"EEEK! Oh, Hydro Girl, you didn't tell me we had a celebrity with us!" A voice cooed as Ratchet and Clank walked into the pressurized dome, glancing around.

"You think I had you invited here just for the hell of it?" Hydro Girl smirked, waving to Ratchet as she spoke with the screeching female just around a corner.

The Lombax poked her head around the corner to get a better look, before nodding, and Ratchet noted a pair of blonde braids and wavy bangs poking around a tawny face. She spoke up again. "Hey, we're plenty of party just on our own, but Ratchet-baby makes three!"

"We?" Ratchet blinked, raising an eyebrow. "Who else is here? I see plenty of Hydro Girl's fans, but . . ."

The Lombax female smirked at him again, before moving around the corner to lean up against the corridor's threshold. "Aww, tell me I'm at least recognizable . . . I know the camera adds ten pounds, but it's all in the right places!"

"I'm feeling a sense of deja vu, but . . ." Ratchet shook his head. "It could be nearly anything. I don't know."

She frowned, but then whistled and a second Lombax came running, his fur a stark white and a little longer than the lady's. Once the fellow stood next to his 'leading lady', Ratchet recognized the pose, going nearly catatonic at the sight of it.

One of the partygoers shouted out, "Someone catch him! He's about to faint!", and Clank quickly moved over to support Ratchet from behind as he just blinked at the two of them standing together, the male nibbling on his friend's ear just slightly, as though he'd just seen a picture come to life. More to the point, a centerfold.

Ratchet regained his stature a moment later, standing up and blinking. "You . . . and you . . . you're those Silk people!"

"You have to give him credit for his choice of words there." The guy smiled, giving his lady a small kiss on the cheek.

"At least he finally picked up on it." The lady grinned, walking over to Ratchet. "But please, we have better names to go by. My name is Sonata Masters, and this is my husband, Staccato. And, judging by your earlier response, you've heard of our work before."

"Hey, any Lombax worth his fur knows about Tied Silk, although I'm still wondering why you two are here . . . I didn't think we were anywhere near Aquatos's Red Glow district."

"Ouch." Staccato spoke up, walking over to his wife. "Silly Ratchet, even film stars need to relax every now and then. And when we heard about the party Hydro Girl was throwing, we decided it was just too good to pass up."

"It's always good to be invited to the kind of party you'd normally be invited to work for." Sonata giggled, smiling at Ratchet. "Are you sure we've not met before? I'm almost certain I met your metallic friend once at HoloStar Studios . . ."

"Ratchet doesn't accompany me on the set often, Ms. Masters." Clank spoke up. "Although I'm still baffled by your line of work, I can appreciate the cinematic discipline."

"Yeah, I'm sure everyone watches it for the 'cinematic discipline', Clank." Ratchet remarked with a snide look on his face, glancing over at the two.

Sonata rolled her eyes. "Please, Ratchet, I assure you we receive plenty of remarks along those lines whenever we meet new people. Now do us a favor and either refer to us as you would any new acquaintance-"

"-or else refer to us the way the rest of our clientele do." Staccato remarked. "And if you're about to go that route, we'd like you on your knees."

Ratchet blinked, noticing the crowd surrounding the trio, and suddenly Ratchet started to get nervous. Clank picked up on this, stepping between Ratchet and the married couple. "Sonata, I don't think Ratchet's interested in becoming a 'client' of yours."

"Seriously?" Hydro Girl blinked. "He's still in his DreadZone Armor! I bet since he got sucked onto that show, he's not even been able to be his own client!"

This got a roar of laughter out of the crowd, and Ratchet winced, blushing deeply and grabbing at his ears to hide his face in embarrassment. He did not need to hear those sorts of remarks about his sex life or lack thereof right now . . .

"Hold on . . . let me see those hands." Sonata spoke up, grasping onto Ratchet by the wrist, looking at the clawed gloves of his armor. "Oh, Force, you're going to rip your ears up with these things on!"

"I don't care." Ratchet hissed back, still blushing deeply.

Sonata tsked, shaking her head, before lifting one of her hands up to stroke his right ear. She ran her hand over where Ratchet was grasping it before, with red scratch marks visible on the flesh. "You're scratching yourself up all over."

Ratchet bristled, calming down some as Sonata ran her hand over his ear, before letting out a low sigh of enjoyment. Staccato blinked, glancing over at his wife before speaking up. "If you need me to grab the camcorder, just say so . . ."

"Not yet." Sonata replied as she put both hands on his ear, massaging it gently, observing it closely before leaning a little closer to Ratchet. "You're incredibly tense right now . . . if there's anything you think would help alleviate that, feel free to suggest it."

"Cut me out."

Staccato blinked, confused. "Hm?"

"Cut me out of this fucking armored suit!" Ratchet snapped, looking at his hands. "It's cramped, tight, sweaty, and I swear, I think I've been sodomized with my own tail the entire time I've been stuck in this thing!"

Hydro Girl smirked. "Now that we can help you with."

"In that case . . ." Staccato looked at the crowd. "Looks like our night out's about to turn into a working night after all. Everyone, my wife and I need approximately a half-hour for setup, and once we've done that, we'll let this show start properly. In the meantime, please give tonight's guest star his space, make sure he eats well, all of those fun things, because I want him to be as calm about this as possible."

"Hold on, 'guest star'?" Ratchet blinked, taking a step back. "I'm not ending up as part of your HV show! I've had enough of that for my lifetime!"

"Not what we meant." Sonata smirked, giving the scratch-marks on his ear a kiss before letting go of it. "Ratchet, I don't know exactly what happened with Gleeman Vox, but let me be the first to assure you that we're far more scrupulous about our business. You're welcome at any time in the process to have us stop or to tell us not to release the film — and quite honestly, for what I think my husband has in mind, we're not going to be able to salvage this for our films anyway — and we're willing to honor that. We've scrapped several sessions before and performed many more 'private' shows like this, and we have no issue with discontinuing yours if you're too uncomfortable with letting us 'pamper' you."

"Besides," Staccato smirked, making eye contact with Ratchet, "From what I've been hearing, a nice session tonight is the least we could offer to our great galactic hero! Who's with me?"

"YEAH!" The crowd perked up, whistling and clapping. Ratchet calmed down, a small smirk on his face as he glanced over at Hydro Girl, who had a similar smile and a look on her face like she had this planned all along. Ratchet wasn't sure how far this was about to go, but he had a feeling this was going to shape up into one hell of a party . . .