Costumes [Jack Rannels]

Mae stared out the window of her classroom. Her thoughts had wandered off towards the school's talent show that was supposed to take place in the middle of March. It was still ways away, however, as they were still currently in the middle of December, supported by the fact that small flakes of snow were silently coloring the world white. The school day was almost over already, and her focus in class had started to dwindle. After a few minutes, the bell rang, and class was dismissed shortly after. Today had been an exceptionally long day, due to finals wrapping up for everyone, and Mae, who had not been part of the class for more than two weeks, could not participate.

She stood up, and grabbed her bag before leaving the classroom among her classmates. This week, she had three very important things to do. One was buying some christmas gifts for her friends. The second was scouting for that costume she was supposed to wear for the talent show. And perhaps the thing she looked most forward to was going to take place the coming weekend. Mae's heart fluttered with excitement as soon as she thought of that Date with Julian... But right now, she had more pressing matters to deal with... That costume. Jack and Mae had discussed it during lunch, and Mae was supposed to meet him at the Shack after school. She headed straight for the dorm area, and it didn't take her very long to find the shack. Jack was standing outside, shoveling snow around the small house.

"Working hard, I see, Jack!" Mae called, waving at him.

Time sure was relative... Jack could have swore it was mid February... or even March! But then he woke up this morning and it was December... Featherman Prehistoric Charge wasn't even out yet! Yet Jack could remember watching a new episode last Saturday... Now that he thought about it... time seemed to be jumping around quite a bit for Jack... Oh well... It's been a while sense he last shoveled the walk to the Shack... Or... has it?.... Ok For the sake of keeping his sanity Jack was gunna stop thinking about time and just shovel the walk!

And So Jack shoveled, until a familiar sing song voice brought him out of his existential crisis. "Oh! Hi Mae! Here for the costumes?" Jacks smiled and set his shovel aside and dusted off his hands" I got em all inside, wanna take a look?"

"Yeah! I am, actually. I know, the talent show is ways away from now, but I just wanna be prepared you know?" Mae smiled at Jack. He had always been very friendly and helpful towards Mae, which she really apprechiated. "So, how are things going for you?" She asked, nodding towards the shack.

"You got this from the Janitor right? Not bad, I must say. Sure, it's a little rough around the edges, but it qualifies more than enough for a Club-house." Mae took a good look at the shack. "Alright, now let's check out those costumes! You have some place I can change in privacy, right?" Mae tilted her head slightly to the left with a bright smile on her face, which clearly said 'if you peek, I'll kill you'.

"Of course! I'll wait out here while you change. What do you take me for? Some kinda pervert? I am offended miss! How could you even think such of me? You wound me and my honor... Heheh" Jack tried to pump as much sarcasm into his speech as he could. He laughed and opened the door for Mae,"The first costume is on a mannequin just inside. I have others but for the theme I think you should go for, this one is the best. Try it on and let me know what you think."

If Mae entered the shack there would be a rack of pink costumes, however one would be in the center of the room on a mannequin.

Mae chuckled along with Jack. "Glad you're not that kinda guy!" She had a hard time seeing Jack as a pervert to begin with, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Back in Japan, you could never be too careful. The guys back in her class were for the most part pretty immature, and some of them could be considered peeping toms.

"I'll yell when I'm done changing, alright?" Mae said to Jack before entering the shack and closed the door behind her. "Hmm..." The pinkette examined the pink power ranger-esque costume. "Isn't this a little... Over the top...?" On second thought, it WAS Jack she was talking about. He had a certain flare for being a bit over the top. "Wait... Is this a Featherman Costume? He watches that show? Huh... Didn't think that show had any american fans... Guess I was wrong. Anyway, enough stalling, Mae. It's time to try it on."

After a good 10 minutes of changing, Mae strapped on the pink boots. "Alright, Jackie-kuuun~! I'm done!" She called. The suit was a little tight, but then again, it WAS a cosplay costume. While waiting for Jack to enter, Mae took a good look at herself in the mirror. She didn't look half bad in it, all things considered.

Jack waited patiently for Mae to finish up. This gave him a chance to contemplate this whole time thing again... Things were seriously startin to get weird in that regard.... After a bit of thought Jack rememberd that yesterday he had talked to Nilo about the stuff that happened at the new years festival... but... Today the festival was a few weeks off!.... Ugh... he needed to stop thinking about this...

Luckily for him, Mae walked out of the shack wearing the costume... and ya know what?... She really pulled it off!"Looken Good Mae! I picked out MagiRanger because the of the cape and I thought you could use the wand as a microphone! Plus it's got this whole butterfly thing goin that I think works really well. Now as for Hyde. I picked out..." Jack walked into the shed for only a moment before coming back out with another costumed mannequin"Yellow! I know he's more of a blue but... well... the blue MagiRanger was a girl... and I don't know how he feels about skirts..."

"Thanks! It's a little bit tight, but it does fit. Do you have any other costumes I can try out as well?" Mae smiled at Jack. "I do have a dress or two back home in Japan I could wear... But, I'm saving them for... Special Occasions...".

"Wow, how many of these costumes do you have in there?" Mae asked, intrigued. She didn't see that costume in there earlier, so she assumed he had some place to stash them while they were not in use. "Oh, but why don't we have him try the blue one out too? Snrk... It'll be great!" Mae giggled at the thought of Hyde running around in the blue suit. "But yeah, that Yellow one should work on him... Not sure how much he would like that though.".

"How many costumes do I have?... Huh... lets see... I only have the costumes from seasons that were translated over to america. And each season has, on average, 6 to 7 rangers.... soooo That's about 7 times 22... 154 suits. I have a storage locker that I keep the mass majority of them in. I just grabbed the ones I thought you would like for today." Jack was quite proud of his collection. It was extensive and complete, something other collectors could only dream of saying.

