"Wow, she's got a few bolts loose. "

―Ratchet^[src]

Angela Cross, also known as The Unknown Thief, was one of the few Lombaxes who did not escape into the Lombax dimension. She was a former Megacorp employee, and a friend of Ratchet, Clank, and later, Max Apogee. Angela was prone to having minor, clumsy accidents, such as tripping over rugs.

Biography

Early Life

Prior to the events of Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando, Angela Cross

worked for Megacorp in the Genetics Division. Her goal was to create the perfect pet, but while she was working on fixing the original Protopet's flaws, the Megacorp CEO Abercrombie Fizzwidget (who was actually Captain Qwark in disguise) suddenly pushed up the release date. Angela protested that the Protopet was flawed and couldn't be distributed. As a result, she was kicked off the team.

Rise of The Unknown Thief

With the Protopet on the loose, Angela assumed the role of The Unknown Thief. Wearing a mask integrated with a voice-distorting device and a hooded cape, she stole the Protopet in hopes of obliterating it before it could be mass-produced. She had the Protopet caged inside her Flying Lab, until Ratchet, hired by Mr.Fizzwidget to retrieve the Protopet, infiltrated the facility. Despite Ratchet's best efforts to catch her, Angela managed to escape with the Protopet. She then hired the Thugs-4-Less mercenaries to protect her. Now with the help of powerful mercenaries, she managed to collect all the components needed to dispose of the Protopet. She first passed by planet Oozla, where she went to the megacorp store to buy a map. Since she had forgotten her wallet, she asked one of her bodyguards to "take care of it". The thugs did as ordered and threw the Megacorp employee to the wall, inadvertly deactivating the store's defences, which lead to store being overrun by savage wildlife.

Abducting Clank

While Ratchet tracked down the Thief to the Maktar Resort, Angela concluded that she needed to be more persuasive if she wanted to get rid of Ratchet's meddling, and so she abducted Clank from his apartment, and when Ratchet was about to leave the Maktar Resort she sent a transmission in which she presented Clank as her hostage and demanded Ratchet leave the chase and return to his home galaxy.Ratchet managed to find and save Clank on planet Endako. While on the planet, Ratchet also had to battle the Thugs' Leader. During the battle, Angela escaped.

Showdown on Siberius

After her failure to intimidate Ratchet, Angela passed by planet Notak, but ran away when Ratchet and Clank arrived. She escaped to her base on planet Siberius, but she sent a transmission to Notak's Chemical Plant, to order five containers of sulfuric acid, four containers of liquid hydrogen and six tons of nitroglycerin (though she ultimately ended up by asking the robots responsible to double the last order due to the Protopet destroying everything). This transmission provided Ratchet and Clank with the coordinates of the Angela's base, and after breaching through the defences and infiltrating her convoy, they confronted the enigmatic Thief. Angela was planning on sending the Protopet to another dimension, but Ratchet battled her and won. Despite being stunned due to Ratchet's attacks, Angela managed to escape once more.

Unmasked

After failing to stop Ratchet on Siberius, Angela tried to retrieve the Protopet on planet Tabora, where Ratchet and Clank had rendezvous with Fizzwidget. Angela demanded Ratchet give her the experiment, but Ratchet refused, for he no longer had it. Angela menaced to shoot Ratchet if he didn't give her the experiment in three seconds. While counting, Angela slipped and fell from the ship. Her mask fell off and her true identify was revealed. She then showed Ratchet and Clank with a commercial of the Megacorp Testing Facility. Later, while Ratchet explored the Megacorp Armory on planet Todano, Angela sent another transmission in which she provided further information about the Protopet and the dangers that it's release posed to the galaxy. She also informed the duo that the Thugs-4-Less now had a new employer (which was actually Megacorp) and that they had taken over her Flying Lab, now the Thugs-4-Less Prison.

