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chapter 5- The Institute

OK, hooray for weird and VERY repetitive music, but its very appropriate for a chapter titled "the institute" in fact it's more of a character song than a song that goes with the chapter, which would make the institute a character, and in a way it kind of is...
Picture created on rinmarugames. Jessica this is you, the girl who attempts to tickle aiern. *spoilers* :/ lol.
Anyway, enjoy!
(PS. Does anyone else get Shane and aiern mixed up sometimes? No clue what I'd do about it, but if it is a problem I'd probably find a way.)

Music: the taste of blood, only lovers left alive soundtrack

Chapter 5- The institute

The whole place smelled reminiscent of a doctors office, which made Shane almost instinctively nervous. He was dully surprised to find that nothing was blindingly white. Instead the floor tiles were a greasy navy blue, as was the smooth wall. If he were being positive he would have called it iridescent, but this wasn't a very positive place. The room was empty except for a circular elevator shaft going down to whatever lay below.
"Welcome to what is informally known as the landing room." aiern swept a hand across the small cathedral-like space. They had entered threw a mechanical door in the dome shaped ceiling. Aiern stepped off of the glider which promptly dropped Shane on the floor. Shane gritted his teeth, and pushed himself up off of the floor. Then -before Aiern even knew what was happening- punched him square in the face.
Aiern stumbled back holding his nose, which was bleeding.
"Hey! Would you quit already!?" he rummaged around in his coat pockets while keeping a good distance and a wary eye on Shane. Shane jumped forward and tried to hit him again, but Aiern dodged.
"Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me."
He blew his nose on the tissue paper.
"Ooh! Can I join!?" A voice from behind Aiern said. He whirled around and was promptly tackled to the ground by a younger girl with hair the color of chestnuts, who was probably at least a foot shorter than him.
"Hey! Oi! Get off of me!!"
He laughed histerically at his surprised expression. She got off him and then offered him a hand up. He jumped up quickly ignoring her offered hand and straightened his coat.
"I wish you'd stop doing that, someone's going to walk in and take it completely the wrong way one of these days." He tugged on his left sleeve nervously.
She scowled at him,"only if you act guilty."
"Pfft."
"Aww com'on. Can I at least give you an awkward hug?" She made puppy eyes at him.
"No."
"PLEEEEEAAASEEE? I haven't had any real social interaction for the past 3 weeks!"
"No!"
"I'll go get Cassandra and we'll jump you next time you come to get data from us, and tie you up, and then you'll HAVE to let us give you hugs."
He rolled his eyes and scowled at her, "No. Look, I've got to check him," he nodded at shane, " in now, ok? So leave. Now."
The girl humphed, jumped onto her glider, and flew into the elevator. it disapeared down its shaft and reappeared a few second later. Aiern stepped into it.
"Welcome back Aiern Taylor," the elevator said, "where are you going?"
"I need to enter a new worker." The glass lit up around him .
"Name?"
"Shane Everson."
Shane humphed.
"Date of birth?"
Aiern paused, "Unknown."
The elevator paused, "Im sorry, say that again please."
"His date of birth is unknown."
"Or," broke in Shane, "Or, you could just ASK him."
"You know?"
"Just because I'm an orphan doesn't mean I was always that way. December the second. I'm 19."
Aiern narrowed his eyes, then shrugged. What difference did a birthday make anyway?
"ID number?"
The elevator continued asking questions, half of them even Shane couldn't answer, which made the elevator rather frustrated. Finally it told Shane to come in and Aiern to go out so it could take a 3D picture of him. Then it went back into proper elevator mode and asked aiern where he wanted to go, again.
"So," began Shane, as they plummeted downward, "Are you two a thing?"
"A 'thing'?" Aiern asked as the doors opened, "-oh oh oh! You mean like a couple. Rachel? -No. Never."
They stepped out onto a ledge overlooking a large open space with round doors honeycombing it in rows going up above their heads and down just as far. Gliders zipped back and forth, making the place looking like nothing so much as a busy beehive.
"Oh." said Shane, somewhat disappointed. "Siblings? Best friends?"
"eh... She and Cassandra- Evelin too, they think we're all friends... They think I'm depressed."
"Are you friends?"
"Ya, I suppose. I'm not attached to them though. You can't get attached to people around here Shane, it doesn't end well."
Shane wanted to say something sarcastic but his mind went blank and he couldn't think of anything to say at all. Suddenly a piercing scream rang out across the expansive hall. Shane froze. Nobody else seemed to notice, not even Aiern who looked back at him questioningly, "come on, I'll even let you ride on the glider WITH me if you promise not to push me off or jump off yourself. It will grab me again before I hit the ground anyway, but it's annoying."
"Why would I jump off?"
Aiern grumbled something under his breath and glared at him meaningfully, "get on."
Shane reluctantly stepped on behind him, "so how does this thing work anyway..."
"Simple. This-" he held up a controller attached to his wrist, "controls the blades -how fast they spin- and how I center my weight controls where I go."
"Can I try?"
"No. Just make sure to lean the same way I lean or else we won't go where I want. And if we don't go where I want you won't be riding WITH me any more." He turned and gave Shane a most impressive death glare. "Get on."
Shane stepped on behind him and Aiern let it hover just above the ledge, then shifted his weight forward slightly and moved it out over the great depths of the room. He wondered briefly if it wouldn't be kinder to just push Shane off there and then, but of course there was himself to think of.
Aiern quickly picked up speed and spiraled downwards around the elevator shaft which continued down to the the bottom of the room.
"So, if we were just going to go down anyway why didn't we just take the elevator?"
"The elevator is a very rare commodity, it can only go so fast and is always in high demand. Destri hates it when people hog it."
"Who. Is. Destri?"
"You'll find out."
"Uuuuuugghhh."
They landed at the bottom of the room, then got back into the elevator and went down one more level. The doors opened into a long hallway that seemed that it could have been lit better, but couldn't really be described as dim. The walls and floor were still tiled in that greasy bluish green color, but on the floor was a long blue, black and silver rug that went all the way down the hallway.
"like a throne room..." mumbled Shane.
"Exactly. That's the impression she was going for. She likes style. Hence all the matching colors, the uniform coats, the special gliders, all that. It gives a sense of fear, control, power."
"So she's like a crazy interior decorator scientist lady. "
"ah... Shut up. I'm not sure she would fly for that description."
He pushed past Shane and started walking down the hall. Shane had to run to catch up.
"What, are you scared of her?"
"Shut up. No."
"You suuuure?"
Aiern whirled around his hand raised, "When I say 'shut up' what do you do?"
Shane flinched instinctively but a smirk slowly made its way onto his face, "I ignore you and keep talking."
Aierns hand turned into a fist. Shane dodged quickly, he had lived on the streets his whole life and Aiern had obviously not had much experience in fighting.
Aiern, however, was conflicted as to wether to act rather immature in his own eyes and go after Shane, or to let his pride suffer and let him get away with it. But before he could decide a female voice came on over the speaker.
"I would prefer it if there wasn't a brawl here, you'll get blood on my carpet. Now, get in here immediately."
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