AN: I'm running out of daylight here, so I'll probably just post one more chapter today after this and call it a night. Maybe I'll give you some time to digest all these chapters? Merr...
On the usage of the blue orb / red orb - In my own little mini headcanon, the orbs are made of the same base material, and then altered to have specific power over Kyogre and Groudon. Since they're the same base, they have a modicum of power over the opposing Pokemon, but not enough to actually control them. That's my explanation for why in the games Maxie woke Groudon with the blue orb, and Archie woke Kyogre with the red orb. There was enough control to wake them up, but not enough to actually compel them to do anything. And as for a Jade Orb? Rayquaza is powerful, more powerful than Kyogre and Groudon combined (at least by the legend in Emerald), which for me is explanation enough. My thought is that the ancestors would have tried to create a green orb of the same material, but since Rayquaza is even more powerful than the others, the orb wasn't able to contain his power. I have an evil solution to that though... Muahaha...
Chapter 21. In Which Darius Is Drugged by Doctors and a Plan is Created
May sat in the uncomfortable plastic chair, arms crossed, glaring daggers at the unconscious boy in the bed in front of her. She was torn between worrying for his well-being and wanting to hit him for being so reckless. So she settled for glaring. It didn't get much done, but it made her feel better. She nearly jumped out of her skin when the sound of her ringing PokeNav shattered the quiet. Her hands fumbled in her haste to snap it open and cease its ringing.
"Hello?" She asked shortly, wondering who in the world would want to talk to her at that exact moment.
"May?" It was Gabby. May hadn't spoken to the reporter in a while, and she wondered why the woman was calling her now. "May? Are you there?" The reporter asked.
"I'm here." She replied shortly.
"Oh good." The reporter said, sounding relieved. "I just wanted to give you a heads up since I had a feeling that you might be feeling a little tense. I know I'd be tense if I were you."
"What are you talking about?" May asked. When Gabby didn't respond, May glanced at the screen and saw that the call had been disconnected. Just as she was about to try and call the reporter back to ask her what she meant, the door opened and Tyler strode in quickly, pulling up a chair even as an embarrassed-looking Gabby and nervous looking researcher followed him in.
"I was warning you that Tyler was going to come bursting in." Gabby said with a small laugh.
"I remember you two now!" The researcher exclaimed. May quickly hushed him, and he rubbed the back of his head apologetically.
"Yeah, they're the ones who stopped Team Aqua from stealing your submarine the first time." Tyler said shortly. May cocked a look at him.
"First time? And why are you guys even here?" Tyler nodded tensely.
"Archie, the leader of Team Aqua, just hijacked Captain Stern's newly built submarine. The thing that Mr. Stone had Darius deliver before was a key component of the submarine." May nodded as he spoke.
"Yeah? So what? You came all this way to say that?" The researcher, who May finally recognised as Captain Stern, sighed and hung his head low.
"It's all my fault. I was so excited about my discovery, I hadn't considered what might happen afterwards..." May looked at the man, and then turned to Tyler for an explanation. The cameraman shook his head.
"Captain Stern was leading an underwater exploration team, and while underwater they uncovered a cavern that had been sealed for over a millennia. They found a Pokemon sleeping inside." May's eyes widened in realization.
"The Pokemon of the Sea." She muttered. Tyler nodded grimly. "We have to stop them!" She declared. "Darius said Groudon was sleep-walking and looking for Kyogre or whatever, and if they find each other, he implied that that was when they'd start fighting again!" Between them, Darius's face scrunched briefly and May instantly quieted. All four watched tensely until his face smoothed and he fell back into sleep. Tyler sighed.
"What happened with Groudon May?" He asked quietly. May shook her head.
"Team Magma had built their base around Groudon, so Flannery and I were keeping all the stupid grunts at bay while Darius went after their boss. I guess Maxie used the blue orb to wake Groudon, but according to Darius, Groudon didn't seem to pay the orb any attention at all. From what he said, I got the idea that Groudon is kind of sleep-walking right now. And I guess, when awakened, Kyogre will do the same until something else happens. He said the legend was missing more information than he'd originally thought." She finished, looking back at the boy in question. Tyler nodded absently.
"I'll try asking around and seeing if I can't get any more tidbits. Sometimes legends are recorded more thoroughly via word-of-mouth." He too shifted his attention to Darius. "How's he doing by the way?" At the question May huffed and crossed her arms once more.
"The doctors said he's absolutely not allowed to leave this bed for the next 3 days at least." She huffed. "I guess they freaked out when he got up and left despite the concussion he got earlier. Now they're trying to run all these tests to make sure his head isn't permanently messed up. He got mad at them when he woke up earlier because he wanted to hunt down Groudon, but I'm pretty sure they drugged him because he's been sleeping ever since." Captain Stern made a small noise and looked at Darius in surprise while Gabby snorted lightly.
"It's probably a bad thing that I almost expected that of him." She commented. Tyler looked back and grinned at her.
