Greg glared at the man across the counter, daring him to repeat himself.

"Just take my money," he griped, waving the two twenties in front of his face.

The Challenger. A gigantically proportioned fast food item, one which Greg never would have thought he'd have the courage to tackle in the past. He'd seen countless people try to tackle the beastly meal, only to fail either halfway through or right near the end. There was a reason why they had you pay for it beforehand, as well as forcing you to sit in the reserved corner seating.

The seats in that booth were different than the rest of the resteraunt, made of some sort of easily washable plastic. It was like sitting on a hard bench, but if a customer couldn't handle the influx of food the employees were oft glad that the clean up was slightly more convenient than in the other booths.

If you finished the entire order before an hour passed, they'd refund your money as well as putting your picture up on the wall. They used to also offer a five dollar gift card upon completion, but they'd been forced to rescind the deal following a lawsuit. The only pictures on the wall currently showcased a plethora of portly looking males, along with one slim looking woman.

She had died later that year, ironically due to food poisoning from a now defunct street vender. Such is the price of fame, known for but a whisper as 'that one woman who ate a lot' and now joked about as 'the reason you should never eat gyros'.

It was never proven if she was a cape or not. A reasonable postulation, given her achievement. Still, no proof.

"Same for me," Sparky chimed in, shoving a couple bills forward as well. The poor cashier peered down at the bills, eyes flicking timidly back and forth between the two apparent capes.

"Uh... Sure," he relented, taking the money and tallying it up. He handed back their change and pointed off to the corner of the resteraunt. The challenge booths. "If you take a seat, an employee will bring them out to you."

"Can I get my cup now?" Sparky asked, gaining a dumb expression from the lad.

"Uh... Sorry. The cup is brought out with the rest, it's a required part of the challenge..."

"Bummer," the blue skinned cape groused, frowning slightly.

Greg led their forward path, cutting through the various gaggle of random teenagers and pithy few other aged patrons. "Sure, if I ask for one I must be mistaken, I obviously secretly wanted the kiddy meal instead. Then you ask for the same da- darn thing, and he doesn't give you a single bit of lip," Greg complained, resting his head in his hands.

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"Maybe cause I look like I can actually pick up the order if I wanted to," Sparky joked, miming a hand up and down before he settled on a space slightly above the table, "Whereas if we balanced all of it on top of itself I'm pretty sure you'd still be shorter than it..."

"Hardy har," Greg shot back. "Make fun of the shortness while you can, soon it's gonna be a non issue," he confided.

"Ooh? Got a magic bean in your pocket? A stepladder?"

"Ha ha Lapis," he stated in a deadpan tone, using the name they had decided on beforehand for Sparkies 'secret cape identity'. If they decided on actual cape names later on they could always just claim that the 'given' names were just what they used in regular day to day activities. And seeing as the gem on Sparkies back was a Lapis Lazuli, the choice was an obvious fit. Sparky hadn't fought it even an iota, frankly thankful he didn't have to waste the brainpower to come up with a silly cape name in the first place.

"I'm a tinker, in case you forgot," Greg continued. "I got stuff in the works, should clear up the 'midget-itess' in no time. Well, for as long as I'm wearing them at least..." He trailed off, noting as two employees stopped in front of their table. Their arms were occupied with a tray each, topped with food.

Greg... wasn't worried, persay. He'd learned from Sparky last night that there apparently wasn't an 'upper limit' to what they could consume. But it was still slightly daunting to look over the pile of biological mass that had been dumped in front of them. As well as the giant gas station sized cup they thumped down besides the trays. Sucked that you could only order Coke with the challenger, but it was a sponsored thing.

The second employee took a stopwatch out of her apron, showing it to the two as she explained, "I'll be setting it for an hour. If you don't finish everything, or if you end up puking it up-" Greg was slightly affronted that the lady drilled him with a gaze when she said this point. He wasn't that small, was he? "-then you lose automatically. I'll be 'watching' to make sure neither of you don't have like, food teleportation powers or some shit, but whatever."

The teen took out her phone, then sat down at the adjacent table. "Like, feel free to start the timer whenever," she stated in a blasé tone.

"Well Peri?" Sparky asked as he picked up the stopwatch. "You ready?"

The next twenty minutes passed in near silence from the two, a single word or sentence being thrown back and forth as the meal dragged on. There simply wasn't time to waste by filling the air with sound.

Greg was slightly disappointed, the burger tasting slightly bland. Guess they had to strip back the spices so they could afford to potentially lose all that meat, he figured. At least the soda was able to wash it down. Fry after fry disappeared, until finally Greg and his friend stared down at empty trays.

"Well, damn," the disillusioned teenager stated, "That has to be some kind of a record or some shit. If you'll step over here real quick..."

Greg knew why the girl was hurrying them, having asked about why an employee could afford to just sit and watch someone for an hour when their job description held a ton more duties than just 'sit here'. Apparently an unlucky employee would inevitably draw the short straw, getting saddled with a period of 'reduced pay'. It was basically 'you get money for making sure a customer doesn't stiff us, but not as much as your actual job'.

Greg and Sparky stood and smiled for the pic to go on the wall.

Two happy faces stared out into the world, one green skinned girl brightly smiling as she mugged for the camera, whilst the older looking blue maiden calmly gave the audience a serene smirk.