Young Justice: Heart of Nature

by forestwolf12

Young Justice One-Shot. Danny, White, Krinos, Melinda, and Alya all jumped realms and are all heroes in the Justice League realm, but as their own mystical force. They are not a part of Young Justice or the Justice League. They stay away from heroes and try to be as out of the spotlight as possible. But then the world's greatest detective discovers them. Full summary inside.

Young Justice: Heart of Nature

Young Justice One-Shot. Danny, White, Krinos, Melinda, and Alya all jumped realms and are all heroes in the Justice League realm, but as their own mystical force. They are not a part of Young Justice or the Justice League. They actually stay away from the heroes and try to be as out of the spotlight as possible. But when the world's greatest detective discovers them, who better to send their way than a group of heroes that were as young as the mystics looked. But maybe some sparks flew from a few previous chance encounters.

I do not own Young Justice, Justice League, or Danny Phantom. This is a one-shot based on an alternate version of my story Home. Takes place after the events of Young Justice season 1, so a few characters from season 2 are included but it takes place before season 2.

Story:

"Team, report for a mission briefing immediately," Batman's voice sounded over the cave speakers.

A group of teen heroes all made their way through Mount Justice and to the mission briefing room. The team had been growing, so there were more than there had been before. Enough for more than one mission to be handed out at a time.

The members currently in the mission room were Nightwing, having grown up and passed the mantle of Robin to his adoptive brother, the current Robin, Miss. Martian, Aqualad, Superboy, Artemis, Kid Flash, Blue Beetle, Beast Boy, Tempest, and Bumblebee.

"What do you need, Bats," Dick still had not outgrown being sassy as hell.

"As I am sure you are all aware, there is no league base or hero that calls New Orleans home," Batman begins.

"There isn't much of a reason to," Wally shrugged.

"With zeta tubes and heroes in all the main US cities, that place can be easily accessed by any hero if there is trouble there," Artemis added.

"Even if there were heroes there, they would have made themselves known when Poison Ivy and the Injustice League had a base there," Tim says.

He may not have been part of the team, or even a part of the Bat-family, at that time, but he read a lot of the team's old mission files to learn about who he would be working with.

"That is why when this video surfaced, it caught the league's attention," Batman said.

He pressed a button on the holographic keyboard and a holo-screen popped up and started to play a video that was obviously taken from someone's phone camera given the shaking of the image.

It showed a group of construction workers holding chainsaws and axes going toward trees. There was also a lot of other construction and demolition equipment.

"It does not matter if these trees are over a thousand years old, get rid of them," the project manager ordered.

The workers all raised their demolition equipment and started to walk toward the trees.

"Badickinis Metalarca," a female voice was heard.

The chainsaws and axes all seemed to get a blue aura around them before the metal seemed to move on its own. The construction workers all dropped them as the metal twisted and crushed until the equipment was barely recognizable as what it used to be.

Vines then suddenly shot out from around the trees. They grabbed onto multiple construction workers. The workers yelled and screamed as they were picked up by the vines and were dangling in the air. Some were even hanging from their ankles or held up by the wines tying their wrists together and holding them over their heads.

The bulldozer and excavator were started up. It seemed that some of the other workers were going to try and force their way through the vines. Others were just running for their lives away from the attacking plants.

The bulldozer made its way toward one of the trees that the vines were coming from. But a horrible sound shrieked into their ears as it came close. Golden sound waves appeared out of nowhere and were so strong that they actually pushed the bulldozer back. The windows of the heavy machine shattered as the sound washed over it. The machine also seemed to go haywire as it sparked and broke down from the scream.

The excavator was going through something completely different. As the scoop of the machine neared a tree to start digging into it, a giant glowing octopus tentacle grabbed and stopped it. A giant blue octopus appeared and attacked the machine. But the weird part was that since it was mostly transparent and glowing, it was actually an octopus spirit instead of just an actual giant blue sea creature. Though they were both weird outcomes, a spirit was somehow weirder than an actual giant blue sea creature. It attacked the excavator, crushing the metal under the strength of its tentacles.

