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"Well," the other Bob said, "let's do it."
The three tapped their icons.
"Reboot!"
A moment of disorientation, and the trio were all rebooted into army fatigues. The doppelganger Bob immediately took charge.
"All right, let's get this show on the road." She turned to Dot. "You, go find us some explosives. Bob, you come with me to rustle up some friendly game sprites - "
Dot coughed, politely. The two Guardians looked at her. She pointed smugly to the stripes on her sleeve. The sprites looked puzzled, then glanced down at their own uniforms.
"Hey! How come she gets to be the sergeant?" the female Bob complained to her double.
Dot grinned. "I guess being in charge just comes naturally."
Bob looked apologetically at his twin.
"Fine," she said eventually. "But if you screw up, I'm taking command. Got it?"
Dot looked unruffled. "Fine," she said, staring back at her, jaw set in defiance.
"Um... if you don't mind, guys... the Game?" Bob prodded, trying to break the tension between the women. He found himself briefly on the receiving end of the other Guardian's stare, before she broke the eye contact, sighed, and walked away down the rocky path.
Dot couldn't resist. "Where are you going, Corporal?"
Bob winced. "Dot, just..." he trailed off, as the Guardian froze in her tracks, and turned slowly to face them, her eyes narrowed.
"I'm *going* to find some explosive for the bridge. *Sir*. Unless you have something better for me to be doing?"
Dot simply raised an eyebrow. "Take Bob with you. I'll go and find some troops."
The other Bob gave a sarcastic half-salute, and continued on her way down the path. Bob shook his head.
"Dot, that was not a good idea," he murmured.
"Oh, so you have an issue with me being in command now as well?" Dot shot back at him.
Bob held up his hands in mock surrender.
"Whoa! I'm not saying anything!" Her glare didn't abate. "All right! I'm going!" he said, and followed his counterpart at a jog.
* * *
Bob caught up to the other Guardian some way down the path. She glanced at him.
"Hey," he said, trying to be friendly.
"Is she always like that?" she asked him.
He didn't answer right away. She smirked. "Guess so," she said, and turned to survey the treacherous landscape. The rough-hewn path ran, zig-zag, down the mountain. The bridge stood not far from them now, a huge expanse of steel and wire almost a mile long and wide enough for a truck to cross.
"Oh boy," he muttered.
"You read my mind."
He checked the Game stats again quickly. The User was five levels away. They had to work fast if they wanted to rig anything. He told his counterpart, who nodded.
"There're a lot of caves here. There's got to be something in one of them..." she replied, gesturing to her left.
Bob peered into the blackness, then checked his uniform's utility belt. "Ah-hah!" he said after a moment.
"What - ow!"
"Sorry!"
Bob quickly turned the flashlight's beam away from the other Guardian as she raised a hand to shield her eyes, blinded by the sudden light. She made a minor sound of annoyance as she fished out her own flashlight, and then followed him inside the cave. It seemed like several nanos before his double yelped excitedly and grabbed his arm.
"Bingo!"
* * *
"I hope this is going to be enough," Bob thought aloud, a worried expression on his face as he looked at the five crates. The other Bob looked up from the dynamite she was unpacking.
"We just have to use it wisely," she replied. "Put it at the weakest structural points on the bridge."
He frowned, and inspected the bridge once more. "I say we go for the midsection," he said after a nano. "The most structural strain will be there."
She grinned. "You read my mind again. Here, take this." She thrust a bunch of dynamite at him, wires exploding from its top like some bizarre kind of carrot.
"Wonder where our backup is," he murmured, as he took the explosives from her carefully.
"Right here!"
Bob turned to see Dot. She had five binomes with her, all in army camouflage. He waved cheerily at her. His double didn't appear pleased, however.
"Is that it?" she said, a frustrated look on her face as she surveyed the motley crew.
Dot's previously cheerful look subsided in favour of a scowl. Bob stepped in quickly, knowing valuable time was being lost already.
"Can we just make the best of what we've got instead of sniping at each other?"
"Sure," his counterpart replied, without much conviction, and went back to wiring the dynamite.
"Bob..." Dot said, then as the other Bob looked up from her work she trailed off. "Uh... not you... the other Bob. Whatever."
"Got a plan, Dot?"
"Yes. Take these guys with you, and start setting the charges at the midsection."
"Aye, sir!" he grinned. "You, you, get that crate - carefully!" he winced as the two binomes hefted the explosives just a little too roughly.
* * *
Bob paused a moment in the centre of the bridge, and gazed out at the ravine stretching away in either direction. The gusting wind moaned as it whipped through the canyon. So peaceful, he thought. So hard to imagine time was against them. They had two thirds of the charges down so far, and were waiting on the last batch.
