Special

Being part of something special makes you special. (Also, having superpowers.)

—The fic's tag line

Special is a Glee/Marvel Comics crossover fanfic written by "Miggy". It follows the Glee club (minus Sam and Lauren) as they discover that they have superpowers, and all the problems that result. It takes place immediately after the end of season 2. While it's primarily Kurt-centric, it has focused on many other characters. Incredibly dark, and absolutely brilliant. Special has concluded, and a sequel, Death and All His Friends, is currently being written.

It can be read here.

Tropes used in Special include:

• Abusive Parents: At one point in a flashback, Puck asks Kurt if his father, Luke, hits him. Kurt indignantly says no, and Puck asks if his father's mean to him. Kurt says no, but Puck just responds 'But you had to think about it, didn't you?' and Kurt has no response.
  • • It gets revealed in a later chapter that his father didn't really care for him because he was gay and despite making a valiant effort to include him, he favoured Finn in all things and pretty much ripped Kurt's heart up.
  • Santana's parents didn't want her and while they pride themselves that she'll always have somewhere to sleep and they took after her, they didn't feel anything for her and plan on turfing her out once she's 18.
• Adult Fear: Kurt runs off after a particularly bad revelation, the entire club go out to fight bad guys, a creature of unknown purpose and morals is in possession of Beth...
  • Later Beth is found left in a machine designed to drain her energy and eventually kill her.
• An Ice Person: Quinn
• Badass: Sue. As always.
• Badass Normal: What Sam wants to be.
• Bad Powers, Good People: Word of God says that Tina got her particular powers to go with her goth look.
• Barrier Warrior: Mercedes
• Bi the Way: Puck.
• Code Name: All of the club pick one.
• Combo-Platter Powers: Kurt's basically enable him to be a ninja.
• Darker and Edgier: Oh, boy.
• Enemy Within: Finn.
• Fail O'Suckyname: The group don't think up a name for their team, so when they're asked, Finn comes up with 'The Awesomes'. Nobody thinks it's good.
• Flight: Mike
• Freak Lab Accident: Involving the club and the Cosmic Cube.
• Freak-Out: As their memories come back, more and more of the club get these.
• Frickin' Laser Beams: Mercedes manages to manifest them when under stress.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Artie
• Holy Shit Quotient: Chapter 23. Enough said.
• How We Got Here: Around 16 chapters involve the club slowly discovering the events that led up to the current situation.
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Inverted by Blaine and Lauren.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Sue is just as bitchy as usual, but she's totally right that the club should not go running off to save the day every time something happens.
  • Rachel and Finn were totally right to refuse to allow Sam to join the Awesomes- without powers, he'd have a snowflake's chance in hell of protecting himself, and even with powers, the club's nearly gotten themselves killed a few times.
• Killed Off for Real: Jacob Ben Israel, Shelby, Sue and Finn. Finn gets better, though.
• Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex: Puck and Lauren. They find a way around it.
  • Puck and Kurt after they got superpowers in New York.
• Mass Super-Empowering Event
• The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Puck and Kurt, Tina and Mike, Rachel and Finn... all of them had their memories altered so they'd stay away from each other (Puck bullied Kurt, Tina dated Artie, Finn dated Quinn) but it didn't completely work (Tina and Mike and Rachel and Finn started dating again). Played straight for Kurt and Puck though.
• Moral Dilemma: Rachel and Finn have one when Sam asks to join the team. On the one hand, it's his dream and it'd be unfair of them to deny him it. On the other hand, he's defenceless and would probably just be a liability, especially given the fact that they're playing for keeps against monsters who won't hesitate to kill them. They refuse him. He doesn't take it well.
• Mind Rape: Everyone in the club (minus Sam and Lauren) had their memories altered and in some cases, their personalities altered. They don't take it well.
  • When Kurt freaks out over finding out that he dated and slept with Puck, Finn does something to his mind so he still remembers the memories but there's no emotion attached to them.
• Odd Friendship:
  • Quinn and Artie.
  • In the epilogue we get Brittany, Squirrel Girl, and Deadpool.
• Oh Crap: Frequently.
• Personality Powers
  • Mike and Puck get super speed and strength, respectively. Great for jocks.
  • Finn, as captain of the club, gets telepathy.
  • Rachel can sing golden, exploding notes.
  • Tina's dark powers match her goth personality.
  • Quinn gets Ice powers.
  • Santana gets Fire powers.
  • Brittany is a Reality warper.
  • Artie is a Gadgeteer Genius.
• Power Incontinence: The Awesomes have one major problem: their powers aren't stable and they don't have full control over them. This has led to some real fuck-ups in battles- in the Columbus fight, Santana and Quinn couldn't turn their powers on, and while Mercedes can turn on her force attack, she can't turn it off.
• Psychic Nosebleed: Kurt gets one from focusing on an illusion.
• Psychic Powers: Finn
• Playing with Fire/ Wreathed in Flames: Santana
• Reality Warper: Brittany has chaos power, which allow her to do...pretty much anything; though usually by accident.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Puck gives an epic one to Kurt's biological dad in New York.
• Retirony: Sue smugly thinks to herself that she'll be able to retire with all her limbs intact. In the same chapter, she puts her arm through an unstable portal and ends up having to ask Kurt to cut it off, and in the next chapter she dies.
• The Reveal: Too many to state them all.
• Sonic Scream: Rachel
• Super Strength/ Super Speed/ Super Toughness: Puck. (And Mike, but only the speed.)
• Tomato Surprise: Some of the revelations in this fic make the Glee verse make a lot more sense.
• Wham! Line: "Weren't you listening? You already knew not to believe Shelby when she played dead."