Green blasts also started to come out of nowhere as well. None of them actually hit one of the people running around, but they certainly also increased the fear. A green fire then burned many of the corporate vans that probably held a lot of the paperwork that they needed to even attempt to destroy this forest.

"What is even happening?!"

"Why does nature hate us!"

"I quit. This is not worth the money!"

"Run for your lives!"

More yelling and screams were heard as people scattered to the winds. A few blurry figures zoomed past the camera before the person holding it started running away and the video stopped.

Batman hit pause and then looked at the team. The team was shocked, curious, and intrigued by what they just saw. When they saw the vines, their first thought was Poison Ivy, but she was still locked in Arkham and there had been nothing about her escaping. Add in that there were also powers involving animals, sound, that first spell, and whatever caused that green fire. It was certainly unique.

"What does this have to do with how there are no known heroes in New Orleans," Jaime asked.

"That did look more like something a villain would do," Gar says.

"The reality of that situation was that was an illegal demolition team attempting to destroy the historic land around the old Forest Mansion," Batman explained. "Whoever was that stopped them had known what they were doing was illegal and put a stop to it."

Forest Mansion is a legendary place on a New Orleans bayou island. Not only is it surrounded by dozens of trees and plants, but the mansion itself was also covered in plant life. There were also many trees that actually grew inside of the mansion but did not break anything. It was like the mansion was built around the trees and those that built it did not want to disturb the natural environment. The mansion has been around since Victorian times and was still considered quite beautiful but has been basically abandoned for many years.

Nightwing and Robin were going through the video in an attempt to find any usable image of who was attacking the demolition crew. There were only a few shots of them since they moved almost as fast as the Flash.

"Gong frame by frame, there are five people," Dick says. "Most of what was captured of them is blurry, but five separate people are shown."

"Going a little deeper into the images, it is clear that three of them are male and two are female," Tim added. "But there is no clear way to see which one of them has which of the powers that are used."

"This is not the first time that these types of powers have surfaced in this area," Batman said. "These five have appeared multiple times over the last year or so."

He clicked another button and images appeared on more screens along with smaller videos. While still not clear, they did show flashes of more uses of the same powers that they saw in the first video. Bank robbers tied up in vines, magical blasts knocking out muggers, green energy blasts destroying weapons, sonic screams stopping getaway vehicles, and animal spirits going after more bad guys. Yet even in all these shots, the people using the powers were either moving too fast for a good image or were hidden in the shadows.

The powers were separated into five different image blocks. The best of the images for each of the users were under them.

"Your mission is to identify these five," Batman orders them. "Learn who they are, what they can do, and see if they will be allies or threats. Be on guard, we do not know what else they can do."

The team nodded. They gathered up their weapons, did a bit more research, and were soon on the bioship and heading toward New Orleans. They decided against zeta travel since traveling by bioship made instant retreats easier so that they could regroup sooner. With how powerful these people were, it was better to be safe than sorry. The day for rookie mistakes has long since passed.

Flying to New Orleans gave them time to talk.

"Why would these people only make themselves known now," Conner wonders out loud.

"What do you mean, Sups," Wally asked.

Superboy scoffed. He hates that nickname. It made him sound like he had powers over soup. Plus, he barely had a starting relationship with Superman as it was.

"I mean they looked to have pretty good control of their powers," Conner continued. "That amount of control would take more than a year to gain. More than they have been active. Yet we have only discovered them now. There have to be times when they were here that we were unaware of."

Most of the team looked at him in shock. They knew that Superboy was not dumb, but he was also known for his brawn and not his brains. But Superboy was actually a lot smarter than he let on. He preferred to hide how much the g-gnomes had taught him simply because he did not think that it was anyone else's business. This was also why he never showed anyone his graded homework or tests from school.

"Superboy has a point," Kaldur agrees with the Kryptonian clone. "They had excellent control of their powers, but with powers such as theirs they would have been known earlier than this."

"Maybe they had a way to conceal themselves unless they wanted to be known," Garth says. "Their powers were obviously magical."

"There is no such thing as magic," Wally immediately said.

