2013.09.18 - Welcome Back Tests Part 1

The Danger Room. It tended to scale the the individuals who were in it, and it tended to do things it's own way sometimes. Today, there were some assessments going on for the various students and staff who wanted to have an annual 'level set' for where they were and to make sure the Danger Room was set appropriately for them. Right now, the room is silent as it awaits it's first 'victims' for the day. There are various X-Men who are in charge of running it today, and there is a steady cycle of them going through the control room and just making sure nothing happens. And the room was pretty good at not causing any permanent damage to them, most of the time.

The first group being paired are X-23 and the newbie to the place, Sofia. The operator may or may not add in more individuals at their whim, however, depending on how schedules work, how well people perform, and that sort of thing.

Sofia stands inside the Danger Room reasonably nervous, as she always gets when tests are coming, this one moreso. It is her chance to either impress the people in the Institute or botch and make a fool out of herself, and there are few things the venezuelan hates more than failing. Still, emotions are somewhat Sofia's greatest strength, and her greatest weakeness, as she can rise up to the ocasion or get swallowed by her own mood swings.

Right now, with everything under control, the beautiful girl smiles, still feeling butterflies in her stomach, but ready to go, completely unsure of what's about to happen.

"S-So! I shouldn't go full force on this, right?"

Yes, Laura Kinney a.k.a. X-23 arrives at the appointed time for her Danger Room session.

Yes, she's as cool and emotionless as usual.

Yes, she knows she's been teamed up with a 'newbie', but then again, compared to her, all the students (and even some of the teachers) are newbies.

Still, when it comes to the Danger Room, the 'clone' glances about, trying to take in whatever she can. She doesn't even look at who ever she's with just yet. Instead, she just sort of examines her surroundings as she waits for things to happen...

Or fall apart.

"Do not hold back." is said towards Sofia without even looking back at the other girl. "Do as much, when you can."

Hopefully who ever is running this does that as well.

Blindfold was about as combat-capable as a rabbit, and not the one from Monty Python, when stacked up to most of the X-Men, or even the Young X-Men for that matter! The girl's telekinesis was still at such a low level that she was more suited to taking out a purse-snatchers than other mutants or, even worse, giant smashy robots. But the only way that mental muscle would get stronger would be to flex it, right? She'd already told Professor Xavier that she didn't want to leave upon graduating, that she wanted to stay an X-Man. Which meant putting in the time.

Besides, lack of combat prowess aside, it was her other gifts that people found her useful for.

Standing in her black-and-yellow suit, the dark-haired girl with her eyes covered keeps her arms folded insecurly about her middle, 'looking' down at her shoes and toeing the floor. She doesn't offer any advice to the newcomer, because... she'd never performed so well at these things herself. Maybe she should get some hand-to-hand combat instruction. Sadly, kung-fu was not on the class lists for her to sign up for at the start of each semester.

Staring down from the Danger Room Logan is looking over everyone. There's not many here but those that show up are observed diligantly. "Show me what ya got kids," he said to no one in particular. The world would not be kind to them. So assessing where they are in their training is a high priority. He would talk the results over to a few people.

The room shifts a little bit right after Logan speaks as the operator pushes a few button. The three ladies are going to find themselves in a stone temple with a variety of ancient writing on it. The appearance of the writing would be Egyptian, to anyone who might have knowledge of such things. The hall that the ladies find themselves only leads forwards, and will fork about forty feet ahead. It is wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side with only a little bit of discomfort.

"There is some form of ritual being done in this temple. It is your job to stop it," the operator informs the group over the loudspeaker. It was likely the last thing that the group was going to hear from the observatory until the scenario was completed, unless Wolverine chimes in. No other instructions are given. It was time to let the team figure out what they were going to do.

Sofia looks at the two presences that are with her in the temple, one looks perfectly normal but is completely weird, and the other looks pretty weird, but acts in a very reasonable way, toeing the ground, a bit unsure. Moving to the side, and arching a brow at the blindfold Ruth wears, Sofia touches her shoulder.

"Don't worry. We can do this. It's Sofia, by the way!", she says, whispering, smiling even though the girl cannot see, before she tilts her head to the side. Maybe she could use the winds to scan the temple, since there are three pathways ahead, but... maybe that would be cheating?

"Hey, Laura! What should we do, mm?", the girl asks for input, still unwilling to go all-out in her first exercise.


 * SNIKT!*

Ritual. Stop it. No other orders or restrictions mentioned.

