"I'm seriously tempted to kill whoever's done this." Apollo growled, twisting in his bindings. Beside him, Artemis was mirroring his motions, straining until the tendrils constricted enough to force both of them to cease struggling. By now, all of the imprisoned heroes had woken up and were trying to put their heads together to figure out what to do.

"I'd be satisfied with giving them a taste of their own medicine." Superboy muttered. "This stuff acts like an inhibitor collar."

"Can we even tell what this stuff is?" Raquel grimaced. "I feel like we're dangling from the tentacles of some giant octopus." Beside her, Rick's eyes travelled up the length of the tendrils holding him, at least, as far as he could before they vanished into the grey mists.

"Feels more like that stuff spider webs are made out of, to me anyway." He muttered, frown deepening.

"Slirdnet, esaeler!" Both Zatanna and Zetenni yelled in unison, to no avail.

"Oh, if these things ruin my outfit, I'm going to give their owner a severe taste of their own medicine." The male magician snapped when the spell did nothing. Zatanna bit out her own agreement while the other heroes rolled their eyes.

"Well, in the absence of being able to get out, how about we try to figure out why we're here to begin with?" Dixie suggested.

"For example," the other Nightwing continued. "Why the fourteen of us? I was in my warehouse when that explosion hit, but the rest of you should have already gotten to the Watchtower, with plenty of other heroes around. So why just take us?"

"We're the remaining members of the early days of the Team." Mr'gann offered, his gaze flickering to Tiger and Tigress, both of whom went notably silent.

"More likely, we are the heroes who have crossed the dimensional barrier in the past." Kaldur mused. Aqualass nodded next to him.

"None of the other members of the Team or League have, which could be why this phenomena affected us and not them."

"Phenomena?" Artemis glared at them. "Somebody's kidnapped us. Maybe it's got to do with are being the only ones left who've gone between worlds-"

No.

All of them went still and quiet as the otherworldly voice quivered out from the tendrils.

You are the closest, and the ones reachable. Others, out of reach - you will have to do.

"Oh, and that's not creepy at all." Supergirl huffed. "Who are you, and what do you want?"

To eat. To grow. To not have THEM disrupting. All the heroes picked up on the extra vehemence in this last phrase.

Dick took a deep breath and lifted his head. "If it's help you're seeking, there are better ways to go about it than snatching us-"

No. Not help. The tendrils all tightened briefly, squeezing the air from their captives' lungs. Bait.

-DS-

They had both felt it at the same moment. The thing, the dark entity that was trying to devour their energy, had broken the rules and reached out. They reacted instinctively, grabbing those the being had ignored, desperately trying to get some extra help for those that it had taken prisoner.

If the Consumer was going to kidnap their closest friends, Wally and Willow West were going to level the playing field.

-DS-

"... Then maybe you can quit sticking your nose into hero business!"

"Maybe you could try to do your 'business' more efficiently then, and we wouldn't have to get involved."

"Maybe you can just go jump in a swamp-"

"Maybe we can all quit arguing with each other and try to figure out what on earth is GOING ON?" The various archers and assassins quieted at the undisguised anger both Canaries were finally displaying.

"I've had it with your posturing." David glowered at them, Dinah right behind him.

"If you six can't get along while we're trapped in an unknown location, then we're going to have to resort to screaming down all your ears." Red and Green Arrows visibly flinched, though the two Cheshires did little more than frown, their masks having been taken off several minutes of arguing ago.

"Who said anything about trapped?" Jade scoffed, regaining her confidence. "This place goes on for miles, easily."

"We had to have passed at least a dozen of your fellow goody-two-shoes before we found you lot." Jaden muttered as well. The heroes all blinked at him.

"Where?!" Olivia finally demanded. Neither assassin did more than shrug.

"Oh, just back thataways a bit."

"And you didn't think to mention this before?" Roy sighed, his frustration ebbing away to mere annoyance. He'd gone almost two days without sleep, working a case, and this was not helping either his exhaustion or developing headache. As if sensing this, Jade didn't say anything to rib him. Instead, once the older heroes had begun walking in the direction indicated, she slipped up to Roy's side and cautiously offered him a shoulder to lean on.

"Thanks," He whispered, the word repeated a moment later by Reyna as Jaden gave her the same support. "Scale of one to ten, how worried are you really?"

She waited a few moments before replying. "About this situation? Less than six. We've gotten out of worse, after all."

"But...?"

"I'm more concerned about Lian." Jade admitted. "I don't know why the two of us got swept up along with all of you do-gooders, but I'd rather not think about what could happen to her, if whatever did this is aware of her existence." Roy quietly swore beside her, also repeated by Reyna.

"You left him with your dad, right?" The female archer asked, and Jaden nodded mutely. "Okay. No reason anyone to bother an aging man like him."

"Li should be fine." Jaden muttered, pressing his lips to her hair for a brief moment. "As long as he stays back home."

Any further discussions the married couple may have held were cut off by nearby shouting. Reyna and Roy each stiffened and returned to standing solely on their own feet, just in time for two martians, two Kryptonians, and four Amazons to come hurrying out of the mists.

"This just keeps getting more and more interesting, doesn't it?" Jade said, and Roy could detect to equal parts amusement and annoyance in her voice. He just gave a brief nod, resigning himself to being glared at by plenty of old friends.

Then he frowned.

"Hey, shouldn't there be some more clones and aliens here?"