Welcome to Oracle

When I woke up, I immediately looked at my desk hoping to see nothing there. Instead, I saw the envelope laying right where I had placed it last night. Yesterday really wasn't a dream. I actually met that crazy woman last night and I was going to see her again tonight. 

I was too busy thinking about my new "job" to focus on any of my classes. I didn't want to go, but I felt a little obligated. I had already been paid, and it would be rude not to show up. Also, I didn't want to imagine what would happen to me if I didn't.

With my resolve sort of steeled, I waited until sunset to head out. I mostly remembered how to get there so I didn't bother bringing up the map. though it still took me a while to find which alley to go down. Once the sun had set, the faint light appeared from the small building. The light only seemed to further emphasize the darkness of the alleyway. With much trepidation in my heart, I raised my hand to knock on the door. It swung open and I just about knocked on Lisa's face.

"Welcome back employee!" Lisa greeted me bursting with energy.

"Please don't make me regret coming here more than I already am."

"Aren't you excited about your first day of work?"

"Absolutely thrilled."

"I know you can't wait to get started, but you'll have to contain your enthusiasm for a little longer. First, I'm going to give you a tour of the building."

"Tour? This whole place is literally just one roo—"

Lisa cut me off and gestured to her desk, "Here we have my office where I do official things." She then pointed to a couch on the other side of the room. "That is the lounge where I sit and watch tv when I'm on a break."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"Then where am I supposed to work then?"

"You'll work in the field of course."

"The field?"

"Yeah, like outside and stuff," she turns away from me and walks to the door. "Perfect timing, it looks like your coworker is here."

Coworker? I couldn't believe it, there was someone else who was either crazy or desperate enough to work here. I had a small hope that I would have a normal person to talk to for once. I expectantly watched the door as Lisa opened it.

On the other side of the door stood a boy that appeared to be in his late teens. He wore baggy pants and an oversized hoodie. It was fairly warm even at night, so his choice of clothing was a little odd. However, there was one thing that stuck out about his appearance, his skin. It was pale, much paler than any person I'd ever seen. From what I could see under his hood, his hair also appeared to be a bright white. When he looked at me, I stared at the unnatural red iris of his eyes.

He turned to Lisa, "Who's he?"

"He's the newest member of our team, Washi."

He burst with laughter, "Washi? Is that even a real name? Did someone slip when they wrote his birth certificate?"

"I'm right here you know."

He glanced over at me then turned back to Lisa. "When does he leave?"

"He's not leaving, you're going to be working with each other from now on."

"Why? I can do it on my own. I don't need some dead-weight tagging along," he said, gesturing to me. 

"I'm still right here."

They paid no attention to me and kept talking. "It's better if he comes with you. I've seen it happen."

He paused to think for a bit. "...Fine."

"Good, now go introduce yourself to him."

The boy walked over to me. "The name's Zero. I guess we'll be working together from now on."

I laughed a little, "What kind of a name is that? Isn't your name weirder than mine?"

He ignored me and turned to Lisa. "Are you sure we can't get someone else?"

"I'm sure."

"Great, we're all acquainted with one another, but what exactly are we going to be doing?" I asked.

Lisa answered, "You are now a part of Oracle. We're going to save the world."

"We're doing that how exactly?"

Zero spoke up, "Lisa can see a future where the world is threatened by certain people, and we're going to stop them."

"Could you be a little vaguer please?" I replied. 

Zero shrugged. "That's all she told me."

I eyed Lisa skeptically. 

"What? Zero seemed satisfied with it." 

I put my hand to my face in dismay. "Whatever. You said we have to stop these people. How do you usually do that?"

"I wouldn't say violence is always the answer, it just happens to work most of the time," Zero said nonchalantly. 

"So, we're vigilantes then."

Lisa seemed upset at my comment. "don't compare us to those low lives! They just follow their own sense of 'justice' doing whatever they want. Oracle has standards!"

"Okay so we're just vigilantes, but better."

"That is an acceptable definition," Lisa replied.

Suddenly, she winced in pain and began to hold her head. I managed to catch her before she collapsed. "Is she ok?" I asked, now quite worried and unsure what to do. "I'll call an ambulance." Lisa trembled in my arms and my hand began to shake a bit as I reached for my phone. 

"Don't!" Zero blurted. For a moment, he looked even more worried than I was. Seeing her like this must've put him on edge. "She'll be fine. She's just having a vision." He then lifted her out of my arms with ease and gently laid her on the couch. Her breathing was strained and heavy. It was like she was having the worst migraine imaginable. 

"Are you sure she's alrigh—" Lisa sat up before I could finish. 

"I'm fine, thank you," she said as if she wasn't just writhing in pain a second ago. The shaken look in her eyes betrayed her tone. "Now, onto more important matters." She got up and unrolled a large roll of paper from behind her desk. It was a large paper map of the city—a rarity these days—she pointed to a specific location. "Several people have been kidnapped and are being taken here. It's an old, abandoned warehouse on the edge of town. You two need to go there and rescue them. You can take my van." She tossed me some keys from her pocket. 

This was happening way too fast. I had hardly recovered from the shock earlier. Now I'm supposed to go fight kidnappers at an abandoned warehouse? This had to be a joke. Any minute now, a celebrity would appear from behind the wall and tell me I've been 'Punk'd' or something stupid like that. I looked at her and then Zero. They both looked completely serious. "You're kidding me, right? If you're correct, which I'm not quite sure of, Isn't that extremely dangerous? There's only two of us and I've never even been in a fight!" I said, my nerves showing very apparently. 

"I know this is a lot, especially for your first job," Lisa said, her voice a bit softer. "But, if we don't do something, no one else will. I promise you'll be... fine. My visions are always right," Lisa said, trying to sound reassuring. That pause was not reassuring. I opened my mouth to retort, but she cut me off. "No, we can't call the police. The kidnappers will see them coming from a mile away and escape." She sounded so confident, it almost sounded reasonable. 

"Enough talking," Zero said. "Let's get to work."

"Zero's right, you'll figure out what to do once you experience it firsthand." She gave me a thumbs up but clearly wasn't telling me everything. 

"I don't like where this is heading."

Zero took me by the arm. "Let's go, we're wasting moonlight."