It's a mission. One where Laura has at least two allies. One a mostly unknown quantity to her. The other semi-known but not exactly predictable.

Either way, the claws are out.

"Find the objective. Stop it." is said as the clawed 'clone' starts to move forward, almost into a run, as if she doesn't care what she may encounter or what it might do to her.

But knowing her, she does care. Even if she has no clue what the others can do.

"Try to find them if you can. And traps or enemies."

Hey, Blindfold might be able to help with that as far as Laura can tell. Not that she knows what exactly Sofia can do.

The downside to being a precog is that people always expected you to never, ever be taken by surprise, get hurt, or lose anything. Nevermind that it didn't really work that way, or that when she had actual predictions, they always came true. No, if she stumbled over a loose stone then she'd inevitably get the 'Psh, you didn't see that coming?' So her very first Danger Room session must have been a colossal disappointment!

The scenery shifts to the temple, which is a little jarring for someone who 'saw' without eyes, and it takes her a moment to adjust to her new surroundings. "No, we will fail. Sorry, on the island. Yes. I will." After answering a few questions that weren't even asked, the girl with no eyes finally faces up and in Sofia's general direction. "Ruth. Ruth Aldine."

Now that the simulation has started, she ceases hugging herself and begins walking forward, albeit somewhat more cautiously than some kind of regenerating girl with an indestructable skeleton. She moves quick enough to be right behind Laura, at least. Hey, if there was one person she had to use as a human shield... "I'm sorry. Doctor's are always unpleasant. Yes. Pardon. You are not a machine."

She puts a hand to the wall, reaching out with her mind and clairvoyance. "Three and five, both ahead. With scales. Yes. Sorry. I can be more clear: we should go right."

Dashing through the corridor, Douglas Ramsey arrives at the observatory. Behind him, a mechanical bot skitters behind him, a large tall purple thing with a red-eye mounted on a tentacle-neck follows, the Spider-Slayer turned X-friend.

"Sorry I'm late," he calls out the person in the observatory. You handling things okay in there? I was working on something with Lassie here." Peering down at the simulation running, the young man nods. "Good. Hmm... I'll join in a few, let's not get in the way of the start here."

The room shimmers a little bit at Blindfold's statement, and the path leading to the left disappears, replaced by a stone wall, much as though the path never actually existed, offering them only the right option to choose.

Down the path, those with superhuman senses will sense three individuals standing still, waiting. They are currently not visible to the naked eye, however, as they have managed to place themselves in the shadows.

Lisa, the woman in the control room, nods to Doug. "No problem, Doug. You heading in today, huh? Well then, I won't spoil the surprise for you. You'll appreciate it though," the woman says, giving the omni-linguist a smile.

"Laura, be careful, please... and stick together!", says Sofia, not really knowing what Laura can do, or why she is going so far ahead. Be it what it is, Ruth is following her, so Sofia goes aswell, a bit nervous at being left in the dark by the shorter girl. Not that Ruth's silly puzzles are helping at all, aswell.

"So, Ruth... those riddles... you like puzzles, or are they... relevant to ou-", and then Sofia stops, frowning. As the air comes from the passages she can feel three shapes, still. Standing. Statues. Shaking her head the venezuelan takes a deep sigh "Laura, what are your powers?".

Right?

Laura can do right. Heck, as the path up and changes, the clawed girl doesn't even blink. Instead she just keeps moving ahead. Claws out and at the ready. If she somehow smells or hears the 'people' up ahead, it doesn't shoe externally. Not until she's theoretically close enough to try and 'skewer' them so to speak. That is while she also internally tries to keep track of what Ruth said. Three, then five...

That is if 'clone' of Wolverine even gets a chance.

But if she does get that chance, she'll try to make it quick, and final. One stab at each of two of whatever they are. Each stab from a different claw. Each stab done with an almost calculating precision while Laura still looks as emotionless and uncaring as always. And if they don't fall, she'll stand and fight.

Heck, if they don't fall, Sofia may very well get an example of what Lauras powers are if the things attack her back...

Of course that also means that third one is more than likely still wide open as well, and Laura may even be more than a bit exposed to it. But with the others there, and of course that 'backup' (that Laura doesn't realize is coming) on its way...

Luckily, Ruth didn't have eyes, naked or otherwise. Despite the blindfold covering what should be her vision, she does her best to move quieter as the living things come further into her 'sight range'. She does take the time to whisper to Sofia, without turning her head, partially out of the side of her mouth. "No. Pardon? I do not like riddles. Sorry. My mind..." She frowns. "...is not fixed."

