Balto’s Battalion (Crossover)

Perhaps you’ve heard of the legendary stories behind me and the Yukon deliveries that I helped to make, but ever since the freak accident of the powers of that being known as Cripto that brought a bunch of us into the real world, I, Balto, have taken up a new image. I’m an Army General now, and to the delight of the human protagonist of light, Blue, I can accompany his flute playing with my snare drum playing. There seems to be a bunch more of those, but percussion does indeed make or break a marching band.

If you don’t count the Hellcats and their duties at West Point every day, I’m probably the only Army General to drill troops around with the art of drumming. It’s a nice touch. In this modern day and age, music is needed more than ever, but the government doesn’t realize that. Budget troubles lead all these bands that were once prominent to close down; the U.S. Air Force, for instance, had a band that had to quit performing because of budget problems. That, at least, was the case until Cripto’s huge funding got it to start back up again, and the other G-52s that are in marching bands made him promise to take it back if the government didn’t see the importance of music. Leo the Patriotic Lion’s influence, however, was more than enough to convince them of that.

Today, it seemed that I’d have to form my own army to save the day, because both Blue and the Marching Wonder (Leo the Tiger) had been taken hostage. But nobody knew if this was another of Bendraqi’s lame attacks, or if somebody else had been doing the kidnapping. Being who I am, I naturally called on the actions of Leo the Patriotic Lion, Tanner the Tiger, Tom the Patriotic Tiger, John the Tiger, and Torsten Soldat, amongst others. Naturally, I began drumming as I made the announcement.

“This is a crisis, men,” I began. “The Marching Wonder and his friend, Blue, have been take hostage once again.”

“I just hope it’s not Bendraqi,” Leo replied. “Old nutso fatso almost killed Blue twice.”

“That is something to show concern for, yes,” I replied back, “but whoever did the kidnapping means business. We need to rescue them at once!”

“You can count on us to do so, sir,” said Super C. “We’ve got the radar that will let us find it.”

Soon we began our trek, marching off to the battlefield. We had our own little band as well; Torsten joined in on his own snare drum, and Leo the Patriotic Lion had a bass drum to help. Tom was playing his own fife alongside Tanner’s trumpeting. John, meanwhile, had his own baton going for him. Even though it was I who was yelling “Hup, 2, 3, 4!” during the drilling, it was really John that was leading the parade, given he was using the baton. It was a sight to behold. Nothing makes me motivated like seeing musical instruments boosting morale and accompanying the tramp of marching feet.

While we did this, the G-52s that have flight powers flew high in the sky, looking for the hideout. It seemed they had a system that went from bottom to top of the rainbow, because the furthest away but first signs of a possibility led a purple dot to show up on their radars. The dot changed from purple to indigo to blue, and then to green, yellow, and orange, the closer we got. When the dots turned red, we knew we had found it. This was especially evident with Super C’s super-hearing picking up grunting from the dungeon they were trapped in, when his X-ray vision picked up sights of the two prisoners trying all they can and making no progress.

“Company, halt!” I ordered before allowing Super C to tell me what was going on. “Now how can we get in?” I wondered.

“We haven’t got Cripto with us,” Super C replied. “He’s in Eterna resting from a battle of his own.”

“I’ll have to blow it up, then,” Boomcat put in. “But know this, General Balto. These explosive aren’t going to take any lives away. All it will do is let is in the front door.”

“Go to it!” I said with a salute. Boomcat placed the breeching charges on the front door and signaled for us to get back to safety. When the explosion occurred, I yelled, “CHARGE!” Tanner played the correct bugle call to accompany this, and we rushed into the hideout and began to fight the attacking goons that attacked. Blue screamed inside the dungeon because he thought the place was collapsing, and wanted to scream again when Super C used his heat vision to burn a hole in the dungeon ceiling, but the Marching Wonder kept him in line with his whistle. The Cat of Steel then told them both to grab on as he flew them to safety.

Meanwhile, my battalion and I broke into the main control and had to face the reality we feared we’d face. It was Bendraqi! “I’m amazed you didn’t try to kill them this time,” I said.

“NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, DOGGIE!” Bendraqi screamed as he lunged for me. “HERE; HAVE A BONE!”

“I’m not exactly a dog,” I said. “I’m a wolf-dog mix.”

“WHATEVER!” The ugly beam of his creation then tried to grab me, but I dodged every attack. Eventually, Leo let it grab him so he could mangle with it, and Bendraqi was trying every nook and cranny to fry the lion with the huge voice. When it wasn’t making progress, I called for Torsten to fire a shot with his rifle, and he did so. The beam went to pieces, freed Leo, and left Bendraqi looking like a silly mess. Boomcat then arrested him and flew him back to Alcatraz.

We stopped later by Leo the Patriotic Lion’s house to rest, where Blue couldn’t stop showing his gratitude. “Just doing our duty,” I said. “Now I’d like to see you do yours.”

Blue agreed and used his orb to turn himself into a dragon, and then tooted his flute alongside my drumming and oral commands. The marching musicians later joined in, and we had our own little parade going again. The Marching Wonder led the way to Marching Greens alongside John, and he used his baton to create stirring patriotic images along the way. It was a fun time for all of us. Most importantly, we saw our duty and did it, and Bendraqi was once again back behind bars where he belongs.

THE END

---

Blue ©  bluemario1016 and used with permission; this was a request from him
Balto (film) © Amblin Entertainment

---

Written for THE MONTH OF LEO.