"Finally, you almost had me worried." Banjo slid his hands into his pockets and grinned up at the boy, before his smirk slowly faded into a frown.
"You're right." A malicious smile crept across the boy's face as he looked down at Banjo. "I shouldn't have kept a fan waiting."
They both glared at each other, the tension in the air slowly thickening as the two became very still, completely locked into a battle of gazes, until the tension was broken, Pan shooting from the mirror like lightning towards Banjo, lunging his hand forward and planting it into Banjo's heart...or where Banjo's heart should have been, anyways.
"Man, there's nothing like getting your ass kicked by your evil clone! I feel great!" Banjo's voice called out from behind Pan, and realization struck: Pan hadn't hit Banjo, but the ground underneath Banjo. Pulling his hand out of the ground, he scoffed, and turned around, noticing that Banjo stood on top of a higher stack of mirrors.
"Pfft! What's your deal?" Pan snickered, looking down at the tile in his palm and clenching his fists tightly.
"You may be the devil or whatever, but I won't tolerate anyone looking down on me, you got that?" Banjo pointed at his heart with his thumb. "Of course, if you don't like that, get over here and rip my chest out already!" Banjo grinned again, bursting with energy. Ever since that strange replenishment of his energy earlier, he had been feeling stronger and stronger.
Pan unclenched his hand, and the tile, crushed into dust, slid out onto the floor in a lump of grey sand like material.
"I think I'll rip out that dumb grin instead." The kid bent his knees before vanishing, reappearing before Banjo in a flash and pulling his hand forward, only for Banjo to retreat to a higher mirror, and the kid followed, shooting through the maze with the speed of a cheetah, only to have his every attack evaded and dodged by Banjo, retreating to higher heights every single time.
Banjo shot forward from the mirror he stood on towards Pan, only for Pan to spring himself higher into the air using his hand and swung his leg down to slam Banjo towards the ground mid-attack, and Banjo spun around in mid-air and blocked with his forearm and then grappled Pan's leg in the same motion.
"What the hell?" Pan snickered, lunging his other leg forward towards Pan's stomach, only for Pan to intercept the strike with his own leg, the two both pushing towards each other with the strength of oxen, trying to one up the other.
After several seconds of pushing against each other with their legs they pushed off of each other, shooting off towards opposite sides off the maze room, both of them landing on mirrors so tall they almost pierced through the ceiling, smiling at each other from across the room.
Pan grinned, resting his hands behind his heads, and yawned, touching his toes for a few moments before grabbing his right arm and stretching his bicep. "You've twisted my arm. Well? Whaddya want?"
Banjo blinked, before chuckling, dusting off his clothes."You know, for a moment I forgot you aren't the actual devil. Just another kid like me, but with a devil haunted his body. A super childish one too."
Pan's eyes narrowed. "Hey, don't even insinuate we're on the same level! I could have kicked your ass in under 5 seconds if I decided to stop playing around!"
"But you didn't, huh? Pfft, imagine having a creature that's lived for centuries in your body, but you can't even defeat lil old me!" He chuckled, pointing a finger at Pan, who seemed amused.
"Who said I wouldn't kill you once you finish talking? I'm just being nice. After all, you went through a whole emotional moment to get to me. It touched me. Really, it did."
Banjo's laughter died down, and he wiped his eyes. "I'm here to extend you a deal."
"Of course." Pan sighed, his excitement immediately dying down as he spun a glass knife by the edge on the tip of his finger.
"Wh-"
"So, what'll it be, immortality?" Pan tossed the knife over his shoulder.
"N-"
"Magic?"
"Wai-"
"Oh, I know!" Pan slammed his fist onto his open palm. "You want some luck with the ladies! You could clearly use it-"
"NO!" Banjo barked across the room, his voice carrying strongly across the room, and echoing across the mirror maze.
Pan waved his hand. "Yeesh, never mind that, you must want a breath mint."
"ANYWAYS." Banjo cleared his throat. "My name is Banjo Adeoye, and I'm on a journey to enter the Moloc Labyrinth and obtain the eyes of Moloc. But I need strong allies to do that, so who would be a better pick but the devil himself? Or his container I guess."
Pan closed his eyes and chuckled. "A foolish man pursuing a foolish goal. So, what do I get?"
Banjo smiled at Pan. "Freedom, of course."
"..." Pan's grin quickly faded away.
"There are a lot of mirrors here. I assume they're shards of the original Vardoski Mirror, and forgive me if I'm wrong Pan, but it looks like you're missing a few shards. Or maybe, a lot."
"...What are you prattling about?"
"I'll get straight to the point. I know the Vardoski Mirror shattered in a battle, and the shards are scattered across all the word. These are all the shards you managed to gather, but I assume they don't even make up even a quarter of the original mirror. And considering the devil isn't controlling your body as we speak, it's very possible that the reason why he isn't doing so, is because your job is to gather all the mirror shards. Right?"
"And? Do you expect me to believe a puny human would be capable of gathering all of the shards?"
"A puny human with the eyes of Moloc, yes. If only a certain guy had the power to help this puny human get the eyes of Moloc.." Banjo put his hand to his chin as his eyes drifted up in thought.
