The Guy with the Mallet

The entire room shook with the shockwave of the explosion above our heads.

Part of the ceiling caved in, destroying an entire section of Zuria’s house in the process.

Big chunks of mud and scattered rocks fell everywhere, with pieces of wood from the ceiling and the walls completely wrecked. It almost got us both by a few inches.

The explosion threw us both out of our chairs and the smoke made us cough, and I instinctively looked up at the torn ceiling.

I remembered I fell for who knows how long to get here, so I was expecting to see more of that muddy cave above us. Instead, there was a clear blue sky and warm rays of sunshine beaming through the hole.

I brought my hand to my forehead to shield my eyes from the sudden blinding sunlight.

“How in the…?”

I had no time to react. The sound of someone laughing above us cut through the confusion. Both me and Zuria were trying to look at the source– currently just a silhouette with a bright backlight behind him.

“So it was true! The new Alice Spade is already here!”

I stagger up to my feet, dusting myself off and coughing a few more times. Immediately after, Zuria stood in front of me, looking up at the torn ceiling as she held Posthaste- her pocket watch weapon- in one hand, and its long, golden chain in the other. It was emitting a bright glow around us, like a shield.

“Alice, please, stay behind me.”

“Huh?”

This is the first time since I got here that she’s called me Alice. I was confused, and her tone didn’t sound much different than her usual stoic monotone, but I could tell something was up.

I looked at the ceiling again as my eyes adjusted to the light, and finally I was able to see the young guy standing up there.

His short green hair was spiky, and his clothes were as strange as everyone else’s I’ve met here so far: a black and green trench coat over what looked like a military uniform in those same colors. The weirdest thing about him was the giant mallet resting carefully over his shoulder as if it wasn’t ten gazillion pounds— I assume.

He placed his leg over a protruding piece of ceiling and leaned down over his knee, looking down at us as he whistled.

“Man, you’re as hot as the poster in town!”

…Okay, I knew he was talking to me, but I refused to acknowledge what he just said. Instead, I scoffed.

“Who the hell are you?”

He laughed at my question.

“Wow, you’re feisty. I’m Pierce. I’m here to see if you’re the real deal, Alice Spade.”

I felt a drop of cold sweat drip down my forehead when he said this. Does he know I’m a fake? Is he here to tell on me or something? I looked at Zuria’s back, but she didn’t falter at all.

“You’re here to find out if this Alice is worthy of her title, aren’t you?”

She addressed him without looking at me at all, but I knew she said this to reassure me that this guy had no idea I was a fake. Good. I was relieved.

“Pshaw, little ol’ me? Here to test the new Alice? You think I’m that strong?”

“You destroyed my house.”

“Oh, that. Well, anyone can do that if they have a big enough mallet!”

“You’re also wearing a Clover armband.”

“Welp, you got me there!” he shrugged.

“A clover what…?” I asked, my eyes immediately shifting towards his arm. Right there I saw it: a bright green armband with a symbol like the clover in playing cards.

He raised his eyebrows the moment he caught me staring. There was silence for a moment, then he jumped down in front of us.

Zuria tightened her grip on her weapon, and I took a cautious step back. The guy didn’t seem to mind at all, incorporating himself slowly. He was much taller than Zuria, now that I saw him up close.

“You’re the White Rabbit, huh? You had an entire year and you didn’t teach your Alice about the Clovers?”

“...Please stand back.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

I tapped Zuria’s shoulder with some hesitation.

“Uh… Excuse me, so, is this, like, a bad guy?”

The guy that called himself Pierce scoffed before she could answer me.

“Um, no? I’m an awesome guy. And from where I’m standing, you’re the bad guys.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I mean are you our enemy or whatever!”

“Yeah. I’m whatever.”

“Alice,” Zuria interrupted, “Pierce is a member of the Clovers. Just like us Spades, they were selected by their leader to stop the rain, too.”

“What!?”

I gripped her shoulder and forced her to look at me. She looked startled, but I should be the startled one here!

“Are you telling me there’s other people out there who can do the exact same thing I’m supposed to be doing here and you still want me to do it!? You said I was the only one that could! Was that all just BS?”

Pierce’s eyes were wide open at my outburst before cracking up.

“Dude… did you really not tell your Alice anything? How did you even get her here, then? Did you tell her there’s cotton candy trees and bubbles that grant you wishes and that’s it!?”

“There’s what…?”

He bursted out laughing again. Zuria averted her eyes from me. She looked as stoic as ever, but with a slight blush of embarrassment on her cheeks.

“Alice. Listen to me. Everything I told you is true. You have to trust me; don’t let your guard down around the Clovers, they’re—”

Before she could finish her sentence, Pierce swung his giant mallet sideways against Zuria, who barely blocked it with a force field of light coming from Posthaste.

“Ngh—!”

“Hoh, not bad,” Pierce licked his lips with a crazy look in his eyes. “But you know well I wasn’t aiming for you,” he tilted his chin my way, “my fight is with the little hottie you’re protecting over there.”

I glared at him and immediately rolled my sleeves up. Once again I found out Zuria was keeping something from me, but that would have to wait. This guy came here to fight me for some reason, and I wasn’t about to pussy out.

“Yeah? You want a piece of me, freak?”

“Bring it on!”

“Alice, wait—!” Zuria gripped my dress tightly as I was about to stomp out of her shield.

“Don’t you dare fucking stop me! He started it!”

“It’s not that, it’s just— you don’t have a weapon yet!”

I stopped in my tracks.

That’s right… This guy has a giant mallet that could smash me like a pumpkin if he so much as swung it my way. Suddenly I was afraid of stepping out of Zuria’s protection.

But then the Pierce guy blinked a few times and held his hand up in disbelief.

“Wait a minute— Wait. A. Minute! You didn’t even give your Alice her weapon!? Are you trying to get her killed!?”

“I…”

“Hahaha! Oh boy! This has got to be the worst Alice Spade in history! No, scratch that, you have got to be the worst White Rabbit Spade in history! You told her nothing and you gave her nothing to defend herself? Holy shit! I never thought I’d—”

…And that’s when I punched him right on the mouth.