Yep, it's a redo. Inspired by Mario VS Sonic 2018, there will be some fights redone for the sake of more information, fixing a potential wrong result, and generally a quality update. Especially since I have a group now to help me out and get more things done in a certain time span. But there will be new battles mixed in with the old, some of which are even revived battles that have been worked on before but were cancelled for whatever reason.
Description:
These two animals have mastered the art of ninjutsu, but now's the time to put their skills to the test. Which one will be able to assassinate the other?
Preferred Character:
Honestly, I personally like both of these characters a lot and think they are cool conceptually. However, Greninja obviously has seen more attention and use than Espeo has. Espeo is one of the many criminally underutilized characters in Sonic, alongside the other Chaotix members. But that's what we have the Sonic comics for. :)
Possible Song Name(s):
Chaotic Ninjas
Espio
Background:
The world of Sonic the Hedgehog is full of many mysterious figures and places, like that of the floating island, the various gods of chaos and destruction, and a mysterious island that suddenly rose from the sea. The sudden appearance of this local attracted many individuals for their own reasons and purpose. Knuckles is guardian of the Master Emerald and holds responsibility for the island, Mighty the Armadillo was just at the wrong place at the wrong time as he hates violence (guess that's why he's been missing for 20+ years), Charmy Bee just wanted to find new flowers, and Vector the Crocodile; believing in god; wanted to see the miracles of the island...you can't make this stuff up. But the most unlikely and strange of the bunch was Espio the Chameleon, a detective who was trying to figure out what was going on. But little did any of them know that the island actually kept 6 colorful Chaos Rings of which Dr. Eggman wished to use it to fuel his ambitions. Not wasting any time, the group took down the mad scientist and went their separate ways, except for Vector, Charmy, and Espio who came together to form a detective agency. Charmy is an annoying little shit who's impossible to hit, Vector brings the muscle and motivation, and Espio does all of the sneaking around and stuff given his inherit traits.
Powers and Abilities:
Superhuman Speed
High Agility
Ninjutsu Expert
A-Class Detective
Hacking
Espio is a chameleon of many talents, he's an A-class detective with an astounding attention to details, a calm and collective ninja master with plenty of martial arts skills, and can hack into advanced technology even of that of Dr. Robotnik, whose IQ reaches an incredible 300. While usually trying to avoid direct combat, Espio is perfectly capable of handling himself even under such circumstances regardless. And with his stealth skills it's difficult to catch him off guard to begin with.
Techniques:
Spin Attack
Spin Dash
Homing Attack
Jump Dash
Wall Crawling
Triangle Jump
Grinding
Camouflage
Leaf Swirl
Chroma Camo
Equipment:
Kunai
Ninja Stars
Giant
Explosive
Grappling Hook
Sticky Tongue
He's got the essentials for a Sonic character, including the spin dash, homing attack, and spin attack. But to use his chameleon traits, Espeo can also cling onto and walk up walls as he pleases, mixing this up with a quick leap via triangle jump. With his ninja training, he utilizes his kunai and ninja stars well enough to accurately pin enemies and objects to walls without even looking at them. Some of these weapons come with special properties, like how some kunai are explosive and how Espeo can just pull out a massive ninja star that should weigh close to half a freaking ton as it's bigger than he is. His grappling hook is useful for reaching new heights and swinging great distances, and he can use his long sticky tongue in combat as a whip. To distract and blind his enemies, Espio can create tornadoes from underneath his feet, allowing him time to quickly escape from sight. When he really needs to get out of trouble, he goes completely invisible via his perfect camouflage. While others can shut off the ability by making him lose focus, Espio often knows how to avoid eye contact and can easily work around his enemy's greater strength. His best camo technique is the Chroma Camo, which not only makes him invisible while boosting his speed, but also makes him intangible as attacks can just pass through him.
