Line #111 Main/SecretProjectRefugeeFamily


1	You and your fellow {{Artificial Human}}s[=/=]kidnap victims[=/=][[GuineaPigFamily siblings]] have just [[EscapedFromTheLab escaped from]] the lab you all [[RaisedInALab grew up]]/[[PlayingWithSyringes were experimented on]] in? Where the heck do you go now? Chances are slim that any of you still have a family in the normal world. If that wasn't bad enough, not many people will want to put up with [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer freaks like you]].
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3	So what do you do? Adopt each other as a family! Because, let's face it, you more or less have nobody else (unless you got lucky and got [[MotherlyScientist one of the project scientists]] to take care of you, but without nasty experiments this time).
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5	A BreakfastClub and often a FamilyOfChoice, expect one to be [[PromotionToParent (self)-promoted to the role of parent]]. Commonly the Secret Project Refugee Family will become {{Phlebotinum Rebel}}s as they either try to elude or take revenge on their creators... and [[PsychoPrototype elder siblings]]. Or hey, they're just one EvilOverlord recruitment away from becoming a QuirkyMinibossSquad. Not to be confused with GuineaPigFamily.
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7	Alternatively, in more mundane settings without {{mutants}} and {{mad scientist}}s, the "family" will instead be made up of the [[CrazyHomelessPeople homeless]], the [[DisposableVagrant destitute]], [[IJustWantToHaveFriends the lonely]], [[ParentalAbandonment the abandoned]] and [[TheMadHatter the crazy]]. Essentially, everyone who gets 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 [[BystanderSyndrome ignore everyone else's]].
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9	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 [[TrueCompanions trust one another]] as if [[SuperFamilyTeam they were real family]], possibly even more than their real relatives (if they still have any); disproving that blood is ThickerThanWater.
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11	Expect to hear lengthy discourse on [[WishFulfillment getting what you want]], [[InherentInTheSystem the flaws of society]], and the meaning/purpose of love and family, depending on how seriously the medium treats these issues.
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13	----
14	!!Examples:
15	[[foldercontrol]]
16
17	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
18	* The heroes of the ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' franchise tend to collect artificially created or illegally-experimented-on people and adopt them into one of several overlapping "families". These include roughly half of the "Numbers" combat cyborgs in ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers''; Fate and Erio are both from the same cloning project; Signum, Shamal, Vita, and Zafira were all programmed murder machines until recently; Subaru and Ginga are precursors to the aforementioned Numbers; Agito only remembers back to her time spent in an unethical lab, [[TheyWouldCutYouUp being tested to death;]] and Vivio is a clone bioweapon. So far, that's no fewer than 18 project refugees all living in one big extended family.
19	* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'':
20	** Allelujah and the [[spoiler:Human Reform League supersoldier test subjects]] are implied to have tried to be this. Their very short-lived attempt doesn't work out very well.
21	** From the second season on, Celestial Being seems to have become this. It's explicitly stated that Feldt, at least, considers the group her family, but then she was literally born and raised in Celestial Being (her parents were both Gundam Meisters who died before CB went public).
22	* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'':
23	** The Homunculi are a mixed bag. Lust showed affection for Gluttony like one would for a "pet" and he was likewise fond of her, and Wrath looked upon Sloth as a mother-figure. However, Greed had severed all ties, Pride was more of a boss, and Sloth was an assistant. In the manga, the other homonculi are outright terrified of Pride, and Sloth is really just a slave. The entity they call "father" seems to be called as such more out of fear than affection.
24	** Gluttony is so upset by [[spoiler:Lust's death]] that he goes AxCrazy when he realizes he's in the same room with her killer. On the flip side, Pride thinks nothing of [[spoiler:''devouring'' Gluttony]] when it's convenient for him.
25	** In ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'', Wrath and Sloth's relationship fits this as noted above. Likewise, Gluttony seems to show this in the 2003 anime, in which he is visibly distressed about the knowledge that [[spoiler:Lust has died. He shuts down, to the point where Dante has to remove his mind so he will finalize the Philosopher's Stone that Alphonse's body has become.]] He is so distressed that ''[[BeyondTheImpossible Gluttony loses his appetite!]]''
