Ruby is stunned wordless as Courtney smirks and repeats her offer to have him join Team Magma. A rumble suddenly thunders across the tunnel, and rubbles of the giant boulders at the Verdanturf end suddenly come blasting through while carrying along the echoes of the Exploud and two Loudred's hypervoice attack. Courtney holds her ears in pain and quickly jumps aside. Ruby notices that his Pokémon are badly injured, and sees that Zuzu in particular is severely burnt. He quickly covers its body with the sweater he made in order to minimize the rate of evaporation, and thinks to himself that the enemy standing in front of him is much stronger than he initially thought.

Courtney blows out another bubble from her chewing gum, and wants to know Ruby's answer to her offer, but Ruby suddenly retrieves Nana, Coco, Popo and Mimi, and tells Zuzu to run away with their pokeballs. Courtney snickers that she does not appreciate silly heroes who sacrifice themselves for the sake of their Pokémon, and orders a firespin from Ninetales to engulf the boy. She laughs that Ruby has chosen the wrong time to die with dignity and demeanor, because nothing but ash and dust will be left after the fire burns.

Ruby suddenly puts on a grin, and says that he cares neither about dignity not demeanor since he is not one of those self-sacrificing heroes she talked about. He holds up his Pokeblock case, and Courtney jumps with a start as she realizes that the boy has fastened a woolen thread around her right fist some time earlier without her notice. The thread runs all way up to a knot secured on the ceiling of the tunnel, then down through the rotatable part of Ruby's Pokeblock case, and finally back to where it originated from, Zuzu's sweater.

Zuzu continues to run towards the Verdanturf end of the tunnel as its sweater gets smaller and smaller with the thread constantly being pulled off. It soon spots the car of Gabby and Ty, and quickly hops on top while tightening its grip on its sweater's woolen thread which extends all the way back to its trainer. Ruby remarks that Zuzu has alerted him of the approaching vehicle as soon as the hypervoice attack came blasting through, and gives Courtney a victorious grin as he starts to glide along the thread by using the rotatable part of his Pokeblock case like a pulley. Ruby lands on top of the car next to Zuzu, and Courtney gets suspended above the firespin her Ninetales created earlier. Gabby gasps at what she sees, and Ty hurriedly drives past the burning ground in the tunnel. Ruby turns back to smirk that he will let Courtney enjoy the burning she likes so much, and cuts off the thread from his Pokeblock case, causing the red-caped woman to plunge into the fire as she hollers in shock and anger.

Later, a badly injured Courtney slowly walks out from the Rusturf Tunnel with an indifferent look on her face. Her Pokegear beeps, and she picks up to find Hank calling about her findings on the Red Orb. Courtney says she has lost interest in that mission, and decides to leave the rest to Hank. Hank tells her not to worry as the scanner is supposed to work now, and wonders if she's troubled by the boy Ruby. Courtney laughs that Hank certainly reads her mind, and tells him to inform Maxie that she will not be showing herself for a while. She pauses for a moment as Ruby's face crosses her mind, and says she will give the reason as having recently broken up with someone she loves.

Hank shrugs his shoulders as he hangs up, and suddenly notices that the scanner he's holding has detected something. He quickly fiddles with the command buttons, and soon learns that both the mythical Red Orb and Blue Orb are currently located at the same place: Mt. Pyre...

Countdown to our heroes' rival showdown: 38 days!

Thanks To Coronis For Writing this for us