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Morgan Berselius Last time, the Watch survived an encounter with one of the so-called Titans of Othrys, saved a wagon train of would-be slaves and sacrifices and performed impromptu surgery to save a man's soul. Now, with a hijacked carvan, a quest and a destination, they (plus one Hamoneer) have made their way towards the apparent center of the world, where the Invincible Sun hangs close-by and bathes the world in its great and terrible light.

Of course, they aren't going /all/ the way to where the sun looms and the glittering towers there which reach up to meet it. Instead, they head toward one of the /other/ holy cities of the Solar Tyrant.

                         -=Konarch - City of Dawn=-                        

The plan is relatively simple. Sneak in with the caravan, make (or fight) their way to the grand temple at the center of the city, and desecrate the hell out of it.

Morgan didn't really have anything to say about a plan of /escape/ necessarily, but he's at least been open to ideas.

For now, the Watchmen and their assistant have been sequestered into the caravan's carriages and covered by ragged shrouds. All around them, darkness clings tight to the inside of the caravan, soothing and cool. They would briefly hear some hushed murmuring from outside. A discerning eye would peer through the barred windows of each cart and the murmuring would continue. This would continue for several minutes until... Apparently, the gatekeepers are satisfied, and the caravan continues rolling on.

Finally, the carts come to a stop and a familiar figure throws open each of the doors. "Come on," Morgan says in a harsh whisper, "I turned down an alley, but the guards'll probably get suspicious soon. Let's go, the temple's not far."

Indeed, there is an alleyway waiting to meet them. The walls of the adjacent buildings are stark white and trimmed with gold and sapphire. To either side, they can see a vast and glorious thoroughfare-- though the regular bustle that you might expect from a city is conspicuously absent. Instead, there is a heavy, reverant silence, broken only by the occasional solemn prayer or chant raised by figures in pure, white robes who wander to and fro down the main streets. They are... human, apparently-- save for the glowing, sun-shaped glyph inscribed on their foreheads. Several are followed by individuals bound around the neck by spiked, iron collars.

The buildings here are towering, gothic affairs, decorated by gnarled, twisting glyphs and grinning faces inlaid into colorful, feathered sunbursts. Spires stretch toward the heavens, casting the long shadows of morning. The sun hangs perpetually to the east, bathing the sky in the colors of dawn. But greater than any other structure, there is a singular, massive structure-- a pyramid of some kind, resplendant in the light of the sun.

"That's our target," Morgan murmurs, "There's a few streets between it and us. Let's go."

It seems 'how we get there' is largely up to everyone else here. Morgan himself seems to be looking upwards, a halo of darkness swirling like massive, corvid wings all around him. It looks like he's planning to take a rooftop route. You might be able to join him, or find your own way to the massive pyramid. The choice is yours...!
Josuke Higashikata     It's hard to hide that hair. But Josuke keeps his head down, with the hood of the ragged shroud pulled up over his head, until Morgan opens the doors for everyone. Josuke hops out of the carriage too, discarding the shroud. And of course pulling out a comb to fix his hair. Hence why he never wears hoodies. "Good idea," he replies, as he puts the comb away. "Faster we get in there, the faster we can get out."

    Josuke looks around as well, looking at the layout of the area. Morgan seems to be aiming for the roofs, so.... why not? He'll need someone to cover him if he gets spotted. So Josuke summons Crazy Diamond to toss him up to the roofs behind Morgan! He's played this game before too -- have his Stand catch and throw him around and otherwise dangerous area.
August Kohler August Kohler is silent in the caravan. Armed with a pistol, a knife, and a mirrored bracelet, the redhead seems like he might have passed out, with how little he's been sleeping lately. Luckily, he didn't, because that would have been silly for the Cloak of the Watch to have done. Dressed in his shroud, August moves to join Morgan as they move through the alleyway. "Alright, I'll come with you."

Finding something to climb onto, August moves to shamble up a building, climbing onto edifices and outcroppings until he reaches up to Morgan. From there, he moves to glance ahead, though he doesn't have super vision or anything, to try and see what the guard detail of their target might be. If there might be an opening...they should take it.
Nova Terra     In order to reduce the amount of space needed for people within the carriage Nova had opted to ride along on top. Of course, no simple gate guard is going to see her through her cloaking device so this shouldn't be a problem. On the way she admires the view of the city and its nearby sun, once more reminded of just how weird some worlds can get.

    Once the carriage stops off in the alley Nova jumps down off the carriage quietly. Blue light washes over her as she decloaks, to remind the others of her presence. A mention of their target draws Nova's gaze through her visor. The pyramid reminds her of some other structures she's seen in the past. Some ancient, some more recent. Must be a popular design choice.

