Guardians



The Guardians (ガーディアン) are an independent peacekeeping force in the Mega Man ZX series. They investigate Maverick outbreaks and protect peripheral towns from Maverick attacks. Led by Prairie, they operate from their mobile headquarters, the airship Grand Nuage.

Structure
The group is sometimes referred to as simply "Guardian", although individual members are also called Guardians. The soldiers wear a green uniform over a black bodysuit with a small, golden plated necktie on their vests. They have round, metallic helmets with a T-shaped red visor that can be retracted. The male soldiers wear white pants while the females wear green skirts with white belts. The majority of the Guardians consists of Reploids, although they do not seem to have restrictions against Humanoids, as Aile/Vent and Ashe become Guardians.

Guardians are volunteers who banded together for a common cause. Their headquarters is an airship since their job requires a convenient method of staying mobile. The Guardians' shield is a symbol of protection for all people, though the state regards their existence rather murkily. The state unofficially endorses them, if only because they possess no means of restricting their actions.

The Guardians have a very simple hierarchy, with Prairie as the commanding officer and Fleuve as the vice-commander and researcher. The infantry is the most numerous, although the Guardians also count on non-combative members such as medics and engineers. Operators also have an important role, managing the airship's operations and the Guardian missions.

Mission Requests
Mission requests from the Guardians are made available on the game's Transervers, where the player can read the details and choose to accept them. After a mission is completed, the player should return to a Transerver to submit a report and receive a quantity of E-Crystals as a reward. The player can abort the mission, but the player will have to start over if the same mission is chosen again later. Only one mission at a time can be chosen.

Guardian Test
Volunteers appear to be required to undergo a test before gaining access to the Guardian HQ; Vent and Aile both needed to basically play a game of hide-and-seek with Guardian soldiers in Cinq Ville. After finding them all, Vent/Aile is given Prairie's stuffed animal as certification for passing the test, being requested to return it to its owner. This trial might or might not be a standard method of Guardian admission.

History
The history of the Guardians is revealed during the events of Mega Man ZX by the stories told by Prairie and the data left behind by the first commander and the Recon Unit that protected her before her disappearance.

The first commander was a female human scientist who protected Reploids when no one else would hundreds of years ago, Ciel. It is possible they were formerly the Resistance. After the war, peace had finally prevailed, humans and Reploids were living in harmony, but the sentient machines known as Mavericks continued to threaten mankind. She formed the Guardians to locate the source of the Maverick outbreaks in an effort to put a stop to it.

One day, a Guardian Recon Unit led by the first commander eventually discovered a strange metal in Area F of Cinq Ville. This metal, a fragment, began to speak to the Guardians in their minds. The commander labeled the fragment "Biometal Model W" and ordered the unit to research it.

Eventually, exposure to the Model W fragment caused the unit to start to suffer from unexplained headaches and numbness, which led the commander to remove her unit from the site and continue the research on her own. However, one day, when the unit was on the verge of giving up, they were betrayed by one of their own: Serpent, who stole the Model W fragment and wiped out the unit. However, the Recon Unit successfully bought their commander enough time to escape. Before the last member of the unit succumbed to his injuries, a distress call and several reports detailing Serpent's betrayal were left behind in the hopes of informing their comrades of their new enemy. However, this news would not reach them until the events of Mega Man ZX.

After Serpent's outbreak, the original commander on her own uncovered the Model W core and began researching it. She used the research on Model W as a basis for the creation of six new Biometals: Model X, Model Z, Model H, Model F, Model L and Model P, all made from the consciousness of ancient heroes to combat the Model W threat. Afterwards, the commander used the Biometals to seal away the Model W Core in Area M ("Remains"), giving each Biometal a password to the seal. The Biometals are unable to recall these events, however, as their memories from the moments after their creation were erased.

Upon learning the ones who could transform with the power of Biometals were all survivors of Maverick raids (The Chosen Ones), the first commander issued a final order to the Guardian Girouette to protect the raid survivors before disappearing. Prairie took over as the new commander and continued to investigate the cause of the Maverick outbreaks, unaware of the truth behind her predecessor's disappearance. Furthermore, in the effort to protect raid survivors and to cover up Girouette's identity as a Chosen One, the Guardians created the transporter company Giro Express in secret. Giro Express allowed Girouette to adopt and employ many orphaned children over the years, including Vent and Aile, whilst keeping his ties to the Guardians an absolute secret.

In the meantime, Serpent gained the reputation of Cinq Ville's national hero by his effective handling of their energy crisis and Maverick outbreaks, all the while keeping his past hidden. He founded his own company, Slither Inc., in the center of Cinq Ville and used the facade of peace to disguise his shady activities since.

Mega Man ZX Advent
The Guardians have a short, yet important role in Mega Man ZX Advent.

When Master Albert finishes the creation of the ultimate Biometal Ouroboros, the Mega Man Model A receives help from Vent/Aile, who arrives with the Grand Nuage to take the Model A Chosen One along with the Hunters to the final battle. The airship crashes into Ouroboros, creating an opening for the two Mega Men to invade the colossal Biometal.

It is also revealed in the game that during the period of four years and eight months between Mega Man ZX and Mega Man ZX Advent, Prometheus and Pandora stole Model H, Model F, Model L and Model P from a Guardian laboratory. Since then, Vent/Aile has been searching for the Biometals, but the Mega Man Model ZX only learns about their whereabouts after a confrontation with Ashe/Grey. Model X surmises that the Biometals have the consciousness of their Chosen Ones (meaning that the wills of the Biometals are currently suppressed by their Chosen Ones), explaining how the four Biometals which were designed to fight Model W are now being used for the opposite.

With Model W vanishing without a trace at the ending of Mega Man ZX Advent, the Guardians are believed to be travelling the world once again, as Vent/Aile claimed that "there are a lot of things that need finding".

Mega Man ZX (manga)
The Guardians basically mirror their role from the game in the manga; however, one noteworthy difference is that the docked Guardian Base is incapacitated by Slither Inc.'s forces.

Trivia

 * There are strong implications that the first commander and founder of the Guardians may have been Ciel from the Mega Man Zero series. The first commander's background is very reminiscent of Ciel's, and Prairie's ties with the first commander are very similar to the relationship Ciel had with Alouette. Also, the first commander's image seen in Guardian reports greatly resembles Ciel's design, despite being constantly shrouded in shadows.
 * Congre's assignment as a Guardian soldier is referred to as "one of the seven great Guardian mysteries" in the game's database. What the other six mysteries would be is unknown.
 * Most members from the Guardians have French names, males being named after fishes and females after plants, and Prairie and Fleuve are named after locations they can be found, a prairie and a river.