“What?” Crystal’s eyes widened. “Am I supposed to teach her my sharpshooting skills—which took years of practice—in a couple of days?”
“No,” Bas said. “I want you to show her how to blow things up.”
Crystal’s face brightened immediately. “Now we’re talking!”
Bas rolled her eyes. “I was joking.”
“Oh,” Crystal said, disappointed.
“Just teach her how to use a Taser and give her some self-defense techniques.”
“We’re still a few people short,” Joell reminded her.
Bas got up, strolled to the door, and opened it. In walked their Tennessee neighbor, Esmerelda.
Joell laughed. “What is she going to do? Bake us brownies with extra protein to keep our powers at maximum strength?”
Esmerelda smirked. “That’s not a bad idea. Here!” Extending her hand, facing up, a plate of brownies appeared on her palm.
The witches’ eyebrows rose in unison. “I didn’t know you were magical,” Joell said. “Fantastic! That gives us fourteen! Will that be enough?”
“It will have to be,” Dr. Emerson said. “We cannot fail.”
“The plan is to plant Chad’s words at each nexus point, and activate them all at once,” Brianna said. “My time manipulation can trigger his voice at the precise moment in each location.”
“How do you plan to ‘plant’ his voice?” Magda asked.
“A recording. We tried it earlier. He can manipulate a reaction from a voice recording.”
“So, we’re supposed to hit the ‘play’ button all at the same time?”
“Basically. It has to be precise, though, Brianna said. “It has to sound like one command.”
Bas nodded solemnly. "This plan is ambitious, but it's our best chance. We'll need to prepare thoroughly and work in perfect coordination."
"What about the Aether Pirates?" Victoria asked. "Won't they try to stop us once they realize what we're doing?"
Dr. Emerson's expression became grave. "Undoubtedly. That's why we'll need to move quickly and decisively. Each team will need to be prepared for combat as well as spell casting."
Bas spoke up, her voice filled with determination. "I've been working on some protective incantations. I can create a temporary shield around each witch as they work."
"Excellent," Dr. Emerson said. "We'll need every advantage we can get."
Bas turned to address the group. "Alright, everyone. We have a lot of work to do and not much time to do it. We'll need to synchronize our watches and devices to ensure precise timingacross all locations. Sahara, can you handle the technical aspects of that?"
The tech-savvy witch nodded confidently. "Absolutely. I can set up a system to trigger all the recordings simultaneously to the split second, accounting for hourly time zone differences."
"Good," Bas said. "But we still need to be prepared in case anything goes wrong. You know how technology is. Great when it works, but…”
“Yeah, yeah,” Sahara said. “I know it doesn’t always perform perfectly. I’ll do everything I can to prevent user errors.”
“Hey!” Lioness protested.
Bas raised a quieting hand. “Okay, as long as we acknowledge that limitations could get in the way. Now, we need to determine who will go to each nexus point."
The group spent the next hour strategizing. They pored over maps, considering not just magical aptitude but also fighting skills. It was decided that Bas would travel from one nexus point to the next since she’d perfected long-distance travel along ley lines in seconds. That way she could shore up anyone who needed help. Since there were eleven places, all spots would have onlyonemagical being. Eight L.A.W. supernatural witches, one sister witch, and one neighbor witch were still only ten. Dr. Emerson said he was able to defend one spot with conventional magic, as long as Bas checked in on him.
The mansion buzzed with activity as the L.A.W. team prepared for their global mission. Maps and ancient texts were spread across tables, while Sahara worked feverishly on her computers to synchronize their timing systems. The air crackled with a mixture of excitement and tension.
