Mateo is your typical fire-boy. Criminal, argumentative, ambivalent; ambition something long forgotten. But when a star topples out of the sky and falls into his lap, it unlocks a Mantle—a strange device of endless miracles and growth.
It looks suspiciously like a cape.
He'll have to navigate the muddy world of Mantled politics, grow fast enough to survive, break open the secrets at the very heart of everything. More than that. He'll have to learn how to care.
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Rubber Smoke is a cape progression fantasy—think superheroes come to Akira. It features a dark and mysterious world, a rational, resourceful protagonist, and a set of old factions at war.
Progression is slow at first, as Mateo transitions from his old life to the new.