AN: Maybe a little short, and sorry for the wait, but it's October and I wanted to start it off right!
"WHO DARES- oh, uh, OH! IT IS YOU AGAIN! WHY DO YOU COME BEFORE ME WITHOUT FULFILLING THE TASK AT HAND! FOR THIS YOU SHOULD RECEIVE 1000 YEARS IN THE DUNGEONS!" The floating face of Campbell roared.
"Check it." Max countered, taking the dagger out of his pocket. "Not only that, we also took care of your little 'Evil Warlock' problem, too."
"Wait, what?"
"Yep, Daniel's dead. It's official. Ding-dong and all-that." Max replied evenly.
Now, he could see the head was sweating profusely, not believing his eyes or ears at what he was being given. "UH… UM…"
"Yeah! Now you've gotta make good on your promises, Wizard!" Nikki exclaimed excitedly. "Just a recap; I wanna be cool!"
"I want a lab!"
"I wanna go to SPAAAAACE!"
"YES, WELLL… UHHH…" The head stammered.
"C'mon, 'All-Powerful-Wizard'," Max snarked liberally using air quotes. "We did what you asked and brought you proof, too."
"I SEE, BUT… UH… YOU HAVEN'T LEARNED THE LESSON YET!" The head replied, perking up.
"F*cking WHAT?!" Max roared.
"A LESSON ON HUMILITY… AND PATIENCE… AND ACCEPTING DISAPPOINTMENT WITH GRACE AND DIGNITY," the head said
"THAT'S COMPLETE F*CKING BULLSHIT!"
The group looked at Max, who was equally startled and they all turned to-
Space Kid?!
"Mr. Wizard! I may not be the brightest, or the smartest, or the best at thinking, or… uh… the brightest! But I know when you're just pulling our legs! We risked our lives for you and you're just pulling straws to get out of your promise!" The floating dentures argued angrily. "So, you know what?! You're gonna give us our wishes as a thank you for what we did for you!"
The small boy kicked an ornament on the floor angrily.
Only for it to spark suddenly and the face to distort on the smoky backdrop. Max saw the smoke cloud illuminated by those 'movie camera' light rays you always think actually show up from a projector.
The head, which was losing definition and fritzing every few seconds. "UH.. PAY NO ATTENTION, CHILDREN… THE UH…"
But Space Kid had lost his balance, stunned by the sparks and toppled backwards into a velvet curtain decoration in the room's walls. He grasped the material-
*rrriiiiiiiip*
The curtain came right off the rungs, revealing an enormous display of beeping and blinking components, some starting to spark wildly.
And in the center of it all-
Was a large, muscular man wildly pushing buttons and pulling knobs and speaking into a low-hanging microphone. He glanced behind himself at the four confused kids and desperately tried hiding his face behind his back.
The booming voice doubled over with the original overlapping with the modified without the curtain "UH… JUST… DON'T PAY ANY ATTENTION TO THE MYSTERIOUS, GOOD-LOOKING MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!"
The entire apparatus gave one final, explosive sparkler show before it died, along with the smoke effects and the giant head projection. The man inside frantically pushing whatever he could, even punching the materials as it whirred to a pathetic stop.
…
…
"WHAT. THE. F*CK!" Max shouted.
"Uh, I can explain!" The faux-Wizard said nervously…
…before suddenly sprinting for the exit. Unfortunately, Nikki-beast was on his legs and he was sprawled on the ground before he could make it a few steps.
"Who are you?!" Neil demanded.
Surprisingly, Max answered, "He's Cameron C. Campbell. Supposed-billionaire, supposed-philanthropist, supposed-man-of-the-wild, and most-likely a very wanted bastard in America, Russia, Taiwan, and arguably most of Europe. And owner and operator of the shittiest excuse for a scam summer camp to ever grace the planet. Am I right?"
Despite their absolute confusion, the other members of the travelling party could only watch as the small 10-year-old engaged in a heated stare-down with the older 'wizard'.
…
"You're right. Max, wasn't it? Davey always had a soft spot for you." Campbell admitted, brushing himself off and standing in front of them. "Yes, my name is Cameron Campbell, owner of a particular Summer Camp that your little friend, here, attends… or, I suppose used to attend?"
Max shrugged, "Meh, 'sfar as I'm concerned, that's not the point. What I want to know is how in the Hell are you here?"
"Heh, you always were more observant than the others, weren't you kid?" Campbell muttered. "Fine. I first came to this world by complete accident. It was 1983. I was just on my way back to the good ol' US of A from a brief vacation in Eastern Asia."
Cameron C. Campbell gritted his teeth angrily as he grappled the control stick of a tiny bi-plane he'd stolen… er, 'acquired' from an Asian military base. The heavy winds and rain of the monsoon was murder on his visual range, but he kept going.
The wing had taken damage from that one tank shell they managed to get off and the engine had started burning out half a mile over Guam, so he was working off an engine that had heavy, thick black smoke pouring out of the front hood.
"C'mon! C'mon! Papa needs to get back to government sanctioned protection from extradition!" He bellowed into the winds.
Then, his plane was forced to do a hard-left as a major gust pushed him off-course. The plane's engine made stuttering sounds before it shuddered to a stop.
Campbell's enraged cries of denial were boarderline hysterical as the plane spiraled out of control. Through the blurred and rotating world, he could make out the ocean waves rapidly approaching.
Then, it slowed to a stop.
The plane righted itself.
"Hah! Cameron C. Campbell wins again!"
And started being pulled backwards.
"What the what?"
The winds turned his craft behind him.
Towards the towering vortex of death.
