There was a rumble on the ground as a large dragon landed. From the salamence's back, the pink-haired woman appeared, waving at her friend. "hey! noelle reporting for duty!" she flashed him a grin, shielding her eyes from the fluttering dust and grain with an arm. "I also phoned a few friends, they'll be here shortly!" She was, of course, referring to her rowdy clan. Hopefully, this wouldn't be too dangerous, least she'd feel guilty for inviting them into this mess.

approaching the man and his team of pokemon, she released her own to begin to help in making an entrance.

rapidash used drill run
heracross used chip away
pupitar used chip away

w4QoQAdt

A country far in the west...Where was he from? Maybe Unova - that was in the west, right? The pinkette didn't think too much into it though, she imagined seeing herds of the fiery equines must've been quite the sight!

"Really? maybe i should try that more then..." She muttered out, reflecting on his words a bit. Back at home, the life she lead was...stressful, worrisome. Really, in a few more years, she'd be the head of her clan, and the responsibility of that was mind numbing at times. She didn't get the opportunity to goof off nearly as much as she did here in Hoenn back in blackthorn. there were plenty of lakes around though, perhaps taking a moment to fish would do wonders for her mind?

although, now that she thought about it, she didn't have the patience to fish. the constant bob of the rod as one impatiently waited for a fish to snag it...why not just use your hands? plunging a fist into the water and plucking a mighty serpent from the water sounded way more exciting! "On second thought, I don't think I'm much of a fisher," she giggled with a shake of her head.

The mention of her homeland was more than enough to get her attention to turn fully to the man, a small glimmer of excitement in her vibrant green stare. "Yes, I am! Isn't it great? Have you tried the food there? Isn't that great? Have you ever had Dragon Flakes, I know they're kinda-" Realizing she was talking a mile per minute in her excitement, she slowed with a sharp breath and an apologetic, sheepish smile. "Ahm I mean, did you ever happen to visit Blackthorn City?" 

"h-huh?! no i wasn't - no i wasn't! ack - shut up!" noelle protested with a flustered blush and cross of her arms. worried about kyle? her? bah! although, she did visibly pale at the mention of aiding during a raid, and aside from another low huff, she surprisingly didn't say anything.

nodding in agreement, she offered a small smile. "well, good thing you have 'teo and my support, right?" watching as the ferns were frozen and parted, revealed an ominous looking 'camp', with an even more eerie entrance. sensitive to the changes in the wind, the feeling the priestess got from the place was numbing. how were they going to approach this? the sun was still out, so the hypno likely weren't too active but...they couldn't be too reckless if there were really hostages down there. unfortunately, her strong suite was usually 'brutal and destructive' and so...

"...all up to you, kyle buddy!" she gave him a grin and a thumbs up, "don't let mateo make a decision, he might get the hostages hurt." she halfway whispered in a playful taunt.

the sickening sight of the bloody mess before them all made the pinkette's stomach churn; this couldn't be real. automatically, she turns to bryony, relief settling into her that she was out of harms way as felix lifted into the air.

the sensation of someone bumping into her, jayde cross , did cause her to yelp slightly, mostly out of fear that her corpse would be joining the tangled mess of limbs and broken bodies in the ground. thankfully, it wasn't a disgusting tentacle, but, instead, a fellow trainer. "be careful!" she breathed out with an embarrassed sigh towards the man - but, there was mutual concern in her voice as well. even if she didn't know half of these people it wasn't...like she wanted them to die or anything.

more tentacles came wriggling forth, ensnaring her august, who snarled in rage, whilst others slithered towards her. there was a powerful combination of attacks from her airborne friend, and she sent @bryony an almost teary smiled. "thanks!" trying not to let fear paralyze her, she released her blastoise from his pokeball, knowing that she could count of the loyal turtle. "august, inferno on the tentacles, keep them away!"

through the chaos, she saw a beam of bright electricity, streaking through the dim light and heading towards the gross, one-eyed creature. wait...was that kyle? no way, that couldn't be kyle. either way, that didn't mean she couldn't help. water and electricity made a good, deadly mix, right? "argos, hydro pump!" a powerful torrent of water exploded from the canons on the blastoise's back. similarly to the charge canon, it headed straight for the cyclops.