    As a number of the others choose to go by roof, Nova nods, "Right. I'll take the streets." Everyone going together increases risk of detection. Better to split up so that there's some guarantee that at least someone will make it there.

    Reactivating her cloak, Nova begins to disappear once more, saying, "No sightseeing!" Hidden from view, apart from the occasional shimmer in the air, Nova makes her way out of the alley into the streets proper. She then begins to make her way towards the target building, rifle in hand.
Kupot Religion isn't a huge part of life in GARLAND. But he understands the parallels. Here, the religion is the corporation. They own, they enslave. Kupot frowns underneath his hood. "Does this god they worship truly exist?" Do any gods truly exist. "In... the sense that any gods truly kupo." This is not easy.

Regardless of the answer, he keeps the sheet around him. It'll help him blend in with the buildings, he tends to stick out in this environment. Yet, his weapons are secure, and when he lands on the ground, his shoes absorb the sound. He casts his insectile gaze at the pyramid, looking up and down over it, his inner HUD flashing distance over it. He holds his hands out and two sets of palm shuko extend from his flesh.

Rooftop sick flips and shit for him.
Riva Banari Riva tries to nap in the caravan. Really, she does, but honestly, it's just too spooky. You can only have the shadows whisper sweet nothings into your ear so many times before you want to tell the darkness that it's drunk, and it should go home.

Unfortunately, doing so didn't make it any better, and Riva's attempt to stave off the oppressive grimness of the land with levity continues to fall flat in the face of said dreary and dark mileiu.

Once they're inside the City, however, Riva gets the hell out of the caravan, looking around. "This place is... different." She sighs. "Maybe al ittle too shiny. Though I guess the pyramid is legit. I mean, sun god, pyramid, it all works out." She turns to clamber up and begin working across the rooftops with Morgan. The local would know best, after all.
Morgan Berselius For what it's worth, it's some really friendly darkness. Rather than the horrible oppressive grimness gripping the world, it's actually... Relatively less-so? Morgan conjured it, after all. It might be weird and otherworldly, but it just wants to help you sleep! Really. Honestly.

Probably no monsters here.

Morgan stares at the strange, cybernetic moogle like he's somehow /even weirder/ than what that sentence already implies. "Yeah," Morgan says, "Their god is The Sun."

It... sounded like that was a statement of absolute fact.

What kind of world doesn't have gods?

In a rush of liquid shadow, Morgan surges to the rooftops, accompanied shortly thereafter by a cloaked and criminally insomniac Watchman, said cyborg moogle, some kind of bee-powered hammergirl and a particularly burly, pompadoured pugilist. From their vantage, they can see... Not the /entire/ city, but a good portion of it. There is a certain benefit to making use of the rooftops; first and foremost is obviously that you can see much more of what's in front of you, but second and possibly even more important is that the Obvious Cult down below won't notice the equally obvious foreigners wandering around their holy city unattended.

As August is actually keeping his eyes out for it, he can see... Some kind of procession beginning at the foot of the Pyramid as they approach. There's a congregation teeming there around some kind of Important Looking individual. They hold aloft a golden staff, a spark of sunfire aglow within a hollow starburst. What seems like a large portion of the city's population are gathered in a loose ring around the figure, warded off from approaching him by robed guards who each wield a similar staff, albeit capped in a star of iron rather than gold.

Down below, Nova's approach is almost entirely unaccosted, and she's close enough to the action that she can actually hear the sermon ring out over the crowd.

"O' blessed children of the Sun! We gather here to return these accursed souls to our incandescent sovereign, that their flesh might sustain the lifegiving flames which ward our holy city from all those who would bring us into harm's way." It's then that the rooftop crew, their vantage somewhat more substantial than Nova's, would see a number of half-naked bodies, faces obscured by silk bags, thrust out of the crowd, thrown onto their knees before the assemblage of robed guards. Each sentry moves as one, the starbursts atop their staves creaking open like pincers, before each closes around the necks of one of the sacrifices. Iron spikes drive in, and blood begins to trickle down onto the streets below.

"Do not pity these wayward children, for their fate is a happy one. Soon, their pilgrimage shall be complete, though their time amongst us shall come to an end. May the holy flames of our Sovereign Sun purge these unfortunate souls of their sins, that they may bask forever in the glory of the light!" A chorus goes up in unison amongst the people below, as the priest and his retinue turn to begin ascending the pyramid's steps, pushing the bleeding sacrifices along, step-by-step. "PRAISE BE TO THE SUN!"