He turned quickly as he heard the sound of a car engine approaching. It couldn't be the User already! He was about to check Glitch when his counterpart pulled up next to him in an Army jeep, a big grin all over her face.
"Hey! I've got the last of the charges. Look what I found!"
Bob managed to slow his heart rate back down as she peered at him, concern on her face. "Are you all right? You look like you've seen the User..."
"Well, for a moment there, I thought I did," he admitted, sheepishly. He checked Glitch once more on the User's current location.
"How long?" she asked.
"Not long. Two levels now."
She nodded, as she hopped out of the jeep. "Right."
"Where's Dot?"
"She's wiring the detonator," the Guardian said, as she hauled a crate from the back of the vehicle. "She'll probably get it wrong..." she added.
Bob shook his head. "No. I trust her. She'll do it."
She handed the crate to him, and gave him a hard look.
"You'd better hope she does, or we'll all be deleted."
Bob frowned at her as he passed the crate to a waiting binome. "Trust me, OK? She'll do it!"
His counterpart sighed in frustration, and briefly rubbed her temples before replying.
"Bob... just... put yourself in my position for a nano. This is my system, my responsibility. You three show up out of nowhere with a shaky story at best, and now your friend is in charge in a Game I have to win. Think about it."
Bob's expression softened. She was right. He'd probably get just as frustrated if he was the one dealing with this.
"Look, for what it's worth... I'm sorry. I'll do everything I can to make sure nothing goes wrong. And Dot knows what she’s doing."
His double moved to haul a reel of fuse from the back seat, and met his earnest gaze as she looked up. She couldn't help smiling.
"Apology - from you, at least - accepted." She shrugged. "You know her better than I do." She glanced over her shoulder at the small troop of binomes working furiously on the charges. "Where are we at?" she called.
"Four more and we're ready!"
The two Guardians nodded.
"How are we doing on time?" she asked Bob. He looked at Glitch's readout screen, and his expression changed rapidly to one of near panic.
"The User is now one level away, and getting here fast!"
She paled. "Oh, boy. Guys..."
Bob took the reel from her. "I have an idea. I'll attach the wiring..."
* * *
The jeep pulled up beside Dot in a cloud of dust. She glanced up, coughing and waving the dust away, to see the two Guardians and the binomes all piling out. One of them handed a fuse reel to her. She looked at it, and then saw the fuse snaking back across the bridge.
"Charges set, Ma'am," it said.
She nodded, then narrowed her eyes at the two Bobs.
"Wait... did you guys just do what I think you did...?"
Bob grinned. "Fastest way to lay wire I could think of." His expression became more serious as he added, "the User is on this level now. He could get here any nano."
"Right. I've got everything set... let me just finish wiring the detonator up and we'll be ready to go."
"Here, I'll help," the other Bob offered, as she threw her gloves into the back seat of the jeep.
"I don't need help," Dot said icily.
She rolled her eyes in response. Bob grimaced. Dot stared at him, then threw a pair of binoculars in his direction.
"Go and keep an eye out for the User. I'll work on this."
He caught the binoculars with one hand, sighed, and moved to a good vantage point near the bridge.
The female Guardian put her hands on her hips, trying to curb her annoyance.
"Dot... We don't have time to mess around."
"Fine."
Dot reluctantly moved over to allow her access to the detonator. The two worked in silence for a while, before the Guardian spoke up.
"I'll put a five-second delay on this thing, just in case."
"In case of - "
Dot didn't get far enough to ask why, because suddenly she noticed Bob was waving his arms around like a windmill. He was yelling, but with the gusting wind it was hard to hear him.
"Bob? What the - "
The other sprite had already jumped up and was running to Bob's side. He turned to her as she approached.
"Is it the User?" she asked, taking the binoculars from him. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights. The Guardian narrowed her brown eyes at him. "What *is* it?" she asked again. Not getting an answer from him, she raised the binoculars to her eyes and looked for herself.
She saw the User - albeit distantly - for the first time, also in Army fatigues, but of a different colour, heading towards the bridge, machine gun in hand. All right, she thought, what was the big deal? No. Wait. There was a small buggy just ahead of the User, crossing the bridge, but awkwardly, zig-zagging from side to side like it was dodging...
Bullets! The User was firing at it! She squinted, tried to make out who was in the small vehicle. Suddenly, as it reached the midsection of the bridge, the buggy tipped over as a shot hit a tyre, shredding it. Two sprites fell out of the vehicle, and dove for cover behind it as the bullets rained down on them.
"What in the 'Net..."
She stared for a nano, not certain she could believe her eyes, then - "ADENA!!"
End Part 5