Espio the Chameleon

**Espio the Chameleon** (エスピオ・ザ・カメレオン, *Esupio za Kamereon*), is both a fictional character and tritagonist from the *SKB's* *Sonic Pokémon* series created by Yuji Naka and Satoshi Tajiri. He is an anthropomorphic chameleon and an intelligent elite ninja warrior.

He is also a member of the Chaotix's Agency with Vector and Charmy, where they solve whatever cases they are given, where he puts his skills to good use. Espio has a wariness and soulful nature makes him a vital member, and balances out his team and friends' foolishness.

"*Live in the darkness... and fight in the darkness. This is my way in life!*"

—Espio the Chameleon, to Dr. Eggman.

## Appearance & Biography

*Voice Actor*: David Wills (English), Yūki Masuda (Japanese), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known (Basque), Not Known (Brazilian), Kam Tong Fung (Cantonese), Not Known (Catalan), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (Croatian), Not Known (Danish), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Filipino), Antoine Nouel (French), Not Known (Galician), Dirk Meyer (German), Not Known (Greek), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hong Kong), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Indonesian), Christian Iansante (Italian), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Mandarin), Not Known (Norwegian), Ireneusz Załóg (Polish), Rui Quintas (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Ricardo Escobar (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Tagalog), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Valencian), Not Known (Ukrainian), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (Canadian French), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Marcelo Armand (Latin Spanish), Not Known (Spain-Spanish), Wenmin Wu (Mandarin Chinese)

### Biography

Espio is a chameleon who is a master of ninjutsu. A skilled ninja who thrives on danger, he uses stealth and speed to fool his enemies. His wariness and soulful character makes him a vital member of the Chaotix Detective Agency.

### Appearance

Espio is an anthropomorphic purple chameleon with a yellow horn between his eyes. His muzzle and the heart-shaped pattern on his torso are tanned peach in color. He has a ridge of three spikes going down his spine and a coiled tail.

#### In the Young Days

During his early years, he was shorter and stubbier, when he was younger. His purple skin color was somewhat darker and have black eyes.

For attire, he wore green, black and yellow shoes with simple white gloves and had his spikes were teal/green in color.

#### In Present Time

In the present day, his skin became a brighter purple, eyes had developed into a gold color, and his spikes on his back are now black in color.

For attire, he now wears wears dark purple shoes with black accents, metal-reinforced arm bracers, and white gloves with dark purple pads on the backs. Around his wrists and ankles are bandage-wrapped cuffs with gold studs on the lower bands.

#### Possible Future

* Hair Color: N/A
* Skin Color: Fuchsia, Tan Peach, Yellow
* Eye Color: Gold (originally black)
* Age: 16
* Birthday: Not Known
* Height: 110 cm. (3' 7")
* Weight: 36 kg. (79.3 lbs.)

## Personality

A straight-laced detective, Espio is serious, practical, intelligent and wise. He has a militaristic discipline despite being quiet and laid-back. Espio is additionally portrayed as being stubborn, opinionated and self-obsessed. Despite this, he has an excellent drive to all that he does and flourishes off of peril, getting himself into threatening situations to flex and polish his ninja skills, and, due to his extensive training, he can confront these troubles head-on unconcerned by danger.

Espio values his freedom more than anything else, and in the wake of being caught in Dr. Eggman's Combi Machine, he looked to stop the evil scientist no matter what. This is due to his reserved demeanor, which hides a burning sense of justice and a refusal to let evil have its way. As such, Espio gives the impression of a rather ruthless demeanor when facing villains; when encountering Dr. Eggman, the usual civil and soft-spoken chameleon would make threats at the doctor's life.

Espio is also seen as a ninja-based character; his battle poses and shuriken stars support that portrayal. Also in the Japanese script, the pronouns he uses to refer to himself is usually *ware*, and the more archaic *onushi* pronoun for referring to others.

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* Team Chaotix
	+ Vector the Crocodile
	+ Charmy the Bee
* Mighty the Armadillo
* Team Sonic
	+ Sonic the Hedgehog
	+ Tails the Fox
	+ Knuckles the Echidna
* Team Rose
	+ Amy Rose the Hedgehog
	+ Cream the Rabbit
	+ Cheese the Chao
	+ Big the Cat
* G.U.N
	+ Team Dark
		- Shadow the Hedgehog
		- Rouge the Bat
		- E-123 Omega
* Silver the Hedgehog
* Blaze the Cat
* Tim Goodman
* Baker Detective Agency
	+ Mike Baker
	+ Amanda Blackstone
* Team Chaotix
	+ Vector the Crocodile
	+ **Espio the Chameleon**
	+ Charmy the Bee
* Hi-Hat Café
	+ Pablo Millan
* Ryme City Police Department
	+ Hide Yoshida
	+ Frank Holiday
* GNN
	+ Ethan Graham
	+ Emilia Christie
	+ Meiko Okamoto
	+ Hiro Morgan
	+ Olga Ellison
	+ Lucy Stevens
* PCL
	+ John Waals
	+ Dorothy Fisher
	+ Frederick Hartfield
	+ Nina O'Hara
	+ Rita Partridge
	+ Wallace Carroll
	+ Dr. Ann Laurent
* Timburr Transport Chief
* Milo Green
* Carina Mitchell
* Simon Yen
* Walter Eckhart
* Rose Wilton

### Neutral

* Brad McMasters
* Gino Earina

### Enemies

* Eggman Empire
	+ Dr. Eggman
	+ Metal Sonic
	+ Infinite
* Black Arms
	+ Black Doom
* Ifrit
* Dr. Eggman Nega
* Metal Sonic 3.0
* The Time Eater
* Howard Clifford
* Roger Clifford
* Keith Norman
* Alexander Wilde
* Carlos Hernando
* Louise Mulligan
* Max Warhol

## Abilities and Powers

By his own accords, Espio is a powerful adversary as he says it would take no less than a "mighty foe" to do him in. Having undergone extensive ninja training, Espio is a master of ninjutsu, a form of martial arts that employs stealth and trickery against foes. He is likewise a fierce foe in direct combat as he has been able to match Rouge the Bat in battle, who has undergone similar forms of combat training and could fight Knuckles the Echidna to a standstill.

