YouthX Chronicles: A Short Story

Chapter 1
YouthX Chronicles: A Short Story

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Chapter Description: It's the 22nd century and Age Regression is widespread, thanks to a device known as YouthX. How does society deal with adults with child-sized bodies and how are real children protected?

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Leyla Short stepped into the brothel, and already had a feeling things were going to turn ugly. She had no proof, not yet, just an anonymous tip to go by - but there was just something sordid about the place. It was s dirty, unhealthy feeling where she knew despicable things were happening. She scanned the room and saw several patrons, some of whom looked like typical blue collar guys, a few women, and a table of politicians. She regarded them in bemused silence, but didn’t make it too obvious that she was staring.

Dancing and gyrating on top of the table was a young girl who looked no older than eight years old. She was dressed in lingerie tailored to fit her nonexistent curves. The three men and one woman, all of whom were middle-aged, watched her, but seemed more interested in discussing matters of business politics. Likely, the woman sitting with them was a lobbyist, treating the politicians to a little fun in the hopes of landing a government contract for whatever company she represented. The girl dancing and teasing her clients seemed a little bored, obviously aware that she was not the center of attention, not yet. They would tip her handsomely, and one of the men might even take her upstairs for a more private dance.

All of this was perfectly legal, of course - as long as the little girl on the table was a licensed Youthie. If she wasn’t, then things could turn ugly in a hurry. Only problem was that Leyla had no way of getting close enough to the girl to do a scan. She would probably have to find another child to test; not that it would be difficult - there were several in the room.

“May I help you, Ma’am?” A woman’s voice asked. Leyla turned and saw a young Asian woman, who looked about twenty but could have been seventy-five for all she knew.

“Yes... I’m looking for some fun with two Youthies please.” Leyla was careful to call them Youthies - to ask for a girl and a boy would have had her thrown out of the place. There was a huge difference. “Male and female please, and make the male seven and the girl twelve, if you will.”

“I’m sorry, but we don’t have a YouthX device on site, so we can’t tailor their ages. All of our Youthies get their rejuvenations done at their personal clinics.”

“Oh no...” Leyla feigned disappointment. “Well, what’s the closest you can find for me?”

“We have a female Youthie who’s eleven and a boy who’s ten. I’m very sorry if that’s not to your liking.”

Leyla sighed. “They’ll have to do... I don’t have time to wait in line at the other establishments. How much?”

“Six thousand for the female and seven and a half for the male.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Leyla erupted. “That’s a little high, and I haven’t even seen them yet... thirteen and a half thousand.... Jesus!”

“I assure you, our rates are competitive, and there’s nothing you cannot do with them. You will not be disappointed.” The woman turned her head and gave a brisk clap. “Lilly! Jack!”

A young boy and girl ran up to greet their customer. Both looked quite innocent, and a little nervous. This likely would have made any other patron giddy at the thought. Leyla was sickened; she was certain they weren’t real Youthies.

“Well... they are cute as buttons,” Leyla said with a smile. “Well, alright... I’ll take them both.” She reached into her purse and pulled out her money card. The Asian woman took the card with a triumphant smile and said, “Very well... As I said, you will not be disappointed.” The madam then proceeded to swipe the card and carry out the transaction while Leyla regarded the two children with pity.

“Jack, Lilly, take her up to room two-twenty-four if you will. Two hours.” The Asian woman handed the card back to Leyla, who promptly stowed it away in her purse once more.

“Yessum,” the girl replied. Each child took one of Leyla’s hands and led her up a flight of metal stairs to room two-twenty-four. Upon entering the room, she saw what appeared to be a pile of toys here and there, some of which looked to be from the twenty-first century. And why not, after all... the toys were there to remind the clients of youth, not the Youthies themselves.

“What’s your pleasure, my lady?” The little girl asked with submissive formality.

“Both of you, sit down on the bed please...” Both kids made eye contact as if understanding that this client was not one for games or foreplay and only wanted to get straight to the sex. Likely they had already had several of such impatient customers.

“Now, sit very still...” Leyla pulled out a blue PDA from her purse and pointed it in the direction of the supposed Youthies. She highlighted the SCAN option and pressed OK. The two children, still clothed in their innocent school uniforms, exchanged a look of dawning realization. The technology was new, so they had no idea that their true ages were being determined, but they were certain their client had no intention of having sexual relations with them.

The YouthX technology could rejuvenate a person to any age of his or her choosing, but it left a certain signature pattern on the genetic level. Thanks to the wonders of technology, the true age of a person could now be determined, and law enforcement once again had a weapon against the child sex industry. Youthies were adults who had been YouthX’ed, a practice which had been legal since the 2090’s, and it had only been a matter of time before Youthie prostitution was legalized as well. After all, regular prostitution had been legal for more than a century.

