Hey all, I'm nearly done writing Act Three of Thunder and Webs (which, btw, has now been extended to include a fourth Act), and was sort of curious to know what have been your favorite Acts so far, and what you've liked about them.

So, here's a poll and a quick recap of what each Act was about.

Blood and Steel

Act One: Welcome to The Jungle

Ripley and Diana awaken a Gold MALignant in the Toxin Club, but manage to kill it which makes them both Gold Adapters. Ripley delves into the criminal world, heading over to Little Requiem, uncovering a coffin in his grandfather's storage unit and makes developments to his Shardware that get him a little over his head. He loses his arm and one controversial chapter later he's working in a gym clinic and reached Tier One.

Diana, meanwhile, gets promoted to the Intelligence Division as an Investigator. She gets into a scuffle with Tonguelasher, makes friends with Anthony and Indra Harmony (before realizing she's a bit crazy), and get's harassed by Kendrick Rorsche. She also meets Archangel and begins her investigation into Soul Killer, but gets to Tier One after stopping an arm's deal of Crimson Soul's.

Act Two: Every Breath You Take

Diana and Anthony get into a bit of a hostage crisis which is then interrupted by The R0N1N, shortly after Indra's crazy side leads to Yvette being kidnapped and Diana fails to save her. Meanwhile, Ripley grows more familiar with the criminal world and goes on a very intimate delve into the Net with Mirage. When Daylight dies, he becomes very emotionally unstable but vows to get stronger, and shortly gets a message from Diana for help.

Him and Mirage arrive, help Diana, and we learn their backstories as they do a bit of trauma-bonding while she's still an emotional wreck. She later gets comforted by Anthony, who invites her over for dinner where his dad reveals he's aware of her investigation and gives her Anthony's mother's findings... leading to a very cryptic message with links to a MALtitan. Following a tip from her lieutenant, she visits an auction and even more worldbuilding occurs curtesy of Amaterasu before she gets infected... and proves immune, leading to Soul Killer taking her for themselves.

Ripley, on the other hand, gets told he's been selected by The R0N1N to be his Shard Operator. What follows is crime-training arc, a few surgeries, and... hold on, his grandfather is The Hammersmith? Skeleton once ran with Diamante and Missy? Damn, this Act might as well be the plot-twist Act. He also gets a girlfriend, builds the Arachnodyne, and becomes Dreadwire in the flesh... er... steel?

Act Three: One Way or Another

AKA, Ripley is breaking into a place, while Diana is breaking out of a place. Soul Killer is a super scary hivemind that is hell bent on researching Diana's freakish immunity to their powers, leading to them developing her mutations to discover what she's capable of. They also take more and more drastic measures to infect her, until she eventually commits to her breakout and defeats Emily Kaisel... only for another Emily Kaisel to appear. Also, Anthony works with an employee of her father's to find her, which leads to him getting kidnapped and infected by Soul Killer.

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She tries to cure him, and is successful but at the cost of him entering a coma. Dryder (who has a backstory I am very eager to reveal) arrives and helps her get to Tier Two to defeat the remaining Soulless, only able to save one child at the end of it.

As Dreadwire, Ripley breaks into a Yuzhou facility with The R0N1N while his allies deal with another two. He ends up learning more about his powers as he mimics The R0N1N's Unique Feature, and dive deep enough before they discover that Goliath was teleported away. The R0N1N enters the teleporter, while Ripley plays dead to enter a bike-chase sequence on the way to another Facility.

There, he fights off his first Silver, and manages to win using a little bit of trickery. He gets to Tier Two and breaks into a Pandora with the help of Twilight, but gets pulled into a conversation with Amaterasu where she reveals his Implant is related to a MALtitan: The Infinite. Immediately after opening the box, he sticks the super-dangerous potential WMD nanomachines right into his neck.

Carrying military tech of unknown worth, he hides not from them, but The R0N1N. Also, he now has a little Information Seed inside of him. Mirage calls up Diana, who gets him out of the holding facility. Later, she gets promoted again by her father, who says that New California may or may not be a part of a MALtitan assassination plot. She also becomes a marketing tool, as Silvereye. But she's determined to kill Soul Killer, even if it means becoming a monster.

Ripley, likewise, is set on mastering his powers, willing to craft an Implant on his own if it means saving his mother.

But who knows how their paths will converge, diverge... and clash?

Thunder and Webs

Act One: Sweet Child O' Mine

Dreadwire's infamy grows as he goes from a massive heist to... stealing a guitar. And showing up in a music video. But eventually, he decides to do an assassination! But first, he needs therapy. After all, it's not like losing memories and having your personality systematically altered by an alien parasite and an algorithm is a good thing... right? It's also the perfect time for him to become a father, as he prods the information Seed and Starlight is born as a result.

Meanwhile, Diana is sad, angry, and the new poster girl for police recruitment as Silvereye. Her squad tries to make friends with her but she's a little distant. One investigation into mass child abduction sets her off, when her new identity as Lilian Rose leads to her getting drunk, harassed, and brutally killing said harasser. She does a shit job lying about it, but in true police fashion it's covered up as she has more pressing matters to attend to like getting the shit beaten out of her by Diamante. Fortunately, Diamante only fought her out of curiosity, and actually helps them out as they uncover a Dreamframe operation of Skeleton's.

He wanted to keep this a secret from Ripley, but failed miserably when it turns out he's now working for the Operator he called up. Turns out Ripley's assassination target was Maiden, and she's not about to let him go free. Diana and Ripley meet up, do a bit of bonding, and leads Diana to inviting him on their next Soul-Killer operation. Joining are Topaz, Quartz, and Dryder. Said operation leads to a moment of unity between them using Starlight's power, before Diana goes ape-shit mad at the sight of Soul Killer thanks to a new Mutation and nearly kills them all.

This triggers some trauma in her, but a sniper trigger unfortunately left a hole in her skull. Starlight and Ripley work to save her life, where she has a heartfelt conversation with a memory of Yvette, before she resolves to make up for this second chance at life. Ripley attends a halloween party, which is then crashed by Mr. Skeleton who comes to warn them all... about his own actions as he aims to steal from the tech they sent off-city.

So, Diamante, Maiden, Missy, Daylight, Midnight and The R0N1N... all leave. Surely things will not go wrong?

Who knows, we'll have to see in the following Acts.

Act Two: Thunderstruck

(AKA, another plot-twist Act)

Act Three: Where Is My Mind?

(AKA, the content warning Act)

Act Four: Master of Puppets

(AKA, the Act where the thing I've been leading up to happens)

And who knows what else I've got planned for Volume 3 and 4... Graves and Flowers, and Rise and Fall.

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