After a bit of tapping, Todd finally got the program that was currently running on Gretta. "Oh boy," he muttered.
"What? What's going on? How young am I gonna get?" demanded Gretta.
"Um, you're... going to have to hatch again," said Todd.
"What?! What the HeLL does that mean?" yelled Gretta, her voice cracking halfway through. Todd looked at Gretta again. She looked like she was thirteen at most. As she left her teenage years, all signs of puberty were diminishing as well. Her hips had shrunk down to barely discernible as her shoulders narrowed. She was losing more height as her eyes seemed to get bigger and her muzzle shorter. She also seemed to get a little plumper. Todd didn't think crocodiles had baby fat, but apparently anthro crocs did.
"Can't you stop it?" asked Gretta, her voice getting higher and more urgent as she entered her single digits.
"I think it has to run its course first," said Todd, "Don't worry, it won't be much longer."
"Easy for you to say," grumbled Gretta. She was getting rather cute for a humanoid reptile. Her arms and legs had shrunk with the rest of her. Even her tail was getting shorter and stubbier. Before long, she had the stature of a 6-year-old kid, asides from her crocodilian features.
"Todd!" Gretta said in an innocent child's voice. Her eyes welled up with immature tears as she watched the damage unfold and slipped down to a helpless five year old. "W-What's gonna happen to me when I'm an egg again? I don't want to die."
"It's okay!" Todd said in a startled reassurance. "I can bring you back!" He gulped slightly... he could, couldn't he? Such a dramatic change had never been tested before.
At four, the little Crocodile girl began sobbing and rubbed her eyes. "I-I'm sowwy I hit yow science wemote." She wailed dramatically, Todd rushing to comfort her in his arms. "I wanted to make wove to yew! Dis is aw my fawt! I skwewed it up!"
"Hey, hey!" Todd cuddled her shrinking body close in pale faced horror. "It's okay, little lady! I'll bring you back bigger and stronger than ever, okay?"
"O-Ok." Gretta whimpered pathetically, drying her eyes with stubby toddler arms as she continued to lesson. She looked sleepy. Crying so hard had been exhausting. Todd rocked her gently as she shrank to a crocodile girl of two. She smiled contentedly and cuddled in close to the human. "I wuv yew Towd."
"I-I love you too, Gretta." Todd gulped, wondering if it was the last thing he'd ever get to say to his new friend as she shrank to a helpless infant. Her body began to revert fully. Her color greened and softened even further. She shrank impossibly tiny in his arms, mere inches tall, and began to curl into herself. Eyes shut tightly, body at rest, her arms and legs tucked in and her tail curled. No more than a foot from head to toe, still she shrank.
"Oh my God." Todd gasped in shock, feeling her skin growing damp. He realized a gel layer was forming around her shrinking form. It thickened to a viscous outer membrane in the shape of an egg. Todd watched the process with morbid fascination. Encased in the strange membrane, the crocodile now began to turn fetal. Her colors began to fade to a fleshy pink and he watched her undevelop for a few minutes, limbs shrinking disproportionately tiny, spine growing more pronounced, snout dwindling down to a nearly unregnizable state, her fingers and toes turning to shapeless nubs. She was just three inches long as the outer layer of her egg began to harden in.
Ty held her in his hands carefully, sweating profusely in terror, as he watched the remote carefully. It was nearly done. As the egg fully formed around her developing body, he carefully stood with it, raising the six inch long egg up to the overhead light and gasping as he saw her reducing to yolk. Or so it seemed.
The remote beeped.
Todd carefully sat down with Gretta cradled between his legs and frantically typed at the remote, scanning his poor crocodile and seeing what the damage was.
He gasped as he read the screen...