Incredibly glad that none of the parties had spotted him during their conversation, Mike had been racing after the bald man that Batman had called "Lex". He seemed to be friendly enough to the beautiful girl "Zelene", but he was still an incredibly shady character. As he raced after Lex, a million thoughts were going through his head. [i] Who was this goddess Zelene? Is she working with Batman? Are they an item? Who was Lex? How did Batman know him? Is he the bad guy, or just some weird smirky superhero? What was the contraption on the news story? Who was trying to steal the contraption? Who was the fancy-pants witch-bitch that made everyone disappear? Where did Batman and Zelene go when they started heading in the opposite direction? Will Smoke ever be recognized as a real superhero? [/i]

Despite the questions, Mike felt good about this. He knew that through all the training in magic school and the sprint training that he went through each day, he was probably the only non-superhuman in the city who was able to keep up. He didn't see anyone flying around, and there were no superhero-themed cars in the streets, so as far as he was concerned, he was the only one trailing Lex. [i] This case was his. [/i]

Mike slowed to an almost walking pace as soon as Lex had entered the towering building ahead. He wandered down a fire escape and jumped the last floor, landing safely the ground. There were no cars around in this area, so Mike strolled casually across the road and up to the building.