Okay, sorry, school keeps me pretty busy!

Ashley Burn, yet everyone calls her Sparky.

Age: 13 3/4

Favorite thing to do: Draw, learn.

Appearence: Long, wavy dark gold hair with a dark blue steak just along her face, soft, blue/grey eyes, light, pale skin, about 5'2.

Home: Small shack on the beach, no parents (again, I hardly ever make a character with parents. I don't know why.)

Personality: Smiles and laughs a lot, yet quiet and reserved, sparky in personality. Loves most animals (excluding all marine life except dolphins, monkeys, frogs. And bugs don't count in animal erea either. I despise those too.)

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My head surfaced the water. I blinked sea water out of my eyes, which had become fairly accustomed to the salt water. The sun was setting beyond the rippling horizon, and I was a ways away from shore. I could only just make out my little shack, sitting on the beach, just far enough away that the waves couldn't reach it even at high tide. I needed to get back soon. The later it got, the higher the tide, and the closer the sharks came to shore. A fin appeared out of the water, and something nudged my leg. I lauged. A snout emerged out of the water. A dolphin.

"Gonna give me a ride, Silky?" I asked. Corny name for a dolphin, I know, but it suited her, and she seemed to like it. I grabbed hold of her dorsal fin, and we were speeding through the water. I screamed in laughter. I felt like a Lost Girl, totally free and alone, as if I were flying. We passed the sand bar, which was now too deep for me to reach, and sped on. Finally, we came to where Silky could no longer swim. I let go, and swam toward shore. I wrung out my fraying denim shorts and grey tanktop. Stars started showing one by one. I started walking toward the shack, wringing out my frizzy blonde hair. I could faintly hear a boat in the distance, getting closer. This didn't bother me. I was used to people canoeing, ski jetting, or power boating past. If they happened to notice my shack, they usually thought it was abandoned. After a few moments though, I realized the engine wasn't fading away, but getting closer still. I poked my head out the door. A pitch-black ski boat was heading directly toward the beach. They reached waste deep water, cut the engine, and someone jumped out, wading toward shore. They strode straight up to me, as if finding a thirteen year old girl living alone on the beach in a one room hut was an every day occurance.

"Miss Ashley Burn?" The guy said.

"And if I am?" I challenged. 

He smiled. "You are privilaged to get to work for us."

"Uh huh," I said. If I had something more than a curtain for a door, I would have slammed it in his face.

"Yes!" he said, smiling broadly. He evidenlty didn't get sarcasm.

"We are filling out our agreement."

"Agreement to who?" I demanded.

"Your great grandfather," the guy replied as if this was obvious.

"My.. My WHAT?! How the heck do you know my great grandfather? I don't even know my great grandfather!"

The guy rolled his eyes.

"Well of course not. He died before you were born. But he worked faithfully for us for seventy odd years, and it was his final request of us that one of his generation continue his legacy. Your grandparents denied, and kept their children, your parents, hidden from us. Sadly, they died before we could locate them."

"You're nuts," I said, though part of me believed him. He sounded so sure, as if this were absolute fact. Now, I know, I know. Some guy shows up at your door and says he knows your parents. Oldest kidnapping trick in the book. You really do slam the door in his face, and call the police. But this guy was different. And I didn't have a door or a phone, so what was I to do?

"We'll take you to try it out," the guy said, gesturing toward the boat.

I hesitated.

"Will I get to come back?" The guy's smile wavered slightly.

"We'll see." I thought for a moment. Then I turned, threw some clothes and my treasured items into a WWII bag, pulled on some sandles, and exited the hut.

"Okay," I said, and we waded back to the boat. As we were pulling away, I took one look back at the hut. I'd be back, someday.

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So, I guess Sparky's a bit of a Nim like character, but I like her that way. I guess I'll let someone else introduce her to ya'll.

