Sarah Ruben (Cataclysmic Gerosha)

Sarah Reno (neé Ruben) is...

Early life
There is a reason that, when Tabitha finally turned herself in to SCALLOP in exchange for cooperation in bringing the Tug down, she specially named Sarah as her successor in becoming a prime inspiration to Swappernetter youth: because Tabitha believed that Sarah was always the truest Swappernetter of them all. While may have adopted the Swappernetter lifestyle, having been born with the Order of the Oraphim as her real destiny, Sarah was a part of the movement almost from the moment of birth!

Sarah's parents were Ryan and Hester Ruben, good friends of early Sneakernet Underground progenitor Joo-Chin Pang. State officials in Arkansas, prodded on by Obama regime officials, were pushing Arkansas to eliminate all matter and form of learning apart from a very strict Common Core curriculum. In 2015, the FBI was weaponized by the regime against the Sneakernet Underground, considering them and anyone else assumed to be even remotely tied to the Navyrope Society and the mysterious original "Navyrope" to be "among the most dangerous of domestic terror insurgents."

Ryan and Hester were assassinated upon opening their front door, as troops in SWAT gear barged into the home and emptied entire clips into Sarah's parents in a frenzy of hatred. Sarah managed to escape the home before agents found her, hiding under the deck of her Sneakernet Underground-affiliated neighbors. After the agents left, she went back inside her own home, only to witness the carnage. Her parents had not only been shot dead, but were carved up like animals! For her young child self, witnessing the barbarism and depravity of her parents' murderers was almost too traumatizing for her to handle.

The young girl sobbed, then tried to bottle up her tears in case "the monsters" returned. She fled back to the neighbors' house, saying that bad men hurt her parents. The neighbors took Sarah in, and investigated. They confirmed that the Rubens had been assassinated, and that the corpses had been desecrated by the assassins. Jared Gebori, the 17-year-old son of the Gabori family that took young Sarah in, then heard footsteps and heard noises outside the house. He fled the scene right before agents returned. Hiding in his room with binoculars, he observed what appeared to be men in SWAT gear lighting the Rubens' home on fire. The news that evening reported what sounded like a very scripted-in-advance report about how the home had "mysteriously caught fire" for "unknown reasons," with the older Rubens' bodies having been recovered as "nothing but ash" in the "terrible fire." All mention of arson was stripped from the report. Sarah's face was plastered on the TV screen, with the reporter saying that officials were "concerned" about the "missing child," and were eager for anyone who knew anything to file a report on the child's whereabouts.

The Geboris knew that what the assassins were really intending, was to finish what they started - by killing Sarah! They used their Underground connections to hide Sarah, from one foster home to another, to prevent the child from being discovered by her parents' depraved killers. Later, one of the assassins was himself taken out, by what the others described as "a horrible wraith, wholly immune to Tug devices, but every bit as vicious as Extirpon."

Sarah spent most of her early life in the Sneakernet Underground and Navyrope communities. She often wished for answers as to why her family was subjected to a Ruby Ridge-style massacre. Yet, she feared she'd never know the real reason. From age 9 onward, Sarah sought to learn of any coverage by media outlets of any news regarding her parents' demise. However, since the death of Brent Principe, alternative media went dark. Mainstream news never discussed the Ruben family - as if they never existed! Sarah was distraught as well that the FBI would do it. She questioned if those agents were actual FBI, or if they were FPB in disguise. For all she knew, they could have been Hebbleskins impersonating the FBI. She didn't put it past the UN, Rothschilds, Screwworms, CIA, rogue SCALLOP agents, the Phaletori, or even LGBTQPIZON militants to have done it. No single answer or theory seemed any more or less credible than the last one.

Unable to safely attend any mainstream schools, Sarah allowed her ever-rotating foster homes take care of training her the Sneakernet Underground way; resulting in her viewing the entire world around her as her "classroom." The idea of swapping lessons on flash drives, and living freely apart from that, always appealed to her. The thrill of needing to avoid capture by statists hellbent on taking that freedom away from her, the sense of danger that came with that, only upped her desire to keep doing it. She got to resist evil and resist illegitimate authority, and be a "rebel" in a noble fashion - without having to shame God in order to do it!

Yet, she always wondered if she ever could be willing to give up her freedom, and under what contexts. If there were ever anything more immediate, concrete, and Earthly, that she'd ever be willing to surrender all that freedom for; what would be worth it?

