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Valdez was a Mobian Chameleon and member of the resurrected Royal Secret Service and the Shinobi Clan. He was sent from the Dragon Kingdom to keep watch over the current Guardian Locke when his duties fell to his student Espio the Chameleon to watch Locke's son, Knuckles before joining with the Secret Service. During the chaos caused by the invasion of Mobotropolis by Dr. Eggman, Valdez stayed behind to allow his comrades to escape. He was eventually captured and roboticized. Under Eggman's command, Valdez was dispatched to locate, round up and roboticize the Chameleon population of Angel Island as well as locate the Master Emerald. His plans were foiled by Espio the Chameleon, who in the end was forced to destroy him; in the ensuing fight, Valdez was pushed into the water where it is assumed his systems failed.
History[]
Shinobi Ninja[]
Valdez secretly observing Locke's actions.
Valdez hailed from the Dragon Kingdom as a member of the Shinobi Clan, serving as mentor to Espio the Chameleon. He was assigned the duty of spying on Locke and his dealings with the Kingdom of Acorn by his clan before Locke joined the Brotherhood of Guardians. He later helped Espio settle into Rainbow Valley to take over his duties on Angel Island when Knuckles became Guardian. (SU: #16)
Member of the Secret Service[]
Following the retirement of Fleming, Geoffrey assumed command of the Secret Service. From there, King Maximillian Acorn ordered him to recruit new members to begin a mission to discover what had become of Queen Alicia Acorn during the Great War. Valdez was personally chosen by Geoffrey to join his team, as he had apparently worked for the Secret Service previously. While he initially seemed somewhat resentful when Geoffrey tracked him down (mentioning that Espio had told him the skunk had been seen on the island), he nevertheless rejoined, partly in order to spy on the Kingdom from within. Presumably unbeknownst to Valdez, Geoffrey had recruited him and the rest of the group so that they could be blamed for any harm that befell the kingdom, though Geoffrey privately doubted that he could have pinned anything on Valdez. (StH: #61, #233, CSE)
During their first training mission, Valdez went into a water tank which Hershey Cat had recently fallen into, and threw Bomb at an approaching robotic shark, saving Hershey. When Geoffrey explained the hard training up ahead, Valdez whispered to the other trainees "Why do I get the feeling I should have stayed in bed?" (StH: #62)
Valdez being trained with other recruits by Geoffrey St. John to become Secret Service agents
In their next training mission, Valdez was responsible for taking out the security sensors on the building which they were to enter. Next, he took out the sole SWATbot guard of the facility. Following this training mission, Valdez and the other trainees were official recruits of the Secret Service. (StH: #63, #64)
For their first official mission, Valdez and the others went to Angel Island where they discovered what had become of Queen Alicia after her convey was shot down while flying to the neutral territory of Angel Island during the Great War. Valdez was taken by surprise at the bizarre weather patterns that the island was experiencing due to the most recent of the Days of Fury, but after recognizing some snow covered structures as pyramids, he determined that they had landed in the Sandopolis Zone and was able to provide his team with some orientation. After arriving at the Royal Compound and discovering Prince Elias, the Queen's son, they later were taken to Haven where Queen Alicia was discovered in stasis. The group retrieved the comatose Queen and brought her and Elias back to Mobotropolis. (KtE: #19, #20, #21)
During their next mission, the Secret Service was assigned the task of rescuing a captured Nate Morgan from the clutches of Snivley and his henchmen. After successfully tracking them down, Valdez and his team went to the location and found Sonic the Hedgehog waiting for them. The group then went to confront the escaped convicts and, after a short battle in which Snivley is seemingly killed in an explosion, managed to save Morgan. The Service then proceeds to recapture the escaped convicts (sans Predator Hawk, Kodos, and Arachnis, who all escaped) and send them back to the Devil's Gulag. (StH: #68, #69, #70)
When Dr. Eggman began retaking Mobotropolis after luring the Knothole Freedom Fighters to his satellite station, Valdez held off a group of Shadowbots, allowing his friends to escape with Rosie and her orphans. His fate remained unknown for some time until Hershey Cat snuck into the re-christened Robotropolis and discovered he had been roboticized. (StH: #75, SSS: #11)
Eggman's Sub-Boss[]
