I'm a little confused by this promo environment. I thought the monsters taking over the future Earth could be traced back to patient zero for monster mutations, Plague Rat, and that that was why Chrino-Ranger and PR were nemeses - CR had gone to the future and saw the monster menace, and so had to beat it at its source. But if its all a bunch of mythological creatures like yeti and Loch Ness Monsters, what does that have to do with Plague Rat, Chrono-Ranger, or anything?
CR fights all the cryptids, but Plague Rat is the only one that appears as a villain. Also, it took his arm.
I think the Plague Rats are the most dominant of the creatures, they're everywhere, but there are still plenty of other monsters that he needs to stop.
So, he doesn't have anything in particular against Plague Rat, he just hates plague rats? That's not the strongest nemesis motivation in the world...
This is from the kickstarter
Jim came to hours later, and Con explained to him that he had made his way thousands of years into the future, and the time he'd found was terrible. All sorts of monstrous creatures populated the world now: giant yetis, Mongolian death worms, vile skunk apes, nasty chupacabras - the shorelines were overrun by New Jersey devils, what used to be Asia was now occupied by towering lizard creatures, and the seas were full of terrible serpents and sea-beasts. But the worst of all were the huge rat-men. They were the most numerous and most devious of the monsters, and they infected and destroyed everything they touched.
Fortunately, Con had a plan. Specifically, Con had a time-machine. Con could outfit Jim with new gear, fancy gadgets, and send him back in time to destroy these monsters before they could ever grow strong or reproduce. Jim agreed, but didn't much care for the idea of anyone, robot or not, messing with his pistol or his hat - they worked just fine, thank you very much.
Chrono wants to stop all the creatures, but the rats were the ones that took his arm and so Plague Rat will always have a special place in his heart, next to where he stores the extra ammo.
From Chrono Ranger update :
"All sorts of monstrous creatures populated the world now: giant yetis, Mongolian death worms, vile skunk apes, nasty chupacabras - the shorelines were overrun by New Jersey devils, what used to be Asia was now occupied by towering lizard creatures, and the seas were full of terrible serpents and sea-beasts. But the worst of all were the huge rat-men. They were the most numerous and most devious of the monsters, and they infected and destroyed everything they touched."
The monsters were in hiding, as last update says. Until Plague Rat came, and began spreading the infection. Humans began killing and/or infecting each other, driven by the disease. Untill there were few humans left, and it was time for the creature of legends to get out of the shadows.
In other words : "zombie" apocalypse in the "28 days later" style, leaving room for the monsters to become dominant.
That's how I see it. And that's why Chrono-Ranger hunts Plague Rat, trying to destroy him/it before he can spread the infection throught he world. But the beast keeps escaping and reappearing.
Edit : not fast enough !!
I also don't fault Chrono for being a little petty. He's a hardened cowboy. He's probably also slightly prejudiced which means he would view Plague Rat the same as all rat men and would care little to distinguish them.
I never saw anything that lead me to believe that Plague Rat was a kind of "patient zero." He just represented the most populous single group of cryptids, and the one who did damage to CR on a personal level. If there was something that sounded like that I'd be happy to see it though. I've been known to overlook things occasionally.
Related to Final Wasteland but not this thread directly: I was going to copypasta the lyrics to Final Countdown into this thread and tweak it to make sense. But then I realized I didn't need to tweak it. So I'l just not say anything and now you can all have the melody stuck in your head for the next thousand years.
EDIT: Erratum: ¶1, S4 for "occasionally" read "all the goddamn time."
If these three things are true, it definitely seems to imply that he's a "patient zero":
- In the present, there's only one Plague Rat.
- Plague Rat can infect others.
- In the future, the entire world is overrun with Plague Rats.
I can't believe it. My friend totally guessed there'd be an environment like this weeks ago, even before Chrono-Ranger's backstory. He's a genius.
I've read the Plague Rat background story in the Multiverse section again last night, and found out the style of the story, and the many references to "urban legends", was an hint to Chrono-Ranger's role in the multiverse. How carefully crafted.
It's almost like we'd planned it all along!
It is? I reread it a couple of times and I don't think I'm catching any signs of references to Chrono-Ranger's role.
It could be that many of the monsters in the enviornment will also have Chrono-Ranger's nemisis icon on it, much like Anubis. Who knows? Just hope that you can walk without rythem...
But what if I have my weapon of choice?
"hint" was not the best word… But now that we know that Chrono-Rangers stories are about fighting urban legends, the fact the villain with his Nemesis Icon 's story was written as a testimony about an urban legend "clicks" right. And the whole "Urban Legends" comic book line takes a new meaning in the "Multiverse Comics" publication history.
It's not a hint, but subtle things that we accepted with no second-thought, but suddenly become clearer and take a new meaning now that we learn more about the fictional publication history behind the scenes. As I've already written this kind of "fictional history", I am very sensible to this level of mastery in the craft. I am impressed.
Plague Rat is the only one that appears as a villain so far. The nemesis symbol is Chrono Ranger's badge, and thus has nothing to do with Plague Rat. Other cryptids can show up in future expansions and be enemies for him as well.
Maybe Plague Rat was just yet another rat based cryptid that got sent back in time to become "The Plague Rat." After so many years, he manages to infect more and more people, turning them into rat based cryptids, until he founds the race of rat based cryptids that is so popular in the future, including himself. Time loop paradox for the win.
Mind = blown.
I always thought that he was a scientist who worked at the chemical plant. Got muatted, then so on. But this makes more sense. The chemicals from the muatted sewers in Rook CIty made him even more merciless…
Damn… >G are really clever