History Main / SecretProjectRefugeeFamily

* A typical throng of [[WorldOfDarkness Prometheans]] -- not exactly lab projects most of the time, but often abandoned by their creators, spurned by humanity, and seeking someone for tea and sympathy.

*** He is so distressed that ''Gluttony loses his appetite!''

* The Mutates from ''{{Gargoyles}}'' [[spoiler: except Fang after his FaceHeelTurn-- or, perhaps, after Maggie, Claw, and Talon's HeelFaceTurn, depending on one's point of view. [[XanatosGambit It's complicated.]]]] Later, most of the Gargoyle clones join them.

* The Black Mage Village from ''FinalFantasyIX''.

* Hermana Larmo in ''TalesOfInnocence'' runs a secret school to harbor "Gifted" children that would otherwise be captured and researched by the government.
* ''{{Touhou}}'':

* The Mutates from ''{{Gargoyles}''} [[spoiler: except Fang after his FaceHeelTurn-- or, perhaps, after Maggie, Claw, and Talon's HeelFaceTurn, depending on one's point of view. [[XanatosGambit It's complicated.]]]] Later, most of the Gargoyle clones join them.

* The TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles. And [[SecretMutantHeroTeam various imitations]].

* This is also how a motley or Freehold of [[ChangelingTheLost Changelings]] can tend to look in ''Changeling: the Lost''. They can afford to be a little pickier than the poor Prometheans, but honestly, when you've been kidnapped by beautiful and terrible Eldritch Abominations, tortured into a more pleasing (and utterly ''not'' human) form to suit their whims, survived this process, escaped back to Earth, and then found at ''best'' some ''Thing'' with your face in your place, and at worse found that Time has screwed you over quite severely in the bargain... well, as the book says, Changeling society tends to be pretty dang forgiving of its members' little.. ''quirks''. Oh, and of course, we have the Summer, and to a lesser extent, Autumn Courts....

* Another (and more warlike) example is Audubon Ballroom from David Weber/Eric Flint, in the [[HonorHarrington Honorverse]], who are less of a family and more of a guerilla army of escaped Mesan slaves. It does help that their organisation is pretty big and have powerful allies.

Alternatively, in more mundane settings without {{mutants}} and {{mad scientist}}s, the "family" will instead be made up of the [[CrazyHomelessPeople homeless]], the destitute, [[IJustWantToHaveFriends the lonely]], [[ParentalAbandonment the abandoned]] and [[TheMadHatter the crazy]]. Essentially, everyone who gets [[AcceptableHardLuckTargets left behind]] by society, regardless if it is [[SocietyIsToBlame the fault of society itself]], or their own. As in the "secret project" variety, the group of strangers or acquaintances will be [[BreakfastClub brought together by the collective suckiness of their lives]], and the advantages of pooling resources to ensure their survival. But unlike the "secret project" variety, members of the group will likely address their personal problems, while trying to [[SomebodyElsesProblem ignore everyone else's]].

Most of the initial conflict will arise from extremely volatile personality clashes, dealing with the [[DysfunctionJunction collective angst the group has accumulated]], attempts to cross the line between stranger and family, or outside forces threatening to disrupt or even dissolve their group. In most cases, the group will eventually come to [[{{Nakama}} trust one another as if they were real family]], possibly even more than their real relatives (if they still have any); disproving that blood is [[ThickerthanWater thicker than water]].

* The Mutates from {{Gargoyles}} [[spoiler: except Fang after his FaceHeelTurn-- or, perhaps, after Maggie, Claw, and Talon's HeelFaceTurn, depending on one's point of view. [[XanatosGambit It's complicated.]]]] Later, most of the Gargoyle clones join them.
* JusticeLeague features two approximate examples. The Joker's Royal Flush Gang was a group of metahuman teens (modelled on the powers of the TeenTitans and using the same voice actors from that show) which the Joker had liberated from the government's Project Cadmus and trained in supervillainy. The Ultimen (who were in turn a pastiche of the EthnicScrappy characters from {{Superfriends}} (and the Wonder Twins) are a borderline case, since technically they never quite succeeded in escaping the secret project.
* QuackPack has a regular ordinary family, a dad, wife, and a girl. And they're secretly armed robots hiding from military.

* The Black Mage Village from ''FinalFantasy IX''.

* Connor, Risa and Lev in Neal Shusterman's ''Unwind'', though what they are running away from is not a secret. They are running away from being "unwound", or having every body part taken away from them.

* The Gravity Children of AirGear fit this trope nicely. Particularily [[spoiler: the four "sisters" that live with Ikki when the story begins]]

Expect to hear lengthy discourse on [[WishFulfillment getting what you want]], [[InherentInTheSystem the flaws of society]], and the meaning of love and family.

Most of the initial conflict will arise from extremely volatile personality clashes, dealing with the [[DysfunctionJunction collective angst the group has accumulated]], attempts to cross the line between stranger and family, or outside forces threatening to disrupt or even dissolve their group. In most cases, the group will eventually come to [[Nakama trust one another as if they were real family]], possibly even more than their real relatives (if they still have any); disproving that blood is {{ThickerthanWater}}.

* <i>Gypsies</i>, by RobertCharlesWilson, is about the children and grandchildren of two world walkers who wandered into our world decades ago. The original married couple never told their kids where they were from, and punished them for the use of their powers. But the grandson of the first generation is starting to display his powers, and the last world walker from a really, really nasty dystopia has finally found them…

So what do you do? Adopt each other as a family! Because, let's face it, you more or less have nobody else.

* Gypsies, by RobertCharlesWilson, is about the children and grandchildren of two world walkers who wandered into our world decades ago. The original married couple never told their kids where they were from, and punished them for the use of their powers. But the grandson of the first generation is starting to display his powers, and the last world walker from a really, really nasty dystopia has finally found them…

* The Durona sisters in LoisMcMasterBujold ''Vorkosigan'' series are ''clones'' of their progenitor Lilly Durona, and are escapees from one of Jackson's Whole robber barons.

* QuackPack has a regular ordinary family, a dad, wife, and a girl. And their secretly armed robots hiding from military.

*** He is so distressed that ''Gluttony looses his appetite!''