this was it. this was the final stand, the last trial - it had to be. this hellish beginning to this new year couldn't possibly get any worse.

"it's gonna be a little bumpy," noelle spoke to lucas lane with a small, apologetic grin, "dragon clan style!" she quickly adds on, as though that'll fix anything. no longer bothered by the strain hyper beam placed onto its body, gyarados growls softly, gaping maw opening even more once the pink haired girl pointed a finger forward. "come on, let's help too! hurricane!" the immense wind that roared from its mouth caused the serpent's body to tremble from sheer force. She sought to work in tandem with her fellow clan members. as kyle lopez 's attack ripped an opening, gyarados' hurricane pushed, mostly aiming to aid in pushing the wrathful ultra beast back into the portal in the form of ensuring it stayed ensnared within mateo's frenzied vines, but keeping the gathering army inside the wormhole from surfacing easily.

"anchor them!" another commanding tone went towards her venusaur, who she released with a toss of her pokeball onto the distorted, torn ground. this command went towards mateo martinez . A power whip sent two, thick glowing vines forward to grab onto the ankles of the man's sceptile and arcanine. with all the attacks being thrown about, her own included, he and his team standing so near the gaping hole of torn space was dangerous, and gave her unneeded anxiety. if this bastard thought escaping through some space wormhole would be enough to escape their marriage, think again! as if she'd let him get away that easy.

plus, they could focus on giving it their all if they had no worries about consequences, right?  "be careful, dummy!"

- gyarados uses hurricane to keep nihilgo in mateo's frenzy plant + keep the others from surfacing
- venusaur uses its vines to try and keep sceptile and arcanine anchored while being so close to the portal & not swept away by the multitude of attacks

YlTNFbYg

The barrage of jutting stone that headed their way was, concerning. Needing to rest to restore its energy, her gyarados couldn't attack to help in the onslaught against neither the bomb nor the corrupted commissioner. Instead, the water serpent merely ducks its head, grunting with effort and lagged movement to return to its hovering position in the sky after grabbing Noelle and her blissey to avoid the spiral of encroaching rock. Amidst the terror, the pinkette spotted the collapsed form of Lucas Lane , burdened by his crippled body.

while she slid a glance over to mateo martinez in slight hesitance, torn between who to offer her assistance to. however, she realized that the dragon master could save himself. lucas, however, could not. "Lucas!" She called out to him in concern. "Save him," a psychic is used to airlift the professor and his severely hurt machoke, placing them onto the gyarados' lengthy back. unfortunately, his wheelchair was left behind to be torn asunder by the rocky barrage. he was rich though, he could afford a new one.

brows furrowing in concern over her fellow nurse, blissey began to use heal pulse on the machoke, in an attempt to ease its pain some.

kyle lopez 's grin and excited words, noelle offered him a shaky smile and nod. "let's uh...do this!" she has no idea what she was doing.

- uses gyarados to fly over the stones
- blissey uses psychic to try and save lucas lane
- blissey attempts to try and heal machoke

KCGdw4C|

Torn between what to do, Noelle briefly looked back and forth, feeling a sense of being incredibly overwhelmed. What should she do? Help Kyle and Mateo? But, what about the bomb? What sense did it make to go after some stupid pokeball if they ended up dying from the more pressing matters? Grimacing in displeasure, she left dealing with the crazy commissioner to her companions, instead focusing her efforts on supporting others with the bomb. "Gyarados, help send the bomb away!" Her plea towards the serpent is followed by a roar. a massive beam of energy emits from its gaping maw as a hyper beam is sent forth to follow the sliph's efforts.

her blissey is soon released afterwards, "please, protect us from the rain," noelle commands the normal type as she and her small group of pokemon huddle together. blissey soon used psychic on the acid rain that rained down directly onto them, throwing off its path to, hopefully, protect the huddled group. 

'Thank god, he's safe,' relief washed over noelle's expression as venusaur's vine retracted back with mateo in tow. She gave him a shaky smile and nod, agreeing with his 'plan'. all at once, the fighting seemed to commence, as others wasted little time in attacking the odd creature.

