Con Quest!

by Sam Maggs

  “Hey!” a sharp voice whispered from behind them. “What are you doing back here?”

  Cat turned sharply and scrambled up off the floor. A guy wearing a suit jacket over a nerdy T-shirt and holding a mic loomed over her, his arms crossed over his chest. He was a middle-aged white dude, and his bright CON STAFF badge told Cat his name was JAMES M. His eyes locked on to Cat’s phone.

  “We’re just—”

  “Are you one of those Questers?” James M. demanded, pointing at Cat’s phone. “There are no scavenger hunts permitted on con premises and anyone caught participating will be immediately removed from the convention!”

  Oh, yeah, Cat remembered. The Quest was definitely not endorsed by GeekiCon. Alex was frozen solid, of course, and would be no help here, naturally.

  “We’re with the panelists.” Cat tucked her phone behind her back and pulled out the excuse she always used backstage at her parents’ events. “What are you doing back here?” she countered, a lot more boldly than she felt.

  “I’m moderating the next panel. What kind of pass is that?” the guy asked, reaching out to grab the credentials around her neck—the ones that absolutely did not qualify her to be backstage at the Igor!!! on Skates panel.

  “Uh, see, here’s the thing—” Alex began.

  It was a big deal for Alex to speak up, and Cat tried to think up her next lie quickly. She opened her mouth—but was cut off by a sudden commotion in the crowd.

  “It’s a Mewblue!” Cat heard someone shriek. Through the sheers, she could see a woman stand up with her phone held aloft, an AR game active on the screen, the one where you captured tiny animalesque creatures for fun. “Mewblue onstage! Right now!”

  James M.’s head spun, distracted momentarily by the crowd, and Cat knew this was another make-or-break moment.

  They’d seen the Igor!!! on Skates episode, they’d checked off another Quest item—how many other challenges could they complete today? Was there still time to get in line for the limited-edition Dwarves & Drama figure? Could they try to sneak into the Voltage: Defenders of Legend panel? Only one way to find out—and that was to move.

  Cat pushed Alex toward the curtains. She didn’t trust him to follow this time.

  “Wait!” She could hear James M.’s angry voice behind her, but she didn’t stop—and didn’t let Alex stop, either. Together they dove into the massive crowd that had surged toward the stage with phones held aloft. The twins disappeared, anonymous in the nerdy masses.

  24. Ask a question at a panel without making it about yourself. (12 points)

  5

  Alex

  “I can’t believe we haven’t run into Fi yet.”

  Alex’s eyes darted away from an awesome piece of Whom, M.D. fan art at a table in Artist Alley. He was so sure his older sister was going to pop up right behind the artist’s booth and give him that look he hated. It was going to happen. It had to. He was going to be in so much trouble, and he would never be able to ask his parents to get him that Whom print and they were never going to get to come to GeekiCon again and they definitely were never going to win the Quest and—

  “Relax,” Cat coaxed behind him. Alex turned quickly, shaken out of his thoughts, to see her holding up a pair of earrings next to her face. “What do you think of these?”

  Alex shook his head. How could Cat concentrate on accessorizing at a time like this? Still, he turned back and took a business card from that Whom, M.D. artist anyway. She was really, really good at drawing his favorite M.D., and he wanted to remember to come back to her, even if he wasn’t able to concentrate on anything else today.

  “Okay,” Alex said to his sister, looking down at his watch. Nearly noon already. “The Epic signing is soon. If we want to make it, we need to start moving now.” Cat sighed, but Alex knew that she knew that he was right. It was absolute chaos on the floor, a crowd that was going to take the two of them a while to maneuver, let alone getting into line and hoping that they hadn’t arrived too late. Epic was Alex’s favorite comic book in the entire world. The artist on it, Adrianna Tack, blew him away every month with the way she lovingly rendered the heroic space opera. Alex couldn’t miss this signing.

  “So where to, O wise one?” Cat asked in mock seriousness. She put the earrings back down on the table, thanked the artist, and linked elbows with Alex.