When Laura goes into attack mode, Ruth just kind of... crouches down in the hall and hugs her knees. She fights with her telekinetic powers, and doesn't really need to be near them, looking at them, or even obviously DOING anything.

Against these things she does what she can, a whap to the back of the head here, a tug on the leg there, a push to the arm that might be counter-attacking, and a shove in the back to help someone along right onto Laura's claws. She fights with invisible 'hands' grabbing, pulling, punching, and pushing at her enemies to keep them off balance while X-23 does her grisly, grisly work. ...And she does it all while poking her index fingers together and frowning at the floor.

"Promise me one thing darlin'. Don't make it too easy on em'," Logan says to Lisa the programmer before his attention turns to Doug. Seeing the Spider slayer and then Doug, "Got five seconds to tell me why you're treatin' a robot like that like it's Lassie." Something about big robots don't exactly sit well with Wolverine. Typically most big robots around mutants wind up becoming very bad things.

Looking back at Doug, when he's done explaining to appease the angry guy with claws, "You n' I need to talk sometime, kid." His head goes back to the danger room watching the team press forward. While some times has passed since his last romp in the Egypt programming he does remember the real Egypt actually being worse than the simulated one. "Make sure ya get somethin in there that works fer Blindfold. All of em's gotta be tested."

"I picked her up when she was chasing down Spider-Man... managed to reprogram it verbally, and thought I might as well see how it was programmed and put together. Give me an idea about how these Sentinels were put together too, maybe see if I can reprogram them the same way remotely," Doug responds quickly. "Don't worry, sir, I've got it staying with Kitty. She can take care of it if it gets out of hand. Uh... tell Logan what your mission is."

"SPIDER-MAN FRIEND. DO NOT HARM," Lassie replies.

"... well, I'm still working on the rest of its recognition patterns," Doug admits. "Whoever programmed it had a real fixation on Spider-Man. Must've been bitten once too often by a spider or something. Um... Lassie, stay away from the man with the big claws." Pause. "Or from the girl with the big claws too. Sit, stay put, don't move."

Moving over towards the console, Doug checks the program, considering what would work for Blindfold's senses... cantrips? Trigger traps...? What was in there right now...?

"I've got something special cooked up for them, and something for Blindfold, don't worry. This isn't Egypt like you remember it, Wolverine," Lisa comments to Wolverine. "You'll be seeing it just about now".

As X-23 rushes forward, there's a whirring noise from three distinct weapons. Red lights flash from the long staff weapons that are being wielded, and energy blasts start getting launched down the hallway as three people step forward, dressed in metal serpent armor, gone so far to the extreme that the helmet is a giant serpent head. No features about the individuals can be determined as a result.

Some of the shots are clearly off-target, due to Blindfold's work with slapping them around and messing with them telekinetically. These shots blast into the walls, causing dust to fly up into the air as rubble crashes to the ground around them.

A pair of blasts are heading right towards Sofia, and if she doesn't dodge them, won't end well for the new student.

One of the shots goes sailing over Blindfold, the girl crouching just in time.

There's a cry from one of the guards as Laura cuts him down. The second one is able to sidestep her attack quickly enough to refocus his attack. He attempts to trip Laura with his staff before stepping back a couple steps and launching a barrage of red blasts at the clone.

Sofia readily sends blasts of wind to keep the debri that falls down from hitting Laura or Ruth, her worry about them both overshadowing her ability to check precisely if the pieces of rock are even going to hit the girls or not. The venezuelan mutant is not willing to take the chance, and as such she is not completely ready for the blasts that come in her direction.

Trying to jump back and use the wind to stop the two blasts Sofia manages to dodge one of the blasts, barely, but it also makes it so that the second one hits the girl right on the shoulder, blasting her back very hard, an appropriate scream going along with it.

Storm steps quietly into the control center and moves toward one of the windows so she can watch the training session in progress. Her eyebrows quirk briefly at the ... unusual adversaries but she doesn't speak up about it. Instead she merely nods a hello to Logan if he looks her way, then studies the tactics of each of the girls in the danger room.

In regards to visible tactics, Laura's /appear/ to be rather straight forward. Get as close as she can. Attack as fast and methodically as she can. If she can, get the people and/or things she's attacking out of the way as fast as she can. And above all else, not to give up any potential advantage she can get from pushing an attack, even if it means she will be harmed.

