Runaways

Alex, Gert, Chase, Karolina, Molly and Nico meet at their families' annual gathering. When they see their parents performing the ritual sacrifice of a teenaged girl, the shocked teenagers vow to turn the tables on their evil parents. Nico steals her mother's mystical Staff of One, Chase finds powerful gauntlets and x-ray goggles, Karolina learns she is an alien, Molly finds out she is a mutant and Gert inherits a genetically engineered dinosaur under her mental control. In order to get their children back, the Pride frames them for the murder of the innocent girl they had sacrificed. The runaways retreat to a hideout they call "the Hostel".

While stopping a robbery, the Runaways encounter a boy named Topher, who claims his parents forced him to aid them in the robbery. Deciding he is one of them, the group takes him back to the Hostel; the innocent Topher, however, reveals himself as an evil vampire and attempts to "turn" Nico by biting her, but Alex manages to rescue her and the two rekindle their relationship. Topher then goes after Karolina, but after a bite of her solar-infused blood, Topher explodes.

Former runaways Cloak and Dagger (informed that the teenagers had "kidnapped" Molly) arrive in Los Angeles to confront the runaways. While Cloak arrests the four older kids, Gert and Molly are finally given the chance to get into battle. Upon battling Cloak and Dagger and informing them of the real truth, the two superheroes promise to contact the Avengers to help the runaways take down the Pride; a mole in the Runaways, however, tips off the Pride. Catching up with the vigilantes, the Pride telepathically removes all memory of the meeting from Cloak and Daggers' heads, so they do not remember the Runaways.

The origin of the Pride is revealed, along with another revelation: the Hayes and the Deans plan on murdering the rest of the Pride in order to inherit a valuable gift by the Pride's benefactors, an ancient race of mythical giants called the Gibborim. The Runaways engage the Pride in battle and succeed in disrupting a spiritual ceremony, but in the end, Alex dies after outing himself as a traitor. When the Gibborim go on a rampage, the Runaways manage to leave alive, though the Pride themselves end up in the final explosion. Just when the Runaways escape, Captain America arrives to apprehend them. With their parents dead, Social Services separate the Runaways. Three exhaustive months after the destruction of the Pride, Karolina organizes a reunion, and the team heads off to an Avengers storage complex to retrieve Old Lace. The teenagers decide, rather than return to their new lives, to stay together and uphold a strong distrust towards adults. Although it was announced that Runaways would end with this issue, it was hinted that the series would come back again.

True Believers

• Guest appearances: the Wrecking Crew, Turbo, Darkhawk, Chamber, Lightspeed, Ricochet, Phil Urich, Rick Jones, Ultron, Armor, Doctor Doom

After a five-month hiatus, the Runaways fight the villains of Los Angeles attempting to fill the Pride's void. A future version of Gert travels back in time to warn the group that a boy named Victor Mancha will grow up to become "Victorious", the greatest villain of all time; before she dies, she warns them to kill Victor before he becomes to powerful. At the same time, a group of former teenage superheroes (called "Excelsior") are promised a $1,000,000 grant from a mysterious benefactor if they successfully detain the Runaways. The Runaways subdue Victor Mancha, and are later shocked to discover that Victor is a cyborg created by the killing machine, Ultron. With the help of Excelsior, the Runaways defeat Ultron, and Victor joins them, having no where else to go. After the battle with Ultron, Excelsior discovers its benefactor is Rick Jones. The story arc ends with a vivid shock: Chamber of Excelsior turns out to be a fraud, and is implied to be a resurrected Alex Wilder.

Karolina outs herself as a lesbian, and reveals she harbors romantic feelings for Nico, but Nico turns down Karolina's advances. As Karolina attempts to cope with the rejection, a Skrull named Xavin lands in Los Angeles and tells Karolina that he is her fiancée, due to an agreement between both their parents. Xavin informs Karolina of the fifteen-year long war between their races, and insists that their marriage is the only way to enforce peace. Although Karolina initially declines (on the basis that she is homosexual), Xavin shape-shifts into a female form. Karolina, finally agreeing, leaves her friends behind and departs with Xavin.

