Do As You Please

Azu glanced at the people who were clearly the Archaeological Team, then dismissed them and descended from the other side of the Pyramid.

A moment later, he found the entrance and slipped inside.

The doorway led to a corridor, its towering walls covered in inscriptions Azu couldn't read.

A little deeper in, there were some murals.

In the murals, countless people were prostrating themselves before a woman.

From her attire, she was clearly dressed in Egyptian style.

She raised a Scepter high, with a crescent moon behind her.

Azu only spared a few glances before moving on.

Soon he came across another mural.

At the top of this one, several planets were depicted, arranged in what seemed to be some kind of celestial chart.

Unfortunately, Azu knew nothing about astronomy.

But he saw that beneath those planets, objects resembling spaceships were also depicted.

From those ships, various alien creatures descended.

These aliens waged a great war against the humans on the ground, while behind the humans stood the Egyptian woman from the first mural, raising her Scepter with the crescent moon at her back.

It looked like the woman was leading humanity against clearly extraterrestrial alien life.

"How interesting."

Azu continued exploring forward, then his ear twitched as he caught voices from the entrance.

"Look, the isotope dating shows this pyramid was built five thousand years ago. That matches some records I found in the Egyptian Book of the Dead."

"Professor Nick, look here—these are ancient Egyptian script."

"Let me see."

"Hmm, it says here that a great deceased one dwells within, and only the chosen can meet her."

"Look, it says 'her,' not 'him'!"

"That means the one dwelling here is a woman."

"Likely the 'Queen of the Night' from the Book of the Dead."

Azu found it amusing, like visiting a museum and listening to a tour guide's commentary.

He simply stopped to hear what else Professor Nick might reveal.

Footsteps approached.

Then Professor Nick's voice trembled as he said, "It really is the 'Queen of the Night.' Look at this mural."

"The Book of the Dead records that Princess Lily Ankari was tempted by the Grim Reaper and became an embodiment of evil."

"She used many incredible abilities and nearly overthrew the regime."

"She could turn day into night, raise the dead, and commanded a host of servants."

"But in the end, she was subdued and exiled from Egypt."

"After that, as my research progressed, more and more clues pointed to this Egyptian princess leaving Egypt and coming here."

"And I suspect the 'Queen of the Night' wasn't tempted by any Grim Reaper—her genes mutated."

"She might have been the world's first Super."

Azu paused.

That didn't add up.

The entire "The Boys" series of shows made it clear that Supers existed because of injections of "Compound 5."

They weren't naturally occurring Supers.

Still, having watched three seasons, Azu had never seen where "Compound 5" came from.

The show never traced its origin.

So it was hard to say whether naturally awakened Supers could exist in the "The Boys" universe.

Just then, Professor Nick exclaimed again.

"What's this?"

"Aliens?"

"War?"

"That's impossible!"

"This is absurd—could this pyramid be a hoax?"

"How could the 'Queen of the Night' be leading humans against aliens?"

"But Professor, isotopes don't lie. Unless people five thousand years ago built this pyramid just for a prank."

"But... is that possible?"

Azu didn't find it all that strange. Since the Queen of the Night could be hypothesized as the first Super, why couldn't an Alien Civilization exist? He himself had crossed over. What else was impossible?

Professor Nick seemed to have calmed down. He said, "Come on, let's keep going deeper."

"Remember, don't touch anything."

"I don't believe in so-called pyramid curses, but it's hard to guarantee the ancients didn't coat their artifacts with poison."

"Keep in mind, the Egyptians knew how to make mummies five thousand years ago. That means they had their own chemical theories."

"Concocting poisons wouldn't have been a challenge for them."

Azu heard footsteps heading his way, so he flew ahead deeper into the passage.

In an instant, a massive door appeared before him.

On the double stone doors, a statue stood on each side—the dog-headed human god the Egyptians worshipped, Anubis.

"It's like a Gate of the Dead."

Azu scanned the scene inside the stone door and found a hall. In the center of the hall were rows of stone tables, each bearing a mummy.

It had the feel of a Sacrificial Hall.

He extended a finger and gently pushed the doors open.

While Azu was on his archaeological expedition, far across the ocean in New York City, the whole city was in an uproar because Homelander had failed to show up for his Hearing on time.

"He didn't come!"

"He didn't come!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's two o'clock in the afternoon!"

"The Hearing for Homelander started half an hour ago, yet our protagonist, our hero, Homelander, hasn't appeared!"

"What does this mean!"

"Does it show that Homelander doesn't take the entire Federation system seriously?"

"Does it show he couldn't care less about any of this!"

"This is sheer arrogance, sheer outrage."

"And as of now, Vought's spokesperson hasn't offered any explanation for this matter."

"In fact, they've even closed the Seven Tower!"

"Don't let me be right—I bet Vought can no longer control Homelander."

On a massive electronic screen in a New York street, a news anchor was speaking excitedly, spittle flying.

"I think today's incident makes it necessary to sound the alarm for our country, for the military."

"We must carefully and seriously re-examine these Supers."

"Today, Homelander can do whatever he wants, ignoring the Supreme Court's summons."

"Then tomorrow, other Supers will flout the law."

"And the facts have already proven that Vought can no longer control every superhero, as they promised!"

"This is a crisis!"

"An unprecedented, massive crisis!"

As the anchor shouted himself hoarse, a white woman on the street shook her head. "I don't believe Homelander is that kind of person."

Just then, her phone rang.

A close friend sent her a video.

At the start of the video, red text flashed across the screen as a title: Protest! Strong Protest! Protest the military's concealment of the truth, protest the politicians' out-of-context slander against Homelander, against a true hero!