"Welcome to our 2013 'Question Corner', Everyone!" I wave at the audience, wearing a white turtle pair of fingerless, black gloves, "As I thought, the Mayan's were wrong and we're still alive. Give yourself a big applause for still thriving on life itself!" the whole crowd clapped and I did as well, "Well, this week, we promised you the famous pirate, Hondo Ohnaka! He doesn't much care for waiting for a long intro, so here he is!"

To my left and a very proud, postured Weeqauy strode up on stage and shook my hand roughly. His shake being so harsh and careless, I felt like my wrist was about to fall off.

"Hondo," I began, "Thank you for coming on the show."

I gestured to the chairs and he replied, quite proudly, "Ha-You are welcome!" We both sat down at once and he slouched into his chair like he were sitting in his own office, "I've never been interviewed for my great acts before," He laughed, "I like it! Your agent said I got the honor of being the first to come on this-uh...what do you call yourself again?"

I rolled my eyes. Brian, my agent, probably fudged the truth a little just to flatter the well-known pirate onto our show. Oh, well. "Yes well, I'm Miss Kale and this is 'Question-"

"Miss Kale," He reiterated, "I like it! You should keep that." He pointed a finger at me, "But anyway, I heard there'd be some questions from my fans." he clasped his hands and rubbed them greedily together, "I'd like to start with that."

My shoulders shrugged, "Well, then," I picked up the 'Question Corner' cards and tapped them on my lap, "let's begin," I plucked a card from the stack and read aloud, "This is a simple one. 'Gamergirl052' wants to know, 'why be a pirate?"

"Profit!" he waved me off, "I have no further answers for this question, so next."

"What?" I raised a brow, "That's it? Just profit?"

"Oh, Miss Kale," He gives a very disappointed shake of his head, "Profit is all you need in life."

There's a long drawn out silence and I pick up another card, "From 'Celtice and Dukakis 2016' asks, 'Well, why do you think it took a year for Count Dooku to get revenge on you?"

"Oh, oh, no, my boy. You should really get yourself a calendar." He says, "It was three years before Count Dooku tried to take revenge upon me. I'm sure, just like me, his mood changed and he saw profit in attacking me and my men. Not that what he did was a good thing, but none the less, we are prepared for another attacked just in case."

I gave a dumbfounded look, "Count Dooku isn't the forgiving type, Hondo. Don't you think maybe the war played into it a little? He has many forces, yes, but it's all tied up in fighting the Clone army at the moment."

"Yes, yes," He rubbed his chin, "That did cross my mind once or twice, but it is of no matter now! My men are now prepared for any type of harassment we could possible get from those Separatists."

I grabbed another card and read, "AaylaKitofNiflheim' asks, 'Are you aware that there is a drink called rum in your universe?"

"Rum? Rum?" He breaks out laughing and suddenly comes to a screeching halt and props his feet up on the coffee table, "I do not know what she mean. Next?"

"NobelMeta' wants to know, 'Who would you prefer working alongside,
Seperatist or Republican?"

"Whichever pays more, though I have notice the Jedi are a lot less...hostile." He chuckled to himself.

I then went to another card, "From 'Abdella', 'When you encountered the younglings and they were trying to rescue Ahsoka Tano, what was your first impression of Katooni?"

"Young, annoying, all Jedie, but," he scratches the back of his neck, "has a bright future ahead of her."

Though, I wanted to come to Katooni's defense, I realized it would be futile. This was the closet any pirate would be to showing favoritism to a child, so I let it all slid just this once and I grabbed another card, "Purplewillowtree' asks, 'How did you feel about ObiWan before and after meeting Darth Maul?"

"I always had a good feeling about Obiwan Kenobi, though he refuses to pay me back for my heroic rescue, I still like him. Now, I like him and the Jedi even more after meeting that crazy man with the red lightsaber, ugh." He pressed his index finger up against his temple, "I can't even think of the damage they caused to me and my men."

"Well, I'm sorry Kenobi refused to pay your bills." I say as I shuffled for another card when Hondo replied, "Oh, I am working on him. You can only send a person a bill so many times before they give in and pay it, right?"

"Of course, what was I thinking." I chuckled, "Now, from 'Jedi-TARDIS-Chick101', 'What would you do if Dooku showed up again?"

"What else?" He raised his hands in the air, "Kill them!"

"Alright, let's just move onto another question. From 'ShadowMaster77', 'Did you recruit every member of your crew yourself?"

"Of course! I take great pride in my men, so why give someone else the job."

"Okay, from 'weathergirl17248', 'What was your initial reaction to seeing Katooni complete her lightsaber?"

He exclaimed, "Seeing a lightsaber made is one of those rare things in life, seeing the young Jedi construct her lightsaber was up there in rare."

"I would of loved to have been there," I comment, picking up another card, "From 'AngelAxeinf', 'What are some of your favorite treasure you got from the ships you looted?"

"Well, those lightsabers would of been a nice additional to my hall of fame, but" He rubbed his chin, "I'd have to say money. Hardly anyone brings beloved values with them on a ship in pirate territory," He laughs, "If I were them, I wouldn't, but money is a necessity to life! You don't bring that, you don't move!"

"So, take that as a warning, Kids. Only bring the money you need. Not all of it."

"No, no." He waved me off, "Don't listen to her, you need money to live. There is maybe a 9% percent chance you'll get raided by my men."

"Yeah, out of 10." I countered, but left it at that and read another card before he could reply, "From 'AaylaKitofNiflheim' asks, 'Does anybody actually say, 'Yo ho, yo ho and a bottle of rum?"

"There is no yo ho and there is no rum," Hondo clasps his hand over his chest and yawned, "Miss Kale, Kale, I am growing exhausted. What is next?"

