Contributions to society extended cut edition

chapter 6: all you can eat

Date: March 14 2020
1st Anniversary of Universe Foods.
1st Anniversary of Supergirl’s Disappearance (March 2).
1st Anniversary of Supergirl Reporter Kara Danvers’s Disappearance (March 2).

It had been a year since Supergirl went missing and still not a trace of her could be found anywhere, whether on Earth or in space. To help cope, all of her grieving friends had watched videos of her nonstop, still searching desperately for her and turning to every pro-alien organization they could find for help. Given its social status as one of Supergirl’s most supportive businesses, Universe Food was on the list of pro-alien organizations.
“Never thought I’d live to see the day a burger joint was considered a pro-alien organization by the government!” J’onn mused as he skimmed through his list of organizations only to see Universe Food on it.
“Well, you can’t deny that they’ve been wildly helpful this past year,” James looked over J’onn’s shoulder at the list.
“Yeah, now it sounds like they’re trying to hold an eating competition in honor of their first birthday,” Winn noted with a grin as he skimmed an article about it online. J’onn turned to him with a warning look.
“Oh, no, we are absolutely not-”
ooo
“I can’t believe I’m doing this…” J’onn, along with countless other people of National City, stood at the city’s heart where a long table literally overflowing with burgers awaited. It was the Universe Food All-You-Can-Eat Anniversary competition where people were entering in as pairs to see who could eat the most the fastest, a cash prize awarded to the winning duo. There rules were as follows:
Rule 1: Every couple must eat all their food. If one gives up, they both lose.
Rule 2: No Using Alien Powers such Superspeed.
Rule 3: Whoever eats more in 20 minutes wins.
The food listing was as follows: 14 Double Meat Burgers, 10 Double Meat Meat Pies, 6 Original Meat Pies, and 10 Original Burgers. This was for the first round. The second round took it further, consisting of 6 Double Meat Burgers, 24 Double Meat Meat Pies, 12 Original Meat Pies, and 20 Original Burgers. Then the third and final round went all-out, consisting of 30 Double Meat Burgers, 20 Double Meat Meat Pies, 24 Original Meat Pies, and 30 Original Burgers.
Alex and Maggie were the first to lose, one human-alien pair lost second, an alien-alien pair lost third, Winn and Lyra lost fourth, and several other contestants (human and alien alike) ended up losing as well. The winners consisted of Lena Luthor and her L-Corp assistant, Jess. Somehow, against all odds and expectations, Lena somehow managed to eat the most, even though she had been the most reluctant to enter this trivial little game (behind J’onn). The reward was actually pretty nice, $1000, but as one who already owned a multi-billion dollar company, Lena was quick to give all the money away, giving some of her portion to Jess before donating all the rest.
“God, I’m not going to be able to eat for weeks!” Lena moaned as she rubbed a very full stomach. Jess would’ve laughed, had she not been equally stuffed. In front of them, the crowd laughed and clapped, both awed and humored that their local Luthor was the one to win the competition. Lena shrugged goodnaturedly at them all, feeling just a bit better knowing that she’d won some of the crowd’s respect and admiration that day, even if it did come out of something as silly as an all-you-can-eat competition.
So that was how Universe Food celebrated its first birthday, trying to overshadow the grief that came with realizing that Supergirl had, by this point, been missing upwards of one year with still no sign or trace to be found anywhere…