you can combine the two aliases into one

alias count {
  .noop $regsubex($1 $$2,/(\d*)\W(\d*)/,)
  var %v1 = $regml(1),%v2 = $regml(2),%v = $iif(%v1 < %v2,+,-),%a = 0
  while ($counttrue(%v1,%v2,%v)) {
    .timercounter [ $+ [ %a ] ] 1 %a $iif(#,say,echo -a) %v1
    $iif(%v = +,inc %v1,dec %v1)
    inc %a
  }
}
alias -l counttrue { return $iif(($1 <= $2 && $3 = +) || ($1 >= $2 && $3 = -),1,0) }

depending on whether $1 < $2 it will count up/down
and btw Jethro_> Just enter a single number grater than 1 to count.