'I can't fall behind!' She looked towards her gyarados and venusaur, pointing a hand forward. "Gyarados, Thunder! Venusaur, trap it in place with Earth Power!" Heavy clouds form just overhead before a massive bolt of lightning drops down from the sky, soaring directly downwards towards Blacephelon, as the ground cracks underneath its feet in attempt to ensnare it and ensure the other's attacks hit their mark.

weaving through the sky filled with dangerous, floating bombs, noelle quickly realized that the bulky, large size of gyarados wasn't the best for this. "watch your tail," she warned the serpentine creature, who grumbled softly, straining her body. the dragon-esque pokemon only lowered to the ground at the wave of her trainers hand as the familiar sight of a certain dog trainer (kyle lopez ) came into view.

his question of a plan was met with a slight shrug of her shoulders, "uh...beat it up?...Dragon clan style?" Granted, only three of them were here currently. two of them had gone home. who knew where adam was and morgan....bless his heart? 

it was at that moment that she heard an explosion from just behind her, and she noticed the lack of mateo martinez by her side. eyes slowly widening with alarm, her attention on kyle is completely replaced by concern, "mateo?!" unsure what to do, but knowing it'd be suicide to rush into the minefield thicket, she instead released her venusaur. "get him out!" a vine extended from the grassy, bloomed bulb on its back, extending into the explosion in search of the dragon master to pull him back into safety.

her hand rests on blissey's pokeball, just in case. 

With her ears ringing from the might of the explosion, once Dragocess moved away, the sight of the destroyed festival was numbing. She could barely make out what was what, and the depressing sight before her had, briefly, caught her attention. A shadow fell over her as the spherical shape of the bomb neared, her fingers scrambling to release one of her pokemon to send it away. Perhaps it was fear that made her movements slow or hesitant - a real life or death situation was something she wasn't used to.

Fingertips scraping against the top of the red and white device as her breath hitched in her throat - however, the ball was quickly thrown off of its course by a familiar grass type. "Sceptile," noelle cried out to the reliable pokemon with a breath of relief. 'get your head in the game, this isn't a joke!' "thank you," she gratefully nodded towards him.

as mateo martinez addressed her though, she winced, brow briefly furrowing as her lips parted to protest. Honestly, she didn't even want him to go off and fight that...thing. But, not only was he one of the most capable here, it was in his nature to want to go off and beat up the strongest, craziest thing around. Trying to stop him from doing that, it'd just be a waste of time, which neither of them had. And while she wasn't the strongest, nor smartest, when it came to fighting...

"I wanna fight too." She gave him a cheeky, shaky grin. She was scared. God, she was terrified. She really didn't want to be blown apart, but, she'd be damned if she ran away. A hand briefly rested on his shoulder, "let's do this, together." of course, she couldn't resist ruining the moment, as she soon snickered and added, "like a married couple!"

Just as she pulled away, her phone went off, its ringer a poor quality recording of her and persephone amavi singing 'rudolph the red-nosed stantler'. Answering it, she gasped, "kyle lopez ! you're okay, oh thank god," she breathed out, "regroup? yea, you'll see us soon, i think. we're gonna be flying. be careful, okay?"

"Kyle's gonna meet up with us." She informed Mateo as she released her gyarados, clambering onto the flying water serpent's back. "Let's go." 

the bitter feeling of the departure of two of their family members was hard to ignore, even on a day as momentous as new years eve. as much as she tried to smile, the innate, depressing sadness of it all still lingered. 'I miss them,' the girl thought to herself as she stuffed her face with the delicious stand food, pausing only to let out a deep sigh. today was supposed to be 'nice'. a relaxing day, perhaps even what someone would consider a date, between her and mateo. perhaps even romantic, given the fire works and whatnot. but...

torn from her thoughts by mateo's voice, she perked up, looking up at him curiously. unfortunately, she'd never hear what it was he had to say. from a tear in space itself, an unearthly creature stepped from out of it. with it, noelle felt an underlying sense of...dread? something didn't feel right. something felt off. "mateo-" she went to call out to him nervously, but, in that moment, they were enveloped in the protective grasp of his dragonite. her voice was easily drowned out by a deafening, explosive boom. 

"low kick!" the instructions were followed by a small growl of confirmation to the typhlosion. the kick was delivered to a hefty boulder, placed there by a proud looking dragonite that hovered about with crossed arms. the kick hit, cracking the rock, but, only by a small degree.

"it's getting stronger, but, it could use some work." the pinkette mused before smiling, "we'll get there soon!" her typhlosion merely scoffed with an embarrassed look. her dragonite though complained loudly, likely eager to get back to training, as thunder cloaked her fist and she hit the rock with a resounding 'thump'. the crack immediately grew larger, before the boulder cracked into two. her typhlosion gave a soft, challenging snarl, whilst dragonite smirked.

"don't be a show off, hime!" 

it wasn't often others came this far into the forest that surrounded the large estate her clan called home. not only was it confusing, with trees large enough to block the sun, but, most were scared off by the mention of 'powerful beasts' lurking in its depths. those rumors weren't exactly untrue, given her family's...er..'reputation' of being a bit.....aggressive? destructive? but 'beasts'? how rude! still, something stirred in the air this morning, enough to bother the priestess from her sleep and go on a walk to calm her nerves.

as she walked through the thick, vast forest, she nearly jumped in a very 'scardy cat' esque pose when she abruptly stumbled upon someone, whom she thought was just some odd pokemon making noise at first. "Oh..." She trailed off awkwardly, trying to find her words.

