Chapter 9: The Wildman Piston

As Flint and Naga's team continued their journey west, Naga had to make extra careful to keep Margot and Cubone as far apart as he could, so that Margot didn't get infected with pokerus. He figured it was best to affect them one at a time and dedicate a solid block of time to training the one who had it. This ment finally giving cubone a pokeball of his own. He also worked Cubone halfway to exhautian daily, giving him a Chansey egg each night for recovery.

"Allright, we need some firewood. Cubone, bash down that tree!" Naga commanded, pointing at a tree that had to be a foot and a half thick."
Cubone, with a fire in it's newly pink eyes, nodded and repeatedly beat at the tree with his bone club, breaking it down after 4 strikes! "CUBONE!" it shouted, happy about it's newfound power.


"Say, Naga," Flint asked around the campfire,"Could you give me that pokerus rock for a minute to use on one of my pokemon?"

"Oh yeah, sure!" Naga gave the pokerus rock to Flint, who pulled out his Remoraid and pointed it at the rock. The Remoraid looked back at him, confused.

"Raid?"

"Lick it, buddy." When it first licked it there were no immediate effects, but the next morning it's eyes were the same pink color.


The next day, while traveling, Naga got an alert on his Frontier tracker of a town to the north. As they traveled north they encountered a large river, maybe 100 feet across! It had rapid and strong water, they couldn't possibly swim across safely. But a pokemon popped out of the water! It had a long neck, a beautiful horn, four flippers, and a shell with rounded spikes on its back. It swam over to the group, and seemed to have another pokemon on it's back. A Poliwhirl? As it swam over, the Poliwhirl got off, it didn't seem to be the same one from before, it was wild.

"Hey little guy," Naga started,"You and your friend wanna help us get across the river?"

The Poliwhirl rubbed it's fingers together, asking for money.

"Oh, Money, how much?"

The pokemon flashed both it's hands, then its fist three times, signifying a price of 10,000 pokedollars.

"Oh, I'm sorry little buddy, I don't have that much on me, do you take government debt receipts?"

The poliwhirl crossed it's arms and shook its head.
"Aww man! Then how are we gonna get acrossed!" Naga complained.

"We'll figure something out,"Flint replied as they both started thinking.

At that moment, another figure came up behind them. A human and a pokemon. The human didn't pay the group any mind as he approached the Poliwhirl, with his own pokemon friend next to him.

The man was extremely tall, with chiseled muscles, long, with dirty and messy blue hair. He wore some kind of animal skin as a covering of sorts. He looked like a caveman, and was able to talk to pokemon.

"Pis-Pis-Piston. Pis-ton-tona."

"Poli-Po-Poliwhirl!"

"Piston," He looked down at his pokemon companion. His companion was a lucky cat pokemon, standing on its hind legs when still, but walking on all fours, with a gold coin on its forehead. It nodded, as the one coin seemed to glow in the front, as a second coin grew out of it and fell to its hands. It handed the coin to the Poliwhirl, as the human looked over to Naga and Flint.

"Pis-Piston," The human said to the pokemon, who created a second coin and gave it to the Poliwhirl. The human looked over to Naga and Flint,"I payed your fare for you."

"Oh, you can talk!" Flint exclaimed.

"Yeah," The man said, annoyed,"Let's just get across."

They talked as they traveled.

"So…Piston?" Naga asked.

"Yes, that's my name. What is it?" He asked stoically.

"How-" He stopped, he was about to ask how his pokemon made the money, but felt that would be too greedy and give a bad first impression. Though he did want to know the secret, he decided not to lead with it. "How did you learn to talk to pokemon?"

"I was raised by them. By the first time I saw another human, I was already a man."

"So, you're a wildman?"

"If that's what you want to call me."

"Yeah, is that so," Flint asked,"If you're some wildman, why are you headed right for a human town, huh?"

Piston blushed as he turned his head.

"Come on, spit it out!" Flint commanded.

"Toilet paper," Piston shyly let out.

Flint and Naga both laughed.

"Hey! DON'T LAUGH AT ME! POKEMON DON'T NEED IT, BUT WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO! YOU BETTER STOP OR-OR I'LL PUSH YOU OFF!"

"Well, hey," Naga said as they got off the pokemon,"If we're going to the same place, why not travel there together. There's always safety in numbers."
"I concur," Piston said, looking forward and not actually making eye contact with Naga.


