Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or anything associated with it! If it comes from the games, I don't own it.
The majority of Chao shown in this story are ones I have raised myself in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. Others are cameos. The setting for this story is Chao Island in the area it is seen in SA2:B's Stage Select. The description of the Island itself however is mostly my ideas.
Chao Island. A small island found just off the coast of the city. Its name comes from the small creatures that live there, Chao.
Chao come in many shapes, sizes and colours. Thousands of the creatures can be on the island at any one time. Some Chao are adopted by Mobians and humans and leave the island.
This story follows various Chao on their adventures on the Island. We begin our story with the birth of two Chao...
A young chao was trying to get out of his egg, but it was proving hard. The shell was very tough and the young chao was exhausted. Several cracks were running around the shell though, so it couldn't take much more...
The Chao gathered himself and shoved at the widest crack. It split open without warning and the little creature was suddenly sent rolling down a hill. He came to a stop and sat up, eyes rolling around his head.
'Woa...that was crazy. Where am I?' He looked around at this thought. A cliff nearby promised to show a view of the area the little Chao had found himself in.
Crawling over, he sat at the edge and looked over the island. He was looking down on a field that had a racetrack crossing through it. A small pool was at the bottom of the cliff.
There were many areas around the island it seemed. Several red Chao were making their way towards a cliff region, while a path he could see lead to a series of swimming pools where there seemed to be a race being held.
We leave the little Chao for now to focus on the racetrack, where a race was just beginning...
Rainbow was nervous. She really didn't want to enter this race, but many of the Hero Chao had nominated her for it. She sighed. 'Why me? Why not one of the running Chao? I am so going to lose this...'
The race was known as the Hero Race. These races were a single Hero Chao against seven Dark Chao. The usual combatant for this race was ill, so a ballet had been cast for the new racer. Rainbow suspected she'd been voted in as payback for soundly thrashing most of the Chao in the flying race last week.
The Dark Chao around grinned evilly and jostled her. These were Chao that would not lose. Dark Chao prided themselves on being better than the rest, and she knew it. She would lose this...
An Omochao floated over. "On your marks!"
All eight Chao got themselves ready, waiting for the gun. Omochao pulled the trigger and they were off and running.
The Dark Chao quickly outran Rainbow, but she got them back at the jack-in-the-box. They weren't incredibly smart, Dark Chao. She pulled the trigger and ran on, snickering quietly when several of the others got hit by the jack.
Those that didn't overtook her quickly. All took off flying over the river, and again Rainbow got ahead, not even hitting the water. She wasn't the best climber in the world, so she was again overtaken.
A cry from up ahead made her look up as one of the Dark Chao pushed someone off the cliff down into the river. Wait...that was a youngling! It wouldn't know how to swim!
Ignoring the fact that she'd be instantly disqualified from the race, Rainbow flew down after the young Chao who was being quickly washed downstream.
The young Chao had wandered along the cliff-top, looking down at the river below. He hadn't noticed the race-track, and as such, one of the Dark Chao knocked him aside, straight into the water. He thrashed around, crying for help. When someone grabbed his arms, he held on, looking fearfully down at the water below.
Rainbow landed at the edge of the field the little Chao had seen earlier and looked over the young Chao. He seemed alright, just a little shocked.
"Are you okay?" she asked kindly.
The Chao considered this, then stammered, "I...I think so." He looked at his rescuer.
A white Chao with purple markings, the older Chao had a double pair of red-orange feathered wings. Her tail was similarly feathered, and a crest was on her head, resting between her eyes. She had four purple feeler type things on top of her head. A gold halo hovered over her head.
The halo confused the new-born Chao. He knew he had an emote-ball, but didn't know that the ball could change shapes. He pointed to it, "How comes you got a halo?"
"Hmm?" Rainbow looked up, and then laughed a little. "You must be recently born. A halo means that I am a Hero Chao."
The youngster was even more confused. "Hero?"
She nodded. "There are three categories of Chao you see. All Chao start life as neutral Chao. They have emote-balls like yours." He looked up at it. "After evolving, sometime the emote-ball changes. A halo means a Hero Chao. The ball is for neutral Chao. A spiked ball is for Dark Chao."
The little Chao thought about this. "Dark Chao..."
Rainbow held out her hand. "Come, I'll show you the island and tell you about the kinds of Chao. Then we'll go meet my friend Comet."
The little Chao nodded and got to his feet unsteadily, and took her hand, toddling after Rainbow as she helped him along.
On the other side of the island, another Chao had just been born. He was currently surrounded by Dark Chao, having stumbled into the Dark Power area they claimed. These Chao were nasty and weren't going to let him go easily.
The frightened Chao backed up against a tree, surrounded by bigger Chao. The biggest Chao covered in orange stripes was obviously the leader and was readying himself to pound the younger Chao. He wound his arm back and leered evilly at the young Chao. "Now you'll find out what happens to those who wander into our area uninvited."
