{"sf1_id":985620,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Howler's Discovery","author":"Palantean Writer","words":1573,"posted_at":"2016-04-13T20:27:00.000Z","tags":["Female","Leopard seal","Male","Ocean","Strangulation","Wolf","fish","sea","stink","superhero","supervillain"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/985620-howler-s-discovery","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/985620","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=985620\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"A short freebie I wrote for wolfrider of FurAffinity.\nHowler has gone undercover to catch Tsunami red-handed, in the act of illegally stopping a whaling fleet. It's a sour assignment for him - he doesn't want to see whalers getting away with it either, legal or not. Perhaps it's this that leads him to sabotage his own mission.\nHowler and Tsunami both belong to wolfrider\nStory written by me","content":"Joshua worked hard to keep his expression calm and his muzzle smooth\nas he stepped onto the dinghy. His military training helped with the\nfeigned confidence but he knew this trip carried a certain risk of his\nbeing discovered. The wolf was in plain clothes for this assignment,\nwhich was fine: his instructions were not to fight, they were to watch\nand listen, and report on the group with pictures and sound bytes. So\nlong as he kept a low profile, his target wouldn't realise who he was.\nTo her, he was just 'Mike'.\nTsunami, however, had turned up in her full supervillain gear. That\nwasn't a surprise - she'd have more of an impact on the whalers that\nway.\nStrewth, she stank! She smelled almost of fish, but not quite.\nJosh didn't want to think about it, but when he did, he figured it was a\ncross between fish-smell and musk. The kind that got right into the\nback of his sinuses and probably wouldn't go away for days, no matter\nhow much fresh sea air he breathed in, full of base notes and much too\nbody-odourish for his tastes.\nJoshua realised that his muzzle was starting to wrinkle again, and he\nrelaxed the muscles of his cheeks. He couldn't be seen to react too\nhard to Tsunami's fishy stench. No, he was here because of his ability\nto record the events without bringing any kit. His hypersensitivity to\nsmell was inconvenient, but if he hadn't thought he could handle this he\nshouldn't have accepted the job in the first place.\n\"Ready?\" Tsunami boomed, posing at what passed for the dinghy's helm,\nevery inch the proud captain, her long hair waving in the wind.\nThe ostrich responsible for loading on supplies finally stepped on board and nodded.\n\"Then cast away!\"\nThe tall bird obeyed amid whoops and cheers from the assembled direct activists, and they were off!\nJoshua found a spot at the edge of the dinghy where he could get\nblasted by a constant supply of fresh air and look away if he had to\nscrew up his muzzle again. He took his mind off the whiff of fishy musk\nby rehearsing in his mind how he was going to behave when they met the\nwhalers. He didn't like whaling any more than Tsunami did. But to bring\ndown this group of activists in the act of stopping the whalers was his\nlatest job, he had to remember that.\n\n xXxTsunami settled down in the middle of the boat, aware of the\nimportance of her position and its effect on her team. Most kept in\nclose contact with her: while not getting too close (out of fear of her\nand also to keep away from the worst of her stink), they kept looking at\nher, smiling, confident to have her at their side.\nMost did, anyway. Mike, the grey wolf who had joined the team\nrelatively late in the planning of this action, continued being distant.\nThat was easy enough to explain, since a lot of people found Tsunami\nscary as well as smelly, and some people were just distant by nature.\nBut since his second visit to their HQ onwards, something about him had\nstruck her as just a little bit off.\nHe looked to be enjoying the sea breeze, breathing in draughts of it\nwith an almost compulsive rhythm. He looked at Suzie, the pygmy hippo by\nhis side, and the pair exchanged bright, excited smiles.\nMike had a certain confidence around other people, but whenever she\nhad tried speaking to him in the past, he'd stiffened up. His expression\nwould become fixed, strained even, and he would avoid saying too much.\nAs soon as she let him go, he would walk a distance away and his\nbreathing would become deep and hard, as if he'd been holding his\nbreath.\nTsunami had dealt with this by talking to him at a distance, like she\ndid with most people who couldn't stand her stench. Normally that gave\nthem the breathing space they needed, while at the same time meaning she\nhad to project her voice at her conversational partner and vice versa,\nwhich implied confidence on her part and demanded that the other fur\nonly say what they were happy for everybody else in the room to hear. It\nwas eccentric, and eccentricity was good for a supervillain: it helped\nto create an air of mystery.