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Zarana

This page is for the evil Dreadnok Zarana. For her heroic Shattered Glass counterpart, see Zarana (SG).
Zarana
Personal information
Real Name

Zoe Gibson

Birthplace

London, England

D.O.B.

April 17

Alias(s)

Friday, Heather, Sgt. Carol Weebler, Dr. Deborah Karday, Jess McCabe, "Zatanna" or "Fishnets" (while working as a roadie for the Holograms in the 80's and 90's), several others

Military information
Service branch

Dreadnoks

Primary MOS

Disguise

Secondary MOS

Infiltration, Espionage; Assassination

Rank

6 - Dreadnok

Weapon(s)

Bladed-Rifle, All small arms; Explosives; Edged weapons

Organizational information
Factions

Cobra

Subteams

Dreadnoks

“ I wish there were two of you.... then I could bash your heads together and REALLY get your attention! ”

Zarana is a master of disguise as much as her elder brother Zartan is. Whereas her brother uses holographics and primarily depends on physical aspects of the art of disguise, she prefers to use makeup and method-acting to deceive her targets. As a method actor, she deliberately assumes herself in the role of her disguise. She goes to the length of thinking, feeling, and reacting as the object of her disguise does. In fact, she was so good at it that she could have been a successful stage actress. Her weaknesses, though, far outweigh her skills. As good as she can act, it doesn't take long before her natural tendencies start to rise out. She is smart and ambitious but short-tempered, cruel, and greedy.


History

Canonical History:

Zarana's past is as much a mystery as that of her brothers, Zartan and Zandar. She became an incredibly talented actress, with the ability to lose herself in her characters. Whereas Zartan disguised himself visually, Zarana created a new persona. She may have had a promising career in acting if not for her cruelty, selfishness, and greed. Her talents made her a perfect infiltrator and, consequently, a skilled assassin.

Zarana worked with the Dreadnoks for a brief time in Australia, though she never met the three Dreadnoks that Zartan brought with him to America.

ZaranaMugShot

Years later, Zarana and Zandar arrived at the Dreadoks' gas station hideout in New Jersey, where they learned Zartan had been captured by the G.I. Joe team. Zarana immediately insisted on rescuing her brother, partially due to a large amount of gold he had hidden away. Using Buzzer's knowledge of Joe headquarters -- The Pit -- Zarana and Zandar disguised themselves as Army personnel sent to interrogate Zartan. They managed to escape with their brother, but the Joes caught on at the last moment, and chased them into the Jersey swamps. With help from the Dreadnoks, the siblings escaped from the Joes and headed to Cobra Island.

Zarana soon began working for Cobra, usually alongside her brothers. As Zartan became increasingly less involved with the Dreadnoks, Zarana became their de facto leader. While Buzzer had filled that job to some extent, Zarana proved to be smart, resourceful and something the other Dreadnoks had never been: ambitious. She slowly gained more power in Cobra, even replacing the Baroness as commander of the Cobra Consulate in New York for a time. Her promotion however, was likely Serpentor's way of punishing the Baroness, and was short-lived.

Serpentor later placed Zarana in command of Cobra's Terror Drome launch base in Sierra Gordo, along with Dreadnoks Monkeywrench and Thrasher. Interested in self-preservation more than anything else, Zarana abandoned the Terror Drome to the small nation's revolutionaries, allowing many of the Cobra soldiers there to die while escaping in Thrasher's Thunder Machine.

She and the others soon found a G.I. Joe transport plane and forced the pilot to take off, taking a large group of refugees hostage. The pilot, Wild Bill, had no choice but to take off, but the plane was quickly hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed into the jungles below. The Joes and the Dreadnoks became fast temporary allies, and worked together to escape the war-torn country.

Zarana arrived back on Cobra Island just in time for the Cobra civil war, fought between the forces of Serpentor and Cobra Commander (actually Fred VII in disguise). Zartan and his siblings allied themselves with Cobra Commander during the war, and Zarana even commanded some of his forces. The war finally ended when Zartan killed Serpentor with an arrow.

