Rúben Pontes is an engineer from Lisbon, Portugal, Omega Earth. Having worked at the Everett-Linde Research Facility before its destruction, he is now on the run from Omega authorities for his involvement with Oran McEneff's (a colleague of his from Everett-Linde) illegal crossover to Omega Earth.
History[]
Rúben Pontes comes from Lisbon, Portugal, Omega Earth, with a home near Lisbon's Pearl District. He has a niece called Aurora.[1]
Working as an engineer for Kingdom Industries, he was employed to work at the top-secret Everett-Linde Research Facility on Alpha Earth around 9 AFL. He was assigned to partner up with an Alpha engineer for his work, and it was from this that he would meet Oran McEneff.[2]
Pontes' work station at Everett-Linde
Pontes and McEneff mostly worked on the construction of the Large Radian Collider, including structural integrity. During his time there, Pontes would mention how he found the strict segregation rules enforced by the two Kingdom companies, though within a month of starting he was able to get security approval to work in the core alongside McEneff at the same time. The two also shared information about their own Earths with each other, with Pontes admiring how beautiful Alpha Earth sounded from McEneff's descriptions. McEneff himself marveled at the fact Omega Earth had city-wide geo-domes, and Pontes said he hoped he could be able to show the domes to him in person one day.[3]
The day before the Large Radian Collider was set to be launched, Pontes contacted McEneff and shared his excitement for the completion of the project, also looking forward to being able to celebrate with him in person at the lab's observation deck. On the day of the launch however, the collider was destroyed by two snipers. The resulting explosion killed most of the lab's workers, but both Pontes and McEneff were able to escape.[3]
Pontes and McEneff together on Omega
After the destruction of Everett-Linde, Pontes returned home to Omega and helped McEneff to cross over from Alpha too. Pontes was finally able to show McEneff his home, the Omega geo-domes, and the tram routes that connected the domes. When Omega authorities such as ATLAS discovered McEneff's illegal crossover and Pontes' role in it, the two were forced to go on the run. Authorities searched Pontes' home as a result, cordoning it off, and issued a wanted poster for him, describing him as a "dangerous subject" and accusing him of "harboring a fugitive".
Investigations by the VALORANT Protocol[]
VP using Pontes' account details on a mission
Though Pontes does not appear to have any involvement himself with the organization, the VALORANT Protocol showed an interest in him specifically and his time at Everett-Linde during their research into building an Alpha-Omega teleporter and crossing over to Omega. When the Protocol sent a strike team to obtain intel from a Kingdom Industries Data Center in Lisbon, Killjoy used Pontes' account details to log into and access a terminal.[4]