That still annoyed those like Aqualad, Tempest, and Superboy. Aqualad and Tempest were from Atlantis, so magic was in their blood. Tempest had a harder time dealing with Kid Flash's disbelief in magic since he did not like the science-obsessed constantly saying that magic was not real. Aqualad was more used to the rants, so there was not much he really reacted to anymore. But that did not mean that he was not also annoyed by it. And Superboy just had more... knowledge of magic.

When he was still being fed information by the g-gnomes in Cadmus, they taught him a lot. And magic was one of their topics. Most of it was mythology, fairy tales, and all known knowledge of real magic. It was also the most likely situation that with so many different mythological and magical creatures being written about throughout time, it made the most sense that they were real. There were just too many for all of them to be fake.

"Just because you don't believe in it does not make it any less real," Conner stated.

"You're only four years old, Sup," Wally brushed off what he said. "What do you know?"

Superboy looked ready to slam his fist into the annoying speedster's face. Nightwing placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and the alien clone sat back in his seat. There was just a level of companionship between the two. They had a bond closer than the others from the original team. It had only grown since Superboy and Miss. Martian broke up because of Miss. Martian's growing ruthlessness with her telepathy.

"We can all have our own beliefs, Wally," Dick glares a little at his best friend.

"Whatever," Wally scoffed and crossed his arms as he glared out the window.

"We better not treat this lightly," Tim says as he looks at his holographic screen over his glove. "These guys have definitely been showing up a lot this past year. But they also have not once shown their faces."

"So they are not only powerful but also stealthy," Karen says. "Like when Nightwing or Robin vanish without a trace."

"We work with Batman," Dick smirked. "And in Gotham, we learn that skill quickly."

"Definitely comes in handy when the Joker is attacking," Tim chuckled.

"We have arrived in New Orleans and are approaching the airspace above the Forest Mansion," M'gann informed the team.

"Even when we are in camo-mode wonder if they have a way of knowing if we are here or not," Jaime wondered out loud.

The bio-ship suddenly gave a lurch, sending a few team members not wearing seatbelts to the floor. Looking out the window, they saw that the ship was surrounded by a golden sphere and a blue aura. They were being forced to the ground.

"I am going to go out on a limb and say 'yes," Gar said from his place on the floor.

The bio-ship gave another lurch as it hit the ground, forced to land by whoever controlled the sphere and the aura.

"Everyone okay," Dick asked as he checked on the younger team members.

"Good thing that I don't get motion sick," Karen commented as she rubbed her head.

"This is one of the reasons why I am glad that I can not fly," Tim stated. "I much prefer using my grappling hook."

The team then got up and Miss. Martian opened the door so that they could get out. When they left the bio-ship, they expected to find the ones that had forced them to land. But there was no one there when they got out. But they did get to see a better view of the Forest Mansion and its surrounding land.

It was beautiful, to say the least. It certainly made most of the team happy that whoever these powered people were had been able to save such a unique and beautiful area.

The trees were all native to New Orleans, including live oak, bald cypress, magnolia, slash pine, and sweet gum. There were also white oak trees and willows. Vines typical of the bayou joined most of the trees together and added to the beauty when the vines also had leaves sprouting from them. The grass under their feet looked almost undisturbed by even animals, even if they could see animals like white-tailed deer, squirrels, otters, raccoons, feral hogs (wild boars), nutria (a muskrat-like burrowing rodent), bullfrogs, and turtles.

They could also see the mansion, which was actually also a sight to see. The Victorian architecture with the additions of the plants all around it made it even more stunning to see in real life. But the odd thing was that the mansion had been left untouched for almost two centuries and yet still looked brand new under all of the trees and plants.

There was just so much life around them.

"So... uh... where do we even start," Gar asked, looking around them.

"Well, the attack on the demolition company came from the forest, so that is the best place to start," Kaldur said.

"And probably the best place to also get attacked by whoever possesses that plant magic that we saw being used," Garth stated.

"There is no such thing as magic," Wally argued again.

"Keep your opinion to yourself, Flash Junior," Conner made sure to use the nickname that he knew Wally hated.

Kid Flash just crossed his arms and returned to just grumbling under his breath.

"Camouflat Vaporis," they heard a female voice cast.