As they continued north, they met an area of mostly grass. Naga saw something on the horizon and sped to it! As he got closer, it looked like some sort of pokemon, but Naga wasn't sure. It had brown fur, the body of a dog, with the face of a cat, a fluffy tail, bunny ears, and a mane around its neck. He approached it with caution, unsure of if it was a pokemon or not, before it responded to him!

"VOY! EVOUY!" It shouted. It seemed friendly and exciting. It ran up to Naga, sniffed his leg, looked at Cubone, then to the Pokeballs on Naga's belt. It jumped back and took up an aggressive stance, barking at him, though it's tail was notably not puffed up as would be expected from an aggressive animal.

"Wow, don't worry, I won't capture you if you don't want!" Naga tried to reassure the pokemon.

It shook its head, and took the stance again. "VOY VOY! EEVOY!" it shouted again.

"Naga," Piston said,"This pokemon wants to engage you in non-deadly combat."

"What? Why would you want to fight me?" He asked the pokemon.
"EEVOY! EEVEEE!" It yelled, wiggling like it had a tingle up it's spine, smiling.

"She sees you're a pokemon trainer. She says she's heard rumors of humans who take in pokemon and help them become stronger. She wants to be trained, but she wants you to prove you're a good enough trainer to be deserving of her.

"Oh, I see." Naga smiled with determination. "ALLRIGHT, CUBONE LETS GO!" He pointed forward, allowing Cubone to make the first move he thought was right.

Cubone, being direct, went for a full-force bone club strike at Eevee, but Eevee was able to jump back and dodge just in time! She laughed, and quickly turned around, tickling Cubone's nose with her tail! As Cubone started huffing, a sneeze coming on, Eevee took advantage of his lapse in defense and headbutted Cubones stomach.

"BONE!" Cubone cried out in pain, pushing Eevee back!

"Eevee might not naturally have any special powers," Piston spoke,"But they're clever, and like all pokemon, they have limitless potential! COME ON CUBONE, TAKE EVERY ENEMY SERIOUSLY! GIVE EEVEE THE RESPECT SHE DESERVES!"

Cubone adjusted his bone helmet, got on all fours, and began to use his earthquake technique! Eevee was violently shaken about, but tried her best to crawl and nudge her way closer to Cubone! Her balance was horrible, but she was able to push Cubone's face into the dirt, and rub his face in it! Cubone felt humiliated! With all the fury in him, he struck upwards at Eevee with his bone club, but Eevee, still holding his head in the dirt, grabbed the club with her mouth, and wrestled it out of Cubone's hand and tossed it to the side! Cubone was so mad but he just wasn't strong enough to get up with Eevee standing on his head! He began to cry tears of frustration.

"I-C-" Naga didn't know what to do. If this was a life-or-death fight, he'd probably kick Eevee, but this was a battle to prove how strong he could make his pokemon.

"Naga," Piston asked,"what kind of pokemon would cubone have been, if it's family was alive."

"W-" Naga was confused how Piston even knew Cubone's story, but answered without asking many questions, given the situation,"A- a Charizard."

"Allright," Piston said, now turning his attention to Cubone,"Cubone! I know you're mad! There's a fire inside you! A fire so bright, it can't be contained! I want you to take that fire and let it out! Push it all out at once like you're uncorking the biggest bottle of rage!"

Cubone began to cry out,"CUUUUU-" As it's skin quickly turned orange like a charmander, before turning a deep red, it's veins pulsed, smoke blew from its mouth, its tail lit just momentarily, before a burst of fire exploded from his body in all directions. The fire lit Eevee's fur ablaze, and burned it!

Eevee jumped back, yelling, "VOY VOY!" As it burned. It fell to the ground, rolling around trying to put out the fire. Cubone approached it and tried to use this new technique again! His skin turned slightly darker for a moment, then…nothing. He would find out why later, but he had to seize the moment! Cubone got on all fours and shook the earth again as Eevee rolled! Eevee, on fire, and being shaken about violently, yelled out! "VOY! VOY-VOY!" with labored breaths!

"It forfeits!" Piston Yelled,"She says you win! PUT HER OUT!"

In less than half a second, Flint pulled out Remoraid, and it fired a soft, wide stream of water on Eevee to put her out. It seemed like Remoraid knew how hard to fire it's water based on how hard Flint pulled its trigger fin.

Eevee huffed and puffed, and made its way over to Naga, bowing before him. Naga tossed a pokeball at Eevee, capturing it.