Feats:
Helped defeat Metal Madness
Outspeeds Knuckles and Tails
Fought on Par with Rouge, Shadow Man, and Mighty
Obliterated robots with one strike
Survived multiple point blank explosions
He's quick enough to reach subsonic speeds with ease, can dodge bullets, and has frequently kept up with other speedsters in the Sonic universe. Most notably, he's outsped the likes of Knuckles and Tails, both of which can keep up with Sonic's casual run speed. As Sonic's highest official recorded speed sets at about Mach 10, or 7,650 MPH, this should be as high as Sonic's casual speed goes. Therefore, Espio should be somewhere within the ballpark. Especially since he seemingly moves from one spot to another near instantaneously. He's survived being shot out of a cannon, even impacting a large building size turret with enough force to totally obliterate it. He's tanked hits from Metal Sonic's base form, who brought down a 46,000,000 ton stalactite alongside the real Sonic, fought on par with Rouge the Bat, and rivaled Mighty the Armadillo on a physical level. Now Mighty, being a lesser known character, doesn't have many feats to go off of to see his full strength, we do get a general idea from scaling and some of his own few feats. For starters, he's taken Amy's hammer and thrown it hard enough to obliterate a spy tower in an explosion that could easily level a rooftop. And just based on how much more easily he breaks up Eggman's mechs than Amy, he's definitely stronger than her and her hammer throwing feat of chucking that bitch hard enough to flip over Eggman's ship. But probably the best character to go off of is, weirdly enough, Sonic the Werehog. Mighty was able to hold back this hairy beast with his raw strength alone, and matched up quite well. Based on the Werehog's original game, Sonic Unleashed, we can get a general idea of how strong Sonic's temporary and poorly named form is. Not only has he easily flipped over the largest of Dark Gaia monsters 5 times his own size, but he's easily pushed massive blocks of solid stone, tore up the Egg Dragoon with his bare hands, and sent Eggman's personal Eggmobile flying over the horizon. Given the size of the vehicle, Sonic would have to send Eggman flying with a force of over 30 tons. Even though Espio isn't the strongest or fastest character in Sonic, he has still proved himself a valuable asset to Sonic's cause whenever the time should come. He helped Knuckles and co stop Eggman and Metal Sonic from obtaining the power of the Chaos Rings, helped stall for time against Metal Madness, held up against Shadow the Hedgehog, and aided Silver in saving the future from various Eggman mechs and a giant fire demon.
Extras:
Espio scaling to Mighty comes from the post-genesis wave era of Archie comics. As this era is much more closely tied to the games, even going through Unleashed's general story, and the characters are kept more reasonably leveled in terms of power (though with some exceptions mind you), it seems fair game to include.
Mighty and Werehog Sonic are MUCH stronger than Amy, and since Amy's second hammer toss flipped over Eggman's ship their strength is likely much higher than we gave them credit for.
The Egg Dragoon itself is likely made of a metal even tougher than that of steel, as it was designed specifically to go up against Sonic. In fact, a slightly altered future model could tank multiple hits from the hedgehog's normal form. Plus it could survive the extreme heat of the core of the Earth.
Weaknesses:
Hot headed
Very stubborn
Camouflage is not perfect
Although, Espeo can be hot headed and stubborn, despite being a ninja, and can be manipulated by more annoying opponents if his attacks and techniques just don't work.
But when you need the best of the best to solve your crimes, you can always call on Team Chaotix and their A-Class ninja detective, Espeo.
*Sonic Heroes result screen plays, as a red A appears*
Espio: Impossible feat, ultimate ninja power!
Greninja
Background:
Among the many Pokemon trainers of the world, Ash is certainly among the most determined and stubborn. And when it came time to start a new journey is the lovely region of Kalos, he needed some serious power on his side. As fate would have it, he encountered and obtained a special little water starter named Froakie. This Froakie in particular had left many trainers before him, but after seeing Ash put his life on the line for others he decided to stick with him. And over the course of the journey Froakie became more and more powerful, to the point where he managed to fully evolve into his final form, Greninja.
