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Angela Cross, also known as the Unknown Thief,[4] is a major support character in Going Commando, with mentions in later titles. She is a lombax[2][3] who formerly worked in the genetics division of Megacorp in the Bogon Galaxy, on fixing the Protopet's flaws. She left the company when Abercrombie Fizzwidget pushed up its release date to become a rogue thief to prevent it from being released. Initially an adversary to Ratchet, who had been hired by Megacorp as a commando to apprehend her and retrieve the Protopet, she later befriended him and Clank in order to stop Megacorp from mass-producing the killer animal as a pet.

Sometime after Ratchet left the Bogon Galaxy, she met Max Apogee, and was last seen fleeing the Cerullean Sector in his starship. Her whereabouts, as reported on space radio, were thereafter unknown.[2]

History[]

Pre-Going Commando[]

Angela was an employee for Megacorp who worked in the genetics division and lived in a home on Grelbin granted to her by a generous employee bonus package.[5] Her role was to fix the Protopet's flaws,[6] and she invented a device known as the Helix-o-morph, to cure its violent tendencies.[7] She had been close to succeeding in curing the Protopet before shipping it to stores, when Qwark, disguised as the Megacorp CEO Abercrombie Fizzwidget, pushed the release date of the Protopet forward shortly before Angela could finish.[6]

Angela left Megacorp, and hid her identity with a mask, a voice changer, and a hooded cape, to become the Unknown Thief. She stole the Protopet and took it to her flying lab on planet Aranos, though she did not destroy it.

Going Commando[]

Infiltrate the flying base cutscene

The Unknown Thief holding Ratchet at gunpoint.

Ratchet was hired by Abercrombie Fizzwidget as a Megacorp commando, tasked to infiltrate Angela's flying lab and retrieve the Protopet. Angela was waiting for him before he took it, and held him at gunpoint before she went on the run to find a way to destroy it. She hired the Thugs-4-Less for protection, asking them to meet her at Oozla.

On Oozla, she arrived and robbed a map, with the help of the Thugs-4-Less. She then was identified in the Maktar Resort, where the Thugs-4-Less, working for her, towed a moon-sized jamming array into the station's orbit, interrupting the annual Galactic Gladiators broadcast.[8] After this, Angela visited Clank's apartment in Megapolis on Endako and kidnapped him, taking him hostage. Afterward, she sent a threatening message to Ratchet, depicting Clank electrocuted and decommissioned, warning Ratchet that he, too, would be harmed if he continued to pursue her. When Ratchet arrived to free Clank, she instead shoved him into the same room as Clank with no apparent means of escape, though Clank was able to escape through an air duct.

Angela next passed by Notak to acquire more chemicals,[9] before returning to her frozen base on Siberius, where she planned to destroy the Protopet. Shortly after purchasing the chemicals and returning to her base, she sent a transmission asking for more to be delivered to Siberius after the Protopet destroyed many of their containers.[10] Ratchet and Clank tracked her to the base thereafter, tracing back the transmission she sent, where they managed to defeat her and retrieve the Protopet, delivering it to Fizzwidget.

Find a way out of the underground tunnels cutscene

Angela demands they hand over the Protopet.

Angela tracked them down to Tabora, where they met with Fizzwidget, demanding they hand over the Protopet. However, she tripped up, revealing her identity as a female lombax after her mask fell off. When Ratchet disclosed that he had already parted with the Protopet, she sighed, telling him he had put all of Bogon in imminent danger, and left him with a telescreen containing a commercial for the Megacorp testing facility on Dobbo, ominously asking him to watch if he had any intention of "fixing the mess" he had made.[11] Ratchet and Clank were confused as to what it meant, but regardless, they traveled to Dobbo to learn more. From this point on, she kept in contact with the two, and they worked together to stop the Protopet.

Meow

Angela being caught by the Thug Leader.