Morgan looks as if he's about to leap down into the crowd like a veritable meteor of wrathful night if he's not stopped. But...

Is there a good reason to?

Perhaps it might be better to just... wait till the priest is at the top of the pyramid, to take both altar and symbol of authority at the same time.

Or maybe the time /is/ right to bust in and start kicking in heads.
Kupot Kupot does look. He takes a time to scan the city, his hud wiping for a moment from distance to a crystal clear picture. Of course, Kupot suspects it has a... cinematic quality to it. Colors too crisp, too saturated.

His gaze comes down to the procession. And the spikes. The spikes that go into the neck. He has one question through his radio.

As soon as it is answers, Kupot throws his tarp off his shoulder, revealing his full non-intimidating three feet, with poofy ball dangling off his head. Twin swords sheathed at one side. Two steps forward, running to the edge of the roof, shuko retracting, pistons in his legs suddenly shoving, giving him a graceful flight across the air towards the procession, coat billowing out behind him.

He lands in front of the procession in a roll, pulling himself up to standing. One hand out straight forward in a universal symbol of 'stop'.

"Let them go."
Nova Terra     Nova doesn't need to be able to see to know what's happening amidst the crowd. The cacophony of thoughts that echo in her head are revealing enough. Honestly it pisses her off just a bit. But there objective isn't to save those people. So she continues along her current path.

    And then Kupot intervenes in the procession. Well. That will work as a distraction!

    Nova picks up the pace a little, attemping to use any commotion caused by Kupot to reach the target temple more quickly. The quicker movements will cause the shimmer of her cloaking device to become more prominent, but hopefuly it'll go unnoticed with everyone's attention on Kupot.
Josuke Higashikata     That's kind of ironic, that a cult dedicated to worshipping the sun doesn't look up. Then again, maybe that's not so weird given the sun is literally close enough to melt the pomade in Josuke's hair -- or it WOULD if he wasn't using that stuff Mortimer gave him for Christmas, the pomade that can resist upwards of 2500 degrees Kelvin (sadly doesn't do anything to preserve him from actually getting burned, just makes sure his hair will still look fabulous). But yeah. Those cultists probably just don't want to have their eyeballs melted out of their faces.

    When people start getting stabbed in the neck, though, Josuke bristles. Yeah, that's not going over well. He knows he needs to keep calm, stay back, wait for the high priest or whatever to show himself. He needs to wait, he needs to...

    ...Nope.

    Josuke's never been one to leave people in danger, particularly not innocent people. And he doesn't know what these people might have done. So he's one of those that come down from the roofs. He does this in a very stupid way. He jumps off the roof. But then he summons Crazy Diamond to slow his fall, redirecting his momentum forward, so he skims the ground and lands in a roll.

    It won't be far from the group, and as soon as he's on his feet again, he quips, "Sorry fellas, I don't think these people subscribe to your religion anymore!" Then he calls forth his Stand to aim a vicious pummeling at the nearest guard holding a 'sacrifice' by that spiked pole-collar thing.
August Kohler Human sacrifices. It makes August sick. He waits to discuss whether they're moving forward now or later, and the group decides 'now'. That's good for him. "Persona." In a flash of blue sparks, the Tin Soldier rises...

And August leaps on its back, before leaping down towards the cultists. As Josuke moves for one guard holding a sacrifice, August leaps off the Tin Soldier and directs it to move for another, gun-leg rising as it engages, trying to light the man's arms on fire so he has to drop his sacrifice, before moving in to catch it so it doesn't end up accidentally decapitating the guy or something.

"You heard him, hand them over and there won't be any more injuries. We'll take the staff and the altar, too." August doesn't expect words to work. But who knows, maybe they'll be a little bit intimidated.
Riva Banari To be fair, Riva watches Kupot with fascination. She's never really seen a moogle before, let alone one that looks like they came straight out of Denver in some alternate dystopian world.

Oh right, speaking of dystopian worlds, she's still in one. Ugh. Riva's distraction is ended by ther sounds of the sermon and the chanting as she crouches on a nearby building to look down at the situation.... And Kupot jumps the hell right in.

"Well, that makes the decision easier." She says, looking over to the others. "So, uh... I'll go back up Kupot, you guys work on breaking the altar? Well, let's get moving, we don't have time to plan long, Kupot's going to need backu-"

And then Josuke dives in supporting Kupot. "That works too!" She says, smiling. "Okay, I'll go after the alter. Never desecrated an alter bafore, actually. This will be new." She doesn't even adjust again once August leaps in. By now, she expects that from him. She doesn't blame him, she was going to.

