A/N: Ok, so not much to say in this note, so go on ahead and read the newest chapter!


Several weeks later-

Kari walked into the gym, Eevee perched on her shoulder like always. Volkner was out on the field, practicing with his Luxray, while Flint sat in the bleachers watching. Flint noticed her right away, waving her over with a cheesy grin on his face. Kari walked over, plopping down next to Flint. "How long has he been at it?"

Flint shrugged. "I just got here about 10 minutes ago, and he was going at it when I came in. I don't think he even knows were in here and watching." Flint stated.

Kari's face scrunched up. "You make us sound like stalkers…Speaking of you being here, why are you here?"

Flint put a hand to his chest, giving Kari a fake sad face. "Well, I'm hurt by your words!" Kari rolled her eyes at the comment, making him laugh. "I came to say bye to you guys."

Kari frowned. "Bye? Where are you going?"

"I need to get in some training while I'm away from the Pokemon League, so I'm going up to Snowpoint City to practice. I'll only be gone for 4 weeks tops." Flint explained.

"You cant leave me here with Volkner! I'll die if someone doesn't knock any sense into that boy! What if he goes all antisocial emo jerk on me while you're gone?" Kari exclaimed, waving her arms around to emphasize her point, causing Flint to laugh.

"You've been able to live with coming in here everyday and hanging around him for the past three weeks, and now you think that you'll die trying to deal with him while I'm gone? You sure that your just upset that I wont be around to beat some sense into him, or that it's not something else that's bothering you?" Flint asked, changing his smile to a face of concern.

Kari looked to the ground sadly. "Even though he's been back into the battling spirit for several weeks, not once have we gotten a challenger. What if…what if he goes into that depressed slump again while you're gone? I don't know how to fix it, you do. You were the one that fixed the problem in the first place…."

Flint looked at her, shocked by her statement. "Kari, I wasn't the one that helped him out of that slump, you were!"

Kari looked away from the ground and at Flint, "I was?" She looked towards the training field at Volkner. "But…I didn't do anything."

Flint laughed. "Sure you did! You battled me!"

"But I lost that battle, remember?"

"I know, but you almost won! It was that spark that you and your Pokemon let off that got to Volkner and knocked some sense into him. You inspired him to get back into battling, Kari. And if he goes into that zoned out mode, just knock some sense into him yourself!"

She was about to say something else, but Volkner had realized they were sitting in the stands, and began to make his way over to them. He noticed that Flint was laughing and Kari looked deep in thought about something. Flint jumped down into the field, walking over to his best friend.

"Yo, Volkner! I came to say bye to you before I left for Snowpoint City to put in some training."

Volkner nodded his head. "How long are you going to be gone for?"

"Not long, just for a few weeks at most. Listen," Flint turned around to see if Kari was watching them, only to find that she wasn't even paying attention. "While I'm gone, try and go easy on the Kari, yeah? Don't go all antisocial on her. And maybe talk to her a bit more than you already do. I can tell she has a feeling that you somehow don't like her, so try to let her know that you consider her a friend."

Volkner nodded his. 'She thinks that I don't like her?' "Well, guess I'll see you later then."

Flint grinned, walking towards the exit. "Yeah. Later, Dude!" And with that he was gone. Volkner turned back towards the bleachers, making his way over to Kari.

'I don't know why she get's the idea that I don't like her. Did I come off that cold?' He asked himself mentally as he sat down next to her. "Kari, do you wanna do something different today?"

She looked at him with a curious face. "Like what?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno…maybe go down to the lighthouse, sit on the beach…whatever you wanna do is fine with me."

"What brought this on, Volkner?" Kari asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Well…I just think we should talk a little more about each other. I mean, we are friends now after all…Right?"

'He…he called me his friend…I like the sound of that.' "Right. Friends." Kari smiled happily as she spoke, laughing a bit as she did.

Volkner felt his breath hitch a little as he watched her. 'She really is cute…'

"Ok, well…how about we go get ice-cream!" Kari exclaimed, standing up with a hopeful smile.

Volkner nodded, giving her a small smile before the two walked out of the gym.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Sir, we have the information that you requested on that girl." Mars stated, placing a manila colored file on Cyrus's desk.

Cyrus picked up the file, opening it up. "So, her name is Kari Jones? Hm…it says here that she is the Pokemon League champion of three known regions…Well, it also says here that she has stopped poachers from hurting Pokemon and capturing them many times, and she has even foiled Team Rockets plans at one point…" This girl was much more interesting to Cyrus now that he had information on her. He smirked. "Mars, see to it that we keep an eye on this one…there's no telling how she would foil our plans if she were to find out what we're doing."

"Yes sir!"

"And while you're at it, have several grunts go and look for a power source that we can use. Make sure it's a large enough one too…"

"Yes sir! Right away, sir!"


Volkner and I sat up in the tower, looking out the window while we ate our ice-cream. I had found it a bit strange that he had suddenly decided that we would just hang out all day instead of work, but hey, as long as it involved ice-cream, I was there! My view on Volkner actually began to change a little. He actually wasn't all that cold as I had thought if he was willing to sit here and eat ice-cream with me.

"What's your family like?" The question came from Volkner, which was actually a bit surprising. We never really talked about our personal lives, so it was a bit of a shock that he would be the one to speak up first about the subject.

"My family?" He nodded. "Well, my mom is one of those parents that's always making you do something that you really don't want to do, but I guess that's what makes her such a great mom. My dad…." I trailed off, thinking. My dad was a very busy man. You're probably wondering what he does, so I'll tell you: He's a Frontier Brain. Ha-ha, yeah, I know, sounds like it's the coolest thing ever, right?….Yeah, no. Especially when your father is the one and only Pyramid King Brandon. Yeah, I don't think I'll mention that part to Volkner. "My dad is pretty much busy a lot, and he's a very…Outgoing man! Enough about me, what about you?"

"Me? Well…My parents died when I was about 12." Volkner explained, his face falling a bit as he stared down at his lap.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened?" I asked quietly, hugging Eevee to me a bit.

"They went out for their anniversary dinner. I remember my mom had been so excited about it. The last thing my mom ever said was to make sure the door was locked and that I went to bed on time. And they didn't come back. Their car was knocked off a bridge when they got hit by a drunk driver. I never saw them again."

There was only silence after Volkner explained his parents death to me. In all honesty, I was doing my best to hold back my tears. To lose your parents at such a young age…is just so tragic. Without thinking I stood up and threw the remainder of my ice cream away and moved to stand behind Volkner. Quietly, I knelt down behind him and wrapped my arms around him, hugging him tightly.

If I had known earlier, perhaps I would've thought of Volkner in a nicer way.


A/N: Wow, it's been REALLY long since I updated for this story. Sorry if the ending of this chapter was kind of lame, but I hope you enjoyed it! Later Taters!