Fanfic / Boop the Snoot for Critical Damage!

Want to know what happens when you take the high-octane action of RWBY and mix it in with the high-octane Black Comedy violence of Borderlands? The answer: Boop the Snoot for Critical Damage!

A Fusion Fic written by The_Mad_Dragon (FF.Net profile here), who is also the author of POWER RANGERS: Owl Force. The story chronicles a very different Team RWBY as they all form a team on Pandora, working with a Siren named Angel to uncover the mysteries behind the legendary Vault and ensure that Handsome Jack never gains such power. Along the way, mass mayhem, guns, loot, and lots and lots of bloody hilarious murder ensues.

Story can be also be found on Archive of Our Own here and on FanFiction.Net here.

The story has not received any updates since October 16 of 2020. According to the author, it's currently on hiatus.

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Boop the Snoot for Critical Damage! provides examples of:

• Acceptable Breaks from Canon: Due to being a Fusion Fic that takes place in the Borderlands galaxies, Dust works perfectly fine in any environment in contrast to canon, where it only worked in Remnant's atmosphere according to World Of Remnant.
• Action Girl: It's RWBY mixed with Borderlands, so this is present full stop. Whether it's Ruby being a Siren, Weiss and her deadly combat drone and summons, Blake's ninja/assassination skills, or Yang's bounty hunting skills and raw power, pretty much all of them kick ass in their own ways. Really, the only girl who doesn't qualify for this trope is Angel, and even then she's very much an Action Survivor when push comes to shove.
• Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Angel escaped her father's control thanks to Ozpin and is now both independent from him and free to live her life as she pleases. Quite the far cry from the games, where she never escaped her father's control and was mercy killed by the Vault Hunters.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • Weiss loses her entire home in a Hyperion attack and is branded a wanted criminal. The aftermath of this is shown to have a clear effect on her as she struggles not to break down in tears.
  • Blake wound up getting left on the "Screaming Death Island" after her breakup with Adam, causing her a lot of issues and rendered her a psychological mess whose grip on reality is tentative at best.
• Adaptational Badass: So much so that it now has its own page.
• Adaptational Curves: Nicholas Schnee, in the main series, was shown to be a conventionally muscular elder in both photos and flashbacks during RWBY: Ice Queendom. In this fic, based on his coat and musings by Willow, he put on quite a bit of weight.
• Adaptation Name Change: Downplayed. Claptrap usually always went by Claptrap or CL4-TP. Here, thanks to being the unit that started the robolution, he goes by Claptrap Prime, though he still gets called Claptrap for short.
• Age Lift: All the main characters from RWBY are given a slight age increase.
  • Ruby is now eighteen and about a year younger than Yang rather than two years younger, while the rest of her team and the members of JNPR are nineteen, making them all adults while in the original they were teenagers.
  • Penny's age in canon is unknown, but here, she's well over fifty years old.
• The Alcoholic: Qrow and Mordecai are of the functional addicts variety since their perpetual booze guzzling doesn't impede their fighting skills. Willow is an even bigger example since she consumes so much wine that she's never sober and can even concoct drinks that can outright incapacitate the aforementioned Qrow and Mordecai.
• Alien Blood: Bandits, no longer being human due to the Grimm masks forced on them, instead bleed a black, oil-like substance that smells of rot and decay.
• Alternate Universe Fic: Besides being a Fusion Fic with RWBY's background and lore incorporated with Borderlands, the exact time frame differs from canon, as it takes place roughly around the events of the first game, yet the events of the Pre-Sequel happened beforehand and Handsome Jack already rules Hyperion when he originally gained control after the events of the first game and the Pre-Sequel.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Angel and Ruby don't believe in magic despite them being friggin Sirens. When this is pointed out to them, they try to explain their powers, only to realize their explanations make no sense and that they're basically "space witches".
