History Main / SecretProjectRefugeeFamily

%%* The title group in the Manga/{{Naruto}} fanfic FanFic/{{Hakumei}}.

* 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}}.

** 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 [[EldritchAbomination Eltritch 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 ''[[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....

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'':

%%* The clones in ''Series/OrphanBlack'' (well, except for [[AxeCrazy Helena]] and [[EvilTwin Rachel]]).

* ''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.

You and your fellow {{Artificial Human}}s[=/=]kidnap victims[=/=][[GuineaPigFamily siblings]] have just [[EscapedFromTheLab escaped from]] the [[PlayingWithSyringes lab you all grew up in/were experimented on]]? 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]].

* ''ComicBook/{{Gen 13}}'': The kids are all escapees from a secret government program. [[GeodesicCast Mirrored by]] [[ThePsychoRangers DV8]] and the Mongolian Barbeque Horde.
%%* The Morlocks from ComicBook/XMen.
%%* The Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles. And [[TeenageMutantSamuraiWombats various imitations]].
* 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.

%%* A particularly unusual (and nonhuman) example: ''ComicBook/{{We3}}''.

** Spinning off from their Titans title, the ComicBook/New52 label had 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.

* ''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/RobinSeries 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.
* The second Newsboy Legion (the ones that helped ComicBook/{{Superboy|1994}} escape) were clones of the originals plus a clone of another Cadmus scientist and Guardian's great-niece who hung out together at all times, regularly escaped from Cadmus and didn't fully trust anyone outside of their group. Understandable since they'd originally been made to be used as spare parts.
* ComicBook/CloakAndDagger 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.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' features two approximate examples. ComicBook/TheJoker's Royal Flush Gang was a group of metahuman teens (modelled on the powers of the ''WesternAnimation/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 ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' (and the Wonder Twins) are a borderline case, since technically they never quite succeeded in escaping the secret project.

* Part of the premise of ''LightNovel/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]].

** In [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist the 2003 anime version]], 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!]]''

%%* ''ComicBook/ScareTactics''.

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 [[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 [[BystanderSyndrome ignore everyone else's]].

* This fits Team K' in ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' games 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.

* ''Wiki/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.

* 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.

%%* The cyborg characters in ''Manga/{{Cyborg 009}}''.
* 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.

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

* 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]].

%%* [[spoiler: Jack, the Little Sisters, and presumably Tenenbaum]] in the good ending of ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock|1}}''.

* 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.

** For another TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness example, the upcoming ''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.

* This fits Team K' in ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' games fairly well with K', his HeterosexualLifePartner Maxima, and [[LikeBrotherAndSister sister figure]] Kula (who treats Maxima like her CoolUncle). Whip, who CommutesOnABus between Team K' and the Ikari Warriors, factors in as K's [[spoiler:biological]] sister.

* This fits Team K' in ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' games fairly well. Well, after they switch Whip out for Kula, anyways.
** Actually, Whip sort of commutes between them and Heidern's Ikari squad. She's K's [[spoiler:biological]] sister, after all.

** ''Literature/EthanOfAthos'' has Terrance Cee, whose history is a pointed example of why these often don't work in real life (ie, they make you easier to find).