As a Speed Type, Espio possesses great speed. He can run at speeds compatible to Sonic and Shadow's and his swiftness is potent enough to let him fool his enemies by appearing in different spots nigh-instantaneously. While not shown to the same extension as Knuckles, Espio has impressive physical strength, using sharp karate chops powerful enough to shatter obstacles and smash robots. Espio also has extreme acrobatic skills, doing complex and nimble jumps in midair and grinding on rails with ease.

Espio also has very impressive durability and endurance, seen as he is able to withstand Sonic's Homing Attacks indefinitely and keep fighting in Espio: Master of Camouflage. Being a chameleon, Espio possesses a stealth camouflage trick that lets him change his color scheme to match his environment. His camouflage is so effective that he is rendered completely invisible to the naked eye and allows him to pass by unnoticed. Being a skilled ninja he is also a master of non-camouflaged stealth which combined with his camouflaging abilities makes him virtually undetectable.

Espio also possesses an extremely keen sense of awareness of his surroundings on both the physical and empathic plane, detecting Team Dark nearby despite the group being out his field of vision, Sonic's presence aboard the Death Egg, and the soul of the Time Eater. Like a real lizard, Espio is able to climb along any surface and stick to them for an unprecedented amount of time. He also possesses a prehensile tongue which he can use as a short-range projectile attack in combat and as a grappling hook.

Espio has also demonstrated the ability to harness chaos energy from a Chaos Emerald. Though not a hedgehog, Espio is able to use the Spin Attack and the various techniques derived from it, where he curls tightly into a concussive ball while in locomotion to damage, mow down, or burrow through obstacles and foes. The Homing Attack allows Espio to dash in mid-air toward a target, the Spin Jump lets him curl into a ball and attack opponent by landing on them, and the Spin Dash lets him shoot himself forward as an acceleration roll at full speed while mowing down enemies and obstacles.

Espio's signatures moves are the ones that combine his ninja skills with his camouflage trick. The Leaf Swirl lets Espio combine his camouflage with a Ninja Leaf Swirl maneuver to create a tornado to blow opponents away while he disappears, his Chroma Camo maneuver hides himself completely from his enemies' perception while increasing his speed, and his Ninja Arts: Camouflage both hides himself completely from enemies' perception while he "warps" between places to disorient the enemy while attacking. Another ninja-based attack includes his Shuriken where he throws a shuriken star at foes.

As a member of the Chaotix Detective Agency, Espio has a keen, analytical mind and experience in investigation and gathering intel. While also having experience in solving mysteries, he is not as skilled in that field as Vector. He also has some skill in hacking computers for data, although he has admitted it is not his specialty. Thanks to his ninja training, Espio is proficient with several forms of ninja-based weaponry. He is especially a master of throwing kunai, capable of striking targets with pin-point accuracy while only barely looking at them.

### Attacks

* Chaotix Recital (requires Vector and Charmy)
* Chroma Camo
* Crouch
	+ Crouch (grinding)
* Dash Boost
* Grind Step
* Homing Attack
* Jump Dash
* Leaf Swirl
* Ninja Arts: Camouflage
* Rocket Accel (requires Vector and Charmy)
* Shuriken
* Slide
* Spin Attack
* Spin Dash
* Spin Jump
* Triangle Jump
* Trick Action

### Move Skills

* Super speed
* Enhanced strength
* Enhanced durability
* Camouflage
* Stealth
* Ninjutsu expert
* Great acrobatic skills and reflexes
* Espionage
* Hand-to-Hand combat skills
* Limited computer hacking
* Prehensile tongue
* Wallcrawling
* Horn protrusion
* Grinding
* Keen Mind
* Hyper-go-on usage

### Transformations

#### Color Powers

*Main article:* *Color Powers*
The **Color Powers** (カラーパワー, *Karā Pawā*), is a power Espio can use when harnessing specific, but different variants of Hyper-go-ons from Wisps, allowing him to transform into a certain form, such as a drill, a laser or even a fireball, each one possessing its own unique abilities.

So far, Espio has been able to transform into the Cyan Laser, Yellow Drill, and Indigo Asteroid. However, these transformations require a steady supply of Hyper-go-on to be maintained.

### Weaknesses

Espio's camouflaging ability, while practical, is not perfect. Its maintenance is tied to Espio's concentration, meaning it will falter should he lose focus due to things such as being blinded by light or sneezing. His stealth is not flawless either as Rouge the Bat was able to detect his movements thanks to her heightened sense of hearing.

### Weapons

As a ninja Espio employs ninja-based weaponry, such as kunai and shuriken. He uses his shuriken stars as a long-range offensive by throwing them at opponents and can do so in rapid succession. By attaching a rope on his kunai, he can also use as a grappling hook to swing between targets.

## External links

* Espio the Chameleon *Heroes Wiki*
* Espio the Chameleon *Nintendo Wiki*
* Espio the Chameleon *Sonic News Network*