Moveset:
Water Shuriken
Chargeable
Water Shield
Water Daggers
Hydro Pump
Water Pulse
Bubble
Aerial Ace
Pound
Double Team
Night Slash
Shadow Sneak
Cut
Substitute
Battle Bond
This Water/Dark type Pokemon possesses incredible speed and power in exchange for its pitiful defense stats. And it uses those traits for a high offensive and prediction based battle strategy. Greninja can cut you down with night slash, disappear and reappear instantly with shadow sneak, distract the enemy through illusionary clones, and create a substitute to take the hit for him whenever he needs to rest for a bit. But as you can probably guess, its water type is its strongest attack option as Greninja can manipulate water for many powerful strikes. It can slow you down via explosive bubbles, or just blast you to kingdom come with Hydro Pump, the strongest naturally learned water type attack. This move has so much recoil to it, that Greninja can propel itself through the air to reach new heights. And then there's its signature move, Water Shuriken. Greninjas are well known for their ability to manipulate water to create physical objects for them to use. The main use for this is their razor sharp shurikens which come in all different sizes and styles. Whether they be tiny and fast, or large and powerful, these shurikens can make short work of most Pokemon on its level. The shuriken itself can be used as a shield, split in half to make swords and daggers, and expanded for a bubble shield that surrounds it. And after so many battles of proving its worth, Greninja eventually achieved a new level of power that's comparable to Mega Evolution. It's battle bond with Ash gives it access to Ash-Greninja. Faster, stronger, and with way more power, this frog can compete with some serious competition.
Feats:
Frequently moved at blur speed
Launched Sceptile into a concrete wall
Survived a point blank explosion
Withstood Charizard's thunder punch
Comparable to Lucario and Charizard X
Greninja is an impressive Pokemon all things considered. He's strong enough to slice through solid concrete as a mere Froakie, can outrun Ash's Pikachu, and scale a 600m tall tower in less than a minute's time. Even without a move like Quick Attack, Greninja can easily move at blur speeds and strike down most foes before they even know what hit them. Generally speaking, Greninja should also be on the level of Pokemon like Lucario, who can achieve short bursts of speed exceeding that of 9,000 MPH, and effortlessly break through a steel crane. To pull this off would require a force of at least 56,000 pounds per square inch. Greninja on its own can send Pokemon flying fast enough to crack solid rock, break free from being frozen solid, and get back up after getting slammed by thunderbolt. Type match-ups are no problem for this froggy, as it was able to defeat the also fast Sceptile while it was in its mega form. Even more impressive is when Greninja fought against Alain's Mega-Charizard X. During this battle, Greninja was able to tank a full on blow from Charizard's super effective thunder punch. That's a physical move coming off of a superpowered dragon whose base form can lift the 400lb Golem and crush boulders with its bare claws. The finale of this bout resulted in a clash between their most powerful attacks, creating an explosion that filled the whole battlefield they were standing in at that very moment. Using known character heights, we find this field to be about 88x88 meters. For the explosion to cover this whole area, it would need an energy equivalent to be just over 21 tons of TNT. Although it was enough to knock Greninja out and reduce it back to its base form while Charizard remained standing. With that kind of power, it's no wonder how Greninja was able to defeat the champion's signature Pokemon, Mega Gardevoir.
Extras:
Battle Bond works differently between the anime and game. But for the sake of consistency, since this is Ash's anime Greninja, the anime rules will be taking priority.
Weaknesses:
Especially vulnerable to fighting, fairy, electric, and grass type moves
Defensively isn't anything to write home about
Although Greninja does have to be wary about getting hit in the first place. Outspeeding and tricking its enemies is especially important because of its lack of overall toughness.
But with so much speed and power, Greninja is one Pokemon you definitely have to watch out for in the league.
*Greninja tosses its fully charged Water Shuriken that clashes with the explosion of Charizard's Blast Burn*
The Battle:
Alright the combatants are set and all possibilities have been taken into account. It's time for a death battle!
