"Bunnelby is unable to battle! Stormwing is the winner! Which means that the victory goes to Kit, the challenger!"

Stormwing crooned happily as she landed, seeming rather pleased with herself. Clemont laughed as he returned Bunnelby and handed his defeated Pokémon to Clembot so they could be taken to the back for healing.

"Well done, Stormwing," he praised the Aerodactyl, reaching out to pet her. "Woah, hold up!" Kit hurried over quickly, stopping him. "You need to go slow with her, she's not always so happy to be petted by people she's not used to."

Kit gently petted Stormwing's head, making the now docile Pokémon croon again. "Right," Clemont nodded, slowly offering his hand to Stormwing. She gave him a look and sniffed at him before allowing him to pet her. "Sorry, Stormwing. I should've asked first," he smiled slightly. She crooned in an almost forgiving response.

Clemont then held out a yellow piece of shiny metal to Kit. "Congratulations on winning the battle. Stormwing's incredibly strong to have beaten all of my Pokémon alone. You've definitely earned the Voltage Badge!"

"A gym badge?! I didn't come here for a proper gym battle..." Kit mumbled, getting a sudden burst of imposter syndrome. "You still defeated the gym leader in what counts as an official battle, even if you weren't trying to earn the badge," Clemont pointed out. "And it's my duty to make sure you get this badge to show you defeated me in my gym."

"Well... if you insist," Kit smiled slightly, hesitantly accepting the badge. "Thank you. Hey Stormwing, look what you got!"

"Aero!" Stormwing grinned, taking the badge and doing a prideful lap of the gym. Everyone laughed.

"Kit, that was amazing!" Lilac praised as she and the others came over. "It was all Stormwing," Kit replied, though her flushed face and extra pleased smile didn't sell her dismissive demeanour. "Don't be so modest," Lilac giggled.

"Ooh! Lilac, now that you're here and Mismagius knows I won't hurt you, will you please take care of my big brother?" Bonnie asked, holding her hand out to Lilac eagerly. "You're still a keeper!"

"A... keeper?" Lilac asked in confusion as Clemont turned bright red. "Bonnie! I've told you to stop this a million times!" He yelled, activating his Aipom arm to drag her away. "Please think about it, Lilac!" Bonnie laughed sweetly as Clemont ran out with her.

"Um... what just happened?" Lilac asked Ash and Serena, who chuckled awkwardly.

~•~

Due to the battle there was no time for Serena to make any dessert, so after lunch they all headed out for ice cream instead. Bonnie had extended an invitation to Lilac and Kit, who, given assurance that nobody felt they were imposing, happily agreed.

"Wow! They even do little ice cream scoops for Pokémon!" Bonnie grinned, watching the Pokémon happily enjoy their own helpings of the cold treat. "Yeah, it's really nice," Clemont chuckled, also amused by this.

"Oh! It's so cold!"

"Yeah, it's called ice cream, isn't it? Hehe. Woah, not too fast! You'll get a brain freeze!"

"What's that?"

"Basically a headache kind of thing. Go slow and don't take too much at once."

"Okay... Ooh, I love it!"

"I thought you would! Isn't it great?"

Lilac happily enjoyed her ice cream. Kit chuckled at her and left her to it, setting down a bowl for her Bulbasaur. Stormwing had already helped herself to a decent sized portion.

"It's almost like Lilac's never seen ice cream before!" Bonnie giggled tactlessly. "Oh, she hasn't," Kit replied simply, giving pause to the blonde's amusement. "What? She hasn't?"

"You see, Lilac was raised by a bunch of Ghost type Pokémon," Kit explained, gesturing to where Lilac had let all her Pokémon out to enjoy their ice cream. Along with Missy the Mismagius and Azalea the Mimikyu, there was a Phantump who Lilac had previously referred to as Stump.

"I... don't think it's really my place to say about why they took her in, but they did. They looked after her when she was really young. When she turned ten Missy, Azalea and Stump went with her on a journey. They wanted to keep her safe, but they knew she needed to see the human world as well as their world, so they thought a Pokémon journey would be just the thing for her. She's not been out of the Ghost types' domain for very long yet, so I've kind of been looking out for her as well as her Pokémon."

"Wow, that's amazing," Serena murmured. "A bunch of Ghost types raising a human child? I never thought it could happen," Clemont agreed. They then all glanced at Ash, who looked distant. "Ash?" Serena gently shook his shoulder, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"So it's true?" He asked, directing his question to Kit. "Ghost types really do kidnap children they get too attached to?"

"Oh no, not kidnap!" Kit assured quickly, then considered. "Well... okay, technically they did kidnap her. But trust me, they're not the bad guys here! Just... please don't ask her about it. She doesn't like to talk about it and I don't see why we should upset her."

"Yeah, okay," Ash agreed wholeheartedly with that one, despite his mild curiosity he wasn't going to go around asking tough personal questions like these. He was an idiot, but he wasn't stupid; he had enough intelligence to know when something was a bad idea and usually know why it was so, he just also had enough chaotic energy to do said thing anyway. Unless it came to something like this, where the only outcome would be pointlessly hurting someone.

"So... how did you and Lilac meet, then?" Serena asked Kit, trying to ease the tension that had now settled around them. She smiled slightly, grateful for the change of subject. Kit scooped up her Bulbasaur into her lap, the little guy having finished his ice cream by now. He happily curled up and accepted her pettings.

"Well, that's a bit of a long story..."