They all took battle stances as they heard the voice, but they were not attacked. Instead, fog formed all around their feet and rose up so that they could barely see right in front of their faces. They could not even see each other.

"If it wasn't clear before that they know we are here, it's definitely clear now," Jaime said.

"You call this clear," Artemis shouted as she notched an arrow in her bow.

"Figure of speech, Artemis," Jaime rolled his eyes.

The rest of the team got into fighting stances, the ones without powers pulling out their weapons. They all got ready to fight. Not that they could even see their opponents and might accidentally attack each other.

"Kid Flash, create some wind to blow the fog away," Kaldur ordered.

He was about to start spinning in order to create a tornado as he has done before, but a ray of green energy came out of nowhere and knocked him off his feet. flew up to try and get a bird's eye view, but she was quickly sealed in a golden sphere similar to the one that had captured the bio-ship. And try as she might to density shift her way out of it, she was unable to for some reason.

Beast Boy turned into a lion and Bumblebee shrank down. Both of them were about to start fighting when they were also incapacitated. Beast Boy found his lion body wrapped up in vines that sprouted right from under his paws. The vines wrapped around all of his ankles and his lion torso, lifting him into the air. Bumblebee was about to try and zap him free when a glowing blue eel appeared in front of her. Its tail wrapped around her and she was shocked by the electric abilities of the animal spirit.

"Whoever you all are, we only came to talk," Dick called out into the fog.

"Tempestus Impaetus," the same female voice from earlier cast.

There was a sudden flash and a bolt of lightning came shooting down from the sky. The team only had time to gasp before they all dived out of the way, narrowly avoiding being hit by the lightning bolt. It did leave quite the scorch mark on the ground, though.

"I don't think they believed you," Jaime said.

"Whoever these guys are, they are certainly a very powerful bunch," Garth says.

He summoned a ball of magically infused water with swirls of more aquatic magic circling around it. He was about ready to throw it when a loud scream was heard, quickly followed by golden sound waves that seemed similar to when Black Canary used her canary cry. And just like with the canary cry, Tempest was thrown off of his feet and sent hurdling back. His ball of water magic burst from the sonic scream as well.

Superboy was looking around, trying to find any type of target in the fog. It was probably the main downside that he found in his powers. Without the Kryptonian powers of freeze breath or heat vision, he was only able to fight at close range. There was no other way to fight with powers like his.

But before he could even do anything, there was the sound of a SLAM as something hit the ground nearby. Cracks spidered their way toward the group as the same type of green energy that had hit Kid Flash erupted up from the cracks in the ground as if it was like lava coming out of an underground volcano. The cracks of energy quickly shot at the team and sent the alien clone, former Boy Wonder, and their Atlantean leader flying in another direction.

Artemis went to fire her arrows into the fog, but another animal spirit appeared before she could. This time it was the spirit of a spider, which apparently made the spider appear as a giant version of itself.

The sudden appearance of such a creature certainly was enough to make Artemis miss when she tried to shoot it. Not that it would have even done anything since it was a spirit. The arrow would have just gone right through it. But even as a spirit, the spider's threads were still no joke as it shot them at the female archer's hands and prevented her from being able to get another arrow.

"This is certainly not going very well," Kaldur says as he, Nightwing, and Superboy got up.

"Really, you don't say," Dick still was just as sassy as he was when he was Robin.

"What can we do that will make them listen to us," Kaldur wondered out loud. "They certainly did not listen to you when you said that we only wanted to talk."

"If I had an idea, I would gladly share it," Dick responded.

"Teewat Ligara," the female voice cast another spell.

There was a burst of energy as a giant twister that looked like a hybrid of a sandstorm and a tornado erupted out of nowhere. It was heading right toward them.

"O Dios Mio," Jaime swore.

"Batman sent us," Conner yelled out. "We're with the Justice League."

It was a last-ditch effort, but they had to try something before they were all swept away and someone, probably Beast Boy, made a Wizard of Oz joke.

Much to their shock, in a flash of blue, the twister vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. And since the twister had made quite the breeze, the fog had been swiftly swept away. It finally revealed who had been the ones attacking them. Just as Robin and Nightwing had deduced, it was five people. And it was also revealed to be three guys and two girls.

