Roaring Delta 

By: Naisaen
furaffinity.net/user/naisaen

12:30 AM

	It all began in a rural town in southeast Missouri.
	At half-past midnight an enormous flash of blue light lit up the night sky above several square miles of crop fields.
	After a few seconds, the light was replaced by a large, shadowy object that had appeared from nowhere. None of the barns, houses, or grain silos came close to the size of the object. It had crushed many acres of farmland, its form stretching hundreds of yards long.
	Stranger more, the shadowy form seemed to be growing in size. In minutes, its length had increased by several hundred feet.
	Eventually, the form had grown large enough to have crossed multiple roads and a narrow rural highway. Motorists on the highway were the first to shine some light on the growing object.

	Headlights from the blocked vehicles illuminated a small fraction of the obstacle before them. The drivers were stunned to find their way blocked by what appeared to be a massive wall of brown fur. Some truck drivers armed with flashlights attempted light up the parts further away, but could only make out even more fur, forming a wall about 100 feet high. Their lights also revealed motion in the furry form, confirming that whatever blocked the highway was alive—and growing, too.

	When the wall of fur had grown enough to impact several cars and begin to force them back, many panicked people ran back to their cars and started to speed away.

1:30 AM

	The emergency calls were flooding in:

	"Something is blocking the highway!" 

	"A massive....thing destroyed my car!" 

	“A monster is terrorizing the town! Send a chopper or something!”

	Police helicopters had been deployed to the area. Equipped with altitude, spotlights, and FLIR, they'd be the first to get a good view of whatever was blocking the highway and terrorizing rural Missouri.

	The helicopters had arrived 30 minutes after the first sightings were reported. In that time, the bulk of the creature had nearly tripled in size. They followed the length of the highway and pointed the spotlight on the 300-feet-high wall of fur. They moved the spotlight to the north where the wall became taller, and then began flying along its length.

	Eventually, the fur gave way to a large white surface. It was smooth, but there were creases and folds like some kind of clothing. Around the edges were wavy frills of light blue material. Further ahead, the large surface changed from white, to light-blue and lavender. Soon, the helicopter crew began to recognize what they saw.

	They were looking at the front of a giant diaper, out of which sprouted the tail of its wearer. The thick tail of the enormous mammal had been blocking the highway.

	Pointing the spotlight straight down revealed the top of a 1,500-foot-long paw. Five toes: three large toes in the center, two small toes on the flanks. The toes were webbed by pink skin.

	The helicopters continued north over the midsection of the creature. They switched the spotlight off and viewed the face of the creature with only FLIR cameras. The crew determined the species of the huge mammal to be a river otter.

	They hovered back over the otter's diapered waist. The small details of the diaper's front panel emerged. The printed designs were larger than billboards. The tiny holes in the plastic for breathability looked large enough to fit a person. The two lavender-colored tapes securing the diaper were the size of large parking lots. For the crew, it was surreal to see a diaper scaled up to such a degree.

	Slowly and rhythmically, the otter’s light-brown belly rose and fell. Clearly the enormous otter, which they had mistakenly assumed was a cub, was asleep. For this reason, the crew decided not to proceed any further north, as to not wake the giant otter.

	The pilot noticed the radar altimeter data decreasing rapidly, which caused the crew to notice the otter’s continued growth. The helicopters quickly maneuvered away, and warned other authorities to stay far away as to not awaken the 1.5-mile-long cub.

2:00 AM

	An hour and a half had passed since the initial sighting of the rapidly growing otter cub in Missouri, but word had already propagated to the highest levels of US Government.

	The government deployed the military and police units to block all access to a generously-sized area around the otter. A no-fly zone had been implemented above the area for large swaths of Missouri, Arkansas, and Illinois.

	State and federal government had done everything they could to not alert the media and cause a panic until they had a full grasp of the situation.