"...Hi! Are...you lost?" No, seriously, why were they here?

"right this way, right this way!" noelle shouted out to the pokemon as they marched along through the thick snow of the forest that was once their home. most pokemon were grass-types, whose leaves quivered and shuddered as a bitter wind blew by.

she had decided to help out the rangers in their goal of helping move along the very heat-sensitive pokemon of a nearby, snow-ridden forest, and it was a far larger task than she realized. after be subjected to dancing in a horrible alola-like sway for nearly ten minutes by a particularly joyful ludicolo and having to stop a snowball fight between a couple of younger pokemon (and getting hit in the face several times while doing so), she couldn't wait for this to be over with.

most of the pokemon were moving along just fine, following her instructions and the warmth provided by her rapidash and typhlosion. there was one though who was a bit of a....tough customer. utterly refusing to move and lingering far behind, a massive torterra laid. the forest had likely been his home for many, many years, and leaving it behind, however briefly, to go into some city, man-made shelter didn't sound exactly 'nice'. noelle didn't blame him for not wanting to move. but, she'd feel horrible if the poor, stubborn old thing froze to death because of it.

approaching the tortoise whilst her pokemon continued to lead ahead the rest of the ground through the forest she gave a wave. "hey big guy! do you mind just sorta...kinda...moving a bit...faster?" she asked kindly with a smile. it was silent for a few moments, as the torterra glowered at her.

she got her answer in the form of a flurry of sharp razor leaves flying in her direction, blocked only by her quickly ducking behind a tree. "a simple no would've sufficed!" she complained loudly in a groan.

"Aw....look at it go," the pinkette breathed out as she watched the lone bird trek through the thick snow. not only was the nearest town still quite a ways away, the air brewed with an harsh wind, promising a blizzard soon enough. Snow had began to heavily fall, instantly covering any snowy footprints the moment they were made. Not to mention, there were so many scary pokemon on this path! The poor thing would be eaten or robbed alive if it didn't leave.

But, yet, the well-spirited bird continued to waddle along, dragging the massive sack full of gifts through the snow with a look of sheer determination. She'd been following it for at least five minutes now, wondering if, as the conditions got worse or as it fell and stumbled, if it'd give up but...no, it hadn't.

And so, with a blaze in her eyes, she couldn't help but vow to protect and guide the young bird. picking up her pace from where she'd been lagging behind and following the delibird, she offered the startled pokemon a smile. "i'm here to help! let's go together, okay?" she gave a big, friendly, kinda dumb smile and a thumbs up. the ice type looked a bit confused for a moment, but, quickly accepted the offer with a happy flap of its wings. with that, the duo continued forth.

it seemed she had made the right decision though. several moments later, a howl came forth. And from it, several dark shadows appeared on the cliffs and mountainside that flanked the lone, straight path. Sliding down, multiple mightyena appeared, looking far more feral and savage than the friendly (and occasionally destructive) faces Noelle often saw on kyle's own. for a moment, she hoped to see her friend appear and call the dogs back over to his side, but, it was merely wishful thinking. these dogs were wild, and she was without her dog training companion to deal with them. which meant she'd have to get rid of them the 'old fashion way'.

it was eight on one, but, she was up for the challenge! with a nervous smile, she gave a trembling grin, "you should've called more of your friends if you wanted an even fight. you are dealing with a dragon master, after all!"

....shit, she was going to get mauled to death.

Fuming a bit at the blank expression she was given and as the cute display ended, noelle sighed, shoulders slumping a bit as she grumbles, reluctantly putting her phone away. "no fun," she complained under her breath. however, his abrupt offer caught her a bit off guard, as she looked towards her sprawled and content rockruff with a look of doubt. seeing kyle interacting with him so naturally made her a bit...jealous? for a moment, the pinkette was quiet before she perked up with an abruptly determined face. "y-yeah! yeah!" she nodded frantically.

getting onto 'all fours', her hands and knees, she crawled closer, offering out a rather pathetic attempt at a growl. cyle looked at her with a :huh: face for a moment, confused. she tried again, this time, bucking at the dog in an attempt of copying kyle's bout of rough play.

this immediately made the dog crouch, tail wagging furiously before he lept forward. in a harsh bite his teeth latched onto her face and refused to let go, causing the woman to scream as she fell onto her back, desperately trying to pry the dog off. despite her incredible strength, the teeth that latched onto her nose refused to let go. "ow, ow, ow - holy hell - kyle! kyle help! kyle i'm dying!"