\nNormally, Tsunami's technique left people both quietly relieved and\nnoticeably deferential to her, and particularly open and honest with\ntheir colleagues, since everyone knew where they stood. In Mike's case,\nhowever, it just caused a confusing dynamic. He continued to be guarded\nwith her, and had switched several times between being outgoing and\nreserved with the rest of the team. Extroverted, then introverted, then\nextroverted again.\nShe'd been too busy with preparations to check in with him about\nthis, but then, she'd earmarked his out-of-place secrecy for further\ninspection. The truth was, she'd half-let herself be convinced he was\njust a secretive person trying to be sociable, and had waited for this\ntrip to see how he coped with being in a confined space with so many\nother people for so long. If he was naturally introverted, he would run\nout of social energy soon and try to find a deserted corner in the\ndinghy.\nIf he kept sociable with the rest of the team, then she would know he was hiding something from her.\n\n xXxSix hours later they were way out at sea, and Mike was still chatting\nhappily with his team-mates with no sign of an introvert's crash.\nSuzie, Roger, Pete, Amir...\nSix hours. Tsunami had been keeping her distance to observe the wolf,\nbut now she made her move. She got up from her seat and made her way to\nthe front where Mike had stayed, in such a way as to corner him there\nwithout seeming like that was what she was doing.\nHis optimistic expression dropped as he saw her settle down and\nnestle cosily up against him. She didn't take her eyes off him, nor his\noff her.\n\"I'm pretty well-known for stinking, you know,\" she said.\nMike shrugged. \"Can't be helped.\"\nShe leaned in to half-shout in his ear over the sound of the waves\nand engine. \"True. But most don't get as bothered by it as you.\"\nHe shrugged again.\n\"Nothing to say about that?\" she asked.\nMike shook his head with an attempt at a lop-sided smile. He was plainly holding his breath.\n\"Hmm,\" she commented, stood up and put her hands on either side of\nthe bow of the boat, not only blocking him in but leaning into him at\nthe same time.\nMost non-paras would react predictably to this: freeze with fear, try\nto pretend they hadn't noticed her stink and politely wait for her to\nrelease them. Paras, on the other hand, would stiffen. They may or may\nnot fight, but their fight-or-flight response would definitely be woken\nup. That, and some of the super community had an over-sensitivity to\nsmell. Tsunami had a good grasp of the difference between a normal and a\nheightened sensitivity to her scent, and she'd see it as soon as Mike\ngave up his last lungful of air.\nHis eyes were starting to bulge. They flickered about as if he was looking for an escape route.\nShe kept her gaze on him and smiled slowly.\nHe clamped his throat shut as hard as he could, and turned to look out to sea, probably to get a chance to breathe fresh air.\nBefore he could do that she grabbed his shoulder and turned him to face her again. \"Look at me.\"\n\"Why?\" he demanded, too assertively to be a non-para.\n\"Who the fuck are you?\" she asked, just as his breath exploded out of\nhis lungs and he instinctively drew in a huge breath. He stopped\nhimself. His eyes bulged and she knew she had a para on her hands.\nTsunami took advantage of the fact that he was weakened from oxygen\nstarvation and grabbed him around his shoulders, then rolled onto her\nback so it was she in the bow, with him trapped in a bear hug. \"Who are\nyou?\" she demanded again.\n\"Nobody!\" he gasped, struggling weakly.\nTsunami considered this for a moment, and then decided on her course of action. \"I know what you are.\" I don't know who, but you don't need to know that.\n\"I'm going to do you this one favour. I'm not going to interrogate you,\nI'm going to throw you overboard. You'll probably be fine with that,\nright?\"\nHe didn't scream in panic, so she guessed that wasn't going to be\nfatal for him, not even this far out to sea. He could probably swim\nbetter than a non-para, or fly, or had a communications link that he\ncould use to get himself out of literal deep water. He was a para, all\nright. Given that he'd infiltrated their group the way he had, he'd\nprobably been waiting for them to do something illegal before pouncing.\nHe wouldn't do that if he was overboard. Even if he was capable of\nfollowing them, they'd all seen his face so he wouldn't want to reveal\nhis super identity.\n'Mike' said nothing, so she picked him up and, to the astonishment and terror of her team, chucked him into the sea.\nTHE END."}