Chapter 2: Fun New Friend or Crazy Old Hermit? Part 2

Elsewhere

"You didn't think that was important!" Glynda shouts at Manning, scolding him for his earlier mistake.

"Look, Glynda! It was an honest mistake, and I said I was sorry, but it slipped my mind." Manning explained.

"I am training the next generation of Huntsman and Huntresses whose job it is to protect the world from darkness. If I were to let their safety "slip my mind," what example will I be setting?" Glynda explained her view on the situation.

"I get it. But I don't think there is anything to worry about, Emerald Forest is massive, and there's only one hermit. So it's ain't likely any of the kids will run into them anytime soon." Manning said, trying to calm Goodwitch down.

"And if anyone does, they did pass Oz's Initiation test. So they should be able to hold their own against them. It would be good for experience," he added.

Even though Glynda didn't like any part of this, she knew he did have a point. "Maybe you're right. Many of them have shown maturity and initiative since coming to Beacon."

But at that very moment, an unfortunately familiar ringing sound came from inside her pocket. And let out a big sigh. She pulled out her scroll and answered it.

"Hello?" She asked.

"Hey, Professor, how's it going?" The voice on the other end. "Give me that!" Another voice demanded.

"Professor Goodwitch, It's Weiss. Ruby's missing, and we can not find her. We need your help." Weiss explained.

Upon hearing Weiss's request for assistance, she turned to Manning with a glare. Manning took a few steps back.

Glynda was about to step out of the station When a walky-talky on Manning's belt, blares a loud message.

"ALL HUNTSMAN, COME IN! WE HAVE A LARGE GROUP OF GRIMM HEADING UP TO THE NORTHERN CAMPGROUNDS, REQUESTING BACKUP IMMEDIATELY!"

Hearing this, Manning took his walky-talky and pressed the button to talk into it. "We're on our way." With that promise, he grabs his ax from a wall hook and prepares to head out the front door. He looked back at Glynda, who was staring at her scroll, conflicted on what to do.

She was deep in thought, one of her students was lost in the woods without her team while a horde of Grimm headed towards a popular camping destination that is no doubt filled with campers who have no idea of the impending danger. Looking at Manning and making a split-second decision, she typed something on her scroll and followed Manning outside to a jeep.

As they drove off, Manning was about to ask what Glynda did. But, the only response he got was silence and a little mumble.

"I hope you are right about this, Woodrow." She said under her breath.

-x-

Team (R)WBY stood in the middle of the woods, waiting for a response from Goodwitch.

"You think she heard us?" Yang asked, concerned.

Yang got her answer when a ding came from her scroll. Not just her, Blake and Weiss got one too.

The three huntresses-in-training checked their scrolls and saw a message from Goodwitch.

-x-

If you see this message, I must inform you that I have an emergency that requires my assistance. So sadly, I'll have to postpone the scavenger hunt and have you all report back to the station.

But, if you are feeling down about this unfortunate news and still want to work on your tracking. You can receive extra credit by helping your fellow students get back to the station. Your scrolls will beep when you are near each other. I will meet up with you at the station as soon as possible.

-Goodwitch

-x-

After reading this message, another beep popped up, and on the screens was a radar map of the forest. Each time the line went around, it showed several red blips in the area that preceded to get closer to one another. They were moving in the direction of other blips.

"I guess everyone got this message." Blake deduced.

"Hey, look!" Yang says, pointing at the corner of her scroll. The monochromatic duo saw that she was pointing at a blip that was all by itself, far from any other group. With a large group fastly approaching it. "It's gotta be Ruby."

"You may be right." Weiss agreed with Yang. "We should get going."

The three girls were now on a mission to find and retrieve their young Mascot/Leader.

-x-

Meanwhile, Ruby was sitting in a clearing with her new friend, Anne. They were sharing a bag of Ruby's famous emergency cookies. Both are unaware of the light beeping coming from Ruby's pocket.

"Mmmm." Anne munched on several cookies. "Thank You! It's been so long since I've had any actual food."

