Okay. After getting hosed by what seemed like nothing more than a button-mashing Noel, I spent a lot of time analyzing her drive. I also was experiencing all my attacks being negated by he standing D, and, moreover, if I try to defend against this blue-hued onslaught I find myself eating an astounding high-low mixup.
Her drive is initiated by any of her D attacks. After that, she can press any button + direction to initiate a follow-up attack for up to 5 attacks ( I think). She cannot do the same exact attack twice in a row. Whenever she ends the chain she will pause for a moment and unload some shells, which is when I presume you can punish her.
High-Low: If you are going to defend against a drive combo you need to reverse standard procedure and block high. The only drive-mode attack that sweeps is, iirc, forward+d. She can initiate the chain with this low attack or an overhead, so you need to be ready to react to the way she starts it up. After that, block high and watch for forward+c. The way I recognize this ability is that she dashes in with her head furthest in front of her before quickly dropping on the ground and kicking you. As soon as that dash starts, I go low.
Common consensus: seems to be that you DO NOT want to block her drive chains. Apparently, if you block a drive attack, you should be able to hit her if she attempts another. Also, this would lead one to believe that "good" Noels won't chain drives if you block it.
