[insert standard disclaimers here]

[I doubt I'll be turning this into a full story.  If someone else wants
to take this idea, please do so.]

******

"Yo, Pops!"

"The name, Priss, is Doctor Raven.  You know that."

The biker shrugged.  "Whatever.  Sylia sent me to check up on you.
She says you've been hacking for 28 hours straight."  Priss smirked,
wondering by just how much Sylia had exaggerated.

He glanced at a clock in the corner of his screen.  "She's right."

"28 hours?!?"  Her eyes widened.  "Even Nene doesn't go that long on a
single run.  It's not healthy to sit in one position for a whole day."

"Doesn't matter.  I've almost got them all."

"Got what?"

"Priss..."  He sighed, leaning back in his chair.  "You were too young,
and you weren't even there.  You don't know where Genom got its original
AI software from."

Curious, she pulled up a chair and looked over Raven's shoulder.  "So
tell me."

"When I was young, Priss, I knew of creatures that could be transformed
into pure energy.  I helped train them, in fact.  Most of the world did
not know about us...but Genom found out."

"Let me guess: they decided to take 'samples'?"

"They overran our entire island!" Raven growled.  "Officially, we did
not exist, so we had no allies against their private army.  They didn't
care who they shot.  Within a week, every human being there, other than
Genom's soldiers, was either dead or captured.  Then they started
cleaning up the wildlife.  When they left, they set off a nuclear
device.  The island's still uninhabitable to this day."

"My god..."  Priss looked at a photograph of two children: a boy wearing
a baseball cap and jack, and a redheaded girl wearing suspenders over
her yellow shirt.  "I've always wondered why these two never came to see
you."

"They were my best friends.  You, of all of us, know what it's like to
watch Genom murder someone you care for."  Raven wiped away a tear.
"At least they died fighting."

"Why didn't Genom just buy what they wanted?"

"They did, at first.  They bought out most of the companies on our
island, and paid the local mafia to betray us.  In the end, though,
most people wouldn't sell their pets, and Genom got greedy."

"So, what happened next?"

"Like I said, the creatures they had captured could be converted to
energy.  Genom's scientists lobotimized most of the creatures,
extracting their ability to think while erasing their memories and
personalities, to make the AIs for the first generation of boomers.
They've got better methods now - they started copying old boomers' AIs
only after they started running out of minds to chop up.  Those few that
were still left, Genom dumped into a storage unit.  I finally managed to
bribe someone to hook that unit up to a network I could get at.  And I'm
breaking them out."

Priss pondered this for a moment, then stood up.  "Well, Pops, good
luck."

"I told you..."

She patted him on his head.  "Just kidding.  By the way, what *is* your
name, anyway?  Your full name.  I don't think I've ever heard your
given name."

"Doctor Brock Raven."

"Ka chu."

"Bless you."

Priss blinked.  "Wasn't me."

"But..."

"Piiii!  Pipipipipikachu!"

Priss jumped back as a large yellow rat with brown tiger stripes raced
around the computer.  She knew it was familiar with Raven from the way
it cuddled up to him, and the way it filled him with 1000 volts of
electricity...

When the light show ended, Priss cautiously examined Raven from a
distance.  "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine.  You get used to it after a while.  Priss, I'd like you
to meet Pikachu.  I'm thinking of using him to lead a team, to give the
Knight Sabers some backup.  How does 'Poke Sabers' sound to you?"