"It's nothing," Ruby replied. "So, how did you get in the middle of the woods, and why are you here? Do you like weapons?" She asked in rapid succession.

"Well, Ruby, if I'm being honest, I come from ANOTHER WORLD!" Anne answered. Standing up and waving her arm emphasizes that last part.

Ruby's eyes widened with surprise at Anne's answer. "Really!?" She asked excitedly.

"Either that or this is a dream."

Ruby then patted herself. "I don't think I'm part of a dream. I do feel real."

"You're probably right about that." Anne agreed with the red-hooded girl.

"If you are from another world, do you know how you got here?" Ruby asked.

"Nope. One minute, I was in my world. Then the next thing I knew, I was here. I don't know how to get home." Anne then moved over and sat next to Ruby. "Or if I even can go home." She says, looking down at the ground away from Ruby.

Ruby noticed this and couldn't help but feel bad for Anne and tried to give her a shoulder pat of reassurance. But, Anne's demeanor changed almost instantly back to fun and carefree. "So, yup, that's my story. How about you? What are you doing in the woods?" "So, yup, that's my story. How about you? What are you doing in the woods?"

"Uh, well, I'm on a training exercise for school," Ruby explained.

"Oh, yeah? For what?" She asked with genuine interest.

But before Ruby could answer, a blast of ice comes out of nowhere and hits Anne, encasing her lower body in ice with only her head, upper torso, and right arm sticking out.

"Aaaah, WHAT THE HECK?!" Anne shouted.

Then three older-looking girls came barging into the clearing. The blonde one, in particular, runs forward and grabs Ruby, holding her in a big bear hug.

"Ruby! There you are! You got to stop running off like that! We were so worried!" Yang said, hugging her sister tightly.

"Yang! M-My Spine!" Ruby whined, trying to get Yang to stop.

"Oh sorry, a force of habit." Yang apologized, then turned to Anne, encased in the ice. The sister's monochromatic partners are on each side of her. They kept their swords close to her head with looks of suspicion on their faces.

"So, who's this?" Yang asked Ruby.

Ruby tried to explain again. But, she gets cut off again by another surprise arrival. They all look over and see several other students that Team RWBY came with, and they appear to be confused by the strange sight in front of them.

"Is that team RWBY?"

"Did their list bring them out here?"

"Who is that in the ice?"

"I don't know?"

They were asking each other until one of them spoke up.

"Hey guys, I think that's the Emerald Hermit!" That comment got everyone's attention.

"That's the Emerald Hermit?!"

"That string bean, No way."

"I don't see any other explanation."

"Team RWBY caught the hermit!"

"Guess their bouncing jellybean of a leader is a prodigy after all."

"I guess you're right."

"You owe me 30 liens."

As the students continued their discussion on what just happened, Team RWBY had their feelings about the comment about Anne.

It confirms Weiss and Blake's suspicions about why she's out here all by herself. But Yang, on the other hand, just looked at her little sister, beaming with pride.

She reached over to give her another one of her infamous bear hugs. Ruby tried to run but was unable to.

"You caught the Emerald Hermit!"

"Please don't call her that." She said to her sister but got muffled by her hug.

"You are the "bee's knees," Ruby," Yang said, complementing Ruby.

"Don't call me that," She begged, then looked at Anne with a sad and sorry face.

But Anne's face was filled with anger, betrayal, and a hint of confusion.

"You set me up?! Not cool! I thought we were connecting!" Anne shouted at Ruby.

Yang heard what Anne said to Ruby. She turned to her with an angry-looking glare. Anne could swear she saw Yang's lilac pupils briefly flash red. "What did you say-" Yang growled at Anne but got cut off when Ruby stood in front of her with her arm stretched out, signaling her to stand down.

She turned to Anne. "Anne, wait. I didn't plan any of-"

But, once again, Ruby got cut off again. This time, by the sound of trees getting knocked over. Ruby got upset and frustrated about being cut off for the third time. She stomped her foot and turned to the source of the sound. "NOW! w-what?" she tried to shout, which turned into a sheepish peep upon seeing what made the sound.