"If you're lookin for something a bit less tight then may I suggest...." Jack entered his shed and returned with another costume."A little Yellow getup?"

"Wha...? 154 SUITS?!" Mae stood there, slackjawed. Where did he keep all those costumes anyway? Inside the shack? Maybe... "I dunno if yellow is really my color... Not that yellow anyway... But sure, why not try it out?" The pinkette giggled as she took the yellow suit from him. "Speaking of which... Do you have a personal favorite?" The girl asked, tilting her head slightly to the left with a raised eyebrow. "Heck, why don't you change into something after me? Just for fun. Come on, Jack-kun? Pleeeeaaseee?" She would look at Jack with big puppy dog eyes.

After Jack would answer, Mae quickly spun around. "I'll see you in a bit then. Ciao!" The girl winked at him before closing the door. Changing into this yellow one wasn't as difficult, since the suit wasn't as much of a tight fit around her thighs and waist. After returning the Pink Suit back on the mannequin, Mae walked back outside. "So, what do you think? I'm looking good in this right?" As silly as these costumes were, Mae had a blast trying them on.

To be honest he kinda felt the same way.. Mae was a pink there was no doubt about that. Her complaint about the tightnes of the costume was the only reason he showed her the Geki Yellow costume, seeing as how that one was probably the loosest fitting costume of the bunch. To bad there wasn't a pink Geki Ranger he could give her.

"How about I answer that question and fulfill that request at the same time! I'll just go ahead and put on my favorite!" Jack giddly ran into his shack and in mere moments was in his costume of choice.

"Behold the power of..."


Jack loved this suit. The lines the color contrast the weapon. It all worked so well together."You don't look to shabby yourself Yellow Cheetah Ranger, heh"

"Oooh. That actually suits you quite well! I see why you like it so much!" Mae clapped her hands together. "I don't really watch alot of these shows, but some of my classmates used to back in Japan. Ah, those were the days." Mae stared off into space.

"I honestly see myself as magical girl over a ranger though. I mean, don't get me wrong, the Power Rangers are awesome, but I just think it feels more like a guy thing." The girl giggled happily. "I doubt you would have anything like that though. You know what, I'll go with the pink one, and let's hope there aren't any perverts watching... If there are any, please teach em a lesson, Jack?" She would wink at Jack with a smile on her face.

"Now that we have sorted out the Costume buisness... You need some help with that?" Mae pointed at the shovel. "'Cuz I'll gladly help out! Who knows, I might join the ranger crew someday, so I should start contributing now, right?" The girl picked up the shovel and started clearing the path to the shack of snow. "Speaking of costumes... Where did you get all those? It must've been quite expensive." Mae looked at jack, tossing a big pile of snow out of the way. "I know cosplaying isn't exactly cheap. I did try it out once. It was for one of my mother's concerts at a convention hall. I dressed up as Yui from Angel Beats, selling snacks. You've seen that show, right?"

"Pfffffft... Maho shojo doesn't have anything on Super Sentai! hehe" Jack chuckled to himself as he took his helmet off and grabbed his shovel. He felt a little silly shoveling the walk as Zeo Ranger Gold... but the feeling soon turned into one of awe upon the realization that he is indeed, shoveling the walk as Zeo Ranger Gold... Awesome....

"Unfortunately I don't have anything that isn't a ranger costume... well... I do have Magna Defender and he's technical not a ranger... But no Maho Shojo... Sorry. Though if you're offering to help me shovel I won't turn you down." Jack happily went back to shoveling until Mae mentioned joining the rangers... that would... Be nice actually to be honest. She would need to awaken first but he wouldn't be against."Maybe some day heh... But you'd have to train first! Heh. As for the costumes. I made most of them. Some I bought. Others I was gifted. Heh... I could teach you how to make a costume if you want." Jack smiled and pat Mae on the back with a small chuckle.

"Pff, as if! But Super Sentai is pretty neat, if a only a little over the top and corny at times." Mae chuckled alongside her friend and began shoveling some more. It was tough work, but helping out a friend was well worth it. That way, things would go by faster. Mae didn't feel as ridiculous now that Jack wore a Ranger costume himself.

"So, how did you get in all of this? I mean, the whole Super Sentai deal? I'm not laughing at you or anything for liking it. It's nice to see actually. Someone who likes Japanese stuff who isn't japanese. Then again, wasn't the whole power ranger stuff localized in America? I wanna say it was... But I could be completely off base with this" Mae looked at Jack, shoveling a big pile of snow out of the way.

"Wait...? You MADE most of them? Wow... That's... really cool actually. I wish I could do something like that. Sure, I'm good at singing, but that's all I got. You seem to be a Jack of all trades, kinda... Oh god, that pun was horrible" Mae let out a Half-groan-half-chuckle sort of sound. "Seriously though, that's pretty amazing. Making all of those costumes by yourself? How long did it take?"

"Pfft... Corny? You say it like it's a bad thing. It's the corny part that makes it awesome!" Jack laughed to him self a little before turning to Mae and smiling at her question,,"Well, my dad's a captain in the local police force... when I was young I really looked up to him. He was a hero!... Then one day he showed me an episode of OhRanger he found at a local GoodWill...He said they were hero's just like him. So I instantly fell in love with it... I watched that tape until it fell apart. And the rest is history." Jack laughed and scratched his mask where his cheek would be."Regardless, If you wanna know about my artistic method, then pull up a seat... this is gunna take a while." Jack spent the next few hours going through every minute detail... The experience must have been excruciating...

(Jack spends time with Mae)