It is silent in the dark forest, as Greninja rests easy on a stump. But Greninja is able to detect the faint sound of blades cutting through the air, alerting him to a kunai coming straight for him. Greninja slices it out of the air with a single water shuriken and sends a fully charged one in the direction of which the attack came. A silhouetted Espeo leaps out of the way towards the dark forest as the water shuriken slices through the tree he was standing on. Greninja takes a look over in the area and finds a small communication device.
Vector: Espeo, do you read me? Have you found the target?
Greninja leaves the device behind as he heads towards the forest to finish his challenger. Greninja takes a walk through the woods, unknowingly stepping into a trap set for him. Smoke explodes from the ground as Greninja is attacked by an unseen Espeo. But after some patience he manages to grab hold of Espeo, and with a hydro pump he launches himself above the smoke cloud to finally see Espeo. Now detected, Espeo breaks free from Greninja's grasp and tosses three shurikens towards the frog ninja. Greninja creates miniature daggers to swat each shuriken away. Setting foot on a tree branch, Greninja dashes towards Espeo and the two clash blades with the water daggers and Espeo's kunai. Their speed and strength is equal as they are unable to overwhelm the other with swift strikes. Greninja gets Espeo to back up slowly as their attacks become progressively faster. Greninja dashes forward and the two stand firm with their blades being pushed into each other. Greninja finally gets the edge as he cuts through the kunai, forcing Espeo back. The chameleon lands on his feet as he clings to a tree and quickly climbs up it to avoid Greninja's horizontal slash, which manages to cut the tree perfectly as it collapses. Espeo, now aiborn, uses his homing attack to close in on Greninja, slamming him into the ground and leaping back up. He latches Greninja to his grappling hook and starts spinning the frog ninja around at incredible speed. In the process, Greninja repeatedly slams into tree branches, the ground, and smashes through solid stone. Greninja is pulled in closer and sent flying with a single kick. Greninja lands perfectly and watches as Espeo appears and dashes forward. He throws out a karate chop, but Greninja leaps over him and creates several illusionary clones, stunning Espeo. They all come down and throw out several strikes and swipes with water blades, night slash, and standard jabs. Espeo avoids each blow he can, but is confused when his counterattack just passes through one of the clones.
Espeo: What?
But the real Greninja strikes him in the back and mixes up with the rest of the crowd. Espeo takes a test and allows some of the clones to get a blow, only for them to pass through and not do anything.
Espeo: Stop wasting my time.
Espeo raises his hands into the air rapidly, and creates a mini tornado that destroys most of the illusions created by Double Team. But the real Greninja manages to sneak into the vortex through shadow sneak, as the pitch black shadow slips on through and allows Greninja to suddenly appear before Espeo. But it doesn't quite work, as the chameleon suddenly vanishes from sight and Greninja hits nothing. The vortex subsides, as Greninja is attacked by his invisible foe. Being overwhelmed by the enemy he cannot see, Greninja puts its hands together and summons an enormous amount of energy that explodes from Greninja. Espeo is sent back, now visible to the Pokemon. And when he looks at his foe, it has transformed.
Espeo: Give me a break.
Ash-Greninja raises its hand high as a red water shuriken over 10 feet wide forms and spins so rapidly, that it appears to just be a solid circle. Greninja unleashes it, and as the blade cuts through the vegetation, Espeo vanishes yet again and the attack lands in his general area, exploding in a massive burst. Ash-Greninja stares intensely at the damaged area, only to be met with a surprise attack from behind. Espeo lands blow after blow, using kunai in hand to cut Greninja down until he is bleeding from head to toe. Yet this isn't enough to slow the frog ninja down, as Espeo launches a barrage of shurikens towards it only to have them deflected as quickly as they fly. But what Greninja didn't know is that they are explosive. In a second's notice, they detonate and Ash-Greninja into the air. Espeo, in a vortex of wind, flies up and avoids one last strikes, allowing him to stab Greninja through the stomach, and send him off into the distance. The kunai in Greninja's torso was attached to Espeo's rope. The rope gets caught on a branch and spins Greninja around. Wrapped around Greninja over the course of the journey, it finally hangs Greninja above the forest area, leaving his body lifeless. Espeo lands on the ground safely, and takes a sigh of relief.
