Specials

For the book, see Specials (book).

Specials
Tally Youngblood as a Special
Basic Information
Loyalty	Cities
Leader	In Tally's city, Dr. Cable
Members	Special Circumstances agents Cutters (in Tally's City)
Job	Enforcing the law, protecting the cities from external threats, and protecting nature from humanity
Status	Disbanded
Book Appearances
Appears In	Uglies Pretties Specials

“	We don't want to hurt you, but we will if we have to.	”
–Special Circumstances arrest script

History

The scientists that survived the Rusty Crash came up with the Pretty Operation, complete with lesions, to make humanity compliant, non-aggressive, and unlikely to wreck the planet again. But some people needed to remain alert so that they could run the cities and protect the Pretties. These few who kept themselves apart from the masses gradually began to have surgery to make them faster, stronger, and more cruel-looking so that they could command instant respect and obedience. These people soon came to see themselves as Special.

These Specials in every city formed organizations known as Special Circumstances to deal with all the cruel, unpredictable, or messy realities of life that Pretties aren't capable of facing. The only ones that know of the lesions that come with the Operation, they pursue runaways, guard city borders, and keep a watchful eye on humanity as a whole, making sure that they never come close to repeating Rusty mistakes.

All Specials, at least in Tally's city, were very tricky as Uglies and managed to resist the effects of the lesions. Only those people who can break out of the cage, who can prove that they are special, are offered jobs at Special Circumstances and undergo the Special operation.

Cutters

Main article: Cutters

As their name would imply, the Cutters kept their minds "icy" by cutting their arms. A few even switched to branding themselves with red-hot firebrands. Founded by Shay, the Cutters were a group of sixteen unusually lesion-resistant Pretties recruited into a new division of Special Circumstances by Dr. Cable, despite them being much younger than normal Specials at only age sixteen. She turned them into a new version of Specials created only in Tally's city. As special Specials, the Cutters felt that the rules, even the rules of Special Circumstances, didn't apply to them.

They lived mostly in the wild and even burned trees and hunted animals for food. They were allowed to have any surge they wanted, including flash tattoos covering their bodies, even if it was way beyond the Pretty Committee's standards. But the biggest demonstration of their anarchy came when Shay and Tally utterly destroyed their city's armory.

Ultimately, the Cutters were fiercely loyal only to Shay, not Dr. Cable or Special Circumstances.

Abilities

Specials go through surgery that gives them inhuman strength and speed, incredibly sharp senses, and lightning-fast reflexes. Their teeth and fingernails are replaced with diamond-hard, razor-sharp materials and their bones are replaced with ultralight, nearly-unbreakable ceramic. They have chips in their hands that can amplify vibrations, allowing them to, by merely touching its surface, listen in through walls or sense the locations of people through the ground. They are given vision so clear, nature's beauty almost hurts them to the point where they will fiercely protect it from human threats. They are given cruelly beautiful faces designed to terrify all who look at them into instant respect and obedience, often described as "wolf-like".

Specials have skintennas implanted into their spinal cords, allowing them to keep in contact with both the city interface and one another. Medical nanos are also stored in their bodies, which can heal them quickly when injured. Their bodies are designed to live in the wild, and consequently need less sleep and air than normal people. Their bodies can also filter out most poisons, demonstrated when it took several large doses of knockout gas to make Tally even drowsy.

As well as physical surgery, Specials are mentally rewired to remove compassion for non-Specials. Specials can bring harm to and even kill innocent people without regret. They see themselves as superior and can't bring themselves to care about average "Randoms", as Tally learns the hard way when she kisses a brain-damaged Zane. Suddenly becoming aware of his trembling, Tally's brain, designed to spot weaknesses and exploit them, physically rebels at the thought of being close to someone crippled. Rage and disgust blinding her, she tears away from him, harming his hands in the process. As she demonstrates, Specials are quick to anger.

Trivia

• It only takes hours for a broken bone to be healed by the nanos stored within Special bodies.
• Specials call Pretties "bubbleheads".
• Although Specials can cry tears, it's physically difficult for them to do so.