--Herbert--
My last training exercise. The others had been quite easy compared to what I was about to do now. I had to dive into the megalodon tank, drug the big shark so it would go to sleep, and survive. I took a deep breath, aware of Mr. X and Veronica's presence, and jumped into the tank.
I won't say quite what happened, but this is what they saw from outside.
After I jumped in, I almost released the drug. But then Mr. X saw me get chomped, and then pools of blood rose. After a moment, Mr. X said, "Well, Veronica, I'm afraid you'll have to handle the paperwork,". Veronica sobbed quietly and began to slump off.
After about 90 seconds, I rose from the blood unscathed. Then the red cleared out of the pool, and the shark was fast asleep.
Even I don't know how I did it. But however it happened, it was good enough for Mr. X. I officially became part of the SMoSEA Animal Patrol. My job involved just pacing back in forth in front of cages watching to see if the animals were escaping. Hopefully it would get more exciting later, but for the moment it was just guard duty.
But then about a few days later, Mr. X came in to tell us that there was something urgent happening. We entered the boardroom and sat at the table for a meeting.
"We've received intelligence that FREAK, or 'Free Real Extinct Animals, 'Kay?' And their leader, Johnny Westlove, are striving to strike against us and free our collection." said Fry Wisely, the chicken dinner and head curator of the museum.
I raised a hand. "Who is Johnny Westlove?"
Mr X. spoke up. "He's the best cheater at his game, that's who he is. He earns all his money cheating, and no one ever caught him... till I did.
"It was fifteen years ago. The stakes were the last dodo bird in existence. Me and him, we gambled for it. He won, but I saw through his disguise. By cheating, he effectively forfeited the prize, and the avian in question is still sitting in a terrarium on the fifth floor."
"So he wants revenge?" I asked.
"Beliefs about his motives are inconclusive," said Mr. Wisely. "He has a daughter, Shy Ellington, who was estranged from him until he found and adopted her from an orphanage. Mr. Westlove and Miss Ellington's mother divorced before Shy was born, and then when her momma died, no one knew of her father's existence. But a paternity test after the adoption proved the relation, and she is now an agent of FREAK working with her dad to bring us down."
There was a knock on the door. "Enter!" Wislely called. A barefoot blonde-haired girl in a blue tanktop stepped in. The room immediately smelled of ocean air.
"Hi," she said. "Call me Sparky!"
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Johnny Westlove was Daffodil's creation. I incorporated it now, since Daff can't be online just now and wouldn't want to take the time to write at just this moment. So I introduced him for her. Hopefully she'll participate in this RP later.

You misspelled "barren"

--Herbert--
After we left the Panic Room and Mr. X explained what had happened and assured us that the tourists were under control, I asked a big question. "If FREAK wants to free the animals... well, that's good, right? Cause then the animals are back in the ecosystem again!"
"Veronica, please enlighten Herbert and the other trainees," said Mr. X, and she was off.
"Many years ago..." said Veronica...
The story she told was intriguing. Two centuries ago, SMoSEA's to-be founder Dr. Peter Turris had seen the future through a gift, which was not looking bright. It told of a day when all species on the Earth were extinct forever, except for humans, which would survive due to their rise through their greed, and their activities would murder all the other life, effectively terminating the ecosystem. And then our species would die as well, leaving the Earth cold and lifeless for the rest of time.
Therefore, Dr. Turris realized there was only one way to save humankind when this inevitable day arrived. To preserve all species in a protected place to where man, woman, and childkind would flee to when all else had been diminished. At the end of time, the last location on Earth with a functioning ecosystem would be the SMoSEA.
But everyone else believed him to be a whackjob. Dr. Turris was laughed away, no one ever thinking that this was true. By trapping the animals, they said, he would be harming the ecosystem, not protecting it. And this so-called future was bogus, they said. Turris' first public attempts to find support for such a sanctuary went up in flames. So he went into hiding, and did it secretly. Each time a species came to the verge of extinction due to human activity, he found and took captive of the last ones of their kind in existence. If they were left alone, the humans would kill them all in the open and doom humankind forever. This was why FREAK had to be stopped. Johnny Westlove believed in letting the animals roam free, but if they did, they would die, and so would our planet's ecosystem.
Dr. Turris soon secretly and mysteriously enlisted others to help. One was Ashley "Sparkey Burn's great-great-great-great-times-a-lot grandfather. And Dr. Turris was...
"My great-great-great-more-greats grandfather," finished Veronica. She looked both sad and mad. She exited the room. I ran after her. "Veronica!" I called. She stopped and turned. "Why are you so upset about your ties to this place?"
Veronica's ears turned red. "My parents ran away from this. They wanted to let their little girl live a regular life! And I almost had it.
But then they died in that terrible avalanche, skiing out there at that awful resort without any safety checks. The tumble was forecasted. If the resort had not allowed skiing that day, they would have lived. But no, the resort wanted more money from rented skis, didn't matter whether the skiers died or not. And splat, there goes my wonderful normal life, the day of my parents' anniversary, and enter the museum, who demand I come in just because my freaking anescestor worked on this! Never asked what I wanted! NEVER!!!"
Veronica sobbed. "And you're the only part of this that's worth it, Herbert, cause YOU'RE CUTE, you know that? And you care! But no one else in the SMoSEA GIVES A DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
She sobbed again and ran into her bedroom. I sighed and turned, only to discover every single person in the museum standing behind me.
"It was the best way for her," said Mr X. sadly. "If we hadn't turned up in the poor girl's life, she was going to end up in an orphanage with horrible food. This was in her best interest."
I pushed my way through the crowd and walked into my own room, feeling the eyes of all the people (and all of the (1) living chicken dinners) pointed at my back.
I went to bed wishing I could do something for Veronica and her tortured life.
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Okay. So there we go. A basic history of the SMoSEA. Why they have animals from prehistoric times before humans... I'll explain. See, some 20 years ago before our story is set, a few villains united with the plan to repopulate the world with prehistory varieties, which would naturally cause ultimate chaos, as anyone who has seen Jurassic Park will know. SMoSEA stopped those evildoers and captured the genetically recreated prehistory animals and then put them in their galleries. This included T-rex and most other dinos, the megaladon, and many others.
So now it's someone else's turn!

