| HistoryText
| - Origins
Like the other original Runaways, Gertrude "Gert" Yorkes was born after her parents and the other members of the Pride decided to pass on their inheritance from the Gibborim to their children. Gert's parents, Dale and Stacey Yorkes, were time-traveler, and often utilized their 4-D Time Portico to complete the Pride work across multiple eras.
Growing up, Gert was only close with Nico Minoru. Gert was smart, clever, cynical, and sarcastic girl with socialist leanings who often frank and abrasive with others. Gert began to suspect her parents were secretly evil after Orwell, her pet potbelly pig, mysteriously disappeared.
Runaways
Along with Alex Wilder, Nico Minoru, and Chase Stein, Gert witnessed her parents and the Pride sacrifice Destiny Gonzales for the Ritual of Blood. She was a vocal proponent for turning the Pride over to the authorities.
While searching for evidence and the body in the Yorkes basement, the Runaways stumbled onto a holographic message from her parents, the Pride's Abstract, and a genetically engineered dinosaur from the future with a telepathic link to Gert.
After rescuing Molly, narrowly escaping their parents, and taking refuge in The Hostel, Gert suggested taking on new codenames to start over without the influence of their parents. She chose the codename Arsenic and named her new pet velociraptor Old Lace. The pair were immediately connected, and their bond continued to strengthen with time.
Arsenic was often abrasive to and at odds with other members of the Runaways especially Chase. Arsenic remained vocal about using codenames, avoiding mistakes that would led to capture, and maintaining a healthy skepticism. Arsenic was suspicious of Topher when he was first brought to the Hostel, hesitant to trust Cloak and Dagger, and leery of following their parents into the Marine Vivarium for a confrontation.
When Chase nearly drown battling off the defenses of the Marine Vivarium, it was Arsenic who administered CPR and saved his life. This led to the pairs first kiss and the culmination of their romantic tension. When facing off with the Pride, Arsenic had instructed Old Lace to follow Alex's commands if anything happened to her. Unfortunately, after taking down the Deans, Arsenic was incapacitated by Alice Hayes. Luckily, Arsenic and the others were able to escape in the Leapfrog before the Gibborim destroyed the Marine Vivarium killing Alex and all the members of the Pride.
After narrowly escaping the destruction of the Marine Vivarium, the Runaways were immediately apprehended by Captain America and placed into foster care. Additionally, Old Lace was taken away from Arsenic. Weeks later after a text message from Karolina, the Runaways reconvened at the Griffith Observatory. Together they decided to retrieve Old Lace and the Leapfrog, and runaway again.
Heroine
The Runaways eventually located one of the Pride's old lairs beneath the La Brea Tar Pits, and took up residence there. They also began defending Los Angeles from all of the villains trying to fill the power vacuum left by the absence of the Pride.
After an unsuccessful mission to rescue Excavator from his father and the Wrecking Crew, the team returned to the Hostel to be comforted by a mortally wounded Heroine, a woman claiming to Gert's future self and leader of the Avengers. Using the 4-D Time Portico, she narrowly escaped the onslaught of Victorious, with a message to the Runaways: find Victor Mancha and stop him from becoming this deadly super-villain. Heroine then died in Chase's arms. Heroine's body was buried just outside the La Brea Museum.
During the Runaways' attempt to bring Victor to the Hostel, he explained to Gert that Old Lace is actually a Deinonychus, not a Velociraptor as previously assumed. Despite the fact that he may one day kill her, Gert quickly sparked a connection with Victor, whom she viewed as her intellectual equal. Gert friendliness with Victor led to Chase feeling insecure about their relationship despite Gert's reassurances.
During a trip to New York City to help Cloak, Gert and Victor had dinner with Spider-Man while Nico and Chase tracked down Pusher Man resulting in a brief kiss. In their final confrontation with Reginald Mantz, Gert was thrown off a skyscraper ultimately to be saved by Victor much to Chase's annoyance.
Weeks later, when Gert found out about Chase and Nico's kiss while battling a young Geoffrey Wilder and his New Pride, she was furious, and the ensuing argument allowed the New Pride to kidnap Molly. Later, Gert officially ended her relationship with Chase.
Death and Afterlife
During the Runaways' mission to rescue Molly Pride, Chase ran into the burning Griffith Observatory to rescue his friends. However, Nico, Xavin, and Molly had already escaped, leave Chase to face off with Geoffrey Wilder. Gert and Old Lace went in after him resulting in Geoffrey throwing a knife directly into Gert's chest. Before she died, she successfully transferred her telepathic connection with Old Lace to Chase.
Gert's body was was buried five-and-a-half feet in the ground several meters behind the Hollywood sign.
Motivated by the grief of Gert's death, Chase sought out the Gibborim and tried to barter a deal for her resurrection. Despite his attempts, Chase was stopped by the other Runaways.
When Molly began receiving ominous direction from a disembodied voice shortly after Gert's death, she believed it was Gert aiding her from beyond the grave. In fact, it was Alex Wilder trying to redeem himself and escape from Hell.
During their trip to 1907, the Runaways encountered younger versions of the Yorkes with a working portico. Chase Stein stole the machine to travel back in time and save Gert, but see her younger and blissfully unaware of their parents' evil, he decided to allow her to remain in the past. However, he did return to his father's workshop to steal a new set of Fistigons and X-Ray Specs.
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