"Heh." Pan's head was ducked, his thick hair covering the majority of his face, and casting shadows over that was not covered. When he finally lifted his face, all that could be seen of his face was a nasty grin. "And how do you know all that?"
"I'm an informed man, with many connections. I know a lot about you, Pan Vardoski." Banjo then raised his finger, and pointed it to the tip of his nose, flaring his nostrils." And also, the smell of desperation in here is super thick."
Pan's blood red eyes gleamed underneath his thick strands of hair. "Good deduction, Violin." Pan suddenly became. very still.
"It's Banj-"
"Of course, you made one mistake. You thought my desperation overweighed my ego." Pan's aura and stance shifted from a relaxed one to tense. Radiating from him was a dark, black energy, emitting a slightly demonic vibe, curling around the boy's body and immersing him in the darkness.
"And that mistake is gonna cost you your life." Pan took a step forward, and the menacing aura radiating from him grew to terrifying proportions, emulating a gigantic spider, moments from descending from the ceiling.
A sweat drop rolled down Banjo's temple. He really isn't joking around. He might kill me. He thought yet made no attempts to retreat. He put his hands up, sliding into a fighting stance, and in the half-second he closed his eyes, Pan closed the distance between them nearly instantly, his outstretched hand reaching towards Banjo's chest...
And then Pan shifted the direction of his hand, grabbing Banjo by the shoulder, and squeezing it slightly, before patting Banjo. "Loosen up! I'm not going to kill you- not yet at least! I don't even know where the labyrinth is."
Banjo wiped his forehead and grinned nervously. "So that's how it is...whatever!" Pan turned, jumping down from the mirror and walking towards the exit of the mirror maze, reaching for the handle, before pausing again. "Oh, one more thing. You get seasick?"
-------
"Huh. Who woulda thought the devil would look like a..." Malincha paused, trying to think of a word as she peered down at Pan, but quickly trailed off after seeing the malicious expression on his face.
Like a grumpy Christmas elf? Shen thought to himself. He knew that Banjo would have figured out a way somehow, but part of him was surprised the devil himself was now a colleague of his. "You know, this team gets more and more questionable with every member that joins."
"What's the pessimist for, moral support?" Pan turned to Banjo, who just laughed nervously.
"He's here to be the butt of all our cruel jokes. Nice to meetcha Devil, I'm Malincha! Glad to make your acquaintance!" She outstretched a hand, ignoring Shen, who glared at her from the corner.
"I wish I could say the same." Pan grinned. "Actually, I don't." Pan stared at her hand, and watched as Malincha slowly retracted it.
"Yes, she's an acquaintance I would love to purge from my memory." Shen agreed, glanced down at Pan and nodding.
"It looks like he's not the butt of all our cruel jokes anymore, eh?" Banjo elbowed Malincha playfully who just narrowed her eyes.
Pan turned towards Banjo, disappointed. "What's with the baggage? We don't need these two."
"Baggage? Shen over there is the brains of the operation, a total genius. Keep on referring to him as that and you might just have to sleep with one eye open." Banjo grinned at Shen, who closed his eyes and looked away.
"Then what's with her? Is she the comedic relief of our operation?" Pan mocked.
"Malincha? She's the most resourceful! Can adapt to any sorta solution, can see through lies like nothing, without her, navigating the traps of the l-" Banjo was suddenly shoved to the side by Malincha who walked over to Pan, towering over him.
"And what the hell are you, you dwarf? You look like you've survived off the bones of birds for all your life, and I bet if we rolled you into a ball, we could hang you like an ornament on a CHRISTMAS TREE." Malincha's hands twitched, itching to put her hands on the boy, who stared at her blankly.
"I hate to admit this, Banjo, but she's right. I'm not one to judge by looks, but is this really the devil you spent the entire night trying to recruit, or a boy scout?"
Banjo snorted, before quickly closing his mouth and turning to Pan. "That's him alright..well, he's a boy scout, but he has the devil in his body. I mean- he's a regular kid, but he has the devil in his body."
Malincha snorted. "Oh, so you don't even have any actual skills. You just rely on a power that isn't even yours?"
Pan stared at her for a few seconds, clearly resisting the urge to pounce, and slowly turned to Banjo. "So, she's needed, right?"
"Of course."
"All of her is needed? Including her mouth?"
"Right back atcha pal, I don't think we need your mouth either." Malincha retorted.
They both glared at each other, and the tension on the boat grew, Shen completely distancing himself from the situation, and Banjo caught up in the middle.
"C'mon, guys, we're a team now! We can't go to the Labyrinth like this, or we'll kill each other before the traps do." Banjo lectured, and Pan shot a final nasty look to Malincha before sliding his hands into his pockets and stalking off to another part of the boat.
Banjo sighed, watching Malincha scoff and walk off in the opposite direction, leaving him and Shen, standing on the deck. Shen yawned, putting a hand to his mouth, and started to walk towards the hammocks, but then paused.
"Banjo."
Banjo looked up. "Huh?"
"This might sound strange coming from me, but we're a long way from entering the Labyrinth if we can't even get along with each other. Figure it out, Banjo. Don't disappoint me." He shifted his gaze forward again and walked off, leaving Banjo looking up at the bright sky on the deck.
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