Chameleon means "earth lion" in Greek

a ninja's tongue

it was a normal evening in the chaotixs building 

vector the was listening to his music 

charmy was playing with his video games 

and espio was meditating quietly in the corner

there were no new cases 

so they were simply playing the waiting game until anything comes up 

"ughhhhhhh, hungry now" charmy whined as he finished another level   

fair enough to the little bee, it was drawing closer and closer to dinner time

and it seemed like he wasn't alone as the two reptiles stomachs began to grumble

"eh, not really in the mood to cook" vector said lazily 

the crocodile looked to his chameleon teammate  to see what his response would be 

it was usually a disapproving stare or a sigh, then he would usually get up to make something himself 

but when the ninja didn't reply 

vector took this as an indication of the chameleon not being in the mood to cook either 

so there was only one thing left to do

order a takeaway 

"charmy hand me the phone" vector instructed 

the bee did as he was ordered, only he flew the phone over vectors and dropped it on his head 

"OWWW" vector yelled in pain 

(every time!") the crocodile said to himself as he rubbed his poor head, meanwhile the cheeky bee was laughing at his misfortune 

espio simply shook his head watching the display, knowing that the peace and quiet had ended 

"alrighty, so what does everyone want for tea?" vector asked

"honey sesame chicken with white rice!" charmy exclaimed, drooling slightly

vector wasn't surprised, anything sweet the child would happily gorge himself on 

"Thai Green Chicken Curry please" espio requested

again, it wasn't surprising, healthy and nutritious as what he normally ate

"awesome, I'm gonna have the sweet chilli chicken yakisoba bento and I'll order a plate of sweet dumplings for us to share" vector announced happily as he began drool himself in anticipation, feeling proud he had pronounced yakisoba properly  

making sure everyone was in agreement with their decisions, vector began to order 

it took 30 minutes 

but thanks to charmy's whining of "it's taking forever", "how much longer?" and "is it close now?" it made it feel much longer 

"sit down and shut up already" vector yelled/begged as he took the food from the deliver man, paying him and getting the food on the plates ready to be served 

"mmmm, smells yummy" charmy exclaimed as vector placed it on the table 

at once everyone dug into their meals 

predictably charmy and vector began gobbling it, splashing food both on the table and on their faces 

espio showing more self control ate his food slowly, savouring every bite

a usual dinner time 

but something soon caught a certain detectives attention 

charmy could have sworn there were more dumplings 

the bee hadn't seen anyone reach out to grab one 

maybe he missed it, imagining things 

so he got back to eating 

but looking up again 

the number of dumplings had defiantly gone down 

and he had defiantly not seen espio nor vector reach over 

(what's going on?) charmy asked suspiciously 

charmy began eating slower to keep an eye on the plate 

and that's when he swore he saw something  

something had raced over to the plate and stolen a dumpling 

it was so fast that if he wasn't looking specifically at it he would have defiantly missed it

"ghosts!" charmy shouted 

his outburst earnt him a startled look from vector and a confused glare from the espio 

"what's bothering you now charmy?" espio asked, discarding his chopsticks for a moment 

"there's a ghost stealing our dumplings!" charmy cried, pointing to the plate where less dumplings lay

"either you or esp must have eaten em" vector stated, also beginning to get curious, he had defiantly not eaten them 

"nuh, uh, I haven't" charmy refused shaking his head 

leading the two figures to look at the only figure left 

"I've had my share, you must have not seen me take them" espio responded, going back to his meal 

charmy was about to protest, about to say chameleon had defiantly not moved, but was interrupted by his leader 

"that settles it, let's get back to enjoying our meals" vector announced as he lifted his plate to his mouth 

charmy sighed, he didn't have proof and he didn't see any more dumplings move from the plate, maybe he did just miss espio reaching over 

and so he decided to let it go and go back to eating 

espio sighed in relief as he saw charmy go back to his meal, thankful the little detective had left the case 

yes he had taken his share of the dumplings as he said, but he didn't say how exactly he had got them 

espio hadn't been sleeping very well and was feeling extremely tired 

he wouldn't usually feel like being lazy but today just seemed to be one of those days 

instead of leaning over to grab the dumpling he simply used his super fast tongue to grab one at a time 

Chameleons' tongues are extremely quick and powerful and can even be longer than its own body length, sometimes exceeding accelerations of 13 miles per hour. This means they can grab their prey within fractions of a second, making it impossible for prey to get away.

a fact that the chameleon didn't share with his fellow teammates

although it seemed cool and used to use the skill more frequently when he was young

he hardly ever used it now as he found it gross in fighting and people gave him weird looks when he used it 

he did use it for uses like a grappling hook when on solo missions, and in this case eating dumplings 

sweet dumplings were his most favourite food in the world, so it was mainly his stomach speaking for his brain 

espio decided that it was a one time thing and left it at that, dreading on it no longer 

but these events did give him some mileage 

if charmy was annoying him, he can now scare him saying that he hadn't actually eaten the dumplings and a ghost was haunting the building