- noelle nearly has a heart attacks thanks to jayde cross , she warns him to be careful
- thanks @bryony for helping her
- has typhlosion use inferno on the tentacles to free itself & keep the others away from him/noelle
- has blastoise use hydro pump in tandem w/ charge beam to attack the cylcops

peach tilted her head, a look of confusion on her pudgy little face. why would she throw it? humans...were really weird! but, if she owned a pokemon like lemon zest, then, she had to be super nice! "Less sad, less sad, yes!" Peach frantically said, waving her stubby arms about, if just to convince him that she was fine now, thanks to her new friend.

"lets go find a shiny, smooth rock! i want to give my trainer one! let's go, let's go!" the suggestion had her up and raring to go with excitement. in fact, the pink pokemon was already tottering on ahead, casting excited glances back to the electric lizard every so often. she really was happy to have him as a friend. thanks to him, she could give noelle a gift, after all! 

"oh, thanks!" always one for company, it didn't take much for the pinkette to agree to his offer. catching the soda can with a slight scramble - she really did suck at catching things - she took a seat. realizing just how weary she was, she almost immediately slumped into it, cracking open the soda can with a loud sigh. his question made the woman nearly choke on the drink, mostly out of embarrassment as the 'situation' with the cycling road replayed in her mind.

wiping her mouth and grumbling slightly under her breath in a pouting protest, she eventually tilted her head over to stare at him. "apparently, riding a rapidash down cycling road is 'not acceptable'. but doesn't that sound fun? she could run way faster than any of those dumb bikes ever could go." she complained, as though it made total and complete sense to her. she opted to keep the whole 'banned from the road for one month' to herself. she didn't need her new companion thinking she was some sort of brute...because she wasn't! she was just an...innocent, misunderstood, and adorable girl, honestly!

there was a small snort of amusement from her rapidash, but, the horse otherwise went back to grazing. 

"are you here just to fish?" noelle, in turned, questioned, "y'know, there's a lotta better places to do it, blondie!" she said he nickname with more affection than malice, as a big grin spreads across her lips, "there's a lot of thieving birds around but..." she paused, trailing off to briefly thinking to herself before a fist pounded onto her open, flat palm in a 'tada' sort of manner. "mhm, yea, yea! to make up for the whole...'earlier thing', i'll protect you why you fish!"

was it necessary? no. but, she...really did feel guilty about that whole thing. she felt as though she owed him at least something. and maybe being able to fish in peace (aside from her incessant babbling) was a good way to make it up to him? 

As far as noelle was concerned, they were as stealthy as stealth could be. seriously, there was absolutely no way kyle knew they were there. she occasionally sent thumbs up and idiotic smiles and grins to mateo, as if trying to assure them that they were in the green. just as she had began to tiptoe around a tree to continue tailing after the man though, he turned, addressing them both, and causing the pinkette to nearly fall as she sputtered. "H-huh?! Unfair- unfair. You weren't supposed to see us!" She whined loudly, sighing a few times, before crossing her arms.

while, yes, the sight of that bloody, crumpled body last time did put her on edge, she...was positive she could do it this time!...maybe? hopefully? "what sort of friend would i be to let you do this all alone? what if you get taken or something?! what if we never see you again?! at least if we die, we die together!" she sounded pretty proud of her little 'friendship' speech as her arms crossed over her chest. "i'm not leaving." she finally stated firmly. maybe this was secretly some sort of test of courage for her as well, or, maybe she wanted to make it up to him for being virtually useless during their last mission together. who knew.

either way, she swiftly hurried on after him, determined not to get left behind. "mateo, hurry up!" 

