Vector the Crocodile

Vector the Crocodile is a character from the Sonic the Hedgehog series who debuted in Knuckles' Chaotix. Vector is the current leader and head honcho of the Chaotix Detective Agency. Large and imposing with a kind heart beneath his scaly exterior, Vector is always ready to take jobs that pay good money, but is also always willing to help those in need for free, leaving his agency in its eternally poor state. Known for his great love of music, Vector's trademark accessory is a set of headphones which he always listens to, even during missions.

In the Heroes Coalition fics, Vector is a member of the Heroes Coalitions and is part of the Dream Team.

Appearance
Vector is a large, green-skinned crocodile with spiky red scales down his tail and vermilion-colored eyes. Vector sports a thick body resemblant of a S-shape, with a broad upper body starts including his long arms, getting slimmer towards his tail and legs. His stomach, snout and arms are light green, while the rest of his body is dark green. He wears small, black shoulder pads, white gloves with black-and-orange cuffs, embellished with gold buckles as well as black shoes figured with white and orange colors. Vector also wears a gold chain around his neck, serving as his trademark accessory alongside his pair of black-and-grey wireless headphones, and the crocodile is rarely seen without one or the other. With the exception of his chain, Vector's complete attire is frequently shown to be made out of leather.

For the purpose of Extreme Gear racing, Vector has been using more sporty shoes of the same color scheme as his regular pair, with white shoelaces fixated with golden clamps.

In Knuckles' Chaotix, Vector's build was a bit shorter and more slim in general, and his red scales, while similar, parted into two arrays starting from his upper body, forming a V-shape. Compared to his Sonic Heroes incarnation, his arms had a darker shade of green matching the rest of his body, while his belly and snout had a more ochre color tone. His attire was also different: Vector wore yellow-and-blue circular headphones, connected to a walkman which he had attached to his body using a belt. Furthermore, Vector wore dark blue-colored shoes with yellow zip-cuffs.

Personality
Vector is easy-going, loud-mouthed and has the heart of a child. The brains behind the Chaotix Detective Agency's operations, Vector is a true leader that keeps a cool head even in the most difficult situations. Unfortunately, his position as leader tends to get to his head, which makes him bossy. This often leaves Vector split between the "bossy" and "easy-going" parts of his nature. Nevertheless, Vector enjoys his profession as a leader and detective. He takes his profession seriously and uses his powers of deduction to solve any case with dignity and respect, although he is not above showing them off.

Vector normally displays a tough exterior. He speaks in a rough tone, may not sweat the details and is quick to start a fight, often taking an aggressive approach when facing troubles. Though he is able to find a peaceful solution to a problem, he will only do so as a last resort.

Deep down, Vector is a gentle giant with an optimistic viewpoint and a wealthy personality. While keeping a calm head and a decisive determination when on a case, Vector can at the same time show a cool and relaxed sense of humor with some attitude. At the same time, Vector is charismatic and charming, allowing him to get along well with others no matter how different they may be, which is especially shown in the case of Espio. Equally, Vector cares deeply for his friends and is always loyal to them. Nonetheless, Vector has a short temper and aggressive manners. His pretended gentle behavior quickly changes to a rough demeanor with a snappy attitude when things do not go his way, especially when he feels insulted or peeved, and behaves very direct in front of his friends. He always says what is on his mind, often ending up being downright rude. While Vector is aware he has a big mouth, however, he is not bothered by the fact. He also demonstrates a degree of common sense, as shortly after he and the rest of Team Chaotix defeated the Egg Albatross and began suspecting their client was tied to Dr. Eggman, he implies that he suspects their client was actually Dr. Eggman.

One of Vector's most defined traits is his dream of getting rich. His behavior is mostly geared around earning money, and his policy is to never turn down work that pays. He will do almost any kind of work if it means a good income and gets motivated by the thought of money alone. Because his business does not run as expected very often, Vector often worries about rent payments and bills. He likewise hates working for the landlord, who he is constantly at odds with. As a consequence, he may ask friends for jobs and is willing to do things that have nothing in common with detective work at all.

