Chapter no.281 The Fighting Dojo

[ POV Change ]
Walking down the busy streets of Saffron city, Austin tried to ignore Pikachu and Luacrio's death glares while Yellow was enjoying her mochi which he had to pay for since Yellow was the eventual winner of the dance off or as Lucario calls it, swaying.
Pikachu was salty that he didn't won and his trainer wouldn't buy his ice cream with ketchup even after looking at his cute face.
" Ash, are we going to war with team rocket? " Yellow curiously asked.
" Why do you say that ?"
" Because, you are always up at night making some kind of plans in the weird dictionary of yours."
" Well, I was creating a plan where we are not in immediate danger."
" Well, that's good."
" Yes, that is good."
" So; war."
" Yes, yellow, war."
" To the war! " Yellow exclaimed out but the nose of the street blocked her cheer.
" Technically, the war is that way. But first we got to go THIS way..." Austin said as he pointed towards an old dojo in the distance.
A few years ago, for the longest time, Saffron City had been a Fighting city, proud of its combination of grit and glamour. Locals could puff out their chests when thinking about the worldwide sway that Silph Co., based in their grand city city, held as well as the hard-nosed gym at the north end of town. The leader was a Karate master, who proudly wore his black belt with pride as he and his underlings set a strong standard for any trainers that attempted to earn the necessary badge to enter the Indigo Plateau and the Kanto branch of the Pokemon League. For the longest time, it looked like things would never change.
Then came the Sabrina Marvil, who walked up to the infamous Fighting-type gym, then run by gym leader Anthony—a descendent of the first gym leader Marcus, challenging him to a battle with the future of the gym at stake. Should Anthony be able to defeat her, she would give up her own position as Elite Four. Conversely, should she win, then Anthony would have to shut down his gym for good.
Three minutes.
Three minutes was all that took to completely humiliate the Fighting-type gym leader, as Sabrina walked out, with the position of the new Saffron city gym leader—another notch on her belt. The once powerful fighting-type gym, was now reduced to a mere dojo, as Sabrina Marvil settled herself as the new psychic-type gym leader of Saffron city.
Many students left the gym for some reason or another as the once proud dojo that had once raised geniuses like Bruno of the Elite four were now ridiculed and mocked in their own home yet the few trainers that remained in the dojo couldn't careless what people thought of them.
They grew up in this place and would remain loyal to it till there last breath. But loyalty wasn't going to put food on the table. The students of the dojo would work as bouncers, security guards e.t.c. to put food on the table and to keep their beloved dojo from being repossessed by the League as they couldn't pay up the payment for the lease of the dojo.
[ Outside The Fighting Dojo, 12:10 P.M.]
"Yo, Paulie!" The son of the Dojo Master, Trodaire shouted from the roof of the old building.
"How's it going down there?" He asked. Below him, a pudgy old man scowled as he pulled away another piece of broken glass.
"Takin' its sweet ol' time, Troddie!" Paulie shouted loudly. The old man was a native of Saffron, and had developed a pronounced twang in his accent. He'd grown up in the city, got a job working the factory plant of Silph. Co., married his high school sweetheart Bettie, put two daughters through college from his assembly-line job, grown old with his wife in their cozy two-bedroom house, and now was getting restless in his older age. He'd always been a fighter who believed in old fashions and traditions and hated the way Sabrina had brought a detached and hyper-clean attitude to the city. "It's like the place is colder, like a permafrost!" He'd complained to his ever-patient wife one evening. She encouraged him to find something to do if he was so upset, to find a way to make a difference.
So he tried running for city council. Despite being beloved in his neighborhood as that curmudgeonly grandfather-type with a heart of gold, he was not a good public speaker or campaigner. He swept his district of the city near-unanimously, but outside of his rather blue-collar neighborhood was rolled up and tossed aside in favor of someone "more in touch with the rest of the community." The first time he'd met son of the Fighting Dojo Trodaire, he'd scrunched his eyes up behind his thick glasses before asking incredulously "What the hell kinda name is Trodaire? Forget that, I'm just callin' yas Troddie!" Trodaire had laughed, but did not object. He needed help with fixing the old dojo since all his brothers were on their day jobs and the chance occurance with Paulie was too good an opportunity to pass up as the old man had tried coaching youth sports. He'd been a boxer in his youth, and the principal of Saffron High was an old classmate of his who knew his ability to connect with kids. And it worked. Again, he was well liked by the parents and beloved by the players. For three years he worked the Saffron High Men's Boxing Team to a competitive edge that looked to challenge for the regional championship, and he'd even helped get a Woman's team off of the ground too. When asked why he went through the trouble, he shrugged and said "Women oughta have the right to beat their men up. It'll get every morose slacker in the city in high gear!" In the end, however, he was again cut out from underneath. Budget cuts to local schools meant auxillary programs needed to be cut, and it was unfortunate that boxing was first on the chopping block. Desperate, Paulie begged the school board and the city council to keep the program running if only to give troubled and at-risk students a healthy outlet. The Council relented (The Chairwoman relented, herself also an old classmate of Paulie's), and they kept the program on one condition: They'd have to save money from somewhere, and Paulie agreed to resign. They'd been paying him peanuts, but now they brought in a clueless and spineless graduate student who they could pay even less. Paulie knew that the program was not going to be the same. He'd remembered seeing Sabrina in the crowd during his hearing, and again spited her.
