Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Pokémon: Sinnoh no Isekai

Chapter One-hundred and four: Space Center Shuffle, part one

Thanks to the ride they got from Steven Stone, Dawn and Kenny made it to Mossdeep City. There, the two reborn trainers would be able to challenge the Mossdeep City gym in their respective bids to earn Hoenn gym badge number seven. However, due to a mix of the time they arrived and the fact they still felt a little lack of wind in their sails so to speak, they decided to wait until tomorrow to take on the gym. Speaking of the gym, Dawn and Kenny, thanks to the cheat sheet provided by May and Max, knew of Tate and Liza, as well as how they're twins and that challenges to the Mossdeep City gym were tag battles.

"I'll introduce you two to Tate and Liza tomorrow," Steven said to Dawn and Kenny as he led them into his home in Mossdeep City; he did say that he lived in Mossdeep City, and he had offered to put them up as a show of hospitality. There was also the fact that Steven, champion of Hoenn, was showing that hospitality to Dawn, champion of Sinnoh; the act on Steven's part would help, at least to some extent, to foster good will between Hoenn and Sinnoh, something needed to help solidify the solidarity the two regions have with one another against the evil machinations of Team Scorn. The goodwill gesture was something that the other regions could also pick up on.

Dawn and Kenny looked around Steven's house, saw all of what Steven had up. Most of what Steven had decorating his home were displays of rare rocks and minerals; there was even a locked display case holding one each of the evolutionary stones that are directly used on some Pokémon to evolve them. "...Your dad did mention that you liked collecting stones like this," Kenny said.

As she was looking around, Dawn saw a display of a rock the size of a baseball; the little card attached to the stand that the rock was on said that the rock is a meteorite from outer space. "Oh cool," Dawn said, catching the attention of Steven and Kenny. To Steven, Dawn said while pointing out the meteorite, "You got a meteorite here, Steven. Makes sense, given that you live in the same city where the Space Center's located."

"That meteorite was actually a gift from Tate," Steven explained, "One of the twin gym leaders of the Mossdeep City gym. He got it from the Space Center staff as a sort of prize for winning a practice match against his sister Liza when they were training at the Space Center just before you two first arrived in Hoenn."

"So the brother is better than the sister?" Kenny asked.

Steven looked a bit unsure about Kenny's question. "...I wouldn't say that," Steven replied, "Mostly because that battle Tate won against Liza was the first time that Tate ever beat Liza. According to the Space Center staff, Liza had a bit of a habit of lording over Tate in any way she could."

Gesturing to Steven, Dawn asked, "So Tate's aforementioned first win against his sister helped to get him on equal footing with said sister?"

"...I'm not too sure about that," Steven said, "I think it's only served to make Liza more competitive with her little brother. It's even undone some stuff that I was told your friend Ash Ketchum and his group when they traveled through Hoenn had done to help Tate and Liza stand eye to eye."

"Ah yes, Ash," Kenny said, "You know, when my main man Dawn and I are done with the Hoenn portion of our gym challenge tour, after we rest a bit at home in Sinnoh, we plan to head straight to Unova, where Ash should be."

Steven smiled warmly. "Well tell Ash that I said hi when you meet up with him."

Dawn nodded in agreement, even gave Steven a playful salute. "Can do, chief." The three of them went to bed not long after that, with Dawn wondering how her own battle against Tate and Liza in the morning will go.

The following morning, after Dawn and the boys woke up, got freshened up, and had some breakfast, they went off to the Space Center, as Steven who called ahead got it that Tate and Liza were there. "Tate and Liza are a pair of very similar looking twins," Steven said to the reborn trainers as they enjoyed a short walk to the Space Center, "The only real difference in their appearance if you ask me is that they're both different genders from one another. You'll know Tate and Liza when you see them."

Dawn nodded in understanding while Kenny said, "Yeah, it shouldn't be too hard to pick them out from a crowd, especially if they're together."

As the three of them walked, Steven said, "So Kenny, how is your Lileep doing?"

"Ah, you mean Sophie," Kenny replied, "I'm still working on her training, although a lot of the battles I've been in helped to toughen Sophie up."

Steven nodded along. "Yeah, I got it from Ideku that his Anorith has already evolved into an Armaldo."

Hearing that got a bit of surprise out of Dawn and Kenny; Ideku's fossil Pokémon that he got has already evolved. They were also amused to hear that Ideku was doing well. "Do you know how Ideku's doing right now?" Dawn asked.

"He earned the badge from the gym in Sootopolis City very recently," Steven said, "Which put him at eight Hoenn gym badges. The last that I've heard, he went to Sinnoh because he wanted to check out something that was over there."