Instead, Riva launches off the building, flipping throught the air as she dives down for a good spot to get closer to the altar. Which is probably inside the pyramid. So she's going to start running up the stairs to it. Because sun gods.
Morgan Berselius Yep, this is happening now.

The Watch has never really been one for... not immediately leaping into danger like it's the most natural thing in the world. The procession comes to an abrupt halt as /something/ furry and fluffy and deadly unfolds in its direct path. "What heresy is this!? You dare interfere with the sacrifice!?" The priest gawps as the crowd murmurs. "A mutant beast!" "Sovereign preserve us!" "I-it's... kind of cute, isn't it?"

Several of the other guards step forward, the iron of their staves suddenly taking on the color and temperature of the surface of your average star. They move to engage with the fuzzy moogle when one of them is suddenly waylayed by a bizarre spirit that he can only vaguely see. The guard's white robes are stained blood red as Crazy Diamond's fists beat him senseless. His hood falls away, revealing a dessicated, sun-scarred face and eyes like molten brass. It seems these people /do/ stare into the sun-- but maybe it's some kind of ritual, reserved only for the priesthood...?

"You dare desecrate our sacred rites!?" The high priest yells as August sets another guard's arms on fire (what is with this guy and arms), causing him to drop his staff, and allowing that sacrifice to slump to her knees. "Very well! Your lives are forfeit! Let shine the light of judgment!" The high priest holds aloft his staff, the golden starburst suddenly surging, a sphere of sunlight blossoms wide, unleashing waves of scalding flame and rays of blinding, white light at the assembled Watchmen.

Meanwhile, further up the pyramid, Nova and Riva and... Morgan, apparently, have decided to pursue the other objective. The altar, at the very top of the pyramid. Of course, it wouldn't be so easy that they'd be able to just break through and take what they want. As they proceed upward toward the central chamber, they'd notice the channels along the sides of the pyramid running red with freshly shed blood. The reason becomes obvious once they crest the top of the temple, and find... No less than two-dozen of those robed guards and twice as many sacrifices, slowly bleeding out into bloody troughs while being subjected to continuous applications of healing magic. A farm of human blood...!

At the back is the altar-- it's an obvious, golden thing, over which a golden disc emblazoned with a brilliant, sneering sun is hung. One of the guards double-takes as he notices the intruders and lets out a yell. Suddenly, the others have readied their own staves, unleashing a barrage of solar energy at the interlopers!
Josuke Higashikata     Josuke's busy catching the handle-thing the priest was carrying, so he doesn't immediately see the sun-dried raisin of a face. Crazy Diamond catches the handle and tries to just... revert it back to its components. This should hopefully free the one who had their neck impaled, without hurting them. That's when he catches sight of it -- that face. "Augh! That's SO GROSS!" he yelps.

    Of course, soon he's got his OWN problems to worry about. Like FIRE and BLINDING LIGHT! "Gah!" Josuke tries to block as many of the 'sacrifices' from the flame and light with his Stand and his own body. Crazy Diamond crosses its arms over its face, trying to protect at least that. But he doesn't move. And there really isn't anything Josuke can do but wait 'till the tide of fire subsides. That's gonna be several layers of lost skin when all this os over with...
Kupot The moogle stays ready. His hand over his sword. But brandishing isn't even enough for Kupot. It must be an attack.

Declaring intent isn't enough. Posturing isn't enough. Posturing isn't an assault. It isn't a commitment. Until that attack, there is always time to turn back. To have a change of heart. All the foes in front of him get demolished by those around him instead, those more willing to act instead of react like Kupot. Still, he stands there and waits.

Two things happen at once. The fire ignites the air and begins to whirl out from the staff. It consumes air and oxygen.

Then Kupot is moving, a silent slide of the katana coming out of the scabbard. In an instant, he is beyond the priest, his katana extended. The air erupts from the vacuum wave of the sword's passing.
Riva Banari Riva arrives at the pinnacle, noting the blood troughs as they ascend. The kerfluffle below will have to be handled by them.

As she crests the steps, she looks over the altar, the sacrifices, the healing magic, and pauses.

"You know, I don't normally go out of my way to judge other people's cultures and religions, but this is kind of messed up." She says. "Is this level of human suffering really necessary?" She asides to Morgan.