	No one had any idea where this otter had come from. Or why it had invaded Earth. Or how it was even physically possible for an animal to be so enormous. One thing was certain: it was still growing.

	In the hour since the Federal government was notified, the cub—now code-named 'Roaring Delta', or simply ‘Delta’ by the military—had gone from a mile long, to over 12 miles long. The sleeping Delta appeared like a conspicuous mountain rising in the middle of the Great Plains.

	Unimaginable coordination and urgency had been required to set up the designated 'Delta Zone' around the otter in such short notice. The Delta Zone stretched from Little Rock to St. Louis. However, dumbfounded military leaders slowly began to fear that Delta would simply outgrow the zone.

	Realistically, even if Delta had stopped growing this second, the government would only have until sunrise to maintain secrecy and control the panic. They explored their options to respond to the invader. Would they attempt to communicate, or attack with the full might of the military? 

	Already, Delta's breathing, and the friction between its growing body and the ground was causing significant earthquakes to register on seismological equipment. Periodically, Delta would adjust its body in its sleep, translated to explosive assaults on the ground. Each explosive quake caused by Delta convinced the military that hiding it would be near impossible.

	Residents all over the area were being startled awake by Delta's presence.

3:30 AM

	Three hours had passed since Roaring Delta had arrived on Earth. 

	The cub's unconscious growth had brought it to absolutely god-like proportions. Now over 250 miles long, it had officially outgrown the zone designated to contain it. Military assets assigned to enforce the zone had been effortlessly erased beneath the cub's body.

	The cub had grown at such a rate in the past hour that vehicles driving at highway speeds couldn't outpace its expanding body. 

	St. Louis was now being crushed underneath the left side of Roaring Delta's muzzle. Little Rock, finding itself in the unfortunate position of being ground to dust by the otter's diapered butt. The outskirts of the city were assaulted by slight, unconscious movements from the tip of the otter’s tail, which tore gashes of destruction miles wide into the Earth. 

	Each of Delta’s foot paws were now the size of Rhode Island. A single toe could annihilate nearly any city in the country. Its left paw threatened Mississippi, its right paw, Oklahoma. Residents of each state could only gaze up in terror, trying to contemplate the scale of the creature to whom the 60,000-feet-high toes belonged. Never in their lives had they experienced feeling so utterly insignificant, like microbes next to an animal.

	Meanwhile, the government was quickly running out of options. 

	With the new developments in size disparity between the otter cub and humanity, Keeping Delta a secret was no longer possible. 

	Establishing communication with Delta was no longer realistic. The otter cub had already dealt irreparable damage to the power grid. Even if they managed to generate some sort of signal large enough for Delta to hear, see, or feel, Delta was just some alien otter cub still in diapers. The chance of understanding—let alone a peaceful, constructive understanding leading to an end to the destruction—was vanishingly remote.

	At this point, even nuclear weapons seemed like they would be hopelessly ineffective and not worth the risks involved.

	The only option left was to wait, and pray that the giga-sized otter would vanish to wherever it came from as quickly as it had arrived.

5:00 AM

	Finally, the government received some good news.

	By all readings, Delta's growth had finally slowed to a halt. Unfortunately,  the otter’s size had stabilized to roughly 600 miles from head to tail. 

	Even if this invader was so incomprehensibly and impossibly enormous as to effortlessly snuff out cities, it still gave the surviving humans below some hope to know that it was at least finite. Things would no longer be crushed from the otter’s growth alone, giving the microscopic human survivors and divisions of military assets a chance to navigate devastated infrastructure towards safer ground.

	As sunrise crept closer, however, the god-like otter’s unconscious movements continued to pick up.

	In its most destructive act since its arrival, Delta had rolled its body to sleep on its side and belly. The incredible, continent-like mass of the otter’s body, caused liquefaction in the crust supporting dozens of counties. Delta’s simple motion had finished off the utility and communications infrastructure for virtually the entire Mississippi delta region. In seconds, Delta had traveled nearly 200 miles to the east.