The first was a boy with snow-white hair and glowing green eyes. He wore a black hooded cloak, with a DP symbol on the back, that matches the black and white jacket he has under it. The jacket also had ghostly green trim. He also wore black pants that went with his white boots with green laces.

The boy next to him definitely had a thing for white and gold. He wore a white jean jacket, with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, over a gold t-shirt with a music pattern. He also had on gold fingerless gloves. He wore white jeans with gold trim that went with his gold and white boots. He also had pure white bird-like wings coming out of his back.

The first girl was definitely a night person. She had black hair and was dressed in a knee-length black dress covered in silver sparkled, like stars. She had two belts, one pearl and one sapphire. Around her neck was a milky way infinity scarf and an amethyst cape. She had black flats. A staff of oak, with a moonstone tip, was in her hand.

The second girl was African-American. She is tan-skinned, and at a medium height, with hazel eyes. She has reddish-brown wavy hair that goes slightly past her shoulders, with the tips of her hair having a lighter shade of copper-red. She wore a black bodysuit/costume with the shirt having a golden vest-like piece of clothing. She also wore gold high heel boots with the boots reaching her knees.

And the last was a boy that stood at the center of the group. He looked like a teenager with neat white and green-streaked black hair and blue eyes. He has a pair of nice white pants, vine designs on them. He also wore a white and green leather jacket, covered in leaf and vine designs, with green boots. A white shirt under the jacket with a pair of bright white finger-less gloves. He also wears a rose quartz rose pendant around his neck. Tied to his neck was a white cape, at shin-length, covered in rose and thorn vine designs.

"This is not what I was expecting," Dick stated.

"I don't think anyone expected them to be so young," Kaldur said.

Superboy looked at the teen in the cloak. Memories flooded into his mind. A vine ripping a g-nome off of his shoulder. Words of advice that helped him just as much as Aqualad's did. Vines destroying a support beam that Robin had missed when they first battled Blockbuster. Little things that he had noticed about nature time and time again after he had joined the team.

"So, we have finally gotten the attention of this realm's heroes," the green-eyed boy said.

"Took them long enough," the winged boy scoffed. "We've been here for years."

"You two are probably the only two people I know that would react that way to a situation like this," the girl with the staff rolled her eyes.

"Well, it's not like it's any of our enemies discovering where we are," the boy in the cloak says. "We left them behind in realm three."

"Speak for yourself," the African-American girl crossed her arms. "I have enemies in every realm, thank you very much."

"Your enemies are normal people that just happen to be hunters, fisherman, or anything else that involves hurting animals," the winged boy said.

"Considering my powers, can you blame me," the African-American girl raised an eyebrow.

"No, I guess not," the winged boy sighed.

"So, the Justice League sent you," the boy in the cloak looked at the teen heroes.

"We are not sure if you are aware, but a video of your... attack... on those construction workers has gone viral," Kaldur tells them.

The five mysterious teenagers shared looks with each other. But they did not look that phased by what they were told.

"We are surprised that we have not been spotted earlier, but at least we know that something good was captured on video," the green-eyed boy smirked.

"I'm still amused by that one woman that screamed out 'why does nature hate us," the girl with the staff giggled.

"Those people had the nerve to try and destroy this sacred place," the boy in the cloak crossed his arms. "They were lucky that I did not turn them into trees and then chop them down with an ax."

"Forgive him," the winged boy looked at the heroes when he saw them flinch at his friend's angry threat. "Krinos is very protective of nature."

"Well, my policy of nature first and humans never has helped me for a long time," the now identified Krinos said.

"But, we are being rude," the girl with the staff says. "Let me introduce us. My name's Melinda, but Night Witch has been quite common for what people have been calling me. And these are my friends Krinos, White, Danny, and Alya."

"White/Danny is also my brother," the brothers said at the same time.

"Do you all have alter egos," Dick asked.

"I also go by Gold Siren," White says.

"Phantom," Danny answered.

"I would be Dryas," Alya said.

"Mine is Wild Rose," Krinos tells them.

"Very interesting," Kaldur looks at all of them.

"So, what can we do for the Justice League," Melinda asked.