Oh right, they're going to try to kill the group. "Hey guys! Get behind me!" She yells to them as she brings out the Ajoran Cross and slams the massive anchor-like hammer down into the pavement. A burning wave of Anima rolls out and forms into a frontal barrier, tanking the blazing waves of doom lasers as Riva works to keep the field up. "Do the thing!" she yells to the others while she does her job.
August Kohler As the woman falls down safely, August sighs in relief...but when the fire comes out, he only barely manages to put the Tin Soldier in the way. Despite that, it's still searing flames, and he's weak to that. The fire mars the Tin Soldier as it silently mimes a scream, and as August clutches his chest and staggers back to his knees. As more fire pours out, though, the Tin Soldier raises that leg, and moves to fire back.

A massive burst of flames pours out, moving to push back against the high priest's own and try and set him alight. "Bastard...take this!" Hopefully he can push through the flames enough to hurt him.
Nova Terra     Riva may notice a shimmer in the air beside her as the cloaked Nova runs up the stairs as well. Reaching the top Nova comes to a quick stop at the sight in front of her. She doesn't get disturbed by much, given her past. But this brings a frown even to her face.

    Nova may not have been an intended target due to her invisibility, but she was still in the general area of the others when the guards fired their beams. But before she can make an attempt to get clear, Riva slams her large weapon into the ground and generates that barrier.

    No longer any point in going unseen, Nova decloaks beside the protector, responding with, "On it!" Raising her canister rifle, Nova takes advantage of the protection to focus on her shots. She's aiming her weapon at the heads of the guards as she pulls the trigger repeatedly, trying to put down as many as she can in a row.
Morgan Berselius Fire and light wash over Josuke and Crazy Diamond. While he is able to protect the (still bleeding!) sacrifices and his own good looks, the light of the Tyrant Sun is a terrible one indeed. It's a merciless, all-consuming flame. The crowd that had gathered moments ago begins screaming in terror, scattering into the city! "Your hubris shall be your undoing," The priest snarls as he strikes the butt of his staff against the stone. "The Sovereign is strong within m--rkk"

His sentence goes unfinished. The samurai moogle darts through the cascade of flame and emerges almost entirely unscathed on the other side, save for a little mound of cinders smoldering atop his pom-pom. The priest staggers for a moment, then begins gushing blood. He struggles to hold his wound closed, his flames faltering and ebbing, giving August the opportunity he needs to blast on through...!

The priest is consumed by the Tin Man's flames. He falls to the ground with a scream, his staff clattering on the stone next to him. Is... that it...?

No. The flames begin to whirl, surging up from the ashen remains of the high priest's body. It sprouts limbs, a torso and a sun-scarred face. "INTERLOPERS! You may have struck me down, but I return more powerful than you could ever imagine!" The living flame roars, raising its hands to the sky. A series of golden rings lens open overhead, and the temperature suddenly begins to skyrocket as you see in the distance the golden sun reaching out a tendril of starfire across the horizon. Finish this quickly, before the priest can finish summoning the sun's wrath!
Morgan Berselius "You're asking me?" Morgan growls, disgust at the atrocity on display here plain in his voice. "I worship the God of Night, like the polar opposite of this asshole. Bendigeid stole the moon from the sun ages ago. I've got no idea if this is at all necessary. Maybe they /do/ need the fuel to keep the sun burning, I don't know--" The Avatar of Night is abruptly interrupted by a searing bolt that only barely misses setting his face on fire by virtue of Riva's well-timed defense.

"I don't know," Morgan finishes as the guards abandon their healing duties and begin charging in, molten sunlight glimmering atop their staves like halberd blades. "But I don't like it! Let's finish this!"

Nova's drops abruptly out of stealth with the sudden thunder of gunfire. The canister rifle tears through one guardsman, then another, then bursts against a third. They stagger, clearly surprised by the use of such a strange weapon-- but only barely. Many still charge forward, sun-spears at the ready to tear into Riva's defense.

...Only for the shadows underneath them to suddenly turn solid and lance /up/ through their backs, severing their spines in one sudden impalement. Morgan huffs, his fingers splayed across the floor. "Riva," he says to the hammergirl, "Go for it. I'll try to keep them off your back. Nova, you wanna give me a hand here?"
Kupot A flick of the sword, splattering the blood against the ground. Then the blood begins to sizzle and dry up immediately. That's...

Kupot snaps his head around. His eyebrows raise, but his expression is blocked. That is a fire. Kupot has never fought a FIRE before. He's fought robots, demons, giant mutant houses that are just standing around for no reason. But not a living fire. He begins one hand in front of his face as the brightness and temperature makes his HUD flicker before it can auto correct.

Can he stop a living fire. Probably not. The rest likely has the power to do that. Instead, he turns his gaze up towards the tendril of fire coming down from the sky.

