Chapter 35:

As the Cobalt Express started to move, Tyson looked over the girl next to him with a disturbed face. This can't be right. Someone did this to her He thought, as she babbled in baby talk, shaking a small rattle in her hand towards him. No one is this into the baby treatment. Not to this…creepy degree.

Though he didn't have time to think about it for long, as a screen started to lower in front of him and his neighbor. As it turned on he felt could hear some speakers behind him start to play audio, as a video regarding the hotel started playing.

"The Cobalt Hotel was founded soon after the Revolution began. It was considered a safe haven for Pokémon that were being threatened by humans during the war." The audio droned on, with Tyson unable to keep it out of his head. Even when he tried plugging his ears he could hear the narrator ramble on and on behind him.

Cyrus wasn't fairing much better. The same video was playing on his end, and it was practically talking in circles with how boring it was to listen to. "Unless their plan was to put me to sleep, this video is garbage." He said, glancing over at the boy next to him. To his surprise, the boy just seemed to stare off into space, still absentmindedly nursing his binky.

"…Wait a minute." Cyrus leaned over and looked at the boys' eyes. The seemed unfocused, like he wasn't paying attention to everything. To test a theory Cyrus was brewing, he pulled out the kids' pacifier to see how he reacted. As he expected, the kid had almost no reaction, save for stopping his nursing since the binky was gone.

That is not good. He's under some hypnosis. Cyrus thought, shoving the boys binky back in, as he went right back to nursing as though nothing happened. Turning his attention back to the video, he tried to figure out what had caused the kid to be in his state. It could be this video, but I don't know how it could have caused this…

Before he could say anything, he felt the Express stop. He wondered what was going on when he heard a few quiet voices whispering. Cyrus straining to hear them over the droning video audio, but managed to listen in.

"So, are all the little buzz-buzzs nice and tired?"

"They should be. I haven't heard a peep out of any of them in a while. Just give them all a binky and put them down for a nap."

"Good. One less pain in my neck."

Taking a wild guess where this was going, Cyrus decided to play dumb, staring straight at the screen with a vacant stare. He hoped Tyson hadn't fallen for the trap, but wouldn't be able to find out until after he was out of the Express. Soon the audio stopped playing and the screen closed up above him, with the Leavanny from before doing her rounds.

She slowly pulled each of the kids out, once more using her silk to teether them to her by their diapers. Each time she saw a kid without a pacifier, she shoved one into their mouth, each one looking like a honeycomb. Soon she came around and pulled out Cyrus and the kid next to him, jamming a pacifier into his mouth.

"Alright let's see here…" The driver Heracross said, checking a list as the Leavanny tied silk to the leaf around Cyrus' diaper. "These kids are Bebe, Tina, Timmy, Cynthia, Kevin, and Lizzie. That should be all of them now. You get them all ready for bed, Wanda."

"Yeah yeah." Wanda replied, wrangling the rest of them and setting them all down, making sure she'd tied her string to the leaves around their diapers. Now on his hands and knees, Cyrus glanced over at Tyson, who he could just faintly see glancing back. Good. The last thing I need is you going out of commission. He thought, as he felt his diaper being pulled, telling him to crawl after Wanda with the others.

Once they were all back in the nursery, Wanda closed the gate and removed the leaves from everyone's diaper. After she set the last of them down, she walked over to one of the walls and flicked a switch. This cased the bars on one side of the cribs to lower, which seemed to get all the kids to look towards that side of the room.

"Nap time." She said sternly, as she started to herd all the kids to the cribs. None of them could lift themselves up, so she audibly sighed before helping each one into one of the cribs, each time she did raising and locking the bars. The other kids seem to have a routine for the cribs; crawling up to an open one, sitting on their padded butt, and putting their hands up on the bed, waiting for Wanda to assist them.

Not wanting to look suspicious, or worse, get her mad at them again, the boys both found an empty crib next to one another, and imitated what the others were doing. Soon she came by and lifted both of them up, locked them into their cribs, and tucked them in for a nap, muttering to herself.

"About time you stupid girls behave. Your parents better be thankful for the work we do to make sure you know your place. You kids should all be the same; just mindless, cute babies for the parents."

Those words left a mental note in both Cyrus and Tyson's mind, and they didn't have to see each other to know that they both shared the thought. Once we get out of here, we are getting her fired. Alongside everyone else pulling this whackjob.

"Night night." Wanda said, flicking the lights off. A few mobiles started to turn above the cribs, quietly playing lullabys. Seeing her job as done, Wanda left to attend to other duties.

The moment she was out of sight, Cyrus and Tyson sat up, spitting out their pacifiers.

"Let's get out of this hellhole."

Meanwhile…

"Joe?" Judy said, after hurrying down the hallways to find him.

"Yes, Mrs. Cross?" Joe replied, turning around with a smile.

"We need your help."