Despite his love for cash, Vector has strong morals and will not getting involved in anything illegal or dirty. Similarly, Vector has a strong sense of justice and kindness, despite his argumentativeness. As such, Vector is very charitable and is known for helping those in need for free, such as finding a lost child or take up meager chases for children. Because of this, Vector will take up cases without any sort of compensation. Despite any money problems his charitability may present, however, Vector believes that helping out those less fortunate is the best reward.

Next to money, Vector's other great passion is music, which he always listens to. He is often being seen turning up and grooving to his current jam and usually becomes oblivious to the world around him. He also likes to perform in his own band, converting his detective team into one whenever feeling like it, and believes himself to possess a great singing voice. Even if Vector listens and plays music loudly, he only enjoys the music if it sounds good, while disliking general noise.

Investigation Skills
Although he may not look like it, Vector is the brains behind the Chaotix’s investigations and an accomplished detective with a knack for solving riddles and mysteries, and is as well a surprisingly clear thinker with remarkably good instincts. While he is not as intelligent as Dr. Eggman or Tails, he can piece clues and other minor hints together to often reach correct conclusions that his team mates and most others would have overlooked or failed to reach. His skills in this field have been proven very profound, especially during his investigations, as Vector seldom, if ever, chooses the wrong individual as his prime suspect. Additionally, he can use his investigative technique for other purposes, like locating lost things or even predicting his enemy's movement.

Physical Abilities
Classified as a Power Type, Vector possesses remarkably high physical strength which easily rivals the likes of Knuckles the Echidna, Big the Cat and E-123 Omega. He has demonstrated great power in his arms, able to destroy boulders and thick metal alloys with a single punch, and can throw objects high into the sky and out of eyesight. By combining it with his weight, Vector can land downward blows with his whole body that can crush nearly any enemy, even producing a large, fiery shockwave when touching the ground. However, Vector’s true strength lies in his powerful jaws, which are a formidable weapon. He can effortlessly crush enemies and almost any kind of substance with his jaws or even spit out projectiles with such force that they catch on fire. Nevertheless, Vector has great control over his jaws’ power, being able to carry his team mates around in his mouth without harming them at all.

As a crocodile, Vector is naturally very skilled in swimming, using the typical movement of a crocodile in water to accelerate effortlessly. His unique swimming stroke is known as the "Crocodile Paddle" or the "Gator style". He can also carry this kind of movement over to the ground or even the air by sliding forward head-first on his stomach, allowing him to accelerate and plow through even the hardest obstacles.

Like most other characters in the series, Vector is able to run at super speed, being able to keep up with even the fastest characters in the series like Espio and Shadow. Vector is able to form into a ball either to accelerate while running or to jump on and attack enemies. On rare instances, he has also showcased the ability to curl into a larger, donut-like form with the same kind of effects. To travel through rails, Vector can grind on them, fast enough to keep up with his team.

Miscellaneous Skills
Vector's breath is not only known to be quite putrid, but also effective. Possessing multiple forms of breath, he can spit out sound waves and even fire to attack foes. The former ability might be connected to his singing voice, which he can use to generate extremely destructive sound, causing all nearby robots to explode as a result to the noise. Additionally, Vector is very skilled at blowing chewing gum. He can at anytime blow a huge bubble to ride through midair or knock smaller projectiles away from him, and, combined with his breath skills, spit out multiple bubbles that detonate into large explosion upon impact.

Vector has proven to be a capable Extreme Gear rider, having established himself as a worthy competitor in the EX World Grand Prix amongst the best of riders. Specializing in Bike Gear, he can perform various athletic stunts and punch his way through giant obstacles while riding. Vector actually refactored his Extreme Gear "Hard-Boiled" himself, indicating he might have some skills in machinery.

Color Powers

 * Main article: Color Power

By harnessing different variants of Hyper-go-on from Wisps, Vector can use specific Color Powers to transform into a certain form, such as a drill, a laser or even a planet, each one possessing its own unique abilities. So far, Vector 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.