Captured

Ratchet and Clank continued their quest to stop Megacorp, until they were captured and sent to the Thugs' new prison. While they were imprisoned Angela infiltrated the Thugs-4-Less Fleet, but after Ratchet and Clank broke out of the Thugs-4-Less Prison, she was captured and taken to the Thugs-4-Less Headquarters on planet Snivelak. After knowing of her capture, Ratchet and Clank infiltrated the Thugs-4-Less Headquarters and, after facing the Thugs' Leader Giganto Mech, they freed Angela. Angela then told them about her past as a Megacorp employee, and the three planned to infiltrate the Megacorp Headquarters and stop Megacorp's plans once and for all. To get in, Angela had to get her old ID badge which was stored in her home planet, while Ratchet and Clank explored the distribution facility on planet Smolg. Unbeknownst to Angela, Grelbbin had invaded by Protopets, and so she needed to call Ratchet and Clank for help.

Infiltrating the Megacorp Headquarters

"Alright, just what the *BLEEP* is going on?!"

―Angela after Qwark reveals his disguise.^[source?]

Angela, Ratchet and Clank managed to infiltrate the Megacorp Headquarters and find the Protopet Duplication room. However, they were captured by Qwark, who had been disguising as Mr.Fizzwidget. Angela invented the Helix-O-Morph to control behavior, but Qwark stole it to control the Protopets himself. However, Qwark put the batteries in backwards, mutating the Protopet to a enormous size. After swallowing Qwark whole is smash through a wall and went on a rampage. Ratchet defeated the Mutant Protopet, it spat out qwark who in turn spat out the Helix-O-Morph which he must have accidently swallowed. Puzzled by the outcome of the device Angela said that it might take months of research to figure what was wrong before clank pointed out the batteries were in backwards. Angela afterwards was able to de-mutate the Protopet, making it harmless. Later, she visited the duo in Clank's apartment, and told them that Qwark started working at Megacorp.

Secret Agent Clank premiere

At the end of Up Your Arsenal went to see the premiere of the latest Secret Agent Clank film, however she appeared in her Unknown Thief Disguise, presumably to avoid spoilers for those had not played Going Commando.

Escape from Tachyon

Max Apogee eventually found out about Angela and traveled to the Bogon galaxy to save her from Tachyon. She 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 Jasindu was its point of origin. Max Apogee left the Dimensionator in Kerchu City on Jasindu.

Visiting Ratchet

Angela visits Ratchet at one point and states that she has not seen him in a long time (though she hints that she might have been there all along), Angela then said that she wished she could go on another adventure with Ratchet and Clank and together they watched the events of Going Commando.

Behind the scenes

A huge disagreement among fans, and arguably the biggest one, was whether Angela Cross was a Lombax. The dispute was finally resolved six years after the release of Going Commando, when Pirate Radio news announcers confirmed that Angela was a Lombax in A Crack in Time, and that female Lombaxes don't have tails. Kip Darling, one of the announcers, questioned this fact, referencing the disagreement among fans. There is also one cut audio file in Up Your Arsenal that calls Angela a Lombax.

Trivia

• Angela can be seen in her thief disguise watching the Secret Agent Clank movie at the end of Up Your Arsenal. She sits in the second row from the back near the right side.^[4]
• It is possible that her thief costume was a holo-guise. When her mask fell off, there was no trace of rest of her apparel.
• In A Crack in Time, there is a pink Constructo Bomb paint job called "Angela's Special," a reference to Angela Cross.
• It was never explained why Angela considered Grelbin her home planet. It is possible that, like Ratchet, she was sent away during the attack of Fastoon.
• Her clumsiness may be attributed to her lack of a tail. Many catlike animals use their tails to maintain balance.^[5]However, cats that are born without tails, like female Lombaxes, usually learn to balance well without them, so it's possible that Angela is just unusually clumsy.

Gallery

See also

• Monsterpedia
• Lombax
• Protopet

Videos

• Kip Darling and Pepper Fairbanks discussing Angela Cross

Appearances

• Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando
• Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (cameo only)
• Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time (mentioned only)
• Ratchet & Clank comic series
• Ratchet & Clank: Issue 5: Multiple Organisms (mentioned only)
• Ratchet & Clank Manga: Volume 1 (non-canon)
• Ratchet & Clank HD Collection

Sources and references