The Order of the Kitsune is one of the most important parts of the Keepers of Order. Trusted to monitor over no less than fifty thousand versions of reality, it was a privilege for any Kitsune to be born to be chosen to join there ranks. However, a recent Tran dimensional war had lowered there numbers, and now the Order was in a state of disarray.
Not that this had any bearing to most of reality. Few people had ever encountered the Keepers of Order, and even fewer remembered it. Those that did were often dismissed for crazy talk, and promptly ignored. To think that the universe was watched over by a bunch of multi-tailed foxes was madness to think.
Nevertheless, the Order is famous amongst trans-dimensional beings. It was just a lot harder to find them. When it came to the Order of the Kitsune, they found you, not the other way around.
It was a blue hedgehog who would be the most recent of any non-Tran dimensional being who would run into them - literally. You see, for all the practice the Keepers of Order had in remaining inconspicuous, and staying out of sight, they'd never encountered a hedgehog running at the speed of sound, and have never even expected that someone could get to there materialisation point as quickly as the hedgehog had.
"Woah, sorry dudes," The hedgehog said, not even out of breath, "Didn't even see you until it was too late. Man my reflexes must be getting worse."
"It's alright, really," Elder Tai said, "We did appear from nowhere."
Elder Mil looked to her colleague indignantly, "You don't tell otherworlders that," she telepathically said to Tai. Mil observed the reaction of the hedgehog as he dismissed what his colleague Tai had said. "Stupid question;" Mil said to the hedgehog, "But do you know where we can find the one called Sonic?"
"Sonic," the hedgehog replied, "The legendary hero of Mobius?"
"Yes," Tai nodded, "Do you know where he is?"
"I'm not sure," the hedgehog continued, "Do you mean the one whose about this high," he said, putting his hand atop one of his spikes, "Bright blue, and can run at the speed of sound?"
"You know him?" Tai asked curiously.
"Hmm, I'm not sure, how well do I know myself anyway," The hedgehog said, a falsely baffled look upon his face.
Not that Tai had realised what was going on here. Mil had, but he was willing to humour the hedgehog. Plus it was great fun watching Tai fall into this routine. Tai blinked confused, "Err, I don't quite follow. You're saying you know yourself?"
The hedgehog looked at Mil, a baffled look on his own face. Though Mil couldn't read minds, Mil was sure that the hedgehog must've been thinking about just how Tai could be so dense. Mil watched a hand drag down the blue and peach face of the hedgehog.
"Lets stop this game now," the hedgehog said slightly frustrated, "I'm Sonic, and to be honest, you two have definitely not gotta be from around here if you didn't recognise me. So what can I do for you two?"
Elder Mil piped up, "There is something we must discuss concerning the one you refer to as 'Tails'," he said in a serious tone.
"What about Tails?" Sonic said; more seriously in tone than he had been.
"It's nothing bad," Tai said a smile on her face to try to reassure the hedgehog. Despite his smaller height, he was quite sure the hedgehog could run rings around them. Looking at all the rings littering the landscape, Tai was sure he could do that in both the figurative, and the literal sense.
"We have reason to suspect he's a trans-dimensional being." Mil continued.
The hedgehog looked at them dumbfounded, "A trans… what?"
"We suspect that he has the ability to exist outside of your normal perception of space time, and is actually a Kitsune," Tai answered.
"Okay…" Sonic continued, tapping his foot impatiently "Now can I get that in the words-that-make-sense version?"
Mil took a brief glance at the surroundings. It was mostly natural, very little in the way of science. He figured this planet was what the Order of Science would call backwards. Yet all the intelligence presented to him suggested that this planet was one of much scientific progress, albeit from just two living beings. The first name responsible, Dr. Robotnik, was ignored by the Keepers of Order; they had no interest in him.
"I'm waiting," Sonic said, his arms crossed, and his foot tapping up and down very quickly.
"Sorry," Tai said, trying to figure out how to communicate it to someone of your level of intelligence."
"Way to go Tai," Mil thought to his colleague.
"What?" she thought back.
"You just called him stupid, well done," Mil thought, before saying, "Basically, mister Hedgehog, We believe Tails to be one of our own species, and would like to find out for certain if he is or not before we take him back with us."
"You want to take my li'l buddy from me?" Sonic asked indignantly, "Forget it. I don't care if he is a whatever-you-said-you-guys-where or not. He's only eight, he's not going anywhere."
"We just want to test him," Tai said, "We just need to know if he is or not."
"No!" The hedgehog yelled angrily, "You are not taking Tails to some foreign planet place just so you can test him for whatever."
"We can test him here," Mil said, "Please let us do our job. If he's not a Kitsune, you won't need to worry about us anymore."
"And if he is?"
"We'll cross that moat when we get there," Tai said, unsure if that particular phrase had made any sense or not.
"You mean bridge?" Sonic asked, confirming Tai's suspicions. She mentally kicked herself for her mistake. "Look," Sonic said, "I'll take you to Tails, but you two have to explain exactly what's going on to him. If I think you two are up to anything funny, I won't take you. It'll be up to him if he wants to be tested or not. If he says no, then it's a no, and you'll just have to find some other fox to join your kiting club, or whatever it was."
"Kitsune," Mil said, "And okay," he continued, before thinking to Tai, "At least this way we can get somewhere. He'd better be a Kitsune after all this."
"He has two tails, and is a genius," Tai thought back, "How can he be anything but a Kitsune?"