The Storm Who Rides

In the post-break world of superpowers, Los Angeles is a city divided between the haves and the have-nots, the rich and the poor, the Capes and the Black Hats. But there is a secret organization working in the shadows of the underworld. The Company focuses on illicit profit instead of mayhem or fame. Clive Treeble isn't a Power. He isn't much of anything at all, other than a petty criminal struggling to hold on to his mother's house.

The Queen of Smiles has long been a mystery, even to herself. A storm of steel wrapped in a human shell, she's spent decades crossing the continent in search of answers about her origin and the rules she has been forced to live by. Three years ago, under a bright New Mexico sun, she found those answers… and they were as unsatisfactory as they come. And so, she withdrew from the world, doing only small jobs for the people of the nearby town of Eclipse. But life carries on and the post-Break world won't stop spinning.

A storm of steel wrapped in a shell of human flesh, the Queen of Smiles has finally become a ruler in more than just name. But before she can get down to the business of empire building, there are words that must be said to a person she once knew: a boy who became a man, then a monster, and then something else entirely. Her quest will take her back through the Badlands, down past the ruins of Old Texas and into the heart of Fallen Mexico, and not even she knows what she'll do when she finds her target. Because this isn't just another job. This one is personal.