Espeo: Mission accomplished.
K.O.
Post-Analysis:
This was a surprisingly close bout as Greninja and Espio's overall stats did seem to be relatively even. Even their overall strength, as scaling them to other characters showed they could strike with more than 30 tons of force. Of course, Greninja was obviously much more powerful when it came to its water shurikens, and in some scenarios that alone could help Greninja score a win. But power alone doesn't solve all of your problems, you need a lot more to back it up. Greninja's movement speed was only on par with Espio's, and because Espio has handled himself against much faster opponents it was obvious that Espio's overall reaction speed was more than enough to keep up. As a result, Greninja couldn't just simply overwhelm Espio with his wide range of attacks. Not to mention Espio had plenty of smarts, stealth, intelligence, and experience on his side. Thanks to his invisibility, Espio always had the means of escaping harm, and has worked around enemies much more powerful than himself in the past. Many of which completely overshadowed any of Greninja's feats. With his expertise in stealth and detective work, he could figure out a way around Greninja's tactics, and his overall unpredictability made it hard for the frog to get a good grasp on the situation. But probably most damning of all was the fact that even with all his raw power, Greninja didn't really have the means of putting Espio down very quickly. Just hear us out. The feat of raw power demonstrated by Greninja in the series was when his Water Shuriken clashed with Charizard's Blast Burn. The resulting explosion came out to about 21 tons of TNT, but because this was the result of two different Pokemon he could only be given half credit for it. On the flipside, Espio could get shot out of these special cannons in Rail Canyon from Sonic Heroes and land without any injury. In other team stories, we see these same cannons can launch Sonic and friends with enough force to obliterate the solid steel structure based off of Eggman's head. Using Sonic and friends as reference, this structure appears to be around 120x55 meters. The resulting impact would have to equal at least 18 tons of tnt, and that's seriously low balling it. To launch Sonic and friends with enough force to pull that off means these cannons can fire them with a force far surpassing that of their ultimate impact. Let's not forget that Espio could keep on moving like nothing happened after the fact as well. So with this in mind, Espio had more than enough durability and endurance to tank even the strongest hit from Ash-Greninja. And since that explosion was enough to knock Greninja out, even this form could only last so long before ultimately falling to the ninja detective. Both combatants brought great advantages to their side, as Greninja's raw power and matching speed put up a good fight. But Espio's natural talents, endurance, durability, and superior intelligence took the win. It's a shame, Greninja was doing so well before he croaked.
The winner is Espio.
*IMPORTANT NOTES
Technically, Greninja's durability may have been highballed as part of the attack was Blast Burn. Blast Burn is a fire type that water types like Greninja resist, so he would only take half the damage. And yet despite this resistance, he still fell before Charizard.
If we gave Greninja the benefit of the doubt and fully scaled him to other Pokemon he's fought, like Charizard-X, then the same logic would have to be applied to Espio. This would only push the battle back in Espio's favor as he would then scale to characters like Knuckles, Shadow, and Metal Sonic.
Whether Greninja can even access his Ash-Greninja form without Ash around is inconclusive. It was given to him just to give Greninja the benefit of the doubt and to see how well his superior form fairs.
Greninja greatly relies on the instructions and help of his trainer, while Espio has handled plenty of solo missions on his own time.
Greninja and Espio have both shown faster than eyesight speed in short bursts, but their casual movement speed should be relatively similar at best for Greninja.*
NEXT TIME:
*A certain mouse leaps into the scene with keyblade in hand. And following that is a rabbit holding a carrot. And he has to say is...
?: Eh, what's up doc?*