Huffing slightly as he seemed to not believe her, Noelle decided to otherwise ignore that little...tidbit. Shew knew why she was here, and, in the end that was all that really mattered, right? Before she could answer his question though, the water rippled and broke. From it, a very familiar form popped out. Almost immediately, her hand dipped down to her waist - yep, Argos' pokeball was still there. But, now that she looked a bit closer at it, it didn't look anything like him - maybe, it was younger? Blastoise's did live for an awfully long time, didn't they? maybe that was why argos' was also so much...bigger than the average blastoise as well?

pondering over the specifies of her pokemon, she had almost completely toned out the furious fight between the dragon and the turtle, instead internally gushing over the fond memories she had with argos. like the many times she'd fallen asleep on his shell as a kid, or the one time she managed to convince him to hydro pump mateo in the face - good times. by the time she snapped to, the fight was over, with a very knocked out looking wild pokemon, and a very proud looking dragon. "never change, kane," noelle giggled, easily putting two and two together.

"huh?" as adam repeated his question, noelle gave him an almost dumbfounded look, until she abruptly remembered what it was she was even talking about. "oh, that!" she laughed slightly, before clearing her throat. "i told you i left johto for lots of reasons, right? well, one of those reasons was because of a particular...dragon in the dragon's den. he was a little terror in there, honestly. he actually wasn't originally born in there, like most of the others. all i know is my father gave him to me one day, and...he bit me. hard." she sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck with a little laugh.

"even most of my clan and the other dragons wanted nothing to do with him. maybe they just felt like he was a lost cause - always starting fights, always losing them, and he never seemed...happy. so, i brought him here with me in hopes that i'd be able to forge a bond with him. he has potential for something great, i can tell that much, he's just..." a total asshole was what nero was. but, even still, she already loved the deino as though he were her own child. there was a bond between them, she felt, that was deeper than even she understood. and perhaps that was why, despite his meanness, he tolerated her, and even worked alongside her. perhaps nero felt it too?

"so, i want you to meet him!" she finally finished. without waiting for a 'yes' or a 'no', there was a bright flash of light, and soon, in her arms, she held the dark dragon up by his front legs...despite him being incredibly heavy. the deino came out the pokeball snarling, casting a dark glower towards adam. "isn't he just the cutest though? go on, pet him! pet him!"

the feeling of a static shock was what roused the woman awake. with a gasp for air as though she'd been drowning, the pink-haired woman found herself on the ground, hands gripping tightly onto the ground below. why was her heart beating so fast? what was this feeling? and, more importantly, where was she? one moment, she'd been watching some old soap opera she found and snacking on things she's stolen- borrowed from the others room. had she really fallen asleep in the midst of it all? was this a dream?

'no,' she thought to herself with a frown as she finally pulled herself to her feet, noticing that she wasn't alone. and, more importantly, everyone looked just as confused as she did. a hand that went to rest on her hip quickly found 6 pokeballs attached to the belt she wore. the feeling of the ground itself seeming to wriggle and writhe underneath, as though it were alive made her stomach crawl with unease, her typically sensitive and acute senses were on high alert, and it was making her feel physically sick. 'relax,' she forced her breathing to slow and calm itself.

a hand touched one of the balls on her waist, and from it, her typhlosion emerged. seeing the familiar face she could rely on, she lightly stroked at his head a few times, uttering out a command in low words. august himself seemed to be on high alert, and so, without his usual grump and sass, allowed the collar of blazing flames to light around his neck, bathing them both in its warm glow.

it was then when she spotted a familiar face, @bryony . wordlessly, she went over to the other woman, "fancy seeing you here!" she tried to sound chipper, but, it came out grim more than anything.

- noelle woke up thanks to a harmless shock from the electric terrain
- she's pretty unsettled & calls out her typhlosion as a light source
- approaches bryony b/cus thats her girl

Unfortunately for the pinkette, what she thought was a rare pokemon was none other than a regular human. admittedly, the man looked kinda cool, with his eyepatch and all, but...still, just a human. She abruptly halted her series of pelting him with pokeballs in favor of taking a sheepish smile. "Ah...sorry?" She offered with a slightly embarrassed look. Her rapidash let out a slight snort, a heavy hoof lightly pawing at the ground. However, the grey flames seemed to grow larger at the compliment, the horses' head tilting upwards in a prideful snort. "Thank you!..Oh...uhm, what's with that look?"