  Alex looked down at their linked arms for a moment before accepting that this was a thing that was happening. He popped out his phone to check the map on the GeekiCon app. “Looks like … Pixel Comics, booth 2729.”

  Cat’s eyes got wide. “All the way past the gigantic AC Comics setup?”

  “No, right before it,” Alex clarified. “What number is their autograph on the Quest list?”

  Cat whipped out her phone again. “Shoot, already low battery. It’s … ‘Get a real-life comic-book artist to sign your team name in their own comic.’ Item sixteen. Seventy-six points! This might put us in the running with Team Dangermaker!”

  Alex nodded firmly. Good thing they picked a respectable team name. Team DoubleTrouble. Because they were twins. And because it kind of felt like Dangermaker, in a way.

  They could do this. He could do this.

  “We got this!” he said uncharacteristically, and momentarily filled with the confidence and excitement you get from being surrounded by all of your favorite things, bright colors, and even brighter lights.

  But as Alex stepped from Artist Alley into the main aisle beside it, he suddenly found himself moving way faster than he thought he would be. Way, way faster.

  “Caaaaaaat!” he yelled, his arm slipping through hers. “We don’t got this! We don’t got this!”

  Was this what it felt like to be trapped in your worst nightmare? Because this might just be Alex’s worst nightmare. He’d had a lot of nightmares, and this was definitely, absolutely one of them.

  All around Alex, completely surrounding him, were swarms of the undead. Pushed along by a mass of rotting arms and limping legs, all Alex could see and hear were flashes of blood dripping from gaping mouths and the constant, unending stream of “Rrraaaaghhhh!!” coming from every side. His vision was filled with reds and browns, grime and guts. Too many strangers, too close …

  This is the zombie apocalypse, thought Alex. This is how I go.

  Alex knew about fight or flight. He’d read all about it and the chemicals that flooded your brain. Were they flooding his right now? Channeling the power of ten thousand lens flares, Alex disentangled himself from the shuffling limbs and shot sideways, flattening himself against the nearest booth. He let the horde pass him by. A zombie stampede. In the middle of the con floor. You never knew what you were going to find at GeekiCon. Which is why Alex both loved and hated it in equal measure at all times.

  “Cat!” yelled Alex, flailing his arms as high as he could reach, trying to peer above the crowd. “Cat, where are you?!” Catching the disapproving stare of one of the booth workers, Alex dropped his hands and turned red, reaching for his phone instead.

  Alex: almost became one of the

  walking dead

  Cat: lol me too

  Alex: by the booth with all

  the big fancy statues

  Alex: come find me

  Alex put his phone away, hopeful that Cat would find him in time. There were so many people on the floor, half of them in incredible but extremely large costumes. He hated getting separated from Cat even for a moment—it was always nearly impossible to find each other again. Plus, they were almost late for the signing, but at least he was guaranteed a spot if he made it in time—his parents had made sure he had a wristband.

  Wait. Alex suddenly felt something was wrong—a disturbance in the con. He turned to see a sign held aloft in the distance by some volunteer.

  EPIC SIGNING—LINE CAPPED.

  Line capped.

  Line capped?!

  The Epic signing was full, and his life was utterly and completely over.

  “No, no, no,” Alex whispered
to himself. The one Quest item he’d told Cat he could handle, and it had literally slipped from his very hands. This wasn’t going according to plan. Alex liked things when they went according to plan. He liked when things felt right. When things felt wrong, it was almost like he had a full-body itch that he couldn’t scratch. He got that wrong feeling occasionally; like when he saw a cosplay that wasn’t quite accurate (itch), or when someone quoted a line from Wormhole incorrectly (double itch), or when plans didn’t work out (triple mega-itch!). And now he was one big itch, and he’d lost the chance to meet Adrianna Tack …

  “What?” asked a far-too-cheerful voice from beside him. Alex was too caught up in his dread over missing the signing to feel grateful that Cat had finally managed to find him on the floor. “Check it out.” Cat held her phone out proudly. “I crowd surfed the zombie horde! Somebody managed to snap a pic. That’s totally for sure going to count for those twenty-five ‘I believe I can fly’ points—I definitely felt like I was flying—”

  Why wouldn’t she stop talking?! Didn’t Cat understand how important this was?

