SHOUT OUTS/ANSWERS

Long Live BRUCAS: You'll have to wait and see, but no Lexi will not be giving the device to Logan or telling him about it in anyway.

DISCLAIMER

Yes, I know it's been a while but this chap gave me fits like no other! And yes, despite the length, this is an interlude. Vampire Diaries belongs to L.J. Smith and the CW. The Strikers angle came from something I read in the Dark Visions Trilogy, which belongs to L.J. Smith. I only own the new plots and characters you don't recognize.

Vicki glanced at Stefan uncertainly.

"Do we really have to do this? Why can't I just have people blood?" she wondered. People blood tasted so much better. Animal blood was totally gross!

"Because you need to get a balance between the two. If you don't get that balance, you risk becoming a danger to Matt," he told her. Why did I offer to handle this part of the training again? he wondered.

"But I can barely choke animal blood down," she whined. People blood was much easier to swallow and she'd rather live on that alone. Not that she wanted to hurt Matty, but couldn't he see how hard this was?

"I get it. I do. It took me a week before I could choke it down without throwing up. But in the long run, I found that my family and I were better off for it as it allowed us to blend in with society while retaining our full strength," he said. Vicki blew out an unneeded breath and nodded. She knew Stefan was just trying to help her, but that didn't make it any easier. They had been at this for a few days now and she kept throwing up the animal blood. But it wasn't like she was trying to puke the stuff up, she just couldn't help it! It was disgusting! Stefan looked at Vicki sympathetically. He knew exactly how she felt. He had had a hard time with this himself after he had been turned. Stefan huffed as Pearl motioned for him to chase down the bear that they were hunting.

"This blood is disgusting. Human tastes much better," he insisted.

"And if you want to survive in society for more than a year or two, you'll learn to drink it," came the response. Stefan rolled his eyes but went in the direction Pearl had indicated, reaching and felling the bear in record time. With a growl, Stefan buried his fangs into the bear's throat, drinking quickly. When he had enough, he moved away and the bear slunk off. He then turned to Pearl, who stared at him.

"There? You see? That wasn't so-" Pearl's comment died off as Stefan immediately began to retch, the blood coming out in a gush. She let out an unnecessary breath and ran her fingers through her hair.

"I see we still have work to do," she commented. Stefan gave himself a mental shake and realized that Vicki was staring at him in concern. Well, at least she didn't run off, he thought to himself. It was something he had done constantly when Pearl was teaching him about balancing the two types of blood.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Now, come on. Let's go see what we can find," he stated, resulting in a groan of disgust.

"Slave driver," she complained, but she nevertheless followed him as he headed deeper into the woods. When they finally got to their destination, she saw a deer and ran towards it. Hey, if they were going to do this, she might as well just get it over with. With lightning speed, she lunged on top of the animal and then sank her fangs into the back of its neck, drinking fluidly. When she had had her fill, she pulled away and it staggered to its feet and hobbled off. Vicki looked at Stefan, who motioned for her to follow him, which she did. As she did so, she began to look around as she honed her senses on the forest. This was the part of being a vampire that she liked: she could see and hear everything for miles and miles. It was awesome! She could hear birds, and squirrels, she could see deer, and chipmunks…like she said, it was awesome. Suddenly, she could feel the blood she had just consumed trying to come back up and she doubled up. Hearing the sounds, Stefan was instantly by her side but Vicki waved him off as she swallowed the blood back down. However, some of it managed to escape onto the ground. Stefan reached into his pocket and offered her some paper towels that he had brought for this very thing.

"Thanks," she said. "I'm sorry," she apologized, using the towels to clean herself up.

"Don't be. You're keeping more of it down and that's all that matters," he assured. Heaven knows it's not easy to do, he thought to himself. Then, his ears picked up the sound of something coming at them fast and instantly turned in the direction of the sound even as Vicki did the same.

"What is that? Is anyone else hunting out here?" she questioned.

"I don't think so," he replied. He wasn't hearing his siblings, Anna, Pearl, Lexi, or Katherine, so he wasn't sure what was causing the frantic pounding of hooves from the deer. Without warning, the animal came bounding out towards them and Stefan moved quickly, tackling the deer and sinking his teeth into it, letting the blood course down his throat, being careful not to let any of the blood drip. He didn't want to waste a drop. He had never liked doing that. Okay, so he didn't really need to feed but it wasn't really fair to put the girl through this if he wasn't going to do it himself. Fair was fair after all. Besides, what else was he supposed to do with an animal that came charging at them? A few moments later, he released the buck which scrambled to its feet and then hurried away. "Come on. Let's go," he said and they headed back into town. "You did good by the way."

"I did?"

