Team True Grit #1: XAVIER HOWELL and the CHAOS EFFECT, MG Science Fiction/Humor

Genre: MG Science-Fiction Humor

Title: Xavier Howell and the Chaos Effect

Word Count: 42,000

Movie Genre: Xavier really likes cult science fiction and fantasy movies, the ones that are so lame they're funny. Like rolling-on-the-floor-can’t-breathe funny. He definitely never ever watches chick-flicks. Ever!

35 Word Pitch:

Twelve-year-old, havoc-prone Xavier Howell has an inactive microchip hidden in his brain containing his late mother’s super-secret AI research. Now, he must harness his knack for making things explode or, quite literally, lose his head.

250 Words:

I thought to myself: Self, that’s not supposed to happen—just as the second dung bomb exploded.

Watching the smelly, sticky, brownish-green substance fly through the air like shrapnel, I realized I'd made a slight miscalculation somewhere. Crouched in one of the wheat fields that surrounded the colony on Kevin 5, I took a moment to review the parameters of my little beetle catching science fair experiment.

Mr. Finch, the colony's bug guy, assured me the chemical I'd used in the traps would be poisonous to the black-bellied grain beetle. The heap of cow dung covering the trays of chemicals was meant to attract said beetles (again according to the illustrious Mr. Finch)—not blowup. Perhaps I should've consulted the colony chemist, too?

The third beetle-trap-turned-dung-bomb exploded.

That's when the smell first hit me. I tried very hard not to let any more air penetrate my nose or mouth. The endeavor was unsuccessful and so I gagged … repeatedly.

"Xavier Howell!"

I cringed. I didn't recognize the voice (the colony was not that small), but his tone was certainly familiar. My reputation had preceded me. Turning around slowly, I came face to knees with one of the grain farmers. I couldn't remember the man’s name, but I might've been distracted by the fact that he was covered—from head to toe—in dung.

It was difficult to talk without first inhaling the putrid air. "Yes, sir?"

"What in—" His angry reply was cut off by the fourth and final explosion.