Thus Laura is a turning to react to the guard left standing as she's knocked down for a moment. And then, as she does a kipup to get back up onto her feet, at least one of those blasts hit, not only knocking her backwards a bit with each hit, but breaking open and burning the exposed skin of her shoulder in a way that at least looks impressive, but not too large, but still definitely 'not fun'. And yet if one were to stop and look at it, they may already see the wound healing on it's own, the blackened skin starting to flake off as it closes up. Thus that arm is usable as X-23 tries to cut right into the 'guard' shooting at her.

She also makes a note to thank Ruth afterward if the pre-cog is the reason she wasn't hit with all of those blasts.

"Keep moving! Take out target!" is shouted through gritted teeth, even as the 'clone' catches what Sofia does with the wind out of the corner of her eye.

Whew! Thank goodness for ducking. But it doesn't go nearly as well for Sofia, and as soon as she cries out the sudden attacks on the men down the hall cease, at least momentarily. Ruth now has the unenviable decision to make trying to cover both herself and her hurt comrade with a rather weak shield that MIGHT stop just ONE of the blasts, or to keep attacking them and hope that Laura takes them down with extreme quickness.

After a couple of heartbeat's hesitation, she decides to quit relying on Laura to do everything instead.

She latches onto the staff-weapon on the guard that was shooting at Sofia, trying to force it upward, to slam the 'barrel' end right into the masked face of the attacker, then gives the strongest yank with her powers that she can to try and pull it from his grip. She didn't have fine motor control of intricate devices yet, she couldn't manage that at her level, but she doesn't need it if she gains control of the weapon to simply flip it on its end and fire it right back, point-blank, at its wielder.

At least she's not frowning at the floor anymore. Now she's frowning at the figures down the corrider and has her hands perched atop her knees like a crouching, long-haired gargoyle.

Logan just keeps watching the group. He gives a nod to Oro, "'Ro," normally he would be more huggy but right now he is trying to observe everything. This is their moment to shine and show what they have down in the danger room. Later he would probably sharpen his claws but for now he would keep watching.

Looking back at Doug he shakes his head a little, "And when it goes rogue? What then?" Of course there is the general dislike of most things robotic given past experiences. Still it is a valid question to ask in this situation. He's still just keeping his eyes on the group hoping and wanting to see them achieve this mission even if it is just simulated.

"Then I take it down. There's always that threat of -anything- going rogue..." Doug replies. "At least if a machine goes rogue, it'll be because something programmed it..."

Attention shifting to the room, Doug considers, nodding at Ororo. "Maybe I should hold off on joining the group, get the practice in with another group." Sliding next to Lisa, the young man monitors the scenario. What he sees makes him smile. "So Laura is tonight's clay pigeon?" he asks.

"We all know the Danger Room adapts how hard a strike hits based on the individual. Someone with Laura's healing factor is going to be hit a whole lot worse than the blow Sofia took, even though the weapons they came from are the same". Lisa shrugs a little bit at that. "We've got a bit of everything planned, depending on what they do".

Meanwhile, in the Danger Room, Blindfold is able to yank and flip the staff weapon, which Snakehead was just in the process of aiming at Sofia, and shoot the guy right in the face. He goes down like a ton of bricks. WHUMP.

Laura is able to finish off the final enemy, and the corridor is silent. There aren't any other signs of life detectable, and the hallway continues onward, and a large room with a recessed floor and no door can be seen ahead of them as the torches flare to life.

Sofia allows the wind to cushion her fall, finally dropping on the ground once she is close enough it won't hurt her too bad. Clutching her shoulder for a moment the fiery venezuelan grits her teeth, not handling pain all that well. Still, with a flushed face and some angry looking eyes the girl uses gusts of wind to stand up, holding her temper back not to hurricane these things away. Now taking more care of herself as she advances, the girl frowns, looking at both the other girls.

Sofia is sorely undertrained for this, but still she moves along with the other girls, this time using the wind to expand before her and into the room they see, scanning it for herself, since the other two seem to be fine. With a strained voice, Sofia hisses.

"Are you two okay?"