After the war ended, Zartan became preoccupied with killing Storm Shadow, the ninja, who had sworn vengeance on Zartan. The master of disguise disappeared for months, though Zarana didn't seem to mind. She continued to lead the Dreadnoks and was put in charge of Cobra's new community on the Jersey shore, Broca Beach. Zarana and Zandar ran a real estate scam that brought investors into the town, and Zarana remained in charge there, even capturing two members of the Joe team -- Clutch and Rock'n Roll. She ingeniously discovered that Cobra's Brain-wave Scanner could be used to plant memories in a subject's mind and proceeded to brainwash the Joes. Her project even impressed the Baroness, with whom she had an antagonistic relationship. Her attempts to turn the Joes into assassins to wreak havoc in the Pit eventually failed, but Zarana continued to work for Cobra.

When the original Cobra Commander returned to lead his organization, much of his original high command had turned their backs on him. Destro and the Baroness left to lead the Iron Grenadiers, and Zartan, Firefly and Dr. Mindbender were all buried in a frieghter on Cobra Island and left for dead. Thus, Zarana became one of the Commander's closest advisors. Though she was nowhere near as valuable as Destro or Zartan had been, the Commander appreciated her cunning mind and cruel, sadistic nature.

After losing the town of Millville to the Joe team, the Commander set his sights on Eastern Europe, allying himself with a rebel leader and taking control of the small nation of Borovia. At that time Zarana lost interest in Cobra, or Cobra Commander lost interest in her. Either way, the Commander brainwashed Destro, the Baroness and Zartan to serve him, and he never gave Zarana a second thought. Zarana rounded up the down-on-their-luck Dreadnoks, leading them off into America, undoubtedly wreaking havoc all the way.

Pre-MUX/Theme History:

A brief time later, Cobra was defeated by the military, and its high command scattered. Zartan returned to the United States, where he began organizing the Dreadnoks into an organized, national biker gang and started building a small army of Dreadnoks. Zarana eventually joined her brother, but was angered to see that her niece, Zanya, was being groomed to become the next leader of the Dreadnoks. Zarana believed she was "rightful heir" but bowed to her brother's wishes and took control of the Chicago chapter of the new Dreadnoks.

MUX History:

Zarana is the former head of the Chicago chapter of the Dreadnoks. She was expected to take over the main Dreadnok gang but was replaced by Zanya.

ZZ2016
ZZHiRes2017

In April of 2018, Zarana celebrated her birthday with her twin brother Zandar. The next day she flew to Los Angeles to investigate the fate of a missing Incinerator. There she encountered Major Bludd at Starlight Mansion.

In 2022, Zarana witnessed Jem and the Holograms' concert, corrupted by Silica. Vowing to stop the evil AI, Zarana kidnapped two of the Holograms, and then sought Gnawgahyde's aid, who introduced her to Quan Chi. Quan agreed to help her... for a price.

In November, Zarana handed over to Cobra Commander whatever of the Autobot stuff that was taken from the Starlight Mansion raid that hasn't been parceled out over to Interrogator after making sure that Zarana explicitly got the credit for it.

OOC Notes

Zarana was a roadie for the Holograms in the 80's and 90's, going by the names "Zatanna" or "Fishnets."

Logs

1991

2010

2014

2016

2018

2020

  • September 22 - "Cobra Space Camp" - Cobra is going into space, and that means all hands to Space Camp!
  • September 22 - "Cobra Flight Training" - Cobra trainees are set up in Cobra's version of the Vomit Comet.

2021

Hannibal

Nov 09 - Ticketmaster Trashing

A picture comes up on one of the Cobra video monitors used for assigning missions, showing the pink-haired Zarana.

