After making their way through the Feltzin System, the gang managed to intercept a transmission from Thugs-4-Less. Thanks to Clank and Ema, they were able to get a lock on the transmission's location to the Planet Notak.
"So, how's the reception out here?" Ratchet asked.
"We have sports, weather..." Clank then smiled when he saw one he liked. "Ooh, The Science Channel!"
"Is there a Food Channel?" Hilda and Ben both asked.
"Only one...and it's not very good."
When they reached Notak, it didn't surprise the group when they landed that they found the Thief flying off in a small ship, no doubt done with whatever she had come to do.
"Too late again."
"We always seem to be a bit late. Why is that?" Ema questioned.
"Blame the writers!" Ben said.
"Well, let's check this place out and find out where she's headed," Ratchet suggested.
The group decided to head down to the Vendor first, where they discovered a new weapon was available, the Synthenoid, a tiny device that one could press and deploy four defender bots that could fire on enemies.
"Hilda, you and Ema go left, Clank, Ben, and I will go right," Ratchet said.
"Right!"
Hilda and Ema's path ended up taking them through a shopping mall, where plenty of Thugs were lying in wait for them, some even posing as mannequins for the right opportunity to strike. However, Hilda's heavy weapons proved more than effective against them.
Eventually, after getting past the obstacles in their way, Hilda and Ema came across a holo display that showed an ad for Slim Cogntio's business.
"Hey, it's that same guy who offered us weapon modifications!"
"Psst. Got a ship that needs, uh, improvements? Worried about getting caught? At Slim Cognito's your secret is safe with us, whether it's weapons, shielding or a new hyperspace module. We'll hook you up, quickly, cheaply, and, most importantly, quietly. So next time you're in the market for some, uh, legally ambiguous refashioning: remember the name: Slim Cognito's. The only inspections we pass are yours."
"Starship mods. Hmm, well, a quick visit to Slim's wouldn't cost us much time." Hilda noted. "Maybe Ratchet will get a dig out of what we can get."
Ema shook her head. "I can only hope the boys are having better luck with finding out the Thief's next coordinates.
With Ratchet, Clank, and Ben, the trio had to go through a chemical factory, where the Thermanator came in handy for various segments. Eventually, they came across some small robots that resembled the ones that came out of the Glove of Doom, only they wore bow ties and glasses.
"Perhaps these robots can assist us," Clank suggested.
"Think you can talk to them for us?" Ben asked. "I don't think Ratchet and I speak smart robot."
Clank nodded and made a few noises for a few seconds, which came out as beeps and whatnot, even a few sounds that they weren't sure what they were supposed to be, before the robotic trio glanced at each other before saying something in the same language that Clank had just used, causing him to say something else that sounded like he was asking a question and they replied in due time.
"A masked customer picked up an order not long ago." Clank translated. "Recently they received a new transmission from her and they are willing to show it to us, for a small price."
After paying the necessary amount of bolts to the robots, they pressed a button on the nearby holodisplay and revealed the Thief holding onto the Experiment. From what it looked like, the Experiment was quite aggressive and the Thief was struggling to keep it at bay as it wreaked havoc in her secret base.
As the little robots laughed, sharing a joke that only they and Clank knew, Ratchet and Ben quickly downloaded the coordinates for the planet in question, Siberius to be exact, before gathering their friend and used a taxi to return to their ship.
"Took you boys long enough!" Hilda chuckled as she and Ema were waiting for them.
"We've got the Thief's coordinates on the Planet Siberius. Let's blast off!" Ben said as everyone got in the ship and took off to the next planet.
Siberius was a cold planet that was covered in a decent amount of ice and snow, or at least that was what the records seemed to suggest, with tall mountains that Megacorp had built a base into at one point in time, either an abandoned one or one that wasn't used a lot at this point in time, it was hard to tell with them after what they had seen and learned so far, but the group were sure it was the former.
It served as a good place for someone to set up shop, without the prying eyes of Megacorp watching over them, meaning whatever the Thief was doing wouldn't be interrupted until it was too late, though her slip up in transmitted from the planet might bring about the end of her plans, depending on what happened when they reached the icy planet, which happened to be near Notak.
"This could be a trap, guys." Ratchet warned.
"That is a high possibility, yes." Clank agreed.
"Then let's set up and go in hot!" Ben smirked.
"Now you're talking, babe!" Hilda laughed.
After disembarking the ship, the group moved forward and kept their guard up. Sure enough, they found that the first part of the path had a number of Bladeballs, which happened to be the official name of the spheres that had spinning blades, and some of the Flame Bots guarding the area, causing the siblings to open fire on all of them without delay.
"Yup! She was definitely on to us!" Ben commented.
Fortunately, Ben was able to put his new RYNO II to work and obliterated all obstacles in the group's path. Eventually, they reached the end of what appeared to be a transport that had to be heading to where the Thief was working.
"This just screams 'trap'... we might have overestimated her villain skills and status," Ema replied. "I was expecting a bit more, to be honest."
"Even so, we had better be careful," Ratchet said.
Everyone climbed into the back of the vehicle, which was beckoning for them to climb into it, and sure enough, Ratchet found that the door closed behind them as the convoy started to move, though as that happened a door in front of them opened and a number of enemies emerged to do battle with them.
"Oh, we aren't trapped with these guys..." Hilda grinned. "THEY'RE TRAPPED IN HERE WITH US!"
The group tore through the transport, making their way across the cars using their Swingshots. The Thief confronted them a few times on her hoverboard, taking pot shots before retreating further down the transport but eventually, the group cornered her just as it crashed, forcing them to jump off.
