In the Beginning

Part One

It was late when Chris pulled into his driveway. He shut the engine off and slowly climbed out of the Ram. He really hated working so late, especially on a Friday, but he'd wanted to get a jump start on the new case that they would start on Monday.

He grabbed his suitcase and his jacket before shutting the heavy door behind him. Court today had been a real bitch, he thought, as he dragged his feet on his way to the house. That damn defense attorney had to be a minion of Satan. Chris sighed. If the gunrunner got off now it wasn't because of him. He'd done his job, his whole team had – all of them had done one hell a job.

The horses squealed in the corral and Chris glanced over at them. A strange mechanical noise had him cocking his head and slowly turning around. He blinked and then blinked again as he watched his truck start to move on it's own. The first thing he thought was that he forgot to put the emergency brake on. But then, the truck started shifting, moving, -transforming?- What?

Chris took a few halting steps back as he stared at the spot where his truck had been. In it's place now stood... something...- he looked up and up-... a robot? What?! Chris's eyes widened as he watched the thing staring down at him. It was 20 maybe 22 feet tall.

"What the hell?"

The two eyed each other for a long tense moment.

Finally, it spoke, its voice mechanical sounding, "Larabee, Christopher K., please do not be afraid."

Chris shook his head hard, his mouth open.

It hunched down as it stepped forward. "Please, do not fear me. My name is – Ramgage. I'm an Autobot from the planet Cybertron. I'm here looking for the Allspark and it is my hope that you can help me."

"Help...you?" Chris breathed out. He ran a shaking hand over his face. "I haven't even had anything to drink tonight," he mumbled under his breath as he shook his head.

Shifting slightly so he was kneeling on one knee, Ramgage held his hand out. "Your grandfather, Christopher W. Larabee was one of the Seven who found the Allspark, the cube, our life giving force."

"The... what?" Chris shook his head, dumbfounded.

"The Cube. Surely you know of it," Ramgage said impatiently. "Your grandfather led the group that found it. From what we have ascertained from our research on your planet's World Wide Web, we have reason to believe that your country's government has the Allspark in its possession. But we do not know where, and it is imperative that we find it before the Decepticons do. We also have reason to believe that Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons, is hiding on this planet, maybe deactivated, but most likely not. If Megatron, or the Decepticons, find the Allspark before we Autobots do then all hope is lost for our civilization, and for yours."

Chris sighed deeply as he closed his eyes and shook his head. "You're not a dream, are you?" he asked as he opened his eyes and looked up at the thing.

Ramgage shook his head. "I am afraid not, Christopher K. Larabee."

Chris smiled slightly. "You can call me Chris."

Ramgage cocked an eyebrow. "Chris?"

"Yeah. Chris. And I think it's time that you met the rest of the team."

"I am only authorized to show my true form to you, Christoph-... Chris. Are these other... humans... trustworthy?" Ramgage asked.

"I'd trust them with my life," Chris confirmed.

"And so you shall." Ramgage told him grimly.

Part Two

Buck didn't know how long the phone had been ringing when he finally pulled the pillow off his head and grabbed for the cell.

"...yeah?" Buck's voice cracked and he cleared it loudly. "Wilmington," he said more clearly into the phone.

"Buck, it's Chris."

"Chris? Do you know what time it is?" Buck asked sleepily. He looked at the bedside clock. It was late... or early, depending on how you looked at it. "Is something wrong? Are you okay? Did something happen to JD and Vin on their trip?" He asked, increasingly worried.

"JD and Vin are fine. I'm... fine." Chris cleared his throat, sounding uncomfortable. His voice was softer when he continued, "Can you... can you come out here?"

"Come out...? Chris, are you sure you're okay?"

"Buck. Please, don't ask questions. Just, please, come out here."

A tense silence filled the air. Something was wrong, Buck could tell. Normally, Chris just told him what he wanted him to do. He didn't ask him. And he sure as heck didn't say 'please.' Buck finally spoke, "Sure, Chris. I'll be there soon as I can."

"Thanks," Chris said and then the call was ended.

Buck stared at his phone for a long moment. Shaking his head, he grabbed for the jeans that he'd left beside the bed.

+ + + + + + +

Buck pulled up and parked pretty close to Chris' Ram. When he hopped out of his truck he saw Chris sitting out on a boulder next to the driveway. The night was crystal clear, the stars about as bright as Buck could ever remember seeing them.

Buck walked over to Chris, his hands in his pockets, his look casual. All the while his mind was screaming at him: something's wrong, something's happened. As soon as Buck had seen Chris' face, he'd known... something was wrong. He stopped in front of Chris and raised his eyebrows. Before he could speak, Chris shook his head.

