James Wheeler

"Layback Transmutation, Black Transmutation Ranger!"

James Wheeler is the Black Ranger, connected to the Golem.

Biography
James grew up in England, where he befriended various kids with unknown disabilities. They were bullied, and in defending them he received a scar on his back. For unknown reasons, this convinced him that it was always better to put himself in danger, even when there was no need. He just barely got into the video and computer college he applied to (but later ended up on the Dean's List anyway), and moved to America.

While there, he met Marina in a cafe, and managed to creep the high-schooler out by being overly familiar. While in the park, he was found by a mysterious black crystal. The woman who'd sent it, Ashley Jones, soon appeared as well, but refused to explain until she'd found all of the people she was looking for. Telling them to concentrate on the crystals, she left. He and Chikato, who'd also gotten a crystal, headed into town, James offering to make him some intro music for his magic show. At the restaurant James picked out, they found Ashley, and confronted her. The brief explanation—that they'd been chosen to fight the undead—reminded James of Persona; he wasn't phased by the idea at all.

Ashley had warned them to stay away from graveyards, but as soon as he was done eating James headed for the nearest one, where he discovered Marina being attacked by zombies. He offered to help, but when the zombies began to rise he froze up and hid instead, watching Marina, and later Karen and Ashley, defeat the undead. Afterwards he said he was okay, but that he couldn't have helped since he was unarmed—and he'd have messed up the others' flow of battle.

He accompanied the others back to Karen's mansion, and on her orders concentrated on his crystal, making contact with the golem inside. He went for a wander around the house, and had another argument with Marina that ended with a semi-apology from her for overreacting earlier. He left as everyone else did, but forgot his phone and came back for it. He helped Chikato get back to his hotel.

The next day, he headed to Chikato's magic show, with his bass guitar. Marina joined him and gave him cookies, and he reassured her that the performers were perfectly safe, being professional escapologists. As she did, he noticed the smell of zombies, but his golem didn't answer when he called, so he dove into the fight unmorphed, wielding his guitar as a club. Even after Marina yelled at him to morph multiple times, he continued as he was, wanting to prove that he wasn't weak. Eventually he listened to her, with extreme reluctance.

After the fight, he witnessed Chikato hugging an upset Marina and seemed to take it differently than either of them did. Her foster parents, George and Alan arrived, and outside of nearly getting punched he didn't show much interest in the ensuing discussion about what was going on. Mostly he played his guitar or argued with George or Alan about his previous encounter with Marina.

On the way back to Ashley's mansion, Alan tried to talk to him, but James was monosyllabic. During Ashley's explanation, he was more vocal, optimistic about their magic. Later Alan pulled him aside, seeing some of himself in his antisocial behavior. James confessed that sometimes he felt like he'd cause the deaths of the people he was around, and he felt like a failure for just barely getting into the college he wanted, but talking made him feel better. As the others came out and started talking, he went back to singing and playing guitar, and then suggested they go out to eat. He had a gig at the Red Mermaid, so they went there, and he performed.

When he finished, he took a nap on the table. The other teens returned and got to hear about Marina and Chikato's adventure in the kitchen. He ate while Chikato talked to Marina's unicorn, which had briefly taken over her body, and then suggested that the Red Mermaid become their default hangout. He went home, and when the golem asked, named him Romeo.

The next day, he tried to ignore the other Rangers while playing bass in a tree. Eventually he gave in and offered to let them hang out at his place. It didn't last long, as Hypnoza and Kurai attacked. Once again James fought unmorphed, and afterwards paid more attention to his phone than the other Rangers. When Marina confronted him, he said that for some battles, they didn't need the suit—and that he 'had the heart' to not fight morphed. Very, very reluctantly, he agreed to morph next time. He smashed his bass, and continued to mope and ask Marina to yell at him until she decided to drag him to Alan.

Alan quietly turned their conversation into a therapy session. When James said that putting himself in danger for his friends was who he was, Alan asked if that was what his friends wanted, or needed. He got upset, thinking his only choices were to endanger himself for others or not protect them at all, but Alan calmed him down and made him admit that his friends didn't want or need him to be a martyr. He broke down crying. Marina invited him to stay for dinner, and he accepted.

