It was an interesting fact that while all pokemon had the potential to reach champion tier those that had powerful parents had a easier time doing so. No one was sure how exactly it worked but somehow becoming powerful optimizes a pokemons genetics to a degree so that the offspring of it had better innate talent. It was for this reason that most natural variants had powerful parentages or just got really lucky. Despite this talent however if the pokemon doesn't put in the effort to grow stronger then power is not a guarantee at all.-

Anyway Flannery relayed her orders to her team and we started to head into the base at a quick but not overly fast rate. Clearing a cave system entirely was not as simple as one might expect. People could be hiding around every corner and that didn't even mention the traps that were a pain to get past. Still despite this we made good progress through the cave that as we got deeper became clear was man made. We found huge tunnelers left in certain chambers that were obviously used to create this cave system.-

The Magma personnel were also on red alert when we found them so it was obvious that Maxie figured out that we were coming after he calmed down. That didn't bode well at all so I had us hurry as much as we could. We missed about twenty magma members from what the quest said by the time we reached the massive natural chamber that housed the sleeping Groudon. There with a triumphant look stood Maxie with a detonator in his hand. "You almost ruined everything with your ruthless culling of my team but you are too late! When i press this button several explosives set on the sleeping Groudon will detonate awakening it so it may expand the land to overtake the seas!" he said with an mad laugh before pressing the button.-

I covered Flannery while coating myself in aura as the bombs went off loudly and debris slammed into me but thankfully didn't get through my aura. "GROOOOOOOOOOOOO!" my eardrums busted even with my aura protecting me as a roar shook the very air of the chamber. Looking over at the source instinctively I finally got a look at the continental creator itself. It stood so tall that it appeared to be a skyscraper almost.-

It's general build was similar to Gaia's but had dark red huge scales all over it's back and five red bladelike groves on it's reptilian head. It's tail was fairly long , wide and flat like a beavers but ending in four bladelike scales. It's chest and belly were slate grey and along the entire side length of it's body were white hard conical spikes. The gaps between Groudons scales formed a geometric pattern and it's two grabbing claws reminded me a bit of a moles with the vicious long claws at each finger tip.-

I shuddered in instinctual terror when it's gaze swept over everyone in the chamber before stopping on Maxie who was too thrilled at Groudons awakening to notice that said pokemon was PISSED at being woke up in such a way. The gaps between Groudons scales began to glow red and fire energy gathered in it's mouth and barely had time to curse before the world seemed to explode. "FUCK!" And then everything went white as the ground shattered and a shockwave from the attack detonating at Maxie's location hit me and I passed out. My aura did next nothing to protect me from the sheer power of the impact.-

"It's not looking good Birch , Groudon is still destroying everything on it's way to Sootopolis. We don't know why it is headed there but we think it has something to do with Origin cave." I heard a familiar male voice say as consciousness finally returned to me. "Ugh!" I groaned in pain as I opened my eye and leaned forward to sit up. "Whoa there Alex! Easy! Easy!" Birch said as he ignored the other person in the room and rushed over to stop me from getting up. -

"How long was I out?" I asked while sending some healing energy to the parts of me that ached. "Two days , You had a bad concussion from taking the brunt of the impact onto yourself but Flannery had minimal injuries so that's good news at least." Birch said and I nodded. It was a better outcome than I was expecting to be honest as I was halfway sure that Groudon was going to kill us all in it's anger. "And my team?" I asked and Birch grinned "They are a hardy lot so they were given a clean bill of health shortly after you were brought in. They just had some minor injuries from the shockwave is all." he said and I sighed in relief.-

"How bad's the situation with Groudon" I asked turning serious. "I believe that is where I can help shed some light." Another voice said and turning to look I saw Steven Stone standing there. "Not how I expected to meet you again but things rarely work out how we hope." I said and he chuckled "Quite true. But I suppose you were wanting to know what happened with Groudon after you passed out correct?" he asked and I nodded.-

"It's not good news as I'm sure you could have guessed. After killing the leader of Magma for awakening it Groudon gouged out a massive hole through the side of Mt. Chimney as it left which has caused vast amounts of damage alone but it didn't stop there. From Mt. Chimney Groudon has traveled in a consistent line with the city of Sootopolis determined to be it's destination. To our knowledge the ancient pokemon has destroyed six towns , ten villages and a single city and caused many casualties. All attempts by myself and the other champion tier trainers in Hoenn have yielded nothing but losses in our teams. We don't know what to do besides evacuate everyone in it's way." Steven said with a bit of grief.-

"I know how to stop Groudon so long as team Aqua doesn't do what I think they will." I said cutting to the chase immediately. "About that ... we just got word that team Aqua went to Pyre and stole the red orb from it's peak alongside the submarine that Stern had in Slateport before it got destroyed." Steven said and I groaned. "Then we have to wait for them to wake up Kyogre as well then." I said mildly frustrated.-

"That seems like it would only make things worse though?" Birch said confused. "Not exactly , see those two ancient pokemon HATE each other because both of their domains clash innately. At the same time however they are equals in terms of power so while their surroundings will get destroyed in their clash the destruction will be limited to just that rather than if they were to wander about aimlessly. The way to calm both of them however and have them go back to their slumbers is in the form of the third ancient pokemon that is stronger than both of them , Rayquaza." I said seriously.