A/N: Hey thanks for stopping by and checking this out.

I just want you all to know that the prologue is not the start of the story. This is more important background information both from a combination of the game Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, and part expanded via the imagination. However, even though this is not technically the beginning of the tale, there is some valuable information in here that you will want to be aware about to fully understand the story.

Enjoy and please let me know what you think of it.

Co-author: Power9987

Prologue: The Background of Chao

Normal Age Chao Country– a peaceful place on Chao World and home to a many of variety of little fuzzy creatures called chao. Chao look to be about a foot tall, walk around on two legs, have a set of wings, and like any creature, have their own personalities, looks (which vary in about almost any color, or combination of colors, possible), and skill sets. Their skills consist of swimming, flying, running, power, and stamina. Of these, a chao is rated on their abilities with grades from S, A, B, C, D, and E. S is the best possible at the skill, and E is the worst possible.

One last skill chao have measured in a different way is intelligence. In this story, a chao's intelligence is measured by a test they take, very interestingly called the "intelligence test." An average score on the test is a 60%. So on a standard bell curve, the scores would deviate by 10% in each direction. This would mean that someone who got a 90% is 3 standard deviations above average whereas someone who got a 40% would be 2 standard deviations below average. However, as referenced in the story, the intelligence test only measures smarts, and not wisdom or experience of a chao.

Age is another important feature within this story. To understand this, it is important to understand how the ageing process works.

When a chao is hatched for the very first time, it is a newborn chao. This may sound obvious but there is a reason why this must be pointed out. After about nine months, the newborn chao undergoes metamorphosis. When this happens, the chao makes a baby blue cocoon and undergoes maturing. After a few days of maturing, the once newborn chao becomes an adult chao, the state in which it will live the rest of its first life, which for a typical adult chao is five years.

The reason it is said 'first' life is a bit more complex. After 5 years of life, this now matured chao goes through another change. If the chao has had a successful life with good care, it creates a pink cocoon and it goes on to be reborn again as a baby: just not a newborn this time. Consequently, with improper care, the chao creates a gray cocoon, and the transformation can lead to the chao's death.

While a chao is maturing, they can become either a normal type, or specialize in one area of skill (Swim, Fly, Run, or Power). Specializing will help the chao get better in the specialty area. As a result, the specialty area improves one letter grade permanently after maturation, and that chao will be more suited for whatever area they specialize in for that life. If the chao becomes a normal type, they gain a letter grade in their stamina stat, and their bodies mature in more of an all-around type body rather than specializing in one area.

If, as hoped, the chao lives, it then goes on to repeat this process every 5 years for as long as it lives with one exception: the ultimate chao. These ultimate chao are considered elite chao and can never die due to a transformation again because once an elite chao, the chao simply never goes through a transformation again. This means that their age continues to go up instead of starting over again when they reach 5. This does not mean they are immortal, just that a transformation is no longer a threat to their lives.

However, an elite chao transformation is very special and unique. To achieve this, a chao must have gone through a transformation at least two times in its life. When the proper care has been given and the desired (or required) stats have been met, the chao caregiver (which can be either Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, or Rouge) must go through a specific ritual to ensure the transformation from baby to adult leads to the elite form. This is one of the ultimate goals in life for a chao to achieve.

However, there can only be a maximum of eight elite chao in each garden, for a total of 24 elites for the country. This is only unique to elite chao, as there can be an unlimited amount of other types of chao.

All of the chao that will be a part of this story will be elite chao; therefore, for simplicity reasons, in this story, a chao is aged based on how long they have been an elite for: their elite age. This is not their actual overall age, which is a little bit different from elite ages.

Mating for chao can be quite complex. It is not uncommon for chao to have multiple mates; in fact, it usually is the case. Chao with only a single mate and multiple children with that mate are considered rare. What is more common is for a chao to only have one child with a mate. Also, as strange as it sounds, it is also not uncommon to have chao mate with their offspring. Chao find these incidents quite normal. There will be examples of all of these types of chao within the story.

When a chao mates with another, they do a ritual and copulate. An egg is produced not long after, and a newborn chao hatches, sharing characteristics of both parents. This is how many unique color combinations for chao fur are made, such as hybrid and shiny colors.

A chao has to be an adult chao to mate; newborns and babies cannot mate until they undergo metamorphosis. Also, once a chao becomes an elite, they become sterile and can no longer mate with another chao, so they must do it before they become elite.

Now Normal Age Chao Country has its own unique layout. In the center of it all is a teleportation device which enables characters to go from country to country. This is the place referred to as the chao lobby. With standing in the middle of the lobby, there are four different areas you can see: Kindergarten, Chao Garden, Hero Garden, and Dark Garden.

In one part is a place called Kindergarten where there is a classroom to enable chao to learn various techniques and skills. There is also a principle who is an advice giver, a doctor to check up on the physical status of a chao, a fortune teller to name the chao, and a black market (a legal one) to buy various goods. One of the most essential goods for the chao at the black market is a chao fruit. These fruits are skill fruits that both can help to make a chao stay healthy, but is more importantly a fruit which contains the essential nutrients a chao needs to be the best they can: a fruit not found anywhere else. Since this fruit is expensive and in limited supply, the chao of this country take turns so all get the full benefits of this "skill" fruit.

On the opposite side from the Kindergarten, there is Chao Garden. Now Chao Garden is a place for those type of chao that have neither too much good nor too much evil influence either referred to as neutrals or just chao. They have a small ball on top of their heads to show that they are neutral. Inside Chao Garden is a small outside land filled with green grass and a running waterfall that fills up in to a small swimming pool. There are also various rocks near the waterfall to climb on and beyond the waterfall is a place for chao to compete in races and karate. For entertainment they have a mystery jack-in-the-box, TV, and beach ball. There are also many fruit trees with a plentiful amount of large orange fruits, not too sour and not too sweet, for them to eat.

To the left of Chao Garden and up a flight of stairs is Hero Garden. This is a place for those sorts of chao with lots of good influence, referred to as heroes. This does not necessarily mean that they are pure good; they were just raised by a good influence (Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles). They have small halos on top of their heads to show that they are heroes. In this garden, the land is once again filled with bright green grass. On both the left and right sides of their garden are a few pillars laid down horizontally. In the middle there is a bigger pillar section which chao can go on top of either under a cover or more out in the open above their own pool. This pool has a small island in the back in which chao can lay on. For entertainment, they typically play with a little horse see-saw or a beach ball. The heroes have a plentiful amount of sweet yellow fruits that they like to eat from the trees they have.

On the right of Chao Garden and down a flight of stairs is Dark Garden. This is the place for the sorts of chao with lots of evil influence, referred to as darks. But like with the heroes, this does not mean that they are pure evil, just raised by those of evil influence (Shadow and Rouge). To distinguish darks, they have a spiky ball on top of their head and a pointy, devil shaped tail. In this garden, the land is not filled with grass but instead, more of a gravel-type ground. This place is meant to look spooky as it has a couple of gravestones, a small cage hanging from a tree and blood-red water with a small island in the back with a large stone on it. For entertainment, darks typically either listen to the radio or play with a beach ball. The darks have a plentiful amount of sour red fruit they enjoy from the trees that grow in their garden.

Chao can at any time inter mingle with one another, but they still all live in their own designated gardens.

There is one last important topic worth mentioning. Each garden has its own government, with a hierarchy of 8 elite chao that run it, as well as a president of the entire Chao Country, with a hierarchy of the 24 elite chao that run each of the Garden governments. The Hero Garden government building is called the White House, the Chao Garden building is called the Blue House, and in Dark Garden it is called the Black House.

This is the basis of how the chao live their lives.