Espio the Chameleon

Espio the Chameleon is a pinkish purple, 16-year-old, anthropomorphic chameleon, who is an expert ninja. Espio's name is thought to either have come from the word "espionage", another word for spying, or to be a reference to the Spanish word "espío" (meaning literally "I spy").

Characteristics
Espio is described as the "guardian of honor" of the Chaotix. He has a "militaristic discipline" while also being quiet and laidback. Confident in his skills, opinionated and self obsessed, he revels in training and self discipline. He is not concerned by danger, and in fact yearns to face it for the satisfaction of using his Ninja skills. With his extensive training in Ninjutsu and his "stealth camouflage trick," in which he makes his body transparent, he is able to move around unnoticed. However, a blunder like a sneeze could cause him to inadvertently become visible.

Appearances
In Espio's first appearance in Knuckles' Chaotix, the Japanese manual states that Espio, being a detective, goes to investigate the mysterious island that has emerged from the sea. He is the first unlocked character, and his abilities include walking on walls and ceilings, and uses his own Whirl Attack instead of the common Spin Attack.

Espio next appeared as one of eight playable fighters in the arcade game Sonic the Fighters. In the story, Espio is one of the eight characters who try to collect the eight Chaos Emeralds in order to travel into space and destroy Eggman's Death Egg II. Espio is the fourth character to fight in story mode, and his stage is Mushroom Hill, a part of Angel Island that appeared in Sonic & Knuckles. In the game, Espio is a medium-strong fighter, and his special abilities include spinning like a tornado and hitting enemies from afar with his long tongue.

In Sonic Heroes, Espio is the "speed" member of Team Chaotix, meaning he can run quicker than the others, and creates small whirlwinds for various purposes. Unlike the speed members of the other three teams, Espio can also turn invisible, throw large shuriken and stick to walls.

In Shadow the Hedgehog, Espio appears with the Chaotix in the cutscene prior to the "Mad Matrix" stage, in which he and Shadow the Hedgehog somehow enter the cyberspace of Eggman's computer system. The player can then choose whether or not to help Espio retrieve encrypted data from the computer, with Espio being a partner character. He is also present for the following battle against Eggman.

In Sonic Rivals 2, after a very long absence, Espio returns as a playable character. On orders from Vector, he investigates the Chao disappearances and follows Silver the Hedgehog, who has hidden most of them. At first, they don't see eye-to-eye, but eventually they work together to save the world alongside the rest of the rivals and form a friendship in the end.

Espio appears in the cross-over game, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, although he presents himself as a referee.

In the Comics
In Sonic the Comic Espio is a not-so-friendly rival to Mighty and has an extremely short temper. The two of them will end up clashing and arguing who's the best on almost any subject, to the extent of demanding a defeated enemy says which of them had punched him the hardest.

In the Sonic the Hedgehog Archie comic, Espio became friends with Knuckles like the other Chaotix, and joined the group some time prior to Knuckles' first meeting with Sonic. In Mobius: 25 Years Later, he has two daughters named Salma and Juanita. When the Chaotix were staying in Knothole to aid in the fight against Eggman, Espio went on a mission (with NICOLE) to investigate the state of Charmy's former home, the Golden Hive Colony. After discovering that there were no survivors present and that Eggman had turned the hive into another of his outposts, Espio had it destroyed. At roughly the same time as the wedding of Antoine D'Coolette and Bunnie Rabbot, Espio appeared to have been killed by Eggman after going on a solo mission into New Megaopolis. However, it was revealed in the next issue that he was not killed, but was teleported to the Egg Grape Chamber. During Eggman's destruction of Knothole, all of the other members of the Chaotix were teleported to the Egg Grape Chamber, but both the Chaotix and Espio were soon rescued by the efforts of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy Rose, and were transported to New Mobotropolis.