After the day and half ride I am at the last bastion of law-abiding society. If you can call this gang-ridden frontier town that. The only thing that sits this desert hell-hole apart from anything leagues around it is that it is the last U.S. sanctioned city before the Empire. Like most towns around villain territory, the police don't even operate around here. Instead, they have an organization called "The Watch". "The Watch" is basically just a bunch of vigilante corps, sometimes they seem worse than the gangs. Especially the gangs that take "protection money" from the locals and then keep the peace.

Knowing that the local gangs are more disciplined than the local militia I start following the first Watch member I see. After a half hour of shadowing the man, I see him enter a public bathroom. Noting an empty room in an abandoned building I confidently enter after him 2 minutes after him. Seeing that he is in a stall I put on my ski mask and enter the stall next to him. I yoink his cheap pistol out of the holster on his pants. One quick teleport later and I'm in the abandoned building, after quickly putting away my new gun and my ski mask, I see the dope I doped run into the street yelling things like:

"JUST WAIT TILL I FIND YOU JACKASS"

and

"YOU CAN'T RUN FROM THE WATCH"

Hah. What is that guy? He reminds me of an NPC from that retro game I played called Skyedge or Earthrim or something. Three teleports later and I'm a ghost. Well, anyway, I find myself with two problems: I'm out of food and am unwilling to pay the outrageous price that gang charges for a ride into Vegas. While I should be able to steal something for myself to eat, the way into the city is the bigger problem. It would be possible for me to just teleport myself across, but I don't know how many times I can teleport without winding myself. If this was the old days I could just do that and find out what my limits are, but with heroes and villains repeating great feats one after another you never know what genetically modified creature or fantasy monsters are out there. Even ignoring whatever abominations are out there, there are still good old-fashioned bandits and psychopaths out in the wild areas. Hell, Villain Countries and City-States support them, stating that they are better than what would be there otherwise.

Now, I know what you're thinking, why don't you just sneak onto the bus, like you were doing before? Well you didn't see 18 heavily armed guards vigorously check every passenger for hidden bombs, nor did you see the heavily armored bus strapped with artificer tech to detect intruders and powers activating. You sure as hell didn't see the GIANT ASS RAIL GUN on the top of the bus. At least I assume it's a rail gun, could be a laser cannon for all I know. You can never tell with artificer tech. You can tell it's artificer tech because it's so sloppy looking; no artisan would ever make something like that. I know I'm going off on a tangent here, but there are 2 types of techy supers: artificers and artisans. Artisans make super tech for some of the richest people on earth and have degrees that I would probably never even get close to achieving. Artificers are usually on crack, and have the ability to control tech in one way or another.

Back on track, that rail-cannon looks well-used to me, signifying that whatever is waiting on the road is dangerous enough to use a rail cannon. It also proves that threats like that are common enough to wear down a laser-gun. I would never want to see any of the monsters that I've seen on YouTube. Just thinking about a ghoul-ghoul (a radiation-type ghoul that was turned undead by an undead-type ghoul) sends shivers down my spine, never mind a whole horde of them. If I want to protect myself I'll need more than a slightly rusted pistol that looks like it's been used all the way back in the old days. I don't actually know all that much about the pistol, except that it uses 9 mm ammo and it fits in my hand nicely. So Jason, lets make a to-do list:

1. Acquire 9 mm ammo (5/x)

2. Test to see if I can teleport something 1 km upwards then teleport myself downwards

3. Get something to eat.

4. Find out if I have a limit on the amount of teleports I have available.

With nothing better to do, I decide to test out number 3 immediately. You see, I have a strange 2nd sense when it comes to my teleportation ability. I know that I can only teleport things that I or any living thing that I am touching can carry. Which means that I am no good against the undead and robots, well big robots anyway. So, theoretically I can just do this to kill anything I want to. I pick up a rock and teleport skywards, and I teleport down a back a bit, and sure enough, about 20 seconds later the rock falls and makes a noticeable crater in the ground. I teleport away to stake out my next "job". Wary of what will happen if I steal from something from a business under protection of a gang, I head to where the watch has a strong presence. Looking for food, I spot a pizzeria that seems to be having a slow business day. When I see the clerk head into the kitchen I quickly nab a box that was awaiting pickup and skedaddle. After I finish lunch, I go to start #1 on my list.

I arrive at the local Watch HQ. There are cameras everywhere, with a motion detector sprinkled about now and then. Not wanting to be detected, I teleport to the top of a 5-story apartment building nearby. After checking to see if there is nothing here to spot me I case the joint with my binoculars, best $5 I ever spent. I spy 2 places of interest inside the HQ: the armory and the contraband hold. Both places have small windows I can see parts of the room in, but I can't see enough to know if there are cameras or people in the room. Looking closer, both windows have bars on them and motion sensors under them, but they have no cameras near and there are no guards on this side of the building at all. I smile to myself.

"Heh, looks like I'll get to try that out after all."

Loot List:

$172.79 (I found a penny on the ground!)

Binoculars

Clothes

Knife

Pistol