Sarah arrested
Sarah's answer came in the summer of 2026. During the Beliah Amendment Enforcements Drive, various still-active factions with vested interests in filling the power vacuum left by the Hebbleskins' defeat came to a head. Discovering that Sarah was an inactive Phexo with potential to become an active Centhuen Prototype, SCALLOP's new director, Lex Philippine, wasted no time trying to secure her internment at the SCALLOP Juvenile Containment Center. He reasoned that if she ever manifested, she'd be viewed by the Screwworm Network as a new Ciem. They remembered well what Candi McArthur, Tanya Woven, and Michelle Winston had done as Chilopod Crusaders wearing the Ciem mantle. The Screwworms would be hellbent on ensuring that no one else could ever become Ciem, especially not after what Candi did to Eric Korsicht!

Around that time, Icy Finger sympathizers in power in Arkansas (who got in via election fraud) decided that the best approach to dealing with an aggressive new Rappaccini onslaught - was to simply give Arkansas to him! The need to capture Kirby Act targets for their safety, while also coordinating Team Spaghetti Liberation behind everyone's back, led to SCALLOP's Lex Philippine deciding that protecting Arkansas was a low priority. The Phaletori, and the growing situation on Phaeleel, only further complicated matters.

With multiple factions all after the Swappernetters for one reason or another, Sarah and her then-current professor found themselves in a dire situation. In order to give her professor a chance to escape; Sarah agreed to go with SCALLOP. On trumped-up charges of trespassing, among other details, they placed her in SJCC as an Inactive-Altered Delinquent - low-level threat. She became cellmates with Tabitha Pang, and introduced the latter to thinking like a Frontliner.

SJCC compromised
The two girls would help themselves, Jordan Sterlie, Wilfredo Opendi, Frank McArthur, and fellow Frontliner Tobias Reno to escape from SJCC alive, when the Screwworms overwhelmed it. However, they were unable to save hundreds of other children inside - who were killed with poisonous gas. Jordan reassured Tabby of his love for her; but that he needed to relay to the Navyropes what all was going on. He promised to become a Frontliner, and would wait for her to join him.

Tobias decided that he needed to take his chance at freedom. In case Jordan didn't find Tabby, someone else would have to. However, escorting Frank to safety meant that Tabby would need to stay behind in Texas - and turn herself in. Sarah decided to stay with Tabby, so the latter wouldn't be entirely alone and without an ally in an Arkansas juvenile center. Wilfredo also went with Tabby, Sarah, and Frank, since he didn't want to compromise Eric's ability to negotiate with SCALLOP for Pam's freedom after Team Spaghetti Liberation completed its mission.

Incarceration at Mansfield Juvenile
Tabby and Sarah became like sisters, and lived that way for the better part of three years while staying at the Mansfield center. Most of the staff were surprisingly supportive and morally encouraging - until the final few months, when supportive and caring staff were deemed "traitors" by the Chrome Kite. Brutal new staff were put in charge - which led to Maurice the Ferryman directly threatening harm to anyone who tried to kill the girls while they were inside Mansfield. The staff in turn threatened to get the biggest Penditulum they could afford, and use it on Maurice. Maurice vanished, ignoring their blasphemous cursing.

Abducted from prison
Enraged over Maurice getting involved, especially knowing that the Tug had no effect on Apthalans, the hubristic President Hasam Arbini of the Chrome Kite authorized assassins Ted Yusef and Horace Rantiba to abduct Tabby and Sarah from Mansfield, with instructions to smuggle them into Ameristan. The plan from there was to strip the girls naked, tie them up, then lure Affadidah's "zombie" army to the farm to finish the girls off. Arbini's twisted reasoning was that if Yusef and Rantiba fled the scene before the zombies arrived, then they couldn't be directly blamed for what the zombies did to the girls. The girls wouldn't technically still be in Chrome Kite custody. Therefore, they reasoned, Maurice would be bound by his own past words to not act on his prior threats. In response to this, God sent the angel Hishazera to warn Arbini that trying to create loopholes in the plan was a fool's errand. Arbini defiantly dismissed the concern, then had a Penditulum used to trap Hishazera inside.

Behind Arbini's back, the angel Noviden was sent to Shaniqua Tamery. Noviden was able to play on Shaniqua's remorse over what happened to the Pang family to convince her that she should risk everything to intercept Yusef and Rantiba's vessel, and invade Ameristan to stage a rescue. Shaniqua made contact with the Navyropes immediately, so she'd have a place to go afterward. She contacted Lex, to inform him of what was happening. Lex reminded Shaniqua that Congress would not approve of any SCALLOP intervention involving invasion of Ameristan, and that Shaniqua would lose her job and become a fugitive immediately if she saved the girls' lives. Shaniqua informed Lex that it was necessary, and Lex agreed to keep quiet as long as possible.