The giant Wa-Lang Grimm from before!

"Grimm!" someone shouts.

With that, everyone quickly pulled out a weapon to fight the Wa-Lang.

Anne got blown away when some of the weapons these guys used. Even when they transformed into other weapons, she could have sworn that she saw a sword turn into a gun.

A Sword! Turning into A GUN!

She looked to each side of her and saw the White-haired Princess standing with her rapier sword pointing straight at the mantis.

While the Black-haired ninja girl stood next to her, clutching a katana in one hand and what looked like a meat cleaver in the other, they were tied together with a long black ribbon.

Finally, the Blonde girl who said she was Ruby's sister swung her fist as her golden bracelets extended into a pair of gauntlets and stood tall and proud next to the ninja girl.

"WHAT THE-!" Anne tried to say but got hushed by Ruby. "I will explain all this coolness later." She promised.

Ruby jumped over and joined her teammates, standing next to Weiss. She pulled out her weapon. It extended into a sniper rifle that was much larger than her.

Everyone stands ready to fight. But strangely, the uncharacteristic Wa-Lang Grimm took a good look at the young warriors and hightailed it out of there.

They all looked at each other, confused with looks of 'What was that?' on their faces. One blonde, in particular, throws down their arms in disappointment.

"AWW, MAN! We did awesome, badass poses and everything!" Yang wined. "Even Blake and Ice Queen!" She added.

"Hey!" Weiss shouted, annoyed at Yang's remark.

"Huh, did we scare it off?" Ruby thought to herself.

Her answer came when another Grimm, resembling a massive bear-covered head to toe in bone armor. It was so much bigger than the Wa-Lang. It jumped into the fray from out of nowhere.

No.

Everyone, including Anne, stared in shock at this new Grimm. After a long moment of silence, Blake spoke up.

"I think that scared off the first one." She deduced.

And then several smaller bear's surrounded them.

"They probably are a factor as well," Weiss added.

The Alpha bear then roared at the top of its lung. The young hunters covered their ears. It made an ear-piercing roar to them. But to the other bears, it is a signal to attack.

The bear charge as the young huntsman retaliates. As that battle raged, Team RWBY was focusing on the Major. They knew that by getting rid of him, then the others would scatter.

Ruby stood in front of her team and shouted.

"Freezer Burn!"

With that, Weiss created a Glyph that commenced a massive ice block. Yang jumped in the air and smashed it into mist in a fiery blast.

The mist surrounds the huntress and the Major. Anne was trying to break free from the ice she was frozen in earlier and couldn't see what was going on because this mist was too thick. All she could do was listen to the sounds of slashing, gunshots, and roars.

In the corner of her eye, she sees a silhouette of someone running toward her. Anne was about to freak out until they came into view and revealed themselves to be Ruby. Despite the Grimm, Anne was not happy to see the red-caped brunette. "What are you-?" She asked before Ruby shushed Anne to quiet her down.

"Anne, Wait! I'm super sorry this happened. I didn't know all my classmates, team, and sister were looking for me." She explained while panting. "But I want to make it up to you." She takes a few steps back. "When I break you out, my team and I will keep the Ursa Major busy so you can get away."

"And how are you getting me out? Shoot away the ice?! HECK NO!" Anne protested. Ruby just put on a big smile when she heard that. "W-Why are you smiling?" Anne asked with a concerned look.

Ruby didn't reply as she spun her rifle around. The different parts and panels shifted until it was now a Giant Scythe!

If Anne wasn't blown away by the mech-shift weapons before, she is now! "THAT'S A SCYTHE!" She mentally screamed to herself with wide eyes.

"Yep." Ruby mouthed, making sure to pop the P.

She raised the scythe that was bigger than she was tall! "Wait! Wait! Wait!" She pleaded to the red reaper.

