After Steve tracks down his old friend and brings him in, Fury tasks Natasha with determining whether The Winter Soldier is an asset or a liability. But no one knows about their shared history... [Characters belong to Marvel]

[Short pitch: The Walking Dead meets A Handmaid's Tale] When a rage virus attacks testosterone receptors, masculinity literally becomes toxic. A mysteriously immune hero assists refugees living in an isolated school for girls.

Twenty years after the Second American Civil War, East and West remain divided. Natural disasters and extreme weather have ravaged both sides and many of the outlying communities maintain a tenuous independence, their alliances shifting as resources grow increasingly scare. In the eastern Republic, conservative values rule a capitalist class system whose economy has become built on prolonging the cold war. California and the other progressive western states declared their independence, establishing a fledgling federation that is still struggling to find its place on the world stage. When an escaped soldier crash-lands behind Federation lines, she reveals that she is carrying a message for the Governor from the son that she was forced to leave behind. His younger sister, Virginia was only an infant when her family fled the war, but her brother was taken from them and the effect on her parents has cast a shadow over her entire life. The message is her chance to make things right, to finally see something of the wider world, and to save her brother from the traitor's sentence that he has been serving in her parents' stead. She sets off on an adventure across the fractured country - from the rural Northwest to the crowded co-ops of California, past the last bastion of Las Vegas and through the new Wild West of the Disputed Lands, sheltering with the rebuilt cities of the Gulf Coast, and navigating up the Mississippi river to the new capitol that was built after the flooding of Washington D.C. Along the way, she amasses a merry band of misfits - the soldier escaping gender persecution, an old pothead with ties to the revolution, and a devil-may-care cowboy looking for revenge. Meanwhile, her brother, Mason, works to bridge the divide from within the Republic, or at least to prevent his employer from unleashing a weapon that will "end the war for good."

For years, the faceless terror known as the Hand of Fate has been secretly manipulating the port city of Reyza for her shadowy ends. Those she favors rise in status while those who betray her are never heard from again. When the opportunity to eliminate a powerful dynasty presents itself, the Hand of Fate conspires with a sadistic diplomat who shares the king's bed. Together, they hatch a plan to assassinate their rivals. The plan is flawless-every variable calculated-except for one. On the night the Hand of Fate's hired assassin makes his move, a notorious thief is also making his. Jarle Jadien has had it with the gray-haired harpy whom he serves and succumbs to the greatest temptation of all: The Ensther estate is home to the king's betrothed and a fortune in jewels. When the risky heist takes a disastrous turn, Jarle finds himself in possession of a treasure he has no intention of keeping. Avaren Ensther is beauty and intrigue in one, and a keeper of secrets that reach far beyond Jarle's world of whiskey and disrepute. Reyza's infamous thief has had his heart stolen from under his nose, but time will tell if his sirenic temptress proves worthy. Within the city walls, a retired war-hero investigates the conspiracy and attempts to uphold justice, but his efforts may not suffice to prevent an all-out war. Too many vengeful plots have festered; too much blood spilled. As the moons reach a cataclysmic alignment, unleashing the terrible force of the tides, neither hero, criminal, nor all-powerful monarch; can escape the tendrils of fate.