The rest of the teen heroes all got out of shock. After the fog had been lifted, those that had been captured were released just as the ones that had been knocked out or dazed regained consciousness and composure. They all stood together with the five newcomers across from them.

"You introduced yourselves, so now it is our turn," Kaldur says. "We are the Young Justice team. I am their leader, Aqualad. These are my teammates. Nightwing, , Superboy, Artemis, Kid Flash, Beast Boy, Blue Beetle, Tempest, Robin, and Bumblebee."

"Quite the colorful crew you have," White said. "And coming from me, that says something."

"Oh, White," Danny facepalmed.

"We were sent here by the league to see if you all were a threat or potential allies," Kaldur continued. "To see what you all can do and find out who you are."

"Well, we found out who you are, so we succeeded there," Gar cheered.

Melinda giggled. "I like him. He's adorable."

"And given that lion shapeshift, he can also really do some damage," Danny said. "You tend to really like cute things that can also kill you, don't you?"

"Well, I'm friends with you and White, aren't I," Melinda smirked.

"So, what makes you think we would even want to work with the league," Krinos asked, crossing his arms. "We have kept ourselves secret for a reason."

"Why wouldn't you," Wally looked annoyed. "Better be heroes than dangerous nobodies."

All five of the mysterious group glared at the speedster. Superboy slapped him on the back of his head.

"Just because they have powers and have dealt with criminals does not mean they want to be heroes," Conner glared at 'Kid Mouth.' "They probably just took care of those criminals because they were there. And they have their alter egos just so people do not bother them."

"You may like the green boy, Melinda, but I prefer the guy with both brains and bronze," Krinos chuckled.

"You just like him because he's hot," White smirked.

"Maybe, but I can tell he is more than just a pretty face," Krinos snickered.

Superboy could feel his face heat up. It did not help that he had Nightwing next to him who was trying really hard to not laugh his head off. But as the teen/clone hero looked at the group, he could not help but think that the three boys were all pretty good-looking. He had only ever dated Miss. Martian before, so there was not really much chance for him to truly think about his sexuality even if he knew what being straight, gay, or bisexual means.

"What exactly are your powers," Dick asked them, getting the conversation back on track.

"Well, none of us are the same, as you can obviously tell," Alya explains. "Each of us is actually a different magical creature. And that gives us each unique abilities that are specific to us and our kinds."

"Myself and Aqualad could, indeed, sense how you are all magical," Garth says.

Nightwing elbowed Kid Flash in the ribs to keep him from shouting out his belief ***Cough*** Delusion ***Cough*** about magic not being real.

"I, myself, am an animal witch," Alya said. "Not only can I channel the abilities of animals through animal spirits, but I can also command the spirits as well. Even some abilities, such as how an eel is electric, are magically enhanced by my powers."

"I am a normal type of witch," Melinda went next. "I cast spells from a spellbook that has been passed down from mother to daughter for thousands of years. But even without the book, I can also create magical bombs, summon golems, and use my staff to harness magical energy."

"Myself and White are different from the other three," Danny says. "We were given our powers when our for... when a pair of people we do not like to mention accidentally opened up a portal to the Ghost Zone, the home of all ghosts. I was inside of the portal activation area when it opened and it made me half-ghost. I can turn intangible, disappear, fly, control ecto-energy, and I also have a devastating ghostly wail."

"As for me, my heart had been infused by magical sound from the Isle of Sirens, turning me into the siren of pure heart," White took over for his brother. "I can manipulate music, sound, vibrations, as well as being able to read a person's heart. And yes, my song can control people if I want it to, but I do not use it."

"My powers are actually similar to magic you have come across before," Krinos says. "As, from what I understand, is a part of the Justice League."

"What does that have to do with anything," Artemis was annoyed.

"Well, is the spirit of the lord of order, Nabu," Krinos continued. "I control nature by my will, doing many unbelievable things with it. I can do that because just like Nabu is the lord of order and Klarion the witch boy is the lord of chaos, I am the lord of nature."

