Captured by Lightning

Chpt.7

Alara and Rex spent nearly an hour locked in a passionate embrace, but Alara eventually let Rex go so that she could freshen up after their intimate moment. When Alara hopped off the table, she leaned up and kissed Rex softly, whispering "I love you" to him. Rex gave her a sad smile as Alara walked away.

For the next month that Rex and Alara were at sea, they spent their days making plans to destroy compounds and Alara did her best to find solutions to the problem of dealing with empowered people without killing them.

However, Rex always insisted that there was nothing to do but eliminate them all. Despite their disagreements, they never argued, knowing that their time together was limited.
At night, Rex and Alara made love, savoring each other's embrace. Rex hoped to fill Alara's mind with good memories to look back on when he was gone, as he would soon have to leave this world to achieve a world free of the pathogens that had corrupted it.

Finally, the pair had made land near the territory of the two villain crime lords Alara had heard about over the radio. Rex was eager to get to work after not being in combat for a long time.

"I can almost taste the electricity in the air. If something happens, please promise me that you will leave me to fight the battle while you get to safety. If you get hurt or even die, I can't guarantee the safety of anyone or even the world as I might be consumed by my madness," Rex said, his tone somber and tinged with sadness.

Alara nodded, acknowledging that she understood what she was supposed to do. "And you remember the promise you made me, right? No killing innocent people. Every time you kill someone, you go a little more crazy. Maybe if we can curb the number of people you kill needlessly, we can stall the madness," Alara said, reminding Rex of the promise he made her on one of their sweet nights together.

Rex sighed, remembering the promise he made Alara. "Yes, my love, I will do my best to keep the promise I made to you. Now, before we go hunting down heroes and villains or destroying any local compounds, we need to find a way to disguise you so that no one will be able to recognize you and learn of my secret identity," Rex said, putting his arm around Alara and holding her close as they walked through the town, browsing the market.
Alara was excited to experience the culture and people of a new place, while Rex inquired about the local power struggles between the hero dispatched to the area to take care of the local twin villain crime lords.

"So, what have you gathered so far? Anything useful about local compounds or where the twins are hiding?" Alara asked, snacking on a local pastry that she found both disgusting and delicious.

"Well, I learned that the local red-light district is the one place that the twins have never been seen. I'd wager that they are hiding out somewhere in the district using secret entrances or by enforcing secrecy with a death penalty to anyone who tells. Either way, that's where we’ll spending a decent amount of time trying to snuff out the villains. Did you find anything out from the locals that might be useful, or did you waste all your time buying weird-smelling food from random street vendors?" Rex's tone was slightly mocking but mostly honest.

Alara laughed, holding Rex's hand and moving closer to him as she snacked on her pastry. "Hey, it's not my fault that I want to try new things. And yes, I did. The college one city over is enforcing odd screenings on the students, but so far, nothing has happened, or at least not that anyone can tell. Some people are whispering about a new hero, but he's not making a big splash, just popping up closer to night most of the time, but he has made the occasional day appearance. Those who have seen him in action say his suit is cheap, so he is probably unaffiliated. What do you think, darling?”

Rex nodded and gently squeezed Alara's hand as they walked with him guiding them towards the town's red-light district. As they passed by various brothels, love hotels, and street women, Alara would nervously glance up at Rex to see if he was paying attention to the provocatively dressed women. However, Rex's eyes never stayed on anything longer than a couple of seconds.