Son of a Pitch Entry: The Quester

Title: THE QUESTER

Category and Genre: YA Science Fiction

Word Count: 74,000

Query: 

On their first date, sixteen-year-olds Andrew and Christine stumble upon a pair of strangers trying to defuse a glowing bomb. Andrew finds himself inexplicably drawn to them when they reveal themselves to be Keepers, Earth’s chosen guardians, gifted with extraordinary powers.

They need the teenagers to pass through a portal to another dimension and retrieve a dangerous artifact capable of nullifying the bomb. The Keepers cannot safely handle it, but normal humans can. Curious to learn more, the teenagers travel through the portal.

When the artifact attacks Andrew, he is revealed to be a Keeper, making Christine the only person who can interact with it. Soon after, Andrew's power to control plants begins to manifest. He wants to join the group, but doing so means angering a former Keeper who sees Andrew as a usurper, trying to take his place as the Keeper of plants.

The teenagers are recruited by the Keepers for a dire mission- the universe is collapsing. The artifact was only the first of ten Quester Stones that must be found. If Andrew and Christine fail to find all of the Stones, everything they know will be destroyed. The Stones and their guardians are resisting detection and they only have three days... 

First 250: 

The roadside carnival had seemingly appeared overnight in an empty parking lot in small town just outside of El Paso. The rides looked as if they might fall apart at any moment, yet, right at dusk, all the neon lights flipped on and spirited music began playing. The smell of cheap food, most of it deep-fried, shoved on a stick, and smothered in sugar, drifted out over the town, drawing everyone to the carnival for Halloween. 

Andrew knew it was the perfect place to bring Christine for their first date. 

“What should we ride next?” He pushed his goofy plastic pirate hat down tighter over his brown hair. 

“The Twister!” Christine exclaimed. Her face scrunched up into a bright grin, causing the black whiskers painted on her face to wrinkle up.

They had already been on the Twister three times. The giant cylinder looked like a spaceship with a green alien sticking out the top. Andrew liked the ride because it did not leave the ground. It would spin around with everyone strapped into the walls, making them dizzy. Their friends lined up in front of a glowing neon sign that flashed out the letters of TWISTER! waiting for another turn. They were dressed in costumes ranging from cartoon characters to superheroes, complete with homemade capes and terrible paint jobs. 

Andrew frowned as he waved his tickets in front of Christine. “We need four tickets for that and we’ve only got three.” 

“Forgot about that.” Christine stared longingly at the ride.