"Oi, you freaks! We're seein' th 80's Tours fer the Holograms goin' down faster'n a VW offa B-52 fer' gettin' there. Where there's Holograms, course there's gonna be Misfits. But we can't go shootin' our way in there, that'd mess with the performance! We all know what happened last time!
But, we can't get in if we paid! I actually tried! Everything was sold out. I went to Viper-IT 'an they said they were bought up by Bots from auction sites. Those auction sites always have stuff left over fer the good things.
So Dreadknoks, we're gonna hitup Ticketmaster. Go there, shoot the place up, take all the tickets fer ourselves. We're gonna get VIP backstage passes all legitimate like! We're not gonna let anyone on the -Internet- keep all the fun things for themselves now are we? I'm sure you lot have lotsa things you wanna go see you can't be arsed up to shoot up or take someone hostage to get into. So we do this 'an we take a 'peer competitor' off the board fer th' big Boss' operations.
So C'Mon you freaks 'an gutnappers, we're gonna go sack a Ticketmaster Hub 'an loot, pillage, and plunder!"
The screen goes off, no doubt leaving many personnel confused as to what sort of smash and grab raid the Dreadknoks were going on that bothered to have an actual Codename for it given the often ad hoc nature of Dreadknok operations..

Nov 15 - Operation Greater Evil

A small video screen comes on, showing Zarana very, very adoringly putting up a shiny red and white striped bicycle with an engine on the back and a large flagpole over in a bike rack. She would glance over at the screen.

"Thanks to all personnel who came to drop in on our raid at Ticketmaster. We got a ton of tickets from the loot. All of 'em nice and VIP ones. Anyone who wants to buy out Hamilton to take all the BATS to it is game. Bludd, Tomax and Xamot, I have the ones you guys asked for."
Going on, "operation went on with Ratcatcher providing overwatch and field recon, Walker being backup for extraction if need be, and Bloody playing point. When we got there we thought we had the wrong place, but fortunately it was somewhere that was bought out by Ticketmaster. We went in and got a hostage who was very professional during the exchange. She was helpful, let me bribe her, and had some nice moxie and initiative. I think I might wanna hire her for something and see how she does as a subcontractor. She works managerial HR so she's definitely gonna be nuts enough to fit within our organization."
Going on, "Walker and Bones found some coppers harassing a homeless vet they took care of. They think the guy has potential as a recruit and gave him some ways to contact us. So good on them. Ratcatcher looted some hard drives and info. Joes tried to intercept us on the way out but we blew past 'em. Good job."
Also in the garage behind her are several large trucks from Mad Max movies, a couple of model Terminators, some amazing matte paintings from sci-fi films, and a key-tar scaled up for a Gundam.
"Successful mission, all objectives completed, no casualties, and no one was spotted in the field but me. Glory and chaos! We also hit a few Mansions on the way out for anyone who got bored. Thanks for showing up for backup to pincer the coppers Firefly. Over and out."
Jem, here she comes!

Nov 15 - Seizure

Among the seizures from robberies up and down the Los Angeles line during Operation: Greater Evil is a very large semi and attached trailers used in the Mad Max: Fury Road. Command has authorized its upgrade to a mobile assault and support unit and is taking proposals for its retrofit.

2022

Baroness

Feb 08 - Doubles

Why not go for something nastier? We've seen the spooky 'an kookie clones that Mindbender can make. Nab a few, clone 'em, put 'em in the Brainwave scanner 'an then release them or put them up as escapees to lure in the Joes. Some nice little booby brain traps to offer up for later.

May 11 - Nerd Attack

While we were flying on Air Cobra we got hit by some of the Joes paragliding. They landed a bunch of Greenshirts 'an Hawk and a Joe codename Temera think we've mauled before. We got into an engagement 'em. Barghest held off Hawk himself (give the man a candy cane). Techno-Viper 369 was able to help prevent the Joes from nabbing the server farm and tech. The Joes managed to get the transport door open 'an yanked out the nerd thing we were taking with us and went into parajump. We landed in Cobra airspace and offloaded the rest of the stuff for transport. We should send a team in to the Joes to kill the nerd now that they got him.