Ruby brings it down onto the ice as Anne closes her eyes, bracing for impact. When she opened them, she looked down and the ice crumbled into pieces around her feet.

Anne patted herself down to see if she was still in one piece. She sighed in relief and gave Ruby a thumbs up.

"Ruby! Look out! It's coming your way!" Yang shouts from the mist.

Yang turned out to be correct. The Major is charging right at her and Anne. Knowing that there was no time to get out of the way, Ruby made a split-second decision to use her scythe to intercept it. "Anne, Run!" She warned her friend. "But what about you?" She asked.

"We don't have much time," Ruby explained.

Anne ran in the opposite direction, away from Ruby and the Ursa Major. When Anne was out of sight, Ruby embedded her scythe into the ground aiming at the Alpha.

But the Major suddenly changed direction and was now trying to get away. It heads for the forest until it runs straight into a wall of ice that appeared from nowhere. The ice spread across the ground until its legs got fully encased like Anne was earlier.

The mist dispersed to reveal Weiss with her rapier sword on the ground, surrounded by a large, glowing, stylized snowflake.

"Weiss!" Ruby happily exclaimed.

The Major tried to break out, only to have a big hook-shaped blade with a black ribbon wrapped around its right arm and upper body. To Ruby, this meant only one thing.

"Blake!" She cheered.

Then, a fast-moving fireball flew in and grabbed the hooked end of Blake's weapon. Some of the flames dissipated to reveal Yang looking like her hair's made of fire. She launched herself around the Major by shooting fireblast out of her gauntlets and wrapped Blake's ribbon around the left arm and maw to hold it in place.

"Yang!" Ruby cheered, seeing her sister in action.

Yang smiled at her sister and gave a thumb up. Then goes back to helping Blake hold the Ursa Major in place. Ruby aimed her scythe again, about to fire.

When the ribbon around the Major's bony maw came loose, it flailed and snapped like crazy. Blake and Yang struggled to hold the Major in place. The ice around its feet kept breaking, and Weiss replaced it as fast as she could.

Ruby hesitated to strike. Due to the likely possibility that the Major would snap down on her if she got close. She looked around, trying to come up with a solution.

Said solution came when a figure ran in from the trees, right past where Weiss was making the ice. The heiress-turned-huntress-in-training didn't give a second thought to seeing who that was due to all her focus on the Major and not letting it get away.

The figure ran in between Blake and Yang. The duo saw them and tried to get their attention.

"What the-ahh," Blake grunted in confusion before the Major tried to break free again.

"What are you-Ugh," Yang tried to say before the Major cut her off.

They ignored the two huntresses and hopped onto the ice. They climbed up the Major's back using its bone spikes as foot leverage. Once they reached the Major's head, the figure used a thick sharp-pointed stick they brought and put it in the Ursa Major's mouth! They struggled for a bit, in an attempt to keep the Grimm's head up and from biting anything.

Ruby saw all that from afar and, to her horror, instantly recognized the person on the Major.

"ANNE?!" Ruby shouted with wide eyes filled with horror and concern for her new friend's wellbeing.

"Do something!" Anne shouts at Ruby, her eyes briefly flashing blue.

Ruby shook her head to free herself from any more doubts and aimed. She knew that this is about as still they, or anyone for that matter, can get an Ursa Major to be.

She let out a big sigh. Ruby kept her head down and focused on taking out the Ursa Major. "And, their fearless leader, Ruby."

She aims at the Major and pulls the trigger.

"Are Huntresses-."

The blast sends Ruby and her scythe flying towards the Major, surrounded by rose petals.

"-who stands to fight any that threatens the innocent!"

In a split second, the Grimm Bear's body got sliced clean in half with its upper torso with Anne on top flying.

"Waaaaahhoo-oof!" Anne shouted, not expecting to have gotten launched that far.

The still-living upper torso fell out of the air and landed right in front of her. It raised its massive arm in Anne's direction. She looked away, closed her eyes, and raised her arm to brace for the attack.

