Warning Layer When Clicking "Next" Too Early - Issues

I have a warning layer set up so that when you click "next", if you click on a slide where there are items you must click first, or you should wait for the timeline to finish first, a warning pops up that lets you know that you must let all content finish playing first, or explore all content. I am having some issues with this, though.

The warning text box and graphic itself is on it's own layer. When you click "next," a trigger checks for some variables to decide whether to show the warning or not. This works well. This also works well on the base layer.

The issue arises when I want this warning to show up on several other layers on that slide. When I am on another layer, the warning shows up along with the items on the base layer. The warning displays for a few seconds, then goes away, When it does, the base layer items go away as well. I don't want to check the option to "hide items on base layer," because when the warning shows up on the base layer, I obviously want base layer items to remain. I am new to Storyline, but it does not look like there is any option to have a layer show up, but not hide base layer items while also not bringing them up either. (Would be nice if you had to check a box for items on base to be hidden, or remain, so that a neutral layer would simply bring up layer content alone.)

Another option is to change the warning to an object with an initial hidden state and make the learner click out of the warning, which hides it again. This brings up the layer issue too though. If it's an object, and it's on the base layer, then when I want the warning to display on another layer, it won't unless I have that warning object on each layer.

Is there a more simple way to do this?