Vinny Drechsler
Everything seemed to go so fast, but Vinny, even amongst his uncontrollable kerfuffling, was not about to be taken out by the elements. Loud crashes filled the air as the waves continued their violent onslaught on the ship's hull. In Vinny's mind, it was being ripped to shreds, which may or may not have been a slight exaggeration. In any case, it was undeniable that his journey to wherever it was the ship was taking him was abruptly being cut short.
As he caught his balance (almost professionally, it would seem), the blurry man Vinny had been stumbling toward seemed to fade into nothing but a distant memory. Those were struggles of times long since buried in the past. Here and now, the ship was sinking and the floor beneath them was shaking every which direction. For everyone, it seemed, it was impossible to move around without help, but not for Vinny. Apparently unfazed by the completely unstable metal he was standing on, he ran for the nearest muster station and donned one of the few remaining life jackets he found there. Knowing well that many of the passengers weren't so lucky to find the life jackets in time, he grabbed one extra and ran for the nearest unprotected person he could find.
But then, he soon found that there was nobody around, for moments later, a final wave smashed into the capsizing ship, doing quite a number and effectively rendering it irreparable. He clutched the second life jacket hard, ensuring it didn't escape his grasp and prevent him from saving that one life the may have otherwise been lost. Above him, however, flew a blur or orange, somersaulting quite spectacularly through the air as if launched off of a catapult.
"Yes, Kimmel!" Vinny shouted over the roaring of the storm, "Use Fly!" It was difficult to tell whether or not the Pok?mon was troubled by its predicament, but Vinny wasn't worried at all. He had poured a lot of training into that fish's physical defense, so he was quite resilient for a Pok?mon his level. His imminent impact with the water at the end of his fall would be nothing to worry about. He was a fish after all.
The ship being wrecked, on the other hand, certainly was. And Vinny still had a life jacket in his hand that wasn't being used! Maintaining his balance after the major impact and amidst the increasingly vertical deck he was standing on, he began a mad dash to the edge of the ship and jumped off, diving headlong into the water, noting the many bodies ? some alive, some unconscious, and some unfortunately beyond help ? scattered about the ocean. Thankfully, there as plenty of debris that was buoyant enough to be used to keep afloat.
Before the force of his dive could take him very far below the surface of the sea, his life vest forced him back above, and he quickly got to work, swimming at top speed for the nearest body he could reach, and quickly began fastening them into the jacket. Once he was satisfied that the person's unconsciousness was properly accounted for and that they would be relatively safe without his assistance thereafter, he began attempting to save other people, leading them to wreckage that they could use to keep them afloat, before finally spending all the adrenaline he had. He was sadly unable to help everyone, but he was satisfied knowing that he had potentially saved the lives of several others.
Of course, by no means was the storm over. Great wells of water tossed everything every which way, spitting some objects far up in to the air while completely swallowing others. Vinny was fortunate enough to be able to avoid the worst of it, though he could hardly say the same for most of the former passengers. Undoubtedly many of the same passenger he had just helped save were already forced into the same (or worse) states than Vinny had just helped them out of, much to the Magikarp trainer's dismay. No, all there was to do now was to wade it out and hope for the best. With any luck, a transmission would have been sent out and help would already be on its way.
There was no such luck, it seemed. Hours passed, the morning sun was rising in the sky, and the storm had all but died since the catastrophe had claimed the ship and the lives most of its commuters. What had survived of the debris had followed the currents, perhaps traveling miles before gently dropping off at a questionably inhabited tropical landmass in the middle of who-knows-where. Several of the survivors had already reached the shore and were salvaging what they could from the wreckage.
Vinny, on the other hand, manage to fall asleep on a piece of floating debris once the the storm had died down. At some point, he had given his own life jacket to a woman who had been struggling on her own. Kimmel was groggily managing to keep up with his trainer, having spent so much of his energy and not been offered the chance to return to his Pok? Ball to rest due to Vinny's apparent absence of mind throughout the night. It mattered very little, however. There was very little to cause them trouble at the moment and the Magikarp, being a fish, wasn't exactly in danger of growing tired from swimming. It was that elusive bit of sleep that he was growing weary of not having.
Ever so gently, Vinny's makeshift sleeping quarters drifted onto the beach of the island nearby, rocking up and down, back and forth, as if trying to ensure he would stay asleep. That is, until a slightly larger waved splashed him in the face, giving him just enough of that jolt to get him wide awake.
"Ze vending machine still owes me money!" He blurted out, realizing moments later that he was perhaps very far from the nearest vending machine. Memories of the night before slowly began to come back to him as he looked out to the sea and saw several pieces of the ship floating around, some with people grabbing hold of them. It started to set in that he had been shipwrecked and probably wasn't going to make to wherever that ship was taking him anytime soon.
That perhaps, was the least of Vinny's worries, though. Nobody else knew this, but he actually didn't have a clue where the ship was headed. He had bought the ticket on a whim after finding out that the on-deck restaurants there served potato salad, although now that he recalled, he didn't even try to order any of the stuff. Now, to his dismay, the chances of fulfilling his dreams were crushed into oblivion. He hung his head in shame and sorrow knowing that all his anticipation of the taste of the magnificent delicacy was all in vain. Surely this was the worst of all days.
But there was no sense dwelling on what could have been. Today was a new day! And despite all that had happened to put them in place of despair, Vinny had no intentions of giving up all hope! If this is the hand life would deal him, then so be it, but whether it be the royal flush of his dreams or a laughably uninteresting set of cards, now was not time to fold! Yes, this was the day that he would do what had to be done by him and help the survivors to defeat the elements!
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