Watching Laura's reaction to the attacks -- particularly her healing factor -- has Storm's eyes flicking toward the departing Logan then back down to the girls in the Danger Room. Fascinating. Ruth's methods of dealing with the attackers is reminiscent of Jean from a long time ago. Maybe this is something she can talk to Jean about, perhaps arrange some mentoring to fine tune those telekinetic skills. And Sofia's wind-manipulation shows some well-refined control, though she can tell the girl is struggling to keep her temper in check. Fodder for future training sessions.

"I'm fine." is said towards Sophia as Laura turns for a moment or two, letting her gaze drift from the latina to Blindfold, making sure they're both all right. And yet as she does, it's clear that her shoulder is healing up well. Heck, it may even be almost completely healed and showing fresh pink skin already.

And yet, almost as soon as that's done, the 'cloned' girl turns and starts to run again, sniffing to try and find which way those 'guards' came from, even as she asks the others yet again, "Which way?"

Yes, she's still emotionless, and still taking point. All while hoping the others can keep up.

Ruth stops crouching when the last of the bad guys goes down, standing up and scowling into the darkness. Just as she begins to take a step, she jerks herself upright, letting out a small, startled gasp. The she jobs down the corridor to Laura's position, reaching out a hand to try and stop her from proceeding by grabbing her shoulder. Then she holds up a hand towards Sofia, as well.

"Stop. Pardon? Heat. Hot. Burn. Winds fan flames. Yes. Sorry. Door should be over there." She motions minutely in the direction of the western wall. "Fire down below. Screaming." No, she doesn't ever make sense. Except when she does. This may or may not be one of those times.

As the Danger Room adapts to the students, Doug shifts over to study the console before looking over towards Lisa. "So much for the physical tests. So now we get to see how well they can think."

There's a short, harsh smile. "So how many snakes did you program into the next puzzle?"

"Puzzle time," Lisa confirms. "As for snakes? There is this file here". And Lisa shows Doug a file with a particular set of data in it.

In the Danger Room, Sofia will sense a hollow space behind the a brick in the eastern wall when she blows through with her wind. Also, one of the bricks in the western wall sounds like it shifts when the wind presses up against it. In addition, a whistling noise can be heard from the recessed floor, as though the wind is passing over several small holes. Closer inspection will reveal metal pipes that appear primed to launch something.

The room is covered in hieroglyphs, but contains no obvious door.

Sofia closes her eyes as the winds scan the room, her temper getting more and more under her control as she seems to find something, frowning and even going as far as sticking her tongue out a bit, as if to force her finesse a little bit, to make sure she found something. YES! It is something, for -sure-!

Jumping where she stands, the beauty gives a little laugh, cheering, and going "Hey! Laura! Ruth! There's something behind the eastern wall, the one over there!", and she points, continuing "There's something behind a brick there! Come on!".

Flying up again, Sofia follows the girls more closely, not willing to spearhead anything, given the girls' abilities and training far surpass her own.

Fires, heat and flames? For some reason, as Laura hears Ruth mention that, she actually smiles. It may be brief, and faint, but there is a smile. Even as she's yanked and comes to a stop right outside that odd room.

And yet, without any obvious sign of an exit from that room as she looks in, she frowns, glancing around. After all, puzzles are not Laura's thing, if this is one. Sure, she knows how to bypass locks and many forms of electronic security, but that was all drilled into her at a young age. Thus without having some common frame of reference between this puzzle and the locks, alarms, and security she's use to dealing with...

Then again, as Sofia calls out there supposedly being 'something' over beyond the East Wall, and said wall is pointed at, there is a slight nod, before she enters and starts over that way.

"Don't get too close..." is muttered as she brings a clawed fist back, as if she's going to try and claw at the way to see if she can get through it.

And why not too close? Well if this triggers that fire and flames Ruth tried to warn them off, Laura is fairly confident she could survive it more easily than the others.

In theory anyways.

A piece of paper, with various glyphs marked on it, is behind the brick. Examination of it will reveal that it corresponds to the glyphs on the western wall.

Ruth doesn't enter the room. Nope, she just stands at the entrance of it, though still a good foot inside the hallway, with one hand against the wall and the other hanging loosely at her side. She simply faces the floor of the room, her head angled forward and down, the corners of her lips curving downwards, brow low and furrowed over the cloth wrapped just under them. And then Laura starts to enter the room.

"Don't!" She calls out, but a bit too late as the X-23 is already entering and walking up towards the eastern wall. And the dark-haired mutant didn't have a healing factor, so she doesn't follow Laura in. Instead, she just turns her back, crouches down, and covers her ears.