Jul 19 - Jem

A flash appears over on a monitor, "So uh this is Zarana, and I kind of kidnapped two members of the Holograms. They're bein' mind controlled by an evil AI called Silica that's mind controlled th' entire band and the girls at the Starlight Mansion to use 'em for a plot to conquer the Earth. That's our job! I gottem stashed away somewhere safe.." 

       In the background what looks like the couch of Zandar's apartment can be seen.
       "So, uh, if anyone's that's NOT DOCTOR MINDBENDER is good at deprogramming folks who have been mind controlled that'd be awesome thanks. I also got some Cybertronian tech out of it that I wouldn't mind one of the Tech Vipers to have a poke at. Maybe we can figure out what they're doin. But Silica is somewhere inside Starlight Mansion and it's got a bunch of mind-controlled orphan girls We all gotta have some limits in what we do. We gotta save the band, save the world, and get the music back the way it should be!"
  • September 08 - "Visiting the Demon" - Zarana makes a dangerous deal.
  • September 14 - "Crushin' It!" - Cobra's got a break-in to accomplish at an annex in Langley. If they can retrieve intel from one of their own, and get out with it, the list of all the country's undercover operations sure could help the organization recover its footing since being pushed out of the U.S.
  • September 24 - "Going After Jem" - Gnawgahyde and Zarana lay a trap for Jerrica Benton.

Sep 24 - Jerrica

(Along the Dreadknok Booze Channels) Me 'an Gnawghy went to ambush Jerrica Benton, th' manager of the Holograms. She's the weak link in the ones that're being guarded and she'll have access to all their records and schedule. So hopefully if we can deprogram her 'and she can tell us what -happened-. If we can get it from the top and strike a few chords, maybe we can stop this thing ere, yes? Settin' her up somewhere safe till we can figure out how to save her. Also confirmed our heavier EMPs can knock out Silica's tech. Looks like she broadcasts through high end electronics; smartphones, th' stuff. So taking out everything in a wide enough area means she can't track things or project herself. Have some of the stuff Jerrica had onner in storage and isolated so it can't leak any signals.

Oct 18 - Jem

This is posted to the Dreadknok bulletin boards and on various DOS thingies. It's Zarana. "So err we rescued Jerrica an she 'an the Holograms have been mind controlled by an evil AI called Silica. We sorta broke 'er out and now we're gonna deal with Silica. It means we have to figure out a way to wipe her HD /without/ destroyin the HD.. cuz they asked us real nicely and we're gonna help, capiche? 

       Jerrica's gonna wrangle up some folks to help with that and we're gonna go on a road trip! Anyone who wants along is good. Bring yer bikes and yer best torn leather shreds.

Oct 19 - Da Boss

A message is sent scribbled on post it's in handwriting akin to a doctor's sent to Cobra Commander: 'Yo Boss, will do on the nerd thing. Think I'll let lil bro handle it, he could use the fun and to get out some. And with the Holograms will make sure to see what I can do. Requires 'em to be vulnerable and they've already gone underground some. Did manage to get something at least when was reconn'ing their place. Some Cybertronian metal. Had the tech stripped from it but the metal's in good shape if a bit charred. Will have it courier'd to Cobra in Space next time a supply launch goes up. Figure it's worth somethin' till the big payday.

Dec 20 - Luxury Yacht

AAR: Operation Looten Plunder
Cobra Strike: A Cobra strike group lead by Bloody Bones made a raid on a yacht as big as a mansion that had a lot of stuff on it. Bones took in the group along with an assault team of Vipers. We got hit by the Joes there who were waiting in ambush for us. We engaged those fraggers and they busted out some new tech. It included an armored set of pants that Hawk was wearing. I know Bloody got some pics of it and some other data.