The little Chao covered his face and closed his eyes, waiting for the blow to fall.
It never did.
The Chao opened one eye, then both, curious as to what had happened. The gang were all staring at the Chao behind their leader. The big Chao glared at the smaller black-and-aqua Chao holding his arm still. "You...let go if you know what's god for you, quill-girl."
The new Chao was black in colour, but had aqua markings on the bottom of her head, belly and arms, and on top of two spines on her head. "I don't think so Markeye. You should know better than to try and hurt a young Chao."
The leader, Markeye, pulled his arm back from her, then muttered, "Come on you lot...I'll get you at the karate comp later, quill-girl."
The young Chao stared as the Chao disappeared. The aqua Chao remained and looked over him. "So...you should know from now that this place isn't a good place to hang around."
The Chao winced. "I diddna know, I swear!"
She sighed. "Come on then...I'll take you back to my spot..."
She started to walk off, the young Chao determinedly crawling after her.
"Here...you should be fine here."
'Here' was a small glade in the forested area of the island. The aqua Chao went in the water and swam out into the middle of the water, ignoring the younger Chao.
He shivered, then spotted some fruit nearby and picked one up and sniffed it suspiciously. Was it alright to eat it?
"You can eat it you know. Aquilla generally doesn't poison her food."
The Chao jumped and spun around to see a purple Chao walk over and sit near the fruit. Sweeping one of her two crooked jesters out of her face, she helped herself. The new Chao watched as the young Chao immediately started eating as if he was starving. She grinned and continued to eat, startled a second later as the newborn Chao asked a question.
"Why is she out there alone?"
The purple Chao looked out at the swimming Chao. "Aquilla? Well, she's a bit of a loner. She's not really good with strangers."
The Chao had fruit all over his mouth. "Aquilla? What's your name?"
The purple Chao grinned. "Me, I'm Melody. Melody the Dark flying Chao."
"Flying?"
"You don't know the different types of Chao? Ho boy. Well, there's the three main types, Hero, Neutral and Dark, and then there's the 5 different types..."
"You see, there's those kinds of Chao who don't have any particular type. They're just known as Dark, Hero or Neutral Chao."
Rainbow and her charge were eating fruit under a tree near one of the main pools. She was telling him about the types of Chao, a lecture remarkably similar to one a purple Chao was telling on the other side of the island.
"Then you've got the 4 types, Fly, Swim, Power and Run. Each Chao-type looks different from the others, and Chao so the same type but different classes will look different."
The young Chao was watching a race nearby. The runners were winding around the pool at incredible speeds, to the cheers of the onlookers. Rainbow watched them as well.
"Those are the Run Chao. Most of their kind adore racing. Dark and Hero Run Chao often race. There's a score-board at the stadium showing the win-lose ratio of Hero to Dark."
A crash nearby attracted their attention. Several Chao were pounding away at rocks. They had round emote-balls, indicating that they were Neutral Chao. All were red in colour, though of varying intensities.
"Those are the Power Chao. They help out when heavy objects need to be moved or destroyed. They can climb cliffs faster than any other kind of Chao, and tend to dominate the karate competitions. They don't really associate with other kinds of Chao.
"Down there in the water are the Swim Chao. They adore swimming more than anything and they value courage in the water above all." The newborn Chao shuddered. He didn't think he would become a Swim type Chao, that was for sure!
"And last are the Fly Chao. Flying is the best, being able to soar over everything and look down on the island and see that everyone looks like ants. I'm a Fly type Chao, in case you were wondering," she finished.
The newborn was watching the races again. He jumped when Rainbow stood and stretched. "You're going to have to get yourself a name soon."
He thought about this. He needed a good name...he had liked the look of the Run Chao, maybe he needed a fast name. Hmm...
A flash of light as an Omochao's gun went off. Wait, light was fast. A flash of light.
He grinned. "My name is Flash!"
"...And that's the types of Chao. I'm a Fly type Chao, and Aquilla is a Swim type Chao. She's actually the record holder for the fastest time swimming the Crab Lake track."
The little Chao looked at Aquilla in awe. The Dark/Swim Chao was still swimming, but was doing laps now, tearing through the water with ease.
Melody looked at the Chao and noticed his fur was turning darker. 'Heh, he'll be a Dark Chao, mark my words.'
Out loud she said, "You need a name. You should think of one soon, little dark Chao."
He looked up, confused. His emote-ball had turned into a question mark. Melody grinned. "Looks at your fur. You've gone a shade darker."
He noticed it then. A name...wait, what had Melody just said? A shade darker...
Shade...he liked that. "Shade," he announced. Melody looked at him. Neither noticed Aquilla listening from the water's edge. "My name is Shade!"