History Main / FlockofWolves

* ''VideoGame/Prototype2'', with a new protagonist and Mercer more intelligently leading the infection side, it goes further as you find out quite a few high-ranking Blackwatch scientists have been turned into [[HumanoidAbomination intelligent infected]] just like yourself. Of course, you find them when ''you'' infiltrate the high-security labs they are in charge of. How bad is it? Of all the plot-relevant Blackwatch characters only ''two'' aren’t infected, you end up body-jacking one yourself. No wonder the military is so incompetent.

** In general, the orcs on both sides will act as normal each other, engage in same EnemyChatter. The captains do go and enact battles against other captains, but orcs do it all the time anyway. They won't reveal their true allegiance unless Talion is openly engaged in the fight.
** In the first game, the top-tier targets are the Warchiefs, who surround themselves with bodyguards. Brainwashing existing ones or adding a bunch of sleeper agents is a very practical way to make the fight easier. It also allows the player to skip a "lure the warchief out" mission and have the mole do it. Furthermore, after such a betrayal, the mole will take the warchief's spot, with rest of the orcs being none the wiser as KlingonPromotion is a perfectly normal occurrence in Mordor.

** In the second game, the warchief-betrayal mechanic is fully in place in all the same ways, but there is now a layer above that. The fortress sieges, staffed by five Warchiefs in each region and ruled by an Overlord. During a normal process of the siege, they would show up at set points, their entourage in tow to give the player a fight… But of course it is possible to fill all warchief positions with spies, leaving only a mass of regular grunt orcs to oppose the siege and turning every checkpoint into reinforcements for Talion. Sadly, none of them sans one appointed personal bodyguard will venture into the central keep for the Overlord showdown.

** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH6TBdN-lJc I, Despot]]'' is a one-man example, where an undercover journalist infiltrates a bloodthirsty reign of terror in Bahrain ''as the dictator himself''.
--->''All told, I exterminated over 200000 of my own people, in a campaign of tyranny and murder. The mainstream media may have forgotten the terrors I forced my people to endure, but I'm still haunted by their screams... and by one disturbing question: If the world did nothing when I did this once, would it ''still'' say nothing if I did it again?''

* ''VideoGame/Prototype2'', with a new protagonist and Mercer more intelligently leading the infection side, it goes further as you find out quite a few high-ranking Blackwatch scientists have been turned into [[HumanoidAbomination intelligent infected]] just like yourself. Of course, you find them when ''you'' infiltrate the high-security labs they are in charge of.

* The German extreme right-wing party NPD (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands, National-democratic Party of Germany) is [[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/mar/19/thefarright.germany infiltrated heavily]] by the Verfassungsschutz (Protectors of the Constitution, Germany's domestic intelligence agency). When talking about disbanding the party, the highest court ruled that with so many protectors in the party -- which would all be exempt from prosecution -- any abolishment trial would be doomed to fail. In fact, it seems that many of these planted moles are using their immunity and the paycheck from the Verfassungsschutz to actually help the party to survive and thus guarantee their own job security (if the NPD were abolished, the Verfassungsschutz would likely not need as large a staff). In one case, a high member of the NPD stated openly that [[GoneHorriblyRight without being paid from the Verfassungsschutz, he wouldn't have been able to build up the party's branch in his state.]]

** The TropeNamer, even if it doesn't use those words in the caption, is a comic where there are so many wolves [[AssInALionsSkin wearing sheep disguises]] [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-osRpf2U96MQ/TkMI59kF-gI/AAAAAAAAACs/fsdMZJjd9dQ/s1600/FarSideSheep.png that one of them has to ask if anyone there was an actual sheep]].

** The titular family are themselves an example. Loid, codename Twilight, is a master spy who created the family as a deep cover story for his latest assignment, though he [[BecomingTheMask genuinely loves them]], under the impression that Anya is an innocent orphan and Yor is just a socially awkward city worker. Yor, codename <Thorn Princess>, is a ProfessionalKiller who, having gotten slightly paranoid that her lack of relationship would blow her cover, ended up undergoing a series of shenanigans with Loid that started with him pretending to be her boyfriend and ended with them deciding to go ahead with being married to each other. She's under the impression that Loid is just an ordinary psychologist and Anya is his daughter. Then there's Anya herself, who is actually a [[{{Telepathy}} mind reader]] who knows both her adoptive parents' secrets and thinks [[ItAmusedMe the whole thing is hilarious]] as she tries to subtly help them both out with their missions. She's the sole person in the whole series aware that ''both'' her parents aren't what they seem, and no one is aware of her status as an escaped psychic test subject. And topping all of that off is the family dog, Bond, who [[{{Seers}} is able to experience brief glimpses of the future]] thanks to having
been experimented on by the same lab that gave Anya her powers... and nobody except Anya herself knows about this, either.

