Hat Kid spun rapidly to the direction of the voice.

Standing in what was once a doorway in her ship was a pink anthropomorphic animal. Hat Kid couldn't tell what species she was, not that she really minded, having been around anthros on multiple occasions. She bit back a sob when it made her think of DJ Grooves and the Conductor. Oh, how she missed them already. Hat Kid briefly wondered if she was the thief, but decided against it. There was something in her soft gaze and tone that made Hat Kid trust her. Besides, if she was the thief, why would she return to the ship, let alone ask Hat Kid if she was okay?

Hat Kid brought her hands away from her face and shook her head. The pink anthro sat herself on the floor next to Hat Kid.

"Is this your ship?" she asked. Hat Kid nodded.

"What happened?" Hat Kid paused for a moment. Maybe she could help her find the time pieces and fix her ship. Maybe.

"I was exploring time energy spikes…" Hat Kid began, "But when I came back, it was damaged and the time pieces were gone…"

The pink anthro looked confused. Very confused. But she stayed silent, obviously thinking.

"PECK!" Hat Kid abruptly shouted in frustration, throwing her hat to the floor.

"What the..?" The anthro somehow looked more confused, but her face quickly transitioned into one of determination. "Hey kid, whatever these, um, time pieces are, I'll help you find them…"

Hat Kid looked at her for a second before suddenly hugging her and whispering, "Thank you."

The pink anthro pulled away. "I'm Amy Rose, by the way, but just call me Amy. What's your name?" she asked.

Hat Kid stilled, considering what to tell Amy. "Call me Hat Kid," she finally said.

If Amy thought that was a weird name, she certainly didn't let it show. Instead, Amy only nodded and stood up, with Hat Kid following in suit, before asking Amy a question as she donned her hat once more.

"What species are you?"

Amy smiled and said, "I'm a hedgehog. Anyways, I was thinking you said that you're looking for these things called 'time pieces,' correct?" Hat Kid nodded. "Well, Little Planet is home to these things called 'time stones.' Maybe the stones and pieces are related, and we can find some answers up there," Amy said, gesturing at the planetoid above them.

Hat Kid considered this. "Sounds like a place to start. But what are time stones?" she asked, starting towards the chain base she had gone up earlier. Hat Kid also mentally noted that the small celestial body was fittingly named Little Planet.

"They're these gems that when brought together can control time," Amy responded, following her. "But I don't know much beyond that, except that they belong on Little Planet. You'd have to ask Sonic. He's up there with Tails right now, we might be able to find them, and they could help us."

"...Who?"

"Two of my friends," Amy explains, "Sonic is a world-renowned hero known for his speed, and Tails, who is basically his younger brother, is a tech genius and can fly."

Hat Kid's eyes widen. "He can FLY?"

Amy laughed. "He has two tails, hence his name. He uses them like a helicopter. It would probably be good to run into him; he might be able to fix your ship."

Hat Kid's face brightened, relieved that there was someone capable of fixing her ship, because while she knew how to pilot it and do basic repairs, the damage caused right now was beyond her. "Yeah, it sounds like we should find them."

Hat Kid paused for a second. "I also have a feeling that those time stones are why I'm here. I was investigating weird time energy spikes, and it sounds like those are the cause of it." She paused again before adding, "Whatever they are, they're probably similar to my time pieces, which control time too. We should find both, if we can." Amy nodded in agreement.

The two of them had made it to the base of the chain, and Hat Kid elected to lead. Carefully, she and Amy scaled the chain and made it onto the surface of Little Planet. They were in the same area Hat Kid had been in previously, with all the expansive greenery.

"Palmtree Panic," Amy muttered, "It hasn't changed at all."

"Palmtree Panic?" Hat Kid asked, "And what do you mean, 'it hasn't changed at all?'"

"Well, we call areas with distinct features 'zones,' and Palmtree Panic is one zone here on Little Planet," She replied, "and it's been a while but I've been here before." Amy sighed at the end of her sentence.

Hat Kid decided it was probably a touchy subject, and just nodded, not wanting to press it further. Instead, she took a good look around, realizing that something was off. Scattered across the ground where metallic shards and wires. If Hat Kid had to guess, she'd say those were from the robots she had seen in the zone previously. Come to think of it now, she hadn't seen any robots at all yet. Was there another force at play here? Another bad guy? Hat Kid grew nervous. She tugged Amy's arm and pointed to piles of robot scrap. To her surprise, Amy just grinned.

"That means Sonic and Tails have been through here!" she said excitedly, turning to Hat Kid. "We might be able to catch them in the next zone!"

Reassured, Hat Kid continued following Amy until they reached the hill that she had been previously unable to climb. Oh yeah. She had tried using her dweller mask last time, only to see the landscape change to something terrifying. It still wasn't as scary as Queen Vanessa's mansion, but it was worse than the rest of Subcon Forest. Hat Kid shivered. She dragged herself out of her thoughts and looked at Amy, who was getting into a runner's position a couple of paces away from the hill. Hat Kid stared.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Amy blinked. "Going up the hill..?"

"How?"

Now Amy was staring too. "Well, if you run fast enough, you can go up the hill just fine…" Amy clapped a hand to her face. "Right, you're not a speed hedgie."

Hat Kid connected the dots. If she wanted to get up the hill, she had to go fast. And if she wanted to go fast…

Hat Kid took off her standard top hat, and pulled on a red visor. Her speed cap. Hoping that since this hat didn't rely on forcing time energy outwards like the dweller mask did, it would avoid another collision with time and scary images.

"This way!" she shouted, and ran at the hill, laughing at Amy's look of surprise. With her increased speed, Hat Kid made her way up the wall fairly easily, grabbing onto the edge and pulling herself on to the very top. She looked down the hill to see a ball of pink fly straight up. The ball unrolled at the top of its arc, and Amy landed on her feet. Hat Kid saw Amy looking at her new head attire.

"Did your hat let you run that fast?" she asked.

Hat Kid nodded. "All the hats I have give me abilities." Hat Kid switched out her visor for a dinosaur beanie, which was still a speed cap, but her preferred design. "How'd you get up here?"

"It's called a spin dash. You can go from zero to one hundred in less than a second. Watch." Amy curled back up into the ball that Hat Kid had seen before it went zooming by her. In the time that it took Hat Kid to process what just happened, Amy was already running back to her.

"Sonic and Tails are better at them than I am, and can even do homing attacks and cool stuff in spins that I can't do. I mean, I guess they taught me to do it anyway."

Hat Kid and Amy made the rest of the way through Palmtree Panic in good time, thanks to their speed. When Hat Kid asked Amy if they'd made it to the next zone, she had just laughed and said, "Trust me, you'll know when we get there."

Amy was right. The boundaries between zones were not very well blended, going from one to another in rigid borders. The next zone, which Amy had called Collision Chaos, was electric and full of lights, which contrasted sharply with the vegetation of the previous zone, especially since it went straight from bushes to metal.

They paused to look around, and Amy said, "I hope we find Sonic and Tails here."

As if right on cue, they heard a shout from afar, though it was still loud and clear.

"C'mon on, step it up!"

A huge crash resounded in the distance, followed by another taunt.

"You're too slow!"