Gertrude Yorkes
Arsenic and Old Lace
| Fighting |
Excellent |
| Agility |
Good |
| Strength |
Typical |
| Endurance |
Excellent |
| Reason |
Typical |
| Intuition |
Remarkable |
| Psyche |
Excellent |
| Health |
90 |
| Karma |
36 |
| Resources |
Not Applicable |
| Popularity |
0 |
Powers
- Has a mental and empathic link with her pet velociraptor deinonychus Old Lace, whom was genetically engineered in the future by her time traveling parents to respond to only Gert's mental commands.
Talents
None
Contacts
None
History
Real Name: Gertrude "Gert" Yorkes
Former Aliases: Arsenic II, Heroine (in alternate future)
First Appearance: Runaways (1st series) #1, Runaways (1st series) #6 (as Arsenic II)
Last Appearance: Runaways (2nd series) #18 (alive, flashbacks thereafter)
Cause of death: Stabbed in the chest by Geoffrey Wilder from the past
Known Relatives: Dale Yorkes (father, deceased), Stacey Yorkes (mother, deceased)
Group Affiliation: "Runaways"
Known Allies: Old Lace
Major Enemies: The New Pride, formerly Ultron, Excelsior, Gibborim, Alex Wilder, Cloak & Dagger, Topher, The Pride
Eyes: Green
Hair: Brown, dyed violet
Gert's parents were part of 'The Pride', a six-family cadre of criminals made up of crime bosses, alien overlords, time- traveling despots, evil mutants, dark wizards and mad scientists, who secretly ran all the criminal operations in Los Angeles. Twenty-some years ago, an ancient race known as the Gibborim summoned six couples to their underwater base, and offered these twelve the power to rule L.A., and six individual shots at eventual eternal life. In exchange, they were to assist the Gibborim in destroying the world, which was to occur after twenty-five years of faithful service. They accepted, and everything went according to plan, until Mrs. Stein became pregnant.
Deciding it was more reasonable to guarantee immortality to a shared child than take a chance at missing out entirely, each couple had a baby, and seemingly agreed to give them the six spots. Years later, the children, now teenagers and ignorant of their parents' true standing, witnessed them kill a girl in the 'Rite of Blood', an arcane ceremony in accordance with their infernal agreement. Horrified by what they'd seen, the children ran away from home, taking various information and technology with them. They settled in a sunken mansion in the hills called 'The Hostel'. While housed there, the kids had various adventures, battling a vampire as well as Cloak and Dagger, and they also learned more about The Pride's past from the Abstract, a mysterious ancient book written in riddles.
When one of their parents' plants in the LAPD located The Hostel, the team was forced to move out, so they took the fight to their parents. They interrupted the 'Rite of Thunder', in which The Pride was going to offer up the soul of the girl they'd killed during the 'Rite of Blood'. As Alex revealed himself as a traitor and the kids prevented their parents from completing the ritual, the Gibborim killed Alex and, in one last attempt to save their children, The Pride stayed to fight, giving their kids time to escape. Placed in various homes, the children eventually ran away again and got back together. Rescuing Old Lace and the Leapfrog from storage, they found one of their parents' old bases, located beneath the La Brea tar pits.
After a while, a future Gert, calling herself Heroine, arrived in her parents' time machine and tells the group of the horrors of her time and the person responsible, before dying. Her information lead the team to Victor Mancha, who turned out to be a half-machine created by the Ultron.
A new Pride has surfaced when friends of the late Alex Wilder tried to bring him back using the file he left but brought back a much younger version of his father, Geoffrey, instead. Because of what Hunter read when he hacked into Alex's journal, he and Alex's other gaming friends believe that the original Pride were heroes and that the Runaways are responsible for Alex's and their deaths. As part of their plan to divide and conquer the Runaways, Lotus showed Gert an image of when Nico kissed Chase -- without showing the part where Chase pushed her away and asked what she was doing. Gert's anger at Nico affected Old Lace through their empathic link and Old Lace attacked Nico. Gert was trying to pull her off and called for Molly to help her. Molly couldn't because the New Pride had kidnapped her and were speeding away... Gert then broke up with Chase, saying that their relationship would never have lasted.
Gert is a human with no superhuman abilities of her own. However, she has control of Old Lace, a genetically- engineered Deinonychus her parents had commissioned in the 87th century, who is programmed to only follows Gert's mental commands. She also shares an empathic link with Old Lace, so any pain Old Lace feels, Gert feels as well.
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