The next day, he helped set up a display about Kene College for the local high school's college fair. Chikato joined him and offered to help, and soon Marina arrived as well. James developed a headache as they talked. Though they reminded him of his old friends, it wasn't enough for him. Marina wasn't happy with being compared to a friend who'd “use pain” on him, or that he felt better about himself when he was yelled at to the point of tears. He was pessimistic about becoming a better person. The others telling him he was already a good guy, but with “a concentrated amount of angst in his pants” made him upset, and he started packing up his display. He insisted they just couldn't understand him or his weirdness.

Feeling like today was the worst day ever, he cried under the table, wishing one of his old friends was punching him. Marina told him about her brother, Liam, who'd gone missing after the fire that killed her parents. He told her not to give up on him, and thanked her, asking if she'd like to meet his parents via Skype—and ask his Mom why he liked being yelled at.

The others, and the newly-arrived Yukiko chatted, and he became glum again, deciding to stop playing music. A monster-induced earthquake began, and he headed out to fight. When Chikato and Marina asked for directions to the fight, he yelled at them to stop “boo-loving” and get outside the school, or else. He'd been morphed, but demorphed as the others joined the battle. Marina, naturally, yelled at him and he morphed, but he was upset. When Marina continued to yell at him, since she'd been hurt too and still thought he was being stupid, he screamed that he'd stop talking and playing music, and that what he was doing might be dumb, but it was “the warrior way” and he would not change. Marina punched him.

Recovering, he tossed her his shield and took a blast for Karen. Marina healed him and he went right back to fighting. He attacked Kurai's shield of dark water with his bare hands, with no effect. Once he, Chikato and Marina reached the roof where the witches were, he got the idea to create a combined team weapon, but it didn't work. He decided to stop talking to all of his teammates, which Marina wasn't happy with. Despite him calling her a bloody lame healer, things worked out relatively peacefully. Her little speech about how they wouldn't be trying to hard if they didn't care about him made him want to cry, but not in a good way. Morphed, he destroyed the monster sent after them.

The other two had been knocked out by the monster's poisonous gas, and when they woke up they acted slightly drunk. He may have been affected himself, since his comments became unusually random, and he left, though he'd returned by the time Marina regained consciousness a second time. He showed her, carrying the still-sleeping Chikato, back to Ashley's mansion. His Skype rang, and he and Marina talked to his old friends. Or rather, Marina offended his old friends by telling them what she thought of James's attitude. James ended the conversation by hanging up and throwing his phone against the wall.

In spite of his insistence that he “needed to fight his own battles,” Marina made him stay for medical treatment, which made him cry. When Chikato woke up, he reserved a ticket back to England and ignored the other two, except for a remark about getting yelled at, and then he decided that he wouldn't talk anymore. He changed his mind very quickly. Chikato tried to get through to him, and to do that took away his phone, making James upset. Forcing an apology out of him, Chikato gave the phone back and stormed out. Going outside, James took his anger out on a tree, and wondered what he had become. He decided that he needed to leave Sleepy Hollow to “find himself.”

Rejoining the others, he brought up some kind of magic gateway that they had to be careful about, but wouldn't explain where he'd gotten that information when Marina asked, so his teammates didn't believe him. When she went to the bathroom, he told Chikato that he was thinking of leaving. Chikato was startled and upset, prompting James to scream at him. Chikato had never been yelled at like that before, and fled, scared and upset.

James went looking for him, and once again the conversation turned to James's “fighting style.” He insisted that he had a right to be careless, but Chikato got angry and yelled at him for it. James made his decision, and left.

Personality
James keeps his thoughts to himself, so when he does speak it can seem like a non sequitur. He's intent on proving that he's not weak, and thus makes reckless decisions in combat. He tends to push other people away, even the ones he calls his friends, and tends to talk about himself and his problems even when trying to reassure others. He's convinced that he's weird, nobody understands him, and he cannot change, so when anyone tries to confront him about his behavior he lashes out.

Arsenal

 * Morpher
 * Transmutation Pipe
 * Golem Zord

Appearance
James is slender, 5'4” tall and has black hair with a dyed purple streak that usually hangs over his right eye. He has scars on his back from an incident where he defended his friends from bullies, an incident he brings up frequently.