26	** Of course, Greed didn't just abandon the rest for nothing. He built his own family, made out of chimeric runaways from secret labs. He tried to play it off as just his titular greed, but he really did care about them all.
27	%%* The Schiff in ''Anime/BloodPlus''.
28	* The cyborg characters in ''Manga/{{Cyborg 009}}'' were nine humans kidnapped an d experimented on by the Black Ghost organization. After they escaped, they became a family of sorts, together with Dr. Isaac Gilmore.
29	* It could be argued that this applies to the Soul Society in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''. They're not artificial, but they pretty much have no way to find actual relatives [[spoiler:except for Rukia's sister]], so end up adopting each other as families.
30	** This is actually stated by Yuichi when he talks to Chad upon Ichigo and his group arriving in the Soul Society.
31	*** As stated by many fans of Manga/{{Bleach}}: Worst...afterlife...EVER!
32	* Part of the premise of ''Literature/KyouranKazokuNikki''. A group of seven (later eight) people, most of them harboring the DNA of a creature that promised to destroy the world and [[DysfunctionJunction all of them]] from a [[DarkAndTroubledPast dark past]], live together under "Operation Cozy Family" to prevent the world from blowing up. Family members include a robot, a {{catgirl}}, a lion, a jellyfish and [[TokenMiniMoe a girl with demon blood]].
33	* The cast of ''Anime/ReadOrDie'' becomes this by the end of the series: the Paper Sisters, Yomiko, Nancy and Junior. With Nenene as the "normal" one. (Don't ever call her that.)
34	* The teens of ''Manga/ProjectARMS'' end up as one as they are being hunted by Egrgori. Playing this trope even ''more'' straight, they all turn out to be specially bred to have ARMS implanted in them, [[RetCon directly going against the already established backstory]].
35	* The Gravity Children of ''Manga/AirGear'' fit this trope nicely. Particularly [[spoiler:the four "sisters" that live with Ikki when the story begins]]
36	%%* Holland's crew in the ''Anime/EurekaSeven'' movie.
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Comic Books]]
40	%%* John Byrne's ''ComicBook/NextMen'' comic.
41	* The titular ''ComicBook/LabRats'' try to be this but their attempts to leave the campus never really work out and they all end up killed by Quinlan's plots.
42	* ''ComicBook/Gen13'': The kids are all escapees from a secret government program. [[GeodesicCast Mirrored]] by ComicBook/{{DV8}} and the Mongolian Barbeque Horde.
43	%%* The Morlocks from ''ComicBook/XMen''.
44	%%* The Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles and [[TeenageMutantSamuraiWombats various imitations]].
45	* The cast of ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' sort of fits this trope. After running away from their evil parents and not being satisfied with the foster care system, they adopted each other as a family.
46	%%* ''ComicBook/{{Nocturnals}}''. Some are refugees from secret projects. Others are supernatural entities. All of them have nowhere else to go.
47	%%* A particularly unusual (and nonhuman) example: ''ComicBook/We3''.
48	%%* ''ComicBook/ScareTacticsDCComics''.
49	* ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'':
50	** The 1996 Titans were half-human, half-alien sleeper agents that instead banded together to fight the aliens. They then stayed together, with a deaged Atom as their mentor. Other DCU characters would join them over the course of the series.
51	** ''ComicBook/TeenTitansEarthOne'' has the Titans consist mostly of this trope, each member of the team (except Raven) having gained their powers from "Project Titan" before escaping.
52	** Spinning off from their Titans title, the ComicBook/New52 label has ''ComicBook/TheRavagers''; metahumans who got abducted for an experiment that turned out to be cover for a metahuman-hating terrorist from the future who wanted to make them ChildSoldiers, before they got sick of that and set out on their own.