Angela lost her contract bid with Thugs-4-Less to Megacorp, despite it normally being against their policy to shift clients, due to Megacorp's more generous offer of bolts.[12] The Thugs then took over her flying lab on Aranos, and transformed it into the Thugs-4-Less Prison.[13] Later, the Thugs kidnapped Angela as she tried to infiltrate their headquarters on Snivelak, though Ratchet and Clank defeated the Thug Leader and freed her. Angela then revealed she had stolen a transmission from the Thug leader, detailing Megacorp's shipping plans on Smolg.

Angela invited Ratchet and Clank to her old home of Grelbin, where they were able to work on a plan to infiltrate Protopet Factory on Yeedil to defeat the Protopet by stopping the original from which the others were cloned.[14] After they reached the Protopet duplication facility, before they could stop it, Clank's admirer warned them that the disgraced hero Captain Qwark had manufactured the Protopet menace. Shortly after, Captain Qwark revealed himself to have been using a Fizzwidget disguise and attempted to cure the original Protopet using Angela's Helix-o-morph, to fix his tarnished reputation by painting himself as the hero and blaming Ratchet, Clank, and Angela for the Protopets. As Qwark attempted to cure the Protopet, however, he instead amplified its destructive tendencies and caused it to mutate to the Mutant Protopet and eat him.[7]

Defeat the mutated Protopet cutscene

Angela cures the Protopets.

While Ratchet and Clank defeated the Mutant Protopet, Angela found the real Abercrombie Fizzwidget, tied up in a supply closet. She was unable to diagnose the problem with the Helix-o-morph until Clank pointed out the battery had been placed backwards. She then amplified the Helix-o-morph with Megacorp's TV transponders to cure the other Protopets across the galaxy and render them harmless.[15]

In the following events, Angela was seen hanging out with Ratchet and Clank in their apartment on Megapolis, commenting on having heard a rumor that Qwark was working at Megacorp.

Subsequent appearances[]

Qwark Starts a New Job

Angela with Ratchet, Clank, and Clank's admirer in Clank's apartment.

During the ending of Up Your Arsenal, Angela went to the premiere of the latest Secret Agent Clank holo-film, in her Unknown Thief disguise.

Later, Emperor Tachyon hunted for Angela Cross around the time he came into power.[16][2] She fled with the help of Max Apogee, and was last seen fleeing the Cerullean Sector in the Polaris Galaxy in Max Apogee's starship. The starship was later recovered by galactic authorities, who discovered that it had been sent via autopilot from Jasindu, where Max Apogee had left the Dimensionator in Kerchu City under the kerchu's protection.[2] Angela has not been seen since.

Angela was mentioned in Ratchet & Clank: Issue 5: Multiple Organisms.

In Rift Apart, whilst playing as Rivet, on a return visit to the Zordoom Prison processing center, she will reminisce aloud on how the last time she broke out of the prison, it was with "Angela", whom she has not seen for a long time.[17]

Characteristics[]

Appearance[]

Unknown Thief promo render

Angela Cross, disguised as the Unknown Thief.

Angela is a female lombax with yellow hair and blue eyes, who is notably taller than Ratchet. She wears a blue and grey jumpsuit with light turquoise and red accents, as well as a grey belt and grey and red boots.

She does not have a tail. Though it was said by Pepper Fairbanks that female Lombaxes don't have tails, this was during an argument with her hated co-host, whom she consistently butts heads with; Kip Darling, who was skeptical of Angela's validity of being a lombax from her lack of a tail. Her penchant to always argue the opposite of him makes her claim nebulous. In this scene the two were also acting as a proxy for the series' fanbase as the argument of Angela being a Lombax or not because of her lack of a tail, has been the subject of much debate for years. It is currently unknown why Angela does not have a visible tail, while the only other female Lombax to appear; Rivet, does. Rivet being from a different dimension may also explain any discrepancies why this is, as her tail is also different from any other Lombax seen in the series so far, like that of a raccoon's, instead of a lion's.[2]

As the Unknown Thief, she also wears a dark blue mask with light blue eyes, a red armor covering her chest, and a red cape. Due to her armor and her voice changer, her gender appears more ambiguous as the thief, and most mistake her for male.

