All around her, the ninjas were throwing their final blows. Gorilla man threw Beast Boy, morphed as an elephant. Explosion girl sent one last blast at Starfire. Doom boy, who apparently wasn't unconscious from Robin's boom-a-rang thingy, picked himself up. The acrobat ducked under Speedy's shot and ran behind him. The ninjas came together in the center of the street, standing in a straight line like they had rehearsed this.
"You cannot win," they chanted in unison, monotone like robots. "The Master will defeat you. The Master is all powerful."
"Yeah, yeah, the Master's great and dandy, we've heard it already!" Cyborg shouted, aiming his cannon at them.
"Surrender yourselves. Surrender your city. You cannot stop us. We are the Dictation. All hail the Master. All hail the Dictation." Their chant became louder and louder. "ALL HAIL THE MASTER! ALL HAIL THE DICTATION!" Raven surrounded them with black energy, wrapping them up so there was no escape. "ALL HAIL THE MASTER! ALL HAIL THE DICTATION!" Raven turned the wrapping of black energy into a dome. Avery wondered if she would hold them in a ball of energy all the way to the police station as they chanted their mantra one last time.
It didn't seem possible. It couldn't have been possible. One minute the four zombie ninjas were there, under Raven's dome of black energy, and the next, the acrobat who didn't seem to have any powers raised her hand and threw something to the ground. Then there was nothing but smoke. Raven squeezed the dome until there was barely any room for them to fit. But there wasn't anything there. When she released the energy, all there was was a poof of dust and debris.
"WHAT? Where did they go?" said Bumblebee. She flew over to where the ninjas were just standing, looking for any sign of a hidden escape route.
"They're gone. As usual," Raven replied bleakly, landing on the cracked road.
"Oh, man! What a mess!" Cyborg groaned, inspecting the damage. "This is ganna be one hell of a report to fill out."
"It could've been a lot worse," said Avery. Shit! Why did I open my mouth?
"A lot worse?" Speedy reiterated. Here it comes. "If you hadn't gotten in the way, we would have those goons and be handing them over to the police right now!"
She couldn't contain herself. Sorry Star, looks like we're not on no fighting grounds just yet. "Gotten in the way? Are you serious? If I hadn't come down here and saved your butt, you would be disintegrated!"
"I told you I had it under control!"
"STOP!" Beast Boy put himself in between the two of them and pushed them away from each other. "Look, it's not Avery's fault," he said to Speedy.
"You're defending her?!" Speedy outraged. Avery had to bite her cheek to stop herself from sticking out her tongue like a little kid.
"Yes," the changeling said simply. "It's not her fault they got away again. Plus, she's right. It could've been a lot worse."
"Exactly how could it have been worse?" Cyborg asked. He waved his metal hand at the destruction, pointing out the craters in the road, the smashed windows and ruined shops, the disintegrated cars and street signs, and the fire hydrant that somehow started spurting water.
"It looks pretty bad," Raven stated, silently asking the same question.
There was a pause. Nobody spoke. They were all looking at Avery, waiting for her to say something. To answer Cyborg's question, but more than that. They wanted to know how she knew it could've been a lot worse. Anyone who saw the fight could easily say it was horrible, and not know how it could've been even more horrible. To know that the enemy was holding something back, you had to pay extra close attention.
She drew in a long breath through her nose. "One of the zomb- the Dictation, could create minor explosions, and another could give off a red wave that disintegrated whatever he aimed at. If they were planning on completely destroying the city and wiping out all signs of life, they could have. But they didn't."
"Are you suggesting that those two were holding back?" Robin asked, out of his hero mode and into detective mode.
"Not just those two," Avery shook her head, then looked behind her and searched the torn up asphalt until she spotted it. She stepped over a piece of road sticking up and grabbed the bracelet that she successfully broke off of the disintegration boy. She held up the bracelet to the Titans' leader. "He couldn't just magically shoot disintegration rays out of his hands. He was wearing one of these on each of his wrists. I wouldn't doubt that the shortie was using some kind of technology too."
"So their master plan wasn't to just blow the city up," Bumblebee figured it out, "because then-"
"All four of them would've had a pair of these bracelets," Robin finished. "They weren't holding back. The Master was."
"So what was the Master's plan then?" asked Starfire.
"I'm not sure," Robin replied, gripping the bracelet hard. "Let's get back to the Tower. I'm sure Chief Daniels will be calling us soon. And while we're at it, Avery," he cracked a smile at the dancer that made her more than suspicious, "there's something you'll want to see."