#actirangers

ActiRanger Magenta (#7)

Name: Shen

Pronouns: He/Him

Sport of Data (eSports)

Weapon: Power Controller

While the rest of the ActiRangers are just world-famous athletes on top of being Rangers, Shen pulls triple (technically quadruple)-duty:

During the day, he's a computer repairman at a big box electronics store, where he's overworked and constantly tired after clocking out.

After his shifts, he's a professional eSports gamer. He primarily plays in the fighting game circuit, but also dabbles in class-based shooters.

In spite of his exhaustion, when the adrenaline of gaming or battle kicks in (or he has himself an energy drink), he's all energy.

As an ActiRanger, he's similar to Ninja Storm's Green Samurai Ranger, Cameron Watanabe. With the real Professor Coach "missing" (and only being allowed so much PTO from his job), Shen helps her holographic replica monitor the rest of the team from their headquarters. His expertise in fighting games helps him recognize and pinpoint mistakes made in combat, where reaction times can improve, and how to 'read' opponent's movements.

When the going gets tough and he has to join the fray in person, his fighting style is greatly varied, occasionally doing combos directly lifted from the fighting games he specializes in.

Do not insinuate that eSports doesn't count as a 'real sport'. He will leave you flat on your back with a foot on your chest.

His weapon is a video game controller that can manifest a hard-light/energy blade and become a katar, similar to a lightsaber.

ActiRanger Black (#9)

Name: Tevita

Pronouns: He/Him

Sport of Kinesis (Boxing)

Weapon: Power Punchers

ActiRanger Black is my OC

Tevita is a famous Polynesian boxer, big and strong and bara on the same level as Blue and Tartan.

He struggles a lot with emotional regulation; he feels things very strongly, and can oscillate between moods very quickly, and then shut down from emotional burnout and feel completely numb. He doesn't enjoy being at the mercy of such capricious feelings, and uses boxing and Ranger combat as an outlet when things get too intense to vent excess frustration in a healthier way. If either of those are unavailable, though, he struggles to maintain composure in normal social interactions and environments.

Without a decent external target (like a boxing opponent or an enemy in battle), he may verbally or physically lash out at the source of his anger, at nearby property, or himself (the latter being somewhat common because of the self-loathing his emotional issues have instilled him with).

He is closest to ActiRanger Blue, whose calm and kind energy and advice help regulate his mood. The fact that Blue is the other strongest member of the group that can provide sparring (or hold him back) when needed is also invaluable. Being both as strong as, and much smarter than, him means Tevita trusts him more than anyone else.

At some point, Black had a rather intense outburst during a battle with Rival Knight. He was overwhelmed by feelings of hurt and betrayal that Gray would choose to leave the Rangers and join the Gambit Gang, which morphed into a violent rage. Black nearly killed Rival Knight before the other ActiRangers intervened and stopped him, which led to a spiral of self-loathing that led him to quit the team. Unfortunately, the Gambit Gang didn't get the memo, and things went even more south from there...

His boxing gloves are similar to the Mystic Force Fighters, and come with cords that allow them to be launched at a distance for ranged attacks, to bind opponents, and to pull him and opponents to each other (think a dual-purpose grappling hook or Roadhog's hook).

His number being 9 (the inversion of Gray's #6) and his color being Black are intentional subtle connections to Gray, suggesting things like their fraught relationship and perhaps being a replacement after Gray left.

ActiRanger Orange (#10/X)

Name: Toni Lance

Pronouns: She/Her

Sport of The Grind (Skateboarding)

Weapon: Power Board

Toni dabbles in all extreme sports, but her focus is professional skateboarding. Tony Hawk video games were basically practice for her; she is more than ready to use any sort of open environment as her personal skate park

She's a tomboy with a bold, punkish attitude. Very much sees herself as 'one of the boys'. She is more than able to chill, relax, and hang outside of a fight. Will be the first to defend new skaters from anyone attempting to gatekeep the hobby; also ready to throw down with HOA Karens. She has an appreciation for graffiti, but knows she lacks the knowledge to pull it off herself.

Her skateboard can morph and expand into a bladed arm-mounted shield.

Toni was Aff's first ActiRanger OC! He knew he wanted to make an extreme sports Ranger, and stumbled into her number being 10 making the perfect X-Games reference (much like how ActiRanger Pink was originally going to be #5 before Spicymancer went with the "four/fore" pun).

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And that wraps up our ActiRanger OCs! Aff would have posted them here himself, but he's still upset about the Great 2018 Purge.

You'll notice that our OCs skip #8. That was an intentional choice as a courtesy to the artist CharlieDoughnut on Twitter, who we discovered drew their own ActiRanger 8, a figure-skater (excellent pun, 10/10 - or in this case, 8/8?)