Valdez roboticized
Following Valdez's capture by Shadowbots in Mobotropolis, Dr. Eggman, surprised to find a chameleon not on Angel Island, decided he would be useful. Not wanting merely another Robian slave, Eggman gave Valdez special reprogramming to twist his real memories. Valdez came to believe that the Secret Service had abandoned him and that Eggman had saved his life. Believing that Eggman needed the Chaos Emerald to defeat an evil King Acorn and prevent the echidnas from using its power for world conquest, Valdez was dispatched to Angel Island, acting as the doctor's lieutenant for the area. Once on Angel Island, Valdez approached his former village and demanded to see Espio. Having been passing through the area with Julie-Su, Liza, a female chameleon, found Espio and brought him to Valdez, saying he wished to see him. Espio was shocked to find his old friend roboticized. (KtE: #30, #31)
After Espio was captured and brought aboard the transport ship, Valdez explained how the Secret Service had betrayed him and how he was saved by Eggman. When Espio showed doubt at this turn of events, Valdez became enraged, as he'd thought that Espio would side with him as his friend. He had a struggling Liza brought in. When Espio asked Liza why she had brought him to Valdez, Liza explained through tears that she'd hoped he could reason with Valdez. Through his twisted point of view, Valdez accused Liza too of betrayal, saying that she'd always preferred Espio to him. Thus, he had Liza roboticized, and threatened to have the rest of the Chameleons roboticized as well if Espio did not help him to locate the Master Emerald. Throughout all this, he repeatedly addressed Espio as "friend." (KtE: #31)
Espio, caught between the options of allowing his people to be roboticized, or betraying Knuckles, attempted to deceive Valdez into releasing the Chameleons before he helped them. Valdez flatly refused, telling Espio if he did not help them immediately, the other Chameleons would be roboticized. Upset at Valdez's behavior, Espio said he'd help. Espio then led Valdez, Liza and a group of Shadowbots to the remains of a city, lying to Valdez about them having visited Knuckles and the Chaos Emeralds there years ago. Valdez, unable to recall the memory, dismissed it and reinforced his threat: if Espio tried to pull a fast one on him, the chameleons captive on the ship would be roboticized. However, once within the ruins, Espio disappeared from view. Looking for him, Valdez stepped upon a trap door and was dropped below to the sewer system, isolated from the others. Valdez once again threatened his "friend" for his deceit, leading Espio to yell "Don't call me your friend! Not anymore!" when he realized Valdez wasn't the friend he once knew anymore. Espio sent them both into the water and they got into a struggle, Valdez attempting to reach the ship's remote trigger on his arm. What exactly happened is unseen, as Liza and the Shadowbots were unable to detect either Valdez or Espio in the water, and while they continued to search, Espio freed the rest of the Chameleons from the ship; it exploded as they left. When one of the chameleons asked what had happened to Valdez, Espio simply replied that they wouldn't be seeing him again. (KtE: #32)
Personality[]
Valdez was brash and assertive; despite serving under him, he didn't seem to respect Geoffrey much. However, he was willing to selflessly help his comrades. After being roboticized he was heavily reprogrammed, causing his memories and perception of past events to become heavily twisted. While he recognized Espio as his old friend, he constantly used threats to force him to comply, showing no concern for former friends.
Background Information[]
- Current writer Ian Flynn has stated that he assumes the character to have been destroyed by Espio, but does not plan on revisiting the subject in the series (and due to the Penders case, he can't).
- Valdez made cameos in crowd scenes, after he had already been captured and roboticized. Whether this was a hint that he is n fact alive or an error on the artist part remains unclear.
- Geoffrey St. John revealed, more than a year after Valdez's death, that he was aware that Valdez had been a Shinobi Clan spy, but appeared to have no problem with it. (StH #233)
- Valdez was originally going to make a comeback to show him alive and facing Espio again.
Appearance[]
Valdez was a blue chameleon who wore a red beret, vest, gloves and shoes (the latter also sporting orange and purple). His horn was usually colored light yellow or beige. He later wore the typical outfit of the Secret Service, consisting of brown/olive boots, gloves, vest and beret, as well as a visor.
His design as a Robian was fairly basic, giving him a blue and peach body with square red eyes.