Daisy stared into her bathroom mirror while I sat just outside the door with a small, handheld version. "Are you ready?" I asked, feeling a trepidation that was almost certainly mutual.

　　"I guess so?" came the reply.

　　"Alright. I`m going to not hide at first so you can see what it looks like, and then& I`ll just show you. And go!" I flipped over the mirror, instantly projecting into the clearest of the near reflective surfaces where Daisy`s eyes were peering expectantly in at me.

　　"Oh!" came the squeak of surprise from both around the corner and through the ears of my reflection. I laughed for the way she`d startled and then watched her curiously return to the mirror to study my reflection. "Just your face, huh? It`s kind of faint& like it`s not a real` reflection."

　　"It is a projection and not a reflection," I said, raising my voice slightly so she could hear me around the corner, "and my mirror only reflects my face, so that`s all I`ve got available to project. But also, the lighting over here is dim, so there is less light to project."

　　"Oh& that`s trippy. I can see your mouth moving while you talk, but I can only hear you from around the corner," she observed. "So wait. Your file says you can hear things through, I guess, the glass?"

　　"Yeah. It sort of feels more like hearing it through the ears of my reflection- which I realize couldn`t possibly make sense without experiencing it yourself."

　　"Interesting. So, you were going to show me what to look for?"

　　"Sure," I grinned, and Daisy frowned at my reflection. "I almost never appear directly in front of someone like this. I`m more likely to appear somewhere over here." It took a conscious effort to move my reflection slowly so Daisy could track its movement with her eyes, but soon it was in my more usual position deep in the edges of the top corner of the mirror. "Have you ever noticed how rarely people look up in mirrors?"

　　"And it`s so faint up there- so small&. Even knowing what to look for and watching your face float up there, it`s still hard to see," Daisy added, her expression a proper scowl now. "Oran, you`re practically a ghost!"

　　"Ha! You`re not the first person to call me that."

　　"It`s spooky!" Daisy intensified her opinion. "You know that feeling of being watched when you`re certain you`re all alone? Or that instinctive sense of danger you get when it doesn`t make sense for any logical reason? I`m getting those vibes. Like this mirror is haunted and gonna try to eat me or something."

　　I laughed, appreciating the imagery. "I guess it`s a good thing that mirrors can`t eat people? And, to my knowledge, my reflection hasn`t tried to eat anyone either."

　　"That`s only mildly comforting," Daisy said, returning to a contemplative frown. I grinned and put the mirror away, ending the demonstration. A moment later, Daisy appeared in the bathroom doorway, her arms crossed casually in front of her as she leaned her back against the doorframe, one eyebrow arched in my direction.

　　"What?"The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

　　"You haven`t asked me any questions yet," she said, something almost disappointed in her tone.

　　I stood up, leveling my eyes with hers a little better. "What questions should I be asking?"

　　"The standard getting-to-know-you questions: where I`m from, what my gift is, basic family or education information, how I got recruited&. You know, the basics!"

　　"The types of things you already read in my file," I surmised. "The things you don`t even need to ask me."

　　She smirked with the rise of a tease. "True."

　　"That doesn`t seem very fair," I returned, unintentionally mirroring her body language by folding my arms over my chest and leaning a shoulder against the other side of the doorframe.

　　"Ask me then."

　　It was a command, so I took a moment to decide what I wanted to ask first. "Alright. Daisy, what is your gift?"

　　"I can manipulate weather& to a point& within a certain radius."

　　"Weather?"

　　Daisy must have seen the confusion on my face because she elaborated. "Mhm. Weather. My specialty is rain and manipulating temperatures. It has useful applications."

　　"Sorry, but&. I guess I have no idea what this job is? From the bits and pieces I`ve picked up from Argus, I was under the impression that this was a spy team or something. Am I way off?"

　　"You`re not that far off," Daisy laughed pleasantly, "though I`m surprised that Argus didn`t explain the job description more. I`m sure he intends to induct you officially tomorrow at training, but I`ll give you a loose overview. You have just joined a strike team. We do a little bit of spying, but only as much as we need to in order to apprehend criminals and terrorists."

　　"So& sort of like cops?"

　　"Sort of. Though we are typically given specific targets to capture or eliminate, usually only one target at a time. Think more, government sanctioned ninjas."

　　"Ninjas!?" Something in my brain geeked out- the part of my male psyche still clinging to the fantasies of childhood.

　　"Yeah. Kinda," Daisy confirmed with a slight giggle, almost certainly in response to my dewy-eyed, shorted-out wistfulness. "We get in, we get out- quick, quiet, and clean."

　　"So wait. Why weather? Or do you have another skill set that qualifies you as a ninja?"

　　"Think about it, Oran. We work as a team. Our gifts are supposed to enhance each other. Can you think of a way that my gift might complement yours?"

　　The realization was immediate. "Ooooh&."

　　"Mhm," she nodded, her smirk renewing. "Clever right? Water, especially frozen water, can serve as a useful mirror."

　　I nodded eagerly, a vague excitement beginning to take shape. "But wait. You`ve been on this team for a while, right?"

　　"A couple years, yeah?"

　　"So your gift must enhance or be enhanced by another teammate besides me."

　　"True."

　　"What other gifts are on the team?"

　　"Oh, I`ll let them tell you themselves," she declared cryptically, and I resisted the impulse to roll my eyes.

　　"Fine," I pouted. "Then, how did you get recruited?"

　　"Argus poached me from a group combating drought-related crop failure to the east. I was just an intern, so I wasn`t missed when I left."

　　"How many people are on the team?"

　　"Counting you, five, unless you count Argus, which we generally don`t, in which case, six," she prattled off readily.

　　"So you, me, Kane, Daman, and&?"

　　"Kalak. You`ve met Daman?"

　　"Yeah. Argus brought me to a room where he was& working?"

　　"Ah. Staring at the video feeds?" Daisy supplied knowingly.

　　"Yeah."

　　"He`s probably looking for clues to where our next target is. Sometimes it takes him a couple of weeks to locate a target. That`s why Argus wanted to bring you in."

　　"That explains why Daman doesn`t seem to like me," I rolled my eyes before I could think to stop myself.

　　"Daman doesn`t like change," Daisy shrugged, "and I`m sure he`s not thrilled about you taking over that part of his job. He`s rather proud of his internet crawling software that accesses all the surveillance camera feeds for him. I don`t understand it, but it`s sort of a hobby for him. He developed the software himself."

　　"Does me being here make him obsolete?"

　　"Oh, no," she snorted. "His gift serves a critical function in our operations. Why? Were you hoping to replace him?"

　　"The thought crossed my mind," I admitted.

　　"Hm. Well, with that happy thought, dinner?"

　　"Yeah, I could go for a bite."