Chase of the Runaways

The Chase of the Runaways was a confrontation between the Runaways and PRIDE after a failed attempt to bring them back home with Chase Stein. PRIDE intended to force their children to come back home, but only got mixed results, as it led to the defection of Dale Yorkes and the arrest of both Geoffrey and Catherine Wilder, while Janet Stein was captured along with Chase and Karolina Dean. This left only Alex Wilder, Nico Minoru and Molly Hernandez as the free Runaways, who learned that the Gibborim Magistrate and his family were still alive.
==Background==
In the aftermath of a confrontation against the Runaways, the members of PRIDE gave themselves a twin objective: assassinating their former benefactor Jonah, who had fooled them all along; and finding their children who had fled from them.Runaways: 1.10: Hostile Despite several encounters with the Runaways, including a failed kidnapping attempt of Alex Wilder,Runaways: 2.03: Double Zeros or Janet Stein finding Gert Yorkes and Chase Stein, and Karolina Dean going to her mother Leslie to get information about Jonah, PRIDE was unable to convince their children to return home.Runaways: 2.06: Bury Another
Once Jonah was apparently killed by Nico Minoru during the Battle at the PRIDE Construction Site, PRIDE was able to focus on the search for the Runaways. Knowing that their children were either armed or with superpowers, Victor Stein suggested crafting weapons specifically designed against them.Runaways: 2.09: Big Shot Aided by Janet and Robert Minoru, this led to the creation of drones equipped with Subsonic Wave Generators and Multidirectional Tranquilizer Darts, in addition to the Inhibitor Pods previously made by Robert.Runaways: 2.10: Hostile Takeover
Before actually going to war against the Runaways, Victor was able to convince his son Chase to peacefully return home.Runaways: 2.11: Last Waltz Chase was welcomed into PRIDE, who asked him to try and persuade his former teammates to follow his path, otherwise the confrontation was inevitable.Runaways: 2.12: Earth Angel Thus, Chase met with the other Runaways, who saw him as a traitor, and tried to persuade them to return home, as their parents had promised that they would give them leadership of PRIDE. Nevertheless, the Runaways refused to hear him out, forcing Chase to inform PRIDE of his failure.Runaways: 2.13: Split Up
==Chase==
===First Assault===
Immediately following Chase Stein's departure, Tina Minoru sent a flock of PRIDE Drones on the Runaways. Upon seeing them, the teenagers immediately fled while the drones fired Multidirectional Tranquilizer Darts at them. They hid behind trees and prepared to retaliate, but soon realized that they were powerless: the Subsonic Wave Generators scrambled Nico Minoru's brain so she could not speak a spell with the Staff of One, the drones resisted to Karolina Dean's light beams and generated an EMP which disabled Alex Wilder's Fistigons.
Facing such an ordeal, Wilder instructed his teammates to split up in order to make the fight easier for them. He fled on his own while Gert Yorkes and Molly Hernandez left together. Nico and Dean ran to an underground tunnel protected by a fence which they closed, damaging the drone following them. However, another drone found them, and Dean suggested that they went on separate paths. As Nico replied that she did not want to leave her girlfriend, Dean told her that they would be reunited and kissed Nico goodbye before leaving, followed by the drone.
===Chase of Alex Wilder===
Initially, Alex Wilder fled on foot from both a PRIDE Drone and his parents Geoffrey and Catherine in their car. Arriving in a car wash, he managed to steal a sports car he used to try and lose his chasers. Engaging in a hot pursuit with their son in the streets of Los Angeles, Geoffrey and Catherine ordered Tina Minoru to stop following Alex with the drone as she was no longer necessary. Alex raced through the city until he arrived in a pedestrian area where he left his car, quickly followed by his parents.
Alex managed to outdistance his parents and to hide from them. He then wielded a gun which had been given to her by Tamar and which was connected to an unsolved criminal case. Alex fired with the gun, thus causing the LAPD to be alerted. He then returned to his parents' car where he left the gun, before being found by his parents. Alex confronted them about their deeds, including the Rite of Blood and the Assassination of Darius Davis, until the LAPD arrived as he left. The officers found the gun in the Wilders' car, leading to the arrest of Geoffrey and Catherine while Alex managed to escape.
===Chase of Gert Yorkes and Molly Hernandez===
Gert Yorkes and Molly Hernandez fled and arrived near a market, where they were confronted by two PRIDE Drones. In order to get rid of them, Hernandez stole the foot scooter from a nearby citizen and used her superhuman strength to violently throw it at a drone, which caused it to crash on the other aircraft, destroying both. As Gert apologized to the scooter's owner and recognized him as Earl, who she had met at a PRIDE gala, Hernandez urged her to flee as Dale and Stacey Yorkes were arriving.
