Transformers: Where You Belong

Chapter 2

Ben awakened to jostling, his eyes flew open. A grey haired man stared down at him. "Out." He muttered.

The door opened for Ben, Boomer quickly leaped out. Ben sighed, slowly climbing out of the passengers seat. Boomer climbed onto his shoulder. The holoform of Ratchet disappeared, and the robot slowly took his place. The base they were on was huge, metal all around, lots of Military Men and suits filing in and out slowly. Ben rubbed his eyes, he looked slowly towards the woman in front of him. Charolette Merring looked at him over her horn rimmed glasses, shaking her head. "Another kid? You have GOT to be kidding me. ANOTHER kid." She cursed under her breath "Not only with alien tech, but-." She began.

"Ben is a friend." Ratchet crouched down, vouching for the young man "I saved his life in Mission City. I met and spoke to him as I took him to safety. I have no doubt in my mind he can be trusted." He sighed a bit "The boy is an orphan, and seems to have formed a bond with Vost." Ben made mental note of Boomer of "Vost"'s real name "Can we not-." He began.

"A teenage boy with a tragic past, probably few friends, am I right?" Ben nodded slowly at Mearing "I'm right. With alien tech as his only friend? Good lord, it sounds like a mary sue in one of those STUPID fan-fictions my kids always go on about." She shook her head slowly "Listen kid, I feel for you. You're probably like "Little Orphan Bennie" but we're not bending rules for you." She noted.

"I figured, I told Ratchet I didn't need to be repaid." Ben explained, looking up at Ratchet "He was just nice enough to try anyway." He explained, then shifted a bit "If I could just get a ride back home, that would be great." He said, clearly uneasy about this whole situation, and rather, well, nervous "I'm just happy I could get 'Vos' back where he belongs." He nodded.

Ratchet eyed Ben slowly, then turned his head toward Mearing. "What if I kept an optic on the two of them? An experiment, if you will." Ben turned his head towards Ratchet slowly, unsure as to what he meant "Vos's attachement to Ben is something that easily intrigues me. If we might gain permission to take Ben for let's say... A month, to see how they interact. Perhaps it might prove vital to my research on the human-Autobot connection. And prove Ben trustworthy?" He noted.

Ratchet couldn't believe his own words, but each was true. The connection between the two, over little more then two months, at the most, was strangely interesting. Ben would be fine, what with the war at a stand-still, and he didn't want to take Vos away from a human he'd grown to obviously care about. "So he'd be a lab rat?" Mearing asked.

"Far from it." Ratchet replied "A tester if you will. Vos's primary function is as a pet. If Vos has attached himself to Ben. Perhaps more like him could be made for children, let's say, allergic to fur." Mearing looked intrigued at this "Surely we can handle one kid until then, no?" He asked, looking at Ben, who remained silent, not even sue what to say.

"You'd be in charge of him." Mearing noted.

Ratchet wasn't ready for that comment. He'd dealt with younglings before, but Autobot younglings, even Decepticon younglings. This was a human, he didn't know if he could even begin to provide anything for him. Ben eyed Ratchet, curious as to what his answer would be. But it was Vos's wide optics that grasped Ratchet into a choke hold. He could deny a lot of things, his own creations, were one of the few things he could not resist. "Very well, he's my responsibility." Ratchet grunted, causing Ben's eyes to widen "The orphanage director will need to be informed. Can you take care of that?" He asked.

Mearing's face said it all, she had hoped that he'd have backed out after hearing that. Cursing under her breath, Mearing nodded her head, but turned to Ben. "If you step out of line. If you so much as look at the door to anywhere off-limits. If you even THINK of entering the weapons vault..." She had a hard glare on him, to which Ben backed up a bit "I'll have you in juvie faster then you can say "Oops"." She noted as she walked off, Vos hissing at her from Ben's shoulder.

"She scares me." Ben told Ratchet slowly.

"She scares all of us." Ratchet grunted, then turned to Ben "Now come along, we will need your things." He noted.

"You never even ASKED if I wanted to stay." Ben replied.