"Sweet, he's in Sinnoh," Kenny remarked, "Maybe if we're lucky, he'll still be there when we finish up here in Hoenn and head home to Sinnoh before heading off to Unova."

Dawn nodded in agreement as she and the boys reached the Space Center. Walking inside, the first thing that the group saw were Tate and Liza, looking as they did in the anime in Dawn's previous life, arguing with one another in the lobby. Even without Steven there to introduce them, Dawn and Kenny would have been able to 'figure it out' that the twins were the gym leaders due to how the twins were... well, twins, and they got it that the gym leader of Mossdeep City's gym was actually gym leaders who are twins. But that wasn't what was the main issue here. What was the main issue was the fact that Tate and Liza were arguing.

"Are you kidding me, Tate?" Liza scolded, "How can you think we'll lose to the challenger you saw in your vision? You even said the challenger doesn't use any Pokémon that have a type advantage against Lunatone and Solrock, especially since their Levitate abilities nix their otherwise weakness to ground attacks?"

"I didn't see how the battle will go, Liza," Tate said, "I only got it that we'll lose. And it wasn't a straight up standard vision, it was more like a prophetic dream."

"Umm, hello?" Dawn spoke up, getting the twins' attention.

Seeing Dawn, Tate's expression became a bit more serious and grim. "...Yeah, you're her," Tate said to Dawn, "The girl that I saw in my dream, beating me and Liza."

"I know you guys, due to working with psychic-type Pokémon, have some degree of psychic powers yourselves," Steven said, "But what's this about Tate foreseeing Dawn defeating both of you?"

Gesturing to Tate, Liza explained, "Tate here had a dream last night where some girl challenged us to a battle at our gym in a bid to earn a Mind Badge from us. Tate and I used his Solrock and my Lunatone as we usually do against challengers, while the girl uses two Pokémon called Gliscor and Rampardos. Tate only saw the Pokémon used in that battle before his dream cut to seeing the girl's two Pokémon standing victoriously against where Lunatone and Solrock laid on the ground in defeat. Then Tate woke up from his dream."

Kenny folded his arms over his chest, regarded the twins with a judgmental look. "I have issue with psychics using their powers like that to foresee battles they'll be in. It's kind of cheat, especially since not very many people can do anything to protect themselves from being spied on like that."

"It was a dream I had, so I couldn't help it," Tate replied, "And I didn't see how the battle went." Turning to look at Dawn, Tate said to her, "All I know is that you'll beat my sister and I when you try at us."

"...Well to the credit of your dream," Dawn said, her tone a bit dry and cautious, "I do plan to use my Gliscor and Rampardos. And I would like to formally challenge you two to a battle at your gym to try to earn the badge you award to victorious trainers."

Liza smirked a bit in amusement. "Very well, we accept your challenge. Let's settle this at the gym."

Turning to look at Steven, Tate said, "Our gym's usually referee is on paid leave, having suffered a death in his family. Would you be willing to act as a referee for the battle?"

"Someone in your referee's family died?" Steven said, "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. Do you know how they died?"

"She was a rich aunt who was killed in the riots that occurred in Lilycove City yesterday," Tate explained, "Apparently our referee also has to settle things with other relatives, and those things might lead them to arguing in court."

Steven nodded in understanding. "Fair enough. Anyway, I'm ready to head on over whenever everyone else is." With Liza (insisting on) leading the way, the group all proceeded to make their way over to the Mossdeep City gym.

A short while later, everyone was at the Mossdeep City gym, with Dawn standing on the other side of the battlefield from Tate and Liza. "This is an official Mossdeep City gym battle between the twin gym leaders, Tate and Liza, and the challenger, Dawn!" Steven announced as he officiated the battle, "Each side may only use two Pokémon in a tag team battle, and the battle is over when all of one side's allocated Pokémon are unable to battle! Now then, begin!"

"Go Lunatone!" Liza called out as she sent out her Lunatone.

"Go Solrock!" Tate said as he sent out his Solrock.

Tossing up two pokéballs, Dawn called out, "Go, Albedo and Souji!" Coming out into battle were Dawn's named Gliscor and named Rampardos.

Tate's gazed narrowed a bit. "...Something else my dream didn't tell me," Tate muttered, "Dawn's Pokémon have nicknames."

"We'll take her down either way!" Liza declared, "Lunatone, use Ice Beam on Rampardos!"

Tate, looking at Liza in surprise, scoffed before turning back to face the battle. "Solrock, use Solar Beam on Rampardos!"

"Tate, no!" Liza scolded, "You're supposed to have Solrock attack Gliscor since Lunatone isn't attacking it!"