"Screaming. Screaming and not dying." Sure, if the flames are set off, she'll live through it. But it's not something Ruth wants to have to hear. She'd already heard them in her head.

Plus they could have just let Sofia try and manipulate it with her wind.

Reading the name off the file, Doug laughs, before stifling it quickly, as he moves towards the console. "Oh, that's awesome." Patting Lassie as he moves, the red-eye glowing in what might be some sort of contentment, the mutant watches Laura step towards the eastern wall. "... Ahh. This is going to hurt, is it?"

Despite the expectation that Laura was going to get burned to a crisp, nothing happens. The paper just sits there, waiting to be picked up and examined. The room is otherwise still.

"Not quite," Lisa comments to Doug. "They're doing well. We'll see if they figure out the rest of it. You have been teaching them languages, right?"

Sofia's eyes go wide and she tries her best to keep her cool while Ruth keeps talking about screaming and dying. "Oh my God, please, Ruth, stop this! You are freaking me out! What's happening! LAURA! Ru-", and nothing happens."

"... Ruth, what the ****!?", Sofia says bluntly, panting without air, touching the portal with her hand, her cheeks flushed. "Laura, what was it!? Did you find anything!?"

As that paper is found, Laura blinks. And looks at the hole. Then blinks again. Then she examines the hole, before slowly reaching in and pulling that paper out.

/Despite/ the warnings and comments about screaming, and not dying, or how Sofia reacts to that. Hell, the 'clone' just looks.... Oddly calm at the mention of pain, and potential death. Not emotionless for once. Just.... Calm.

Heck, she even remains calm as she glances at the paper yet again, shrugs, and moves over so that hopefully the other girls can read it.

And then... nothing happens. Well that was absolutely anticlimatic. Ruth huddles in her little Ruthball for several long moments, but after there's a distinct lack of heat, hot, and burn, she slowly uncovers her ears and scratches the tip of her nose. If anyone could see her eyes, they might mistake the expression for sheepishness. Had she got something wrong? That... literally almost never happened. True she often had trouble communicating those visions, but she herself almost never saw them 'wrong'!

Oh well, first time fo everything.

She stands up. "She's not burning." She says simply in answer of Sofia. "Pardon? Sorry. No." When Laura returns with the paper, Blindfold... does nothing.

She's blind. She can't read anything that isn't a series of raised bumps. So she just entangles and entertwines her fingers over and over and kind of stands there.

"Only for classes. I don't think I've ever gotten around to teaching them anything about hieroglyphs, for some reason," Doug responds dryly. "Maybe I should've been down there in the first place."

Eyes shift towards Lisa. "I don't suppose we wait for one of them to think about, you know, calling me? Though if this sim is accurate, they're not going to get a signal down there..."

"Well, we wait and see if they figure it out," Lisa says with an easy shrug. "And no, they won't get a signal," Lisa adds. That detail was in fact included.

The scroll does correspond with the wall, and appears to outline the order in which to push the various bricks on the wall.

Sofia peers at Ruth for a moment, tilting her head for a moment as if to trying to decide wether she is being serious or not. Deciding it was a mistake, or a freakout, the venezuelan just sighs and smiles a bit, kinda stressed. Sofia walks closer to Laura, to peer into the scroll, pursing her lips and thinking a bit.

"Well... mmm... I can't read this. Yeah. I can't read this. But... this kinda looks like the bricks on the wall... right?", she says, trying to be helpful, feeling she is not really measuring up.

What Ruth does, or doesn't do doesn't even cause Laura to blink, glance at, or react to the other girl.

And yet, as Sofia makes that observation regarding the paper, there is a slight nod as her expression returns to being unreadable, passive, and emotionless.

"Can you push them from here? In order?"

Yeah, that's just a random idea, but given the abilities Sofia has demonstrated, and what the 'clone' knows Ruth can do (that is if can somehow be made clear where Ruth needs to 'hit')...

"Yes. I can touch them. Pardon? You have to picture them. You have to look." She points towards the wall with the heiroglyphs in question (while still standing outside the room and in the hallway, because safety first.

Provided one of the girls does so, and allows her to read their minds, Ruth begins to exert telekinetic force onto the spots on the wall their minds tell her to. Otherwise she simply waits for Sofia to use her wind.

Watching, Doug glances at the hieroglyphs, watching the way they are pushing the panels in order, before frowning. "Lisa, why are the last two glyphs switched...?" he asks, tilting his head. "Are they supposed to...?"