Marino

Marino (マリノ) is a female Reploid encountered by X in the Gigantis Island region, at Gaudile's laboratory. Marino prides herself a thief, akin to Robin Hood and sought to steal Professor Gaudile's new technology from him. Using X's groups entry as a cover, she intrudes unseen into the Eternal Forest area of Gaudile's lab, where she discovers Cinnamon. The two quickly form a bond, as Marino realizes she must take Cinnamon with her--especially if she is to make off with the new technology she was after. During her escape, Dr. Psyche soon finds her and she ends up nearly damaged by his Preon companions. While she survives thanks to Cinnamon's healing ability, she falls unconscious until X rouses her. She decides to join forces with X to get Cinnamon back. After the party defeats Dr. Psyche, Cinnamon encourages Marino to join X's group with her.

At the end of the game, before the party leaves for the airship, Marino mentions that she's going to try a more legitimate lifestyle, though she does admit to maybe just stealing on the weekends. When Redips later exposes himself to be a Maverick and frames X and his group, Marino compares his actions to that of a corporate executive, which is throwing away people as if trash once they no longer serve any use to him.

In battle, Marino fights like a Ninja, or more specifically, the kunoichi. She utilizes a pair of laser knives initially, (held to her back by a magnetic holder/sheathe) which she draws with lightning speed. Later on, she can be equipped with elementally themed shurikens and even a laser-bladed Chakram, with which she shows off her martial arts prowess and performs a 1-2-3 combo of slashes and a high-kick. Also of note is her visor attached to her helmet, this can be pulled down over her eyes to provide telescopic vision, at the very least.

Trivia

 * Inspirations for this character are a mix of the popular female ninja (above mentioned kunoichi) and the female thief character archetype which emerges in several Japanese video game and animation characters, more specifically Rouge the Bat. This would explain why Marino's garb consists of Gogo boots and not sandals and tabi socks, like a more traditional Ninja.
 * In her early designs Marino resembled a character style from the ZX series.