"Why are you doing this now?!" Tate snapped back, "Any why have Lunatone use Ice Beam on Rampardos instead of Gliscor?!"

The twin gym leaders were bickering with one another, much to Dawn's surprise as even though she had some warning about it, she didn't know it would be this bad. The bickering between Tate and Liza was even distracting Lunatone and Solrock, hence why neither of them tried attacking Dawn's Pokémon yet. Shrugging, Dawn just pointed forward as she called out, "Albedo, use Night Slash on Lunatone! Souji, use Iron Head on Solrock!"

Unlike with the distracted Lunatone and Solrock, Albedo and Souji acted as soon as they both had instructions. Albedo rushed forward and slashed at Lunatone with a black energy slash, while Souji with his head shining like polished metal slammed Solrock with a devastating headbutting attack. Both Lunatone and Solrock dropped to the battlefield, both of them clearly out of it. Steven, turning to see that Tate and Liza were so distracted due to arguing with one another than neither of them had seen it when they had lost to Dawn, merely rolled his eyes in mild annoyance.

Holding up a hand, Steven announced loudly enough to be heard over the twins' arguing, "Lunatone and Solrock are unable to battle! The winners are Gliscor and Rampardos! Victory of this battle goes to the challenger, Dawn!"

The twins stopped short when they heard Steven announce that they had lost the battle, then turned to see that Lunatone and Solrock both laid on the battlefield in defeat as Albedo and Souji stood nearby. "We..." Dawn said as she regarded the twin gym leaders, "...Need to talk, it would seem."

"Yeah, I'll say," Steven remarked in a dry tone, "I, being the champion of Hoenn, just saw some rather unprofessional behavior out of some Hoenn gym leaders. That's something I'd like to discuss, like, pronto." Tate and Liza both gulped nervously as they recalled their respective fainted Pokémon, feeling like they were going to be in some big trouble.

"First off," Tate said, his tone and the air he gave off being apologetic as he and everyone else sat down in the lobby of the Mossdeep City Pokémon Center a short while after his and Liza's loss to Dawn, "I believe that this is owed to Dawn." Tate then took out and offered a Mind Badge to Dawn.

Accepting her seventh Hoenn gym badge, Dawn said, "Thank you, but I think there's something more pertinent to talk about."

"I'll say," Steven remarked, his tone and expression giving off vibes of disapproval, "What was with you two earlier? Why were you arguing like that?"

Gesturing to Liza, Tate said, "Liza's been acting like this ever since I finally scored a win against her! I think she's worried that she might not be able to as effectively lord over me as she used to!"

"I don't 'lord over you', as you put it!" Liza snapped.

"You constantly try directing how I work in battles we have against challengers to our gym," Tate shot back, "You also have a habit of having Lunatone cover Solrock, like you think I can't last very long in a battle unless you protect me!" Throwing his hands up into the air, Tate went on, "And said attitude has gotten worse ever since I had finally gotten in a win against you! If that's not you trying to run things for me regardless of whatever protests I offer, then I don't know what is!"

Throwing her own hands up into the air, Liza shot back, "The reason I try to run battles against challengers like that is that I know what I'm doing!"

"I'm not so sure about that."

Everyone stopped short when they heard Dawn speak up. They all turned to look at her, her arms folded over her chest. "I was actually worried when I heard you call out for your Lunatone to use Ice Beam," Dawn said to Liza, "As I instantly assumed it would be aimed at Albedo who, being a Gliscor which is dual ground flying, takes severe damage from ice attacks. But then I went from my heart skipping a beat to being calm yet highly confused when I heard you direct Lunatone's Ice Beam to instead hit Souji who, being a Rampardos, only takes a regular level of damage from ice attacks. Similarly, I was also worried when Tate rightfully tried aiming his Solrock's Solar Beam at Souji, who'd take a lot of damage from a grass attack like that, but you instead tried to have Tate aim it at Albedo, whose partial flying typing evens out ground's otherwise weakness to grass."

Kenny nodded along in agreement. "So basically, Tate made all the right calls while Liza made all the wrong calls."

Dawn nodded in confirmation to Kenny's assessment. "So Liza," Dawn said firmly as she beheld the female twin, "You, despite what you had claimed, did not know what you doing."

Liza began to sputter, clearly unable to come up with a comeback. As she sputtered, the group heard the front doors of the Pokémon Center open, and in walked a casually dressed man with brown hair, and a woman with a bob-cut hairstyle in the same color as Tate and Liza's hair; this woman also wore a teal sleeveless top with a white collar, a form fitting knee-length skirt the same color as her hair, stockings, and dark dress shoes. "Tate, Liza, we got it from a call from Steven Stone that you two have been arguing again," the woman said in a firm tone as she and the man approached the group upon spotting them.

