his back. And suddenly, he could see more. He could see himself and Rachel merging together. He could see the bubble they were inside, and how it was preventing his classmates from seeing what was happening to him. And he could see himself at home, eating breakfast while on the computer. Wait no, that wasn't him.
         Then, suddenly, the rest of Rachel merged with him, save for her head. And then he knew. That wasn't him. That was Alex. It was him from another dimension. And Axle could now see how it had been because of Alex that this was now happening. Alex didn't know it, but he had the power to change realities through his dreams. Alex had made Axle grab Rachel's arm, and Alex had been the one on the intercom. Axle thanked Alex, though he knew Alex would never receive the thanks.
         "Look at how well we work together," Rachel was saying into his ear. Axle looked at his body again. His legs looked much stronger, as did his arms. He looked at his stomach. It wasn't as thin as it used to be. He had been almost expecting himself to now have abs, but he didn't. But his chest was bigger. He could no longer see his rib cage when he inhaled. "A new body isn't all that I'm giving you," Rachel said, as Axle felt a surge of power flow through him. "Try focusing that power to your hand." He focused his power to his right hand, the hand that had been his. His hand began to glow. "Yes, that's it!" she said. "Now, let's finish this."
         And then Axle couldn't see. But with his extra vision, the vision that had allowed him to see Alex, Axle could see what was happening. He could see Rachel's head merging with his own. His hair, always so short, was growing longer, so that it was just above his shoulders. And as Rachel finished merging with her, he opened his eyes again. One was the same brilliant blue that Axle always had. And the other was the same electric green that Rachel had.
         Through those eyes, he saw the glow in his hand, how it had moved to his palm. Axle heard Rachel inside his head. "Focus on the power flowing to your hand," she was saying. "Feel it. Now, shape it. Try to focus on a dagger. Think about that dagger. Now, try to shape that power. Shape it into that dagger." Axle watched as the light flowing from his hand began to take shape. And then he was holding a dagger. He would have been surprised, but he wasn't because of Rachel. Axle could feel their spirits merge.
         He looked at his left hand, the one that had been Rachel's. He focused power there. He understood what he should do. Within seconds, he was holding a shield in that hand.
         Axle then focused on the dagger. He turned it into a sword. Then Rachel took over for a bit. Axle watched as his, or rather her chest became a pair of breasts. She threw the sword and the shield in front of her. They clashed against the dark bubble they were in, and shattered. Then, as the power flowed once again, Axle could tell what Rachel was doing.
         The clothes that they had been wearing earlier wear lying on the floor. Rachel used the shards of the sword and shield to tear the clothes to shreds. Axle took over enough so that they were both in equal control. Axle reassembled his underwear while Rachel took care of her bra. Then, Axle formed a new pair of shorts, thread by thread. It was taking a lot less time than he thought it would. Rachel was forming their shirt. Axle watched as scraps of fabric stuck to their torso, and watched as Rachel connected them all together. He started doing the same with his shorts. Soon, they were fully clothed, with bits of metal flying around.
         With the two of them focusing at the same time, it wasn't long before all that metal was no more than a suit of armor. In Axle's beyond vision, he could see himself clearly. He no longer looked like he used to. The armor made him look more mysterious and dangerous than he ever was before. Though he was now in control, Rachel's breasts had not gone away, and Axle knew they never would. He also could tell that merging with Rachel had added something more down there. But even with these changes, he still looked like an ancient warrior, like one of those Yu-gi-oh cards he used to have. He no longer looked like Axle. And he was no longer Axle, either. He was something else now.

As the warrior was emerging from the bubble, back into his classroom, Alex sat at his computer, thinking. He thought about that weird dream he'd had the night before, about him chasing a ghost girl. He thought of the powers she'd had. He smiled to himself. He could make a story out of that. Accell. That would make a good superhero name.

And across the Multiverse, standing among his classmates, the newly named Accell stood up, ready to face his new life.