Gabe's screams triggered a nanny drone to swoop down from the ceiling and deploy a pair of bungee straps around his legs that held him up like a pair of overalls. It bounced him in the air gently in a comforting manner until he calmed down and ultimately fell asleep.
When he woke up, he was all alone in a dark padded room still wearing the bungie overalls which were tied to the ceiling and were continuing to gently bounce him in place.
His head slowly cleared and he was able to take proper stock of himself. Other than the rubber bungee restraint, he wasn't wearing anything but a diaper. His hands were tiny and clumsy and he was completely hairless. His muscles were all gone, replaced by a pudgy coating of baby fat, and there was a small piece of gauze on his arm that was held on by a tiny bandaid.
"AAAAAhhh!" He screamed, "I'm a baby!.."
His hands flew up to his throat, his voice was incredibly high pitched. He sounded like a munchkin!
"How is this possible?! Where am I?! What am I doing here?!. HELP! Let me out of here! For God's sake, give me my body back!"
"Calm down, Soldier!" A high-pitched little voice came from outside the room. "You're stuck in quiet-time! The door won't open until you settle down!"
Gabe struggled against his bungie restraints for a few more moments before he realized it was useless. No matter how he threw his weight around, the harness always brought him back to the same position in the center of the room.
With a sigh of reluctant submission he let his body hang limply in defeat and tried his best to appear calm and compliant. Surprisingly that overwhelming, sweet sucker taste was still in his mouth, and with nothing else to occupy his mind, it was quickly becoming all he could focus on. It was incredibly flavorful, almost as if the sucker was still there, slowly dissolving into his saliva…
Suddenly the door slid open and the bungee harness retracted into the ceiling, causing him to stumble to the side slightly. He'd done it!
"Well done, Soldier." Said the diaper-wearing baby in the doorway.
Gabe knew he should respond, he wanted to respond, but there was a fizzy happy feeling in his brain that wouldn't alow h he just ended up giggling dumbly.
"Snap out of it, Soldier! They may have suckered you, but it's out now. You should be able to clear your head, just try not to think about that taste in your mouth."
Gabe tried to take the advice, and took a few steps forward on the padded floor. His feet felt chubby and awkward, and his toes splayed apart and grabbed and clutched at the floor with every step, as though some primitive branch-gripping instinct had awoken in him that he couldn't suppress. Fortunately the strange feeling provided enough distraction to shake off the mind-numbing effects of the sweet flavor from the sucker and he wiped the dumb expression from his face, but the taste still lingered, begging for his focus.
"I think I need some water… I gotta get this taste out of my mouth!"
"Sorry, Soldier, that's no good. Once you've been suckered, there's no getting rid of the taste. It does something to your taste buds to permanently distort your brain… All you can do is try to ignore it as best you can, and don't put anything in your mouth unless you have to. The smallest stimulation to the taste buds will trigger the effect at full strength… Lucky for you I spotted you coming in and pulled your sucker out right away, so you really only got a partial hit... If it weren't for me, you'd be as gone as all the rest of these brainless rugrats… I on the other hand never got suckered at all, a fortunate oversight that has allowed me to work in secret, gathering intel for the resistance…"
"The resistance?"
"Of course. It must be months since I've seen a grown man, but I knew there were still more resistance fighters out there, and your arrival proves it! Unfortunately, whatever rank you had before, that's over now that you've been FOYed... You're MY soldier now. The name's Colonel Stowell. What do I call you, Soldier?"
"Gabe Radner, but-"
"Then I hereby officially induct you into the Crinkle Corps, with the rank of private. You'll report only to me, Private Radner. The rest of our squad has already fallen to the enemy... I lost my last man during an escape attempt a few weeks ago... Caught and suckered by the enemy… But that won't happen again! I have a perfect plan for escape, and enough intel to end this war and, god willing, reverse this infant nightmare..."