If there had been a strong enough wall of stone or metal nearby, Superman would have banged his head against it.
Repeatedly.
Not only had the Man of Steel been separated from the other heroes on the Watchtower, he'd managed to lose his little clone-brother, as well. The only upside was that, at Red Arrow's question, Superwoman looked as startled and ashamed as he himself did.
Both of them had attempted earlier to listen for the sounds of other people through the grey mists, but with no luck. Their initial assumption had been that they were alone in the strange landscape - at least, until the two martians nearly flew straight into them (telepathic searches couldn't extend much further than super hearing, it seemed). Then they had come across the four Amazons, two male and two female, all of whom had seemed ready to tear their alternate's throat out.
Diana and Cassie with full on glares were bad enough. Putting them next to the newly introduced Dione and Cal with matching expressions was almost on the same level of intimidating as the Bats.
Fortunately, the combined group of eight powerhouses had managed to avoid punching any of the others, which had Superman starting to relax a bit. And then the hand of fate had decided to slap him upside the head.
"How likely is it that they're somewhere in the blasted mist as well, just waiting for us to find them?" He'd actually muttered aloud at one point. Superwoman glanced over at him.
"Considering Wonder Boy and Girl met up almost immediately with their mentors? And," the female Kryptonian's frown deepened even more. "With the added fact that Mar'gann, Apollo and their alternates are missing as well, I'd say we've suffered from selective separation."
"Does that mean that whatever or whoever's responsible for this is trying to keep the older Team members away from us?" It was Roy who said it, but both Red Arrows were wearing the same worried expression.
"I'd say it's a good bet!" Suddenly, there were more brightly costumed people hurrying out of a mist bank and heading towards the group.
Superwoman blinked as an irritated looking Flash halted beside them, a confused Kid Flash right behind her. Neither of the speedsters had look this serious in a long while... Which was doubled by the male versions of both heroes joining them.
For the sake of avoiding confusion, the four newcomers asked to be addressed as Betty, Barry, Brett and Bart. Black Canary opened her mouth to warn against using their secret identities, but the male Flash cut her off.
"There won't be anyone here other than League and Team members." He explained quickly. "This place isn't on Earth - technically, it isn't a place at all. We've been brought into the Speed Force."
Shocked silence reigned for a few moments.
J'ann was the one to eventually break it. "I was under the impression, from your own description, that the Speed Force was a concentrated yet infinite gathering of energy spanning time and space. This," The martian gestured to the grey and lifeless expanse around them. "Hardly seems to fit any of those details."
"Because this is a pocket of the Force that's been drained dry." Betty jumped in. "Something's absorbed the energy that should be here, hence why the four of us are still operating at normal parameters."
"If we were to make contact with the still energized part of the Speed Force, we'd be moving at about ten times our usual pace." Continued Barry.
"So... Is it your fault we're all here?" Jaden asked after a moment.
"No!" Both Bart and Brett protested simultaneously. "It was... Someone else." The girl finished softly.
"Someone who you all think is also keeping some members of the Team from us?" Ollie questioned.
"No, there's two things out here - maybe three, but the contact was so brief we didn't have time to get more than a quick glance." Frustrated, Barry started pacing a circle around the group as he explained, and it wasn't long before Betty joined him.
"When we were waiting on the Watchtower, there wasn't one burst of Speed Force energy than caught and surrounded all of the heroes, but two. The first one seemed to brush over most of us, but only focused on certain people-"
"-Supergirl, Martian Junior, Tiger, Aqualass, Rocket, Zetenni, and probably Nightwing too, even though she wasn't up there with us-"
"-Along with those same guys from our universe, but then the second blast came in so quickly after the first and grabbed the rest of us, it was hard to tell what had happened-"
"-At least before we met up and compared notes, which leads us to a hard conclusion." Both the scarlet speedsters stopped in their tracks and stared sadly at the rest of the heroes, who'd been doing well to absorb the sudden influx of words.
"What conclusion?" Wonder Woman eventually asked what everyone was wondering. Barry and Betty exchanged a glance, but the two younger speedsters beat them to the punch.
"Wally's alive!" Bart exclaimed at the same time Brett yelled: "Willow's alive!"
Author's Note: Well, the rest of the heroes will be arriving soon, and then the news will spread.
But of course, you dear readers probably knew that tidbit of knowledge from day one, didn't you? Heh heh.
Bit shorter for this chapter than usual, because I'm writing it after a long day of farmwork (scraping and shoveling out the muck-filled trailer is NOT a fun chore) after an even looonger week of school (Rime of the Ancient Mariner analysis + lazy groupmates = headache). But, look on the bright side: I got home after all the apparent screwballiness with this site and letting people into their accounts today, so I did not get fed up with FF and put this update off until tomorrow!
We'll be seeing more plot progression next chapter, I promise: but you might not like some of it... Muahahaha!