53	%%* Cloud, Seraph and Harridan initally appeared as this in ''ComicBook/TheDefenders''; being on the run from the Secret Empire. Cloud would later join the Defenders.
54	* ''ComicBook/InfinityInc'' had recurring antagonists Helix; an evil geneticist had mutated them in the womb, kidnapped them at birth, and then raised them in isolation. When he died, they took stock of their options and decided on crime.
55	* ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'' sets this trope up at the beginning with Secret leading them on an attack to free the others imprisoned in the facility she escaped from and which ComicBook/{{Robin}}, ComicBook/{{Impulse}} and ComicBook/{{Superboy}} had helped her avoid recapture by. Then it is ''subverted'' when the metahumans they freed are [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome never seen again]] even when the team teams up with nearly every metahuman teen and kid in the DCU at the time to attack Zandia.
56	* ''ComicBook/Superboy1994'': The second Newsboy Legion are clones of the originals plus a clone of another Cadmus scientist and Guardian's great-niece who hang out together at all times, regularly escape from Cadmus and don't fully trust anyone outside of their group. Understandable, since they'd originally been made to be used as spare parts.
57	* ''ComicBook/CloakAndDaggerMarvelComics'': Cloak and Dagger were runaways kidnapped off the street and used by a crime syndicate to test new drugs. They escaped, learned they'd developed new powers, and now they're almost inseparable.
58	* In ''ComicBook/WackyRaceland'', the racers get their technology from "The Butcher Shop", and one or two of them were actually created there. Although constantly in competition, they are the closest thing to family that any of them have [[spoiler:and are still together in the last issue when the Butcher Shop is destroyed]].
59	[[/folder]]
60
61	[[folder:FanWorks]]
62	%%* The title group in the ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Hakumei}}''.
63	* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''Fanfic/FreedomThroughHarmony''. After being trained and used as human weapons by Celestia, Twilight and Phil stuck together.
64	* In the Renegade timeline of ''Fanfic/WithThisRing'', Superboy is able to rescue Match from his pod ''without'' Match going crazy, and considers him to be a brother. They do eventually [[spoiler:get adopted by Wonder Woman]], though.
65	* In the ''ComicBook/BatmanHolyTerror'' sequel ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/582741/chapters/1046531 Picking Up the Pieces]]'', Wayne Manor has become a refuge for the survivors of Erdel's metahuman experiments, including this {{Elseworld}}'s counterparts to ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}, Aqualad, ComicBook/{{Azrael}} and ComicBook/{{Superboy}}.
66	[[/folder]]
67	%%
68	%%[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
69	%%* The gang of runaway robots in ''Film/AIArtificialIntelligence''.
70	%%* The three precogs at the end of ''Film/MinorityReport''.
71	%%* The replicants in ''Film/BladeRunner''.
72	%%* A case could be made for the surviving members of ''Film/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'', in the film at least.
73	%%[[/folder]]
74
75	[[folder:Literature]]
76	%%* The mutants who live in the fringes in ''Literature/TheChrysalids'' seem to adopt each other as a sort of 'tribe'/family.
77	* ''Literature/{{Gypsies}}'', by Creator/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…
78	* The Audubon Ballroom from David Weber/Eric Flint, in the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' series, who are less of a family and more of a guerrilla army of escaped Mesan slaves. It does help that their organisation is pretty big and has powerful allies.
79	* The Flock in James Patterson's ''Literature/MaximumRide'' series. "The School" genetically engineered them to be {{Winged Humanoid}}s, they escaped, they formed a family.
80	* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': The clone commandos who desert in the ''Literature/RepublicCommandoSeries'', though the Grand Army is far from secret by that time.
81	* Connor, Risa and Lev in Neal Shusterman's ''Literature/{{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.
82	* Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'':
83	** The Durona sisters are ''clones'' of their progenitor Lilly Durona, and are escapees from one of Jackson's Whole robber barons.
84	** ''Ethan of Athos'' has Terrance Cee, whose history is a pointed example of why these often don't work in real life (i.e., they make you easier to find).
