Vytocyt bit her bottom lip, a look of concentration on her face. A large spot of her notum-enriched blood soiled her black hood, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Should I make a Heckler-specific toolbar?" she asked herself.

It was the north end of Borealis, beside the reclaim station.

A voice crackled over the team com channel. "Vyt, u down?"

Momentarily distracted from her toolbar thoughts, she spoke into her com unit. "Yes. I told you Hecklers hate me."

A hulking Atrox sitting on the ground beside her looked up. "You, too?" he asked.

Realizing she had spoken instead into the vicinity channel, she quickly swapped back to team chat and said the same thing.

She deliberately toggled the chat back to vicinity. "I'm sorry," she told Spleentrox44. "I used the wrong com channel."

Spleentrox44, bright blue eyes small as beads, smiled and said the abbreviation for mountain and then started to say "lollipop" or "Lollygag" but was cut off.

Vytocyt looked at him blankly, waiting to see if he would continue the thought.

An Opifex with wiry hair and a bright yellow martial artist suit appeared at reclaim. His normally gray complexion seemed pale, and the accompanying smell of ozone -- remnants of an energy attack -- made Vytocyt wrinkle her nose.

The Opifex spun about to get his bearings then bluntly addressed Vytocyt. "HE plz"

Vytocyt ignored the hapless 'fex. "I'm sorry, Spleentrox44. What did you say?"

"MT, mistell. LMAO"

Vytocyt frowned. Was that a place? A place to find Mistell Mountain? Lower Meridian Artery Oasis? Or was it a nanoprogram? Lesser Mind Attack Oratory, a Bureaucrat nano? Ah, it was probably an organization! The L probably stood for Leet. Leet something something Organization, maybe.

"I'm in the Nanomage Liberation Front!" Vytocyt announced proudly.

"Ess, Splen?"

The massive Atrox stood briefly. He waved his arms and a swarm of nanobots jumped to his command. The sub-microscopic robots moved quickly from his fingertips to the body of the Opifex, creating a glowing blue cloud in the air around him. The Opifex cellular structure responded immediately to this invasion, growing nearly half a meter taller! Spleentrox44 sat down again.

Vytocyt commanded her nanobots to extract Notum from the very air of Rubi-Ka, supplying Spleentrox44's nanobots with the energy they needed.

The Opifex ran off toward downtown Borealis.

"He didn't even say your name right!" said Vytocyt incredulously.

At the exact same time, Spleentrox44 said "I know a few in the NLF"

Vytocyt asked "Whom do you know??"

Over the team channel, Allysial, the group's doctor, said "Vyt, you coming back?"

"But I was never into RP"

Zabella, the automated assistant of the NLF, suddenly announced that Marsis had come out of stasis.

"Hail Marsis!" said Antroxian over the NLF's private, scrambled com channel.

"Hail Marsis! Till All Are Free!" said Vytocyt to Allysial. Allysial, standing up to her knees in the foul waters under the ramp to the Jobe portal in Elysium, shrugged and targeted another Heckler.

***************

Tune in next time when Vytocyt learns that while it may be theoretically possible to combine her Refined Osmium Ingot with Spin Art, she needs at least 437 in Modern Sculpture to do so.