Shaping his Destiny

A few days after Axle first merged with Rachel, he was in the classroom of Mr. Mathews, his third-hour teacher. They were the only ones in the room.
"Why did you ask me here?" asked Axle.
"I asked you here so that I can help train you in your new abilities," said Mr. Mathews.
"How are you supposed to help me?" Axle asked.
"Like this," said Mr. Mathews, his voice suddenly taking on a magic echo.
Mr. Mathews raised his hand. The desk in front of Axle raised off the ground, as did three others. Mr. Mathews moved his hand as if he was conducting an orchestra. The four desks tore apart, before reforming themselves into a small filing cabinet and two plastic crates.
Accell looked at Mr. Mathews with a look of surprise. "You're like me?" asked Accell.
Mr. Mathews chuckled. "Don't worry. I thought I was unique when I first became Maxum."
"Wait, you're saying that there are more than just us two?"
"Yeah, there are about a hundred of us. I'll take you to see them soon, but first, you have to make sure you're in control of your powers."
"I'm in control," Accell defended.
"Oh, really?" Mr. Mathews asked, back to his normal voice. "Prove it. Try to lift the pencil out of my desk."
Axle focused his mind. Using his telekinesis, he opened Mr. Mathews's desk and lifted the pencil out, pulling it to his hand.
"Not bad," said Mr. Mathews. "But you took more time doing that than you should have."
*You can't do it all yourself,* Rachel said inside Axle's mind. *Shut up,* Axle shot back.
Maxum heard Axle's and Rachel's mental argument but didn't say anything about it. "Why don't we test your formative ability," said Mr. Mathews. He opened one of the cabinets and began rummaging through it. "Let's start with a simple building base." He brought out a bag filled with brightly colored plastic containers. "Play-Doh."
"Play-Doh?" Axle asked. "For real? I turned metal into armor when I got these powers. I made my own clothes."
"Well then, Play-Doh should be easy for you." Mr. Mathews dumped a thing of Play-Doh on the table. "Shape that into a heart."
Axle concentrated. Slowly, the lump of Play-Doh flattened into the shape of a heart.
"Good. Now make an animal. Any animal will do."
"Can I try it with my hands first? So I know what I'm doing."
"Sure." Mr. Mathews opened another thing of Play-Doh.
Axle carefully formed the Play-Doh into the silhouette of a cat with his hands. Then he used his telekinesis to change the heart into another cat silhouette.
"Good. Now make it 3D."
"What?"
"Turn it into a 3D model of a cat."
Axle tried his best. But all he could manage to make was a misshapen cylinder.
"I can't do it," Axle said.
"Yes you can," Maxum said. "Just not as Axle."
"What do you mean?" Axle asked.
"Axle alone can't do it. But Accell can."
To prove the point, Maxum turned the cat silhouette into a small 3D model of a cat.
"How can I do that?" asked Axle.
"Become Accell."
"I've tried becoming Accell again. I can't."
"Look, Axle," said Mr. Mathews, lowering himself to Axle's eye level, "you can't do it on your own. I went through the same struggle when I first started. You have to accept the fact that you share a body. You have to accept that you are one with the ghost. You have to allow Rachel some control."
Then his voice changed to a third voice. "And Rachel, you have to do something too." Rachel realized that it was the ghost half of Maxum. "Rachel, you have to be more assertive and less compliant. Don't be afraid to remind him that he's not the boss of you."
"You got it," said Rachel. She was in control now. "Let me try this."
She opened another thing of Play-Doh and tried forming it into a cat. She managed to make a model that looked like a child's attempt to make a cat. An improvement over Axel's attempt, but not as good as Maxum's.
"Not bad," said Maxum's ghost half. "But not good either. You two won't get anything done if you won't work together. You need to become Accell."
"But how?" asked Axle.
"We've tried," Rachel added. "We can't."
"You haven't tried hard enough," said Maxum. Then he sighed. "Axle, Rachel. You two need to work together. As long as one of you is trying to take full control, you won't be able to use your full Accell powers. To become Accell you both need to work together. Axle, Rachel has most of the power. You need her to use it all. And Rachel while you have more power, Axle has control. You can't control the powers as much without him. You need to rely on each other to do this."
Axle and Rachel tried letting each other in. But they just couldn't do it. They couldn't create Accell.
"It doesn't quite work that way," said Mr. Mathews, sensing their plight. "Or, at least, it won't work that way yet. That will take a long time. To become Accell, you both need to work together. I said that before, but what I mean is that you both have to use the power at the same time."
Axle understood. He stuck out his hand and used the power to lift his failed attempt. He started morphing it. He felt Rachel do the same. And as they did the same actions, they felt their consciousnesses merge. And then they were one. They were Accell.
Accell turned the lump of Play-Doh into a model of a cat. It wasn't quite as good as Maxum's but it was much better than Rachel's attempt.
"Good, Accell," said Maxum. "That's good. Now, try something else."
Accell nodded. He knew what he wanted to do. He opened up a white and a black tub of Play-Doh. He used them both. He used half of the black and half the white to make a penguin, and the rest of it he used to make an ostrich.
"Wow," said Maxum, impressed. "I'm surprised you two have that kind of concentration already. It takes most of us much longer to manipulate two things at once."
"Us?" Axle asked.
"Remember?" Maxum replied. "I said that there are about a hundred of us. You still need to do a bit more training. But after that, it'll be time for you to meet the rest."