  “Cat,” Alex interrupted her, frustrated. “The line for Epic, for the signing,” he said quickly, running his hands through his hair. “It’s closed. Closed!”

  Cat blinked. “How?!”

  “The—the zombies,” Alex stuttered, frantically looking at the floor in their area. “We’re never going to meet Adrianna Tack. Never! We’ll be a Quest item down with no way to fix it, and it’s all my—”

  “Stop. It’s okay,” Cat said, but Alex could hear in her voice that she was trying to convince herself as much as she was him. “Take deep breaths like Dad says. It’s okay.”

  When Alex was spinning out into everything he was worried about and felt like he couldn’t breathe, his parents told him to just take deep breaths. It was so hard to remember to do unless someone told him to. Alex nodded at Cat and dropped to the floor, crossing his legs. He had to keep busy and keep feeling like he was making progress in the right direction and, and …

  “I’m being serious, Alex—stop and breathe.” She squatted next to him so they were facing each other.

  Alex concentrated on Cat’s face and nothing else, his eyes wide. He breathed in as Cat counted to five and breathed out on the next count of five.

  Cat smiled as Alex breathed. “I’m going to get us that autograph.”

  Alex’s heart rate was dropping; his vision was coming back into focus. “How?”

  “This is GeekiCon,” Cat said, pushing herself up to stand. She held out her hand for Alex to take. “This is where magic happens.”

  Alex felt a little less shaky. He took Cat’s hand with a nod and stood up. “Do you still have the Hall M passes?”

  “Yes,” Cat insisted. On seeing Alex’s skeptical look, she added, “Don’t worry. I checked.”

  He nodded and followed his sister as she marched toward the Pixel booth, dodging a stroller and a massive pair of brown, feathered wings on a cosplayer in the process.

  In what felt like no time, distracted by the colorful cosplay all around him, Alex suddenly found himself nearly colliding with his sister’s back once again.

  “That keeps happening…” Alex rubbed at his forehead.

  “Well…,” Cat said, looking back at him. “We’ve made it.”

  Alex looked up at the lime-clad volunteer next to them and the END OF LINE sign she had in her hand. “This is the end of the line,” the volunteer drawled.

  Alex stared straight ahead. He had no idea what to do.

  “… But there’s another signing at three o’clock today.”

  Alex turned to look at the volunteer so slowly he felt like he was in an action movie. “There is?”

  The volunteer looked at him strangely. (People did that a lot.) “Yeah. Just get here earlier for that one. You know this is GeekiCon, right?”

  Alex laughed a laugh that didn’t sound at all like him, pure relief escaping from his mouth in gasps. “Oh! Right! Sure!”

  Cat smiled at him and reached out for Alex’s hand. Alex looked down and grabbed it. “Three o’clock,” Cat repeated. “We’ll see you then.”

  “Whatever.” The volunteer waved them off.

  Alex couldn’t believe it. GeekiCon had blessed them. He had seen victory slip from his grasp, only to have it reappear in front of him. At three o’clock. It was the luckiest thing that had ever happened to him. It was—

  “Oh no,” whispered Cat, tugging on Alex’s hand, hard, and interrupting his thoughts.

  “What?” Alex asked, concerned. That wasn’t a good sign. That was never a good sign.

  “Fi,” was all Cat said—and all she needed to say. Alex spun around and saw their older sister’s face hovering above the crowd. She must have been on her tiptoes, searching for them.

  Seeing Fi’s face brought Alex swiftly and painfully back to the real world. They were in serious trouble if she found them, and they still had a ton of items to get through. Fi had that expression on her face she always got when she was angry, the one with the raised eyebrow and the weird thing with her lip. Yep, there was no doubt in Alex’s mind—it was time to run.

  But not before he checked on his Epic comic, ensuring its safety inside its bag and board in his messenger bag. He had his priorities, after all.

