Caliber

Jedediah Keller was born circa 1864 to Tallulah and John Keller somewhere in the Midwestern United States. Jed’s mother died giving birth to him and his father, a petty criminal and a drunk, blamed him, often reminding him in the form of routine beatings. Ironically, a life of crime and larceny wasn’t what killed his father. He got too drunk and accidentally slipped off a cliff and fell into a ravine. Jed didn’t mourn him.

At only twelve, Jed got caught stealing onions from a vendor in a market and was saved from jail by a band of Robin Hood-like outlaws. Robbing trains and the overly-wealthy to get by, Jed came to share the gang’s vision of a life lived free of authority.

"Ya' see, society had a habit of interferin' with the way we had fun. So we said "To hell with it all" and decided to live life the way we wanted."

After two decades with the gang, Jed met a barmaid and fell deeply in love, deciding to give up his life of crime and settle down. This time of happiness was short-lived however when the two were set upon by bandits, and his new love was killed. The incident hardened Jed and he retreated back into a life of crime. Settling into a tiny town with only two streets called Widow’s Creek, he became a gambler and card shark, cheating newcomers out of their fortunes.

Then one day, a young man, wearing the strangest clothes Jed had ever seen, sauntered into the saloon, threw a handful of money down onto the table and challenged him to a game of poker.

“Oh yeah, I knew his kind. Rich dandies from the city come through town to get a taste of danger. Cowbells, the lot of 'em.”

In truth, the young man was actually a time traveler, taking an unauthorized trip to The Old West. After a high-tension game of cards, Jed made off with a flush one hundred dollars. The Tourist wasn't phased by the loss of money and even offered Jed a proposition.

“Paid me a small fortune to give him a tour ‘round the badlands. Didn’t wanna, but I could tell the fool was gonna’ up and do it anyway and I didn't want his death on my conscience."

Jed warned him such a journey might be fraught with danger, but The Tourist insisted they'd be safe. Eventually, as Jed predicted they would be, the two were ambushed and held up by bandits. Unfortunately, The Tourist had had far too much to drink a few hours earlier and got overly confident.

“All of a sudden, he howled like a coyote, jumped up, drew two fancy hand-cannons and let off what must’ve been a dozen shots. 'Course he missed all of ‘em and caught a bullet in the throat, but it was a damn impressive effort. Damn impressive.”

Out of bullets himself, Jed picked up those two pistols and easily dispatched the bandits, before a second group, unlike any robbers he'd ever seen before, appeared out of thin air. Time Corps agents made aware of the death of one of their own. As they prepared to recover his body and wipe Jed's memories of the incident, all too late did they realize he'd swiped the Temporal Shifter off the wrist of the fallen agent. Before they could scramble his noodle, Jed pushed a whole heap of buttons, high-tailed it outta' there and found himself in the 32nd century. After a lot of roaming around, some bar-fights, and more than a few shootouts, Jed got his bearings. He pushed some more buttons and again found himself in a different time.

It went on like this for years. Traveling through space and time, Jed continually finds himself pursued by space-cops, disgruntled crooks, angry husbands, and a whole organization of time travel agents on his tail for the murder of one of their own and his role in causing hundreds of different time anomalies.