Oh, forgot appearance... also I think I'm going to edit some stuff.

Name: Azalea Perkins

Age: 12, nearly 13

Favorite things(s) to do: Read, write, bird-watch, go into her woods

Home: House in the country surrounded by woods

Personality: Tomboy, doesn't like anything fancy. Known to be outgoing and a bookworm. She can be shy around older people, but not people around her age. Loves animals, mostly birds and cats. 

Appearance: Average height, about 5'1. Dark brown hair up to elbow and bright blue eyes. Usually wears casual clothes: a Woodstock festival shirt, jeans, sneakers.

Ok, now on to my POV!!

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Azalea~

"What bird is that?" I muttered to myself as I sat in a tree, looking at some strange bird through my binoculars perched a few trees away. I had been reading in a tree when some bird caught my eye. You see, I'm an avid bird-watcher. But this bird was nothing like I'd seen before. It looked like a pigeon, but it was... different. It had a red breast, everything else blue. It defintely wasn't a mourning dove. Too brightly colored. Was it some bird from the South America? A quetzel? No... then what was it?!

I frantically searched through my Guide to North American Birds. As I skimmed the pages, one of them caught my eye. It looked exactly like that bird! I looked at the caption. Passenger Pigeon. Extinct. Last one ever known died on September 1st, 1914.

My eyes widened. The passenger pigeon?? But they were extinct! Supposedly... but if I took a picture of it, or followed it to where its nest is, it would be known worldwide! I'd be famous!

Ok, I didn't really care about being famous and all that jazz. Maybe I'd just keep it to myself so it would my own little secret. 

I took out my camera from my bag, (I bring it in case I see a cool bird) turned it on as fast as I could, zoomed in, and took the picture. Snap!

Now to follow it. I heard passenger pigeons didn't really mind humans. That's how they got killed off in the first place. People wanted food, so they shot the passenger pigeons. I shuddered. Why would I eat a pigeon? People back then were stupid. 

Putting my purple bag onto my shoulder, I grabbed a branch from another tree, gathered my courage and let go of the maple tree. I reached out for another branch and another until I was a few feet away from the pigeon. It tilted its head at me as if to say, Why is there a girl hanging from a branch?

I scooted over on the branch until I got to the tree the branch was hanging from and climbed up onto the tree.

"Can you show me where your nest is, little guy?" I asked the passenger pigeon. I know, I'm talking to a pigeon. Awkward. But it seemed to understand me and hopped onto the next branch. It tilted its head again, but this time in a direction. Beyond the woods.

My parents would be worried about me if I didn't come home before dinner. But there was a supposedly extinct animal, going to show me its nest! Home or pigeon? Pigeon any day.

So I grabbed a branch and another, looking like a girl Tarzan or something, and followed the pigeon as it hopped from branch to branch. It even waited for me when it went too far ahead. 