"Yeah." Vicki laughed in delight. Though she didn't necessarily like drinking animal blood, she was glad that it was Stefan who was teaching her as he was always really patient with her. I don't know if I would've survived this long without him, she thought to herself. Meanwhile, Tyler was at a meeting that Mayor Lockwood had dragged him to. Ugh. This is so boring, he thought to himself. He had no interest in being the town's next mayor, and yet his father just couldn't seem to take the hint. And that was how he had found himself at this meeting. Well, at least he had mastered the art of tuning people out. And it certainly helped in these situations. Suddenly, he felt a smack on his arm and he turned to his dad in surprise.

"I asked you a question, Tyler," Richard snapped.

"I'm sorry, Dad. I zoned out. What'd you say?" he questioned.

"Tyler, would you just pay attention for once in your life?" Richard snapped again.

"Richard, just ask him again," one of the men said.

"I said, 'What do you think about rezoning some of the streets so that we could gain more business off of the highway?" Richard repeated.

"Um, I would say 'Why?' I mean, we've got plenty of business," Tyler responded. I'd also say we should cut this stupid meeting short. It's boring and unnecessary, he thought to himself as he stared at the man's business partners, his eyes narrowing as he turned to them. Call the meeting off, call the meeting off, call the meeting off, he begged silently, unaware when a red spark of electricity flew from Tyler's eyes and into the eyes of the two men who then turned to Richard.

"Richard. Let's just call the meeting off," one said.

"What?" Richard asked.

"Jackson's right. It's stupid, boring, and unnecessary," another man added. Huh? What? Tyler thought to himself. Was this really happening? Were these guys really saying what he was thinking? This was unreal! But it was kind of cool.

"I don't know what's even going on anyway. Let's just get out of here," a third man said and to the amazement of both Tyler and Richard, the men walked out of the room and headed for the door.

"What just happened?" Richard demanded.

"I don't know, but if we're done, I'm out of here," Tyler declared as he grabbed his car keys and then headed out of the house, unlocking his car, getting in, turning the engine on, and then heading for the Grill. While this was going on, Caroline was at the Grill, eating a meal and playing pool, which was one of her favorite pastimes. In her opinion; why put off a perfectly good game of pool just because you were eating? As she continued to play, two guys walked up to her.

"So Caroline, playing pool, huh?" one asked.

"Yep," she confirmed.

"How 'bout a partner? Or two?" the second boy questioned.

"No thanks. I'm good," Caroline replied as she took another shot and then watched as a striped ball went in. She then took a bite of her burger and then got into position to attempt to sink one of the solids. She hit the ball with her cue and it made to the edge of the pocket and then stopped, causing her to groan in annoyance.

"Oooh, tough. You just needed a little more oomph behind the shot," the first boy sympathized.

"Yeah, let us show you," the second boy offered and before Caroline knew what was happening, they were right behind her as one of the boys placed his arms around her arms in the guise of guiding her hands over the pool cue.

"I know how to play pool just fine, thank you," she responded, squirming out of the grasp. Oh I bet I can get her to change her mind, the first boy thought to himself. She's so hot we can make her do whatever we want, the second boy thought to himself. Caroline just squirmed and finally managed to get out of the boy's grasp.

"Back off, graboids!" she snapped turning around, not realizing that Tyler was walking in. If they want to play handsies with someone, why don't they do it with each other? she angrily thought to herself. "One: I'm not that type of a girl. Two: I know how to play pool, and three: if you wanna screw someone, look to each other!" she snapped, her eyes flashing as she glared at them angrily. Unknown to the trio, an orange spark of electricity shot out from Caroline's eyes and entered the boys' eyes. She then watched in amazement as they turned to one another and began groping one another, heading for the exit, passing Tyler who glanced at them briefly before he continued on to where Caroline was.

"What was that all about?" Tyler wondered, coming up to her.

"I have no idea. I just told them that if they wanted to get grabby, turn to each other! I was just trying to get them to leave me alone and then that happened. It was really weird," Caroline responded.

"Yeah, something weird just happened with me too," Tyler told her and he went on to explain what had transpired at the meeting that he had been dragged to.

"That is so weird. Why would that happen unless-" Caroline's voice trailed off as the two stared at one another.

"The last of our powers came back," they realized together.

"The Strikers are reborn!" Tyler commented, putting his hand up for a high five.

"Yes!" Caroline celebrated, obliging him and they turned to the pool table and started a game. Meanwhile, back at the Salvatore house, Damon had just opened the front door, intending to leave. However, he paused when he saw Vicki.

"Where's Stefan? Everything okay?" he queried.

"Everything's fine. I released him from babysitting duty," she answered.

"What can I do for you then?" Damon queried.

"I just wanted to thank you," Vicki stated.

"For what?" Damon questioned.

"For compelling away my urge for drugs. You really saved my life," Vicki replied. And it was true. With the way she was acting, she was surprised that she hadn't gotten herself killed.

"No problem. Glad it worked out," Damon told her and she smiled as they headed away from the house. Yeah, things had gotten tough after she was turned, but overall, things were definitely looking up…