The DNA Age Tracker

“Hey, Blaze!  Come here for a moment.”
Cyrus called the red wolf anthro into his lab.  Blaze, eager to help, took his invitation.
“What is it, Cyrus?  Got a new invention?”
“As a matter of fact, I do.  And I’d like YOU to test it for me.”
“Really?  Cool!  What is it?”
“Wait here.”
Cyrus left the room, and moments later came back with a gray metal band in his hand.  The band had a black screen on its surface, and underneath the screen were three very small circular buttons.
“This,” he said, “is the DNA Age Tracker.  You attach it to your right arm, and it connects to your DNA.  By doing so, it can tell your exact age.”
“Wow!”
“Here.  Put it on.”
Blaze held out his right arm, and Cyrus clamped the band on it.  Blaze felt something small stab into his arm, then green words and numbers came on the small screen...
16 years . 5 months . 1 week
“Cool!  But it’s not as exact as I thought.  It doesn’t have days...”
“Well, when someone is young enough, it would start out as days.  Changing the amount everyday, however, would eventually overload it.”
“Oh, I see.  Well, it works, so...”
“Actually, I want you to keep it on.”
“Huh?  For how long?”
“It did your exact age, but now I want to see if it will change with you.  Just give it a week, and see if it changes to ‘2’.”
“Oh, okay.  Thanks, Cyrus!”
Blaze then walked out of the room and headed home.

Blaze greeted his mother as he walked into his house.  As he came closer, Aurora noticed the metal band on his arm.
“What is that thing?”
“It’s Cyrus’ new invention, ‘The DNA Age Tracker!’  It connects to your DNA and checks your exact age.”
“Interesting.  Does it work?”
“It’s Cyrus’ invention, of course it works!  Look!”
Blaze pressed the middle button and felt the same stabbing pain as before.  The numbers and words then came on the screen again...
16 years . 5 months . 0 weeks
“Huh?  That’s funny.  It said ‘1 week’ earlier.  Must be defective.”
“I guess so.  Well, you can just give it back to him tomorrow.  In the meantime, I have to go to work.  Bye, sweetie.”
“Bye Mom.”

Blaze was lounging in his living room, when all of a sudden he felt funny.  It wasn’t a stabbing pain like from the invention, so this feeling worried him.  He left the tracker with his age on it, so he looked at it again.  But this time, it read...
16 years . 2 months . 0 weeks
“Huh?  It took three more months off my age.  Something’s seriously wrong with this thing.”
He thought that was what it was, but then the number changed before his eyes...
16 years . 1 month . 4 weeks
“Oh no...it’s still going down!  Is it me!?”
He looked down at himself.  Everything was the same.  His clothes were still the right size, and his voice was still as deep as always.
“Hmm, I guess this thing’s just defective.  Then again, I can’t really tell unless a few years go by.”
He heard his stomach grumble.
“Oh, I’m hungry.  I’ll make myself a sandwich.”

He made himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and set it on the table.  When he turned back, he noticed the table looked a little taller than it used to.
“Huh?  Uh oh...”
He looked at his clothes.  They were baggier than before.  He checked the Age Tracker again.  This time, it shocked Blaze when he read...
12 years . 5 months . 2 weeks
“Oh no, it’s me!  I’m getting younger!!!”
He panicked, not knowing what to do.  He looked at the Age Tracker again, the number changed...
12 years . 5 months . 0 weeks
“Is it going...faster?”
He noticed his voice was higher, having regressed through puberty.  Panicked, he ran to check himself in the bathroom mirror.

He looked at the mirror and stripped himself down, boxers and all.  Before looking at his body, he checked the Age Tracker again.  This time, it shockingly read...
9 years . 6 months . 1 week
“Noooo!” he said with an even higher voice.  He looked at his body, and he could obviously tell that all the effects of puberty were gone.  He then felt more energetic than he had in years, a child’s energy.
“I gotta do something to stop it!  But what can I do?”
He ran to his room, losing more and more of his age with each step.

He reached his room, giggling as he ran for his inner child was coming out.  He stopped when inside and checked his Age Tracker again...
6 years . 10 months . 4 weeks
His giggling stopped and turned into whimpering.
“Noooo!  I’m even younger!!!”
He looked down at his stomach.  He was getting his baby fat back.  He looked down further at his area, seeing how much smaller it had gotten.
“Noooo!  I gotta find a way to stop it!!!”
He checked the Age Tracker one more time...
6 years . 6 months . 2 weeks
“It’s going so fast!  I at least have to slow it down!!”
He then realized he had to go to the bathroom.
“Uh oh...”
He turned around and ran back to the bathroom as fast as he could.

