A/N: How could I not put these two together? Really? They're perfect, lol!

"Why?"

Jensen kept his eyes glued to the screen as he patiently tried to answer Cougar's question. "Because it's an age-old battle of humans versus aliens. Either we wipe them out, or they wipe us out. Three o'clock."

Cougar jerked the remote in his hand, just turning his avatar in time to take out player hot_sauce69. Eyes scanning the digital field for more hidden intruders, he followed closely behind Jensen's character through the alien terrain. "We are on their planet," he commented.

"Technically," interjected red_spider242 through the headsets,"it's not a planet. It's a Halo. Hence the name."

Jensen nodded. "And it's not like the English invading America here, Cougs. We're going after them because they're going after us."

BenG47 added his opinion on the matter. "The English were known to use the same excuse to justify the slaughter of the Native Americans."

red_spider242 laughed. "Ben, you could tell me right now in a British accent that your name is actually Richard Pippen Scott the Ninth, and I wouldn't even blink."

On a couch several hundred miles away from the one Jensen and Cougar were sitting on, Ben forgot about his controller and turned to look at Riley. "Was that one of your completely random statements, or did you actually have a point?"

Riley shot down player letsplay_ball who had been sneaking up behind Ben's now idle character. "Do I ever say anything that doesn't have a point? Don't answer that. What I was saying is that you couldn't be more European if you tried. Standing up for Native American rights isn't exactly built into your oh-look-at-my-ancestors-they're-so-great heritage." A flash of red lit up Ben's side of the screen causing Riley to throw up his hands for a second. "Ben! Pay attention! You just gave mothzilla_the_awesome another point!"

Jensen grinned from his corner of the country. "Another point for mankind. Eat dirt Covenant scum."

Ben sighed. "Why are we the 'Covenant scum' again?"

"Because we have the cooler weapons," Riley answered quickly, tongue sticking out one side of his mouth just slightly as he gained their team another point. "And just so you know, Mr. The Awesome, the only reason you're winning is because I'm stuck with a bunch of amateurs. Between you and cougars_kill_all my pathetic team doesn't stand a chance."

"I'm not that bad," Ben argued.

This time Riley lost focus on the game for a second as he shot Ben a look of utter disbelief. "Not that bad? Five minutes ago you wasted half your ammo on a bush."

"I thought there was something behind the bush," Ben countered defensively.

Riley shook his head as he turned his attention back to the mission at hand. "How we are still alive to even be having this argument, I will never know," he said more to himself than anyone else.

Ben moved his avatar out from the crate he had spawned behind and scanned his surroundings. "Maybe because in real life it doesn't take two thumbs moving in the opposite direction of where you want to be looking to turn your head," Ben argued in a mumble.

On the couch beside Jensen, Cougar shot the tech an "I told you so" look. Jake shrugged innocently. "Alright, so maybe the inverted controls function doesn't make a lot of sense. I turned it off for you, what more do you want?"

Ben's avatar froze again as he shot an accusing glare at Riley, who pretended not to notice. "You can turn off the inverted controls?" he asked, the annoyance clear in his voice.

"I am trying to teach you the mechanics of being a gamer, Ben," Riley stated. "True gamers play it this way."

"I don't want to be a 'true gamer,' Riley," Ben sighed, then jumped slightly when the younger man suddenly yelled at him.

"Ben!" Riley snapped. "How many times have I told you not to use my real name? Respect the gamer tag, remember?"

"You're using my real name," Ben argued.

"That's because you chose it for your tag!" Riley said, utterly flabbergasted. He pointed at the screen. "See? You were supposed to have a cool name like that guy that keeps killing you – cougars_kill_all."

"Actually," Jensen interjected, the amusement clear in his tone as it became his turn to shoot Cougar a knowing look, "he goes by Cougar in real life, too. I tried telling him the same thing about the tags."

A new voice piped in, hot_sauce69 from Riley's team. "His name is Cougar? How dumb is that?"

Without another word from the player, his avatar suddenly exploded into a billion sparkling little bits. Jensen, Cougar, and Ben all flinched slightly, confused expressions on their faces.

"What the hell was that?" Jensen asked.

Riley shrugged, even though only Ben could see the move. "Respect the gamer tag, respect the other players. He broke my rules…plus, he was getting on my nerves," he explained. "Um, considering my team is now one player short would anyone from your side volunteer to step out of the game so we're even?"

"Fuck no," letsplay _ball huffed, "I don't how you did that, but if you want to blow up your own teammates then I say we take the advantage."