"Would you rather be separated from Vos, then?" Ratchet asked, Ben stared, and shook his head "Help me convince them my creation works then. It's only a month, then he's yours. And we will be even." He smiled somewhat, to which Ben nodded his head "Now come on, kid. I ain't got all day, y'know." He nodded.

As Ratchet transformed down again and opened up the door, Ben shifted slightly. Would he actually do this? Ben wasn't sure, his eyes hit Vos, who looked uncertainly at him. Ben had a lot to loose, his only friend, the only person he felt understood him. It wouldn't be his only friend if he wasn't home-schooled, or if anyone he hung around him saw him as a nerd, as they had in the past. Ben hesitated only for a moment before he climbed into the Hummer form. It was worth a shot, he decided, the whole thing.

He had no idea what giving it a shot would give him, or bring him.

...

Ratchet wondered what he had gotten himself into upon entering the orphanage. The outside didn't scare him as much as the inside, he'd seen worse exteriors. But the inside was dusty, full of cobwebs, dimly lit, and just all around disgusting. His holoform tried, and seemed to fail to hold back his disgust. Who let children live in this manner? He didn't know, but he wanted a long talk with the director when this experiment was ended. They entered Ben's room, at the very end of the hallway, Ratchet took in the Autobot perophonilia for a moment, stunned Ben would have it all. But he was not, by any means disturbed, they had fans as well as haters, and Ratchet knew that all too well.

The mech took a deep breath, watching as Ben pulled a suitcase from under the bed, and plopped it onto its surface. It was crummy, old, and torn in places, but it was all Ben had. Being home schooled, the boy didn't need a backpack of any sort. He was quick to pack up clothes, and a few items that looked both personal and something Ben wouldn't much like to talk about. "I apologize for dragging you into this." Ratchet told him calmly.

"I should be apologizing to you. You're the one stuck with me." Ben replied, taking a deep breath "You really should have just let her shoo me off dude. You barely know me." He turned around, looking at Ratchet "I'm used to being alone, I could handle it. You didn't have to do this." He bit his lower lip, putting in one last item before closing the suitcase.

"I owe it to you. Our war not only orphaned you. But you kept Vos safe." Ben stared at Ratchet, surprised "As a medic, I think of your Mother every day. I never forget a patient I lose, ever." He explained "And clearly, a month away from HERE would not be at all damaging to you." Ben actually chuckled at that, and smiled a bit "Besides, with the Decepticons destroyed, and the war ended for now. It will give me something to do." He grunted.

"Oh you'll have more then enough to do." Ratchet turned his head as an overweight, bald man, dirty, and carrying a beer leaned against the doorway "I give you maybe, TWO days with Ben. You'll return him, just like EVERY Foster Home has." Ben turned away as Dexter began speaking, trying to ignore the comment "Ben here has his fair share of problems. Don't you Ben?" He noted.

As Dexter moved forward, Ratchet stepped in front of him. Ratchet sensed unneeded tension in the man, and it made him rather nervous. They were symptoms typical in an abuser, and being a smart mech, he would not watch that happen. "I am certain Ben will prove no problem, Dexter, was it?" Ratchet noted, the man nodded slowly "He will be returned here in a month's time. No sooner, I can assure you." He turned to Ben who he also noticed was afraid of the man "Now if you do not mind, I wish to have a word with him." He added.

Dexter seemed to hesitate, but did leave eventually, to which Ratchet turned to Ben. "That man takes care of you?" Ratchet asked, Ben simply nodded "Ben, he has all the qualities of an abusive-."

"Can we go?" Ben replied quickly, as if not wanting to talk about it at all.

The boy quickly left, leaving a very concerned, and downright confused Ratchet. Ratchet didn't know how, but he was going to try and help the boy in the next month. Seeing the living conditions, and being a medic, he found this unacceptable living conditions. Not just for Ben, but for any child, for any human being. And that man, Ratchet felt his real form tense, that man was all kinds of creepy. It reminded him of a Decepticon, uncaring, unfeeling, cold, and disgusting. Shaking his head a bit, he let his holoform disappear.

He would get to the bottom of what was going on there, one way, or another.