From there they found a rocket platform and started to make their way around it, finding that it had been built on a frozen lake and had crystals growing out of certain spots, and the enemies on the walkway fell without offering much resistance, allowing them to reach a walkway that linked up to where their foe had decided to stop, with the Experiment strapped to a missile that was almost ready to launch.
"Ha! You've lost, Megacorp! Take your imperialistic eco-fascism to another dimension!" The Thief taunted. "Say goodbye to your franken-pest!"
"Come on, guys!" Ratchet said as he lunged at the Thief, who dodged his attack swiftly.
"Too slow, you corporate lackey!"
"Actually, that was just the distraction!"
The Thief could barely react as Hilda, who had moved quicker than her big fat beautiful body would suggest, had managed to get behind her and strike her hard with her Titan Wrench, knocking her straight off her hoverboard and tumbling over to Ben, who pinned his foot to her back as he flipped her over, only to find that her mask had come off.
"Uh, guys..." He muttered in shock. "You might wanna see this!"
Ratchet had just finished freeing the Experiment from its bounds, catching it safely in his hands before making his way over. When he saw what surprised Ben, he was just as shocked, maybe even more so.
"No way... another Lombax..."
"Listen, I don't have a lot of time to explain, okay?" The Thief said. "All you need to know is my name is Angela Cross and yes, I AM in fact a Lombax. I have been keeping that secret from everyone in Bogon for as long as I can remember, as someone is looking for us, as in someone evil, so I've been trying to keep a low profile... now that you guys are here, that might not be possible."
"Wait, someone has it out for you and Ratchet?" Ben asked in confusion.
"It's a long and VERY complicated story, okay?" Angela clarieifed. "Anyway, that Experiment is a genetically modified creature Megacorp designed to be, in the words of Mr. Fizzwidget, the 'perfect pet', even though it still has a number of errors and flaws that I was working on and would have succeeded in fixing had I been given the time."
"If you knew about the problems, why not just take it to a lab and fix them?" Hilda asked
In the time Angela began talking, the group had released her and she guided them to a teleporter, which warped them to a building so they could talk.
"There were too many to fix in the time I was given," Angela replied. "My only option, to get more time, was to devise this plan and use my limited resources to gather everything I needed to blast the Experiment to pieces... then my boss had a great idea and called the heroes of another galaxy to track me down. Oh, and if you think the Experiment is bad now, remind me to show you one of the videos for Dobbo, as it has information about the creature that you might be disturbed by... or maybe you'll see why I was so set on making sure the Experiment wasn't produced with all these flaws."
"Well, we have to return the creature to Mr. Fizzwidget, maybe you can..." Ratchet began to suggest, only to stop himself. "No, that's a dumb idea. You would have tried to talk some sense into him before putting this plan into motion."
"Well, since we've messed up your plans, maybe you'll consider joining up with us as we try to talk some sense into Mr. Fizzwidget," Hilda suggested. "And, failing that, maybe taking matters into our own hands to make sure this galaxy is safe from harm."
"I'm not sure that's a good idea. Two Lombaxes working together might draw unwanted attention, namely the one whose looking for us." Angela stated.
"Angela, if there is a threat to the Lombaxes out there, and I'm willing to believe you on that matter, then we'll take care of it at some point in the future," Ratchet replied.
"After all, when we learned of Chairman Drek's evil scheme, we worked together to soundly defeat him." Clank added.
"But right now, we need to remain inconspicuous." Ben said before contacting the private comm. "You getting all this, Twilight?"
"Yeah. Maybe it might be a good idea to have Miss Angela pretend to be captured and return the Experiment to Mr. Fizzwidget. I think me and the girls can figure out what to do from her."
Angela, though surprised that Twilight had been listening in, decided to go along with the plan as she donned her full Thief attire again as Ratchet contacted Mr. Fizzwidget.
"Cratchet, Spank, Ren, Belinda, is that you?"
"We've accomplished our mission, sir. The Experiment is safe and in our possession." Ratchet replied, Clank showing the Experiment gnawing on his arm. "We've also apprehended the Thief."
"Why that's cutaneous. Absolutely munificent!" Mr. Fizzwidget praised. "You all are a galluptious team."
"We were glad to assist, sir." Clank said humbly.
"We just need coordinates to our next rendezvous point." Ben said.
"Of course, I'm on my way to give a tour of Megacorp's historical mining site. Here's a little backtalk on the fragility."
The holodisppay then played a commercial about Megacorp Manufacturing and Mining.
"Megacorp Manufacturing and Mining, a tireless drum major leading the galaxy on its march of progress. Come tour our desert mining facility and see why our most precious product is our history! When we first arrived, we found a planet completely overrun by rainforest. To better accommodate the local wildlife, we transformed this impassable jungle into an easily navigable desert. Ever the technological pioneer, Megacorp invented the automated management team, thereby eliminating costly upward mobility, and all the while, making your life richer! Megacorp Manufacturing and Mining: our march continues to the tune of progress and profitability. Call investor relations today!"
"Wow, that's just...jeez." Ben winced.
"Is that facility still operational, sir?" Hilda inquired.
"Alas no, but it's steeped in hysterics. I've offloaded the condiments to your naval computer."
Ratchet nodded. "We'll see you there."
With that done the group made sure Angela and the Experiment had room on the ship. Once everyone was ready to go Ratchet blasted off and headed for Tabora, to see what they might learn during their visit to the vast desert planet.
We now have officially met Angela Cross and it seems our heroes have been let in on the true sinister undergoings of Megacorp's plans. Hopefully the Mane 6 will have something planned on Yeedil.