Talkback (1)

Old Lace (pet)

## **History**

### **Gert Yorkes: 2002 - Present**

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-travelers, 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 a smart, clever, cynical and sarcastic girl with socialist leanings who was often frank and abrasive with others. Gert began to suspect her parents were secretly evil after Orwell, her pet potbelly pig, *mysteriously* disappeared.

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 stubbled 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 Talkback and named her new pet velociraptor Old Lace. The pair were immediately connected, and their bond continued to strengthen with time.

Talkback was often abrasive to and at odds with other members of the Runaways especially Chase. Talkback remained vocal about using codenames, avoiding mistakes that would lead to capture, and maintaining a healthy skepticism. Talkback 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 drowns battling off the defenses of the Marine Vivarium, it was Talkback 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, Talkback had instructed Old Lace to follow Alex's commands if anything happened to her. Unfortunately, after taking down the Deans, Talkback was incapacitated by Alice Hayes. Luckily, Talkback and the others were able to escape in the Leapfrog before the Gibborim destroyed the Marine Vivarium killing 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 Talkback. 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 run away again.

## **Personality**

Gertrude Yorkes is an intelligent and cultured young woman, with a sarcastic spirit and a caustic humor; always distrustful and suspicious, she doesn’t let anybody come close to her, with only a few exceptions, Quite a tough cookie to deal with, Gert is a rebellious punk always in conflict with the entire world, a girl who deeply and truly hates any adult, who protects herself from the world with a badass attitude and who trusts nobody as a principle… with the few ones she actually likes, however, she’s the most loyal of friends and a fierce defender, always on the first line to protect the people she loves. Yorkes' most notable characteristic was her strong social justice warrior attitude, which she plainly embraced, displaying a zero tolerance for any form of discrimination, be it sexism, racism, homophobia or specism. She was very well known in Atlas Academy for her actions, such as promoting the use of neutral-gender bathrooms or vegan meals in the school's restaurant, but often came across her schoolmates as incredibly aggravating due to the agressivity she displayed on these subjects. She could also show insolence towards her parents, frequently making sarcastic comments to them, which they usually put up with. However, it eventually turned out that her behavior was also largely a front to mask her true feelings and her desire to be recognized, especially by Chase Stein, who she was attracted to. Yorkes' beliefs gave her a strong moral compass she was unwilling to go against. Upon discovering that PRIDE was nothing but an organization of criminals, she kept insisting that the Runaways had to do everything to never become like their parents, and thus disapproved whenever their actions could go against morality or law. As such, when she learned that there were actually living beings in the hole of the PRIDE Construction Site, Yorkes was adamant that they had to save them instead of risking to destroy them like Alex Wilder suggested. She was also hostile to Wilder's attempt to ally with the corrupt AWOL, and felt immensely betrayed when Stein decided to leave the Runaways, claiming that she would be willing to completely forget him through the use of Synnergy Serum to forget how heartbroken she had been when her boyfriend chose to return home.

Yorkes had one major weakness: she suffered from anxiety issues which became much more troublesome when she fled from home, thus being deprived of her meds. The pain and anguish sometimes made her behaving aggressively to her friends. Yorkes' anxiety troubles could cause her to contradict herself, especially regarding her beliefs, making her a hypocrite on Yorkes' own admittance. For instance, she criticized Karolina Dean's thought that the Runaways were a family as nonsense coming from Dean's Church of Gibborim's education, thus omitting Yorkes herself had made the same statement to PRIDE during a confrontation. Yorkes' anxiety also led her to leave the Hostel to go to the hospital without telling her boyfriend Stein and her adoptive sister Molly Hernandez, causing her to be blamed for her selfishness although Yorkes claimed that she had left so that no one would get hurt because of her problems.

## **Powers and Weaknesses**

### **Powers**

**Mutant Physiology:** Gertrude Yorkes was born enhanced with metahuman abilities. Through the use of her time traveling parents, using the 4-D Time Portico to travel to the future in the 87th century, Gert's parents were able to commission a genetically-engineered deinonychus

* **Telepathic Link:** Gert is telepathically and empathically link to her genetically-engineered deinonychus, Old Lace. This empathic bond with Old Lace enabled Gertrude to mentally command and communicate with Old Lace.  Additionally, Old Lace is fiercely loyal to Gert, and has been programmed not to harm any member of the Yorkes immediate family.
	+ **Scrying:** With the help of her father, Gert Yorkes was able to learn how to see through Old Lace's eyes while controlling her directly.

### **Weaknesses**

**Emphatic Link:** Their connection grew to a point where when Old Lace was poisoned, Yorkes became ill along with the dinosaur, though her symptoms were only psychosomatic. Gert Yorkes begun experiencing what Old Lace was feeling, specifically when said feeling can be powerful such as hunger and pain.

**Anxiety:** Yorkes had one major weakness: she suffered from anxiety issues which became much more troublesome when she fled from home, thus being deprived of her meds. The pain and anguish sometimes made her behaving aggressively to her friends. Yorkes' anxiety troubles could cause her to contradict herself, especially regarding her beliefs, making her a hypocrite on Yorkes' own admittance. For instance, she criticized Karolina Dean's thought that the Runaways were a family as nonsense coming from Dean's Church of Gibborim's education, thus omitting Yorkes herself had made the same statement to PRIDE during a confrontation. Yorkes' anxiety also led her to leave the Hostel to go to the hospital without telling her boyfriend Stein and her adoptive sister Molly Hernandez, causing her to be blamed for her selfishness although Yorkes claimed that she had left so that no one would get hurt because of her problems.