PROLOGUE: The First Chao
Julian Robotnik stared in amazement as the life form slowly appeared out of the egg. His research had not been in vain. He had created a living creature. It had taken him years and years of researching and experimenting, but he had done it.
For this was 100 years before Gerald Robotnik and the Shadow project; and though Julian did not match Gerald Robotnik in genius, he was certainly close.
This creature was small. It was light blue, with a teardrop-shaped head. Its eyes were big and oval. It had pink wings on its back.
It looked around its new world. When it noticed Robotnik, it started staring at him. Julian petted it. The creature giggled.
'It really is cute,' thought Julian to himself. 'Cuter than I thought it would be, considering how the last prototypes were.' He shuddered. The last prototype was a kind of lizard-like creature with a taste for blood. He had almost gotten bit. Luckily, that one had only lasted a few minutes.
He saw the creature rubbing its tummy, so he decided to get some food for it. He got out a coconut. The creature gladly ate it. It asked for more. In total, he had to feed the cute creature 5 cocunuts to fill its tummy.
It was then that Julian got an idea. What if this species was released to the world, for Mobians to raise and love? That would have to come later, Julian decided; he didn't know how long his cute creature would last, and he didn't even have a name for the species yet.
Julian then decided to name the species Chao after the legendary water creature, Chaos. After all, he noticed that these creatures were about the same shade as Chaos, at least as depicted in the Old Echidna murals found in Marble Garden. He didn't want to name it entirely after Chaos; that would imply that these creatures caused chaos and discord themselves, which as far as Julian knew they didn't. As for his Chao, he named it Happy. The rest of the day was spent recording notes on Happy's behavior and petting Happy. A particular thing that Julian noticed was that the better he treated Happy, the whiter he got.
While Julian was sleeping, Happy went into a cocoon. The next day, when Julian woke up, Happy looked very different. He looked more like an angel.
This strange evolution made Julian wonder what would happen if a Chao was NOT treated with love, and was abused. Even though this idea broke his heart, he created another egg and hatched it. An interesting thing he noticed about the new Chao was that its face was different. Its mouth was in an upside-down V shape, making it look like it was sad. Julian started throwing this Chao around, once even trying to drown it in a pool.
When the Chao was abused, it became blacker in color. It also threw tantrums and started crying. Julian was sad, but he had to do this.
By the end of the day, this Chao had been immersed in a cocoon. The Chao that came out was very different from the one he had before. It had differently shaped eyes, its wings were shaped like a bat's, and it looked more like a devil.
Julian just remembered that he had not even given the Chao a name yet. He decided to name it Darkon. He also gave names to the three different types of Chao. A newborn was a Neutral Chao. A Chao like Darkon was a Dark Chao. And a Chao like Happy was a Hero Chao.
Julian also decided to carry out a last experiment. He placed Darkon and Happy together. He pampered Happy while neglecting Darkon. Eventually Darkon snatched Happy's food away from him and the two Chao got in a fight.
An hour after the fight, flowers appeared around Happy and Darkon. Wrongly taking it to be a sign that both Chao were happy, Julian placed Happy together with Darkon to see what would happen. Instead of fighting, something unusual happened. Happy and Darkon both did a sort of dance with each other, and an egg was left behind. Julian realized that Happy and Darkon had just mated, making a baby.
Two hours after the Chao mated, Julian noticed something strange happening to both Happy and Darkon. Happy was being immersed in a pink cocoon. Darkon was being immersed in a gray one. By the time the cocoons went away, both Happy and Darkon were gone. Julian realized that this must be a Chao death. However, Happy's cocoon left another egg. Julian coined this as reincarnation.
However, Julian still wondered; how could he make the Chao have a longer life? How could he enhance the Chao further than simply Hero and Dark? Julian continued tests on the Chao, and realized there was a potential lack of certain chemicals in the Chao's blood. This lack of chemicals made the Chao die 365 times faster, as Julian found out. Julian also realized that there should be a sort of 'expression ball' to show the Chao's feelings. Julian then came up with a logical solution. The expression ball would also act as the Chao's life support, providing it with the chemicals it needed to live.
After a month of testing, the final version of the Chao was finally ready. Julian noted that Dark Chao had a spiked expression ball and that Hero Chao had their expression ball completely replaced by a halo.
Now that Julian knew how Chao interacted with other Chao and humans, he wanted to see how a Chao would interact with other things. He put his test Chao, a Hero Chao by the name of Melody, into a playroom filled with toys and small animals. Melody played with the toys well enough, though she needed a bit of help.
With the small animals, an entirely different thing happened. Melody, when she came in contact with a small animal, 'hugged' it. Then there was a sparkle, and Melody had gained the animal's traits. Depending on the animal, Melody also grew stronger (or sometimes grew weaker) in certain things. For example, if Melody was given a sheep she got a little better at swimming, a little better in flying, and a lot better in running and power.
When Melody grabbed one of the Chaos Drives in the room, her stats increased as well. By the end of the day Julian had noted practically every aspect on Chao breeding.
Julian decided that now was the time to distribute Chao. He contacted the largest pet chain in Mobius, the Pet Company. A branch of the company was created for Chao, known as the Chao Company. Julian did not want these Chao to be sold, and he wanted them to live in a peaceful environment, something like a garden. The Chao Company officially went public 2 months after Julian's contacting. The company started creating artificial environments for Chao everywhere the Pet Company was stationed. There were gardens for all three types of Chao. There was a basic Chao Garden for Neutral Chao, a Hero Garden for Hero Chao, and a Dark Garden for Dark Chao. All of these gardens provided what a Chao needed to live; the only thing these gardens didn't provide were small animals, Chaos Drives, and love for the Chao.
But GUN. came to know about this, and it became greedy for Julian's research notes on creating life. GUN wanted a life form that could cause destruction, and that would obey the military's commands. GUN invaded Julian's lab, murdering all the Chao that were there. When Julian wouldn't fork over the notes, GUN put Julian in prison. His fate was similar to that of the later Gerald Robotnik's. He was forced to make a destructive life form for the military, code-named Project EVO. GUN paid no attention to the Chao (which they referred to as Project A-LIFE). When Project EVO was finished, GUN tried to force Julian to make more EVOs. But Julian refused, and was killed there.
By that time, there were actual Chao communities. Not Chao communities made by humans, but ones made by the Chao themselves. These communities were not inside the Chao gardens, either. Chao ran away from the gardens and ran to the wild. They roamed in large forests and 'Chao villages' started to grow. The biggest one was called Chao Paradise. Indeed, it was a paradise for Chao. Not as peaceful as the gardens, but much larger. Another benefit about Chao Paradise was the huge community. There were schools, stores,
houses, and more.
This story begins in a regular Chao Garden, 100 years after Julian Robotnik's death. Read on and see what happens.