The twins instantly tensed up upon hearing the disappointment in the woman's tone, before the twins said, "Mom! Dad!" in unison.

"Ah, so you're their parents?" Kenny said as he turned to look at the supposed parents of Tate and Liza.

"Yes, I'm Jin and this is my wife Rachel," the man said as he introduced both himself and his wife, "And we are indeed Tate and Liza's parents."

The now identified Rachel, her hands on her hips, looked admonishingly at the twins. "Steven told your father and I over the phone that the both of you got into an argument while battling a challenger to your gym," Rachel said, her tone still sounding disappointed, "And said argument helped the challenger win."

Pointing accusingly at Dawn, Liza said, "She had her Pokémon attack ours while I was busy trying to get Tate to listen to me and follow my lead! She should have waited until we were ready! Tate even gave her a Mind Badge even though she cheated!"

"It was our own fault, Liza," Tate pointed out, "And just like Dawn's friend said, I was making right calls, especially with suggesting that Lunatone should have used Ice Beam on Gliscor instead of on Rampardos. You should-"

"A Rampardos?" Rachel said, her tone of piqued interest showing excitement, as she turned to face Dawn, "That's a Pokémon revived from fossils if I'm not mistaken! You gotta let me see it later, young lady!"

"...Perhaps later," Dawn replied, surprised that the twins' mother apparently was keen on fossil Pokémon, "But for now we ought to work with trying to get to the bottom of why your kids have apparently supposedly regressed in their sibling relationship, as I got it they had made some progress in standing equally."

Nodding in agreement, Tate said, "Yeah. We were progressing in being equals, but then things suddenly got reset." Shooting an accusatory look at Liza, Tate said, "And it coincidentally occurred right after I scored my first win against you, sis."

"Is that true, young lady?" Jin said in an accusatory tone, "What have I said about being respectful to people who defeat you in Pokémon battles?"

"And you need to get back to being nice to your twin brother," Rachel scolded.

"Technically he's my younger brother," Liza stated.

Sighing in mild exasperation, Jin countered, "By only a few minutes. Not enough to really count. Why do you keep harping on Tate about that?"

Rachel nodded in agreement. "Your father's right, Liza. You need to let your brother have some breathing room finally, especially since he won the most recent battle against you that the two of you had, which ought to show you that he can stand on his own away from y-"

"THAT'S WHY I HATED LOSING TO TATE!" Liza screamed at the top of her lungs, cutting her mom off and startling everyone, "IT'LL MAKE HIM THINK HE DOESN'T NEED ME ANYMORE!" Then, before anyone could stop her, Liza turned around and ran out of the Pokémon Center crying.

After Liza was gone, everyone else who remained turned to look at one another, unsure of how to proceed. "...Umm, wow," Steven said, "I wasn't expecting that."

Dawn let out a sigh as she folded her arms over her chest. "...This is reminding me a lot of the dynamic that was between Mitchell and Rhyanna."

Turning to look at Dawn, Rachel said, "Who are they?"

"When me and Kenny were traveling through our home region of Sinnoh," Dawn began, "We came across a young boy named Mitchell who was training his Murkrow, as they always lost to Mitchell's older sister Rhyanna and her Misdreavus."

"Oh yeah, it's coming back," Kenny said, "You and your Honchkrow worked with Mitchell and his Murkrow to have them learn some new moves, and that led to Mitchell netting his first win over Rhyanna."

Dawn nodded in the affirmative to Kenny before turning back to look at the twins' parents. "The long story short here is that Rhyanna acted less than thoughtfully in an ultimate bid to keep from losing Mitchell, even though she honestly didn't mean any harm. My friends and I were able to help mend the gap and fix things with them, although Brock to be fair did almost kind of scuttled our efforts with his own brand of poorly thought out well meaning."

Tate leaned back in the seat he was sitting in. "...So Liza's afraid of losing me, like how Rhyanna was afraid of losing her own twin brother."

"Actually, Rhyanna is at least mid-teens while Mitchell is a year or two younger than me and Kenny," Dawn clarified, "So there's a big enough age gap there for the sister to be justified in referring to her brother as her little brother."

Kenny nodded in agreement. "But the point still remains that the stuff that was between Mitchell and Rhyanna is similar to what apparently is here between you and Liza. The sister is afraid of losing her brother." Not that anyone else had seen it as they were all focused on Kenny who was speaking, but Dawn wore a look of somber consideration on her face, as if she was recollecting an old memory that provided some degree of pain to her.