"What was that," Naga asked.

"Well, cubone might not be a fire pokemon anymore but…"

"But what?"

"I shouldn't tell you these kinds of things."
"What kinds of things?"

"Like I said, I shouldn't tell you."
Flint spoke up rudely,"COME ON, TARZAN, STOP BEING SO CRYPTIC!"

"Well now I'm definitely not telling. I can tell you more about that move, but I can't give you any more."

"Okay," Naga said, trying to de-escalate the situation,"Tell me."

"That technique's called 'overheat'. It takes alot out of a pokemon, and doesn't leave them with much in the tank afterwards, so it gets weaker every time it's used. That means you have to be strategic with how you use it."

"Cool! You asked about Cubone's natural form, is the reason it can learn the overheat technique because it used to be a Charmander?"
"Not exactly, but I'm sure it helped."

"That's crazy, man! I know pokemon have special powers, but I never thought I'd see a ground pokemon use a fire move!"

"I can't speak any more on this topic. Let's move on. Naga, what kind of person are you."

"I like to think I'm a good person, that's kind of a deep question to ask."


When they arrived in to town, named Middleton, Naga released his other pokemon to wander the town with him, putting Cubone away, as to not spread pokerus to them. Eevee rode on his shoulder, while Margo walked with him. Naga took the time to introduce Margot and Piston, and found it interesting how they were opposites. Margot was a pokemon who wanted to be more like a human, and Piston was a human who was more like a pokemon.

Middleton was a much larger town compared to Crowlerville. It had factories, restaurants, it was a hustling and bustling industrial town! It even had a pokemon center! Naga rushed there to get Eevee help recovering from her injuries. While he was there, the nurse stopped him.

"Oh, sir, are you Naga?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Another boy your age stopped by here earlier today and told me to give this to you," She said handing him a device with a USB-out port on it. "He said 'a professor gave it to me and wanted me to share it with Naga. If he logs information on pokemon he can make money, like how the frontier tracker gives us money for discovering places'"

"Hmm," Naga said, taking the USB drive. He was hesitant, it might be full of some virus. He was happy that at least he and Kappa were about on track, he was worried about falling behind, but it seemed like Naga was faster, so a bit of a pitstop wouldn't hurt him. "Well, I'll look into that. Have a nice day now."

"Wait, you forgot to pay!"

"Oh crap, I forgot. The pokemon centers out here aren't free."
"Free healthcare?" The nurse asked, shocked.

Piston stepped forward, and spoke to his Meowth, who looked at the nurse, and shot several coins from the one on his head at her, not so hard to hurt, but definitely in a rude way.

"Young man!"

"That was money," Piston spoke,"Is that enough to satisfy your greed?"

"I-" She was flustered, but when she looked down at the coins, they were enough,"WELL FINE!"

Eevee patted its front paws, and wiggled, smiling at Meowth, patting Meowth's coin, then patting it's own head, before tilting it.

"Oh, Eevee, I don't think you can do that sweetie. That's a power special to Meowth cause of the coin on its head. It's like how Margo has psychic powers or how uh, a Porygon can change its type."

"Voy voy" Eevee seemed disappointed.

Piston took a breath to collect himself, looked at Naga with a serious look, and said,"Meet me out back alone."

Naga was confused, but followed along, putting his pokemon away as he followed Piston.

"You wanted to know more about pokemon and their powers, right?"
"Of course, I think everyone does."

"What if I told you I could help your Eevee learn to cast Payday like my Meowth."

"Is that possible? I thought every pokemon had their own powers."
"Naturally, that's true, yes. No pokemon can just use payday besides Meowth, the same way no other psychic can normally create invisible walls besides a . But there's more to it than that."

"Like what?"

"Eeh, well, you want info from me, how about you give me something?"
Naga pulled out his Frontier Tracker to print out a slip.

"No, I don't need money, Naga. I saw the color of your Cubone's eyes, and how quickly it picked up Overheat, that's not a normal pokemon. I want to know your pokemon secret before I tell you mine."

"Allright," Naga said, pulling out the pokerus-infected stone,"It's this. This stone has a virus living on it that infects pokemon and helps them grow very quickly for a short amount of time, about a week. Cubone's actually nearing the end of that week tomorrow. He's grown so much since then."

"I see, may I use it?"

"Uh, sure."

"Alright, Caesar," He said to his pokemon,"Nuzzle up on this rock." The Meowth listened, and before Naga's eyes, it's eyes faded to a pink, showing the infection had taken place."