That was certainly a shock. In fact, all of them were shocking. They had already suspected that the group would be magical but knowing exactly who and what they are was definitely a shock to their systems. They had never met anyone like these five in their lives. Krinos was close since he was an elemental lord, but he was obviously different from Fate and Klarion since he was not bound to a helmet or a familiar.

Plus, there was the odd thing about Danny somehow being half-ghost. That made even brainiacs like Nightwing and Robin scratch their heads in confusion. They were sure that would even confuse Batman, the Atom, Flash, and Red Tornado. And they were the smartest members of the league.

"If we may ask, is there a specific reason you all do not want to be heroes," Tim stood next to his older brother, Nightwing.

The five shared a look with each other again.

"Follow us," White directed them into the forest.

The five mystics walked back into the forest, the team following them. They felt some type of energy as they walked past the front row of trees.

"That is my doing," Krinos explained. "I enchanted this forest to hide us from the outside world. It was another reason why we had to protect this place from destruction."

As the group walked through the forest, the mystics guided them to a clearing surrounded by willow trees. The clearing was filled with rows and rows of roses. All of them were in bunches of twelve with four colors in each bunch, three of each color. Red roses, pink roses, yellow roses, and dark crimson roses. But then the team noticed names in front of each bunch.

"This is why we need to be kept secret," White says. "This garden is here to remind us that we face more threats than humans do. And that we are also the only ones that can stop these threats because no one else will."

"I don't understand," M'gann says, looking at the garden.

"Can you please elaborate," Dick requested.

"We are magical beings, so we know more than anyone that our world must be kept secret," Melinda says. "Magic is all around you, but it must be kept secret in order to not only keep the balance of light and dark but also keep us safe. We face threats that are hidden, but still there. Demons, warlocks, evil witches, trolls, gremlins. Basically, all the creatures that go bump in the night."

"They're all real," Jaime asked, shocked.

"They are just as real as the five mystics right in front of you," Alya said. "Myself, Melinda, and Krinos all come from a place known as the Mystic Isles. It is the home of all magic and where all the magic in every realm comes from. Even the magical creatures born in the realms are descended from those of the isles. My isle home is known as the Isle of Beasts. Melinda comes from the Isle of Wicca. Krinos is from the Isle of Nature."

"Even the Ghost Zone was once a part of the isles," Danny says. "It was known as the Isle of Ghosts until it had to be turned into a place all of its own since there are more ghosts than any other mystical creature and more are always created/born."

"Ghosts can be born," Gar was confused.

"Yes," White said. "You see, green dude, when a mommy ghost and a daddy ghost love each other..."

"Don't even think about it," Melinda whacked him on the head with her staff.

"Ow! Hey! I was only joking around," White protested.

The heroes had to all laugh a little at the dynamic of the mystics. The five of them were all like siblings even when only two of them were actual brothers.

"Please, continue," Kaldur requested.

The five got their composure back.

"You see, it is the job of mystics to take care of the magical threats that the realms face," Melinda continued. "Humans and heroes are not able to fight against magical threats because only magic can defeat magic."

"That does not explain why you want to keep yourselves secret," Connor noticed.

"Oh, I wish there were more hot guys like you," Krinos sighed. "Ones with more between their ears than hot air."

White slapped him on the back of his head to refocus the lord of nature.

"We keep ourselves secret because even with all the evil in the realms, humans are the real threat to mystic kind," Melinda said.

That was certainly a shock to the team.

"No offense, but you chased away that entire destruction crew probably without breaking a sweat," Karen said. "How are humans more dangerous than all those creatures you talked about?"

"This garden is not just to represent fallen mystics," Alya tells them. "All of these mystics were killed by humans."

The team shot their heads back to the flowers. It was shocking and horrifying to know that regular human beings did all of this. There had to be dozens upon hundreds of flower bunches and names in the clearing.

"Humans across every realm have one thing in common," Danny says. "What they do not understand, they fear. And what they fear, they seek to destroy. All of these mystics were discovered in some way that outed them, but not the entire magical world. But even then, they were still hunted, tortured, murdered. For no other reason than being mystics."

"We have many friends here," White bent down at a flower bunch with the name 'Nyx' in front of it. "My friend Nyx was killed right in front of me back in the realm where Danny and I are from."

