A Day at the Spa (solo, C-Class mission)

As he pulled in to Hosenka Town, Jaeger smiled as if on instinct alone.  The place just made him happy.  People loved Hosenka Town, and it showed on the faced of the tourists and locals alike.  It showed in how well the town was maintained.  It showed in how much money these people must be making because damn the prices were kinda steep but oh so worth it.

Coming to a stop in front of the Super Express Spa, Jaeger was surprised to see that there was a sign with big red letters hanging from the door.  It read:

SORRY, HOT SPRINGS CLOSED.  NORMAL SPA SERVICES STILL AVAILABLE.

"Closed?" Jaeger said to himself, confused.  "That's odd.  I hope someone didn't get the springs all gross or something..."

Opening the door, he stepped in quietly and politely.  He slid his boots off and left them by the door, as was the custom.  A lot of tourists didn't realize they were supposed to remove their shoes.  Jaeger knew better.  He approached the desk clerk - a young woman by the name of Traci.  She smiled at him and gave him a friendly little wave.

"Welcome back, Jaeger!  It's been a while since we've seen you, I was starting to worry."

"Money's been tight.  You know that even death couldn't keep me away from this place!"  The two had a friendly laugh.  "Listen, I saw this flyer posted a couple towns over.  Is this for real?" 

"Oh, um...yes, yes it is!  Let me just go authenticate the flyer with my manager, and I'll be back to discuss the terms and conditions of the contra-I mean spa day."

She scurried off into a back room labeled 'employees only', leaving Jaeger to scratch his head and wonder what was really going on here.  Why would they need to authenticate the flyer?  Did they really think people were going to make counterfeit versions?

The hot springs were quiet, save for the soft splashing sounds of the water up against the rocks it was contained in.  The springs were never particularly loud - everyone knew it was a place of relaxation, not rowdy fun - but he'd never seen them this quiet.  The stillness was a bit unsettling.  It didn't seem natural.  For the first time, Jaeger found himself tense and on edge in Hosenka Town.  That alone was an unforgivable crime.

Kneeling down at the water's edge, he dipped his finger into the springs.  Shocked, he pulled his hand back reflexively.  The water was ice cold.  No wonder they were so concerned - even if this monster wasn't hostile, it would ruin their business just by doing whatever it was doing to the water.  Looking down into the pool, he could see where the water came from, deep within the Earth's crust where it would normally be heated to pleasant bathing temperatures.  He'd never noticed before, but it was more than big enough for a person to fit through, and the Spa had just built in seats and safeguards to prevent people from getting stuck in there.

Taking off his jacket and pants, Jaeger knew what he had to do.  This monster clearly wasn't in the room with him, so it must make its home deep in the water, near the source itself.  Stretching his arms, legs, and neck, he stalled for a moment.  Jaeger hated swimming.  Not because he was bad at it, or because it messed up his hair (though that also sucked), but because the only solution he'd ever been able to come up with in regards to breathing underwater was to use his Take Over magic to turn his head into that of a gaping, pompadoured carp.  He climbed into the water, and as his magic energy transformed his head into that of a fish, dove down into the crack in the ground from whence the water came.

Turning around in the water, Jaeger began to wonder if this really was a one-man job.  However, just as he started to swim back to the spa, at the very least to regroup, warm up, and formulate a real plan, he was struck by something big and meaty, with slick dark skin that was so cold that it felt like it had burned off his flesh.  He was sent tumbling through the water, stopping only as he slammed into an underwater stalagmite.

Turning to face where he'd been struck, he only saw that shadow once more, though this time he could make out more of its shape as it swam off into the darkness, likely to ambush him again in a moment.  It was long and serpentine, with jet black skin covered in what looked like blue crystalline barnacles.  He had no idea exactly what this thing was, but he could tell by the way it moved that it was some sort of monstrous eel.  It also appeared to want him dead.

Jaeger took off through the water back towards where he thought the exit to the spa must have been, but found only smooth cave walls.  That hit had thrown him off his bearings, and now he had no idea where he was.  He didn't have time to search every inch of the cave, not while he was being hunted by some sort of insane ice eel.  Tucking himself against a wall, he turned to watch the cave for any sign of the monster.

The eel surged forward, mouth wide open in a silent roar of triumph.  Preparing to take a great big bite out of Jaeger's ass, its Pharyngeal jaw stretched out from its throat like some sort of grasping, toothy hand.  Jaeger sat stock-still on the pile of bones, waiting for the end to come.

Of course, the end wouldn't come, because just before the eel struck, he crammed the femur that had once belonged to the poor bastard that had fallen victim to this thing right into its mouth, propping open its jaw.  When it went to bite down, it found that its mouth was stuck open.  Jerking to one side and swimming away, the eel thrashed in the water, frustrated by this new development.

Jaeger took a moment to let his heart catch up to him as it raced.  Now that the monster was distracted, he could get his bearings.  Thankfully, he knew where he was now that he was on the bone pile.  And since he knew where he was, he knew where he'd have to go.  

Jaeger came bursting through the crack in the earth, into the pool of the hot springs just in time as the eel's jaws closed mere inches behind his foot.  As he emerged into the pool's water, he paused, thinking maybe it was all over.  That maybe he'd survived so he could go get some help and come back to finish this thing off.

That was when the eel barreled into him from behind, it's momentum forcing it through the hole and into the hot springs.  Jaeger and the eel went soaring up and out of the water before landing hard on the tile floor below.  Great streaks of red ran down both sides of the eel's body, as the hole had been too small for it to get anything but its head through previously.  Now, however, the hole was just a bit bigger, and the eel's body just a bit smaller (and torn the hell open).  

Jaeger stood up, shaking the water off his hair and fur as the eel gasped its last.  As it died, so did it's coldness.  The room felt ten degrees warmer mere moments after its demise.  

"Yeah.  Fuck you.  That's what you get."

Grabbing the eel's body, Jaeger pulled and pulled and pulled it through the hole and up onto the tile floor of the hot springs proper.  By the time he was done, the pool was a bloody red mess just like the eel's body, but he could see the steam rising off of it like normal.  The water was already returning to normal.

"Hey Traci," he called, "I killed it."
___________________________________________

One week later, Jaeger returned to Hosenka Town, his free spa day pass in hand.  It had taken almost the full week for the Super Express staff to clean out the Hot Springs, and while they had taken a hit in their revenue, they were grateful to Jaeger for ultimately saving their business.

He sat in the hot springs, enjoying his free egg rolls, when a young man came up to him quietly.  He held in his hands a bowl of rice topped with the biggest pieces of eel meat he'd ever seen.