"Okay, so can you tell me now?"

"No."

"WHAT!? WE HAD A DEAL!"

"There's a test first. The deal qualified you for the test."

"This is bullcrap you no good slimy snake!" Naga said, belligerently.

"Naga, this is serious business. I have knowledge that probably no human has. This phenomena, people have seen it before their eyes without even realizing the magnitude, it could change the way everyone lives, either for very good or very bad depending on who learns it. I asked you earlier Naga, what kind of person are you?"

Naga stood firm,"I'm a good person!"

"Why are you out here?"

"To grow, to adventure, to have fun and bond with pokemon!"

"What are pokemon to you?" He continued the interrogation.

"Friends, Partners, Pupils…"

"Is that all?" Piston asked, tilting his head and getting closer to Naga.

"I…I might have a crush on Margo." Naga said, completely embarrassed.

Piston seemed to have no reaction to that statement, but pushed again,"Is that all?"

"Yes!" Naga said, firmly,"I have the best interests of my friends and partners in mind."

"I know the kind of person your traveling buddy is. Flint is a bad person, Naga. His pokemon are tools for him to do his job. His Remoraid is just a gun to him; His Honedge is just a sword. Living creatures with souls reduced to items. I don't want someone like that with this knowledge."

"That's not true! He's a bit abrasive, and maybe he isn't a good person to humans, but he loves his pokemon just like me!"

"Would you be willing to fight for your beliefs, for everything you've said."

"Yes!" Naga said, firmly.

"Then fight. Prove it to me! Prove to me that your bond with pokemon is true, and that you're a good judge of character."

"Of course," Naga said, reaching for Cubone's pokeball.
"No, I want you to fight with Eevee, a pokemon you hardly know. Show me she deserves you as a trainer, and show me your strength of character. We can go into the main street for this."
Piston and Naga walked to the main street, and stood 30 feet apart. Naga explained the situation to Flint, and released Eevee.

"Eevee, if you want to learn the Payday technique, you- we need to beat this guy and prove ourselves!"

"VOY VOY!" Eevee shouted, getting into a fighting stance.

"Allright, Caesar, fury swipe technique!" Piston yelled! Caesar rushed forward with his claws out, and slashed at Eevee again and again. Eevee was able to dodge most of them, but the last one nicked her throat, a critical hit!

"Voy- gurgle -Voaih" Eevee struggled out.

Naga didn't want Eeevee to keep getting hurt by a pokemon that was obviously so much stronger, but he didn't want to give up. "Eevee, come on, you can do it! I- I believe in you! Whoop him!"

Eevee tried to headbutt Caesar, but he was too fast, easily dodging Eevee and scratching along her side as she jumped. "VOOOOOOY!" she howled, her fur soaked in her own blood. "V-" she was cut off as she was riddled with dozens of high-powered bubbles shot from Caesar's head, sending her flying back.

As Eevee lay on the ground, struggling, slowly, to get up, Piston spoke. "You have failed, Naga. Your convictions are weak! YOU are weak! Caesar and I have been holding back, and now you'll never know the secret to our power. You don't love your pokemon, you don't see them as partners! Your Eevee is better off dead than with you! So she shall be!" The way he spoke, sounded like a god punishing a disloyal follower. "THIS NEXT ATTACK IS MADE WITH KILLING INTENT!"
Piston widened his stance, bending his knees with certainty. He fanned his arms before slowly pulling them close around his midsection, facing each other while sprawled out, forming a spherical shape. There was a small blink, as white energy started to form between his hands. He grunted, struggling against his own power.
"SPECIAL TECHNIQUE, EXECUTION STYLE: HYPERBEAM!" His hands shifted, pointing towards Eevee, as a stream of white energy was shot towards her!

Without a moment of hesitation, even to think, Naga ran and jumped in front of Eevee, to save her life, even if this meant his end!

Still recovering from the energy he spent, Piston had to push himself to move. He seemed to disappear in a blur and appear in front of Naga, blocking the hyperbeam from hitting him. Piston didn't die, able to tank his own power from the beam, albeit sustaining serious injuries, and was sent flying backwards, falling on top of Naga.

Piston got up, and helped Naga up. "You passed."

"What?"

"You passed the test. You were willing to sacrifice yourself for your pokemon, even though you just met. You're a good man."

"Oh, I- thank you," Naga thought for a moment about how Piston survived his own hyperbeam blast,"You survived that, where you actually planning on killing Eevee?"

