The whitecoat, a.k.a. Bald-o, was screaming in agony.
"What did you do to him?" I cried, gazing at the dark-haired boy to my right.
"I bit him." He grinned evilly. Bald-o backed away from his cage, glancing nervously at his colleagues.
"Are you a vampire?" the youngest boy asked, interestedly. He shook his head. "Okay then… do you even have fangs?"
"Fangs!" I said as the dark-haired boy's cage was finally unlocked and we were being herded into another yucky-smelling room. "That would be a really, really neat name!"
"Fangs? I like plain Fang better." The newly-christened Fang said. I grinned.
Bald-o opened the door to the maze as we set off running.
"You bit a whitecoat?" Gazzy asked Fang, incredulously. Fang half-smiled.
"Oh yeah!" Iggy had walked over and joined them. "I remember that maze… we ran that one especially well."
"Impressive, Jeb. Very impressive."
They had returned to their crates after each running their own maze. The whitecoats left the room.
Fang looked at the other boy. "We need to get you a name, too, you know. I wonder what would suit you."
He looked thoughtful. "Well, I think I want a real name. Not like Maximum or Fang."
I remember something Jeb had told me weeks previously- all names had meaning. This gave me an idea. "What sort of things do you like?"
"Fire," the boy said with a grin.
Fang looked up from the side of his crate. "Was it you that blew up that computer a while ago?"
"Yeah," the boy laughed. "That was me."
"Wait…" Gazzy interrupted. "How'd you blow up a computer?"
"Later," I said.
"Hmm…" I tried to remember all the names I'd heard in my life, which, regrettably, was a small number. I remember one of the whitecoats had said something about a computer being ignited. I didn't know what that meant, but since nothing else had happened to a computer lately, I assumed that meant 'set on fire'.
"Ignatius!" I called. Both boys looked at me, uncomprehendingly. "It sounds like 'ignite', which I heard one of the whitecoats say about the computer you set on fire?"
"Ig… Ig what?" Fang laughed. "That's a weird name."
I gave him a look. "And Fang isn't?"
The other boy looked pleased. "I know!" he cried. "Iggy! That sounds like the name, but isn't hard to say!"
Fang glanced at Iggy. "That'll work."
TBC