"You're not from here," Tim asked.

"We come from realm three," Danny explains. "One of the few realms where magic was outed and now very well known. Mystics had to flee and leave all of their duties and lives in that realm as we were being either hunted, experimented on, or just murdered without a second thought. My brother and I were no different even if we started out as human."

"We hide because we want to do good, but it is in most human nature to hate us," Krinos says. "We know that not every human will hate us, but the majority will. We can not risk ourselves and our people by becoming known heroes. It is a risk that none of us are willing to take. Especially since we also would not be willing to hide who we are. We are mystics and proud of it."

"But that still does not stop the pain of being called a freak or a monster," White hugged himself. "And as a siren, I know more than most. My people are thought of as hypnotizing cannibals all because of a few evil sirens that ruined our good name. A few bad seeds do not mean the whole garden is bad."

"Yeah, he may have been spending a little too much time with me," Krinos shyly chuckled.

The team all shared understanding looks. Other than Kid Flash and Artemis, but you could never really accuse either of them of having a high amount of empathy. Especially given how Kid Flash was probably so deep into his delusion of magic not being real that he does not care that magic-users are right in front of him. Not that it was much of a shock given how he still did not believe even after meeting Zatanna and even temporarily being one time.

"You can tell your league about us, but we want to be left alone," Danny said. "We're not heroes. We are protectors, nothing more and nothing less."

As much as such powerful allies would be helpful again the Light and other villains, Krinos would definitely be helpful against Poison Ivy, they still wanted to respect their wishes. And given Melinda's list of magical threats, they already had enough on their plates.

"We will inform the league of everything you told us," Kaldur says. "We will make sure they do not interfere with your lives."

"Thank you," Melinda said. "We greatly appreciate that."

The mystics and team then chatted about things some more. White seemed to like Beast Boy just as much as Melinda did. Plus, it was not every day you see a green shapeshifter, even for a mystic. Danny chatted with Tempest mostly, showing the Atlantean his ice-core abilities. Something that impressed the water-magic user. Melinda talked with Miss. Martian, the witch saying she was the first alien that she had ever really met. Alya talked with Nightwing and Robin, apparently having information on Man-Bat's latest scheme since she had a lot of ears in the animal world.

Krinos, on the other hand, pulled Superboy aside.

"So, not a hero," Conner crossed his arms.

"Hey, I helped you because I wanted to," Krinos said. "Not to be a hero. I was originally at Cadmus because they had gotten their hands on some minotaur DNA that I needed to destroy. Not that they knew what they had, but better safe than sorry."

"But you still helped me," Conner reminded. "Taking away the g-nome's influence, giving me advice on being my own person and not a weapon. Even helped during the fight with Blockbuster."

"Superboy, you are more like mystics than you think," Krinos said. "I know you are still just a half-alien and half-human clone, but take it from a mystic that I know how it feels to be treated differently because of who you are."

Superboy understood what Krinos meant. It was more than just his team, but it still stung how Superman had treated him for so long. He only even started to talk to him after the team saved the league when they were controlled by Vandal Savage. Yes, they did a great thing, but that should not have been the reason why he chose to try and get to know him. Even now, there were still moments where Superman treated him differently because he was a clone. And if he ever found out that Lex Luthor was the other half of his DNA, he was not sure he wanted to be in the same room with Superman when that happened.

"Is that all that makes me stand out to you," Conner asked him. "That I am a clone."

"That you chose to do good even when all you knew was a pod," Krinos took his hand. "You have a good heart, Superboy, and that is harder to come by than you think. You are more than welcome to visit us whenever you want."

"Will the others agree to that," Conner looked at the rest of the five.

"Hey, I control nature at will," Krinos smirked. "You really think they ever try to argue with me."

"You're not the most normal person in the world, even for a mystic, are you," Conner raised an eyebrow.

"Being normal is vastly overrated," Krinos chuckled.

As Krinos went back to the other mystics, Superboy looked in his hand. There was a white rose charm in it. The kind that would go on a necklace. Even without being told, he knew that it was probably how he would be able to contact the lord of nature. And looking at the five sibling-like mystics, he was sure that he would definitely be using it in the future.