He nods once to himself. "Kupo with him. I will be plan B." He sheathes the sword again and darts towards the side of the building, building up speed. He races up the side of the building and with a mighty leap at the apex, hurtles himself upward, hand over his sword as the starfire grows closer, eyes focused on it.
Josuke Higashikata     Once that tide of fire and light stops, it seems like Josuke has a moment to breathe. And there are people that are injured. People besides him, that is. But he doesn't know how long that moment will last. He needs to do something QUICKLY, to try to interrupt what this priest is doing. So, while the priest snarls and starts to summon the wrath of the sun itself...

    Josuke closes his eyes. Focus, the way Mr. Joestar taught him. Calm. Don't let the pain interfere with your breathing. It might look to the priest like he's giving up, like he's accepting his punishment under the judgement of the sun.

    But what Josuke is actually doing... is breathing. The rhythm that Jonathan taught him. Completely empty his lungs of air. Hold. Completely fill his lungs to full capacity. Hold. Lather, rinse, repeat. And as the tendril of sun reaches across the sky, Josuke quips, "You're not the only one who's powered by the sun!" Then he sucks in a massive breath of air...

    ...And his outline starts to shimmer, faintly. This is not his Stand. It's Hamon.

    "HaaaaAAAAAA--!" He charges forward, propelled by his Stand, and aims a punch right at the priest's torso. "--MON!"

    Yeah, no, that's probably not going to hurt the priest at all. But if Josuke can manage to tag the priest with this, the super sun-dried raisin should definitely FEEL the Hamon, as Josuke transfers a spark in the punch. Why? Because he'd trying to fight on a mental level. If nothing else, maybe it'll shock the priest; how could a 'heretic' (or whatever else these guys decide to label him) draw upon -- nay, PRODUCE IN HIS BODY -- power so similar to that which the sun gives to His faithful?!
August Kohler As the flames falter and the priest falls, August steps forward to check him and pick up the staff. But he's not fast enough. The flames whirl up into a fire ghost, and August can feel the heat. As it begins to summon the wrath of the sun god, August considers what to do. He already just killed this man. It hurts, it really hurts...but him becoming a flaming ghost helps ease his conscience a little, and allows him to put this guy in the grave forever without new nightmares.

The Tin Soldier goes to fire a slew of psychic-constructed bullets at the living flame's center of mass as Josuke throws his punch, avoiding hitting his ally. He's hoping the molten bullets will have some effect, so that they don't have to literally parry the sun. "Don't play with fire. You'll just get burned!"

And then, a radio call to the others in the chaos. <"What's the situation up there? We may have to fight the sun down here, but we've got it handled."
Riva Banari Riva forces herself to stay standingi n the face of the massive firepower being leverages here. More than once the barrier almost shatters, but she seems to drag out a little more power, pushing a little further every time. The barrier, however, is completely focused on her front arc, which makes things difficult as the sun-spears come in. All they need to do is get around to her sides and she'd be a sitting duck...

Morgan solves the problem by shivving them. She winces as she watches the guys fall over, spines severed. "Welp, that's a thing." She says, but she nods to Morgan. "All right. I'm going in." She raises her weapon, and the shield goes down. With a yell, she hurls herself forward in a beeline towards the altar, the Ajoran Cross held high. The irony of using the symbol of one religion that she doesn't even follow, weaponized, to strike at another is not lost on her. Still, unless something gets in her way, she's going to bring the hammer down to smash the altar.
Nova Terra     Nova watches with satisfaction as a number of the guards go down from her shots. She definitely doesn't hesitate as she moves from the next to the next. Those that charge with their staves do cause Nova to pause in her fire, but they are quickly dispatched by Morgan's shadows.

    As Morgan lays out a plan, Nova grins and nods in agreement. Shifting her rifle to one hand, she reaches with the other up to her back. She pulls forth the sword attached there, swinging it down to her side. The blade of the high-tech weapon lights up with blue energy. Over the quiet hum, Nova replies to Morgan, "I've got ya." She charges forward!

    Nova brings her psi-blade up to meet the staff of another charging guard. She parries it to the side and lunges forward to stab the monomolecular blade through the guard's body.

    Sensing another staff-wielding guard coming up behind her, Nova brings the rifle in her other hand around without even looking. The large weapon providing as much reach as a staff, if not more, the guard finds his charge halted by the barrel placed against his stomach. Nova pulls the trigger.

