The Rise of Kyogre and Groudon Chapter 2: "Search"

-Team Magma Base, Mt. Chimney-

Maxie was still quite thrilled about his "victory" at Mount Pyre. They had managed to get the Red Orb before Team Aqua could lay their hands on the Blue Orb. However, he realized that their work was still far from over.

"Where is Groudon?" Maxie asked one of the grunts at the giant computer console.

"We're still searching for its resting place, Boss," the grunt replied.

"Well, why is it taking so long?"

"To be perfectly honest, the computer doesn't know what to look for. It wouldn't have any sort of past energy signature with which to track Groudon, seeing as the creature was alive before any sort of technology like this existed."

"Grrr... What good is this stupid orb if we don't have any clue as to the whereabouts of Groudon?"

Suddenly, one of the other grunts spoke up. "Sir, I have an idea. Why don't we use the orb to tell us where Groudon lays?"

Maxie was taken aback by this suggestion. "Explain yourself."

"Well," the grunt continued. "The creature was sealed away long ago by the orb, right?"

"Yesssssss..." Maxie replied.

"Well, wouldn't it make sense that the orb would have some sort of 'recorded' energy pattern which might match Groudon?"

"Wait a minute... that does make sense! You're a genius! What's your name?"

"Carl, sir."

"Well, Carl, I'm promoting you to administrator effective immediately!"

The look on Carl's face was a mixture of pure surprise and pure bliss. "Really?! Thank you so much, sir!" Carl left the room looking very happy knowing that he would be important.

Maxie went back to being serious. "What are the rest of you waiting for? Put the orb in the Energy Analyzer!"

As one of the grunts pushed a button, a strange-looking device came out of the ground. A black, circular pedestal on a beige pedestal shot out of the ground. At the same time, a glass tube descended from the ceiling, but stopped shortly after coming out of the ceiling.

Maxie handed the Red Orb to one of his grunts and watches as she placed the orb on the pedestal.

"Start the Energy Analyzer!" Maxie bellowed to his group.

When the grunt at the device pressed the red button, the glass tube fell the rest of the way and into place over the device. Maxie and the rest of the team present in the computer room then put on pairs of sunglasses. When the tube was in place, a blinding light covered the room as the analyzer went to work on the orb.

-Meanwhile, at Team Aqua HQ, in the rock formations near Pacifidlog Town-

A blinding flash of light covered Archie's room within the base as he and the other members of Team Aqua assigned to Mount Pyre came into existence in the room.

"What do we do now, sir?" One of the grunts asked politely.

"Quite simple. We put the Orb in our energy analyzer in order to find Kyogre. Then we go and awaken him before Maxie and those Team Magma goons wake Groudon!!!"

As the grunts walked to the computer room, one of the grunts looked a little confused as to why their boss would know so much on the subject.

"Sir, if you don't mind me saying so, you seem to know a lot about the orbs."

"Well, unlike my rival Maxie, I am quite well-versed in the legend of Kyogre and Groudon. I think he just found out about them very recently."

"How did you find out about them?"

"When I started this team several years ago, I already had the goals and means in my head. You see, I found out about them while studying at a university long before I even had the idea to found Team Aqua. When I read about the amount of water Kyogre could create, I thought to myself, 'What could I do to use that kind of power to help the world?'

"And then it occurred to me. Create more water habitats for water Pokemon, and at the same time, give the world more water to drink! Then I read about the Orbs and how they controlled the seal on both Kyogre and Groudon. I knew I needed the orbs in order to wake them, but the book didn't say where they were. It wasn't until days ago that I found out the orbs were on Mount Pyre."

As the group entered the computer room, Archie stopped reminiscing about the old days and looked toward the future which was held within the orb and the computers in front of him.

"Put the Orb on the pedestal of the analyzer."

Unlike Maxie's analyzer, this one has a metal tube which performs the same purpose as the glass tube on Team Magma's version. As soon as the orb was on the analyzer, the tube was lowered.

"Start the analyzer!" Maxie bellowed.

A motor started running, and unlike Team Magma's version, this one shone only a few beams of light out of its tube. It took about 30 seconds to do the job, but after the motor stopped running, a signal appeared on a small island on the map of Hoenn on the computer screen in front of them.

"Yes! That must be Kyogre's resting place!"

The map showed the signal to be on one of a pair of islands to the southeast of Mossdeep City. Archie was quite excited about being one step closer to realizing their dream.

However, one grunt was a little more realistic. "Sir, how do we know where on the island Kyogre is sleeping?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I would assume it would be sleeping in a cave of some sort, but how do we know we can enter it?"

"Keep talking."

"Well, maybe the entrance is aboveground, and maybe the entrance is underwater."