  20. You believe you can fly. (25 points)

  6

  Fi

  “I am not going back to eating lunch in the library alone because of a comics convention,” Fi said to no one in particular, turning in circles in the middle of the show floor. It was hopeless. There were tens of thousands of dang nerds in this building. What chance did she have of finding two wayward twelve-year-olds? None. Absolutely none. She was toast. The toastiest. Burned toast. Burned toast who eats lunch in the library with no friends like the dork she really was.

  It was a miracle that she’d managed to run out of the Ducky McFowl panel before her mom and dad noticed that she’d lost the twins anyway. She’d been avoiding her parents’ texts ever since, scrolling frantically through GeekiCon’s tag on social media, before remembering the name of that stupid scavenger hunt her sister had been babbling about earlier. She’d searched #thequest in a panic, desperately seeking any sign of her siblings.

  And she found them—not that it did her any good. It seemed like every five seconds one or both of those little nerdy nightmares were updating their story: Cat and Alex in the middle of a rainbow of cosplayers, twenty-nine points! Cat and Alex having a tea party with some dude with giant gold horns, a lady in a black catsuit, and something called the Cowl, sixteen points! A video of some voice actor saying the twins’ team name into Cat’s camera and wishing them luck, fifty-four points! (Well, close enough to earn them some points, anyway.) It was impossible to keep up with the two of them, and there was no telling where they’d be headed next.

  As Fi kept scrolling, she almost started to envy the odd little world the two of them shared. How did all these different weirdos come together to admire the things they loved in a space like this? How did twins so different end up enjoying such similar things?

  She shook her head. Nah. She would rather be her own independent person than be half of a constant pair or just another face in the crowd. As long as she, as her own independent person, wore the right clothes and had the right friends and got to go on a chaperoned and not-a-big-deal-at-all camping trip with the right boy in three weeks, of course.

  Turning slowly in a circle, ignoring the annoyed glances from passersby, Fi thought she recalled something about a comic book that Alex was obsessed with—but she wouldn’t even know where to start looking for something like that. Why hadn’t she paid more attention to those nerds when they’d talked about their nerd stuff? Every inch of the floor was jammed with cosplayers and fans and volunteers and why did the twins have to be so darn short and also wily?! This would never happen at one of her soccer games. Why couldn’t her siblings just have been like … easier to understand and enjoyed good old-fashioned s
occer? Instead, she was stuck here playing social media stalker with their Instagram accounts. And no one cool from Instagram was even at this ridiculous convention. Also, Fi thought to herself in the final throes of despair:

  Everything.

  Smells.

  Terrible!

  Worse than the worst locker room. Worse than her gym bag. The combination of sweaty nerds packed together in a tight space, many drenched with extreme amounts of body spray, and what must have been a combination of plastic from the booths and pizza from the only food stalls in the hall, was absolutely and entirely overwhelming.

  Letting loose a frustrated scream for which she only got a couple of strange looks (what even was this place?! Was screaming a normal thing here?!), Fi stormed toward the floor exit with a ferocity in her eyes that dared anyone to get in her way. She could be on the field right now, getting in a practice before the next game of the season. But nooo, instead she was on Adventures in Babysitting duty at the world’s largest geek show. And if she saw another bat-carrying clown girl, she was going to explode.

  Fi slammed through the doors into the breezeway, slapping her pass against the exit scanner so abruptly that she almost knocked over the volunteer staffing it. Finally—finally—Fi found herself outside in the scorching midday heat. Fi didn’t care how humid or sweaty she got now—she could finally breathe again. Why did all these people want to spend a beautiful day like today trapped inside with a bunch of sweaty dweebs? She had never felt like such an outsider in all her life—though, admittedly, that was by design. If she thought about it too hard, she could almost be impressed by the sheer no-cares-given attitude of most of the people in this crowd. Had she ever been so unapologetically herself? Fi wondered. She turned her face up toward the sun and just stood there for a moment, sucking in a deep breath …

  … Right. The twins.

  Fi sighed. Never an uninteresting moment. Time to find them so she could lose ’em—for a week of camping with people who mattered.

  7. Get a voice actor to record a dramatic retelling of your Quest adventure. (54 points)