East Coast/West Coast

• Guest appearances: Captain America, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Man, Luke Cage, Spider-Woman, She-Hulk, Cloak and Dagger

Cloak, whose memories of the Runaways are restored, convinces the Runaways to travel with him to New York City and help solve a crime: someone posing as Cloak has used MGH (mutant growth hormone) to attack Dagger. When Chase and Nico end up in a dangerous situation with a drug dealer, Chase bluffs his way out. A relieved Nico kisses Chase - who outright rejects her by saying Gert is his girlfriend, and the only thing keeping him "good". Gert and Victor run into Spider-Man, but Nico knocks him out because Spider-Man is an adult and an Avenger. Meanwhile, after Wolverine scares Molly she punches him through a building. In the end, the Runaways defeat Dagger's attacker, and they return home. Meanwhile, someone (implied to be a resurrected Alex) says that one of them is about to die.

During a super-human fight with "a dragon lady", young Molly Hayes is knocked unconscious, and washes up down into a sewer system. After waking, she finds that she has been "recruited" by the Provost, who runs a crime ring that uses children to commit thefts. With many strategies, Molly leads her classmates into a defeat of the Provost. Although Molly invites them to join the team, all disagree - saying they would all go to their families. After going home, Molly has a dream that shows her deepest desire: to go home with her parents.

As it turns out, it wasn't a resurrected Alex Wilder - it was a much younger version of Geoffrey Wilder, Alex's late father. After Victor has a nightmare about killing his friends under Ultron's influence, Chase confesses to being jealous of Victor, someone his parents would have loved. Nico tells Gert she wishes that Gert will become the leader, if something happens. The teenagers go to stop a crime in the middle of the night, but discover the younger Geoffrey Wilder and a new version of the Pride. In a twisted turn of events, the New Pride takes control of Victor, Gert finds out that Nico kissed Chase, and the New Pride kidnaps Molly. Before they can rescue Molly, they have to repair the Leapfrog - in this period, the Runaways' personal issues begin to get to them: Molly's absence, Gert breaks up with Chase, and Nico learns that the New Pride is getting their information through Victor (much to his shock). Just as the group breaks into a full-blown explosion, Karolina Dean returns to stop the fight.

After telling the team why she and Xavin have returned to Earth, Victor finds out that the new Pride has been using him as a spy cam, and finds that the broadcast was coming from the Minoru Summer Home. Xavin asks the team if she can help. The team goes arrives at the Minoru Summer Home and finds that the new Pride has moved out and the weapons cabinet is empty. The Runaways find the New Pride at the Griffith Observatory and a fight starts, but instead of the killing Molly, in the end, Geoffrey Wilder kills Gert. The New Pride, who'd been tricked by Wilder the entire time learn the truth about his intentions. Nico Minoru uses the Staff of One spell "Forget" to send Wilder back to his time, with his memory lost. In the present day, Chase runs away.

As the Runaways deal with the aftermath of Gert's death, an elderly shopkeeper manages to obtain a magic talisman belonging to Nico's parents. After claiming he just wants things to "go back to the way they used to be", transforms into a giant rampaging monster and attacks Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Chase "hires" Lotus (from "the New Pride") to help him resurrect Gert, by exchanging her soul to the Gibborim for Gert's - in the end, he pulls back. The Runaways learn of the shopkeeper's past; how he couldn't get over the death of his wife and was letting his pain out on the city. As the battle goes out of control, Xavin takes the appearance of the old man's dead wife, and Nico casts a spell to give Xavin her voice. Together, the two are able to calm the monster and return him to his human form. Chase reunites with the other Runaways at the hostel and looks at Gert's portrait longingly, thinking of the deal he let go.

