Karolina leaves with Xavin, much to Nico's distress. Unbeknownst to her, Karolina's parents arranged Xavin's and Karolina's marriage as part of a peace-weaving effort between the Skrull and Majesdanian homeworlds. Karolina's 'outcast' insecurities resurface for a short while before her Skrull fiancee Xavin comes to Earth in search of Karolina. Soon after Victor joins the team, Karolina 'comes out' to Nico with an attempted kiss, which Nico rejects outright. Karolina expresses more comfort with being an extraterrestrial and makes strong hints at being a homosexual, especially as she stops to compliment Julie Power on her beauty during a battle with Excelsior over the custody of Victor Mancha. 2, Karolina fights under the command of Nico Minoru, Alex's ex-girlfriend and de facto leader of the motley crew since Alex's demise. After the Pride's defeat, Karolina is sent to live with foster parents, but she organizes a secret reunion for the runaways, after which they run away again, this time to the Pride's old lair beneath the La Brea Tar Pits. Upon her first near-death experience at the hands of Alex Wilder, the Pride's mole within the runaways, Karolina overcomes her death wish and helps the runaways escape the rampaging Gibborim as the Pride fight their former benefactors.

Her insecurities even prompt Karolina to offer her life to the vampire, Topher, as Karolina expresses little desire to live. Karolina constantly struggles with her alien heritage in the runaways' early times together, feeling that it she is a 'freak' amongst the group, the only one who needs to actively hide her true form. The group assumes that she is an alien and the bracelet is an 'anchor' to hide her powers Leslie Dean later confirms these theories for Karolina. Karolina angrily concedes, thinking that she only wears the bracelet because she's allergic to penicillin, and her skin immediately glows with a fluid, rainbow-like light. Alex convinces her to remove her medic alert bracelet because it is emblazoned with the symbol. During the escape, Karolina discovers her parents' last will and testament they leave Karolina a piece of paper with the circular 'no symbol' covering the Rod of Asclepius, a symbol used in medical practice. She joins the children in a mass escape from their parents to take shelter in a run-down mansion hideout that comes to be called The Hostel. During their parents' annual 'fundraiser,' Karolina, along with Nico Minoru, Alex Wilder, Chase Stein, Gertrude Yorkes, and Molly Hayes discover that their parents are members of an archetypal supervillain cabal called The Pride Karolina's A-List Hollywood actor parents, Frank and Leslie Dean, are actually alien invaders.

Runaways volume one