However, YouthX was still expensive technology, it had been around for more than sixty years, but perpetual youth and immortality was something that would never be cheap. Many brothels could not afford a licensed YouthX device, which left either the use of unlicensed and potentially dangerous counterfeit machines, or real children.

The boy sitting on the bed before her was genuine - there wasn’t a trace of a previous age signature to be found on him. The girl, however, was a Youthie. Her real age was revealed to be forty-five. Leyla had guessed wrong with her; some of the Youthie prostitutes played their roles a little too well. Leyla calmly placed the PDA back in her purse and in its stead removed a black, sleek device that resembled a gun, but wasn’t. The girl clutched the boy in dawning horror, but Leyla held up a hand and shushed them. “Step away from the boy, Youthie.”

Both the child and the Youthie nodded; the boy was sobbing as his de facto big sister got off the bed and moved away from him..

“How many real children are working here?”

“Missus, please...” the boy sniffled, “If I get fired, Mom and Dad won’t let me come home no more!”

“Don’t you worry about that darling... we’ll take care of that too... just tell me how many more of you are real children.”

“Don’t tell her a fucking thing,” the girl hissed. “We don’t say another fucking word without our lawyer.”

“HEY!” Leyla shouted. She walked up and slapped the Youthie across the face. She then pulled out her DSA badge. “Do you see this? You know what this means, right?” The Youthie nodded. “Apparently you don’t, so I’m going to spell it out for you anyway. It says DSA - Domestic Security Agency. I’m the closest to a lawyer you’ll ever see when dealing with us. Now save yourself the trouble and answer my question.”

“I don’t know... we all got licenses here!”

“Oh I bet you do... only problem is, I wonder how legit they are.”

“Molly, Tom, William, and Cynthia.” A meek voice said. Leyla regarded the boy who was staring down at hands neatly folded in his lap. “They’re the real ones, ?side from me. Molly and William are off tonight, but Cynthia’s downstairs dancing on the table, and Tom is in room two-thirty-three.”

Just then, the girl Youthie attempted to make a run for it, but Leyla had been expecting it, and was ready. She quickly pointed the portable YouthX device and pulled the trigger. A quick burst of energy discharged from it, smacking the Youthie square in the back. She went sprawling from the impact.

She got to her feet again, but found her shoes too large and clumsy to walk with. When she kicked them off, she had her loose stockings to deal with, which were beginning to trail behind her feet as she desperately flailed for the door. However, she found herself toppling forward once more as she accidentally stepped on the hem of her skirt. By the time she got to her feet again, the doorknob - now just above eye-level - was only two meters away. She hiked up her plaid skirt and ran all out for the door, and she actually grasped the knob, before tumbling to the floor yet again. She tried to stand up, but her small, chubby legs were trembling terribly. Leyla knew that even if the toddler could stand on two feet again, the doorknob would be too high to reach anyway. The Youthie infant tried nonetheless, grunting as she strained with all her might to get up again, but then there was a muffled farting sound and something splattering beneath the infant’s tent-sized skirt.

If anything, that was the sound of defeat.

Leyla tapped her left earring, activating the phone. “Collins,” she said calmly as she moved the messy infant out of the way of the door. The earring phone called the person she had named, obediently, and in no time Mike Collins was on the other end of the line.

“Collins here.”

“There are five children working here...two are off for the night. I have one in the room with me, a ten year old male. There is another male in room two-thirty-three, and a female downstairs entertaining a table of clients - the clients appear to be politicians, not sure though. I also have a Youthie in the room with me. Scanner check says she’s approximately forty-five years old. She resisted arrest, but was neutralized before she could tip off her superiors. I’m in room two-twenty-four.”

“Roger that, we’re moving in now. Be prepared to cover the second floor - stand by.”

Leyla cracked open the door and peered out into the hallway. Two Youthie girls walked by, looking no more than six and seven years of age. Soon there was a loud warbling siren and a large crash as the DSA apprehension squad burst into the reception area on the first floor. The two girls who had just walked by squawked in surprise before turning and running from the way they came. Leyla jumped out into the hallway and pointed her YouthX gun at the two child-sized adults. “Hold it right there girls!” The two girls stopped and threw their arms up in the air, trembling with shock.

Leyla never saw the man from behind her, and was knocked forward from the blast of his YouthX gun. She sprang to her feet and dodged the next energy volley and returned fire. The man was running now, but she managed to hit his arm. It wasn’t an optimal shot, but he’d be back to diapers in less than ten minutes. She spun around behind her to stop the two Youthie girls, but they had already fled.

She looked down at her hands, but instead of seeing hands, she only saw the sleeves of her business suit with the YouthX gun protruding from one. She had to act quickly - the room was already beginning to grow larger - so she reached into her purse and pulled out another device, a flat black disc, only two inches in diameter. She pressed it to her forehead and depressed the center button on it. Energy jolted through her, making her want to vomit as it made her stomach do somersaults. However, the regression halted and her body was still mature enough to get the job done.

