Con Quest!

Rowan went to grab her phone back, but instead of snatching the cell away, Rowan wrapped her hand around Fi’s. “Hang on,” she said, looking right into Fi’s eyes. “Before you start running again. Do me a favor and look at the folks in this booth.”

Fi

stared at Rowan for a second before tearing her eyes away. She glanced around the anime booth. Light-up signs screaming nonsense like Lunar Soldier: Pretty Navy Guardian Space! and Igor!!! on Skates stared back at her. The booth was filled with the same weirdos who populated the rest of the con.

“They look like everyone else here.” Fi shrugged. Rowan still had her hand.

“Exactly,” Rowan said, infuriating Fi. She never made any sense. And why hadn’t she let go?

“I don’t—”

“They’re stoked.” Rowan squeezed Fi’s hand and raised her eyebrows. “They’re happy to be here. Lunar Soldier speaks to them, for whatever reason. They’re around other people who get that. They can be one hundred percent themselves here without worrying about being judged or made fun of or having to explain themselves.”

Fi looked back at Rowan. She looked so earnest. “Okay. So?”

“Okay.” Rowan stepped closer to Fi. That smell again. Lilacs? “So what are you so worried about?”

17. Sneak up on one of your fellow team members and videotape the jump scare. (14 points)

13

Cat

“Boom!” Cat made an explosion motion with her hands as she dropped a toy into the Quest donation box. She’d been carrying it around all day—a special-edition Ducky McFowl action figure her parents had donated specifically for this charity item on the Quest list. Way to go, Team DoubleTrouble!

The hidden instructions on the USS Venture had led Cat and her brother straight to the donation box, tucked away beside booth 3346. Not that booth 3346 was exactly hidden—it was just on the side of the con floor that nobody ever really went to. You know, the one with all the body pillow vendors and independent comic-book publishers. It wasn’t their fault; it’s just there were so many million trillion amazing, exciting things going on at GeekiCon that nobody really had the energy to lug around a human-sized pillow printed with their favorite alien video game character or a heavy stack of original comics.

Kind of ironic, given the whole comics convention thing. But it was true.

“We did it, we did it, we did it!” Cat chanted while swinging her cape around dramatically. On this side of the floor, there was enough space in the aisles to dance around majestically if you wanted to. And she wanted to!

“Do you still have the Hall M—?”

“Yes I do, yes I do, yes I do!” Not even her brother’s high-functioning anxiety was going to bring Cat down right now. Not when they were crushing this Quest between their fists! Their fists of justice! They were superheroes, and the Quest was their nemesis! Wait … was Team Dangermaker their nemesis? Cat figured she was going to have to work on this metaphor later. When she wasn’t so excited about their great success!

“What’s next?” Cat asked her brother, whisking her cape in front of her face dramatically. “What do we have left?” She switched up the pose, sweeping her cape out to the side.

“Less than we should,” Alex said, his brows knitting together while he checked the app.

“What do you mean?” Cat struck a third pose, nearly taking out a passerby in the process. It was all good. She was lookin’ great, feelin’ great.

“I mean, someone’s checking items off our Quest list that we haven’t completed yet,” Alex said, a note of panic in his voice. He flipped the screen around to show Cat.

She dropped out of her power pose and checked her brother’s phone. Frowning, she opened the app on her own phone, just in case Alex’s was glitching out for some reason. But no, he was totally right. “Convince a cosplayer dressed as a character you’ve never heard of that you definitely know who they are” was checked off, as was “Play a sport on the main escalators.” Cat knew for a fact they hadn’t done either one of these. She refreshed frantically, but the poor signal inside the convention center was preventing her app from downloading the pictures and videos that had been attached to these mysterious items. So close to the answers … yet so far!

But the Quest team reviewed every list item as people submitted them. No one was awarded points for items falsely completed. And Team DoubleTrouble was receiving points. So … what in the Wormhole was going on?

“Okay, what we’re not going to do right now is panic,” Cat said, trying to sound way more confident than she felt. “If we’re getting points, then … someone must be helping us. Right?”

“Like … a GeekiCon angel?” Her brother’s voice sounded shaky, and she didn’t blame him. This was definitely weird.

“Like a GeekiCon angel.” Cat nodded firmly. “Let’s just roll with it. Why look a drift horse in the mouth, you know?”

“Gift horse,” her brother corrected her.

“Well, that just makes no sense.” Cat shook her head. Her brother was so smart, but he could be kind of ridiculous sometimes. “Who gifts a horse?”

“What’s a drift horse?” Alex shot back.