Prologue: Conclave
Man, the only species to achieve sentience in the past millennia. The Human Race, the only one to conceive of the idea of a being more powerful than oneself, a being worthy of worship. The primitive man feared that the gods would smite them down in anger and cowered in fear. It was for this reason of fear that the devout never ceased to do what seemed to please their gods. Fear, an emotion so powerful that it has driven nations to war and people to their deaths. This, the Guardians of old knew of humans. It was an old running joke among them that humans were so narrow minded that any unexplained phenomena: voices in the dark, wisps in the air, would be attributed to the supernatural.
The Guardians were right to hold this viewpoint; after all, they had been at the receiving end of such treatment before. It first began in Egypt, 2690 BCE by human reckoning. A simple experiment was performed to test if the humans were worthy of the knowledge the Guardians possessed. As a whole, they appeared before the Egyptian people in a particularly dry summer that year. Feeling particularly generous, they seeded the clouds and gave the people rain for their crops. The Guardians expected to be thanked; instead, they were worshiped as gods. Sorely disappointed, they tried to teach and reason with the Egyptians. It was to no avail, the idea of supernatural power was so deeply engraved within that culture that they refused to listen to their "gods' secrets". Sorely disappointed, the Guardians withdrew from the physical realms and once again. But that was not the end of their story. The chief guardian, an old and wizened eagle buried bit chips at random locations within Egypt.
When his lieutenant demanded an explanation, he replied, "The humans are not ready now, but that does not necessarily mean that they will not be ready in the future. I am merely granting them a means to contact us again in the future"
The lieutenant sighed and said "I dearly hope that you are right. I personally fear that it is in their nature to worship the unknown. They may never be ready."
The lieutenant's warning was unfounded. It took more than four thousand years, but the first bit chip was uncovered in Gaza in the early spring of 1852. Heaving a sigh of relief, the chief Guardian proceeded to call a conclave. Thirty out of hundreds answered the summons, the rest were busy with their duties. In a flash of blinding light, they appeared in a largish room. Though it took the appearance of a circular room, the area was a highly condensed version of space that consisted of more than thirty dimensions. Crossing a small distance within this area usually resulted in light years worth of travel in the outside world. For simplicity sake, the Guardians called it "Urathragh" in their tongue, which roughly meant "Sub-space".
As the group took their seats, the chief stood and announced the news. "My brethren, the forerunners have found our physical forms at the temple of Ra." At this, low murmurs broke out among the group. The noise level in the room rose steadily and arguments became more heated until its occupants were shouting at one another. The chief cleared his throat noisily and called for silence. "Does anyone have any ideas to deal with this crisis?" he asked.
"I say we wipe the forerunners out this very moment!" one shouted. "No! To do so would require revealing ourselves to the world again! The forerunners may be bigoted, but in no way lacking in cunning. Who knows, they might actually defeat us!" said another. Chaos was but a hair's breath away again but thankfully, a female guardian stood up. Gazing at the gathered lot with her crimson eyes, she sighed deeply. "Brethren, give me your ears." a loud and clear voice contrary to her true age rang out in the room. Immediately, a hushed silence fell upon the room. Dranzer rarely spoke, but when she did, her wisdom usually garnered a rather large audience.
"The forerunners, or humans, as they so call themselves; will never be able to accept us for who we are. The chief allowed them the benefit of doubt in the past. Now, they once again stand at the cusp of discovering about our true identity. In order to be sure that we are not ascribed god-like status once again, we should not destroy them. Instead, I propose a very simple test: we shall wear the form of unthinking beasts and see how they treat us. If they should abuse us or treat us badly, then, we know that mankind has not progressed much since Egypt." Here the old wizened phoenix paused and the room broke out into a melee of noise. Holding up one hand, the phoenix got the room's attention once more.
"It is true. In our previous physical forms of animals, no man would suspect us of higher intellect. We shall test man's worth and find skilled individuals who will be open to reason, individuals not blinded by superstition and myth. After getting to know them better, and after finding them worthy, we can reveal ourselves and enlighten them."
"Madam, you speak good advice" The chief said. "I call for a vote; all those present here in all the realms of subspace in favour of this plan, raise your hand." A short time passed and the vote was counted. "95 percent are in favour of the plan, so let it be." Surmised the chief. Murmuring broke out among those present as the conclave was concluded. Looking over the crowd of people, the one called Dranzer sighed. 'I hope this works out, or all will be lost.' She thought to herself.
The next one hundred years passed slowly with the Guardians taking the positions of various bit beasts. For the first ten years, they appeared to various adults, there wasn't much success in choosing a suitable candidate. It was during the eleventh year of their trying that Dranzer's mate, Drigger finally suggested to search for candidates among children. Tired of searching, the guardians quickly took to this idea. They waited and waited for countless decades and saw every one of their chosen children fail miserably at the task set before them. Hope was all but lost, but after almost one hundred and eighty years of waiting, the bit beast Dragoon announced that he had found a promising candidate.
Tyson Granger was a rather ordinary boy, the guardians decided, until he went on and won the world championships three years in a row. His prowess in battle and undying optimism were what the group was looking for. After his final victory over Brooklyn, a second conclave was called. This time, more than one hundred guardians turned up for the event.
"My friends," began the chief "today is a joyous day. We have finally fulfilled our mission! Let us go to the one named Tyson and tell him our intentions to..." Mid-speech, a dark flame sprang into existence nearby. Every eye in the room was fixated to the unnatural fire and a woman dressed in black robes stepped out. Dranzer, upon seeing the figure, gasped out "It ... can't be!" Weapons were drawn and pointed: Black Dranzer had arrived.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Is everyone having fun without me around?" The deep, haughty voice resounded emptily in the room. "Leave this place, fiend! We have nothing to day to the likes of you." The chief said in a cold voice. "So be it, but before I go, I felt obliged to tell you that I'm giving all my knowledge to the human company known as Biovolt. Toodles!" and with a crack of dark flame, she was gone. The guardians were all in shock that one of their greatest enemies would show up in their day of greatest triumph. There were scattered mutterings among those gathered until Dragoon spoke up.
"Suffice to say, this calls for our current plans to be accelerated. With your permission, chief, I would compile all our knowledge and pass it on to the BBA. They, at least have proven trustworthy." The weary chief nodded his consent "Go, make haste, for the time is short and the work plentiful" With that, the old Eagle dissolved the conclave and all the guardians returned to their duties.
As the chief watched his brethren work, he morphed into his animalistic form he had grown used to. Spreading his massive wings, he took off into the harsh vacuum. Flying between folds of subspace, he headed back to earth to contemplate this most recent development.