    As a third comes in swinging, Nova pulls her blade out of the first one and swings it up to block the blow. She briefly struggles with the staff, before raising her leg up to kick the guard away into a fourth, setting up a perfect opportunity for Morgan to pierce two targets with one shadow.
Morgan Berselius There is little time to waste. The tendril of sunfire stretches across the heavens like a falling meteor. It will be here in moments. The Watch (and Pal) must think fast before they are summarily incinerated like so much dross...!

But then, Josuke Joestar surges forward, aglow with the light of the sun that burns within his own heart. His fist hits home, slamming into the priest's heart. The Hamon pulses through his veins, ripples twisting through the priest's fiery form. A spark of the Sacred Solar races across the conduit from street punk to archpriest and something... Something pulses /back./ Something small, quiet, resonant. A warmth, familiar, nourishing, and resolute, reminiscent of a pleasant summer's day, or a nap in a sunbeam. Something so unlike the wrath pouring out the sky that it seems almost comical. Through the heat and the light, Josuke can see what passes for eyes on this elemental creature go wide. "This... What is this!? WHO ARE YOU!?!

He doesn't get an answer. A burst of psychic bullets tear through the flame-body as it recoils from the Hamon-wielder's heretical light. The priest screams as holes are blown into the flame, the projectiles' psychic qualities allowing them to strike at the spirit animating his elemental flesh. The flame unleashes one last pulse of heat and light as it explodes, leaving a pile of smoldering ash and his staff of office laying, almost untouched, within it.

But... The temperature continues to rise. The sunfire tendril approaches even more quickly now, its wrath bolstered by the death of its priest-- or perhaps by whatever it is Josuke did, moments ago. It will be upon them soon, but... But...!

There...

In the sky...!

A lone shadow...!

The sun's wrath is mighty indeed, but ultimately, this incarnation was summoned by nothing more than a dead man. The tendril, white hot, is met by glorious Samurai steel. A crash of thunder rocks the city as, for the briefest of moments, Kupot engages in single combat with the sun itself...!

And, by some miracle...

...Deflects the tendril.

It falls instead into the city's massive walls, flash-boiling the stone and cement into an acrid vapor that still glows with latent heat.

An escape route...?!
Kupot Fibercarbon Steel. Folded one thousand times. As the white hot tendril comes down, Kupot faces it with determination. There is no need to judge here. It is coming. It is a force of death, of destruction, wielded by those who would stay in power on their business made of slavery and misery.

That is enough for Kupot.

As it descends, his hand finally grasps around the katana. And Kupot calls. Perhaps to the sun itself. That if there is such a god up there, one of malovence and hate, who gives these people the power to do this. That someone will be willing to stop it.

"There is NOTHING my sword cannot kupo."

Flash.

The blade strikes by the flate, chi running up the side of it, enveloping it, and battering the starfire to the side. The heat of the blow runs from the cut, splashing up Kupot's front, bathing him in the unearthly fire. When he lands, he is blackened up the front of his arm and his jacket is on fire. He breathes out a ragged gasp, only to turn up towards the pyramid, to see how the others are doing.
Morgan Berselius     It is maybe more than a little bit sacrilegious. The guards seem to take notice of Riva's intentions and focus their efforts on turning aside the girl with her head full of bees. One screams bloody murder as he charges in, only for Nova's psi-blade to find a new home in the hollow of his chest. His staff clatters to the ground, followed shortly thereafter by his bleeding body. Another takes the opportunity to snipe at the two women, hurling a sphere of sunfire at their feet-- only for the shadows to surge up like a line of pallisade stakes, detonating the orb prematurely.

The carnage only intensifies as the temperature peaks, the fireballs and lances of searing light being flung around only adding to the tremendous heat of the sun-tendril approaching the city from above. Morgan yells, catching a blast of light to the chest-- but the wound knits shut before he can even finish staggering back. Nova intercepts the guard responsible, knocking him into another. With a roar, Morgan impales the both of them on a particularly long shadow-spike.

At last, even as more guards begin clambering up to the sanctum at the top of the pyramid, Riva reaches the altar...

And brings her hammer down upon it.

For a moment, everything seems to go still.

And then a lance of blinding light shoots out from the slab. Molten metal pours from the cracks, pouring like blood from the ruined altar as the fissures spread and join like spiderwebs. Morgan hisses a curse, sending a wave of shadow outwards to try and tug the two women out of the way before... Finally, the altar gives way, shattering into so many pieces with a catastrophic explosion of sunfire...!
August Kohler As the man goes down, and the temperatures continue to rise, August bolts for the staff, hoping it has some way to stop this. Whether it does or not, he's not fast enough as he grabs it. But someone saves the day...

