Con Quest!

.” Cat stood up, holding her phone out in front of her in selfie video mode. She could feel Fi’s eyes boring a hole into the side of her head, but whatever. “I wanted to ask, like, an actual question, actually. Can you talk a little bit about what it was like moving from writing comics scripts to writing TV scripts? Like, what the difference is?” She sat back down with a hard thud and started jiggling her knee again. She hit stop on the video with a smile.

Fi reached over Alex and pressed the palm of her hand into Cat’s bobbing knee. “Can you not?” she said, glaring at Cat. No, Cat could not not. She just needed to get out of here, stat. They really did have to get to their next Quest item and soon. Plus, there was a special, exclusive screening of her most favorite cartoon of all time, Igor!!! on Skates, an anime about a boy figure skater who falls in love with one of his boy figure skater friends. They were showing a brand-new episode in just ten minutes, which wouldn’t have been a problem if her parents’ panel had ended ten minutes ago like it was supposed to! Plus, obviously they were missing out on precious time for completing Quest items elsewhere. This was a total and complete nightmare.

But an attitude wouldn’t get Cat anywhere with Fi, who was going through a moody phase and could out-attitude anyone in her sleep. Cat needed her big sister on her side. “Fi,” she whispered, learning over, “can we just—?”

“Shhh!” Fi hissed, and a man in wolf ears directly in front of them spun around, shushing her right back. Fi shrank back and Cat smiled to herself. Served her right, thought Cat. Fi had been way louder than she’d been.

Turning back toward the raised stage, Cat pulled at a strand of her curly hair, currently blue tipped, her foot still bobbing. Alex was sitting between his sisters and, of course, didn’t look concerned at all. He probably hadn’t even noticed the time; he had moved from his console to his sketchbook. Cat knew sometimes it was the only way Alex could keep calm. But she needed someone to complain to. Cat reached out to grab his pencil.

“Hey!” Alex wrenched his pencil back from his sister’s grasp. Wolf Ears spun around in his chair again to glare at him. There was no way they were escaping without this guy complaining to their parents after the panel. Ugh.

Cat thought fast. “It’s twenty after!” she whispered, jabbing a finger at Alex’s calculator watch. “We’re never going to make it. We’re getting foiled by this panel.”

They were completely almost late now. Would they be stuck here until the bitter end? Cat let out an even louder sigh and sunk back into her seat. Alex was never the take-action guy. That was all going to be on Cat, which she was fine with—it meant she got to do things the way she wanted them done.

But still. It would have been nice to have some help.

Cat felt weighted down, like she might slide off her chair and melt directly into the floor. At least then she’d be able to ooze her way across the patterned carpet, out the door, into the hallway, and on to her freedom. The Quest awaited!

Cat shook her head and pulled herself upright. Now was not the time for daydreaming. Now was the time for decisions. If there was anything anime had taught her, it was that sitting around and waiting for things to happen to you was absolutely not the way to get stuff done. No, actually, that was how you invited giant, terrifying titans into your city to eat you and everyone you love.

Not today, titans. Not today.

It was time to make things happen. As casually as humanly possible, Cat peered over Alex’s head to sneak a glance at Fi. She seemed engrossed in the never-ending panel, but a second look showed Cat that her sister was actually staring hard at a guy farther down the reserved row—totally her type (messy curls, disinterested stare)—and compulsively tucking and untucking her flat-ironed hair behind her ear. Cat almost rolled her eyes before she realized that this particular Teenage Moment™ had provided her with the perfect momentary distraction. It was now or never. Cat got Alex’s attention and jerked her head toward the aisle.

Checking one more time to make sure Fi wasn’t looking her way, Cat grabbed hold of her cape, ducked, and slipped right out of her aisle seat. Success! Crouching and praying to as many magical girls as she could think of, Cat imagined some epic movie score playing as she made the bid for her escape. Half-bent as she ran, Cat arrived at the back of the room and stood up straight, nodding at the girl with braces in a lime-green con T-shirt staffing the door. The girl narrowed her eyes and pushed the door open just an inch.

But an inch was all Cat and Alex would need. That was their out. They’d almost made it. Cat took a step toward the door before freezing dead in her tracks, the back of her neck prickling with a really bad feeling. She turned slowly.

Her brother wasn’t behind her.

Alex.

She couldn’t just leave him here to suffer. They were in this together. It was dangerous to go alone. Cat stood on her tiptoes at the back of the room to try to get a good look at her brother near the front, crossing her fingers that Fi didn’t choose this moment to turn around. She quickly pulled her phone out of her circular Alora Florals purse and swiped until she found Alex’s name in her text message list.

Cattails: You were supposed to follow me!

Alex, trying to be as casual as possible, brought his phone to his face and quickly typed something. Cat felt her phone buzz.

Alinator: go without me

Alinator: save yourself

Cat bit her lip, smearing some of her blue lipstick in the process. It was tempting. Freedom, and their next Quest items, and Igor, were so close. But if she left Alex here, they wouldn’t be their Quest items. They would be hers.

Cat sighed. Sometimes Alex would freeze up, and it was up to Cat to get him to move. She really didn’t want to resort to this, but there was no way around it. Pulling up the GIF keyboard on her phone, Cat sent Alex one thing: a looping video of their two favorite Wormhole characters grabbing hands and running through alien chaos.

From the back of the room, Cat could see her brother’s head pop up to look for her. He twisted all the way around in his chair and caught Cat’s eye—which was enough to gain Fi’s attention, too.

Her older sister bolted up and out of her seat so fast it was like she had a jet pack on her butt.

Cat knew she had to act fast. She lunged past the lime-shirted volunteer, slamming the double doors of the panel room open all the way. Before the crowd in the room could turn to fully see what was going on, Cat ducked down behind the last row of seats and yelled as loud as she possibly could: “Listen, I just think the prequels are better movies than the original Star Worlds trilogy!”

The room exploded. The panelists, Cat’s parents included, sat in shock as the crowd of Ducky McFowl fans turned to see who had caused the disruption. But Cat knew people loved arguing about (sorry, “having a spirited debate” about) Star Worlds, and in no time the crowd had devolved into a massive group argument.

As the panelists tried to regain some order over the crowd, Cat ran the length of the aisle she had snuck down before and grabbed her brother’s hand from behind. Cat pulled Alex away just as Fi made a grab for them. Instead of heading into the crush of people, Cat bolted to the curtain that acted as a makeshift backstage area for the panelists and flew through it, dragging Alex behind her.

“Cat?!” Alex shook his hand free from hers but kept pace with his sister.