Darwin
(Agent) Darwin
00002k8c
Continuity G-Force
Age 2-3 years old
Species Guinea Pig
Fur Color Brown and White
Eye Color Brown
District Eastern District
Journal cavycommando
Player Straya
Theme Song "Secret Agent Man" (The Blues Traveler version)

"No rodent left behind!"

Canon History

Like his fellow teammates, Darwin was raised and trained by Doctor Ben Kendall as a special animal infiltration agent for the United States government. As carrier pigeons aided soldiers during the Civil War by delivering messages and dolphins had been trained to detect undersea mines, Kendall worked with small mammals using government funding in the hopes that his entire team would eventually receive badges as official agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A brilliant but somewhat socially awkward man, one of Kendall's greatest breakthroughs was a tiny device called a frequency encoder/multilingual translator that allowed him become a modern day Doctor Doolittle; with the encoders in place on his animal team, all of them are able to understand and speak to humans.

As time passed however, Ben and his assistant Marcie struggled to keep their funding in place. Eventually, it became apparent that if they didn't do something to prove the worth of their work, the government would cut their funding and shut the laboratory/training facility down. It was then Ben decided to take a risk and approached his team with the idea of infiltrating the home of a suspected international weapons dealer, a man named Leonard Saber, for electronic evidence of supposed illegal activities. Team leader Darwin accepted the mission on behalf of his comrades Blaster, Juarez, Mooch (a house fly) and Speckles (a Star-nosed Mole).

The team pulled off the job with hardly a hitch, Darwin himself infiltrating Saber's personal library and gaining access to his private computer with the help of Speckles, who created a program to decode a crucial file for download – Project Clusterstorm. Juarez and Blaster assisted with the escape while Mooch acted as their “eyes in the sky.” However, during the visit at the lab the next day by Ben's superior, everything went down the drain. The file Darwin obtained using his mini-PDA in Saber's mansion did not contain the information on Clusterstorm, apparently an operation geared toward global extermination, but rather data on Saber's latest line of kitchen appliances. Despite Darwin's insistence that he had obtained the correct file and that the world was in danger as Clusterstorm was set to launch in a mere few days, the agents on site ordered Ben and Marcie to FBI headquarters and then attempted to seize all the animals in the lab; their unauthorized infiltration of Saber's home could have very well cost the FBI two years worth of work. Fortunately, Marcie managed to cause enough of a distraction that Darwin, Blaster, Juarez and Speckles were all able to escape using the building's document chute system. Unfortunately, however, their escape path led them right onto a pet store delivery truck out back that was bringing in load of supplies. This landed them in a place called Elias' Pet Shop, caged and set up for sale as common pets.

Any attempts to escape confinement proved unsuccessful. At the prodding of a common guinea pig named Hurley they were being housed with, Darwin decided their best bet would be to adopted by families and thus removed from the store where they could then escape and rendezvous at Ben's house. Later that same day, both Juarez and Blaster were taken home by a family and later made good their escape, much to the chagrin and embarrassment of the two children who had owned them for a few short hours. Eager to speed up their own escape from the pet shop, Speckles decided to play dead in the hopes that he would suffer the same fate as a mouse who died the week before – burial out back where he could then burrow his way back to the surface and engineer Darwin's escape. Things went awry when instead of being buried, one of the shop keepers put the poor mole into a trash bag…and threw him into the back of a garbage truck. Convinced that Speckles had been crushed to death, Darwin struggled to accept the loss before trying to find another way out. His opportunity came when he and Hurley discovered their bad tempered cage mate, a mouthy hamster named Bucky, was making a habit of sneaking out every night to steal food from inside the store, since Hurley had a tendency to eat everything himself. Darwin escaped through the trap door under Bucky's hamster house and got outside. He was soon joined on his trek to Ben's house by an unwilling Hurley, however, when Bucky shoved him out through the open trap door to get rid of him once and for all.