** The titular family are themselves an example. Loid, codename Twilight, is a master spy who created the family as a deep cover story for his latest assignment, though he [[BecomingTheMask genuinely loves them]], under the impression that Anya is an innocent orphan and Yor is just a socially awkward city worker. Yor, codename <Thorn Princess>, is a ProfessionalKiller who, having gotten slightly paranoid that her lack of relationship would blow her cover, ended up undergoing a series of shenanigans with Loid that started with him pretending to be her boyfriend and ended with them deciding to go ahead with being married to each other. She's under the impression that Loid is just an ordinary psychologist and Anya is his daughter. Finally, there's Anya herself, who is actually a [[{{Telepathy}} mind reader]] who knows both her adoptive parents' secrets and thinks [[ItAmusedMe the whole thing is hilarious]] as she tries to subtly help them both out with their missions. She's the sole person in the whole series aware that ''both'' her parents aren't what they seem, and no one is aware of her status as an escaped psychic test subject.

** The TropeNamer, even if it doesn't use those words in the caption, is a [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-osRpf2U96MQ/TkMI59kF-gI/AAAAAAAAACs/fsdMZJjd9dQ/s1600/FarSideSheep.png comic where there are so many wolves wearing sheep disguises that one of them has to ask if anyone there was an actual sheep]].
** In another one, a guy is standing in a crowd of people, yelling "the vampires are everywhere!" Meanwhile, across the street there's a pair of workers hauling a large mirror, and the man screaming about vampires [[ProperlyParanoid is the only person with a reflection]].

** ''Paranoia'' in general lives on this trope. The {{PC}}s are charged by The Computer to hunt down mutants and secret society members. Every PC is both a mutant and a secret society member.

* According to this [[https://ammo.com/articles/ruby-ridge-siege-forgotten-history-weaver-family-atf-standoff-militiathis article,]] "The irony of the federal government’s desire to obtain informants within the Aryan Nations is that different branches of federal law enforcement and intelligence gathering occupied five of the six key positions in the organization. This means that the Aryan Nations were effectively a government-run shop, with agents spying on each other to ensure the integrity of an investigation – into an organization almost entirely run by the federal government."

* In ''Literature/HeavyObject'', the city of Lost Angels was originally a normal city but the presence of a nearby Object maintenance base resulted in spies from the other nations infiltrating the city. Said spies created "gangs" to act as covers for their presence, which soon ballooned out of control. By the time the protagonists arrive, all of the civilians have long since left the city; everyone who remains is either a spy posing as a criminal, an actual criminal profiting off their conflict, or a social exile with nowhere else to go.
* PlayedForDrama in ''Anime/VisionOfEscaflowne'', in which a flashback shows the shapeshifter Zongi kill a fellow member of his tribe when each was posing as part of the opposite side of a battle. He does not take it well.

* One episode of the ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'' TV show has them helping the Japanese intelligence service pick up a Soviet defector and his experimental HumongousMecha in a seaside resort town. Every single person there is said to be a spy of some sort. The one that really takes the biscuit being:
-->"You see that dog crossing the road there? It's a Mossad spy dog!"

* ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'':

* This is kinda what happens in ''[[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', except that Kyon, the MetaGuy [[TheProtagonist protagonist]], isn't one of the "wolves" and is dragged into the title character's Club For Finding Aliens, Time-Travelers, and Espers by force. However, it soon turns out that every other member of the club (including the founder) is some kind of supernatural being that they are supposed to look for. In a way, the title character ''[[InvokedTrope invoked]]'' this trope without being aware of it, due to being a WrongGenreSavvy RealityWarper.

* In ''LightNovel/TheIrregularAtMagicHighSchool: The Girl Who Calls The Stars'', everyone wants basically the same thing: to prevent another world war. However, because of the national and factional tensions left by the ''last'' war (and the wrench that [[PoweredByAForsakenChild the Watatsumi slaves']] existence throws into everyone's plans) it is about halfway into the movie before any of them realize this. Fortunately, all the soldiers involved know a common language and a [[EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether surprisingly high degree of them attended school together]].
* In some episodes of the ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' anime, the Team Rocket trio would try to rob civilians, only for them to turn out to be criminals themselves in disguise, sometimes [[RightHandVersusLeftHand even ones from their own organization]]. This was sometimes intentional, as some other members of Team Rocket were rivals who would try to throw Jessie and James into their scams out of spite, but in some cases, particularly with villains even ''more'' unsavvy than the main trio, confusion and HilarityEnsues.
* In ''LightNovel/HeavyObject'' the city of Lost Angels was originally a normal city but the presence of a nearby Object maintenance base resulted in spies from the other nations infiltrating the city. Said spies created "gangs" to act as covers for their presence, which soon ballooned out of control. By the time the protagonists arrive, all of the civilians have long since left the city; everyone who remains is either a spy posing as a criminal, an actual criminal profiting off their conflict, or a social exile with nowhere else to go.