Steven, his arms crossed over his chest, said, "Regardless of reason, Liza still acted reprehensibly when she and Tate battled against Dawn earlier. Tate at the very least seems apologetic for how he acted, and I'm certain a proper, formal apology can be gotten out of him for Dawn. But Liza still needs to make an effort to show apology to Dawn as well. This is especially important as Dawn's technically a visiting VIP from a foreign region, and the twins' behavior towards her won't make Hoenn look good on an inter-regional scale, and we need to look good there as we have to band together with foreign regions to combat the rising malevolence of Team Scorn."

Tate, looking confused, replied, "Wait a minute, what do you mean Dawn's a visiting VIP from a foreign region?"

Raising a hand, Dawn said, "I'm the newest and current Champion of the Sinnoh region."

"Holy crud!" Jin exclaimed in surprise, taking a step back out of shock, "No wonder a voice in the back of my head was telling me that you looked familiar! You're Dawn Berlitz!"

"Yep, yeah," Tate said, a hint of mildly panicking worry in his tone, "Liza and I do need to formally apologize to Dawn for how we acted when we battled her!"

Putting her hands on her hips after she stood up, Dawn replied, "It wouldn't be the first time I helped a brother-sister pair who were at odds try to bridge the gap. I'd like to rustle up Liza first so she and you Tate can both apologize at the same time, then we can-"

*THOOM*

Dawn was cut off when she and everyone else heard an explosion, and it was a big one. "...That sounded like it came from the Space Center," Jin said, already alarmed.

Turning to look at Steven, Kenny asked, "Yo Steven, wasn't the Mossdeep City Space Center one of the locations you, Dawn, and I discussed might wind up as a possible target that Team Scorn might try taking aim at here in Hoenn?"

Steven, slowly getting up from his seat, said, "...Yeah, we did discuss that the Space Center might be targeted by Team Sco-"

The Champion of Hoenn was cut off when the Nurse Joy rushed over to the group, carrying two pokéballs that she handed to Dawn. "Your Pokémon are both perfect," Nurse Joy said in a tone of mild worry, "They just needed a Leppa Berry each. But I don't think that's what we ought to be worried about right now."

"Yeah, no fooling," Jin said, "We need to go check out that explosion! It sounded like it came from-"

Once again there was a cutoff, when Jin was interrupted when a mildly slender businessman rushed into the Pokémon Center. "The Space Center's just been attacked! An explosion came from it, and I heard as I was running towards here that some of those Team Scorn villains I heard about on the news were swarming around and into the Space Center!"

"Alright Dawn and Kenny," Steven said, "Let's roll!"

"Wait!" Tate said, "What about my sister?"

"We'll try finding her later," Steven said, "But we can't afford to sidetrack here, given Team Scorn is attacking the Space Center!" Dawn and Kenny then proceeded to run after Steven as they all dashed out of the Mossdeep City Pokémon Center, intent on rushing over to the Space Center to stop whatever it is that Team Scorn had planned for the last known possible target in the Hoenn region.

END, CHAPTER ONE-HUNDRED AND FOUR

Author's notes;

Yeah, the Mossdeep City Space Center really will be Team Scorn's last hurrah in Hoenn. Once that's taken care of and Kenny gets a Mind Badge of his own, he and Dawn will hit up Sootopolis City (I'll be using Juan because of his larger anime party, also it'll be funny when Kenny sends out Juan the Pikachu to battle against Juan the gym leader), they'll each work to earn a Rain Badge there, then when that's done they'll be able to return home to Sinnoh, where they'll get dragged into a mini-arc of sorts before they can go to Unova and begin catching up with Ash.

But the Space Center business will still be worked out, as will the issue between Tate and Liza. Although she didn't handle it well, Liza still is ultimately worried about losing her brother, at least in the sense that she fears he'll think he doesn't need her anymore. One can't blame Liza for feeling like that, although she could have tried expressing things in a healthier, more respectful manner. But that bridge will be crossed when they get to it. For now, everyone's worried about having to deal with all of the shenanigans that Team Scorn's going to be getting up to.

Dawn's Pokémon: (on hand) Chi-Chi (female Infernape), Souji (male Rampardos), Zatch (male Hariyama; shiny), Tsukune (Palkia), Luna (female Luxray), Albedo (female Gliscor)

Kenny's Pokémon: (on hand) Shallot (male Glaceon), Juan (male Pikachu; Libre), Android 21 (female Weavile; shiny), Godzilla (male Tyranitar), Sophie (female Lileep), Cell (male Scizor; shiny)