85	[[/folder]]
86
87	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
88	%%* ''Series/BabylonFive'': Telepaths who were not in Psicorps attempted to run away. Some were more successful than others.
89	* ''Series/DarkAngel'':
90	** It's consciously averted in the first season of, as the escaping X-5s decide to split up to avoid capture. However, Max acquires one of these in the second season with Alec and Joshua and later a whole city of transgenics.
91	** It's also played straight in the second episode of the second season with a squad of younger transgenics who stayed together (giving Max a chance to play MamaBear).
92	%%* Kyle and Jessi from ''Series/{{Kyle XY}}'', initially.
93	%%* In later seasons of ''Series/ThePretender'', Jarod was joined at various points by a young fellow escapee and his own father, a former Centre employee.
94	* The LEDA clones in ''Series/OrphanBlack'' call themselves Sestras (Russian for "sisters"). Well, except for [[EvilTwin Rachel]].
95	[[/folder]]
96
97	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
98	* The TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness seems to be populated by a wide variety of these.
99	** A typical throng of ''TabletopGame/PrometheanTheCreated'' characters -- not exactly lab projects most of the time, but often abandoned by their creators, spurned by humanity, and seeking someone for tea and sympathy.
100	** This is also how a motley or Freehold of [[TabletopGame/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 Abomination}}s, 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 ''[[KillAndReplace thing]]'' with your face in your place, and at worst found that [[NarniaTime 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....
101	** And in ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'', one of the playable factions is the Merrick Institute. Runaways from a now-defunct government project , they decided to use their new DreamWalker powers to fight astral monsters.
102	** For another TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness example, ''TabletopGame/DeviantTheRenegades'' deals with people who were changed by scientific experiments (or, in some cases, occult rituals) who are on the run from the people who made them, trying to gather the power to strike back.
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	[[folder:Video Games]]
106	* Though it doesn't come up much in the series, the Bandicoot family in ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' are basically this (namely Crash and Coco, and later on Crunch), since they were all created by a MadScientist (i.e. Dr. Cortex) to be his footsoldiers for world domination only to turn against him and thwart his evil plans time and time again.
107	%%* This is the backstory for Kadaj and his gang in ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren''.
108	* ''Franchise/TheKingOfFighters'':
109	** Starting from ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters2003'', this fits Team K' after the fall of NESTS fairly well with K', his HeterosexualLifePartner Maxima, and [[LikeBrotherAndSister sister figure]] Kula (who treats Maxima like her CoolUncle). Whip, who alternates between Team K' and the Ikari Warriors depending on the game she's in, factors in as K's [[spoiler:biological]] sister.
110	** ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXV'' introduces another one in Team Krohnen - following a falling out with Team K', Kula joins up with two other NESTS refugees - Ángel, whose pre-existing bad blood with Kula causes them to squabble akin to siblings, and Krohnen, who ends up exasperatedly having to play the role of the TeamDad.
111	* Strega from ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'': They aren't actually artificial humans, but they were the only survivors of a secret project to create Persona-summoners out of humans who weren't born with the talent..... too bad they ended up with something a bit closer to Team Rocket instead.
112	* ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock\|1}}'': Little Sisters were created with bodies made to generate ADAM, though the value of ADAM makes them targets. [[spoiler:In the good ending, protagonist Jack rescues the Little Sisters, turning them into normal girls, and lives happily with them after escaping Rapture.]]
113	* ''VideoGame/{{SUGURI}}'' has the Shifu Brands, i.e. the game's stage bosses, all pull a HeelFaceTurn and settle down on Earth after the defeat of their boss [[BigBad Shifu]], who [[RestrainingBolt bound them to follow his orders]] when modifying them into {{supersoldier}}s.
114	* The Cybran Nation of ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'' began as this, complete with the mad scientist/genius (Dr. Gustaf Brackman) responsible for creating them as their father figure - and said father figure is still alive and kicking one thousand years later. Although really now, they're more of a Obvious Project Refugee Country now.