But the arm fell limply beside her. She gazed into the Grimm's skull and saw its eye sockets were empty, meaning that the Ursa Major was down for the count.

Anne got up and looked around for Ruby as the Major's body disintegrated into dust. The lower half of the Major's body, the part still in the ice, also disintegrates along with the ice, leaving only Blake's ribbon.

Blake then collected her weapon and resheathed it. She looked around and saw Yang chanting about their victory. Weiss gets back on her feet and lets out a sigh of relief. As for their classmates, the Ursa Minor's sensed their leader was slain and wasted no time getting out of there.

Anne still walked around but got trampled by a red petal cloud. When it dispersed, Ruby pulled Anne off the ground onto her feet. She was holding her hands and jumping up and down.

"We did it, Anne!" Ruby squeaked in excitement. "We did it!"

"Yeah, we did!" Anne shouted with the same energy and raised her hand. "Up top!"

The two high-fived, and after that, Anne saw Ruby's eyes widen as she smelled the air. Ruby followed this by putting her hands over her nose and mouth.

"What's that smell?" She asked.

Anne sniffed around, and she knew where it was from immediately.

"Oooh, that's probably me. My bad." Anne apologies. "Been out here for what's probably a month."

"That's ok," Ruby replied.

"Ahem." Three voices say from behind the pair.

Ruby turned around to see her team standing behind her with their arms crossed, with you've got a lot of explaining to-do looks on their faces. Seeing this makes Ruby shrink into her cloak.

"Uhh, you see- Earlier, I saw a-" Ruby nervously tried to explain while sweating bullets.

But suddenly, a large, black object comes flying out of the trees right past Anne and team RWBY.

"Incoming!" Yang shouted to warn everyone. Blake heard her partner and jumped to the left.

"Waah!" Ruby squeaked and ducked down with her hands on her head.

"Whoa!" Anne said, surprised, and moved out of the object's trajectory.

"What in the world!" Weiss said, bewildered by the sudden appearance of this object.

The big ball flew until it hit a tree and rolled into the middle of the clearing showing the young hunters it was the decapitated head of Wa-Lang that was just here and disintegrating into nothing. After that, a voice from where the Wa-Lang head came from called out to the student.

"There you are!"

The students turned to see Goodwitch and Manning arriving to check upon them.

"Manning and I have been looking all over for you." She scolds.

"When I found that many of you have not arrived at the station. I knew something was wrong." Glynda explained, glancing at her students to do a headcount.

It wasn't until she got to team RWBY that she counted an extra head. This head appeared to be having a lengthy discussion with RWBY.

That was enough to get her attention. She stopped her scolding and moved toward them.

-x-

"And then we went -Woosh- under a log when the Wa-Lang came out of the woods. Afterward, we shared cookies." Ruby explained to her teammates everything that happened before they arrived.

Anne stood on stand-by to let Ruby get her team caught up. She looked over to the left at the others as they were preparing to leave. But when Anne heard Ruby and her team go silent. She looked down hesitantly and saw the adult woman's shadow falling over her. She slowly turned to see Goodwitch standing behind her, giving her trademark Goodwitch Glare.

"Pardon my intrusion, But what are you doing in this private sector of the Emerald Forest?" She demanded, keeping her eyes focused on Anne.

Anne was sweating bullets, trying to choose her words wisely.

"U-Uhhh, Just passing through." Anne sheepishly replied, trying to sound serious.

Manning then walked over to Glynda and got a good look at Anne.

"Glynda, you don't think that's who I think it is?" He asked her after coming up with the most likely conclusion.

Anne heard this and took a few steps back. "Oh, would ya look at the time?" She said, surprised, looking at her imaginary watch. "I should probably get going. If you could give me some directions or maybe a map, that would be..."

But Goodwitch knew what she was trying to do and cut her off mid-sentence. "Young lady, you have a lot of explaining to do."

She demanded.

