The Red Beard Story
In a small laboratory in Tokyo, there was a young Russian scientist named Ardryh. He was brilliant, innovative and creative beyond compare. Every experiment he tried proved his theory, every invention he created worked, and every hypothesis he presented was correct. But his genius went undiscovered, and he felt unrecognized, following the orders of his superiors. He wanted to create something that would change the tides of the galaxy, and would finally give him the recognition he felt he so rightly deserved. Secretly, behind the backs of his superiors, Ardryh began to research acclaimed and well-known scientists in history. He came across the brilliant but radical Mr. Bullard, who had mysteriously disappeared years ago. Ardryh was intrigued, and followed Mr. Bullard’s trail.
This led him to Mr. Bullard’s deserted warehouse on the dusty plains of Texas, near an old, dilapidated rodeo. Cautiously, Ardryh investigated the warehouse, inspecting bits of inventions and machinery, clearly untouched for years. On an old and dusty workbench, Ardryh found designs that at first, he could not understand. These numbers, figures and drawings seemed like nonsense, and Ardryh’s heart fell, thinking he had confused a madman for a genius. Then Ardryh saw, scribbled in a corner of the designs, three words that changed his life: “… travel in time.”
Suddenly, Ardryh understood, and the math was correct. If the mysterious Mr. Bullard had indeed managed it, Ardryh would be able to travel in time. Weeks he spent, double checking and triple checking his work, ensuring that the time machine would work as designed. There was a single piece missing from the design that Ardryh could not figure out, but it frustrated him so he ignored it. Finally, after 3 long weeks, the Time Machine stood before him, ready for use. Ardryh instructed the time machine to take him to the time period that Mr. Bullard had travelled to. At the back of his mind, something was bothering him, but excitement at the prospect of time travel drowned out any doubts. Pressing the button, Ardryh Blinked.
When he opened his eyes again, Ardryh immediately knew something was wrong. In front of him were dozens of monstrous beings, looming threateningly over him. He pressed the button to return to his own time, but nothing happened. That’s when he realised what had been bothering him about the machine’s design. The machine could only travel one way. He was stuck in the future with these monsters.
Ardryh was wrenched from the machine by 4 of the monsters and thrown in a cage. Confused and terrified, Ardryh was helpless, at the mercy of these scorpion-like beings. Many days passed before one of the beings approached the cage, dragging a blade along in its wake. The being dragged Ardryh out of the cage and threw him before the leader of the scorpion-creatures.
The leader leaned ominously over the man and scrutinized him before speaking in surprisingly good English.
“You are intelligent, albeit flawed. Do you want to die, human?”
“No!” Ardryh shouted, terrified.
“Well, we would like to eat. You seem a good meal. Will you bring us another meal instead?”
“Yes! Who do you want?” At this point, Ardryh would have said anything to escape with his life. These monsters were terrifying.
“We want the smartest of the humans. We want the one called Bullard.”
What do they mean he’s the smartest of the humans, thought Ardryh, but he was smart enough to remain silent. He nodded before saying that yes, he would bring them Bullard.
“Good. But before you can be allowed to leave, we must know that you will not disappear.”
Suddenly, the scorpions surrounded him, holding him down. Screaming, Ardryh was not aware of what was happening to him. When the scorpions moved away, Ardryh saw various red spots on his stomach.
“These are trackers. You will not be able to remove all of them without bleeding out, and you cannot remove one of them without the others. You will have to return to us or die. We will see you shortly. Now leave.”
The scorpions turned and left, trusting that the human would figure it out.
Ardryh turned to the time machine, and the advanced technology surrounding him. Despite his vastly superior intellect, he could only barely comprehend some of what surrounded him. Nevertheless, not knowing what he would need, Ardryh heaped as much as he could into a bag and dragged it towards the time machine. The machine still could not travel, but Ardryh devised a work-around that he was certain would take him back to his own time.
With his bag of advanced technology on his back and a smug grin on his face, the young scientist pressed the button.
The time machine began to shake and rattle, and Ardryh’s smugness was replaced with fear. Before his eyes, the time machine began to disintegrate, until Ardryh was standing alone, but he was not where he had once been. Ardryh was standing on a harbour, but it seemed to be centuries before Ardryh had even been born. The time machine was no longer present because it hadn’t been invented yet! Ardryh was trapped, far in the past with no hope of returning.
Something in Ardryh snapped. He had been too afraid, too arrogant and too furious for too long. Stowing away on a ship, he began to investigate the technology he had stolen, trying to find some way to return home and make the world pay for what it had put him through. It took him less than a day to create the RED chip, designed to attach to an organic being and turn them into a monstrous cyborg. Before he was able to use the chip, his ship was overtaken by pirates and he was thrown in front of the pirate captain.
“Give me one reason not to throw you overboard right now,” said the captain menacingly.
Thinking fast, Ardryh resigned his fate and offered the one thing he had left to lose.
I have this. It will make you the most feared pirate of the seven seas,” said Ardryh, holding up the RED chip.
“Interesting. Do it.”
Ardryh activated the chip and placed it on the captain’s temple. The chip stuck, turning the captain’s beard and eyes red and coating part of his body in indestructible metal. What Ardryh hadn’t told the captain was that a part of Ardryh’s consciousness was inside the chip, particularly his genius. None of that was able to help Ardryh, however, as the feared Captain Redbeard lifted him up and threw him overboard
TECH SPECS
· Powerful microprocessor: The RED chip contains millions of microprocessing units that increase brain activity and cognitive thinking for the person with the chip installed.
· Retractable arms: The RED chip is able to perform complex adjustments on an almost molecular scale, due to its fine and precise arms.
· Minute: The RED chip can travel anywhere, can be a spy for its master, and can hide in plain sight, due to its minute size and incredible speed.