Personality[]

As the Unknown Thief, Angela Cross initially appears to be a morally ambiguous character, working with the Thugs-4-Less and intimidating innocent people to achieve her goals, to the point of robbing a Megacorp store and kidnapping Clank, despite him having no role in Ratchet's mission to apprehend her at the time. She harbored strong resentment for Megacorp, describing their business as "imperialistic eco-fascism".[18]

When her true intentions were revealed, and she teamed up with Ratchet and Clank, she eventually warmed up to them and became a close friend of both. Angela has strong moral convictions, abandoning a wealthy life with Megacorp to protect the galaxy from the Protopet. Unlike Ratchet and Clank, she gave up quickly on trying to convince Fizzwidget, believing he was senile,[6] though she was not the only employee to share this thought and recognize his behavior has changed.[19]

Angela is shown to be very smart and resourceful, inventing a gadget capable of curing the Protopet and able to keep in contact with Ratchet and Clank while maintaining a low profile, to the point of using a balloon-o-gram to send a message when she had no other options.[20] However, Angela is also notoriously clumsy, as well as when she was under her thief disguise. She commonly trips over items, even allowing a Protopet to destroy several chemicals shortly after purchasing them. She was also unable to sneak around Snivelak without revealing her location by sneezing.

Abilities[]

Unknown Thief on Hoverboard

The Unknown Thief, on a hoverboard.

In battle, as the Unknown Thief, Angela Cross is a skilled fighter and utilizes a hoverboard to fly through the air in combat. Her primary weapon is a high-powered blaster, a weapon she is able to maintain an accurate aim with. She is also capable of using automated machine gun turrets, shockwave blast grenades, and homing bombs.

Angela appears very intelligent, as she was able to cure the Protopet's violent tendencies using the Helix-o-morph, where other Megacorp staff failed to do so and instead simply recommended the Protopet be destroyed.[21] However, she was unable to identify that the Helix-o-morph's problems stemmed from the battery being inserted backwards.

Behind the scenes[]

When Angela's mask fell off on Tabora, there was no trace of the rest of her thief apparel with the exception of her boots, belt, and jumpsuit. This is likely an error, but it may also be possible that her costume was a hologuise.

Prior to A Crack in Time, there was huge debate among fans whether or not Angela was, in fact, a lombax, given her lack of a tail and the fact that Tools of Destruction referred to Ratchet as "the last lombax in the universe". This debate was referenced in the radio news when Kip Darling questioned the fact that she is a lombax based on her lack of a tail. To further clarify this, senior writer T.J. Fixman‏‎ reiterated at the Ratchet & Clank tenth-anniversary panel at PAX 2012 that Angela Cross is a lombax.[3] Fixman also clarified Angela's story in a fan interview, claiming that he loved the character despite never having the chance to write for her.[16] Former developer Mike Stout referred to her as a lombax during his Developer Commentary with Tony Garcia, suggesting that she was known as a lombax internally at the time and also referenced the debates about her lack of a tail.[22] In The Art of Ratchet & Clank, Insomniac's caption apologizes to fans for the confusion caused over her species by her lack of a tail.[23]

A paint job for the Constructo Bomb is named "Angela's Special", a reference to Cross. Insomniac later regretted its inclusion, saying it was "rubbing salt in the fan's wounds over Angela".[24]

Unused dialogue in Up Your Arsenal makes reference to Angela Cross, with an unnamed character from Bogon expressing surprise that Ratchet has fallen in love with Sasha, claiming he "needs another lombax like Angie".[25]

Unused dialogue of Alister Azimuth from A Crack in Time makes reference to a lombax who was "delightful, pretty, and very clumsy" named "Lorna Cross", who he and Kaden knew, likely a reference to Angela Cross, given similar traits and sharing a last name.[26]

Angela had a holocard in the Ratchet & Clank 2016 re-imagined game. She also made an appearance in the non-canon Ratchet & Clank: Bang Bang Bang! Critical Danger of the Galaxy Legend manga.

In the 2016 movie, while Clank is scanning for Ratchet's species, he tells Clank there "aren't many of us left, at least not in this galaxy", a possible allusion to Angela in Bogon.

Citations[]

References[]

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