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"He's right! This door could very well be a trap. Let me handle it, seeing as the General's 'expert' is no longer with us..."

She shuddered slightly as she thought of that. The man was a real b*****d, wasn't he? He had probably never fought in a single war in his life to have someone else take the fall like that instead of going himself. But she shook the dark thoughts off and approached the door, looking closely at the runes.

Running her hands over them, she spoke in an ancient tongue, deep and full of an invisible weight. This would be practicly what runology sounded like if it had a voice... in any event, she hoped that the door would open upon these words, for they were exactly what the runes translated into...

It was all she needed to know. The runes had told her exactly what they were there for, and it was all she wanted in the first place...

"Gentlemen, ladies... behold the power that Odin's servant has bestowed upon me."

She said it not to be arrogant... but to be respectful. All things considered, this was not her kind of place. Hugin- also known as Evan White- had recieved the knowledge of runology and the power it held long before the current age. Heck, long before Red's age.

He had passed the knowledge on to the Eighth Squadron for use as mostly a defensive nature. However, this was not the only use that he had taught them, nor the only magic. Laselle was expert in breaking defenses, just as much as she was in making them. Thus...

She began tracing an intricate series of runes across the door with a point of light that rested on the tips of her first two right fingers, each one a counter to the runeset that was inscribed on the blocked entrance. The words were the exact opposite of that which was on the door. On top of those, she placed three runic circles.

For each circle, she traced two concentric circles, one upon the other. The second circle was placed so that the outside edge was but three inches from the first circle's boundary. With that, she began tracing the names of the Aesir Gods on the outside of the first circle... and the rune for Power on the inside.

For the second, it was the names of the Vanir, with the rune for Wisdom.

For the third, it was the names of Odin's Battlemaidens, the Valkyrie, with the rune for Courage in the center.

Then with that out of the way, she took two steps back... and slammed her right palm into the first circle, rocking the door's foundations and activating the first runeset. A split second afterwards, she rammed her left fist into the second circle, activating that set as well. As a final measure, she kicked the third circle, the ball of her left foot swinging home and lighting up the final rune.

With the door now sufficiently de-spelled and the runes out of the way... Laselle ingram slammed both palms into the center of the door, stomping forwards and downwards with her right leg to add chi to the attack.

The floor spiderwebbed underneath the force of the stomp as her hands blurred towards the door, aiming to smash the now weakened barrier to bits!

((If you haven't noticed yet, the three runes in the center of each circle are Shinto precepts.))

"Hn... an elaborate defense for such a simple room."

She dusted her sleeves off, the residue from the door coming undone brushed off her shoulders and arms. The door that was carelessly left open was pretty much the one they were looking for. However, just to be safe, she picked up one of the pieces of wood that had splintered out from the hinges and threw it at the opening, looking for a trap.

Just because there were not runes didn't mean that there were no tricks.

"Check the room. There might be something here that could deter us..."

"Good eye, Colonel. Let's see what this one is..."

She took a knee and looked closely at the hairs, wondering what was in store for them if they disturbed them in any way... She decided to try it out.

"Clear the room. I'm going to spring it."

She quickly walked out of the room, picking up another splinter of wood as she did so. When she reached the door from which they had come, she tossed it with moderate strength towards the pattern of hairs, hoping to disturb them somewhat.

A bear. Typical. If they had tried to walk beyond the fringes of that seal, everyone in the room would have died on the spot. She was going to have to calm this beast down in some way... Then, she remembered the raven on her shoulder. It would follow commands, wouldn't it? Like it was trained to do?

She whispered into the black bird's ear a command. One that would most likely get them the information they needed without even moving from this spot, until they found a way out of this. With that, she sent it flying with a flick of her right wrist, and it went rocketing with a flap of wings and a flurry of feathers towards Forsooth's office!

Come on... make it... he's distracted, so you should be fine...

And Evan's spy... saw... everything.

What was seen was disturbing enough to cause even the General some alarm as the bird picked up every piece of information it could lay its eyes on, and within seconds, the entire room and everything within it was memorized. However, it also looked at something interesting...

A brown, leather-bound journal that was most obvious, even to the untrained eye. The raven, not wanting to miss anything, used its beak to flick open the front cover and take a look inside, scattering the already-seen pages and documents to the wind as it took a good look at some of the contents.

Meanwhile, Laselle had decided it was time for her to help out. She withdrew a silver flute, seven inches in length from one of her sleeves... and began to play, loud, clear, and strong. The music could even be heard over the din of the bear's roars...

And she was quite an expert at playing the wind instrument. The tune was soothing...

The plan was to somehow get the bear sedated by song so that the tranquilizers would have enough time to get their effects settled in. She hoped it would work.. for everyone's sake.

And then the raven stopped. It noticed a defense. Evan had taught his birds that when runes were on the cover of something. it was never a good thing. So the bird flew back out to Captain Laselle and whispered in her ear that it had found a bunch of quite interesting things... as well as something else.

"That's a bit of overkill, but none of my business. Colonel Sallea, I believe we've found ourselves the jackpot. If you'll follow me, please?"

She walked in and took a look at what the raven did not, scanning through the papers and notes for anything it had missed. Which he probably didn't, but it was always safe to double-check. Of course, she found what she was looking for- the records of the executions and the experiments. She also took a look at the captures to find out what exactly was in here that could be potentially dangerous if in the General's petty hands.

Some of these artifacts could destroy Gaia itself if in the wrong hands! I have to know what's in here and inform everyone to leave all this alone...

Speaking of which...

"Colonel, please don't touch that diary. You won't like what it'll do..."

And sure enough, he would notice that it was another runic defense- another trap to deter intruders.