I grabbed another card, "ShadowMaster77' asks, 'After you joined the youngling's circus act, and you were kind of tossed into the air, one of your members said 'not again'. What happened last time?"

"Ah, one of my men were part of a circus act once. A Twi'lek and a long string of ribbon hanging from the ceiling..." there's a long beat of silence, "He fell...and there was some brain-damage...but hey! What can you do!"

"Get a doctor," I mumbled sarcastically to myself, "Alright, from 'Jedi-TARIDS-Chick101', 'Are you slightly worried what may happen to you involving a certain Jedi Knight after what you did to his Padawan?"

"Anakin Skywalker? Ha-ha!" He chuckled, "Don't make me laugh. General Skywalker is, as I am almost positive, very forgiving!"

I read, "From 'SithLord8665', 'Since Aurra and you had a thing, why did you date her? She doesn't seem like your type."

"Type? Type? You don't get dates if you have a type. No further answers." He waved me off.

"Jedi-TARDIS-Chick101' also asks, 'What is the best piece of advice you've recieved from your mum?"

"Let your enemy think your their friend!" He raised his finger in the air, "Speaking of which! I have a message for you!"

"What?" I raised my brow, a tad bit worried after his earlier statement.

"Wait for it," He begins, and then suddenly a huge gaping hole appears from behind my set; I can already feel Mini's, my set designers, heart breaking. Behind the hole revealed a Flarestar-class Weequay ship and it blared out red laser bullets at the audience and as the people ran to the exits, they found the doors locked.

"Ah-yes!" Hondo stood from his chair and walked towards the Flarestar ship, "You were a little late, but I'll punish you later," He waved his finger at the people inside the cock-pit.

I threw the coffee table up and crouched behind it for safety, "Why are you doing this, Hondo?!" I yelled over the loud, roaring engines and when I realized he couldn't hear me, I peered around the rim of the table and saw a couple dozen pirates were exciting the ship. Soon the clicking noise of my com-link started up and I pushed the main button to listen.

Kale, they've locked all the exit from the outside! Greg yelled, And they're, agh-

"Greg!" I yelled back into the com, but, with no reply following in suit, I was left to see two pairs of feet, dressed in fine, black boots, stepping in front of me. Looking up, Hondo reached his hand out to me and I rejected it; instead, I stood and I sneered, "You'll regret this, Hondo." glancing at the crowd, I saw no dead bodies from the original air attacked, so that's a start.

"Kale," He began, circling around me, grabbing a strand of my hair and flinging in it my face, "I have decided that this show may bring me a certain amount of-"

"Profit? Really, Hondo? That's cheat."

His shoulders rose and fell, "Well, start small and grow bigger, and as you know, I've lost Florrum, so you can understand that I am forced to start over. I'll charge people to watch this show-"

"It's a free program," I snapped, "No ones going to pay you anything."

"And!" He huffed, appalled that I'd interrupt him a second time, "I get a new crew," He gestured to the crowd. A couple more dozen pirates came and pointed their blasters at the people, herding them around like sheep's to the corners of the room.

"How dare you! Coming in here, thinking you can kidnap these people and see to it they'll serve you as your crew!"

"How dare you!" Hondo laughed, and snapped his fingers as though to give out an order, "Raising a tone like that to your master." He soon waved goodbye as he stepped away, "Goodnight, Kale!" and suddenly a bulky object hit me over the head and everything went black.

I wake up on a hard metal floor and the smell of drunken' un-bathed pirates, and the mist from it burned my nostrils. I tried to breath through my mouth, but it just left a revolting taste straining my tongue! I blinked a couple of times, checking to see if I still had all limbs in tack, only to find my hands were restrained to my back. "Great." I growled, wiggling my shoulders as much as I could when I heard someone talking.

"She's awake!"

Still a little on the groggy side, I lifted my head and saw weathergirl17248 standing over me. She knelt down and checked my head, "Welcome back, Miss Kale."

"That's the last time I'm doing a program with Hondo." I groaned, tediously.

Gamergirl052 chuckled, "Yep, she's back." and folded her shoulders.

"Why aren't you guys chained up," I asked, as a girl dressed in green clothing, otherwise known as Yaya The Elf, helped me sit up.

"You, yourself weren't originally, but Hondo started watching your past episodes and decided you were officially a threat and chained you up here." Gamergirl replied, sitting down in front of me.

"Well, glad he's a fan." I managed a smile, but the situation was too dire to make jokes and I peered over their heads, "Is this everyone?"

"No." Weathergirl whispered, "We've got a few who people on the inside, helping us out."

"Like who,"

Yaya The Elf listed off with her fingers, "AaylaKitofNiflheim, ShadowMaster77, and Sithlord8665."

"So basically, everyone that wanted to be part of his crew originally." I thought aloud.

Yaya the Elf nodded, "Yeah, it's funny, the enthusiasm really worked for them. Hondo actually believed them, stupid pirate." but Weathergirl threw her hand over Yaya's mouth and hissed her to be quiet, "Do you want them to hear us?" She whispered.

"Who?" I looked around and saw no guards in the room that could over hear us until I noticed the security camera's adorning every corner of the ceiling. "Never mind." I grumbled.

"Think we should show her?" Gamergirl asked and purplewillowtrees shrugged and replied, "She has to see sometime, right?"

"Hey, Celtice." Gamergirl called over the room, "Turn it on."

"Love to!" He walked over to a tiny pathetic little holo-tv and pressed the power button. A dreadful theme song game on and suddenly Hondo's face appeared in the middle of the screen in black and white, "Hello, my friends, and welcome to 'Hondo's Corner'! Where I rule everything!"

I grumbled, "Happy 2013 to me..."