It was another sleepless, exhausting morning.
The unchanging streetscape outside flashed past in her hazy eyes, their gaze lost in thought.
She leaned lightly against the window. Its cool touch seemed to soothe her restless heart a little.
"What is the company doing? Why did they ask me to take a supervillain to a place like that?"
Sage Grove Psychiatric Hospital.
Dressed in ordinary clothes with her hood up, Queen Maeve murmured her confusion. Deep down, though, she already had a vague idea of the answer.
Experiments on superhumans!
She simply didn't want to think about it. She didn't dare let herself think about it.
Maybe that way, she could keep her head buried in the warm sand, instead of investigating whether the place was a secret facility researching Compound V.
The tower had rotted. Despair was growing. Where was the hope?
The bus stopped at the next stop, and a young woman came chattering aboard from the street.
Maeve was drawn to her cheerful voice.
The girl held up a phone mounted on a selfie stick and spoke to the camera. "I'm on my way to the suburbs now..."
"What?!!"
Before she could finish, the girl's expression changed abruptly.
She leaned toward her phone in a panic. "Are you sure you saw that clearly?"
Saw what clearly?
Maeve was startled. Had they spotted her?
Just as she thought this and prepared to tug her hood a little lower, the girl cried out, sounding flustered and frustrated.
"Driver! Driver! Stop the bus! I'm going the wrong way!"
"Get off at the next stop."
The driver refused coldly.
The girl clutched the barrier around the driver's seat. "Come on, sir! I only have enough money for the trip back to the stop I just came from. I don't have a single cent more!"
"That's not my problem, kid."
"Oh my God, are Greyhound drivers this heartless now? What's wrong with society? Doesn't anyone have a shred of compassion?"
The girl rattled off her complaints, then changed tack. "Sir, I'm streaming right now. I just happened to catch your attitude on camera..."
Screech—!
The bus braked to a stop. The driver said politely, "Ma'am, the bus has stopped. Please disembark in an orderly fashion."
"Who'd get off here?"
The girl grumbled, complaining as she went. "We've already come so far. I still have a long way to walk back."
Suddenly, someone held out a hundred-dollar bill to her.
The girl looked up in astonishment.
Maeve smiled gently. "Take a cab. That should be enough for the round trip to the suburbs."
"Uh... Th-thank you. Wait, you—you..."
"Shh."
Maeve stopped her from screaming. "Go on. The driver's getting impatient."
"R-right."
The girl stumbled off the bus, and it sped away.
It wasn't until two crows landed on her shoulders, cawing, that she finally came to her senses.
Leaning close to her phone in disbelief, the Countess of Crows exclaimed, "Did you see that? No, no, I don't mean the hundred dollars."
"That! The kind lady just now! She, she..."
The Countess of Crows raised her voice and shrieked, "She's Queen Maeve!!"
"I just ran into Queen Maeve in disguise on a Greyhound bus! Oh my God, I saw Homelander just the day before yesterday!"
"Am I going to join The Seven? Are they checking me out?"
[Wake up. It's morning, not night.]
[That really was Queen Maeve! I didn't see her, but I'm a huge fan. I recognize her voice.]
[Seriously??]
[Checking you out? You've got to be kidding me. Are they checking whether you can fuck crows?]
"You're the—That's disgusting! Get out of my stream!"
The Countess of Crows was dazzled by the stream chat's chaotic barrage of comments. She argued with her viewers, talked nonsense, and kicked people out as she took a cab to the suburbs.
After last night's interview show, the Countess of Crows' stream was no longer a tiny, unknown channel.
That was why so many people were watching her outdoor stream so early in the morning, before sunrise, as she headed to the suburbs to look for a more spiritually attuned crow.
By the time she finally arrived, she and her viewers were still arguing about whether she could join The Seven.
After she got out, the crows plunged into the woods. The Countess of Crows stayed behind.
She had to wait for the crows to find a new companion before going over to communicate with it and tame it herself.
[So we're just standing around here waiting??]
"Of course not. You're enjoying the beautiful sight of the Countess of Crows bathing in the morning light. Look, the sun is shining through the leaves..."
"Caw—"
The two crows searched diligently for a new companion in the woods.
They flew fast, and before long they had left their mistress far behind and reached the depths of the forest.
Suddenly, a dazzling crimson glow shone through a gap in the thick woods ahead. Its shifting radiance caught their eyes.
Crows were very intelligent birds.
And Russell and Cameron had been chosen by the Countess of Crows' superpower, proving they were among the best of their kind. Their curiosity was stronger, too.
Their wings carried them through layer upon layer of branches. The view suddenly opened up, revealing a clearing in the woods that had been deliberately cleared.
Several massive trees lay toppled in every direction, and a few enormous boulders were scattered haphazardly around. The place looked rather wrecked.
"...The increased temperature and penetration should be level-two effects. Wood can't stop it."
A boy stood in the clearing. The crows thought he looked familiar, but couldn't remember where they had seen him.
They landed on a branch and cocked their heads. The boy's figure was reflected in their black eyes as they watched him crouch before a charred boulder, muttering to himself about the cracks on its surface, which had melted into glass under the intense heat.
"This shape... Did an explosion occur inside the stone where it split apart?"
"So the third-level effect of Heat Vision adds a cutting form and slightly enters the range of an energy blast. I can increase the power further and push it into the energy detonation stage."
"That would be level four, but then the duration would be so short that..."
Ryan, who had been studying the rock, faltered.
Testing Berserk's effects had to be done gradually, from low to high. So he couldn't accurately determine how long the energy detonation form would last yet.
To get a precise measurement, he'd have to wait until his next test and trigger the energy blast stage immediately.
Ryan shook his head and stood, glancing at the sky.
He had gotten up early to test his new ability and the trump-card effects of Heat Vision Berserk. While Homelander was asleep, he had sneaked out to find a remote, uninhabited mountain.
He wasn't too worried about his own safety. Although all his abilities were currently down by one level, he still had his level-three Steel Body.
Besides, at this point in time, Homelander hadn't turned evil yet, and The Boys Universe was still orderly. Who would come after him for no reason?
That was another reason Ryan had sneaked out, besides keeping his trump card secret.
The sky was already bright. It was time to head back.
Up in the tree, Russell finally remembered who the little boy below was.
Cawing to its companion, it eagerly and cheerfully raised a wing to greet the boy.
Before you continue