Runaways: Teenage Wasteland, by Brian K. Vaughan

In hiding from their parents and trying to live on their own, the runaways come out of their hiding place to find some food. They see a convenience store robbery in progress and decide to use their powers for good and stop it. They run into Topher, a young man their own age who says his parents forced him to rob the store-- since he's in the same boat they are, they take him back with them. Later, the super-duo Cloak and Dagger, themselves once runaways, come to L.A. to try to find the kids, who they think are murderers and kidnappers.

The Runaways are adapting to their new powers and new understanding of the world & their parents. The introduction of Topher causes all kinds of problems-- social friction between the different girls who think he's cute, but even worse conflict when they discover he's actually a vampire. He's over a century old, and he can handle Gert's velociraptor without losing his breath. They eventually defeat him, although almost by accident. The alien, Karolina, draws her power from the sun-- so when he bites her, she tastes like sunshine and it burns through him and destroys him. (Hmm, reminds me in a small way of Robin McKinley's title character Sunshine.)

The Runaways also have a run-in with Cloak & Dagger, a super-duo from back east (Alex calls them "B-list," which kind of offends them, but I don't think I've heard of them before). An enterprising L.A. policeman called them in, thinking-- who better to find super-powered runaways than one-time runaways and orphans who are now practicing superheroes? (His bright idea later gets him into pretty severe trouble with the Runaways parents, the Pride). The kids are pretty much beaten and captured by Cloak and Dagger, but the duo quickly realize the kids are innocent, and promise they'll send help to take care of the Pride.

Title:	Runaways Volume 2: Teenage Wasteland
Author:	Brian K. Vaughan
Date published:	2004
Genre:	Young Adult Graphic Novel
Series:	Runaways
Number of pages:	144