"Knowing the answer to that now would muddy your response earlier. But if you come with me to somewhere secret, I can share this secret knowledge with you.


Piston and Naga regrouped half a mile outside of Middleton, with Eevee and Caesar.

"So, pokemon's powers usually come from their natural states,"Piston began,"Some pokemon fight with mostly their claws and paws and teeth, fighting type pokemon especially, but as you know, many pokemon of elemental types can create or control their element, with ghosts and bugs and psychics having powers related to the kind of creature they are. Pokemon can extend these powers in creative and strong ways to create special techniques."

"Like Cubone's earthquake?"
"Yes, your ground-type pokemon has a special connection to the earth, which allows him to control it given enough force of will. But some pokemon have powers specific to them; like Meowth's coin, or a Chansey's egg bomb and soft-boiled techniques."

"Yeah, I know this already, but how could Eevee possibly learn payday if it's something only Meowth can do?"

"Something only Meowth can do naturally."

"So there is another way, right?"

"Yes. Through the power of infinity energy. Infinity energy is an energy that flows through all living things, but especially strongly in pokemon. It can be molded and transformed, and exhumed from the body to perform otherwise impossible feats of magic. Not every pokemon can use every technique with it, being close to an element for one reason or another can help with learning though. It's also helpful to have a tutor who can use the technique naturally."

"Infinity energy, huh? How come I've never heard of this before?"

"Well, you may not have heard of it before, but you've definitely seen it. Many pokemon learn infinity energy techniques naturally without even realizing it, or at least without their trainers realizing it. I'm sure you've heard legends of the hyperbeam technique before, right? How did you think it was done?"

"I guess I never thought about that. Could you teach me how to use the hyper beam?"

"No, not in any short time at least. It took me my entire life to master it, but here's the wondrous part, it would take a pokemon of my same strength maybe two weeks to learn with the right teacher." There was a moment of pause, before Piston spoke again,"You can understand why I wouldn't want this kind of knowledge getting out to the world, right? Infinity energy is truly endless. Living things create infinity energy from the moment they're born to the moment they die, and sometimes even beyond in the case of ghosts. This energy, if harnessed by the right people, could change the world as we know it, which is why this knowledge absolutely cannot get into the hands of bad people. Right now, people only think pokemon's powers come from their DNA and typing, but if a group of evil people were able to harness infinity energy they would have quite literally unlimited power!"

"I won't t-"

"You can tell whoever you want, Naga. I trust your judgment that you'll only share this knowledge with people you deem worthy, just as I.

"Thank you."

"Now," Piston said, turning to his Meowth,"Caesar, why don't you teach…hmm, what is her name?" Pistons asked Naga, clearly wanting a nickname for the Eevee.

"Uh, how about Coco?" The Eevee nodded at that.

"How about you teach Coco how to use your payday technique."\

Though Naga couldn't understand them, Coco and Caesar could understand each other.

"So, Coco, did you understand what Piston said to Naga," Asked Caesar.

"No, not really. I only understand what people say about half the time, it's still new to me."

"Okay, then let's start from square one. There's energy flowing inside you, and you got to learn how to channel and transform it! Close your eyes and visualize it, a source of bright light in your body."

Coco closed her eyes and tried to imagine it.

"Good, good. Now just try to force it out, like you'd force out a yell or a fart. Sometimes it can be good to yell while doing it."

"EVOY!" She shouted as she tried to push it out. Nothing physically happened, but she felt a tingle through her body.


This training took three days to complete, Naga, Flint, and Piston staying at an inn in town. During the time it took to learn Payday, Coco had gotten infected with Pokerus from Caesar, leaving her with pink eyes, and Cubone had recovered from his, reverting his back to normal. When training was finished, Coco was very proud and wanted to show Naga.

Naga watched as white blips of light seemed to flash in and out of existence around Coco for a few moments, before some of them solidified into the shape of a coin, and eventually stopped glowing, as they floated around her. Coco then pushed her chest forward and held her head high and sent the coins flying forward, lodging themselves deep into the trunk of a nearby tree!

Naga thanked Piston and praised Coco. Before Naga and Flint continued on their journey, Naga tried to ask if there was some way of contacting Piston in the future but was informed he had no technology in his little trible.

"Listen," Flint spoke,"I got a bad vibe off that guy to begin with. Either way he seems like one of those mystical tribal dudes who just show up when you need them."