By parrying the sun. August watches on in awe, clearly impressed and approving of Kupot. As the escape entrance is created, he moves towards some of the sacrifices with his staff, moving to free them. "Come on! We'll get you medical attention, but we need to hurry before reinforcements come." Hopefully, that'll be enough to get the innocent people moving so that they can escape. Though August himself doesn't leave until it's clear the others don't need any aid.
Josuke Higashikata     Josuke's eyes go wide as he feels the resonant pulse in return to his Hamon-powered punch. He seems just as taken aback as the priest. Fortunately he's got his wits about him, so when the ghost literally goes up in flames, he has his wits about him enough to back up and not get burned himself. The staff is there, but that's not what he's concerned with. Someone else can pick it up. Why?

    Because Josuke pauses a moment, to try to reconstitute the priest's ashes. It won't bring him back to life, no. But at least there will be something to bury. Why? Honestly Josuke doesn't know. Maybe the glimpse of that SOMETHING pleasant and beautiful -- that remnant of what the sun should have been here -- softened his heart temporarily. Whatever it is, he'll leave the staff untouched for August to pick up.

    Now that they've got some ACTUAL breathing room -- granted, not MUCH -- Josuke starts looking for the remaining people who were to be sacrifices. There isn't a lot of time to heal them; not only do they REALLY need to scram, but these people are bleeding. August is heading towards them too, so Josuke just follows. "I'll heal you," he offers. "But like he said, we don't have much time."

    No Stand healing here, he needs to keep watch around him, and he can't afford to screw up. Besides that, he still has a residual Hamon charge, so he only needs a few moments to re-rev the Ripple engine and breathe a little. Hamon healing is very much like a lay-on-hands heal, and it probably feels like warm sunlight on the affected area.
Nova Terra     Nova was not expecting sudden sudden shockwave of sunfire... Really, who does? As such, she was not ready for it. Thankfully, a shadow yanks her away from the blast. Nova rolls across the ground, the edge of the blast washing over her head.

    After a few moments of lieing on the ground, Nova begins to push herself up, grunting to Morgan, "Thanks..." Nova reaches out to grab her inert psi-blade, attaching it to the back of her suit once more. She then grabs her rifles and stands to a brief wobble.

    Nova looks around at the ground zero of the altar explosion. She then looks at Riva and Morgan, "We should get out of here." Nova turns, beginning to make her way out of the temple to join up with the others.
Morgan Berselius It is, perhaps, best described as 'miraculous.' The sun itself is parried and opening a path to escape. The guards who remain in the city streets prostrate themselves before the fury of their god. Clearly they must have done something to offend the Sovereign Sun, and they must redeem themselves in its eyes. But...

Closer to the center of the city, another miracle. The old man may have been turned to ash, but Crazy Diamond is able to reconstitute him-- or at least, his body. It takes time, the stand having to reassemble the corpse particle-by-particle-- but soon, there is a lifeless, shriveled body there. No longer truly human, but a walking mummy, animated by faith and sunlight alone.

The surviving sacrifices-- the ones who were /down here/ and not /up there/ bleeding eternally into blood-troughs-- are healed by the power of a perhaps not entirely different brand of sunlight. There is little time for them to say their thanks, but they do so anyway-- profusely. Even if the bags over their faces make it difficult to do so.

But... What about the ones up above...?
Morgan Berselius Well! They're... Intact. Morgan rocks back against a stone pillar, clutching at a massive burn that takes up much of his chest. He wheezes painfully as his skin knits back together, soothing darkness pouring over the wound and easing the scalding pain. The divine presence that once filled the pyramid seems to have diminished significantly. The chosen of Night leans down and picks up a larger chunk of shattered stone. This is the other thing they came for. But...

"Yeah. No problem. You're right," he says to Nova, pushing off his nice, solid pillar and onto briefly unsteady legs. "Grab whatever else you can. Let's... Let's get out of here, before more of those guards show up. I think we need... A bunch of fragments, too? But the altar stone, this should help considerably."

And with that (and presumably, with Riva in tow), the altar-smashers join the others in retreat. The exit from the city is... Perhaps unsurprisingly, quite easy. You don't smash through a city's outer defenses with a SUN TENDRIL without simultaneously eliminating most of the resistance on the way.

And with that, at least two (possibly three!) of the Watch's Items of Power have been acquired. Tyranny has been smashed. A band of slaves and sacrifices have been freed. The City of Dawn has suffered a terrible blow. But...

Now the Sun knows of them. Now the /world/ knows of the interference of Outsiders. The gears have begun to turn. Who knows what might happen now...?