"You're gonna need to sit down for this," Chris told him.

Buck balked. "Are you sure JD's okay? Vin?"

Chris gave him a sad smile. "I swear, Buck. This has nothing to do with them. It's... my... problem..." his voice drifted off and he stared over at his Ram.

Buck glanced over at the big black truck and then back. "Uh... okay." He blew out a long breath before he plopped down beside his oldest friend. "Lay it on me."

But all he got was silence. Chris wasn't talking.

Buck looked away, uncomfortable, slightly embarrassed. "Uh.. Chris? It's hard for me to know what your problem is, and help, if you don't ah... like... tell me what it-"

"My truck transformed into a giant robot... thing," Chris blurted out, each word jumbled into the next.

"Your... what?" Buck's voice cracked as he whipped his head around and stared at his boss. Not so much from what he'd said... that was bad enough... but how he'd said it, the tone, was what had him giving himself whiplash. His boss, his oldest friend, Chris 'I can smite you to hell with one look' Larabee did not ever sound like that.

Buck raised his eyebrows. "Your truck transformed into a giant... robot? Right..." he drew the word out. "Is it time for your Psych evaluation, Chris?" He laughed. He looked hard into Larabee's eyes, looking for tomfoolery, a prank, but what he saw there was a seriousness and weariness he hadn't seen in years. Chris' pale face was lined with deep creases.

"Chris?" Buck sighed. "What's going on?" He paused, as he shook his head and sighed again, a long, sad sound. "Are you drinking, Chris? Are you drunk?"

Chris puffed up at that, color returning to his face. His skin reddened from his collar up to his hair line. He jumped up. "Do I look drunk to you, Buck?! Look into my eyes!" he snorted out harshly. "Do I smell drunk?" He pulled Buck up by his shirt lapels and held his oldest friend eye to eye. "I am not drunk, Buck. I'm..." And then he tossed Buck away and plopped down tiredly on the boulder, dropping his head into his hands.

Buck lost his footing and fell down on the boulder, landing next to Chris, shoulder to shoulder. He swallowed hard.

Chris scratched his hands over his hair hard, and then dropped his arms out in front of him. He shook his head. "Dammit, Buck." He help his palms up. "I'm sorry as hell for that."

Staring at him, Buck just raised his eyebrows. "Well..." he said, his voice soft, a hint of a smile in it. "I think we've concluded that you are, indeed, not drunk." He grinned slightly.

Chris looked over at him and then also broke out into a grin. "Well, hell, Buck. I can't fault you for thinking so. For wondering if maybe I've lost my marbles."

"You didn't have any marbles to begin with." Buck's grin was huge. He shrugged his shoulders comically. "But, hell, neither did I... so... why don't we start again?" He bobbed his eyebrows. "Now, as I recall, you were telling me that your... truck... ah... turned into a giant-"

Chris cut him off with a wave of his hand and a curt, "You know, I think this would be better if... Hell," and then Chris spoke directly to his big black Dodge Ram. "Ramgage, I need you to do it."

Buck looked from Chris over to the truck and then back. His jovial mood disappeared in a millisecond. 'Oh, shit.' His boss really had gone crazy. "Ah..." he smiled brightly at Chris. "You know, I was thinking maybe it would be a good idea to go inside and call Nathan. Yeah..." he started to stand.

Chris pulled him down again and Buck fell beside him, half on the boulder and half off. "No," Chris told him, but was still looking at the truck. "Ramgage, please," Chris said, and his voice sounded half pleading half 'do it now or I'll kill you.'

Buck shook his head, watching his oldest friend with concern. But, now, he couldn't help it, he was also watching the damn truck with... curiosity? Hell, he'd admit it, he was intrigued. He knew that Larabee was not an idiot, not one to pull some sort of crazy Vin-prank on him in the middle of the night, the middle of the morning, or ever. So, he watched the truck, even as he wondered what it would be like to visit Chris in the 'home' that Larabee would be living in from now on.

"Ramgage! You said you needed my help. Well, I need yours! Do it!" Chris commanded.

Even Buck shrunk back from that no nonsense tone. That SEAL commander's voice.

There was a long pause and then...

The whole truck shook.

Buck couldn't believe his eyes. The truck did some sort of whole body shake. And, Buck knew this was crazy, but the first thing he thought was that the truck was saying, 'No. Don't want to!' Okay, he said it was crazy... but... still...

"Do. It. Now!" Chris ordered, even louder.

Buck looked over at Chris. "Well, old war dog, I don't think your- HOLY SHIT!" He jumped a foot into the air.

There was a sound, like metal moving, and more... like a whirring, mechanical sort of sound and then, the truck was moving, shifting, -transforming?-. And in it's place now stood a giant, towering robot.