"Oh, FUUUUUUUUUU-"
"And that's how I ended up here!" Campbell boomed. "After that, I ended up somewhere in the countryside and decided, 'what the hey', I can live here for a while. Free from the possibility of any negative repercussions with any Earth government entities!"
…
"So that's it?" Neil asked faintly, "This whole time… you've just been one big lie?!"
"Don't look so down, boy. Sometimes life just isn't fair and you need to embrace that and move on!" Campbell replied, beaming insincerely.
"Anyways, after I found this place and a stable way to get from here to Earth in a jiffy, I figured I might learn how to exploit the land of Oz as dual Prime Minister of Thailand, Minor Oligarch of Russia, and Wizard/King/President/Emperor of Oz!"
"… what?" Nikki whispered.
Max took a second out of his haze of anger and saw his companions' faces clearly. Devastation was an absolute understatement. They were crushed, mentally and spiritually. The leader they had looked up to as a powerful, benevolent, kind influence was nothing more than a conman, liar, and cheat.
Even by his cynical standards, that had to hurt.
"Now, I learned about Ozpin a while back and I challenged him for this role in a completely fair game of charades!" Campbell continued, "God, it works like a charm every time."
"It's how he got the lands for Camp Campbell from a native tribe." Max elaborated unnecessarily at this point. It didn't matter; his friends were too deep into shock to really absorb anything.
"Well, after the Parent's Day Incident landed me in Super Guantanamo, I decided I needed to lay low for a while until the heat laid off of me. I'm still angry at Davey for it, but… well, that's something for another time, don't you think?" Campbell chuckled, thought Max felt uneasy about it, "So, a quick escape from Super Guantanamo and a stolen jet later and I'm here! Ready to resume my position as the good Wizard of Campbell! Still working on changing the name of this place, though."
"So, you know that there are doppelgangers of everyone here? David, Gwen, Neil, Nikki?"
"Of course! It's hard not to come across one of them. And the Davey here is just as eager to please, isn't he?" Campbell replied seriously.
"D-doppelgangers?" Neil stammered, "You mean you know us?"
"I know someone who looks like you." Max corrected. "Don't look too deeply into it, you'll just get a headache. But what I'm interested in is you, Campbell. Who was your doppelganger?"
Campbell shuddered, "Ugh, don't remind me. I turned out to be some cow farmer. I even lost my good looks! I had a pot-belly for Christ's sake!" He sighed, "Thankfully, that was taken care of very quickly by a completely-by-chance stampeding herd of cows."
Max's gut fell through the floor. "S-so you-"
"Son, don't ask questions you don't want the answers to." Campbell warned seriously. "Anyone with a modicum of power can tell you they've done some dark things to get where they are."
…
"H-holy f*cking shit." Neil whispered.
"So, you kids want your wishes, huh?" Campbell went on, ignoring the horrified faces surrounding him. "Well, I'm sorry to say that I'm not magical in the slightest. But, Maxwell, I can say I can give you your wish!"
"Say wha-?"
"Exactly! I got here, so I can get us both out! So, meet me in the courtyard this afternoon! Ta-ta!" And with that Campbell vanished behind the curtains to some hidden escape route in the walls.
…
…
They somehow stumbled their way out back onto the lawn, this time without any guard escort.
…
…
…
"I… I can't believe it." Nikki whispered brokenheartedly. "All this time."
"I can't believe we were all duped for so long." Neil agreed.
Space Kid didn't respond, but his floating eyeballs leaked like crazy into the depths of his space suit. Max didn't even feel the need to cringe this time at the anatomical impossibility.
He… honestly felt really shitty for them. For once, he wasn't the one who caused the suffering, but he could empathize with them. This shit-head thought he could get away with this? No way in Hell.
…
But at the same time… he had an opportunity to leave. Who was he to just… leave what was probably his best and only chance to get back home?
He honestly felt… just… bad.
He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Hey, guys?"
"No, Max, don't." Neil said, smiling softly, "It's not your fault and we don't want you to feel guilty about your wish."
"Yeah," Nikki agreed, "You deserve to at least get back home. We'll miss you, yeah, but it isn't fair to keep you here if you don't want to."
"I mean, our wishes aren't out of the question!" Space Kid said perkily.
"Yeah! I can still apply for a position here to get into one of the city's labs! With Campbell under our thumb, he can probably give a good recommendation."
"And those Flower-Scouts are totally going to bow at my feet when I get back to the jungle! Ha! I'll be the coolest cat/dog/hog in the jungle!"
"And our space program is making huge strides in interstellar transportation! If I study hard enough and follow a military or specialized career path, I can get into the space program eventually!"
"But you probably only have this one chance to get back home." Nikki finished, the others nodding along with her, "Yeah, we're disappointed, but… we want you to be happy too. Even if it's not with us."
…
Max blinked.
…
*fwip-hug-fwip*
…
"That never happened!" Max shouted vehemently. It took a second to process it, but the three others could confirm, Max did indeed hug all three if incredibly briefly.
"Aww, Max-" Nikki cooed, eyes growing wide.
"Seriously! Don't look too deeply into this!" Max threatened.
"GROUP HUG!"
"WHAT!? NO-AUUUGH!" Max couldn't protest further as he was immediately suffocated in a four-way hug with him in the center. Being pretty much the smallest one there, meant he couldn't duck under anyone's legs like a smothering great-aunt at Christmas.
When they let go, Max was burying his head in his raised shoulders to express his grumpy displeasure.
"C'mon," Nikki replied. "Let's go see what the "Whizz-ard" wants. Eh? Eh? Get it, I said 'whizz', like pee! 'Cause he's a loser! *snort*!"
They groaned at the pitiful pun and made their way to the courtyard.
AN: Okay, people, let's start wrapping it up!