Chapter 138: 138

Words : 1104 Updated : Oct 7th, 2025

In Chapter 137 of "Beyond the Limit (DC)": | Washington D.C. - September 9 Joseph jolted awake, eyes snapping open. For a split second,... Discover the next events!

| Washington D.C. - September 9 Joseph jolted awake, eyes snapping open. For a split second, his pulse spiked—then he remembered. He wasn't in a war zone. He was on Kori's couch, her body draped over his, fast asleep. Her arms were wrapped tightly around him, like she feared he might vanish. 'Time?' he asked mentally. //6:00 a.m. The sun is expected to rise between 6:40 and 7:15 a.m.// His shift stirred her. Her eyes fluttered open, groggy and unfocused. "Good morning," he said, glancing down at his chest. "Morning," she murmured, still half-asleep, her voice barely audible. "I've got something to do. You wanna get up too?" "It's too early," she mumbled, loosening her grip. "See you later... Don't forget the team's meeting at seven." She let go and promptly fell back asleep. Maybe it was a Tamaranean thing—drawing energy from the sun—but she was never a morning person until it was fully up. Smiling, Joseph gently lifted her with telekinesis and laid her softly back onto the couch. He padded into her bedroom, grabbed her blanket, and tucked it around her. Then he stepped out the door and vanished into the predawn streets. ** In the early hours of the morning, a figure cloaked in shadow slipped silently into a D.C. building. He moved with practiced stealth through the hallways until he reached a specific room. Inside, a woman lay asleep—crutches propped against the wall beside her bed. Carefully, he drew a syringe and inserted it into her arm, extracting blood. She stirred, eyes fluttering open—but before she could fully awaken, the intruder knocked her out telepathically. Without leaving a trace, he vanished into the morning shadows. ** | Lake Michigan - September 9 Hovering above the water in his gold suit and Nova helmet, Joseph stared at the blood-filled syringe in his hand. "So... I just inject this into myself?" he asked aloud, addressing the A.I. He was floating over the lake after he had snuck into Vanessa Kapatellis (formerly Silver Swan)'s room and withdrawn some of her blood. It seemed she had some trouble consciously controlling the nanites to help her walk, from the crutches he'd seen in her room. Maybe the ease of control had disappeared with her Silver Swan split personality that he'd killed—but getting rid of a murderous parasite was a good trade-off for walking with ease, in Joseph's opinion. //Yes,// Nova replied. //Once the blood is in your system, I'll gain access to her nanites and begin merging their architecture with our own. This will allow me to bypass current generation limits, enhance your body's durability, grant you her sonic scream ability, and more.// The research into nanites hadn't stopped, and Joseph would need to look into who was doing it—who was experimenting on innocent humans and making more like him and Vanessa. If they ever finished and perfected their process, it could spell trouble for the world, with armies of superpowered silver psychos. All he knew was that LexCorp had a hand in it, but that was a start. "Ok. Let's go," he said as he tried to insert the needle into his vein. The tip broke. He forgot how durable he really was. //Drinking it will work too.// "Do I really have to drink human blood? What am I, some sort of vampire?" Joseph said reluctantly but still went through with it, breaking the syringe over his mouth with his fingers and dropping blood into his mouth before swallowing quickly. It tasted like iron. Not good at all. Good thing he wasn't going to develop a taste for human flesh or something. "Feel any different?" he asked Nova. //The process of the Silver Swan nanites adapting to your body will take some time since the pre-existing nanites in your body have adapted to all the energies in your body over a long time. At the same time, the pre-existing nanites are outdated and need to adapt to the new ones as well.// "How long?" //Approximately a day. During that time, I will not be available. Do you wish to proceed?// "Sure. It's not like there's anything really pressing at the moment. Or many things that can threaten the current me." With Joseph's confirmation, he felt Nova's presence withdraw, focusing on adapting the newer nanites so he could generate as many nanites as he wanted, with the added benefit of increasing the RAM and processing power of Nova, so to speak. With so much data stored, getting info lately had sometimes taken several minutes. From Lake Michigan, he flew to Chicago. It was a quick flight since the city bordered the lake. He hadn't been in this city for weeks, and with the global unrest caused by the Thanagarians, crime had definitely increased. He flew to the Willis Tower, the tallest building in Chicago at over 1,400 feet, sat on the roof, legs dangling, and watched as the sun slowly rose over the city. He was back, and things would be returned to normal. He'd have to check in on Carla Viti, make sure she wasn't up to any funny business. He'd also have to check in on Dent in Gotham and how the Two-Face gang was progressing. Then he'd have to check on Bell Studios and start plans to expand it. With Nova back, he could speed up development and make new games in a fraction of the time. Well, that was after Nova got the ability to generate more nanites. Then he'd be able to feed a device with internet connection to the nanites, and Nova could work on all sorts of projects in the background whenever. The Gordanian tracker assimilated into the nanites, unfortunately, couldn't connect to the internet. Doing this, it would be easier to gather information on the Light, Leviathan, and Intergang. With Nova monitoring all corners of the internet and more and more people gaining access to smartphones and internet connections, eventually he'd find a big lead on them and take them down. With the AI back and soon to be upgraded, the world was his oyster. He wouldn't limit himself to just the entertainment industry. He would branch into all sorts of industries in all sorts of countries. His dream of rivaling LexCorp wasn't just a pipedream anymore but an eventual certain reality. The sun continued rising over the city of Chicago as he continued brainstorming plans and ideas for the future.

Chapter 138: 138

Comments (0)