The Others

The door slowly went open, and Liam, now sitting up in bed, turned his eyes towards it. Four teenagers, around his age, stood by the doorway.

'Oh, great,' Liam thought as the door swung fully open. 'Not a moment of peace. I still had so much to test.' He sighed internally.

The group stepped into the room, the first being a beautiful blonde girl who threw herself into a nearby chair. The others followed, standing nearby, not sure how to speak to someone who's been hospitalized for so long.

"Hi, newcomer. So, what were you doing to end up looking like that?" Illyana smirked, pointed towards his back.

Liam stared at them, remembering all of their identity's and backgrounds one by one.

"Not going to talk? Or you don't speak English?" Illyana pressed, still smirking.

"Give him a break, Illyana. He just woke up," Sam interjected.

"I do speak English," Liam finally said, in a normal tone. "As for what I was doing? I don't see why I should tell you. I don't even know who any of you are."

"We found you outside with your back completely melted," Rahne spoke quietly. "We brought you here to recover. When we heard from Reyes that you woke up, we thought we'd come check on you."

Liam nodded. "Thank you for bringing me in here," he said sincerely.

"Don't thank us yet," Illyana cut in. "You're also trapped in this cage forever."

"Cage, huh?" Liam murmured, remembering details from the New Mutants movie. The memory of the barrier went through his mind. 'That should be easy to break. I should also be able to just portal out.'

"Don't say that, Illyana," Rahne came in, before turning back to Liam with a smile. "Dr. Reyes said that once we all have control of our powers, we'll be able to live normal lives. Until then, she's keeping us safe here."

Illyana scoffed, dismissing Rahne's optimism with a wave of her hand. "Anyway, what's your mutant power, newcomer?"

"I'm not a mutant," Liam replied. "And stop calling me newcomer."

"You don't know your power yet?" Dani asked, she was reserved but Liam could tell that she was curious despite standing in the corner of the room.

Liam raised an eyebrow. 'What part of 'I'm not a mutant' do these people not understand? I don't have the X-gene, so no I'm not a mutant.'

Dani, hearing no reply continued. "It's okay," she said. "Dr. Reyes told me she could figure mine out with some tests. I'm sure she could do the same for you."

Illyana snorted as she stood up, heading for the door. "Great, another sissy," she muttered. "See that, Lockheed? Just like I said he'd be." She looked at her stuffed dragon as she spoke to it, carrying it with her as she left.

Liam looked with a deadpanned expression at the leaving Illyana. 'Of course, the girl who talks to a stuffed animal calls me a sissy.'

"Ignore her," Sam said apologetically. "She does that." Gesturing towards the others, he continued, "Her name's Illyana. I'm Sam, that's Rahne, and the quiet one in the corner is Dani. There's also Roberto, but he didn't want to come along."

Liam remembered Roberto's backstory. 'Him not being here makes sense,' he thought. 'He's still traumatized about burning his girlfriend alive so seeing someone with such heavy burn injuries is not something he'd want to see.'

On the outside, he started smiled. "I'm Liam. I don't know how I got here, but thank you for saving me." He decided to put on a polite front for now.

"It was actually Illyana who found you," Sam said. "She called for help."

Liam nodded, piecing the story together. 'That makes sense. Then that dimension I was in first must've been her Limbo dimension.'

After the introductions, the other two girls left, leaving only Sam with Liam. Sam stayed, explaining more about the facility, the others, and their situation before excusing himself to let Liam rest.

Once the door shut, Liam was alone again. He exhaled deeply. 'Finally, some time to experiment,' he thought.

He tried standing but winced as pain shot through his back. "Probably another one to three days before I can walk normally," he estimated, observing his slow healing ability. 'Let's start with some testing then.'

He reached out instinctively to summon a portal but froze. "My sling ring... it's gone," he realized with a sinking feeling. "They must've taken it while treating me."

"For fuck's sake," he cursed under his breath, annoyed.

Shaking off the setback, Liam refocused. "Let's see if the books in my pocket dimension are still fine," he thought. Despite the pain, he lifted his hand into the air.

A book appeared out of thin air in his hand, on the surface of the book were some strange runes. He flipped through the pages, one by one. "It worked," he thought. He had managed to bring the books from the Akame Ga Kill dimension with him to this dimension.

"Might as well study these while I heal," Liam decided.

He retrieved a notebook and pen from his dimensional pocket and began his usual deciphering method: identifying pictures and matching the runes beneath them.

Days passed, every day was pretty much the same. Outside of occasional visits from Dr. Reyes and Sam, Liam was left alone. Illyana dropped by every once in a while, always asking him about his powers, while the others avoided him entirely, likely put off by the scars on his back.

Dr. Reyes, meanwhile, had grown increasingly curious about Liam. She often asked him about his identity and powers, telling him that her system couldn't find any records of him. 

A day after Liam woke up, she had replaced the camera he'd destroyed, but it didn't help her in the slightest.

Liam managed to continue his research, relying on a trick he'd made up. Every time Dr. Reyes installed a new camera, it would mysteriously break, leaving her very irritated although she didn't show it. Each time she came, Liam would casually the camera and after installing a new camera he would refreeze it again, breaking the circuits inside over and over again. 

Dr. Reyes wasn't oblivious to the strange events. Her sensors had picked up a low but consistent energy level in Liam's body. After examining him, she found out about his unusually fast healing, concluding that he possessed a low-level regenerative ability alongside impressive physical abilities. The whip construct he'd summoned earlier also interested her, making her start on planning how to push him into revealing even more.

On the third morning, Liam woke early, his body feeling significantly better. "Three days," he noted, studying his condition. "I think I can walk again. A few more days, and there won't be any trace left of the injuries."

Carefully standing up from the bed, Liam stretched, testing his body's limits. Despite the initial stiffness, he felt strong. "Didn't lose much physical strength during the coma," he observed. "Thanks, Incursio."

Satisfied with his progress, Liam pressed the call button beside his bed. An alarm went off inside the room from Dr. Reyes, summoning her.

Minutes later, she entered, her face looked extremely tired. She paused when she saw Liam walking slowly around the room.

"I think I'm ready to leave, Doc," Liam told her, looking her straight in her eyes.