Gert and Hernandez hid in the market, but agreed that they could not stay long in it and decided to go out. Upon spotting their parents, they agreed to split up, and Hernandez was followed by Dale while Stacey went after Gert. Nevertheless, Hernandez managed to get rid of her adoptive father by pretending to the crowd that he was a pedophile chasing her. Therefore, she managed to buy enough time to run away while Dale defended himself from the false accusations.
Stacey attempted to convince her daughter to calmly return home, but Gert refused to listen to her mother, crashing a hat stand in her way. This caused the personality of the Magistrate's Wife, who possessed Stacey, to resurface and angrily follow Gert into a shop. The Gibborim managed to have the shop manager leave. Gert understood that there was something wrong with her mother, but could not figure it out as the Magistrate's Wife knocked her unconscious, much to Dale's shock as he had arrived. Dale was then ordered by who he thought to be his wife to take Gert away.
===Capture of Karolina Dean===
Being chased by both a PRIDE Drone and Victor Stein, who was actually being possessed by her Gibborim father the Magistrate, Karolina Dean managed to enter a seemingly abandoned building, locking the door behind her. Still, the Magistrate managed to enter and tried to convince her to join her. Dean, who still believed she was fighting against Victor, fired a light beam at him, knocking him down, but he retaliated by deploying three Inhibitor Pods, weakening her.
However, Dean received backup from Xavin, who deactivated the inhibitors and confronted the Magistrate. The Magistrate angrily incapacitated Xavin with his powers, causing Dean to realize that her father was still alive and in front of her. Taking advantage of his daughter's astonishment, the Magistrate violently attacked her and knocked her unconscious, only to discover that Xavin had disappeared.
The Magistrate returned to the Stein Mansion, where he was confronted by Chase and Janet Stein, who had discovered that they something was wrong with Victor and realized that the Magistrate possessed him. Chase attempted to use an Anti-Gibborim Inhibitor against him, but the Magistrate was able to resist it thanks to his suit's special lining. He then attacked both Chase and Janet with his powers, incapacitating them as well.
===Confrontation at the PRIDE Headquarters===
Meanwhile, Nico Minoru headed to the PRIDE Headquarters, as she knew her mother Tina would be supervising the whole operation from there. Tina immediately used a Subsonic Wave Generator on her daughter and confronted her, commenting on the effects of the device on her and ordering her to stand down. However, Nico immediately attacked her mother, using the Staff of One as a melee weapon. Still, Tina easily held her own against Nico and pushed her back. Robert Minoru then arrived behind Nico and tried to restrain her, begging her to peacefully come back.
Despite being outnumbered by her parents, two skilled martial artists on their own, Nico refused to surrender and put up a fight against them. Although she managed to land several blows and even to destroy the Subsonic Wave Generator used by her mother, Nico was no match for her parents' proficiency in hand-in-hand combat, who activated another generator to keep her mind unable to speak spells and perfectly fought together to knock their daughter unconscious, thus defeating her.
However, much to Tina's and Robert's astonishment, Nico was able to stand back, unconsciously drawing energy from the Dark Dimension, giving her tremendous power she used to violently smash large windows in the building, projecting her parents several meters away in a storm of pieces of glass. Exhausted by the effort, Nico left the building, while Tina saw that Robert had been hit in the neck by a shard of glass and called emergency to save him.
==Aftermath==
Only three Runaways were able to return to the Hostel: Alex Wilder, Nico Minoru and Molly Hernandez. They were joined by Xavin, who revealed to them that the Gibborim Magistrate was still alive, along with his family, and that he had captured Karolina Dean. This left the Runaways in distress, as half of their team was missing and they had to fight a whole family of dangerous and powerful extraterrestrials.
Being disturbed by the recently violent behavior of his wife Stacey, who was actually possessed by the Magistrate's Wife, Dale Yorkes elected to take his daughter Gert away from both PRIDE and the Runaways, along with Old Lace.
At the Stein Mansion, the Magistrate was joined by his wife and his daughter, who possessed Tina Minoru. Finally reunited, the Gibborim family wondered where their last family member was. The Magistrate also revealed that he had captured Karolina Dean, Chase Stein and Janet Stein, and that they would have to use them as hosts to survive in the next years to come while waiting to build a new spaceship to leave Earth.
==References==
Category:Events