Espio The Chameleon In: Nothing Is For The Price Of Freedom!
By Lil Espio


“Let me outta here!” Espio shouted, banging his fist on the sides of the glass. Growing angrier by the minute, Espio began to pace to think. He finally thought of tricking the enemy that .he wasn’t in the cage and they would let him out. He turned himself different colors to match the scenery. Basically he was invisible. He sat against the cage to wait for some un-expecting victim to roll in and open the cage to look for him. After what seemed an hour, robot of some kind came in. It looked at the cage and tilted its head. Espio smiled, as the robot grew closer for inspection. As the robot opened the cage to look in, Espio snuck out as quietly as he could. Staying invisible, he ran onto a wall and started to run into the hallway. He ran quickly as he could without making noise and watching out for the heat sensor lasers. He soon made it outside. He forgot about the sensor lasers and started to run on the ground, happy to be free again. Suddenly, a laser pointed at him and fired. Espio saw the beam and dodged it, but a second hit him right in the back, knocking him unconscious.

“So, he got out. He’s not a stupid as the others. Get him into another cage outside so he could enjoy his freedom! Keep a heat sensor camera on him at all times!” Dr. Robotnic shouted. Robots went outside with a cage and put Espio into one. They looked it twice and left the cage outside with a camera at the door to watch his every move. As the sun rose, Espio moaned and sat up. He realized he was in another cage. He stood and started punching the glass in combos.

“So close! So close! So close!” He shouted angrily. He fell to his knees after a few minutes of punching the walls and sat down. He felt like he was about to cry, but forced himself not to since Robotnic’s camera was watching him. He stared at the camera. Deciding to have himself something to do, he started to make faces at the camera. Robotnic watched Espio as he made stupid faces. After about ten minutes, Espio gave it up and kicked the wall with his foot. “I gotta get out of here.” He thought. Angrily, he stood on the ceiling of the cage and started jumping on it, trying to get it to pop open. It didn’t work. He jumped back down and punched the wall and sat down, trying to think of a way out. That night, a robot came and served Espio his food.

“Good news! You’re going to have freedom in two days.” It said. Espio jumped up.

“Really?” He asked happily.

“Yep. You’re going to robotnicsized!” The robot said. Espio glared at the robot that left laughing after serving Espio’s food, which a tray appeared on the outside of the cage and went through to the inside. Espio didn’t touch the food, but looked at the starry night instead.

“Please. If there is any hope in this cruel world. Please, I beg you, let me be freed. I want my freedom back! I don’t want to be a stupid robot! I just want out!” Espio shouted. He banged his fist onto the wall as he slid down to the bottom of the tank. He couldn’t hold it back anymore; he started to cry. All he wanted was to be free. To run around in fields with his friends, to have fun playing games, listening to music, being with his family. But now that was not possible. Most of everyone he knew was turned into robots. He banged his foot on the wall. “Oh, will he pay for doing this to me!” Espio shouted. He didn’t touch the food, but silently fell asleep. As dawn rose, robots came out and picked up the tank. Espio woke up and stood. “Hey! What are you doing!” He shouted.

“Dr. Robotnic wants you robotnicsized.” A robot replied. Espio’s eyes widened and he started to struggle in the tank.

“NO! Never! I’m not going to be a robot! I want out!” Espio shouted. The robots began struggling to steady the tank. A red echidna was walking around when he heard the screams. He took off as fast as he could toward them. He saw Espio in the tank with the robots trying to carry him inside. He knew Robotnic and he knew what was going to happen to Espio! He glided into the air and dropped down on top of a robot.

“You guys need to cool it!” He shouted. The tank fell over and shattered. The echidna looked in the tank to see Espio gone. Suddenly, he saw the robots break up on their own. Then Espio came in view. His eyes were like fire. He was breathing hard.

“We have to stop him!” He shouted. He turned and run into the factory.

“No wait!” The echidna shouted, running after him. Espio jumped up onto a wall and grabbed the echidna, helping him dodge a beam that was fired. Espio held the echidna’s hand tightly and ran onto the ceiling. He kept running.

“Any idea to stop this thing?” Espio asked.

“Yeah! Get to the core of the factory.” He said. “Put me down and I’ll dig there, it would be safer.” The echidna said. Espio let the echidna go and dropped next to him. Robots were coming down the hall. Espio used his tongue and cut through five of them.

“Hurry up! I’ll hold them off!” He said. The echidna started to dig. He punched through the metal then started digging. It didn’t take him long until Espio was able to jump into the hole with him and follow him. After about five minutes of digging, the echidna dug upward. They were in a huge room with a generator in the middle. Lasers were everywhere, and most was pointed at them. “Down!” Espio shouted and grabbing the echidna and pulling him back into the hole. Lasers were shot, but they missed. “I’ll handle this.” He said. He disappeared. The echidna peeked over the hole to see the lasers being destroyed on their own. Soon, all of the lasers were gone and Espio reappeared in front of the generator. Robots were coming down the hall and Espio didn’t notice them. The echidna stood out of the hole and beat up the robots. Espio started to pound on the generator until he made a hole.

“Move!” The echidna shouted. Espio looked and dodged the robot that the echidna threw over his shoulder. The robot went inside the core, hitting the power source. A rumbling sound came and Espio took off running, followed quickly by the echidna. They ran all the way out of the factory. The instant they got outside, the factory blew up. The blast hit both Espio and the echidna, knocking them forward off their feet and unconscious. Espio moaned as he woke up. The echidna was sitting there, shaking him.

“Ow!” Espio said, rubbing his shoulder. “Uh, thanks for saving me back there. You don’t know how much this means to me.” Espio said. He held out his hand. “My name’s Espio.” He said. The echidna shook Espio’s hand.

“I’m Knuckles. Guardian of Angel Island.” Knuckles said.

“Knuckles, I don’t know how I’m every going to repay you! I’ll go with you to Angel Island and help you protect it, even though I don’t think it’s even half of the price I owe you.” Espio said.

“You don’t have to owe me anything. You can come if you want.” Knuckles said. The laughed and walked off.

“Espio!” A voice shouted. Espio opened his eyes to see Mighty waving his hand in front of his face. Espio smiled and felt something wet on his face.

“Man! One minute you were talking away, next you’re half asleep and crying!” Vector said, crossing his arms.

“Are you okay?” Charmy asked, flying to Espio. Espio smiled and closed his eyes.

“Yes. I was just thinking how great it is to be free again!”