DISCLAIMER: "Sonic the Hedgehog" and most other characters and situations in the following story are copyrighted trademarks of Sega Incorporated, Archie Comics and/or DIC Productions. Permission to reproduce this specific material may be granted by the author so long as you email first. (c)2007 native_pangean@fsmail.net.

The Breathing Trick

Velvet wriggled more deeply into the cushion and tried to get comfortable. She was resting a book against her knees, and trying to read, but wasn't really getting into it. She had other things on her mind.

Antoine seemed to have taken a funny attitude to her lately. Shame: she thought she'd dealt with all that during the first mission. But he'd become antagonistic and non-communicative again and she wasn't sure exactly what the problem was. Perhaps, she thought, it wasn't worth making a big deal over. At least, not for now.

Yes, it was possible that the problem would resolve itself.

The mission had gone smoothly in itself, but she had felt like a spare part. Everybody had their places and she had been superflous. Yes, she decided, maybe that's what was on her mind. She wanted to be helpful, but what could she do? Sonic was the best athlete of modern times, in fact, supernaturally so. There was no possibility of helping out there. Bunnie's strength, similarly, could only come from that part-metal body. Velvet couldn't match her strength for strength. Sally knew how to lead - and she had an encyclopaedic knowledge of Robotnik's computers gathered from years of experience. And even if she could replicate Rotor's technical knowledge, what would be the use of doing so? She flipped over onto her other side, the movement mirroring her internal unrest.

As for Antoine... She suddenly realised that her brother didn't seem to bring anything useful to the missions, save an extra pair of eyes and hands. Was that why he was angry: that she might show him up? That had a ring of truth to it and Velvet scratched her chin thoughtfully. Perhaps, perhaps...

But her brother's insecurities would have to sort themselves out. The coyote sighed deeply and sat back, wondering just what she could bring by herself to the Knothole Freedom Fighters. Speed, strength, hacking, technology, numbers. What could she add to that?

Hours later, Rotor emerged from his room. He fetched something to eat and settled beside Velvet.

As often, the workshop was quiet and peaceful; something of Rotor's inherent pensiveness seemed as if it had been threaded into the very walls here. As workplaces went, it was very relaxed.

Eventually, Rotor cleared his throat: "Ahem. Vel, can I ask you something?" She glanced around, waiting for him to continue. He looked slightly uneasy and hesitated for a moment. "Can we talk a little privately about... somethin'?" She turned towards him, signalling her readiness to listen.

"What is it, love?"

Rotor seemed to hesitate just a moment longer before asking quietly, "I guess you know how to make a girl... well, like me. How do I do it?"

Velvet was taken aback for a moment: they had seemed to have an implicit understanding that Rotor did not intrude into her love life, and she not into his. For a second a defensive reply began to form itself, but then she re-thought the situation: he was only asking advice, after all. And who better than her? She took a deep breath and smiled warmly. "Shall we go for a walk?"

Velvet led the young walrus across the bridge to the opposite side of the river and along, out of the busiest part of the village. When she was quite sure nobody else was about to overhear them, she began:

"Getting a woman to like you is a matter of getting into her head. To get into her head, you need to develop a rapport with her. Convince her in subtle ways that you and she are alike. When she feels confident that you are like her, she feels that you have her best interests at heart so she trusts you."

"But how do I do that?" Rotor asked, sounding a little dispondant. 'convince her in subtle ways'? That sounded complicated. He hoped that her response wouldn't be too complex. He felt that his confidence with girls was a little fragile. He could talk to them more easily than he used to, but still he felt liable to fail sometimes.

"By a skill I call mirroring." Rotor's expression was still baffled. "It's simple, it really is. You can do with anybody. Next time you're talking to someone, watch for their rate of breathing and follow it. Breathe in when they breathe in, and out when they breathe out. If they move their arm, move yours a few seconds after, in the same way. If they tilt their head, mirror that, too."

"It's that simple?" Rotor asked, somewhat incredulous that the idea had never occured to him. She nodded.

"It's that simple!" she confirmed. "Just one last thing: you can test that it's worked by scratching your nose. If they do it within a minute, you've got 'em!"

And that seemed to be that. The two animals doubled back on themselves, heading back towards the village and across the bridge, a deliberate attempt to pass by somebody before they got back home. And before they got there, a chance presented itself.

Bunnie had several allotment areas around the village which she used to grow carrots. She was at such a one now, kneeling down and pulling weeds out from between the developing orange vegetables. She glanced up as the pair walked by and offered a dazzling smile. Rotor smiled back bashfully and she called out, "Hi y'all. Beautiful mornin' ain't it?"

"Y-yeah," Rotor replied, mentally gathering himself and standing foresquare before her. Her breasts rose up toward him as she breathed in. He checked his outgoing breath and took in a breath himself.

"Velvet was saying that she felt like she fitted in real well yesterday," he said, not because she'd particularly said so, but just for a conversation opening. Bunnie's torso collapsed lightly; breathe out.

"Well, yeah," Bunnie said in a supportive tone. "You did just fine, honey," she offered to the coyote. She took in a breath and brushed a stray lock of hair off her face. Rotor adjusted his breathing again and lightly adjusted his cap with one hand.

"There doesn't seem to be much I can do, though. You lot seem pretty much a complete team," Velvet ventured.

At this both the rabbit and walrus turned to her; Bunnie said emphatically, "Oh, no, not at all, sugah! We always need someone new, don't we, honey?" she added to Rotor sweetly. Breathe out.

