Con Quest!

“I just assumed it was something Mom used to have in the old country. Whatever.” Cat shrugged. “Let’s focus on the items that haven’t been checked off, and worry about our drift horse later. Sound good?”

“Okay,” Alex agreed tentatively. Cat sensed that he knew they had no other choice. The day was passing by quickly—way quicker than they needed it to be. They were running out of options here! And this only increased their chances of winning, really—so what difference did it make?

Right?

Right!

From out in the corridor, beyond the doors to the con floor, Cat heard something. Synth, saxophone—the unmistakable sounds of forty-year-old pop music filtered through the walls. Cat gasped with recognition.

“Dancercize!” she shouted, seemingly out of nowhere. Luckily, Alex understood immediately.

“Item twenty-two?” he asked her quickly.

“Item twenty-two,” Cat confirmed, already taking off toward the sound. “‘Participate in Dancercize with a Star-Trooper squad!’”

“I know what item twenty-two is!” her brother yelled as they jetted toward the con floor exit at top speed.

“Okay!” Cat yelled back, barely listening. This could be their only chance to get this item, one of the most difficult on the list. They had to follow the sound!

Cat slammed through the double doors, ignoring the protests of the volunteer guarding them. She knew Alex was hot on her trail. They were on a roll—checking off Quest items, blessed by a GeekiCon angel. The day was theirs. She had to take advantage of this moment!

Cat rounded a corner at high speed, blisters screaming in her too-tight loafers, and headed toward the nearest set of escalators. She cursed that decoupaged-shoes Quest item with every fiber of her being. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch …

There! As Cat entered an open atrium, she saw it. A whole squadron of Star-Troopers, their white plastic armor clacking to the upbeat sounds of retro synthpop. And at the front of the force, leading them to their Quest item victory was …

Team Dangermaker.

Of course. Cat should have known there was only one team that could so successfully pull off such a difficult Quest item. The best team of them all. They must have been organizing this when Cat and Alex saw them with the Star-Trooper squad this morning.

And to add insult to injury, it looked like only two members of Team Dangermaker were present for this item. They must have split up to grab as many items as they could. But it was impressive that they could pull off a stunt this big with only two people. Cat had obviously never met Team Dangermaker IRL (obviously), but she was pretty sure the brown-skinned Dancercize leader (clad, of course, in head-to-toe spandex right now) was Malik, with Dahlia, their natural hair in extremely rad pastel-colored twists, filming on their phone.

Next to Cat, Alex was looking at the whole spectacle with wide eyes. There must have been fifty Star-Troopers in full exercise-video mode. Dahlia even had a speaker system to amplify their music!

Cat buried her head in her hands. There was no way they were ever going to be able to replicate this. She had been so sure of their success just

a few minutes ago—and now she was crashing back down to Earth, her superhero cape tangled around her legs as she fell into the depths of the ocean. They were absolutely burned toast. Completely.

“We’re never going to win,” she groaned through her fingers.

Alex peeled her hands away from her face. “You know I can’t hear you when you do that.”

“I said, we’re never going to win!” Cat repeated dejectedly, dropping her hands.

She watched as Alex forced a very fake-looking smile onto his face. “It’s going to be fine!”

He was trying to help her stay positive, and Cat appreciated that. But still.

A couple of very tall, very muscular cosplayers moved in front of Cat and blocked her view of the Star-Troopers. As she started to demand they move with a loud sigh, Cat suddenly had an idea.

It was a bad idea.

It was definitely a bad idea.

But it was her only idea. And she was going to run with it. After all, they were on a roll and they had to keep it going. Right?

“Hi, excuse me,” Cat said, tapping one of the cosplayers on the back lightly. He was shirtless and so was his friend. They had more muscles between the two of them than Cat had ever seen in her entire life. And how were they so shiny?

“Hello, small hero,” one of the cosplayers said. Cat could tell he was committed to staying in character, even if she wasn’t entirely certain of what character that was, exactly. “Do you require something of us on this fine day?”