Bruiser / Princess PowerfulMolly Hayes

But You Can't Hide

The youngest of the group, Molly found herself in a unique situation when her friends Alex Wilder, Chase Stein, Gertrude Yorkes, and Nico Minoru snuck through a secret passage and witnessed their parents killing a young woman in cold blood. Alex had suggested that Karolina Dean take Molly back to the rec room due to her young age, so both of them missed the event itself. Later, while the older kids described what happened to Karolina, Gert distracted Molly.

Later, when the older kids all met up at the Griffith Observatory, they did so without Molly. She remained at her parents' house completely unaware that the older kids each went home to find Gert's dinosaur, the guide book the Abstract, Karolina's alien powers, and Chase's parents' weapons. In fact, Molly didn't even wake up until after her parents and the Yorkes threatened to do something bad to the young girl.

The kids showed up and, when Nico confronted Mrs. Hayes, Molly woke up with a bloody nose. At that moment her mutant powers manifested, and she reacted very poorly to the fact that Nico knocked her mom out with the Staff of One. Molly finally calmed down a bit when Gert managed to explain what they?d seen their parents do.

While the young Hayes had trouble believing her, things became clearer when Mrs. Dean blasted through her bedroom wall and attacked Gert, leading Molly to shove her back out through the hole she?d just created. With that, they all made a break for it and got away from their parents. However, they eventually found even more trouble as their folks? collectively framed them for both kidnapping Molly and possibly killing the sacrificed young woman.

Later on, the kids all holed up at the Hostel?a mansion that had been mostly buried during an earthquake. While there, the kids came up with codenames. Chase dubbed Molly as ?Bruiser,? although she selected ?Princess Powerful.? Though still confused and conflicted about everything going on, Molly did enjoy hanging out with the older kids, getting out of school, and playing with Old Lace.

Molly and Gert later stayed back at the Hostel while the others went on an adventure that accidentally brought a vampire named Topher into their midst. Molly actually slept through the confrontation that led Karolina to kill Topher before waking up at the very end, jumping into Nico?s arms, wishing that her mom and dad were there for her.

When the group decided to start patrolling more regularly to try and make up for the terrible things their parents had done, Molly got excited?and even donned the costume she made for herself. This outing led to a meeting with Cloak and Dagger who had been tricked into believing that the Runaways had snatched Molly. While trying to save her friends, she even ripped Cloak?s namesake cloth off of his body.

In the wake of that adventure, Alex recounted the origins of the Pride, having deciphered a large part of the Abstract. After describing the god-like Gibborim, the 25-year deal, and the post-apocalyptic paradise outlined in the tome, as well as the Pride?s plan to give their spots to their children, a team of cops swarmed the Hostel. But the Runaways fought back, nearly destroying the house around them. While Karolina kept the group in a kind of protective energy bubble, Molly tunneled them to safety. Meanwhile, the Hayes and the Deans solidified an alliance that they believed would secure themselves and their kids the six places in the Gibborim?s paradise.

The Runaways then planned their next big move to disrupt the Rite of Thunder?a meeting where the Pride offered the Gibborim that year?s sacrificed soul. Chase nearly died during the ordeal, but Gert saved him. Upon actually facing off against their folks, Molly took out the Minorus, but fell asleep after overexerting herself. While she recovered, Alex made his big reveal?that he?d been working for his parents the whole time, manipulating his fellow Runaways to save the Wilders from the Hayes/Dean alliance that sought to kill their fellow Pride members. But, the kids got the upper hand and Molly struck a massive blow to the Pride when she crushed the ritual container that held the spirit.

At that point, the Gibborim themselves arrived and took out Alex just as the building exploded and the kids got away in their vehicle, the Leapfrog. After that, the world at-large found out the truth about the Pride and the kids got shipped off to new homes. Molly lived in an X-Corporation embassy that looked after young mutants until Gert busted her out for a reunion. The Runaways then got Old Lace and Leapfrog back and made their way in the world on their own.

The Runaways then made a new home in an old Pride lair under the La Brea Tar Pits. There, they received an unexpected guest when a version of Gert from the future?who led the Avengers in her timeline?warned them about a traitor called Victor Mancha who would act like a hero, and then follow in his father?s footsteps, becoming a despotic villain. She then died in Chase?s arms. Mancha arrived, as foretold, but instead of taking him down, present-day Gert encouraged them to give him the benefit of the doubt, as they didn?t want to judge him based on the actions of his parents. Molly then did her best fighting against a Doom bot posing as Victor?s dad, but fell asleep again during the reveal that Ultron was Victor?s actual father.

Later, Molly and the Runaways bid Karolina a fond farewell as she decided to travel through space with Xavin, a Skrull her alien parents had arranged to marry. Back on Earth, Molly and the gang agreed to help Cloak, who had been framed for nearly killing Dagger. This mission took them to New York City, but more importantly introduced Molly to Wolverine, Captain America, and Iron Man. The heroes wanted to question the priest Molly had been left with, but she defended him by punching Logan through the church doors and out into the snow.

Very soon after that adventure came to a close, the Runaways ran into the X-Men back in Los Angeles. The mutants wanted to bring Molly in and keep her safe as one of the few remaining members of her kind, but she disagreed, leading to a brief battle wherein Molly threw a car at Colossus. Soon after, while fighting a villain, Molly wound up in the sewers where the Provost of the School of Seven Bells forced her to become a member of the Artful Dodgers, a group of runaway kids who stole for him. Molly didn?t want to become a villain, so she worked out a plan with the other Dodgers to break the Provost?s control over them. She invited the others to join the Runaways, but they opted to return to their families instead.