Back in the room, he checked the Age Tracker again...
4 years . 2 months . 4 weeks
Panicked, he climbed on top of the toilet and went.  When finished, he hopped off, the room even bigger.  He checked the Age Tracker again...
3 years . 9 months . 3 weeks
He tried to run back to his room, uncertain what to do.  He decided to simply keep the age tracker in front of his face, watching it as he kept decreasing...
3 years . 8 months . 2 weeks
3 years . 8 months . 1 week
3 years . 8 months . 0 weeks
3 years . 7 months . 4 weeks
“Oh noooo!  I’m losing a week off my age evewy second!!”
He gasped at how he slurred the word ‘every’.  It was getting hard for him to speak.
Still naked, he stopped in his room and watched the Age Tracker again...
3 years . 2 months . 2 weeks
3 years . 2 months . 1 week
3 years . 2 months . 0 weeks
3 years . 1 month . 4 weeks
As the seconds passed by, he continued to lose a week off his age for every single one.  He got in his bed, whimpering and shivering.  He was scared.  No, he was terrified.  He looked at his body and watched as his stomach slowly got fatter and fatter, his baby fat returning.  He screamed and put the covers back over him.  As he did, he looked at his chubby toddler hands and screamed another time.  He soon had to go to the bathroom again, but he could no longer hold it and he soiled his covers.  He looked up at the ceiling and watched the room get bigger and bigger.  Then he simply lay there, crying and watching the last couple years of his life tick backwards.
2 years . 0 months . 4 weeks
2 years . 0 months . 2 week
2 years . 0 months . 0 weeks
1 year . 11 months . 4 weeks
1 year . 11 months . 2 week
1 year . 11 months . 0 weeks
1 year . 10 months . 4 weeks
1 year . 10 months . 2 week
“Noooo!”
1 year . 9 months . 4 weeks
1 year . 9 months . 2 weeks
1 year . 9 months . 0 weeks
1 year . 8 months . 4 weeks
1 year . 8 months . 2 weeks
1 year . 8 months . 0 weeks
1 year . 7 months . 4 weeks
1 year . 7 months . 2 weeks
1 year . 7 months . 0 weeks
1 year . 6 months . 4 weeks
1 year . 6 months . 2 weeks
1 year . 6 months . 0 weeks
He was now only a year and a half old.  He struggled to sit up, feeling his wet covers as he did.  He sat up and continued crying, soiling them again.  He tried to speak.  His speech got even worse.
“Nooooa!  Wen wiw I stwop shwinking!?”
He tried to stay up, feeling his muscles getting weaker and weaker.  He was too terrified to look at the Age Tracker now.  Eventually, however, his regression made him so young that he could no longer sit up.  He fell on his back, looking at the Age Tracker now the only thing left he could do.  He found he barely had enough coordination to even lift his arm, but eventually he was able to lift and rest it on his now enormous belly.  He watched, crying as he was down to the last months...
0 years . 6 months . 4 weeks
0 years . 6 months . 2 weeks
0 years . 6 months . 0 weeks
0 years . 5 months . 4 weeks
0 years . 5 months . 2 weeks
0 years . 5 months . 0 weeks
0 years . 4 months . 4 weeks
0 years . 4 months . 2 weeks
0 years . 4 months . 0 weeks
0 years . 3 months . 4 weeks
0 years . 3 months . 2 weeks
0 years . 3 months . 0 weeks
0 years . 2 months . 4 weeks
0 years . 2 months . 2 weeks
0 years . 2 months . 0 weeks
As he reached his last month, the Age Tracker screen switched and only showed weeks and days.  The good news was it was now only going by days per second instead of weeks.
4 weeks . 6 days
4 weeks . 5 days
4 weeks . 4 days
4 weeks . 3 days
4 weeks . 2 days
4 weeks . 1 day
4 weeks . 0 days
3 weeks . 6 days
3 weeks . 5 days
3 weeks . 4 days
3 weeks . 3 days
3 weeks . 2 days
3 weeks . 1 day
3 weeks . 0 days
2 weeks . 6 days
2 weeks . 5 days
2 weeks . 4 days
2 weeks . 3 days
2 weeks . 2 days
2 weeks . 1 day
2 weeks . 0 days
Reaching his last few weeks, the baby Blaze began to close his eyes.  He wasn’t sleepy; he just couldn’t keep them open.  He soiled the covers one last time, let out a small whimper, and his eyes closed fully.

Blaze heard faint voices.  He opened his eyes very slowly, as if opening them for the first time.  He felt something puffy and bulky covering his area, but he couldn’t tell what it was because there was a baby-blue blanket wrapped around his body.  Looking around, he saw the appearance of the walls and found that he was in a hospital.  He felt someone’s arms wrapped around him.  He was being carried.  But the one carrying him wasn’t moving; it was talking with others.  He heard their voices conversing, the first he recognized as Cyrus’.
“I’m terribly sorry.  I guess there was an age regression formula set into the DNA Age Tracker.  Who knew?”
“Well, as long as he’s okay.  Is there a cure for it?”
“I guess I could get to work on an antidote.  It will take a couple of weeks though.  In the meantime, you just take him back home and care for him.  His mind should be the same, he just can’t do much with his newborn body.”
Blaze looked up and saw that his mother Aurora was carrying him.  He looked up at her and was shocked at how big she was compared to him.  He looked around some more and found Tremor at Cyrus’ side.  He finally decided to check his Age Tracker and pulled his arm out of the blanket, finding it was extremely hard to do so.  He looked at the screen and read what it said...
0 days . 3 hours
He was only 3 hours old!  He was a newborn infant!  He tried to speak, but all that came out was a whimpering sound.  The three adults finally noticed that he was awake and looked down at him.  Cyrus came closer and smiled at him.
“Hey Blaze.  Can you still understand me?  I’m sorry about what happened.  That DNA Age Tracker made you so young that your mother had to give birth to you again!  Imagine that.”
Blaze moaned as his mind comprehended what Cyrus said.
“So,” Aurora questioned, “all we can do is take care of him while you make the antidote?  Isn’t there something we can do?”
“I’m afraid not.  He’ll only be like this for a few weeks.  Just...try and make the most of it.”
Cyrus walked away as Aurora looked down at her newborn son and sighed.
“Come on, little Blaze.  Let’s take you home...”