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Information in this article may not be canonical to the storyline of the games or any other Sonic continuity. |
Valdez the Chameleon[1] was a Mobian chameleon and member of the resurrected Royal Secret Service. During the chaos caused by the invasion of Mobotropolis by Dr. Eggman, Valdez stayed behind to allow his comrades to escape, and as such was 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 his former-best friend Espio the Chameleon, who in the end was forced to destroy him, by luring him into a trap. In the ensuing fight, Valdez was pushed into the water where his systems failed.
History[]
Shinobi Ninja[]
Valdez observing Locke's actions while he was part of the Shinobi Clan.
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, and afterwards helped Espio settle into Rainbow Valley to take over his duties when Knuckles became Guardian.
Member of the Secret Service[]
Following the retirement of Fleming, Geoffrey St. John assumed command of the Royal 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 previously worked for the Secret Service.
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, destroying it and 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?"
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.
For their first 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. 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.
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 some helpless children. His fate remained unknown for some time until Hershey Cat sneaked into the re-christened Robotropolis and discovered he had been roboticized.
Eggman's Sub-Boss[]
Roboticized Valdez
Following his capture by Shadowbots in Mobotropolis, Dr. Eggman personally saw to reshape Valdez's memories to portray his former friends and allies as the villains. After he was roboticized, Valdez believed Eggman to be his savior and the various Mobian populations to be the enemies. Following this, Eggman dispatched Valdez to Angel Island, acting as his lieutenant for the area. Once on Angel Island, Valdez had a large group of the Chameleon population rounded up and captured. From there, he'd hoped to use them as a bargaining chip to convince Espio to help him.
After Espio was captured and brought to him, Valdez had hoped that Espio would believe his story of how his friends in the Secret Service betrayed him. When Espio did not, Valdez became enraged. When Espio asked Liza the Chameleon why she had brought him to Valdez, Liza explained she'd hoped he could convince Valdez to stop working for Eggman. Seeing this, Valdez felt she too had betrayed him, much like the Secret Service had before. 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.
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. Espio then lured Valdez, Liza and a group of Shadowbots to an abandoned city hall building, lying to Valdez about them having visited Knuckles and the Chaos Emeralds years ago. Valdez, unable to recall the memory, reinforced his message that if Espio tried to pull a fast one on him, the others would be roboticized. Once Valdez was standing on a trap door, Espio sprung the trap, which caused him to fall into the underground sewer system. Espio sent them both into the water, which caused Valdez circuits to stop operating. Liza and the Shadowbots were unable to detect either Valdez or Espio under water, and while they continued to search, Espio freed the rest of the Chameleons and escaped, blowing up the structure with the roboticized Chameleons and Shadowbots inside.
Trivia[]
- 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.[2]
References[]
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog: The Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia, "Royal Military & Secret Service"
- ↑ Ian Flynn (14 June 2007). Ask Ian vol. X: "In Soviet Mobius, Ian Asks YOU!". BumbleKing Comics. Archived from the original on 20 July 2015.
External links[]
- Valdez at Mobius Encyclopaedia, the Archie Sonic wiki.