Up and down the halls, doors flew open and men, women, and children alike spilled out. Some of the children were of course Youthies, and some were clients who regressed themselves to children out of lifestyle choice.

“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE! DSA!!!” she screamed loudly, but the authority of her adult’s voice had long-since vanished. She guessed she was no older than eight or nine years old now. No one listened to her, but continued to run for the stairwell and elevators. Having warned them, Leyla began firing her YouthX gun. Each shot was carefully aimed, and the narrow confines of the hallway made the whole affair seem like a shooting gallery. The people closest to the exits got shot twice for good measure.

Leyla, not a stranger to being regressed, kicked off her woman-sized shoes and let her skirt fall to her feet before running down the hall. Something her suspects never figured out until too late was that, in the event of a regression, clothing was an excellent way to impede one’s progress.

On the floor, maybe twenty feet away, was a boy who looked maybe five years old, who was grinning madly. She saw the flat disc in his left hand and the YouthX gun in his right and braced herself as the energy bolt struck her, slamming her against the wall. She returned fire, hitting him with one shot to the head and two to the chest. Both the disc and the gun flew from his hands as he fell backwards. He was a one year old by the time hit the floor.

Leyla quickly placed her own disc to her forehead again and pushed its button. Her panties - intended for someone much older than she currently was, had slid down to her ankles. She took off her business suit’s jacket and was now only wearing a short-sleeved blouse. It hung down past her knees now; she guessed that last shot with the YouthX gun had cost her four years. Her motor skills were still good, but the disc and the YouthX gun she was holding, both of which had started out small and light, were now sort of heavy and cumbersome.

All about her were infants, none of whom were actually wailing like real ones though. Most were either quiet or screaming in protest from toothless mouths. She trotted past them towards the stairwell when the elevator door sprang open to her left.

“FREEZE!” The DSA squad member shouted, leveling his YouthX gun on her, which meant he had to get into a crouching position.

“I’m Agent Leyla Short...DSA!” she squeaked.

“Turn around so I can see you,” the man said. She turned slowly, her hands in the air with both her disc and her gun still in them. “Where’s your ID, Ma’am?”

“It’s back there in my jacket... I had to ditch it for obvious reasons.”

“Stand down, Parker... I know that munchkin voice.” Collins stepped out of the elevator, chuckling at his pint-sized subordinate. “Just because your last name is Short doesn’t mean that your body has to be also.”

“Oh yeah.. ha ha.. very funny...” She pointed her gun at him and said, “You keep on and I won’t be looking so short in a few minutes, buster.”

“Oh come on, Leyla... lighten up, will ya?”

“That’s the problem, I lightened up a little too much. Not exactly my idea of weight loss.”

Collins turned around to the elevator behind him. “Hey Janice... could you give Agent Short a ride home... she needs a change.” By change he was referring to the YouthX machines all agents in their field had installed in their homes. In their line of work, age changing was commonplace. If she wasn’t using the YouthX device to change back to normal, she was using it for undercover work. There were of course other uses, but she kept that on the down-low.

“Sure Mike.” Janice said as she came forward. She bent down and picked up Leyla into her arms. “I see you’ve had a busy day.”

“You don’t know the half of it, sexy,” Leyla said as she kissed the older woman gently on the lips.

“Girls... girls.. take your weird fetish somewhere else, okay?” Collins said, turning red with discomfort.

“What?” Janice asked innocently. “It’s just two women sharing a kiss, that’s all.”

“Yeah whatever... Forty years ago we used to send people to jail for that, Youthies or not.”

“Oh come on... I think we’ve grown enough as a society to realize that looking young doesn’t mean we are young.” Leyla lisped.

“God knows that’s the truth...” Collins muttered. He had been in his mid-fifties, forty years ago; now he looked to be a healthy man of thirty-five. Janice herself was pushing seventy, but looked no more than twenty-something. And Leyla, well, she was older than both of them but looked as though she was ready to start kindergarten.

“Come on, little one... let’s get you home; it’s way past your bedtime," said Janice.

“Later, chief!” Leyla waved over Janice’s shoulder as they stepped back into the elevator.

“Yeah, yeah... Don’t go to bed too early tonight... I need a full report on my desk by morning.”

“Awww.....” the little girl whined. “No fair!”

“Yeah, I know... I’m a mean old man. Hey wait, aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Oh gosh, right... my clothes! Leyla shouted, sticking her hand out to stop the closing elevator door. The squad member, Parker, retrieved her discarded items and then sheepishly said, “Sorry about earlier... I didn’t know who you were when I came up here, Ms. Short... I was expecting someone a bit taller.”

Janice giggled at that.

“Happens all the time, kid...” Leyla answered with a wan smile as the elevator door closed before her.

 

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