That was a year ago. He and Bettie were living fine under his retirement benefits and her part-time work as a secretary for Silph Co. (Paulie had grumbled that at least they hadn't stolen his pension away from him), but both of them knew he was getting restless in retirement. Paulie needed to do something for the city he'd put so much of himself into, and he needed to do it soon and that is when Trodaire came in.
Even with all the help from the old generation and his brothers in all but blood, Trodaire was desperate with the looming threat of repossession getting bigger and the league didn't see much benefit in the fighting dojo.
Trodaire had called up Bruno for help and the league was able to extend the deadline but they still needed money if they didn't want to see the dojo gone and his actions of calling Bruno for help had caused a fight to breakout between father and son.
Even the Trodaire wanted to get help from Bruno but everyone disagreed with him as their pride wouldn't allow them to ask someone like Bruno for help.
Trodaire had shouted at everyone that they didn't have any other choice but no one was willing to beg.
They'd rather die then destroy the only thing that they had.
Trodaire out of desperation had begun to put up posters about a challenge all over Saffron City. A Battle royal in which a trainer will have to beat the students of the Fighting Dojo with the prize of a Hitmonchan or Hitmonlee.
Some trainers came and were easily defeated with the dojo earning a little money but the amount they needed was so much more.
Trodaire gritted his teeth as he wacked the nail infront of him.
Why couldn't his father see that they were going to lose their home ?
Trodaire suddenly stopped as the senses honed from years of training with pokemon screamed at him of the danger behind him.
Gritting his teeth, Trodaire turned around only to find a empty sky.
" Hey !" A girl shouted out from down below causing Trodaire to look down where he saw Austin, Yellow and Luacrio. Trodaire at that moment wanted to slap himself for forgetting that he was on the roof but he remained silent as he could sense a suffocating presence from the trio.
They were dangerous.
With a gulp Trodaire asked," What is it ?"
" Is this the fighting dojo ?"
Yellow's words caused a sense of dread to fill in Trodaire's stomach.
What did they want with us ?
" No."
Trodaire's answer caused Austin to jerk back before opening his Pokedex while Yellow read a poster in her hand. Seeing the poster, Trodaire asked," Are you here for the challenge?"
" Yes !"
Yellow's answer caused Trodaire to take a deep breath.
These two were the only trainers that had come to the dojo in these last few days.
Even if they was danger involved, Trodaire needed the money desperately so with a gulp he said," Sorry, today's heat got to me but this is the fighting dojo."
" Oh, do you need some water ?!" Yellow asked causing Trodaire to frown.
Was this girl putting up an act or something?
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[ Omake Paragraph ]
Koffing and Grimer, for all their difference in shape, are extremely similar pokemon. Both of them are of the poison-type, both the same shade of grayish purple, but not the poison of assassinations or a protection from predators, but the poison of modern industrial pollution. Some have even theorized that Koffing is merely the gaseous form of Grimer, but this has since been disproven: those few unfortunate Grimer who have faced fatally hot temparatures have merely broken up into their component gases when they melted.
These two pokemon are the source of the two major pollution problems facing urban environmental policy in today's pokemon world, but the problems are not identical. While Grimer are moving poisonous slime, Koffing possess a tough shell in which their toxic gases are stored. Although those who get too close are admittedly in danger, a city can contain a large Koffing population and still have the air regarded as safe to breathe for most of the year – indeed, Koffing shells are so stable that attempts to weaponize the pokemon have failed. The danger is only on hot summer days, when the gases inside a Koffing expand, the pokemon explodes, and vast amounts of toxic gas are released into the atmosphere. During a recent heat wave, Celadon's air was fatal to breathe without protection such as gas masks for a whole month.
At the moment, Koffing are becoming more dangerous by the year. For whatever reason (Moltres, Ho-Oh, Entei, or Groudon's power growing, or perhaps merely a greenhouse effect) the pokemon world is undeniably warming, and more Koffing are exploding in industrial centers every year. They are created faster than they are captured or explode, and it is feared that as planetary temperatures continue to warm, the cities of the pokemon world will become deathtraps.