	The unconscious otter now threatened a whole new host of states.

6:00 AM

	The people of Tennessee had heard rumors of a monstrous creature growing in the neighboring states since the early hours of the morning. Many traveled to higher elevations to attempt to catch a glimpse of the strange creature.

	Since about three hours prior they had been able to see a massive shadow—like a mountain range—growing to the west, blocking out more of the stars with each passing minute. Since about one hour prior, the faint beginnings of sunrise had allowed them to make out the coat of brown fur covering the marvelous animal—all from several hundred miles away.

	There was a general unease among the onlookers, especially whenever the immense mammal moved, generating earthquakes high enough on the Richter scale to knock objects from shelves and car alarms to sound. However, no one seemed to be panicking or attempting to evacuate; most people thought that hundreds of miles was a safe enough distance away for the time being.

	This sentiment had changed at approximately 5:15 AM, when the enormous animal moved. This was nothing like the small movements the onlookers had observed.

	Massive furry limbs suddenly struck the Earth in the far distance; they made the largest mountains in the region look like pathetic bumps in the ground. The limbs lifted the entire, unfathomable weight of the animal into the upper reaches of the atmosphere. All of a sudden, animal’s immense form was catapulted towards them.

	The people of Tennessee quickly learned—the hard way—that hundreds of miles of distance was nothing to the creature.

	The resulting sonic boom and the rush of incalculable volumes of displaced air sounded as if sky itself was ripping apart.

	The animal had closed the gap in mere seconds. Onlookers could only scream as they watched the god-like mammal’s form engulf their cities, their mountains, their state, everything. With it, the enormous mammal brought earthquakes that collapsed buildings and tossed vehicles around like they weighed nothing. 

	The city of Memphis was spared the chaos, and was snuffed out in an instant somewhere beneath the animal’s left thigh.

	Nashville, on the other hand, had miraculously only suffered earthquake damage, and was still standing for the most part.

	After the most powerful quakes had subsided, surviving Nashville residents escaped the rubble of their shelters to observe the sorry state of their home.

	The immense mammal’s form now surrounded them. The rumble of the impossible creature’s breathing could now be heard—and felt, as lesser earthquakes that made standing and walking difficult. The musk from the mammal’s body saturated the air.

	What the people of Nashville saw filling the sky above their city, they couldn’t believe. 

	Whatever kind of animal the giant was, they couldn’t tell. They could see, however, that it wore a single, unexpected garment: a disposable diaper. The white and light blue plastic loomed miles above the city, as if it were an alien mother ship from a movie. The people of Nashville knew however, that the immense white object dwarfing their city was just a tiny fraction of the scale of the real invader.

6:30 AM

	For roughly an hour the people of Nashville were subjected to the tortuous wait beneath the giant, diapered animal. Their means of escape were scattered and destroyed, they could only stay and try to wait out the unending earthquakes and deafening roar from the giant’s slow breaths. Perhaps, they hoped, the giant would move elsewhere and spare them.

	Finally, something was happening.

	The continuous earthquakes had paused; the giant animal had stopped breathing. The people of Nashville appreciated the break in the incessant rumbling, but slowly became suspicious.

	Then a new sound was heard: loud, but not quite as deafening as the sound of the giant animal’s breathing. The sound was like rainfall hitting the roof of a tent, only instead of being a subtle and peaceful, it roared and echoed for miles.

	PSSSsssssssssshhhhh! The sound came directly from above, from the massive white surface of the animal’s diaper.

	The people watched as there was a slow, gradual darkening of the formerly pure-white surface of the diaper. Circular spots of gray could be seen forming and expanding. Subtle, strange light-blue symbols on the diaper’s surface began to fade and smear away. At this point, everyone had realized what was happening.

	The astonished people of Nashville watched the unconscious giant animal wet its diaper.

	Soon, the people were inundated with a new smell. A hint of lavender tried—and failed—to temper the intensifying musk emanating from the giant damp diaper.