Rotor thought for a second: Should I mirror her tone as well? Would that work? It was worth a try: "Totally," he enthused, resisting the impulse to hold his arms up as he normally would. Breathe in. "You'll figure out what you're good at, Vel. And then you'll fit in just great!" he concluded.

"Uh huh," Bunnie added, her eye flicking coyly in Rotor's direction for a fraction of a second. "missions have a way of doing just that. You'll be just fahne!" Bunnie reached out, encouraging Velvet to do the same and taking both of her hands in her own. Rotor wondered for a second how he could mirror that without being obvious. Breathe out.

Velvet's expression changed from a smile to something akin to concentration. Then she ventured carefully, "I don't mean to be funny, but... What exactly does Tony bring to the missions?" Bunnie and Rotor looked at eachother and laughed. Breathe in.

"Uhm..." Bunnie gave Rotor a deliberate sideways look, which he anticipated and threw back to her. "He... comes in handy sometahmes!"

"Yeah!" Rotor said, siezing a chance to hold out his hand to mirror Bunnie a few moments ago, only this time in demonstration. Breathe in. "Like the time he, uh..."

"-he found an exit from the Breath of Mobius once!" Bunnie said suddenly. She grinned in triumph at Rotor, who smiled back. The three fell silent, looking at eachother with knowing smiles. Rotor scratched his nose.

"Well, ah guess ah should get back to my gardenin'" Bunnie said with a final giggle.

"Uh huh," Rotor said, realising the conversation was over but trying to string it out for a few seconds yet. But there wasn't much chance to do so and he and Velvet turned away. "G'bye," he called, glancing over his shoulder.

"See ya later, shug!" she called back, before idly scratching her nose. Rotor looked around at Velvet with a big grin. He did it!

The sun rose towards its apex in the sky, bathing all below it in a pleasant, bright warmth. It was another peaceful day, so Sonic decided to take his fishing pole to the bridge, like he did sometimes on days like this.

He hadn't been set up for long when Antoine's sister passed by, looking like she was on an errand. She smiled in greeting as Sonic called out, "Hey Vel! What's up?" The coyote slowed down and leaned on the rail for a while to talk.

They bantered happily for a while, occasionally glancing at the line as it was tugged this way and that, fish nibbling at the bait on the other end. After a silence, Sonic turned back to her. He realised that they had grown to become good friends, but they hadn't always been like this. He had become suspicious of her when she'd been in Knothole for a while, thinking she had been hiding something with Rotor. But he had been wrong.

"Uh, look, I'm... Sorry if I went weird at ya," he offered, not quite looking at her. He picked a grass stem off a clump of soil on the bridge edge and pulled sections off it. "I just thought somethin' was up."

Velvet glanced up at him. "Don't worry about it for a second, my friend," she said in a reassuring tone. "You were just looking after your friends. I'm glad you protect us so well." Sonic still felt a little awkward. "I mean, what if I had been a problem? You look out for your friends that that's good, Sonic."

At this he cheered up. "Yeah!" he said, feeling energised by the compliment. Then he remembered something. "You know, once, Butt-nik made a robot that looked like Sal and I brought it back here."

"What?!" Velvet exclaimed, slack-jawed. So Sonic told her the story. He told her how much like Sally the robot had looked, and sounded. How seductive she had been and how it was only her failure to go through Tails' bedtime routine that blew her cover. Velvet looked into the distance when he finished the story, looking surprised.

"What a story." A silence fell on the two of them then, and Velvet changed the subject by recounting her fears of not contributing well enough to the Freedom Fighters as a team. Sonic was surprised when she said she felt unsure of herself - she'd seemed alright to him.

"Nah, Vel, you're doin' fine!" he reassured her.

The conversation seemed to dry up after that; Sonic wanted to settle to his fishing properly, and Velvet had somewhere to go anyhow. So with that, she stood up and stretched, and bid him goodbye, trotting to the edge of the bridge and out of sight. Sonic watched after her for a moment and then pulled up his line, attaching a new piece of bait.

Velvet wanted to think. She had been into Greenleaf to sell gadgets once and once only. She had sold 4 of them and wanted to work out how to do better. In the forest was an old oak tree with wide-spread branches that a Mobian could climb into and be alone for a while. This she did, hoisting herself up past the lower reaches and into the boughs. Here, hidden by the fresh leaves from anybody walking below, she settled into the crook of one of the bigger branches and gazed into the distance.

She hadn't been thinking for long, but her thoughts kept coming back to Rotor's question this morning, or rather, they kept coming back to her reply: mirroring. She wasn't sure what it meant that this kept coming back to her and she shook her head, disregarding it.

So, she thought to herself. The best way to sell is... and she thought, deciding on opening tactics, on how to describe the gadget, on how to finish the pitch...

The first thing to do is get the customer's attention. Establish a rapport with them,

-Velvet's eyes snapped open. Mirroring! Yes! She closed them again, thinking further...

Present the gadget... Deal with their objections... Get the sale and the deposit. Shut up.

She smirked at herself. Shut up indeed! The ideal sale started with getting into the person's head, using mirroring or other tecniques, and using clever ways to get them to behave in just the way she wanted - buying gadg-

Then it hit her. It was almost like a physical blow; she gripped the branch, shock draining all the expression out of her face. She knew what she could do to help on the missions! Get into Robotnik and Snively's heads using covert techniques and get them to behave exactly as she wanted them to...

She scooted back down the tree trunk and in the direction of Greenleaf. There was a whole population of people there and she had a whole lot of practising to do.

TO BE CONTINUED...