* In the gacha/VN hybrid ''VisualNovel/MoeNinjaGirls'', hyperactive high school girl Akari sets out to establish a "Ninja-Seeking Club" after one of her class' two new transfer students, [[OccidentalOtaku Johnny]], comes to school swearing he'd seen a ninja. She ends up browbeating a bunch of other students (including the main character, the ''other'' new transfer student) into joining the club LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya-style, oblivious to the fact that [[RealAfterAll the ninja Johnny saw]] had been attempting to assassinate him- because he's a rogue ninja himself. And then, after being unable to kill the main character, the assassin also joins the club. And then the cute underclassman Akari forcibly recruits also turns out to be a trainee ninja (with [[HeadPet the pink rabbit that sits on her head]] being her ninja familiar). Also, the school principal also has ties to several ninja clans, which is why there are so many ninjas enrolled in this school. And it turns that both the sultry upperclassman member and ''Akari's best friend'' are kunoichi employed by the school. And of course, [[LockedOutOfTheLoop Akari and Johnny remain completely unaware of this]]. And then after Akari eventually finds out, it turns out that, unbeknownst to her, her parents were ninjas from the same village as the protagonist, explaining her own natural athleticism. [[ButtMonkey So it's just Johnny then.]]

* According to [[https://ammo.com/articles/ruby-ridge-siege-forgotten-history-weaver-family-atf-standoff-militiathis article,]] "The irony of the federal government’s desire to obtain informants within the Aryan Nations is that different branches of federal law enforcement and intelligence gathering occupied five of the six key positions in the organization. This means that the Aryan Nations were effectively a government-run shop, with agents spying on each other to ensure the integrity of an investigation – into an organization almost entirely run by the federal government."

* ''Literature/TheStarDiaries'':
** One of Creator/StanislawLem's Ijon Tichy stories has a planet full of agents disguised as robots trying to infiltrate an evil computer's (nonexistent) robotic army.

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation story [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/everyone-knows "Everyone Knows,"]] where it turns out that TheMasquerade no longer matters because ''every single individual in the entire world'' is involved with at least one organization dealing with the paranormal. Well, everyone but one person. The story kicks off with four drinking buddies realizing they all work for the Foundation, then find out their wives do, then about 70% of the population of the town they live in, and eventually it's revealed that roughly 3.5 billion people work for the SCP Foundation alone.

* In one episode of ''Series/GetSmart'', Max pretends to "defect" from CONTROL to becomes DoubleAgent and infiltrate a KAOS cell. However, it's revealed that everyone in the cell an infitrator from another agency (FBI, CIA, Naval Intelligence, & Scotland Yard). What's more, the only real KAOS agent (the one who had founded the cell) was already dead.

* There was an episode of ''Series/GetSmart'' where Max becomes a DoubleAgent to infiltrate a KAOS cell, but it turned out everyone in the cell was from another agency (FBI, CIA, Naval Intelligence, & Scotland Yard).

* In an episode of ‘’Series {{GetSmart}}’’, Smart pretends to “defect” to infiltrate a KAOS cell, only to find that all the other members are also infiltrators, the real KAOS agent who founded the cell having died.

* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'': It is revealed in "Azzanadra's Quest" that the Temple Knights, a secretive organization of Saradominist knights that deals with jobs too dirty for the more honorable White Knights, is made up almost entirely of Zarosians. It turns out that the Temple Knights originally were a Zariosian organization that defected to Saradomin after Zaros disappeared but secretly remained loyal to Zaros all along. The leader of the Temple Knights has always been a shapeshifting demon who has gotten quite bored with waiting thousands of years for his boss to contact him.

** In ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/48341/changelings-changelings-everywhere Changelings, Changelings Everywhere]]'' the mane cast discovers that Rainbow Dash was a changeling all along, then that Pinkie Pie was another changeling sent to find her... the escalation doesn't really stop until it's revealed that Celestia is literally the only pony who isn't secretly a changeling. Several ponies who were replaced with changelings turned out to be changelings in the first place. The story ends with two of the changelings [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere going to get lunch]] while everyone sorts out who's on what side.

** The TropeNamer, even if it doesn't use those words in the caption, is a [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-osRpf2U96MQ/TkMI59kF-gI/AAAAAAAAACs/fsdMZJjd9dQ/s1600/FarSideSheep.png comic where there are so many wolves disguised in crude sheep costumes that one of them has to ask if anyone there is an actual sheep]].

** The TropeNamer, even if it doesn't use those words in the caption, is a [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-osRpf2U96MQ/TkMI59kF-gI/AAAAAAAAACs/fsdMZJjd9dQ/s1600/FarSideSheep.png comic where there are so many wolves disguised as sheep that a wolf has to ask if anyone there is a real sheep]].

** The TropeNamer, even if it doesn't use those words in the caption, is a [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-osRpf2U96MQ/TkMI59kF-gI/AAAAAAAAACs/fsdMZJjd9dQ/s1600/FarSideSheep.png comic where a wolf in a crude sheep costume he designed in order to infiltrate a flock of sheep finds out that it's composed entirely of other wolves in sheep costumes.]]