Buck landed hard from his unceremonious excursion into the air. He scooted back on the big rock so fast that he fell off the back, his legs going up, falling ass over teakettle. He landed hard, sprawled out on the grass on the other side.

Poking his head up carefully from behind the protection of the big boulder, Buck looked up and up and... up, until he saw the giant thing's face looking down at him. And, dammit, he couldn't help but notice that the thing looked... amused. Well, he sure as hell wasn't going to have a giant robot -thing- laughing at him. So he stood up, grass and a few twigs and at least one leaf falling off of him.

Chris was grinning at him. Flat out grinning. And Buck could hear his oldest friend's laughter getting louder and louder until it was a full out belly laugh.

The thing spoke, its voice sounding a bit like the computer from the old movie 'War Games' but more human, more... real. "You did say that that was going to happen, Chris. You are right, he is a very amusing creature," it said as it looked down at Buck.

Buck stared up at the thing's glowing blue eyes. He watched those eyes crinkle in laughter and then he heard a rumbling come from the thing's internals.

"Please, friend of Christopher K. Larabee, do not be afraid of me," it implored as it hunkered down to look less threatening. "I am here seeking help from Christoph-, from Chris, and he has told me that you are a comrade in arms to him. A compatriot. So, then, are you a compatriot of mine. A comrade of the Autobots. A friend." It nodded.

Open mouthed, his eyes wide and unblinking, Buck stared up at the thing and then he glanced over at Chris, blinking a few times and then closing his mouth. "Wh... what...?"

Chris smiled slightly and then shrugged, slightly abashed looking. "I told you my truck transformed into a giant robot... thing."

Swallowing twice, Buck worked some saliva back into his mouth and then he shook his head, amazed. "You know, Chris," he said, grinning ever so very slightly, "you did. You did tell me that." He smiled outright. "But I didn't think you meant that your truck actually transformed into a giant robot thing. I thought," he shrugged, "that you meant... oh, like, say... you had a stroke and you were hallucinating. Or you were hitting the good old Jack Daniels just a little too hard... or... you..." his voice drifted off and he laughed softly as he shook his head in awe. "I didn't think you meant that you actually had a truck that like... made a giant... like robot." He laughed, just crazy enough to find the mad humor in all of this.

"Buck," Chris said with a flourish, "meet Ramgage."

"I am sorry that you thought your.. friend... had the misfortune of having crossed a few of his wires," Ramgage told Buck seriously. "It was not my intention." He dropped one shoulder. "From our extensive research, not only into Christopher K. Larabee, but also into his grandfather, Christopher W. Larabee, we have found that his family line is above reproach, faultless in its want to protect its country, its people, its friends. Christopher W. Larabee was the leader of the Seven, the first to find the Allspark, our life giving cube, which had crash landed here on your planet – Earth. We need to find it before the Decepticons do-"

Buck interrupted him with a snort. "Yeah, yeah. Got that. But... research? You did research on Chris? How the hell...?" Buck shook his head, his brow furrowed.

"Yeah," Chris stepped forward. He motioned towards Ramgage. "They Googled me."

Buck did laugh then, a full out guffaw. "Oh, Damn, Chris. I just..." and he had to sit then, holding his belly as he shook, "I just don't think I can take this any more!" He chortled loudly. Wiping away tears, he smiled happily. "Don't tell me they found your 'My Space' page." He laughed, knowing humor was the only thing that would get him through this.

Chris laughed then too. "No..." he smiled. "It seems to me that they found classified, top secret, government pages that had classified, top secret, government secrets on them." He paused. "And then they went to 'My Space.'" He laughed.

Buck stood then. "Well, there's a story here. I'm sure. But I need coffee, and..." he smiled crazily, "maybe some Crack, to get me through it." He glanced up at the robot which was still watching him with an amused look. "Hey, Rambreath..."

"It's Ramgage," the thing told him with a long suffering sigh.

"Ram-whatever, why don't you just hang tight out here while me and my 'compatriot' go inside for some coffee crack and then we'll be back out and we can talk to you about all of this top secret... Allspark dohicky... stuff." Before he took three steps, he turned back. "Oh, and don't even think about hitting on my pretty little Sally over there." He pointed to his Chevy truck. "I just don't think she's your type. And I don't want to support any mutant robot... kids." He laughed all the way into the house.

Chris stood watching his friend go. He looked up at Ramgage. "Told you he'd be an asset to the cause."

Ramgage dropped a shoulder in agreement as he nodded once. "You are right, Chris. He does bring a lot of... humor... into the situation."

Chris laughed. Smiling fondly in the direction that Buck had walked away in, he shook his head. "You can always count on Buck." He grinned.

The End