	Nashville soon realized that the pungent aroma blanketing them wasn’t the only thing they had to worry about the diaper.

	As the enormous animal continued—for quite a while, the people noticed—to use the diaper, the front surface was beginning to swell and expand. The expansion of the absorbent material inside, as well as the diaper beginning to sag from the increased weight, cause the diaper’s front surface to descend quickly towards the city below. 

	HNNnng—AHhhhhhh… The deep, booming voice of the creature rumbled the Earth with a satisfied growl.

	The sound of the diaper’s wetting had stopped, but its swelling continued. For the enormous creature, the subtle swell of its diaper by a few centimeters at most, translated to dozens of miles at the scale of the humans below.

	Nashville’s residents could only watch in absolute disbelief as their city met its end from a wet diaper. They could feel the warmth and humidity emanating from the enormous white mass as it descended, like the Moon on a collision course for Earth. 

	Then, it all went dark with a squelch.

7:00 AM

	Kaisak awoke with the light of sunrise in his eyes, and a familiar warmth between his legs. The river otter sat up and reached up with his paws in a long stretch.

	Oh, I didn’t wet last night, did I?

	He looked down at his diaper: the wetness indicators were faded.

	He pressed the front with a paw, which let out an audible squish.

	Kaisak let out a small sigh. 

	Yup, definitely wet. Still kinda warm, too. Must’ve just gone just before I woke up. I was so close to waking up dry this morning. Guess I’ll have to go change—

	Kaisak then noticed his strange surroundings.

	Where did my bed, or my room go?

	He was now outdoors, feeling rather exposed sitting outside in just his diaper. 

	Kaisak had felt a pang of embarrassment, and made several quick glances over his shoulders. However, he didn’t see anyone around him. There were no plants or buildings around him, either.

	What a strange place. Just some dirt and patches of...moss? And some puddles—

	At this point, Kaisak finally realized what had happened. In response, the otter froze his body in place. Slowly, and carefully, he lowered face back towards the ground. As he expected, the otter’s eyes picked up the faint streaks of white wisps floating just millimeters above the ground.

	“Holy crap, are those clouds?” Kaisak couldn’t help but whisper out loud. His breath caused most of the tiny cloud formations to instantly disperse. He immediately closed his mouth and held is breath for a few moments. Oops.

	As the clouds moved away, Kaisak began to notice a small gray patch appear from underneath. It was no larger than a fingertip, and while it was difficult for the otter to notice much detail in it, he began to see a subtle pattern of grid lines inside.

	Shocked, Kaisak recoiled his body back up and began to breath again. His paws nervously covered his face.

	OH MY GOSH, I’ve accidentally grown in my sleep before...but never THIS big!

	The otter’s eyes glanced back down at the city of micros below, and the massive craters in the crust made by his body.

	“I’m SOOO sorry! I didn’t mean to do this, I had no control over this, please understand!” Kaisak’s apologetic plea was muffled by his paws, but while North and Central America had no problem hearing it, understanding it was a different story. 

	“It’ll never happen again, I’ll NEVER come back here, I promise!”

	With the otter’s last remark, his form was replaced by a flash of blue light, and as quickly as he had appeared on Earth, he vanished, leaving only the permanent scars he inflicted on North America.

7:30 AM

	Kaisak reappeared in his room, and hopped out of bed, rubbing his eyes.

	“I hope that doesn’t happen again.” The otter felt sorry for the unknown civilization of micros he had accidentally terrorized, but he tried to not feel too guilty about it. After all, he had no control over it. 

	“Oh, well. Guess I should go get changed.”

	A soggy diaper swaying heavily between his legs, Kaisak walked to his closet where fresh ones awaited. As he went, the otter was unaware of the countless microscopic trees, vehicles, and buildings from the human world still clinging to his foot paws and tail being tracked on the floor of his room.

THE END