"He wouldn't be himself if you didn't." The man said simply. Gabby just shrugged.
When Darius swam to consciousness again, he was surprised to find himself feeling very light-headed and very happy. At first he was happy about feeling happy, and then he remembered that he was in the hospital because of his concussion, and the fact that he woke up happy must mean that the doctors had drugged him. That annoyed him, and so he decided to stop being happy. Having accomplished that, he decided to open his eyes. The first thing he noticed was that there were a lot of people, and none of them looked like doctors. Except the nervous one in the corner, but he didn't have the air of a doctor, so Darius ignored him. Darius tried to sit up, but as he did so the entire earth tipped impossibly and he found the ceiling where the wall should have been. That was very confusing. And if the ceiling was where the wall was supposed to be, what were all the people standing on now? He assumed it was another wall. And then he realised that he had simply fallen back in bed, and that the planet was still properly in orbit. He hoped.
"Are you okay?" The girl sitting closest to his bed asked, looking nervous. Darius wondered why she'd be asking if he was okay. He felt fine. In fact, he felt very happy. Oh, but that was because the doctors drugged him.
"I don't think he's coherent." The nervous not-doctor in the corner said, staring at Darius. Darius frowned at that. Of course he was coherent. Why was the man talking about him as if he wasn't there? He was staring right at him after all.
"I've been drugged." He informed the group. The two people who hadn't spoken yet looked at each other, frowning.
"What'd he say?" The not-doctor asked, stepping slightly out of his corner.
"I think he just said he'd been drugged." The girl said. Darius nodded in agreement, but as he did so the whole planet rocked on its axis. Darius wondered how much trouble Groudon was causing. The Pokemon must have been going on a rampage for the earth to be moving so strangely. Oh, but that wasn't the Earth, it was his head; he'd been drugged. Darius huffed in annoyance. He really didn't like being drugged.
Darius mumbled something that sounded like "Ah he-hu-pff." Darius mumbled even as his eyes slid shut and he fell back asleep. May, Gabby, Tyler, and Captain Stern all exchanged looks before looking back to the sleeping boy.
"What did he say that time May?" Gabby asked. May just shrugged.
"I think he said 'I give up.'" She translated.
"What in the world did they give him?" Gabby asked, staring at the boy incredulously. Tyler shrugged, glancing at the various standard hospital machines that surrounded the bed.
"I think they've got him on an IV so he doesn't wake up and try leaving on his own again." The cameraman suggested, looking at the needle taped to the boy's wrist. Captain Stern frowned.
"But what do we do now?" He asked, looking to the cameraman. Tyler glanced around to see that Gabby and May were also looking at him, waiting for his answer. The man sighed and crossed his arms.
"The only thing we can do is wait." He said. "We don't have any way to follow Team Aqua underwater now, so there's no way we can stop them from awakening Kyogre."
"Now hang on." Gabby said suddenly, dropping her chin in the palm of her hand. "We do have some time to stop them. Team Aqua still has to figure out where this cave is hidden afterall." Stern's face lit up at this.
"That's right!" He exclaimed. "My team and I are the only ones who know the exact location of the cave! It'll take quite a bit of searching for those criminals to find it!"
"You look like you have something to say Tyler." May commented, eyeing the reporter's frown. Gabby and Stern both turned their attention to him as well. Tyler sighed, closing his eyes.
"Team Aqua's goal is to awaken Kyogre." He said. Gabby nodded. "And Captain Stern's team were the only ones who knew that Kyogre was down there." He continued. The captain nodded and then froze, Tyler's implications catching up to him.
"You're saying that one of my men are with this Team Aqua." Stern breathed. Tyler shrugged.
"Either with them, or they might have somehow weaselled the info out without them realizing it."
"Or possibly been bribed of the information." Gabby suggested bluntly. Stern and Tyler both turned to look at her incredulously. The woman pouted. "It's possible."
"I'm afraid it very well is." Stern sighed, seeming to deflate a tad. "To be honest none of us thought that this could be in any way dangerous. It was just an amazing discovery for us."
"And there's no reason it should have occurred to you that this would be dangerous." May growled. "If it wasn't for Team Aqua and Team Magma, it really would be an innocent discovery." She fell silent, staring down at Darius, who was sleeping peacefully again. "What should we do?" She asked. The boy didn't respond however, unconscious as he was.
"The only thing we can do is wait." Tyler said quietly. "Wait, and prepare. Once Team Aqua awakens Kyogre, we're going to have to find what that legend left out."
The thing I've noticed about being on painkillers / sedatives / in shock, is that you yourself seem quite logical at the time. Example? I fell off scaffolding and shattered one of my vertebrae. At the time, my biggest concerns were the fact that all I'd had for lunch was a cheesestick (I was hungry) and that the sleeve of my flannel shirt had ripped on impact (it was my favourite shirt). Nevermind the fact that I could barely breath without stabbing pain, I was hungry and my shirt was ripped. Pure logic, right? Thus, Darius being logical. ;)