Vector the Crocodile

Vector the Crocodile, leader of the Chaotix, is one of Knuckles the Echidna's oldest friends. Having lived with the Guardian on Angel Island and made his acquaintance after what Knuckles thought was the death of his father Locke, Vector was the first Mobian to join Knuckles as an ally in combat. When the likes of Espio the Chameleon, Charmy Bee, and Mighty the Armadillo joined the group, Vector became their leader as they formed the Chaotix. He has since remained a stalwart ally of Knuckles and later the Freedom Fighters, leading the Chaotix into battle against some of Mobius' greatest evils. Originally, this involved defending Angel Island alongside Knuckles, but has since expanded to include the war against Dr. Robotnik.

Early Years
Knuckles and Vector first met during on of Knuckles' many treks around Angel Island. Stumbling on the sleeping Crocodile, Knuckles ended up in a fistfight with him. Despite their initial antagonism, the two developed a grudging respect for each other which became friendship, particularly after Locke departed to join the Brotherhood of Guardians. Vector would later help Knuckles bring Mighty the Armadillo onto Angel Island, though their aircraft of choice-a contraption known only as the Gyro-was destroyed by Vector's lack of piloting skills.

The Chaotix: Formation and Early Missions
Vector and Mighty would later be joined by Charmy Bee and Espio the Chameleon, the four of them becoming the original Chaotix, Knuckles' support group in defending Angel Island. Their first mission involved shutting down a theme park built and run by Dr. Robotnik's agent Renfield T. Rodent, who managed to imprison the Freedom Fighters-including Sonic the Hedgehog-and weaken Knuckles. Though Renfield was easy enough to handle, Vector and the others proved no match for Metal Sonic, who was only defeated when Knuckles and he both absorbed Power Gems and duked it out giant-sized. After Robotnik's plot was defeated, the Chaotix became Knuckles' official support team. Despite this backup role, they proved themselves full heroes by battling the Fearsome Foursome and their leader, Mammoth Mogul, while Knuckles was absent dealing with a Roboticized Sonic, also known as Mecha Sonic (see the Mecha Madness special). They would also be in the background as Knuckles searched for the mysterious Archimedes, and were later abducted by this unknown antagonist and taken to Angel Island's Grand Conservatory.

Vector and the others learned Archimedes' true identity, discovering him to be an ally and vouching for him with Knuckles. Unfortunately, they all soon fell prey to a piece of Knuckles' family history: the original Enerjak formerly the Echidna Dimitri. Using his power, he turned Vector and the other Chaotix into his loyal minoins, banishing Knuckles and Archie to Angel Island's desert. They managed to return to Enerjak's citadel of Nekronopolis, fighting Vector and the others and defeating them. The Crocodile and the others were then freed from Enerjak's control when the mad Echidna was launched into space.

Return of the Echidnas
The Chaotix faced no major threats again until after the Ultimate Annihilator erased the barrier between Mobius Prime and the Twilight Zone, freeing the Dark Legion, a group of cyborg Echidnas founded by Dimitri's descendants, to begin their campaign of domination. After battling these enemies valiantly, the Chaotix were able to drive them from their headquarters. However, they soon faced the return of some old foes, Mammoth Mogul and the Fearsome Foursome. Using his magic, Mogul disguised his minions as members of the Freedom Fighters to trick the Chaotix and the Chaotix to trick the Freedom Fighters, all in a bid to lay hands on the Sword of Acorns that Knuckles had recently retrieved. Though initially the two forces were fooled, Sally Acron and Archimedes were able to cease the infighting and get the two groups to cooperate. Vector joined the others in attacking and defeating the Fearsome Foursome and Mammoth Mogul, only for the latter to escape with the Sword. Vector, however, soon found himself faced with other problems: the return of the city of Echidnaopolis and the uneasy alliance between the Chaotix and a rogue Dark Legionnaire named Julie-Su.

Once the Echidnaopolis crisis had been resolved, Vector joined his friends in moving into the city, hanging out at the local food court. Not long had they been in residence when Enerjak, aided anonymously by Mammoth Mogul, returned to seek his revenge. Seemingly betrayed by Julie-Su, Vector and the others were taken prisoner by the Dark Legion, who had sided with their ancestral hero. Escaping, they returned to Echidnaopolis just in time to save Dimitri from a sudden end after Mammoth Mogul used the Sword of Acorns to drain his powers. Vector joined in the fight against the newly empowered Master Mogul, but the day was only saved when Knuckles, Sonic, and Miles "Tails" Prower received a power boost from the Chaos Emeralds and Power Rings to transform into improved forms that Mogul was defeated and sealed in the new Master Emerald. While Knuckles then departed to aid the Lost Tribe of Echidnas, Vector and the Chaotix joined forces with Echidna Security Team Constable Remington to investigate their old enemy Renfield T. Rodent, who had refurbished his old theme park and begun tainting the food with an experimental seasoning designed to cause addiction and thus bring patrons back for more. Renfield accidentally put too much of the ingredient into some of his food, and the resulting overdose killed Charmy's friend Mello. The Chaotix themselves-Vector included-were left disoriented by a similar poisoning, but recovered quickly enough. They then brought Renfield and his employer, Ebony Hare, to justice after defeating them and saving Julie-Su from their henchmen.

Following Knuckles' return, Vector and the rest of the Chaotix would find themselves with no enemies to fight for a time, other than Vector's antagonism towards Julie-Su. That ended when the Dark Legion resurfaced yet again, this time attempting to seize control of Angel Island through politics. Vector and the other Chaotix defeated them, only for Knuckles to be spirited away briefly by his ancestors in the Brotherhood of Guardians to Haven. When he returned, the Guardian would struggle to come to grips with his feelings for Julie-Su, which Vector was rather unhelpful with due to his opposition of the whole thing. Still, Vector was eventually pacified, and was there with his first known date at Knuckles' birthday party when his old friend and his increasingly friendly rival kissed for the first time. Together with the other Chaotix, Vector would then help his friend when Knuckles' found himself switching bodies with Sonic due to a teamup between the Dark Legion and Robotnik. Shortly after, the Chaotix found themselves in the Mysterious Cat Country with Knuckles gone to aid the Freedom Fighters and the local inhabitants eager to punish them, and it was only Locke's timely intervention that saved them. Soon Vector was up against the Dark Legion again, but this time he and the Chaotix-except for Julie-were all transported to the Twilight Zone by the Quantum Beam.

Vector was soon brought back to Mobius, together with the other natives of Angel Island, by Chaos Knuckles. Having little to do with the attempted reunification of the Echidnas, he played an equally little role in Chaos Knuckles' battle with Mammoth Mogul, which resulted in Knuckles' death. Like the other Chaotix, he was present at Knuckles' funeral, and for once the usually hard-bitten Crocodile was overcome. Soon afterwards, he and the other Chaotix found themselves telling a grieving Julie-Su stories of their early days with Knuckles, and the long conflict between the hothead Crocodile and the female Echidna reached an all time low point.

Personality
Vector is egotistic, loud-mouthed, and opinionated to a fault, but that has never stopped him from helping out his friends. He thinks women find him irresistible, and to his dismay is often proven wrong. With a temper just as short as Knuckles and Julie-Su's, he clashed with both Echidnas early in their friendships but eventually made peace with them. A lover of the loudest rock music, Vector always wears a set of high power headphones.

Abilities
As a Crocodile, Vector is possessed of natural strength and agility. His walkman can also be used as a sonic weapon, firing powerful blasts of music at enemies and friendly rivals alike. Though not as skilled in martial arts as Espio or Knuckles, he knows how to handle himself in a fight.