At that moment, Anne just lost it. "SEE YA." She shouts while trying to bolt for it. She ran as fast as she could. Anne looked around to see how far she had gotten. But strangely, she saw RWBY and the others just staring at her. She looked down and saw that her feet weren't touching the ground. She was covered head to toe in a purple glow. Anne looks back at Goodwitch, holding her riding crop straight at Anne. It was glowing purple, just like her. Anne then came to only one conclusion that scared her to her core.

"TEACHERS WITH SUPERPOWERS!" She shouts, freaking out. "NIGHTMARE REALIZED!"

When Ruby saw this, she ran between Glynda and Anne with her arms raised to defend Anne.

"Wait, Miss Goodwitch!"

Glynda was taken off guard by this. "Miss Rose, what are you-?"

"I'm the one who should be in trouble. Not Anne, not my team, and not the rest of the class. I left my team when you told us not to. So make me clean the classroom, or put me in a corner. Anything, please don't punish anyone else." She begged her teacher.

Glynda took a moment to think about what Ruby said. She seems to want to protect Anne. She looks at Anne, who looks like she will do anything that doesn't end with her in a jail cell.

She lets out a big sigh and looks at Ruby straight in her wide silver eyes.

"I see you do want to help Miss...Anne, am I right?" She asked Ruby.

Ruby nodded.

"Know this, no matter what I choose to do. We still have to take Anne back to Beacon to let Headmaster Ozpin decide what will become of Anne. If you truly, want to make things right. Then you will have to explain to him about Anne's situation."

"I'll do it!" She promised her teacher.

"Very well then." Glynda then turned to the other students.

"Alright, students, the sun's going down. Let's head back to the station. The bus is most likely waiting for us." She announced.

After all, was said and done, the students follow their teacher and Manning back to the station. Walking in the back of the crowd, Ruby and her teammates talked with Anne. The three older girls are now cool with her, For the most part, and have been properly introduced to each other earlier.

"Thanks, Rubes, you saved my butt back there." Anne thanked Ruby for her courage.

"Yeah, that's my baby sis for you. Grade A Huntress material." Yang proclaims proudly, wrapping her arm around Ruby.

"Alright, I will admit this, Ruby. what you did back there was both mature and foolish of you." Weiss admits to her. "It's good progress for someone who behaves like a dolt."

Blake then had her turn to speak. "Ruby, I hope you know what you're doing."

"I'll be fine, Blake," Ruby assures her raven-haired teammate. "I think so." Blake's reassurance faded away after that.

Weiss groaned and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "That's it! We're going with you when you report to Ozpin."

Anne looked away, feeling unsure about all this. "Hey, should I be worried about your school and your principal?" she asked.

"What! No! Beacon is the coolest, most awesome school ever." Ruby squeaked.

"You got that right! And everyone there is super cool and epic. They are also very nice." Yang added. "Well, almost everyone." Now recalling several rotten eggs they encountered. More like nasty birds.

"And don't think of doubting Headmaster Ozpin," Blake said, talking about their headmaster to Anne. "He has a reputation for being honest and understanding."

"And please, for God's sake! Try and make his first impression of you a good one," Weiss begged.

"I'll try." Anne shrugged.

With that, the young huntress-in-training and their new friend began their journey back to Beacon Academy.


Author's note: And that's Chapter 2. Let me know what you think, and as always. Constructive criticism is allowed. Trolling is not.

Next Chapter: Proper 'Anne'terductions

Some other things to note:

I'm just going to say this to get it out of the way. We are going to Amphibia eventually. I do agree it is not an Amphibia crossover without, well, Amphibians.

And in my last note, I said things, events, and characters will be different from the original show. I won't go into much detail, But I will add and change some things about RWBY. I got this idea from reading DragonoftheEastblue's Dreams Do Come True fanfic. According to them, the CRWBY have retconned many things on the show since V3. And they went into detail on what was and what wasn't retconned.

Also, character development you never leave home without character development.

So yeah, until next time. AutoHunter Rolling out of the hunt.