• A Birthday, Not a Break: Hoo boy. Weiss' birthday consists of her being forced on the run, losing her planet, her family's company, her father getting captured and tortured, not knowing if her mother and brother survived or what not, getting hunted by Hyperion, and just to end a shitty day, getting run over by Ruby. Yeah, this easily qualifies as the worst birthday ever.
• Black Comedy: It's set on the maddening world of Pandora, so many things like Jaune almost getting killed, Pyrrha's forceful cybernetic augmentations, Blake's lack of sanity, and anything that comes out of a bandit's mouth, all have comedic undertones.
• Born Lucky: Jaune has the inexplicable ability to just plain survive stuff that would kill anyone else. A lot of his previous exploits amount to him running away from whatever's trying to kill him and managing a lucky shot.
• Boss Subtitles: Much like the games, almost every major character and enemy has a subtitle when they are first introduced.
• Breather Episode: Both Weiss' and Blake's individual trailer chapters, while having prominent Black Comedy, follow them through their trying circumstances (Weiss having just lost her homeworld to Hyperion while being hunted by Handsome Jack and Blake being left trapped on an island Death World with her progressively losing it). Immediately after those, Yang's trailer chapter has more lighthearted comedy and is just a small adventure romp that follows Yang saving Blake and arriving on Pandora.
• Cast Full of Gay: All of the primary pairings for the story are same-sex relationships, such as Ruby/Weiss, Blake/Yang, and Angel/Gaige. Beyond those and canon examples from the Borderlands series, it's confirmed that Willow used to be in a relationship with Aurelia Hammerlock.
• Corporate Warfare: It's Borderlands, so this goes without saying. The most prominent in the story is the conflict between Atlas and Hyperion, with Hyperion reportedly winning. The SDC also tried to engage in this with Hyperion, only to fail miserably.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Every corporation either has a few or are being run by these kinds of people. Handsome Jack and Jacques being the biggest examples. Corporate owners can practically kill anyone who gets in their way at any time they want and see no repercussions.
• Covert Pervert: Well, the fact that Ilia got Blake such a skimpy swimsuit in the first place hints that she has far more untoward thoughts about her than she'd like to make public.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Practically lampshaded in-universe through narration. Insta-Youths are a miracle technology that can reverse the aging process and return a body back to its physical prime, but those high in the corporate ladder refuse to share it with anyone they see as beneath them (i.e. anyone not themselves).
• Crazy Sane: Pretty much everyone except Jaune, Ironwood, Ozpin, Roland, and Angel. Damn near everyone on Pandora has at least a few screws loose (or in Blake's case, a lot of screws loose), but being absolutely batshit nuts is really the best way to last as long as you can in a world where everything is trying to kill you in the most hilariously over-the-top of ways.
• Crossover Relatives:
  • Maria is Salvador's grandmother by virtue of being his mother's adoptive mother.
  • Gortys is also a creation of Pietro, making her Penny's sister.
• Daddy Issues:
  • Weiss has this with Jacques. When your old man is a corrupt corporate owner of the highest order who duped your grandfather into giving him the company and treats the rest of his family like tools, it's really impossible not to have some problems.
  • Angel makes Weiss look tame by comparison. Her father kept her locked up and used her as a means of taking over Hyperion and deprived her of any genuine love and affection. It's shown that she really, really hates her father and plots his death with every waking moment.
    Angel (growing progressively angry): Some fathers think- or just claim- that they're only looking out for their child's best interest, while doing more damage than good. Often times leaving the child to develop a bitter resentment, and fantasize about his brutal murder day after day, night after night. And then the child gets out from under his thumb, and plans her revenge in even more graphic detail.
• Death World: Long story short, every living thing on Pandora is murderous and wants to eat and kill everything else. Blake says in all her time there, she never encountered anything that wasn't a carnivore or outright murderous.
