Sapphire hops onto the abandoned ship, and spots two shadows flying over her. She tells Wailulu to hide itself in the water, then crouches behind a tree to listen to the conversation between the strangers. The two shadows slowly reveal themselves as Courtney and Tabitha, two of the three Fire Heads of Team Magma. They order their Swellow to land, and start searching for the item they've come for. Courtney remarks that Tabitha alone could locate the item, and decides to wait for him outside, but Tabitha says its unfair that he does the work all the time, and the two settle for a coin toss.

To Tabitha's dismay, he loses the bet and walks off with a grunt, while Courtney silently crushes a few wild berries in her gloves. She suddenly strikes out her hand towards where Sapphire is hiding, and forcefully smears the berry juice on the girl's eyes. Sapphire jumps with a start and quickly kicks at Courtney's face. She orders Chaka and Ronono to attack, but Courtney sends out her Ninetales and counters with a flamethrower. Sapphire feels a sharp pain in their eyes and starts to lose vision. Courtney laughs that the spicy juice of Tamato berries can paralyze one's eyes, and reveals that she sensed the presence of Sapphire as soon as she landed. Chaka and Ronono both get knocked out by Ninetales, and Sapphire thinks hard for a way to escape. She suddenly rams her palms hard on the ground to stir up a blinding dust, and quickly takes the opportunity to hop on a tree after withdrawing her Pokémon.

Courtney stays still to listen for movements, but fails to detect Sapphire this time and lets out a scowl. Crouching high up on a tree, Sapphire is stunned that the red caped woman felt her presence earlier, and knows she must possess acute sense as well. Seeing how both Chaka and Ronono didn't stand a chance against the Ninetales, Sapphire understands that her opponent's strength is far beyond hers, and gets frustrated about her loss of vision at such critical times. She remembers that Ruby is resting in the cabins of the abandoned ship, and gets worried that the red caped man who walked off would ambush him. She then decides to find the boy with her sense of smell, and slowly climbs her way through the overgrown trees.

Meanwhile, Ruby is still angrily chasing after Plusle and Minun. The two electric Pokémon laugh hard as they throw berries at the boy and trip him over with a vine. Ruby suddenly puts on his glasses, and says he knows Plusle and Minun are deliberately luring him away from something. He spots a cabin not far away, and realizes that he has always been led to an opposite direction from there. He rationalizes that certain exotic berries must grow in the cabin, and reaches out to the door knob. All of a sudden, something strikes the boy from behind and he quickly faints. Plusle and Minun gasp in shock as Tabitha appears with his Torkoal, and quickly charge forward to attack. Tabitha laughs and has Torkoal swat them down while he picks up the old diary that Ruby dropped. He learns that the inventor of the scanner, which their team is looking for, has placed the item under Plusle and Minun's protection, and knows immediately that the cabin must be where it is housed.

Tabitha kicks open the door and enters with his Torkoal, while Sapphire locates Ruby, and silently pulls him up onto the trees. She shakes the boy awake, and Ruby wonders how he ended up there. Sapphire explains that two mysterious people seem to be looking for something on the abandoned ship, and motions Ruby to be silent when Courtney appears through the bushes. Tabitha comes out to join Courtney, and grins that he has found the scanner, but Courtney seems uninterested and asks if Tabitha has seen a young girl around. Tabitha says he earlier knocked down a boy and not a girl, but jumps with surprise when he sees that Ruby is no longer lying where he left him.

Up on the trees, Sapphire tells Ruby that she has lost her vision and her two Pokémon are badly burnt. Ruby reveals that his three Pokémon are inflicted with a confused status as well, and the two think hard to come up with a solution. Sapphire asks if there are any wild Pokémon around, and Ruby grunts with annoyance that a pesky Plusle and Minun are on the ground below them. Sapphire says they will have to rely on them, and Ruby begins to protest, but Sapphire scowls that they have no other choice, and pulls the boy off the tree.

Ruby and Sapphire land behind Plusle and Minun, and quickly order a double team from them. The two electric Pokémon start running in circles around Tabitha and Courtney, and charges the area up with their sparks. Ruby and Sapphire grab the chance to hop into the cabin, and Sapphire tells Ruby to check on Plusle and Minun's known attacks from the Pokedex. While Tabitha and Courtney are occupied by the many clones of the two electric Pokémon, Ruby learns that the characteristics of Plusle and Minun are plus and minus, and that their special attack and defense are raised when they battle alongside each other.

Courtney orders a flamethrower from Ninetales, and the fake clones of Plusle and Minun quickly disappear. The two Pokémon look towards the cabin with hesitation, and Ruby understands that they are waiting for their next command. He sees the scanner in Courtney's hand, and realizes that the cabin must have housed the item instead of the rare berry trees that he initially thought. Torkoal suddenly pins Plusle down on the floor and swats Minun into the cabin. Tabitha lets out a maniacal laughter, and Sapphire quickly picks up Minun. Tabitha orders Torkoal to finish Plusle off with a stomp, but Ruby yells for him to stop and stands next to the far window in the cabin with the old diary in his hands. He remarks that the scanner cannot be used without the password written in the diary, and threatens to throw the old book out the window into the sea. He demands an exchange of Plusle with the diary, and Tabitha fumes with rage.

Courtney, however, calmly accepts the offer, and slowly carries Plusle towards the door of the cabin. Just as she puts the little Pokémon down, Sapphire yells out a command and Minun immediately jumps onto its companion. Once the two make contact, Plusle unleashes a jolt of electricity to zap the scanner off Courtney's hand, and Ruby quickly catches it. Ruby and Sapphire then pick up Plusle and Minun, and quickly hop out of the window after shooting Courtney and Tabitha a victorious grin. Tabitha angrily dashes towards the window to give chase, but sees nothing except a vast ocean below him.

Underneath, Ruby and Sapphire are catching their breath on Wailulu, and Sapphire asks if Minun used helping hand earlier. Ruby nods, and says the skill powered up the attack of Plusle which made it possible to knock the scanner off their enemy's hand. Sapphire pats Plusle and Minun and compliments on their marvellous team work. Ruby suddenly lets out a cry and discovers that the scanner they snatched back is only an empty shell. Sapphire hollers in shock and wonders where the contents of the scanner went.

Flying high up on their Swellows, Courtney shows Tabitha the contents of the scanner which she secretly removed earlier, and says as the Fire Heads of Team Magma, they need to have more tricks up their sleeve while carrying out their missions. She asks if Tabitha has seen the face of the boy, and the man sheepishly says that he has not bothered to look. Courtney pulls off a horn on her hood, which is actually a memory fire lighter that records everything that the user encounters, and starts creating an image of Ruby and Sapphire on a piece of paper with the flames. The face of Ruby, however, cannot be shown as she hasn't seen his face, and she slowly folds the paper into her pocket, vowing to teach the two brats a good lesson when she sees them again.

Meanwhile, Ruby and Sapphire begin to sail off on Wailulu, and Plusle and Minun happily waves goodbye to them from the abandoned ship...

Countdown to our heroes' rival showdown: 68 days!

Thanks To Coronis For Writing this for us