[i]Safe house - Brooklyn[/i]

Julius said nothing as Mari and then Diego stormed out of the room separately, refusing to rise to Diego's threats and rage. He had hoped that his friend had calmed down in recent months but he still didn't think logically, as far as Julius was concerned, and had far too much confidence in his own abilities. As Diego left the room, Julius watched his friend go with a sad look spread across his face; it was just like it had been before and they had nearly come to blows then. The one thing he had learned was that he could not trust Diego simply to stand by them and support their efforts, he had his own ideas and would not sign up with anyone who believed in something even slightly different.

Absently, he noted that Mari had also left the building, although in a less dramatic fashion. Sighing, he sat down and massaged his temples with one hand, the other resting on the scarred bullet wound on his upper thigh; he found that when he was stressed it tended to ache more which dulled his mind. Faust was still there and Julius raised an eyebrow at him in sarcastic mirth.

[b]"An interesting crowd, wouldn't you agree?"[/b] He asked rhetorically before spinning the chair around and opening the laptop. The two had both left the area he could observe with his power so he had to rely on the street cameras Alexis had hacked for him previously. He watched Diego's confrontation and closed his eyes as the carnage came to a close.

[i]If this carries on we'll end up fighting. I doubt either of us would survive that fight though. No... he'd probably kill me. No matter how bad he gets I won't be able to bring him down.[/i]

He moved the streams from the cameras in Diego's area off the screen. If he got intro trouble then it was his choice and he'd reap what he sewed; more likely he'd fight his way out gruesomely and Julius had no desire to see such massacre. He couldn't find Mari which concerned him a little but he knew she could look after herself; his desire to control strategy completely was partially what had caused this divide in their group in the first place. At least he could hope that Mari's attitude towards those without powers, Julius still couldn't bring himself to call them 'Normals' for the negative connotations for those like him, had softened in the last six months. She had certainly showed a few signs to that effect, anyway.

[b]"Sometimes I wished I could kill people like he does... it would make everything so much easier."[/b] He muttered, rubbing his wound again. How many more injuries would he sustain in the coming months? He thought of Allistair and thanked whichever cosmic being was listening that he had sent her away until it was safe again, although he could feel the support she had always given him slipping away and his resolve weakening with every day she was gone. He minimised all the programs on the computer so that his desktop picture of her, smiling with their labrador Caesar running between her legs to trip her up, was visible. He closed his eyes and reopened the cameras; he had a job to do, his mental stability could come later.