Jensen grinned. "Looks like we have a volunteer." With a push of a few buttons on his keyboard that was wired to the console, the avatar for letsplay_ball was engulfed in flames for a few seconds before disappearing.

"That was cool," Riley smirked.

"Thank you," Jensen said with a broad smile, "so were your fireworks."

Riley's eyes squinted and he turned his head to the side slightly.

"No, Riley," Ben said, interrupting his thoughts.

"No what? I didn't say anything," the hacker asked, confused.

Ben glared at him. "You've got your 'I'm thinking of doing something that's probably illegal' look. Whatever it is, it's a no."

"I want to know what it is," Jensen added, followed by a quick, "Ow! Cougs, what was that for?"

"Encouraging," Cougar answered. "He sounds like you."

Riley sat further forward in his seat. "See, that's exactly what I was thinking, actually. Since Mr. Awesome-"

"Jensen," the tech introduced himself. "Not to go against gamer tag respect rules, but since I'm the only one left whose name wasn't exposed, I figure it's only fair."

"Wait," Riley said, his brow furrowed. "Jensen, as in Jake Jensen?"

Cougar and Jake exchanged a worried look before something cleared in the tech's eyes. "Riley," he murmured. "Riley Poole?"

Riley laughed. "I knew you sounded familiar!" He looked at Ben. "Jake and I went to school together a long time ago. Oh man, we got into so much trouble! Especially in Mr. Porter's class."

Jensen snorted. "That guy was a total douche! He deserved it."

The game pretty much forgotten for the time being, Riley sat back and after typing in a few keys on his own keyboard, casually asked. "How've you been? I heard you were supposed to be dead or something?"

Jensen shrugged, also relaxing into his seat. "Faked it to get away from the bad guys," he answered, holding up his hand to still the alarmed look growing in Cougar's eyes. "What about you? Didn't you get into some trouble on a treasure hunt or something?"

Riley shrugged. "Two, actually, but nothing big. Kidnapped, threatened, almost died a few times. I got a car out of it, and we get to do some secret work for the President." He shook his head quickly at the equally alarmed look in Ben's eyes. "I put us on a secure line, just in case."

"But," Ben stammered, "you don't know-"

"Hey, if anyone can keep a secret, it's Jake. Trust me, he can talk longer than anyone I know about absolutely nothing - and before you say it, 'coming from me that's pretty impressive,' I know - but his secret vault is completely impenetrable," Riley interrupted.

"Ditto," Jensen said on his end to Cougar. "Besides, if he really wanted to, Riley could've found out about us on his own. The Force in that one is as strong as mine."

"Oh, speaking of!" Riley shot out, the seriousness of the situation already forgotten. "I was just going to ask if you wanted to spice this game up a bit. Ben could clearly use some modifications so I don't have to watch his back so much, and you can do whatever you need to for Cougar. We can change the whole playing field if you want."

The grin on Jensen's face was so bright it was almost blinding. "Riley, you're a genius!" He picked up his keyboard and settled it on his lap. "I think we should change the sky, first. I never really liked that color."

"Oh, and we could put giant pterodactyls up there! Dropping grenades!" Riley added, equally as excited.

As the two went back and forth altering the Halo world at will, Ben and Cougar both sat with confused shock still written all over their faces. "Cougar?" Ben tentatively asked. "What do you think are the odds of us being able to keep up in whatever new game they're building?"

Cougar snorted. "Nada."

"Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking…" Ben agreed, chewing on his lip as Riley continued to completely ignore him. "I think I'll just go get something to eat."

"Good idea," Cougar nodded. "And Ben-"

"I work for the President," Ben interrupted, knowing where the other man's concerns lay, "I know how to keep secrets, too. Nice to meet you."

Cougar smiled. "You, too."

The sniper set down his controller and stood up to follow Ben's lead on getting some food. As he walked away, he paused in the doorway and marveled at the transformation on the screen and the animated, even-more-childlike-than-usual way that Jensen was speaking. Between the talk of ATVs with flame shooters attached, hidden teleportation modules, shape-shifting abilities, and tank-toting polar bears, there was an underlying gratitude for just reconnecting with a friend who understood him on levels that the others simply couldn't.

"…and there should be a 'fatality' sequence, like in Mortal Kombat," the tech continued, "like where Kane rips his opponent's heart out and holds it up and it's still beating. Cool and totally gross at the same time."

Cougar shook his head. This was one of those times when he was glad there were levels of Jensen he didn't understand, and was suddenly relieved that this Riley person was in some unknown location and not sitting in the same room. Somehow he thought putting the two of them together would probably end in disaster, and he hoped he would never have to find that out for certain…

The End! (or is it?...)