"Hmmm... Good point. Fortunately, we have a solution handy for just such an occasion."

Archie pressed a button next to what looked like an intercom system for the entire base. "Harriet, please come to the computer room now."

In a few moments, a young woman who was clad in blue much like the rest of the team walked into the room.

"You rang, Archie?"

"Yes I did. I have a job for you to do."

"Yes?"

"Well, I need you to do some spying and find out about this island," pointing out the signal onscreen. "See if you can't discover if there is a cave on the island and where the entrance is."

"How am I going to do that?"

"That's easy. Use your computer hacking skills and see if you can't get into that moron Giovanni's satellite system. He is cocky and doesn't think we have the technology to hijack one of his satellites."

"Understood, sir." She walked out of the room very calmly.

"Do you think she can do the job?" One of the grunts asked inquisitively.

"That's why we hired her in the first place. She's tops when it comes to hacking into computer systems all over the world and beyond. If anyone can figure out how to use those satellites, she can."

-Harriet's Room-

"At last! I've been waiting for a job that would challenge me, and it looks like Archie finally gave one to me. Even though he says that Giovanni won't see it coming, I'm still going to be very careful."

She turned on what appeared to be a normal laptop computer, but in fact had one of the most powerful antennas in the world. With the right set of commands and addresses, this computer could breach even the most stout of security measures.

After Harriet brought the computer online, she began to search for the address of the computer network controlling the orbital satellites held by Team Rocket. It didn't take long at all for her to find the location of Giovanni's controlling computer network.

However, now came the hard part, infiltrating the computer system without Giovanni noticing. In order to do that, she would need to crack the password. At first, she thought this might be hard, but following Archie's advice, she tried an obvious password, "Rocket".

Surprisingly, this password unlocked the system. Suddenly, the entire system's resources were made available to her.

"I guess Archie was right. Giovanni didn't think I could do this. Now to get the info Archie's looking for..."

-Team Magma Base, Computer Room-

"How much longer will this take?!" Maxie was starting to get a little impatient.

"I'm sure Laura is working as hard as she can to find the data we need, but while we're waiting, I have a question."

Maxie sighed. "Well, I guess I need a distraction for a moment. What do you want to ask?"

"Where did you get the idea to awaken Groudon?"

"Well, it began many years ago. I was a decent trainer with decent Pokemon. I could beat gym leaders like everyone else can, but something seemed wrong. I wasn't happy with my success. I remember thinking to myself, 'What's wrong with me? I should be happy with how I'm doing, and yet I'm not.'

"It was soon after that, I realized that the empty feeling inside of me was because I wasn't helping anyone out. I could have all of the success in the world, but it wouldn't mean a thing if I couldn't do anything to help both humans and Pokemon.

"I then started looking at books every chance I got when I visited towns on my training route. I found many different ways I could help, but to me, it was all too small. I needed to do something that would not only help people and Pokemon, but also make my mark on history.

"It wasn't until two years ago, when I visited a small college outside the rural town of Fallarbor that I found the ticket. It was a book about Groudon and Kyogre. When I read about the power that Groudon possessed, a thought occurred to me. 'Humans need land to cultivate and make their own. If I could make more land by awakening Groudon, the world would celebrate me as a hero! The best part is that land Pokemon would also gain new habitats to live in, thus helping both Pokemon and humans!"

"That's great, Boss, but what does that have to do with Team Magma?"

"Simple. After reading the legend, I knew I was going to need help to pull off the job. It didn't matter that I had no idea how to awaken Groudon, if I could get some help, we could do it together."

Suddenly, the door opened to the computer room. A red-garbed young lady walked in, laptop in arm.

"So, Laura, what's the word?"

"Well, Giovanni's satellites were easy to crack. Of course, my search found someone else on the system, but that's no concern to us."

"What did you find out?"

"There's good news and bad news. The good news is that the suspected caverns below the island do exist."

"So that's where Groudon is!"

"Wait a minute, Maxie. You haven't heard the bad news, yet."

Maxie looked at her with trepidation in his face. He must have known that he was not going to like what he was about to hear.

"The entrance to the cavern is through an underwater passageway near the island."

"What?!!" Maxie was clearly not thrilled with this answer.

-Team Aqua Base, Computer Room-

"What did you find out, Harriet?" Archie asked with a gleam in his eye.

"Well, there is a cave beneath the island in question. However, the entrance is not on the surface. It's instead entered through an underwater passageway underneath the isle."

"Hmmm... I think things are about to get a lot more interesting..."

What does Archie have up his sleeve? What has Maxie so riled up? Will they succeed in awakening Kyogre and Groudon? Find out in Chapter 3: "Awakening"!