• Denser and Wackier: The humor and mayhem of Borderlands makes the story much goofier and more over-the-top than canon RWBY ever was. Almost every character, with few exceptions, has a few screws loose and Black Comedy is rife in the setting.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: Pietro is in critical condition in this story by the time he appears and is on life support. Penny's reason for joining the GAI is to get the medical attention needed to reverse this.
• The Dreaded: Neo by a country mile. According to her wanted posters, people are ordered to kill her on sight and if that fails, get the fuck out.
• Fiction 500: Corporations practically embody this given how ludicrous their investments and overall stocks are. Hyperion in particular makes 80 quadrillion on a quarterly basis. The Schnee family used to own their own planet and the garden of their mansion had its own mini mansion according to Weiss. Angel, despite no longer being with Hyperion, siphoned a few hundred billion dollars in seed money to start her own business. Oh, and she also legally owns the entire planet of Pandora.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Ruby is the foolish sibling to Yang's responsible sibling (which isn't saying much in this case). Ruby is a lot more ditzy and reckless than Yang, who, while definitely not what you'd call a responsible adult, has the sense to stay the Hell away from Pandora and actively warn her sister not to go near it.
• Freudian Excuse: Discussed and averted. After learning about Handsome Jack's former occupation (debugging CL4-TP robots), Blake comments that it's no surprise he became a megalomaniac. Angel immediately states under her breath that he was always "an evil piece of scum long before that."
• Fusion Fic: The lore and worlds of the two series are mixed into one setting, as Ruby is a Siren, corporations like the Schnee Dust Company, Hyperion, and Atlas litter the stars and control various planets, and Grimm are present throughout the galaxy. This is all traced back to when the opening of the first Vault led to humanity discovering interstellar travel.
• Generation Xerox: Defied in Weiss' case. She may have her mother's looks, but she's trying very hard not to become an alcoholic like Willow, even though Pandora's insanity seems hell-bent on making her take up the bottle to cope.
  Weiss: Must not form drinking habit. Genetic inclination would make it disastrous.
• The Glomp: After Ruby confirms that they're all now friends, Penny and Gortys proceed to rush forward and envelop her in a crushing hug.
• Handicapped Badass: Maria may be a blind woman who needs robotic eyes to see, but she's pretty fucking surgical with a shotgun. Even after getting an Insta-Youth, she doesn't regrow her eyes, so she's still blind and still maintains her combat prowess.
• Horrible Judge of Character:
  • Nicholas Schnee was a renowned Huntsman and corporate owner, having earned both Ozpin and Ironwood's respect. That said, he thought Jacques was a good catch for his daughter and saw fit to name him his successor.
    Ozpin: He was a good man, just not a particularly perceptive one.
  • Speaking of, his daughter isn't much better, seeing as before Jacques, she had a relationship with Aurelia Hammerlock, who makes Jacques seem pleasant by comparison.
• Humanoid Abomination: Bandits are former humans who have been mutated by the Grimm masks forced on them. They may look human, but they're utterly psychotic and bleed a black, rotting substance. In-Universe, characters actively remind themselves that while Bandits look human, they aren't anymore.
• Humongous Mecha: The Crusader mk. 1 that team RWBY, Gaige, and Angel go against is pretty huge.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Donning the special Grimm masks turns the members of the White Fang into cannibals. Adam argues that since they aren't human, it technically doesn't count as cannibalism. Blake strongly disagrees.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite the fusion of the two universes, it's implied through Angel that the events of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! still went exactly the same as they did in canon.
• Magic Antidote: Insta-Shivs may as well be this. Insta-Healing can undo any physical damage, Insta-Sober undoes the effects of a hangover in an instant, and Insta-Youth flat out restores a body back to its physical prime. The main issue that these have is, depending on the amount of damage, age, or severity of the hangover, they are also really painful. In the case of Insta-Youths, they're also very limited and mainly owned by the wealthy elite. Willow only has a few, and she's mostly planning on selling them to make enough money for her family to start anew.