Darwin's irritation with his “adopted brother” Hurley only increased on their trip. While Hurley continued to disbelieve that Darwin was anything more than a delusional pet shop guinea pig, the agent continued to insistent on his place in the world as a “commando who just happens to be a guinea pig.” Hurley began to have faith in Darwin's claim when their journey took them past a local shop where some of Saber's appliances were on sale. Digging into the coffee machine displayed in the front window, Darwin discovered an installed chip labeled “Sabersense.” While Saber's claim had been that these chips were in place to open data communication lines between all Saber products to increase their usefulness and make life easier on their owners, the chip was in fact a variation on the US military's multiple array transceiver, originally meant for the unmanned weapon program. When Darwin attempted to remove the chip as evidence, the coffee maker came alive and transformed, turning into a mini-death machine armed with whirling bean grinding blades and a mounted pulse cannon. Knowing they had to get a hold of the Sabersense chip, Darwin attempted to fight the crazed machine, eventually getting it to chase him into oncoming traffic where an SUV plowed into it and turned it into a pile of parts. Pushing the remains up onto a skateboard they found, Darwin and Hurley then pushed the mangled appliance the rest of the way to Ben's house…

And just as the good doctor found them, Darwin woke in Nautilus. Much to his frustration.

Personality

Darwin's ultimate dream from the very start was to make it as an FBI special agent. He spent most of his relatively short life in training for this, adopting a serious attitude about every challenge set before him despite his species and size. He is, for the most part, a by-the-book leader who adheres to protocol. Darwin is a solid strategist, as well as good at making on-the-spot decisions. He does like to have a plan in place, but knows that back-up plans and improvising are often necessary on the job, especially given some of the situations he and his team might end up in at any given time. He is also aware of the risks involved with his job and while he's not one to throw his life away, he does know that especially as a small animal in a man's world, he is often dancing with death while he's on the clock.

Darwin's teammates rarely question him, as they trust his good judgment. He is, however, sometimes given over to a bit of self doubt and experienced “first mission jitters” briefly during the first run into Saber's mansion. It can be argued that he might not have had quite as much self confidence if Ben had not deceived him from the start. Acceptance by his team and friends is important to Darwin. He is a definite approval seeker when it comes to his peers and higher authority. At the same time, he is also very loyal to his team/family; his motto is, “No rodent left behind.”

Despite his often serious nature, however, Darwin is not without a sense of humor or even the occasional sense of childlike wonder or awe. He has been known to deliver snappy (or lame, depending on who you are) one-liners now and again while on the job, able to appreciate a good turn of phrase or a well placed famous movie quote. This generally means he only picks up about half the time on Blaster's own versions of the same, as his fellow team mate is given over to using more slang and smack talk. Darwin's patience is also quite admirable when it comes to social situations; he managed to avoid completely snapping at Hurley when the other doubted his profession. This did not prevent Darwin from getting a bit sarcastic out of self defense, however. He is also able to keep a cool head in situations where his demolitions and martial arts experts may potentially lose their tempers. And while he did rather look down on common guinea pigs for a while, the revelation that he is one of them has helped him see that it is how you live your life and what you learn that makes one special. Still, he is very proud that he is no common house pet.

Appreciative of personal boundaries, Darwin does like the company of his teammates but is not really the touchy-feely sort outside the occasional paw-bump with Blaster. Hurley's need to put a paw on his shoulder or even hug him are difficult for him to deal with at first. Not surprisingly, Darwin is a little bit awkward when dealing with Juarez as a result. As the only female agent on their team, she enjoys toying with the boys and confusing them as to who she might be interested in, if she's even interested at all. Deep down, Darwin rather wishes Juarez would be a little more straight forward and just pick either him or Blaster, especially since his attempts to apply logic to her coy tactics only end up causing him even more confusion. Ask him to assist in hacking a network? No problem. Ask him to explain what goes on in the female mind? He wouldn't be able to tell you.

Abilities

Obviously, Darwin is not your average guinea pig. Quite tech-savvy, he works well with various gadgets once he figures out how to use them. He also knows how to read English and can improvise when necessary to use human-sized computers. Hacking is something he can do with the right tools, but not something he necessarily excels at… That was Speckles' job before he turned traitor. Darwin is a good problem solver when it comes to mission situations, able to think things through and remain calm even when things start to go south. (Even his own rump catching fire isn't enough to send him screaming.) Despite his size, he's also quite a scrappy little fighter when it comes to anything on his level.

As a rodent who has tamed his instinct to flee at the first sign of danger, he still has a quick mind that reacts extraordinarily well in stressful situations. He knows how to drive vehicles sized to him, understands traffic laws and has logged a good deal of time in the laboratory simulators. Aside from the professional nature of his training, this also makes Darwin an excellent video game player. And while he's not the adrenaline junkie that Blaster is, Darwin has little fear of heights and will easily work with zip-lines and parachutes.

Relationships

Thus far, he's had a chance to meet Mister Monday in person, and speak with the likes of Monday's (former) Noon, Manuela, V, J. Jonah Jameson, Schrodinger and Dead End.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License