115	** Albeit Brackman has been reduced to a brain + spinal column + cybernetic enhancements inside a vat of unknown liquid. He can only communicate with others through a life-sized 3D hologram of himself.
116	%%* The Black Mage Village from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX''.
117	%%* Pretty much the whole premise of ''VisualNovel/FamilyProject''.
118	* Hermana Larmo in ''VideoGame/TalesOfInnocence'' runs a secret school to harbor "Gifted" children that would otherwise be captured and researched by the government.
119	* ''Franchise/TouhouProject'':
120	** Eientei: Eirin and Kaguya, two Lunarian immortals on the run from the crime they committed against fellow Lunarians; Reisen, a Lunar Rabbit defector; Tewi, an Earth rabbit who host them; and later Medicine, a venomous doll that Eirin took as apprentice.
121	** Byakuren, rejected by humankind, gathers quite a band of {{Youkai}} followers that look up at her.
122	[[/folder]]
123
124	[[folder:Webcomics]]
125	* The Renegades in ''Webcomic/ElfBlood'' somewhat qualify, with Ixnay acting as a kind of den mother. Only TKO and JN were ever experimented upon, however, and the only real family within the group are the Whittle sisters.
126	* Grace and her "brothers" from ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' form one, at least after Damien is killed having been freed from having to live in the remains of the lab where they were created. Of the four of them, only Grace and Vladia are actually blood siblings.
127	[[/folder]]
128
129	[[folder:Web Original]]
130	* The Lambsbridge Gang in ''Literature/{{Twig}}'' is this without the running away part, instead being employed by Radham Academy as problem solvers. While they act as a family unit, the Academy has different means of maintaining control of all of them, so that the Lambs ''can't'' all run away together due to differing priorities. [[spoiler:When Sylvester eventually ''does'' decide ScrewThisImOuttaHere and deserts the Academy, only Jamie chooses to join him in running away, since all the others need the Academy more than they need to be free.]]
131	* ''Website/SCPFoundation'', [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2085 SCP-2085 ("The Black Rabbit Company")]]. After they EscapedFromTheLab, the {{Cat Girl}}s that make up most of SCP-2085 decided to stick together and form a mercenary group called The Black Rabbit Company.
132	[[/folder]]
133
134	[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
135	* Double Subversion: ''WesternAnimation/BionicSix''. They were a blended family brought together when the parents adopted an Asian son and a black son. Then they were turned bionic to save their lives, after which point they were pressed into service for the government. So they were willing, given that they owed the government their lives, [[JumpedAtTheCall and the teen members got a kick out of being superheroes]].
136	%%* The animals from ''WesternAnimation/IAmNotAnAnimal''.
137	* The Mutates from ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' [[spoiler:except Fang after his FaceHeelTurn -- or, perhaps, after Maggie, Claw, and Talon's HeelFaceTurn, depending on one's point of view. Its complicated.]] Later, most of the Gargoyle clones join them.
138	* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' features two approximate examples. The Joker's Royal Flush Gang from "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E21And22WildCards Wild Cards]]" is a group of metahuman teens (modelled on the powers of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Teen Titans\|2003}}'' and using the same voice actors from that show) who the Joker has liberated from the government's Project Cadmus and trained in supervillainy. The Ultimen from "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS1E9Ultimatum Ultimatum]]" (who are in turn a pastiche of the Wonder Twins and the EthnicScrappy characters from ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'') are a borderline case, since they technically never quite succeed in escaping the secret project.
139	* One ''WesternAnimation/QuackPack'' episode has a regular ordinary family, a dad, wife, and a girl. And they're secretly armed robots hiding from the military.
140	* In ''WesternAnimation/StaticShock,'' She-Bang is a test tube baby engineered to have super powers, and her "parents" are actually the [[MotherlyScientist motherly and fatherly scientists]] who liberated her from her makers so she wouldn't be used as a weapon.
141	[[/folder]]

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