Unbeknownst to the kids, a different group had been working on their own plan to become the New Pride. Consisting of Alex?s old video game friends who saw him as a kind of hero after discovering one of his journals, they decided to gather Pride objects and use them to bring Alex back from the past. Instead, though, they brought Alex?s dad, Geoffrey, straight out of the 1980s. After hearing what the Runaways did to his future wife and child, Geoff decided to get revenge, and trade the Gibborim an innocent soul in exchange for his family.

After being kidnapped by the New Pride, Wilder used Molly as bait to lure in the Runaways and a returned Karolina and Xavin. When his plan came to fruition, Alex killed Gert with a knife. The loss was devastating. And it was particularly hard on Molly, who had grown close to Gert because she never treated her like a kid.

The Runaways didn?t have too much time to mourn though, as Molly and her teammates joined forces with the Young Avengers during the Super Hero Civil War to take out the Warden of the Cube, a floating prison. And while the Runaways fought a giant monster, Chase found himself obsessed with striking a deal with the Gibborim to bring Gert back in exchange for an innocent soul. Around this time, Molly started hearing a disembodied voice guiding her to stop Chase?s plan. When these events all culminated in a final battle, the mystical Gibborim were sent strange white void alongside the Alex Wilder, who revealed that he?d been the voice talking to Molly.

After returning to the reality of Earth, the group?s next adventure took them back to New York City where they ran into Kingpin and the Punisher. During a brief scuffle, Molly socked Castle in the stomach so hard he almost passed out, giving them enough time to install a new component into Leapfrog, inadvertently turning it into a time machine that sent them back to the year 1907. There, they did their best to blend in with a group of super powered folks that called themselves Wonders.

Molly and Karolina then split off to find a young girl named Klara who had the super ability to make plants grow. And though Klara wasn?t exactly ready to meet these time travelers, Klara decided to join the crew as a means to escape her abusive husband, and the kids brought her back to present day.

Before returning to the West Coast, the kids hung around the Big Apple a little longer, which put them in the right place to work with the Young Avengers once again in their face-off against the Skrulls during the aliens? Secret Invasion. Despite wanting to be involved, one of the young Super Heroes dropped Molly and Klara off near Mount Rushmore to keep them out of the fray.

Upon returning to California, the kids decided to bunk out in the Steins? Malibu house. While there, they dealt with irate Majesdanians, Nico?s wonky spells, nosy neighbors, and general roommate drama that led Molly and Klara to set up a quiet fort near the beach. After Xavin took Karolina?s place and left with the Majesdanians, the group went on a camping trip. On their way back, they heard about an army of plastic surgery monsters controlled by Chase?s boss.

From there, the Runaways traveled to San Francisco in response to Scott Summers? mental broadcast that any and all mutants would be welcomed at the X-Men?s new headquarters. And while Wolverine showed Hayes around, the Runaways ran into a group of young X-Men. Instead of fighting, they made fast friends and went to a club while Logan and Molly got ambushed by a guy looking to take her out because of the sins of her parents. Throughout this ordeal, Molly was faced with the truth about how bad her parents really were, but Wolverine reminded her that no matter how bad they might?ve been, they still loved her very much.

Upon returning to Malibu, the kids came under fire when a paramilitary group followed a downed drone to their house. In the initial explosion, Old Lace valiantly sacrificed herself to save Klara. With their house ruined, the Runaways did their thing once again and took off. While Chase looked for supplies, he happened upon a girl that reminded him of Gert before getting hit by a car when following her.

Chase eventually healed up, the kids got Old Lace back with the help of the Avengers Academy students, and they ran into Daken. During this time, Molly went out on her own a few times, getting a history lesson on the mutant Decimation from Hank McCoy and even applying to nanny Luke Cage and Jessica Jones? new baby daughter.

Later, when Arcade secretly kidnapped Chase and Nico, and dropped them in his new Murderworld alongside a number of other teen heroes, Molly was the only one who thought something was wrong. She even dragged Karolina to Avengers Academy to talk to Hank Pym to get him to start digging into the mystery, though Arcade had covered his tracks incredibly well. Chase and Nico finally escaped on their own, got locked up by S.H.I.E.L.D. in the process, but were eventually freed again.

After that, the Runaways fell apart. Nico walked away from the team, Victor joined the Avengers which led to his temporary death, Klara got taken away by the state, and Molly?s grandmother came for her. After Chase and Nico managed to bring Gert out of the past and save her life from Geoffrey Wilder?s stab wound, they found Victor Mancha?s severed robot head and met up with Karolina before going to visit Molly.

As it turned out, Molly was having a pretty awesome time at middle school and loved her life there.

So, when Gert told her to pack her stuff, she simply said no. In fact, the reverse happened?Gert wound up accepting Dr. Hayes? offer to stay with her and Molly. As a geneticist and biologist, Dr. Hayes asked to run some tests on their new time traveling roommate, which Gert was fine with. However, Molly knew that her grandma had a tendency to tinker with genes to give people new powers. When Molly tipped Gert off to this, they decided to escape together, but Dr. Hayes stopped them.

At that point, Chase, Nico, Victor, and Karolina showed up to save their friends, though Molly established rules about not hurting her grandma or her cats. From there, Molly, Gert, and Nico all moved into Chase?s new Hostel. Since Molly still wanted to go to school, Nico whipped up a spell that turned them into her legal guardians, finally making their family official.