Live Fast

• Guest appearances: Iron Man, S.H.I.E.L.D.

In the last arc featuring the creative team of Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona, Xavin expresses confusion about her identity to Karolina, and Chase learns from the Gibborim that the time during which he can resurrect Gert is short. Chase tells Nico that he intends to sacrifice himself on Gert's behalf, and shuts down Victor when he tries to intervene. He takes the Staff of One and leaves. Molly hears a voice that tells her to alert the others, and they follow Chase, using a urine trail that Old Lace leaves for them. Molly believes the voice to belong to Gert.

The team finds the end of the trail behind a donut shop and leaves Molly behind with Victor. A weak Karolina, a Staff-less Nico and Xavin the realm of the Gibborim, only to find that the giants will not accept Chase as a sacrifice. Apparently, his self-sacrifice was not considered "innocent", and instead the giants move to consume Nico. As all hope becomes lost, a conscious Victor and Molly enter the realm of the Gibborim to save Nico. Without their sacrifice, the Gibborim slowly fade to their deaths. As the team returns to the Hostel, they notice their security has been breached. Xavin realizes that she did not make the group invisible when they left; subsequently, Iron Man greets the children with a squad of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents. In another reality, the Gibborim come face to face with the person who alerted Molly to Chase's plans in the first place: Alex Wilder.

Dead End Kids

• Guest appearances: The Kingpin, the Punisher

After escaping Iron Man and S.H.I.E.L.D., Nico, Victor, Chase, Molly, Karolina and Xavin arrive in New York City. After a brief run-in with Wilson Fisk (the former "kingpin" of crime in NYC) and the Punisher, the Runaways steal an artifact belonging to the late Gertrude Yorkes's parents. In a twisted turn of events, the Runaways escape to 1907 New York. Much to their shock, the Runaways are horrified to learn that the Yorkes themselves lived during this time, leading a super-powered group called the Sinners. The Runaways separate all over 1907 New York, looking for a new artifact to bring them to the present; it is at this point where Molly meets Klara Prast, an abused girl her age with an ability to control plants.

Nico becomes kidnapped by her great-grandmother, "the Witchbreaker", while Chase steals the Yorkes' time machine and disappears. Victor falls in love with a carefree girl named Lillie, and invites her to join them back in the present. However, the group stayed with ("the Street Arabs"), and is being targeted to death by the Sinners. This leads to a full-scale war in the streets of 1907 New York. Nico, who'd been trained by the Witchbreaker returns, more powerful then ever with a new Staff, along with Chase and his new Fistigon gloves. Right before the Runaways return to the present, Lillie tells Victor she can't leave her home, much to his angst. Klara Prast, however, does join them.

Dead Wrong

Nico, Victor, Chase, Molly, Karolina, Old Lace and Klara return to Los Angeles after finding a new hiding place at Chase's parent's former Malibu home. Chase gets a job at a radio station, and befriends radio shock-jock Val Rhymin, who murders the station manager in order to become in charge. Meanwhile, the remaining Majesdanians have arrived, with the desire to hunt Karolina down for the problems caused on their planet. Using a global spell ("Scatter"), Nico sends several of them over the world, but Victor later realizes that Nico's spell had unintended side-effects: it "scattered" the Runaways themselves. After fighting the Majesdanians, Xavin, shape-shifting into Karolina, leaves with them.

Val Rhymin and a magician named Mother work together to create a spell that will turn all of Los Angeles into zombies.The two of them decide to turn every plastic surgery patient in Los Angeles into zombies, because plastic surgery is one thing most of the citizens partake in. They infuse the spell with a CD, so any plastic surgery patient who listens to the CD will soon turn into a zombie. After testing it on Val's receptionist Lydia and finding out it works, Val plays the CD on the radio, which turns most of LA into plastic surgery drones. Nico, attempting to reverse the spell (she finds out she can't) causes mass disruption by merging the zombies into one, large, monstrous entity. To be concluded next issue.