• Mama Bear: Willow deeply loves her daughters. When she learned that Weiss was sent to Pandora, she stopped her rescuers, incapacitated them, and headed straight for the death world to try and help her.
• Named by the Adaptation:
  • Handsome Jack, and Angel by extension, were never given a last name in the series. Here, according to the author, their last name is Butler.
  • Gaige was never given a last name in the series. Here, her last name is Solokov.
• Playing with Fire: Anything related to fire Dust rounds. Yang also has an elemental shroud with a fire setting, which helped turn her into a giant flaming yo-yo. Weiss can also use fire Dust to turn Myrtenaster into an outright flamethrower.
• Positive Friend Influence: Winter hopes that sending Whitley to be watched after by Sir Hammerlock will help him grow up and stave off his father's influence.
• Power Incontinence: According to Yang, Ruby would create bursts and small maelstroms of razor sharp rose petals whenever she sneezed as a child. It's why she and their father always needed to have shields equipped.
• Really 700 Years Old: Ironwood states that Ozpin has been resurrecting and reincarnating for about 10,000 years at this point.
• Riches to Rags: The Schnee family after Hyperion takes over Wunderwinter. While they're no longer wealthy, Willow was able to steal multiple syringes of Insta-Youth, which she plans to sell so she can make enough to start a new life with her children.
• Sanity Slippage: The two years spent on the Screaming Death Island has left Blake with a pretty fractured psyche. She tends to lapse into monologues, has No Sense of Personal Space, and also talks to herself (or whatever corpse is nearby) thanks to having no one but murderous animals and plants as company.
• Shout-Out:
  • Nora's introductory subtitles are one to the many, many titles of Daenerys Targaryen.
  • Pandora has a subtitle in reference to the famous quote from Dante Alighieri's Inferno: "Abandon all insurance claims, all ye who enter hear".
  • Because of her appearance and color scheme, Ruby calls Pyrrha "Fire Nation Wonder Woman."
  • One of the games Gaige has is called "Exploitation of Duty 37", which is one to Call of Duty.
• Socially Awkward Hero: If you thought Ruby was this, you haven't met Angel. She actually manages to make Ruby look like a social savant. Even her character subtitles call her "The Universe's Most Awkward Siren."
• The Team Benefactor: Angel is the primary head of Guardian Angels Incorporated, financing and sending Teams RWBY and JNPR to do various jobs given by Pandoran citizens.
• Title Drop: Ruby yells out "Boop the Snoot for Critical Damage!" in the second part of chapter 1 to Yang, telling her to finish the boss monster.
• Tongue Trauma: Jack rips out Jacques's tongue as payback for lying to and double-crossing him.
• Vagina Dentata: Lampshaded by Jaune when he's running away from a swarm of rakk that have this trope.
  Jaune: WHY DO SO MANY ANIMALS ON THIS PLANET HAVE CREEPY VAGINA MOUTHS!
• Villain Team-Up: Jack confirms that he's working with Salem. The Grimm queen has apparently offered him something in exchange for his services, though what that something is has yet to be revealed.
• "Wanted!" Poster: All members of Teams RWBY and JNPR have this. Each of them also have varying bounties placed on their heads, with Blake, Pyrrha, and Ruby having the highest bounties of all of them (Blake for being a terrorist, Pyrrha for breach of contract, and Ruby for being a Siren).
• Wave-Motion Gun: Ruby upgrades her Rose Runner to transform into a massive cannon that fires what can only be described as an enormous "Fuck You" laser that eviscerates everything in its way, like all the turrets and defenses of the abandoned Atlas base.
• Wham Line: A downplayed example, but Handsome Jack calls Ozpin "Ozma" just before ending his conversation with him, confirming that he knows the truth about Oz.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The Grimm masks augment their wearers by increasing Aura, senses, reflexes, and makes the wearers undetectable to Grimm. It also drives them completely insane, such as turning the White Fang into cannibals.

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