Trivia

 * According to Takashi Iizuka, Vector and the Team Chaotix in Sonic Heroes were recreated as new characters from the same characters in Knuckles' Chaotix when Sonic Heroes was designed, ignoring certain traits that had been established in Knuckles' Chaotix that would have contradicted their intent in the game.
 * As a detective, Vector is often used to hint at a game's final story:
 * In Sonic Heroes, he knew their client was the real Dr. Eggman while the one the Chaotix were fighting was an imposter.
 * In Shadow the Hedgehog, Vector tried to convince Shadow that he may not have been created for evil causes, as would later be revealed in Prof. Gerald's message.
 * In Sonic Generations, he presumed someone was controlling the Time Eater from behind the scenes.
 * Vector is the second tallest organic non-human Sonic character behind Big the Cat.
 * In the days of the Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega released a game starring a character called Vectorman, who, coincidentally, is also green.


 * When walking in Special Stages in Knuckles' Chaotix, Vector puts his Ring around his neck, making it look like a gold necklace. This might be where the idea for the golden chain Vector wears in his modern design originated from.
 * In his models for Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog, Vector is wearing a black neckband, which was probably put there to optically separate his body from his head, but it was removed in later games.
 * However, the neckband can also be seen on his sprite sheet for Sonic Jump.
 * Vector is the only Power Type character in Sonic Heroes also to be the leader of his team.
 * In the first cutscene of Team Chaotix in Sonic Heroes, Vector can be heard listening to Team Chaotix, the team's theme song.
 * In Sonic Heroes, Vector smacks down the door to the cell in which the Chaotix's client is locked up, although they spent a lengthy amount of time searching for its keys in Final Fortress. This could be either a plot hole or because Vector just doesn't care about Dr. Eggman's fleet at all, which would not be surprising considering how much of Egg Fleet they had already destroyed up to that point.
 * A similar thing happens when the client asks the Chaotix collect ten Chao and even though the mission ends once ten of the creatures are collected, Vector attempts to ask Amy for Cheese (before Amy thinks that he was going to request a date). This may suggest that Vector is an overachiever.
 * Vector has become popular for his line "Find the computer room!" in Shadow the Hedgehog, as it became an internet meme.
 * Vector is the only mission character in Sonic Colors who only appears in one mission.
 * Vector is the only friend character in Sonic Generations to say the same phrase to both Classic and Modern Sonic after being rescued, most likely due to it being actually relevant to the story.
 * Vector also is one of the two characters not to make a remark about Classic Sonic looking different to Modern Sonic, the other character being Espio.
 * In Sonic Generations, Vector made some references to popular music in his quotes.
 * "You've got the power Sonic!" is a reference to the song "The Power" by the German band "Snap", specifically the lyrics "I've got the power!".
 * "Just press the Y/Triangle button and I'll be there!" references the song "I'll Be There" by "The Jackson 5", specifically the lyrics "Just call my name and I'll be there!".
 * Despite having a role in Sonic Generations, Vector also cameos indirectly in two of the stages: In Speed Highway, there is a big, green neon sign reading "Club Vector" and also a road sign showing the direction to "Vector Avenue". In City Escape, there are a few stores named "Vector's Deli" and several billboards advertising the Chaotix Detective Agency.
 * The "Club Vector" sign can also be seen near the beginning of the course in the Roller Coaster Bobsleigh event in Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, which is set in Speed Highway from Sonic Generations.
 * Vector's unique Spin Jump from Knuckles' Chaotix, forming him into a wheel instead of a ball, is referenced in the Dream Long Jump event in Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games when the player shakes the Wii remote to make Vector float in mid-air for a few seconds.
 * Vector's arms were miscolored dark green in the intro of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Gamesas well as in the game's official artwork.
 * This error was carried over to Vector's CGI artwork for Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
 * In the Mario & Sonic series, Vector acts as a rival to both Bowser and Donkey Kong.


 * Although Vector never got to be released in Sonic Jump as the app ceased to get new updates, Vector and the other two unreleased characters are fully functional, and Vector's in-game description indicates he was going to have a powerful stomp as his special ability.
 * Vector was going to appear in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing as a playable racer alongside Rouge, Espio, Blaze and Silver, but was scrapped from the final product.