Noviden then appeared to Amado and Zize Marcones, convincing them to follow him into battle in Ameristan "to ensure three women made it out alive." Cavalore further accompanied their troupe, to make it clear to them that no MPF trickery would undo their plans. Extirpon, however, was advised to stay behind and guard the Wyoming frontlines, along with the two Gray Champions.

Rescue
Upon arrival at a farm outside of Dexter, Missouri, Yusef and Rantiba quickly manhandled Tabitha and Sarah. After stripping them, they had Sarah escorted to inside the house on the abandoned farm. Of of the goons saw a log and an axe left behind by the family that used to live on said farm, and attempted to have Tabitha beheaded. However, with seconds to spare, the other goon stopped him - reminding him that the zombies had to be the ones to actually kill the girls. If they beheaded Tabitha, especially in keeping with Hebbleskin ritual like what was used on Candi and Dolly in Denison a decade earlier, Maurice would simply resurrect her. Worse: he'd then avenge her by inflicting unspeakable levels of pain on them! Finally, Tabitha was escorted inside the house, and tied up on the floor.

The goons attempted to taunt Tabitha and Sarah a few more times, before then proceeding to drive away and leave the girls for the zombies to find. However, Sarah's inability to keep quiet angered the goons, resulting in them attempting to rape her - while forcing Tabitha to watch. It was in that moment that Shaniqua caught up with the goons at the farm. Before either of them could get very far in their actions against Sarah, Shaniqua shot one of them. The other ran outside, in order to face Shaniqua in a one-on-one gunfight. Shaniqua was able to get the drop on the second goon, leaving both Yusef and Rantiba's corpses lying on the ground.

Shaniqua found the girls, untied them, then helped them get dressed again immediately. However, the smell of Yusef and Rantiba's blood in the air triggered the zombies. Shaniqua proceded to steal Yusef and Rantiba's truck, escorting the girls out of Ameristan the same way that Yusef and Rantiba initially smuggled them inside. Krokodil zombies saw the truck fleeing, then gave hot pursuit. However, the pursuit was disrupted by the arrival of Amado Marcones and Plum Bixie, who made quick work of the zombies before being instructed to vanish. As Cavalore and Noviden sent the couple back home, Shaniqua continued driving the girls back into Arkonia.

Shaniqua and the girls abandoned the truck not far from a railway just north of Piggot. The girls walked alongside the rails the rest of the way into town. The sheriff was a Navyrope sympathizer, and agreed to hide the girls in the Clay County Jail for a few days, while arranging for Frontliners to meet up with Sarah and Tabitha even as further arrangements were made to help Shaniqua disappear.

Life as a Frontliner
The many adventures that Sarah would have with Tabitha and Tobias as teammates helped shape her, as the Twirlflame Trio were bounced around into doing odd jobs for the various Frontliner cabals. While they mostly associated with Trista Clarion, they were often borrowed by Pete Hassler - and less often so by Bret Kamhold. Sarah acquired her abilities by using a Marlquaanite ruby to divide the powers of Mapacha del Fuego amongst herself and her two closest comrades, fulfilling Marge's wishes to retire from superhero life.

Sarah's growing affection for Tobias took on new perspective after discovering why Tobias was initially distant with her: namely, the fact that he'd been trying to hide from everyone the fact that he had already attempted to start a family with Francine Smith. When the regime and Lady Chillingworth do Francine in - along with her and Tobias' unborn child - Sarah empathizes with Tobias' sense of loss. She confides with him and Tabitha her memories as a toddler of when her parents were murdered. Eventually learning to cope with the loss of Francine, Tobias grows interested back in Sarah, leading to a budding relationship.

In spite knowing why they shouldn't Sarah's relationship with Tobias became sexual for a time. Yet, after learning of what Frotchimar attempted to do to Tabitha and Jordan, Sarah and Tobias elected to reserve future sexual activities for after their future wedding - lest they allow Frotchimar a way back!

Doing some Bunnywork, Sarah also discovered how ambitious the Sodality Western Militia's crusade had become to prevent Chrome Kite expansion into the western territories. Eventually, when Tabitha had to turn herself over to SCALLOP to ensure their cooperation in bringing the Tug down, Sarah was honored to step up and become the inspiration to Swappernetter youth that she initially envisioned would be Tabitha's job. Sarah would get to perform at least one last mission with her teammates - plus Ciem - before everyone had to go their separate ways. Perhaps the only thing that brought her more relief than seeing the Tug destroyed, was seeing Bliksemhek defeated by Extirwraith - thus being assured that Trista and Beauregard's deaths weren't in vain.