This is a Balto/Watchers Crossover fanfiction written by Godzillawolf. It can be read here
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The tone ranges from comical in places to horrifying in others. The plot is a crossover between the Balto films and the film adaptations of the Dean Koontz novel Watchers. The placement of the fanfic is between the first and second films, the central point being two visitors from modern day.
The plot begins in present day, with a female Husky named Tina escaping a military base, a genetically engineered Super-Soldier named the Outsider hot on her tail. The Outsider was created to replace human troops in the war on terror, but it turned on its creators and escaped, and being telepathically linked to Tina, it decides to kill her to prevent her from stopping its rampage. However, right as it catches Tina in Central Park, a lightning bolt strikes its extending metal claws, sending both back in time.
Tina ends up in Nome Alaska in 1925, where she is discovered by Balto unconscious in the snow the next day, who takes her to warm up. Tina gradually realizes where and when she is, she decides to finally hang out with Balto, who is her idol. Along the way, she discovers she is Jenna's near identical twin and that Steele, over the period of time between the movie and the fanfic, has gone insane with revenge. However, despite having some minor memory loss due to the lightning strike, she eventually remembers that there's a genetic demon out for her blood. After considering the risks to the fabric of time, she tells Balto and Jenna where and when she's from, using the fact her bandana is the exact same one as Jenna's to prove it. Things go well and they continue their interaction...that is until the Outsider emerges from the timestream as well, planning to use a blizzard to assault Nome and destroy them all. It's up to Balto, Jenna, and Tina to stop the sadistic beast's rampage before its too late.
A sequel is still in consideration.
Balto Futureshock contains examples of the following tropes:
- All Just a Dream: Both Tina and Jenna have these. Tina's turns out to be the Outsider messing with her head. and Jenna's is a vision of the future.
- Ax-Crazy: The Outsider was designed to be a bloodthristy war machine with a sadistic streak a mile long.
- Beware My Stinger Tail: The Outsider's second favorite weapon is its whip-like tail, which is also a Prehensile Tail.
- Bio-Augmentation: Tina was a normal dog, until a secret military group altered her to be have more brains than most humans.
- Bottled Heroic Resolve: Tina uses a feature built into the Outsider that allows its Healing Factor to be transmitted to others through its shed skin to heal Balto after he's beaten nearly to death by the Outsider in their first fight. However, the amount of pain it causes almost kills him before the healing completes and thus its not as useful as it could've been. According to
Word of God, lingering effects of it combined with Heroic Resolve were what let Balto survive being impaled by the Outsider. - But Now I Must Go: After the Outsider is finally defeated, Tina has to return to the future.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: The "northern lights" from the first movie, turns out the Outsider can't see through the aurora it emits, and they even hurt its eyes if shined in them. The first time, it lets Jenna escape, the second time, it's used to help them kill the Outsider.
- Death by Origin Story: Alex, Tina's brother, was hit by a car when she was a pup. Turns out to be Tina's Spirit Advisor and a friend of Aniu.
- Disney Death: Balto gets one of these after the Outsider stabs him through the chest with its claws and smashes his head against a mountain.
- Evolution Powerup: The Outsider's strongest ability is its ability to adapt to its surroundings by evolving itself. This goes to an extreme when it evolves into a canine-like creature after its first battle with Balto.
- Genius Bruiser: Tina was genetically altered to be super smart but she still knows how to kick butt is need be.
- Go Seduce My Arch Nemesis: Tina seduces Steele to stop him from attacking Balto after he was beat nearly to death by the Outsider, and it works, mainly because she looks just like Jenna.
- Gone Horribly Right: The intent of the Outsider was to be an unstoppable Super-Soldier. They succeeded. Too bad it realized it too.
- Healing Factor: The Outsider has the ability to regenerate from most damage. Its shed skin can endow others with the temporary ability to regenerate rapidly, but it comes with a massive amount of pain.
- Identical Grandson: Tina looks almost exactly like Jenna, her ancestor.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite the Outsider's rampage, Tina's time seems to have no real changes. The only ones are that Balto carried a scar from when the Outsider stabbed him and Steele would carry a limp from having his leg snapped by the Outsider. Both would've been addressed in the sequel.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: Steele beats Balto brutally after he's already severely injured by the Outsider, breaking his ribs.
- Knight of Cerebus: The story is actually pretty normal and lighthearted for most of its openning section... Then the Outsider arrives.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: After the final battle, Tina makes the past characters promise to keep the events a secret. Steele doesn't agree until he realizes that he was hitting on Balto's descendant.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: The Outsider was created to be insanely hard to kill. Not only can it regenerate, but its skeleton is made of extremely strong metal.
- One-Man Army: The Outsider's original intent was to be one of these so it could replace mundane soldiers in the war on terror.
- One-Winged Angel: The Outsider evolves into a faster canine-like form in time for the final battle.
- Noble Wolf: Balto is a heroic half wolf as always.
- Psychic Link: Tina and the Outsider are telepathically linked. Worse, Tina can stop the Outsider from hearing her thoughts, but she can't stop herself from seeing its murders.
- Shout-Out:
- When explaining she's from the future to Balto and Jenna, Tina refrences Doctor Who.
- She references Planet of the Apes at the end as well.
- Talking Animal: Animals talk from the reader's perspective. While she can't talk, Tina is able to read and write.
- Taking You with Me: After a stick of dynamite is stuck the Outsider's eye, it realizes this and raises its hand to kill Tina and Jenna...it was too late.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: Lampshaded by Tina, when deciding whether or not her time in the past, or telling Balto and Jenna she's from the future, would destroy the universe, do nothing, or completely alter the future. In fact, when she finally returns, she comments she has to go make sure the world isn't ruled by apes or the like.
- We Will Meet Again: The Outsider tells the heroes that its not over after realizing there's a lit stick of dynamite lodged in its skull and that it's about to die.
- Wolverine Claws: The Outsider's main weapon.
- Your Head Asplode: How the Outsider is finally killed, with a stick of dynamite shoved in its eye socket.