       Also Bloody slapped a b*tch that was being uppity. Some Berger guy nerd. We got some tech out of it and the twins are F***king wusses who ran like the scaredy himbos they are. We got some tech, loot, but the Joes were there enough to keep us from getting the full haul. I think that we got a rat since they were there, waiting.
  • December 22 - "Fortuitous Meetings" - What happens on CI doesn't always stay on CI - Veritas visits Interrogator in person to deliver files on Galactic Law. The group ends up discussing the Dark Kimber Virus and possibilities for a solution to the virus for both her and Interrogator's species.

2023

Jan 02 - BOOM

With a group of Vipers 'an BATS we were able to track down where the main byte-hole of that sparkletits bimbo bot was. WE hit there 'an found some of the Joes beatin on one another. We broke in with the War Hog 'an me and the BATS were able to set off the boom booms. Lined the area with EMP's, then went to set it to the whole fireside chat and bug out. Think the Joes got their bros. I released some of the 'war crimes' units left in stasis and the Joes gunned 'em down. Make sure Mindbender doesn't have the backups for Cells 19 'an 32 or we risk another outbreak.

Barghest

Jan 25 - Bridge Raid

To: Dame Vypra

We hit the radio base over at the bridge with a squad of Vipers along. I went in 'an helped make a distraction while the Vipers swept around, set up a perimeter, and then closed it. All Russkies were dead 'an we blew the transmitter. No alerts went out, no survivors. Everyone went in with partisan attire and equipment, so if the Russkis do actually sweep about, they'll not notice anything that doesn't look like guerillas. No signs of any alert being sent out and all personnel extracted.

Feb 21 - Concert

Whoo! We had the concert at the Masquerade. We did the music stuff and didn't even set things on fire. Inty seemed happy with it and we seemed to be breaking through to a lot of folks. Bludd was watching but left at the end and looked like he'd messed up his hand. Tomax and Xamot, or whatever way it goes, you had -better- give us our share of the record sales. we even got our security deposit back!

But, good job you bunch of Freakfaces. Good job also with Los Angeles. I know a couple of you got busted up and likely will be taken to the Pit before we can post bond 'an break you out, but it's the way you'd want to go! Also, there's gonna be a few more warrants for us so survivors might wanna lay low for a good. Good luck, rage against the machine, and bike on!

2024

Greathawk
  • January 14 - "Bees In The Brain" - Zarana hauls Greathawk out of that undisclosed medical facility and on a road trip while the other woman is still broken from her experiences with the infernal device. Somehow... Lifeline and Low-Light are alerted and arrive.
  • January 15 - 'Ruined Life' - Zandar is in the hospital after being assaulted severely by an unknown assailant. Zarana has begun the family watch and a unknown man slides in through the window to confront her and visit Zandar. Zartan to comes to sit bedside with his brother. And unknown to them all, there is an eavesdropper outside the window.
  • January 18 - 'Of Favors And Pants' - Continuing his watch over the Dreadnok in the hospital, Storm Shadow once more pretends to be a cobra ninja, taking to Zarana on a parking deck.
  • July 16 - "Ticketmaster" - Zarana plans further revenge against Ticketmaster.
  • Jul 22 - "Scarlett" - Scarlett raids Zarana's night out.
  • Sep 14 - "RE: Vypra" - Zarana responds to Vypra's taunting.

Players

Gallery

References

This page uses content from Joepedia - The G.I. Joe Wiki. The original article was at Zarana.


The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Transformers Universe MUX, the text of Joepedia - The G.I. Joe Wiki is available under the Creative Commons Licensed.

This page uses content from JMM’s My Useless Knowledge Website. The original article was at JMM's G.I. Joe Comics Home Page. A member of this wiki, User:Kadjem, was granted temporary permission to use this content. However, JMM’s My Useless Knowledge Website is not part of the GNU Free Documentation License program, so the content is being rewritten to adapt and fit into this wiki and avoid plagiarism.



Trivia

  • Zarana was designed in 1984 by Ron Rudat. At that point, she was only identified as "The 1986 Cobra Female Dreadnok" and she had a dragon tattoo on her arm and another tattoo over her eye.
  • According to Silica, Zarana's birth mother's name is Audrey.