by Jo Byekwaso
The next few seconds were a blur for Jim. All he remembered was being bathed in warm, golden light, and the next thing he knew, he was back in his office, facing off against this mysterious Rentan. Only . . . Rentan was now looking at him like he had suddenly grown six extra heads.
“Impossible!” Rentan hissed.
“What?” Jim asked dumbly. “Is there something on my—”
But when he finally looked down, the words died in his throat and he had to stop his eyes from nearly jumping out of their sockets. For no longer was Jim wearing his mundane, office clothes, but was sporting an extravagant white and red costume, complete with bright red gloves and knee-high boots.
“I—wh—HUH?!” Jim exclaimed. “What the hell just happened?! What am I—why am I—”
‘That’s your Maker-Suit, courtesy of the Justice-Maker!’ came a familiar voice. Jim looked around for the Dutch rabbit, but he was nowhere to be seen.
‘Don’t bother lookin’ for me; I’ve gone inside your watch!’ came Fluffy’s voice again, causing Jim to finally look down at his watch; truth be told, he saw that his watch now had a bunny symbol emblazoned over its face.
‘Now use your newfound powers to defeat Rentan!’ Fluffy instructed.
“We’ll soon see about that!” Rentan seethed, before lunging at Jim.
Suddenly, Jim found himself flying through the air, before landing neatly on his feet, now far away from a fuming Rentan.
“How did I do that?!” Jim exclaimed once more, looking down at himself in disbelief.
‘I told you; it’s your newfound powers!’ Fluffy reminded. ‘Now stop overthinkin’ so much and just trust your heart!’
Jim had no time to think about how cheesy Fluffy’s words were as he found himself leaping out of the way of another attack from Rentan, who, Jim had noticed, seemed to be growing more and more reckless as the battle went on.
“I refuse to be defeated by the likes of you!” Rentan growled.
“Well, I refuse to let you get away with causing all this destruction!” Jim retorted. “Jerks like you need to be stopped!”
“Oh, yeah? And who’s gonna make me?” Rentan sneered. “Some worthless, white-collar snob?”
“I am not some ‘white-collar snob’,” Jim snapped, before striking a pose, moving to the beat of his heart, as Fluffy instructed:
“I am Officemaker Jim-Man!”
© Jo Byekwaso 2023-08-29