Finally, after my arms were really starting to ache and the sun was nearly set, the passenger pigeon stopped and flew away.

"Oh c'mon! I actually fell for that. It was probably trying to get away from me, not leading the way to its nest." I rolled my eyes at myself. Well, might as well get down.

I climbed down one of the trees and jumped down. Wait a minute. I had no idea where I was. I let a pigeon lead me somewhere I had no idea was. Great. Just great. Which way was my house? It was hard to tell because I was so deep in the woods, and I took so many twists and turns. I'd never be able to get back now.

I sat down on a mossy rock, my hear beating faster and faster by the second. My parents would be worried sick! They wouldn't know where I was, and I didn't know where I was.

Suddenly, I heard a soft chirp and the passenger pigeon was right in front of me. It hopped a few feet away, seemingly waiting.

So it really was trying to show me its nest. It probably just went too far ahead or needed to fly instead of hopping; something like that. 

I got up and followed it, still curious about where its nest was. Ater what seemed hours of walking, it stopped again, this time in front of a burrow.

"What is it?" I asked. It bobbed its blue head right at the burrow over and over. "You want me to go in there?" The passenger pigeon bobbed its head faster. "Oook. Whatever you say." I dropped myself into the burrow like Alice, except intentionally.

"AAAHHH!!!" I screamed. I forgot I didn't consider how deep this went. Clocks and beds better not be floating in the air with me, I thought sarcastically. Abruptly I landed at the bottom of the burrow. Like it was always there, the passenger pigeon stood before me and went down the tunnel that was in front of me.

I crawled down the tunnel with it until there was a metal door with a code to get in. The pigeon seemed to expect this, and typed in the code with its beak. Smart bird. I thought they were supposed to be stupid.

The metal door opened and I got up. Standing before me was a man with a black suit and a name tag: Mr. X.

"You've come at last, Azalea." Mr. X said.

"Y-you were e-expecting me?" I asked. I'm super nervous around people older than me, other than my mom and dad. "A-are you p-part of a-an evil p-plot or s-something?" 

The middle-aged man chuckled. "Of course not. You're here because you got a job at the Secret Museum of Supposedly Extinct Animals. Or SMoSEA for short."

"Y-You're lying. Y-You're just here to kidnap me," I said, backing away from him, narrowing my eyes. My shyness was disappearing. "This has to be a trap."

"You're right to be suspicious," Mr. X said, a twinkle in his eye. "But I'm not part of an evil plot or here to kidnap you. I need you to track down some supposedly extinct animals. That passenger pigeon, Martha, she was a test to see if you were the right one for the job. Turns out you are."

"It was a test?" I said, bewildered. "How did Martha do all that? Wait, that's the name of the last passenger pigeon!"

"She's the great-great-great-granddaughter of Martha," Mr. X replied. "You see, she actually layed a few eggs, and we took them here to the SMoSEA. (It took a long time to train her to do all that, you know.)"

"How did she lay eggs...? There was no other passenger pigeon." 

"Ah, so many questions. I like your curiousity," he said, smiling. "Well, one pigeon actually never died. It died a few months after people said it died."

"Then how are there more?"

"Oh, I don't know. Mysteries of nature." Mr X shrugged. It looked like he was keeping something from me. "I might as well take you to the SMoSEA in the first place. Martha, come!"

Martha obediently flew to Mr. X and perched on his shoulder. I followed Mr. X down a long hallway.

"What about my parents? They're probably still worried about me," I said.

"Oh, I phoned them and said you were selected to go on a cruise, and that you'll be away for awhile," Mr. X explained. "They even packed clothes for you and sent it to us."

We stopped in front of a door, and he swung it open, revealing a small bed, nightstand, and lamp. He threw my luggage onto the bed.

"You'll be sleeping here," Mr. X said. "Now, time to meet the others."

Others? Oh gosh, this was going to be an adventure, one I did not expect. I felt like Bilbo from The Hobbit. 

"These other people better be nice," I muttered to myself. I got out my bird book from my bag and started reading. Going to do my research on other extinct animals....

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(Whoa. That took a long time. But it's finished! I know, Azalea didn't get picked out of the mystery box and she followed a pigeon instead. But Mr. X was experimenting with another way. So tell me what you peeps think, and if this is Ok.)