Angela Cross

Angela Cross, also known as the Unknown Thief, is a major support character in Going Commando, with mentions in later titles. She is a lombax 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.

Some time 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.

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

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

Going Commando
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 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, 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. Ratchet and Clank tracked her to the base there after tracing back the transmission she sent, where they managed to defeat her and retrieve the Protopet, delivering it to Fizzwidget.

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. Ratchet and Clank were confused as to what it meant, but traveled to Dobbo regardless to learn more. From this point on, she kept in contact with the two, and they worked together to stop the Protopet.

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. The Thugs then took over her flying lab on Aranos, and transformed it into a Thugs-4-Less Prison. 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 Megacorp Headquarters on Yeedil to defeat the Protopet by stopping the original from which the others were cloned. 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.

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.

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

Post-Going Commando
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. 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. Angela has not been seen since.

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

Appearance
Angela is a female lombax with yellow hair and blue eyes, who is notably taller than Ratchet. She does not have a tail, a trait exclusive to male lombax anatomy. She wears a blue and grey jumpsuit with light turqouise and red highlights, as well as a grey belt and grey and red boots.

As the Unknown Thief, she also wears a dark blue mask with light blue eyes, with 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".

When her true intentions are revealed and she teams up with Ratchet and Clank, she eventually warms up to them, and becomes 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 gives up quickly on trying to convince Fizzwidget, believing he is senile, though she is not the only employee to share this thought and recognize his behavior has changed.

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. However, Angela is also notoriously clumsy, including under her disguise as a thief. 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
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 with which she has an accurate aim. She is also capable of throwing machine gun turrets.

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. However, she was unable to identify that the Helix-o-morph's problems stemmed from the battery being placed 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 amongst fans whether or not Angela was in fact a lombax, given her lack of 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 questions 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. 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. In The Art of Ratchet & Clank, Insomniac's caption apologizes to fans for the confusion caused over her species by her lack of tail.

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".

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".

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.

Angela Cross had a holocard in the Ratchet & Clank 2016 re-imagined game. She also made an appearance in the non-canon Ratchet & Clank Manga: Volume 1.

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.