Previously beaming at his compliment, the moment she saw an arm anchoring back with a pokeball in hand, Noelle began to stiffen. This...she saw where this was going. "Wait, wait-" Too late. Similar to how she had basically assaulted him, the favor was returned. Thankfully, it wasn't too painful or anything. She found herself giggling and choking back a full on laughter from the whole situation, if anything. "Okay. Okay, I...I deserved that."

Fixing her slightly frazzled hair before beginning to pick up her mess of pokeballs, she'd peek upwards to stare at him once or twice. "Are you okay? You're not hurt, right? I know I threw them kinnddaaa hard and all - I may have some bandages but...oh, oh, I do have snacks. And you know what they say, a good snack can heal any wound!"

Literally, no one said that. But, it was her 'philosophy' none the less. Tucking the red and white spheres back into their proper place she finally stood up straight, offering the man a sincere smile of apology as she tucked a piece of her pink and green strands of hair behind an ear. Surprisingly, this wasn't anywhere near being on her list of the 'silliest' idiotic things she'd done before.

overhead, a fearow cawed obnoxiously, its large wings fluttering about as it circled the duo, perhaps waiting for the blond's fishing pole to stir so it could swoop in and steal a fish. irritated by its bickering, rapidash reared upwards with a protesting huff, hooves kicking at the air and silver embers falling from her nostrils in a warning. the bird caught the memo and soon flew off. 

Her face grew a bit more serious as he questioned what sort of monster roamed about. A thoughtful hum came from her throat as she began to continue her walk forward into the depths of the cavern. "Not sure! Kinda spooky, right?!" She suddenly said with a big, stupidly relaxed grin. "But," once again, that more thoughtful expression grew, "part of me wonders if it's a dragon. I heard some sort of noise earlier and it sounded..distinctly like something. The conditions in this cave are just right, and you won't find most other species of pokemon this far down in a terrain as rough as this. Not a lot of dragons are extremely aggressive though...aside from the really dangerous ones." she let out a little breath, rubbing her temples slightly. 


"There's the possibility that it's an abandoned pokemon, and that makes it even worse. That means it'll have a personal vendetta against humans if its gone as far to attack them - and it'll make my job in subduing it all the more harder. It may simply be a territorial dispute though, with miners moving deeper in..." She mused aloud in a, surprisingly, intellectual reflection.

"I've narrowed the list down considerably to about...5 different pokemon based on a few things I saw and heard. 3 of which are dragons." She sounded completely confident, and the whole thing was a rare insight that, yes, the dopey, clumsy woman was intelligent. "But, I could be completely wrong, now that I think about it...Oopsies!"

"Eh - wait, wait. You're not planning on coming with me, are you?" She suddenly stopped walking in favor of looking back at the man with a narrow of her eyes. "I don't need a babysitter - and this may be too dangerous for me to babysit you." Despite the otherwise harshness of the words themselves, there was genuine concern in her tone. Usually, she'd be all for romping about in some stupid, spelunking idea, and would definitely drag any and all who had the slightest interest in doing so with her. But, if her predictions were right, it could get dangerous. Quickly. 

usually perceptive to others changes in emotions to the faintest change in another's temperament, the pinkette felt like there was something different, but, was a bit unsure. kyle was...weird to her, honestly. she couldn't put a finger on what he felt, more often than not. which was another reason why she was looking forward to this trip. she wanted to understand him a bit better, less because he was the 'bff of her fiance' and more because he was a friend. and she cared for him. she didn't say anything aside from giving an almost apologetic smile.

as he continued to list problem after problem with why they couldn't leave immediately, noelle simply stared up at the brown haired man with an intense, pleasing stare. unblinking. unflinching. "please," she whispered after each statement, until, finally, he gave in. a wide smile quickly spreads her lips the moment he did, and, her hands clasped around his own for a moment. "we're going to johto!" she shouted out in enthusiasm.

"i'll get ready - and get chance ready - and we'll shoot you a text." it seemed like she'd already forgotten to include poor morgan in. "i'll let you handle the boring pa- booking the flight and stuff." she let go of him, pausing in her movements to the door to finally say, "oh, and uhm...thank you kyle!"