Medusa materialized beside the open vault door, She gathered a modest number of cash bundles into two plain duffel bags..nothing excessive, nothing that would scream grand theft on the security logs Alex had already arranged to erase.
He had no intention of cleaning the place out; too much would draw eyes he didn’t want yet.
She glanced at him once, silent and expectant.
“Leave,” Alex said quietly.
“Head back to the hotel room.
Stay in spirit form until I return.”
Medusa inclined her head, bags in hand, and vanished again…gone as instantly as she’d appeared.
Alex turned toward the stairs, already shifting his posture back to something more civilian: shoulders slightly hunched, breathing a touch uneven.
The other robbers hadn’t come down.
Odd.
Gunfire from above?
Police already on scene?
He took one step up—
His assassin’s instinct screamed.
Years of living by gut feeling, by the prickle at the back of the neck that had kept him alive through hundreds of contracts, made him react before thought finished forming.
He whipped the shotgun up in a smooth arc, finger sliding to the trigger.
The weapon wasn’t there.
His hand closed on empty air.
For the first time in decades maybe ever genuine shock flickered through him.
He spun.
A man in a full red suit stood less than five feet away, the iconic lightning-bolt emblem catching the dim vault lights.
In his gloved hand: the shotgun, held casually by the barrel like it weighed nothing.
He was staring down at the dead robber’s body, expression hidden behind the cowl but body language unmistakable—tense, regretful.
“Did you do this?” the man asked, voice low but carrying that unmistakable speedster edge.
Alex lowered his empty hands slowly, letting his face settle into something shaken but composed.
“Yeah…” He nodded once.
“My life was in jeopardy.
I had no choice…
You must be Flash, right?”
“Yeah…” The Flash’s tone dropped, heavy with something close to guilt.
“Sorry you had to do this.
I guess I was late…”
“I didn’t want to kill him,” Alex continued, layering just enough stutter and tremor into his voice—guilt, adrenaline crash, the perfect civilian mask.
“I saw him knock out the banker, and he was about to turn on me…
He was aiming right at me…
Out of…
fear…
I had to do something.
I’m ex-military…
So…
I just…
had to.”
“No…
It’s okay.” Flash shook his head slowly.
“If anything, this is a failure on my part.
I don’t blame you.
I hope you never have to do this again.
These guys were normal criminals…
But there are some people with powers out there.
If you ever find yourself in a scenario like that again…
Don’t fight back too much.
Unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
“Of course…
Thank you…”
“No worries.
The police will be here soon.
Just tell them what you told me.”
And in a heartbeat—literally—he was gone.
A red blur, a faint rush of displaced air, and nothing else.
Alex stood alone in the vault with the corpse and the unconscious banker.
He stared up the empty stairwell for a long second.
‘Well fuck…’ he thought.
‘This is just one of the heroes of this world?
This is gonna be problematic…’
….
After the police arrived, the interrogation dragged on longer than Alex expected.
They kept him in a small, harshly lit room at the precinct, asking the same questions in different ways: How did he get the shotgun?
Why fire instead of disarming?
Did he feel his life was in immediate danger?
The detectives leaned hard on the killing eyes sharp, voices flat but the facts didn’t bend in their favor.
Background check came back clean: ex-military, no priors, no red flags.
And then the Flash himself had vouched for him quick statement dropped off before he vanished again.
That sealed it.
The dead robber had a rap sheet thick with murders and sexual assault cases; no one in the department was shedding tears.
By nightfall they had nothing to hold him on.
Self-defense.
Clean release.
Alex stepped out into the cool Central City evening, hands in his pockets, walking the quiet streets back toward the hotel.
The city lights reflected off wet pavement from an earlier rain.
“Didn’t I tell you to stay in the hotel room…” he said, voice low.
‘I am sorry, Master…’ Medusa’s mental voice came immediately, soft and contrite.
‘I was worried about you…’
Alex narrowed his eyes, steps never faltering.
“Worried or not… you disobeyed my orders.”
Medusa’s presence in his mind trembled faintly.
‘I’m sorry… I’ll take any punishment you deem fit.’
Alex didn’t reply.
He reached the hotel lobby, kept his expression neutral, and said nothing more out loud.
No point sounding like a man arguing with thin air in public.
He crossed the marble floor, entered the elevator, rode up in silence, walked down the carpeted hallway, and unlocked his room.
The door clicked shut behind him.
Medusa materialized the instant the lock engaged simply there, kneeling on the carpet in front of him, head bowed, purple hair spilling forward.
Alex walked past her without a glance, straight to the two duffel bags resting against the wall.
He unzipped one, rifled through the neatly stacked bundles.
“Hmm… This is around five hundred thousand dollars… interesting.” He zipped it closed again.
“I’ll need to find a way to launder all this money… But for now… I’m in need of a good night’s sleep as I prepare my next move.”
He crossed to the bed, sat on the edge, then leaned back against the headboard, exhaling slowly.
“Get on the bed,” he ordered.
Medusa rose without hesitation and climbed onto the mattress.
“Not close to me,” Alex added.
“Sleep at the bottom of the bed.
That is your punishment for disobeying orders.
You’ll be treated like a dog.”
She made no protest.
Quietly, she lowered herself to the foot of the bed, curling up beneath his feet, body still and submissive.
Alex looked down at her for a moment.
“I appreciate your worry…” he said, voice even.
“However, there is a chain of command here.
It must be established early and clearly.
I am the Master.
You are the Servant.
My orders are absolute.
Understood?”
“Yes, Master…”
“Good.
Next time… I’ll punish you in a different manner.
This is me being generous.”
He reached over and flicked off the bedside lamp, plunging the room into darkness.
“Now… Good night.”
Alex closed his eyes and let sleep take him.
/*
If you Like this story!
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Shadow Monarch in Danmachi!